Snow Mountain Garden

"You like flowers and plants too?"

Another Purple-Clad Woman in the mirror asked him. Lu Xing looked at her appearance and demeanor; she was quiet and elegant, pure and refined, like a young lady from a prominent family. He nodded.

The Purple-Clad Woman smiled and said, "Go up a bit further. Not far from here is a garden I used to tend to. It's been many years though, I don't know if it's still there."

"A garden on a snow mountain?"

Lu Xing looked at the swirling snow in the sky and immediately became interested. After asking for directions, he quickened his pace up the mountain.

"This silly boy doesn't know how to fly?" The Empress in the mirror laughed.

"Probably not."

"What does it matter? Let him run~ It's more fun."

Lu Xing continued forward, and after asking the Purple-Clad Woman twice more, he finally found the place – in front of a giant stone carved with "Stop, Visitors."

"Just go in," the Purple-Clad Woman said.

Lu Xing nodded and stepped inside. The swirling snow disappeared, and the surroundings turned into a thick mist. He looked back, but couldn't even see the giant stone.

"Looks like it's still here." The Purple-Clad Woman was slightly pleased. She guided Lu Xing forward: "Walk forward using the Tiangang Bagua Steps, then walk backward, and you can pass through the formation."

Lu Xing didn't dare to move and asked her, "Senior, how do I walk the Tiangang Bagua Steps?"

Many beauties in the mirror laughed, and the Purple-Clad Woman also looked helpless. This was already the simplest method to break the formation. She had set it up this way because she found it troublesome, so that anyone who accidentally stumbled in could leave quickly.

She didn't expect someone wouldn't even know how to walk the Tiangang Steps!

The Empress sat on the dragon throne, resting her face on her hand and smiling, "Don't bother. Why not let him use the mirror to break this formation? That way he won't forget it next time he comes."

The Purple-Clad Woman hesitated slightly, then sighed softly, "Alright, since I am no longer in the Three Realms, keeping this garden is useless. Lu Xing, just break this formation and go in. If there are any herbs in the garden that have developed sentience, let them leave."

Lu Xing didn't know how precious herbs with sentience were, but seeing that everyone in the mirror didn't care, he gave up the idea of catching one or two.

He held up the treasure mirror with a hand as white as a fairy's jade and gently turned it. The treasure mirror immediately burst forth with light, cutting through the thick mist and revealing the true appearance of the surroundings.

Lu Xing was stunned.

In front of him was a garden overflowing with radiant light. Various spiritual plants were growing exceptionally well. Treasure trees hung down with bright red fruits, and several large gourds hung on emerald green vines. Immortal herbs emitted a divine, faint glow, and there were seven or eight strange children rolling on the ground. On the roof of a thatched hut, three small children were sunbathing their bellies, and two were running and playing on the ground.

Within the entire garden, there were at least a dozen strangely-shaped children, who stared at Lu Xing, and he stared back.

The next moment.

"Ah!!"

With several screams, the children either turned into streaks of spiritual light and fled into the sky, or burrowed into the ground and disappeared without a trace, or instinctively turned back into herbs, their plants trembling.

Only one half-grown child remained, carved from pink jade, likely a little girl, standing in front of the thatched hut with a small bucket, staring blankly.

Lu Xing smiled at her: "Little sister, hello."

The little girl looked up at the mirror in his hand. The next moment, she dropped the wooden bucket, cried "Wuwah," and ran over, clinging tightly to Lu Xing's leg, crying with snot and tears.

Lu Xing stroked her head and asked the souls in the mirror, "What's going on?"

The Purple-Clad Woman said faintly, "So many years have passed. You've already passed the transformation tribulation and gained a human form."

The little girl made of herbs couldn't speak, only looked at him with "ah woo ah ba".

Lu Xing looked at the spiritual plants around him, gradually covered by wind and snow, and felt a little regretful: "I should have learned the Tiangang Steps. Now that your formation is broken, I'm afraid the garden won't be saved."

