Her fox tail had popped out, and wrapped around Xie Wuwang’s wrist, no less.
The instant she realized it, Yun Xiu’s whole mind went blank, and her mist-brimming eyes flooded with panic.
She hastily reached back, wanting to yank her tail off his hand.
But the more anxious she got, the more she botched it. Her hand, groping backward, missed her tail entirely and instead grabbed Xie Wuwang’s hand.
Her hand was very hot, his was unusually cold, like grasping a piece of white jade steeped in water.
Her fingertips landed right on his wrist bone, the skin thin and translucent, the blood vessels almost visible. The cool temperature spread through her hot fingertips, cool and comfortable, and strangely, it settled her feverish blood a little.
Yun Xiu’s mind cleared somewhat along with it.
She quickly let go of his hand, grabbed her own tail, and pried the fox tail off his wrist.
She thought glumly:
Now she was done for. Her identity was exposed.
She was going to be hauled off to feed the snakes.
Yun Xiu bowed her head and waited quietly for the young man’s “sentence.”
Her heart cold as ashes, her mind full of images of herself being thrown into the snake pit, but the young man behind her was silent for several breaths, and then spoke in a slightly puzzled tone.
“What was that just now?”
Yun Xiu started. Shouldn’t he have seen it?
Mind in a jumble, she worked up the courage at his words to turn her head and look at him, only to find the white-robed young man with his eyes shut, dense crow-black lashes lowered.
Yun Xiu suddenly remembered the words she’d dimly heard him say earlier, something about sealing off his sense of sight…
So he hadn’t seen just now?
Yun Xiu’s grip on her tail tightened. It seemed she still had a chance to salvage this!
She drew a breath and, keeping her tone as calm as she could, spun a story out of thin air. “It’s the fabric I had You Yujing buy today. I don’t have many clothes, so I was thinking of using it to make myself a couple of outfits.”
“Fabric?” Xie Wuwang paused, his tone gentle. “The texture felt rather like fur…”
Yun Xiu: “That’s right. I’m planning to make a fur coat.”
Xie Wuwang: “……It’ll be summer in a few days.”
Yun Xiu: “I’m naturally sensitive to cold.”
Xie Wuwang: “……”
The white-robed young man behind her fell silent. Yun Xiu clutched her tail tight, uneasy, watching his expressionless face nervously.
Just as she thought he was going to keep pressing, a mild voice drifted down from overhead.
“As long as you like it.”
He dabbed some white ointment on his fingertips, tone calm. “Let’s continue applying the ointment.”
Yun Xiu breathed a sigh of relief. Afraid he’d notice something amiss, she didn’t dare make a fuss about doing it herself, and sat up straight obediently, quietly cupping her tail while trying to marshal her chaotic spiritual energy to retract it.
The young man said he’d apply the ointment, and that was truly all he did.
His cool, spiritual-energy-laced fingertips spread the ointment, dissolved its potency once it was even, then withdrew without the slightest lingering, keeping perfectly within bounds.
It was Yun Xiu, rather, who found a pile of improper, disorderly things bubbling up in her head during the process.
Her little face flushed red, buried in the pillow she was hugging, her eyes damp.
Once Yun Xiu had put her clothes back on and mumbled a “done,” the young man released the spell-seal and slowly opened his eyes.
Yun Xiu patted the heap of plush material set beside her and looked away, murmuring, “That was this just now, when I was undoing my clothes I accidentally dropped it onto your hand.”
She’d just pulled it out of her storage pouch, but it wasn’t the fabric she’d had You Yujing buy, she’d used all of that up. This was from Xu Shaoqian’s pile.
He’d said that as a male cultivator he had no use for it, and before leaving had insisted on foisting it off on her, so she’d had no choice but to take it.
Who’d have thought it would save her dog life at the critical moment.
Xie Wuwang’s gaze fell on the heap of plush material beside the girl. He swept it a light glance, withdrew his eyes, gave a hum. “If you need anything, just tell me. Rest well tonight.”
