Luo Yan noticed her little junior brother’s gaze and thought for a moment before adding, “Of course, a man who is not handsome and only knows how to talk sweetly, is also not acceptable.”
Jiu Hui blinked her eyes. “Huh?”
What did it matter to her whether the man was handsome or not?
Seeing that her little junior sister looked confused and completely clueless, Luo Yan knew that it was too early to worry. She reached out and put her arm around Jiu Hui’s neck, changing the subject. “I wonder how Daoist Master Yin Ji made the magic weapon that helped the Demon Princess escape. It seems like it would be perfect for escaping when you can’t win a fight.”
“Why don’t we go to Sect Uncle Lin’s study and have a look? Sect Uncle Lin is the most skilled craftsman in our sect. He might have some blueprints there.” Ever since her master had produced the Jiutian Sect’s sword techniques and various lost manuals of magic techniques, Jiu Hui had developed an inexplicable trust in the collection abilities of the uncles of Wangshu Pavilion.
“That’s right.” Luo Yan turned her head to look at Xi Yuan. “Senior Sister Xi Yuan, you take us to find it.”
Xi Yuan knew that these junior brothers and sisters always acted on impulse, so she smiled good-naturedly and said, “Let’s make this clear first. If we find the blueprint for making it, you all have to learn how to make it yourselves. You can’t give up halfway.”
“Got it, got it, Senior Sister, let’s hurry.” Luo Yan took Jiu Hui’s hand and grabbed Xi Yuan’s arm, wishing she could fly to Sect Uncle Lin’s place right away.
Elder Lin was drinking tea in the courtyard when he saw eight juniors flying over in a noisy manner. He knew that these little rascals were up to no good again, so he quickly picked up his teapot and slipped out through the side door, out of sight and out of mind.
“Sect Uncle Lin, he…” Jiu Hui saw Sect Uncle Lin’s flustered departing figure from afar.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take you to find it.” Xi Yuan led everyone into Elder Lin’s library, and the choking smell of dust hit them in the face.
“Cough, cough, cough.” Chang He coughed violently. “How long has it been since anyone’s been in this room?”
“It’s just me and my master on a normal day, so we don’t bother with tidying up.” Xi Yuan kicked the wooden basket by her feet into a corner, fumbled around on the wall for a moment, and lit the candle mechanism inside the house: “Master’s collection of books is all here.”
Jiu Hui picked up the book that had fallen to the ground, dusted it off, and put it back on the bookshelf. The bookshelf was filled with all sorts of ancient books on refining tools, from how to refine flying magic weapons to how to refine pots, bowls, and ladles. Naturally, there were also many books on how to refine life-saving magic weapons.
“There are many refining methods, but the materials are hard to come by.” Xi Yuan organized the messy bookshelf. “A top-grade magic weapon requires countless valuable materials, and it’s not certain to succeed. So many blueprints can only be looked at here.”
Jiu Hui pulled out a yellowed and worn-out ancient book from the bottom shelf in the corner, which unexpectedly recorded the process of refining the Zhenyao Prison.
She gasped, closed the book, and asked Xi Yuan in a low voice, “Senior Sister Xi Yuan, is this book… just left here?”
“This one, huh…” Xi Yuan glanced at it, not paying much attention. “Your Senior Brothers and Sisters have all read it. If you like it, you can copy it and take it back.”
“What I mean is, aren’t you and Sect Uncle Lin worried that this map will fall into the hands of the yaos and give them a chance to rescue those evil yaos from Zhenyao Prison?” Jiu Hui put the ancient book back on the bottom shelf, but after thinking about it, she still felt uneasy, so she took two more books and pressed them on top of it.
“If the world could be turned upside down with just a book, then Zhenyao Prison wouldn’t be holding so many great yaos.” Xi Yuan chuckled lightly. “Besides, who knows that we have this?”
“To be honest, it wasn’t a secret when Zhenyao Prison was being built, and many sects have the blueprints.” Xi Yuan tidied up the bookshelf with ease. “It wouldn’t be difficult for the yaos to get the blueprints, so why haven’t they made a move? Could it be that they don’t want to?”
Jiu Hui: “…“carpreads.pages.dev
The Zhenyao Prison had tens of thousands of yao-suppressing formations and tens of thousands of restrictive runes targeting the yao race. The tower was made of meteorite iron and was guarded by the Jiutian Sect. Even Chi Quan couldn’t escape, and other yaos would only be delivering themselves to their deaths if they went there.
“Senior Sister is right.” Jiu Hui suddenly understood. She noticed a tattered, slightly yellowed book that had fallen into the gap between the bookshelf and the wall. She bent down and pulled it out of the gap.
