"Good morning, seniors."
Lu Xing summoned the beauties in the mirror, then made up a time. Snowy mountains surrounded him, dark clouds filled the sky, and there were no clocks or anything of the sort. He had no idea what time it was.
One sentence exposed his identity.
"The boy's here?"
The Empress lazily propped up her face with one hand. She was still seated on the Dragon Throne atop the mountain peak, her narrow phoenix eyes carrying a teasing smile.
"Young master from Earth, we meet again~"
Blue Skirt Girl giggled. She was still sitting on a rock beside the stream, her fair, tender legs kicking up splashes for fun.
"Lu Xing, Auntie gets to see you again."
Neon Fairy, dressed in red, gazed at him gently and said delightedly, "My daughter was moved by mortal desires because of you. She was finally willing to leave the Ice Cave! Lu Xing, take her in her physical body to see the splendor of the mortal world. Let her laugh and cry, so she won't waste an entire reincarnation!"
Wait!
Lu Xing was shocked. The Fairy had been moved by mortal desires because of him?!
Before he could ask, a woman in a black dress coldly said to Lu Xing:
"What is so good about crying? What is so good about laughing? If you're taking her into the mortal world, you might as well have her seek the Path to Immortality. That would fulfill our wishes as well."
"Becoming immortal is so boring!"
Blue Skirt Girl retorted, then said to Lu Xing, "Quickly take me and all these lovely granddaughters of mine to the mortal world. I'm sick of looking at this place—I'm bored to death!"
"I think... becoming immortal is good."
"What does it matter whether one is immortal or mortal?"
"Are we going into the mortal world? Can we not go?"
They each spoke in turn, and Lu Xing had no idea whom to listen to. He could only tell that they all cared greatly about the Fairy entering the mortal world. Some did not want her to go, some urged her to leave, while even more simply did not care.
"Seniors!!"
Lu Xing stopped them. Once they had quieted down, he hurriedly asked, "What exactly does the Moved Mortal Heart that Neon Fairy mentioned mean?"
"It means exactly what it says~" Blue Skirt Girl cupped her cheeks with both hands as if shy, saying bashfully, "My lord is no ordinary man. This humble woman's mortal heart has been moved by my lord. I wish to become Dao Companions with my lord, to know one another throughout this life..."
"Stop talking!!!"
Lute-Holding Girl cried out, her face red.
"Pah, as if someone like him could make me fall for him?" The Empress laughed and spat.
The others either laughed or blushed, though most still did not care.
Blue Skirt Girl immediately planted her hands on her hips. "What are you all trying to do, rebel? How dare you disrespect your elder!!"
Lute-Holding Girl hid away with a red face and stopped speaking.
Neon Fairy merely smiled without saying anything.
Lu Xing more or less understood. Cold Ice Fairy's Moved Mortal Heart was not romantic infatuation; it literally meant she had developed the desire to enter the mortal world.
No wonder she had walked out of the Ice Cave.
"I think."
Lu Xing looked at the Empress seated atop the mountain and said, "You're not nearly as beautiful as Cold Ice Fairy—your master. If I were really going to fall for someone, it would be the Fairy!"
He had only meant to snap back at the Empress, but after he said it, not only she but all the beauties' souls in the mirror burst out laughing.
Lu Xing found it utterly baffling. He could only vaguely tell that these beauties in the mirror were once again laughing at his ignorance.
Damn it, one day he would make them pay!
"So, does that mean I can go down the mountain now?"
Lu Xing changed the subject.
Quite a few people in the mirror said he could, but Blue Skirt Girl said, "We answered so many of your questions. Shouldn't you repay us a little?"
"What would you like me to do, senior?"
"It's very simple. Just tell us where Earth is."
Last time, they had not deliberately asked Lu Xing anything. Had they been observing him?
Lu Xing smiled. "Even if I wanted to tell you, I couldn't answer that. I can only say that, based on my guess, Earth is another world. Your Three Realms and Six Paths are one world, and Earth is another."
Afraid they might misunderstand what he meant by "world," he explained it again.
"How amazing!"
Blue Skirt Girl sighed as she sat by the stream, then asked, "Then how did you get here?"
"An immortal sent me."
