Lu Xuan fixed his gaze on Mingming’s smiling face. A hazy mist lingered in her eyes, concealing every trace of emotion.
Her smile was merely a smile, devoid of any feeling.
A book came down over Mingming’s eyes.
“Relying on nothing but a single Fire Control Technique won’t get you very far in the Ascension Gathering,” he said. “Come here. I’ll teach you some spells.”
“All right.” Mingming followed his instruction, placing her hand in his palm as she sensed the flow of spiritual power within his body.
“Water is the softest of all things. When controlling the water element, you should guide it through the finer meridians in your body. Only by turning softness into resilience can you fully bring out the element’s power.”
Mingming tilted her head. With the slightest touch of her fingertip, a clear spring welled up from the empty air.
“Exactly like that. Now increase the output of your spiritual power, but be careful not to overexert yourself.”
Mingming continued smiling. She thought Lu Xuan was teaching with remarkable sincerity. He truly seemed to enjoy the happiness of passing on knowledge.
There was nothing wrong with Lu Xuan’s guidance. Nearly all of it was golden wisdom recorded in the cultivation classics.
It was just that when other cultivators learned, none of them had someone holding their hand and patiently helping them guide the flow of spiritual energy bit by bit.
Mingming curled her fingers, her fingertips lightly scratching his palm. A stream of clear spring water flowed gently downward, then just before it touched the ground, it transformed into a tiny transparent water snake that coiled back around Lu Xuan’s arm.
“Is that how it works?” Mingming asked with the corners of her lips curved upward.
Lu Xuan lowered his gaze to the transparent water snake coiled around his hand and let out a soft huff. “You’re quite clever.”
“I’m not clever. I’m slow-witted,” Mingming replied as she dispelled the spell.
She was not speaking falsely. The only reason she had mastered the Water Control Technique so quickly was because she had long been familiar with this basic spell.
‘If I weren’t foolish and dull, how could I have remained trapped for a thousand years without ascending?’
Several more days passed, and before long, it was time for the Ascension Gathering at Changxiao Palace.
Although the Shen Clan did not think highly of Mingming, they still sent her along to Changxiao Palace.
The Shen Clan had prepared a cloud vessel to carry the four who were about to head to Changxiao Palace toward the Cangwu Region. Mingming walked at the very end, and once aboard, she turned back to look at the Shen residence.
On the rooftop of Lan Pavilion, deep within the main estate, there seemed to be someone waving at her.
Leaning against the side of the cloud vessel, she opened the food box Madam Lan had tucked into her hands before she left as they sailed above the sea of clouds.
Inside lay several irregularly shaped pastries. They looked rather ordinary, far inferior to the ones Mingming made herself.
She put one into her mouth. As expected, it was overwhelmingly sweet, the sticky syrup clinging to her throat. Madam Lan had never cooked before, and the food she made was far from delicious.
Yet knowing that Mingming was leaving, Madam Lan had still prepared some pastries for her to snack on during the journey. She knew Mingming had a sweet tooth.
Within that single bite of an ordinary pastry, Mingming tasted what she loved most of all: the flavor of human emotion.
Just as, countless millennia ago, the first spark had kindled and humanity gained wisdom and feelings, the taste of those emotions was a supreme delicacy that not even a thousand exquisite dishes she had prepared could ever hope to replicate.
It was so wondrous that it could temporarily satisfy the insatiable void within her.
Seeing Mingming absentmindedly nibbling on the pastries Madam Lan had made, Lu Xuan assumed she was missing her family. He therefore transmitted his voice to her through divine sense.
“The path of cultivation is one of extinguishing the heart and severing desire. Since you’ve chosen to go to Changxiao Palace, you can’t keep thinking about home.”
Mingming licked the crumbs from her fingers. “Weren’t you the one who wanted me to go?”
Lu Xuan: “…”
“You can still go back now,” he said after a long silence.
