The Yue Kingdom dispatched only two carriages to the Dongling Spirit Hub. Lin Luming shared one carriage with a young woman, while the others shared the second.
The creatures pulling the carriages were not ordinary horses, but priceless Spirit Horses, capable of reaching three times the speed of a common mount. Even so, the journey from the Yue Kingdom to the Dongling Spirit Hub still required ten full days.
The young woman accompanying Lin Luming was Hua Tian, the legitimate daughter of the General’s Mansion. Like Lin Luming, she was a resident of the capital and had studied literature and martial arts at Yucai Hall.
However, because Lin Luming was not particularly fond of socializing, they were not very close despite knowing one another.
On the first day of the journey, Lin Luming spent nearly the entire time with her eyes closed, resting. The carriage remained so silent that even the sound of the wheels grinding against the bluestone road was exceptionally clear.
Hua Tian, meanwhile, spent the time silently observing Lin Luming.
However, by the second day, the young lady of the Hua family could no longer restrain herself.
“Miss Lin, may I ask you a question? Which sect are you hoping to join for this assessment?”
Lin Luming slowly raised her eyes and replied, “If I have the opportunity, my first choice is naturally the Lingling Sect, which ranks first among the eighteen sects.”
“That is exactly what I was thinking.” Hua Tian nodded, then shifted her tone slightly. “But did you know that the training period at the Lingling Sect is much longer than at other sects? At other sects, you only need four years to obtain your sect identification badge and return home, but the Lingling Sect requires six. With the travel time included, by the time you can return to the capital for a long stay, you will likely be twenty-four years old.”
Lin Luming tilted her head slightly and answered calmly, “It does not matter.”
“How could it not matter?” Hua Tian raised her eyes and asked softly, probing, “At that age… will it not delay your marriage?”
Lin Luming was slightly stunned. The marriage decreed between her and Mu Heng had been ordered privately within the palace and was not meant for public knowledge; it should not have spread.
Was this a coincidence?
In order not to give herself away, Lin Luming replied with composure, “We women can also prioritize our careers; there is no need to delay our cultivation for the sake of romance. Surely, Miss Hua, you would not forgo the assessment just because you are afraid of delaying a marriage?”
Hua Tian shook her head. “But I am different from you. I do not have a marriage contract, but you do.”
Lin Luming’s expression immediately froze.
“What is Miss Hua saying? I do not understand,” she asked softly, though she unconsciously tightened her grip on her fingertips.
Hua Tian crossed her arms. “There is no need to hide it.”
She leaned in closer and deliberately lowered her voice. “Actually, I have wanted to ask you since yesterday. I heard from my father that you and Mu Heng are already betrothed. But aren’t you two at odds with each other? What is going on? Were your past arguments just for show?”
“…”
Lin Luming sighed softly. “It is truly boring. That marriage contract was merely something Mu Heng requested from the Emperor to spite me—it is just a piece of paper.”
“So you two went all the way to the Emperor just to spite each other?”
Hua Tian was stunned for a moment, then could not help but clap her hands. “You two are truly interesting! When my father told me about this, my jaw dropped! Who doesn’t know that whenever you two meet at the academy, you have to fight until one of you is defeated? I still remember that year when you argued and resorted to force; you even blew up the academy’s pavilion, and your families had to pay a huge sum of silver in the end!”
Lin Luming’s expression remained calm. “Yes, I was punished by being made to kneel in the ancestral hall for three days because of that.”
Having said this, her tone grew more solemn as she stared into Hua Tian’s eyes. “Once I enter the Dongling Spirit Hub, I intend to find a like-minded cultivation partner there. So, you must keep this matter of the marriage contract a secret; it must never get out.”
Seeing that she was serious, Hua Tian hesitated before nodding. “Rest assured, I am not the type of person who would gossip behind your back like others.”
Over the next ten days, the two became increasingly familiar with each other.
Ten days later, the carriages entered the territory of the Dongling Spirit Hub, and the scenery outside the windows gradually broadened.
Hua Tian lifted the curtain and looked out, unable to help but sigh with emotion, “This land of the immortals is truly different. It is not just beautiful; it feels as though even the air is sweet!”
Hearing this, Lin Luming also turned to look.
She saw layers of mountains, lush and verdant, appearing and disappearing within the swirling clouds. At the foot of the mountains, flowers bloomed in profusion, as gorgeous as woven silk. The entire world was like a flowing landscape painting.
Having left her region for the first time in eighteen years, and to a place described most frequently in books, it would be a lie to say she wasn’t excited.
She smiled and replied, “The air naturally smells better in places where spiritual energy is abundant. Cultivating in such a place yields twice the result with half the effort.”
The two chatted for a long while in the carriage before the driver finally let out a long, “Whoa!”
“Young ladies, we have arrived at the Dongling Spirit Hub. I can only take you as far as this. The assessment will last for twenty days; during this time, I will be staying at the Yunlai Inn in Peony Town. If you have good news, you can inform me so I may relay it to your respective manors. If you wish to return to the Yue Kingdom, you can also find me at the inn.”
“Thank you for your trouble.” Lin Luming bowed her head slightly, lifted her skirts, and was the first to step out of the carriage.
Under the sunlight, her features were clear and beautiful, her skin like snow, making her look exceptionally striking before the bustling, crowded assessment grounds.
Hua Tian followed closely behind, but the moment she alighted, her gaze fell upon Lin Luming’s profile, a complex emotion rising in her heart.
In these ten days on the road, she had only truly realized that Lin Luming was entirely different from the “promiscuous, arrogant, and unreasonable” girl described in the rumors back in the capital.
When she was at the academy, she had heard countless rumors about Lin Luming.
Some said that relying on her beautiful face, she seduced men everywhere.
Others said she was arrogant and had a vicious temperament, so much so that even the Marquis’s Mansion could not tolerate her; her father disliked her, and she was at odds with her sisters.
There were even those who said she entangled herself with Mu Heng because she was bitter over unrequited love, and only provoked him everywhere to get his attention.
The ridiculous part was that Lin Luming had never defended herself. The rumors grew more and more intense, yet she merely turned a deaf ear, burying herself in her books as always. As a result, nobody cared about the truth, and the rumors became established “facts.”
It was said that many men had once mustered the courage to confess to her, only to be coldly rejected without exception, further cementing her reputation for being “arrogant.” As time passed, her reputation at the academy plummeted.
Therefore, throughout the entire academy, except for the teachers, very few people liked Lin Luming.
After all, whenever Mu Heng was not at the academy, Lin Luming’s grades were always firmly in first place, so good that she even outperformed her seniors. Unfortunately, in the eyes of others, this only earned her the label of being “deeply calculating.”
Hua Tian had once been skeptical, believing half of what she heard. But after living side-by-side for these ten days, she felt that Lin Luming was actually quite a good person.
She was not selfish at all; instead, she shared whatever she knew. During these days in the carriage, whenever Hua Tian reviewed the points from her books, she sought her guidance frequently.
Moreover, she was truly beautiful, and although she spoke straightforwardly, it was always with good intentions.
Presumably, all those thoughts from the past were just misunderstandings…