A frivolous and wicked hand, drawing a bow…
Shang Daoling was practically dozing off listening to the story of this young painter and the peach tree.
Yes, yes, yes, this peach tree had a spirit.
She tended it, watered it, cultivated it, and when it was withering, she diverted some of her energy to it for several days. According to the painter, this peach tree seemed to be able to manifest the image of a small doll—hazy, with features that couldn't quite be made out clearly. When she was trapped by that Demonic Entity, it was also the peach tree that had mysteriously sustained her.
Gratitude for kindness received. A true friend dies for one who appreciates them. What a boring story, filled with the truth, goodness, and beauty of the human world.
Truth, goodness, beauty, loyalty, faithfulness—all useless things.
If it weren't for the Ghost Immortal wanting to listen, he really would have taken the money and left.
Yet the painter still asked: "May I ask, Daoist Priest, if you have any way to save my peach tree's life? I'm willing to pay the Daoist Priest additional compensation…!"
Shang Daoling smiled amiably and said: "No."
He was a monster whose flesh and blood could heal on their own, an undying, indestructible being. Not only did he disdain learning healing spells, but in his daily life, to save a few coins, he had never even bought healing Spirit Medicine. Even if he could save it, he couldn't be bothered—Evil Expulsion was one thing, since expelling evil also let him enjoy the pleasure of tormenting a Demonic Entity, but saving other people completely went against his principles.
Not to mention, saving a tree of low cultivation.
Sure enough, upon hearing him say there was no way, the painter's expression grew several degrees more sorrowful. Savoring another's pain, he felt ever happier in his heart.
But the Ghost Immortal said by his ear: "What are you smiling at? Others are grieving and you're smiling. I now command you to manage your facial expressions properly."
Her words seemed quite witty, but her tone was entirely commanding.
Whether out of concern that she could easily make him lose face spectacularly, the next moment, in the System screen, Shang Daoling indeed wiped the smile from his face.
This male lead's moral bottom line was truly abysmal. The face she had personally refined was quite good-looking, but his character was like a colander, leaking away all his good looks. Not saving that peach tree was of course fine—after all, it wasn't something he was supposed to do—but watching a life with feeling, righteousness, and spiritual intelligence perish while still smiling was a bit much.
"This peach tree repays kindness with gratitude—it's quite a good sapling."
Anyway, in the City Lord's mansion, her Spirit Pills and miracle medicines were inexhaustible. Using one System HP Recovery Pill was nothing at all. And she still had ten of them.
[Item "HP Recovery Pill" *1 has been used.]
A tree could actually have an HP bar. The large empty white portion was gradually filled with vibrant, vitality-rich red.
The scorched yellow leaves returned to fresh green, and the withered branches, their vitality drifting away, grew fresh pink blossoms once more.
The peach tree in the courtyard came back from the dead.
Seeing the Ghost Immortal step in to save this peach tree, Shang Daoling felt even more listless.
Was she just idle with nothing to do, scattering her divine power and goodwill everywhere? Casually saving some peach tree, pear tree, apple tree, some kitten or puppy? But in a flash, he remembered that he too had once benefited from her divine power.
[Target of pursuit Shang Daoling does not approve of your actions. Favorability Value -0. Current Favorability Value: 13.]
There was even a disapproval notification sound—after playing around for so long, this was the first time he'd heard it. But disapproval that only decreases favorability by zero—isn't that a bit too much thunder for too little rain?
And when did it go up by three points again?
Just now she'd been too absorbed watching the livestream and hadn't carefully listened to the notification sounds.
Rong Chunsong looked back at the System log, piecing it together with the timeline, and it turned out to be—
When she deliberately used "Alluring Scent Infusion" to expose him.
Great Male Lead, are you really not that shiny big letter on the McDonald's sign?
The gauze curtain fluttered, and in the warm afternoon sunlight, a tree full of bright pink blossoms outside the window had revived. Seeing the peach tree come back to life, the young girl on the sickbed could hardly contain her joy, tears glistening at the corners of her eyes.
She asked, "This is…"
"This is from that Lotus Heaven Essence," Shang Daoling answered decisively.
"The so-called 'demon den' of the Jiang family—I also destroyed it with her help," otherwise he would have just taken the Myriad Spirit Furnace and left, "Her 'ingenious' powers are all used for these righteous deeds." He wasn't so bored as to falsely claim credit for a female ghost—a "righteous," "overly kindhearted" female ghost.
