When the carriage stopped at Observatory Platform, the guards had originally cleared the way from far off, but seeing us approach, they suddenly drew their weapons toward us. I was completely bewildered when I caught a cold gleam in my peripheral vision. Turning around, I discovered the tiger skeleton that Hua Zixiao kept was standing behind us.

It had already been bound by invisible water magic, its wings spread high and unable to move—Yinze’s handiwork. His movements were truly fast, even faster than my reactions, practically telling me in bloody terms that all living beings have three classes and nine ranks. If Yinze hadn’t been there, I would have been reincarnated thousands of times in this ghost place.

Yinze said, “Your master has already escorted us away. Why are you attacking Luowei again?”

The tiger skeleton couldn’t speak—it only shook its body toward me. No, to be precise, it was “looking” at Xuanyue behind me. For Xuanyue, a winged tiger skeleton was like us seeing a human skull—naturally quite terrifying.

She cowered behind me, pitifully watching that tiger skeleton, her claws gripping me painfully.

However, after just a moment, she suddenly relaxed her grip and called out tentatively: “Aoo… aoo aoo!”

The tiger skeleton’s wings shuddered again. Xuanyue flapped her wings and flew over, but accidentally got bounced back by Yinze’s magic and rolled several times on the ground. She extended her little claws and ran over again, standing up and pressing her front paws against the magic barrier, stretching her neck to look up at the tiger skeleton.

Yinze was silent for a moment, then said: “Luowei, isn’t your tiger cub a Snow Peak Sky Tiger? Why does it recognize Qiongqi?”

“This…” I panicked and scratched at myself, unable to say a word.

Of course, Divine Lord Yinze was no ordinary person—no one could play tricks in front of him. Before I could answer, he pointed at Xuanyue, and her fur immediately returned to crimson red. This was terrible. I tiptoed and quietly shrank behind big brother.

Yinze said, “Luowei, come here!”

“Yes, yes…” I hung my head and returned to Yinze’s side.

“You privately kept a fierce beast and tried to hide it from me—such audacity.”

“Xuanyue isn’t a bad child…”

“If you make that strange face again, I’ll freeze your lower lip.”

I quickly retracted my lower lip that had pouted high and covered my upper lip.

Fu Chenzhi came out to smooth things over: “Master, Weiwei didn’t do it on purpose. Initially, she had no idea Xuanyue was Qiongqi…”

Yinze said: “Even you’re helping her lie?”

“It’s all this disciple’s fault. At the time, this disciple was foolish and didn’t recognize it as Qiongqi, so I bought it for Weiwei.”

“Since you’ve admitted it, when you return, face the wall in punishment and kneel three hours daily for two months.”

“Yes, this disciple accepts the command.”

Great, I’ve made big brother take the blame for me again. Master really is a strange person. The first person to turn Xuanyue into a white tiger in the illusion was clearly him, and now he’s blaming us for deception. However, the more I understand him now, the more certain I am that was indeed just an illusion.

The Yinze in the illusion was so gentle—he gave me golden lotuses by the riverbank, conjured fireflies, and when I fell, he showed me the way and smiled at me. This current Yinze is a yaksha wrapped in beautiful skin. Fortunately, he’s powerful enough and confident enough, so after watching Xuanyue and Qiongqi gaze at each other for a long time, he released the binding spell.

Immediately, Xuanyue ran to the Qiongqi’s feet, calling out with infant-like cries and nuzzling the Qiongqi’s claw bones with her forehead. The Qiongqi also lowered its head and rubbed against Xuanyue affectionately.

Fu Chenzhi said, “Could this Qiongqi be Xuanyue’s mother?”

Yinze walked forward to observe the Qiongqi’s body and said in confusion, “Where did you adopt Xuanyue?”

Fu Chenzhi said, “In our homeland, Suozhao, north of the immortal realm.”

“Strange. Qiongqi are descendants of Gonggong, with ten parts of water-natured spiritual energy in their bodies. The Northern Sky is Xuanwu’s domain, and Xuanwu governs the earth. There are many natural enemies of Qiongqi in the Northern Sky territory. Qiongqi are intelligent by nature—logically, they shouldn’t casually enter the Northern Sky. A mother Qiongqi carrying a young child should especially avoid going there. But why…” Yinze felt along the Qiongqi’s spine. “This wound was caused by ‘Xuanwu’s Collapse.'”

