Wait a minute…
This place was a desolate wilderness, with only Jiu Hui and Zhi You, two disciples from minor sects. Even if he escaped or even taught the two a lesson, there wouldn’t be any great power to stand up for them.
At this thought, he was suddenly filled with rage and summoned his natal sword. “You little girl, how dare you be so arrogant? This isn’t the territory of the Jiutian Sect. No one can protect you here.”
“Oh?” Jiu Hui asked with a smile, “What do you want to do?”
Zhi You wanted to go forward, but Jiu Hui gently raised her hand to stop him. “Leave him to me.”
“Of course I want you to return all the things you took from me.” His ability to become the top disciple of the Shenji Sect did not depend on pleasing his master, but on his true ability.
“Are you trying to rob me?” Jiu Hui recalled her silk scarf. The fiery red scarf hung on her arm and danced in the snowy wind. Her smile gradually faded. “I didn’t want to fight, but since you won’t let us go, I have no choice.”
Bai Qi buried his head. The leg that had been broken in the past seemed to be aching again.
“Cut the crap. I won’t fight an unarmed woman.” The sect’s head disciple sneered arrogantly. “Take out your natal magic weapon.”
Winding the silk scarf around her arm a few more times, Jiu Hui smiled and said, “I said I’m going to slap you so I’m going to slap you. How can you bully someone with a weapon?”
As soon as she finished speaking, she pinched a spell with both hands, and the flying snow in the air suddenly stopped. The arrogance on the face of the sect’s head disciple disappeared instantly, and he held his sword horizontally in front of his dantian: “What is your cultivation level?!”
“You guess?!” Jiu Hui tilted her head with a sweet smile, looking innocent and harmless. But in the next moment, the snowflakes that had been frozen in the air turned into sharp blades and attacked the sect’s disciples with great force.
“Break!” The sect’s head disciple’s spiritual energy turned into a barrier, barely blocking this attack. He looked up and saw Jiu Hui flash in front of him. His heart was filled with fear. When did she get so close to him? He didn’t even feel a trace of her aura.
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A resounding slap rang across his face, and as the head disciple was sent flying, it was as if he saw his long-departed grandmother reaching out to him.
“Hiss~” Bai Qi covered his hind leg with his paw: “You idiot, why did you provoke her?”
The head disciple fell hard on the ground, looking up at the snowy sky with a buzzing head.
“Are you still alive?” Jiu Hui slowly walked to his side, bent down, and looked into his eyes, smiling gently. “This is a desolate wilderness, and there’s no one else to help. Even if I bury a corpse here, no one would notice. You’re so fierce, you really scared us. I had no choice but to fight back. Isn’t that right?”
“Ugh!” The sect’s head disciple supported himself with his hands and sat up with difficulty, vomiting out several mouthfuls of blood. He didn’t know if he had injured his internal organs, but there was something else mixed in with the blood he vomited.
“Please spare my life, Immortal.” The head disciple didn’t care about anything else, turned around, and knelt on the ground. “I didn’t recognize Mount Tai with my own eyes and offended you, Immortal. Please spare my life.”
“It’s not that I’m intentionally offending you. It’s just that I’ve been acting strangely in recent days, and I often can’t control the spiritual power in my body.” When it came to matters of life, the head disciple of a great sect had always known how to bend and stretch: “Today, I was ordered by my master to pay homage to the Wenxing School’s Elders, who would have thought that a sudden chaos in the spiritual platform caused my flying sword to go out of control…”
Before he finished speaking, he saw that the blood he had just vomited turned into a raging fire, burning. He was so scared that he rolled to the side, his face pale.
He coughed up blood and turned it into flames. Could it be that his body was possessed by some kind of demon?!
Jiu Hui took a step back, distancing herself from the blazing flames.
The sect’s head disciple seized the opportunity to try to get up and escape, but the snowflakes flying in the air turned into sharp blades again, pointing at him with a chilling aura.
He immediately knelt down with a pop, his movements crisp and neat, without any struggle in his heart.
After the flames died down, a crimson feather turned into a stream of light and tried to escape, but Zhi You in the air reached out two fingers and pinched it. The feather twisted wildly at his fingertips, and scorching flames burned, trying to force Zhi You to let go.