Yun Xiu nodded like a chick pecking at rice, then grabbed the covers and burrowed under to sleep.
Fearing the girl might relapse in the night, Xie Wuwang sat down in the soft chair to read as usual, and through the screen carved with cranes-clutching-branches, listened to her breathing gradually ease.
Beyond the window the moonlight stretched long.
Xie Wuwang turned a page with his long fingers, his languid gaze drifting lightly to his own wrist.
Between the back of his hand and his wrist bone, a ring of pink slowly surfaced.
……
The next day, when Yun Xiu woke, Xie Wuwang was no longer in the room. On the table sat simmering medicine and dishes kept warm with spiritual energy.
Yun Xiu found it a bit odd. Normally he waited until she’d woken, watched her finish eating and drink her medicine, and only then went out.
…Maybe he was too busy today?
Yun Xiu got up and washed, then walked over to the table to eat. Lifting her head, she suddenly saw a girl sitting silently at the doorway, head down, playing with a glazed mirror.
Yun Xiu: !?
As if sensing her gaze, the girl turned her head, revealing a fair, clean face, pretty and delicate, with a pitiable, touching air between her brows, like a clean little white flower.
The two looked at each other.
One second, two seconds…
A full minute passed before the little white flower gripped her glazed mirror and finally spoke.
“Hello.”
Yun Xiu looked at her, fingers clutching her chopsticks, and after a minute squeezed two words out of her own throat.
“Hello.”
Having said that, the two of them fell silent again.
The surrounding air sank into a deathly stillness, an inexplicable awkward atmosphere spreading and swirling between them.
Another two minutes passed.
Yun Xiu: “You’re…”
Little white flower: “I’m…”
Yun Xiu: “Sorry, you first…”
Little white flower: “Sorry, you ask first…”
Yun Xiu: “Then I’ll ask first…”
Little white flower: “Then I’ll speak first…”
Yun Xiu: “……”
Little white flower: “……”
Yun Xiu gripped her chopsticks tight and lowered her head.
The little white flower gripped her glazed mirror tight and lowered her head.
A minute later.
Yun Xiu looked up: “How about you eat a little too…”
Little white flower looked up: “How about you finish eating first…”
Yun Xiu: “……”
Little white flower: “……”
The little white flower pressed a hand to her lips and gave a light cough. “Um, fellow cultivator, you eat first. I’ll explain why I’m here in a bit.”
Yun Xiu nodded in agreement.
Then she picked up her chopsticks and buried herself in her meal.
Now and then she snuck a glance up at the little white flower, who sat somewhat stiffly in the doorway, head down, playing with her glazed mirror.
The interface looked a bit familiar. Yun Xiu narrowed her eyes and looked closely, it was actually her Fluffy Match-3.
After the meal, the little white flower put away the glazed mirror and walked in from the doorway.
The awkwardness on her face had faded considerably by now, and she grew a touch more composed. “My name is Long Rourou. I’m a disciple of Shuo Yunhuai, the Sect Master of the Lingyun Sect.”
Yun Xiu started.
Long Rourou, wasn’t that the female lead of this book!
Long Rourou explained, “Three days from now the Lingyun Sect will hold the Sword Venerable’s dao-lecture assembly. These next few days Sword Venerable Wuwang has to prepare with the elders and can’t return to Luoxue Peak.”
“My master and Sword Venerable Wuwang are close friends. Hearing you were unwell, he sent me to look after you.”
Yun Xiu understood, and gave a small nod.
Her explanation done, Long Rourou sat down, and Yun Xiu obligingly picked up the teapot to pour her tea.
Long Rourou lifted the tea and took a light sip. “May I ask your name?”
Yun Xiu set down the teapot. “My name is Yun Xiu.”
“Pfft, cough cough cough…”
Yun Xiu hurriedly passed over a soft handkerchief. “S-sorry, is the water too hot?”
Long Rourou covered her mouth with the handkerchief, coughed a few times, and waved a hand. “It’s nothing. I drank too fast and choked.”
