Though his heart was filled with doubts, in front of outsiders, Cheng Yi still maintained the composed demeanor befitting the eldest disciple of Yunhua Sect’s Qiyue Peak—even though Yunhua Sect’s reputation in the outside world had little to do with composure anymore.

“Daoist Huan Zong, you’re up so early?” Cheng Yi walked up to Kong Hou and placed the tray in her arms. “Here, the breakfast you wanted.”

“Thank you, Senior Brother.” Kong Hou took the tray and smiled at Cheng Yi. Huan Zong withdrew the spirit fruit he had offered, but Kong Hou grabbed the bowl with one hand. “I haven’t eaten yet.”

“Let me take it inside for you.” Huan Zong glanced at the tray in her hands. “Be careful not to spill the breakfast.”

“I prepared two portions of food. Daoist Huan Zong, please join Kong Hou for breakfast.” Cheng Yi looked at the precious spirit fruits in Huan Zong’s bowl, not wanting the Liuguang Sect disciple to think that their Yunhua Sect was too stingy to even offer a meal.

Unfortunately, he had originally planned to have breakfast with Kong Hou, but now he had to give up this opportunity to Huan Zong.

“Thank you, Daoist. Then I shall respectfully accept.” Huan Zong didn’t even politely refuse—he simply agreed directly.

“You’re welcome.” Cheng Yi maintained his smile, his heart completely unmoved.

“Senior Brother, you should join us too.” Kong Hou said. “There are pastries, spirit fruits, and the breakfast you made—more than enough for the three of us.” Kong Hou turned and threw open the door, letting Huan Zong and Cheng Yi enter. “Don’t just stand at the doorway. People who don’t know might think I have flowers by my door.”

There were no flowers by the door, but there had originally been a barrier. Cheng Yi walked to the table and sat down, lifting the cover from the tray. Inside was a pot of meat congee, a steamer basket of dumplings, and several small side dishes.

After dividing the congee into three bowls, Cheng Yi asked Kong Hou, “Did you sleep well last night?”

Kong Hou nodded and picked up the meat congee to take a sip.

Cheng Yi’s and Huan Zong’s gazes met. Huan Zong nodded slightly at Cheng Yi, and Cheng Yi returned a polite smile. Two unfamiliar men sat facing each other in the quiet atmosphere tinged with a bit of awkwardness.

“Kong Hou, I noticed a barrier outside your room earlier and took the liberty of removing it. I apologize—what I did may have been somewhat improper.” Huan Zong said apologetically to Kong Hou. “I forgot this isn’t where we usually stay.”

“A barrier?” Kong Hou used a handkerchief to wipe the corner of her mouth and turned to ask Cheng Yi. “Senior Brother, did you set it up?”

“This place isn’t Yunhua Mountain after all, so I set up several defensive barriers outside the door.” Cheng Yi had previously suspected that the barrier was destroyed by Huan Zong, but felt that a Liuguang Sect disciple wouldn’t do such a thing. He hadn’t expected the other party would actually do it.

“One must not harbor intentions to harm others, but must guard against being harmed. Even though this is our affiliated sect, maintaining some vigilance is not wrong.” Cheng Yi thought for a moment, then added, “If you don’t like it, I won’t set up the barrier tonight.”

“Senior Brother is still more thoughtful.” Kong Hou quickly said, “I don’t dislike it at all.”

After the three finished their meal, Cheng Yi saw that Huan Zong sat without leaving. Thinking that what he had to say wasn’t exactly sect secrets, he spoke directly: “The cultivation world hasn’t been very peaceful lately, and you’ve also made some breakthroughs in your cultivation. Why don’t you return to Yunhua Mountain with me once this matter is concluded?”

Kong Hou’s movements as she bit into a spirit fruit paused slightly. She looked up at Huan Zong, who lowered his eyelids expressionlessly.

“After you left, Master and several martial uncles have missed you very much. Even Uncle Qingyuan asked me several times when you would return.” Cheng Yi hadn’t originally wanted to call Kong Hou back so soon, but with the cultivation world’s recent unrest, he couldn’t feel at ease.

“Senior Brother, I know you mean well, but I don’t want to return just yet.” Kong Hou set down the spirit fruit. “Please tell the elders not to worry about me.”

Cheng Yi looked at Kong Hou with concern. Could Junior Sister have read too many story books and developed the notion of saving the cultivation world, preparing to fight the evil cultivators to the death, and that’s why she’s unwilling to return? Thinking of all that messy story book content, Cheng Yi felt that Junior Sister wouldn’t be so naive, yet worried that she truly had been influenced by the story books.

