Before the lantern-lit tower under the moon, only the youngest junior sister, Xiao Ling, spoke up for him. "Senior Sister, he is not a bad person."
The sharp-faced senior sister stepped forward and said, "Sneaking into Qihua Abode in the dead of night, utterly audacious and courting death."
Seeing that the senior sister already intended to kill him, more junior sisters chimed in to support the fourth senior sister's words.
Knowing well that the second senior sister was kind-hearted, Xiao Ling begged her to intercede for Qiao Ruohe.
Lin Qingxuan said angrily, "Spare me this talk of Elder Fengyu! This brat has humiliated me twice; I will certainly not spare him."
With that, the vine spell binding Qiao Ruohe tightened even further.
He knew that if he did not resist now, he would surely die.
Enduring the pain, he gathered the spiritual energy within his body into his palm.
With a flick of his fingertips toward a talisman, the talisman rose in response, darting like a flying arrow toward the base of the vines more than two zhang away from him.
With a "bang," the talisman burst into a three-foot fireball, severing the branches and vines from their roots.
The vines binding his body loosened their grip.
He lacked the strength to support himself and plunged into Qianjing Lake.
The lake water was extremely clear, allowing him to see the disciples of Blooming Flowers Valley flying on their swords above the lake surface, searching for his whereabouts.
Qiao Ruohe was a complete landlubber; the moment he entered the lake, his orifices were filled with water.
Had he not mastered the art of Spirit Controlling, he likely would have already drowned in this bone-chillingly cold lake.
Yet, after all, he was not skilled at swimming, and disciples of Blooming Flowers Valley were waiting above the lake to put him to death.
Seeing Lin Qingxuan standing gracefully upon the lake surface, her starry eyes—aided by the silver moonlight—were already locked onto the three zhang of water where he lay.
It seemed she had discovered his location; what should he do now?
Just as he was at his wits' end, water weeds from unknown origins beneath the lake suddenly coiled around his body, dragging him downward.
Through the shimmering light of the lake surface, he saw that this was driven by the spiritual power in Lin Qingxuan's palm.
Having just bathed and changed her clothes, she was unwilling to enter the lake water.
She intended to use the lake weeds to entangle him and drown him.
Within moments, the spiritual energy Qiao Ruohe had initially mustered to resist the invasion of the lake water into his orifices was drained by seven or eighty percent by the spells on those water weeds.
He began to gradually revert to the essence of a mortal body,
flailing his hands incessantly and kicking his feet desperately in the water.
The harder he thrashed, the more water weeds coiled around his entire body.
In less than half the time it takes to burn half a stick of incense, he felt he was suffocating.
Was he truly going to die here?
He refused to give up.
In his desperate plight, he thrust both palms toward the lakebed.
He actually grabbed a piece of rusty iron covered in moss.
The water weeds wrapped around his body kept tearing at his flesh.
Subconsciously, he gripped that straw for dear life and refused to let go.
Suddenly, with a "bang" sound, some sort of entrance seemed to open beneath the water weeds on the lakebed.
Qiao Ruohe's body was sucked like an eel into a hole at the bottom of the lake by a swirling vortex.
Entering the lakebed entrance felt like boarding an endless abyss slide.
The slide clung to an incessant torrent, spinning toward the center.
Under this dizzying force, he could not help but retch, feeling as though his internal organs were about to spew out at that very moment.
Unable to struggle, he endured for a brief moment.
Countless colorful stars burst before his eyes, and from then on, he lost consciousness.
When he finally awoke, he looked up to see shimmering ripples pierced by moonlight above.
Looking down, he found himself in an underwater clearing overgrown with green grass and immortal flowers.
What he breathed into his nose was a faint floral fragrance.
What he touched with his hands were cold, temperatureless stone slabs and stone walls.
And the place where he stood was actually an open, breathable space beneath the lakebed.
He stood up,
and walked toward the stone wall carpeted with green grass.
There was an arched doorway on the wall.
Passing through the archway, he came to a hidden inner chamber.
The chamber was filled with all sorts of glowing immortal flowers.
On a high platform in the center, a woman was sitting in meditation.
Qiao Ruohe was stunned at first, thinking he had seen a ghost.
Yet looking closer, he saw that the woman's entire body emitted seven blossoms and bore nine rays, looking just like an immortal.
Curiously, Qiao Ruohe took three steps forward.
