Chapter 75

“Junior brother, you're being rather secretive, aren’t you!”
Du Ming’s voice drifted up from the base of the mountain. With one arm around Lan Caicai and the other twirling a folding fan, he truly looked the part of a dashing young master.

“Senior brother Du Ming, senior sister Lan Caicai,”
Han Luo immediately greeted them with a respectful bow.

Truthfully, it was his first time meeting them in person, but he had long heard of their stories.
Du Ming was infamous throughout Luoxian Sect, notorious for his foul reputation. Despite being an expert at face reading—with an accuracy that was maddeningly high—his blunt way of speaking made him widely disliked, to the point that 99% of the male disciples couldn't stand him. Worse yet, even if you got angry, you couldn’t defeat him in a fight; you could only endure his mockery and stew in your own frustration.
Lan Caicai, on the other hand, was Du Ming’s dao companion—a woman of extraordinary talent, known for being a shameless romantic who adored Du Ming with unwavering devotion. She was one of the rare individuals in Luoxian Sect whom Du Ming never mocked, and together, they were considered something of a legendary couple within the sect.

“Junior brother, your Luoxian Mountain is truly something else!”
Lan Caicai’s eyes sparkled as she admired the surroundings—majestic mountains, flowing waters, cascading waterfalls, tiny islands, and playful spirit beasts—far more beautiful than her own Sanxian Mountain.

“Thank you for the compliment, senior sister,”
Han Luo replied politely, maintaining his respectful demeanor.

He had done his research on them beforehand.
Although Lan Caicai appeared easygoing, she was, in fact, incredibly proud, once proclaiming that her talent was no less than that of any super-genius. Her strength backed up her claims; among the previous generation of Luoxian Sect’s female disciples, she ranked second only to Ye Qingqing. She had challenged Ye Qingqing several times but was consistently defeated, leaving her disheartened.
It was during one of these low moments that Du Ming appeared at her side—and from there, their relationship followed the well-worn path of a cliché idol drama.

“How interesting!”
Unlike Lan Caicai, Du Ming wasn’t looking at the scenery at all.
Instead, he stroked his chin and studied Han Luo closely, his gaze carrying an insufferable mix of arrogance and slyness that made Han Luo extremely uncomfortable—he fought the urge several times to just punch the man.

“Junior brother, this is where you’re wrong. We’re all family here—no need to hide things from us.”
Du Ming, out of habit, had already read Han Luo’s face at first glance.
From a face-reading perspective, Han Luo had the kind of appearance that one would envy—a face practically destined for romantic entanglements.
But something was off.
It felt fake.

Han Luo’s heart skipped a beat, sensing that Du Ming might have noticed his disguise, but he couldn't be sure, so he shot him a cautious, questioning look.

“Junior brother Han Luo, I’m sure you’ve heard some of my legendary tales. I have two great passions in life—” Du Ming began with a sly smile.
“The first is your senior sister,” he said without shame.

“Senior brother!”
Lan Caicai blushed furiously, feeling completely mortified that he would say something so brazen in front of their junior brother. Surely such things were meant to be said at home!

Du Ming simply patted her shoulder reassuringly, then turned his attention back to Han Luo.
“And the second is face reading. So, you must know what I’m getting at.”

“Sigh…”
Han Luo let out a long, defeated sigh, perfectly capturing the expression of someone who had been caught red-handed. His posture drooped, his eyes full of reluctant helplessness—it was an Oscar-worthy performance that could be used as a textbook example of acting.

“Senior brother Du Ming truly lives up to his reputation. I thought I had hidden it well, but clearly, I couldn’t fool you.”
Han Luo shook his head repeatedly, expressing heartfelt admiration.

Then, reaching up to the side of his face, he slowly peeled off a thin disguise mask, revealing a completely different face underneath.
Looking closely, the transformation was astonishing—the differences were so profound that you would never link the two appearances unless you had witnessed the change yourself.
Even the subtle shifts in his facial expressions made his gaze feel entirely different. Clearly, Han Luo had prepared thoroughly.

“Junior brother, have you been disguising yourself all along?”
Lan Caicai was stunned. She hadn't noticed a thing, despite the fact that her cultivation was a full major realm higher than his—she was at the Qi Sea stage!

“Junior brother, do you have enemies within Luoxian Sect? If so, just tell me. I’ll take care of it for you.”
Du Ming’s voice was full of brotherly righteousness, though deep down, he was marveling at Han Luo’s incredible concealment skills.
If he hadn’t been both highly skilled in face reading and vastly stronger than Han Luo, even he wouldn’t have spotted the disguise.

That said, among cultivators, one's aura was more important than one's face.
Even if someone changed their appearance, their qi signature wouldn’t change—after the Spirit Tempering stage, a cultivator’s aura became fixed unless they ascended and transformed their spiritual energy into immortal qi.
So, Du Ming couldn’t quite understand why Han Luo would bother with something so “superficial” as disguise techniques.

“To be honest, senior brother,” Han Luo said openly, “back when I was still a mortal, I offended quite a few people. I learned some basic disguise skills from a wandering jianghu expert—please don’t laugh at me.”

And he wasn’t lying.
During the ten years he spent preparing to join Luoxian Sect, he had done some rather unsavory things in order to gather resources.
Otherwise, where would he have gotten all those explosive talismans, concealment charms, and so on?
Disguise techniques had saved his life more times than he could count, which was why, even now, he often wore multiple disguise layers for safety.

“I see,”
Du Ming said, nodding in understanding, although he secretly cast another subtle technique to double-check whether Han Luo was still hiding another layer of disguise.
Finding nothing, he smiled apologetically and said,
“Junior brother, please don’t take offense. It’s just an old habit of mine to read faces. As an apology, let me give you a proper reading.”

With that, Du Ming leaned in and stared at Han Luo intently.
Honestly, having another man stare so hard at him felt downright creepy—Han Luo’s whole body tensed instinctively.

“That’s enough already,”
Lan Caicai muttered, nudging Du Ming. They were family; there was no need to be so serious. If he really wanted to scratch that itch, he could find some other disciples to read.

After a long pause, Du Ming finally shook his head and said solemnly,
“Junior brother, I’m not trying to alarm you, but your face shows signs of an impending blood disaster.”

“What can I do to avoid it?”
Han Luo’s heart gave a sharp jolt.

“Simple. Stay home and don’t go wandering around.”
Du Ming offered the advice without hesitation.

“Thank you for the warning, senior brother,”
Han Luo replied, mentally noting it down.

“Oh, right—what brings you two here today?”
After all, besides their titles of senior brother and senior sister, he and these two were practically strangers; it had taken them five whole years to even meet him.

“Our reason for coming is simple,”
Du Ming explained.
“First, as you know, your senior sister and I will soon head to the Golden Battlefield. Whether we make it back is uncertain, so we wanted to meet our little junior brother at least once.
Second, the Luoxian Tournament is about to start, and we came to ask whether it’ll be you or Xian’er representing Wudao Peak.”

Hearing this, Han Luo immediately recalled—
the Luoxian Tournament was right around the corner.