Living a life, one always ends up wanting to pursue the things one likes.
That’s perfectly normal.
Xie Wuwang had cultivated for many years, and in that time he’d met plenty of female cultivators who wanted to become his dao-companion. But most were reserved, subtle probings, and once he refused, they wouldn’t pester him further.
So he’d never once encountered a confession this blatant and this direct.
【Big bro, I want to have you. I haven’t seen a male cultivator this good-looking in ages, the moment I saw you I felt the whole sky clear up. You there, big brother? Won’t you go out with me?】
【I’ve cried in bed for three shichen, broke down 1,182 times, banged my head against the wall 350 times. I miss you so much I can’t eat or sleep, and I still can’t figure out why big brother won’t add me as a friend.】
【Big brother, you know what? I think I’ve gone blind, otherwise how could I not see you accept my friend request?】
Watching the verification messages pop up one after another on the glazed mirror, Xie Wuwang fell into silence.
Language this reckless and bold made him unable to help but connect it to a certain rather notorious sect.
—The Hehuan Sect.
After he’d emerged from seclusion, that pack of Venerables from all over had banded together to seek him out, decrying with tears of blood the Hehuan Sect’s many evils, urging him to “enact justice on Heaven’s behalf.”
Boiled down, it amounted to this: their young disciples had been swindled in body and heart by the Hehuan Sect’s female cultivators, and had lost all mind for cultivation.
But he hadn’t granted those old men’s wish and moved against the Hehuan Sect.
Not because he couldn’t beat them, it was that he felt the greatest cause of this situation wasn’t the Hehuan Sect’s female cultivators, but that those young men’s dao-hearts were unstable.
If they were truly single-minded toward the Dao, how could they be mired in romance?
But as for the present matter…
This lecture had drawn no few outside guests, yet everyone entering and leaving Lingyun Sect was recorded in the register, and no invitation had ever been extended to the Hehuan Sect, which meant this person had barged in uninvited.
To him it was nothing, she could only use this sort of method to draw attention and posed no threat to him. But his disciple was another matter.
If today she could so casually get close to Yun Xiu and obtain his contact information, then another day she could just as well seize the chance to abduct Yun Xiu and demand he do things.
Xie Wuwang thought for a few seconds, then lowered his lashes and looked at the glazed mirror.
Meanwhile, on Yun Xiu’s end, she was swishing her fox tail, tirelessly tapping out message after message to send Xie Wuwang friend requests.
In real life she could barely stammer out “master,” but online she rattled off “big brother” faster than anyone.
An aloof, lofty master, huh? No problem, in novels this character type is the easiest to conquer. As long as you’re shameless enough and launch a relentless, clinging offensive at him, his bottom line will drop lower and lower, and in the end he’ll accept her.
*Had Heaven not born me, Yun-Little-Xiu, the keyboard-dao would be endless night through all the ages. To the keyboard!* (a meme parody of “Had Heaven not born Confucius, all the ages would be endless night”, i.e. she’s a heroic keyboard warrior)
Yun Xiu was about to keep sending when the interface suddenly jumped to the chat screen.
—He’d accepted her friend request.
Yun Xiu gave her tail a swish. Sure enough, her offensive had worked!
300-Yr-Old Innocent & Super Gullible: 【So how about it, big bro, have you come around? Want to have a wild, blazing love with me?】
Xie Wuwang: 【I have felt your affection, but I know nothing of you, not even your name, so I fear I cannot grant your wish.】
Yun Xiu glanced at the little white flowers on the vine bed-canopy. 【My name is Bai Zhi.】
The name wasn’t something she’d thought up on the spot, when she’d signed the book-contract with the Wantong Guild earlier, afraid of complications, she’d used this alias. Since a book-contract’s validity mainly rested on the fingerprint, the truth of the name didn’t really matter, and the Wantong Guild hadn’t looked into it.
300-Yr-Old Innocent & Super Gullible: 【As for my own circumstances, my name pretty much sums it up. Is there anything else you’d like to know, big brother?】
Xie Wuwang: 【Are you a person of the Hehuan Sect?】
Yun Xiu started. Was it that obvious? But on second thought, given how enthusiastically she was pursuing him, it was quite natural for him to ask.
