“Senior Brother Qingfeng, does this poem have a second half?”
“Senior Brother, tell us the rest quickly!”
Inside Yixian Palace, Qing Feng looked at the Senior Sisters surrounding him like a cluster of flowers and secretly groaned.
The Immortal Maidens, rumored to possess a heart of zither and bones of sword, were now holding their seven-stringed zithers, poised to draw their swords and force him. This was only because he had slipped away yesterday after saying, “If you wish to know what happens next…”
He used to envy the male cultivators of other sects who had female companions adding fragrance to their studies, but now he realized how precious the tranquility of the Beast Taming Sect’s Senior Brothers, who danced with swords and discussed the Dao, truly was.
Qing Feng rubbed his storytelling throat, looking at the cranes flying outside the window with envy in his eyes.
These girls are truly hard to handle!
“Senior Brother Qingfeng, are you going to tell the story of ‘Monkey King Thrice Beating the White Bone Demon’ today?” A young girl with a flying immortal bun held melon seeds and leaned over, her eyes full of anticipation.
Qing Feng glanced at the sun setting on the eaves, deliberately straightening his face: “Immortal Yun is still waiting for me to discuss the Dao. You all can read the storybooks to pass the time.” As he spoke, he shook the handwritten copy of “Tales of the Eastern Journey” in his hand, and several Junior Sisters immediately let out sighs of regret.
The story begins three days ago.
Yun Qingrao’s performance of “Ode to the Luo River Goddess” at the Beast Taming Sect actually allowed several elders to break through their bottlenecks, much to the Sect Master’s delight.
When he learned that this grandmaster of music wanted to comprehend the Uncontending and Unfailing Technique, he promptly sent Qing Feng, the only one in the entire sect who had mastered this technique, along. Heaven knows the joyful expressions on his Master and Master’s wife’s faces when they heard the news, as if they had finally gotten rid of a hot potato.
It was strange, too. Although Immortal Yun only needed the cultivation technique scrolls, she made an exception and allowed Qing Feng to observe her cultivation.
At this moment, in the quiet room, the woman’s delicate hands plucked the strings, her surrounding Qi flowed with the sound waves, and her black hair moved without wind.
Qing Feng stared at the incomplete cultivation scroll spread out on the table, doubting for the umpteenth time whether his Master had taken the wrong cultivation method back then. This so-called Non-Contention Sutra clearly resembled a musical score more.
He only accompanied her for an hour or so each day; the rest of his time was spent in the Listening Wind Pavilion of Yixian Palace.
He was supposedly there to be a sparring partner, but he ended up becoming a full-time storyteller.
At first, the girls listened to the stories properly, but now, whenever he talked about the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, someone would always hold up a storybook and ask, “Did Ancestor Lü prefer White Peony or He Xiangu?”
The most infuriating thing was that they even arranged the story characters into puppet shows, and the day before yesterday, they even gave him two brocade pouches embroidered with mandarin ducks.
Qing Feng rubbed his throbbing temples. These young ladies from cultivation families, who usually appeared ethereal and graceful, became even more animated than mortal teahouse storytellers when discussing matters of love and romance?
“Senior Brother Qingfeng, would you mind bringing candied chestnuts tomorrow?” As he was leaving, an audacious voice called out from the corridor, immediately sparking bursts of silver-bell-like laughter.
Qing Feng quickened his pace, a faint scent of osmanthus drifting from behind him, which disturbed his mind even more than Immortal Yun’s zither music.
“If you Senior Sisters truly can’t wait, why not purchase the complete set at the Lu Family Bookstore?” Qing Feng raised an eyebrow and reminded them.
“I will first take Martial Brother Qing Feng to attend to urgent matters, and I will speak with you all later.” Han Su Fairy said with a light smile, helping him out of the predicament.
A young cultivator in a goose-yellow jacket and skirt sighed softly, resting her chin on her hand: “When Senior Brother Qingfeng tells tales of the sword Dao, time always seems to fly by.”
“Since it has already been published, wouldn’t it be cheaper to buy and read it yourselves?” A Senior Sister in blue robes asked, puzzled.
“Senior Sister, you don’t know, Senior Brother Qingfeng’s demeanor when wielding a sword is like an immortal descending to the mortal world.” The young female cultivator’s eyes sparkled, and her earlobes turned crimson.
As they passed through the Nine Curves Corridor, Han Su Fairy lowered her voice: “Those just now were all top talents cultivated by Yixian Palace, with excellent root bones, pure backgrounds, and outstanding appearances…”
“Their cultivation is still shallow, and they are too noisy; they don’t catch my eye.” Qing Feng flicked his sleeve, brushing away the falling crabapple petals.
