The moment Mo Xi stepped into the courtyard and got a clear look at it, he immediately understood why Murong Chuyi had said open flames were forbidden here—or else the place would explode.
Despite Murong Chuyi’s immaculate appearance, his courtyard was a disaster beyond belief.
Wood shavings and broken scraps littered the ground. Sulfur and charcoal were piled everywhere. Half-finished suits of armor and oversized weapons were scattered throughout the yard. Beneath the covered walkways alone lay more than a dozen Bamboo Warriors, strewn about in every direction.
The refined, ethereal Immortal Fool paid no attention to the chaos.
He led everyone to a pond deep within the courtyard.
The water was crystal clear. Resting at the bottom were several small objects, such as rings and white jade hair ornaments.
Yue Chenqing asked curiously,
“What’s this? A merit pond?”
Murong Lian narrowed his eyes.
“Does your fourth uncle look like the type to accumulate merit?”
For once, Yue Chenqing actually dared contradict Lord Wangshu. Planting his hands on his hips, he protested,
“Why can’t my Fourth Uncle do good deeds?”
Murong Lian scoffed.
“How ridiculous. Don’t you know what kind of reputation he has?”
Yue Chenqing flared up.
“My Fourth Uncle is amazing!”
Murong Lian loved nothing more than stepping on people’s sore spots. If Yue Chenqing hadn’t argued back, he might have let it go. But the moment he resisted, Murong Lian became even more entertained.
His craving for tobacco even lessened somewhat as he teased,
“Being amazing and having a good reputation are two different things.”
As he spoke, he pointed at Gu Mang, who was still tied to the Bamboo Warrior.
“Isn’t this fellow amazing too? His reputation still stinks to high heaven.”
“Y-you… you…!”
Yue Chenqing’s cheeks puffed up with anger.
It was true that he was Chonghua’s most good-natured young master.
But he had one absolutely untouchable sore spot—
His Fourth Uncle.
Since childhood, Yue Chenqing had worshipped his youngest maternal uncle with almost blind devotion.
After holding it in for a long while, he finally shouted at Murong Lian,
“And you’ve got the nerve to call other people stinky? Brother Murong, you’re the smelly one!”
Murong Lian: “……………………”
How extraordinary.
Had the sun risen in the west?
Young Master Yue had actually learned to insult people…
And the person he insulted was him?
His shock overwhelmed everything else.
For quite some time, Murong Lian couldn’t think of anything to say.
At that moment, Murong Chuyi turned slightly and said,
“This is the Dream-Transmutation Pool. Throw any spiritually imbued object into it, and the water will turn gold.”
Mo Xi asked,
“And then?”
“Use the jade cups beside the pool. Each person drinks one cup. Afterward, you’ll fall asleep and dream of memories connected to that object.”
Having finished speaking, Murong Chuyi picked up the hilt of the Hongshao Sword between his long, pale fingers.
He was probably annoyed by Murong Lian and Yue Chenqing’s constant chatter. Without asking for anyone else’s opinion, he simply looked at Mo Xi.
“I’m throwing it in.”
The Immortal Fool had assumed Mo Xi disliked needless conversation more than anyone. Asking was merely a matter of courtesy.
He hadn’t even waited for Mo Xi to nod before preparing to toss the sword hilt into the pool.
Unexpectedly, Mo Xi stopped him.
Tilting his chin toward Gu Mang, he said,
“If we all fall asleep, what happens to him?”
“Simple.”
Murong Chuyi flicked his sleeve.
“Black Tortoise Formation. Rise.”
The moment his words fell, the trees and flowers throughout the courtyard rustled violently.
One Bamboo Warrior after another climbed out from among the bamboo grove and flowering shrubs. Those lying scattered on the ground also creaked as their joints came to life. One after another, they leapt upright and surrounded Gu Mang.
More than fifty of them gathered around him.
And still more continued appearing.
Murong Chuyi said,
“Even an immortal couldn’t take him away within the time it takes one stick of incense to burn.”
Both Murong Chuyi and Mo Xi preferred using absolute words such as absolutely, certainly, and without fail.
