The next day was a brand-new beginning, starting with a thoughtful, stomach-warming bowl of millet porridge.
"You’re so thin. Did the place you were at before not feed you?" Baixin felt that his plan to fatten her up would be a long, arduous journey.
Jiang Qingyu was just as puzzled by this question as he was. According to her bone age, she was somewhere between nine and ten, yet she had grown like a six-year-old sprout—thin and stunted. In reality, she had also been sallow, but after the skin-care treatment she’d done the night before, she at least looked like a human being today.
"I don’t know. I’ve forgotten." Jiang Qingyu had no record of the original owner’s identity, and amnesia was a convenient excuse. She felt grateful to the original owner for allowing her to borrow this body, and regardless of the reason, she intended to look into her benefactor's background. It didn't take an expert to see that the girl had suffered quite a bit of abuse. No matter what the circumstances were, she would settle the debts—repaying kindness with kindness and grudges with justice.
"..." Baixin paused for a moment before continuing, "If you need anything, know that your master and senior brothers aren't just for show. Understand?"
"Mm, okay. Definitely."
Jiang Qingyu gladly stepped down from the platform he had built for her. Her senior brother wasn't the type to dig for answers; he managed the boundaries of their interactions perfectly and never pushed too far. Being around him was effortless.
The second crop of wisteria was in bloom. From afar, it looked like a purple sea; as the breeze blew, it stirred up waves of flowers, the fragrance intoxicating. In the center of this purple sea stood a square pavilion with red pillars and dark green tiles. A copper bell hung from each of its four eaves, and the plaque above read "Quiet Pavilion."
Under the pavilion, Baixin and Jiang Qingyu occupied opposite sides, keeping to themselves. Neither spoke; the only sounds were the rustling of pages and the scratching of ink as they read and practiced.
After a while, Baixin produced a glowing jade tablet, his expression turning odd.
"Senior Brother?"
"Little Three and Little Four heard that Master took in a new junior apprentice and are on their way back to the sect. They should arrive the day after tomorrow."
*Little Three and Little Four?* Jiang Qingyu’s mouth twitched. *Forget it, ignorance is bliss.*
"Third Senior Sister and Fourth Senior Brother?"
"Yes. They said they've been away for a long time and wanted to come back to see Master. They’re bringing you some gifts, too." He hadn't mentioned a word about his own return, he thought with a scoff. *A pair of little ingrates.*
Baixin pulled out a new jade tablet, activated it with his spiritual power, and handed it to Jiang Qingyu. His tone was gentle: "This is a Voice Transmission Jade. Use your Divine Sense to engrave the message you want to send to a contact. Even if they are on the other side of the continent, they will receive it. To add a contact, you just need to bring the two tablets together. It’s very simple. Currently, I’m the only contact in there. When Little Three and Little Four get back tomorrow, you can add them."
"What about Master?"
"The Old Master doesn't play with these. He uses carrier birds for everything."
"Oh!"
Jiang Qingyu fiddled with the jade tablet, testing her Divine Sense to explore it. Sure enough, she saw her senior brother’s name inside. *I see. This is the smartphone of the Cultivation World.* Unfortunately, it was still stuck in the text-messaging era. She wondered if it could be improved—ideally updated to support video calls.
"By the way, Xiaoyu, one more thing."
"Mm? Please tell me, Senior Brother."
"Tonight and tomorrow night, if you see any strange people or objects appearing on Guanyun Peak, don't be afraid. I’ll try my best to keep them in line!" Baixin felt it was necessary to give her a heads-up. When Little Four had first arrived at the sect, Little Three had been out traveling. Upon hearing about the new junior brother, she had flown for a day and a night in excitement, only to encounter some of Little Four’s "pets" immediately upon returning. She had been so terrified she hadn't dared to close her eyes for three days and nights. After Little Four went out for training, those pets had entered hibernation. Now that he was back, the hibernation was over, and they would likely want to throw a midnight party. His little junior sister was still a cub, and he didn't want history to repeat itself.
Jiang Qingyu was bewildered, watching her senior brother cycle through five different expressions in a single minute. "Guanyun Peak... are there ghosts?"
"...Not entirely, but Xiaoyu is very smart—you guessed half of it."
Baixin felt a vague sense that he had underestimated the child again. *Why is it 'again'?* He was suddenly curious to see how she would react—would she be scared enough to stay awake for three days and nights, too? He figured that rather than staying awake, she was more likely to just stop eating. But that was fine; he had plenty of Inedia Pills. If she fell asleep, he could just feed her one. Warm and thoughtful.
*No, no!* What if she really did get scared? It would ruin his image! If she woke up, she would definitely think, "A grand senior brother, and he can't even keep a group of 'pets' in check!" What if she got angry and he couldn't coax her out of it? Impossible, absolutely not!
On each of his shoulders, a miniature Baixin appeared—one with a small halo, the other with devil horns—arguing incessantly.
