Sitting alone in the Bamboo House courtyard, Lü Bufan glanced at the midday sky... then spread his mouth in a chuckle.
"They're all gone! Haha... all... Ow!"
Lü Bufan shuddered with pain, clutched the back of his head, and jumped up.
Du Yuan the cripple appeared behind him with his arms folded, giving Lü Bufan a sidelong look...
"What's this? Planning a rebellion? Why aren't you training?"
Lü Bufan glanced at the huge iron ball he had kicked into a corner of the courtyard...
"I just got back. Can't I rest for one day?"
"You've lived for over ten years. Can't you be dead for one day?"
Lü Bufan was just about to put on a cheeky grin when Du Yuan the cripple snatched up a willow switch and lashed him hard. "Get over there! Hold that iron ball up and run a hundred laps around the village!"
Lü Bufan let out a howl and scrambled to pick up the iron ball, nearly pissing himself in terror.
The cripple kept cursing behind him. "Why don't you piss a puddle and take a good look at yourself? What talent do you have? You've gone up the mountain to cultivate, and you still dare slack off? A mortal body of flesh and blood, a mud-legged peasant through and through, and not an ounce of ambition!"
Mute sat cross-legged on the wall, enjoying the show and clapping with cries of "Ah, bah, ah, bah..."
For once, Old Skeleton was not sunning himself atop the great rock. He sat cross-legged on the ground, staring blankly at the Wordless Stele.
Young Big Black lay belly-up beside the Land God Temple, sleeping lazily... Old Skeleton said softly, "Big Black, something's felt wrong these past two days... Have you felt anything?"
Big Black grunted twice and ignored him.
Old Skeleton glanced at the shadow curled atop the great rock, which had never awakened again, and sighed. "Ah! I thought something might change, but it's still the same old story..."
A dull day passed amid Lü Bufan's pouring sweat and Big Black's snores.
At midnight, white mist once again spread around Two Realms Village... Birds and beasts scattered in flight, all scrambling to escape.
Old Skeleton suddenly poked his head out of the Land God Temple and shouted into the depths of the thick mist, "What are you doing? Coming out here to die? Get lost!"
Suddenly, a woman's low voice sounded within the dense white mist...
"Master Peach... Still so full of spirit after all these years! This humble woman pays her respects..."
"You?"
Old Skeleton sighed faintly. "What did you come for? Have you decided how to use those three peach branches?"
A woman dressed entirely in black, her hair pinned into a simple style, slowly stepped out of the thick mist and dipped in a formal curtsy to Old Skeleton. "Guo'er pays her respects to Master Peach."
"Hmph... I thought you lot would hide until heaven and earth grew old! Are they all dead? Have they no shame, sending a little girl like you out to show her face?"
The woman named Guo'er appeared to be in her thirties. With understated makeup, she was elegant and beautiful, her eyes as lively as spring waters in March... At his words, she lowered her head and replied, "You know, Master Peach. The Hall Master and the others... feel they have failed you. They have no face to come before you."
"Thirty years, gone in a blink... This is the only Land God Temple I have left in all Central Earth. How many cultivators have come to Two-World Mountain in these thirty years? And how many people died for nothing back then? That's a debt. Wherever they hide, they'll have to repay it..."
Guo'er nodded. "They know you don't dislike me, Master Peach, so they asked me to swallow my pride... and come beg you to send that little girl over..."
Old Skeleton snorted coldly. "What? Has some Great Cultivator in the Wild Spirit Land taken a fancy to that child's Immaculate Body? Even knowing they can't win, they still want to vie for her with that Upper Realm immortal stationed in Northern Qi?"
Guo'er shook her head. "That accusation cuts deep, Master Peach. However unworthy the Wild Spirit Hall may be, we would never do something so unconscionable... Otherwise..."
"Otherwise, I'd have taken Big Black over the mountain long ago and taught you lot how to behave!"
"You alone have sacrificed your cultivation to guard Two-World Mountain. Everyone in the Wild Spirit Land carries that gratitude deep in their hearts..."
