"Sister Bai!" Yue Qianchou called from this end of the bridge. The music from the pavilion abruptly ceased, and the white fox rose gracefully. "Brother Chou! You haven't come to see me for several days!" If the elders of the Qingguang Sect who knew the white fox had seen her like this, who knew what they would have thought.
Yue Qianchou lifted the bundle in his hand and smiled. "I'm afraid I'll have to trouble Sister this time. I plan to stay in the cave with you for a month."
The white fox frowned. "Why is that?"
"Master left the mountain for a month. Before he departed, he told me to find a secluded place to cultivate." Yue Qianchou sat before the pavilion. The white fox nodded and sat down, resuming her zither-playing and soft singing. He smiled. Knowing she did not like excessive chatter, he said nothing more and pulled out the Xuantian Art from his bundle to study carefully.
After cultivating for several days, he had already felt that the spiritual energy in the air was of little help to his cultivation. He took out two Spirit Stones from the bundle and clasped them in his hands. As the Xuantian Art circulated, dense spiritual energy slowly flowed into him. By the time the Spirit Stones in his hands had become dim and lusterless, the True Qi within his body immediately felt much fuller. Yue Qianchou opened his eyes and looked at the stones in his hands with a sigh. No wonder cultivators used these things as currency. They really were good stuff! One high-grade Spirit Stone could be exchanged for a hundred mid-grade Spirit Stones, and one mid-grade Spirit Stone for a hundred low-grade Spirit Stones. Master had given him more than ten mid-grade Spirit Stones at once—worth over ten thousand low-grade Spirit Stones.
The white fox's zither and singing still drifted beside his ears. Yue Qianchou had listened to it for several days. At first, it had felt like a pleasure, but now he felt as if calluses were growing in his ears. Doesn't Sister Bai get tired of singing the same song over and over? He tossed the stone in his hand into the pool, stood, and called out, "Sister Bai!"
The white fox stopped. Her peerlessly beautiful face lifted, and she asked doubtfully, "Brother Chou! What is it?" As she spoke, her gaze swept over a flash of white at the cave entrance, but she paid it no mind.
The white figure at the cave entrance was Qu Ping'er, whose body Yue Qianchou had peeped at that day. The moment she entered the cave, she heard people speaking. When she saw clearly, she was startled. She had not expected that lecher to be speaking with that stunningly beautiful woman. She hurriedly hid to one side.
Yue Qianchou was considering whether to ask the white fox to change songs. With his cultivation, he had not noticed anyone at the cave entrance. He gave an awkward smile. "Sister Bai, why don't you change to another tune? I've noticed you always sing the same song."
The white fox's cloud-like brows creased slightly. "In my early years, I collected famous melodies by renowned masters from across the land. After that incident, not a single one could enter my heart again. Ever since I heard the song you taught me, I have felt that no other song could compare. Why should I change?"
Qu Ping'er, hiding by the entrance, shuddered all over and muttered, "That song was actually written by that lecher? How could that be possible!"
"Sister Bai's zither skills are unmatched. How about this? I'll compose another song for Sister, and ask you to set it to zither music. What do you think?" Yue Qianchou asked.
The white fox's eyes brightened slightly. She gently nodded her jade-like head. "Brother Chou is highly gifted; Sister has already experienced it. If you can compose another song, Sister could ask for nothing more!"
Yue Qianchou nodded and paced back and forth across the bridge with his hands behind his back, lowering his head as he pondered what song to choose. It would be best if the white fox could accept it, enjoy it, and perhaps be guided by it as well. Otherwise, it was such a waste for a late Tribulation stage expert to hide here. She was truly prime material for a gold-medal bodyguard!
The sight of him pacing back and forth in thought filled the white fox's eyes with anticipation. Qu Ping'er, peeping from the cave entrance, was also full of curiosity. She wondered what peerless song this plain-looking lecher would compose this time.
"Got it!" Yue Qianchou suddenly slapped his hand. His eyes rolled twice as he smiled. "The song will be called 'Mandarin Duck Butterfly Dream'!"
"Just hearing the name, I can tell it is another good song. Sister will get to feast her ears again," the white fox said softly.
Qu Ping'er muttered from the cave entrance, "Mandarin Duck Butterfly Dream! What a beautiful name!"
Yue Qianchou walked back and forth twice with his hands behind his back, gathering his emotions slightly. He sighed, then sang in a somewhat hoarse voice, "Yesterday was like eastward-flowing water, gone far from me, impossible to keep. Today throws my heart into turmoil, filling it with endless sorrows. Draw a blade to cut the water, yet the water flows on; raise a cup to drown sorrow, yet sorrow grows still deeper. Tomorrow, I drift with the clear wind in all four directions. Since ancient times, there are only smiles for the new; who has ever heard the old weep? The two words 'love'—how bitter and hard they are. Should one demand clarity, or pretend to be muddled? Know too much or too little, and still one cannot be content. Like mandarin ducks and butterflies, born in an age they should not have known—yet who can escape the sorrows of this mortal world? In this dazzling world, mandarin ducks and butterflies are already mad among men. Why struggle to ascend to the blue heavens? Better to sleep together in tenderness..."
When the song ended, the white fox sat there in a daze.
Qu Ping'er, at the cave entrance, stared at the plain-looking lecher in disbelief and murmured, "Every line tugs at the heartstrings. Someone who can compose such a fine song cannot have such poor character. Could it be that I truly wronged him last time?"
"Sister Bai! What do you think of my song? Is it listenable at least?" Yue Qianchou asked, somewhat lacking confidence.