However, Zhi You seemed to be unaware of the pain. Despite the flames roasting his entire palm red, he did not frown in the slightest.
As the last wisp of flame burned out, the red feather finally stopped struggling and turned into an ordinary, dull red feather in his fingertips.
“Does your hand hurt?!” Jiu Hui threw down her silk scarf and tied up the sect’s disciple tightly. She flew to Zhi You and said, “This is not an ordinary feather. How could you use your hand to grab it!”
“Let go, it will take the opportunity to escape.” Zhi You put the feather in Jiu Hui’s palm: “It’s okay, I have a special physique, I won’t feel pain.”
“Even if it escapes, I can still chase it back!” Jiu Hui casually threw the feather into her storage ring. Seeing Zhi You’s palm burned red and blistered, she took out a bottle of healing medicine and dripped the liquid onto Zhi You’s palm. “Even if you really don’t feel pain, it doesn’t mean you can just get injured.”
“Who in this world isn’t afraid of getting hurt?” After waiting for Zhi You’s hand to fully recover, Jiu Hui handed him the injury medicine. “This bottle of injury medicine is for you. Just one drop can heal broken bones. Use it sparingly.”
The bottle still carried the warmth of Jiu Hui’s palm. Zhi You gripped the bottle tightly, using more and more force. “It won’t hurt, and I won’t die. The medicine will be wasted.”
“You’ll be hungry again at noon even if you eat breakfast, so why bother?” Jiu Hui poked Zhi You’s forehead several times with her index finger.
“Luckily, you joined our Wangshu Pavilion. What would you do if you went to a major sect? You’re not afraid of pain, so they might send you to the front lines when there’s danger. You think it’s a waste of medicine, so they might withhold your medicine. After a while, they’ll think that everything is your fault and if you ever refuse, they’ll think you’re being unreasonable and not thinking about the big picture.”
Zhiyou’s head was poked back, but he still let Jiu Hui poked him around.
“Tsk.” Jiu Hui looked at his reddened forehead, curled her fingers, and looked away with some guilt. “After you go back today, you need to think carefully about where you went wrong.”
The sect’s head disciple, who was tied up and lying on the ground, silently shouted in his heart, “Is there anyone who can take care of me? If no one does, my face will be buried in the snow!”
“Meow.” A cat jumped onto him, helping him brush off the snowflakes from his eyes and nose, then sat by his head and wagged its tail occasionally.
The sect’s head disciple looked at it with emotion for a long time. This cat was much kinder and gentler than the two people.
What kind of cultivation level did this Jiu Hui have? In front of her, he was completely powerless. Even if his spiritual platform had been in chaos these past few days, he shouldn’t be this weak.
“I’ll spare your life for ten thousand spirit stones. You scared us with your swordplay in the sky, so you owe us five thousand spirit stones. And you tried to rob me, so you owe me another five thousand spirit stones.” Jiu Hui returned to the sect’s head disciple’s side and grabbed the cat by its head, pulling it into her arms. “My cat cleaned you up, so that’s another one thousand spirit stones. That’s a total of twenty-one thousand spirit stones. If you’re willing to pay up, blink your eyes.”
The sect’s head disciple widened his eyes. Over twenty thousand spirit stones? He wanted to refuse, but found that he couldn’t speak. He didn’t know when Jiu Hui had used a magic technique to silence him.
He glared at Jiu Hui, why don’t you just go rob someone!
“You’re not willing?” Jiu Hui sighed, pretending to be troubled. “Well, if you’re not willing, then forget it. You can’t force someone to like you. I guess I’ll just have to dig a hole and bury you.”
She raised her hand and condensed a sword out of ice and snow, and casually threw the sword onto the empty ground next to her. The empty ground rumbled and cracked open, just forming a deep pit for burying people.
“This is a desolate wilderness, and no one else will pass by. Won’t you be lonely if you’re buried here?” Jiu Hui shook her head. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. How pitiful.”
The sect’s head disciple blinked frantically, his eyelids twitching uncontrollably.
“You don’t want to be buried again? Do you know how tiring it is to dig a pit? Even if you don’t want to use this pit, you still have to pay for the hard work.” Jiu Hui put Bai Qi down. “I’m naturally kind, so I’ll just round it up for you. You can pay me 30,000 spirit stones and that’s it. Do you have any objections?”
