"What did you say? Siyin stole the Golden Lotus from the back mountain of Kunlun Xu?"
With the great war ended, the disciples of Kunlun Xu returned to their everyday lives.
Time for cultivation!
Yet today, Moyuan learned from several disciples that their youngest disciple, Siyin, had been missing for days.
When he pinched his fingers to divine her whereabouts, he discovered that the Golden Lotus in the back mountain had also vanished.
"That Golden Lotus..."
"It's my younger brother. After an accident all those years ago, I had no choice but to let him take rebirth within the Golden Lotus. When I went to the back mountain today, I found it gone."
Yaoguang was somewhat speechless. With a place as vast as Kunlun Xu, how could someone manage to steal the Golden Lotus right out from under their noses?
Even if Siyin was a disciple, Moyuan truly possessed not a shred of vigilance. He only had himself to blame.
Still, Yaoguang kept these thoughts to herself.
"I heard that Siyin was brought up here by Zheyan. You might as well go to the Ten-Mile Peach Blossom Grove and ask, lest anything happen to the Father God's direct son."
Previously, all of them had fallen victim to schemes, and much of their innate fortune had been stolen away.
The direct son of the Father God was born possessing immense fortune.
If that were stolen as well, it would purely be Moyuan's bad luck for failing to look after his own younger brother.
Moyuan figured she had a point.
"Why don't you all come with me to take a look? Zheyan has been beaming with a radiant complexion lately, so there's a good chance he has some good news."
A few days ago, Zheyan had specifically sent a boy servant to Kunlun Xu to retrieve several magical artifacts.
He claimed they were for making a crib.
Besides, Yaoguang had once mentioned that a maidservant from Yaoguang Palace and Zheyan had fallen mutually in love.
The maid had already been taken in by Yaoguang as a disciple.
Since the matter ultimately led back to Qingqiu, and they were all victims anyway, they might as well go together.
"I'm going too, I'm going too!"
Baize walked in from outside, holding several lotus seedpods in his hands.
"Where on earth did you get those?"
"Yesterday, the spiritual Qi of Yunmengze revived, so I went to take a look. I never expected that a huge patch of lotus leaves would grow there overnight. Now that the lotus flowers have withered, I picked some seedpods. Do you want to try one? Are they good?"
Yaoguang took the lotus seeds that Baize had peeled, coughed lightly, and ate them right in front of Moyuan.
"I'm heading to the Ten-Mile Peach Blossom Grove right now, I'll take my leave first!"
Moyuan shook his head vigorously, desperate to banish the terrifying image from his mind.
Watching Yaoguang eat those lotus seeds felt practically suffocating to Moyuan.
What if his foolish younger brother had been eaten just like that by the mastermind behind the scenes?
Tsk, tsk, tsk — he didn't even dare to imagine it.
"What's wrong with him? Could it be that my recent fitness routine is working, and my physique looks so heroic and martial that it scared him off?"
Baize was puzzled; Baize could not understand.
"Siyin stole the Golden Lotus from Kunlun Xu."
"Ah? So Moyuan's pet went missing, and he's worried?"
Well, how should he put it? It was partly right, and partly wrong.
Whenever Yaoguang used to visit Kunlun Xu, Moyuan's attitude toward the Golden Lotus had always been rather casual.
She had assumed it was just a cultivated plant.
"There is an immortal fetus inside that Golden Lotus. It's Moyuan's younger brother by blood, the direct son of the Father God, born with great fortune."
"Oh—never mind that, let's go play at the Ten-Mile Peach Blossom Grove too. I've been a bit bored lately."
It was indeed boring, studying the matter of making babies every single day. Yet Yaoguang was nothing like mortal women with their frail constitutions.
Once they got carried away, she lost all restraint and went all out.
As the saying went: there were only exhausted oxen, never plowed-to-ruin fields.
Baize had been struggling to endure these past few days as well, chiefly because Yaoguang had somehow gotten her hands on an illustrated romance manual recently.
She had dragged him along to study it.
Moreover, Baize now knew that their method was wrong.
Their positions seemed to be somewhat reversed.
"Bored? I still have a few new manual scrolls right here. Why don't we continue our studies?"
"No! Unless we switch places!"
Baize pouted, unhappiness written all over his face.
"Since A Ze is unwilling, then forget it. Let's head to the Ten-Mile Peach Blossom Grove and see what's going on first."
Switch positions? Impossible. Not in this lifetime.
She was determined to stay on top and watch A Ze.
Honestly, A Ze had no idea how mesmerizing he looked in that state.
At the height of their passion, he would even shed tears like a pampered little princess.
...
