The Sound of a Flute

Although the other women did not speak, they all looked at Lin Xiao with hopeful expressions.

He felt a rare moment of embarrassment.

"Don't worry, sisters, we will definitely send you back to your respective prefectures and counties."

As he spoke, he took out a Origin-Nurturing Pill, dissolved it in water, divided the water into ten cups, and then distributed nine of the cups to the girls.

The women, addressed as "elder sisters," looked at Lin Xiao's slightly immature face. After receiving his permission and accepting the warm water cup he offered, they all turned their heads away shyly and smiled.

Then, without prior arrangement, they all picked up their water glasses and sipped the water slowly, as if they wanted to hide their faces behind the glasses.

Those cultivators who were ostensibly meditating and adjusting their breathing but were actually secretly observing the surrounding situation felt nothing but contempt for Lin Xiao upon witnessing this scene.

Bah! You're just a young-looking cultivator; it's hard to say how old you really are. How dare you call these mortal girls "sister"? Shameless!

Of course, they would never say such complaints aloud; everyone just silently expressed their disdain.

After all, it was Lin Xiao who broke the deadlock for them not long ago.

If you want to act young, then go ahead and do it. After all this time, it's not surprising that you have some quirks.

Because of his age, Lin Xiao, who had always been called "sister" and "aunt" by everyone in the village since childhood, had no idea that he had been labeled as someone who liked to act young in the eyes of his fellow Daoists.

After calming the group of girls down, he took the last cup of Origin-Nurturing Pill water and went to Yuan Jinsheng's side to see how Jiang Sisi was treating him.

The Azure Lotus Sect is skilled in medicine. After Yuan Jinsheng was rescued, Jiang Sisi took the initiative to treat him without saying a word.

It seems she did this kind of thing quite often while serving in the Alliance Army.

Lin Xiao had never studied this kind of professional healing technique. After glancing at it twice, his gaze turned to Shen Yingzi, who was waiting by his side.

Unexpectedly, Yuan Jinsheng's son is just an ordinary person with no cultivation. Could it be that he has no Spirit Root?

Lin Xiao's gaze fell on Shen Yingzi's beautiful face, and he couldn't help but feel puzzled.

If Yuan Jinsheng hadn't consistently told him and the Ruler Zhao that he was a son, and if he hadn't had no reason to deceive everyone—after all, the deception would have been exposed once his son was rescued—it would be clear that Shen Yingzi was indeed a man...

He wondered what was so strange about this person; when he used his Divine Sense to investigate, he also felt that the other person was a woman.

"Hey bro, why are you dressed as a woman?" Lin Xiao handed his water glass to Shen Yingzi.

Shen Yingzi, who was staring intently and pitifully at his father, was unaware that someone had suddenly appeared beside him. Seeing the water glass that had suddenly appeared in front of him, he turned his head to look at Lin Xiao like a startled deer.

It took him a while to realize that the other person was asking him a question, but he didn't recognize the person in front of him and didn't know how to answer for a moment.

But remembering that this man had just carried his father out, he hesitated for a moment before taking the water glass, whispering "thank you," and then softly saying:

"When I was born, my ancestral master said that my yin and yang were unbalanced, and my destiny was different from ordinary people, so I had to be raised as a girl from childhood..."

"I see..." Lin Xiao nodded.

It's unbelievable that Fellow Daoist Yuan, who looks like such a big, burly man, could raise his son so successfully, just like a daughter.

Compared to the nine mortal girls, this brother looks the most like a girl.

Seeing him nod, Shen Yingzi thought everything was alright and was about to turn back to keep an eye on her father when the man spoke again and asked:

"By the way, my name is Lin Xiao. What's your name, brother?"

Shen Yingzi looked up at Lin Xiao and, seeing that Lin Xiao didn't show the same disdain as other people his age who had met him before after learning that he was a man dressed as a woman, he nervously pursed his lips and whispered:

"Many thanks to Fellow Daoist Lin for your help. My name is Shen Yingzi."

Having been used to referring to herself as a woman for many years, Shen Yingzi found it difficult to change her way of speaking for a while.

After saying that, he looked up and drank the medicine in the cup in one gulp.

Since he had nothing else to do, Lin Xiao simply sat down cross-legged next to him and started chatting with him casually.

"Isn't your father's surname Yuan? Oh, so you took your mother's surname?"

Unexpectedly, he asked about this. Shen Yingzi handed the water glass back to him and nodded obediently.

"Yes, my mother passed away when I was born. My father missed her, so he made me take her surname."

"You have no cultivation level? Is it because you haven't started cultivating? Or is it because you don't have Spirit Root?" Lin Xiao took the empty water cup and put it away.

"My Spirit Root are weak and disordered, even worse than those with Five Spirit Roots. Even if I cultivate, I can only reach the level of lifelong Qi Refining at most. So my father let me choose whether or not to cultivate."

Perhaps because Lin Xiao appeared to be her age, and was one of the few peers who was still willing to interact with her after learning about her cross-dressing, Shen Yingzi unconsciously opened up and started talking.

"Since I was a child, I've seen many elders with much better Spirit Root than me, but they only ever reached the Foundation Establishment in their entire lives, and for many more, even the Qi Refining was their limit. Then their lives came to an end. I wondered, if someone with my aptitude were to cultivate, what level could I possibly reach?"

As he spoke, he smiled gently, pursing his lips:

"I probably haven't even reached the Middle Qi Refining Stage, so I told my dad I'm not going to cultivate anymore. That way, I'll have lots and lots of time to do what I like."

Upon hearing this, Lin Xiao asked him with great interest:

What do you like to do?

When talking about things she enjoys, Shen Yingzi's face brightened up.

He then took out a small Storage Bag from his pocket, and from it pulled out a smooth bamboo flute and a small booklet.

"I love studying various musical instruments, but my favorite is the flute. Look, this is a piece I composed myself!"

As he spoke, he glanced at Lin Xiao and saw that his eyes were fixed on his sheet music. A sense of accomplishment rose in his heart. Then he opened his sheet music and began to talk to him about his creative inspiration and artistic conception piece by piece.

Although the sheet music was clearly quite old, it was well-preserved, showing no signs of wear except for slightly yellowed paper.

The content is very detailed, with elegant small print as annotations.

The ordinary girls in the distance watched Lin Xiao and Shen Yingzi sitting together, chatting and laughing. They sat in the miniature array, their eyes exchanging excited glances.

There's only one core idea.

The handsome young man and the beautiful young woman sitting together, chatting and laughing, were a very pleasing sight to behold.

Because they were quite far apart, and Lin Xiao wasn't speaking loudly, they didn't hear their conversation and naturally didn't know that the girl they admired so much was actually a man.