"Enough! What I'm guarding is the last Land God Temple in this vast Central Earth! And Big Black... That's what I promised that being back then. Spare me the empty words..."
Guo'er said, "Hanxin of Azurefall Lake has taken an interest in this little girl's talent. She came to the hall and spoke of it, which is why I'm here today... Please grant her wish, Master Peach."
"That girl Hanxin wants to take a disciple?"
"Yes..." A trace of gravity passed over Guo'er's face.
Old Skeleton sighed. "The Twelve Who Crossed the Mountain, so full of vigor back then, lost three of their number... and no fewer than four suffered a shattered Great Dao. That girl Hanxin has endured thirty years... Can she finally hold on no longer?"
"Her life is not in immediate danger, but at most... she has sixty years left. You know how few people Azurefall Lake has, Master Peach... Sister Hanxin is begging you to let the incense of her lineage keep burning."
Old Skeleton sat hunched inside the little temple and said quietly, "Go in... Handle it as you see fit, but discuss it properly with those two. No forcing them!"
"Thank you for granting this, Master Peach!"
Guo'er bowed deeply, then walked toward Granny Yu's courtyard nearby.
Granny Yu, who was meditating inside, suddenly sensed something. Surprise, joy, and apprehension filled her eyes. She straightened her clothes, then carefully opened the door.
A beautiful woman in black stood quietly outside. She narrowed her eyes and studied Granny Yu, then sighed. "I know what you want to ask for... But I can't bear to deceive you. It cannot be done... For at least a hundred years, that Transformation Pool will remain completely dry. You... have already suffered for twenty years. Can you endure another hundred?"
Granny Yu's face instantly turned as pale as paper, and her whole body began to tremble...
"Senior... Is there truly not the slightest hope?"
Guo'er furrowed her brows and gazed at Granny Yu. Only after a long while did she speak. "Where did a woman like you find such resolve? It truly hasn't been easy for you..."
With that, she turned her wrist and presented a brilliantly red fruit. Spiritual energy curled around it; one glance was enough to tell it was no ordinary object.
"Take it and refine it. At least it can spare you a good deal of suffering... The ties of fate are hard to determine and hard to untangle. Since you refuse to let go, keep holding on! Perhaps tomorrow will bring an unexpected turn..."
Granny Yu nodded. Leaning on her cane, she accepted the exceptionally high-grade spirit medicine fruit, then asked the woman, "I understand... Senior, have you come for my little niece?"
The woman nodded. "You should understand that Two Realms Village is not a good place to settle. If anything goes even slightly wrong, that child's fate will be unbearably bitter."
"I understand. I'm useless... I can't even protect a child. I..."
"Azurefall Lake, in the Wild Spirit Land! My dear friend... Sect Master Hanxin... If you don't know of her, you can ask Mingxin or Master Peach... It is a place ruled by female cultivators, and my sister Hanxin is truly the master of a sect! Now she wishes to take a final disciple. Would you let that child come with me and try?"
Granny Yu gritted her teeth and thought it over. This past year... how much loneliness and pain had Meng Lian'er's company spared her? How many smiles and conversations had the child brought her?
But she truly could not protect this extraordinarily gifted child... In fact, it seemed no one in all Central Earth could protect this child whom an immortal had taken a fancy to!
"I'll wake her and ask what she wants..."
A clear voice, timid yet carrying a trace of determination, sounded behind Granny Yu. "Aunt! I'm willing to go with this senior... I'm willing!"
"Silly child... That's the Wild Spirit Land! In there... You're only fifteen. You... Your aunt is useless. I can't protect you!"
Meng Lian'er wiped the tears from her delicate cheeks, walked over, and took Granny Yu's arm. "Don't cry, Aunt. I'll cultivate diligently... If one day I no longer have to fear the court or the immortals, I'll bring Father and Mother home and take good care of you!"
The woman beside them smiled. "All right, enough of this display. I only came for a look first... Since you've decided, I'll come back in three days to take you there. You can still change your mind then... With your beauty and wit, if you turned back and begged that immortal, perhaps your parents would gain wealth and glory through you!"
