Ah Jiu blinked her eyes. “Then what should I do? Won’t she beat Ah Jiu this time?”
Mu Yao sensed the aura of someone approaching Jieyue Pavilion. “Has she not already come?”
Nan You stepped into the peach grove and, upon seeing the flower crown resting on Mu Yao’s head, glared irritably at little Ah Jiu. “Little one, do you have any idea how hard it is to cultivate this night-glow moss? You actually used it to weave a flower crown to coax Eldest Senior Sister, didn’t you?”
Ah Jiu hid behind Mu Yao, looking somewhat guilty as she argued, “But Senior Sister Nan You didn’t put up any signs, and it didn’t look like something artificially planted either. Ah Jiu thought they were just wild flowers by the river.”
Nan You gave a dry cough. “I just haven’t had time to tend to it lately, haven’t I? Everyone in the sect knows that patch is where I plant my spiritual herbs, yet you’re the only little one who didn’t know?”
Ah Jiu scratched her head. “I knew, but I didn’t know it stretched out that long.”
“So does that count as Senior Sister occupying the sect’s land?” Ah Jiu tried to salvage some ground and asked quietly.
Nan You was genuinely left speechless for a moment. “The Sect Master Uncle didn’t say disciples aren’t allowed to use unoccupied areas.”
Ah Jiu lowered her head and mumbled softly, “Ah Jiu doesn’t have spirit stones to pay for it.”
“Forget it, I wasn’t expecting you to pay anyway. How much debt do you already owe at the Disciplinary Hall? You’re so young and you already know how to write IOUs?” Since this little fellow had uprooted her spiritual herbs, Nan You figured she had to exact some payback.
Directly scolding the little junior sister for uprooting her herbs might cause their good Eldest Senior Sister to rush to protect her, but exposing the little junior sister’s shady deeds that she didn’t dare speak of should be safe from Eldest Senior Sister’s wrath.
Sure enough, Mu Yao turned her head to look at Ah Jiu, her fingertips pinching a fallen petal in silence as she calmly waited for Ah Jiu to confess on her own.
“I accidentally damaged some of the sect’s items, and Senior Sister Jin Zui said Master told me to pay for it myself.” Ah Jiu lowered her head and whispered.
Mu Yao:
She pressed her lips together in the end. “Then pay for it yourself.”
Seeing Ah Jiu’s hesitant and faltering expression, Nan You gloated, “Then why not write an IOU for Senior Sister as well?”
Ah Jiu looked toward Mu Yao, hoping to seek help, but Mu Yao did not turn back to her and simply poured herself a cup of tea.
That mere moment of drinking tea felt like sheer agony for little Ah Jiu.
After putting down her tea cup, Mu Yao took an item out of her storage ring and handed it to Nan You. “I gave you the inner core of the Yingmo last time. Compared to these few stalks of night-glow moss of yours, it should more than cover the cost.”
Upon seeing the Yingmo inner core handed over by Mu Yao, Nan You paused slightly, but did not reach out to take it.
“Forget it, I was just teasing the little junior sister. Eldest Senior Sister doesn’t need to take it so seriously.” Nan You raised her hand and poured herself a cup of tea.
Then she looked back at Mu Yao. “Eldest Senior Sister’s partiality toward our little junior sister is truly something else.”
“She plucked it for me, so it counts as me taking your night-glow moss.” Mu Yao said warmly.
Nan You’s gaze drifted to the flower crown on Mu Yao’s head. “True, though this flower crown really does suit you well.”
She stood up and stretched lazily. “I came to ask if you’d like to go hunting in a few days. Junior Sister is short of some materials for alchemy, and Eldest Senior Sister can help out, right?”
“Alright.” Mu Yao agreed without much thought, given that Nan You had helped her quite a bit previously.
Ah Jiu sat nearby, looking at Nan You with a smile as she pinched her own cheek, which hurt a bit more than usual.
The little fellow blinked innocently, though Nan You wasn’t actually angry with her.
“Next time, don’t go randomly picking Senior Sister’s things. Many of them are poisonous; if something goes wrong, Senior Sister might not necessarily be able to save you.” Nan You flicked her nose.
Ah Jiu nodded obediently. “Senior Sister, I’m sorry.”
Nan You’s gaze fell upon the pendant around her neck. “Then how about coming over to help me tend to the spiritual plants every day?”
Ah Jiu scratched her head and whispered, “Ah Jiu doesn’t know how.”