“About that, let’s hold off on the tea. Let me help you with the ointment.”
They were both girls, so there was nothing to be shy about. Yun Xiu sat hugging her pillow while Long Rourou sat behind her and slowly applied the ointment.
Little face half-buried in the pillow, Yun Xiu felt it was strange.
Last night when Xie Wuwang applied the ointment, her tail had popped out the moment he touched her, and she’d wanted to cling to him, yet with Long Rourou helping her, she had no such odd sensation.
“I’ve been in the sect a bit longer than you, so let me call you Junior Sister Yun.” Long Rourou spoke up. “By the way, Junior Sister Yun, which characters make up your name? Is it xiù as in ‘elegant, refined’?”
Yun Xiu: “It’s xiù as in ‘sleeve.'”
Long Rourou paused. “Junior Sister Yun, where are you from?”
Yun Xiu was about to say the Liuhe Wildlands, then remembered on second thought that the Hehuan Sect was in the Liuhe Wildlands, that would give her identity away far too easily. She changed her answer just as the words reached her lips. “Baihua City.”
Long Rourou gave a slow hum. “The Baihua City in the Shuiling region?”
Yun Xiu grew nervous. Had she been found out lying?
She feigned composure and hummed. “But I haven’t been back in a long time.”
Long Rourou gave a knowing “oh.” “No wonder I didn’t see you when I was in Baihua City a while back.”
Yun Xiu paused, blinked, and probed cautiously, “That’s a small mortal town. What was Senior Sister Long doing in Baihua City?”
Long Rourou snapped the medicine box shut with a clack, her tone casual. “Nothing much. I was passing through while delivering medicine for someone, and stayed a night there.”
“There, all done, Junior Sister Yun.”
Yun Xiu put her clothes back on and watched Long Rourou sit back down at the table.
Her reaction seemed nothing out of the ordinary, Yun Xiu had probably been overthinking. The “Lei Feng” personage the Baihua City lord spoke of probably wasn’t her.
With the ointment applied, the two of them once again lapsed into an awkward, nothing-to-say state.
One sat at the table, the other by the couch.
After a long silence, in unspoken accord they both took out their glazed mirrors.
With someone else present, Yun Xiu didn’t dare play with the black glazed mirror, and only took out the sect’s blue one, scrolling the trending topics.
#Wantong Commerce Guild Virtual Spirit-Coin#
#Fluffy Match-3#
Blogger: “Wantong Commerce Guild”
Verified: “Number One on the Cultivation World Merchant Guild Rankings” · “Resource-Flow Gateway Between the Human and Demon Realms” · “More…”
“Wantong Commerce Guild”:
【Beginning the 1st day of the 4th month, Year 233 of the Wuding era, the Wantong Commerce Guild will partner with the game @”Fluffy Match-3″ to launch a new currency, “Virtual Spirit-Coin.”】
【”Virtual Spirit-Coin”: exchangeable at parity with spirit stones. Virtual Spirit-Coin can be used in “Fluffy Match-3” to purchase clearing items and stamina. See the official “Fluffy Match-3” account for details.】
And on Yun Xiu’s end, she’d long since posted a new announcement stating the game would update on the 1st of the 4th month, exactly the day the Sword Venerable’s dao-lecture assembly began.
Long Rourou just kept playing the little glazed-mirror game like that, lingering at Luoxue Peak until evening, then applied the ointment for Yun Xiu one more time before leaving.
Seeing her go, Yun Xiu, who’d finally gotten free after a whole day of scrolling threads, finished her meal and started building the game levels for the update.
Yun Xiu crouched in her sea of consciousness, chin in her hands, watching the plush toys drop down one by one.
Xie Wuwang was too busy to come back, but he’d remembered to order delivery and have it sent to Luoxue Peak for her.
Late in the night, the levels finished, Yun Xiu came out of her sea of consciousness and lay down on the couch.
Her tail popped out from behind her. She pulled the fluffy big tail over and hugged it to her chest, fingers slowly plucking at the loose fur.
But her mind was on last night.
