Because of the ugly reputation the recent brawl had earned her, Yun Xiu got up early, put on a new veiled hat to avoid being recognized, and wrapped herself up tight before heading down the mountain.
She’d even deliberately swapped out her usual black robes for a white dress.
When she’d first crossed over, she’d owned only two black robes of the same cut, and she’d been rotating between them ever since. The white dress had been sent up along with dinner two days ago at Xie Wuwang’s order, it seemed he’d only just realized the problem.
The clothes he’d sent came to seven or eight outfits, most of them in styles and colors a young girl would love: pale pink, goose-down yellow.
To be honest, Yun Xiu had never worn anything this cute.
She’d worked odd jobs for years, and on the job she wore whatever was practical, a lot of the work left her filthy, especially repairing cars and appliances, where her clothes always came away smeared black with grease.
Yun Xiu picked through them and chose the most low-key one, a white dress, and once she’d put it on it felt very strange. It was feather-light, the skirt soft to the touch, hanging still it was fine, but the moment she walked it went floating and drifting.
Like a little white flower on a vine, carried along by the wind.
Yun Xiu stood at the edge of the spirit lake and turned slowly in place for a while, watching her reflection, before she put on the veiled hat and headed down.
At the barrier-formation at the foot of the mountain, the Zhezhu Sword, lying limp and languid atop the stone stele, spoke up: “So tired. I can’t fly anymore. You carry me.”
Then it tacked on, “Don’t grip so hard.”
It still remembered how, last time at the Shuiling Palace, she’d nearly wrung it unconscious.
Yun Xiu didn’t know where the Mingyue Platform was, last night Xie Wuwang had told her the Zhezhu Sword would take her there.
She made a sound of assent and scooped up the Zhezhu Sword, a little puzzled, could a flying sword actually feel tired?
Thinking this, she just asked it outright.
The Zhezhu Sword’s spirit said dolefully, “Tired of heart.”
The sword-spirit heaved a sigh. “But mostly I’m just hungry.”
“My boss, that’s your master, has been really busy lately and hasn’t had time to earn spirit stones, so all I’ve got to live on is what’s left of the old stockpile.”
Like a tap had been turned on, it launched into a tearful indictment: “You know what? Five hundred green spirit stones, back in the day I’d have polished those off in a single bite. But now? I’ve made them last a full ten days. Ten days!”
“Fifty green spirit stones a day, every mouthful carefully budgeted, deliberated over again and again. Just now I finished the very last green spirit stone, and I’ve no idea how long I’ll be starving after this…”
Yun Xiu: “…”
Yun Xiu glanced down at the dress she was wearing and was suddenly seized by a guilty conscience.
Xie Wuwang’s spirit stones… seemed to have all been spent on her.
The sword-spirit sniffled and wept softly. “To tell you the truth, I feel like Boss has been really cold to me lately. He doesn’t even take me out anymore. I suspect he’s got another sword on the side.”
The corner of Yun Xiu’s mouth stiffened. “How could that be? You’re probably just overthinking it.”
The sword-spirit stopped its sobbing. “I mean it. Last time, while I was half-asleep and groggy, I heard someone nearby say Boss had requisitioned some kind of sword embryo. He’s definitely got a better sword now, that’s why he doesn’t want me anymore.”
Its tone slumped, dejected. “I know I’m a lot of trouble, I have to be kept fed on spirit stones all the time, and I eat so much. Boss must be sick of me over it.”
Yun Xiu didn’t know how to comfort people, let alone comfort a sword. She opened her mouth for a long while and got nothing out, and in the end reached over and gently poked the flat of the blade.
The sword-spirit: “…Is this how you usually comfort people?”
Yun Xiu was silent for a few seconds, then switched to patting the blade with her palm.
The sword-spirit: “…”
With a *zing*, a tiny plump birdie squeezed out of the blade, its feathers a dusty gray, like a little sparrow.
It jabbed a stubby wing at the tip of Yun Xiu’s nose, its eyes full of *why-won’t-you-live-up-to-your-potential* (exasperation that someone won’t rise to the occasion). “Nobody comforts people like that! First, you’re supposed to soothe my feelings, tell me not to be sad. Then, once I’ve recovered a little, you analyze how accurate the whole thing even is, whether I misheard, got it wrong, that sort of thing.”
