Chen Linyuan fell silent, lowering his head to look at the reflection in the stream, into his own eyes.
They were muddled and dull, without a trace of spirit.
Perhaps those four hundred years had worn it away.
"Were you happy during your time on Jun Mountain?" he suddenly asked, not daring to look at the girl's face.
"Very happy," Jiang Qingrou blurted out.
"Jun Mountain was full of magnificent sights, just like an immortal kingdom in the mortal world. The senior brothers and sisters of the Nine Veins' Dao lineages each had their own splendor."
"Everyone in the sect got along. Whether it was my master or my senior brothers and sisters, they all looked after me and treated me wonderfully."
She raised her head slightly, seemingly reminiscing. "After joining the sect, I met so many people. Every one of them was lovely."
"Miaojun and I often discussed cultivation, and we sparred together a lot too. Whatever we did, we always had company."
That girl was called Chen Miaojun, and she was Jiang Qingrou's best friend. Chen Linyuan knew of her.
"Cultivation was going well too. Although my talent was ordinary and I cultivated ever so slowly, at least I made steady progress-one day, I would definitely be like Senior Brother Chen."
She stood up from the bluestone and thrust her little hand forward with rainbow-surging vigor.
"Ha! Slay demons and vanquish devils!"
It was as though a devil cultivator guilty of countless crimes stood before her, and she had cut him down from his horse.
"Heehee."
"I would become a cultivator who could stand on her own, with her head against the heavens and her feet planted on the earth! Then I would return to the Chu Kingdom and rebuild my homeland!"
Her smile was utterly innocent, brimming