“Junior Sister Lian Qiao, what are you looking at?”

“I’m watching them.” In the teahouse, Lian Qiao sat by the window, looking down at the man bent over, waiting for the young woman to jump onto his back. “Senior Sister, if I told Master that I’m unwilling to become someone by Zhenren Zhong Xi’s side, would Master agree?”

The teahouse fell quiet. The senior and junior sisters looked at Lian Qiao with worry: “Lian Qiao, Master will punish you.”

“But they’re doing very well now.” Lian Qiao’s face showed a smile that even she herself didn’t know was there. “Watching Xianzi Kong Hou reveal such a carefree smile, I feel that if I were to destroy such a smile, my conscience would be uneasy.”

The other senior sisters rose and walked to the window. On the street below, Xianzi Kong Hou reached out and patted Zhenren Zhong Xi’s back a few times, tugging his sleeve and saying things like “don’t carry me, I’m joking” in a small voice. Zhenren Zhong Xi’s face revealed a gentle smile.

Anyone with eyes could see that Zhenren Zhong Xi had specifically dressed up before going out today. The look in his eyes as he gazed at Xianzi Kong Hou was filled completely with affection.

“I also think… they’re quite good like this.” A slightly younger junior sister said quietly. “But Master’s temperament has grown increasingly cold in recent years. If you go against her wishes, being expelled from the sect might still be the lesser punishment. What I fear is that in her anger, Master will destroy your cultivation, ruin your spiritual platform, and send you back to the mortal realm.” Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but shudder.

Lian Qiao’s hand resting on the window frame trembled slightly, her complexion paling several shades.

“I was just joking with you, and you actually want to carry me.” Kong Hou laughed aloud. She raised her head and saw the woman leaning by the window. This woman had willow-leaf eyebrows and starry eyes, like apricot blossoms half-opened, beautiful enough that Kong Hou couldn’t help but look at her several more times.

The smile on Kong Hou’s face became even more radiant. The woman leaning by the window blushed slightly on her cheeks and forced out a smile toward her. This smile was somewhat strange, like someone who didn’t smile often trying extremely hard to make themselves appear more friendly.

Seeing such a smile, Kong Hou didn’t let herself show a surprised expression. Instead, she smiled even more gently, waved at the other woman, then pulled Huan Zong forward.

Watching the young woman’s cheerful retreating figure, Lian Qiao laughed softly.

“Lian Qiao?!” The senior sister closest to her looked at her with shock. “What’s wrong with you?”

Since childhood, Lian Qiao had been raised by her master to have a temperament neither sad nor happy. They had almost never seen her laugh heartily. Now that she suddenly laughed aloud, they could hardly conceal their surprise.

“I…” The smile on Lian Qiao’s face gradually disappeared, returning to her usual appearance. “Nothing.”

Those eyes were truly beautiful, even brighter than the brightest stars in the night sky.

Huan Zong led Kong Hou searching for the teahouse recorded in the materials. Just as he was about to take her upstairs, mocking laughter came from nearby.

“A few stinking dried salted fish, and you want to sell them for fifty spirit stones? Even at the foot of Pei City, you can’t shout prices so randomly. Do you really think we cultivators from out of town don’t understand the market at all?”

“Brother, you should be grateful this is Pei City. Otherwise, with your random price-shouting, you’d have been beaten long ago.”

“Huh?” Kong Hou stopped in her tracks, looking at the vendor surrounded by several cultivators. This vendor had his hair tied with a wooden hairpin, wore a loose gray robe, and was sitting cross-legged beside a pile of salted fish.

“If you can’t afford it, don’t buy.” The vendor waved his hand dismissively. “Go, go, go.”

“Hey!” Seeing the vendor’s attitude, one cultivator almost couldn’t hold back his temper but was dragged away by his companion. At the foot of Liuguang Sect, hitting someone would cause trouble.

“Uncle, what are you doing here?” Kong Hou cupped her face and squatted in front of the stall. “Weren’t you running a shop in Yan City?”

