An Immortal Touched My Crown

Looking at her granddaughter's resolute expression, Dugu Bo was just about to give up when the situation suddenly took a turn.

"Unless Grandpa gives Xiao Jiu to me." Dugu Yan's peripheral vision flickered toward the Nine-Section Jade snake, which was currently playing dead.

"I can do that, but Grandpa has a condition." A smile finally appeared on Dugu Bo's face.

"Really?" Dugu Yan was still just a child, unable to hide her emotions; her face instantly lit up with joy as she grabbed Dugu Bo's hand and coaxed, "Good Grandpa, what is the condition?"

She had been asking her grandfather for this Nine-Section Jade snake for a long time, and he had never relented—yet today, he actually...

"The condition is that you must reach at least level twenty-five in soul power before the Heaven Dou Royal Academy opens."

Seeing the hesitation on the little one's face, Dugu Bo coaxed her further, "You know, cultivating here is two or three times faster than outside. Raising your soul power by five levels in two months is very easy."

Dugu Yan was considered a young genius; despite looking only eight or nine years old, her soul power had already reached level twenty, and having recently absorbed her second soul ring, she was on the verge of breaking through to level twenty-one.

"Don't you want the Nine-Section Jade snake?" Dugu Bo shook the little green snake he held in his hand, which was still playing dead.

"Fine! I agree. Can you give it to me now?"

"Of course, though it doesn't want to leave this place just yet." As Dugu Bo spoke, he placed the listless little green snake onto the leaf of the Strange Flower. The next second, the snake crawled up and slithered toward its favorite light-green leaf.

"So cute." Stars were practically sparkling in Dugu Yan's eyes.

Qingxi shook her head, thinking that since it was just a child, she wouldn't interfere with her plans.

However, the period that followed gave her a headache.

Since that day, Dugu Bo mostly came only to deliver food, and usually, only that little girl with purple hair and green eyes was nearby. Despite her small size, she chattered incessantly.

What angered Qingxi even more was that the girl actually ate roasted meat right next to her!! And she ate roasted rabbit, too!!!

Furious, Qingxi simply sealed her five senses; as the saying goes, what the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over.

Furthermore, fearing that her cultivation might cause a disturbance, she had to be extremely cautious.

On that day, the sun was shining brightly and the cave was quiet. Qingxi discovered that her cultivation had made significant progress, to the point where she could briefly condense her soul power into a physical form to appear before others.

"Hey! Little kid."

Dugu Yan felt a tickle on her face. She opened her eyes and saw a foxtail grass dangling in front of her.

A beautiful young woman was reclining on the grass, her brows like distant mountains, her eyes like stars. A faint, teasing expression played on her face as she brushed the grass against the girl's cheek.

"Who are you?!" Dugu Yan stood up vigilantly, retreating a few steps while summoning her martial soul, the Jade Phosphorus Snake. Two yellow soul rings expanded around her.

"Interesting." Qingxi watched the soul rings on the little girl and the large snake; the serpent seemed to be a part of the girl's soul.

This method of cultivation was definitely not from her world.

She lowered her eyes slightly, feeling a touch of sorrow.

This was not her world, and perhaps she would never be able to return.

The black-haired, black-eyed woman wore light-green ancient robes, her ethereal beauty as pure as moonlight, yet it did not make Dugu Yan lower her guard.

To appear beside her without a sound—this person was not simple.

Grandpa, hurry up and come! Your granddaughter can't hold her own!

"Come, try attacking me." With a calm tone, Qingxi beckoned to Dugu Yan.

"Why should I! Just because you tell me to hit you, I have to? I won't!" Dugu Yan stiffened her neck, acting tough.

Grandpa, hurry, there's a bad person here.

Qingxi chuckled, her eyes curving into crescents. "I find you quite interesting, too! Don't worry, I have no ill intentions. I just want to see the cultivation path of your world. Come, attack me; I won't fight back."

"Are you sure?"

"I am."

"Second soul skill—Jade Phosphorus Blue Poison! Xiao Jiu, bite her!" Dugu Yan unleashed her second soul skill, threw the Nine-Section Jade at Qingxi, and turned to run.

