“Every one of you is a direct disciple of this master and Divine Lord Yinze. Therefore, from now on, your conduct and speech when outside, your intentions and dealings, must all be conducted with the utmost care. Remember, upon entering my Cangying Sect, the foremost matter is…”

At this point, Master Uncle stroked his white beard, his gaze—nine parts similar to Yinze’s—quietly sweeping over each of us: “Before coming of age or completing your training, you are forbidden from romantic entanglements or private betrothals. Those who violate the sect rules will, at the lightest, have thirty years of cultivation destroyed, and at the heaviest, be expelled from the sect. Have you all heard this?”

Dozens of disciples answered in unison: “Disciples respectfully follow this teaching.”

Thirty years of cultivation—that’s truly ruthless. These immortals do have long lives and many affairs. I don’t have many thirty-year periods in my entire lifetime; if it were to be destroyed, wouldn’t I have to start from zero? Moreover, after truly entering the sect, the master who would be teaching us most of the time was Master Uncle, this white-haired venerable before us, whom I had initially thought was the Divine Lord’s person.

I thought as much—given our master’s temperament, how could he possibly have the patience to teach us hand by hand? However, as the son of an old friend, he had the blind luck of a chicken pecking at rice—only Fu Chenzhi could frequently go and spar alone with Yinze.

This day, after reporting to Master Uncle and practicing some basic skills at Mount Baidi, Yinze happened to be away again, so Fu Chenzhi took me to stroll around Tianshi City while helping Yinze purchase some items to bring back to Cangying Hall. Tianshi City was different from Qinghong Mountain—it was surrounded by towering, dangerous peaks, yet it wasn’t built upon continuous rolling mountains.

Everywhere here had immortal qi, jade springs splashing, painted bridges with azure willows, silver-void formations, multi-story high platforms—all built within the clouds and mist. Even the largest stone steps were suspended in mid-air. With the spiraling water flows, the entire capital city seemed as if soaked in a shallow azure sea, with mist like ripples and flying birds like swimming fish, creating undulating waves of countless households throughout the city.

This was also the governmental hub of the Azure Dragon Heaven, with markets lined with pearls and jade, households filled with silk and brocade. After strolling for an entire day, many things truly opened my eyes wide.

Here were immortal qi pavilions for people to rest, inside which grew undying trees transplanted from Kunlun Mountain—just sitting around the trees in quiet cultivation could quickly relax one’s spirit and enhance magical power. Here were water-smoke buildings where, after entering, attendants would offer three cups of fragrant wine, and in a half-drunk, half-awake state, one could smoke jade pipes while soaking in lotus ponds, feeling blissfully content. Here was a plant garden covering eight acres, selling plants and seeds from all realms.

This was my first time learning that the same seed, when placed in the Six Realms, would grow differently. For example, roses bloom in summer in Jiuzhou, in autumn in the demon realm, produce blue-green flowers in the ghost realm, have particularly large flowers in the immortal realm, are not only large but also luminous in the divine realm with stems and leaves slightly wrapping the flower buds, while in the demon realm they don’t bloom at all but instead grow dark azure thorns.

So in the plant garden, we could buy original ecological seeds, or we could buy otherworldly flowers that had been planted and cultivated by flower immortals. Of course, the latter were particularly expensive and required regular bringing the plants back for care. Besides this, we also saw many specialty plants of the Azure Dragon Heaven, such as Heavenly Flow Bamboo.

This bamboo was only one meter tall, with azure bamboo joints, lustrous and smooth like jade, growing only in water. The bamboo shoots were pitifully small. I held back for a long time, but still had Fu Chenzhi buy it. As a result, just after leaving the plant garden, it was eaten by a customer’s pet pixiu…

We also went to Dragon’s Chess Palace. This was the place old immortals most loved to visit. They only needed to sit on clouds, close their eyes, cultivate, and could spend several days and nights inside.

When we first entered to observe, I only saw white-haired old immortals floating everywhere in the sky. They sat motionless like a bunch of stakes, and I thought I had mistakenly walked into an ancestral shrine, almost fleeing in terror. Later, looking carefully, I realized that on the chessboards before them, the pieces were indeed moving back and forth, and some irritable old immortals would even use magic to blast their opponent’s pieces flying.

In Tianshi City, there was also the largest exotic beast tower among the Eastern Heaven’s Seven Mansions, specializing in selling or exhibiting all kinds of exotic beasts and eggs of various sizes. One could also, within a limited time, transform uncultivated exotic beasts into human form. Personally witnessing a beast trainer transform a green-eyed tree spirit into a green-eyed beauty, I felt a cold glint flash in my eyes as I looked at Xuanyue with a villainous smile.

