Through her divine sense, Mu Yao saw her smile and her delicate little face.
It felt almost like a direct touch upon her soul. She bent down, pressed her forehead against Ah Jiu’s forehead, and then gently hugged the little person in front of her, “Were you afraid Senior Sister would be cold last night, Ah Jiu?”
“Yes.” Ah Jiu nodded gently, tilting her head slightly to lean against Mu Yao’s shoulder, “Didn’t Senior Sister used to be afraid of the cold too? Ah Jiu remembers.”
Mu Yao did not know when the little one had seen that. It must have been when she occasionally suffered from the torment of the demonic fire, and after the cold Qi inside her body rebounded, her body could not quite handle the bone-chilling cold.
She reached out and patted the little one’s head, “It won’t happen anymore in the future. Senior Sister is not cold. Ah Jiu just needs to take good care of herself. Be a good girl.”
Ah Jiu blinked, then reached out to wrap her arms around Mu Yao’s neck, “Okay then.”
“Can we reduce the training time a little today?” Ah Jiu asked, acting spoiled in a soft voice.
Mu Yao chuckled softly and reached out to pinch the tip of her nose, “One thing at a time. Absolutely not. Not only is it not allowed, but the gravity will be increased today.”
“Senior Sister is not nice at all.” Ah Jiu pouted, her face full of unhappiness.
Mu Yao withdrew her divine sense and gently patted her head, “Alright, first training or first washing up? You can choose this yourself.”
Ah Jiu pouted unwillingly, “Body-tempering first. Otherwise, I will sweat again and have to take another bath. I don’t want that.”
“Fine, then let’s go.” Mu Yao said as she withdrew her divine sense and walked ahead first.
Ah Jiu followed behind her, but after a moment, she trotted up to her side. She reached out and took Mu Yao’s hand, “Ah Jiu will lead Senior Sister. Senior Sister wasn’t here, and Ah Jiu moved some things around, so I’m afraid Senior Sister won’t remember.”
Hearing this, Mu Yao was stunned, “How did Ah Jiu know that Senior Sister cannot see?”
Ah Jiu looked up at Mu Yao, “Ah Jiu doesn’t know, but Senior Sister said that cultivation is needed to see, so it must consume cultivation. Will it be very tired? Ah Jiu can hold Senior Sister’s hand and walk with her, so Senior Sister won’t have to be so tired.”
Mu Yao was always touched by the little one’s words. Although she considered herself less than meticulous in taking care of Ah Jiu, Ah Jiu seemed to keep everything in her heart.
“No need. Senior Sister is very strong. Do you not believe Senior Sister?” Mu Yao said with the corners of her mouth curving slightly upward.
Ah Jiu and Mu Yao were now walking along the small path up the mountain. She skipped along, and though Mu Yao could not see, she could hear and imagine her skipping figure.
Then, as they walked along, Mu Yao felt a gentle breeze swirling around them, as if even walking had become much lighter and easier.
“Senior Sister is very amazing, but Senior Sister being amazing and Senior Sister being tired do not conflict.” Ah Jiu changed to hooking her finger around Mu Yao’s.
Although there was nothing wrong with that logic, Mu Yao still found it somewhat hard to keep up with the little one’s train of thought.
Yet Mu Yao was quite willing to just follow along with the little one like this. At this moment, the wind spirits were wrapping around the two of them with a gentle breeze, making their traveling speed much faster. Mu Yao was quite surprised.
The little Junior Sister and the spirit souls truly shared a natural closeness and method of communication that others could never learn no matter what, not even she could.
Mu Yao believed that even she would not have been able to communicate so effortlessly with the spirit souls or drive them before she had learned to guide spiritual energy into her body.
To call it driving them was actually somewhat incorrect. These spirit souls were more like Ah Jiu’s companions.
Yet for some reason, a trace of uneasiness faintly lurked in the depths of Mu Yao’s heart. If Ah Jiu’s ability became known to others, it would likely bring her a fair amount of trouble.
