Because of Yu Xiu, Chu Yi would not return to Tianji for some time, letting him play with Ling Luo, who was still a child.

Unfortunately, Ling Luo grew one year older each day. Five days later, she was already ten years old. When Yu Xiu woke up the next day and saw his junior sister much taller than himself, he fell into silence before finally crying to Chu Yi: “Senior Brother, why did Junior Sister suddenly get so tall? Why does she grow faster than me? Does she not want to play with me anymore?”

Chu Yi stared at his tearful junior brother, momentarily stunned and not knowing what to say.

He had never seen Yu Xiu cry before.

In his memory, his junior brother had always been composed, gentle, and modest.

“Your junior sister has exceptional talent,” Chu Yi racked his brains to explain. “She grows one year older each day, while you grow one year older each year. How can you compare?”

After hearing this, Yu Xiu felt he couldn’t match up to his junior sister and found it difficult to communicate with a junior sister who was no longer a little ball of cuteness. So he abandoned Ling Luo and instead played with the large raccoon cat, who was similar in size to him.

Ling Luo overheard her Second Senior Brother muttering to the large raccoon cat: “Senior Brother said Junior Sister grows one year older each day, but there are three hundred and sixty-five days in a year. Calculating this way, will Junior Sister live for three hundred years, or just three hundred days?”

The large raccoon cat was dumbfounded.

Ling Luo: “…”

She had grown from a tiny figure to reach Yue Liangze’s waist. She turned and buried herself in his embrace, saying in a muffled voice, “My Second Senior Brother has become stupid!”

Yue Liangze stroked her head, smiling gently, “He’ll become smart again later.”

On the day Ling Luo turned fourteen, there was a lantern festival in the city. After nightfall, lights illuminated the entire city, and elegantly dressed young men and women lined both sides of the canal. During the lantern festival, street stalls remained open all night, creating an extraordinarily lively atmosphere.

The fourteen-year-old girl wore colorful clothes and hairpins, her bright black hair draped over her shoulders, falling forward as she bent down to pick up a ghost mask from a stall.

Brilliant, dazzling fireworks exploded in the night sky behind her.

Ling Luo turned back, not to look at the fireworks, but toward the young man in black following her. Yue Liangze wore a sword at his waist, his appearance handsome and refined, his eyes calm. The coolness of a young swordsman strangely combined with the languidness of a grown man, attracting sidelong glances from many women as he walked through the bustling crowd.

Seeing the mask in her hand, Yue Liangze asked, “Do you want to buy it?”

Ling Luo stood on tiptoe, trying to place the mask on his face but failing. Yue Liangze took it and put it on himself.

The stall owner, a woman, smiled and said, “Little sister, your brother is so handsome, it would be a shame to cover his face!”

Ling Luo: “…”

Yue Liangze paid for her, and Ling Luo pulled him along the canal, her ears and eyes filled with the vibrancy of the mortal world.

After she had seen enough fireworks, Yue Liangze took her to eat at night street food stalls. The relatively quiet roadside stalls were lit with red lanterns, with fewer people passing by, and the stall owners gathered to chat.

Ling Luo was led by him to sit at a wonton stall.

“I thought you’d make these for me when we got back,” she blinked, looking at Yue Liangze sitting opposite her, thinking that she had truly been spoiled by him.

Yue Liangze took chopsticks from the holder, wiped them, and handed them to her, saying, “That would be different.”

Ling Luo asked, “What’s different?”

Yue Liangze said, “I want you to be able to enjoy a bowl of street wontons carefree at this age.”

Ling Luo held the chopsticks, momentarily stunned. The steam from the bowl rose, making her eyes increasingly moist.

From the age of twelve, her life had been turned upside down.

From having all basic needs met to becoming homeless—no money, no home, not enough food, inadequate clothing, poor sleep, and constantly hiding. When extremely hungry, she had even eaten tree leaves.