Xuanyue was so frightened he quickly flew out, but before he could escape through the door, he had already been transformed into human form by the shape-shifting master Fu Chenzhi had invited: a red-haired little boy fell from the air to the ground, with a pair of small wings on his back. He was still pawing at the ground with both hands like a tiger. After pawing for a while and seeing something was wrong, he turned his head around.

I saw his hair was fluffy, tied in a small braid, with a pair of bright large eyes; the corners of his eyes turned upward, his small mouth open, revealing a pair of sharp little fangs. Looking at us, he called out pitifully: “Aowowo…”

So this was what Xuanyue looked like when cultivated into human form…

So cute, truly a beautiful child! I was enchanted by Xuanyue’s little appearance, happily wanting to go pamper him, but the shape-shifting master looked at his own hands in confusion: “Strange, why does this white tiger retain red hair after transforming into human form? Even his eyebrows are red? It seems my immortal technique has a problem. This transformation won’t cost you anything.”

After Xuanyue was transformed back, I quickly grabbed Fu Chenzhi, hugged Xuanyue, and fled.

After coming out, we strolled on the street and saw a row of golden, radiant ranking boards at the entrance of Azure Dragon Hall.

According to Fu Chenzhi, each beautiful jade carved with names on these ranking boards was formed from five-colored jade that grew on the Literary Jade Tree. Most prominent in the center was the Divine Realm Honor Roll, with “Heavenly Emperor” written at the top of the uppermost row, with jade below it carved with “Haotian.” The second row had “Divine Lord” written above, with ten jade stones below, the first of which was inscribed with “Yinze.”

“Our master is so amazing,” I said, hands clasped to my heart as I gazed at the Honor Roll. “Look, he’s actually in the second row of the Honor Roll—doesn’t this mean he’s the second-ranking god among the Six Realms?”

Fu Chenzhi said, “The demon realm’s ranking board isn’t placed here, so we can’t say that. But to say he’s second in the divine and immortal realms—that’s certain.”

I then looked at the adjacent “Divine Realm Military Merit Roll,” which didn’t include the Heavenly Emperor, so Yinze was first. Looking at the next “Demon Subjugation and Devil Suppression Roll,” I wondered: “Eh? This roll has almost the same names and rankings as the previous one, but why isn’t our master on it?”

“No, he’s here.” Fu Chenzhi pointed to the second-to-last row.

“Why is this? Doesn’t our master like subjugating demons and suppressing devils?”

“He doesn’t. Master feels that privately suppressing devils is just small-scale fighting, while privately subjugating demons is immortals’ work, so he’s not interested. And also…” He opened his mouth, then only said, “Nothing, let’s go look elsewhere.”

Next, we arrived at a rather interesting place—the servant marketplace. Called a servant marketplace, it was an exotic beast market, transformed into human or semi-human form, demon beasts. Ninety-nine percent of the servants here were domesticated demons, with only a small portion being wandering immortals or spirits.

While Fu Chenzhi went to the adjacent spice shop to make purchases, I poked my head out and snuck into that marketplace.

Just as I was being dazzled by the mountain and sea of demons before me, a pair of slender hands reached over and scraped under my chin. I quickly stepped back, only to see a black-robed young master with azure-tinged eye corners and pale purple lips appear before me, his smile cold and sharp: “Miss, are you shopping alone?”

I waved my hands repeatedly: “No no no no no, I came with someone else!”

But he acted as if he hadn’t heard at all, pressing closer step by step. Just as his hand was about to touch me again, another hand knocked his away, and then a red-cloaked young master turned around and smiled gently at me: “Don’t scare people like that. Miss, are you alright?”

This smile was truly completely different from the black-robed young master’s—pitiful yet enchantingly beautiful.

Looking at that face, I was immediately intoxicated. The red-cloaked young master unhurriedly walked over, supporting himself with his hands on his knees, winking at me. His small face was simply more gorgeous than flowers: “Miss, if you live alone, do you feel lonely? Take me with you. I absolutely won’t cause you trouble, letting you spend spring nights in painted towers without foundation, daily dissolving Lanzhou dreams…”

I couldn’t understand what he was saying, only held my face and foolishly admired the beauty’s face, laughing: “Yes yes yes!”

Just as the red-cloaked young master was about to take my hand, there was a “bang” sound, smoke rose everywhere, and both he and the black-robed young master vanished in smoke. What appeared on the ground was a red fox and a black scorpion.