The sect’s head disciple blinked heavily, a crystal-clear tear slowly rolling down his cheek.
“Look at you, Immortal friend, you’re so happy that you’re crying.” Jiu Hui took back the silk scarf, cast a cleaning spell on it, and then hung it back on her arm.
She stretched out her hand in front of the sect’s head disciple and said, “Give me the spirit stones.”
The sect’s head disciple took the purse with trembling hands and emptied it, but there were only seven thousand spirit stones in total. Seeing the smile on Jiu Hui’s face fading, he quickly untied the jade crown from his hair and the jade pendant from his waist.
Jiu Hui still didn’t retract her hand.
He gritted his teeth and finally took off the ring from his index finger and reluctantly placed it in Jiu Hui’s palm.
This was a gift from his mother before she passed away. She had tried her best to live to ninety years old, just so she could spend a few more years with him. Before she passed away, she gave him this ring.
“You have to be well, be well…”
At this moment, as he handed over the ring, he suddenly realized that it had been a long time since he had thought about his mother. He was the high and mighty Shenji School’s head disciple, an immortal revered and feared by mortals, and the object of flattery and ingratiation from minor sects. He had long forgotten that his mother’s only wish for him was to “be well.”
Even at the moment of life and death, he had to rely on the ring his mother left her, begging the other party to spare his life.
Ding.
The ring fell into Jiu Hui’s palm, and it made a crisp sound when it touched his jade crown.
At that moment, he suddenly covered his eyes and buried his face in the snow, wailing loudly. He didn’t even care how Jiu Hui and Zhi You would look at him.
Jiu Hui quietly watched his sorry figure curled up in the snow, and took out the ring and placed it beside the sect’s head disciple. “This ring has the protective blessing from one’s kin.”
“Those you bullied in the past may be someone else’s precious treasure. They were powerless to fight back, but that doesn’t mean they deserved to be oppressed by you.” Jiu Hui took two steps back. “Next time you think about bullying someone, take a look at this ring.”
She waved her hand to fill in the deep pit that had been created by the ice sword, and beckoned to Bai Qi, who was still licking his paws in the snow: “Fat cat, let’s go.”
“Wait.” The sect’s head disciple gripped the ring tightly in his palm. “My name is Yuan Wo. Today, I owe you ten thousand spirit stones.”
Jiu Hui turned back to look at him and chuckled softly, “I’ll remember that.”
She only glanced at him, but Yuan Wo felt as if it was the first time she had ever looked at him.
After carefully putting the ring back on his fingertip, Yuan Wo recalled his natal sword that had fallen into the snow, touched the swollen half of his face, and stood blankly in the snow for a long time.
-—–
Back in Wangshu Pavilion, Bai Qi took the meat bun to find the picky cat named Er Miao. Jiu Hui held up the red feather in front of Linchi: “Is this the feather that Crooked-Mouth Liu gave you?”
“The size is about right, but the feather I threw away wasn’t this red.” Linchi wasn’t sure.
“It absorbed spiritual energy and vitality from Yuan Wo’s body for several days, so its color is naturally a bit different.” Jiu Hui looked at the feather more and more and felt that it was unusual. She turned her head to look at Zhi You: “What kind of bird do you think this feather is from?”
“Legend has it that the phoenix can be reborn from its own blood, but the phoenix has been extinct for ten thousand years, and I have never seen a real phoenix feather.” Zhi You fetched paper and a brush and drew a picture of a phoenix feather that he had seen in an ancient book.
“Zhi You, you can even paint?” Jiu Hui couldn’t help but touch his hand after seeing Zhi You draw a lifelike phoenix with just a few strokes. “How did you get such nimble hands?”
“When I have nothing to do, I just draw a few strokes.” Zhi You didn’t particularly like to paint: “Do you see any similarities?”
“Hmm…” Jiu Hui compared the feather to the painting for a long time, and finally handed the painting to Linchi: “You’re a bird, take a look. Is the feather in the painting similar to this red feather?”
Linchi fell silent. It shifted its bird claws and dodged to the side. “Immortal, can you and Immortal Zhi You tell the difference between human hair?”
“Human hair is thin, and bird feathers are so different, how can they be compared?” Jiu Hui waved her hand: “Forget it, you should go play with Bai Qi.”