She’d known Xie Wuwang’s hands were good-looking, she’d secretly stared at them several times before. The thought of that hand touching her back so freely, with no barrier at all, made her face flush hot and her ears burn.
Last night when her tail popped out, for one instant she’d felt as if she hadn’t actually wanted to stop him, she’d wanted him to go a little further, to touch her more, and that was why she’d wound around him.
Not only that, she’d wanted his hand to press against her face more, to nuzzle it stickily, she’d wanted to wind her tail tightly around his hand and have him stroke it from the tip all the way to the base, and then…
Yun Xiu was defeated by her own train of thought.
She weakly buried her little face in her tail, breathing out hot air, her eyes damp.
She really was one lecherous, no-good fox, smitten by looks (getting ideas the moment she sees a pretty face).
For three days running, Yun Xiu stayed at Luoxue Peak with Long Rourou in a subtly peculiar arrangement.
The two of them each occupied one end of the room, heads bowed over their glazed mirrors, refusing to open their mouths whenever it could possibly be avoided.
Finally, on the third day, Yun Xiu’s allergy fully healed, and she no longer needed the ointment.
When she told Long Rourou the news, Yun Xiu watched her nod with a placid face and say evenly, “Since you’ve recovered, Junior Sister Yun, I can rest easy. I have some urgent matters to attend to, so I won’t linger at Luoxue Peak any longer.”
Then she turned and stepped out the door, secretly heaving a sigh of relief, her whole person lightening as if a weight had lifted, leaving Luoxue Peak so lightly she was practically walking on her tiptoes.
Yun Xiu, taking in this whole scene: “……”
Was she really that terrifying to be around?
Yun Xiu carefully recalled the plot of that *Overbearing Proud Hero Loves Her Madly*. From the few chapters she’d read, the female lead’s persona seemed to be a diligent-cultivating, hardship-enduring, unbending little white flower.
After these three days together, she couldn’t say about the diligent-cultivating part, but the unbending part Yun Xiu had definitely observed.
Long Rourou had played over two hundred rounds of Match-3 level 99 without giving up.
Tomorrow was the game’s update day. Yun Xiu took out the black glazed mirror, uploaded the update content, and set it to auto-update at the scheduled time.
The original Match-3 had just been something she’d thrown together to look for fellow countrymen, only a hundred levels total. This time, to rake in—cough, earn money, the update had a thousand levels.
She’d also built a Virtual Spirit-Coin top-up system, using spirit-coins to buy in-game clearing items and stamina, though if you didn’t want to buy, you could still play, you’d just have to wait slowly for stamina to recover.
She’d partnered with the Wantong Commerce Guild: Virtual Spirit-Coin could be topped up with spirit stones at any Wantong branch, and could also be cashed back into spirit stones from Virtual Spirit-Coin at any time.
Yun Xiu opened the official Fluffy Match-3 account to check the private messages.
Some were from people who loved the game and were waiting for the update.
Some were cursing her out for making a game that required spirit stones.
Yun Xiu skipped right past those without reading. Capitalists have no feelings, before making this ancestor-defying decision she’d already cast aside what little conscience she had left.
Still, she had no use for the spirit stones, the main thing was to pay Xie Wuwang back.
Thinking ahead, after she died her identity would come to light.
Not only had he been deceived into taking on a disciple, he’d been swindled out of money too. When the truth came out, he’d be left with neither disciple nor spirit stones.
…Too tragic.
Yun Xiu scrolled the private messages for a long while, and reaching the very bottom still hadn’t seen a single one from a fellow countryman, feeling a bit deflated.
When Long Rourou had mentioned earlier going to Baihua City, Yun Xiu’s first instinct had been to suspect she might be “Lei Feng.” But on second thought, Long Rourou had played Fluffy Match-3 and shown zero reaction to the “How are you” on the opening screen.
Normally, if she were a fellow transmigrator, she’d have traced her way to Yun Xiu through the official account.
That was why Yun Xiu had concluded she wasn’t, and hadn’t probed her further afterward.
