Jiu Hui stood up, walked to the center of the hall, and knelt down on the ground. “Your disciple, Jiu Hui, pays respect to Master Yu Jing.”
The moment Jiu Hui prostrated herself, the wind blew open the doors and windows of the main hall, moonlight flooded the room, and flower petals fluttered down. Everyone present was stunned by the sight.
“Get up quickly, get up quickly.” Yu Jing walked up to Jiu Hui with a smile on her face, personally helping her up. With her other hand, she stopped Zhi You, who was about to bow to her, from bending his waist. “The bond between master and disciple stems from our daily interactions, not from these useless formalities. In our Wangshu Pavilion, we value fate and spontaneity above all else. In the future, we will have plenty of time to spend together as master and disciple. You will gradually come to understand.”
“Many thanks, Master.” Zhi You struggled silently for a moment, but Yu Jing’s arm was as firm as a rock, so he had no choice but to cup his hands and bow.
“With disciples like these, what more could I ask for!” Yu Jing smiled in relief. “Come, come, come, sit down and eat. You’re still young, don’t go hungry.”
A puppet doll entered the hall carrying food. The puppet was made with great detail. If not for the fact that their hands holding the tray were made of wood, Jiu Hui would have almost mistaken them for real people.
“These puppets were all made by your Sect Aunt Xi. If you’re interested, you can ask her to teach you how to make them in the future.” Yu Jing was in a good mood and poured herself a cup of wine. “Although I’m your master, the other master uncles and aunt also have the responsibility to teach the younger generation. The five of us have our own strengths and teach different things. What you can learn from us and what you will be better at in the future are all matters of personal fate. The same goes for your other senior brothers and sisters. When your cultivation reaches the Great Perfection of the Golden Core stage, it will not be too late to specialize in what you are good at.”
“You don’t have to be an expert in everything, but you should at least have a basic understanding.” Elder Mo was afraid that Jiu Hui and Zhi You would misunderstand the Sect Master’s intentions, so he took advantage of the fact that he had spent a long time with them and explained, “As the saying goes, ‘Know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles.’ Learning more things will always be useful.”
“The goal of our sect is……”carpreads.pages.dev
“To seek not the highest cultivation, but seek to live the longest!” Luo Yan and Chang He answered in unison.
Jiu Hui nodded vigorously. “Your disciple understands. As long as the green hills remain, there’s no need to worry about firewood!”
“You’re a quick learner.” The more Yu Jing looked at Jiu Hui, the more satisfied she felt. She finished the wine in her cup in one gulp. “Fame and fortune are good things, but if you lose your life, what use are they?”
After three rounds of drinks, the elders became more talkative, and with Jiu Hui’s enthusiastic participation, the atmosphere in the inner hall was lively and cheerful.
“Sect Uncle Chang, you mentioned something about a master-disciple ill-fated relationship. Can you tell me more about it?” Jiu Hui, who couldn’t hold her liquor, held a cup of dew wine and drank with a cheerful expression.
“Since you all want to hear, I’ll tell you a story that happened less than a hundred years ago.” Elder Chang put down his chopsticks. “Yin Ji of the Jiutian Sect has outstanding talent and is stunningly brilliant. Before he was two hundred years old, he was a mighty figure in the Divine Transformation stage and became the youngest elder of the Jiutian Sect. Decades ago, he brought a little girl back to the sect from outside and accepted her as his disciple. As one of the ten great sects in the world of self-cultivation, the Jiutian Sect naturally had many rules and precepts. The little girl had a rather… lively and active personality, so she violated many of the sect’s rules.”
Speaking of this, Elder Chang shook his head and clicked his tongue. “With Yin Ji, who has high cultivation and status, protecting her, the little girl naturally didn’t receive any punishment. As the saying goes, ‘It’s not the scarcity that’s the problem, but the unfair distribution.’ In my opinion, Yin Ji didn’t handle this matter very well. The little girl saw that she was special in every way compared to the others, and when she saw how handsome her master was, how could she not develop feelings of admiration?”
“I understand.” Jiu Hui placed the empty cup of dew drink on the table. “This kind of behavior is called seduction.”
Elder Chang was taken aback at first, then he laughed out loud. “You could say that. Anyway, the master and disciple chased each other, and I retreated as you advanced. Once, the master and disciple had a conflict, that became known to the world. Even the peach trees in our Wangshu Pavilion were dug up by Yin Ji.”