The white fox gazed blankly ahead and nodded. Her slender jade fingers touched the strings and plucked them. Her vermilion lips parted gently, and with the zither accompanying her singing, the song flowed out like a river of autumn water, slowly stirring the listener's sorrowful heart. Even those who listened could not help but sigh sadly.
After listening several times, Qu Ping'er secretly memorized the song and quietly returned. Yue Qianchou could not help marveling at the white fox's musical talent. She could take any song he sang and compose a richly flavored melody for it.
Watching her vermilion lips open and close, he could not help recalling the golden pellet she had given him. Listening to the new song, he sat cross-legged. In his mind appeared the golden pearl that revolved along a fixed path amid the True Qi in his dantian. Yue Qianchou concentrated and observed it, hoping to make sense of it.
The golden pearl's surface was smooth and round. After examining it for a long while, he found nothing special. A thread of divine sense locked onto the revolving golden pearl, seeking to inspect its inner structure. Yue Qianchou shuddered all over, and as he sat before the pavilion, he abruptly vanished.
The white fox in the pavilion stopped playing and singing. Her beautiful eyes fixed on the spot where Yue Qianchou had just been sitting, her brows lightly furrowed. A powerful divine sense spread out and searched in all directions. Yet within several hundred meters, she found no trace of anyone. She gave a soft cry of surprise. She had never imagined that, with her current cultivation, someone could slip away right under her nose.
In an open space several hundred meters wide, Yue Qianchou stood alone, staring around in astonishment. The clearing was desolate, without the slightest trace of life. At its edges, all around it, stretched hazy purple chaos.
"Where is this? How did I end up here?" Yue Qianchou muttered. He shouted, "Is anyone there? Is anyone here?" All around was deathly silent, without the slightest sound. He ran to the edge of the clearing and the boundary of chaos, trying to force his way through and see what lay beyond, but no matter how much strength he used, he could not cross it.
After struggling about the barren clearing for most of the day, Yue Qianchou was left gasping for breath. He lay on the ground and pondered what exactly had happened. He recalled the golden pearl revolving in his dantian. At the time, he had released a thread of divine sense to inspect it, and then this had happened. Could this be the world inside the golden pearl?
With that thought, Yue Qianchou sprang up. He sank his awareness into his dantian and searched for the golden pearl. Apart from True Qi, his dantian was completely empty. The golden pearl was gone. Startled, he said, "Could this really be inside the golden pearl?"
Gritting his teeth, he tried releasing his divine sense beyond his body. If he had not tried, he would never have known; once he tried, he was thoroughly shocked. With his cultivation, his divine sense could normally only circle one or two meters beyond his body. Yet here, it could stretch without limit, only being blocked at the edge of the chaos.
Yue Qianchou was stunned. Such a range was something only someone at the Core Formation stage could achieve. After withdrawing his divine sense, he suddenly felt that this clearing, several hundred meters wide, seemed to resonate with his heart. It was as though he could know what lay in every corner.
"Behind that little slope, there's a black stone," Yue Qianchou muttered. He ran over to look, and sure enough, there it was. He tried several more times, and every one proved true, leaving him delighted beyond measure.
Then a thought occurred to him by chance: I want to go over there! When he realized that the terrain around him had changed, he was greatly startled. After trying several more times, he discovered that he could actually move about here at will. In other words, he could go anywhere he wanted in this place with a single thought. Gradually, Yue Qianchou realized that within this little space, he had a feeling of holding the entire situation in his palm.
For some unknown reason, the space, which had originally been bright as day, gradually darkened. Yue Qianchou stood there all alone, feeling as though he was about to go mad. Unable to bear it any longer, he screamed hysterically, "I want light! I want light!" Only then did he discover that he was not a Creator God here. It was not true that whatever he wanted would simply appear.
"Am I going to be imprisoned here for the rest of my life? There isn't even anything to eat here. Won't I starve to death..." Yue Qianchou's heart was filled with boundless sorrow. He plopped down on the ground and began bawling his eyes out. With tears streaming over his face, he wailed, "I don't want to die! Someone save me! I want to go back..."
"Brother Chou! What's wrong?" The white fox's gentle, beautiful voice came from beside his ear. Yue Qianchou shuddered, wiped away his tears, and his eyes suddenly brightened. He was now sitting inside the stone cave. He sprang high into the air and laughed wildly. "I finally got out! That scared me half to death, hahaha!"
The white fox watched Yue Qianchou leap about like a madman, on the verge of losing his mind. With a frown, she asked, "Brother Chou! You suddenly vanished, then suddenly appeared again. What exactly are you doing? Sister is completely confused!"
Hearing the white fox's words, Yue Qianchou finally awoke from his frenzied state. Waving a hand, he smiled. "No rush, no rush. I haven't figured it out myself yet. Once I do, I'll definitely tell Sister Bai first. I'm going to verify something now." Under the white fox's astonished gaze, he shot toward the cave entrance in a puff of smoke.
"Hehe! I guessed right! It really is already night outside!" Yue Qianchou laughed with incomparable smugness.
In the blink of an eye, several days passed. During those days, Yue Qianchou's madness had left the white fox with no mind to play the zither or sing. He ran in and out of the cave all day long, busy beyond measure. Sometimes he carried armfuls of flowers and grasses; other times he brought back birds and beasts. The moment he reached the pavilion, he would suddenly disappear, then reappear after a longer or shorter time. That mouth of his never stopped smiling. The white fox could not help asking him several times what he was doing, but he always said there was no rush.
That day, she had seen him vanish before the pavilion. Half a day later, he suddenly appeared holding a fragrant, steaming roasted chicken leg, his mouth slick with grease as he gnawed on it. The white fox could bear it no longer and finally asked again, "Brother Chou! What exactly is going on?"
Before you continue