Kong Hou secluded herself in her cave dwelling for a few days. Only after her mental state and cultivation were both consolidated did she emerge from the cave dwelling. Putting on the beautiful flying immortal dress her second senior brother gave her and jumping onto the flying sword given by her sect leader uncle, Kong Hou felt extremely excited. This was her first time independently controlling a flying sword. This sense of achievement was different from being carried around by her master or senior brothers.
However, when she actually flew up into the sky, she discovered the flying sword didn’t seem so obedient. She wobbled and swayed in the sky for quite a while before barely grasping the essentials. After steadying herself on the flying sword, she sneakily looked around and breathed a sigh of relief. Great—no one noticed such an embarrassing thing.
The sect members at the martial arts field worked hard to make their movements look natural, not letting Kong Hou know they had observed the entire process. Especially the sect members above Foundation Establishment stage—they all revealed knowing smiles. Back when they established their foundation, they too had excitedly jumped onto flying swords, only to discover they couldn’t control their spiritual energy well and made quite a few jokes. The worst one broke his nose and had to rely on Peak Master Qingyuan of Chenxia Peak’s Countenance Restoration Pill to make his nose grow back.
It was said that even the most steady Senior Brother Wu Chuan had been quite awkward when he first used a flying sword after establishing his foundation. Over time, watching newly foundation-established sect members use flying swords had become an unspoken little hobby understood by all in the sect. However, everyone was civilized—they could watch, but couldn’t mock the person involved, lest it harm sect camaraderie.
Having watched this spectacle with great satisfaction, everyone sighed with emotion—so even five spiritual root foundation establishment wasn’t completely steady when first using a flying sword.
Kong Hou carefully controlled the flying sword, not letting it crash into stone walls or buildings. She had heard from Second Senior Brother that Master once knocked down an entire building in the sect. Although he wasn’t expelled from the sect, he had quite a lot of his monthly allowance deducted. She didn’t want to be like Master and have many spirit stones deducted—better to be careful.
“Junior Sister Kong Hou.” Linghui stood on the stone steps waving to Kong Hou. Behind her were several other direct disciples, both male and female, all dressed up in their finest.
Kong Hou saw that the senior brothers and sisters she had arranged to meet were already there. She quickly jumped off her flying sword and came to their side. “Greetings to all the senior brothers and sisters.”
“This flying immortal dress is truly beautiful.” Linghui pulled out a package of dried fruit from her storage pouch and handed it to Kong Hou. “It even has defensive talisman patterns on it. Who was so generous?”
“This was given to me by Second Senior Brother.” Kong Hou opened the paper package and tossed a dried bayberry into her mouth. “Delicious. Thank you, Senior Sister Linghui.”
“Cheng Yi and Tan Feng have really spoiled you rotten.” How nice to have senior brothers. Linghui turned to glance at the two junior brothers behind her. Unlike these two who required her to worry about them.
The two junior brothers being glared at silently retreated two steps, not daring to look at Linghui.
Kong Hou pretended not to see the eye contact exchange between Chenxia Peak’s senior sister and junior brothers. “It’s getting late. We should head down the mountain early. I brought enough spirit stones today—eat to your hearts’ content.”
Linghui pulled out her flying sword and tossed it into the sky, leaping gracefully onto it. She said to her two junior brothers, “Look at other people’s senior brothers, then look at you two.”
The two junior brothers: “…”
To avoid them having conflicts over a few spirit stones, Kong Hou quickly said, “The spirit stones weren’t given by my senior brothers, but by my master.”
“Uncle Wang Tong…” Where would he get spirit stones?
Linghui looked at Kong Hou who had already jumped onto her flying sword and was very close to her. Not wanting to shatter the image of a great and powerful master in the little junior sister’s heart, she swallowed her words and said instead, “Uncle Wang Tong treats you really well.”
“Mm.” Kong Hou nodded in agreement. “Master treats me the best.”
Linghui felt she probably knew why Uncle Wang Tong said Kong Hou was his final disciple. If he took two more, he couldn’t afford to support them.
Several direct disciples chatted and laughed as they descended the mountain on their flying artifacts. This was Kong Hou’s first time independently hosting sect members, and she was full of fresh enthusiasm. What tea to drink, what snacks to eat, what dishes to order—she very seriously asked everyone’s preferences before having the restaurant’s server prepare them.
The server was a young man under twenty. Seeing the sweet-faced young girl with her hair styled in a lily bun smiling at him as she spoke, he could only nod repeatedly saying yes, unable to utter a single word of refusal.
The senior brothers and sisters saw Kong Hou’s serious demeanor and exchanged glances with each other, smilingly letting Kong Hou fuss about. Only after Kong Hou sat back down in her chair did a senior brother tease, “Junior Sister certainly has some expertise in the matter of eating.”
“Where is there expertise?” Kong Hou accepted the tea water Linghui handed her and took a sip to moisten her throat. “When I was in the mortal realm, I was an imperial princess…”
The sect members present all let out exclamations of surprise. Even a princess from the mortal realm carried dragon qi bestowed by the Heavenly Dao, which was beneficial for cultivation. They hadn’t expected their junior sister to have such an identity.
Startled by the gasps from her senior brothers and sisters, Kong Hou smiled somewhat embarrassedly. “But I was only a princess for a few years before our empire was overthrown.”
Sect members: “…”
Little junior sister’s smile truly showed she had seen through fame, fortune, and glory—transcendent and extraordinary.