“Fuguang Palace Refining Blueprint…” Jiu Hui flipped open the tattered pages, and the first page was a cross-sectional view of the Fuguang Palace.
Front hall, main hall, side hall, back hall, side hall…
This was a magnificent, spacious, and gorgeous yet lonely palace. It was evident from the blueprints that the designers of the palace had put a lot of thought into it, even the furnishings in the palace used the best spirit gathering formations.
Whether it was the pillars of the hall or the tiles, they were all densely covered with Spirit Gathering Formations.
Surrounded by such dense spiritual energy, it was no wonder that Fuguang Mountain was covered in snow all year round. If a mortal who could not cultivate stayed here, they would explode and die from the pressure of the spiritual energy in less than 15 minutes.
Flipping to the back, there were only a few brief records of the puppets of Fuguang Mountain.
[Take the remains of deceased Divine Transformation ancestors and refine them.]
The book was incomplete, and some of the records about the Fuguang Palace had been lost. The more Jiu Hui read, the more upset she felt. She frowned and closed the book.
The people who built the Fuguang Palace, what did they think that Lord Fuguang was, a jar without emotions that absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth? When needed, they could make this jar transform the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the spiritual power needed by the cauldrons, shake it, and then pour it out?
“See, I knew little Junior Sister would be angry after reading this book.” Luo Yan saw Jiu Hui’s unsightly expression, walked over to her, and took the book from her. “Do you know why this book is in the corner?”
Jiu Hui shook her head.
“At that time, Chang He and I were so angry that we threw it into the crack.” Luo Yan threw the book back into the crack and said helplessly, “The first time I saw this book, I wondered how strong Immortal Lord Fuguang’s will must have been to endure those years of living a life worse than death.”
Didn’t the previous sect masters of the ten major sects know that after their deaths, these immortal cauldrons would only function properly if Immortal Lord Fuguang was present?
They sent him countless precious treasures and spirit stones, and countless ancient books and magic treasures. Didn’t they know that he couldn’t leave the palace at all, and those rare treasures were no different from dirt and rubble?
Of course, they knew, but they relied on these rare treasures to cover up their guilt under the banner of righteousness.
Whether they were yaos, demon, or cultivator, everyone knew that it was a living tomb. Therefore, they gave him the honorable title of Immortal Lord and bestowed upon him a supreme status, but they would never let him understand what freedom was.
Perhaps only those mortals who toiled for survival would regard him as a true immortal, even building temples to worship him.
All living beings were beneficiaries, and so was their Wangshu Pavilion.
“That’s why every five years, the things we ask Immortal Crane to deliver to Fuguang Palace are never letters or greetings.” Chang He lowered his voice. “I’ve put storybooks in the brocade pouch.”
Luo Yan: “I will send pastries and fruits.”
Xi Yuan: “I send the seven-colored luminous nightlight balls that I refined myself.”
Yan Bo scratched his head in a simple-minded way: “I compiled the gossip that Master talked about into a thick book and put it in a brocade pouch.”
Elder Xi’s two disciples, Jiang Yan and Zi Shuqi, saw that everyone else had not put out anything serious, so they spoke in a low voice, “We put out two little wooden figures that can sing and dance.”
Jiu Hui looked at her six Senior Brothers and Sisters: “What is the five-year period?”
“Aside from the major sects, we minor sects can send a message to Fuguang Palace every five years to show the respect of all sects in the world for Immortal Lord Fuguang.” Xi Yuan explained, “There are as many minor sects in the cultivation world as there are fish in the river. We can’t send messages to Immortal Lord Fuguang like the major sects can, so that’s why we have this five-year rule.”
“I see.” Jiu Hui was curious. “Then how long until we next deliver a message to Immortal Lord Fuguang?”
“There’s still… a little over a month.” Xi Yuan calculated the days. “This year’s May 5th will be exactly five years since the deadline.”
“Will Immortal Lord Fuguang look at the gifts you sent?” Jiu Hui asked curiously.
“I don’t know.” Xi Yuan shook her head. “What if he does look at them?”
Then the things they sent could also help Lord Fuguang pass the time.
Fuguang Palace’s sleeping quarters.
There were nearly a hundred brocade pouches on the table.
Fuguang opened the oldest brocade pouch, which contained a formal letter of greeting and a picture of spring plowing. The artist’s skill was not very good, as the people’s eyes were all just two small dots.
After several pouches, the person who wrote the greeting letter changed, and the signature was named Yu Jing. The pouch she sent contained not only a greeting letter and a picture, but also various dried fruits.