"In the Three Realms and Six Paths, what can last forever?" the blue-skirted girl said casually.

The Purple-Clad Woman also said, "Without anyone to maintain it, the formation will slowly dissipate. You don't need to worry."

"What about her?" Lu Xing touched the little girl's head again. She looked like a five or six-year-old human child and was very cute.

"She is the Green Lotus Flower I planted in front of my door back then. Perhaps she absorbed some of my aura and was able to take human form. She recognizes the mirror now and mistakes it for me."

The Purple-Clad Woman pondered for a moment, then said to Lu Xing, "I want to ask you to help me with something."

"Senior, just say it! It's just that I don't know any magic, and I don't even know how to use the mirror very well."

Lu Xing said.

To him, the mirror was like a computer. He only used the mirror to double-click shortcuts on the desktop, and he didn't know what would happen after double-clicking.

"It's not a big deal. You just need to point the mirror at her, and I will use the mirror," the Purple-Clad Woman said.

Lu Xing nodded, had the little girl stand still, and pointed the mirror at her.

In the mirror, the Purple-Clad Woman reached out and pointed at her, with a slight smile, and said, "You have taken care of the garden for me for many years. Today, I will bestow upon you a great fortune. How far you can cultivate after this depends on yourself."

A point of spiritual light shone from the mirror and landed on the little girl's forehead.

"Hmm."

Her small body swayed, and she turned around in a daze, returning to the front of the thatched cottage. She fell down, her face landing on a flower pot, and transformed into a lotus flower growing there.

Lu Xing saw that she originally only had three to five emerald green lotus leaves. Within a few breaths, a light pink flower bud emerged, surrounded by colorful light. He could vaguely see the little girl curled up inside the flower bud, hugging her knees.

A faint fragrance of lotus flowers wafted over.

The Neon Fairy smiled slightly: "After a thousand years, which sect's ancestor or which family's old ancestor will she be?"

The beauties in the mirror smiled, but a few also sighed, as if they had experienced such things before.

Lu Xing couldn't wait a thousand years and asked the Purple-Clad Woman and the others: "Senior, won't anything happen if we just leave her like this?"

"If she encounters danger, she will leave on her own," the Purple-Clad Woman said.

Only then did Lu Xing feel relieved. She was the owner of the garden and was most unwilling to see her hard work destroyed.

Of course, this was only for spiritual herbs with sentience or those that had taken human form. For other ordinary flowers and plants, she probably let them live and die on their own.

After looking at the lotus flower for a couple of times, Lu Xing began to wander around the garden. As he walked, he chatted with the souls in the mirror and roughly learned that the Purple-Clad Woman had lived here for a long time.

She didn't say exactly how long, only mentioning that she didn't deliberately search for spiritual herbs. They were all herb seeds she found in the storage bags of other cultivators who had died in the Snow Mountain and she had picked up.

Lu Xing asked the Purple-Clad Woman for her name, but she only smiled and said that she had no name or surname and had never walked in the human world, not even having a title like Neon Fairy.

Lu Xing didn't know if it was true, but in the thatched cottage where she lived when she was alive, he found many pieces of furniture, such as teapots, teacups, and pillows, all in different styles.

"They are all things that others didn't use. I picked them up casually and put them here. If you can use them, take them. If not, just throw them away," the Purple-Clad Woman said with a smile.

Lu Xing nodded. Although it was strange for a gentle and quiet lady to pick up things in the mountains, she was also a fairy, so she couldn't be viewed with common sense.

He only said regretfully, "It's a pity I don't have shoes."

He was still barefoot.

"Hehehe."

The blue-dressed girl in the mirror laughed, kicking her crystal-clear, jade-like little feet in the stream. "Even I, your elder, don't wear shoes. Why would you wear shoes? Don't wear them anymore, keep me company!"

Lu Xing glanced at the mirror. Unfortunately, the image was too far away, so he couldn't see her little feet clearly.

No, he couldn't see if she was barefoot!