This wasn't quite what I had in mind!

Shen Leyan took out two boxes of Mala Xiangguo to settle his debt for the fish.

Then he glanced at the empty wooden bucket and couldn't help growing suspicious.

"Sect Master Lu, the fish in this pond seem to have developed intelligence through cultivation. Can you really catch them without using spells? Have you ever caught any before?"

Lu Yuanyi replied breezily, "Never."

The boy froze, then said in mild indignation, "Then how could you shamelessly make me pay for them?"

Lu Yuanyi's lips curved into a low chuckle. His cool features, seemingly sculpted from frost and snow, instantly came alive, incomparably handsome.

"What was all that commotion outside the Cicada Song Pavilion just now?"

Shen Leyan gave him a full account of the many "tourists" visiting the place. "But after today, there probably won't be so many visitors."

"I see. No wonder you kept chirping away outside."

Shen Leyan: "???"

When did I ever chirp away?

Lu Yuanyi showed no intention of explaining. He motioned for Shen Leyan to follow him toward the Hundred Herbs Pavilion. "Yesterday, I refined the fire-yang divine wood and used Spiritual Power to channel it into Chen Jing's meridians. Rebuilding meridians is extremely painful. He probably won't wake until later."

Shen Leyan nodded. "Thank you, Sect Master Lu."

The Hundred Herbs Pavilion smelled pleasantly of medicinal herbs, with what must have been thousands upon thousands of wooden boxes holding different herbs.

An alchemy furnace stood in the center, while a bed for resting occupied the inner room.

Senior Brother Chen Jing lay on that bed. Now that the fire-yang divine wood had been administered, he no longer needed to be preserved in an ice coffin. Flecks of scarlet glimmered along the black markings stretching from his arms to his neck, presumably the medicinal power of the fire-yang divine wood.

Neither force would yield to the other. They fought fiercely for control of his meridians.

Senior Brother Chen Jing's forehead was covered in sweat, his brow tightly furrowed. He must have been enduring tremendous pain.

Senior Brother Chen Jing's life should be safe now, but I wonder whether his damaged spiritual root can recover...

Lu Yuanyi poured a cup of tea and handed it to him, his long fingers resembling fine white jade against the celadon porcelain.

"He has a resilient spirit. Once his meridians have been rebuilt, his cultivation may well advance even further."

Somewhat reassured, Shen Leyan smiled. "I think so too... Senior Brother Chen Jing will definitely get better."

"The people outside haven't left yet. Since you don't know Sword Flight, going out would be inconvenient. Stay here a little longer."

He agreed. "All right."

If he went out now, he could forget about having any peace on the way down the mountain.

After examining Chen Jing's meridians, Lu Yuanyi went over to the alchemy furnace, presumably to refine more medicinal ingredients.

Shen Leyan simply sat cross-legged on the floor beside the bed, closed his eyes, and began cultivating his Spiritual Power.

Cultivation required experience in the wider world, but even more essential was meditating and practicing day after day. Those who couldn't endure the tedium of sitting still and only practiced sporadically would struggle to build a solid foundation.

Several hours passed in a flash.

After circulating his Spiritual Power through a fifth cycle, Shen Leyan was mildly surprised to discover that his cultivation seemed to be brushing against the barrier to a breakthrough.

Each major cultivation realm was divided into lower, middle, and upper grades. Someone like him, who had only just discovered his spiritual root and begun cultivating, belonged to the lower grade of Qi Refining. Today, however, the Spiritual Power in his dantian was unusually abundant, as though it might break through its restraints at any moment and open up new "territory."

Watching the phantom image of his wind spiritual root grow increasingly lively within him, he opened his eyes in satisfaction.

The moment he did, he met Chen Jing's burning gaze.

"...Senior Brother Chen? You're awake!"

Nearly half the black markings on Chen Jing's body had faded, and his voice no longer sounded quite so weak. He still couldn't get up, however, and could only lie flat on the bed.

"So you really did start cultivating behind my back... Cough, cough, cough... You hid your spiritual root from me. I'm not your favorite senior brother anymore..."

He sounded rather like a wounded old father.

Shen Leyan: "..."

He hadn't expected that to be the first thing Chen Jing said upon waking.

"Senior Brother Chen, it's a little complicated to explain. But the main reason I didn't tell you I'd discovered my spiritual root was that I genuinely didn't want to cultivate back then..."

"And now?"

"Now I do."

Otherwise, the next time a fellow disciple collapses in front of me, all I'll be able to do is send Lu Yuanyi a voice transmission screaming for help. That won't do.

Lu Yuanyi can't always get here in time, either.

"Then I forgive you—hiss, this hurts a little. Where are we?"