Her painting was even uglier than the previous pavilion master’s.
Later, she simply stopped writing letters of greeting. Instead, she would randomly put a picture of spring plowing or autumn harvest in the brocade pouch, along with some other strange and wonderful gadgets.
The further back they went, the stranger the items in the brocade pouch became: stones, dolls, storybooks, and… several gossip records of the cultivation world.
Over the course of five years, enough strange and unusual things had happened.
Once upon a time, a disciple of a certain sect lost his memory and ended up in the mortal world, where he married a mortal woman. After regaining his memory, he forgot about his marriage in the mortal world. Decades later, the mortal woman became a powerful cultivator and gave the heartless man a sound beating before leaving him.
One day, two sect masters fought each other because one sect master imitated a cat’s meow, and the other sect master mocked him for not imitating it well.
On a certain day in a certain month of a certain year, an Elder of a certain great sect held a grand wedding ceremony with a spy from the Demon Clan, but the affair was cut short at the ceremony site.
In these gossip records, the lofty cultivation sects were like an unprofessional theatrical troupe, and there would always be all sorts of outrageous and absurd events happening.
The sun rose and set, the moon appeared and disappeared.
Fuguang flipped through an entire record book and put the dried and damaged fruits and snacks into a storage ring. On the table, a small wooden figure danced with stiff and ugly movements, while another small figure sang a song.
“Ah~ Eee~”
He reached out to turn off the singing puppet and put it into his storage ring.
The wooden man’s singing was quite novel, but it was better if it just stop.
-—–
Jiu Hui and the others were still in Elder Lin’s library, where they found a very good blueprint for a flying magic weapon.
The eight of them gathered together every day, clanging and banging away, with the alchemy furnace smoking all the time.
Elder Lin hadn’t returned to his own courtyard for nearly a month, hiding in Elder Mo’s place every day to shirk his duties.
Boom!
He sighed deeply. These little rascals had broken another alchemy furnace.
“It seems I really don’t have the talent for refining.” Chang He’s face was covered with black ash, and only his teeth were still white. “Senior Sister Xi Yuan, how is your refining going?”
“It’s almost done.” Xi Yuan pinched the hand seal, letting the fire in the furnace decrease to its minimum. “It’s just that my abilities are limited, so even if the refinement is successful, it can only be low-grade at most.”
“It’s already impressive to succeed.” Chang He wiped his face, which was already dark, and it looked even darker.
“Now, only you, Jiu Hui, and Zhi You haven’t blown up your furnaces.” As soon as Chang He finished speaking, both Zhi You and Jiu Hui’s furnaces started emitting purple smoke, indicating that their artifacts were about to be completed.
“Pu-purple, purple smoke?!” Chang He stuttered. “Senior Sister Xi Yuan, look quickly, there’s purple smoke coming out of their cauldron.”
Anyone with a little knowledge of weapon refining knew that when a weapon was successfully refined, if purple smoke rose from the top of the furnace, it must be a top-grade heavenly weapon or an supreme-grade magic weapon.
“Rise!” Jiu Hui and Zhi You exchanged a glance and simultaneously pinched their hand seals, summoning the magic weapon from the furnace.
Two supreme-grade magic treasures appeared, and in an instant, purple light filled the sky, and thousands of auspicious auras appeared.
Clang.
Elder Lin dropped his beloved teapot and hurriedly stood up. He shouted to Elder Mo, who was squatting on the ground planting spirit herbs, “Senior Brother, Senior Brother!”
“It was just a few of your furnaces that blew up, there’s no need to be so angry…” Elder Mo raised his head and looked at the flashing purple light above the sect. He was dumbfounded. “What… what kind of thing did these little rascals make?”
Aside from Yu Jing, who was still in seclusion, the other four Elders had all rushed to the Weapon Refining Room. They stared at the two supreme-grade magic weapons floating in the air, and for a long while, they were speechless.
“My goodness, did our Wangshu Pavilion really produce a genius?” Elder Mo muttered, “I’ll go kowtow to the ancestors tonight.”
“Sect Uncle Lin, Sect Uncle Mo, Sect Uncle Chang, Sect Uncle Xi.” Jiu Hui pinched a spell to retrieve the magic weapon flying in the air. She turned her head and saw the four sect uncles standing at the entrance of the refining room. She asked in confusion, “Why are you all here?”
Zhi You put away his magic weapon and looked at them with confusion.
“Did you two refine these magic treasures?” Elder Lin felt that his question was a bit redundant.
“Is… something wrong?” Jiu Hui asked, bewildered.
“How did you refine it?” Elder Lin asked.