If she could return to that age, Yue Liangze hoped she would never have to live that way again, never suffer from hunger and cold, and never be chased and beaten for stealing a steamed bun.

She could live a life with food and drink, with a home to shelter from wind and rain.

She could move fearlessly and carefree among lively crowds, no longer hiding, wearing beautiful dresses, adorned with exquisite hairpins, enjoying the lantern festival just for happiness, buying things she liked, eating a hot bowl of wontons at a street stall when hungry, and finally returning home to sleep comfortably.

Even if just for one day, Yue Liangze wanted to replace her previous miserable experiences with beautiful memories.

From her previous uncertainty and misunderstandings, Ling Luo now knew what Yue Liangze was thinking with just a frown or a blink.

She no longer doubted, firmly believing that Yue Liangze loved her more than anyone else in the world, and this love, regardless of when, always moved her, satisfied her, and made her dependent on him.

Yue Liangze took twelve-year-old Ling Luo to eat at every street stall, thirteen-year-old Ling Luo to attend classes at academies, fourteen-year-old Ling Luo to stay in elegant high towers, fifteen-year-old Ling Luo to buy the finest rouge and beautiful clothes and accessories, and at sixteen, she walked the streets turning the heads of passersby.

They traveled through city after city, seeing many landscapes.

Today, it began to rain halfway through their outing. Yue Liangze held an umbrella for her, and Ling Luo, holding his hand, asked, “Where shall we play today?”

“Wanzhou City has a Fire God Festival today. You can see the street decorations are already set up, but I didn’t expect it to rain,” Yue Liangze said. “Let’s find a place to take shelter and wait for the rain to stop.”

There were many pedestrians on the street, umbrellas blooming like flowers, making it difficult to see faces clearly through the cover.

Yu Cang, having finished his sect duties, brought his young sect leader out to see the Fire God Festival and relax. Unexpectedly, it rained midway, hampering the festival’s opening. Then he noticed Danshui True Lord holding hands intimately with a young girl.

He rubbed his eyes and restrained Feng Tianyao, whose face had darkened, “A’Yao, calm down. It might be a misunderstanding. Let’s observe more carefully. Danshui True Lord isn’t that kind of person!”

“That woman looks very young. It can’t possibly be her,” Feng Tianyao’s hand was already on his sword hilt. “He’s sharing an umbrella and embracing her right before my eyes!”

Yu Cang wiped the sweat from his forehead, seeing Feng Tianyao follow them, he hurriedly chased after, afraid trouble would break out.

He regretted it a thousand times in his heart—if he had known, he would never have brought him down the mountain to see any Fire God Festival!

The two secretly followed and saw Yue Liangze and the umbrella-holding girl enter a restaurant, order food, and listen to the storyteller in the main hall narrate plays, interspersed with some interesting tales from the cultivation world.

Ling Luo asked Yue Liangze, “Do you know who is the most handsome person in Tianji?”

This question seemed familiar.

Yue Liangze glanced at her, reached out to wipe the meat sauce from the corner of her mouth, and said, “I know.”

“You didn’t know before,” Ling Luo blinked at him. “I don’t believe you know now. Who is it?”

Yue Liangze leaned close to her ear and whispered, “Hall Master Fan.”

Ling Luo’s eyes widened slightly, “How do you know?”

“Senior Brother told me,” Yue Liangze said. “He became like this due to his unique cultivation method. The deeper his spiritual energy, the larger his physique. If his spiritual energy is depleted, his physique changes accordingly. So if we’re talking about who is the most handsome in Tianji, it should be Hall Master Fan after consuming his spiritual energy.”

Feng Tianyao, who had been watching the two intently, bristled and immediately, despite Yu Cang’s obstruction, sent a fierce sword intent flying over, which was blocked by Yue Liangze.

The tall figure approaching head-on brought a fierce wind and anger, pointing at him, “Yue Liangze! How dare you betray her by being intimate with another woman!”