The Great Male Lead was faintly putting on airs, being all sneaky and passive-aggressive, while Miss Li across from him was sincerely expressing her gratitude.
"So that's how it is. Then the Lotus Heaven Venerable truly has boundless powers, and the Great Dao has compassion."
If this System weren't some Restricted Heroine System, there should be a sparkly little notification right now congratulating the host on gaining ten reputation points. What a pity, what a pity.
Rong Chunsong propped her chin on her hand, tapping lightly with her fingertip, and turned the view toward the peach tree outside the window.
Though the peach tree had revived, this B-rank item couldn't restore the spiritual cultivation it had lost.
Shang Daoling had clearly also noticed that the peach tree in the courtyard had become an ordinary peach tree, with no spiritual cultivation left to speak of. Realizing this, his mood improved slightly, and he continued, "Miss Li, though this peach tree has come back to life, its spirit consciousness has likely dissipated as well."
"That's all right," Li Qianshu said with clear eyes, smiling softly. "After all, someday it will awaken again, won't it? If it takes longer for a tree to re-cultivate its spirit consciousness than a person's lifetime, then a hundred or two hundred years from now, my descendants living in this courtyard will witness it too."
"I'm already immensely grateful that the Lotus Heaven Venerable was willing to save it."
She added, "Daoist, you always bring up Lotus Heaven, so you must revere and have deep faith in this Venerable. Though my painting skills are shallow, I would very much like to paint a small picture for you, as an offering to the Venerable."
"All right." Seeing the painter's hopeful expression, Shang Daoling was quite displeased inside, but when he heard she wanted to paint, he smiled slightly, putting on a polite look.
He'd sell the painting later. This painter's works were worth quite a bit.
When the Li family saw that she wanted to paint right after recovering from a serious illness, they initially tried to stop her, but she insisted on getting up to fetch her brushes, so they had no choice but to help her sit at the painting desk.
"Might I ask, Daoist, have you ever seen what that Venerable looks like?"
"No."
"This…"
"I only know she's a female 'Venerable.' Miss Li, just take your time painting."
Shang Daoling saw the painter sink into thought and laughed inwardly—was she going to paint a faceless Heavenly Venerable?
Green and blue, purple and crimson, cyan and gold, vermilion—various pigments were spread across the painting table.
A painting took half an hour, and Shang Daoling simply didn't have the patience to wait beside the painter until it was finished. He went outside for a stroll, and the steward, perceptive as ever, ordered someone to bring tea and snacks for the Daoist. After going through the motions of "appraising" a few cups of pre-Qingming Longjing tea and a few pastries, he finally strolled slowly back to Li Qianshu's courtyard.
On the snow-white jade-paneled paper, elegant colors pour forth and spread.
To add a face to a "deity" whose appearance is unknown is actually quite easy. Whether with kindly brows and eyes, or with a solemn and dignified countenance, there are always such conventions to follow. But this painter had not painted her face—not even a few faint strokes to outline her figure.
Shang Daoling stood before the table, his gaze cast downward, casually sweeping across it.
What met his eyes first was a hand at the very top of the painting, gently brushing the surface of the sea—slender and elegant, as though bones of jade branches formed its frame, draped in a layer of soft, pale radiance, like moonlight on the sea, ever-changing and formless. Below this hand was an entire scroll of azure-gold sea. The sea surface was deep blue, rippling with specks of golden light, branch upon branch, vine upon vine, blooming into three thousand lotuses.
It was as though all of this had been transformed by a careless touch of this hand—the vast sea gained spirit, birthing boundless wondrous radiance.
Only he knew how vile, frivolous, and detestable these hands truly were.
Shang Daoling casually cast a spell to raise the room's temperature, drying the still-wet pigments on the painting, then rolled up the scroll and stored it in Storage Talisman Paper.
This painter really did have some skill.
But a painting with such an odd and inexplicable subject—could it find a buyer?
Better that he put it away for now, and when he someday saw her true face, he would take it out and carefully compare it with her.
He wanted to see whether she was truly as mysterious and unfathomable, as radiant with divine light, as in this painting.
Especially that detestable hand…
A slender hand drew a great bow to full draw.
Light silver armor, a silver helmet with fluttering tassels, strings of turquoise beads and white agate beads layered around the neck, clinking and ringing in the wind with the motion of drawing the bow, flowing with brilliant light.