Under the premise of not harming the sect, the elders of Yunhua Sect didn’t like to make things difficult for their juniors. Hearing Kong Hou’s refusal, though Cheng Yi still had doubts and worries in his heart, he didn’t force her to return. He only sighed and said, “If you don’t want to return now, that’s fine. Just be sure to stay safe out here. When you encounter bad people, don’t act impulsively. Make sure to determine whether they have accomplices and whether you can defeat them before taking action.”

“Don’t worry, Senior Brother. I know.”

“Have you finished reading the travel handbook?”

Kong Hou continued nodding. “I’ve memorized it all—won’t forget a single point.”

“Memorizing it is useless—you need to apply it flexibly.” Cheng Yi took out talismans, magical artifacts, and other items from his storage ring. “These are what the elders and peak masters gave me before I left. They told me that if I met you in Fengcheng, I should pass them to you.”

“So many?” As Kong Hou swept the items on the table into her storage ring, she asked about the recent situations of the various martial uncles and senior uncles.

“They’re all doing well. It’s just that Uncle Qingyuan and Master still bicker constantly. Before I left, they had a match and destroyed several magical artifacts in the Five Elements Hall. Senior Uncle Heng Yan got angry and penalized both Master and Uncle their monthly stipends for several decades.” Cheng Yi knew how poor his master was and how bad his financial luck was. Previously, because Zhou Xing caused trouble in Yongcheng, Zhou Cang had compensated Yunhua Sect with many things on behalf of his brother. Master had also taken that opportunity to pay off most of his debts. His hands had finally stopped being so tight, and then he caused trouble again. This was clearly the fate of someone born without wealth.

“Master and Uncle Qingyuan have been at it for so many years—still haven’t quieted down?” Kong Hou muttered a few words, then remembering that Huan Zong was still present, stopped continuing to preserve some dignity for the sect elders.

Cheng Yi cleared his throat. Seeing how casual Junior Sister acted in front of Huan Zong, their friendship was clearly quite good. He turned to look at Huan Zong, who indeed had a normal expression, as if he hadn’t heard anything. In fact, since meeting Huan Zong, he hadn’t seen him change his expression.

“I’ve already conducted an internal investigation of Jixiang Pavilion with the Pavilion Master and haven’t found any signs of evil cultivator infiltration for now. Did Junior Sister come here also to have Jixiang Pavilion investigate this matter?” Cheng Yi knew Kong Hou’s personality—she wouldn’t cause trouble without reason, but she also wouldn’t just watch bad things happen without doing anything.

“Yes.” Kong Hou nodded. “Along this journey, I encountered several evil cultivators with malicious intentions. Most of them had ordinary cultivation levels, and what they liked doing most was instigating conflicts between cultivators.”

“To make a tall building collapse, you must let it rot from the inside. The evil cultivation world has great ambitions.” Seeing Junior Sister’s grave expression, Cheng Yi smiled and consoled her. “You don’t need to be too anxious. With major sects like Liuguang Sect, Zhaohan Sect, and Jiufeng Sect around, nothing will happen to our cultivation world.”

Having subtly flattered Liuguang Sect in front of Huan Zong, Cheng Yi said, “I need to accompany the Pavilion Master to reinforce Jixiang Pavilion’s defensive array later. If you’re bored, just wander around Fengcheng. We haven’t seen each other in many days—stay a few more days in Fengcheng before leaving, alright?”

“Alright.” Having already refused Cheng Yi’s suggestion to return to the sect, Kong Hou felt guilty. Now that Cheng Yi asked her to stay in Fengcheng for a few more days, how could she bear to refuse?

Knowing that Cheng Yi truly had matters to attend to, Kong Hou took Huan Zong to tour Fengcheng.

Fengcheng’s territory wasn’t particularly large, but the entire city was managed in an orderly fashion. The common people lived and worked in peace, and cultivators coming from other places all followed Fengcheng’s rules without doing anything excessive. The biggest problem was that the streets always had white-haired, child-faced old men claiming to be “iron-mouthed divine calculators,” pulling at passersby to read faces and tell fortunes.

“Young master and miss, please wait.” A thin old man wearing a blue robe and holding a fortune-telling banner called out to Kong Hou and Huan Zong. “You two aren’t locals of Fengcheng, are you?”

“How do you know?” Kong Hou looked at the three characters “Hu the Half-Immortal” on the fortune-telling banner with a half-smile, giving high marks to this fake fortune teller’s courage.

“I’m Fengcheng’s famous iron-mouthed divine calculator. Though I can’t recognize everyone in the city, if I’d seen two outstanding people like you even once, I would never forget. But this is my first time seeing you both today, which means you’re definitely not locals.” Hu the Half-Immortal said.

“I thought you calculated it.” Kong Hou saw Hu the Half-Immortal constantly stroking his beard and couldn’t help but look a few more times at the goatee on his chin.

