The big black snake’s scales were smooth and cool. Lying on them was like sleeping on a cooling mat. Liao Tingyan sprawled on top, enjoying the gentle breeze, finding it quite comfortable.
But this black snake brother particularly loved cramped corners—narrow crevices under mountain rocks, burrows dug by unknown animals, and the underside of thickets filled with rotting leaves. It loved to slither into such places.
Liao Tingyan, a sleek-furred otter, was taken for a ride and ended up with her fur all disheveled.
This “black car” ride was more than she could bear. Liao Tingyan used her paws to remove the leaves and grass from her head, then tried to smooth her fur which was sticking out in all directions. The silky feeling was gone. Seeing that the big black snake was about to head for the bottom of the waterfall, Liao Tingyan immediately prepared to jump off.
“Silly child, I’m getting motion sickness. I’m not playing with you anymore. You go play by yourself, okay?” Liao Tingyan patted the big snake and waved her paw, and before the black snake plunged into the waterfall, the entire otter flew up and headed toward the main hall.
She flew over while lying down. She had gained some insight into flying and control and was now researching learning in dreams. In a fantasy world, everything is possible, and all fantasies should be bravely attempted.
Flying to the main hall, Liao Tingyan heard a stream of curses: “You haven’t let me out for so many days. If you have the guts, just keep me inside your body forever! You don’t value your life—I’ll burn you to death!”
The childish voice was so familiar—wasn’t this the ill-tempered, foul-mouthed little flame? Since leaving Three Sacred Mountain, she hadn’t seen this flame.
She floated outside the window and saw a pool of emerald green water and a red lotus flame inside the hall, with Sima Jiao standing nearby. But something was off—this flame had become extremely bold, even daring to curse at Sima Jiao. What happened to its previous cowardly self?
Just as she thought this, she saw the puffed-up flame suddenly shrink as Sima Jiao wrapped it in water from the emerald pool. The flame felt pain whenever it touched the water, so now it began crying loudly, “I won’t curse anymore, okay?! You used to just pour water on me, but now you’re even more vicious! Ah! It hurts so much!”
Liao Tingyan: “…” This new technique seemed to be what she had used for applying face masks. The ancestors were quick to learn and adapt.
Having suffered this abuse, the flame continued to plead and cry, but Sima Jiao ignored it. It grew more determined and continued to curse fiercely: “You crazy lunatic! If I die, you die too. If I hurt, you hurt too. Pouring water on me like this—don’t you fucking feel it yourself?! Why don’t you just die already?! I’ll kill you! Once I break free from your control, you’ll be the first one I burn to death!”
Sima Jiao trapped it in a water bubble and sneered: “Just looking at you annoys me. If I suffer, I’ll feel better.”
The flame alternated between crying pleas and fierce curses—an inconsistent little brat. Sima Jiao maintained an irritated, mocking expression from beginning to end. Both parties looked like they couldn’t wait to destroy each other.
Liao Tingyan strangely felt they were like a father and son who couldn’t stand each other.
“So you know to come back.” Sima Jiao suddenly turned his head toward the window.
Liao Tingyan perched on the window frame, thinking, what’s with this fatherly tone???
“Come here and pour water on it.” Sima Jiao tossed this command and swept away with a flick of his sleeve.
Liao Tingyan lazily floated to a safe distance around the flame. The flame recognized her aura and began cursing: “It’s you again! Why have you turned into this stupid form? I’m warning you, Sima Jiao’s lackey! If you dare pour water on me, I’ll burn you to death!”
After cursing for a while without seeing any reaction from Liao Tingyan, it couldn’t help but ask curiously: “Why aren’t you pouring water on me?”
Liao Tingyan: “…Because I’m rather lazy and don’t want to work?”
The flame jumped once. “You dare disobey Sima Jiao? Aren’t you afraid he’ll kill you?”
Liao Tingyan pulled out a cushion and lay down on it, thinking that she wasn’t so afraid of the threat of being killed. If she were threatened with broken limbs, muscle cramps, skinning, or flesh slicing—painful punishments like these would be more effective on her.
Seeing that she truly wasn’t going to pour water, the flame expanded slightly and put its hands on its hips. “You’re quite perceptive, afraid of my threats, aren’t you!”
Liao Tingyan: “Yes, yes, yes, I’m so afraid you’ll burn my fur. Can you be quiet and not disturb my cultivation?”
Flame: “You’re sleeping! You think I can’t tell?! You lazy bum!”
Liao Tingyan: “I’m researching cultivation in dreams.”
Flame: “I’ve never heard of that. How do you cultivate dreams?”
Liao Tingyan: “I’ll tell you once I figure it out.”
The flame snorted: “It wouldn’t be useful to me even if I knew. I can’t dream… Well, that’s not right. I had a dream once. I only dream when Sima Jiao dreams, but he hasn’t slept for a long time. If he doesn’t dream, I don’t have dreams either.”
Liao Tingyan: “…Actually, dreaming significantly affects sleep quality.”
The flame was fierce and disdainful. “Your aura has already reached the Nascent Soul stage, why do you still need to sleep?”
Liao Tingyan: “My previous dream was to sleep enough when I wasn’t working. Now I’m fulfilling that dream. You wouldn’t understand my feelings.”
Liao Tingyan: “Alright, stop talking. I’m starting to sleep now.”
The flame noisily complained: “I won’t! I won’t! Why should I? I’m already being bullied so badly by Sima Jiao, and now his woman gets to sleep peacefully in front of me? I want revenge!”
Liao Tingyan thought: This troublemaker needs some education. Sima Jiao’s corporal punishment style of parenting is truly problematic.
Thanks to the flame, Liao Tingyan learned to use another skill—sound isolation.