Yun Xiu lay on her soft pillow looking at the glazed mirror, her tail drooping listlessly behind her, its red tip idly brushing the little white flowers on the vines now and then.
The most-discussed trending topic was still Sword Venerable Wuwang’s dao-lecture assembly. The Lingyun Sect’s official account had posted the whole schedule.
The venue was the Lingyun Sect’s Mingyue Platform. All disciples of the Lingyun Sect’s main branch and sub-branches could attend. The main branch would see Sword Venerable Wuwang in person, while the sub-branches would have a spirit-array-projected broadcast set up via array-spirit techniques.
Yun Xiu glanced at the comments below.
【I want to slap my self from six months ago so bad, if I’d just tried a little harder back then, I’d have tested into the main branch this year [slow tears of regret/.]】
【Too slow, didn’t grab a front-row number. I feel like I’ll never love again.】
【Done for, my number’s in some godforsaken corner of Mingyue Platform】
【It’s just one number. Just two hundred rows. As a cultivator, what’s a little distance like that? I’m not even that bothered. Do I care about that little bit? Cracking me up, but I have to say, you really are putting on airs [aloof sunglasses/.]】
【Big money for a front-section number in the inner venue, aaah】
…So you had to grab a number for it?
Yun Xiu hadn’t even known about this. In her stereotype, a dao-lecture assembly sounded like a very proper academic lecture, the person onstage spraying spit as they droned on, the audience below dozing off.
She’d already planned to set the game to auto-update and then run down the mountain to listen in.
Now she didn’t even have a number, looks like she wouldn’t get to attend.
Yun Xiu’s tail promptly drooped completely, listless, its tip no longer even brushing the little white flowers on the vines.
She poked the glazed mirror with a fingertip and tapped into the account the Lingyun Sect had circled.
—”Xie Wuwang”
Clearly a freshly registered account, nothing filled in, nothing posted, yet its follower count was extremely high, and still climbing, jumping by hundreds and thousands with each refresh.
Yun Xiu watched quietly for a while, then registered an account with her own sect glazed mirror and gave him a follow.
Then she closed the cultivation trending topics and went to the Cultivation Forum to scroll threads.
Scrolling and scrolling, she suddenly came across one.
【So happy, I added Sword Venerable Wuwang as a friend aaaah!】
Yun Xiu tapped in to look.
Original poster: 【Never thought I’d live to add Sword Venerable Wuwang as a friend, and we even talked! So happy. I just did three sets of forms and still haven’t calmed down, came here to vent my joy hahahaha】
Comment: 【How’d OP add Sword Venerable Wuwang as a friend?】
Comment: 【Where’d you even get his contact?】
Comment: 【Damn, so jealous, me too me too!】
Comment: 【For real?】
OP reply: 【It was in a group chat, someone shared out Sword Venerable Wuwang’s Knock ID, so we added him. Lots of people added him.】
Comment: 【Huh? How’d you confirm that was actually Sword Venerable Wuwang?】
Comment: 【Would Sword Venerable Wuwang just add random people? Somehow I really don’t believe it.】
Comment: 【Fake at a glance. As if Sword Venerable Wuwang would casually add people.】
Comment: 【What’s Sword Venerable Wuwang’s Knock ID name?】
Having surfed the net for years, Yun Xiu pegged this as a SpiritNet scam at a glance and was about to close the thread and back out, when she saw the OP reply.
OP reply: 【Sword Venerable Wuwang’s account is a new one, and the name is just “Xie Wuwang.”】
Yun Xiu: ?
Her hand, about to close the thread, hesitated.
She thought for two seconds, stopped, and kept reading.