Yue Liangze: “…”

Feng Tianyao fumed, “And she’s just a young girl! Look at her, she’s only…”

Turning to see Ling Luo’s face, he paused. Her appearance was indeed very similar, which angered him even more, “You even found someone who looks like her!”

Ling Luo snapped irritably, “Get lost! I told you not to appear before me without reason.”

The crisp, sweet voice spoke the harshest words.

Feng Tianyao was completely bewildered.

Yu Cang, without further consideration, came forward and pulled him away, “Sorry for the disturbance, please continue!”

Feng Tianyao, unable to comprehend, secretly followed them for several days before gradually understanding the situation.

Only after Ling Luo had recovered did Feng Tianyao quietly leave.

The first thing Ling Luo did upon returning to Tianzhaozhan Mountain was to give the potted green dates to Song Yuanyuan, telling him to be filial to his master.

Song Yuanyuan did as told, giving it to his master first. The next morning, when he went to pay his respects and opened the door, he was so shocked to find a five-year-old child sitting behind the door that he immediately closed it and left.

Before long, Yue Liangze’s sound token was constantly buzzing with news of his ‘adopted son.’

Only then did he realize Ling Luo had given the potted green dates to Song Yuanyuan.

Glancing at Ling Luo teaching Mu Xujing spells in the courtyard, Yue Liangze silently shouldered the blame, telling Song Yuanyuan not to panic as it would revert in a few days.

In the end, it wasn’t a few days but more than a month.

Watching his master transform from a little ball of cuteness to an incomparably handsome youth, Song Yuanyuan constantly felt his master had been replaced, living in daily fear. His master, however, was very interested in the potted green dates, studying them daily without blaming him much.

Ling Luo led Mu Xujing to secretly peek at Tianji, encountering Chang Fei and Xu Shen, who had also come to peek. The group marveled at the unparalleled, clear, and elegant figure inside the room.

They secretly passed around drawings recording the scene, almost getting caught.

Hall Master Fan turned his head toward the door, “Who’s outside?”

Everyone unanimously pushed Song Yuanyuan out.

Song Yuanyuan stumbled to the door, cleared his throat, and said, “Master, it’s me. I was wondering if you’d like some late-night snacks?”

Ling Luo led Mu Xujing away first. When crossing Dingshan River, they ran into Chu Yi, who was returning with Yu Xiu.

Chu Yi said irritably, “You treat this as your own home, coming and going as you please. If you had run into Mu Ya today, what would you have done!”

Yu Xiu looked up at his now-restored junior sister with a sad expression.

Before Ling Luo could speak, Mu Ya and several elders emerged from behind. The situation spiraled out of control amid flashing blades and swords. Ling Luo, not bothering to fight, simply opened a Death Mist Gate and left.

Left behind, Mu Xujing: “?”

Did you forget something?!

Chu Yi looked speechlessly at Mu Xujing, who was surrounded by several grand elders and Mu Ya’s sword intent. What an unfortunate fellow.

Back at Tianzhaozhan Mountain, Ling Luo vividly described to Yue Liangze how handsome Hall Master Fan was in his youth, gesturing expressively. Yue Liangze maintained a neutral expression, waiting for her to finish before asking, “Am I more handsome, or is he?”

Without thinking, Ling Luo replied, “Of course you’re more handsome.”

A hint of amusement passed through Yue Liangze’s eyes as he arranged the bowls and chopsticks, “You should go back once more. Dinner is already prepared.”

Ling Luo was puzzled, “Why should I go back?”

Yue Liangze sighed, “Don’t you feel like you’ve forgotten something?”

Ling Luo stared at him wide-eyed.

After a moment, she slapped her forehead, “Mu Xujing!”

Mu Xujing, who had been battling several elders at Tianji, finally saw Ling Luo return for him.

Thereafter, Mu Xujing vowed never to go out alone with Ling Luo again.