She learned two types of sound isolation. One was like wearing earplugs, cutting off her hearing, just like wearing sleep earplugs, making the world completely silent. It was too quiet, making it difficult for Liao Tingyan to fall asleep, so she adopted the second method—creating a sound barrier to block the noise pollution at its source. This worked much better.
In her drowsy state, Liao Tingyan felt someone crouching in front of her and a strange discomfort, as if someone were continuously stroking her eyelashes—very annoying. She opened her eyes to see Sima Jiao tugging at her whiskers. Otters have whiskers—a few white hairs—and Sima Jiao was playing with hers.
Honestly, this ancestor and the noisy flame were cut from the same cloth when it came to being annoying—equally bothersome.
“I told you to pour water on it. Why didn’t you?” he asked.
Liao Tingyan: “…I poured a little.”
Sima Jiao: “You’re lying to me.”
Liao Tingyan: “…” Indeed.
Sima Jiao made an ambiguous grunt but surprisingly didn’t say anything else, just scooped her up and walked out.
It was already dark outside. He walked swiftly, moving with incredible speed, carrying the otter in one hand while crushing all the puppet people he passed with the other.
Liao Tingyan: “???” What are you doing? These puppet people don’t have life—they’re basically like intelligent robots. Do you get pleasure from destroying them?
Sima Jiao didn’t spare a single puppet person, ruining all of them on White Deer Cliff. Then he caught the big black snake that was still roaming the mountains chasing white deer and stuffed it into the White Goose Flying Pavilion in the sky.
The big black snake, suddenly sent skyward: “?”
Sima Jiao: “You stay here.”
What is this, taking turns putting company employees in solitary confinement? Liao Tingyan noticed that today the ancestor seemed a bit agitated.
After returning to White Deer Cliff, Liao Tingyan looked up at the sky and noticed the black snake’s silhouette was quite obvious in the White Goose Flying Pavilion. Sima Jiao then took her outside White Deer Cliff. He used something like the Ground Shrinking Technique, and Liao Tingyan felt the tremendous pressure from the acceleration as if her fur might be blown off. The scenery before her eyes became a bizarre kaleidoscope.
His speed was extremely fast. Liao Tingyan had previously flown with her master, True Immortal Dong Yang, but felt that Sima Jiao’s speed was at least a thousand times faster.
For a moment, Liao Tingyan saw brightly lit buildings, countless disciples in similar clothes gathered together, and people sparring on a cliff. The passing scenery became a series of slideshow frames.
Liao Tingyan somewhat understood why he had dealt with those puppet people earlier. He probably had something to do.
Sima Jiao finally stopped. Before them was a prosperous great city. Liao Tingyan saw the Gengchen Immortal Manor emblem on the city gate. This place should still be within Gengchen Immortal Manor’s territory, but not in the inner region—it belonged to the outer region.
Gengchen Immortal Manor was vast and boundless. The inner region was where the main families resided, with various cultivation grounds rich in spiritual energy, as well as the disciples’ territories. The outer region consisted of smaller family clans forming communities similar to nations, mostly descendants of former Gengchen Immortal Manor disciples who had multiplied over generations, and even many ordinary citizens who had migrated seeking protection.
The entire Gengchen Immortal Manor was like a giant tree, and these large and small cities in the outer region were the leaves growing on it.
Liao Tingyan had heard something about this world’s situation from the children of Clear Valley Heaven, but they didn’t know much, so her understanding was incomplete.
A city this large would have a Yuan Ying stage cultivator presiding over it, though they generally wouldn’t appear unless the city faced extreme danger. Usually, only Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment cultivators maintained the city’s security.
The outer region couldn’t compare to the inner region where Yuan Ying cultivators were abundant. Here, everyone’s levels were much lower, so Sima Jiao entered this city without any concerns. He simply walked across the top of the city wall, and none of the cultivators in the city could detect him.
Although the cultivators in this city were of lower levels, the liveliness couldn’t be matched elsewhere—it was the most bustling place Liao Tingyan had seen since coming to this world. Moreover, it was the familiar hustle and bustle of ordinary people in the mortal world, reminding her of when she used to go home with colleagues after work, eating dinner on the streets as night fell. It gave her a sense of familiarity.
After entering the city, Sima Jiao seemed to wander. As he walked on the street, other people couldn’t see them and would unconsciously avoid him.
Liao Tingyan had previously watched period dramas and thought that modern nights were more lively, but now she had gained a new perspective. The nights in this fantasy cultivation world were even more bustling than in modern society because there was more than just human activity.
The street lighting included not only ordinary lamps but also various strange things Liao Tingyan had never seen before. For instance, the colored lights hanging on a banner outside a shop were made from shell-like thin pieces reflecting light, extremely bright and dazzling. The glowing spheres hanging on the street that resembled street lamps would open their mouths to eat small insects attracted by the light—they were alive.
There was also a chubby child playing outside a butcher shop, holding something that looked like an eye, from which light was emitted. Liao Tingyan thought it resembled a flashlight.
Sima Jiao walked up to the chubby child, took the ‘flashlight’ from his hand, looked at it for a moment, seemingly slightly interested, and calmly continued walking with it.
The chubby child was playing happily when he suddenly discovered his toy mysteriously floating in mid-air, getting further and further away. His eyes widened as he turned and cried toward the shop: “Father, my light eye flew away! It’s gone!”
Behind them, the chubby child began to wail, and his father shouted from inside: “What are you crying about? I’ll buy you another one next time!”
Liao Tingyan climbed onto Sima Jiao’s shoulder, looking at his pale face, thinking that this ancestor, stealing a child’s toy, truly resembled a silly villain.