Lu Xiaochan brought a sixteen or seventeen-year-old youth with him, hovering on his flying sword outside the window of the Eight Treasures Spirit Light Pavilion.
Inside the pavilion was enshrined a ten-thousand-year-old lingzhi mushroom. Lu Xiaochan was contemplating how to enter and scrape off a small piece with his knife. Just a tiny bit would be enough, and he guaranteed it wouldn’t harm the lingzhi itself.
It was because in the past three hundred years, Shu Wuxi had been practicing some kind of cultivation that made his evil fire extremely fierce. It tormented Lu Xiaochan to the point where he couldn’t live properly yet couldn’t bear to die. The purple bruises on his neck and waist from last month hadn’t faded, and this month new colors had been added.
He planned to use this ten-thousand-year-old lingzhi as medicine, to give to Shu Wuxi and make him calm down for one or two hundred years… or one or two decades… or even just a day or two would be good!
The young man beside him wore a moon-white robe with his hair casually tied back. He rested his chin on his hand and yawned. “Master… you’ve been considering this for so long… why don’t you just take the lingzhi directly? Nobody in the Eight Treasures Spirit Light Pavilion can defeat you anyway!”
Lu Xiaochan waved his hand dismissively. “Qianqiu, you’re still young, so you don’t understand. If people say we stole something from the Eight Treasures Spirit Light Pavilion, those righteous cultivators will be after us nagging again!”
“Isn’t that perfect?” Mo Qianqiu smirked.
“What’s perfect?”
“With them bothering you, Shizang won’t be able to do anything to you!”
(TL: “师丈” (shīzhàng) refers to the husband of one’s master)
Lu Xiaochan raised an eyebrow and directly sent out a wave of spiritual energy, knocking over Mo Qianqiu’s sword. Mo Qianqiu unexpectedly fell downward, landing right on top of a female disciple from the Eight Treasures Spirit Light Pavilion.
The female disciple screamed in shock, shouting something about “molestation.”
Mo Qianqiu rose on his sword and smiled. “Little senior sister, do I look like someone who would molest you?”
The female disciple took a good look and saw that the young man before her had eyebrows like ink paintings, their tips extending into his temples like sword edges, and eyes like bright stars. He was truly exceptionally handsome.
Just as the female disciple was about to say something, her fellow disciples arrived, ready to confront Mo Qianqiu.
Mo Qianqiu looked up and found that Lu Xiaochan had already disappeared.
“Shameless old man, serves you right to be punished by Shizang! Hope you never get the upper hand for all eternity!”
Mo Qianqiu cursed through gritted teeth.
These disciples had only a few decades of immortal cultivation, how could they be Mo Qianqiu’s match? A single sword move settled them all.
At that moment, the warning crane of the Eight Treasures Spirit Light Pavilion cried out. Lu Xiaochan had taken advantage of the chaos to enter the pavilion and steal the ten-thousand-year-old lingzhi!
Soon after, the head of the Eight Treasures Spirit Light Pavilion arrived with his sword, mistaking Mo Qianqiu for the thief who stole the lingzhi, and fought with him.
Mo Qianqiu expended tremendous effort to break free from this clingy group. When he returned to Lushu Town, he found Lu Xiaochan there refining pills.
Mo Qianqiu was fuming. He stepped on Lu Xiaochan’s pill furnace with a forced smile. “Master, you ran away quite fast!”
Lu Xiaochan smiled. “Not at all, our master-disciple cooperation was just seamless!”
Mo Qianqiu immediately drew his sword, mimicking Lu Xiaochan’s smile. “Let me, your disciple, split this furnace open and see what this pill that can keep my Shizang down for a hundred years looks like!”
Lu Xiaochan was greatly alarmed and quickly hugged Mo Qianqiu. “Qianqiu! Think about how hard your master worked, spending hundreds of years being tormented countless times by that Supreme Lord Yehua, just to grow you out!”
Mo Qianqiu snorted. “You think I don’t know? Supreme Lord Yehua tormented you because you relieved yourself in his immortal realm! Such disrespect!”
“You grew from a tree into a baby and fell into my arms. I stayed up all night taking care of you, changing your diapers, feeding you every half hour…”
“Yeah right! The one who stayed up all night caring for me was Shizang! The ones who changed my diapers were the disciples of my Thousand Autumn Pavilion! The one who fed me was Martial Uncle Kunwu! What kept you up at night was Shizang, right? I can’t let you refine this pill. If you succeed, who in the world could control you!”
After saying this, Mo Qianqiu mercilessly kicked over the pill furnace!
“You little brat—I’ll fight you to the death!”
Lu Xiaochan pounced on him, but Mo Qianqiu immediately flew away on his sword.
“Where do you think you’re going! I’ll skin you alive no matter where you run!”
Mo Qianqiu disappeared in the blink of an eye. As he flew over Thousand Mirrors Lake, a flash of spiritual light struck Mo Qianqiu’s shoulder. He fell downward again, and even his Qianqiu Sword was knocked away by Lu Xiaochan.
In the center of Thousand Mirrors Lake was a small reef where a man in green robes sat fishing. Mo Qianqiu thought, “This is terrible, I hope I don’t crush this person to death.”
