Early in the morning, before dawn had broken, Yan Luoluo was already hauled out of her bedding by Ye Wuchen.
"Master... Just another quarter of an hour..." Half-asleep, she hugged her quilt, rubbed her little face against it, and stubbornly refused to open her eyes.
Expressionless, Ye Wuchen gave a flick of his fingertips, and a gust of pure breeze directly whisked the quilt away from her.
"Ah—!" Yan Luoluo instantly woke up, glaring at him with puffed-up cheeks. "Master! This is child abuse!"
Ye Wuchen glanced at her indifferently. "One who walks the path of immortality, how can they still be considered a child?"
Yan Luoluo: "..."
This was her daily cultivation routine.
Ever since Ye Wuchen arranged the four major cultivation subjects of **physical combat, swordsmanship, formations, and talisman-making** for her, Yan Luoluo had completely transformed from the "No. 1 Player of the Lingxiao Sect" into the "No. 1 Hardship Cultivator of the Lingxiao Sect."
In the past:
"Senior Sister~ The rouge you're wearing today is so pretty!"
"Qingli~ The way you practice your swordsmanship is simply dashing!"
"Leader Senior Brother~ The way you modified this formation is just brilliant!"
Now:
"..." (Too exhausted to even speak)
Yan Luoluo collapsed onto the stone steps of the martial arts practice ground, gazing up at the sky with a look of existential despair.
"Master is going to work me to death..."
She had originally thought that after transmigrating to the cultivation world, she could easily coast to the pinnacle of life using the wisdom of a modern person. As a result—Ye Wuchen gave her zero opportunity to slack off!
"Yan Luoluo."
A frigid voice came from behind. Yan Luoluo gave a start, instantly sprang up from the ground, and pretended that she had just been "observing the flow of heaven and earth spiritual energy."
Standing with his hands behind his back, Ye Wuchen swept a calm gaze over her. "Have you finished practicing today's swordsmanship?"
Yan Luoluo blinked, flashing an innocent smile. "Finished!"
Ye Wuchen: "Oh? Then demonstrate it for me."
Yan Luoluo: "..."
Crap, she was caught red-handed.
She bit the bullet, picked up the wooden sword, and began to go through the motions. But just as she swung into the third form, her wrist went limp, and the sword flew right out of her hand.
Ye Wuchen raised a hand to catch the wooden sword, his gaze turning chilly. "Is this what you call 'finished practicing'?"
Yan Luoluo shrank her neck and muttered under her breath, "...My arm is sore."
Watching her, Ye Wuchen suddenly sighed.
"Copy the *Cleansing Heart Incantation* ten times, and hand it to me tomorrow."
Yan Luoluo wailed, "Master! That's way too cruel!"
Ye Wuchen: "Twenty times."
Yan Luoluo: "..."
And so, that evening.
With the candlelight flickering, Yan Luoluo slumped over the desk, copying the *Cleansing Heart Incantation* stroke by stroke, her little face scrunched up into a ball.
Ye Wuchen sat across from her, holding a volume of ancient texts, occasionally lifting his gaze to look at her.
"Master..." Yan Luoluo raised her head pitifully. "My hand hurts."
With a slight movement of Ye Wuchen's fingertips, a stream of Spiritual Power swept over her wrist, and the aching sensation instantly subsided.
"Continue."
Yan Luoluo pouted, muttering softly, "...Tyrant."
Ye Wuchen: "Thirty times."
Yan Luoluo: "!!!"
She immediately buried her head and wrote furiously, never daring to talk back again.
The next day, the punishment of climbing the mountain on foot.
In the back mountains of the Lingxiao Sect, there was an extremely steep mountain path named "Heart-Inquiring Steps," specifically used to temper the disciples' state of mind.
Yan Luoluo stood at the base of the mountain, looking up at the stone steps soaring into the clouds, her legs shaking.
"Master..." She attempted to act spoiled. "Can I fly up on my sword?"
Ye Wuchen: "No."
Yan Luoluo: "Then... climb halfway?"
Ye Wuchen: "Reach the peak, or add another ten times to the *Cleansing Heart Incantation*."
Yan Luoluo: "..."
In the end, she resigned herself to her fate and began to climb.
Ye Wuchen followed leisurely behind her, and looking at her panting appearance, a trace of a smile flickered deep in his eyes.
When they had climbed halfway, Yan Luoluo could no longer hold on, plopped down flat on the stone steps, and threw a tantrum. "I'm not climbing anymore! I'm exhausted!"
Standing beside her, Ye Wuchen said indifferently, "The path of immortality is naturally arduous."
Yan Luoluo looked up at him. "Then Master should climb with me!"
