Thirty Mile Shop lay west of Yuyang County. There was also an Immortal cultivation grounds there, called Fengxian Mountain Villa.
At dawn today, Old Qiu had taken his daughter to borrow grain. Near the Whitewater River, they happened to encounter Immortals descending from the mountain to collect tribute.
At first, Old Qiu had not sensed anything wrong. He only felt that the lead Immortal seemed exceedingly fond of his daughter, looking at her again and again and praising her for spiritual light piercing the crown of her head.
Old Qiu had thought it was a good thing.
It was not until he was carrying a sack of grain home with his daughter and encountered Niu Er, who supervised the transport of tribute and had come to offer congratulations, that he learned three-tenths of this year's tribute would be waived if he sent his daughter up the mountain. Only then did he know the sky was falling.
Alchemy with Living Beings was not unheard of in Great Xia, but the Qiu couple had never imagined it would be their daughter's turn.
At that time, neighbors, friends, and relatives had gathered at the Qiu household, while Old Qiu sat atop a stone stool, staring blankly without uttering a word.
"What exactly does spiritual light piercing the crown, limitless immortal potential even mean? Ruru has never even seen an Immortal. How could she have such... such things? Those Immortal Lords must have made a mistake..."
"They are Immortals. If they say she has it, what can lowly commoners like us do?"
"Even Great Xia's laws cannot govern Immortals. Since they have spoken, I fear no one can save Ruru."
Seeing her mother weeping bitterly in the courtyard, five-year-old Qiu Ru was terrified.
She had merely been a little mischievous. She had disobeyed her mother and insisted on following them to her grandfather's home at Thirty Mile Shop, thinking that was what had angered her mother.
Seeing her mother sob until she could barely catch her breath, Qiu Ru ran over on her little legs and wrapped her arms around her neck. "Mother, I... I was wrong. I'll listen from now on. Please don't cry. I won't be naughty anymore."
"What use is knowing how to obey now? I told you not to go, but you insisted on going!"
Li Shuping was nearly hysterical. She shoved her daughter straight to the ground, then gathered her into her arms and broke into heart-wrenching sobs.
After a long silence, Old Qiu raised his head and said through trembling lips, "Tomorrow, I'll go to the county office and beg the County Magistrate to think of a way for us. Back when I was with the Ji Family, he and I did have some old ties..."
Ji You had heard the rumors at the restaurant earlier and gone outside the city. By now, he had watched from beyond the crowd for quite some time.
After crossing into the Qingyun World, his life had been somewhat harder, but overall, it had remained fairly peaceful and stable.
He had no grand ambitions. What decent person would study philosophy otherwise?
Since he could not return to his previous world anyway, he only wanted to achieve something in cultivation, become an unrivaled bandit in a couple of years, and ensure that he never lacked food or clothing, with meat at every meal.
But he had never imagined that the life which seemed so peaceful and stable was actually fragile enough to shatter at a single blow.
When Immortals descended upon the world, if they wanted you to live, you lived; if they wanted you to die, you died.
So-called stability merely meant disaster had not yet fallen upon your own head.
Ji You did not linger long. After all, sorrow was unlike joy; it was not an emotion that needed to be shared with everyone.
He returned to the ancestral residence by the road, pushed open the gate, and entered the courtyard beyond the second gate. The eccentric scholar next door was still sitting in the tree tonight, holding a book scroll and turning its pages. The instant he saw Ji You return, he rose to his feet.
But this time, he did not hurry away. Instead, he looked down at Ji You from on high.
"The Qiu household is in trouble."
The scholar was named Kuang Cheng, descendant of a scholarly family in Yuyang County and also the young master of a wealthy household. His residence stood beside the Ji Family ancestral residence.
This man usually loved carrying water for widows and guiding the blind along the road. He was the sort of child every other family wished they had.
Within Yuyang County, he was quite famous and regarded as a modest gentleman with an ancient heart and warm blood.
Since their homes were adjacent, he was one of the few people Ji You knew in this world.
When Ji You had first arrived in this world, he could not speak the Yuyang dialect. It was only after hearing Kuang Cheng's resonant reading from the tree so often that he could barely begin to speak.
That was the story Ji You knew.
What he did not know was that the young master of the Kuang Family and the young master of the Ji Family had once been inseparable childhood friends.
Later, however, the Ji Family's young master had neglected proper pursuits, indulged in drink and women, and become a wastrel, while the Kuang Family's young master had diligently studied the classics, righteous and awe-inspiring. Naturally, the two had gone their separate ways.
Yet after learning that the Qiu household was in trouble, Kuang Cheng had still searched through countless ancient texts and found a way to break the deadlock, then waited here for him.
In his eyes, the Qiu household had shown Ji You kindness. He was helping this old friend one last time.
After hearing the scholar out, Ji You nodded. "I just returned from the Qiu household. I already know about Qiu Ru."
"Since you know, you should not still be here."
"Then where should I be?"
Kuang Cheng stood up on the tree branch. "You should be at the Fang Residence, begging Fang Ruoyao to intervene."
"Fengxian Mountain Villa traces its lineage to the Xuan Yuan Immortal Mansion. Not to mention ordinary people, even people from ordinary Immortal sects may not dare meddle in this matter. But the Celestial Academy bears the duty of overseeing the Heavenly Dao and is also a Great Xia Sacred Sect. Naturally, it can."
"Fang Ruoyao has now entered the Celestial Academy. She is a Celestial Academy disciple. So long as you can persuade her to step forward, the Qiu family girl may yet have a sliver of hope."
Kuang Cheng finished everything in one breath, his gaze fixed squarely upon Ji You.