“I want to follow you. I already said, I…”
“You like me,” Lu Xuan interrupted. “I know. You’ve said it enough times already.”
Mingming murmured in confusion, “If I don’t say it out loud, then how am I supposed to express it?”
How was she supposed to define something as vague and intangible as liking… or love?
“You don’t know?” Lu Xuan asked.
“I don’t,” Mingming replied, shaking her head.
In the next instant, Mingming felt a cool head press gently against her cheek.
Lu Xuan bumped his head lightly against her face and said, “Like this. I’m just demonstrating.”
Even in his current form as a snake, he could feel his body growing warm.
Even though he was only teaching… teaching this slow-witted Second Miss Shen, he still found it a little embarrassing.
But Mingming merely lowered her lashes and said calmly, “I’ve learned it.”
She remained as composed as ever, standing in stark contrast to the pounding of his own heart.
Back in Wentian City, Lu Wei rubbed his brow. The affairs of the past few days had been overwhelming, and he had not slept again.
For Mingming to vanish before his eyes had become a complete nightmare to him.
Yet the time they had spent together before her disappearance had been so sweet, like an illusion that appeared before suffering descended, luring him into losing himself.
He was in love with her and longed to meet her again in his dreams, yet he could not bear to watch her disappear before him a second time.
Even if it was only within an illusory dream, he did not want her to endure that fatal fall again.
So he refused to enter his dreams.
Just as he was lost in thought, an envoy from Changxiao Palace arrived. The newcomer was dressed in white, exuding an air of sacred mystery.
“Lord Wuya.” Wen Shao, the First Elder of Changxiao Palace, stepped into the majestic hall of Wentian City and inclined his head toward Lu Wei, who sat high upon the central seat.
“What is it?” Lu Wei asked.
“The Ascension Gathering of Changxiao Palace is about to begin. Would Lord Wuya be willing to honor us with your presence?” Wen Shao asked.
Changxiao Palace invited Lu Wei to every Ascension Gathering, but he had always declined. This time, they had merely extended the invitation out of custom, without truly expecting him to accept.
After several days of nonstop work, Lu Wei had already dealt with nearly all the affairs of Wentian City. Now, he truly needed to find something else to occupy himself.
Lest he… dream of her again. Dream of the agony she suffered when she departed.
To Wen Shao’s surprise, Lu Wei nodded for the first time.
“Very well,” he said.
“Lord Wuya!” Delight colored Wen Shao’s voice. “Could it be because the Young Lord of Wentian City is participating in the Ascension Gathering that you…”
“It has nothing to do with him.” Lu Wei stepped down from the dais.
Wen Shao said no more. As an old acquaintance of Lu Wei’s, he casually continued the conversation.
“I’ve never been to Changxiao Palace,” Lu Wei said. “The Cangwu Region where Changxiao Palace stands… is not the true Cangwu.”
“Indeed. The Changxiao Palace of today is no longer the Changxiao of old, and Cangwu is no longer the original Cangwu.”
“What a pity. As someone from Changxiao Palace, I’ve always wanted to see the true Changxiao.”
“It was nothing but endless darkness. There was nothing worth seeing.” Lu Wei’s voice was as cold as frost.
The present-day Wilderness of Eternal Night was the Cangwu Region where Changxiao Palace had originally stood. After the war between the gods and demons, the entire Cangwu Region, stretching millions of li, had been utterly destroyed, becoming the Wilderness of Eternal Night, a forbidden wasteland that no cultivator in the cultivation world dared set foot in.
The only surviving remnants of Changxiao from that great war did not rebuild Changxiao Palace until countless years later.
It was the most legendary cultivation sanctuary in the cultivation world, the sacred land revered by every cultivator.
“We’re here!” On the cloud vessel, Shen Ji clutched Mo Ying’s sleeve and exclaimed in delight.
Originally, Mo Ying had not been qualified to come.