Ye Wuchen raised an eyebrow. "Why should I climb?"
Yan Luoluo argued with absolute confidence, "If a child is untaught, it's the father's fault! If teaching is lax, the teacher is lazy! Since Master punished me, you have to suffer the punishment with me!"
Ye Wuchen: "..."
He stared at her for a long while, and finally, he actually sat down beside her.
"Rest for a quarter of an hour, then continue."
Yan Luoluo's eyes lit up, and pushing her luck, she sidled closer to him. "Master is the best!"
Drooping his gaze, Ye Wuchen looked at the little head resting against his arm, the corners of his lips curving up in a barely perceptible arc.
Up in the clouds, the Heavenly Dao was cracking melon seeds and watching the show:
"Tsk tsk tsk, this master and disciple..."
"One dares to act spoiled, and the other dares to indulge her."
"As expected of my daughter and son-in-law!"
That evening, Yan Luoluo's diary:
"Got caught slacking off by Master again QAQ"
"My hands are cramping from copying books..."
"My legs are turning to jelly from climbing mountains..."
"But Master stayed with me the whole time, hehe~"
"Permanently waiting... wait, was I played?"
(Ye Wuchen: Concealing achievements and fame.jpg)
Standing atop the peak of Lingxiao, Ye Wuchen's robes fluttered wildly in the mountain wind, his gaze dark and heavy as he stared at the tiny figure practicing her swordsmanship in the distance.
Yan Luoluo, holder of the Hùndùn Spiritual Root.
If this identity were exposed, the entire cultivation world would go mad for it.
Hollowing out spiritual roots, seizing destiny, refining human pills... those so-called righteous sects would stop at nothing for the sake of ascending to immortality.
Before she matured, he had to clear away every single obstacle in her path.
"Master! I'm done practicing!"
Yan Luoluo put away her wooden sword, her little face flushed from exercise with beads of fine sweat hanging on her forehead, looking at him with bright eyes, wearing an expression that practically screamed, "Praise me!"
Lowering his gaze, Ye Wuchen made a light sweep with his fingertips, and a stream of Spiritual Power brushed across her wrist.
"The transition in the third form is not smooth enough. Redo it."
Yan Luoluo: "..."
She puffed out her cheeks and muttered under her breath, "Master is so strict..."
Ye Wuchen cast a calm glance at her. "What did you say?"
Yan Luoluo immediately beamed with a smile. "I said Master is brilliant and mighty! Number one in the world!"
Ye Wuchen: "..."
(The Heavenly Dao cracking melon seeds in the clouds: My daughter's mouth is sweeter than the limit.)
Ye Wuchen's anxiety was not without reason.
His cultivation had already reached the **Mahayana stage Great Perfection**, and he was only a single step away from undergoing the Tribulation and ascending. By all logic, he should have long been in secluded meditation to break through the final bottleneck.
Yet he could not.
Because he was waiting for someone.
His destined Dao companion.
Ye Wuchen practiced the **Dao of Heavenly Insight**, capable of perceiving the will of the Heavenly Dao. A thousand years ago, he had caught a glimpse of heavenly secrets—his Dao companion would appear before his ascension.
So, he had waited for a thousand years.
However, when Yan Luoluo truly appeared before him, Ye Wuchen fell silent.
A newborn infant.
And possessing a Hùndùn Spiritual Root.
With a mouth as sweet as honey, her flirting skills had reached the peak of perfection.
—Was this truly the Dao companion arranged for him by the Heavenly Dao??
(Heavenly Dao: That's right, my own dear daughter, satisfied or not?)
Ye Wuchen's understanding of a "Dao companion" was extremely simple:
1. When the other party stirs up trouble, he is responsible for the cleanup.
2. When the other party hits a bottleneck in cultivation, he is responsible for guidance.
3. Holding hands when necessary, occasionally kissing her forehead or cheek—that was already the limit.
As for those matters of **intimate whispering and dual cultivation for joy** among mortal couples?
Unnecessary.
(Heavenly Dao: Son-in-law, you're saying this too early; you're going to eat your words later.)
Hence, Ye Wuchen's plan for raising his (Dao) disciple was as follows:
1. Strict cultivation, ensuring she had the strength to protect herself.
2. Conceal the Hùndùn Spiritual Root to prevent bringing down fatal disaster.
3. Before she grew up, he would never ascend.
One day, when Yan Luoluo was caught slacking off, Ye Wuchen punished her by making her copy the *Quietude Incantation*.
Deep in the night, the candlelight flickered.
Yan Luoluo slumped over the desk, her eyelids heavy with sleep as she fought off drowsiness, her brush writing crookedly while the ink smudged into a messy blob.