OP reply: 【At first we didn’t believe it either, lots of people added him just to mess around. In the end, out of the whole group, only my request got accepted.】
OP reply: 【I think maybe it’s because my request note was more sincere? I said I wanted to seek his guidance on cultivation questions, that I’d always deeply admired him and looked up to him as a role model, and so on.】
OP reply: 【After he accepted, he just asked a few casual questions, then hit the nail on the head about the root of my problem, the flaws in my cultivation method, and the hidden risks I had, and even patiently taught me the correct way to go about it… In short, that’s when I finally believed he was Sword Venerable Wuwang.】
OP reply: 【And I checked carefully, his SpiritNet location is Jiuli, Lingyun Sect, which is exactly where Sword Venerable Wuwang is now.】
Comment: 【Damn, you really lucked out, kid.】
Comment: 【Please, I want to add him too aaah】
Comment: 【Me too me too】
Comment: 【I’m begging OP to hurry and give me Sword Venerable Wuwang’s contact, or I’ll kneel and beg you.】
OP reply: 【No problem, I’m not a selfish person. Add me as a friend and I’ll give you the contact.】
OP reply: 【Whether or not you get accepted, though, I can’t say. That part’s out of my hands.】
Yun Xiu sank into thought looking at this thread.
By this person’s account, it really did sound like something Xie Wuwang would do, after all, he was a good man, he’d helped her before when they were complete strangers, so of course he’d help other disciples in difficulty too.
And the name was “Xie Wuwang”…
Mm, the going-online-under-his-real-name thing, she’d watched him do that herself.
Then there was no doubt about it, it was him.
Yun Xiu stretched, then lay on her side on the pillow, and a stuffy, muffled feeling suddenly welled up in her heart, her fingers slowly plucking at the little white flowers on the vines.
…Was he this good to everyone?
If it were someone else who’d become his disciple, would he buy her food too, comb her hair, watch over her through the night when she fell ill?
Reason told her clearly: yes, he would.
He was good to her because she was his disciple, and that role wasn’t unique, nor was it irreplaceable.
After she died, he’d have other disciples.
Maybe more than one, even.
Yun Xiu buried her little face in the pillow, stuffy and glum.
Suddenly she felt a wave of irritability, her tail swishing back and forth behind her.
She was going to die anyway, why bother thinking so much? Rather than grinding herself down inside, better to go blow someone else’s mind.
Yun Xiu pulled out the black glazed mirror. Register account, search account, add friend, fill in verification, type, send successful.
The whole sequence flowed through in one smooth motion.
The next second, the glazed mirror went ding.
Guilty conscience and all, Yun Xiu jolted upright without warning, and the glazed mirror in her hand dropped onto the pillow with a clack.
…He accepted the friend request that fast?
Coming to her senses, Yun Xiu picked up the black glazed mirror, but there was no message, that friend request hadn’t been accepted yet.
Then the source of the sound turned up.
Yun Xiu picked up the blue glazed mirror she’d set aside, opened Knock, and saw a new message, from “Xie Wuwang.”
Xie Wuwang: 【Feeling any better?】
Yun Xiu sat up on the couch, hugging her soft pillow, and the listless tail behind her seemed to regain a bit of spirit, swaying gently.
Yun Xiu: 【All better now, no more need for the ointment.】
A few seconds later, a message came from the other side.
Xie Wuwang: 【Good, then.】
Xie Wuwang: 【Remember to get up early tomorrow, and come to Mingyue Platform.】
Yun Xiu started.
Wasn’t Mingyue Platform exactly where his dao-lecture assembly was tomorrow?
Yun Xiu hesitated, then typed: 【Do you want me to come listen to the dao-lecture assembly?】
Xie Wuwang: 【Yes.】
Xie Wuwang: 【Although your cultivation is still shallow, you can gain insight into the dao from it and grasp certain principles, it will do your future cultivation no small good.】
Yun Xiu wavered: 【But I didn’t grab a number, can I still get in…? I saw them all saying it’s one fixed seat per person, so I wouldn’t have a spot even if I went in, would I?】
The other side went quiet for about a minute, then sent one line.
【You are my disciple. If even you cannot get in, then this place surely has no room for a seat of mine either.】
Yun Xiu blinked blankly, staring at it and silently reading it once more, working it through in her head.
Two seconds later, the fuzzy red tip of her tail abruptly brushed the little white flowers on the vines.