“No worries, Senior Sister guarantees she’ll teach you.” Eyeing the little fellow before her, Nan You calculated that she should make a decent laborer.
Mu Yao did not interrupt, letting Nan You trick the little one. In the end, Ah Jiu was indeed roped in by Nan You.
“Alright, then come find me every day before dark.” Nan You stood up and stretched lazily. “Nothing else, I’m heading off first.”
“Mm.” Mu Yao responded calmly, indicating she understood.
However, Nan You turned back around and suddenly said to Mu Yao, “Eldest Senior Sister’s such partiality toward the little junior sister, I might just grow jealous.”
Hearing those inexplicable words, Mu Yao remained seated, entirely unmoving. “What? Would you prefer me to let you slip some poison into my tea so you can test your new detoxification method?”
Nan You gave a dry cough. “This junior sister wouldn’t dare.”
With that, she quickly departed, leaving behind a bewildered Ah Jiu and a thoroughly accustomed Mu Yao.
Mu Yao put the Yingmo inner core away, replaced the tea in her cup with a fresh pour for herself, and took a few unhurried sips.
Sitting beside her and watching her drink tea, Ah Jiu poured herself a cup as well, took a couple of sips, and then dangled her legs as she looked at Mu Yao. “Senior Sister.”
Mu Yao turned her head toward her. “Mm? What is it?”
“Can we eat iced melon today?” Ah Jiu asked earnestly, gazing at Mu Yao.
Mu Yao smiled helplessly, then reached out to ruffle her hair. “Go fetch the melon yourself.”
With that, Mu Yao waved her hand, and a pool of ice appeared before Ah Jiu. “Handle it yourself.”
Then Mu Yao stood up once more, grabbed Frost, and walked back inside Jieyue Pavilion.
Ah Jiu looked at Senior Sister without removing her flower crown. For some reason, she suddenly felt overwhelmingly happy in that instant. Dangles her small feet, she hopped off the stone stool, bent down to touch the icy water in the ice pool, and found it very cold.
Her eyes rolled, and she ran off to catch a few water spirits, tossing them straight into the ice pool.
At first, the water spirits were startled by the chill, but within moments, they began to frolic cheerfully.
Ah Jiu propped her hands beside the ice pool. “Am I good to you?”
The spiritual essences darted around inside and then nodded at Ah Jiu.
“So you have to help me from now on, understand?” Ah Jiu told them solemnly.
The spiritual essences actually nodded along, every single one of them being quite obedient.
Before Mu Yao had walked far, hearing the little fellow’s conversation with the spiritual essences, she could not help curving the corners of her lips. This little one truly spent every single day knowing only how to bully these little spiritual essences.
Still, Mu Yao couldn’t be bothered to manage it; after all, it was a case of one willing to beat and the other willing to endure. As Ah Jiu said, while she made these little spiritual essences work, she also helped them find spiritual energy, and if spiritual essences absorbed enough spiritual energy, they would one day succeed in taking human form.
Returning to the top floor of Jieyue Pavilion, Mu Yao put down the Frost sword, took a book from the nearby bookshelf, and sat down on a straw mat. Her eyes remained tightly closed, but her spiritual sense had already swept across the pages.
This was not a sword manual, but a book on formation arrays.
Mu Yao and Fengyang were actually quite different. Although Fengyang collected a vast number of books, he rarely read most of them carefully himself, whereas Mu Yao was thoroughly familiar with every book in the library pavilion, knowing precisely which position each one was placed in.
She basically understood the contents within the books as well. However, these books were written through the painstaking efforts of major experts in the cultivation world, and a basic understanding was far from sufficient; the path of cultivation focused on deep research and finding one’s own Dao.
Moreover, although Mu Yao primarily practiced the sword dao, much like Fengyang, she did not restrict herself solely to it and dabbled in other areas to varying degrees.
Take formation arrays, for instance. Fengyang had once said that if one could merge sword techniques with formation arrays, there would be few in this world capable of matching her in combat, and even the Demon Lord could not kill her.
Naturally, this premise required a steadfast sword heart, otherwise both sword dao and formation dao would end in complete failure.
Mu Yao was earnestly studying the formation arrays, while over on the other side, Ah Jiu had already set out riding the spiritual crane.
Roughly half an hour later, Ah Jiu returned. Not only did she come back, but her storage pouch was also stuffed to the brim.