I said, “What does ‘Xuanwu’s Collapse’ mean?”

“It’s a high-level earth-element immortal technique that can only be cast within Xuanwu’s domain, empowered by the divine force of mountains, with extremely destructive power.” Fu Chenzhi pondered for a moment. “Does this mean this Qiongqi died in the Northern Sky?”

Yinze said: “Adult Qiongqi are quite fierce. If confronted elsewhere, even an Immortal Lord wouldn’t dare be careless. But if it was hit by ‘Xuanwu’s Collapse’ in the Northern Sky territory, death would be certain.”

“Then why is this?” I looked at Xuanyue in confusion, seeing it waving its claws in front of me with an urgent expression. I crouched down: “Xuanyue, are you trying to tell us something?”

Next, Xuanyue performed a series of incomprehensible behaviors: it went to bite a pile of grass, spread it on the ground, opened its mouth wide, and slowly walked onto the grass, lowering its head to place something on the ground. It lay on the ground, joyfully rolled around, and jumped back and forth. Suddenly, it turned back with a panicked expression. Then it jumped to the right side and calmly scratched its jaw with its claws. Next, it jumped back to the left side, cried out in fear, and, while crying sorrowfully, jumped to another patch of ground. It looked up at the sky, pressed its two paws on a rock, suddenly twisted its head to look toward the direction it had run from, and waved its claws. Finally, it ran back in that direction, tensed its shoulders, imitated an adult tiger’s appearance, roared fiercely twice, looked up at the sky as if struck by something on its back, let out a long howl, swayed twice, and lay on the ground, becoming a small tiger skin rug.

I suddenly understood and gasped: “So that’s what happened!”

Xuanyue opened her eyes wide to look at me, seeming very expectant. I slapped my forehead: “You returned to your original color today, regained your masculine dignity, and are in such good spirits that you want to eat grass and accumulate virtue. But you’re allergic to grass, so you fainted. It’s fine, Xuanyue—follow me and you’ll still have meat to eat.”

Xuanyue stuck out her tongue and collapsed on the ground. I smiled gently and stroked her head like a mother, but a force knocked my hand away.

I looked at my hand in shock and quickly realized it was Yinze’s doing. I turned back to look at him pitifully: “Why did you hit me?”

Yinze gave me a look that said “you’re hopeless wood that can’t be carved” and said: “Don’t pretend to understand when you don’t.”

“With such communication, the fact that Xuanyue has survived until now shows that Qiongqi’s survival instincts are indeed formidable.” Fu Chenzhi shook his head. “It should be that Xuanyue’s mother was carrying it for a stroll in the grassland when it was captured by a bearded immortal. The mother tried to rescue it but was hit by earth-element immortal magic falling from the sky, so she died.”

“…Is that right?” How are men of this era so terrifying? Even more understanding of small animals than an unmarried young lady.

Of course, most terrifyingly, Yinze didn’t let it rest there—he went to King Yama to check the Book of Life and Death and found the cause of Xuanyue’s mother’s death. Sure enough, just as Fu Chenzhi said, the one who killed Xuanyue’s mother was an immortal skilled in earth-element magic, and he had countless connections to me, Ruyue Weng.

After everything matched up, Yinze’s eyes, which habitually see through worldly affairs, once again looked toward us two.

Fu Chenzhi and I exchanged glances, knowing we really couldn’t hide it anymore, so we honestly confessed everything.

After hearing it all, Yinze wasn’t too surprised and only said faintly: “Speak. Why did you hide this from me?”

I said: “I… we didn’t want to cause trouble for Master.”

“Did you say that backwards?” Seeing my head hanging lower and lower, Yinze looked elsewhere. “Forget it. This matter probably isn’t as simple as you think. Moreover, since Suozhao has been hidden, it’s no longer in its original location. Finding it won’t be a matter of a day or two. First, follow me back, and we’ll make long-term plans.”

Xuanyue was sealed again and reluctantly parted from her mother. She was very abnormal on this journey, lying obediently in my arms without making a fuss, probably missing her mother. I felt she was very pitiful and secretly vowed to ensure she’d have meat to eat following me in the future.

After this, we returned to Qinghong Mountain. Yinze had several Immortal Lords search for Ruyue Weng’s whereabouts and greeted my master Gaoyang Spirit Person and master-uncle Xuxing Heavenly Lord, saying he would have Fu Chenzhi take me back to my room to stay, then left Qinghong Mountain first using magic.