“And finally, you use sincere words to encourage me, tell me I’m not actually trouble or a burden, that Boss doesn’t hate me at all.”
The little plump birdie hopped in front of Yun Xiu and stared into her eyes with a pair of round little beads. “Got it?”
Yun Xiu: “…”
Yun Xiu accepted the lesson with humility. “So… shall we do it over?”
And so, for the rest of the walk, under the sword-spirit’s repeated coaching, Yun Xiu comforted the pitiful little thing a full thirteen times, especially the closing “encouragement portion.”
Yun Xiu, against her own conscience, exhausted every flattering word in her vocabulary, while the little plump birdie sighed and moaned even as it held its head higher than anything.
Yun Xiu: “…”
She suspected there was nothing wrong with it at all, it was purely bored and just wanted to hear itself praised.
By the time she reached the Mingyue Platform, the place was, unsurprisingly, packed with a sea of people.
To keep order, the grounds had a barrier-formation in place, all the disciples could only queue up and enter under the supervision of the senior masters.
Yun Xiu pressed her veiled hat down, doing her best to minimize her presence, and, hugging the sword, tucked in at the very back of the long line.
Someone suddenly poked her lightly on the shoulder. Yun Xiu turned, it was a female disciple in red she didn’t recognize, looking very young, brimming with liveliness from the brows down.
Smiling, the girl pointed at Yun Xiu’s dress. “That dress is Luoshang Pavilion’s newest release, right? The hidden pattern is gorgeous.”
There it was, the extroverted overshare, a stranger striking up a conversation.
Yun Xiu went rigid, and mumbled, “Y-yeah, I think so.”
The girl in red looked at her veiled hat. “Why do you seem so familiar? It’s like I’ve seen someone wearing a hat like this before. Let me think…”
Yun Xiu tensed up. No way, even like this, she could be recognized?
The girl in red propped her chin on her hand and mulled it over, then suddenly clapped her palms. “Right! A few days ago, Sword Venerable Wuwang’s disciple was wearing a veiled hat. Don’t tell me you’re—”
Hearing this, Yun Xiu’s heart went to cold ashes. She hastily denied it under her breath: “I’m not—”
“, here because you saw how good her veiled hat looked and bought one too?”
Yun Xiu’s little face turned solemn. “Yes.”
The girl in red studied her hat and nodded in approval. “It really does give off this master-cultivator aura. I’ll go get myself one later.”
Yun Xiu let out a breath of relief.
“Oh, right, you came to the lecture without bringing anything?” The girl in red glanced at her hands.
Yun Xiu, puzzled: “Wh-what am I supposed to bring?”
Was there something else to prepare besides grabbing a number?
“This, obviously.”
As she spoke, the girl in red *whipped* a black board out of her storage pouch. She pressed a switch, and the black board lit up.
Red spirit-light lamps formed two rows of large characters.
【A Dao Lecture Benefits You for Life】
【Peerless Beauty Etched in Memory Forever】
Then, unhurried, she fished out a smaller one and lit it up, seven big characters glowing in blue spirit-light.
【Xie Wuwang, the World’s Ideal Man】
Yun Xiu: A-a fan light-board?!
Yun Xiu scanned the area. The disciples around her, seeing the girl pull out the light-board, all looked perfectly calm and unsurprised, as though this were an everyday sight.
A few disciples, seeing the girl in red show hers off, even flashed their own deluxe light-boards as if refusing to be outdone.
Yun Xiu: “…”
Was she the one behind the times?
“No worries if you didn’t bring one, I’ve got a spare. This one’s yours.” The girl in red stuffed the blue light-board into Yun Xiu’s arms without leaving her the slightest room to refuse.
“Perfect timing, we’re up. Go on in.”
Before Yun Xiu could even react, the girl in red had pushed her by the shoulder into the dark entrance passage of the Mingyue Platform venue.
When she turned her head again, the girl in red was gone.
As if she’d melted into the flow of the crowd, Yun Xiu swept her eyes left and right and didn’t see her anywhere.
