Chapter 32

Junior Sister Zora definitely wouldn't be able to win a shouting match.

Turi Qi thought worriedly.

So, naturally, there was only one path left.

"Who was it?"

Zora: "Guan Qianyi, a medicine cultivator."

Turi Qi pondered: "Could it be a disciple of Floating Cloud Valley?"

"Mhm."

She noted the name and cautioned, "I will keep an eye on that person. Whatever you do, Junior Sister, do not be impulsive. Don't lose sight of the big picture for something small."

Zora gave a muffled "Mhm."

The Oracle started to speak, stopped, and started again, hesitating for a long while before finally speaking up as Zora and the others headed to another location: [...Um, Host, maybe, just maybe, he was praising you for being cute.]

Zora: "?"

She asked sincerely: "But I'm unhappy after hearing it. Does that still count as a compliment?"

The Oracle fell silent for a long time, wanting to explain further, but then a thought occurred—

Did this have anything to do with the mission?

Not at all!

So what did it matter if its Host's concepts were a bit strange?

Not at all!

Thus, it quickly and smoothly chimed in: [Forget it... if you hate him, you hate him! He's a villain anyway, exactly! Host's happiness is the most important thing!]

On the bird-ship, everyone had finished settling in and stepped out of their rooms to converse on the wider stone grounds.

Zora held out her palm.

Vane placed some pre-purchased osmanthus cakes into her hand.

Beside them, Yiling Ke’s lip twitched: "Wait, didn't you come straight to the bird-ship once you finished your seclusion? How did you have time to order Vane to prepare this?"

Song Zhihuai, who didn't know they were master and servant, perked up his ears.

"Order"?

A strange choice of words, with a faint hint of hierarchy, but perhaps it was just a habitual term among his friends. He noted it down cautiously.

Zora listened, but unfortunately her mouth was full of food. She accelerated her chewing to answer, her cheeks puffing in and out at a faster frequency.

Vane spoke at the appropriate time: "There was no need to order. Preparing appropriate items is a habit formed long ago. It’s also because Zora ate a lot of osmanthus cakes last time in Ning'an County that I prepared them."

Yiling Ke gave a surprised response.

After all that, his month-long "unemployment" didn't make him abandon his servant mindset at all—?!

Only then did Zora return to a normal chewing speed.

Turi Qi had indeed vanished into her busy schedule as she said she would, likely resolving other matters.

On the vast stone grounds, the disciples of the four major sects dressed in various styles. Though there was no unified sect uniform, members of each sect could be distinguished at a glance.

The simplest method was to look at the jade plaques at their waists or the sect emblems on their lapels.

Drunken Man's Bay was mostly formation masters; many of them were extremely hyper, getting more active the longer they stayed up.

Those from Floating Cloud Valley carried a faint scent of medicine; they carried herbs with them, not even putting them in storage bags, but wearing them on their persons.

Zen Meditation Temple was even easier to distinguish. They only took Buddhist cultivators, so as long as you saw modified Zen robes or the vertical palm gesture, you knew their identity. The expressions of the Buddhist cultivators were generally in a peaceful state of "Ah, I have a very good temper, long live peace."

Then Zora spotted a Buddhist cultivator with closed eyes and moving lips, seemingly chanting. Another person stood before the monk, mocking him with slurs about being a "bald donkey."

"Why did you insist on going to Zen Meditation Temple back then? I told you to go to Floating Cloud Valley. Look at your head, it's all ba—"

The monk’s expression remained calm. The staff in his hand inadvertently tapped the ground. The stone floor immediately cracked into several fissures, and gravel bounced out.

"Ba... ba..." The man was struck dumb, unable to finish his sentence.

The monk said gently, "Apologies, could you speak a bit louder? I didn't hear you clearly."

The area fell silent instantly. The battle-hungry sword cultivators, in particular, were like sharks scenting blood, their eyes burning with excitement as they all looked over.

Fight! Fight!

For a moment, everyone ignored the rule against private dueling, secretly exhilarated.

The monk’s features were benevolent, forming a sharp contrast with his knotted muscles. He said, not specifically to anyone: "My apologies. The repair costs will be covered by my sect's Eldest Senior Brother."