From these slender, powerful hands, an arrow shot forth like lightning, swiftly bringing down a proud eagle from the blue sky.
This was a rare great eagle, with a wingspan of five meters. The nearby villagers had suffered greatly from it; over the past three months, within a hundred li around, it had snatched away many chickens, ducks, cattle, and sheep.
Several attendants ran over, caught it with a large net, and only by combining their efforts could they carry the fallen giant eagle over. This small squad of attendants hurried over dragging the eagle, bowed, and reverently presented the creature in the net to Rong Chunsong on the white horse.
It happened to be the spring hunt these past few days anyway, so she had taken the opportunity to shoot down this great bird.
Seeing this vicious eagle "fall into the net," the common folk watching around the hunting grounds cheered.
Rong Chunsong sat on horseback and removed her silver helmet, revealing an extraordinarily heroic and beautiful face. The young city lord raised her hand, holding it poised a few inches above her head, and waved a greeting to those outside the hunting grounds. Both noble in bearing and effortlessly approachable.
The crowd immediately erupted into even more enthusiastic cheers, and she smiled and waved back, responding with easy elegance and grace.
Turning her gaze back to the great bird still struggling in the net, Rong Chunsong said casually, "Take it back and keep it in the Hundred Beast Garden."
The Hundred Beast Garden was one of the city lord's gardens, home to many rare birds and exotic beasts—some presented by others, some hunted and tamed by city lords of past generations. Ever since she learned to draw a bow and shoot arrows at age seven, her father had specially expanded and added a section to house her "trophies"—because there were simply too many.
And her trophies were mostly fierce beasts. Eagles, pythons, leopards, tigers, flood dragons—the more dangerous and powerful the creature, the more beautiful she found it. The more she wanted to shoot it beneath her arrows, tame it, keep it, and admire it.
Turning, she raised the reins, and galloped across the hunting grounds for another two hours.
Silver saddle gleaming on a white horse, swift as a shooting star.
The spirit mirror near the hunting grounds broadcast the young hunters who had already ventured deep into the forest to the guests and the public alike. There was also a Spirit Ranking Board that updated rankings and achievements in real time.
Rong Chunsong's results naturally topped the board from the very start of the spring hunt. Both in quantity and quality of prey, she was far ahead, leaving everyone else in the dust.
Several members of the Rong family rode up behind her, laughing, "With the Young Lord this valiant, what prey is left for us to hunt?"
Others remained silent, saying nothing, gritting their teeth with determination to surpass her.
The current second place was her cousin, Rong Qiushui.
For some reason, this younger cousin had never accepted her superiority since childhood, always striving with all her might to compete for first place.
Though the cousin worked hard and her second-place results were quite impressive, she was still a little short of Rong Chunsong. Just—ten eagles, five jackals, two tigers, one flood dragon, and a few dozen assorted foxes and rabbits.
Sigh. Sometimes Rong Chunsong really wanted to tell her: it would be better to learn to make peace with her obsession sooner rather than later. Otherwise, she'd keep feeling like she was forever the eternal runner-up instead of realizing she was also far ahead within the clan—wouldn't that be exhausting?
The allotted time had passed, and the hunting competition among the Rong family youths came to an end.
Rong Chunsong graciously patted the shoulder of her cousin, who remained in second place, as a gesture of encouragement from the first-place winner.
However, her silver gauntlet clanged loudly against Rong Qiushui's shoulder armor.
It was—well, not at all serious or solemn. It looked like she was deliberately teasing her.
Heaven knows, she really wasn't.
"Don't touch me…!" Rong Qiushui shot her a glare, then turned and walked away.
Ah, fine, fine. Teenagers in their rebellious phase were just like this.
"What's Qiushui doing, how dare she speak to the Young Lord like that…" Several Rong family youths glanced at the departing Rong Qiushui, then quickly turned to heap political flattery—no wait, not commercial, political flattery—on Rong Chunsong. "The Young Lord was truly brilliant and majestic today, like a god descending to earth! And this silver armor is masterfully forged, gleaming with cold light—surely it was crafted by the famous smiths of the City Lord's manor?"
Rong Chunsong laughed heartily and returned the political compliment: "Oh, not at all, not at all. All of you looked quite dashing as well. This silver armor was forged by my own hands—I spent a few days learning how to design armor."