The dim space was murky with low light. There were two passages in all, one leading backstage, one to the venue.
Xie Wuwang had told her earlier to come find him backstage. Yun Xiu walked a stretch to the right, saw the glow of a barrier-formation, and was just about to step through when a soft chuckle suddenly landed by her ear.
Through the gauze of her veiled hat, a warm, warm breath fell without warning against her left ear, making her shiver, a light, unhurried voice curling sweetly into her hearing.
“Only two and a half months left. The Young Sect Master had best work hard.”
Yun Xiu’s pupils contracted. She whipped her head to the left, and was suddenly given a light shove, her body lurching forward a step before she could brace herself, right into the white light of the barrier.
The white glare before her eyes slowly faded, and she arrived at another scene entirely: clouded mountains and misty waters, pavilions over the water.
Yun Xiu pressed her lips together and poked the Zhezhu Sword with a finger. “Did you just see anyone?”
The sword-spirit looked blank. “Loads of people. This place is crawling with Sword Sect disciples.”
So it seemed the sword-spirit hadn’t noticed the Hehuan Sect person either.
Yun Xiu lowered her eyes. Was it because she’d accomplished nothing this past half-month, so someone had come specially to “remind” her?
“What are you doing just standing there?”
The cool white figure beneath the pavilion was lounging with his chin propped on one hand. He lifted his eyes and cast his gaze toward her, his tone light.
Yun Xiu walked over and took off her veiled hat.
A few days apart, and he felt a little different again. Back at Luoxue Peak he’d been as placid as well-water, now there was a tinge of languor between his brows, as if he were somewhat impatient.
He looked like an aloof cat, lounging there lazily, flicking its tail, unable to bear the sight of the dull humans around it.
…Kind of cute.
Until the aloof cat’s gaze fell on the light-board in her arms. It paused, and narrowed slightly.
“What’s this…?”
Yun Xiu hurriedly stuffed the light-board into her storage pouch and explained in a small voice, “A disciple shoved it into my hands on the way here.”
Xie Wuwang made a sound of acknowledgment and studied the girl before him. She’d swapped out that dreary black outfit, and the whole of her seemed a good deal brighter for it.
His gaze shifted away slightly. “Does the dress fit?”
Yun Xiu gave a small nod.
“It’s about to begin. Go on in and take your seat.” Xie Wuwang tossed her a jade token, his tone bland. “Wear this. As long as you don’t go waving that light-board around, no one will notice you.”
Yun Xiu: “…”
Yun Xiu took the jade token and slunk off.
The girl had barely left when a figure dropped down beside the pavilion.
“Finally done. That pack of old men can really drag it out, I’m parched from all the talking.”
Shuo Yunhuai picked up a cup of tea and gulped several mouthfuls, then, spotting the Zhezhu Sword on the table, went still. “You…”
“Merely showing my disciple the way.”
Shuo Yunhuai sat down, fell silent for a long while, hesitated a moment. “You’re still…”
Halfway through, he swallowed it back down. “Never mind.”
He sat there a good while, fidgety and restless, then lifted his head again. “No, I really have to… though then again.”
Xie Wuwang gave him a lazy glance. “If you’re sick, go see a healer-cultivator. Don’t hide an illness for fear of the cure.”
Shuo Yunhuai: ?
As if he didn’t know perfectly well *who* was the cause of what was on his mind!
Xie Wuwang flicked his sleeve. “If you’ve got so much free time, you’d do better to go teach your own disciples more. There may not be many chances later.”
Shuo Yunhuai was thoroughly baffled, with no idea what he meant.
“By the way, when I arrived just now I ran into the folks from the South Sea. They said they owed you spirit stones and asked me to pass them along.”
Shuo Yunhuai recalled how, this whole stretch, he’d been running sect missions everywhere. “Are you that short on spirit stones?”
Xie Wuwang was silent two seconds, said nothing, and opened the spirit-stone pouch. In an instant, the Zhezhu Sword swallowed half of the hundred thousand green spirit stones.
The Zhezhu Sword seemed reborn, even the spirit energy around it turned merry.