Another Buddhist cultivator in yellow, who had been secretly agreeing in the crowd and feeling a sense of vindication, immediately had his face turn dark.

The harasser mumbled a few words to save face but couldn't go on; he slunk away in disgrace. Only then did the people from Floating Cloud Valley see the sect emblem on the harasser's body, and they all looked away in disgust. Every sect had so many people; there were bound to be a few degenerates.

Zora stared at the Buddhist monk, specifically at the staff in his hand. After a while, everyone else shifted their gaze, but she continued to stare directly.

The monk seemed to sense it, gave her a polite nod, and turned to walk into the crowd.

Vane lowered his gaze slightly to look at Zora's profile, then followed her gaze to the monk's receding back.

The girl was still staring at the figure, reaching out her hand.

Vane: "..."

He placed a piece of cake in it.

This was supposed to be an opportunity for disciples from various sects to make friends, yet the four of them stood rooted to the spot, not moving an inch.

Suddenly, the silent Yiling Ke shifted her steps and hid behind Zora. However, Zora was slightly shorter than her, providing no cover at all. Yiling Ke hurriedly turned to run back to her room.

"I'm going back first...!"

A formation master on the stone grounds instantly turned toward the four of them, squinting. Seeing Yiling Ke turn to flee, the person seemed to confirm a suspicion and immediately waved a sleeve. Spiritual power attached to a formation surged toward her in an instant.

That power was intercepted midway by another spiritual power. The two collided; the formation master hadn't used full strength, and the attack was easily dissolved. The formation flashed in the air a few times before failing completely.

Zora retracted her spiritual power, her expression unchanged. Yiling Ke had long since disappeared around the corner.

The formation master finally focused her gaze on Zora, stepping forward to salute. Her spine was straight, her gaze steady and upright, yet a sense of innate pride flickered in her features: "I am Yi Qiurong, a disciple of Drunken Man's Bay. May I ask who your excellency is?"

"Zora, December Sect."

Yi Qiurong saluted again: "I am Yiling Ke's elder sister. I was merely trying to stop her from leaving."

It looked like she was going to ask questions for a long time, but Zora didn't actually have any intention of figuring it out.

Zora looked at Vane.

He understood and spoke with a smile: "I see. Vane, also a disciple of the December Sect. We have a bond as fellow disciples with Yiling Ke, so we instinctively intervened. May I ask what you need her for? We can pass on a message."

"It's nothing much..." Yi Qiurong seemed to struggle for a moment, her upright face showing a bit of hesitation. She paused for a few heartbeats before saying, "Since my younger sister came to the December Sect, her responses to home letters have been perfunctory. She should have returned home for a visit a few days after her initiation, but she refused, saying she was busy. I am afraid something has happened to her."

Song Zhihuai listened intently, racking his brain but not knowing what would be appropriate to say.

Zora: "Nothing has happened to her."

Yi Qiurong gave a bitter smile: "I understand. I also have a humble request. If my sister encounters difficulties or trouble, I hope you could let me know."

Zora thought for a moment.

She was closer to Yiling Ke and was not moved by Yi Qiurong’s display of worry at all. In her view, Yiling Ke’s own wishes were naturally more important.

She said bluntly, "If Yiling Ke agrees."

She made the decision, and Vane, of course, followed suit. Song Zhihuai also naturally followed her lead, giving the impression that she was the one in charge.

Yi Qiurong was stunned by the girl's clear amber eyes. From her perspective, Yiling Ke’s safety was paramount, but from Zora’s perspective, Yiling Ke’s wishes seemed to come first.

She suddenly smiled: "I understand."

The other's actions were no different from a true friend; it seemed Lingke was indeed doing well. Yi Qiurong didn't linger, leaving after giving her thanks.

There was no point in staying here. Zora turned and went back to her room, pulling out a book to read slowly. However, she found several unfamiliar storybooks in the corner of the desk; they must have been left behind by a previous occupant.

She flipped through them casually. Sword manuals had to be read and understood by oneself, but these books didn't seem to require that.

When Vane entered the room with food, he saw Zora toss a book to him. She had curled up in the thin cotton quilt on the soft couch, watching him.

"Read."

Vane: "..."

He set down the food and opened the first page to read aloud.