Master never expected I would take Divine Lord Yinze as my teacher and regretted it so much that his intestines turned green. Like the others, his attitude toward me improved more than just a little.

Ruoli still had quite a backbone and remained extremely arrogant toward me, crossing her arms and glaring at me several times: “What does that matter? Before long, I’ll also move to Shaowei. Don’t think Third Senior Brother belongs to you.” Then she continued clinging to Fu Chenzhi, smiling innocently and asking endless questions.

Fu Chenzhi and I only stayed at Qinghong Mountain for half a day before going to a neighboring city, boarding a great roc, and setting out for Tianshi City.

When we departed, it was already evening, but there were still many people going to Tianshi City. Along the way, we passed countless cities in the immortal realm, and before long, the several-li-long roc’s back was full of various immortals. The great roc soared upward with the wind—this was my first time riding such a large flying beast, and I was so excited I kept walking from the roc’s head to its tail.

The great roc was a famous beast renowned throughout the six realms. Because of its enormous size, it only stopped at stations in major cities. Moreover, it had only four final destinations: Tianshi City in Azure Dragon Sky, Taiwei City in Vermillion Bird Sky, Shaowei City in White Tiger Sky, and Ziwei City in Black Tortoise Sky.

These four great cities were the four capitals of the immortal realm’s eastern, southern, western, and northern skies. Each was soft and red for ten zhang, with nine streets and three markets, and had Boundless Wells that led directly to the god realm. The Eastern Sky had seven constellations, with Tianshi City on the central Fang constellation.

Divine Lord Yinze’s largest residence in the immortal realm and the academy he established were both in Tianshi City.

Going to such a prestigious place naturally made me both nervous and excited, but because I was overly active, Fu Chenzhi scolded me before I obediently sat down.

Fu Chenzhi said: “When we see Master again, if he doesn’t bring up Suozhao, you absolutely mustn’t mention it either. If he does bring it up, don’t let him get involved in this matter.”

I nodded: “I definitely won’t mention it—this is our own business after all.”

Fu Chenzhi said, “It’s not that simple. I’ve heard rumors that Master has a very tense relationship with the Heavenly Emperor, which is why he’s lived long in the immortal realm and won’t return to the god realm unless summoned by the Heavenly Emperor. Master is the supreme god of the Suozhao clan for all of Suozhao; the Heavenly Emperor is insignificant. If he gets involved in this matter and helps us eliminate Lord Kaixuan or Ruyue Weng, if someone with ulterior motives reports it to the Heavenly Emperor, they might pin the label of ‘privately forming cliques’ on him, making his situation even more awkward.”

“I see… but why do they have a tense relationship?”

“I think it’s because of Master’s personality. You’ve felt it too—he has quite a foul temper.”

“Hahahaha…” I laughed until I could barely breathe. “You think so too? I thought I was overthinking it.”

“Not at all. His temper is practically world-famous—even the Demon Emperor knows. Every time they fight, the Demon Emperor provokes the relationship between the Heavenly Emperor and Master. But the funniest thing is, the Heavenly Emperor can’t refute him.”

Talking badly about Master behind his back wasn’t being good disciples, but just discussing Divine Lord Yinze’s character felt endlessly interesting and was enough to pass the flying time.

It turned out Yinze’s personality had never changed.

After Pangu created heaven and earth, his body collapsed and disintegrated—his head became heaven, his feet became earth, his front skull became the god realm, and his back skull became the demon realm. These two worlds were parallel yet oppositely opposed, connected by the greatest crack between heaven and earth—the God-Demon Chasm.

With this passage, the two realms were destined for unrest. Gods and demons fought countless battles throughout history, each pulling allies: gods governed immortals, demons governed monsters, the ghost realm paid no attention to outside affairs and was responsible for collecting garbage thrown by both sides—like Hua Zixiao, formerly an Immortal Lord, now a ghost. As for mortals, the benevolent became immortal gods, the evil became demon monsters.

In the first several god-demon wars, Divine Lord Yinze was among the generals who made great contributions. Initially, the Heavenly Emperor valued him most, but the Heavenly Emperor was passionate, while Yinze was cold and autocratic. The two couldn’t get along either in political affairs or personal relationships.