Shuo Yunhuai was silent two seconds as well, watching the young man pack away the other half. “So what about these leftover stones?”
Xie Wuwang’s tone was placid: “Buying meals.”
Shuo Yunhuai: ?
He wondered, too, whether she’d found her seat.
Xie Wuwang took out his glazed mirror to check the situation, and as he was backing out he suddenly noticed a red dot, a friend request.
From someone called “300-Yr-Old Innocent & Super Gullible.”
Verification message: 【Hello, you look a lot like someone I know.】
Xie Wuwang frowned faintly. Who was this? He mulled it over two seconds, then tapped accept.
Xie Wuwang: 【And you are?】
No reply.
…
From far off, she could already see the countless people. Yun Xiu stood tense at the door, steeled herself for a long time, then pressed her veiled hat down, clenched her fingers, and entered the Mingyue Platform venue.
After a few seconds she opened her eyes, not a single gaze had landed on her.
Just as Xie Wuwang had said, no one noticed her.
Yun Xiu let out a breath of relief and followed the flow into the venue, finding her seat, front row, dead center.
…She had the inexplicable sense of sitting right under the teacher’s nose.
The surroundings were a chaotic mess. Yun Xiu swept her gaze around, loads of people were holding up fan light-boards. The whole spectacle was set up like a concert.
Suddenly, a pale-blue sword-light streaked across the sky.
And then the sky began to darken.
It should have been high noon, the sun at its brightest, yet the veil of night spread open like a toppling scroll painting, unfurling to both sides from the path the sword-light had cut, darkness draping the entire venue.
The chaotic surroundings quieted along with it.
For a moment, there was not the sound of a crow or a sparrow.
Everyone’s eyes gathered on the sky, watching the sword-light that had cleaved it fly toward the Mingyue Platform. Following its path, they saw that a white figure had, at some unknown moment, appeared upon the platform.
That keen sword-light dispersed on the stage, the flying sword circled the young man once and returned to its scabbard.
The young man lifted his eyes without haste, his voice calm and far-reaching.
“All of you, what is the Dao?”
On the stage the young man spoke of the Dao slowly. Although it was more or less the same voice as usual, in this moment it sounded like Brahma-song, calming the mind before one even realized it.
Yun Xiu watched him from below the stage.
Before he’d arrived, she’d expected some grand spectacle, after all, Lingyun Sect had been promoting this for so long. She didn’t expect such an utterly ordinary entrance, without so much as a single line of superfluous opening remarks.
But thinking about it, that seemed to suit his cool, aloof character better. All those elaborate, gaudy flourishes had surely been cast aside by him.
The elders were probably fuming over it, blowing their beards and glaring.
Yun Xiu couldn’t help her eyes curving up.
She listened quietly, grasping the gist through the abstruse language.
All things have cause and effect, and are interconnected.
The same event, at a different time and in a different space, will produce a different result.
Mount Sumeru hides within a mustard seed, and a mustard seed holds Mount Sumeru (the infinitely vast fits inside the infinitely small), beyond the three thousand worlds lie three thousand more worlds…
Yun Xiu started. That much was true, she’d crossed over from the modern world into this book, so of course there were other worlds.
All things are not so of themselves.
The sun and moon burn without anyone kindling them, the stars order themselves without anyone arraying them.
Yun Xiu nodded. Materialism.
She agreed wholeheartedly with this view, she was a materialist warrior herself.
Listening, Yun Xiu felt a real urge to go deep into a discussion of Marxist philosophy with him. She swept a glance around, only to find that most of the disciples nearby had closed their eyes, entering a state of Dao-comprehension.
Yun Xiu: ?
Yun Xiu’s whole sky came crashing down.
Did she have no talent for cultivation?
Maybe her method was wrong.
Yun Xiu tried closing her eyes too, listened for a while, and it seemed to be working…
Her consciousness seemed to enter another unknown realm. Yes, that realm, it must be there.
A pitch-black, chaotic realm…
Her head lolled, and the veiled hat slipped off in a flash.
It dropped onto her own lap, and the thump jolted Yun Xiu wide awake from her doze.
Yun Xiu lifted her head, and unexpectedly met the pitch-black eyes of the young man onstage. Caught in the act.