"I won't betray what Father and Mother taught me. I'd rather die than surrender myself for safety and disgrace my family...!"
"Good! I'll come for you in three days..."
Meng Lian'er and Granny Yu both bowed respectfully. When they raised their heads, the woman in black had already vanished.
Meng Lian'er glanced toward the village entrance and asked, "Aunt, who is she...?"
"Don't ask too much. That senior must be a Great Cultivator from the Wild Spirit Hall! I've heard of Azurefall Lake before, too. It's a women's sect of lofty standing in the Wild Spirit Land... Back then... in that battle, they fought their way to resounding fame!"
"How high is that senior's cultivation? And how high is that female Sect Master's?"
A trace of envy and longing flashed in Granny Yu's eyes. "In the Wild Spirit Land, women can carve out their own standing with cultivation, swords, and fists! That senior should be a Ninth Realm Great Cultivator of the heavenly pass realm!"
"A Ninth Realm female Earth Immortal! Heavens..."
Meng Lian'er covered her mouth in shock!
"What's so surprising? They say the Wild Spirit Land even has Ninth Realm female Martial Warriors, in the heaven-reaching realm of the Martial Dao!"
"I really want to go and see..."
"Silly child, that's the Wild Spirit Land! A desolate land the immortals sealed off from the mortal world... Demonic Beasts and Corpse Demons roam everywhere. Their cultivation is all won through bloody battles! Aren't you afraid?"
Meng Lian'er raised her eyes to the moon in the sky. "I am. But I'm more afraid of being unable to do anything, of only watching helplessly as Father and Mother are forced to flee far away... I want to go. I want to see whether I can be like Brother Bufan, refusing to accept my fate or flee from my heart!"
"Why bring up that brat? Just looking at him annoys me now..."
Meng Lian'er's lovely face reddened. "Aunt..."
Granny Yu snorted. "A strange, peculiar mortal, with neither talent for the Martial Dao nor an Immortal Root or spiritual energy... How could he possibly deserve my precious niece, a fairy among mortals!"
At the village entrance, Old Skeleton squatted on the ground and jerked his chin toward Lü Bufan's courtyard. "There, look... A foolish boy that blind man Mingxin and the others found. He's training right now! How does he compare to those four disciples back then?"
Guo'er, a Ninth Realm cultivator, narrowed her eyes and looked straight through every obstruction at Lü Bufan, who lay sprawled on his bed, fast asleep...
After studying him carefully for a long while, the woman squeezed out a remark. "Compared to those four... How do you compare dog piss mushroom with first-grade lingzhi? Isn't that madness?"
Old Skeleton chuckled. "Believe it or not, Big Black gets along quite well with that boy..."
The woman frowned and was about to ask something... when a sneaky, sleazy voice drifted over!
"Oh... Heaven have mercy! Isn't this-isn't this Sister Guo'er? Heaven has eyes! I, Du Yuan, have finally lived to see the day I meet Sister Guo'er again..."
A figure-no, half a figure-came riding the wind. Du Yuan the cripple, who had lost both legs, shouted from midair, his face smeared with tears and snot, "Sister Guo'er! I've missed you to death..."
A shudder of revulsion swept through the woman, and she snapped, "Didn't you all go to the Capital City to find that peacock Huang Jiu? Why are you still here?"
"Sister, my legs are crippled... Those heartless bastards thought I'd be a burden... Sister, I'm so miserable!"
Guo'er's eyes shifted, and she suddenly said, "Your legs are gone, so you must have lost the equipment down below too, right? Since you're a eunuch now... what's the point of talking to me? It's all flowers in the mirror, moon on the water-nothing but a dream! Better to cherish the memory than meet again. Give up already!"
Du Yuan froze in midair, so angry he nearly fell to the ground, and cried out in panic, "Dear sister, what are you saying? I'll take my trousers off right now and show you! I, Du Yuan, am still a proper, magnificent man! I haven't become..."
Before Du Yuan could prove himself, the woman vanished in a flash behind the thick white mist, without so much as a farewell to the cripple...
Du Yuan threw back his head and howled... tears streaming down his face.
"I... am not a eunuch!"