When Yaoguang and Baize arrived at the Ten-Mile Peach Blossom Grove, the tea on the table was still warm, at just the right temperature to drink.
By the stone table, Zheyan and Moyuan were clearly waiting for the two of them.
"You're finally here."
Hearing voices, Yulan walked out from the house.
"Master, Master-in-law!"
Zheyan hurried over, supporting Yulan as she walked to the table and sat down.
"Yulan, you're with child? Zheyan, you old fogey, you didn't even think to tell us."
The moment the two of them sat down, they noticed Yulan's distinctly pregnant belly.
Judging by the size, she was roughly seven or eight months along, though immortal fetuses differed from mortal ones.
The higher their cultivation, the longer a child would take to gestate in the womb.
Yaoguang and Baize had traveled through the mortal realm for a millennium.
So this child had clearly not been conceived recently; judging by how practiced Zheyan looked, it had probably been some time.
"Qingqing hasn't been feeling well since she got pregnant, so I sealed off the Peach Blossom Grove and barred outsiders from entering or leaving."
He was also afraid that Baizhen might barge in and accidentally hurt the little girl, which would break his heart.
"That's for the best. It keeps those foxes from running in here again and causing a disturbance."
Yaoguang nodded in deep agreement. The old phoenix had finally done something sensible.
Seeing Yulan's rounded belly, Baize looked on with curiosity, glancing back and forth.
Before long, the child in her belly seemed to sense an outsider's gaze, and under Baize's watchful eye, gave Yulan's stomach a little kick.
It was almost as if it were greeting Baize.
"It moved!"
Baize excitedly grabbed Yaoguang's hand and pointed it out to her.
As his words fell, he glanced down at Yaoguang's flat abdomen.
"I've worked so hard, why doesn't Yaoguang have a baby in her belly yet?"
He lowered his head, looking somewhat disappointed.
The higher one's cultivation, the harder it was to conceive.
Everyone knew this, but seeing Baize look so dejected, Yaoguang felt a pang in her heart as well.
It wasn't that he desperately needed a child; he simply wanted to share a baby with Yaoguang.
"It's fine, we have a long time ahead of us. It will happen eventually."
"I have a conception pill here. If you want a child, just take it."
Zheyan timely produced a medicinal pellet.
Yet Baize merely shook his head faintly.
"No need. I just want to have a baby together with Yaoguang, let nature take its course. It doesn't mean she has to bear children."
Zheyan and Yulan, who were already wed, nodded in understanding; they both grasped what Baize meant.
Their child should be a continuation of love, not born simply because they were required to have an heir.
The child in Yulan's belly was also an unexpected blessing; after all, her cultivation was far lower than Zheyan's.
It was notoriously difficult to conceive under such conditions, yet somehow, she had fallen pregnant.
Fortunately, Baize's moods came and went quickly.
Before long, he had returned to his carefree, cheerful, and lively self.
While the three of them chatted, he sat alone to the side, toying with Yaoguang's hand.
"So you're saying that Siyin is actually Bai Zhi's fifth daughter, Bai Qian?"
"Must be. I said her background wasn't ordinary!"
When Baize had been fortune-telling in the town that day, he had sensed that Siyin's identity was rather peculiar.
He just couldn't remember what exactly was strange about it.
So she was Bai Zhi's daughter.
No wonder she was so domineering.
"If that's the case, then I suppose the mastermind behind the scenes is likely someone from Qingqiu. It might even be Bai Zhi himself!"
Zheyan knew it had to be someone from Qingqiu, but lacking proof, if he accused them directly, those people would probably accuse him of making wild, groundless claims.
After all, the entire Bai family of Qingqiu had never been reasonable.
"Then what about Moyuan's younger brother?"
Baize suddenly remembered the lotus seedpods he had brought back, as well as the flustered way Moyuan had fled.
He looked at Moyuan, who was currently sitting on pins and needles nearby.
"I've divined it. He's safe for now, and he's not in Qingqiu."
There was likely some connection between him and his younger brother; knowing the boy was currently safe allowed him to breathe a slight sigh of relief.
Still, leaving the Golden Lotus missing like this was far from ideal.
Who knew when something might go wrong?
"I've brought someone here for you!"
A flash of golden light illuminated the area behind them.
Before anyone could look over, they heard Donghua's familiar voice.
Turning their heads, they saw the purple-robed, white-haired man holding a little girl by the hand.
And clutched firmly in the little girl's grip was a stalk of the Golden Lotus.
Feeling the familiar aura radiating from the Golden Lotus, Moyuan hurried over.
"Why was it here?"
"Well, perhaps you should ask this little girl. I'm only here to deliver her today."