“Why are they digging up our trees when they’re the ones who started the fight?” Although she had only joined the Wangshu Pavilion less than an hour ago, Jiu Hui no longer regarded herself as an outsider: “Did he pay?”
Upon hearing the word “our”, the elders wore relieved smiles.
Zhi You looked at the empty cup beside Jiu Hui, hesitated for a moment, and poured her another cup of dew drink.
“We are all fellow Daoists cultivating the Dao. Talking about money would hurt our feelings.” Elder Chang smiled. “However, since Yin Ji insisted on giving us two magic treasures, we couldn’t refuse.”
“Later, Daoist Master Yin Ji and the young lady almost had a grand Dao-wedding, but who would have thought that the young lady was actually a spy sent by the Demon Cult, and she stabbed Yin Ji at the wedding ceremony.”
“Whoa!” Jiu Hui’s eyes widened in excitement!
“It turned out that Yin Ji had killed her brother, so she came to take revenge on Yin Ji. However, as time went by, it was inevitable that she would develop true feelings for him, so although she stabbed Yin Ji, she did not hurt his vitals.”
“How did Elder Yin Ji react at the time? Elder Chang, were you present at the wedding? Tell me all about it, I love hearing about it!”
“Not only was I there, but your master was there too.” Elder Chang summoned two puppets. “Come, I’ll have the puppets demonstrate the scene for you.”
Fake Yin Ji asked in a dull, emotionless voice. “These past twenty years, have you never felt anything for me?”
The fake girl let out a dull, piercing scream. “Yin Ji, you killed my brother. How can you expect me to be moved by you?”
Fake Yin Ji said, “your elder brother fed on human blood and harmed countless people. He deserved to die.”
The fake girl said, “Good, good, good. Yin Ji, you care deeply about the world and upholding justice. From now on, you and I will never see each other again! I’d like to see if you can protect everyone in the world!”
With the puppet’s emotionless performance, Jiu Hui’s interest in the story instantly diminished by half: “With so many people present, they just let the Demon Cult girl leave?”
They didn’t notify the world before they fell in love, so why were they using the world as an excuse now that they’ve broken up?
Should the people of the world be sacrificed for their love?
There was no cure for people with brain diseases!
“Yin Ji would rather let his chest bleed and let the person leave alive, so we guests couldn’t jump out and play the villain.” Elder Chang sighed and was very honest: “The main reason is that we can’t beat him.”
“Anyway, after this incident, the other cultivators in the cultivation world no longer look at those aloof masters and beautiful disciples with such innocent eyes.”
“With my appearance, I’m not inferior to Yin Ji, and you’re even prettier than that Demon Cult girl.” Elder Chang took a sip of wine. “Now do you understand why I can’t take you as my disciple?”
“But Zhi You is a man, could he also have such concerns?” Jiu Hui saw that the cup in front of her was full, and guessed that Zhi You had poured it for her. She smiled at him in gratitude.
“Who says there are no concerns?” Elder Chang said slowly. “With his appearance, if I take him out in the future, will others look at me or at him?”
Jiu Hui: “…”
She looked at Zhi You’s appearance, then at Elder Chang. Zhi You was indeed more handsome than Elder Chang.
She never would have thought that Sect Uncle Chang would be so concerned about his personal image.
After the meal, Wangshu Pavilion gradually regained its tranquility.
Thousands of miles away, the Zhenxing Tower was brightly lit as the sect masters of the Ten Great Sects arrived one after another.
Bu Ting, the Sect Master of Jiutian Sect, and Nan Feng, the sect’s head disciple, entered the building and saw that everyone else was already present. Bu Ting said, “I apologize for my tardiness, fellow Daoists.”
The others exchanged a few polite words, but only Qiu Hua, the Sect Master of the Qinglan School, remained silent and didn’t even glance at him.
“The catastrophe is imminent.” The four Zhenxing Elders flew out, and Elder Bai bowed to the crowd: “What good strategies do you have, everyone?”
The sect masters were shocked when they saw the four elders looking haggard, and even their cultivation had fallen. “Four elders, what happened?”