Then, someone grabbed the back of my collar and dragged me backward.

Fu Chenzhi lowered his head and pinched my cheeks: “At such a young age, instead of learning proper things, you’ve learned to flirt with fox spirits and lute spirits. Fortunately, you don’t have money, otherwise, you planned to buy these two back to relieve loneliness?”

I waved my hands in anguish: “It hurts! Brother! Brother! Big brother! I was wrong…”

“Come back with me! Today’s strolling ends here!”

On the way dragging me back, I discovered that my brother was the one with real beauty. In just half a street, the demons who came to flirt with him reached seventeen, thirteen of whom were female, four male, and ten of whom said they were willing to sell themselves cheaply to him, to work like oxen and horses for him.

Of course, as I expected, Fu Chenzhi ignored them all. No matter how they displayed their bright eyes and charming smiles, their dimpled cheeks and rosy lips, their vermilion lips and white teeth, he never wavered, always looking straight ahead like a man with cut sleeves.

Of course, although his attitude was stern, my brother still doted on me very much. After returning, at my pleading, he once again took the blame for me and helped me copy the “Essential Techniques of Meditation Medicine” that Yinze had assigned.

A few days later, the task was completed, and Yinze had just returned from the lower realm. I took the thick results to find him. Learning that he was resting in his bedchamber, I thought this was a perfect opportunity—I could leave the materials at the door and slip away, so he wouldn’t incline to check and probably wouldn’t discover someone had copied for me.

Arriving at Yinze’s room door, I pushed open a crack to see if he had already gone to sleep. Unexpectedly, inside, there was light smoke curling, fragrant incense scattered, and on a pearl platform formed from shark tears, firefly lamps flickered. Yinze was reclining sideways on a lounge chair, lowering his head to sip fine wine bought by the earth spirit.

Beside him sat a red-clothed woman on his side, her red fur dress spread fully on the ground. Under the yellow flower ornament on her forehead, a pair of seductive fox eyes constantly sent him amorous glances.

Having been seduced by that red fox spirit once before, those enchanting eye waves had remained unforgettable to me, so in just a moment, I realized this was a female fox. Her eyes stared straight at him while her fingers coquettishly tugged at her collar, occasionally revealing fragrant shoulders and collarbones before quickly covering them again.

This scene was so alluring that ordinary men seeing it would probably lose six of their seven souls and immediately pounce over. But Yinze only smiled with hooked lips, gentle yet cunning, as if seeing through this little trick. However, the first sentence he spoke wasn’t directed at this female fox: “Have you seen enough?”

I hunched my shoulders and stammered: “M-Master, I-I finished the punishment copying.”

“Bring it here.”

I could only steel myself and push the door open. Yinze pushed the fox woman aside, took the stack of papers I handed over, quickly flipped through several pages, then threw them back into my hands: “Go back and copy again.”

I said, “Why?”

Yinze said: “It wasn’t written by you yourself. I haven’t increased the amount, only asking you to copy again—and you still ask me why?”

The room was filled with curling smoke. Yinze’s face was beautiful as a painting, clear and distant, forming a sharp contrast with the fox woman’s flamboyant, seductive appearance.

So, when Master had said he had “ordinary understanding” of fox women at the Floating Buddha Star Sea, did he mean this kind of understanding? At this moment, I heard the fox woman cover her mouth and laugh softly.

Although the sound wasn’t loud, her desperate attempt to cover her mouth somehow made me quite angry: “So what if someone else copied it? That’s my brother—him copying or me copying, isn’t it the same?”

After speaking, I was even startled by myself. I had always been the good girl in everyone’s eyes, and rarely confronted people with such a long face like this, even when I was a little princess before.

Master’s long silence made me clearly understand that I had encountered the god of death while seeking death—I had touched bad luck.

Who knew he wouldn’t get angry at all, only saying flatly: “Luowei, are you trying to oppose me?”

I was very afraid in my heart, yet still said righteously: “Disciple isn’t opposing Master. Disciple did nothing wrong—why should I copy so many characters?”

Yinze said, “Then why didn’t you object at the time? Now that the matter is exposed, you come to make excuses—don’t you think it’s too late?”

The fox spirit truly lived up to the fox spirit name—she never learned to be a peacemaking proper wife, only stood aside with her sleeves in the breeze, occasionally being amused by our conversation.

And Master—he had just smiled so gently at this fox spirit, but now, toward me, he was cold as ice, which made my heart burn with even more anger.

I said: “How would I dare object to you? You’re so fierce—objecting to you wouldn’t that be seeking death?”