While the Wind God was smooth and tactful, the Earth God was generous and steady, and the Fire God was enthusiastic and loyal—with this comparison, the scales in the Heavenly Emperor’s heart gradually tilted. Add some people fanning the flames, and it became the current situation. There were even market rumors that the Heavenly Emperor had already planned to cultivate the next Cangying God.

Mother Queen had warned us since childhood that being a good person was very important—this was true.

We arrived at Tianshi City late at night, with only the city’s brilliant lights remaining. I discovered this was truly a treasure land, because there was water everywhere—even clear rivers flowed through the starry sky, with silver fish swimming in them like drifting stars and glowing petals. Cangying Manor was built on an immortal mountain in the city outskirts, and I could finally fly once using the Water Ascension Technique myself.

Arriving at the manor, the steward said the Divine Lord had gone to Floating Pagoda Star Sea and had us rest in the side chambers first, to find him the next day. But thinking that Big Brother would take me around Tianshi tomorrow, I was too excited to sleep and came out to wander. After chatting with servants for a bit, I learned that Floating Pagoda Star Sea wasn’t far from Cangying Manor—just over one mountain peak.

So I took a pot of tea and crossed the mountain peak to find Master.

Initially, I thought Floating Pagoda Star Sea was just a beautiful place name, but crossing this mountain, the scene before my eyes nearly blinded me. It was literally what it said—a sea piled up from stars!

All the various descriptions of the Silver River I’d read in books before weren’t enough to describe even one part of this ethereal beauty.

Here, I couldn’t distinguish where heaven was and where earth was—I only saw above and below filled with flowing, pale flying stars.

On the immortal mountain, under the ice wheel, in clear clouds, heavenly water poured down with jade pipes playing mournfully—I didn’t know where it came from.

A long cliff extended into the starry sea with a solitary, proud figure standing on it. Several feet behind him was a jade table with a wine pot and a half-finished game of chess.

It seemed Master was alone tonight with elegant interests, playing chess with himself, drinking wine with himself, and monopolizing this beautiful scenery.

Seeing him gazing at the distant star sea, I lightly landed behind him and approached quietly.

Halfway there, I heard him say: “Not sleeping in the middle of the night—what are you doing here?”

Did he have eyes in the back of his head? I chuckled and made tea at the table, offering the cup with both hands as I knelt behind him: “Master, thank you for taking me as your disciple. Luowei has come to offer you tea!”

“Aren’t you tired after running all day?” He still had his back to me, only turning his head slightly. “Do you know how far Qinghong Mountain is from Fang constellation?”

I always felt that God’s maintaining youthful appearances was very wrong. When Yinze turned back this time, though it was only a profile, that snow-peak-like nose bridge and ink-wash-like eyebrows, set off by that glossy black long hair and reflected in this bright Floating Pagoda Star Sea, truly made my little heart nearly shatter.

Master, you’re an elder—is it okay to look like this? Compared to Master looking like this, I’d rather my future husband look like this!

I covered my chest and panted several times, adjusting my internal breath, then said calmly: “Master, this disciple knows how far this journey was, but on this disciple’s first day of apprenticeship, the tea-offering ceremony absolutely cannot be omitted.”

Yinze said, “Who offers tea for apprenticeship in the middle of the night?”

I smiled: “It’s fine. If Master feels midnight tea-offering isn’t orthodox, this disciple will offer you tea again tomorrow! Oh no no no, what terrible misspeak—it should be, from now on this disciple will offer you tea every day.”

“Smooth-talking.” Though he said this, Yinze turned around, accepted the teacup, and took a light sip.

Seeing him finish, I smiled and took back the teacup, returned it to the table, moved a chair over, and placed it behind him: “Master has been standing—it’s tiring. Let me help you sit.”

With these words, I supported his arm and had him sit in the chair, then knelt on the ground to massage his legs.

Yinze coldly chuckled: “What exactly do you want? Confess honestly.”

“Speaking like this hurts this disciple’s heart. This disciple saw that the wind blows cold with dew here and thought the Master must be somewhat weary, so came to massage your legs.” I scratched my head. “I was originally just a small water spirit. Now that I’m an orphan in this vast immortal realm, I’ve suffered quite a bit of bullying. Apart from Big Brother, only Master truly treats me well. Master’s profound kindness and deep grace—this disciple probably can never repay in this lifetime, and can only follow by your side like an ox or horse, at your command.”

