Another hand gently rested on her head, warm and comforting. Xiao Bangchui couldn't help but look up, meeting a pair of kind, smiling eyes.
It was the old man standing on the gourd. His hair, eyebrows, and beard were all white, and he smiled slightly, appearing very benevolent. Xiao Bangchui couldn't help but think of her Master, her heart warming as she leaned slightly toward him.
"Done crying?" the old man asked with a smile, looking down at her. "Where are your family? How could they leave such a little child alone in the mountains?"
Xiao Bangchui hesitated for a long while. She really couldn't cry anymore—she had been pretending all along.
"I... I live on the mountain... with my Master... but he suddenly left and told me to find my eldest senior brother, so... so I left too..."
She deliberately made her words sound jumbled.
Zhen Yunzi looked slightly surprised. "Your Master? You live in Green Mound?! At such a young age, you can resist my Celestial Sound Word Spirit—could your Master be some extraordinary recluse? What is his name?"
Xiao Bangchui ignored him, lowering her head as if she hadn't heard.
"To think there are mortals living in Green Mound..." The old man on the gourd was also quite astonished. This place was teeming with Monsters, with the Nine-tailed Fox Demon clan hidden deep in the mountains. Moreover, the terrain was extremely treacherous—no mortal could climb it barehanded. He studied the dirty little boy in front of him carefully. His aura was pure, undoubtedly a mortal. How could a mortal survive in such a perilous mountain, overrun with Monstrous creatures and wild beasts?
"Where is your Master? Where did he go?" he asked kindly.
Explaining all this was too troublesome. Xiao Bangchui silently handed him the letter her Master had left in her bundle.
After reading the letter carefully, the old man raised his eyebrows slightly and passed it to Long Jing Yuanjun beside him. Once everyone had finished reading, they fell silent for a moment. Long Jing Yuanjun smiled and said, "Dongyang Zhenren, this child is looking for No Moon Court. Could her Master be a disciple of one of your esteemed sect's masters?"
The old man also smiled. "What a coincidence in the world. Little girl, what's your Master's name?"
Xiao Bangchui shook her head. She didn't know her Master's name—he was just "Master."
"Then what's your eldest senior brother's name?"
She knew even less about that. In fact, she had only just learned she had an eldest senior brother.
Seeing that she knew nothing, the group had nothing more to say. Long Jing Yuanjun tidied her messy hair and chuckled, "Your Master is truly irresponsible, raising a little girl to look like a boy. Alright, now that you've stopped crying, can you tell us where that Monster went just now?"
Xiao Bangchui casually pointed into the forest, lying with an innocent expression. "It flew that way."
The group's expressions darkened slightly. After a long pause, Zhen Yunzi finally sighed in frustration, "Green Mound is his lair. If he's fled deep into the mountains, chasing him further would be pointless. What a waste of months of effort—he still managed to escape."
The Fox Demon's escape was largely due to this little girl. He glared coldly at Xiao Bangchui, clearly blaming her. "If you've learned Arcane arts from your Master and can walk down the mountain alone at night, why did you make such a fuss when you saw the Fox Demon?"Xiao Bangchui continued to turn her head away, pretending not to hear. Dongyang Zhenren chuckled and said, "So-called Arcane arts are merely some unorthodox methods passed down from overseas, used by common folk to exorcise minor disturbances. If you truly tried to use them against that Nine-tailed Fox Demon, I doubt they'd have any effect. I suspect this little girl's Master only knows a few scattered Arcane arts. Even if she subdues demons, they’re likely just small, speechless Monstrous creatures. She’s never encountered a powerful Demon before, so her fear is only natural."
As he spoke, he patted Xiao Bangchui’s head again. "Still, you’re quite bold to come down the mountain alone in the dead of night. Weren’t you afraid of wild beasts? These cliffs are sheer—how did you plan to descend without knowing how to fly?"
"I’ve never seen any wild beasts on this mountain," she replied truthfully. A mountain this vast surely had beasts and Monstrous creatures, yet in all her countless trips up and down, she’d never encountered any. Could it be her luck was just that good?