For a moment, the group's gazes were filled with shock and admiration.
The armor really was designed and forged by her personally. As the future City Lord, of course she needed to be well-versed in military equipment.
But honestly, given her cultivation level, she didn't need to wear any armor for mere hunting. However, in these long years of peace, the spring hunt was an event open to the public, and wearing armor served to showcase the Rong family's martial prowess to the common folk. Nearly a thousand years had passed, yet the most popular opera in the city remained the story of the first City Lord, Rong Qingyong, establishing dominion over the southwest.
Amidst the lively conversation, more silver cans came walking toward her along the path. Several Rong family youths making their first appearance at the spring hunt were dressed quite extravagantly.
Many years ago, when she had first participated in the spring hunt, she had been the same. If not for the fact that she was still a child and too short, her father would have wanted to bring out his most beloved heavy armor—that great can he had worn as a youth when campaigning against the demons of Ailao—and put it on her.
The sea of silver parted before her like the Red Sea. Rong Chunsong walked through the neatly arrayed ranks of silver armor, casually patting the shoulders of a few who had performed well, and returned to the viewing stand.
After the spring hunt ended, there was a sacrificial dance performance to wrap things up.
Returning to the viewing stand, she watched the singing and dancing while flipping through the aftermath of the Li family's Evil Expulsion incident from a few days ago in her Sea of Consciousness.
According to the live playback around Shang Daoling, word of Lotus Heaven had gradually spread through Gusu Terrace.
It seemed to be because the newly risen young painter, Taozhai Shanren, had painted many long scrolls related to Lotus Heaven.
Sigh, if she didn't find meeting the male lead in person too troublesome, and if she didn't currently have no time to "receive" that fellow, she would have been willing to honestly tell Miss Li her great name. It would also conveniently promote Cloud Capital.
Ever since her parents delegated authority to her to handle some affairs, she had discovered that although Cloud Capital was somewhat remote, its beautiful scenery still attracted many Rogue Cultivators and outsiders who came to reside there temporarily.
It seemed none of the city lords throughout the generations had ever thought of utilizing resources in this regard.
Well, that made sense—after all, tourism was a bit ahead of its time for a xianxia world that was essentially still an ancient society.
Although tourism was merely the icing on the cake, it still added something. She might as well test the waters and develop it a little.
If "Lotus Heaven" could make a name for itself, some scenic spots could also be developed in the direction of something like a Heavenly Venerable's former residence or a pilgrimage site… As she pondered this, there was another chime in her Sea of Consciousness.
【New supplementary plot added. Host, please check.】
The System had explained at the beginning that this book was an abandoned novel, a dark giant pit circulating across various platforms.
Actually, she was quite curious—why wasn't completing the plot listed as one of the mission requirements?
But this System was so robotic that she probably wouldn't get an answer even if she asked.
Rong Chunsong directly opened the so-called supplementary plot to read.
There were only a few lines.
【When he was young, he had also done one good deed. He performed an Evil Expulsion for a painter in Gusu Terrace. Since the age of fourteen, in his blood-soaked career of stepping up over mountains of corpses and towers of bones, his only act of kindness.】
By all logic, when Shang Daoling was lurking within the righteous faction, he had also disguised himself as a great philanthropist. Why was helping Miss Li said to be his only good deed? That was, of course, because—when he was acting as a double agent lurking in White Jade Capital, all those righteous cultivators he had helped were eventually refined by him in an instant.
Never mind offsetting merits against faults—those "faults" had nearly deducted his merit to -9999999.
Her seat in the viewing area was beside her mother.
Below the stage, bronze drums thundered, feathered crowns spun—mysterious, wild, fervent.
Yet mixed into the music was a respectful voice: "Clan Chief, Young Miss, I have prepared tea and refreshments in the tent. Might the Clan Chief and Young Miss be willing to step over and rest awhile?"
Rong Chunsong cast her gaze downward from her seat.
The speaker was a refined middle-aged man. Her… Rong Chunsong rummaged through the vast web of relatives and connections for a moment, then remembered—oh, her third cousin-uncle on her mother's side, Bai Qingchi.
This man held a modest position as a Libationer among the Wu clan. Becoming a Libationer at seventeen or eighteen could be considered exceptionally gifted. Still being a Libationer in his forties made it obvious to anyone with eyes that he was an idle noble.
However, this third cousin-uncle was the father of her cousin Bai Chenge.