Mu Yao pursed her lips slightly, but the Taixu Xuantian Jue was not something easy to cultivate. If she could master it completely, Ah Jiu might become the most powerful cultivator in the cultivation world of the future, provided she was given enough time to grow slowly.
She tightened her grip on Ah Jiu’s small hand. The little Junior Sister’s hand was small, soft, and warm.
In all these years, no one had ever wanted to warm Mu Yao so earnestly. The way Master treated her was still somewhat different from the little Junior Sister.
Walking all the way up to the gravity field on the mountain, Mu Yao could sense that the spirit souls and spirit beasts along the path were exceptionally affectionate toward Ah Jiu.
However, upon seeing Mu Yao, they harbored a bit of fear. After all, Mu Yao had also grown up on Xiaoyao Peak since she was young, and this path was one she had walked since childhood. When she was first brought back to Xiaoyao Peak, Feng Yang would make her train every single day.
Mu Yao did not have as many whimsical thoughts as Ah Jiu. Every day she only ever thought about acting spoiled, making excuses, or being a little lazy. Mu Yao had a gloomy and sullen temperament. Since childhood, whatever Feng Yang told her to do for training, she did. Although nowadays she would occasionally talk back to Feng Yang once or twice, back in her youth, she was truly a dull wooden block.
When she first came to the Tianqing Sect, there were no other disciples yet. It was only after Feng Yang picked Mu Yao up from outside that it gave the other Uncle-Masters some inspiration, and from then on, fellow junior sisters and junior brothers arrived successively.
Although she could not see, her hearing was exceptionally sensitive, and she could hear even the slightest sound with crystal clarity. Coupled with the fact that she had just experienced the destruction of her family, her temperament was also sensitive.
In the beginning, those little spirit souls and spirit beasts would also come to play with Mu Yao, but because Mu Yao could not see them at the time and could only hear some noises, she was always startled, so Feng Yang forbade them from coming to find Mu Yao.
Her already gloomy temperament grew increasingly cold and detached. Coupled with the ice-attribute cultivation technique she later practiced, being a sword cultivator as well, she naturally carried a sharp and piercing aura around her, so the spirit souls and spirit beasts naturally did not dare to get too close to Mu Yao.
Yet Ah Jiu could see them and touch them, and was more willing to play with them, so these little creatures naturally grew close to her.
Arriving at the gravity field on the mountaintop, Mu Yao let go of Ah Jiu’s hand. Then her fingertips danced, and ice-blue spiritual Qi hovered around her fingers like blooming flowers. Ah Jiu stood watching from the side, momentarily stunned.
Of course, no matter how pretty casting spells looked, it was only adding to Ah Jiu’s burden.
When Mu Yao finished casting the spell, she told Ah Jiu to enter the gravity field.
The moment Ah Jiu stepped inside, she looked at Mu Yao with a wronged expression, “Senior Sister, it’s too heavy.”
Yet Mu Yao simply sat cross-legged on the grass nearby, her hands resting on her thighs, and did not respond to Ah Jiu’s spoiled plea.
“Thirty laps. I’ll make food for you after you finish running,” Mu Yao said, and then began to meditate to absorb spiritual energy.
No matter what Ah Jiu said, Mu Yao no longer paid attention to her, and in the end, the girl had no choice but to start running unwillingly.
Surrounded by ice-blue spiritual power, Mu Yao’s entire person was covered by a thin layer of frost the moment she began meditating.
Fu Yan had said that running spiritual energy now required her to move against the meridians. Unlike ordinary people, she must never circulate it along the normal path of the meridians, otherwise the demonic fire within her body would also grow restless.
Mu Yao followed the instructions, yet she had not expected that the moment the spiritual energy entered her body, her entire body’s meridians would ache intensely.
Moreover, there was a somewhat obstructed feeling. Mu Yao halted her circulation, intending to follow the normal method of circulating spiritual energy along the meridians. But no sooner had she run a single cycle than she felt the demonic fire and cold Qi within her body begin to show signs of clashing.