Shen Leyan gave him a rough account of what had happened afterward in Glory Ancestors Village and how Lu Yuanyi had rebuilt his meridians. "The pain you're feeling now should be the fire-yang divine wood taking effect. Um... until the black markings on your body fade completely, the pain will probably continue."

"This—hurts way too much!" Sweat poured from Senior Brother Chen Jing's forehead as he clenched his teeth. "Wait, did you just say we're in the Cicada Song Pavilion?!"

"Yep."

"Sect Master Lu's Cicada Song Pavilion?!"

Shen Leyan frowned as he studied him.

Why does Senior Brother Chen's reaction remind me of those stubborn sightseeing donkeys outside... Surely not.

"Yes."

The bedridden man tried to spring upright. "Quick, take me outside! I want to see what the Cicada Song Pavilion looks like—hiss—it hurts! It really hurts!"

Shen Leyan: "..."

He held Senior Brother Chen Jing down by the shoulders. "Be good. We're not going."

After waiting a while and noticing that Senior Brother Chen Jing had gone quiet, he looked down.

Chen Jing's head had tilted to one side. He seemed to have passed out from the pain.

(ー_ー)!!

Although he had fainted, his breathing was fairly steady. There probably wasn't anything seriously wrong.

Shen Leyan stood and went to the window, pushing it open a little for fresh air. Summer was giving way to autumn, and the air, sweltering at noon, had acquired a touch of coolness by evening.

Brilliant sunset clouds spread across the sky all the way to the mountain's edge.

Now that he'd confirmed Senior Brother Chen Jing was safe, it was time to leave the Cicada Song Pavilion and return to the Outer Sect.

He would have a meal, then continue meditating, or perhaps visit the Martial Arts Training Ground to watch his senior brothers and sisters spar.

When he left the room, the first thing he saw was a burlap sack beside the alchemy furnace.

In his imagination, alchemy involved a cultivator precisely controlling the furnace's temperature and the Spiritual Power infused into it, adding medicinal herbs step by step, burning away impurities and refining their essence.

After eighty-one procedures and seven days and nights, the lid would rise, releasing an aura infused with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and a precious Pill would slowly float out of the furnace!

In reality, however, Lu Yuanyi was outside slacking off—no, fishing.

The alchemy furnace kept its own fire going. Every so often, the hot air inside pushed up the lid. After two puffs of black fumes escaped, a strange rotten-egg smell wafted over, and the furnace automatically tipped toward the sack.

A torrent of roughly a hundred Pills, large and small, round and flat, all sorts of shapes, poured into the sack like beans.

He recalled an article he'd read in the Cloud Radiance Sect newspaper, which claimed that every Pill Sect Master Lu refined consumed tremendous quantities of rare treasures, Spiritual Power, and painstaking effort, and was almost impossible to obtain even for a fortune.

Looks like I'm still nowhere near Lu Yuanyi's level of shady businessmanship.

Holding his nose, he left the Hundred Herbs Pavilion and went to bid Lu Yuanyi farewell.

"Sect Master Lu, it's getting late, and most of the people outside have probably dispersed. I'll be leaving now—Senior Brother Chen Jing just passed out from the pain. He seems especially keen to tour the Cicada Song Pavilion, so when he wakes up, please remember to cast an immobilization spell on him. Don't let him run around."

Lu Yuanyi answered calmly, "Mm."

Shen Leyan cupped his hands in a bow and took a few steps along the covered walkway. Glancing at the courtyard pond, he finally noticed that Lu Yuanyi was holding not a fishing rod, but a bamboo scroll.

He was too far away to make out more than a few words. It seemed to say, "Master Wind Arts quickly with one book..."

Master Wind Arts quickly? There's something that good?

Wait, why is Lu Yuanyi reading about Wind Arts?!

Suspicion flickered in the boy's handsome, peach-blossom eyes. He stopped and turned, focusing on the bamboo scroll.

The instant he moved, Lu Yuanyi leisurely closed the scroll, neither too quickly nor too slowly, with perfect timing to prevent him from seeing a single word.

"...Sect Master Lu, why aren't you reading anymore?"

"Reading? This book... is for shading me from the sun."

...You're lying! You were clearly reading it very carefully!

Shen Leyan smiled politely. "Is that so?"

Lu Yuanyi's gaze remained calm, his tone cool, and his expression didn't change in the slightest as he lied.

"Mm—you'll take too long walking down the mountain. I'll have the Jiangxue Sword take you back."

The moment the Jiangxue Sword left its sheath, it seemed to know that another task had recently been added to its duties. Without waiting for Lu Yuanyi to infuse it with Spiritual Power, it flew before Shen Leyan and enlarged several times over, stopping only when a person could comfortably stand on it.

Accepting favors made it hard to press people.

For the Jiangxue Sword's sake, he couldn't very well keep digging.

