The soul-guiding lamp flickers, has the old friend returned or not…
The inn’s main hall buzzed with chatter, filled with the aroma of food. Gu Er found an empty table in the corner and sat down. Just as she was studying the dish names on the wooden menu, a faint, elegant fragrance drifted into her nostrils.
The scent was subtle yet highly distinctive, like tea leaves steeped in water, evoking a fresh spring morning stroll through a mountain forest, crisp and refreshing.
Gu Er instinctively looked up, searching for the source of the fragrance.
She caught sight of a figure in white slowly ascending the stairs. The person wore Lingyun Sect robes similar in style to the standard disciple uniform but far more refined, with the sect’s unique Wanhua Mirror pattern embroidered along the hem. Their ink-black hair was half-tied with a plain white jade hairpin, the rest cascading like a waterfall down their shoulders and back. In their hand was a sword adorned with a faded knot of blessing.
Gu Er chased after them as if possessed. She reached out, her hand moving faster than her reason, and grabbed the other’s sleeve. The moment her fingertips touched the fabric, she snapped back to her senses. A mental “Holy crap” flashed through her mind, and she felt as if struck by lightning, mortified to the point of wanting to crawl into a hole in the ground.
She immediately let go, her face burning hot, wishing she could dig out a three-bedroom apartment with her toes.
“So sorry, fellow cultivator, I mistook you for…” Gu Er looked up, and as her gaze met the person who had turned around, her voice was strangled by an invisible hand, stuck deep in her throat, unable to produce a single word.
Before her stood a figure in Lingyun Sect robes, posture tall and straight as a pine, bearing an otherworldly air. But a strip of white silk covered their eyes, and a single vermilion mark between their brows gleamed a vivid, piercing red.
For reasons she couldn’t explain, a wave of bitterness surged in Gu Er’s heart. Perhaps it was the thought that someone so beautiful should be blind, what a terrible waste.
She bit her lip and cautiously asked, “What happened to your eyes?”
“A mishap in my cultivation. Is there something you need, young friend?” The other’s voice was gentle, like jade beads rolling across a jade plate, crisp and pleasant to the ear.
“Nothing, I just mistook you for someone else.” Gu Er replied, flustered.
With that, she didn’t dare look at the other’s reaction. She turned and fled back to her seat, burying her head low, wishing she could vanish on the spot. The overwhelming embarrassment of social death crashed down on her like a tidal wave.
On the stairs, the blindfolded man stood still. Beneath the white silk, unseen by anyone, his long lashes trembled almost imperceptibly.
He didn’t turn back, nor did he speak. He simply raised the sleeve that had been touched, his slender fingers curling slightly in the air, as if confirming some illusory warmth.
A moment later, he lowered his hand and continued climbing the stairs. His snow-white robes disappeared around the corner of the landing, as if the brief incident had never happened.
Just as she returned to her seat, the system’s voice turned cold and mechanical again, sounding in Gu Er’s mind without warning: [Congratulations, host, on meeting an important figure, Lingyun Sect Acting Sect Master, Mu Ci.]
[Host, you’re amazing! You just grabbed him directly. He’s the male lead’s golden finger, the pride of the cultivation world, over four hundred years old and already at the early Nascent Soul stage. By all rights, he should have ascended by now, so why is he still stuck at the Nascent Soul stage?] The system’s voice rang in Gu Er’s mind, tinged with excitement and confusion.
Gu Er was momentarily stunned. She instinctively glanced toward the stairs, but no one was there. Only that faint, cool fragrance seemed to linger at the tip of her nose. For some reason, her heart felt like a mess of mixed emotions, tinged with an inexplicable heaviness. She shook her head, trying to cast aside these chaotic thoughts, and went back to ordering her meal.
She silently admonished herself: Don’t think about these random things. However these prodigies develop has nothing to do with me. The key task now is to enter the sect, find the real female lead, return the system to her, and then figure out a way home.
Halfway through her meal, Gu Er suddenly remembered that the mechanical voice these past few times was different from the usual childish, squeaky one, so she asked the system: “System, what was that mechanical voice just now?”