“This old one’s abilities are limited—I cannot look at the miss once and calculate all of your past and future.” Hu the Half-Immortal said seriously. “If someone truly says so, only a small portion are genuine masters, while the vast majority are frauds.”

“Then what do you need to tell fortunes?” Kong Hou asked.

Hu the Half-Immortal looked at them seriously for a long time, then suddenly shook his head. “I cannot read you two’s fortunes.”

“Why?” Kong Hou pressed.

“Lonely dragon’s mournful cry, solitary phoenix’s weeping blood, dragon and phoenix presenting auspiciousness together—you two have such noble fate patterns that this humble one cannot calculate them.” Hu the Half-Immortal’s face was full of shock as he praised Kong Hou and Huan Zong’s good fate patterns over and over, but the actual calculations yielded little.

This “Hu the Half-Immortal” exaggerated so much that Kong Hou’s face turned red listening. She stuffed a handful of jade coins into his hand and pulled Huan Zong’s sleeve to leave. This wasn’t fortune-telling—it was clearly flattery in different forms.

Passing by a bookstore, Kong Hou walked inside. “Shopkeeper, are there any new books by Miaobi Ke recently?”

“Miaobi Ke? Who’s that?” The bookstore owner carefully recalled the story books that had sold well in recent years. It seemed no author was called Miaobi Ke.

“The author of ‘Wind and Rain Record,’ ‘Sword Cultivator’s True Record,’ and ‘Cultivation Chronicle.'” Seeing that the shopkeeper hadn’t even remembered Miaobi Ke’s name, Kong Hou knew there definitely weren’t any newly written story books by Miaobi Ke here.

“Oh, you mean him.” Upon hearing these story book titles, the bookstore owner knew which author it was. He retrieved a book from a corner shelf. “This is the last volume sent here. There are no other new ones.”

Kong Hou took it and looked—she had already bought this set of books when leaving Yongcheng. “After this set of books, there haven’t been any new ones?”

“None.” The bookstore owner shook his head. “No new books have been sent over these past few months. He’s probably stopped writing.” Spending money every year to send books to their bookstores for consignment—he probably already knew his books weren’t popular, so he gave up.

“I understand. Thank you, shopkeeper.” Kong Hou returned the story book to the bookstore owner. She had long been accustomed to buying Miaobi Ke’s newly released story books at bookstores. Now learning that he might have stopped writing, she felt quite disappointed.

Walking out of the bookstore, Kong Hou kicked a pebble by her feet. “Huan Zong, could Miaobi Ke really have stopped writing?”

Huan Zong looked at the stone that Kong Hou had kicked over and remained silent.

“Perhaps he’s been busy with something lately and temporarily can’t write books.” Kong Hou didn’t dare think of another possibility—for instance, that Miaobi Ke was an ordinary person who was now elderly and frail, with trembling hands and failing eyes unable to write anymore, or had already…

She quickly shook her head to drive such thoughts from her mind. Kong Hou touched her chin and said, “Huan Zong, do you think the Jixiang Pavilion disciples could calculate when Miaobi Ke will release a new story book?”

Huan Zong: “…”

“Or have them help calculate where to find Miaobi Ke.” Kong Hou seriously considered this possibility. “That way I’d also know who he actually is.”

“He’s just a writer—why must you know who he is?” Huan Zong said. “What if he’s someone with an ugly appearance? Wouldn’t that ruin this connection between you?”

“Hm?” Kong Hou asked. “Where does this come from?”

“He writes books, yet no one appreciates them. You like reading books and happen to appreciate his works—that’s a connection. When a connection reaches this point, it’s just right. Forcing it will only create discord.” Huan Zong looked at Kong Hou. “A connection that leaves room for imagination is perfectly balanced.”

“What you say also makes sense.” Kong Hou nodded, then smiled. “It seems you really do like Miaobi Ke too, since you spoke so many words on his behalf.” Usually when mentioning unrelated people, if Huan Zong could say only three words, he would absolutely not say four.

Huan Zong looked at her and fell silent again.

The two toured Fengcheng in a circle, experiencing the local customs and culture. On the way back, they saw that Hu the Half-Immortal iron-mouthed divine calculator pulling a young couple from out of town, speaking eloquently.

“You two truly have the faces of dragon and phoenix presenting auspiciousness together. The husband brings prosperity to the wife, the wife brings prosperity to the husband…”

Seeing the young couple being coaxed by Hu the Half-Immortal into producing a spirit stone, Kong Hou whispered to Huan Zong, “Does this Hu the Half-Immortal have nothing else to say besides dragon and phoenix presenting auspiciousness?”

He told her and Huan Zong they had dragon and phoenix fates, and seeing other men and women, he spoke of dragon and phoenix presenting auspiciousness. Dragon and phoenix fates were too cheap.