Mu Yao quickly stopped, her brow furrowing involuntarily. It seemed what Uncle-Master said was true.
In the end, Mu Yao honestly did as Fu Yan had instructed. Although it was exceptionally painful and felt somewhat blocked, there were no other issues, and the spiritual energy smoothly integrated into her body.
Ah Jiu honestly finished running the thirty laps, then ran back to Mu Yao’s side, only to see Mu Yao frowning with a somewhat uncomfortable expression.
She reached out and gently pressed her hand against Mu Yao’s forehead. For some reason, Ah Jiu just felt that Senior Sister was lying to her, and Senior Sister’s illness definitely was not cured.
If it were cured, why did Senior Sister still look so uncomfortable?
Sensing Ah Jiu’s presence, Mu Yao finished running her final cycle, gathered back her surrounding spiritual power, and the frost on the ground where she had been meditating instantly vanished.
She gently pinched the little one’s wrist, “What is it?”
“Senior Sister, I finished running. I didn’t slack off.” When Mu Yao’s fingers touched her, Ah Jiu instinctively pulled her hand back quickly, but then stood up and looked somewhat embarrassed.
She opened her mouth, afraid that Senior Sister would misunderstand something, but she hadn’t done it on purpose. It was just that Senior Sister’s hand when grabbing hers was truly a bit cold, and Ah Jiu had simply pulled back on instinct.
After standing properly, she wondered whether she should go take Mu Yao’s hand again, but Mu Yao laughed first, “Did Senior Sister’s hand feel too cold for little Ah Jiu?”
Ah Jiu shook her head while saying, “No.”
Mu Yao drew all the cold Qi around her back into her body, and her fingertips recovered a bit of warmth, “Alright, Senior Sister knows. Ah Jiu doesn’t need to try and fool Senior Sister like this. Senior Sister’s cultivation method is just like this, it is not because my body is sick, you little silly goose.”
Having spent a long time with this little one, Mu Yao could roughly guess her thoughts, feeling both warmed and somewhat amused. The little one’s worry for her seemed a bit excessive.
Ah Jiu kept her hands behind her back, and a tiny water spirit landed on her palm.
Then Ah Jiu hugged the water spirit, looked down at her own toes, and said, “Okay.”
Mu Yao suddenly pulled her hand over, chuckled softly, bent down, and whispered in her ear, “How about Senior Sister takes you sword-riding?”
Ah Jiu blinked, and before she could even react, Mu Yao had already pulled her hand, softly called out “Frost,” and then the Frost Sword leaped out of its sheath, passed beneath Ah Jiu’s feet, and soared straight up into the clouds.
It was so sudden that Ah Jiu, who had not yet stood steady, fell backward. Mu Yao reached out to support her shoulder, “It will be faster than riding your spirit crane. Are you scared?”
Mu Yao asked with a smile. At first, Ah Jiu covered her eyes with her hands, but then slowly spread her fingers apart.
She saw scenery much higher than what she saw sitting on the back of a spirit crane. Wherever the Frost Sword passed, an ice bridge would be built, becoming exceptionally beautiful under the refraction of the sunlight.
Mu Yao rarely failed to be extremely strict with Ah Jiu, taking her for a spin around the Tianqing Sect.
The scenery of the Tianqing Sect was still extremely beautiful.
Ah Jiu cheered all the way. Although she had already seen many places from the back of the spirit crane, seeing them while Mu Yao brought her along still revealed many sights she had never seen before.
On the way back to Xiaoyao Peak, Mu Yao’s hand rested on Ah Jiu’s shoulder as she asked softly, “How is the sect’s scenery?”
“It’s beautiful!” Saying that, Ah Jiu began describing it to Mu Yao.
Mu Yao listened intently, and a smile unconsciously curved at the corners of her mouth.
Although she could release her divine sense, the scope of what she could see was still limited, and her divine sense could not be left outside for too long either. Ah Jiu was right. Keeping one’s divine sense extended for too long would still make one tired.
To now have someone able to properly look at this world for her and tell her what the world was truly like seemed quite nice after all.