The system, who was looking at the mission panel, heard its host calling and immediately ran over: [That was the main system taking over authority. Only when issuing key missions does the main system take over my voice module.]
In the private room upstairs, light filtered through the carved window lattice, casting dappled shadows.
Mu Ci pushed the door open. Lin Xunan and the others, who were in the middle of discussing matters, immediately rose and bowed respectfully: “Senior Brother Mu Ci.”
“Mm.” Mu Ci gave a slight nod. “Since the matter is settled, return to the sect early.”
“Won’t you come back with us, Senior Brother?” A junior sister couldn’t help but ask, hope shining in her eyes.
“I still have matters to attend to, so I won’t be returning for now. You all go on ahead. As for the matter of the pills, it was simply a mistake I made while cultivating. I’ll handle it properly myself.”
“Very well, Senior Brother.” The smiles on the disciples’ faces froze instantly. Though disappointed, they had no choice but to accept.
“Let’s say goodbye to the little girl and then head straight back to the sect.” one of the disciples whispered.
“Little girl?” Mu Ci furrowed his brow slightly, puzzled.
“Yes, we met her in the forest near Biluo Orchid.” a junior sister explained quickly, blinking her big eyes.
Mu Ci was silent for a moment, then simply said, “Go quickly and return quickly.”
Before long, just as Gu Er finished her meal, she saw the Lingyun Sect group descending from upstairs.
Du Bai smiled and ruffled her hair, reminding her again, “We’re heading off now. Don’t forget, the sect’s recruitment test is in five days. If you want to join, you must attend the sect assembly in the neighboring town.”
Gu Er tilted her head up, her eyes curving into crescents, lips curling upward to reveal a row of gleaming white teeth, and replied crisply, “Got it, big brother. I’ll definitely come find you all.”
Mu Ci remained silent, following behind the others as he saw them out of the inn.
“Senior brother, take care!” The group clasped their fists in farewell, then summoned their immortal swords one after another, stepping onto the sword light and flying toward the direction of Lingyun Sect, vanishing into the horizon in the blink of an eye.
Mu Ci stood still in the breeze, his white robes fluttering, appearing ever more solitary. Only after the figures had completely disappeared did he pull a bronze lamp from his spatial ring. The lamp was shaped like a lotus, with no oil or wick at its center, only a faint halo of light, hovering silently.
At that moment, the long-dormant ancient lamp’s halo began to flicker at an unusual frequency. Mu Ci waved his hand, and the glow steadied.
Ever since encountering that little girl earlier, the Soul-Guiding Lamp’s disturbance had reached its peak, even flaring brightly for an instant, before settling back into this persistent, steady faint flicker.
But if it truly was her, why couldn’t she recognize him? Why were her features, her figure, her age entirely different?
At that thought, he slowly turned his head toward the direction of the inn, his eyes filled with longing and yearning. His lips trembled slightly as he murmured to himself, “Senior sister… is it you?”
…
The inn grew quiet as night fell, leaving only the chirping of insects outside the window. Gu Er lay on the hard bed as the day’s clamor gradually faded, her consciousness drifting into slumber.
The dream came without warning, yet it was extraordinarily vivid.
It was a bustling, thriving street market, the bluestone pavement polished bright by rain. The air carried the fragrance of sugar-roasted chestnuts, along with the fluttering of wine banners.
Two figures walked side by side through the crowd.
In front was a girl in green robes, her sleeves fluttering like the freshest willow shoots of early spring. She held a skewer of bright red candied hawthorns coated in a glistening sugar shell, strolling along as she bit off one, squinting in satisfaction with dimples forming at her cheeks.
She seemed to be chattering endlessly, her speech quick and lively, her eyes sparkling like stars, darting about with extraordinary vivacity.
Half a step behind walked a boy in blue robes.
