Carefree Peak's Affection

On the eve of the Azure Wood Illusory Forest Secret Realm's opening, Yunxiaozi summoned Feng Zhuo to his cave abode.

The old man reclined on a green jade couch. A few more white hairs had appeared at his temples, but he still wore his usual lazy air.

When Feng Zhuo entered, he beckoned with a smile. "A-Zhuo, come here."

Feng Zhuo obediently knelt before his master and straightened the old man's crooked lapels.

The two began a game of Go, as they usually did.

Yunxiaozi was a terrible player, and no one on Carefree Peak but Feng Zhuo was willing to play with him anymore.

"I heard..."

As they played, Yunxiaozi suddenly lowered his voice and leaned closer with an air of mystery. "You and Shuanghua have your eyes on that wisp of Divergent Flame in your master's Storage Bag?"

"Clack-"

Feng Zhuo's hand trembled, and the white jade stone he had just picked up fell onto the board.

He pretended to be calm as he reached for it, but storm-tossed waves were surging in his heart. Second Senior Sister really went and stole it?! What kind of senior sister is she? She's clearly a spy sent by an enemy!

"Hmph, Feng Qingge was never proper, and the little brat she gave birth to is a sly one too."

Yunxiaozi chuckled and scolded him as he rubbed the top of his disciple's head.

"Master, you wrong me!" Feng Zhuo immediately put on the same act he used to coax his mother as a child. "Second Senior Sister clearly wanted the Divergent Flame herself. This disciple even tried to talk her out of it!"

"Oh? Shuanghua actually did such a thing? Shall I teach her a lesson for you, A-Zhuo?"

"No need!"

Feng Zhuo jerked his head up and met the old man's smiling eyes. He immediately realized he had been teased again.

"Master! You're making fun of me again!"

"Hahaha..." Yunxiaozi laughed heartily. "I often teased your mother for fun when she was young. I thought that since she gave birth to you, your temperaments couldn't be too different. Looks like you take after your father more-"

"If it were your mother, she'd be setting her spirit fire on me by now-"

A barely perceptible bitterness entered the old man's voice. Looking at the youth before him, whose features bore a strong resemblance to his old acquaintance's, he seemed to see the girl he had once teased into stamping her feet.

"That Divergent Flame in my Storage Bag was meant for you all along, A-Zhuo. I only held on to it for the time being because I saw how hard you were suppressing your cultivation, wanting to enter the Green Wood Illusion Forest."

"Since you're here today, take it now. That way, you won't join forces with Shuanghua to steal your master's coffin money when the time comes."

Feng Zhuo pretended not to know that Yunxiaozi had suffered a grievous injury and deliberately pouted. "Master, you're an Integrated Body Great Talent now, while my mother is only in the Void Refinement Realm. You'll have to keep saving that 'coffin money' for tens of thousands of years yet!"

Even as he spoke, he deftly accepted the Storage Bag, his movements as smooth as flowing water, without the slightest hesitation.

Nine-Turn Nirvana Pill.

Feng Zhuo silently repeated the name in his heart.

In the storybook, it was an eighth-tier divine pill Su Ruanruan obtained from an immortal abode after reaching the Nascent Soul stage. It could bring the dead back to life and put flesh on white bones. Surely it could heal Master's hidden injuries!

Although the immortal abode would not appear for a long time yet, in this life, he would make sure to get it before Su Ruanruan.

For now, however, the most urgent matter was dealing with the demon venerable Li Tianxing, who would infiltrate the Supreme One Divine Sect while grievously injured after the Azure Wood Illusory Forest Secret Realm.

It was this very person who directly caused Master's death in the storybook.

Feng Zhuo rubbed the Storage Bag, feeling the warmth of the Divergent Flame within.

He would never let Master die!

"You little rascal!"

Yunxiaozi watched Feng Zhuo's departing figure, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing the sword at his waist.

Once upon a time, he too had been as full of youthful spirit as the boy, able to break ten thousand arts with a single sword strike...

Outside the hall, Feng Zhuo's red robes billowed as he prepared to leap onto Yanba, only to see Ling Shuanghua leaning against an ancient pine and waving him over.

"Second Senior Sister!"

Ling Shuanghua strode over, three Storage Bags hanging at her waist.

"Here." She unfastened the bags. "The one on the left contains thunderstrike orbs Eldest Senior Brother refined for you. He took your Golden Core Formation Pill and is in seclusion, so he asked me to pass them on."

Then she shook the bag in the middle. "Junior Brother Cang knew you were entering the secret realm and was worried about your safety, so he prepared twenty Sword Qi talismans before going into seclusion."

Partway through, Ling Shuanghua suddenly lowered her voice. "I saw it myself. That boy spent three days and nights preparing those talismans."

