Shrouding the Heavens World, White Wood Town.
After hearing Zhu Zhuyun's general account, with the sky-screen livestream, Douluo Continent, and related matters left out, Jiang Xiaoxiao looked at her thoughtfully.
"So..."
"Your good-for-nothing younger sister, Zhu Zhuqing, had innate purple fortune, so my good-for-nothing younger sister, Jiang Wanwan, happened to choose her and took her to White Emperor City."
Jiang Xiaoxiao repeated, "And you..."
"Wanted to find someone from our Heavenly Court to ask them..."
"Whether they knew my good-for-nothing younger sister, so you could find your good-for-nothing younger sister, Zhu Zhuqing?"
"That's right, Senior."
Zhu Zhuyun nodded, feeling slightly relieved.
Who knew I'd be so lucky as to happen upon the biological older sister of Jiang Wanwan, the Heavenly Court steward who took Zhuqing away, right at the city gates?
It looks like I should be able to find Zhuqing now.
While Zhu Zhuyun was thinking, Jiang Xiaoxiao stroked her chin. Rather than answering directly, she studied Zhu Zhuyun anew with a curious gaze.
"Innate purple fortune?"
"A mortal with such heaven-chosen aptitude for fortune, one in ten thousand-no, one in a hundred million-does indeed qualify to be taken away by my younger sister."
"But..."
If the younger sister was born with such fortune, then what about this older sister?
As she thought, Jiang Xiaoxiao looked Zhu Zhuyun over again. Quite beautiful, and her appearance hasn't been altered through cultivation techniques like those so-called fairies...
Perhaps she really does possess fortune?
Let's try!
Jiang Xiaoxiao came back to herself and finally spoke. "Little girl, I understand how you feel about wanting to find your younger sister."
"But our Heavenly Court has strict rules. It isn't somewhere you can visit or ask questions about whenever you please."
"Unless..."
At this point, Jiang Xiaoxiao deliberately paused.
"Unless?" Zhu Zhuyun hurriedly asked.
Savoring the trace of worry that appeared on Zhu Zhuyun's face, Jiang Xiaoxiao smiled and said unhurriedly:
"Unless you pass the selection and become a maid serving His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor. Then you'll be one of the Heavenly Court's own, and naturally have the right and the means to visit your younger sister."
"Impossible!"
At those words, Zhu Zhuyun shook her head in outright refusal, her tone as decisive as cutting iron. "In that case, Senior, I can only give up!"
Hearing this, Jiang Xiaoxiao couldn't help chuckling. "Such a flat refusal, without the slightest hesitation."
Zhu Zhuyun nodded, her face full of pride. "That's right!"
"Senior, even if I die, I will never become anyone's maid, not even His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor's!"
"Really?"
Jiang Xiaoxiao's face filled with mischievous delight. "Little girl, don't make your judgment so soon..."
As she spoke, without making any visible movement, a flawless white jade slip with a warm, smooth texture appeared out of thin air, seemingly suffused with flowing moonlight and starlight.
"It won't be too late to decide after you've looked at this jade slip."
With that, Jiang Xiaoxiao tossed the jade slip in her hand to Zhu Zhuyun.
Douluo Continent, inside the Zhu Family residence.
Wine cup in hand, Dai Weisi saw Zhu Zhuyun refuse without hesitation to become that Heavenly Emperor's maid, and the corners of his mouth curled into a satisfied, confident smile.
Then he saw that Jiang Xiaoxiao still refused to give up and actually wanted to change his fiancée's mind with a piece of jade.
He couldn't help sneering, his eyes full of mockery:
"It seems this Heavenly Court steward's efforts will all be wasted."
"How could Zhu Zhuqing compare to Zhu Yun's proud backbone? Hah!"
Shrek Academy.
Inside his dormitory, Dai Mubai sat up nervously and watched the sky-screen.
"My esteemed sister-in-law, what will you choose?"
Whenever he thought of Zhu Zhuqing becoming a maid to that Heavenly Emperor of the Heavenly Court, leaving him utterly disgraced.
Who knew how brazenly his older brother Dai Weisi would mock him for being made to wear a green hat...
For a moment, Dai Mubai's eyes were full of anticipation for Zhu Zhuyun's "fall."
Meanwhile, in White Wood Town in the Shrouding the Heavens World.
"A jade slip?"
Zhu Zhuyun lowered her head and gazed at the jade slip in her palm, cool to the touch, with what seemed like bright moonlight flowing within. Curious, she instinctively recalled...
Back then, her younger sister had also seemed resolute in refusing to become His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor's maid.
But after she read this jade slip, she changed...
All along, Zhu Zhuyun had been intensely curious about just what was recorded within this jade slip.
How could it make her proud younger sister willingly become that Heavenly Emperor's maid after reading it...
"Now I have a chance to look too?"
After a long while, Zhu Zhuyun decided to look!
But!
No matter what was recorded in this jade slip, she would take only one look to satisfy her curiosity, then leave immediately and continue searching for her younger sister in her own way.
Having made up her mind, Zhu Zhuyun no longer hesitated.
Following the method Jiang Wanwan had previously taught Zhu Zhuqing for inspecting jade slips, she pressed it against the center of her brow.
Watching Zhu Zhuyun.
A mortal who actually knows how to use a jade slip. It seems what she said earlier probably wasn't a lie.
My foolish younger sister really does seem quite lucky, finding a woman favored by the Heavenly Dao among mortals...
Damn it!
How much Heavenly Court contribution would bringing back a woman with purple fortune earn her?
Perhaps she really could exchange it for a Five-Transformation Golden Pill and surpass my cultivation.
At the thought that Jiang Wanwan might rely on this achievement not only to overwhelm her in resources, but even to overtake her in cultivation and trample her "underfoot"...
Jiang Xiaoxiao was filled with vexation, then turned to look at Zhu Zhuyun, whose eyes were closed.
If the younger sister can receive the Heavenly Dao's favor, hopefully the older sister can too.
Jiang Xiaoxiao felt rather helpless.
This truly was no failure of hers in battle.
There was no helping it. If all the fortune under heaven amounted to ten measures, then after their Lord Heavenly Emperor appeared, he alone claimed eight measures, so much that it could even be called a complete monopoly.
Everyone else was lucky not to owe fortune to the Heavenly Dao, let alone receive its favor.
Only the noble daughters of the direct lineages of the various holy lands and Great Emperor families, relying on their deep foundations and special bloodlines, could possibly receive the Heavenly Dao's favor on occasion.
But noble daughters like those were not selected by stewards like them; the Heavenly Empress chose them personally.
And with selections held every ten years...
Nearly every seedling with even a little potential had long since been screened over and over and taken away.
Thus, stewards like them usually returned empty-handed.
Finding someone with green fortune already counted as a tremendous stroke of luck.
For instance, on this trip to White Wood Town, Jiang Xiaoxiao hadn't found even a single woman with green fortune, let alone purple fortune. She had gained nothing at all.
Not to mention that above green there was still the blue grade, and only then came purple.
While Jiang Xiaoxiao was thinking, Zhu Zhuyun felt an utterly icy sensation at the center of her brow turn into a torrent that suddenly poured into her sea of consciousness!
In an instant, heaven and earth changed!
At the dawn of the Great Dao, chaos first divided; living beings dwelled in ignorance, knowing not of eternal life...
The "Mystic Moon Goddess Scripture" drew upon the essence of moonlight to establish the foundation of the Dao...