“Not being a princess doesn’t matter. How could being a princess compare to cultivation?” Linghui pulled out another bag of dried apricots from her storage pouch and handed them to Kong Hou. Kong Hou accepted the dried apricots, suspecting that Senior Sister Linghui’s storage pouch was entirely filled with snacks.
“Senior Sister is right.” Another senior brother picked up the conversation. “Seeking the great Dao of heaven and earth, cultivating longevity and virtue—isn’t that more interesting than mortals’ mere few decades?”
Kong Hou nodded. “Mm, mortals still can’t fly. Beautiful dresses only look good when flying.”
Linghui strongly agreed with Kong Hou’s statement. “Exactly! Flying immortal dresses, flowing gauze dresses—they only give that floating sleeves feeling when flying through the air. To be beautiful longer, wear prettier clothes, and eat more delicious food, one must cultivate.”
The male cultivators sitting nearby maintained their smiles, not daring to join the conversation. Having stayed in Yunhua Sect for a long time, they deeply understood that if they wanted their days to go smoothly, they had to keep their mouths shut when women were talking.
Throughout history, men who insisted on going against women mostly came to no good end.
The restaurant was quick. Before long, they had brought out plates of fruit and cold dishes. Although they weren’t wearing Yunhua Sect disciple uniforms, some servers had seen them before, so when serving the dishes, the restaurant owner even sent them two complimentary jugs of wine.
Everyone was of the same generation and all direct disciples of various peaks. Their status had no distinction of high or low, so they got along very comfortably together. In just the time it took for a few cups of tea, she had already heard many tales of martial world legends and was so entranced she even forgot to eat.
“And then what? What happened next?” Kong Hou listened to the story about how beautiful a certain sect elder’s female disciple was. “Did they fall in love?”
“No, they didn’t.” Those who gossip most love listeners like Kong Hou, giving them the desire to continue speaking. Though he felt Kong Hou’s thinking was somewhat strange—why must the master and disciple have something going on? Had he said there was any romantic ambiguity between these two?
“This beautiful female disciple fell in love with a beast tamer, but unfortunately the beast tamer was indifferent and had no romantic feelings for her.”
Kong Hou’s eyes widened as she imagined the beast tamer and the beauty suffering physical and emotional torment, ultimately separated by heaven and earth, never to meet again…
“The female disciple was a straightforward person. Seeing the beast tamer had no interest in her, she didn’t pester him. Who knew the beast tamer would go out and boast about it, saying something like ‘even the beauty of such-and-such sect is nothing special’ and so on.” Speaking of this, the senior brother showed some disdain for this beast tamer. “When the female disciple heard about this, she captured the beast tamer and beat him thoroughly, making it known throughout the world.”
Kong Hou breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately it wasn’t the beast tamer insulting the beautiful female cultivator while she remained devoted—otherwise she would have died of anger.
“That’s not right.” Linghui said, “I heard that not only did the female cultivator beat the beast tamer, but the female cultivator’s master also fought with the beast tamer’s elder, saying their entire sect had poor character and was unworthy of cultivation.”
“There’s actually this follow-up.” Several sect members perked up. “Was the beating severe? Did they make them cry and beg for mercy?”
Kong Hou was about to continue listening when she heard a commotion outside the restaurant. She pushed open the window and looked out.
Outside the restaurant was a street. Not only were there shops on this street, but there were also some local small vendors who took advantage of the crowds to sell trinkets and earn a little money. Serious disputes rarely occurred.
However, today’s argument was very loud. Several beautiful maidservants were carrying a soft palanquin, surrounded by tall and sturdy guards. These guards all had cultivation above Foundation Establishment stage. Each one was arrogant and haughty, seeming to think the street vendors around them were too numerous and affected their display of prestige. Two middle-aged men in gray robes at the front were shouting for these small vendors to move aside.
However, the common people of Yong City had always been accustomed to being relaxed and hadn’t encountered too many unreasonable cultivators. Seeing these foreign cultivators being so fierce, they each pretended not to hear, lowering their heads to arrange the goods on their stalls.
Customers selecting goods turned their heads to glance at these outsiders from who-knows-where, rolled their eyes, and turned back to continue haggling with the stall owners. “I’m an old customer of yours. Round off this small change for me.”
“Auntie, this really won’t do. Seeing as you’re an old customer, I’m already charging the lowest price.” The stall owner shook his head, picking through the goods basket and pulling out two wild fruits. “How about I give you two fruits as a bonus?”
The two middle-aged cultivators hadn’t expected their shouting to have no effect whatsoever. They felt embarrassed. Just then, the person in the soft palanquin let out a cold snort. Frightened, they trembled and turned to kick over the two stalls closest to them. “Ignorant mortals! Seeing a Nascent Soul Ancestor, why don’t you quickly withdraw?”
In the cultivation world, cultivators who could enter Core Formation stage were already few in number. Nascent Soul stage cultivators were even rarer. To show respect, Nascent Soul stage cultivators were already honorifically addressed as Ancestor.
The several Yong City common people whose stalls were kicked over froze. Were they being bullied by country bumpkin cultivators from outside?
“In Yong City’s territory, you must not be rude.” Just as everyone was in a daze, several young men and women leaped down from the restaurant and blocked these cultivators’ path.
Here they come, here they come.
The Yong City common people helped the vendors pick up the kicked-over items with many hands, quickly hiding behind walls, windows, or doors, sticking out their heads to watch the excitement.
It had been a long time since Yong City had encountered such arrogant and ignorant foreign cultivators. Their mood was slightly excited.
Author’s Note: Yong City common people: Melon seeds, peanuts, natural spring water. Coachmen can’t drink alcohol—how about some cumin lamb skewers instead?