When Er Sheng first arrived at Mount Wufang, she was completely awestruck by the vast sea of clouds before her.
She had heard the legends about Mount Wufang—a celestial mountain standing atop an ocean of clouds, overflowing with pure spiritual energy. Since the beginning of creation, the spiritual energy accumulated here had prevented any demonic qi from infiltrating. The founding ancestor of Mount Wufang, who is now the current Immortal Lord, had accepted over a thousand disciples since establishing the sect, and quite a few had ascended to immortality.
Ji Ling brought Er Sheng to the courtyard where their master resided. Immortal cultivators didn’t seek luxury, so the courtyard was built quite simply, and Shen Zui’s courtyard was particularly modest. Counting left and right, there were five rooms in total: one study and four bedrooms. Shen Zui occupied one, Ji Ling another, leaving two spare rooms.
By convention, immortal cultivators of Shen Zui’s rank should each have their peak for cultivation and disciples to practice and spar. However, Shen Zui had never been well-regarded at Mount Wufang. Though the Immortal Lord favored this personal disciple, he never concerned himself with such trivial matters. Besides, Shen Zui only had one disciple and didn’t care for closed-door cultivation—for him, a table to drink wine was enough. His only disciple Ji Ling, being naturally aloof, cared even less about such things. So master and disciple had lived here for over a decade without finding anything wanting.
As for the newcomer Er Sheng…
“This… this entire courtyard belongs to Master? All of it?” Her eyes sparkled as she ran back and forth through the courtyard, touching the doors, and then the windows. “Master is so impressive!”
Ji Ling expressionlessly pushed open the door to the rightmost room: “From today on, you’ll live here. No one has ever lived in this room, so take care of it yourself. There’s a well over there—draw your water. Once you’re done cleaning, come next door to get your bedding from me.” After delivering these cold instructions, she returned to her room, clearly determined not to offer any help.
Er Sheng nodded happily like a fool.
From today on, she had a senior sister, a master, and a courtyard that felt like home. Standing at the doorway, she took a deep breath. How wonderful it all was—if only Chang Yuan were here too, it would be perfect.
Er Sheng spent the entire day obediently cleaning her room and even tidying up the courtyard while she was at it.
Ji Ling, meditating in her room, watched her through the window, her lips twitching slightly but ultimately saying nothing.
At dusk, Shen Zui stumbled drunkenly into the courtyard, a wine jar in his left hand and an oil paper-wrapped roasted chicken in his right.
“Little Ears,” he called out to Er Sheng, who was drawing water by the well. “Master brought you some food. After this meal, I’ll teach you the art of abstaining from food tomorrow, and you won’t be able to eat anymore.”
Hearing this, Er Sheng’s hand slipped, dropping the newly raised water bucket back into the well. Her face went pale as she said, “Master… wants to starve me to death.” She muttered to herself, “Indeed, dying of starvation would make one immortal…”
“Fool.” Shen Zui awarded her this single word, tossing the roasted chicken into her arms before explaining in simpler terms, “Tomorrow I’ll teach you immortal arts that will keep you from starving even without eating. Want to learn?”
Er Sheng finally relaxed, taking big bites of chicken while mumbling, “I’ll learn whatever Master teaches!”
Shen Zui’s eyes crinkled in a smile: “Good, good, then let Master teach you about drinking wine. Now, wine is…”
Ji Ling gently pushed open her door, fixing Shen Zui with a cold stare. Shen Zui scratched the back of his head and laughed, “Ah, wine is indeed best enjoyed alone!” With that, he swayed back to his room.
Ji Ling picked up her sword and headed out. Er Sheng quickly called after her: “Senior Sister, are you going out so late? Would you like some roasted chicken?”
Ji Ling hadn’t planned to acknowledge her, but as if suddenly remembering something, she turned back and said coolly: “Just try drinking wine here and see what happens.” After delivering this threat, she left. Er Sheng, chicken leg in mouth, watched Ji Ling’s retreating figure with considerable difficulty, thinking that she should listen to her senior sister, but if Master told her to drink, she should listen to Master too, so what should she do then…
That night, snuggling into her warm blankets, Er Sheng placed the Yilin Sword beside her pillow and murmured to herself, “Chang Yuan, I’ll come to find you once I’ve learned immortal arts. You must wait for me.”
Thus passed Er Sheng’s first day at Mount Wufang.
Afterward, Shen Zui would spend time each day teaching Er Sheng magical arts. Though his teaching wasn’t particularly serious, Er Sheng learned incredibly quickly. Firstly, she already had spiritual power within her, skipping the accumulation process, and secondly, Chang Yuan had taught her some techniques before, giving her a foundation far beyond others.
So after teaching her for a month, Shen Zui waved his hand and said to take two months’ rest, letting her practice on her own.