“I refined it according to the steps in the book.” Jiu Hui checked the magic weapon. The quality and function were normal, so there was no problem.
“Do you know that this is a supreme-grade magic weapon?” Elder Lin looked at Jiu Hui with regret in his heart. Why did he let the sect’s head female disciple take these two children away back then?
“Of course I know.” Jiu Hui nodded as a matter of course. There was nothing wrong with refining supreme-grade magic weapons. The village elders all did it.
Unfortunately, she was not skilled enough. What her seniors could do with ease would take her a month to accomplish.
Her elders had told her to pretend to be poor around strangers, but she didn’t have to hide anything from people she could trust: “This is the first time I’ve ever refined a supreme-grade magic weapon, and it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.”
“Well, it’s not difficult.” Zhi You nodded in agreement.
The Elders: “…”
“Junior Brothers and Sisters, tell me, is it possible that refining artifacts isn’t too difficult, but refining supreme-grade artifacts is extremely difficult?” Chang He emphasized the word “extremely” and pointed to his blackened face. “You have five more pitiful Senior Brothers and Sisters who blew up their furnaces.”
“Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.” Zhi You handed the supreme-grade magic weapon in his hand to Chang He. “Senior Brother, you’re just not good at refining weapons. Don’t be discouraged.”
“Wait!” Chang He was startled. “Junior Brother, this supreme-grade magic weapon is worth a million spirit stones. What do you mean by giving it to me?”
Zhi You looked at him, who was covered in black from head to toe, and said, “Giving it to you.”
He looked at his other Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters: “I will refine one for each of my Senior Brothers and Sisters.”
“Junior Brother, Junior Brother.” Chang He was anxious to return the magic weapon to Zhi You. “You really can’t give this away. It’s too valuable.”
“But Senior Brother wants it very much.” Zhi You was puzzled. “Why are you unwilling to accept it?”
“I want it, so you’ll give it to me?” Chang He was stunned.
“Yes.” Zhi You nodded. “All the Senior Brothers and Sisters should have them.”
Zhi You meant that a supreme-grade magic weapon could be worth a million spirit stones if auctioned outside, but since he could refine them, he wanted everyone to have this kind of life-saving magic weapon. Jiu Hui handed the magic weapon in her hand to Luo Yan: “Although the magic weapon has a price, Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters are priceless.”
Zhi You nodded heavily. “Yes.”
“But…” Luo Yan’s words were cut off by Jiu Hui before she could finish.
“Do you mean to say that you don’t believe that we can refine more supreme-grade magic weapons?” Jiu Hui put her hands on her hips and said in a fierce manner, “If you like them, we can refine them for you. We’ll give them to you once they’re done. What’s the problem with that?!”
Senior Brothers and Sisters…
The problem wasn’t this, these were supreme-grade magic treasures! Do you two little brats even know how precious these two magic treasures are?!
“Silence means there’s no problem.” Jiu Hui patted her chest. “Don’t worry, Zhi You and I have figured out all the refining processes. It will definitely be faster this time.”
“Four sect uncles, take the senior brothers and sisters out. Don’t bother me and Zhi You.” Jiu Hui helped Xi Yuan take out the magic weapon from the alchemy furnace, stuffed it into Xi Yuan’s arms, and drove them all out, slamming the door shut. “See you in seven days.”
The ten master and disciples squatted in a neat row outside the Weapon Refining Room, their ten pairs of eyes still unable to recover from their shock.
“Master, are we… mooching off our junior siblings?” It wasn’t until a gust of wind blew past that Yan Bo snapped back to reality. He turned his head to look at Elder Chang and asked, “What kind of determination did you have back then that made you refuse to take Jiu Hui and Zhi You as your disciples?”
Elder Chang remained silent.
He touched his handsome face. It was a false reputation, a profane perspective…
It was all the fault of those aloof Immortal Venerables. If it weren’t for these old perverts seducing their young and beautiful female disciples, causing all those heartbreaking master-disciple romances, others wouldn’t have such negative associations when they see handsome masters and beautiful disciples.
The reputation of the aloof Immortal Venerable was ruined by these shameless old farts!
“It’s my fault, it’s my fault for being too handsome.” Elder Chang stood up in a daze, his back looking desolate and lonely to the extreme.
Jiu Hui and Zhi You did not lie to their fellow Senior Brothers. After seven days and seven nights, four more identical supreme-grade magic weapons appeared in the refining room.
“Ah, it’s finally done.” Jiu Hui collapsed on the table, too exhausted to even bother with her messy hair. She closed her eyes and said, “I just want to sleep.”
