The sky was not especially azure, nor was the sunlight particularly brilliant. Even this stretch of heaven and earth was pitifully small—so small that Tao Yao only needed to release her Spirit Domain and probe with a thought to discover its boundary.
Beneath a solitary mountain peak lay a spirit lake. At the very center of the lake stood Nie Xiaoqian's Well. It was a strange name, but after Tao Yao later read that story, she immediately understood the obsession in her master's heart—or perhaps the obsession in all men's hearts.
Standing beside the clear spirit lake, Tao Yao saw the reflection of a delicate and breathtaking face in the water, one belonging to a woman in the prime of her twenties. She smiled, but not at the reflection in the water. Her state of mind was no young girl's.
Perhaps this was the shortcoming of taking up cultivation halfway through life.
It was said that female cultivators who began cultivating from childhood and retained their youthful appearances forever could still be adorably cute even after living for a thousand years. They would grow shy, blush, and pout coquettishly.
But she had only tumbled through the turbid mortal world for eighty-five years, and that aging heart of hers had remained old until now. Even though she currently possessed a nine-thousand-year lifespan and had regained a beautiful, flowerlike appearance, nothing had changed.
It seemed she understood the meaning of "beauties are but pink skeletons" even better than men did.
Nowadays, Tao Yao only occasionally missed her life in the mortal world. That included her parents and elders, her brothers and sisters, and her descendants—who had likely become too numerous to count. The path of cultivation truly was too different.
She lightly swept her hand across the spirit lake. The empty air