Approaching the large boulder, she picked up the thick, arm-sized rope and shook the copper bell attached to it. A clear, tinkling sound rang out.
The others saw that one end of the rope was tied to the rock while the other disappeared into the abyss below—a chasm so deep it chilled the bones just to glance at it. Yet this little girl intended to slide down the cliff using just this rope. Her sheer courage alone was enough to earn the adults’ admiration.
"The Fox Demon is nowhere to be seen. What now? Should we continue the pursuit?" Zhen Yunzi, unwilling to waste time here, cut straight to the point.
Mr. Zhou, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke. He appeared to be around fifty, dressed in a plain gray robe, with an unremarkable face and a grating voice. "We’ve chased this Demon for months. Though we failed to eliminate it, we’ve surely drained most of its energy. It won’t resurface for at least a decade. There’s no need to pursue it further this time."
Zhen Yunzi let out a long sigh. "Very well. Dongyang Zhenren, Mr. Zhou, Long Jing Yuanjun—traveling alongside you these past months has been most enlightening. You are all masters of profound Mystic Arts. If fate allows, I hope we may cross paths again for further exchange. It’s a great regret that we failed to subdue the Fox Demon today. Since we’ve decided to end the chase, I shall take my leave first. Farewell."
True to his word, he wasted no time. With a flick of his sleeve, a Mystic Sword shot forth, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone, soaring into the distance on his blade.
The remaining group stood in silence on the cliff. After months of hunting the Fox Demon, they had come so close to success, only for things to end like this. Long Jing Yuanjun also sighed softly. "...In that case, I too shall bid farewell."
Noticing Xiao Bangchui staring at her blankly, she smiled—a gentle, graceful expression that seemed at odds with her earlier piercing gaze. "Little girl, if you wish to go to the No Moon Court, seek out that old man over there."
With those words, a sudden radiance shimmered around her. An Iridescent Silk Scarf, which had appeared out of nowhere, draped over her shoulders, its surface gleaming like precious jade. Light as a feather, she stepped off the cliff, the scarf billowing like wings as it carried her swiftly into the distance.
Mr. Zhou cupped his hands toward Dongyang Zhenren in a silent farewell, then vanished in the blink of an eye.
Now only she and Dongyang Zhenren remained on the cliff. The old man, his sleeves fluttering, still stood atop his gourd, eyeing her with a smile but saying nothing. Looking at him, Xiao Bangchui couldn’t help but think of her Master. Combined with his earlier act of kindness, of all the people here, she felt the closest to him.What should I do? He seems to be from the No Moon Court. Should I ask him to take me to find the eldest senior brother? He looks kind and cheerful, so he should be easy to talk to, right? She knew exactly what kind of child adults liked.
Xiao Bangchui cleared her throat and sweetly called out, "Grandpa, can you take me to the No Moon Court?"
Dongyang Zhenren smiled but neither nodded nor shook his head. "Try to catch up with me first."
Suddenly, his figure flickered and transformed into a gust of wind, vanishing before her eyes in the blink of an eye.
Xiao Bangchui froze for a moment—where had he gone? She looked around. The cliff was jagged with strange rocks, bathed in cold moonlight, with not a single soul in sight. Only her own shadow stretched long and faint under the pale moonlight.
Then, a flash of movement appeared at the cliff's edge—Dongyang Zhenren's white robe. Realization dawned on her, and she quickly wrapped the hemp rope around her wrists before leaping off the cliff, climbing down like a monkey.
Descending from the cliff top to the bottom took her less than an hour. She hurried along the narrow path in the middle of the cliff and soon entered the forest. The night wind howled around her, and the surroundings were pitch black. Stretching her neck to peer around, she suddenly spotted a figure flashing ahead—sharp-eyed, she immediately recognized it as Dongyang Zhenren from earlier.
"Grandpa!" she called out, but he seemed not to hear, floating leisurely three feet above the ground on a gourd.