By this time, Er Sheng had just learned sword flight, though her form was rather unsightly.
She kept muttering to herself that when she went to rescue Chang Yuan, she would fly before him like an immortal maiden, then gracefully fall into his arms… and nuzzle against him.
This day, as Er Sheng stood steadily on the Yilin Sword and recited the sword flight incantation, the sword suddenly went berserk, soaring into the sky and carrying Er Sheng straight toward Mount Wufang’s back mountain.
Er Sheng panicked immediately but couldn’t make the Yilin Sword stop. She had heard Shen Zui mention many times that the back mountain was forbidden ground—both boring and dangerous—and returning from there would result in punishment with the disciplinary board. So even though Er Sheng was very curious about this forbidden area, she had never dared to sneak a look.
She flew through the air in panic, drawing a beautiful curve through Mount Wufang’s sea of clouds straight toward the back mountain. The disciples below couldn’t tell what it was, but they could see it was heading for the forbidden back mountain. Many of the more advanced disciples gave chase, but the speed was too fast—in the blink of an eye, it had vanished, landing somewhere unknown on the back mountain.
Er Sheng naturally didn’t know what a commotion she had caused. All her attention was focused on the Yilin Sword as she repeatedly chanted the sword flight incantation. When she felt the sword’s speed gradually decrease, she opened her eyes to see the muddy yellow ground before her.
“Ah!” The Yilin Sword plunged deep into the earth, and Er Sheng flew forward, getting a mouthful of mud. She rolled several times before finally coming to a stop.
After resting for a long while, she struggled to her feet. The first thing she did was feel her front teeth, sighing in relief when she found them still firmly in place. Rubbing her aching wrists from the fall, she began walking back step by step.
She was going to get the disciplinary board this time, Er Sheng thought. Not only had she come to the back mountain, but she had also dirtied her beautiful Daoist robe.
The Yilin Sword was buried deep in the soil, only its hilt remaining visible. While Er Sheng was still worrying about how to pull out the sword, she suddenly heard tree leaves rustling above her. Er Sheng instinctively looked up, and a cold, black object struck her in the face.
Er Sheng didn’t know what it was. With a cry of surprise, she stepped back several paces. Looking carefully, she discovered it was a black, coiled, snake-like object. It was about as thick as a human thumb and only as long as an arm.
Er Sheng stared at it for a long while before finally identifying it: “A snake?”
The black snake on the ground lifted its head at her voice, its golden eyes showing immense joy as it hurriedly slithered toward her feet.
“Ha!” Er Sheng pointed at it with a shout, startling the little black snake into freezing, “Little creature, you dare think of eating me? I’ll teach you a lesson!” She immediately picked up a thick wooden stick and precisely struck the snake’s head, pinning it firmly into the soil. Despite its body writhing with all its might, it couldn’t lift its head from under the wood.
After struggling for a while, it seemed to give up hope, going limp and lying motionless.
Er Sheng picked up a smaller twig and poked its soft tail. Seeing no movement, she figured she had killed it and happily removed the wood, thinking she could roast snake meat here later. Though she rarely felt hungry now thanks to her cultivation, free food was always welcome.
However, when Er Sheng picked it up by the head, she saw those golden eyes still bright and alert, gazing at her with deep grievance.
Er Sheng was startled, but seeing the snake showed no signs of aggression, she resisted the urge to throw it away and examined it up and down: “The snakes on this immortal mountain are different from those below—so resilient to beating.”
The little black snake hung its head, deeply dejected.
After examining it for a while, Er Sheng frowned slightly, “Looking carefully, you don’t seem like an ordinary snake.”
Hearing this, the little black snake raised its head again, twisting its body to wrap around Er Sheng’s wrist, eagerly rubbing against the bells she couldn’t remove.
The bells rang with clear, crisp sounds.
Er Sheng’s eyes widened in surprise. These bells, fastened by that strange person called “Tian Di,” had been impossible to remove. After Chang Yuan left, no matter how much Er Sheng jumped around, they had never made a sound. She had almost forgotten their existence, yet today they rang at a snake’s touch… She roughly grabbed the snake’s head: “Speak! Do you have some connection to that Tian Di? Are you his brother?!”
The black snake was dumbfounded at her words.
“No, that’s not right. Tian Di seemed quite powerful, how could he have a relative who can’t even beat me?” Er Sheng squinted at it again, “Perhaps… you’re Chang Yuan’s relative? You do look similar, but why are you so useless?”
The little black snake hung its head, silently slithering up Er Sheng’s arm and into her sleeve, clearly not wanting her to see its face.
Er Sheng was startled by its behavior and pulled it out by its tail: “Little Black, though you seem to be Chang Yuan’s relative, and I should look after you for my husband’s sake, you’re far too different from him. Who knows when your beast nature might emerge and you bite me? I’d better remove your fangs first.”
