A Lively Chat: He's Simply

The scriptures were obscure and difficult, copying them demanded complete focus—the moment her mind wandered, mistakes followed without fail.

He Zhuoming gritted her teeth and worked through two sheets, but her thoughts were too restless, and errors kept slipping in.

Finally, she set down the brush, cupped her cheeks in her hands, and watched Xu Feixian practice with her blade.

Xu Feixian's swordsmanship wasn't particularly refined; every move emphasized speed, precision, and ruthlessness.

He Zhuoming usually dozed off in math class, but watching someone practice martial arts invigorated her. After watching Xu Feixian go through the forms twice, she realized she'd already committed the sword technique to memory.

She twirled the brush in her hand, thinking it didn't look that hard.

Still, Xu Feixian had said that casually learning another's technique wasn't a good idea, so He Zhuoming only kept it in mind, with no intention of actually practicing.

Before long, Xu Feixian finished her session, sheathed her blade, and walked to the stone table, looking down at the pages He Zhuoming had copied—her brushwork was neat, and Xu Feixian praised, "Your handwriting is beautiful."

He Zhuoming demurred, "Oh, it's nothing, just average. Your swordsmanship is impressive too."

Xu Feixian shot her a glance, too lazy to call out how insincere those words were.

He Zhuoming asked, "Lin Qingyun—the one you know—how is he?"

Xu Feixian: "Not dead."

He Zhuoming gave an "oh" and put down the brush, propping her cheek on one hand, drifting off into a daze.

She'd asked only in passing, not really caring about Lin Qingyun's fate.

What He Zhuoming really wanted was to chat with Xu Feixian, especially about romance; after all, Xu Feixian was the only girl she was close to in this world, and she'd just kissed the person she liked yesterday...

Well, only on the cheek.

But it was still a kiss!

For a young girl, the urge to share this with a best friend was like opening a can of cola—if she didn't share it right away, the fizz would go flat!

He Zhuoming mulled it over, switching the hand propping her cheek from left to right, until finally she folded both arms on the table and stared seriously at Xu Feixian. "Feixian."

Xu Feixian: "I'm not deaf; go ahead."

He Zhuoming said gravely, "Have you ever been in love?"

The word "love" was a bit foreign to Xu Feixian—probably another of He Zhuoming's made-up terms—but the individual meanings were clear enough that she quickly grasped the combination.

She paused in wiping her blade, and didn't speak right away; her expression gradually grew serious.

After a long pause, Xu Feixian said carefully, "I liked Lin Qingyun."

He Zhuoming: "Ah—oh, that Lin Qingyun."

Xu Feixian nodded. "Mm, the one I know better."

He Zhuoming: "Did he like you?"

Xu Feixian: "No."

He Zhuoming was stunned, abandoning her brush in outrage. "How dare he not like you?"

Xu Feixian recalled a conversation from long ago and sneered. "He said he wasn't interested in little girls."

He Zhuoming: "You're not little—you... how old are you?"

Xu Feixian: "Seventeen."

He Zhuoming: "Seventeen isn't a little girl; seventeen is an adult."

Xu Feixian said flatly, "He's blind, can't tell the difference between a little girl and a young woman. Someone like you is the little girl."

He Zhuoming felt wounded.

She'd defended Xu Feixian, and Xu Feixian dared to discriminate against her for being young!

He Zhuoming said indignantly, "I'm not a little girl either! I've already lived half of my fifteenth year, and soon I'll be a high school girl! Elementary schoolers are the little girls!"

"I'm a young woman too!"

Xu Feixian curled her lips, keeping that cold smirk. "Since the day he rejected me, I swore..."

He Zhuoming: "Swore you'd never speak to him again?"

Xu Feixian: "Swore that if he ever lent me money again, I'd never pay interest."

He Zhuoming: "..."

Xu Feixian thought of something amusing, and her cold smirk softened into a faint smile. "And I found that after he rejected me, he started proactively lending me money. If you're ever short, you could try it too."

"No way! I don't like him!"

He Zhuoming refused quickly, saying sternly, "I'd only confess to someone I like. And don't you think it's outrageous that he kept lending you money after rejecting you?"

"He's practically insulting your dignity with money!"

Xu Feixian paused, pondered, and for once felt genuinely confused. "That counts as an insult?"

He Zhuoming: "Of course it does! If Lin... if, I mean, hypothetically—this isn't real—if someone I liked rejected me, but still took care of me and lent me money..."

Xu Feixian: "Isn't that good?"

He Zhuoming puffed up her cheeks in anger. "Of course it's not good! Isn't that just pity? I wouldn't want his pity! It's an insult!"

Xu Feixian didn't understand why He Zhuoming was so upset; to her, the scenario He Zhuoming described wouldn't anger her at all—in fact, thinking about it felt rather satisfying.