Huan Zong’s gaze fell on that young couple. Probably because Hu the Half-Immortal’s words pleased them, the man gave Hu the Half-Immortal several more spirit stones.

The man, who looked like a pampered young master from a wealthy family, keenly noticed Huan Zong’s gaze. He turned his head and met Huan Zong’s eyes, his expression appearing thoughtful.

Huan Zong nodded slightly at him and withdrew his gaze.

Seeing the white-robed man and beautiful woman walk away, Ji Xuan withdrew his gaze and said to the woman beside him, “Rumin, did you find that man just now somewhat familiar?”

“You mean that gentleman in white robes with outstanding appearance?” The woman called Rumin looked in the direction the two had departed. That pair of man and woman had such outstanding appearances, walking through the crowd like the most eye-catching reflective objects, making it hard for people to ignore them. “Does Your Highness know this person?”

“Perhaps I saw wrong.” The man slowly shook his head. Anyone who knew him—how could they look at him with such cold eyes? Though the imperial family’s status in the cultivation world couldn’t compare to the ten major sects, because they were recognized by the Heavenly Dao as Dragon Sons of Heaven, they held a very unique position in the Lingyou Realm. Even the sect masters of the major sects were courteous when interacting with the imperial family.

“In this world of a hundred people, there are all kinds. Having some similarities in appearance isn’t strange. If not for him having some resemblance to Your Highness in the brow area, I wouldn’t have noticed him either.” Rumin placed her hand in the man’s palm and smiled gently at him.

Men need to be coaxed when necessary, especially when someone more attractive than them appears.

This time they came to request the Jixiang Pavilion Master to come out and perform divination. They couldn’t create conflicts over a good-looking man.

“Really?” The man touched the end of his eyebrows. No wonder he always felt that man seemed familiar—it was because they looked somewhat similar. No, it should be said that man bore some slight resemblance to many ancestral portraits in the imperial temple.

However… among the portraits of the Chu family’s ancestors through the generations, not one was as handsome as this man.

At this moment, in a certain sect, someone was extremely excited after learning an earth-shattering secret.

“The ancestor’s past records truly mentioned that Yunhua Sect has merman scales?” The man sitting in the main seat had a square face, high nose bridge, and very upright and just features.

“Absolutely true. The ancestor’s memoirs also mentioned it. The memoirs said that Yunhua Sect’s founding patriarch once encountered a merman by the sea and later became close friends with the merman, who then gifted him several merman scales.”

“I remember last year the Liuguang Sect Master personally sent messages to various sects inquiring about medicinal materials, and one of those materials was merman scales?” The sect master’s righteously solemn face now showed some schadenfreude. “If Jin Yue knew that Heng Yan had merman scales but was unwilling to trade them to him, would the relationship between Yunhua Sect and Liuguang Sect become strained because of this?”

“Sect Master, wouldn’t this be going too far?” Another person said uneasily. “With evil cultivators now restless, if Liuguang Sect and Yunhua Sect develop resentment because of this, what if evil cultivators take advantage?”

“This…” The square-faced sect master’s heart was full of hesitation and struggle. Such a good opportunity to sow discord—if he didn’t use it, he wouldn’t even be interested in meditation. If he did it, he feared evil cultivators would come cause trouble. If he didn’t do it, he feared inner demons would come cause trouble in his heart.

Forget it. Liuguang Sect was so powerful—they definitely wouldn’t let evil cultivators take advantage. He should still go stir things up, otherwise his heart couldn’t be calm.

“Come, copy down the records of how Yunhua Sect obtained merman scales, then arrange for an unfamiliar-looking disciple to go to the courier station and send the item to Liuguang Sect. Remember to send it from another location—don’t let anyone identify his identity.” There were no unbreakable brotherly sect relationships in this world, only sect masters who didn’t work hard enough. He must make his sect enter the top ten rankings.

Among the ten major sects, Yunhua Sect’s greatest characteristic was that its disciples were harmonious and united, maintaining friendly and harmonious sect relationships with all major sects. It was precisely because of these advantages that Yunhua Sect could stand firm in the cultivation world.

If they lost these advantages, Yunhua Sect would be no different from a toothless tiger.

It wasn’t that he only targeted Yunhua Sect—who told Yunhua Sect to look like the easiest to break among the ten sects?

Two days later, a package carrying a certain sect’s hopes of entering the top ten rankings was delivered by flying sword messenger to Jin Yue’s hands. Jin Yue thought it was another specialty gift sent by his disciple, but when he opened the exquisitely wrapped brocade box, he found it only contained a sheet of paper with a few copied sentences.

“Yingchen Zhenren and the merman became good friends. Yingchen gifted him a cultivation manual, and the merman reciprocated with scale armor…”