The Immortal Pats My Crown

Watching his granddaughter's determination, Dugu Bo had just been about to give up when the situation suddenly took a turn.

"Unless Grandpa gives Little Jiu to me." Dugu Yan glanced sideways at the Nine-Section Jade Snake pretending to be dead.

"Fine, but Grandpa has one condition too." At last, a smile appeared on Dugu Bo's face.

"Really?" Dugu Yan was still a child, and she couldn't hide her feelings. Her face immediately lit up with joy as she tugged at Dugu Bo's hand and wheedled, "Good Grandpa, what's the condition?"

She had asked Grandpa for this Nine-Section Jade Snake for so long, but he had never agreed. And now, today, he actually...

"You have to reach at least level twenty-five in Soul Power before the Heaven Dou Royal Academy opens."

Seeing the little girl hesitate, Dugu Bo coaxed her again. "You know, cultivating here is two or three times faster than outside. Raising your Soul Power by five levels in two months will be easy."

Dugu Yan was a young genius in her own right. Though she looked only eight or nine, her Soul Power had already reached level twenty. She had absorbed her second Soul Ring not long ago and could break through to level twenty-one at any time.

"Don't you want the Nine-Section Jade Snake?" Dugu Bo dangled the little green snake he was holding, still pretending to be dead.

"Fine! I agree. Can I have it now?"

"Of course. It can't bear to leave this place now." As Dugu Bo spoke, he set the half-dead little green snake on a leaf of the Strange Flower. The next moment, the snake came crawling to life and slithered toward its favorite pale green leaf.

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

Qingxi shook her head, thinking the girl was just a child and couldn't ruin her plans.

But what happened over the next while gave her a headache.

After that day, Dugu Bo usually only came by to bring her food. Most of the time, it was just that little girl with purple hair and green eyes nearby. She might have been small, but she never stopped chattering.

That wasn't even what angered Qingxi most. What made her even angrier was that the girl actually ate barbecue right beside her! Barbecued rabbit, too!

So angry that Qingxi simply sealed off her five senses. As the saying went, out of sight, out of mind.

And because she was afraid that cultivating might cause a disturbance, she had to be careful about it, too.

The sun shone brightly that day, and the cave was quiet. Qingxi realized her cultivation had advanced again: she could briefly gather her soul power into a body and appear before others.

"Hey! Kid."

Dugu Yan felt something tickling her face. When she opened her eyes, she saw a blade of foxtail grass right in front of her.

A beautiful older girl reclined at an angle on the grass. Her brows were like distant mountains, her eyes bright as stars. A faintly teasing smile touched her face as she waved the grass across Dugu Yan's face.

"Who are you?!" Dugu Yan sprang to her feet warily and backed away several steps. At the same time, she released her Martial Soul, the Jade Phosphorous Serpent, and two yellow Soul Rings unfolded around her.

"Interesting." Qingxi looked at the Soul Rings on the little girl and the large snake. The snake seemed to be part of the girl's soul.

This method of cultivation definitely didn't belong to her world.

She lowered her eyes slightly, feeling a pang of sadness.

This wasn't her world. She might never be able to return.

The black-haired, black-eyed woman wore pale green ancient robes, her otherworldly grace like the bright moonlight. But that didn't make Dugu Yan lower her guard.

Anyone who could appear beside her without a sound was no ordinary person.

Grandpa, hurry up! Your granddaughter can't hold out!

"Come on, try attacking me." Qingxi beckoned to Dugu Yan, her voice calm.

"Why should I? Just because you tell me to hit you doesn't mean I have to! I won't!" Dugu Yan lifted her chin and stubbornly refused.

Grandpa, hurry up! There's a bad person!

Qingxi chuckled, her eyes curving into crescents. "I've found you pretty interesting, too! Don't worry, I mean you no harm. I just want to see how people in your world cultivate. Come on, attack me. I won't fight back."

"You're sure?"

"Sure."

"Second Soul Skill—Jade Phosphorus Blue Poison! Little Jiu, bite her!" Dugu Yan unleashed her second Soul Skill, then hurled the Nine-Section Jade at Qingxi and turned to run.

