Kong Hou quickly turned her head to look at Wang Tong and saw that although his expression still appeared normal, his eyes held worry that couldn’t be dissolved.

Noticing Kong Hou’s small movement, Huan Zong followed her gaze and saw Wang Tong not far away. He looked down at his hand clasped with Kong Hou’s, reluctantly and slowly releasing it: “Go to him.”

Kong Hou’s cultivation speed was very fast, just like his own back in the day. He still remembered when his seclusion ended years ago—some fellow disciples had faintly revealed emotions of envy or jealousy toward him. At that time, his master told him that people envying others’ advantages and feeling inferior about their own shortcomings was human nature. As long as one could properly control their mental state, it was a form of liberation or success.

But in the eyes of these personal disciples of Yunhua Sect, Huan Zong saw joy and even elation, as if the higher Kong Hou’s cultivation became, the better it was for them.

“Zhenren Zhong Xi.” Wu Chuan stepped forward and bowed. “Thank you for your hard work during this time. Please follow me for a cup of clear tea.”

Not having seen him for over half a year, the aura around Zhenren Zhong Xi had become even more naturally unadorned. With his own cultivation level, he surprisingly couldn’t tell at all that the other person was a cultivator. Someone who reached Spirit Severance Stage at such a young age was truly astonishing. No wonder he was regarded by everyone in the cultivation world as the hope for ascension in a thousand years.

Wu Chuan looked up at the sky. The Heavenly Dao was unpredictable. For what reason had their Lingyou Realm received punishment, such that not a single person had ascended in all these years?

“Thank you, I appreciate it.” Huan Zong looked back at Kong Hou and said to her in a low voice, “I’ll go to Fellow Daoist Wu Chuan’s place first.”

Kong Hou felt somewhat embarrassed having her thoughts exposed by Wang Tong. Hearing Huan Zong say this, she bowed to Wu Chuan standing nearby and said to Huan Zong: “All right. I haven’t seen Master and my senior brothers and sisters for many days and have some things to say. You go drink tea with Senior Brother Wu Chuan first.”

Wu Chuan’s gaze circled between the two people, his expression unchanged: “Please.”

After Heng Yan and Wu Chuan left with Huan Zong, Wang Tong could no longer maintain his calm, detached demeanor. He waved his hand at Kong Hou: “Come, come, come back with me.”

The personal disciples from other peaks saw that Wang Tong’s expression was somewhat off. Thinking of how Kong Hou had just come out holding Zhenren Zhong Xi’s hand, they all felt something was amiss about this matter. They quickly stuffed their gifts into Kong Hou’s hands and ran. When people were closing doors to discipline their disciples, they didn’t want to attract resentment.

After everyone else scattered, Wang Tong looked at Kong Hou with a stern face: “What’s going on between you and Zhenren Zhong Xi?”

“Master, this disciple was momentarily bewitched by beauty…” Kong Hou said in a small voice. “Please calm your anger, Master.”

“Do you know what position Zhenren Zhong Xi holds in the cultivation world?” Wang Tong took a deep breath. “If you lead him into an emotional tribulation and ruin his state of mind, everyone in Liuguang Sect won’t forgive you.”

Kong Hou said quietly: “But didn’t you say that Jiufeng Sect once intended to have a disciple become dao companions with Zhong Xi?”

“Did you see Liuguang Sect agree?” Wang Tong lowered his voice and said earnestly: “Do you know that Jiufeng Sect even brought out phoenix blood just hoping Liuguang Sect would nod in agreement?”

Phoenix blood was a treasure left from ancient times—how precious was that? Yet Liuguang Sect refused without hesitation, showing how much hope they placed in Huan Zong. They couldn’t bear for him to be wronged even slightly for an ancient precious treasure.

“At such a young age, your judgment isn’t bad. Among all the male cultivators in the entire cultivation world, you had to fancy Zhenren Zhong Xi.” Wang Tong was both angry and amused, also worried that after Kong Hou’s feelings of love came to nothing, she would become melancholy. “In the entire vegetable garden with so many cabbages, you just had to pick the most tender and precious one to root up.”

“Master, I’m your personal disciple.” Kong Hou said quietly. “How can you call your own disciple a pig?”

“In your master’s eyes, you are naturally the world’s most precious jade cabbage. All men who get close to you are the ugliest fat pigs.” Wang Tong sighed. “But people’s hearts are all biased. Zhenren Zhong Xi became famous at a young age and has slain countless evil cultivators who committed wrongdoing. His prestige in the cultivation world is extremely high. If your feelings were known to the world, in their eyes, Zhenren Zhong Xi would be that incomparably precious jade cabbage.”