The youth's voice was between mature and youthful, revealing a unique sense of adolescence. His voice was steady, telling the story smoothly as it entered her ears like the best sedative. Zora struggled to listen to the plot for a while before her eyes slowly closed.

The youth's voice gradually lowered until it vanished.

He looked at Zora’s sleeping face, placed the book on the table, leaned over, and pulled her quilt up a bit to cover her shoulders. Vane watched her quietly for a while.

Lately, more and more demon cultivators were escaping the Demon Realm, the number of monsters was increasing, and missions were becoming more frequent; he had experienced this personally during his month of missions. He feared the few exits to the outside world in the Demon Realm were already known to those within. He wasn't afraid of demon cultivators, but it would be troublesome if a demon cultivator who knew him escaped.

Zora was lying on her side, a few strands of black hair messy against her cheek. He watched for a long time before hesitantly reaching out a hand to brush them away. From practicing with his spear day and night, the pads and webbing of his palm had developed thin callouses, and the veins on the back of his hand were slightly visible, making his skin look even paler.

His fingertips inadvertently touched her cool earlobe; like a dragonfly skimming the water, that slight chill was gone in an instant. He didn't know her view on people of the Demon Realm, so he couldn't act rashly or easily expose his origin. If it were truly exposed one day, would she feel hatred, disgust, or would she care about nothing at all?

Vane’s dark eyes held no negative emotions; he was simply watching. His pupils, full of youthful spirit and sharpness, held a strange sense of clear purity. His knuckles curled slightly. It wasn't until his fingertip touched Zora's hair ribbon that he snapped back to his senses and stood up straight immediately.

His heart was a mess of chaos; he couldn't figure it out and didn't want to. He deliberately thought of other things. Besides, if he were exposed, the immortal world wouldn't tolerate him either.

...

When Zora woke up, the room was empty.

She stood up. The shoes she had kicked off haphazardly on the floor had been placed neatly at some point, so she could step right into them without looking.

It was late. Zora pushed open the door and walked out. Turi Qi had said the bird-ship opened its spiritual pools every night for cultivators.

On the way to the pools, by a secluded stream where few people went, someone was sitting at a stone table drinking wine. Zora merely tilted her head and happened to see Yiling Ke’s reddened eyes.

Yiling Ke was also startled, hurriedly lowering her head to cover her face: "Don't look! Don't look!"

Zora nodded, keeping the route to the pools in mind, and started walking again.

Yiling Ke: "..."

She really just left!

She was shy, yet when someone truly walked away without caring, she grew unwilling. She hurriedly called out: "Zora! Zora! Come back quickly!"

Zora: "?"

In the end, she was forced into a seat by Yiling Ke.

Yiling Ke slumped dejectedly on the table: "Zora, did you see my sister today?"

Zora picked up a wine cup, her gaze cautiously fixed on the liquid inside: "Mhm."

Yiling Ke said no more, took a gulp of wine, and didn't use spiritual power to wake herself up. Wine was also an item of the immortal world, and her face soon flushed a deep red. Zora took a sip; it was truly spicy and irritated her throat, so she set it down.

She looked at Yiling Ke and stated: "You cried."

"Mhm..."

"Why?"

Yiling Ke raised her reddened eyes to meet hers. "You are the first friend I made in the sect," she said, answering indirectly. "So it's fine to tell you. You won't just tell anyone else, right?" She was essentially convincing herself; her heart was heavy and unable to vent, so she just wanted to find someone to talk to without restraint.

Zora: "Mhm."

"You know, I am the only formation master in our family who didn't enter Drunken Man's Bay, but came to the December Sect instead..." She propped up her chin, rambling. "Then do you know, my first reaction wasn't to hate myself for not being talented or smart enough, but to blame—to blame my sister, my mother, and my father for being too smart. I even hated their talent."

"Why couldn't they be as stupid as me? Why do you get to be so smart? —I wanted nothing more than to drag them down one by one to sink with me, rather than me exhausting myself to stand up there."

Zora thought for a few heartbeats and didn't find it that wrong.

Yiling Ke didn't see her look of confusion and gave a wine-burp, the alcohol eroding her logic. "Before I left home, I almost told my father I wished I wasn't born into this family—such nonsense, thank goodness I didn't say it." But when she became soberly aware of those thoughts, she was essentially face-to-face with her own darkness. Especially since her family was good—they loved her, and she loved them, which made those thoughts even more unbearable, like fire burning her heart.