Since Murong Chuyi had declared Gu Mang absolutely couldn’t be taken away, then he possessed complete confidence.
Mo Xi glanced at the Bamboo Warriors before turning back toward the Dream-Transmutation Pool.
“Let’s begin.”
The Hongshao Sword entered the pool.
Instantly, the water shone with brilliant golden light.
Murong Chuyi picked up three lotus-petal-shaped jade cups and handed one each to himself, Murong Lian, and Mo Xi.
Yue Chenqing blinked.
“…Where’s mine? Don’t I get one?”
Murong Lian grinned wickedly.
“Heh. Your fourth uncle looks down on you. He’s not letting you play.”
Yue Chenqing slowly turned his head like a bewildered puppy, blinking at his youngest uncle.
His uncle ignored him completely.
Without another word, Murong Chuyi drank his cup dry.
The Dream-Transmutation Pool’s effects were astonishingly potent.
Almost the instant he swallowed the last mouthful, he lowered his eyes, rested his head upon his folded arms beside the pool…
…and fell asleep.
“Fourth Uncle??”
Seeing how unwilling Yue Chenqing looked, Mo Xi filled Murong Chuyi’s unused jade cup again and handed it to him.
Finally included, Yue Chenqing accepted it eagerly.
“Thank you, Lord Xihe.”
He gulped down the golden water in one go.
Then he toppled backward with all four limbs spread out and immediately fell fast asleep.
Mo Xi and Murong Lian waited no longer.
The Dream Water slid down their throats.
Darkness instantly engulfed their vision—
At first…
Everything was black.
It felt as though they had sunk into endless night.
Then, all at once, the faint sound of a sword’s clear cry echoed through the darkness.
The sword’s resonance carried the might of wind and thunder.
It shook heaven and earth.
It changed the very color of the skies.
Mo Xi recognized the sound immediately without needing to see the blade.
It was the sound of Duanshui Sword from years ago, when Li Qingqian had fought shoulder to shoulder with him amid a pack of a thousand demonic wolves.
Back then, Duanshui had not yet reached its later perfection.
Yet every strike was upright and righteous, overflowing with pure spiritual energy.
As the sword’s cry continued, light gradually appeared.
The surrounding scenery slowly became bright and clear.
They found themselves in a modest countryside cottage.
It was late spring.
Apricot blossoms drifted across the courtyard.
A young Li Qingqian, barely in his early twenties, practiced swordsmanship in the yard.
His patched blue robes fluttered gracefully with every movement.
But he wasn’t alone.
A petite young woman dressed in coarse crimson cloth was exchanging moves with him.
Her movements were graceful and nimble. She spun and dodged so swiftly that it was impossible to make out her face.
Only when Li Qingqian stopped her with the point of his sword did she laugh and pout coquettishly.
“Big Brother, today I managed to last twelve more moves against you. Aren’t you going to praise me?”
Li Qingqian smiled.
“Hongshao is naturally very remarkable.”
So…
Hongshao was the young woman’s name.
Hongshao refused to let him off.
“You used that compliment last time. Give me a different one.”
Li Qingqian smiled helplessly.
“Then… you’re the cleverest?”
“You said that the time before last! Think of another one!”
After saying that, she huffed dramatically and turned her face away in feigned annoyance.
Only then did Mo Xi finally get a good look at her face.
She appeared to be seventeen or eighteen years old.
Her skin was as delicate as lotus petals.
She had willow-leaf brows and a tiny beauty mark at the corner of one eye.
Mo Xi had never been particularly good at distinguishing women’s appearances.
He merely felt she looked strangely familiar.
Only after staring for a long while did he realize—
She resembled all those missing women.
Or rather…
Those missing women each resembled fragments of her.
One had her nose.
Another her lips.
Still another shared the tiny black beauty mark beneath the eye.
Li Qingqian sheathed his sword and flicked her forehead gently.
“I can’t think of anything else. I’m done trying.”
Then he turned and headed back into the house.
“You—you—you! You’re just not putting your heart into it!”
Hongshao chased after him, hopping and shouting noisily.
“Ah! Big Brother Li is two-timing me! He loves me less and less!”