The person she liked wouldn't be with her, but would still care for her and give her money—the money especially.

Even if they weren't together, it would be a fine thing.

But He Zhuoming seemed genuinely outraged, and Xu Feixian didn't want to argue, so she humored her: "Mm, mm, you're right. So you got rejected by the one you like?"

He Zhuoming: "I wouldn't get rejected!"

Xu Feixian nodded, enlightened. "Ah, so you succeeded. Congratulations."

He Zhuoming giggled, picked up her brush, and twirled it in her hand, then added, "He liked me first."

Xu Feixian: "Mm, mm."

He Zhuoming cupped her cheeks again and let out a long sigh. "But he's so busy. Why does he always have things to do?"

Xu Feixian said, "A musician would naturally be busy, and he's clearly high-ranking."

He Zhuoming felt she had a point and nodded, but halfway through, she jumped up in surprise. "Who are you talking about?!"

Xu Feixian was calm. "Isn't it the Lin Qingyun you know?"

He Zhuoming was astonished. "How—how did you know?"

Xu Feixian: "I'm not blind."

At their first meeting, the two had been intimately close, and when they met again yesterday, Xu Feixian had watched He Zhuoming act foolish, dragging the young man into the river with her.

And he'd still been able to smile.

Ordinary people, even if pulled into the water by a good friend, would hardly manage a smile.

If he didn't like He Zhuoming, then he had to be mentally deficient. But Xu Feixian could tell he was sharp-witted, so the only correct answer remained, and guessing wrong would have been difficult.

He Zhuoming still couldn't figure out how Xu Feixian had deduced it, and marveled, "Feixian, you're so smart, you'd make a great detective."

Xu Feixian: "What's a detective?"

He Zhuoming thought for a moment. "Around the same as a prefect or a constable."

Xu Feixian declined He Zhuoming's suggestion. "Constables get too little pay. My first goal is to become a subordinate deity to the Dao Lord of the Two Principles, and my second goal is to become an elder of the Yuqing Sect."

He Zhuoming: "My dream is to be an elementary school principal."

Their lived environments were vastly different, so neither could quite grasp the other's aspirations—but daydreaming about the future was always a pleasant thing. Both He Zhuoming and Xu Feixian quickly became more excited talking about what kind of adults they'd be in ten years than they had been discussing romance.

Xu Feixian said that if she became a subordinate deity, the first thing she'd do was change the Yuqing Sect's recommendation-letter entrance system.

If she didn't become a subordinate deity and only became an elder of the Yuqing Sect, the first thing she'd do was still change the recommendation-letter entrance system.

He Zhuoming said, "If I become an elementary school principal, the first thing I'll do is make all teachers join the students in the morning jog!"

The two chatted about their plans for their first three official acts until lunchtime ended.

In the afternoon, He Zhuoming copied scriptures for the entire afternoon, and in the evening, she carried them to the temporary shrine of the Dao Lord of the Two Principles and burned them.

In just two or three days, the temporary shrine had already been restored to its former state, but the small door behind the idol was locked, and several Yuqing Sect disciples patrolled on rotation.

At night, when He Zhuoming should have returned to her own room, she was still lying on Xu Feixian's bed.

Xu Feixian nudged her calf. "Aren't you leaving?"

He Zhuoming rolled over and sat up, pressing her palms together in supplication as she looked at Xu Feixian. "Can I sleep here tonight?"

Her brows drooped, her expression pitiful, her face full of pleading.

Xu Feixian's refusal was on the tip of her tongue, but she paused, and what came out was a question: "Why?"

He Zhuoming quickly poured out the story of seeing the procession of white shadows last night.

Although that event was tied to confessing her feelings to Tang Shuyu, during the day He Zhuoming had been so caught up in discussing romance and future dreams with Xu Feixian that she'd carelessly forgotten about it.

It only came back to her as night fell.

He Zhuoming said pitifully, "They pass by my door. I didn't know before, but now that I do, I'm a bit afraid to go back and sleep."

Xu Feixian: "You slept fine last night, didn't you?"

He Zhuoming: "Last night was different! I waited until they'd all passed before going back, and Lin Qingyun walked me to the door, so it wasn't so scary."

"Please, please, just let me stay!"

Xu Feixian silently acquiesced, and He Zhuoming let out a happy cheer, scrambling up to wash her face and get ready for bed.

Xu Feixian, meanwhile, folded her arms and leaned against the doorframe, deep in thought.

After pondering for a long time, she pulled a stack of warding talismans from her traveling bag and stuck them on the wall.

He Zhuoming came back from washing and, seeing this, helped stick them up.

As she worked, she examined the talismans and asked, "Are these effective?"

Xu Feixian: "Pretty useful. Want to buy some? I'll give you a ten percent discount."