The stall owner raised his eyelids to look at Kong Hou. He still remembered this “major customer” who had bought a pair of dried salted fish. He raised his eyebrows: “There are many people in Pei City, so I came to join the excitement. Who knew that although there are many people, few have both money and discerning eyes.”

Kong Hou saw that the robe on his body had been worn until it frayed at the edges, and the skin on his face was dry and cracked. She took out a handful of spirit stones and handed them to him: “I’ll buy.”

After taking the spirit stones and counting them, the stall owner picked out five fish from the pile of salted fish: “Take them.”

“Just five?” Kong Hou widened her eyes. “So few?”

“I’m already giving you the lowest cost price out of consideration for an old customer.” The stall owner pulled the cloth on the ground, bundled all the salted fish in the cloth package, stood up, and patted the dust off his body. “Little girl, there are many people and many mouths now. You can know a person’s face but not their heart. You’d better not wander around carelessly.”

“Hey, Uncle, wait a moment.” Kong Hou pulled out a spiritual fruit from her storage ring and tossed it to the stall owner. “Your face is cracked. Eating this will help.”

Catching the spiritual fruit casually, the stall owner looked down at it, rummaged around on himself, and gave Kong Hou another salted fish: “Take it. I don’t take advantage of people.”

Salted fish didn’t smell very good. Kong Hou reached out to catch it, stuffed the fish into her storage bag, and said with a smile: “Thanks.”

Waving his hand, the stall owner walked into the crowd. Huan Zong, standing behind Kong Hou, quietly watched him leave. After he merged into the flow of people and could no longer be seen, he said to Kong Hou: “Let’s go.”

The dried salted fish the vendor just tossed to Kong Hou was a type of fish hidden in the deep ocean floor. Eating it made people live longer. Even cultivators who failed to advance their cultivation and whose lifespans had reached their end could increase their lifespan by sixty years after consuming it. It was called “Longevity Immortal Fish” and was an extremely precious ingredient. He didn’t know who this person was, but since he bore no ill will toward Kong Hou, he would just pretend not to know.

“Doing business isn’t easy either.” Kong Hou used two cleansing spells on her palms. “Running wherever there are people, and getting scolded when things are sold too expensively.”

Huan Zong: “…”

“Huan Zong, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you speaking?” Kong Hou noticed that Huan Zong had been silent all along.

“What you said makes a lot of sense. I was silently agreeing with your words.”

For some reason, Kong Hou inexplicably felt that after Huan Zong was with her, it was like an immortal had descended to earth. He was becoming more and more like a mortal—even saying such teasing words.

There were many customers in the teahouse. Huan Zong spent money to reserve a small tea room. The two drank tea while listening to the storyteller tell stories of love and enmity. Perhaps because the story of the great demon falling in love with a righteous female cultivator was too clichéd, the tea guests weren’t very interested. Only scattered individuals tossed reward money onto the stage.

“Let me tell everyone an interesting tale from the cultivation world—the story of Zhenren Zhong Xi killing five evil cultivators across cultivation stages.”

“Gentlemen, please listen. Speaking of Zhenren Zhong Xi, his natural talent was outstanding, like an immortal descended from heaven…”

What ordinary people loved most were still stories of famous orthodox sects defeating evil cultivators. Soon everyone’s emotions were stirred up. Seeing more and more reward money on the stage, the storytelling master told several more accounts of the ugly states evil cultivators were in after being defeated, causing the tea guests to laugh heartily. The entire teahouse became lively.

“Is this all true?” Kong Hou peeled the dried fruit in her hand. “When you were one hundred years old, you killed five evil cultivators across cultivation stages?”

Huan Zong shook his head: “It was too long ago. I don’t remember.”

Kong Hou was stunned at these words, then lay on the table and began laughing softly. With Huan Zong’s temperament, not remembering was normal.

Seeing her laugh so happily, Huan Zong helplessly shook his head and sighed, which only made Kong Hou’s laughter grow louder.

“The storytelling master is recounting Zhenren Zhong Xi’s deeds. If the fellow daoist next door doesn’t agree, that’s fine, but why mock him?” A man’s voice came from the adjacent tea room. Kong Hou focused her spiritual sense to probe and discovered there should be three people next door.