Xiao Bangchui broke into a run, ignoring the rugged mountain path, stumbling and staggering along. She chased for nearly three or four miles, yet the figure remained just out of reach no matter how hard she ran. Gasping for breath, her vision swimming with stars, she finally couldn't go on and leaned against a tree, panting heavily.
As if noticing her exhaustion, the floating figure stopped, still maintaining the same distance. The gourd swayed gently, and the white-haired Celestial atop it smiled. Was this a test? Or was he toying with her?
She felt like she might cough up blood from exhaustion, but fear of him disappearing kept her eyes locked on that white figure. White hair, white beard, sleeves fluttering—she thought of her Master, of his sudden departure, of the letter he left telling her to find the eldest senior brother.
Gritting her teeth, a surge of fierce determination welled up from somewhere within her, and she started running again. The old Celestial on the gourd also began drifting forward slowly, repeating the terrifying nightmare of an unbridgeable gap.
She had no idea how long she had been running when the eastern sky began to glow faintly blue. Suddenly, something tripped her, sending her tumbling far ahead. Her head struck a rock hard, and with a loud "buzz" in her mind, everything went black as she fainted.
Not far away, Dongyang Zhenren finally halted. She had chased him for five or six miles—quite a persistent child. But it was a shame.
Earlier, when he patted her head and spoke, he had secretly released his Spiritual Power to test her Eight Extraordinary Meridians. Her aptitude wasn't bad, but it wasn't outstanding either—just mediocre. If he really took her in as a disciple, two hundred years of cultivation would likely be her limit.
Disciples like her were never in short supply at the No Moon Court. Among the various Immortal Sects nowadays, what they truly lacked were prodigies—after all, with the "Sea Fall" approaching, it was better to be prepared.The ancients always said diligence could compensate for lack of talent, but those Celestials who had attained the Great Dao understood best that these words were merely the self-comfort of mortals. Without innate aptitude, even a thousandfold increase in effort and sweat would not yield achievements proportional to such immense exertion. Only exceptional aptitude coupled with extreme dedication—and even a stroke of luck—could lead to true enlightenment.
This child truly hadn’t learned a single trace of the Arcane arts, lacking even the most basic foundation. Her physical stamina was mediocre at best—had she been able to chase for over ten miles, there might have been some hope. But this state of being neither here nor there left no possibility of her ever reaching enlightenment. A pity.
Dongyang Zhenren sighed softly. Well, since he couldn’t take her to the No Moon Court, he could at least do her the favor of sending her to the nearest town. Once back at his sect, he would help her find that senior brother of hers.
Sorry, little girl.
He turned to float over and pick her up when suddenly a cold wind howled through the forest, startling flocks of birds into flight. His heart skipped a beat as he glanced at the sky—it was the transition between Yin and Yang hours, the time when Demons roamed freely and nocturnal beasts returned to the woods, the most perilous moment in the forest.
The little girl, defenseless and asleep in such a place, was in grave danger.
Dongyang Zhenren swiftly flew back, only to find Xiao Bangchui unconscious beneath a tree. He let out a soft sound of surprise—the Demonic Miasma permeating the forest seemed to hit an invisible wall several feet around her, retreating in waves. Even more astonishingly, countless insects and ants slowly avoided her as she lay in the damp, filthy mud, yet not a single bug crawled over her.
Did she carry some kind of evil-repelling treasure? No, unlikely. Most such treasures emitted Spiritual energy, yet he sensed nothing of the sort—definitely not a treasure. Then was it her constitution? What kind of physique was this? The child seemed to be an orphan—could it be a hereditary peculiarity?
He recalled her earlier words on the cliff: she lived in the mountains yet had never encountered wild beasts. That should have been impossible, but witnessing this scene now, he found himself believing it. Was this an innate ability to repel evil and filth?
Dongyang Zhenren fell into deep thought. If so, then even if her aptitude wasn’t outstanding, he might just make an exception for her.
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