Upon arriving at Qixia Garden, they saw a Disciple guarding the gate who bowed: “Martial Uncle Yun has unexpectedly received a heavenly revelation and has been in life-and-death seclusion for three days.”
A flicker of surprise crossed Qing Feng’s eyes, quickly replaced by composure: “That works out perfectly; it saves me the trouble of dealing with it.”
Han Su Fairy suppressed a smile and reminded him: “If you return now, I’m afraid you’ll be surrounded by those girls at Rainbow Bridge.”
“I’ll go to the Stargazing Platform for a nap, every brick and tile of this Yixian Palace.” Qing Feng’s voice faded, and his figure had already disappeared into the depths of the bamboo forest.
The terrain of Nine Curves Pond is intricate, with undercurrents winding like dragons and snakes, and the underwater channels twist and turn eighteen times, hence its name.
When Qing Feng was young, Qin Yue often dragged him here to play, and as he grew older, he preferred to find quiet places to nap, gradually coming less often.
This time, revisiting the old place, he felt something unusual; the concentration of Qi in the air was actually 30% denser than he remembered.
Just as he was about to investigate the cause, a wave of drowsiness washed over him, so he simply picked a concave cave in the cliff face, curled up, and fell asleep.
His self-created Turtle Breath Sleeping Technique could blend his aura with heaven and earth, making it difficult for even a Nascent Soul cultivator to detect his presence with their divine sense.
At this moment, in a separate courtyard of Yixian Palace, Yun Qingrao, who should have been in seclusion to consolidate her realm, was leaning on a jade couch, flipping through pages.
As a direct Disciple of the Daoist sect, although she excelled in zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting, she had a little-known private hobby: she devoured all sorts of popular literature.
The “Records of Penglai Immortal Encounters” she was holding at this moment was a peculiar book that blended passionate romance with immortal sword-flying.
It wasn’t until a slight itch appeared on her forehead, and two pearl-sized, translucent white jade horns subtly emerged, that she pulled her mind away from the pages.
She used the Luo River Heart Sutra to suppress the restlessness of her Dragon race bloodline, and as she muttered to herself, her eyes shimmered: “This ‘Uncontending Dao Canon’ and the Luo River True Art can actually complement each other, forcing my dragon transformation period to come early.
I must find a Cold Pond to cultivate in seclusion for seven days. If someone were to see me during the scale shedding period…”
Before she finished speaking, her figure had already transformed into a mist of water and dissipated, reappearing at the edge of Nine Curves Pond.
She formed hand seals with her delicate hands, setting up the Twenty-Eight Constellations Illusion Array. After confirming that there were no traces of people within a ten-mile radius, she lightly shed her robes and stepped into the Cold Pond.
The moment her creamy skin touched the clear water, the undercurrents at the bottom of the pond spontaneously formed a Qi vortex.
Yun Qingrao, who was closing her eyes and feeling the evolution of her bloodline, did not notice that a certain “rock” thirty feet away suddenly trembled.
Qing Feng was startled awake by the sound of water while in his turtle-breath state, and when he opened his eyes, he saw an unforgettable scene.
Moonlight pierced through the water mist, illuminating jade-like bones and icy skin. Black hair cascaded like a waterfall onto the pond surface, every ripple seeming to outline a beauty that astonished the world.
He had never imagined that the most exquisite beauty in the world would suddenly and unexpectedly appear before his eyes at this moment. The sea of clouds on Chen Ming Peak, which he had always loved most, now seemed like mere ink wash painting compared to the ethereal beauty of a celestial maiden on a jade platform before him.
Like a meticulously sculpted work of art by the Creator, all the spiritual essence of the world converged upon this face before him; even the most rigorous connoisseur would struggle to find a single flaw.
Qing Feng, whose Dao heart had always been stable, now felt a rare tremor in his spirit.
What on earth was happening?
He had clearly been resting soundly just now, so how did he open his eyes to such an enchanting scene?
Although he had already come of age, facing such a sensual scene…
Could it be that he had fallen into an illusion again?
Amidst his chaotic thoughts, Yun Qingrao had already gracefully stepped into the Cold Pond. As her figure completely submerged beneath the water, the entire body of water suddenly surged and boiled, and a silvery-white dragon shadow darted through it, carrying a sacred pressure that swept across all directions.
Qing Feng was secretly alarmed. If not for over a decade of cultivation of “Dreaming to Attain Dao,” combined with the Uncontending and Unfailing Technique having reached perfection, his aura would have surely become chaotic at this moment.
Fortunately, he had mastered the method of blending with heaven and earth, so his anomaly went unnoticed.
Previously, when Yun Qingrao performed the Luo River Melody, he had only attributed it to the profoundness of the Fuxi Five-Stringed Zither.