Yinze silently watched me for a long moment, then sighed lightly: “Get up.”

“Yes! Let me massage your shoulders too!”

“No need.” Yinze stood up and pointed to the distant star sea. “Want to go look over there?”

“Yes, yes, yes!” I answered quickly, then became somewhat confused. “Why…”

Yinze picked up a silk sash from his robe, traced a light across it with his index finger and thumb, and handed it to me: “Hold tight to this.”

I nodded and took the silk sash, somewhat puzzled. Then he flashed, instantly pulling me to the center of the star sea. I screamed in terror and immediately let go to cover my eyes, causing my whole body to fall downward.

Yinze quickly pointed downward, using cloud mist to support me, then pointed at my hand. The silk sash automatically wrapped around my wrist. He said, “Don’t untie it, or you can slowly fly yourself using Water Ascension.”

I nodded vigorously. Then he took me flying through thousands of miles of stars. In just an instant, the mountain peak where we’d stood disappeared from view. His flying speed was extremely fast—cold wind swept past our faces, billowing our robes and long hair. It was truly both cold and exhilarating.

Initially I was too scared to make a sound, but after gradually adapting, I finally managed to squeeze out: “So this is what it feels like for immortals to ride clouds and mists…”

Yinze said, “This is merely an immortal flight technique. Gods can instantly traverse mountains and rivers without needing to ride clouds and mists. But I can’t take you like that—if we traveled that fast, your physical body would disintegrate.”

“Dis-disintegrate… how terrifying.”

He flew steadily and swiftly, often giving the illusion that even the star sea was under our control. Comparing this to the Water Ascension Technique made us Suozhao clan, seem so pitiful.

I said, “Master, could I possibly learn this kind of flight technique?”

“If you remain a spirit, impossible.”

“Could I possibly cultivate to become an immortal?”

“I’ve told you—clear qi is hard to gather, turbid qi is easy to gather. The probability of a spirit body becoming immortal is almost zero.”

“After all that talk, I just completely can’t learn to fly.” I puffed out my cheeks and got angry at myself for a while, then started being unreasonable: “Master, aren’t you a god? Gods are omnipotent—just teach me. Flying is so impressive, I want to learn.”

“That still can’t make a spirit immortal. If you truly want to learn flight, there’s only one path: gather turbid qi to become a demon, then become a devil. Devils not only fly but can also move invisibly, more impressive than gods.”

I waved my hands repeatedly: “No, no, no, I don’t want that. I don’t want to be a demon—they’re always killed by immortals. Besides, I’m a Master’s disciple—I don’t want to be a bad guy.”

“Then, practice the Water Ascension Technique well. When proficient, you can increase speed.”

I nodded vigorously: “Yes!”

At this moment, I answered with great spirit, but my heart wasn’t like this.

Looking closely, Osmanthus flowers withered in three autumns, mayflies lived and died in a day, and morning dew dried in dawn wind, yet without emotion or resentment, thus not understanding joys and sorrows, not knowing spring regrets and idle worries.

Mortals with decades of lifespan were still mocked for short lives. I could live three hundred years with no attachments in this world, yet every time I had such conversations with Master, this faint regret in my heart—where did it come from…

Looking around, above, and below, stars filled everything. This place was so vast that after running for so long, we still hadn’t seen the border. Calling it the Floating Pagoda Star Sea truly wasn’t exaggerated.

Finally, we saw a small stall on a patch of cloud mist with a sign reading “Iron Mouth Direct Divination.”

An old immortal with white hair tied in a ball-shaped topknot sat on a donkey, wearing yellow robes washed pale.

He had been drowsily falling asleep, but seeing us approach, he pulled out a pair of silver-studded boots from under his stall and waved at us: “Star-Chasing Boots! Star-Chasing Boots! If you’re tired from running, come buy Star-Chasing Boots! With treasure boots for chasing stars in hand, roam the Floating Pagoda Star Sea at will!”

Yinze originally had no intention of dealing with him, but I called out curiously: “Old Immortal, aren’t you a fortune teller? How did you start selling boots?”

Seeing us begin a conversation, Yinze also stopped in front of his stall.

“You can have your fortune told too—that’s my old trade, especially…” The old immortal looked at us two and leaned over, squinting as he whispered: “Marriage destiny.”