Lu Yaoyao rested on her seat, watching Yan Zihui engage Zhong Wushuang in conversation and joked with him until he turned blushing. It was quite an adorable scene.
Zhong Wushuang was initially stiff and remained so for a while before gradually relaxing, “Where are you heading for your training?”
“We’re going to Yanhuo Mountain.”
“Yanhuo Mountain?”
“Yes, Tianyan Sect has reported some anomalies at Yanhuo Mountain, so we took on the mission to investigate.”
“Then, be careful.” Zhong Wushuang hadn’t heard about this, so he expressed his concern.
The carriage moved smoothly along the cobblestone streets, not too fast nor too slow, making the journey to the city gate neither too long nor too short. They chatted about various topics along the way and soon arrived at the city gate. After the carriage left the city, it stopped, and Zhong Wushuang got out. “When you return, if you have time, you must come to Luotian City to see me. I’ll host you properly.”
Lu Yaoyao waved her hand, promising wholeheartedly, “We will definitely come!”
“Goodbye.”
The flying horses started moving forward, and Zhong Wushuang’s figure grew increasingly distant. Soon, the horses and the carriage they were pulling ascended into the sky, and Zhong Wushuang, still standing at the city gate, became a mere dot before the entire Luotian City was obscured by clouds and disappeared from sight.
Zhong Wushuang stood at the city gate for a long time, looking up in the direction Lu Yaoyao and her companions had gone, feeling a pang of envy. It must be nice to be a cultivator, free to travel and train anywhere, whereas he had spent many years confined to Luotian City, merely surviving… He looked at his own palm, his bizarre expression solemn—his black, usually clear eyes turned gloomy for a moment.
…
The flying horse sped on, trotting through the misty clouds. The sun had just risen; its gentle rays covered the clouds in a layer of gold. “Zhong Wushuang looks so pitiful,” Chao Muxue suddenly remarked. Seeing him alone at the city gate, eagerly watching them leave, felt somewhat upsetting. Even if he said nothing, the deep-seated sense of loss he tried to conceal couldn’t be hidden.
Lu Yaoyao remained silent, feeling sorry for Zhong Wushuang. Without the ability to cultivate, he could live for two hundred years at most, even if his mother exhausted the resources of the entire city for him. Yet for cultivators, two hundred years was merely the beginning of life.
“That’s why I don’t really want you making friends with ordinary people.” Yan Zihui remarked, “It’s not out of disdain or anything; it’s just that mortals and cultivators live in different worlds, with unequal lifespans and perspectives. Getting too close and emotionally involved only ends up hurting you in the end.”
Lu Yaoyao disagreed, “Even with longer lifespans, cultivators could also lose their lives at any moment. Who knows if an accident or tomorrow will come first? Just because of unequal lifespans, to refuse a kindred spirit is such a pity, ah!”
“Even if being a long-life cultivator means watching friends pass away one by one, helpless to do anything, I would never regret knowing them regardless of the sadness.”
Wen Zixing nodded in agreement, “It’s foolish to avoid making friends just to spare oneself from sorrow.”
“…” Yan Zihui was suddenly struck by their naive but heartfelt views. These guys were all very young and hadn’t experienced this before. Would they still hold the same belief after another century?
“Well, I can’t argue with you there,” Yan Zihui chuckled helplessly.
“Exactly.”
Chao Muxue smiled, “Senior Brother Zihui means more than that. He’s saying that human hearts are unpredictable, and even the best people can falter in the face of mortality. Seeing oneself age while friends remain young can create psychological imbalances. No one can face death so calmly, and it would be a tragedy if, in pursuit of longer life or eternal youth, the people we care about were to commit desperate acts.”
“Yes, yes, yes!” Yan Zihui added quickly, “That’s exactly what I mean! Muxue understands me.”
Lu Yaoyao puffed her cheeks, “But there are also those who would die for their friends. And some people are open-minded and can face their deaths with grace.”
“That’s just a minority of people,” Yan Zihui shook his head. “But still, human hearts are unpredictable.”
“Anyway, all my friends are very good people,” Lu Yaoyao declared confidently. She believed in her ability to judge people, and her friends, regardless of their nature as ordinary humans, cultivators, demons or devils, all possessed resilient and open-minded hearts.
“No one said your friends were not good,” seeing Lu Yaoyao seething, Yan Zihui hastily appeased her. He then shifted the topic: “Speaking of which, there might be hope for Zhong Wushuang.”
Lu Yaoyao’s eyes lit up immediately, “Senior Brother Zihui, do you have a way?”