How could she think that? What right did she have to think that? Why did she think that?

"...Do you know, one hour of mine, Yiling Ke's, can't compare to fifteen minutes of my sister's cultivation." She held up a finger, clearly drunk. "So I spent twelve hours a day—no, twenty-four hours a day—cultivating. Aside from missions, every moment I had, I spent cultivating. Every moment I had, I spent studying. I'm almost sick of it. What is all this!"

She thumped her wine cup, paused, and added: "...But seeing her today, I still can't reach her. In the same amount of time, she improved by three realms, and I only by one. I haven't even reached Foundation Establishment."

Zora watched Yiling Ke grumble. She had never encountered a situation where a friend vented their grievances, so she asked in confusion: "What am I supposed to do?"

Yiling Ke glanced at her and suddenly burst out laughing: "Naturally, you're supposed to comfort me!"

"How do I comfort you?"

"Um... just sit with me. I'm just grumbling. I understand the logic and all that; don't underestimate a person's ability to self-regulate."

Perhaps because she had drunk too much, she hugged the wine jar and began to wail, sometimes cursing herself and sometimes loudly reciting requirements for hallucinatory formations.

Zora thought about how Turi Qi comforted people, pondered carefully, and then said seriously, "Although I feel nothing watching you cry, I think I would feel something watching you die. So if you are about to die, I will save you."

She imagined Yiling Ke’s corpse; it indeed felt different from the apathy other corpses gave her. In her original world, she had only lingered over her parents’ corpses, and at the time she only did so based on feeling. The girl didn't understand the deep meaning, nor was she interested in thinking it through; anyway, if she wanted to do it, she did. Once she saw the corpses being carried out and thrown outside the Arena, she turned and left.

There was no need to think clearly of the reason. She acted purely on instinct; she did what she wanted. In the past, people were like flowing, fleeting water. Only her parents had been tethered by blood and stayed with her for quite a long time; perhaps that was the reason.

Yiling Ke rested her chin on her hand and looked at her, offering a smile. "Have I ever told you that you're very strange?" But precisely because she was strange, Yiling Ke said briskly: "Okay then."

Zora thought of something and added: "But if you truly want to die, I won't stop you."

"...Stop me! Please!"

Zora frowned: "But if you want to die, stopping you would be hindering you."

"No, I love being hindered. Please hinder me as much as you like. Like those storybooks where the protagonist sacrifices themselves for righteousness and their friend refuses to let go!"

"Alright."

Yiling Ke’s brain was also in a fog. She used her spiritual power to force out the alcohol before she cleared up significantly, instantly regaining her vitality: "I'm revived! To the spiritual pools!"

The pools were divided into male and female sections. The interior was within a quiet mountain forest. It wasn't a single large hot pool, but a large area with small circular pools distributed throughout; one person per pool, so there was no need to share. Some sat cross-legged in the pools with their clothes on, their hems drifting in the water; some took off their outer robes, leaving only thin white shirts clinging to their skin as sweat slid from their temples.

Zora didn't undress and went straight in. She looked to the left; the person closest to her was the Buddhist monk who had smashed the ground during the day. The monk had undressed down to her inner garment, her arms exposed and muscles visible, her features upright. Zora watched for a while until the other opened her eyes and looked back.

Zora stared back in silence for a long time. The monk realized the girl wouldn't speak first, so she said gently, "Is there something I can help you with?"

Zora: "Did you really break the stone ground today?"

The monk paused and smiled: "My name is Qingding."

"Zora."

Qingding nodded slightly, the smile on her lips deepening: "No. What everyone saw was merely an illusion, a simple trick. When a person concentrates on meditating on the illusion, without preconceptions or being influenced by external people and things, they can see through it."

Zora nodded. Having learned the truth, she turned her head to meditate and cultivate. Qingding watched her for a moment before also quieting her mind to cycle her technique.

Come to think of it—

Zora suddenly thought.

Since Guan Qianyi was going to see Senior Sister Turi, she could take advantage of the chaotic moments of private duels that no one cared about and follow Senior Sister Turi.

Then have a fight with him.