Yinze finally became somewhat annoyed: “Luowei, considering your youth and rebelliousness, I won’t hold it against you today. If it were someone else, they would have been expelled from the sect long ago. Go kneel in the meditation room for me. Without my permission, no one is allowed to visit you, and you’re not allowed to come out!”

I trembled as I clenched my fists, fiercely threw that stack of papers on the ground, and slammed the door as I left.

I hadn’t been kneeling in punishment in the meditation room long when Fu Chenzhi came to the door to comfort me: “Weiwei, what happened to you today? Being discovered for having someone else do the punishment copying should have resulted in severe punishment, yet you talked back to Master—this isn’t like you.”

“Such a master, I’d rather not have. You have no idea what he and a fox demon were doing in that room—just thinking about it makes me want to vomit!” After speaking, I stuck out my tongue and made vomiting sounds.

“That’s a fox immortal, not a fox demon. There’s a difference between the two.”

“Essentially, they’re both fox spirits—the same! He has so much leisure time to go outside and pick up fox spirits, but no time to pay attention to us. He doesn’t care about us at all!”

Fu Chenzhi was silent for a moment, then said: “Weiwei, the Master is also a man. This is his personal affair—we shouldn’t comment on it.”

I was suddenly at a loss for words. Brother was right—this was the Master’s private matter. As a disciple, what position did I have to comment on it? Fu Chenzhi continued consoling me outside for a while before finally leaving. But my chest still felt stuffy. Although I knew I was wrong, thinking of Master’s ice-cold face still made me angry.

After this, I was punished by Yinze to kneel until the next morning, when a servant finally came in saying Divine Lord Yinze allowed me to come out and have me go eat.

Although I was already dizzy with hunger, that anger in my chest still hadn’t been vented, so I refused to come out no matter what. After another day passed, I was already so hungry I was weak all over, lying on the ground like a corpse, without even the strength to open my eyes.

Finally, when I had driven away yet another servant, a clear voice like wine sounded outside: “She still won’t come out?”

“Yes, Divine Lord.”

I suddenly opened my eyes, wanting to get up, but really couldn’t move.

A pair of dark-flowered, azure-edged white boots appeared in my vision. An ice-cold voice came from above: “Have you made enough of a scene?”

“No.” I just couldn’t swallow this anger.

“Then continue staying here.” The robe hem swayed lightly, and those boots turned away.

Just as he was about to leave, I couldn’t help saying: “Master treats me not well at all, doesn’t care about me at all.”

He paused for a moment, then said: “How do you want me to treat you well?”

“That fox woman was picked up by you after reading books and going outside, wasn’t she?” I snorted. “I was also picked up by Master—why do I always get scolded by you?”

He laughed lightly and said, “After saying so much, it turns out you’re jealous of that fox woman.”

I said urgently: “I-I’m not! Disciple just feels it’s unfair!”

“That fox woman isn’t my disciple—she’s just a companion for romantic diversions and casual entertainment, who will disappear before long.” He walked back and stood before me. “Stop making a fuss. Get up.”

I felt my ears perk up as I raised my head to look at Yinze: “Your meaning is that the disciple will be someone who stays with you forever, right?”

Yinze said, “That depends on you. I don’t care either way.”

“Then I really won’t make trouble anymore!” I got up from the ground, full of energy. “Disciple will immediately go copy the ‘Essential Techniques of Meditation Medicine’ one hundred times!”

Who knew that just as I stood up, my vision blurred, and Master also became a swaying double image. Then my eyes rolled back and my body fell backward…

When I opened my eyes again, I was no longer in the meditation room.

Realizing I was in a corridor, my body curled up in another person’s broad embrace.

I raised my heavy head and discovered the person holding me horizontally was Master, with Master Uncle following beside us.

I had been somewhat dizzy, but was instantly startled awake. Seeing me open my eyes, Master Uncle said, “Luowei, stop causing trouble for your master. The divine realm currently has many affairs; your master has been traveling between the immortal and mortal realms for several consecutive days. Today he was supposed to see the Heavenly Emperor, but because of your tantrum, it’s been delayed. Can you be more sensible?”

For a moment, I was overwhelmed with guilt. I opened my mouth, wanting to say something, but Yinze said: “Speak after you’ve eaten.”

I was stunned, only seeing milk swallows passing through the courtyard garden, flying flowers layered in overlapping shadows, and the fresh fragrance of dishes and soup wafting from not far away.

I nodded, then looked up again at Master’s profile and buried my head in his chest. Without realizing it, tears were already streaming down my face.