The Cultivation World's Path Was Dreary; Balancing Work and Rest Was the Way to Go!

Jade Pool Holy Land.

Deep within, in a secret realm.

Yuan Ruoyu stood atop a crystal-clear lotus as white as jade, her face flushed with embarrassment and tinged with annoyance.

"We've only been apart for a few days, and you're already going to brothels, trying out all sorts of things..."

"Hmph! Just you wait. Next time we meet, I'll make you pay!"

"And you say cultivation is dreary and balancing work and rest is the way to go? You're practically corrupting the moral climate of the Cultivation World!"

As Yuan Ruoyu spoke, she unconsciously lowered her head and glanced at her own legs.

Beneath her skirt, a section of snow-white calf peeked out.

Fair and delicate, her skin as smooth as congealed cream.

Her dainty jade feet were even more tender, like white jade.

The longer she looked, the redder her face grew.

A moment later.

Only then did Yuan Ruoyu pull her thoughts back, let out a long sigh, and let a glint of sharpness flash in her eyes.

"This time, the Diary revealed two key pieces of information: the Central Province and the Holy Land."

"Those people should have enough to suspect me, right?"

The aura around Yuan Ruoyu shifted. A powerful presence erupted from her, and a fierce killing intent spread through the air.

In a flash, she landed in the middle of the lotus.

She sat cross-legged and closed her eyes. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth throughout the secret realm grew turbulent.

Then it surged madly toward her.

Liyue Immortal Dynasty.

In Her Majesty the Empress's bedchamber.

Ye Qingge was pinching the Little Leather Doll in her hand, scolding it without pause.

"You bastard! What's so fun about a place like that? And you even praised it to the skies?"

As she spoke, her slender, fair fingers kept squeezing and kneading the doll.

She didn't even spare the space between its legs.

"Hmph! Inverting Heaven and Earth, is it? Flying Trapeze, is it?!"

"Let's see if I don't squeeze you until you snap..."

Qing Province, Southern Region.

Blood Spirit Sect.

Inside this once-greatest sect in Qing Province.

In a grand hall, the sect master, Yan Shan, wore a livid expression, veins bulging on his forehead.

He was clearly in an extremely volatile state.

Smack—

Yan Shan suddenly kicked the table in front of him. His powerful blow shattered it into pieces.

Splinters rained down and scattered across the floor.

The other elders in the hall, including Lei Lie, the Great Elder of the Blood Spirit Sect, didn't dare utter a word.

They were afraid of incurring his wrath at a time like this.

"Damn it!"

"Even a place like Drunken Spring Pavilion made it into the Great Emperor's Diary, and he lavished praise on it!"

Yan Shan's face darkened as he said furiously, "Why couldn't the Immortal Great Emperor mention my Blood Spirit Sect in the Diary?"

"He could've at least said a few nice things about us!"

Lei Lie gave a wry smile and tried to console him. "Calm down, Sect Master. He isn't one of us, after all. It's only natural that the Diary doesn't mention our sect."

"Uh—"

Lei Lie hesitated, then added, "Drunken Spring Pavilion isn't far from here. Should we book a private room tonight and go unwind?"

Yan Shan: "..."

Yan Shan fell silent for a moment, then grinned. "That sounds good. All of you elders should come along. The Great Emperor himself said cultivation is dreary, and balancing work and rest is the way to go!"

As he spoke, a trace of bewilderment appeared in his eyes.

He seemed to be feeling rather reflective.

A moment later, Yan Shan looked away and said slowly, "Could it be that we've been wrong to cultivate so hard all this time? Maybe taking a break now and then helps us break through?"

At his words, all the Blood Spirit Sect elders fell into thought.

After hesitating briefly, Lei Lie said, "Those were the Great Emperor's own words, after all. I think they make a lot of sense."

Now that the topic was out in the open, another elder stood up and said, "Exactly. I feel the same way. Perhaps a little relaxation, and being a sly old fox like the Great Emperor, is the right path."

This elder's name was Yuan Qing. He continued, offering an example.

"When I was young, I was obsessed with cultivation and often went into seclusion. But I eventually realized that spending too long cultivating alone in seclusion did little to improve my cultivation."

Yan Shan nodded.

"Elder Yuan is right. Once you reach the Nascent Soul Realm or above, seclusion doesn't do much. What matters more is understanding the Heaven and Earth Great Dao."

Yuan Qing grew excited and continued.

"Exactly!"

"Shutting yourself away and tinkering on your own—how could that improve your Dao? It's the trials of the mortal world that help you rise to a higher level."

The Great Elder, Lei Lie, was moved. He said in a low voice, "If that's the case, shouldn't our Blood Spirit Sect make some changes?"

