Chapter 56

On Huangzhong Peak, Elder Yue was living her usual decadent life, coiled up in her nest while a few pretty little disciples clumsily played their instruments. After a while, they stopped, looking at her with pitiful eyes. "Master, we're hungry."

Yue Changge grew irritated at once. She opened her eyes and glared at them. "Didn't I teach you to cultivate properly and achieve fasting as soon as possible?"

The girls became even more aggrieved. "But we can't eat enough to have the strength to cultivate."

Yue Changge remained unmoved, raising an eyebrow slightly.

Suddenly, one little dumpling began to cry, like a glutinous rice ball leaking its filling. Then a whole group of little dumplings started wailing loudly, their cries resounding like an avalanche.

Yue Changge was a sound cultivator by nature, so her ears were sharp. This assault of demonic sound pierced her ears, giving her a headache.

But Yue Changge was known as the extraordinary woman of the Taichu Sect. When her disciples started crying, she didn't hesitate at all. She clutched a handkerchief, blinked her eyes, and looked as if she were about to cry. "I'm poor too! I'm exhausted! You bunch of ungrateful little beasts!"

One of her disciples cried even louder. "...But the beasts on Master Yun's peak eat better than we do!"

At that moment, Yun Shuchen was drifting over leisurely on a cloud. The moment she set foot on this ground, she was shaken by the wailing on Huangzhong Peak. She paused in place, observed for a while, and confirmed that Huangzhong Peak wasn't holding a funeral, then she walked over with light, graceful steps.

Yue Changge noticed the outsider's arrival, immediately stopped her mournful act, her face still stained with tears. She counted on her fingers, her gaze sharp, and smiled. "Disciples, your Guanyin Bodhisattva who saves you from suffering has arrived. Go cry to her."

As soon as Yun Shuchen entered the hall, her feet were surrounded by several childish faces, pitiful and clinging tightly. "Greetings, Master Yun."

Yun Shuchen habitually took out some loose silver from her sleeve, as if to buy peace by spending money, and distributed a little to each little girl. Only then did they rejoice and scatter like stars across the sky.

Yue Changge curved her eyes. "The Cloud Fairy has graced us with her presence. What important matter brings you here?"

Yun Shuchen turned her head to look at the girls who had disappeared outside the hall, then gave Yue Changge a helpless glance. "Isn't your salary doubled? How can you still live so shabbily? If only you spent less on wine and women, wouldn't you be better off?"

"No," Yue Changge lay back down, her phoenix eyes slightly narrowed. "Life is short, seize the day. Hmm... but these little girls are indeed annoying."

"This year I picked up a few more," she said, taking a sip of wine. "It seems the outside world is in chaos again."

Within the Taichu Sect, protected by immortals, it was a secluded realm. Throughout the ages, human wars had never brought their flames here.

Thus, the villages near Taichu Sect were all peaceful and prosperous.

When wars raged everywhere, Taichu Sect, as a pure land, had once taken in many refugees.

But everyone wanted to escape disaster, migrating like a swarm of ants. In the end, Taichu Sect was only a small immortal mountain, unable to accommodate all.

So during times of war, when Taichu Sect was overcrowded, the Ancestral Master would perform a ritual to completely close the clouds and mist around the mountain, so outsiders could no longer find the way in, thereby protecting the peace of the people within.

But mountains and rivers are connected by waterways.

Yue Changge occasionally went for walks by the river, where she could see many corpses and broken weapons drifting down from upstream, as well as wooden boxes bobbing up and down, containing babies wrapped in swaddling clothes, sleeping peacefully.

When she opened them, most were baby girls, like skinny little frozen kittens, pitiful. If no one cared for them, they would become small corpses of starvation on the green water.

Since Elder Yue had picked up one, she would go to the river to fish out children whenever she had nothing to do. Yun Shuchen vaguely remembered her frantic search for rice paste and goat's milk thirty years ago. Now, it was fine—the older ones took care of the younger ones, and the younger ones took care of the even younger ones, neatly raising a mountain full of disciples.

The Sect Leader condemned her for ignoring the sect rules and taking in disciples without reporting to the sect. But condemnation was just condemnation; after all, it was a good deed, and he never ordered an investigation.

The only problem was that the peak had too many people, and the peak master didn't like hoarding wealth, spending money without a care, so poor that both trouser legs flapped empty in the wind.

Along with a group of little disciples flapping around.

But according to her, a peak with only one person was too lonely; it needed many people to be lively. For now, there was no sign of regret.

"Yes, times are hard," Yun Shuchen agreed slightly, then sat across from her. After a moment of silence, she said, "That book you wrote last time..."

"Did you like it?"

"Mediocre," Yun Shuchen said flatly.

"How is that possible?" She was surprised. "So many people have read it, and only you—"

A gold ingot fell, clanging loudly on the table.

Elder Yue stopped mid-sentence, looked at the golden object, her eyes stung by the thick stench of money, almost causing tears.

"Can you write another one?"

The image of her wealthy senior sister scattering money was extraordinarily beautiful, glowing in the summer breeze.

"Extremely good."

