Regarding him, Guanlan Yuanjun briefly introduced:
“This is a disciple from Tongqi Mountain, surnamed Rong, given name Ye. He will return with us and will also… cultivate within the sect for a while.”
She spoke vaguely, but Su Tangxing remembered.
Rong Ye—the yandere from the handsome men catalog who was obsessed with forced imprisonment.
However,
Su Tangxing looked him up and down.
From his bloated cheeks to his features that seemed flattened by a brick.
This, a yandere?
When Die Without Love was wildly popular, even a casual player like her was forced to hear the adjectives describing the male leads.
The description for this one was: aloof and indifferent, radiant and exquisite.
From head to toe, it was filled with excessive praise, attracting countless players like moths to a flame, just to be locked up by him in a little dark room.
They would howl about how thrilling and satisfying it was, even discussing how long the chains he forged might be, speculating whether one could still walk from the bed to the door while chained…
Su Tangxing suspected something was wrong with her eyes.
“What are you looking at?”
The other spoke.
His voice sounded like a rooster being strangled.
Su Tangxing withdrew her gaze. “Nothing.”
She didn’t understand, but she respected it.
Maybe people nowadays just liked this kind of thing.
Guanlan Yuanjun’s hairpin was a magical artifact; they had ridden it here earlier.
Now, to show Su Tangxing the skills of her sect, she flicked her hand, smiled, and formed hand seals.
“…Roaming the four abysses, howling to shake the mountains and forests, divine forms of six images, commanding ten thousand spirits. Solemn and clear sounds flow through the azure sky, Gate of Ten Thousand Beasts, open—”
With a powerful shout, a sudden burst of golden light erupted.
Suddenly, the cry of birds, the roar of dragons and tigers echoed, and an ancient, majestic archway manifested behind Guanlan Yuanjun.
This was the signature skill of Leisurely Immortal Abode—the Gate of Ten Thousand Beasts.
A technique every disciple could cultivate, but what they could summon depended entirely on their strength and luck.
Guanlan Yuanjun summoned another one of her spirit beasts, originally far away in Leisurely Immortal Abode. Sensing the contract’s call, it emerged through the Gate of Ten Thousand Beasts.
It was a half-bird, half-fish spirit beast.
The upper body resembled an eagle, the lower body a fish tail, with a pair of huge wings and a single horn on its head.
Named Gudiao, it could devour humans.
In the cultivation world, the “spirit” in “spirit beast” referred to having awakened intelligence and the ability to cultivate.
Only after transforming into human form could they be called “demon cultivators.”
This spirit beast charged out, emitting a sharp cry with a rising tail, similar to a baby’s wail.
The Gate of Ten Thousand Beasts vanished, and the Gudiao circled in the air, looking down on them with disdain.
Guanlan Yuanjun gestured for them to sit on the spirit beast’s back.
Rong Ye leaped up effortlessly, while Su Tangxing, with her LV0 strength of “unable to tie up a chicken,” could only be carried by Guanlan Yuanjun.
“Thank you.”
Once seated on the spirit beast’s back, she left Guanlan Yuanjun, who had intended to reassure her not to be afraid, speechless.
As the spirit beast soared high into the sky, the young disciple showed no sign of astonishment. Guanlan Yuanjun praised, “Not afraid? You’re quite brave.”
“Not afraid.”
Su Tangxing shook her head while looking down.
The All-Laws-One-Sect palace, used for exchanges among major sects, gradually shrank into a black dot. The long line had long since dispersed, and Taiyi Sword Sect was nowhere to be seen.
Leisurely Immortal Abode was located in the southeast of Inner Sea Continent, near the cities of Bingchun and Bingxi.
The four of them flew away from the All-Laws-One-Sect mountain peak on the Gudiao. The two Yuanjuns did not waste time and began explaining Qi Induction to Su Tangxing on the spirit beast’s back.
Commonly known as Qi Induction, in the game this step involved randomly poking around following the guide, lacking any sense of reality.
Now, following Guanlan Yuanjun’s gentle guidance, Su Tangxing sat cross-legged, closed her eyes, and let her consciousness sink inward.
Guanlan Yuanjun’s voice gradually faded.
Beside her was her junior sister, whose Daoist name was Guan Shui.