She startled the chickens all over the yard into flapping away.
Even the little yellow dog barked furiously beside her, as though trying either to cheer her on or compete with her volume.
“…”
Mo Xi had never been particularly fond of women.
Someone gentle and composed like Mengze was tolerable.
But a girl like Hongshao…
She could easily rank among the ten greatest nightmares of his life.
Yet Li Qingqian clearly adored her.
There wasn’t the slightest trace of impatience in either his words or expression.
As the dream continued, Mo Xi gradually understood their relationship.
Hongshao had originally been a refugee girl Li Qingqian found during his travels through Fuyi.
When they met, he was eighteen.
She was fifteen.
They had journeyed together across the land for three and a half years.
Now…
They were inseparable.
Neither of them, however, had ever experienced love before.
There was no need to mention Li Qingqian.
Although Hongshao was loud and boisterous, she was just as innocent.
She hid her feelings deep inside, never daring to confess them.
Thus, even though everyone around them could plainly see how they felt…
The two fools themselves never knew how to say it aloud.
The funniest incident occurred after Hongshao drank a little too much wine.
She rested her head on the table and gazed blankly at Li Qingqian, who was reading beneath the candlelight.
Her eyes drifted toward the hand resting beside his book.
Unable to resist…
She quietly leaned closer.
Then a little closer.
Suddenly overcome with courage, she reached out…
…and held his hand.
Li Qingqian froze in surprise.
Speechless, he stared at her with wide eyes.
Hongshao’s cheeks were flushed crimson.
She giggled foolishly.
Her sparkling eyes were filled with stars.
“Big Brother…”
Ordinarily, when two people loved one another and one finally found the courage to break through that final barrier…
Their hearts should naturally become known to each other.
But as Hongshao looked at Li Qingqian’s handsome, refined face…
She suddenly lost her nerve.
Am I really worthy of him?
Three years earlier, when he had approached her starving, freezing body lying beside the road—
When he had reached out his hand to a filthy little girl covered in scabies—
He had already become her older brother.
Her god.
Her beloved.
To her…
Big Brother Li was perfect.
Good-looking.
Kind-hearted.
Skilled in cultivation.
Even his voice was beautiful.
Aside from being poor…
He was number one in the world in every respect.
Then she looked down at herself.
Though she wasn’t ugly…
She was an illiterate fool.
Clumsy.
Stupid.
She ate far too much.
One meal required twice as much food as Big Brother Li.
Her voice was deafening—
Like a bronze gong being beaten without pause.
The little gong became more miserable the more she thought about it.
The courage she had painstakingly gathered…
Deflated at the most critical moment.
Her courage vanished.
But…
She was still holding his hand.
She needed an excuse.
She couldn’t exactly say,
“Sorry, Big Brother. I thought your hand was a teacup.”
So Hongshao really invented an excuse.
A terrible excuse.
One so bad that even Mo Xi wouldn’t have been fooled.
Smiling brightly, she declared,
“Let’s have an arm-wrestling contest!”
Li Qingqian: “…”
“Come on! Let’s see who’s stronger!”
Li Qingqian seemed to realize he had misunderstood.
The tips of his ears reddened slightly.
He gently withdrew his hand from hers, lowered his eyelashes, and said helplessly,
“Didn’t we just compete yesterday to see who was smarter?”
“Exactly! So today we’ll compete to see who’s stronger.”
Li Qingqian forced a smile.
“What strange idea have you suddenly come up with now? Are we going to compete every day? What about tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow we’ll compete to see who’s more handsome!”
As she spoke, Hongshao suddenly snatched the brush lying beside his book and drew two little mustaches on her own lips.
“Big Brother, look! Like this!”
Watching her bright eyes sparkle as she stroked her fake mustache with exaggerated seriousness…
Li Qingqian couldn’t help laughing.
His heart warmed.
He loved her too.
But just as Hongshao believed herself too stupid, too clumsy, and too gluttonous…
Li Qingqian believed he was too dull, too boring, and earned too little.
Deep down, he always felt…
Such a clever and beautiful girl shouldn’t have to suffer beside someone like him forever.
