“Ling’e told me, she said you get nervous interacting with women in public.”
Jiu Xu sat on the treasure ship’s railing, carrying her large gourd on her back and gently swinging her feet, with the array’s shimmering light wall behind her. She held several wine-fermented spirit bean pills in her hand, tossing one up, tilting her head back, and opening her mouth…
With an “ah-woo” sound and crunching noises.
“Though this Senior Uncle considers herself lacking in feminine charm, I’m still somewhat of a woman, so I held back from playing with you.”
Hearing this beside them, Xiong Lingli looked down at her body full of muscle, silently lowered her head, and hugged herself.
Sitting in the corner meditating, Li Changshou couldn’t help but smile bitterly…
Senior Uncle, could it be that you have some misunderstanding about feminine charm?
‘So it was Ling’e who made advance instructions,’ Li Changshou immediately felt touched.
This dear junior sister wasn’t loved in vain.
Decided!
From now on, he wouldn’t use paper avatars to monitor Ling’e—he would only use a paper avatar to check what Ling’e was doing right before returning to the mountain.
If Ling’e was being lazy and daydreaming instead of properly cultivating, he would reward her with ten years of confinement to focus on advancing her realm;
If Ling’e was carefully grooming herself, bathing, and changing clothes, he would reward her with copying the “Sutra of Stability” five hundred times to correct her deviant thoughts;
If Ling’e was eating barbecue in the spirit beast enclosure, then… he would close the door and give her a beating;
Ahem, if by chance Ling’e was diligently cultivating and quietly comprehending the dao, he would officially teach her the original version of the paper-person divine ability, giving her another skill for self-protection.
Li Changshou went through these scenarios in his mind, feeling somewhat moved.
That delicate and clever little girl from years ago was now gracefully grown up—aside from always wanting to do bad things to him as her senior brother, in other aspects, she had grown up quite well.
Especially in these recent dozen years, Ling’e had less of that “impulse” to cause trouble, becoming much more steady.
This made Li Changshou quite satisfied.
In the future, as long as Ling’e remained stable, he naturally wouldn’t mistreat this little junior sister.
Then he heard Jiu Xu letting out a light sigh:
“Ah, why didn’t we ascend when passing tribulation back then.”
Li Changshou smiled: “Disciple saw in the dao collection hall’s texts that ascension doesn’t depend on aptitude or insights, but rather on accumulation before becoming an immortal, and whether one’s dao resonates with heaven and earth.”
“Hmph,” Jiu Xu rolled her eyes, “Those in the Six Realms of Returning to Dao have no right to speak!”
“Yes, yes,” Li Changshou lowered his head, “Disciple spoke too much.”
“Um… I didn’t mean your cultivation was low, don’t overthink it.”
Jiu Xu worried she had accidentally discouraged Li Changshou’s cultivation confidence, thought for a moment before putting on an elder’s air to instruct:
“Cultivation is about the long term, not about day-to-day.
Temporary speed doesn’t mean your future achievements will be high.
Some cultivators with outstanding aptitude and comprehension become immortals in a hundred years, True Immortals in a thousand years, then cultivating along—eh, suddenly get stuck, unable to reach Celestial Immortal, let alone long life.
So, cultivation… um, yes, can’t be about momentary competition, must look at the long term!”
“Senior Uncle’s wise words!” Li Changshou smiled and agreed.
Beside them, Xiong Lingli was full of emotion, her big eyes sparkling with starlight as she looked at this junior sister with complete admiration.
Jiu Xu embarrassedly waved at Xiong Lingli, suddenly thinking of something and transmitting to Li Changshou:
“How do you plan to arrange for this little Lingli?
She’s the Sect Master’s nominal disciple, it would be more appropriate to cultivate at Breaking Heaven Peak, should I take her to stay at my place?
After all, my house is empty, I’m practically registered at your Little Qiong Peak!”
“Little Qiong Peak is more plain,” Li Changshou transmitted back, “Lingli has a beast-man bloodline, though she’s transcended eating grains, she still likes to eat, Little Qiong Peak suits her well.
After returning, I’ll expand the spirit beast enclosure several times, raise more delicious spirit beasts, and let Lingli manage it besides cultivation.
This way, Lingli won’t need to always leave the sect for hunting.”
Jiu Xu’s eyes immediately lit up as she looked at Xiong Lingli, couldn’t help smacking her lips…
Wouldn’t that mean she could openly hang out with this muscular little sister, eating and drinking together in the future?
Xiong Lingli shrank her neck, weakly looking at this senior sister who, though petite in build, had such developed muscles in certain areas…
This gaze was very similar to when she was hungry!
Li Changshou smiled: “We’ll discuss after returning.”