Yun Xiu: “…”
Guilty as charged.
Yun Xiu pinched her own thigh to shake off the drowsiness and forced her eyes wide open, staring at Xie Wuwang, trying to prove she was working hard at paying attention.
Staring and staring, her thoughts wandered somewhere not entirely proper.
He was really good-looking.
His eyes were like black glaze, so beautiful.
His lips looked red, very kissable, it seemed.
When he spoke, his Adam’s apple bobbed. He’d been lecturing so long, he must be thirsty. When he drank, would the water slide down past his throat and trickle into his collar?
His collar, right, last time she’d seen his collarbones, so beautiful too, and his skin so fair. Maybe a light pinch would make it flush.
He looked lean and slender. Would he have abs?
Onstage, Xie Wuwang, who had been fixed under the girl’s bright, practically scorching gaze for a full hour: “…”
He shifted his eyes away, somewhat at a loss.
Without breaking off his lecture, he took out the glazed mirror and sent a message.
【…If you’re sleepy, then just sleep.】
Yun Xiu felt her sleeve buzz. She pulled it out for a look, immediately replied *not sleepy*, and shook her head at him like a rattle-drum.
Then a pair of doe eyes went right back to staring blazingly at him.
Xie Wuwang: “…”
By the time the lecture ended, a full day and night had passed.
Most of the disciples in the venue were still in their state of Dao-comprehension, watched over by the senior masters.
Yun Xiu had said she wasn’t sleepy, but she hadn’t actually held out long, she’d fallen asleep about a third of the way in.
The lecture over, Xie Wuwang looked down at Yun Xiu below the stage. He was just thinking of going down to collect her when, right after he said his closing words, the girl abruptly woke.
Her eyes were bleary and a little unfocused, yet she shot to her feet and gave him a thorough, solid bow.
Mumbling under her breath, “…See you, teach.”
Xie Wuwang: ?
Having said this, the girl plopped straight back down and slumped forward into the empty air.
Xie Wuwang reached out in time to catch her, sparing her head from smacking the ground.
He couldn’t help a soft laugh, and called gently, “Yun Xiu.”
The girl slowly lifted her eyes to look at him, stared for a few seconds, then went stiff all over, sat bolt upright, and her eyes cleared at once.
“I, I, I… I…”
She stammered a long while without getting anything coherent out, then her head drooped. “I’m sorry. I fell asleep.”
Xie Wuwang gave a soft laugh.
“It’s fine. It’s over now. Let’s go.”
Yun Xiu nodded and nodded, stood, and followed behind Xie Wuwang. Suddenly she noticed there were lots of flowers and plants on the stage, plus lotuses and auspicious clouds.
She was puzzled. “When were all these brought over?”
Xie Wuwang explained warmly, “When the Dao is expounded, the Heavenly Dao manifests auspicious phenomena. These phenomena will dissipate in a day or two…”
Before he’d finished, the girl reached out and plucked a lotus pod down.
Xie Wuwang: ?
Catching how his words had cut off abruptly, Yun Xiu realized what she’d done and felt a rush of guilt. The lotus pod in her hand was suddenly scalding-hot to hold. “S-sorry. It smelled so good, and I’m so hungry I couldn’t help it for a second.”
“That’s quite all right.”
Xie Wuwang’s gaze fell on the lotus pod in her hand, his brows knitting slightly. “It’s only that the Heavenly Dao’s manifestations are illusory things, and yet you can touch it.”
“On this stage, aside from this lotus pod, can you touch anything else?”
So Yun Xiu tried them all, and the result was that she could touch everything. She snapped off every lotus pod on the stage and gathered them into her arms.
And once they’d passed through her hands, Xie Wuwang could touch them too.
They really did smell wonderful…
Yun Xiu was ravenous. “Can I eat them?”
This was the first time in Xie Wuwang’s life he’d encountered such a thing. He frowned. “It’s not yet certain whether they’re safe. Don’t eat them for now.”
He deftly produced a packet of pastries. “Have these first to line your stomach. I’ll take you to eat properly in a bit.”
