"You like flowers and plants too?"
Another Purple-Clad Woman in the mirror asked him. Lu Xing studied her appearance and demeanor. She was gentle and elegant, graceful and refined, like a lady from a distinguished family. He nodded.
The Purple-Clad Woman smiled. "Keep going up. Not far from here is a garden I used to tend. It has been many years, though, so I do not know whether it is still there."
"There's a garden on the snowy mountain?"
Lu Xing looked at the wind and snow filling the sky, instantly intrigued. After asking for the location, he quickened his pace up the mountain.
"Does this silly boy not know a flight spell?" the Empress in the mirror asked with a smile.
"Most likely not."
"What does it matter? Let him run. It's much more interesting this way~"
Lu Xing continued onward, asking the Purple-Clad Woman twice more before finally finding the place—a huge boulder engraved with the words: "Trespassers Halt."
"Just go inside," the Purple-Clad Woman said.
Lu Xing nodded and stepped in. The wind and snow vanished, and the surroundings became a sea of mist. When he turned around, even the boulder was gone.
"Looks like it is still here." The Purple-Clad Woman seemed somewhat pleased and instructed Lu Xing, "Use the Tiangang Bagua Steps to move forward, then walk them in reverse. That will take you through the formation."
Lu Xing did not dare move. "Senior, how do I perform the Tiangang Bagua Steps?"
Many of the beauties in the mirror laughed. The Purple-Clad Woman looked helpless as well. This was already the simplest way to break the formation. She had set it up like this because she found it convenient, so that anyone who wandered in by mistake could quickly leave.
She had never expected someone who did not even know how to walk the Tiangang Steps!
The Empress sat on the Dragon Throne, propping up her cheek with one hand as she smiled. "Do not bother. Why not let him use the mirror to break the formation? That way, he will not forget it the next time he comes."
After a brief hesitation, the Purple-Clad Woman sighed softly. "Very well. Since I am no longer in the Three Realms and Six Paths, there is no use in keeping this garden. Lu Xing, break the formation and go in. If there are any medicinal herbs that have gained intelligence in the garden, let them leave."
Lu Xing had no idea how valuable medicinal herbs that had gained intelligence were, but seeing that no one in the mirror cared, he gave up the thought of catching one or two.
He raised the Treasure Mirror with his jade-white hand and gently turned it. At once, the Treasure Mirror bloomed with radiance, slicing through layer after layer of mist and revealing the true surroundings.
Lu Xing froze.
Before him stood a garden overflowing with rosy light. Spiritual plants of every kind flourished within it. Treasure trees hung with bright red fruit, emerald vines bore several huge gourds, and immortal herbs glimmered with mystical light. Seven or eight strange children rolled around on the ground, while three little ones lay on the roof of a thatched hut, sunning their bellies, and two more ran about playing.
There were at least a dozen odd-looking children in the garden, all staring at Lu Xing.
The next moment—
"Ah!!"
Several shrieks rang out. Some children transformed into spiritual light and shot into the sky, some burrowed underground and vanished without a trace, while others instinctively reverted to medicinal herbs, their plants trembling violently.
Only one half-grown child remained. She was delicate and adorable, seemingly a little girl, standing blankly before the thatched hut with a small bucket in her hand.
Lu Xing smiled at her. "Hello, little sister."
The little girl looked up at the mirror in his hand. The next moment, she threw down the wooden bucket and ran toward him, wailing as she tightly hugged his leg, her face smeared with tears and snot.
Lu Xing stroked her head and asked the souls in the mirror, "What is going on?"
The Purple-Clad Woman said softly, "So many years have passed. You have even survived the tribulation of taking human form."
The little girl formed from medicinal herbs could not speak. She could only stare at him and babble incoherently.
Lu Xing looked at the spiritual plants around him, gradually being covered by wind and snow, and felt somewhat regretful. "I should have learned the Tiangang Steps. Now that your formation is broken, I am afraid the garden will not last."