“When I first saw Zhong Wushuang as a baby, I was taken aback, thinking, ‘What kind of little monster is this?’ You haven’t seen him, so you can’t imagine. I even wondered if he was really a human child. The city lord spared no effort in raising him, using countless treasures and priceless elixirs to cure her son. Now he has grown up, he appears no different from other people except for his looks, which shows that the elixirs made by cultivators do have some effect.”
“External treatment can’t change his appearance, but if he could reshape his bones from scratch, maybe it could work.”
“Senior Brother, are you suggesting that Wushuang could find a chance to transform himself through cultivation?”
It’s well-known that cultivators were never ugly. As cultivators improved, impurities in their bodies were expelled, optimizing every part of their bodies, and each tribulation they underwent strengthened every inch of their flesh and bones. Reaching the Nascent Soul stage was particularly transformative—successfully crossing the tribulation gave every cultivator a chance to reshape their body.
Lu Yaoyao was also looking forward to reaching the Nascent Soul stage so that she could grow up and no longer look like a child.
It was indeed a good idea, but—
“City Lord Zhong loves Wushuang deeply and must have tried countless methods, but he remains like that. Cultivation should be impossible for Wushuang.”
Wushuang’s mother, a cultivator in the Soul Transformation stage, would have tried every possible way to enable him to cultivate. Yet, he remained a mortal, which suggested that even creating a spiritual root for him would not enable him to cultivate.
The group exchanged glances, realizing they were out of their depth without further information. They decided to drop the topic for now, but Lu Yaoyao made a mental note to seek help from her Father and Daddy.
Setting aside the minor episode in Luotian City, the rest of the journey was uneventful, and they arrived at the town at the foot of Yanhuo Mountain ten days later. The town, perhaps aptly named Yanhuo Town due to its proximity to the Yanhuo Mountain area, presented a landscape distinct from the places they had been to. Green vegetation was rare here; even the town itself had an ochre hue resembling a burnt landscape, and upon entering, the temperature noticeably increased.
Once arrived at the town, their first destination was the Tianyan Sect, not Yanhuo Mountain. Since the sect had sought help from the Guiyuan Sect, they naturally needed to coordinate directly with the involved parties before proceeding with the mission.
As Lu Yaoyao’s group walked through the streets, they couldn’t resist taking a few extra glances at the novel way the townspeople and the town itself looked. Perhaps due to the perennial high temperatures, the residents dressed quite minimally—men wore just a few strips of cloth wrapped around their upper bodies paired with loose pants, while the girls donned tube tops with semi-transparent fabric, exposing their navels and waists, along with fluttering knee-length skirts that revealed glimpses of their long legs. The colors of their garments were also exceptionally bright. Here and there, you could also spy people dressed like Lu Yaoyao’s group, fully covered from head to toe, clearly not locals.
Wen Zixing wiped his drenching sweat, “It’s really hot!” By what it felt, the temperature must have been over forty degrees—even cultivators would find it unbearable. Wen Zixing felt like he was about to be cooked alive.
Lu Yaoyao’s clothes had an insulation function that sheltered her from extreme temperatures, so she didn’t feel the heat directly. However, seeing her friends sweating profusely in just a short while, she muttered, “What should we do?”
“Let’s head to the Tianyan Sect first.”
They hadn’t walked much further when a group of cultivators dressed in orange-red uniforms approached, cupping their hands politely, “Excuse us, Fellow Daoists. Are you perhaps from Guiyuan Sect?”
As the eldest of the group, Yan Zihui responded, “Indeed.”
“We are disciples of the Tianyan Sect, specially sent to welcome our guests.”
Since the request for support was sent, the Tianyan Sect had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Guiyuan disciples. Because their remote location was some distance away from the Guiyuan Sect, they had calculated the likely time of arrival and had been keeping an eye on the city gate. Just as Lu Yaoyao and her group entered Yanhuo Town, the Tianyan Sect received the news and hurried to welcome them.
Leading the welcoming party was the chief disciple of the Tianyan Sect, along with other prominent disciples of the sect. On their way to the Tianyan Sect, both parties had already exchanged greetings. While Yan Zihui and the Tianyan disciples chatted amiably, Lu Yaoyao was only partially engaged in the conversation, since she had her eyes busy wandering around as they passed through the town streets.
The people of Yanhuo Town, having lived here generation after generation, seemed to have adapted to the environment and climate; everyone had somewhat tanned skin but appeared fresh and clean, with no signs of excessive sweating.
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