The role of father, for Kong Hou, was a missing part of her life. When she was a puppet princess in Emperor Jing Hong’s palace, she had secretly imagined what it would be like if she had a very perfect father.
Tall in stature, handsome in appearance, steady and invincible. As long as he was by her side, she wouldn’t fear anything, and no one would dare bully her anymore. Later, after she had senior brothers, a master, and a whole bunch of reliable or unreliable fellow disciples, she never again fantasized about what a perfect father should be like.
When Huan Zong held her hand while wielding his sword to strike down evil demons, she suddenly felt that Huan Zong was exactly what the most perfect father in her heart looked like. Most importantly, he was much better looking than the father she’d imagined.
Another bottle of spirit liquid was stuffed into Kong Hou’s hands. Huan Zong said with a stern face: “Drink another bottle.”
“I haven’t finished this one yet.” Kong Hou sat shoulder to shoulder with Huan Zong on a rock, her slender legs swinging back and forth. Rather than seeming like they’d come to explore a secret realm, it was more like she and Huan Zong had come out for a spring outing.
Though you haven’t finished yet, Young Master really wants to shut your mouth. Lin Hu, leaning against a tree root, glanced sideways at the two sitting in a row, then turned to face another direction.
The world of young people—this old man who’d lived quite a long time couldn’t understand it anymore.
“Oh right.” Kong Hou pulled out from her storage ring the spiritual herbs she’d dug up with roots and soil. After spending several hours in the storage ring, the herbs looked somewhat wilted, their leaves drooping together. Kong Hou poked the leaves with her finger. “What are these spiritual herbs?”
Huan Zong stared at the herbs for a while, then slowly shook his head under Kong Hou’s expectant gaze. “I don’t recognize them.”
“Even you don’t recognize them?” Kong Hou retrieved from her storage ring a small pot that had somehow ended up in there. She dug up a few handfuls of soil from the ground and casually planted the herbs in it. “Since I already dug them up, it wouldn’t be good to throw them away. After we leave the secret realm, let’s keep them in the carriage.”
“Alright.” Huan Zong stared at the herbs for a while—ordinary leaves, ordinary stems. No matter how he looked at them… they looked like ordinary weeds. However, seeing Kong Hou even pour two drops of spirit liquid into the flowerpot, he didn’t say anything more.
Lingbo sat on a tree branch, watching Huan Zong and Kong Hou’s intimate and friendly manner. She turned her head, cupping her face and sighing. To think that she, Lingbo, was also a distinguished female cultivator in the Lingyou Realm. To enter the secret realm, she’d brought no maidservants and didn’t care about appearances. Who knew that upon entering she’d encounter a burden, and still have to watch other female cultivators being fawned over by people of all ages and genders.
Life was unsatisfactory eight or nine times out of ten. All her dissatisfaction had been encountered alongside Kong Hou.
“Fairy Lingbo.”
Lingbo turned back to see Kong Hou holding a spirit fruit and beckoning to her. “Come eat some spirit fruit.”
She flew down from the tree and walked toward Kong Hou. The spirit fruit was innocent—what should be eaten still had to be eaten.
After eating the spirit fruit, Kong Hou used the Shuishuang Sword to poke a hole in the ground and buried all the fruit pits in it.
“What are you doing?” Seeing Kong Hou actually using a supreme divine sword to dig in the dirt, Lingbo turned to look at Huan Zong. As a sword cultivator, seeing a companion treat a divine sword so carelessly, could he really tolerate it?
Unexpectedly, not only could Huan Zong tolerate it, he also pulled out a water-filled gourd, waiting for Kong Hou to finish playing in the mud so he could wash her hands.
A dignified personal disciple of Liuguang Sect had such character—where were the sword cultivator’s persistence and principles? Lingbo held back and didn’t dare voice her reproach, because she couldn’t beat Huan Zong.
“What if these pits sprout and grow? Five hundred years from now, cultivators entering this secret realm will have fruit to eat.” Kong Hou patted the soil with her hands and watered it a bit.
“You’re worrying about things five hundred years from now?” Lingbo wanted to mock her a few more times, but seeing Daoist Huan Zong suddenly look up at her, she changed tack. “How very thoughtful of you.”
This place was intolerable. She absolutely had to find her senior and junior brothers to be with them. If she continued staying with these two people, her brain would also become abnormal.
“Before we came, our sect said this secret realm had no danger, but I feel something seems different.” Seeing everyone silent, the lively Jin Ling who loved to talk finally couldn’t hold back. “Those illusion demons just now had injurious intentions.”
“Right, I also sensed it.” Lingbo, pampered by her senior and junior brothers, ultimately couldn’t hold her composure. “The illusion demons that approached me came with fierce momentum—it didn’t seem like a simple test.”
If this guess proved true, then this trip to the secret realm would likely result in fatalities. When sect disciples entered the secret realm, they all brought protective magical treasures, and their robes also had defensive talisman patterns, so they could still resist somewhat. But some of the independent cultivators who entered the secret realm weren’t as fully protected as them. What if…
“The secret realm has changed. We must be doubly careful.” Lin Hu stood up, gripping his sword hilt and glancing around before saying to Huan Zong: “Young Master, we should leave here first.”