She’d meant to deny it, but a flash of inspiration gave Yun Xiu a better idea. Hugging her tail, she replied slowly:
【Yes.】
【Actually, I was once a sword-cultivator disciple myself, but later I was deceived by a male cultivator whose cruel methods stripped away all my cultivation and nearly cost me my life. At my wit’s end, it was the Hehuan Sect that took me in.】
【The Hehuan Sect wants me to take revenge and rise again, but my body has contracted a terminal illness, and I have only two months of life left. In my final days, I decided I shouldn’t waste my time on scumbags, but should do what I most want to do, and that’s why I sought you out.】
Yun Xiu spun the tale with heartfelt sincerity: 【Don’t worry, I won’t meet you or make contact, and I won’t disturb you. I only want to chat with you on the glazed mirror in your idle moments, and that alone would fulfill my life’s dying wish.】
Xie Wuwang stared at the text on the glazed mirror. This Hehuan Sect female cultivator really was just as those old men described, glib of tongue, honey-lipped and sweet-worded.
But not a single word of it was believable.
Still, he hadn’t intended to pry any information out of her anyway.
Xie Wuwang replied offhandedly: 【I’ll need to think it over.】
Then he turned, tore off a sound-transmission talisman, and reached Shuo Yunhuai.
“During the lecture, a Hehuan Sect female cultivator slipped into Lingyun Sect. Look into it.”
Shuo Yunhuai was at a gathering with the various sect masters at the Immortal Alliance when he received the talisman.
Befitting a sect master, he stayed utterly calm at the news. “Oh, Hehuan Sect, huh. Just spit out the situation, how many life-or-death victims are there?”
“She sought me out.”
Shuo Yunhuai’s eyes lit up at once. Now *this* was juicy, he’d never seen a Hehuan Sect female cultivator bold enough to actually go after Sword Venerable Wuwang.
He hurried into a corner and pressed on in a hushed, sneaky voice: “And then? And then? Did you go along with her? Or did you get—”
“…Rein in your curiosity. She only contacted me by glazed mirror, she hasn’t shown her face.” Xie Wuwang lowered his eyes slightly, fingertips lightly brushing the page of the ancient text. “But she made contact with my disciple.”
Shuo Yunhuai smacked his lips, his interest instantly deflating. She only dared talk from behind a glazed mirror. Boring.
“Glazed mirrors all carry real-name registration info. Conveniently I’m here at the Immortal Alliance, give me her account and I’ll check it against the SpiritNet central hub for you.”
A quarter-hour later, Shuo Yunhuai came back, brows furrowed.
“Strangest thing, this person’s account has no info. No real-name, how’d they even register the account? The glazed mirror manufacturing process clearly requires mandatory real-name registration.”
Not just real-name, but facial verification too, so as to stop rogue and demonic cultivators from abusing glazed mirrors to cause trouble.
Shuo Yunhuai sat at the table and rubbed his chin. No wonder she’d dared so boldly to seek out Xie Wuwang, turned out she wasn’t afraid of anyone tracing her through SpiritNet to her door.
Xie Wuwang had just shown him everything on the glazed mirror. Hehuan Sect female cultivators were practiced deceivers, and Shuo Yunhuai hadn’t believed a single word either.
“Bai Zhi…”
Shuo Yunhuai repeated it after him. He had no such person in his memory, but since she was using a glazed mirror, this was surely a fake name too, and there’d definitely be no finding the person.
“Hm? Did this disciple do something?”
A refined, handsome young man beside him suddenly looked over, his gaze holding a question.
This man was the Third Steward of the Wantong Commerce Guild, today’s lavish banquet had been funded by the Wantong Guild. Shuo Yunhuai recalled the man’s name was something like Ji Zhuo.
Seeing him pick up the thread, Shuo Yunhuai asked, “You know her?”