Shen Leyan rode the Jiangxue Sword above the Cicada Song Pavilion. He was halfway through closing his eyes to meditate when—

"Everyone, look! Senior Brother's out!"

"Aaaaah! Senior Brother, Senior Brother, look at me!"

"Senior Brother's using Sword Flight! That sword is so cool!"

"That looks like Sect Master Lu's Jiangxue Sword—its blade was formed from Ten-Thousand-Year Ice, and its Sword Spirit is a Flood Dragon on the verge of becoming a heavenly dragon. With that appearance, it has to be the Jiangxue Sword!"

The people who had spent the entire afternoon waiting outside the Cicada Song Pavilion burst into cheers upon seeing him.

Some waved wildly at him. Others began demonstrating the spells they'd learned. A few went even further—the young scions of prominent families had climbed into the trees and spread their arms toward him in an embrace, gazing at him affectionately.

"Senior Brother—"

◝₍ᴑ̑ДO͝₎◞

Shen Leyan hadn't expected them to wait outside for so long. Worse, perhaps someone had spread the news, because the crowd outside the Cicada Song Pavilion had grown rather than shrunk, completely blocking the path down the mountain.

"...Jiangxue Sword, do you think we should go back, or charge straight through to the Outer Sect?"

The Jiangxue Sword hummed, then abruptly accelerated, shooting down the mountain—

A great chorus of pleas followed them.

"Senior Brother, you're so heartless! How could you just abandon us?"

Still shaken, Shen Leyan went to his restaurant's kitchen and wolfed down a large bowl of Luosifen to comfort himself.

After finishing, he discovered that the Jiangxue Sword had wilted under the stench of the Luosifen and was huddled listlessly in a corner. Feeling rather embarrassed, he called it over.

"I don't know whether Sect Master Lu would like Luosifen... Sorry for the trouble, but please take a bowl to him anyway."

Enduring the stench, the Jiangxue Sword hooked the lunch box containing the Luosifen onto its tip and fled!

After eating, Shen Leyan made a circuit of the restaurant. Qingli wasn't there today; he didn't know what Qingli was busy with.

After greeting several Outer Sect disciples he knew who worked at the restaurant, he changed clothes and prepared to head to the Cloud Radiance Sect's Law Enforcement Hall.

Setting up a barricade on the mountain path to the Cicada Song Pavilion with a "No entry" sign could not wait!!!

But plenty of people outside the Cicada Song Pavilion had seen his face today. Given their relentless determination, they might well be lying in wait for him beside some road right now.

If he headed rashly to the Law Enforcement Hall, he might never make it back.

After all, he now had neither the Jiangxue Sword to fly him away nor the Cicada Song Pavilion's formations to keep everyone else out.

If those people saw him and lost control, swarming him all at once...

Shen Leyan shook his head, dismissing that terrifying thought.

The Cloud Radiance Sect's Luoxiang Hall was where disciples sold and bought spiritual medicines, cultivation methods, magic artifacts, and other goods.

Disciples who wanted to sell things for money could set up their own stalls here or entrust the sect with selling their items, paying a certain percentage as commission.

By now, Luoxiang Hall also sold plenty of novel little gadgets. For example, Outer Sect disciples heading down the mountain for training sometimes came here to buy itching powder. Anyone touched by the powder would itch unbearably, so it could be thrown at enemies in dangerous situations to facilitate a quick escape.

"Stealth clothing? Junior Brother, what do you need stealth clothing for?"

Shen Leyan lowered his bamboo hat, not daring to meet the stallholder's righteous gaze.

"...What did the senior brothers and sisters who bought stealth clothing before use it for?"

"Naturally, they had missions and needed to conceal themselves while traveling at night."

"Oh, that's why I need it too."

The disciple running the stall looked him up and down several times, then suddenly sneered.

"Do you take me for a fool? It hasn't rained today, and it's already dusk, yet you've come sneaking around in a bamboo hat. You're buying stealth clothing, but can't even explain why. Tell me, are you planning to sneak into the women's quarters and spy on our senior and junior sisters bathing?!"

Shen Leyan: "..."

At those words, every trace of guilt vanished. He answered in a tone even more righteous than the stallholder's.

"What filthy nonsense is going through your head? As cultivators, we should clear our minds of desire and stay true to our principles. How could we do such a thing?! What's your name? Come to the Law Enforcement Hall with me this instant!"

The stallholder froze. "Wait... I've never spied on anyone bathing... Fine, fine! I'll sell you the stealth clothing, all right?!"

"How much?"

"One tael!"

"That expensive? I'll give you five hundred copper coins at most!"

Delight appeared on the stallholder's face. "Deal!"

As he spoke, he handed over the outfit.

Oh no, Shen Leyan thought.

If the other man had accepted his offer that readily, he clearly hadn't bargained low enough!