A moment later, Dugu Yan found herself floating in mid-air, plucked back by an invisible hand and suspended before Qingxi.

"You... what kind of soul skill is this?" Dugu Yan's eyes widened, filled with profound confusion.

From start to finish, she hadn't sensed any fluctuation of soul power. The woman before her remained as calm as a gentle breeze or the clear moon.

Qingxi set aside the foxtail grass and opened her palm on the ground. The Nine-Section Jade crawled up her fingertips and onto her palm, rubbing against her happily.

"Oh? Is it about to transform into a dragon?"

No wonder the little thing liked staying on her leaves; it turned out that while she was cultivating, the little creature had been cultivating along with her.

She lifted her gaze to look at the girl floating in mid-air and raised her fingertip slightly, lowering the girl back to the ground. "Those are just small tricks, hardly worth mentioning. Was that... a soul skill?"

"That's right, how did it feel?" Dugu Yan lifted her chin high.

"How did it feel?" She placed the little green snake back onto the Strange Flower leaf, her eyelids drooping and her delicate brows furrowing as if recalling carefully. "It felt like being bitten by a mosquito; I didn't really feel anything. If this is the cultivation path of your world, it is far too weak..."

Before she could finish her sentence, she saw the young girl opposite her blushing with shame.

"You..." Dugu Yan gritted her teeth, her face flushed red as she glared fiercely at the calm and composed woman.

She felt humiliated.

The Dugu family had been famous throughout the Douluo Continent for their poison for generations, and now someone was saying it felt like a mosquito bite.

"A scholar can be killed, but not humiliated! What right do you have to insult me!" As the little girl spoke, tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.

She had always had things go her way; everywhere she went, people called her a genius. Now, she was being forced to endure such humiliation.

"Huh?" Qingxi's lips parted slightly. Realizing her words had been inappropriate, she hurriedly comforted her, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insult you; it's just that cultivation methods vary. Please don't cry, I didn't do it on purpose. How about... I teach you how to cultivate immortality?"

"Wuu wuu wuu..." The little girl sobbed with hiccups, asking between tears, "Cultivate immortality? What is that?"

Qingxi set aside her nonchalant expression and stood up from the ground. She existed in a soul state, appearing as she had in her previous life, and she was quite a bit taller than Dugu Yan.

"Hmm... cultivating immortality is..." She thought for a moment, placed her palm on top of Dugu Yan's head, and said solemnly, "The immortal touches my crown, bestowing eternal life upon my hair."

She remembered that, a long time ago, her master had said exactly that.

Dugu Yan was slightly stunned, but she stopped crying. Although she didn't understand the words, a strange sense of longing inexplicably welled up in her heart.

"The immortal touches my crown, bestowing eternal life upon my hair? Who are you? What do you mean by 'our world'? Are you not from this world?"

Qingxi pointed to the half-meter-tall Strange Flower nearby. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Qingxi, a disciple under Patriarch Bodhi of the Slanted Moon Three Stars Cave. I come from another world, and my true form is currently that flower. Do you want to follow me and cultivate immortality?"

As she spoke, the surrounding scenery changed rapidly. Dugu Yan saw human beings flying across the sky, stepping on long swords, some riding swords through the air, others drifting on clouds and mist.

There were giant birds that blotted out the sun, a fish of endless length swimming through the sky, and a rain of corpses falling from above. Beneath a massive golden dharma image, lotus thrones emerged, and amidst the flash of blades and shadows, mountains were moved and seas were filled.

Then, the scene before her eyes shrank instantly. A blue planet stood before her, set against the vast stars and the boundless universe, where a colossal Nether Kun opened its mouth to swallow countless stars.

"I come from that blue planet—Earth."

The illusion vanished.

Dugu Yan remained stunned, unable to recover for a long time.

Qingxi bent her knees and sat on the ground, leaning back against a rock. She looked up at the sunlight, feeling a touch of nostalgia.

That was the sea of stars she could no longer return to, the Square Inch Mountain she could no longer return to, the home she could no longer return to...