He stood tall and straight, his bearing as cold and clear as frost under moonlight, out of place amid the bustling market, yet strangely blending into its vitality. He carried a delicate oil-paper bundle, his gaze mostly resting on the girl in green ahead of him. Though his face showed little expression, his eyes held a gentle smile.
The girl in green said something, then suddenly turned around and beamed at the boy in blue, a smile so radiant and brilliant it seemed capable of dispelling all shadows. The boy seemed to start slightly, then the corner of his mouth curved upward just a touch, like ice thawing at the first sign of spring.
Seeing this, the girl, as if she’d won some great triumph, couldn’t help but burst into laughter. Her crisp laughter scattered along the road, drawing glances from passersby, but she paid them no mind…
The next morning, as the first light of dawn filtered in, Gu Er woke with a slight headache.
She sat up, rubbing her temples, feeling only vague fragments lingering in her mind. But when she tried to recall them, they slipped away like sand through her fingers, vanishing without a trace, leaving only emptiness and a faint, inexplicable melancholy in her heart.
“Seems like I had a strange dream…” she murmured, shaking her head to cast aside the oddity.
The priority now was to learn more about this world. After washing up, she went downstairs for a simple breakfast, then headed back to the teahouse from yesterday.
At the teahouse, a storyteller was speaking with great flair, his folding fan sometimes sweeping through the air, sometimes tapping lightly on the table.
“That Thousand-Faced Ghost Maiden, truly formidable, with boundless magical power! With a single move, Silver Rain of a Thousand Needles, she struck down countless disciples of the immortal sects on the spot. But quick as lightning, the Qingheng Immortal Lord Mu Ci, wielding the Sword of Tracing Light, flashed coldly, ‘whoosh’, and thrust it straight into Gu Wan. Alas, that Gu Wan perished, body and soul. And from then on, the world returned to peace!”
“Slap!”
The storyteller slammed his wooden gavel down sharply, the crisp sound startling a few sparrows into flight from the branches outside the window.
That sound drew a round of applause from the entire teahouse, cheers and clapping ringing out without end.
Gu Er ordered a pot of tea and sat leisurely in a corner of the teahouse, slowly cracking melon seeds while listening with keen interest to the storyteller’s tale, clapping her hands in approval at the exciting parts.
Only when the storyteller mentioned the name “Mu Ci” did her fingers, mid-way through picking up a melon seed, pause almost imperceptibly. That figure, veiled in white silk, with a single vermilion mark between the brows, unaccountably surfaced in her mind.
She had already listened to two acts of the play, and piecing together the chatter around her with the information the system had provided earlier, she had barely managed to sketch out the general layout of this world.
The continent was composed of four provinces, and within the known territories of these provinces lay mainly five sects, four domains, and three great clans.
She was currently in a small border town at the junction of Qingmu Province and Heishui Province.
Among the five sects, Lingyun Sect stood at the head of them all, followed by Qingsi Sect.
Three hundred years ago, at the Battle of the Nether Ferry, Gu Wan fell. The various powers drew a line at the sea as their boundary, and the righteous path and the demonic path signed a treaty of peaceful coexistence. Since then, though minor skirmishes occasionally occurred, surface peace was largely maintained.
[Host, when do we set out for Lingyun Sect?] System 0086’s playful voice rang out in Gu Er’s mind.
“No rush,” Gu Er replied inwardly, her fingertips brushing over her left cheek. After the system’s initial purification, the gruesome wound there had mostly healed, leaving only a faint red, slightly raised scar, with a wisp of black qi at its edge, though faint, it had not yet been completely eradicated. “Listening a bit more can’t hurt.”
[What’s there to listen to? Host, if you really want to know about things from a hundred years ago, I can tell you,] 0086 began to wheedle. [Besides, what the storyteller tells is all adapted from scripts, none of it’s real.]
This tale of the immortal lord slaying the ghost maiden was known to all.
It was said that this great battle had utterly ended the four-hundred-year conflict between immortals and demons, buying the world three hundred years of peace and tranquility. Whether in this remote little town or in every corner of the vast Central Plains, one could hear storytellers recounting this legendary tale.