Ancient Tree Hung with Red Silk, Making Wishes

"Mm." Su Yueli nodded.

Having just arrived in Qing Province, she had wanted to go out and have a look as well.

There had never been much to pack in the room. After setting down the few old personal clothes she owned, Su Yueli followed Tie Ling'er to the front courtyard to greet Tie Tu, and the two left the martial arts hall.

Tie Tu, however, said nothing.

Night had already fallen outside, yet Azure Province City had instead welcomed another kind of bustle.

Bright lanterns hung all along both sides of the long street. The sounds of pipes and strings drifted from taverns and teahouses, while hawkers' cries and carriage wheels mingled together, lending the night market of this great city a rich, bustling air of everyday life.

Su Yueli walked amid the crowd, watching street performers breathe fire and women lead children by the hand to buy sugar figurines.

Twenty-five years of isolated, bitter cultivation in Blackwind Ridge had made this vivid mortal world before her feel strangely unreal, as though she had crossed into another lifetime.

"Sister Yueli, we're almost there!"

Like a little lark, Tie Ling'er pulled Su Yueli through the bustling crowd and into a square.

At the center of the square stood a towering ancient tree.

Its branches and leaves were lush and flourishing, its trunk draped with red silk ribbons fluttering in the wind. Under the surrounding lights, it resembled a sea of crimson.

Su Yueli took one look and roughly understood what it was.

"Sister Yueli, this is the most famous Wishing Tree in our Azure Province City."

Tie Ling'er ran to the little stall beneath the tree, bought two red silk ribbons with wooden plaques attached, and handed one to Su Yueli. "They say that if you write your wish on the wooden plaque and hang it high up, the wind will carry it for Heaven to see, and then your wish will come true!"

Su Yueli accepted the ribbon, her thumb brushing over the wooden plaque as she smiled softly.

She did not believe in such things.

If Heaven would truly reveal its power just because someone wrote a few words on a wooden plaque, how could there be so many unsatisfactory things in this world?

Immortal cultivators stood high above, treating mortals as ants. If Heaven truly had eyes, her parents would not have been murdered, Shen Qing'an would not have frozen to death in that ruined temple, and her master would not have taken his own life for no reason.

Could it be that if she wrote Supreme Heavenly Bone on this wooden plaque, this body with no innate talent at all would truly grow one out of thin air?

It was nothing more than mortals finding some illusory comfort amid their desperate lives.

"I'm done writing!"

At that moment, Tie Ling'er held a brush and rapidly scribbled down a few strokes. She blew on the still-wet ink, looking extremely pleased, then turned to Su Yueli. "Sister Yueli, what are you writing?"

Su Yueli held the brush suspended in midair, yet did not lower it for a long while.

What was her own wish?

She suddenly felt lost.

Having transmigrated into this immortal cultivation world where lives were worth less than grass, the parents she had been born with were dead, her only friend was dead, and her master, who had been like both father and grandfather to her, was dead as well.

Now, she did not even have an old acquaintance with whom she could speak from the heart.

She bore a blood feud... but was revenge truly the entirety of her Dao Path through these long years?

If one day, she took her revenge and every last enemy died—

With this monster's shell that would never age, where would she go in the endless years ahead?

"What exactly is my path...?"

Su Yueli could not figure it out.

"Sister Yueli, haven't you thought of one yet?"

Tie Ling'er leaned closer, waving the red silk ribbon in her hand. Her smiling eyes curved into crescents. "Sister, you're the disciple of my father's friend through life and death, so you'll be family from now on too! I wrote on my wooden plaque that I hope my father, and Sister Yueli, our family in the future..."

Before she could finish, a hand reached over and covered her mouth.

Looking at the girl's clear, pure eyes, a trace of softness rippled through Su Yueli's cold gaze.

"If you say it out loud, it won't come true." Su Yueli smiled gently.

Tie Ling'er's eyes widened. She hurriedly nodded, covering her own mouth with an extremely solemn expression. Then she turned, rose onto her tiptoes, and hung her red silk ribbon from a branch.

Watching the red silk flutter in the wind, Su Yueli withdrew her gaze and looked down at the one in her hand. The confusion in her eyes gradually faded.

Since she had entered the Martial Dao, since she had attained longevity—

The immortal cultivators stood high above and cut off the path of mortals, so she would carve out a road herself!

Su Yueli lowered her brush. Her wish was not the vague dream of becoming immortal, but to deduce this Martial Dao, scorned as fit only for ants, to the ultimate peak.

She wanted the mortals of this world who possessed no innate talent, when faced with the injustice and butcher's blades of immortals, to have the power to resist—even if they could not ride swords into immortality—with a single fist capable of shattering a flying sword!

After writing it, Su Yueli hung her red silk beside Tie Ling'er's.

The two left the Wishing Tree. Firework smoke swirled around them, and the aromas of grilled meat skewers and osmanthus cakes burrowed straight into their noses.

Tie Ling'er bought things as she walked, like a child who had never known the taste of worry.

As they walked, Tie Ling'er's gaze settled on Su Yueli. Her large eyes blinked.

"Sister Yueli, let's go change into some new clothes."

Su Yueli looked down at herself.

She had worn the coarse linen clothes on her body for five years. Though she had washed them very clean, the cuffs and hem had long since been torn in several places by mountain thorns.

On the streets of prosperous Azure Province City, they did indeed look somewhat too shabby and conspicuous.

"No need. These clothes can still be worn." Su Yueli shook her head.

More importantly, she did not even have a single coin on her. Her purse was painfully empty.

Tie Ling'er was clever and saw her embarrassment at a glance.

"Oh, come on, come on! The ready-made clothing shop up ahead is very cheap. Just take it as a welcome gift from my father! If you don't go, Father will definitely scold me when we get back for not treating you properly!"

Without giving her any chance to refuse, Tie Ling'er grabbed Su Yueli's hand and forcibly dragged her into a shop bearing the sign of Splendid Embroidery House.

The shop was rather spacious and brightly lit.

It was filled with all kinds of ready-made clothing, and a faint fragrance of incense hung in the air.

On the left hung colorful silks and satins with exquisite embroidery, mostly high-waisted ruqun dresses and flowing wide-sleeved gowns worn by daughters of wealthy households.

In the middle were soft cotton and linen garments commonly worn by ordinary people. Their styles were simple, mainly azure and plain white, carrying an air of understated elegance.

On the wooden racks to the right hung several outfits with fitted waists and bound sleeves.

Su Yueli's gaze immediately fell upon the wooden racks to the right.

She could not accept wearing skirts. She had long heard that girls wearing skirts felt like they were running around naked.

Though she was now a woman, she still could not accept this reality in her heart.

She stood before the rack for a long time, feeling a headache coming on.

The overwhelming majority were cumbersome skirts. Never mind that she could not accept them—if she truly wore those things while fighting someone, even lifting her leg would be difficult.

The moment she raised a foot, her entire thigh would be exposed.

Seeing that she still had not chosen anything, Tie Ling'er assumed she was embarrassed about spending money because her purse was empty. She immediately volunteered to rummage through the clothing rack.

Before long, she picked out an outfit and handed it over.

"Sister Yueli, try this one! It'll definitely look good. Go change without worry—my father gave me more than enough spending money!"