The moment he stepped onto it, a blue vein bulged on Ruan Nanzhi's neck.
His body had truly been drained to its absolute limit. On the day his father fell, Ruan Nanzhi was also present. Before his death, his father was still crying out his name and his younger sister's, while their uncles pursued them with cruel grins, loyal retainers dying one after another behind him.
Leading a poisoned and unconscious Ruan Wei, Ruan Nanzhi had hidden his way eastward, fleeing from the Ruan Family all the way to Penglai.
Worn out by the long and arduous journey, he was at the end of his tether.
Though Ruan Nanzhi's mind was clear, his hands and feet trembled slightly.
He was fifteen. At thirteen, he achieved Foundation Establishment and shocked the world, celebrated as the qilin son of the Ruan Family.
Weiwei was four years younger than him, but before she was poisoned, she had already reached Qi Refining Great Perfection. She was a genius even more destined for greatness than he was; she should not have died in the cannibalistic whirlpool of power struggles within the Ruan Family.
Ruan Nanzhi climbed step by step. His sealed spiritual power surged and blocked his body, and the weight of Ruan Wei on his back, once feather-light, grew increasingly heavy.
Gasping for breath, Ruan Nanzhi looked up. Amidst the drifting white clouds, a white jade ladder, blending seamlessly with the clouds, pierced straight into the sky, its peak completely out of sight, driving one to sheer despair.
He forced himself not to think about it, clenched his teeth, and pressed on.
In a daze, he actually heard the familiar voice of an uncle ring out from behind: "Ruan Nanzhi, surrender at once! Hand over Ruan Wei immediately; she is born with an Innate Spiritual Body!"
Cold sweat instantly broke out on Ruan Nanzhi's back. In a flash, he regained a sliver of strength and almost broke into a run. "In your dreams."
His voice sounded like a thunderclap. The others climbing the Cloud-Ascending Ladder alongside him suddenly looked over at Ruan Nanzhi in alarm. Seeing him suddenly frozen in place with a vacant stare, they knew he had fallen into an illusion.
Up in the clouds, someone stood leaning on a sword. Feng Wuya stroked his chin, which lacked a beard, and sighed, "Ah, I wonder if this qilin son of the Ruan Family can still make it up the ladder before the mountain gate closes."
Seeing the furrow in Ruan Nanzhi's brow deepen, Feng Wuya was already preparing to step in and save him.
Suddenly, the young girl slid off his back, the rope fell to the ground, and she grabbed hold of the crumbling Ruan Nanzhi.
"Brother."
At this soft call, Ruan Nanzhi, trapped in the nightmare, snapped awake.
Ruan Nanzhi slowly rolled his eyes. "Wei... Weiwei?"
"Mm." Supporting him, Ruan Nanzhi's steps never stopped as she climbed rapidly upwards, adding a final phrase, "I'm here."
The others on the Cloud-Ascending Ladder were utterly shocked. To still be able to run on the Cloud-Ascending Ladder was not something an ordinary person could achieve. Aside from sealing spiritual power, the weight borne on the ladder was more than three times a person's normal body weight, and every single step wrung out sweat like millet grains.
Especially Ruan Nanzhi, a little girl not even as tall as an adult's waist, who had looked like she had more breath going out than coming in when viewed from the foot of the mountain.
Yet despite her tender age, she still looked as bright and radiant as wild mountain blossoms. Standing beside her brother, both of them appeared far more ethereal than anyone else.
Feeling the lightness of her own body, Ruan Nanzhi could not help recalling the memories she had just received.
Amidst her earlier dim consciousness, the original owner's memories had thoroughly passed through her mind, frame by frame, leaving everything known.
The original owner possessed an Innate Spiritual Body, specifically one born of a mother who passed away during childbirth, pouring all her spiritual power like a waterfall straight into the infant's Spiritual Roots.
An Innate Spiritual Body involuntarily absorbs the spiritual qi of heaven and earth with every breath.
The Cloud-Ascending Ladder only sealed a person's cultivation, but after all, it was a Spiritual Artifact, which ultimately relied on spiritual qi to operate. As long as spiritual qi was present, it could not seal Ruan Nanzhi's Innate Spiritual Body; thus, she was unaffected by the restrictions of the Cloud-Ascending Ladder.
Feng Wuya stood with his hands behind his back, his divine sense sweeping over Ruan Nanzhi. An Innate Spiritual Body, no wonder.
Ruan Nanzhi lowered her long eyelashes. Her lips were as pale as smoke, and bathed in the dappled sunlight, she looked like a jade-like being, resembling a fairy child about to ascend to the immortal realm, drifting and untethered from this world.
This wasn't right. It was too complete.
The System promptly detected her thoughts:
[Look back.]