For a moment, Kong Hou didn’t know what to refute, but she also knew that what her master said wasn’t meant to deliberately discourage her, but rather to make her understand the reality of the current cultivation world.

“Sigh, if I’d known, when we gave Liuguang Sect the merman scales, we should have taken the opportunity to make Liuguang Sect owe us more favors. Perhaps Zhenren Zhong Xi, seeing you’re good-looking and have Five Spiritual Roots aptitude, would have been willing to pledge himself to you.” Wang Tong stroked his beard and shook his head repeatedly. “Of all people you could have fancied, why did it have to be him?”

If she had fancied another male cultivator, there would still be room for coercion and enticement. However, Zhenren Zhong Xi was flawless from head to toe, leaving no opening.

Kong Hou silently thought that if a few precious medicinal materials could make Huan Zong pledge himself to her, Huan Zong might have to sell himself to her for several lifetimes to repay the debt.

But she didn’t dare tell her master this. Moreover, although she was young, she already felt that feelings obtained by relying on gratitude wouldn’t last long.

In Yunhua Sect’s main hall, Heng Yan smiled as he looked at Zhong Xi seated in the guest position: “Zhenren Zhong Xi, have you been comfortable staying at our humble sect during this time? Kong Hou is young. If there are any shortcomings, please be understanding.”

“Sect Leader, you give me too much credit. Kong Hou is good in every way. As you know, this junior’s spiritual platform had problems. During this time, fortunately with Kong Hou’s help, my cultivation has slowly recovered. It’s she who has been understanding of me.” Zhong Xi bowed to Heng Yan. “Please, Senior, don’t call this junior Zhenren. You may call this junior Zhong Xi or Huan Zong.”

“Huan Zong is your secular name?” Heng Yan nodded and stopped insisting. “This name is good. Supporting heaven and establishing earth makes one Huan; being respected by众people makes one Zong. The person who named you must have hoped you could stand tall between heaven and earth and be revered by all.”

Huan Zong said: “Sect Leader praises me too much.”

Heng Yan continued chatting and laughing with him. After sitting for another half shichen, he had Wu Chuan escort Huan Zong back to his courtyard.

When Wu Chuan returned, Heng Yan shook his head lightly at him: “Zhenren Zhong Xi’s primal yang is intact.” Such a private matter couldn’t be asked directly. Heng Yan could only slowly observe through physiognomy. He worried he might have seen wrong, so he observed a while longer.

“Can you rest assured now?”

“Rest assured about what?” Heng Yan let out a long sigh. “Just because there’s no problem with that doesn’t mean there’s no problem with the other thing.” Just now he had clearly seen Kong Hou hooking Zhenren Zhong Xi’s finger. Who was taking advantage of whom here?

Huan Zong had barely sat in the separate courtyard for long when Wang Tong came to the door. In front of Wang Tong, Huan Zong became much more reserved.

“During this time, thank you, Zhenren Zhong Xi, for looking after my inferior disciple.” Wang Tong watched Huan Zong’s flowing tea-making movements and stroked his chin with emotion. His young disciple’s eye for men was truly excellent.

“Senior is too polite. According to the seniority ranking among our major sects, this junior should call you Master Uncle.” Huan Zong presented the tea cup with both hands. “This way, Kong Hou would be this junior’s little junior martial sister. Taking care of her is perfectly natural and right.”

No matter which sect it was, none could accept disciples with excellent talent indulging in romantic affairs. Moreover, Kong Hou didn’t yet know his feelings. How could he dare leak even half of his intentions and cause Zhenren Wang Tong to punish Kong Hou after returning?

Wang Tong had lived over nine hundred years and naturally knew the cultivation world’s all-purpose phrase for rejecting someone’s feelings: “I regard her as a senior/junior martial sister” or “I regard him as a senior/junior martial brother.” This kind of statement was extremely tactful, but senior and junior martial siblings were like blood siblings—who would develop other feelings for their own siblings?

Hearing the words “junior martial sister,” Wang Tong’s heart sank. His young disciple’s little feelings were probably about to be shattered. He looked at Huan Zong, wanting to speak but hesitating. Only after a long while did he lower his head and take a sip of tea: “Good tea.”

