Mentioning Cháojiàn, Ruan Wei couldn't help asking, "That Second Uncle-Master uses a whisk—is he a magic cultivator?"
"No," Feng Wuya raised his arm, deliberately flexing to force out a muscle. "He's a physical cultivator."
Shocking.
Cháojiàn looked far too gentle.
In his gray Daoist robe and high topknot, he cut the very picture of a lean, delicate young Daoist.
Was this what they called "gap moe"? Ruan Wei couldn't help imagining how a physical cultivator fought.
"Second Senior Brother has been cultivating a love curse in recent years, which is why he's much more peaceful."
Cui Jinyun finally walked out of the house, holding a box in her hands, and chimed in.
What was a love curse?
Ruan Wei, who still lacked a firm understanding of the Cultivation World, was completely baffled.
Seeing her confusion, Cui Jinyun added a few words: "A love curse. Fall in love, and you suffer the curse."
Ah?
The Penglai love curse cursed oneself?
"The seven emotions are all love; joy, anger, sorrow, and delight—none of them are allowed." Feng Wuya took the box from Cui Jinyun, opened it, and exclaimed, "Oho, lotus hearts from Wandan Valley."
Cui Jinyun nodded. "Take one every half-month for now. I'll think of other ways."
"Many thanks, Third Uncle-Master."
Ruan Wei took the box and saw a Mustard Seed Bag nestled inside. "Uncle-Master... this is?"
"A welcome gift. Take it and play with it."
Cui Jinyun waved her hand and turned back into the room.
When Ruan Wei probed inside with her divine sense, she was met once again with a dazzling display of pearls and jade—a picture of utter luxury.
Wait, didn't they say sword cultivator sects were dirt poor?
Was her common sense broken too?
It wasn't strange for a medical cultivator Third Uncle-Master to be wealthy, but her master, dignified as one of the top two sword cultivators in the Cultivation World—someone who had smashed tens of thousands of towering pavilions and jade palaces—could actually scrape together a nest egg?
Having received so many Spirit Stones, whoever had money was the boss. Ruan Wei bowed respectfully toward Cui Jinyun's courtyard.
"Many thanks, Third Uncle-Master."
The bamboo grove in the courtyard rustled in the wind, as if replying to Ruan Wei.
"Master."
Xiao Xuantong appeared here silently, out of nowhere.
Feng Wuya wasn't surprised. "Take your Junior Sister around to look-see. I'm going to the hall to enter her into the jade roster."
"Understood."
"Goodbye, Master."
Ruan Wei smiled ingratiatingly.
Even after walking some distance away, Feng Wuya was still thinking that girls were just considerate and warm-hearted after all; he had taught Xiao Xuantong for more than ten years, and the brat hadn't smiled at him a handful of times.
If Ruan Wei knew what he was thinking, she probably would have blurted out a question:
Might there be a possibility that Eldest Senior Brother simply suffered from facial paralysis?
"This is the Scripture Pavilion; Ancestor Master guards it inside. That peak ahead is where we do morning drills every day; tomorrow Master should teach you the Penglai Sword Technique, and then I'll feed you sword forms. You've already been to Third Uncle-Master's courtyard; if you get injured, go find Third Uncle-Master. Also, there's a plot of land in the back mountain where we grow some vegetables and raise a few spiritual beasts. Can you cook? If you can, cook when you're hungry, or come find me."
"Master is usually down the mountain; if you can't find him, go to the valley in the back mountain to find Second Uncle-Master. Fourth Uncle-Master and Fifth Uncle-Master are still out on experiential training; later on I'll give you their Communication Talismans. But I heard Tongzhou already has more novel communication spiritual artifacts—growing up in Tongzhou, you should know more about that than I do."
"You aren't allowed to go to the valley by yourself. If you want to go, come find me and I'll take you."
Xiao Xuantong talked the entire way, his face cold and stern. Ruan Wei observed him for a long time, yet didn't see a single change in his expression.
"Senior Brother," Ruan Wei thought for a moment before speaking, "do you suffer from an affliction of the face?"
"How did you know?"
Xiao Xuantong turned his head back, his shock evident in his twitching mouth corners and slightly widened eyes.
Ruan Wei: "Senior Brother, it's impossible for people to speak without lifting the corners of their mouth at all."
Xiao Xuantong instantly retorted, pointing at the corners of his mouth, "What if I'm just naturally disinclined to smile?"
Very well, a familiar flavor?
"Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron?"
Xiao Xuantong furrowed his brow, wondering what on earth his Junior Sister was talking about. "I've never been to Tongzhou; I don't understand what you're saying."
Ruan Wei understood.
Eldest Senior Brother Edition: Consort Ning, Xiao Xuantong, style name Lanyi.
"Nothing."
Ruan Wei looked up at this senior brother of hers. Why was he still such a tiny statured pint-sized person?
Xiao Xuantong led her to a courtyard. "This is your dwelling; I'm right next door. If anything comes up, come find me."
"Okay, Senior Brother."
Ruan Wei acted obediently.