Only then did Ruan Nanzhi suppress her thoughts and carefully examine her newfound brother.
Unlike the brother in her memories, the brother before her lacked the brocade robes embroidered with gold and silver threads, the hair crown inlaid with pearls and jade, and the enamel interlocking rings he used to keep in his pocket for her to play with.
Yet the tender concern on his face remained exactly like the good old days in her memory.
"You've lost so much weight."
Ruan Nanzhi murmured, clutching her brother's sleeve and twisting it almost into a mess.
Hearing her say this, Ruan Nanzhi felt a wave of comfort mixed with an unexpected pang of sorrow.
The reason Ruan Nanzhi noticed this was because she had suffered; only a child who had suffered would suddenly become so sensible.
"Wearing wide sleeves makes you look even better when you're thin," Ruan Nanzhi refused to let her support him any longer and straightened up again. "Don't worry, Brother still has new robes in the Mustard Seed Bag, I just haven't worn them yet."
Ruan Nanzhi startled, raising her eyebrows high. "I like it when Brother wears narrow sleeves."
"Brother looks good in narrow sleeves, too."
Ruan Nanzhi nodded along with her words. "Then I'll wear narrow sleeves. How is the poison?"
"Still here." Ruan Nanzhi turned her wrist over. A stark black ring of marks was vividly present on her wrist, looking just like a spirit snake winding around it.
"Let's climb up, Weiwei. Once we climb up, we're saved."
Looking at his sister's indifferent demeanor, Ruan Nanzhi felt a bitter taste in his mouth.
Had she not been born into the Ruan Family, she wouldn't have had to endure any of this.
Ruan Nanzhi knew very well what he was thinking, but words were unnecessary between the two of them.
The surroundings were quiet. On the solemn white jade ladder, two tiny, huddled figures slowly inched their way up the mountain.
Supporting one another, the siblings climbed step by step toward the out-of-reach Cloud-Ascending Ladder.
Feng Wuya stopped watching. He concluded that these two would definitely make it up the mountain.
He knew not how long they had climbed, as the scenery on the mountain changed time and time again. After Ruan Nanzhi stumbled into an illusion for the third time and broke free, Ruan Nanzhi hoisted him—exhausted to the limit—onto her back, and walked step by step closer to the mountain gate visible above the clouds.
"Welcome, young friends. I am Cháojiàn."
A gray-robed cultivator walked out to greet them. Ruan Nanzhi lifted her long eyelashes, seeing that his aura was peaceful and there was no one else around the mountain gate. She asked, "Greetings, Immortal. May I ask if we are the first?"
Cháojiàn smiled and nodded, then flicked his whisk. The Cloud-Ascending Ladder suddenly flashed brightly, and the people still climbing on the ladder fell into chaos. "What is happening?!"
Ruan Nanzhi supported Ruan Nanzhi and looked back. The Cloud-Ascending Ladder, which had just towered straight into the clouds, now shrank to the size of a fist and flew straight toward the three of them like a streak of light, vanishing into Cháojiàn's wide Daoist robe sleeve.
The people on the ladder were also enveloped in a white light and, in the blink of an eye, were all sent back down to the foot of the mountain by the fishing village.
"The mountain gate is closed already?"
"Who was it? Who finally climbed up to the Penglai Immortal Sect?"
"I saw it! It was the qilin son of the Ruan Family and his sister! I was only a few dozen steps away! Only those two climbed ahead of me."
"Hah, now that the Ruan Family knows where they are, there's nothing they can do."
Up on the mountain, Ruan Nanzhi looked at the mountain gate, which didn't even have a single flight of stairs built, and rolled the words around in her mouth. "Immortal, are there no stairs leading down the mountain?"
Cháojiàn was leading the two of them toward the mountain gate. Hearing this, a hint of a smile touched his face as he shook his head and answered gently, "Since the two of you came toward Penglai, you should know that Penglai seals its mountains and shuns the world."
As if afraid they wouldn't understand fully, Cháojiàn added one more phrase, "The Penglai Immortal Sect only admits, never exits."
By this time, Ruan Nanzhi had recovered his spiritual power, and his expression looked much more relaxed. "We two were not the earliest to start climbing the mountain. Why is it that we two arrived here first?"
Cháojiàn was about to reply when a youth darted out from beside the mountain gate. The youth was dressed in black brocade cloud robes, his hair crown adorned with jingling jade ornaments, and his expression was exceptionally aloof, resembling someone gazing at mountains from beyond the clouds.
"Because they were destined never to make it up the mountain."
The youth replied.
He then bowed to Cháojiàn, "Second Master Uncle."
Ruan Nanzhi looked at him, and the voice in her mind rang out:
[This is your Eldest Senior Brother, Xiao Xuantong.]
Eldest Senior Brother, what a fine poker face.