Huan Zong pulled out a handkerchief and had Kong Hou dry her hands. “Let’s go.”
“Where to?” Lin Hu asked one extra question, then regretted it immediately after asking. Wasn’t it obvious?
“South.” Huan Zong pulled Kong Hou to her feet and glanced at Jin Ling and Lingbo. “Lin Hu walks in front. You two in the middle.”
Jin Ling obediently walked to the middle and took her position, absolutely not saying an extra word. Lingbo looked at the two of them, lifted her sword, and walked to Jin Ling’s side, determined not to look back even once.
Passing through the dense forest, what lay outside wasn’t the dangerous peaks and steep ridges everyone had imagined, but rather an estate covering vast grounds. The estate’s main gate stood wide open, with a stone monument beside it carved with four characters: “Travelers, Please Enter.”
There was no signature above, nor any date. The stone monument stood there alone, covered in moss, having endured who knows how much wind and sun.
“According to storybook logic, places that say ‘Idle People Keep Out’ usually mean something bad will happen if you go in. But this kind of sign inviting everyone in—is it a kind reminder, or luring us into a trap?” Kong Hou stared at the monument for a while, then turned to ask Huan Zong: “Do we go in or not?”
“There’s a barrier around us. We can’t get out.” Lin Hu looked around the area, then walked to Huan Zong’s side. “Besides entering this estate, we have no other choice.”
“If it’s a forced choice, they shouldn’t say ‘please.'” Kong Hou stepped onto the moss-covered steps. Behind the main gate was a spirit wall, and behind the spirit wall was a spacious courtyard with intermingled flowers, grass, and trees, giving it a somewhat wild charm.
Walking past the front courtyard, there were many small courtyards behind, but only one courtyard’s door was open.
“Does this mean they want us to enter this courtyard?” Kong Hou stood on tiptoe to peer into the courtyard, only seeing what appeared to be pomegranate trees planted inside. The pomegranate flowers were in full bloom, giving the courtyard a sense of peaceful tranquility.
Having come this far, not going in was impossible. Huan Zong calmly led Kong Hou into the courtyard. The courtyard had quite a few rooms, with only five rooms having their doors open.
“One, two, three, four, five…” Jin Ling quietly counted the rooms, her expression somewhat hesitant. “There are exactly five of us. Could it be that each person is supposed to choose a room?”
Lin Hu turned to look at Huan Zong. Huan Zong nodded slightly.
“I’ll go in and look first.” Lin Hu gripped his sword and walked into one of the rooms. Behind the door was an ordinary room with a qin stand in the corner holding a phoenix-tail qin, spotless and clean. Using his sword to lift the curtain, inside was a wide, comfortable bed with neatly folded bedding. The bed canopy was embroidered with auspicious clouds and flying immortals—very auspicious symbolism.
There was nothing strange about the room—it was refined, particular, even comfortable. But that was exactly what was strangest.
He searched the room again and discovered a chest in the corner. The chest was locked and couldn’t be opened. Lin Hu didn’t sense any malicious aura or spiritual energy from it—this was an ordinary chest. He didn’t know if it was placed here to make the room seem less empty, or if there was another purpose.
Exiting the room, Lin Hu described the situation inside.
“Based on my personal experience, that chest definitely has a problem.” Kong Hou said quietly. “So we should still each choose a room.” In storybooks, people who liked to act independently usually died earliest.
Lin Hu silently thought: You’re a sixteen-year-old girl descending the mountain for the first time—where does your personal experience come from?
“Miss Kong Hou makes a good point.” Lin Hu nodded. “Ladies, please choose first.”
Jin Ling turned to look at Kong Hou. Kong Hou looked at Lingbo. Lingbo pointed at the eastern room. “This one.” Jin Ling was somewhat afraid, so she chose the middle room. Kong Hou chose the middle room toward the west. Huan Zong and Lin Hu took the two rooms on either end respectively.
Whether by coincidence or because the secret realm deliberately changed, just as the five of them finished dividing the rooms, torrential rain began falling from the sky, as if unwilling to give up until it drove them into the rooms.
“Though I feel the secret realm really wants us to go inside for a test, isn’t this approach a bit too blunt?” Standing under the eaves, Kong Hou looked up at the sky and said to Huan Zong: “If we don’t go in, will the next step be hailstones falling?”
As soon as she finished speaking, the dark clouds in the sky suddenly dispersed, revealing brilliant sunshine.
Kong Hou: “…”
Was this a vivid demonstration of trying to cover up the truth?
Looking at the somewhat bright sunlight outside, Huan Zong posted two talismans outside Kong Hou’s room door. These were two House-Protecting Demon-Subduing Talismans. With these two talismans, demon beasts couldn’t enter the room from outside.
The sky gradually darkened, seemingly reminding Kong Hou and the others that it was time to go to bed.
Kong Hou felt the secret realm’s things were unreliable. She moved a bed from her storage ring, along with bedding, and placed it in the middle of the room. The tea table originally in the center of the room was squeezed into a small corner by the large bed.
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**Author’s Note:** Update for 240,000 nutrition fluid.