First, she went to place the sweet melon into the ice pool Mu Yao had created for her, and then she went to wash all the other fruits she had foraged and brought back.
After washing them, she carried a small plate upstairs, only to find that Senior Sister appeared to be in deep meditation.
Ah Jiu lightened her footsteps, not daring to make too much noise. She sat down near the railing, slowly eating from her small plate and taking care not to disturb Mu Yao.
Once she finished eating, her gaze landed on the formation book Mu Yao had left on the table, and she tiptoed over wanting to take a look.
Yet after staring at it for a long time, she couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
Mu Yao was comprehending within her sea of consciousness and remained completely unaware of Ah Jiu’s movements.
Unable to understand it after a long while, Ah Jiu secretly memorized a bit of it before sneaking off to Dan Peak to find Yue Yue. However, Yue Yue was also busy refining alchemy and had no time to entertain her, while Nan You was locked away in her own cultivation cave and did not come out.
The little fellow wandered everywhere, sitting atop the spiritual crane while eating chilled melon slices, holding another stolen formation book in one hand, sitting cross-legged on the crane’s back, yet still looking thoroughly baffled no matter how she studied it.
Jin Zui was coming out of Suiwu Peak, where the Sect Master resided, and happened to run into Ah Jiu on her way back to the Disciplinary Hall.
Stepping on her flying sword, she slowly approached Ah Jiu. Her striking golden robes remained exceptionally eye-catching.
“Little Junior Sister, it’s already dark; why haven’t you headed back yet?” Within the entire sect, the person Ah Jiu feared the most was Fengyang, followed closely by Jin Zui, because every time Senior Sister Jin Zui sought her out, it meant punishment.
So much that the moment Ah Jiu heard her voice, she gave a start, hastily turning around and hiding the sweet melon behind her back.
“What are you hiding? It’s not like you’re forbidden from eating sweet melon.” Jin Zui’s voice was as rigid and formulaic as ever.
Ah Jiu stood up involuntarily, her spine straightening ramrod-straight.
“Ah Jiu greets Senior Sister.”
“Mm. Why haven’t you returned to your peak so late? Did Eldest Senior Sister go into seclusion again?” Jin Zui asked casually.
Ah Jiu hurriedly shook her head. “Senior Sister is not in seclusion, she is just meditating.”
“Senior Sister, Ah Jiu hasn’t broken any rules today, right?” Ah Jiu asked cautiously, terrified that she might have inadvertently done something wrong, though she remembered being very well-behaved and doing nothing amiss today.
“No. Why are you so nervous? Since you’re afraid of being punished, behave yourself in the future and stop constantly violating the sect rules.” Jin Zui’s tone carried a rare trace of helplessness. She didn’t want to punish people either, but this little junior sister repeatedly broke sect rules, what else could she do? She couldn’t just bend the law for personal reasons.
“Oh, Ah Jiu is very good,” Ah Jiu whispered.
Jin Zui couldn’t help chuckling softly. This little fellow was good? Where was she good? It was a miracle she wasn’t full of rebellious bones; whenever there was something she shouldn’t do, that was precisely what she insisted on doing.
“A formation book? Can you understand what you’re looking at?” Jin Zui finished laughing and let her gaze fall upon the book in Ah Jiu’s hand.
Ah Jiu handed the book over for her to see. “I don’t understand it, but I think it’s very interesting.”
A single glance told Jin Zui that this formation book was by no means entry-level; even she didn’t fully understand it.
“If Little Junior Sister wants to learn formations, she has to start from the basics. It’s completely normal that you can’t understand this one.” Jin Zui took the formation book, spoke casually, and then spotted the spiritual imprint left upon it. It was left behind by Uncle-Master Fengyang, clearly a book from the Uncle-Master’s library pavilion.
She handed the book back to Ah Jiu. “This book is extremely precious, so don’t lose it. If you lose it, both Eldest Senior Sister and Uncle-Master will beat you.”
Hearing this, Ah Jiu hastily tucked it back into her storage pouch. “Thank you, Senior Sister, Ah Jiu understands.”
Jin Zui nodded slightly, then maneuvered her flying sword in front of Ah Jiu. “Follow me.”
Ah Jiu was stunned for a moment, then patted the spiritual crane’s head. “Mao Mao, follow Senior Sister.”
“Mao Mao?” This was Jin Zui’s first time learning the name of the little junior sister’s mount.