Jiu Xu immediately nodded in agreement, while Xiong Lingli looked at her Sea God cousin and then at junior sister Jiu Xu, her heart completely uncertain.
What kind of place was Du Xian Gate…
Jiu Xu suddenly stretched out her small hand, calling out: “Want to play cards?
This conference was too boring, I slept more than twenty times before it ended!”
Li Changshou smiled, taking out the cards he had prepared early, calling Lingli to come over, and having little Senior Uncle set up a layer of immortal force barrier around them, blocking external observation.
Originally, Xiong Lingli said things like “I’m stupid, might not be able to play” and so on;
But after two rounds, the bear girl’s eyes were shining, shouting “Four Celestial Immortals,” “Pair of Golden Immortals,” “Bang-da-la-bang,” and “Joint Flying Immortals” more fiercely than anyone!
While playing was playing, Li Changshou didn’t forget to think about serious matters.
How could he make Great Lord Zhao’s group stop randomly scamming everywhere?
Originally Li Changshou thought Zhao Gongming and Qiong Xiao were just having temporary fun, but from Wen Jing Daoist’s experience, this pair of siblings had started making a Primordial Chaos large-scale scamming series…
The Primordial Chaos didn’t have an emergency hotline, and Great Lord Zhao’s backing was too strong!
Today they could coincidentally bump into Wen Jing Daoist, tomorrow they might lift the tiles off Purple Void Palace’s roof!
Li Changshou couldn’t help feeling troubled…
Back then, to deal with the Western Teaching’s hunchbacked elder, he had made that great dao oath too watertight, making it truly difficult to conclude now.
He wanted to wash his hands of this matter, but worried that if Great Lord Zhao caused big trouble in the future, he would also be implicated;
He wanted to intervene in time but didn’t know how to handle it…
After worrying like this for several days, Li Changshou even thought about asking his small backing—Grand Master Xuandu—to step in and settle this matter.
But casually requesting the Grand Master would only consume the Grand Master’s goodwill toward him…
Backings couldn’t be casually used, and this matter wasn’t urgent to that extent.
Just when Li Changshou was at his wit’s end, a casual comment from Jiu Xu gave him inspiration…
Jiu Xu said: “I don’t know why Ling’e is so afraid of you as her senior brother, can’t you be gentler with Ling’e!”
Senior brother… brother…
Right!
Li Changshou slapped his forehead, how could he forget this big shot?
Jiu Xu blinked: “Why are you hitting yourself? Such an exaggerated action, showing your regret?”
“No, disciple suddenly thought of… a small cultivation trick,” Li Changshou smiled, “Thanks for Senior Uncle’s reminder, I’ll be gentler with Ling’e in the future.
Senior Uncle, you play with Lingli first, disciple needs to seclude himself for cultivation for a while!”
“Hmm? How come we don’t usually see you this diligent,” Jiu Xu grumbled somewhat dissatisfied, “Just showing off in front of the sect’s experts!”
Li Changshou didn’t argue, just smiled with narrowed eyes…
Little Senior Uncle was truly his lucky star.
Closing his eyes, focusing his spirit, most of his consciousness returned to the paper avatar beneath the Sea God Sect’s main temple.
He switched to a ‘full immortal force’ paper avatar, floating out, quietly going to the local main temple, and entering the room specially prepared for paper avatars…
Roughly, he had a direction.
Within the Cutting Teaching, besides the Sage Lord, if one person could manage Zhao Gongming and Qiong Xiao, it wasn’t the Cutting Teaching’s big senior brother Duo Bao Daoist.
But rather the eldest of the Three Xiao Sisters, Zhao Gongming’s second sister, Lady Yun Xiao!
The Three Xiao Sisters were also familiar figures to Li Changshou from his previous life.
They were called fierce ones mainly because in the future Investiture of the Gods catastrophe, to avenge their brother Zhao Gongming, they set up the Nine Curves Yellow River Formation, using the Primal Origin Golden Dipper to remove the top three flowers from most members of the Twelve Golden Immortals combination;
This was just a small part of their achievements.
Most impressive was that when the Sage Lord personally moved to subdue them, the Three Xiao Sisters were truly brave enough to strike at a sage…
Of course, because of this matter, their end was quite tragic:
The eldest Yun Xiao was taken by Laozi and pressed under the Qilin Cliff behind Jade Void Palace;
The second Qiong Xiao and third Bi Xiao were directly killed, their remnant souls going onto the Investiture of the Gods list, becoming Heaven’s puppets, trapped within heavenly positions, and losing their freedom.
Their divine positions were also quite subtle, being what the mortal realm called ‘midwives.’
At first glance, they managed human spirit descent matters, a very important divine duty; but thinking carefully, their status was only comparable to Yue Lao of the Marriage Palace.