He noticed that this person was petite in stature.
She had the appearance of a young girl, yet her head was full of white hair, tied with a red string between the locks.
There seemed to be a gravitational pull around her body, drawing flowers from all directions toward her, floating in the air.
The pollen from the flowers continuously streamed into her mouth and nose.
Qiao Ruohe watched in a daze, his mouth hanging open and unable to close.
Feeling danger closing in, he instinctively retreated four or five steps.
Suddenly, the woman opened her eyes and glared at him.
Her eyeballs unmoving, the pollen from the cluster of flowers seemed to come alive, crawling into her eyes along the red string atop her head.
Qiao Ruohe was somewhat startled; mere mortal that he was, how could he have ever witnessed such a sight?
Only the elders in the village often spoke of how where there were immortals in this world, there were also demons.
During nighttime bonfire gatherings, they would tell young people ghost and monster stories.
Thus, Qiao Ruohe thought of the strange tales of flower demons devouring people.
Two words slipped right out of his mouth: "Demon."
He realized he had made a mistake as soon as he spoke, but it was already too late for regret.
As the cluster of flowers entered her eyes, the seven blossoms around the woman transformed into a green glow.
After the green light shattered away, she spoke. "Demon?"
Though her face was youthful, her voice was weathered.
She stood up from the cultivation platform and walked slowly toward Qiao Ruohe.
He felt somewhat afraid and stepped backward, but the woman's eyes remained fixed on him, as if Qiao Ruohe were the demon, thoroughly examining him.
"Brat, take a good look. Am I a demon, after all?"
She leaned her head forward, and a beam of spiritual energy shot like an arrow into the space between Qiao Ruohe's eyebrows.
*(The dark shadow within this brat is actually...)* Elder Fanhua thought to herself.
Astonishment appeared in her eyes, though hidden beneath her eyelids.
Qiao Ruohe could not see any expression on her face, only feeling that spiritual energy wandering through his mind, seemingly coming to test his true state.
Yet the spiritual energy overflowing from her body clearly marked her as a reclusive senior expert.
Now that Lin Qingxuan was trying to put him to death, perhaps his only hope was to beg her for his life.
He hurriedly bowed down, "Senior, please forgive me."
"This place of quiet cultivation in my Qianjing Lake—any man who breaks in meets only death."
The woman spoke without anger, yet her words carried inherent majesty, making Qiao Ruohe tremble all over.
He did not know how to argue and let several thoughts race through his mind.
Before he could figure out how to plead for mercy, he heard the woman say:
"You brat are somewhat different."
Qiao Ruohe did not understand what she meant; he was merely a mortal boy rejected at the gates of Divine Wood Palace.
Yet since the opportunity to save his life was already in his hands, how could he let it go?
So he blurted out the purpose of his trip to Divine Wood Palace to the woman.
Seeing that his heart was sincere and steadfast, and hearing that such a rare opportunity had landed him almost being killed in Qihua Abode by her own eldest disciple, Lin Qingxuan, she laughed out loud, "Since we share such fate, would you be willing to take me as your master?"
The woman scanned Qiao Ruohe up and down once more, sensing once again that the mass of dark shadows within this brat was indeed a supreme treasure of the human realm.
Hearing this, Qiao Ruohe was overjoyed. Since she was Lin Qingxuan's master, she must be an elder of Blooming Flowers Valley in Divine Wood Palace.
If he could take her as his master, not only would he officially become a disciple of an immortal sect, but the villagers of Qiao Family Village would not dare to harm his family in the slightest.
He would also be able to obtain the Soul-Returning Immortal Pill, return home, and resume that ordinary life of familial bliss.
Without a second thought, he kowtowed, "Thank you, Master, for taking me in."
"However," Elder Fanhua paused after uttering those two words.
Qiao Ruohe looked up and saw that she had walked more than a zhang away from him, picking up a wisp of green spiritual energy from her previous meditation spot and holding it in her hand.
He had once accidentally heard elders in Qiao Family Village mention that some immortal sect masters would take disciples and refine them.
Seeing her hesitate to speak, Qiao Ruohe's heart thumped wildly.
Was he about to meet such a fate?
Yet the master's next sentence caught him entirely off guard, leaving him dumbfounded and staring in shock:
"The condition for taking me as your master is to undergo Dual Cultivation with my eldest disciple, Lin Qingxuan."