"Encourage our disciples to go down the mountain more often and experience life in all its forms... even visit brothels—cough, I mean, to achieve a balance between work and rest?"

At this, everyone in the hall looked toward him.

Including sect master Yan Shan.

In the end, the Great Elder's proposal won everyone's support right then and there.

And it wasn't just the Blood Spirit Sect.

Across Qing Province, sects of all sizes were debating the same question.

Should sect disciples be encouraged to balance work and rest?

After all, if an ordinary cultivator had suggested it, everyone would've just dismissed it as nonsense.

But was the Immortal Great Emperor an ordinary cultivator?

No!

He was a peerless Great Emperor whose strength had surpassed all throughout history.

If even he said cultivation was dreary and balancing work and rest was the way to go, how could it be false?

For a time, a wave of brothel-going swept through the Cultivation World...

There were also some sects that couldn't reach a consensus.

They remained on the sidelines, watching.

These sects turned their attention to the Xuanqing Sect. They wanted to know what the sect that had produced a Great Emperor would do.

Soon, they received some shocking news.

Almost everyone in the entire Xuanqing Sect, from sect master Yan Changkong to the various elders and ordinary disciples...

Had recently been making frequent trips to Cloud Sky City, heading off to enjoy themselves at Drunken Spring Pavilion.

There were even rumors that the Xuanqing Sect had booked a premium private room there for the long term, and held all their banquets and gatherings at Drunken Spring Pavilion.

That settled it. The other sects no longer hesitated and threw themselves into the revelry.

And so, for a while afterward...

A bizarre sight appeared across Qing Province and even throughout the Cultivation World on the mainland.

Whether they were members of sects, cultivation clans, or independent cultivators, nobody cultivated anymore. They all went to brothels and other pleasure houses.

Nearly every pleasure house was packed with people, with lines stretching down the street...

Brawls over the top courtesan broke out now and then, too.

Beyond that, the major powers all caught sight of the staggering profits to be made from brothels and rushed to get in on the business.

Across the Nine Provinces, brothels sprang up like bamboo shoots after the rain.

And Drunken Spring Pavilion, praised without end by even the Great Emperor, had become a gold standard in the Cultivation World!

Its prices had multiplied dozens of times, yet business was still booming.

The newly launched Great Emperor Package was especially popular. Countless cultivators went wild for it.

On top of that, all sorts of legendary tales about the Immortal Great Emperor spread from the mouths of the girls at Drunken Spring Pavilion.

"These stories? Our top courtesans have passed them down from generation to generation. They're absolutely true!"

"The top courtesans back then used to say the Immortal Great Emperor was eight feet tall—and he was eight feet long, too!"

"He had a face like fine jade and the bearing of a jade tree in the wind!"

"That's not all. He was broad-shouldered, strong, and brave. His speed and strength were both peerless. No one could forget him!"

"You don't know? The Immortal Great Emperor was already unmatched in his day. He took on the top ten courtesans in one night and never once lost the upper hand!"

"No way. He was that powerful?"

"Of course! He was gentle, brave, considerate, and strong... Even now, he's the stuff of legend at Drunken Spring Pavilion!"

"We just never imagined this man would turn out to be the famous Immortal Great Emperor. He hid it so well!"

At that moment.

In the Heavenly Secret Pavilion.

An old man dressed in a dark robe, with the bearing of an immortal, stood on high and watched a brothel in the distance, packed to the rafters. He sighed now and then.

Elder Heavenly Secret's expression was complicated as he muttered, "How did the moral climate of the Cultivation World turn into this overnight?"

He even felt a little regretful!

He wondered whether his decision to insist on making the Great Emperor's Diary public and sharing it with all the cultivators under heaven had been a mistake.

Now that everyone had stopped cultivating and gone off to visit brothels, what would become of them?

The more Elder Heavenly Secret thought about it, the more uneasy he became. He murmured, "If the Diary reveals something outrageous next, won't the entire Cultivation World's moral climate be led astray?"

But it was too late for him to regret it now.

The Immortal Great Emperor's Diary had already been recorded in the Communication Array through secret arts, under the watch of every faction.

Every ten days, four entries would be made public.

The process would continue until the entire Diary had been revealed, and no one could stop it.

"Still, Lin Feng does have a point..."

Elder Heavenly Secret reconsidered, a glimmer lighting up his eyes. He continued, "I've been stuck in the late Mahayana Realm for tens of thousands of years, unable to break through. Could it be because I haven't balanced work and rest?"

"How about..."

Elder Heavenly Secret glanced again at the brothel in the distance. One by one, beautiful women stood by the windows.

Elder Heavenly Secret suddenly transformed into a young man in his early twenties and declared in a low voice:

"Tonight, I'll make my comeback and rediscover my former self!"