To avoid disturbing her Master and Martial Uncle, Su Tangxing chose a residence halfway up the mountain.
It was near the exit of the plank road. If one didn’t take the plank road but followed the mountain path, they could slide down the slope directly to the deep pool.
The idea of sliding down the slope wasn’t something she came up with.
It was discovered through experience.
Little sunlight reached the forest, and the rocks were covered in a layer of dark green moss. When she looked down, she didn’t pay attention and slipped, tumbling down the hillside.
The Puppet was clearing away dead branches and fallen leaves in a clearing far from her. Hearing the noise, it remained unmoved, glanced over, the flames in its eye sockets flickering. However, since it hadn’t received any instructions, it continued lowering its head to gather branches.
The long slope led straight to the deep pool. Along the way, she tried to use Spiritual Power to save herself, but games and reality were different.
Moreover, even in games, she could fall off cliffs and kill her character.
Fortunately, there were no protruding rocks along the way. With a splash—
Su Tangxing successfully crashed into the water.
Creating quite a large splash.
The Xuan Gui in the lake was startled out.
It had just seen her, and not long after, she fell down. This way of greeting was truly unique.
The Xuan Gui lifted Su Tangxing and brought her to the surface.
Su Tangxing choked on water and coughed up a small fish on the shore. She pinched its tail, took it out, and tossed it back into the water.
“Thank you, Senior.”
She expressed her gratitude to the Xuan Gui, who asked, “What are you trying to do?”
“I’m choosing a place to live.”
The Xuan Gui let out an “oh” and said, “Right above here? That’s not good.”
The water was too cold.
Su Tangxing shivered, listening attentively.
The Xuan Gui shook its head and swayed: “A dwelling takes form as its body, springs as its blood, land as its flesh, plants as its hair, houses as its clothes, and doors as its crown. If all these are in harmony, it is dignified and elegant, bringing great fortune.”
Su Tangxing: “Plain language, please?”
The Xuan Gui: “…You might as well move a bit to the east. That place is better.”
She nodded, following its suggestion and glancing in the direction it pointed with its claw. She noticed the trees there were sparse, with wildflowers blooming all over the mountainside.
She couldn’t recognize all of them, only spotting wild lilies and dandelions among them.
White or yellow flowers spread out like trumpets, forming a continuous expanse.
The wind was gentle, and the air carried a faint fragrance. She took a deep breath and said to the Puppet, which was still rigidly gathering branches, “Let’s settle here.”
The thought of living here from now on, never having to attend school or work, squeeze into overcrowded buses or subways, and being able to do whatever she wanted, almost made Su Tangxing laugh out loud.
She wasn’t yet accustomed to using the Puppet. When she fell earlier, her instincts didn’t even think to call for it. Upon returning, she found the Puppet had already cleared the area, and with no branches left to gather, it had started uprooting nearby trees.
It didn’t even need to use a weapon—a single punch was enough to knock a tree down.
Clearly, all its skills were focused on combat, and it was dull-witted, not even as clever as a water buffalo.
Su Tangxing called it over.
With such strength, it would be much better to help her build a house.
Fortunately, it wasn’t intelligent, lacking thoughts and wisdom.
Su Tangxing could say whatever she wanted to it.
She placed the portable Cultivation Cave given by her Fox Master there. It was a fairly large two-story building, but inside, it was empty and desolate. The main room only had a meditation cushion and a hanging scroll in the center, inscribed with the words: “Heaven rewards the diligent.”
The overall style and purpose were far removed from the cozy little home Su Tangxing had envisioned.
Standing at the entrance, she said to the Puppet, “In the future, I’ll build a few houses of my own here. I’ll plant trees in the back and dig a pond over here.”
The cultivation cave that the system had converted into experience points was similar to this, but in reality, it hadn’t perfectly met Su Tangxing’s requirements during construction. Some furniture couldn’t be forged in the game, which was truly regrettable.
Now, the experience bars for all skills were full, but there wasn’t enough spiritual power to support them. Moreover, forging in the game simply involved following the system’s guidance to arrange and combine items, which wouldn’t work here.
She would have to start learning from scratch.
Su Tangxing thought this as she first planted the tree before entering the house. The puppet followed her.