“I’ll take you back to sleep.” Zhi You put the four supreme-grade magic weapons into the box. When he looked down at Jiu Hui, she had already fallen asleep.
“Jiu Hui, Jiu Hui.” He crouched down in front of her. She hummed and sat up groggily with her eyes closed. Like a child, she stretched out her arms and said coquettishly, “Carry me on your back.”
Jiu Hui was in a daze and thought she had fallen asleep in a corner of the village again. Once her elders found her, they would transform into their original forms and carry her back.
Hmm?
Which grandpa or grandma has such a hard back that it doesn’t grow fur?
Jiu Hui opened her eyes in a daze, seeing fluttering petals as the night wind gently caressed her face. She gradually regained consciousness: “Zhi You?”
Noticing Zhi You flying in the air and she was lying on his back, Jiu Hui kicked her legs twice: “How did I get on your back?”
Zhi You summoned his flying sword, put her down, and let her stand on the flying sword. He lowered his eyelids and didn’t look at her. “You’re sleepy…”
“Did I fall asleep and ask you to carry me?” Jiu Hui rubbed her eyes and smiled at him sheepishly. “Next time I get muddleheaded, don’t indulge me. Just wake me up.”
“It’s fine.” Zhi You glanced at Jiu Hui, then quickly lowered his eyelids. “You’re not heavy at all.”
Under the moonlight, his fair cheeks seemed to glow.
Jiu Hui covered her face and looked at him, smiling and saying, “When I was a child, I was naughty and often ran outside to play. Sometimes I accidentally fell asleep in the haystack. When my elders found me, they would carry me back home.”
“The path back to the village was steep and difficult to walk on. Sometimes, I would pretend to be asleep and wait for them to carry me on their backs.” Jiu Hui’s eyes narrowed as she smiled. “They often chatted secretly, and I knew everything they didn’t want me to know.”
For example, she only found out about the debt book when she was pretending to be asleep.
Zhi You listened attentively. He did not know what the village Jiu Hui mentioned was like, but he knew that Jiu Hui must have lived a very happy and fulfilling life there.
“When Master comes out of seclusion, I’ll take you back to the village to play.” Jiu Hui saw the seriousness in Zhi You’s eyes and said, “The elders will definitely like you.”
“Is it okay?” Moonlight poured into Zhi You’s eyes, as if stars were twinkling in them. “Will it be too much of a bother?”
“No.” Jiu Hui shook her head. “I haven’t been back for a long time. They must miss me a lot.”
“When you brought friends back before, they were all welcomed?”
“No, I’ve never brought a friend back to the village before.” Jiu Hui shook her head. “You’re the first person I’ve ever decided to bring back to the village.”
“Why?” Zhi You’s voice was so soft that he could barely hear it himself.
“You’re my little junior brother.” Jiu Hui answered with a smile, “It’s only natural for a senior sister to take her junior brother home for some free food and drinks.”
Because when she talked about her elders, her eyes were so earnest and filled with innocent yearning.
“In three days, it will be the fifth of May. What do you think we should give Lord Fuguang as a gift?” Jiu Hui changed the subject. “Our fellow disciples have already given him novels, snacks, and even gossip. What should we give him?”
“Fuguang Mountain is full of rare treasures, it lacks nothing.” Zhi You slowly shook his head. “So I don’t know.”
“Zhi You, if it were you, what would you want?” Jiu Hui’s watery eyes gazed at him.
“Me?”
“Yes.” Jiu Hui nodded. “You lived alone in the mountains for so long. It’s a pity that I didn’t get to know you sooner. Otherwise, I would have visited you often. When I heard the story of Lord Fuguang, I always thought about you in the past. Were you sad when you were alone in the mountains?”
Zhi You shook his head.
He didn’t understand other people’s lives, nor did he know how to be sad.
But the snow was always so white, and the sun and moon rose and set so slowly. Bottles and bottles of moon essence were collected, and moonfish were caught one after another.
Moon essence was scarce and hard to find, and the moonfish under the moonlight were very cunning.
He relied on them to get through countless long nights of the full moon.
“I’ve got it.” Jiu Hui took out several magic weapons from her storage ring. There was a jade dwarf that could tell stories, iron-eating beast cub puppets that could climb up and down and make humming sounds, and a row of wooden stick figures that could perform sword techniques, and so on.
“These are all so much fun.” Jiu Hui stroked the fur of the baby iron-eating beast cub doll. “The little wooden figures will even listen to their master’s orders and arrange themselves in battle formation…”
Jiu Hui thought for a moment and took back half of the wooden figures. “These are for Lord Fuguang.”
She was only a child of over two hundred months old, she didn’t have to be so generous in sharing all her toys.