Such mighty outer disciples of the Cutting Teaching…
Truly made one sigh.
However, even though Li Changshou knew all this early on, he couldn’t manage so many later matters.
He had almost stepped out of the Investiture of the Gods catastrophe and didn’t want to get involved again.
Now, what Li Changshou wanted to do was just inform Yun Xiao about Zhao Gongming and Qiong Xiao’s random scamming outside, and see how Yun Xiao would react…
Regarding Yun Xiao, Li Changshou was naturally very unfamiliar, and mythology stories didn’t say what her temperament was like.
If she joined the scamming group due to spoiling her sister too much… that would be lively.
Therefore, to be safe, Li Changshou not only needed to let Yun Xiao know this matter but also made Yun Xiao realize this matter would bring boundless karma to Zhao Gongming and Qiong Xiao.
‘How should this be handled?’
Li Changshou sat behind the chair, unconsciously tapping the table with his fingers.
Everyone has some small quirks more or less;
Like Ling’e, when she was bored she liked to bathe, sometimes bathing three times morning, noon, and night, and liked to put flower petals in the water, arranging the petals into patterns.
Hmm… don’t ask how he knew this, it’s not important!
Li Changshou was very mindful of his ‘personal habits,’ besides unconsciously tapping the table rhythmically when thinking deeply, he had controlled himself to have few small movements.
‘Let Mosquito Daoist, the victim, go cry to Yun Xiao at Three Immortals Island?’
Currently, Wen Jing Daoist’s background hadn’t been exposed, she could go to Three Immortals Island, but doing so might cause the Western Teaching’s sages to be suspicious…
Write a letter, and ask Ao Yi to deliver it to Three Immortals Island.
Li Changshou pondered for a moment.
Ao Yi was currently busy with his honeymoon, so it wouldn’t be good to keep dispatching him…
‘Why not just use the South Sea God’s identity to tell Lady Yun Xiao this matter completely honestly?
Too much calculation might be counterproductive.’
Sometimes, the way of stability isn’t in complexity, but in simplicity.
Li Changshou gradually stopped thinking, took out a brush, ink, and cloth, and began writing a visiting card.
Finding Three Immortals Island’s location wasn’t difficult, just needed to ask Ao Yi to inquire about Golden Turtle Island, could generally find the approximate location.
The difficulty of this matter lay in how he could meet Lady Yun Xiao…
The setting sun’s remaining light shone through the window paper onto the desk;
Li Changshou wielded his brush, just for one visiting card to meet Lady Yun Xiao, and spent considerable effort, repeatedly deliberating.
After he finished writing the visiting card, a sudden understanding arose in his heart…
Fortunately, he had now thought of going to Three Immortals Island to clarify this matter to Yun Xiao.
If in the future Zhao Gongming and the others caused big trouble, then it might be Yun Xiao actively coming to find him, putting the blame on his head!
“In this Primordial Chaos, every step taken cannot be stable.”
Li Changshou’s paper avatar stretched, put away the visiting card, picked up his fly whisk, and used earth traversal toward the South Sea.
Using water traversal to travel in seawater would save a small portion of immortal force compared to earth traversal.
Meanwhile…
Deep in the South Sea, on a certain deserted island.
Three figures sat in a clearing in a grove, dividing up storage treasures one by one.
Qiong Xiao’s pair of delicate hands swung back and forth as she counted seriously:
“One for Big Brother, one for me;
One for Han Zhi, one for me.
One for me, one for me;
One for Big Brother, one for me…”
Zhao Gongming didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, naturally wouldn’t argue with his third sister over such small matters.
Han Zhi was somewhat at a loss, wanting to say she didn’t dare take these benefits, yet afraid of being scolded by Lady Qiong Xiao.
Soon, the dividing of spoils was complete, and Qiong Xiao clapped her hands, showing a satisfied smile.
“This feeling of gaining without labor is nice, Big Brother, shall we tour the West Sea?”
“Mm, good,” Zhao Gongming stroked his beard smiling, “But later let’s not take their things anymore, it’s like we’re bandits robbing houses.
Third Sister, are you lacking in treasures?”
“Not lacking,” Qiong Xiao blinked, “But, Big Brother, without taking these things, what meaning would our actions have?
Do what you say you’ll do!
Later we’ll take these cultivation resources and distribute them to some unfortunate sect members.”
Zhao Gongming pondered for a moment, couldn’t help looking at Han Zhi, asking: “Is that the principle?”
Han Zhi’s sense of justice made her want to shake her head, but being glared at secretly by Qiong Xiao, she could only weakly nod, softly making an “mm” sound.
Instantly submitting…