Ye Wuchen sat across from her, quietly reading his scroll. Lifting his gaze occasionally, he saw her head nodding up and down like a drowsy little kitten.
His fingertips twitched slightly, and a wisp of breeze propped up her chin to keep her from face-planting straight into the inkstone.
Half-asleep, Yan Luoluo opened her eyes. "Master... I'm sleepy..."
Ye Wuchen: "Finish copying before you sleep."
Yan Luoluo pouted, looking deeply aggrieved. "My hand is sore..."
Ye Wuchen was silent for a split second before finally reaching out to take her brush. "Recite, I'll write."
Yan Luoluo's eyes lit up, and she immediately leaned in closer, resting her little head against his arm as she softly chanted the incantation.
Lowering his gaze to the little face close enough to touch, Ye Wuchen suddenly thought...
This didn't seem so bad after all.
(Heavenly Dao: Tsk, the iron tree is about to bloom.)
—Yan Luoluo, five years later—
Under Ye Wuchen's "iron-fist teaching," Yan Luoluo's cultivation had...
Made zero progress.
Oh, wait, strictly speaking, it had improved just a little bit.
From Qi Refining stage Level 1, she had laboriously crawled to Qi Refining stage Level 3.
Squatting by the spiritual field, Yan Luoluo cupped her chin and sighed. "Sigh, this spiritual root of mine is simply a bottomless pit..."
The **Hùndùn Spiritual Root** inside her body (currently disguised by Ye Wuchen as a four-attribute spiritual root) was like an Abyss that could never be filled. While other people's cultivation was like **"gathering sand into a pagoda,"** hers was like **"pouring water into a desert"**—no matter how much you poured, it was never enough!
"However..." Lowering her head to look at herself, she nodded with satisfaction. "At least I've upgraded from a 'noob' to a 'slightly stronger noob'!"
Over these five years, Yan Luoluo had gradually grown from that **soft little bun** into a **graceful young maiden**.
Though her cultivation hadn't risen much, she had certainly shot up in height, shedding her baby fat, while her brows and eyes gained a few more notes of lively cunning. When she smiled, she still looked like a little fox, making one's fingers itch to ruffle her hair.
One day, Ye Wuchen brought her back to the Yan estate to visit her family.
The Yan household was bustling with joy and festivity. The moment Madam Yan caught sight of her daughter, her eyes reddened as she pulled her hands, looking her up and down. "You've lost weight! Didn't the immortal sect feed you enough?"
Yan Luoluo grinned and nuzzled into her mother's embrace. "Of course they did! Master watches me eat every single day!"
Lord Yan stood to one side; though he said nothing, his gaze was full of gratification. Five years had passed, and a few strands of white hair had been added to his temples, but his spirit remained robust.
Right at that moment, a familiar voice drifted over from outside the doorway:
"Miss Yan, long time no see."
Yan Luoluo turned her head to see a handsome, upright young man standing at the entrance, smiling warmly. It was none other than the **young master of the Liu estate** whom she had teased back then.
Liu Ziqing.
Now eighteen, he had grown into an elegant young gentleman in brocade robes, radiating a warm, jade-like disposition.
Yan Luoluo blinked, and before she could speak, she heard Liu Ziqing smile and say, "Does Miss Yan still remember what you said back then?"
"Big brother, when I grow up, how about I take you as my bride!"
Yan Luoluo: "..."
(Oh no, the creditor I flirted with and ran away from back then has come knocking!)
She gave a dry chuckle. "Ha-ha, Young Master Liu is joking; those were just the foolish words of a child..."
Yet Liu Ziqing shook his head, his gaze earnest. "But Liu has kept them in his heart all along."
Yan Luoluo: "???"
No way?! He actually took it seriously?!
Just as she was about to explain, she suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.
Slowly turning her head, she saw that Ye Wuchen had somehow appeared behind her, his eyes dark and heavy, his voice cold enough to freeze ice—
"Luoluo, it's time to return to the sect."
Yan Luoluo: "..."
(Master's gaze is so terrifying!!)
On the way back to the sect, Yan Luoluo cautiously cast sideways glances at Ye Wuchen.
"Master..."
"Mm."
"That Young Master Liu..."
"Shut up."
Yan Luoluo: "..."
(It's over, Master is mad!)
Just as she was racking her brains over how to coax him, she suddenly heard Ye Wuchen say indifferently—
"Starting from today, your cultivation time is doubled."
Yan Luoluo: "!!!"
Up in the clouds, the Heavenly Dao was rolling around laughing so hard it shook:
"Hahaha, the son-in-law is jealous!"
"Still..." Stroking its chin in thought, "Daughter's cultivation really is a problem..."
It seemed something would have to be done.