The Ninth Frame

Her luck really had turned around, hadn't it?

Her new master looked like he might be a handful, though.

Perhaps he caught the meaning in Qiao Ranran's gaze. The strange man looked down at himself, then said, "Oh! I was in seclusion when I sensed the time had come, so I rushed out. I'd just blown up my furnace, though, so I'm a bit of a mess." Apparently used to both exploding furnaces and looking like this, he scratched the back of his head and cast several Dust-Cleansing Spells. At last, he looked like a normal person again.

Qiao Ranran's eyes flickered. She hadn't expected him to look so presentable once he cleaned up. She had already glimpsed his delicate features beneath the grime, but now, faced with that youthful face, everything she had been about to say stuck in her throat.

He touched his face. "Don't let this fool you. I'm several hundred years old!" She mustn't be deceived by his looks.

Without the dust and grime to hide it, his baby face made the claim even less convincing.

Qiao Ranran pressed her lips together and smiled.

"What are you laughing at?" Baby Face bristled. "This is why I didn't want a disciple. I could spend the time refining a few more batches of pills. My wretched master keeps making things difficult for me..." He looked up and glared at Qiao Ranran, though it was all bluster. "Go on. The Immortal Ascension Road is open. Even if you're my destined disciple, you still have to walk it."

Qiao Ranran's smile deepened. She looked at Baby Face and asked softly, "You went there to find a disciple?"

"Well, yes." Baby Face nodded. "I don't want one, but my master said I'm destined to have a disciple. He just didn't know whether fate would bring us together. He also said that when I felt the time had come, I had to go and take a look. Otherwise..."

"Otherwise?"

Otherwise, he'd probably regret it for the rest of his life.

Qiao Ranran suddenly understood. In her previous life, she and this "master" had missed each other. Following his intuition, he had gone to the Clear Feather Sect but hadn't found her there, because she had been confined to Reflection Cliff at the time. The people in the sect had probably forgotten she existed.

Having failed to find the person he was fated to meet, Baby Face naturally had no reason to spare the Clear Feather Sect another glance. Their hopes of attaching themselves to the Profound Heart Sect had come to nothing. Then again, given their narrow view of the world, she doubted the people of the Clear Feather Sect thought much of either the Profound Heart Sect or Baby Face.

In short, neither side had been impressed by the other.

"Enough talk. Get moving." Feeling he had said too much, Baby Face scratched the back of his head, mussing the hair he had just tidied. "I'll wait for you at the top. Be careful." Before he finished speaking, he vanished from Qiao Ranran's sight.

Qiao Ranran looked toward the hazy mountain path, then at the stele beside it.

So this was the Profound Heart Sect.

In her previous life, she had never understood why, after hearing that the Clear Feather Sect had missed its chance with the Profound Heart Sect, this sect that had only briefly crossed her path became a quiet regret tucked away in her heart.

As she stared at the three characters carved into the Profound Heart Sect Stele, a strange, elusive vision seemed to appear before her eyes. Images flashed past too quickly for her to grasp.

At the mountaintop, several cultivators in plain robes watched Qiao Ranran enter the Mystic Realm. Surprise filled their eyes. Then they turned complicated looks on the baby-faced cultivator who had just appeared.

Such a promising talent. How had she ended up with that little monster?

The Founding Ancestor had left the Profound Heart Sect Stele behind. Plain as it looked, it held a trace of the Daoist Truth he had imparted. Only those truly fated to encounter it or disciples of exceptional talent could comprehend it.

Even they had gained only the faintest insight after advancing their cultivation to a certain level.

The girl before them looked no older than fourteen or fifteen, and her cultivation was a pitiful Qi Refining First Layer. But her comprehension and her connection to the stele were undoubtedly rare.

Under everyone's gaze, Baby Face muttered, "That's nothing. She can layer spells on her own and form hand seals with both hands at once!"

Everyone else: How were they supposed to resist hitting him now?

Qiao Ranran knew nothing of the looks being exchanged on the mountaintop. She had just shaken off the Profound Heart Sect Stele's influence. Though she did not yet understand what had happened, the Profound Heart Sect's Daoist Truth had silently imprinted itself on her Divine Soul. Its effects would surely reveal themselves as her cultivation advanced.

For now, what mattered most was passing the Immortal Ascension Road Baby Face had mentioned.

That much she knew. Any sect with even a modest foundation had a path like this up its mountain. Whether it tested physical talent or strength of mind, the path would reveal something about whoever walked it.

These roads incorporated all kinds of formations, though illusion realms were the most common.

She had never had the chance to try one in her previous life.

The moment she stepped onto the path, the scene before her changed. Amid drifting mist, the Greenstone Steps appeared, stretching beyond sight.

She took another step. A crushing pressure far beyond what her body could bear slammed down on her, nearly bending her straight back.

Qiao Ranran realized she had overthought it.

The Profound Heart Sect's Immortal Ascension Road seemed to have no elaborate tricks. It tested those on the steps with sheer, brutal pressure and shifts in gravity. Every step demanded every scrap of strength she had. She could not bend her back, either: the instant she did, the pressure would surge, and straightening again would mean facing twice the force.

There were no shortcuts on this road.

Chapter 9: The Ninth Frame

Pei Ling's mind remained blank all the way home. He thought of nothing—or perhaps there was nothing he needed to think about. He simply followed the obsession that had sustained and tormented him, wanting to see for himself.

He wanted to see the home he had never seen again in his previous life.

Standing at the door, he still felt as though it could not be real. During the years he had been trapped in the Abyss, every time he closed his eyes, he had fallen into illusion after illusion. He had gone from struggling against them to letting himself drift, from losing sight of who he was to becoming part of the illusions themselves.