Lu Xing smiled.
"The boy is lying!" The Empress snorted.
Purple-Clad Woman said, "If immortals truly exist, they are likely people from ancient times."
"What does Earth have?" someone else asked.
"It has everything, and it has nothing. I've never seen your Three Realms and Six Paths, so how could I compare them? I can only say that Earth has no Spiritual Energy and cannot cultivate. I can't answer anything else."
"Then hurry down the mountain and see for yourself!"
Quite a few of them urged him on. Those who had previously been indifferent to going down the mountain were still indifferent now.
"Don't rush me. I need to make some preparations first. I'm going back to bring some things from the ice cave."
Lu Xing said this because Cold Ice Fairy did not care about any of it, so he could only make the decisions himself.
"What's worth bringing from that pile of junk? Hurry down the mountain. If there's a fight, we'll help you!" Blue Skirt Girl urged him again.
Lu Xing ignored her. He did not believe that anything worthy of being kept in the Fairy's home was junk. He could leave the rest behind, but he had to at least bring that sword.
Holding the mirror in his hands, he made his way back.
At last, he had time to check the prompt the system had just displayed. He had not looked earlier because he was afraid they would notice if he became distracted.
"Novice Advancement Mission Two: Initially experience the Fairy's state of mind. Option One: Live in the Ice Cave for twenty years. Reward: ten million experience points. Option Two: Live in the Ice Cave for one year. Reward: one hundred thousand experience points. Option Three: Live in the snowy mountains for ten days. Reward: one thousand experience points."
After reading it, Lu Xing fell silent.
What kind of bizarre mission was this?
Live in the Ice Cave for twenty years for ten million experience points—would he be max level the moment he left?
Lu Xing believed there were tough people on Earth who could complete such a challenge, but he was definitely not one of them.
Was this worthy of being called the Life Exchange System? It had noticed that he had not completed Mission One and was about to leave the snowy mountains, so it issued this mission to experience Cold Ice Fairy's state of mind.
What would happen if he did not do it?
Lu Xing tried asking, but unfortunately, there was no answer.
After thinking for a while, he gave up. He would stay in the snowy mountains for ten days. Fortunately, Option Three allowed him to leave the Ice Cave, or he really would suffocate to death.
"Your steps have slowed. What are you thinking about?" someone in the mirror asked.
"I'm wondering who you really are."
Lu Xing asked outright. These people seemed to have close ties with Cold Ice Fairy—mother and daughter? Ancestors? Master and disciple? Friends? A sect's legacy?
From their scattered remarks, some of them seemed to be the same person as Cold Ice Fairy. Yet at other times, they distinguished themselves from her, making truth and falsehood impossible to discern.
Perhaps it was similar to the Three Corpses Separation in primordial fantasy novels, but there were far too many of them. Lu Xing remembered at least a dozen, and there had been no fewer than several hundred who had appeared.
"Hehe~"
The beauties in the mirror merely laughed and did not answer him at all.
They had reached an agreement to conceal the truth and simply would not tell him.
Lu Xing did not press them further. After going down the mountain, he would try to investigate and find out the origins of this mirror and these women.
When he returned to the cave, he saw that the writing he had left there last time remained. Cold Ice Fairy had also left writing here, so after writing it, her mortal heart had been moved. Only then had she left the Ice Cave for the garden, where she left another message.
Honestly, Lu Xing still did not fully understand what "mortal heart" meant to them.
The desire to enter the world?
In any case, this was his last time returning to this Ice Cave buried deep within the mountains.
Lu Xing chose a sword, a painting, and an ancient zither. The beauties' souls in the mirror did not teach him how to store them away, deliberately wanting to see him walk around carrying the zither on his back. Blue Skirt Girl even clapped and laughed merrily. She was truly hateful!
Lu Xing could only carry the sword and strap the zither to his back as he slowly left the home where the Fairy had lived for who knew how long.
A quarter of an hour later, he walked out of the ice cave and stood amid the wind and snow. Looking into the mirror, he saw an unparalleled sword immortal in white robes, sword in hand, zither on his back, with hair tied by a red silk ribbon.
Lu Xing was utterly dazzled by the Fairy's beauty!