There was a bedroom on the second floor, and she would sleep there tonight.
The puppet didn’t need to sleep at night. Two ghostly flames stared eerily in Su Tangxing’s direction from the corner, which was somewhat unsettling.
Seeing there was another room next door, Su Tangxing sent it there.
Now alone, she still couldn’t sleep, so she sketched a plan for the future courtyard under the light of a night pearl.
It wasn’t until midnight, when the outside had grown completely quiet and even the chirping of insects had stopped, that Su Tangxing finally felt drowsy and climbed into bed to sleep.
She slept lightly all night.
When she woke up in the morning, the white jade cicada Tongjue resting on the blueprint was glowing faintly, indicating a message had arrived.
She had added Lin Xiangqing as a friend yesterday, and this morning he sent a message asking if she wanted to have breakfast.
Su Tangxing agreed, left Wushi Mountain, and told him her location.
Lin Xiangqing said he would arrive soon and asked if she minded if someone else was with him.
Su Tangxing didn’t mind.
Seeing Rong Ye arrive with Lin Xiangqing, she thought it was just perfect.
It saved her the trouble of looking for him.
She walked over, handed the blueprint to Rong Ye, and asked, “Could you please take a look and see if there are any issues with this?”
Suddenly given a task out of nowhere, Rong Ye unfolded the blueprint and sneered, “Why should I help you? Who do you think you are?”
Su Tangxing replied, “I am the new disciple of Ancestor Tiankuang.”
“…” Rong Ye frowned, sizing Su Tangxing up and down.
It was true that she had extraordinary talent to attract such a phenomenon, but it wasn’t enough for the fox ancestor of Leisurely Immortal Abode to personally take her as a disciple.
Besides, who didn’t know the name Tiankuang?
He was notorious for his unpredictable temper and holding grudges.
He was even harder to get along with than his elder brother.
Rong Ye didn’t believe it and turned to look at Lin Xiangqing.
“Did your ancestor really take a disciple?”
The young prodigies of their generation all knew each other. Lin Xiangqing had a good temper and didn’t mind Rong Ye’s occasionally sharp tongue.
With a smile, he nodded, “Yes, now Junior Sister Su has become our Great-Grandmaster.”
He even playfully bowed, “Great-Grandmaster, I’ve brought the water buffalo. Would you like to go milk it together?”
Su Tangxing sidestepped to avoid his bow.
With such a high seniority but such a young age, she didn’t even know what to call Lin Xiangqing anymore.
She simply nodded, “Mm.”
Rong Ye said, “…I’m not going. You didn’t say anything about milking cows when you called me here.”
Lin Xiangqing reminded him, “The water buffalo milk is for the Great-Grandmaster to drink. Yesterday, Master told me that the ancestor’s message was that your Calamity Curse is entirely up to the Great-Grandmaster to decide.”
Rong Ye’s expression froze.
When he said he regretted his actions, he wasn’t genuinely admitting he was wrong.
It was just that his family couldn’t undo the Calamity Curse cast by the fox ancestor, so he had no choice but to apologize.
Now, everything about him was tied to this little girl who hadn’t even fully grown up…
Rong Ye lowered his head to look at Su Tangxing.
Just then, she also looked up at him.
Her face still carried a childlike innocence, but her eyes were calm and indifferent. Seeing his reluctance, she said, “If you don’t want to go, then don’t. If you don’t want to do it, then don’t. You can go back.”
“…Go back where?”
“Go back to wherever you came from.”
Su Tangxing took the blueprint from his hand and showed it to Lin Xiangqing as well, asking, “What do you think of my courtyard?”
Lin Xiangqing lowered his head and examined it carefully.
Su Tangxing’s simple sketches were fairly decent, and this was still just a draft, but Lin Xiangqing understood it. He nodded in approval and praised, “Tranquil and serene.”
Feeling inspired, he suggested, “How about planting lotus flowers in the pond? Graceful and elegant, lotus seeds are edible and can also soothe the mind and calm the spirit.”
Su Tangxing thought of lotus seed porridge and nodded.
“I happen to have a packet of seeds…”
Watching the two of them walk away as they talked, Rong Ye pursed his lips tightly. After a moment of hesitation, he still followed.