With the exchange conference approaching, Kong Hou didn’t want to cause trouble, so she said: “Fellow daoist misunderstands. I was just joking with my friend and had no intention of mocking Zhenren Zhong Xi.” She glanced at Huan Zong—this was caused by you again.

Huan Zong learned her usual innocent blinking expression. Since he was good-looking, this expression didn’t seem out of place at all when he did it.

“Fellow daoist just laughed without any restraint, but now when someone inquires, you say it has nothing to do with Zhenren Zhong Xi?” However, the man next door didn’t want to let Kong Hou off. His tone seemed somewhat aggressive. “Miss, you appear to also be a cultivator. Don’t you understand what respect means?”

“I understand very well. I just don’t know if fellow daoist understands?” Kong Hou’s tone didn’t change. “Fellow daoist is overthinking.”

There was no response from next door. Kong Hou thought the other party had given up, but who knew—a knock sounded at the door. She glanced at the door but didn’t speak. Huan Zong’s face turned cold as he waved his sleeve. The door automatically opened. Outside stood three young cultivators—two men and one woman. Their cultivation wasn’t particularly high, but they were dressed luxuriously and should be disciples from a sect with some standing.

The bone age of the three appeared to be no more than fifty years old. The young master at the front had an extraordinary noble bearing, like a child raised with pampering. His face showed obvious displeasure. He looked toward Kong Hou sitting at the table. He seemed not to have expected such a beautiful young woman. Though the anger on his face hadn’t yet dissipated, at least it wasn’t so obvious: “I am Banwu, disciple of Biyu Sect. Fellow daoist, greetings.”

Biyu Sect?

Among the ten great sects, although Biyu Sect was ranked among them, like Yunhua Sect, their sense of presence wasn’t very high. Additionally, being secluded in the western mountain range where snow accumulated year-round, they didn’t have much contact with the other nine sects.

“So it’s fellow daoists from Biyu Sect.” Kong Hou rose and returned the courtesy.

“Seeing that the xianzi has an extraordinary bearing, you must also be from a great sect. Why are you so disrespectful toward Zhenren Zhong Xi?” The female cultivator standing behind Banwu couldn’t wait to speak. “How can Zhenren Zhong Xi’s abilities be mocked by the likes of you?”

Only then did Kong Hou understand—these three were all admirers of Huan Zong. She looked at Huan Zong with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile: “This xianzi speaks correctly.”

This attitude instead made it difficult for the three Biyu Sect disciples to continue their outburst. The three looked at each other, all feeling that this matter was like throwing a punch at cotton—both weak and awkward.

“You all are overthinking. Zhenren Zhong Xi wouldn’t care how others view him. The two of us are drinking tea here and don’t wish to be disturbed. Three of you, please return.” Huan Zong refilled Kong Hou’s hot tea and no longer looked at the three Biyu Sect disciples.

“Apologies, we were rash.” Banwu had no intention of provoking them. Coming over brazenly to investigate was only because he wanted to know whether those who dared to mock Zhenren Zhong Xi in Pei City were cultivators or evil cultivators disguised as cultivators. In his understanding, in the entire cultivation world, aside from evil cultivators, surely no one would mock Zhenren Zhong Xi.

Unfortunately, he had clearly guessed wrong. This person who wasn’t respectful enough toward Zhenren Zhong Xi was truly just an ordinary female cultivator.

“You’re not Zhenren Zhong Xi. What right do you have to say he doesn’t care on his behalf?” Banwu’s junior sister was somewhat unhappy. They had grown up listening to legends of Zhenren Zhong Xi. Zhenren Zhong Xi held an extremely lofty position in their hearts, so when the storyteller was recounting Zhenren Zhong Xi’s heroic deeds, they especially couldn’t tolerate others’ mocking laughter.

“I am Zhong Xi, disciple of Liuguang Sect.”

—

**Author’s Note:** Biyu Sect: Meeting… is not as good as just admiring from afar.