Azure Cloud Peak

Wars between women were always fought without a sound.

Though the two girls, one older and one younger, seemed inseparable on the surface, their every word concealed blades that stabbed viciously at each other.

"You're such a petite little thing, junior sister!"

"My senior brother and I spend every day together!"

"Come visit Jade Maiden Peak sometime. Children should play with other children."

"My senior brother and I spend every day together!"

Ouyang hurriedly put a stop to their inexplicable battle, turning to Su Ling'er with a smile. "Junior sister, it's getting late. Let's get going!"

Su Ling'er took out a jade flute and gazed at Ouyang with springtime warmth in her eyes. "Senior brother, shall I blow my flute for you?" she asked softly.

"Ahem, ahem, ahem. Business first. Once we're done, come to my room and we can discuss that in detail!" Ouyang said with a dry cough.

Who could withstand that? He knew that what Su Ling'er meant wasn't what he had in mind.

But when a beauty both alluring and innocent said something like that to test your Dao heart, whose Dao heart could hold firm?

"I wonder if I could take it," Ouyang muttered to himself.

"What did you say, senior brother?" Su Ling'er asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Nothing, nothing!"

Watching the two flirt, Hu Tutu immediately bristled with anger. Senior brother was such a rotten scoundrel!

He already had an adorable junior sister like me, yet he still went around flirting with other women. Who knew where this fox spirit had crawled out from!

When it came to fox spirits, could anyone be more authentic than me?!!

Hu Tutu nearly ground her little canine teeth to pieces, but as a child, there was nothing she could do.

After all, who would be interested in a child's body! (Insert a meaningful smile here.

Su Ling'er gently waved her delicate hand, and mist rose beneath the three of them.

The mist formed a white cloud that lifted all three into the air and flew toward Azure Cloud Peak.

They covered several hundred kilometers in less than an hour, arriving before Azure Cloud Peak's mountain gate.

Compared with Little Mountain Peak, Azure Cloud Peak was far taller and more imposing.

The enormous mountain rose abruptly from the earth, with immortal clouds swirling around its slopes and white cranes soaring together.

Countless white jade steps stretched straight to the summit like a stairway to heaven, their end nowhere in sight.

As one of the Nine Great Sacred Lands of the Cultivation World, Azure Cloud Valley had put considerable care into decorating its main peak.

Azure Cloud Peak boasted waterfalls, rivers, exotic flowers and herbs, rare birds and beasts, with charmingly arranged houses scattered among them.

It was a renowned mountain fit for immortals, dignified yet elegant.

Ouyang walked ahead, with Su Ling'er and Hu Tutu half a step behind him on either side.

As they reached the mountain gate, they spotted two dozing stone lions perched atop vermilion-lacquered pillars.

Seeming to sense their arrival, the stone lions woke with a start, shook stone dust from their bodies, and jumped down from the pillars. With their eyes still closed, they addressed Ouyang haughtily. "Who goes there? State the gate password!"

Seeing that the stone lions couldn't even be bothered to open their eyes, Ouyang immediately flared up. He sneered. "Come here. Lower your heads and I'll tell you the password!"

The stone lions bent down and cocked their ears, only to catch sight of Ouyang's sneering face. They froze.

Ouyang wasn't about to indulge them. He marched up and gave each lion a resounding slap, shouting furiously, "I molded you bastards with my own hands, and you dare ask me for a password? Listen well! The password is: your daddy never needs a damn password to come here!"

Slapped wide awake, the stone lions hastily stepped aside and knelt on the ground, as docile as a pair of lapdogs. They even wagged their tails at Ouyang.

He had casually molded these two stone lions while practicing the Earth-Escape Technique when he first began cultivating. Because he had forgotten to retrieve his true qi, the two had acquired spiritual energy, and over time, his true qi had allowed them to awaken their intelligence.

In the end, the old sect master had conveniently coaxed them into squatting here as gate guards.

A stone capable of awakening intelligence was a once-in-ten-thousand-years rarity. Once awakened, it would hide in the deepest heart of a mountain, making stone spirits almost impossible to encounter in the Cultivation World.

Using these two stone spirits to guard a gate was extravagance indeed!

Who would have thought guarding Azure Cloud Peak's gate would give these two such a sense of pride that they wouldn't even look him in the eye!

Ouyang led the two girls straight onto the stone steps, then retreated after taking two steps.

Flying and using techniques were both forbidden on Azure Cloud Peak. Anyone who wanted to reach the summit had to rely on their own two feet.

With such a long flight of steps, he had no intention of walking all the way up.

The stone lions had just breathed sighs of relief when they saw Ouyang return, and immediately sat up straight.

Ouyang looked them over, pointed at one, and said, "You. Carry us up."

"Master, everyone must walk up Azure Cloud Peak on their own feet. Those are the rules," the chosen stone lion explained with a humanlike, fawning grin.

Ouyang picked at his ear as he looked at the stone lion. "I didn't quite hear that. Say it again?"

The stone lion instantly felt its body stiffening. The strand of Ouyang's true qi within it was slowly leaving its body.

The stone lion hurriedly crouched down. "I meant that Master's rules are the rules! Come on up! Take your time lifting your leg. Would you like me to crouch a little lower?"

Ouyang snorted coldly and climbed onto the stone lion with the two girls. With a few bounds, the lion vanished up the white jade steps.

The stone lion Ouyang hadn't picked breathed a sigh of relief, then turned to see a young man trying to follow Ouyang through the mountain gate.

The stone lion perked up and demanded in a deep voice, "Who goes there? Password!"

The young man froze. Thinking of Ouyang's earlier outburst, he ventured, "The password is: your daddy..."

Before the young man could finish, the stone lion swelled from five or six meters tall to over twenty meters in an instant. The enormous lion raised a paw and slammed it down toward him.

Alarmed, the young man formed a hand seal and immediately burrowed into the earth to escape.

"Trying to pull tricks on me here? You're courting death!" The stone lion sneered. As a stone spirit, it had a natural affinity for earth techniques.

The stone lion slammed its raised paw into the ground. The young man fleeing underground cried out in pain and crawled from the earth, clutching his head.

He had only emerged halfway when the soil around him locked him in place.

"Incorrect password. Your punishment is to stand there for twenty hours!" the stone lion said with a yawn, returning to its lacquered pillar.

The young man stared at the stone lion, wanting to cry but unable to shed a tear. Senior Brother Ling Feng had only summoned him to copy the Yellow Court Scripture. How had he been unlucky enough to get pinned down right here?