He tried to avoid the fishing man but still crashed hard onto him.
The man looked up, and his hands easily caught Mo Qianqiu who was plummeting from high above!
Mo Qianqiu was stunned. He had thought his Shizang Shu Wuxi’s appearance was already unparalleled, but he never expected that the man before him seemed to embody the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, with all the beauty of rivers and streams contained in his features.
“Little one, how did you fall down?”
A gentle voice sounded. Mo Qianqiu suddenly thought of early spring sunlight filtering through tree shade, falling on his shoulders, warm and comfortable.
Although his current body had only a hundred years of immortal cultivation, his core contained more than one thousand seven hundred years of spiritual energy. Yet this person called him “little one.” Could his immortal age be similar to that of his Martial Uncle Kunwu?
“My master knocked my sword away,” Mo Qianqiu answered.
The man lowered his head and smiled. “When the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam is bound to be askew.”
With a light lift of his arm, he steadied Mo Qianqiu and sat him down beside him.
At this time, Lu Xiaochan was holding the Qianqiu Sword, still searching everywhere for Mo Qianqiu.
The surface of Thousand Mirrors Lake was mirror-like. Logically, Lu Xiaochan should have seen their location at a glance, but even after flying around for quite some time, he still couldn’t find them.
“Mo Qianqiu, you little brat, come out! I’ll beat you until your ancestors won’t recognize you!”
Mo Qianqiu, looking up, scratched his head. “Senior, your concealment technique is amazing. My master can’t even see you.”
“Is that your sword?” the man asked again.
“Yes, my master always uses me as a scapegoat for his misdeeds, relying on Shizang’s support.”
“Lord Liche is becoming increasingly unruly.”
After saying this, the man cast his fishing rod into the sky, the hook touched the Wuhen Sword, and the sword flipped!
Lu Xiaochan let out a loud “Ah—” that echoed through the heavens. Just as he was about to crash into Thousand Mirrors Lake, a figure came like lightning and caught him.
It was Shu Wuxi.
Shu Wuxi brought Lu Xiaochan before the man and bowed respectfully.
Mo Qianqiu, standing to the side, was shocked. Who in this world could make his Shizang show such respect?
“Xiaochan has been disrespectful and disturbed your peace, Senior. I hope you can forgive him.”
The man smiled calmly. “Your beloved has disturbed my peace more than once or twice. When have I not forgiven him?”
Lu Xiaochan peeked out from behind Shu Wuxi, but upon seeing the man, he immediately withdrew his head.
“What do you want to transform into this time?” the man asked with a smile. “Would Lord Liche like to try being a rabbit?”
“I don’t want to become a rabbit! What’s the point of eating vegetables every day!”
At this moment, Mo Qianqiu finally realized who the person beside him was—Supreme Lord Yehua.
He was the person with the highest cultivation in the world, his spirit merged with heaven and earth. He could transform himself at will, create mortal worlds, and test human hearts.
It was also his spiritual energy that had made the seed nurturing Mo Qianqiu sprout.
“Little one, your master and shizang spend every day in love and romance. If you follow them, I’m afraid your cultivation will hardly progress…”
Before Supreme Lord Yehua could finish speaking, Lu Xiaochan quickly interjected. “Then I’ll entrust my little disciple to the Supreme Lord’s teaching! My knowledge is shallow, my level is low, and I fear I’ll hinder Qianqiu’s cultivation!”
“Haven’t you already hindered me for hundreds of years? My spiritual core was ignited by Shizang! I learned sword flying by observing others! Even the sword formation… was taught by Lord Miaochen Yuan from Nanli Jingtian!”
“Isn’t that good? Do you really want to inherit the position of Dongxu Sword Master? In the future, all those prestigious sects will come to you with their trivial matters! The world is so vast. If I insisted on teaching you and molded you into someone like me… or like Shu Wuxi, what would be the point? Mo Qianqiu shouldn’t be shaped into the image of the Dongxu Sword Master, but should grow into Mo Qianqiu’s own self!”
Lu Xiaochan shouted once, then met Supreme Lord Yehua’s meaningful smile, and immediately fell silent.
Mo Qianqiu stood there stunned, unconsciously saying, “You knew I didn’t want to be the Dongxu Sword Master…”
“I grew you from a seed… of course I know!”
Supreme Lord Yehua smiled. “It’s good that you weren’t born from him, otherwise you would have truly grown crooked.”
“Fine, I forgive you for pushing me out as a scapegoat, but I still have to tell Shizang—you wanted to refine a pill to keep him down for a hundred years!”
“You little brat, I’ll skin you alive!”
Before Lu Xiaochan could rush forward, he was carried away by Shu Wuxi.
“With their commotion, it will be another hundred years, won’t it?” Mo Qianqiu stroked his chin.
“Are you satisfied with this outcome?” Supreme Lord Yehua asked.
“Satisfied! Extremely satisfied!” Mo Qianqiu was nearly clapping his hands.
“Then would you care to join me fishing here?”
“It would be my honor…but Supreme Lord, are there fish in Thousand Mirrors Lake?” Mo Qianqiu squinted at the water surface where the lake bottom was clearly visible.
“Those who are willing will take the bait.”
Supreme Lord Yehua smiled calmly.
