Inside the palace of Twin Hump Peak, sandalwood smoke curled through the air, tea mist drifted in wisps, and the sound of flutes rose in waves.
Yet those playing the flutes were not cultivators, but one spirit puppet after another.
Compared with the mortal realm, cultivators of the Spirit Realm were clearly far more particular about such matters.
Ye Jingcheng, Venerable Golden Swan, and the other two sat facing one another. From amusing tales of foreign races to the arts of zither, chess, and dueling, they chatted and laughed, raised their cups, and spoke freely as if they were old friends of many years.
Even Ye Jingcheng could not help but feel emotional.
It was not as though he had never met these three before, but back then all three had faced him with cold expressions. He had not even seen them smile. Now, they occasionally burst into hearty laughter. The difference was like night and day.
Of course, Ye Jingcheng knew they had not simply become fickle. It was the change brought by cultivation.
When one's cultivation was high, fellow Daoists could be found everywhere. When one's cultivation was low, every place was filled with tigers and wolves coveting one's treasures.
Even Venerable Ziyu occasionally showered Ye Jingcheng with praise.
Though Ye Jingcheng had only just entered the Void Refinement realm, he had already been a renowned alchemist. He had built Qixuan Treasure Tower's spirit pills into something of a reputation. In the eyes of the Void Refinement cultivators, it was merely a matter of time before Ye Jingcheng became a Seventh Stage alchemist.
One had to know that although Mortal Dust Continent had quite a few Void Refinement cultivators, Seventh Stage alchemists were few enough to count on one's fingers.
That was also what the three valued most