Ji Zhuo gave a slight nod. “Know isn’t quite the word… it’s only that a few days ago the guild signed a deal with her, and the book-contract was delivered to Lingyun Sect, so presumably she’s a person of Lingyun Sect too.”
“As for whether she’s a Lingyun Sect disciple, that’s actually my own conjecture. I just judged from the young tone of her speech, and drew that inference.”
Oho, would you look at that.
Shuo Yunhuai had assumed she’d only slipped in amid the crowd at the lecture, he didn’t expect she’d already infiltrated Lingyun Sect well before, and was so brazenly accepting goods too. Did she take Lingyun Sect for her own home?
Shuo Yunhuai felt a thorough investigation of Lingyun Sect was in order. He looked at Ji Zhuo. “Any other information? Which peak does she live on?”
Ji Zhuo shook his head. “That I don’t know either.”
Shuo Yunhuai: “Then what did you two trade?”
Ji Zhuo said gently, “Lord Sect Master, this concerns client privacy, allow me to keep it confidential.”
Shuo Yunhuai understood. After all, the Wantong Guild was the number-one commerce guild in the cultivation world, and if word got out that they casually leaked client privacy, it would surely be made into a huge scandal.
He turned into a corner, set up a sound-isolation barrier, reached Xie Wuwang, and relayed all this information.
“What you need to do now is keep her steady first, don’t beat the grass and startle the snake and let her bolt. Wait. I have to comb through the whole of Lingyun Sect and drag out this brazen little female cultivator.”
“Anyway, she just wants to chat with you, right? So just humor her. When there’s nothing going on, fob her off with a couple of lines, it won’t cost you a chunk of flesh.”
Xie Wuwang: “…”
He lowered his eyes to the glazed mirror.
【Okey-dokey big brother, take your time thinking it over.】
【It’s been ten minutes. Have you decided, big brother?】
【I hear big brother also has a glazed mirror. How strange, so why isn’t big brother replying?】
【Boohoo, is big brother tired of me now (a spring-onion-white finger pressed to my heart, a pair of lovely eyes brimming with tears, weeping softly) I know it’s only natural someone like me would be disliked by big brother (softly) (biting my lip) (the corners of my eyes faintly wet) but I still like big brother so much, without big brother I can’t go on (little pink fists clenched, tiny frame trembling slightly)】
Xie Wuwang: “…”
He lifted his head and replied to Shuo Yunhuai in a cold tone: “Not a chance.”
Shuo Yunhuai raised a brow. “It’s not like you have to actually offer up your body. It’s through a glazed mirror anyway, just grit your teeth and get through it, you won’t lose anything.”
Xie Wuwang: “No.”
Shuo Yunhuai: “I’ll pay five million green spirit stones.”
Xie Wuwang: “…”
Outside the window the moonlight was pale and shallow, spilling through the lattice onto the vines.
Yun Xiu’s tail had dried, fluffy now, like a great puff of white marshmallow, wagging back and forth merrily behind her.
After waiting a while with no message, Yun Xiu was just about to send another when a message suddenly jumped into the dialogue box.
Xie Wuwang: 【Reading.】
From these two words Yun Xiu immediately conjured the scene. These past days she sometimes woke in the dead of night.
Through the folding screen carved with a crane holding a branch in its beak, she’d see him lounging in a soft chair, reading, his brows and eyes serene, the cool, quiet moonlight resting silently upon him.
Yun Xiu obediently sent a line: 【Okie, then take your time reading, big brother. I’ll turn in first.】
Then she tossed the glazed mirror aside, bundled her merrily wagging tail into her arms, dropped into the soft quilt, and rolled over.
And then… before she knew it, she’d fallen asleep.
The next day she woke, and not long after getting up she saw Xie Wuwang walking into the little courtyard, setting an exquisite, pretty food box on the table.
Yun Xiu rubbed her bleary eyes, sat down at the table, and murmured, “Morning.”
Xie Wuwang gave a soft hum of acknowledgment, but his gaze, falling on her, suddenly halted, his tone turning grave.
“You’re about to form your core?”
Yun Xiu instantly perked up: mm, mm?!