“Yeah, she has lots of feathers on her body,” Ah Jiu answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Yet Jin Zui couldn’t help shaking her head, what kind of name was that, lacking any hint of elegance.
Jin Zui brought Ah Jiu to the Disciplinary Hall. Ah Jiu dismounted following her, and upon hearing Jin Zui say to follow along, she dared not refute and could only honestly trail behind Jin Zui into the main hall of the Disciplinary Hall. Walking into this place always made her heart flutter with apprehension, wondering if Senior Sister Jin Zui was going to punish her again.
Ah Jiu kept her head lowered, but what awaited her was not Jin Zui’s reprimand, only a formation book handed over by Jin Zui.
“If Little Junior Sister truly wants to learn formations, she can try reading this book first.” Jin Zui said softly.
Ah Jiu blinked, feeling quite surprised that Senior Sister hadn’t brought her back just to punish her. True, Senior Sister hadn’t even taken out her disciplinary whip today.
She reached out with her small hand to take it, but seeing her hands, Jin Zui paused in silence. Grabbing Ah Jiu’s hands first, she cast a cleansing spell to remove the grime from her body before allowing her to touch the book.
“You are not allowed to soil it, and there must be no stains when you return it.” Jin Zui’s voice always retained a trace of sternness that struck fear into Ah Jiu.
Ah Jiu hurriedly nodded obediently. “Senior Sister, rest assured, there definitely won’t be.”
Just as she finished speaking, a light laugh drifted over. “Across the entire sect, the person your senior sister worries about the most is probably you, right?”
Ah Jiu turned around to see Uncle-Master Wen Xiu walking in from outside. She quickly straightened her posture, cupped her hands, and bowed. “Greetings, Uncle-Master.”
“Alright, rise. Why are you suddenly wanting to learn formation arrays?” Wen Xiu asked with curiosity.
Ah Jiu scratched her head and truthfully explained that she had simply seen Senior Sister reading it and felt curious, and the more she looked, the more interesting it seemed.
“In that case, study it well then.” Wen Xiu nodded.
Staying in the Disciplinary Hall made Ah Jiu feel thoroughly uncomfortable. Uncle-Master Wen Xiu was also someone who rarely smiled; usually, even when nothing was wrong, he rarely cracked a grin. Although he wore scholar’s robes and looked quite scholarly from a distance, Ah Jiu simply didn’t like him.
“Disciple acknowledges. If there is nothing else, Ah Jiu will not disturb Uncle-Master and Senior Sister.” She was unusually well-behaved today, speaking with a degree of respect that only these two figures in the Disciplinary Hall could ever compel from her.
Wen Xiu nodded slightly and waved a hand at Ah Jiu. “Go on then.”
Jin Zui escorted her out and casually asked about Eldest Senior Sister’s condition.
“Eldest Senior Sister has left seclusion, so she’s completely fine now, right?” Jin Zui still felt some lingering concern for Mu Yao. After all, the two of them had entered the sect around the same time, and back before Jin Zui had successfully taken human form, Mu Yao had given her varying degrees of care.
As the Eldest Senior Sister of the sect, she naturally extended a measure of care to her junior sisters and brothers.
Ah Jiu thought about it, nodded, but then shook her head a moment later. She felt that Eldest Senior Sister still hadn’t fully recovered.
“Mm? Why are you both nodding and shaking your head?” Jin Zui was completely baffled by the little fellow.
“Senior Sister said she’s fine now, but Ah Jiu can’t quite tell,” Ah Jiu tilted her head and said honestly.
Jin Zui more or less understood. “I see.”
With that, she retrieved an icy blue inner core from her storage ring. “This is the inner core of a Bingqi Snake; it might be beneficial to Senior Sister. Trouble Little Junior Sister with passing it along to her.”
Ah Jiu looked at the item and asked with curiosity, “Why doesn’t Senior Sister Jin Zui give it to Eldest Senior Sister herself?”
Jin Zui placed the inner core into her hand. “I still have matters to attend to. I am not as leisurely as Junior Sister.”
Watching Jin Zui turn and walk away, Ah Jiu walked forward, a golden abacus suddenly appearing in her hand. She scratched her head, and then climbed back onto the back of the spiritual crane.
Studying that inner core closely, Ah Jiu thought it looked rather pretty.
“Senior Sisters are all so amazing,” Ah Jiu could not help marveling.