Seeing Jiu Hui’s wide eyes, Luo Yan became more talkative: “Later, that woman disappeared without a trace. Some said that she couldn’t bear to see the two of them fighting over her, so she left quietly. Others said that she died at the hands of the current Sect Master of Jiutian Sect. Regardless of the truth, after her disappearance, the unmarried couple parted ways and became sworn enemies.”
“All of this is just hearsay and shouldn’t be taken seriously. Humans are forgetful by nature, and they can forget many things that happened within a few decades, let alone things that happened hundreds of years ago.” Elder Mo somehow found a wine jug and took a sip from it. When he heard his juniors chatting about old stories, he chuckled and said, “Your master did mention that woman to me a few times.”
He looked into the distance, his expression somewhat nostalgic. “Back then, my cultivation was shallow, and I had never left the sect. One day, your Grandmaster suddenly left the sect and returned about a year later. A few days later, news spread that the marriage contract between the head disciples of Qinglan School and Jiutian Sect had been canceled. At that time, your Grandmaster said one sentence, ‘What a pity.’”
“A pity for whom?”carpreads.pages.dev
“It’s a pity about that female yao.” Elder Mo chuckled. “Whether human or yao, the world is bound by human words, making it difficult for outsiders to distinguish right from wrong. But the parties involved naturally know the truth, and eventually someone will feel guilty.”
“Master.” Chang He looked at Elder Mo with doubt. “Is that all?”
That one sigh from the Grandmaster wasn’t enough to make the Master remember a person, was it?
“Traitorous disciple!” Elder Mo coughed a few times under the suspicious gazes of several juniors. “Back then, when the those two broke off their engagement, they made a scene that shook the heavens and the earth, and threw a lot of things.”
“Grandmaster… picked up the thing they threw away?”
“How can you call that picking up? That’s called being frugal.” Elder Mo said with his neck stuck out. “Cultivators take flowers and plants that others don’t want. Can you call that picking up?”
“That’s called being destined with us.” Jiu Hui nodded in agreement with Elder Mo’s words. “If others don’t want something, and you don’t take it, and he doesn’t take it, it’s a shame to let good things go bad. Wasting is shameful. Our ancestor found a new home for those discarded flowers and plants, what a great kindness!”
“You’re a quick learner.” Elder Mo nodded. “Remember, cultivation is both following the course of nature and fighting against fate. Don’t become the subject of others’ gossip.” Elder Mo patted the gourd beneath him. “Sit tight, we’re going to accelerate!”
While the people at Wangshu Pavilion were sitting around drinking gourd wine and chatting idly, several sects that had already left Wenxian City secretly sent disciples back into the city to inquire about the little girl who had stabbed the Demon Cult’s Dharma Protector with a butcher’s knife.
That demon was one of the ten Dharma Protectors of the Demon Cult, with profound cultivation. How could an ordinary person have the ability to stab him?
No one believed that she had really died after jumping off the demon’s flying sword. They were worried that other sects would discover this girl’s extraordinary talent and hide her away first.
“Senior Sister, do you think Yuzhen Sect secretly took the person away?”
“Impossible.” The Senior Sister shook her head. “From the time of the incident until we left, the Yuzhen Sect didn’t pay much attention to that girl. Now that they have the demon’s corpse, they should be rushing back to their sect as quickly as possible to avoid being hunted down by the rest of the Demon Cult.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, they saw two Yuzhen Sect disciples dressed in brocade robes coming out of the teahouse, holding a scroll in their hands.
Their gazes met in the air, then they looked away as if nothing had happened.
“Fellow Daoists, why have you returned?”
“Haha, what a coincidence. Why have you all returned?”
The two sides stared at each other for a moment, and the disciple of Yuzhen Sect spoke, “My master is kind and soft-hearted. Thinking of the girl who was taken hostage by the demon, she bravely fought the demon to protect the Dao, but in the end, her life or death is unknown. So, she sent my fellow apprentice and me to search for her whereabouts. If the girl is still alive, we will take her back to Yuzhen Sect to recuperate. If she has unfortunately met with an accident, we will give her a proper burial.”
“Didn’t our sects search together just now, but failed to find any trace of that girl?” The Senior Sister sneered in her heart. Who didn’t know that this Elder of the Yuzhen Sect was extremely greedy for money, and even his natal magic weapon was an abacus? How could he be kind-hearted and soft?
“What if we missed something?” The Yuzhen Sect disciple pretended not to see the mockery in the other person’s eyes. “Searching again gives us a little more hope. Fellow Daoist, don’t you agree with this logic?”
Before either side could finish speaking, a Jiutian Sect disciple was seen hunched over, sneaking through the crowd, holding a piece of drawing paper and asking questions.
Suddenly, the disciple’s body stiffened, and his gaze met with the others'.
“Haha, what a coincidence.”
Half an hour later, the five sects’ people met again in Wenxian City.
The Yuzhen Sect looked at the other four sects: they had previously pretended to be indifferent, and had not even mentioned it twice, but they had unexpectedly sent someone to secretly steal talent afterwards. The hearts of these four sects were truly dirty.
Jiutian Sect looked at the other four sects: pretending to be something they were not. If they were so good at acting, why cultivate immortality? They should just become actors!
The other three sects looked at the Yuzhen Sect and the Jiutian Sect: such grand sects were doing such things, so what was wrong with them learning from the grand sects?
“Oh my, what a coincidence. Our masters are both kind and soft-hearted people.”
“Yes, yes, yes, you’re right.”
They were all people who respected their masters. Praising their masters for being kind and gentle was filial piety, filial piety!