Yue Changge placed a finger on the gold ingot, her tone suddenly very gentle. "What would you like to see? I've already written imprisonment. How about whipping and an ice prison?"

Yun Shuchen's face felt slightly hot. She couldn't understand how a woman like Yue Changge could speak so without restraint, but that wasn't what she had in mind, so she lowered her eyes and shook her head slightly.

Seeing this ancestor remain silent, Yue Changge had no choice but to ask carefully, "Do you have any requirements?"

Yun Shuchen tightened her grip on the teacup, her expression unchanged, and smiled subtly. "Guess?"

Yue Changge felt life was meaningless. She wasn't an echo worm in her stomach; how could she know her convoluted thoughts?

Then she heard Yun Shuchen speak slowly—"The story itself is passable, but the plot needs polishing. For instance, the master needn't always be pinned beneath the disciple, at her mercy; it's too unreasonable."

Yue Changge was bewildered. "If it's not about her being at her mercy, then what's the point?"

She met those meaningful beautiful eyes and a thought turned in her heart. "Oh, so the disciple at the master's mercy, is that okay?"

Yun Shuchen rested her chin on her folding fan, thought for a while, then said gracefully, "Though I've never thought of it, it sounds novel. You may try it."

Yue Changge took the gold ingot, her eyes smiling. "Your tastes have been strange lately. Could it be you've taken a liking to one of your disciples—no, you only have one disciple."

"Junior Qing, huh. She's upright and pretty. Such a pity she's wasted on an old woman like you." She pocketed the money, clicked her tongue, and reverted to her previous demeanor.

This person spoke too unpleasantly. Yun Shuchen's gaze turned slightly cold, but she laughed lightly. "Old woman?"

"Isn't it so?" Yue Changge leaned back, glanced at her, and teased, "You're old enough to be her great-great-grandmother."

But she noticed that Yun Shuchen didn't banter back and forth as she usually did. Instead, she paused, her brow furrowing slightly.

She seemed genuinely bothered.

Yue Changge had been smiling, but her smile faded bit by bit with Yun Shuchen's silence. Finally, she cleared her throat. "You... really?"

"Really what? Just write your story," she said, her fingertip tapping the table in a leisurely rhythm.

*

After returning, Qing Zhouxue resumed her peaceful life of lessons and cultivation.

Everything proceeded according to routine. But the many small scenes from that secret realm trial still left deep marks in her heart.

She only glanced at them, again and again, numerous glances, landing on her heart like a layer of thin gauze, impossible to brush away.

The night was somewhat dim.

She smelled a familiar fragrance. For no reason, when she calmed down to think, she felt restless and unable to sleep.

Suddenly, a thin veil covered her eyes, and she couldn't see who was coming, but someone bent over her neck and breathed a gentle, lingering breath, her voice soft and tender, "Qing'er."

"Who?"

Qing Zhouxue struggled to open her eyes and look, but only saw a hazy shadow, indistinct.

The hands brushed her cheek, then pinched it gently before suddenly letting go. Qing Zhouxue could vaguely feel her warm, damp breath on her face; such a distance should be very close.

Her hand slid down from her face, slowly parting the clothes at her shoulder, uncovering them bit by bit, yet Qing Zhouxue didn't feel cold. She felt her whole body growing feverish with her closeness.

Is... is it Master?

In her daze, Qing Zhouxue felt her heartbeat quicken, pounding like a small hammer, so fast it was almost painful. The woman's soft palm pressed against her lower abdomen, lingering slowly. She felt it silently, and a trace of unbearable heat gradually rose in her body.

"What are you doing?"

Qing Zhouxue woke from her dream with a start, only to find Yun Shuchen pressing one hand against her forehead.

Without realizing it, she had been rubbing against her master as she slept.

Now one of her legs was still pressed against hers, and half her face was resting on her shoulder.

Had Yun Shuchen not blocked her with her hand, she might have been lying entirely on top of her master.

"Master." Qing Zhouxue quickly let go and retreated to a proper distance.

Qing Zhouxue had always slept peacefully, but tonight she had been unsettled before falling asleep. After falling asleep, she had vaguely pressed against her master.

Yun Shuchen watched as she first moved closer inch by inch, then her hand also pressed against her, and then half her face came to rest on her, all the while murmuring softly as if dreaming.

"What's wrong?"

After all that pressing, Yun Shuchen was uncomfortable all over. She guessed she wouldn't sleep tonight, but seeing her disciple's dazed look upon waking, she couldn't summon any irritation, and her voice as she asked was still gentle.

Qing Zhouxue's breathing was slightly ragged, and for a long time she couldn't calm it. Her gaze slowly moved to Yun Shuchen's face, and she said, "Master, can I hug you?"

Yun Shuchen guessed she had a nightmare and needed comfort. In the end, she couldn't bring herself to refuse, so she hummed in agreement and let her disciple wrap her arms around her waist.

Suddenly, Yun Shuchen felt something wrong. On her slightly bent knee, a trace of moist warmth slowly pressed against it.

That pure and beautiful woman clamped her legs around one of Yun Shuchen's legs, then let out a satisfied sigh. "Master, this is comfortable."