The moment she lowered her head to play the good girl, the two bun-style hair tufts on her head wobbled back and forth. Watching this, Xiao Xuantong closed his eyes and, unable to help himself, gave them a grab.
Good texture.
Ruan Wei: "???"
The youth put his hands behind his back and said stiffly, "Why is it so crooked? I have many pretty hair ribbons in my room; I'll go get them for you. By the way, do you know how to do your hair?"
Before Ruan Wei could reply, Xiao Xuantong turned and left.
After a moment, he entered the house to deliver the hair ribbons and left again.
Holding a pile of pink, delicate hair ribbons in her hands, Ruan Wei called out in shock to the nickname she had given the System:
"Save me, my Senior Brother has a bit of a maiden's heart."
The System was also somewhat puzzled.
[The script didn't write this part.]
"There's plenty the script didn't write." Recalling the thousands of details in the original owner's memories, Ruan Wei gave a soft hum. "Since this is salvation, it shouldn't be as flat as a one-dimensional script."
Perhaps the piece of memory she had obtained was far too real: the Ruan Clan Head dying right before her eyes, the older brother carrying her as they hid all the way, the Master, Eldest Senior Brother, Second Uncle-Master, and Third Uncle-Master she had just met.
All of these were far too complete.
It was difficult for Ruan Wei to treat them entirely as cardboard cutouts.
Therefore, she really wanted to figure something out.
How could the Penglai Immortal Sect, so glorious and magnificent with its endless paths of immortality, a major sect with a heritage spanning thousands of years, be branded a devil's lair by the people of Tongzhou?
And Xiao Xuantong, such a pure and innocent soul—how was he branded a traitor, plunged into his Inner Demon, and besieged by the righteous path?
Only to die in such a cold winter.
[He died in a town only a thousand miles away from the Penglai Immortal Sect. His ice spiritual root could not withstand the endless sheets of blazing fire across the sky; amidst the shrill cries of ravens, he threw himself into the flames. The fire melted his flesh, the snow was brushed away, leaving utter devastation before the eyes, with only a sword bone of peerless grace remaining.]
Aside from the early-dying original owner, Xiao Xuantong was the first to pull back the curtain on the tragic prelude of the Penglai Immortal Sect.
Thinking of the twin junior brother and junior sister who were still happily playing at home, plus the younger junior brother who was currently still struggling for survival among the Demon Race—
She had a heavy burden and a long road ahead of her—
"Three years, still three years," Ruan Wei muttered to herself. The poison in her body flared up once every three years, and with every flare, the mark crept a little higher up. Right now, she had the lotus seeds given by Third Uncle-Master to buy time.
Foundation Establishment. She needed to reach Foundation Establishment as quickly as possible. Once spiritual qi poured through her crown, the mark would be much easier to suppress.
"When was it that the Demon Race ambushed the noble clans again?"
[The exact time wasn't mentioned.]
"So there's no way to guard against it?"
[Correct. The war between the righteous and the demonic is inevitable. If not the Chang Family, it would be the Xiao Family, the Li Family, the Wang Family, and so on...]
Ruan Wei let out a long sigh, then still encouraged herself to cultivate diligently. Only with sufficiently formidable strength would she have the ability to change the ending. Her small goal: strive for an early Foundation Establishment.
...
Demon Race.
Inside a dim cave, a mass of something so soiled and filthy that its original color was indiscernible heaved slowly. After a moment, a head poked out from beneath the mass. The youth raised his face to look around, his eyes widening slightly in a daze.
This... wasn't Cangshan.
The familiar cave, surrounded by the familiar spreading malice.
In the shadows, hawks and hounds seemed to be watching him, drool sliding from their jaws as they apparently waited for him to fall into a heavy slumber from his severe wounds so they could pounce and tear apart his already defenseless body.
The moon of the Demon Race was the color of blood.
Using the crimson light spilling into the cave, Chí Jīn began to inspect his own body: crisscrossing wounds, wrists that had thinned until they were sunken beyond belief, bones like withered firewood, only his eyes glowing with an eerie brilliance.
This was his youth.
Had he returned?
Suddenly, thinking of something else, Chí Jīn's small face turned pale as death.
Where was Master? The Immortal Sect... how was the Immortal Sect? Were Senior Brother and Senior Sister alright?
A wave of headache struck, and Chí Jīn couldn't help closing his eyes to recall.
He still remembered the last sentence that vanished by his ear; he heard that leader of the righteous path say: "Junior Sister Ruan, I have... cleansed the sect for you."
At the time, Chí Jīn couldn't help wanting to laugh—cleansed the sect?
What kind of thing was he even, having stolen Senior Sister's life-saving medicinal herbs and led the righteous path to besiege Senior Sister's sect.
Such an insolent wretch.
He actually dared to claim he was doing it for Senior Sister.
Yet it was just as well that Senior Sister had passed away so early; she didn't have to witness the ultimate ending of the Penglai Immortal Sect.
In truth, he shouldn't have lost that battle at Cangshan, except that...