"Ah! They have lantern riddles over there! It's so lively, let's go take a look!" Qu Lin's sharp eyes spotted the especially eye-catching place ahead, and she pointed toward it.
It was an exquisite, brightly decorated tower built along the street. Beneath its eaves, along its corridors, and even from the outstretched branches, hundreds of lanterns hung at varying heights. Their brilliant glow turned the whole area as bright as day, colors and shadows flowing together and drawing crowds of visitors to stop.
A fluttering colored ribbon hung beneath every lantern, its riddle written in spirit ink. Whoever guessed correctly could take down the lantern they liked or exchange it for the corresponding prize—small spirit ornaments, sweet pastries, or a few low-grade spirit stones. None were especially valuable, but they added to the fun.
The lanterns came in all sorts of forms: common lotus flowers, koi fish, palace lanterns, as well as more inventive revolving lanterns, tower-ship lanterns, and even lanterns modeled after spirit beasts. No rare spirit materials had been used, but the craftsmanship was exquisite and the colors vivid. They had clearly come from the hands of skilled artisans.
Only after overhearing cultivators familiar with the matter chatting did they learn the warm story behind these lanterns—it had begun when a Profound Heaven Sect disciple assigned to patrol the town below the mountain encountered a widowed mother raising three young children alone, struggling to make ends meet.
The disciple learned that the woman was highly skilled at making lanterns, but had nowhere to sell them. On a whim, the disciple placed a large order with her under the pretense that "the sect recently needed to decorate its grounds and purchase festival supplies."
The original intention had merely been to lend her a hand and help her through the