“This tea was obtained by this junior in a secret realm. If Master Uncle likes it, this junior has more here.” Zhong Xi pulled out a large package of spiritual tea from his storage ring. Not knowing how to curry favor with elders, he could only generously bring out items.

Looking at the package of spiritual tea overflowing with spiritual energy on the table, Wang Tong said earnestly: “Zhenren Zhong Xi, this old one presumes to call you worthy nephew. We cultivators don’t care about external objects, but this of yours…”

Such precious spiritual tea—he had only mentioned it once and the young man had brought it all out. This child was so straightforward it made one worry for Jin Yue. How did he teach his disciple to throw good things out one after another without showing any heartache?

Huan Zong looked at Wang Tong with confusion. Did he like it or not?

Wang Tong sighed and took a small jar from the large package of tea: “This old one doesn’t often drink tea normally. This will be enough.”

“Then this junior will keep these. When Master Uncle finishes drinking it, this junior will send you more.” Huan Zong obediently put away the spiritual tea.

Wang Tong: “…”

Children who primarily cultivated the sword path were truly honest to the point of leaving one speechless. Even though the young man didn’t fancy his own disciple, Wang Tong couldn’t in good conscience pick out a heap of faults with him. Taking his leave of Huan Zong, Wang Tong returned to Qiyue Peak. Seeing Kong Hou teaching several grand-disciples cultivation methods, he let out a long sigh: “Kong Hou, come with me.”

Kong Hou saw Wang Tong’s grave expression and thought something major had happened. She said to Gui Lin and the other two: “You three continue comprehending slowly.”

Gui Lin, Li Rou, and Gao Jianyan saw their grand-master looking for Kong Hou and didn’t dare delay her: “Please go, Martial Uncle. We will certainly cultivate diligently.”

Having satisfied her craving to teach juniors, Kong Hou was very content. She waved goodbye to her three junior martial siblings and walked behind Wang Tong. “Master, what’s wrong?”

“We’ll talk inside.” Wang Tong saw his three grand-disciples secretly peeking this way and brought Kong Hou back to his own cave dwelling. Master and disciple sat cross-legged beside the jade table. Wang Tong looked at Kong Hou, Kong Hou looked at Wang Tong. The master-disciple pair fell into a mysterious silence.

“Good disciple.” Wang Tong coughed and broke the difficult silence. “Your master just thought for a long time and went through all the young male cultivators of our cultivation world.”

Kong Hou looked at him in confusion.

“Zhaohan Sect’s Chang De is dignified in appearance and the sect leader’s chief disciple with unlimited future prospects. Jiufeng Sect’s sect leader’s second disciple—seems to be called Jingyuan—is also exceptionally good-looking. Although his aptitude is only single spiritual root, he’s also refined and elegant. Shouwang Sect’s sect master is young and accomplished, dignified in appearance, and hasn’t been rumored to have relations with any female cultivator. Danxia Tower’s Zhenren Guangjiao is praised as the most promising disciple in the pill cultivation world and is also handsome. There’s also Liangyi Sect’s chief disciple, called something… Your master saw him over a hundred years ago—truly magnificent in style with spirited bearing. Also, among the disciples Biyu Sect took in two years ago, there’s one who has already reached Foundation Establishment who is exceptionally good-looking, praised as the cultivation world’s Second Young Master…”

“Then who’s the First Young Master?” Kong Hou asked with interest.

“That’s not important. What’s important is that he’s handsome.” How could Wang Tong tell her that the First Young Master was Zhenren Zhong Xi?

“Didn’t you feel your divination skills weren’t good enough? Yuexing Sect’s young sect master has outstanding natural talent in divination. Most importantly, he’s also very handsome, like an unworldly immortal.” Wang Tong thought for a moment. “Oh right, there’s also that sect dependent on Liuguang Sect—what’s it called? The master of Hefeng Studio, An He. His swordsmanship is outstanding. Compared to your Senior Brother Wu Chuan and Jiufeng Sect’s chief disciple Lingyue, he’s not much inferior. Oh yes, there’s also Qingjing Temple’s Monk Wuyou. Even with a shaved head, his appearance is like spring flowers…”

“Wait, Master. Wuyou is a monk.”

“That’s not important. What’s important is, what do you think of them?” Wang Tong looked at Kong Hou with burning eyes.

Kong Hou pondered for a long time and said honestly: “None compare to Huan Zong.”

**Author’s Note:** Wang Tong: Mentally exhausted. Raising a disciple is so difficult.