There was an old saying in the Qingyun World: if an Immortal wanted you dead by the third watch, who would dare keep you alive until the fifth? Thus, this matter should have had no solution.
But two Immortals from the Celestial Academy happened to be in Yuyang County. That was the variable, and a variable usually meant the key to breaking the deadlock.
In his view, that key lay with the county magistrate's daughter.
However, Fang Ruoyao had once forcibly broken off her engagement with Ji You. In Kuang Cheng's view, asking Ji You to beg her was not something easy to accept.
After hearing him out, Ji You looked up at him. "Becoming a Celestial Academy disciple means she can save her?"
"This is the only solution to this predicament."
"Where did Brother Kuang learn of such a solution?"
"Naturally, I read it in a book."
Kuang Cheng thought Ji You did not believe him, so he tossed the book over the courtyard wall.
Touching those familiar pages, Ji You could not help remembering the version of himself who had first arrived, blind as if his eyes had been smeared black.
Old Kuang's reasoning from the book was correct. If they wanted Fengxian Mountain Villa to give up, only the Celestial Academy could accomplish it.
Seeing him remain silent for so long, the scholar could not help asking, "Did you see it?"
"I saw it."
Ji You closed the book and could not help gazing toward the fiery-red sky in the north.
He saw how unpredictable worldly affairs were, saw how one's fate was not one's own, and saw that the Qingyun World would ultimately lose one astonishingly talented, unrivaled bandit.
Kuang Cheng stood in the tree, looking at him in bafflement. He saw Ji You not rush out toward the Fang Residence, but instead push open his door with a grave expression and enter the house, covering the doors and windows with black curtains.
Perfection of the Lower Three Realms, and one could enter the Immortal Registry, beyond the bounds of law, and join the Celestial Academy...
He had cultivated before with the aim of becoming an unrivaled bandit, always feeling that time was not especially urgent. Yet even now, he was still two realms short, while he had only two days left.
Ji You sat upon the bed as the spiritual energy of heaven and earth began pouring ceaselessly into his body, burning within him like fire.
In this realm, he had to draw the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the Spiritual Spring. He had only one day, making it a journey where nine deaths awaited for every chance of life.
Meanwhile, at the Qiu household outside the city, Old Qiu lay upon his bed with a heart full of worries, listening to his wife sob. He did not sleep all night.
After enduring until dawn at last, he immediately pulled his grain cart to the grain shop in the city, exchanged all the household's remaining grain for silver, packed it into a bundle, and rushed to County Magistrate Fang Zhongzheng's residence, hoping to save his daughter's life.
But before Old Qiu could approach the Fang Residence, he was stopped by constables guarding the road.
Today, Fang Zhongzheng and his daughter Fang Ruoyao were hosting Immortals from the Celestial Academy who had come from Shengjing. The residence had been busy since early morning, servants carrying delicacies of every kind passing through halls and courtyards as though it were New Year.
With his daughter's future and the Lineage's rise and fall at stake, the County Magistrate feared that unruly commoners might disturb the Immortals' sacred presence. He had issued a strict order the previous night: no visitors would be received today.
But Old Qiu refused to give up. He knelt directly in the middle of the long street, smashing his forehead against the ground as he begged the blue heavens for mercy. His cries gradually drew a crowd of passersby.
"Isn't that Qiu Zhong?"
"His daughter is being taken away to be refined into medicine. He came to beg the County Magistrate for mercy, but how would the magistrate dare interfere in Immortal affairs? Old Qiu will likely kneel here until he dies and still never see anyone."
"Eh, why don't we see that Ji You?"
"I heard he secretly took one look from outside the door last night, then fled in fright. You know how it was—when the Ji Family offended an Immortal back then, he was scared out of his wits in exactly the same way."
From dawn until dusk, the Immortal banquet at the Fang Residence had long since ended, but Qiu Zhong still knelt where he was, unable to see the County Magistrate.
At this moment, a scholar in plain robes walked down the long street leading to the county magistrate's office, holding a copy of the Summer Law Immortal Regulations. Wherever he went, people greeted him as Young Master Kuang.
When he reached the point guarded by the constables and saw Qiu Zhong, who had knelt until he resembled withered wood, he felt three parts pity and seven parts indignation.
If Ji You, rather than Qiu Zhong, had been kneeling here today, this matter might still be resolved.
Because the County Magistrate's forced breaking of the engagement back then had left the Fang Family with an unsavory reputation throughout the county. If Ji You knelt here without rising, then even for the sake of appearances, the Fang Family would have to invite him in.
And so long as there was a chance to meet the two Celestial Academy Immortal elders, there would still be a sliver of hope.
But since last night, that Ji You had hidden at home and not stepped outside even once.
Only then did he recall that when disaster had befallen the Ji Family two years ago, Ji You had likewise abandoned his parents and fled overnight, no different from today.
He did not expect that man to have the courage to face Immortals directly, but even going to Fang Ruoyao and sacrificing his pride for the Qiu family girl was something Ji You could not do.
Kuang Cheng walked toward the constables at the gate with a dark expression. "Sorry for the trouble, but please report that Kuang wishes to see Miss Fang."
"So it is Young Master Kuang. My young lady is having tea with the Immortal elders from Shengjing and has no time to receive guests."
"I can wait, no matter how long. After all, Miss Fang and I were once classmates. She will head north for the capital tomorrow, and today is my only chance to bid her farewell in person."
"This..."
Hearing that he had come to see the young lady off, the constable hesitated for a moment before saying, "Then please wait a moment, Young Master Kuang. I will go report it within the residence."
Kuang Cheng cupped his hands and bowed. "Thank you."
Before you continue