However, after Lu Wei had stopped her previously, causing the backlash from her magical artifact, she unexpectedly broke through her cultivation bottleneck after recovering from her injuries.
She surpassed all the other younger members of the Shen Clan, her cultivation even edging slightly above Shen Ji’s. Only then had Shen Fu decided to send her as well.
As for Mingming, the Shen Clan had merely brought her along on the way. They were even worried that she would embarrass the Shen Clan during the first two rounds of the Ascension Gathering.
The attendants escorted the other younger members of the Shen Clan off the cloud vessel one after another. No one came to receive Mingming, for the path she would take next was different from theirs.
Shen Lin was the last to leave. She turned back and ran over to Mingming, stuffing a pouch of spirit stones into her arms.
“The first two rounds of the Ascension Gathering are extremely dangerous. Don’t force yourself. We have a residence in Changxiao Palace, but Father didn’t allow you to come with us. Take these spirit stones and find yourself a comfortable place to stay,” Shen Lin instructed.
Mingming nodded and waved goodbye to her.
After Shen Lin left, only Mingming and Lu Xuan remained at the foot of Changxiao Palace.
Looking up from the foot of the sprawling mountain range, they could vaguely make out the majestic buildings hidden behind layers of clouds. That was Changxiao Palace.
Only during the Ascension Gathering would Changxiao Palace reveal its outline. At any other time, finding this place was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
At the foot of Mount Cangwu, a few wandering cultivators occasionally passed by. Gradually, more and more people gathered.
Mingming found a quiet place to sit and asked Lu Xuan, “Aren’t you going up there?”
He was the Young Lord of Wentian City. Surely he wouldn’t have to go through the first two rounds of the trials?
“Later,” Lu Xuan replied.
Just then, he poked his head out from Mingming’s sleeve. In the distance, a brilliant radiance suddenly flashed into view. It came from Wentian City’s Rainbow Light Cloud Vessel, so magnificent that it bordered on extravagance.
“That old man.” Lu Xuan chuckled softly. “He actually came.”
It took Mingming a moment to connect “that old man” with Lu Wei, and she was reminded of that sudden dream she had before.
She certainly didn’t want him to recognize her.
So Mingming patted her cheeks, forcing herself awake from her drowsiness, and thought, ‘No matter what, I can’t let myself give anything away.’
“Why are you slapping your face? You’re usually never this alert,” Lu Xuan asked.
Just as Mingming was about to answer, she heard the people around them recognize the Rainbow Light Cloud Vessel as well, and lively discussions immediately broke out.
“Lord Wuya? This is his first time coming to Cangwu, isn’t it?”
“I heard Changxiao Palace invited him for over a hundred years, and he never once honored them with his presence. So why this time…”
“Ha, you don’t know, do you? I’ve got some insider gossip!”
“What insider gossip?”
“You’ve heard about the East Sea Trial, right? The Young Lord of Wentian City first made his name there. Judging by his age, he was bound to participate in this year’s Ascension Gathering.”
“But with Wentian City’s resources and influence, would the Young Lord really need to travel all this way to Changxiao Palace?”
“That’s where you’re mistaken. It just so happens I had a friend at the East Sea back then. He saw the Young Lord spend a fortune at the East Sea Auction to buy a portrait. Do you know who was in that portrait?”
“Who?!”
Mingming had no interest in this sort of gossip. Unfortunately, her hearing was far too keen, and the conversations kept finding their way into her ears.
Lu Xuan had already raised himself and covered her ears with his body when, at that very moment, a cultivator in gray robes came running over from the distance, interrupting the discussion.
As soon as the gray-robed cultivator appeared, the cultivators chatting nearby immediately fell silent.
He looked young, yet his cultivation had already reached the Golden Core Stage. He was clearly one of the standouts in this year’s Ascension Gathering, and in everyone else’s eyes, a formidable rival.
But in the next moment, the gray-robed cultivator walked straight up to Mingming.