Guanshui Yuanjun transmitted a message: “She succeeded? So quickly?”
Guanlan Yuanjun nodded, “I see her aptitude is very high. If she truly gains the recognition of the Gate of Ten Thousand Beasts, then this generation will finally have someone to carry on.”
“Your Qingmang likes her very much. Senior Sister, do you want to take her as a disciple?”
Guanlan hesitated: “I truly want to, but I fear other elders may also be interested, and it likely won’t be my turn.”
Nearby, Rong Ye also watched through narrowed eyes.
His vision, once broad, was now reduced to a mere horizontal line.
Sitting like this, he even felt his abdominal flesh and organs being compressed, very uncomfortable. He was somewhat short of breath.
The hands resting on his knees were plump and round, like the pork hocks sold in the market.
Rong Ye’s expression darkened, and he turned his gaze away in annoyance.
The surrounding Spiritual Qi surged—Su Tangxing had successfully drawn in the Qi.
Truly exceptional talent.
A future genius disciple of the Leisurely Immortal Abode… Hah.
Rong Ye’s plump face twisted into a cold sneer.
“Don’t stop. Do not open your eyes.”
Guanlan Yuanjun’s voice sounded in her ear, guiding her: “Let the six emotions settle, calm the heart in profound stillness, embrace the One and guard the Center… Now expel the impurities from your body.”
This body was young and light, with very few impurities.
After following the instructions once, only a layer of grayish filth clung to Su Tangxing’s body.
Guanlan Yuanjun casually cleansed it away, “Once a day, until nothing more can be expelled.”
Su Tangxing immersed herself completely, unaware of the swift passage of time. She only knew that when she opened her eyes, it was already dark, and they had arrived outside the mountain gate of the Leisurely Immortal Abode.
The Gu Diao landed, let out a long cry, and plunged straight into the mountain gate.
The outer protective mountain formation rippled like lake water.
Ancient trees flourished all around, a bluestone path lay before the gate, and the magnificent gate tower ahead was modeled after the Gate of Ten Thousand Beasts.
The dragon head atop it had its eyes closed, its long dragon whiskers arching into curves in the air.
The path wound upward, and Guanlan Yuanjun motioned for Su Tangxing to step forward, “Go and give it a try.”
Su Tangxing took a step forward.
Her right foot had just touched the stone step.
Suddenly, the wind rose.
Leaves rustled, and the stone-carved gate tower began to glow faintly.
Feeling watched, Su Tangxing looked up and met the half-closed eyes of the dragon.
The dragon had opened its eyes at some unknown time, and within the grayish stone pupils, a brilliant gilded gold flashed momentarily.
Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed something moving. Turning her head, she saw a beast carved on the pillar of the gate tower beside her lift its hind leg and scratch its ear.
The two Yuanjun held their breath: “This… the Ten Thousand Beasts are responding!”
Su Tangxing stepped up with her left foot.
The wind grew stronger, howling as it swept sand and stones across the ground.
Dark clouds gathered overhead, and the gate tower shone with a brilliant golden light too intense for the four to look directly at.
With a single dragon’s roar, the carved birds and beasts on the gate tower suddenly came to life. A black dragon with deep, dark cyan-black scales broke free from its constraints, coiling out and soaring straight toward the sky.
After that earth-shaking, powerful dragon’s roar, birds and beasts echoed in response. The phoenixes perched on either side of the gate tower suddenly spread their wings, fiery red radiance painting half the sky.
The commotion caused the mountain gate to tremble, startling birds from the forest to come pay homage to the phoenix.
In the distant, deep darkness, a pair of crimson eyes opened.
And within the Leisurely Immortal Abode.
Disciples who had been meditating in cultivation all rushed out of their rooms.
The sky was half shrouded in dark clouds, half ablaze with radiant light.
A black dragon soared through mist and clouds, while phoenixes danced and intertwined in flight.
With each breath of the dragon, thunder rolled and rumbled, and a light drizzle pattered down, soaking everything.
“…Who has stirred such a commotion among all beasts!”
Deep within the mountain, two pairs of eyes slowly opened.
Reflecting a faint, eerie green glow in the darkness.
Su Tangxing wiped the raindrops from her face.
Watching the elders rushing over, along with the three stunned companions beside her.
Thinking to herself:
That was quite the show.