"In the Three Realms and Six Paths, what can last forever?" the Blue Skirt Girl said casually.
The Purple-Clad Woman added, "Without anyone to maintain it, the formation would have slowly dissipated anyway. You need not care."
"What about her?" Lu Xing stroked the little girl's head again. She looked like a human child of five or six, and she was very cute.
"She is the Green Lotus Flower I planted by the door long ago. Perhaps she was touched by some of my aura and was able to take human form. She recognizes the mirror now and mistakenly believes that I am here."
After pondering for a moment, the Purple-Clad Woman said to Lu Xing, "I would like to ask you to do something for me."
"Just say the word, Senior! It is only that I do not know any spells. I barely even know how to use the mirror."
Lu Xing spoke frankly.
To him, this mirror was like a computer. Using it meant little more than double-clicking a shortcut on the desktop, and he did not even know what would happen afterward.
"It is nothing major. Point the mirror at her, and I will use it myself," the Purple-Clad Woman said.
Lu Xing nodded. He had the little girl stand properly, then aimed the mirror at her.
The Purple-Clad Woman in the mirror raised a hand and pointed at her from afar. With a faint smile, she said, "You have tended the garden for me for many years. Today, I shall grant you a stroke of fortune. How far you can cultivate afterward will depend on yourself."
A point of spiritual light emerged from the mirror and landed on the little girl's forehead.
"Mmm."
Her little body swayed unsteadily. Dazed, she turned around, returned to the thatched hut, and promptly stumbled. Her face landed in a flowerpot, where she transformed into a lotus flower.
Lu Xing watched as her original three or five emerald lotus leaves produced a pale pink flower bud within several breaths. Multicolored rosy light curled around it, and he could vaguely see the little girl curled up inside the bud with her knees hugged to her chest.
A faint lotus fragrance drifted over.
The Neon Fairy smiled. "A thousand years from now, which sect's founder or which clan's old ancestor will she become?"
The beauties in the mirror laughed, though several also sighed, as if they had experienced such things before.
Lu Xing could not wait a thousand years. He asked the Purple-Clad Woman and the others, "Senior, will she really be all right if we just leave her here?"
"She will leave on her own if she encounters danger," the Purple-Clad Woman said.
Only then was Lu Xing relieved. She was the garden's owner and the one least willing to see the fruits of her labor destroyed.
Of course, that was only for spiritual herbs that had gained intelligence, or at least those that had taken human form. As for the other ordinary flowers and plants, she would likely let them live or die as they pleased.
After looking at the lotus flower twice more, Lu Xing began wandering through the garden. As he strolled, he chatted with the souls in the mirror and roughly learned that the Purple-Clad Woman had lived here for a long time.
She did not say exactly how long. She only mentioned that she had not deliberately searched for spiritual herbs; instead, whenever other cultivators died on the snowy mountain, she would find medicinal herb seeds in the Storage Bags she picked up.
Lu Xing asked the Purple-Clad Woman for her name, but she merely smiled and said that she had neither name nor surname. She had never traveled in the human world and did not even possess a title like Neon Fairy.
Lu Xing did not know whether that was true, but inside the thatched hut where she had lived, he found quite a few furnishings—teapots, teacups, pillows, and other items, all in different styles.
"They are all things others never used. I picked them up and left them here. Take whatever you can use, and throw away whatever you cannot," the Purple-Clad Woman said with a smile.
Lu Xing nodded. Though it was strange for a quiet, ladylike woman to pick things up in the mountains, she was also a Fairy, so ordinary logic could not be applied to her.
Still, he said regretfully, "It is a pity there are no shoes."
He was still barefoot.
"Hee hee hee."
The Blue Skirt Girl laughed in the mirror, kicking her crystal-clear little feet in a stream. "Even this elder of yours has no shoes to wear. What shoes do you need? From now on, do not wear any either. Keep me company!"
Lu Xing glanced at the mirror. Unfortunately, the image was too far away for him to get a good look at her little feet.
No, it was because he could not see whether she was wearing shoes!