Feng Zhuo's outstretched hand came to an abrupt halt.

"As for this one..."

Ling Shuanghua scratched her head, a rare hint of embarrassment on her face. "I'm a rough sort and don't know how to do anything but fight, so all I could do was take some missions and save up a few Spirit Stones..."

Feng Zhuo's throat tightened.

"Thank you, Senior Sister." The youth's voice was slightly hoarse as his fingertips brushed over the three unremarkable Storage Bags.

Then he broke into a smile, his red robes snapping in the wind. "Once I'm out of the secret realm, I'll go thank Eldest Senior Brother and Little Senior Brother too!"

He was confident he would return safely from the secret realm.

Ling Shuanghua burst out laughing and punched Feng Zhuo on the shoulder. "Now that's a disciple of Carefree Peak! But..."

She winked. "If you find any unusual trinkets in the secret realm, don't forget your senior sister!"

"Of course!"

Feng Zhuo leaped onto Yanba's back and looked over his shoulder with a smile. "I'll be sure to bring you some 'local specialties,' Senior Sister!"

Yanba had grown from the size of a nursing puppy to that of a lion, though his appearance had become stranger still. A lion's head sat atop his long, slender dragon body, his four long, deerlike legs trod on flames, and his nine chainlike tails rattled through the air.

On Carefree Peak, though, it hardly mattered what Yanba grew to look like.

Feng Zhuo sat cross-legged on Yanba's back and swept his Divine Sense over the four Storage Bags:

In the bag from Master lay a wisp of blue-green Divergent Flame, a jade talisman containing sealed Integrated Body sword intent, ten drops of Primordial Spirit Spring, and mountains of high-grade Spirit Stones;

Every one of Eldest Senior Brother's thunderstrike orbs contained a full-force strike from the peak of Foundation Establishment;

Traces of familiar Sword Qi still lingered on Little Senior Brother's Sword Qi talismans;

And as for Second Senior Sister's bag of Spirit Stones... Feng Zhuo counted them three times before he was sure. There were a full 120,000 high-grade Spirit Stones. How many sect missions had she completed for that?

The youth clenched the Storage Bags, warmth welling in his eyes.

How could he stand by and watch everyone on Carefree Peak meet the same fate they had in his previous life?

"Master, are you crying?"

Yanba suddenly piped up, deliberately swishing his nine tails.

Feng Zhuo bristled at once and grabbed a handful of his mane. "Nonsense! The wind blew something into my eyes! You stupid beast, you can't even block the wind. What use are you?"

Yanba bared his teeth from the pulling and was about to retort when a bottle of spirit-feeding pills suddenly floated into view.

His attitude changed at once. "Yes, yes, yes! It's all this lowly one's fault for failing to notice! How could a master as wise and mighty as you cry? It must be this blasted wind..."

"Shut up and fly!"

The tips of Feng Zhuo's ears were scarlet.

What a joke. He had been nearly twenty in his previous life. If he admitted to crying in front of this stupid beast, how could he ever show his face again?

Embarrassed as he was, Feng Zhuo treasured his master and fellow disciples' affection and kept it close to his heart.

Yanba was so fast that he landed in a secluded corner of Heaven-Soaring Peak in no time.

Feng Zhuo had just put Yanba away when he heard disciples talking nearby.

"I heard Senior Sister Yun Li has already reached the Qi Refinement Eleventh Layer! She's only thirteen!"

"Pfft, Senior Brother Bai Wuxia of Crimson Firmament Peak could refine second-tier pills at fifteen!"

"Your news is all out of date!"

A disciple lowered his voice mysteriously. "Senior Sister Su Ruanruan is the real genius! She can refine first-tier supreme-grade pills at thirteen, and she has an Innate Sword Heart! Even the sect master personally instructs her! If it were me, I wouldn't dare imagine that even in my dreams-"

A round-faced disciple beside him jeered. "You're hopeless. I'd dare imagine it in my dreams, and I'd dare imagine even more!"

"So what if she can refine first-tier supreme-grade pills at thirteen? What's so impressive about that? In my dreams, I could already refine second-tier pills at thirteen! A mere first-tier supreme-grade pill? I could make one without even trying!"

Feng "merely thirteen" Zhuo, of "Qi Refining Great Perfection," for whom "first-tier supreme-grade pills were effortless," and "second-tier supreme-grade pills were no problem either," and who had "already successfully refined a third-tier supreme-grade pill," straightened his robes and passed through the group of disciples, his red garments fluttering.

As for the disciples still arguing over who the true genius was, it would never occur to them that the people they spoke of as impossibly far beyond their reach, even put together, could not compare to the carefree junior brother of Carefree Peak who had just walked past them...