She pried open its mouth and gathered spiritual energy at her fingertips, saying, “Little Black, this will only hurt for a moment.”
The grievance in the snake’s eyes deepened. Seeing the approaching finger, it didn’t struggle at all, just staring at Er Sheng almost hopelessly.
However, in the end, Er Sheng withdrew her hand. She released its head and sighed, “I think it might not be very ethical to remove your fangs. I know the suffering of having no teeth, and you haven’t bitten anyone yet… I’ll let you keep them.”
The little black snake wordlessly crawled into Er Sheng’s sleeve, obediently wrapping around her arm and staying still.
Er Sheng lamented rather world-wearily: “With me being so kind-hearted, how will I ever manage to travel the world alone?”
“With you being so worrisome, how will you ever manage to travel the world alone?” A more sighing voice came from behind. Er Sheng turned to see Shen Zui floating down on a cloud beside her. She suddenly remembered where she was and hung her head obediently to admit her mistake:
“Master, I didn’t mean to come here.”
“Hmm, looking at how disheveled you are from the fall, I can tell you didn’t come here on purpose.” Shen Zui looked at the Yilin Sword stuck in the ground and sighed helplessly, “Though I say this, your martial uncles and aunts won’t let you off easily. Do you know what a commotion you’ve caused?”
“Will… will I get the disciplinary board?”
“Inevitably.” Shen Zui said, “Quickly, put more mud on your face, make yourself look more pitiful and wretched. When you’re brought before the hall for judgment, whatever your martial uncles and aunts say is right. Set aside your pride, for now, kneel properly, and cry while admitting your mistakes. If they’re satisfied with their lecturing, you might get ten fewer strikes.”
Er Sheng nodded obediently, smearing mud on her face while asking, “Master, you seem very familiar with the procedure?”
Shen Zui gazed into the distance: “Your master was young once too.”
Seeing Er Sheng had made herself sufficiently disheveled, Shen Zui grabbed her to leave, but she struggled to pull out the Yilin Sword first. After some effort, she managed to extract it. Shen Zui glanced at the Yilin Sword, feeling that its aura seemed more intimidating than usual today, but he didn’t think much of it. He took Er Sheng and headed for Mount Wufang’s Hall of Return.
While Er Sheng was being taken for punishment, chaos erupted in the Ninth Heaven of the vast firmament above.
The Heavenly Emperor had returned gravely wounded, his chest pierced through by some unknown beast’s claws—an ordinary immortal would have already been reborn in the underworld. Though the Heavenly Emperor had preserved his life, he remained unconscious and might need months of bed rest to recover.
The assembled gods were all alarmed, not knowing what kind of creature could be so formidable. They held several meetings to discuss how to deal with this beast’s offense against Heaven.
The War God Mo Xi was naturally an indispensable figure at such meetings, but after attending twice, he refused to go again no matter how the other gods urged him.
“Besides the dragon that broke through the Void of Ten Thousand Heavens, who else could wound him like that?” Mo Xi took a sip of tea, allowing his wife San Sheng to snuggle against him while reading her novel. “Though I hadn’t expected the usually rule-abiding Heavenly Emperor to descend to the mortal realm on his own.”
“Hmm.” San Sheng turned a page, responding absent-mindedly. As if suddenly thinking of something, she sat up straight, “This dragon had barely escaped when the Heavenly Emperor broke his own rules and eagerly chased after it. Could it be… they had some unspeakable… romantic relationship in the ancient past?”
Mo Xi laughed, “That I don’t know, but I do know that when that divine dragon was imprisoned in the Void of Ten Thousand Heavens, the Heavenly Emperor hadn’t yet been born into existence.”
San Sheng let out a long, regretful sigh: “If the fate patterns of ruling gods weren’t determined by heaven, I’d like to rewrite a few strokes for the Heavenly Emperor. Mo Xi, don’t you think he lives too seriously and boringly?”
“Haven’t you already changed his fate?”
“When?”
“Si Ming.”
“Si Ming?”
“Following your earlier logic, I think rather than saying the Heavenly Emperor descended to the mortal realm to capture that black dragon, it’s more likely he went for Si Ming.” Mo Xi said calmly, “Speaking of which, San Sheng, tell me, how do you plan to arrange Si Ming’s mortal fate pattern?”
San Sheng was stunned for a good while: “Si Ming descended to the mortal realm? Didn’t she just wake up from being drunk not long ago?”
Mo Xi was also surprised: “You didn’t know?”
“I didn’t. I’ve never written Si Ming’s fate pattern.” The couple stared at each other silently for a moment before San Sheng asked, “Without an approved fate pattern, immortals can’t reincarnate as humans. How did she manage it?”
Mo Xi smiled bitterly: “That’s exactly what I’d like to know.”