Jiang Qingyu looked at Baixin’s handsome face with complex emotions. He was currently performing a piece of intangible cultural heritage: face-changing. *Senior Brother, what exactly are you doing with such a beautiful face? Even the Goddess Nuwa would be heartbroken!* Perhaps behind that clear, breezy exterior hid a wild and unrestrained soul. She felt she had struck the truth.
***
That night, Jiang Qingyu dragged her limp arms back to her small courtyard, her steps unsteady. Tied to her belt were the medicinal herbs for the evening soak.
Her senior brother was simply inhuman! He’d only talked about leaving a back door open, but today he had practically welded the back door and windows shut. She had spent two extra quarters of an hour in the sun—the duration had jumped from three hours to three and a half. Then, Baixin had demonstrated a set of introductory sword moves and required Jiang Qingyu to "copy and paste" them, which included the foundation of swinging the sword five hundred times. She had gripped the wooden handle with her soft, shaking hand and mimicked the motions perfectly, though her hand trembled. She was grateful she had lived a full life once before. Only then had her senior brother smilingly let her go home.
*Hmph. A fox, truly cunning. Fairy tales didn't lie.*
After bathing, Jiang Qingyu lay on her bed in her clothes, thinking about the Fourth Senior Brother’s pets. The Fourth Senior Brother was a Ghost Cultivator—a very unique one. She had heard from her senior brother that he cultivated strange techniques while still in a living body. When she heard he kept pets, her first thought was that he raised ghosts. Did a big ghost raising little ghosts have any problems? No, no problems at all. The Cultivation World’s tolerance for Ghost Cultivators wasn't much higher than it was for Half-Demons.
He had been able to enter the Wuya Sword Sect because, twenty years ago, while traveling, their master had seen a crooked tree on a cliff, and a soul had been hanging from one of its branches—that soul was none other than the Fourth Senior Brother. Ghost Cultivators were rare in the Cultivation World, and their master found him interesting, so he tricked him into becoming an apprentice, along with all those little pets.
According to her senior brother, when the Fourth Senior Sister and Fourth Senior Brother returned the day after tomorrow, those pets would become excited and restless, appearing in every corner of the Wuya Sword Sect, especially on Guanyun Peak. Ghosts loved moonlight, and Guanyun Peak was the best place to admire the moon; those fellows would certainly come to visit.
Jiang Qingyu wasn't afraid of strange guests; she’d been a ghost herself, even if it had been a blink-of-an-eye experience without a real sense of that floating sensation. A popular saying in the modern world went: "Every lonely ghost is someone who once lived. They have families and friends. They are the objects of remembrance for the living—unseen and unreachable, perhaps forgotten, but they truly existed." Jiang Qingyu agreed with this sentiment.
But... why had he said she was only half-right? Did that mean... besides ghost spirits, there were others?
Jiang Qingyu closed her eyes and spread out her Divine Sense. Wherever her sense reached, it was as if she were there herself; she could see and feel everything. Less than three seconds after releasing her sense, Jiang Qingyu let out a curse.
"Holy shit!"
The scene returned by her Divine Sense sent cold sweat down her back. Guanyun Peak was currently surrounded by "pets." Except for her courtyard, for a hundred miles around, it was packed with ghosts and poisonous creatures. Even the roof of the Third Senior Sister’s house hadn't been spared.
Under the moonlight, two great ghosts and representatives of the Five Poisons each occupied a spot, enjoying the prime viewing area and bathing in the moonlight. The rest of the shrimp-soldiers and crab-generals were huddled together, looking solemn (don't ask her how she could see expressions on bugs that had no facial features), looking up at the moon at a forty-five-degree angle.
The moment her Divine Sense left the courtyard, a dense crowd of heads turned to look at her. Several of the little ghosts performed a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn, twisting their heads to face backward. The sight was terrifying yet somewhat comical.
Jiang Qingyu seriously suspected she had been thrown into a haunted house combined with a snake pit. She felt the barrier enveloping her courtyard—the familiar, reliable, and reassuring aura. She withdrew her mental complaints about her senior brother; after all, under his protection, this small courtyard had become the last pure land... Wait, what?!
"What the hell?!?"
***
On Pinglan Peak, the corners of Baixin’s mouth curled into a handsome arc. He looked as if he were talking to the white stones on the chessboard or perhaps just to himself: "I was just testing the kid’s nerve. They’re all 'my own people' who’ve been briefed; it’s something she’d have to face sooner or later, right?"
Having settled on his reasoning, he turned his gaze back to the board. The game was decided. Baixin elegantly picked up a black piece from the bowl and let it fall with a flourish. His voice was low and magnetic: "I won, Master. Do you want to play again?"
The board dissipated, and all the pieces vanished. The spiritual power in the air fluctuated, so gently it was almost imperceptible, and a message came through the wind: "Be careful you don't overplay your hand. If she gets angry, are you going to be the one to coax her?"
"Pfft. Xiaoyu wouldn't get angry!"
Baixin stood up and brushed the non-existent dust from his cuffs. A green bamboo snake on the ground hissed, and he bent down to pat its head. He conjured a water mirror and chuckled as he watched the scene within. The new junior sister was truly one-of-a-kind and quite adorable.
*Heh, interesting kid.*