Back when Hongshao had stubbornly insisted on following him, he had sighed helplessly and told her,
“Miss, I only saved you because I happened to find you collapsed by the roadside, gravely ill. I never expected any repayment…”
Hongshao’s voice was loud as a gong, but she herself was tiny.
Whenever Li Qingqian walked a little faster, she had to stumble after him in her worn-out straw shoes.
As she ran, she hurriedly explained,
“Big Brother! Big Brother! I know! I know! You don’t want repayment, but I want to repay you myself—”
“Stay at the clinic. Didn’t I already speak with the physician? She’s willing to accept you as her apprentice. If you truly wish to repay me, study medicine well under her. Then you’ll be able to heal and save others. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
“It wouldn’t!”
Hongshao stomped her feet anxiously.
“I sold myself to bury my father! You buried my adoptive father, saved me, and even paid for my treatment! I—I don’t care! I’m following you! I’m following you, following you, following you!”
By the end, she was practically screaming like a little lunatic.
Li Qingqian looked at the once-sickly little kitten who had recovered enough strength to become such an impossible handful.
His head began to ache.
He quickened his pace.
Seeing this, Hongshao panicked.
Her ragged straw sandals kept catching beneath her feet, slowing her down.
Finally, she yanked them off and threw one after another at Li Qingqian.
Then she squatted barefoot in the dirt and burst into loud sobs.
“D-Don’t go! Fine! I won’t repay you anymore!”
Li Qingqian: “…”
Tears streamed down her dirty little face.
“I won’t repay you! I’ll just freeload! I’ll cling to you, okay? Big Brother… don’t leave me alone.”
She rubbed away her tears, choking on her sobs.
“If you leave me at the clinic, I’m clumsy and can’t do anything… What if the physician sells me again in a few days? I’ve already been passed through three different families…”
“I’ve been a child bride… a little maid… an adopted daughter…”
“I don’t even know what I am anymore…”
The harder she cried, the louder her broken-gong voice wailed.
Tears mixed with the mud beneath her filthy little feet.
“Please don’t abandon me… I don’t want to be sold to a fourth family… Waaaah…”
After hearing that…
What could Li Qingqian possibly do?
He came from the Kingdom of Lichun, one of the weakest nations in the Nine Provinces.
His homeland was trapped between several unreasonable great powers and was constantly ravaged by war.
Whenever demons or evil spirits appeared, no great cultivators ever came to suppress them.
Li Qingqian had personally watched his mother violated and murdered.
He had watched his father stabbed to death.
Inside the ruined house…
Only he, not yet ten years old, remained.
He clutched his baby brother, who had only recently been weaned, trembling inside the back of a cupboard.
Tears streamed down his face.
Yet he tightly covered his little brother’s mouth so the child wouldn’t cry.
But those cultivators possessed tremendous spiritual power.
How could they possibly fail to notice two children hiding inside?
The cupboard door was kicked open with a violent crash.
Wood splinters flew everywhere.
Strong hands hauled him and his brother out.
He refused to let go of his little brother.
In return…
He received a savage beating amid cruel laughter and curses.
“Can we take these two boys back to refine medicine?”
“Doesn’t look like they inherited their mother’s Butterfly-Boned Beauty bloodline. Their tears are the wrong color…”
“Then kill them outright! Cut the weeds and pull out the roots!”
At the time, Li Qingqian had no idea what they were talking about.
He didn’t know what a Butterfly-Boned Beauty was.
He only saw several cultivators wrapping his mother’s naked corpse in silk, preparing to take her away somewhere.
He cried and screamed, wanting to chase after his mother’s body.
But he couldn’t abandon the baby brother in his arms.
The scorching smoke.
The stench of blood.
The cultivators’ savage laughter.
Everything whirled before his eyes.
Then—
Boom!
A flash of emerald sword light cleaved through the air.
Several cultivators were cut down in a single strike.
Blood sprayed several feet.
Then…
A man dressed in green robes, wearing a golden mask over his face, appeared in the doorway.
Backlit by the daylight, he stepped over the corpses felled by his sword…
…and walked into the house.