So That's How You Read a Career Line

Naturally, holding a temple fair wasn't as simple as widening the roads and letting vendors set up stalls. After all, they could set up anywhere. Why insist on doing it outside your temple gates-and paying you for the privilege?

The organizer of the fair, Chanwood Temple, had to hold events appealing enough to draw a crowd.

On the fifteenth was the Waterwood Dharma Assembly, where a group of monks chanted sutras to deliver souls. Pay enough, and your ancestors' spirit tablets could be displayed in the most prominent spot.

People in Yuzhou City even joked about it: "Spend ten million taels of gold, and perch your ancestors' tablets on the Buddha's head."

Naturally, wealthy people concerned with saving face were happy to see their ancestors' spirit tablets standing a head above everyone else's.

This could arguably be considered Chanwood Temple's most profitable offering. Even though the people of Yuzhou City mocked it every year, the temple had never discontinued it.

The sixteenth featured a Buddhist martial competition, the seventeenth the Myriad Lantern Festival, and the eighteenth a Buddha procession.

In short, Chanwood Temple would do practically anything to liven things up. They would even carry out the arhat statues for a lap around town.

The only reason they didn't carry out the Buddha was that he was too heavy. They simply couldn't lift him.

They even dressed it up with the lofty claim that the deities were touring the four corners of the world to keep everyone safe.

Although Chanwood Temple had plenty of money, plenty of people, and a resounding reputation, its worldly conduct still earned unanimous scorn from the other temples.

Today was the first day of the temple fair, and the day's event was the Waterwood Dharma Assembly.

On the road through the temple fair.

Li Yingling wore a pale yellow embroidered dress, with two pouches hanging at her waist: a black one for copper coins and a silver one for silver pieces.

At the moment, she held a candied hawthorn skewer in her left hand and a small, round blue fan embroidered with white lotuses in her right, gently fanning herself.

Countless gazes unwittingly settled on this lovely young woman.

Yet no one dared approach her, largely because of Li Xingtian following behind her.

A single glare from the cold-faced, burly man was enough to make anyone with ill intentions instantly back down.

As a Foundation Establishment Late Stage Cultivator, he could strike terror into mortals with just a look.

Dressed in ordinary black clothes, Li Xingtian carried a pole studded with candied hawthorn skewers for his senior sister.

"Sorry, these candied hawthorns aren't for sale."

Looking somewhat helpless, Li Xingtian turned down a child who wanted to buy a skewer.

Li Yingling turned around and saw that the would-be buyer was a little girl of six or seven. She waved her fan generously and said:

"It's fine, junior brother. Give her one."

The little girl accepted the candied hawthorns with delight written all over her face. "Thank you, uncle and big sister."

Li Xingtian was speechless. Why did she call his senior sister "big sister," but insist on calling him "uncle"?

Did they really look that far apart in age?

A pleased smile appeared on Li Yingling's face. "See? Isn't that little girl adorable?"

"If she were mute," Li Xingtian said helplessly.

Watching the little girl turn and go find her parents, all smiles, Li Yingling nodded in satisfaction.

"That last line really had Master's style. Though if it were Master, he'd probably snatch the candied hawthorns back."

"Aren't you selling Master a little too short...?" Li Xingtian asked.

Li Yingling pursed her lips unhappily at that, then lifted her brows slightly, signaling for him to look to one side.

Li Xingtian glanced over.

A bevy of lovely young women surrounded a handsome man in white.

Even from some distance away, their twittering voices were perfectly clear.

"Where do you live, young master~?"

"You aren't from Yuzhou City, are you, young master? I've never seen you before."

"Young master, I've been hurting here lately. Could you take a look...?"

At the sight, Li Xingtian couldn't help shaking his head and sighing.

"Weren't you the one who insisted Master wear the outfit you gave him before we left? Didn't he tell you he'd definitely get surrounded by women if he went out in it?"

"I thought he was bragging," Li Yingling said resentfully. "Who knew those girls would be so shameless, clinging to him and refusing to leave?"

"He promised some sect team-building outing, and in the end, our master was the first to start building a team with someone else."

Li Xingtian withdrew his gaze. "Then you can always drag Master back, senior sister."

"No way. Look how happy he is! He'll settle the score with me afterward!" Li Yingling complained, before her eyes suddenly lit up.

Not far away, Li Yingling spotted Yaoqin, her bearing outstanding, slowly making her way up the sloping road.

She wore an elegant white lotus-patterned dress, with a white jade hairpin in her smooth black hair. In her hand was an exquisitely crafted round white fan painted with fireflies.

Her exceptional beauty and poise should have made her the focus of the fair, yet the passing crowds seemed unable to see her.

And with every step she took, the packed crowd automatically gave her room.

Here comes the sweetheart Master refuses to acknowledge!

Li Yingling laughed inwardly. It wasn't that she, his disciple, refused to cover for him. Master had abandoned his disciples first!

Li Xingtian soon spotted Yaoqin as well, then immediately turned around, intending to warn his master.

"Junior brother," Li Yingling called, stopping Li Xingtian.

Li Xingtian turned sideways and looked questioningly at his senior sister.

Li Yingling covered the lower half of her face with her little fan and said in a coaxing voice:

"You have to make Master understand that beauty is a blade that scrapes the bones."

Li Yingling knew that, in Master's words, her junior brother was a steel-plated straight man. She didn't know what he'd been through, but he was particularly wary of feminine charms.

Whenever he saw Master speaking with a woman, he would look faintly regretful that Master had strayed down such a path.

Li Xingtian froze at her words. After a moment of visible conflict, he stopped.

Had anyone else suggested it, Li Xingtian probably would have ignored them. But if it was his senior sister's suggestion...

Besides, it did seem to make some sense.

Anyway, if Master really gets angry, I'll use senior sister as my excuse.

Having reached that conclusion, Li Xingtian stayed put.

Yaoqin's gaze soon settled on Li Xingtian, who stood out conspicuously in the crowd. After all, a burly man carrying a pole covered in candied hawthorn skewers was hard to miss.

Glancing to one side, Yaoqin saw Li Yingling greeting her a short distance from Li Xingtian.

Yaoqin gently waved her fan in return, then noticed, rather puzzled, that Chu Xingchen wasn't anywhere near them.

Even from a distance, Li Yingling seemed to understand her confusion and pointed her fan in a certain direction.

Yaoqin looked that way in puzzlement and saw the back of a young man dressed in white.

That back was very familiar. With Li Yingling pointing him out, Yaoqin instantly knew who it belonged to.

Well, well, well.

He said he was taking his disciples around the temple fair. So this is what he meant?

Yaoqin tightened her grip on the white jade handle of her fan and strode toward Chu Xingchen.

As she drew a little closer, she could hear what the women surrounding Chu Xingchen were saying.

"You really are a master! Everything you said was spot-on. Feel my career line a little more carefully and see how my career prospects look!"

A voluptuous woman in a dress was practically leaning against Chu Xingchen. Their hands brushed and hovered, making it hard to tell who was taking advantage of whom.

Chu Xingchen looked down at the woman's palm and smiled. "The real career line isn't read from the hand."

"Then where do you read it?"

A somewhat icy voice rang out.

Thinking it belonged to another woman who had just arrived, Chu Xingchen paid it no mind and merely teased, "Take a guess..."

A faint blush rose on the woman's cute little face. She reached up to cover it and said coyly:

"You're so naughty, Master!"

"So that's how you read a career line?!"

The icy voice rang out again, tinged with anger. This time, it sounded all too familiar!

Chu Xingchen swiftly turned toward the voice.

There stood Yaoqin, staring at him with a smile that never reached her eyes.