A while later, Dugu Yan was floating in midair, seized by an invisible giant hand and hauled back. She hung suspended in front of Qingxi.

"You... What kind of Soul Skill is that?" Dugu Yan stared with wide eyes, utterly bewildered.

From beginning to end, she hadn't sensed the slightest ripple of Soul Power. That older girl had remained calm throughout, like a gentle breeze and bright moon.

Qingxi set down the foxtail grass and stretched out her hand, palm up. The Nine-Section Jade crawled along her fingertips and onto her palm, rubbing against it happily.

"Hm? Is it about to become a serpent dragon?"

No wonder the little creature liked staying on the leaves. It turned out that while Qingxi cultivated, it had been cultivating along with her.

She glanced up at the little girl floating in midair and raised a finger. The girl drifted back down to the ground. "It was just a few little tricks, nothing worth showing off. That thing just now... Was that a Soul Skill?"

"Yeah. What did you think?" Dugu Yan lifted her chin high.

"Think?" Qingxi put the little green snake back on the Strange Flower's leaf. Her eyes lowered, her delicate brows knitting as if she were carefully recalling the feeling. "It felt like a mosquito bit me. I hardly felt a thing. If that's what cultivation in your world is like, then it's far too weak..."

Before she could finish, she saw that the girl across from her had already turned bright red with embarrassment.

"You..." Dugu Yan clenched her teeth, her face flushed as she glared furiously at the woman who stood there so unruffled.

She felt humiliated.

For generations, the Dugu Family had been famous throughout the Douluo Continent for their mastery of poison. And now someone had come along and said it felt like being bitten by a mosquito.

"A scholar can be killed, but never humiliated! How dare you humiliate me!" The little girl spoke through her tears.

Everything had always gone smoothly for her. Who outside didn't call her a genius? And now she had to endure this kind of humiliation.

"Huh?" Qingxi's lips parted slightly. Realizing her words had come out wrong, she hurried to comfort the girl. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to humiliate you. It's just that different people cultivate in different ways. Don't cry. I didn't mean to upset you. How about... I teach you how to cultivate immortality?"

"Waaah..." The girl sobbed in hiccups, then asked between cries, "Cultivate immortality? What's that?"

Qingxi's casual expression faded. She stood up from the ground. She existed in a soul state, and her appearance was the same as in her previous life. She was much taller than Dugu Yan.

"Um... cultivating immortality is..." She thought for a moment, then placed a hand on Dugu Yan's head and said solemnly, "An immortal pats my crown; my hair is tied, and I receive eternal life."

She remembered that, long ago, her master had said it just like that.

Dugu Yan stared blankly for a moment, but stopped crying. Although she couldn't understand the words, a yearning rose inexplicably in her heart.

"An immortal pats your crown, and you receive eternal life? Who are you? What do you mean, 'your world'? Are you not from this world?"

Qingxi pointed at the Strange Flower, which stood half a meter tall beside her. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Qingxi. I studied under Patriarch Bodhi at Slanted Moon Three Stars Cave, and I come from another world. Right now, my true body is that flower. Do you want to follow me and cultivate immortality?"

As she spoke, the surrounding scenery changed at dizzying speed. Dugu Yan saw humans flying through the sky in all directions, some standing on swords, some riding their swords through the air, and others riding clouds and mist.

A colossal bird blotted out the sky and the sun. A fish with no visible end swam across the sky. Corpses fell from the heavens, and a lotus seat rose beneath a towering golden dharma body. In a clash of blades and swords, mountains were moved and seas filled.

Then the scene before her suddenly shrank. A blue planet stood before her, surrounded by a vast sea of stars and a boundless universe. A gigantic Nether Kun opened its mouth and swallowed countless stars.

"I come from that Blue Star—Earth."

The illusion vanished.

Dugu Yan was so shocked that she couldn't come back to her senses for a long time.

Qingxi bent her knees and sat on the ground, leaning at an angle against a rock. She gazed up at the sunlight overhead, feeling a faint ache of nostalgia.

That was the sea of stars she could never return to, the Square Inch Mountain she could never return to, the homeland she could never return to...