Lying

"Grandpa, I've washed all the pots and bowls. Is there anything else I need to do?"

After supper, Lu Mingyue had bustled about in the kitchen for a while before wiping her wet little hands and coming over to ask Old Lu.

Old Lu was soaking his feet and smoking his pipe. Naturally, Lu Mingyue had heated the water.

Ever since Lu Mingyue could stand on a stool without falling off and reach the iron pot, all these chores had been her responsibility.

"Nothing else. Go wash up and get to bed. We have to get up early tomorrow to wait for the Shen Household's people."

Old Lu waved a hand and lifted his legs out of the wooden basin, and Lu Mingyue picked up a cloth to dry his feet.

Splash!

"Grandpa, you should go to bed early too!"

Lu Mingyue emptied the foot-washing water into a corner of the courtyard. After saying good night to Old Lu, she hurried to the kitchen to get some hot water and give herself a quick wash.

Then Lu Mingyue went into her room and sat on the bed. Rather than lying down right away, she recalled the cultivation art she had obtained that day.

In truth, she had been getting anxious for some time.

This was a chance to cultivate immortality, after all!

But whenever she remembered that she could not tell Grandpa, Lu Mingyue kept her impatience from showing, no matter how anxious she felt.

She thought one saying was very true: "It is not scarcity people fear, but unequal shares!"

Although Old Lu treated her as his own granddaughter, when it came to cultivating immortality, she alone had obtained the opportunity, while Old Lu had no way to obtain it. Who could say Grandpa would not feel uncomfortable about that?

Taking that thought a little further, would Old Lu feel that Heaven was terribly unfair?

After all, Old Lu had done practically all the work of tending to Shen Yulang's corpse!

Lu Mingyue had only washed that Corpse-Wrapping Cloth, and that was how she had obtained Shen Yulang's Immortal Cultivation Technique...

"Right, that Corpse-Wrapping Cloth!"

Lu Mingyue came back to herself. Thinking of the Corpse-Wrapping Cloth Grandpa treasured most, her little face filled with contemplation.

"If I'm the only one who can see other people's Immortal Cultivation Techniques on that Corpse-Wrapping Cloth, does that make the Corpse-Wrapping Cloth my cheat?"

"No! That Corpse-Wrapping Cloth is far from ordinary, and I definitely didn't merely see Shen Yulang's Immortal Cultivation Technique! If I had only seen it, I wouldn't remember it so clearly!"

"And that scene of Shen Yulang being beheaded... that heart-piercing despair and pain felt just as though I'd experienced them myself!"

"The Qi-Feeding Spirit-Opening Art... its origins are unknown, but it can allow those born without a Spirit Mansion to cultivate an acquired Spirit Mansion..."

Although she was in her own room, the word "chaotic" could hardly begin to describe Lu Mingyue's state of mind.

After all, for the past seven years, she had thought she had merely transmigrated into a rather unpleasant ancient world.

Her worldview had already taken shape.

She had even thought that after inheriting Old Lu's corpse-collecting trade, she would make sure to save up plenty of money. Once she had enough, she would get a travel permit from the government office and move somewhere else to live!

Surely she could not keep collecting corpses for people until she died of old age?

Then today, her worldview had been shattered.

And that lovely wish of hers clearly did not quite suit a world of immortal cultivation!

"But..."

Gradually calming down, Lu Mingyue thought back over the life she had just experienced alongside Shen Yulang and noticed something rather troubling.

"Those immortal sects seem more willing to recruit people born with Spirit Mansions. Otherwise, surely Shen Yulang couldn't have been the only person in all of Yangguan City to cultivate a Houtian Spirit Mansion in eighteen years?"

Although Yangguan City could not compare to the modern world Lu Mingyue had lived in before transmigrating, it still had around a hundred thousand residents. The Shen Household was merely one of its century-old aristocratic clans.

If even the Shen Household could obtain this [Qi-Feeding Spirit-Opening Art] through certain channels, could all those other century-old aristocratic clans possibly be unaware of the benefits of immortal cultivation?

So the more likely possibility was that the immortal sect cultivator who had visited Yangguan City twice only wanted to recruit promising children with innate Spirit Mansions. As for those who cultivated acquired Spirit Mansions, that immortal sect cultivator... thought them beneath his notice!

"Never mind! Even with an acquired Spirit Mansion, I should still be able to set foot on the path of immortal cultivation!"

"Otherwise, Shen Yulang wouldn't have been so arrogant, not even thinking about saving himself after being arrested and still wanting to bring disaster down on this entire county town."

"Besides, I'm only seven. I have plenty of time!"

Lu Mingyue finally settled her emotions. Narrowing her eyes, she silently recalled the essential cultivation instructions of the [Qi-Feeding Spirit-Opening Art], then began breathing as the art prescribed.

The so-called Qi-Feeding Spirit-Opening Art involved guiding the vital essence within food to open up an acquired Spirit Mansion in the dantian within one's abdomen!

Lu Mingyue was certain she did not possess an innate Spirit Mansion. Otherwise, that immortal cultivator would have taken her away long ago.

After all, during Shen Yulang's short life, that immortal sect cultivator had visited Yangguan City more than once.

By the most recent visit, Lu Mingyue had already been born.

With an immortal's abilities, how could he have failed to sense it if she possessed an innate Spirit Mansion?

And so, as she guided the vital essence of the food in her stomach, Lu Mingyue was especially calm and composed.

"Mmm..."

And the result thrilled Lu Mingyue.

As she controlled the rhythm of her breathing according to the method taught by the Qi-Feeding Spirit-Opening Art while expanding and contracting her abdomen, she could clearly feel a gentle current of warmth spreading through her little belly.

Of course, perhaps because Lu Mingyue had only just begun practicing this art, that peculiar sensation was not very strong.

But even that was enough to fill Lu Mingyue with delighted surprise.

Mainly because she had never experienced such a distinct sensation before!

When something she had originally been unable to understand suddenly became comprehensible, Lu Mingyue knew she had taken her first step.

The principle was just like her math, physics, and chemistry classes before she had transmigrated.

Those formulas and approaches to solving problems were like the Qi-Feeding Spirit-Opening Art she had now grasped, giving her a way of thinking that could comprehend the words "immortal cultivation"!

"Ah!"

But before Lu Mingyue could immerse herself in this process of "solving a problem," a surge of intense pain made her cry out despite herself.

The intense pain came from the dantian in Lu Mingyue's abdomen, three inches below her navel.

Because that needlelike stabbing pain had come so suddenly and so fiercely, Lu Mingyue had been unable to hold back her cry.

"Girl, did you have a nightmare?"

Old Lu's voice came from outside the door. Lu Mingyue was a little surprised; she had just watched Grandpa return to his room and put out the light.

"It wasn't a nightmare. My leg cramped, and I accidentally knocked it against the edge of the bed. I'll be fine once I rub it a little. Grandpa, go get some rest."

Lu Mingyue did not know what was going through her own head. With her usual disposition, she would have told Old Lu everything she had experienced, holding nothing back.

But...

When she opened her mouth, she had instinctively told a lie.