Linchi quickly flapped its wings and flew away, leaving only Jiu Hui and Zhi You in the room. Neither of them spoke, and the room fell silent.
“I once read a passage in an ancient book that said the Jian tree is a ladder from the earth to the divine realm. If you burn Jian wood incense, its smoke will disperse and disappear, and a god will descend.”
“Shhh.” Jiu Hui quickly covered Zhi You’s mouth. “No one in the cultivation world has ascended for thousands of years. These immortal cultivators are all crazy, trying to prove that there are gods and immortals. Don’t believe those ridiculous records.”
“That deity’s tribulation curse, all nonsense.” Jiu Hui released her hand, walked to the window, and looked up at the sky where the dark clouds were rolling as if they were about to split open. “The deities are highly respected and live as long as the heavens and the earth. How could it be like the rumors say, that just because a deity’s tribulation in the mortal world was a little difficult, they would retaliate against all living beings? It’s clear that it’s just the common people’s disrespect and jealousy of the deity. I don’t believe a single word of it!”
The rolling dark clouds gradually subsided, and snowflakes fell on the blooming flowers, creating an exceptionally beautiful scene.
Jiu Hui closed the window and turned to look at Zhi You. “With such heavy snow today, shouldn’t we have a hot pot?”
“Hot pot?” Zhi You asked. “Is it the pot in the Gourmet Records that can cook a lot of food?”
“Yes, let’s call Master and the Elders, and all the Senior and Junior Brothers and Sisters. The more the merrier.” Jiu Hui pulled on Zhi You’s sleeve and headed outside. “Let’s go, let’s go! To celebrate the first snow of the year, we’re having hot pot!”
Zhi You was pulled out of the room by Jiu Hui. He looked up at the endless sky, and snowflakes hit his face.
The suggestion to have a hot pot was met with approval from the entire Wangshu Pavilion. Although everyone had cultivation bases and were not afraid of the cold, it did not stop them from setting up tables and chairs in the snow and sitting around the bubbling hot pot.
The puppets served meat and vegetables. Everyone put the meat into the pot, leaving only Zhi You staring blankly at his empty plate.
What just…happened?
“Eat up.” A slice of cooked beef landed in his bowl. Jiu Hui had taken pity on him and given him some. “Do you know the secret to eating hot pot?”
Zhi You shook his head slowly.
“You have to be quick!” As the puppet served the second plate of meat, Jiu Hui moved quickly and grabbed the largest piece before Yu Jing could.
“You unfilial wretch!” Yu Jing could only snatch the second piece. “You’d even snatch your master’s meat?!”
“There’s no master and disciple before a hot pot. You said those words yourself when you snatched the mutton from Master back then. How come you’ve forgotten them now?” Elder Chang mercilessly exposed Yu Jing. “Senior Sister, please have some respect.”
The hot soup in the hot pot was boiling and rolling, and everyone’s chopsticks were flying. After the third plate of meat was also snatched away, Zhi You finally realized the true meaning of eating hot pot, which was to snatch.
When the fourth plate of meat was served, he used his fastest speed to grab the entire plate of meat.
Everyone’s chopsticks stopped in unison, and several Elders looked at Yu Jing with condemning eyes.
“Sect Head Senior Sister, how did you teach your disciple? Who taught him to snatch vegetables like this?!”
“One chopstick, one piece of meat. That’s the rule of our Wangshu Pavilion. No one can break the rule!”
“It’s normal for a child to not understand after only a few months in the sect. The other disciples didn’t make a fuss when the other person didn’t touch their dishes, so why are you making a fuss?” Yu Jing gave Zhi You a look, as if to say, “Good apprentice, if you do this again, your master will be beaten up.”
Jiu Hui took half of the meat from Zhi You’s chopsticks and put it into the hot pot.
“Junior Sister Jiu Hui, you have no table manners!” Luo Yan, who had long been wary of Jiu Hui’s little tricks, immediately went to grab it, and the oily soup in the pot splashed everywhere. Even Zhi You’s face was splashed with two drops of oil.
When he came to his senses, there was nothing left on his chopsticks, only a few snowflakes that had just floated down.
As the sky gradually darkened, the lanterns hanging from the branches lit up. The pot was bubbling away, and there was still meat left on the table, but no one wanted to pick up their chopsticks again.