He Zhuoming: "Wouldn't you lose money on that? Forget it, just sell them at the original price..."

Before she finished speaking, she saw Xu Feixian finish sticking up her stack, walk to the table, pull out blank yellow paper and a cinnabar brush from a cabinet, and deftly draw a talisman in one go.

He Zhuoming's eyes widened. "...You drew these yourself?!"

Xu Feixian glanced at her. "Of course I did. Would I spend my own money to buy them outside?"

He Zhuoming edged closer to watch her work—drawing a warding talisman required total focus, and even talking was a distraction.

Xu Feixian had no time to mind her, so she let He Zhuoming watch freely.

When another talisman was finished, Xu Feixian set it aside and caught He Zhuoming out of the corner of her eye, noticing her serious, focused expression.

Xu Feixian said, "You can't learn talisman drawing just by looking."

He Zhuoming ignored her, only urging, "Draw a few more for me, I didn't see clearly."

Seeing she wouldn't give up, Xu Feixian gave up explaining, pulled out fresh yellow paper, and continued.

Xu Feixian was fairly confident in her talisman-drawing skills.

She used the cheapest straw paper and mixed her own cinnabar, but her technique was refined and her cultivation solid, so the warding talismans she produced would rank as mid-to-upper grade even on the open market.

After finishing ten in one breath, Xu Feixian gave five to He Zhuoming. "Don't stick these up. Keep them on you. If you run into an unanchored soul, stick one on your body."

"The market price is fifteen taels each. As a favor to you, I'll charge fourteen. Five for seventy taels—you can owe me."

He Zhuoming touched her bulging purse and sighed. "So expensive."

Xu Feixian: "Can't be helped. Adult life is harsh."

After they'd stuck up all the talismans, they lay side by side on the bed—He Zhuoming asked Xu Feixian, "Do the other True Deities' Divine Palaces also have lines of unanchored souls bearing karma at midnight?"

Xu Feixian replied with eyes closed, "I wouldn't know; I've never been to another True Deity's Divine Palace."

She was only seventeen; during the last grand gathering, she hadn't even joined the Xuanhua Cave yet.

And a small sect like Xuanhua Cave, even though it maintained a few temples to the Dao Lord of the Two Principles, was only qualified to do just that—they'd never even set foot inside the Yuqing Sect.

Coming to Moyi for the Heroes' Gathering was Xu Feixian's first time entering a True Deity's Divine Palace, even if only within the specific perimeter of the outer palace.

But Xu Feixian had done thorough research before coming, determined not to slip up in the home of this Earth Immortal with a less-than-stellar reputation.

She just didn't know what to make of the white shadows He Zhuoming had mentioned; she herself had gone out at night before and never encountered such a thing. Could those unanchored souls only appear near the main hall?

Xu Feixian was cautious and sharp by nature, and the more she thought, the more substantial the words of He Zhuoming's "Lin Qingyun" seemed.

She opened her eyes and asked, "Did that friend of yours say why there are so many unanchored souls in the Divine Palace lately?"

After Xu Feixian asked, He Zhuoming said nothing.

When she didn't speak, the room fell into silence—a silence that made Xu Feixian uneasy.

She turned her head to look at He Zhuoming and found her already sprawled out, fast asleep.

"...She really is carefree."

Xu Feixian sighed, touched the blade by her pillow and the talismans she could flick out from her sleeve, then slowly closed her eyes.

No sooner had her eyelids shut than the door was suddenly pounded with a loud bang—

The force was so great that the whole doorframe seemed to quiver; He Zhuoming, who'd been sleeping deeply, woke with a start and scrambled up.

Before she could ask what was happening, Xu Feixian clamped a hand over her mouth.

Xu Feixian pointed at the door—He Zhuoming followed her finger: the talismans they'd stuck all over the door were now glowing, their pale red cinnabar light gathering to illuminate a slender figure outside.

The figure was beating on the door.

He Zhuoming flinched, shoulders contracting, and quickly grabbed her wooden sword before scurrying behind Xu Feixian.

She whispered, "Should we open the door?"

Xu Feixian: "Don't ask questions only a fool would ask."

He Zhuoming made an X over her mouth, signaling she'd stay quiet.

After a moment, the knocking stopped; the figure outside stood for a time, then drifted away. As it moved off, the talismans on the door slowly dimmed.

He Zhuoming exchanged a look with Xu Feixian, then let out a breath, clutching her chest. "Looks like it's gone..."

Before the last syllable faded, the window beside them suddenly burst inward; the crackling noise mingled with splintering wood, bursting like a string of firecrackers by He Zhuoming's ear.

She leapt up and bolted out the door, even faster than Xu Feixian.

As she sprinted, she glanced back to see a huge, blurry white figure wedged in the window frame, struggling grotesquely, shaking the entire wall around it as it fought to get through.