-—–
“Ah-choo!” Jiu Hui rubbed her itchy nose and looked up at the gloomy sky. “Elder, it looks like it’s going to rain. When will we reach the sect?”
No matter how novel or beautiful the scenery, it became boring after sitting for half a day.
“At the speed of Master’s gourd, it will take about two or three days.” Luo Yan lay down on the gourd skillfully, squeezing Chang He and Zhi You into the corner. Chang He grumbled a few words, and Zhi You moved aside to make more space.
Splash.
A drop of water hit Jiu Hui’s face, and she looked up at the sky. “It’s raining.”
The gourd magic weapon had no cover, so Chang He and Luo Yan looked at Elder Mo: “Master, did you bring an umbrella?”
Elder Mo shook his head. He had originally planned to hitch a ride on the Wenxing School’s flying boat for both the outbound and return trips. Why would he bring an umbrella?
“I brought them.” Jiu Hui took out several umbrellas from her storage ring and handed them out to everyone, but except for Zhi You who opened his umbrella and held it over his head, the other three just stared blankly at her hand without moving.
“What’s wrong?” The rain pattered on the umbrella.
The three of them finally came to their senses. Elder Mo jumped to Jiu Hui’s side and said with a smile, “Jiu Hui, did you bring a storage ring?”
“Yes.” Jiu Hui nodded, moving the umbrella towards Elder Mo to shield him from the rain. “The village chief said that every cultivator has a storage ring. If I didn’t have one, others might laugh at me and look down on me. That’s why they went through great lengths to get me one.”
The silence of the master and his two disciples was louder than the roar of a tiger in the mountains. Did your village have any misunderstandings about the outside world?
“Your village… is quite wealthy, huh.” Luo Yan looked at the umbrella in her hand and slowly opened it, it was another day of envying others.
“Our village is very poor. To get this storage ring, Aunt Jiao wove cloth for three years, Uncle Long fished for four years, and Uncle Liu moved bricks in a small town outside for five years. And Village Chief Grandpa, Aunt Hu, Aunt Liu, Uncle Yang, Grandpa Bu…” Jiu Hui listed a long string of names, “They all saved money for a long time.”
“To raise and indulge a child can drain an entire village.” Luo Yan shook her head and sighed, “It’s not easy to raise a child.”
She had never met an elder who would go to any length to buy an expensive storage ring for a child.
“Then cultivate diligently, and don’t disappoint the village elders.” Elder Mo laughed heartily, “The future of our Wangshu Pavilion lies in the hands of your generation.”
“Yes, Elder.” Jiu Hui looked up and pointed to the distance. “Elder, there’s a city up ahead.”
“We should have reached Tianhe City by now.” Elder Mo looked ahead, but all he could see was fog.
He smiled. The eyes of a teenager in the early teens were indeed good.
“Master, why don’t we rest in the city for a night and continue our journey after the rain stops?”
Elder Mo flew back to his original position and sat down cross-legged: “I don’t have money. Do you?”
Luo Yan and Chang He clutched the money pouches at their waists and shook their heads in unison.
“I have it.”
Zhi You, who had been silent the whole time, spoke up, “I’ll pay for the inn.”
Then the master and his two disciples saw Zhi You open his palm, and in his palm was a bulging purse.
Chang He and Luo Yan widened their eyes. He also had a storage ring?!
Were storage rings now worthless little gadgets that everyone had?
A gust of wind blew, and Jiu Hui looked up to see a magnificent and enormous flying boat looming in the dark clouds. Several disciples stood on the deck, looking down at Jiu Hui and the others on the gourd with arrogant and indifferent expressions.
“Those are the Jiutian Sect’s proud children of heaven,” Luo Yan explained.
The strong wind blew Jiu Hui’s hair, and her long hair behind her flew wantonly. She slightly moved the umbrella above her head and met the eyes of the leading disciple.
On the flying boat.
“Who’s that?” Nan Feng asked his junior brother beside him.
“Senior Brother, those should be the people from that minor sect who just finished accepting disciples.” The Junior Brother glanced at the people on the shabby flying gourd who were struggling to hold their umbrellas. “Should we give them a ride?”
“No need.” Nan Feng retracted his gaze. “These people have ordinary aptitude and unstable mentalities. Don’t bother getting involved with them. Pass down the order to proceed at full speed and return to the sect as quickly as possible.”
Elder Yin Ji’s matter needs to be resolved as soon as possible.
Luo Yan saw Jiu Hui staring at the Jiutian Sect’s flying boat and thought she wanted to join the Jiutian Sect. She quickly said, “These disciples of the great sects are aloof and arrogant. They care about aptitude and family background. It’s not easy to get along with them.”
“Mm,” Jiu Hui nodded. “I also think the Jiutian Sect is not good.”
“What’s wrong with it?” Chang He asked curiously.
“It restrains me.”
“Hmm?!” The master and his two disciples all made puzzled sounds, and Zhi You also turned his head to look at Jiu Hui.
“Grandpa Bu said that I have a very good life, and that I will be very successful if I go out to study under a master. If someone causes me trouble during my journey, it will definitely not be my fault, but because the other person is suppressing me.”
The three master and disciples thought back to what had happened in Wenxian City, and for a moment, they were unable to refute it.
“Little Jiu Hui is right, the Jiutian Sect definitely restrains you. And those people from the Demon Cult also restrain you, so in the future, if you encounter people from the Demon Cult, be sure to stay far away from them.” Elder Mo gleefully added fuel to the fire: “So our Wangshu Pavilion is still the most suitable for you.”
Zhi You, who was in the corner, lowered his head and thought silently, was there such a saying?
So this was what the outside world was like…
Author’s Note:
The whole village: What could be wrong with my child? It must be someone else’s fault!