“Predicting the Mandate of Heaven naturally comes at a price.” Elder Hei’s tone was mocking. “Fellow Sect Masters, there’s no need to act like this.”
“May I ask the four Elders, is there a glimmer of hope in this catastrophe?” Jiutian Sect Master Bu Ting bowed deeply to the four Elders.
“Sect Master Bu, are you planning to refine ten more cauldrons?” Qiu Hua lifted her eyelids slightly, as if looking at the most disgusting thing in the world: “Or are you planning to refine another miraculous medicine that suppress the great plague in the world?”
“Sect Master Qiu, with the current state of the world, I hope you can put aside your personal grudges.” Nan Feng cupped his hands and said, “I implore you to…”
Before he could finish speaking, Qiu Hua slapped him across the face from afar, sending him flying to the ground. “When elders are speaking, it’s not the place of juniors to interrupt. Your good-for-nothing master didn’t teach you, so I’ll teach you in his stead.”
The other sect masters’ eyelids twitched. With great tacit understanding, they averted their gazes, none of them wanting to get involved in more idle chatter. They were afraid that they would be the next ones to get slapped in the face.
Fortunately, a streak of light flying in broke the awkwardness. The streak of light circled the room before finally landing in Bu Ting’s hand and transforming into a jade slip.
“Hmm? The jade slip that was sent to the Jiutian Sect a few hours ago, why did it only just reach you now?” Elder Lu recognized this jade slip as the one he had sent out.
After going around in circles, it didn’t find Bu Ting, so it went back to Zhenxing Tower?
“Now that everyone is here, let’s talk about the evil dog that will appear on the day the catastrophe begins.” The Sect Master of the Yuzhen Sect coughed dryly. “Where should we go to find this evil dog?”
“It’s too late.” Elder Bai’s eyes were filled with exhaustion and pain. “Fate has already begun, and the evil dog has naturally already appeared. The road ahead is full of thorns, so please…take care.”
The mechanism of Zhenxing Tower began to activate, and the roof opened wide, allowing everyone to look up and see the starry sky.
The stars were in chaos, and there was no future.
-—–
“The stars are so beautiful tonight.” Jiu Hui sat on the flower tree and saw Zhi You from the neighboring yard come out of his house. She waved at him and said, “Zhi You, do you want to come over and watch the stars together?”
Wangshu Pavilion had plenty of houses, so she and Zhi You each got a courtyard. Since they had the same master, their courtyards were adjacent.
Zhi You looked up at the sky where the stars were in chaos, and walked silently to the bamboo fence that separated the two courtyards. Beautiful flowers climbed the fence, and the two looked at each other through the flower wall.
“Look.” Jiu Hui pointed to a star in the north. “That star is spinning around and around. Doesn’t it look like it’s dancing?”
Zhi You tapped his toes and flew up to sit on the tree trunk. “That star is called Divine Evil.”
“What about that one?” Jiu Hui pointed to another star that was flickering. “I once ate a fish that had a pearl on its head. It flashed just like that.”
“That’s Divine Joy.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, the star dimmed completely.
“You know a lot.” Jiu Hui brushed off the petals on her knees. “But why did it stop flashing?”
“The Divine Joy star has fallen.” Looking at the place where the Divine Joy star had faded and disappeared, Zhi You pointed to another star that was also twinkling: “The Greedy Wolf star is also about to fall.”
The Greedy Wolf star disappeared, and a new star appeared next to it.
“Mortal Evil.” Zhi You said the name of this star with an expressionless face.
“This place is amazing. Not only can you admire the moon, but you can also stargaze.” Jiu Hui took out some fruit from her storage ring and handed it to Zhi You. “I’ve never seen such beautiful stars before. I’ll come to watch them again tomorrow. Will you join me?”
Zhi You hesitated for a moment before accepting the fruit. “Alright.”
He had never seen such a chaotic constellation before.
“But there’s some space next to the Divine Evil star. There should be a star to dance with it.” Jiu Hui gnawed on the fruit. “It’s more beautiful when two stars dance.”
“No…”
Zhi You wanted to tell her that it was impossible, because as soon as Divine Evil appeared, misfortune would befall.
But before he could speak, a small star appeared next to the Divine Evil star.
Author’s Note:
Everyone: That’s the star sign! That’s destiny!
Little Garlic Chive: I don’t care, I just want to watch the stars dance.