Zhi You slowly picked up the cooked meat, put it in a bowl, and coated it with the prepared sauce before eating it.
Snowflakes fluttered down as he exhaled a breath of warm air and looked up at the smiling faces of the Wangshu Pavilion crowd.
The dark eyes were also tinged with warmth from the hot pot.
So this was what a hot pot in the snow was like…warm and lively.
“Eat more, eat more.” Yu Jing put all the other cooked dishes in the pot into Zhi You’s bowl: “It would be a waste if you can’t finish it.”
Jiu Hui rubbed her full belly and glanced at Zhi You with sympathy. At the end of a hot pot meal, there was always someone who had to take responsibility for the leftover meat and vegetables.
Once you’ve had your first bite, there would be countless more in the future.
Zhi You, this silly child, didn’t notice that everyone was looking at him with extra kindness?
Around the table, cats, dogs, birds, and turtles gathered in a circle, each guarding their own plate and eating the hot meat, meowing, barking, and chirping incessantly.
Jiu Hui put down her chopsticks and slipped to the side to pinch a snowball.
Thud, a snowball landed on her head. Jiu Hui turned around and unexpectedly saw that it was her usually gentle Senior Sister Xi Yuan who had sneak attacked her.
She immediately fought back, and soon the air was filled with flying snowballs. Even the Prime Minister Wu, who was dozing off nearby, was hit by several large snowballs.
“Zhi You, Zhi You!” Jiu Hui was covered in snow and lying in the snow, laughing and shouting for help: “Stop eating and come help me!”
Zhi You put down his chopsticks and was about to go help Jiu Hui, but Yu Jing stopped him. “Don’t worry, there are two more pieces of meat. Jiu Hui is a tough kid. A few snowballs won’t hurt her.”
But Zhi You ran even faster. He took three steps at a time to Jiu Hui, pulled her out of the snow, and used his back to block the snowball that was flying towards her.
Yu Jing shook her head with a smile, stuffed the two pieces of meat into her mouth, and sat down with the other Elders. They sipped tea while watching the younger generation frolic. The scene descended into complete chaos when a snowball hit the Elders.
“Oooh, ooh, ooh, I’m a white cat, not a white snowball. You’re blind! Don’t throw it!”
“Woof woof woof, don’t hit the dog!”
A snowball fight lasted until the middle of the night, and everyone finally called it a day, shuffling slowly back to their own courtyards.
The snow crunched under their feet as Jiu Hui and Zhi You walked side by side. Jiu Hui couldn’t help but laugh when she saw that Zhi You’s eyebrows and hair were covered in frost.
Zhi You didn’t understand what she was laughing at, so he could only look at her in confusion.
“Are you having fun tonight?” Jiu Hui smiled at him, her hands behind her back, and she walked backwards step by step.
Zhi You grabbed Jiu Hui, who was walking backward and almost bumped into a tree, and gently brushed the snowflakes off her body.
He seemed to dislike snow a little less.
-—–
On the Jiutian Sect, Bu Ting walked out of the hall door carrying a glazed lantern. He looked at the heavy snowfall and walked to the edge of the pool.
A thin layer of ice had formed on the surface of the pond. He put down the lantern in his hand and tossed a warming pearl into the pond. The ice and snow melted away, and the frozen fish gradually regained their vitality, swimming slowly in the water.
“Master.” Nan Feng strode in from outside and whispered in Bu Ting’s ear, “After the Sect Master of the Qinglan School returned to the sect, she has been in seclusion and has not seen anyone.”
“What’s the news about the head disciple of the Shenji School?” Bu Ting asked as he tossed fish food into the pond. “An hour ago, Zhenxing Tower sent word that he would die today. Has the Shenji School sent any news?”
“No, he returned to the sect safely.” Nan Feng questioned the abilities of the four elders of Zhenxing Tower for the first time: “Master, are the prophecies of the four elders of Zhenxing Tower really accurate?”
Author’s Note:
Little Garlic Chive: No one can take my things, not even a tiger!
Sect’s Head Disciple: I finally deserve to have a name?
Wangshu Pavilion: Who says our sect doesn’t have rules? We have plenty of rules!
Zhi You: This is my first time eating hot pot, so I don’t know the rules. Please bear with me.