Xie Wuwang took her back to the earlier backstage area, and they sat down in the water pavilion.
Shuo Yunhuai was stunned to hear of it. He’d had a whole crowd of guests to deal with, but he hurried over at once.
Yun Xiu obediently nibbled the pastries while the two men stared at the lotus pod on the table, deep in thought.
Shuo Yunhuai: “Xie Wuwang, you’re not pulling my leg, are you? This looks like a perfectly ordinary lotus pod any way you slice it. Did you and Fang Cheng cook this up to tease—”
Xie Wuwang said nothing, only gave him a cool glance.
Shuo Yunhuai went quiet.
If Fang Cheng had said this, he wouldn’t have believed half a word. But it was Xie Wuwang saying it, and this man couldn’t be bothered to deceive him.
No, but, everyone knew a lecture manifested auspicious phenomena, there was nothing remarkable about it. Venerables from all sides manifested them when they expounded the Dao too.
But snapping a lotus pod off the manifestation, *that* was unheard of.
Shuo Yunhuai poked the lotus pod. He genuinely couldn’t spot anything unusual about it, it was exactly like the lotus pods in his own lotus pond at home.
It just smelled a bit fragrant, and seemed to carry a hint of Xie Wuwang’s scent.
But shouldn’t something manifested from an auspicious phenomenon be some kind of stupendously amazing heaven-and-earth treasure?
Poking and poking, Shuo Yunhuai suddenly felt a scorching gaze.
He followed it, the girl had already finished the pastries and was lying against the edge of the table, a pair of sparkling eyes fixed unblinkingly on… the lotus pod in his hand.
Shuo Yunhuai turned to Xie Wuwang and criticized him: “Look at what kind of master you are, starving your disciple like this. She’s not like you, she doesn’t do bigu. She’s still growing. You can’t just not feed her.”
Xie Wuwang: “…”
“Hold on a moment, Nephew-disciple Little Yun.”
Shuo Yunhuai split open the lotus pod, peeled out a lotus seed, popped it into his own mouth first, chewed, and swallowed.
Five minutes later, Shuo Yunhuai opened his eyes. “It’s fine, no poison.”
He smiled and peeled lotus seeds for her. “Eat up, Nephew-disciple Little Yun.”
Yun Xiu took the peeled lotus seed he offered and put it in her mouth. The flavor was clean and sweet, and crisp.
She ate four or five in a row, then suddenly felt a bit full and covered her stomach.
Xie Wuwang’s pitch-black eyes fixed on her. “Not feeling well?”
Yun Xiu shook her head. “No, I’m just full.”
Xie Wuwang was puzzled. By her appetite, these few lotus seeds shouldn’t be nearly enough for her.
Shuo Yunhuai peeled the rest of the lotus seeds out and set them in a little box. “Then I’ll pack these up for you, we can eat them slowly back home.”
Xie Wuwang looked at Shuo Yunhuai. “Give me one.”
The flavor really was the same as an ordinary lotus seed, and it held no rich spirit energy either, yet a few had filled her up.
Xie Wuwang lowered his eyes in thought. Perhaps… what these lotus seeds contained was the “Dao”? The fact that she could pluck these manifestation lotus pods, did it mean she’d already set foot upon this path?
Beyond the Mingyue Platform, moonlight spread everywhere.
With the lecture over, Xie Wuwang saw Yun Xiu back to Luoxue Peak and, after telling her to rest well, turned and went to the Repository Pavilion on Green Lamp Peak.
He remembered the Repository Pavilion held some ancient texts on the manifestation of auspicious phenomena.
Xie Wuwang set foot on the cloud-steps, and suddenly the glazed mirror chimed twice.
Thinking it was a message from Yun Xiu, Xie Wuwang took it out for a look, it was that person who’d added him out of nowhere.
His message still sat at: 【And you are?】
300-Yr-Old Innocent & Super Gullible: 【Who I am doesn’t matter.】
300-Yr-Old Innocent & Super Gullible: 【But you look a lot like someone I know.】
Xie Wuwang frowned faintly.
【…Who?】
The next second, the other party’s message popped up.
【My husband whom I’ve never met.】
Xie Wuwang: ?