Probably because she felt especially at ease being back home, Li Fei slept until the sun was setting before waking up. Opening her eyes, she realized she had been moved to the bed at some point, with a freshly sun-dried blanket draped over her—soft and fragrant. She stretched lazily, jumped off the bed, and peeked outside to see Lei Xiuyuan still organizing the books in the courtyard.
Noticing her, he scowled. "Are you a pig? Sleeping this late, leaving your guest bored and starving."
Li Fei walked over with a grin. "You ate so much at noon—are you really hungry already?"
She crouched beside him, watching as he carefully packed the books into a crate. The yellowed, moldy books had been cleaned of dust and mildew after a day in the sun. What was rare wasn’t just his competence, but the care he showed for Master’s belongings. Feeling grateful, she murmured, "Thank you, you little rascal."
Lei Xiuyuan blinked. "Rascal?"
Li Fei laughed. "Sometimes you drive people crazy, and just when I think I never want to be friends with you again, you turn so nice and pull me back in. Brother Lu definitely didn’t teach you this trick, did he?"
He seemed to stifle a laugh, turning his head away with feigned indifference. "Alright, hurry up and finish packing these books. Then make dinner—I want meat. Go catch a rabbit."
So demanding! Li Fei glared at him. "If you catch a rabbit, you roast it yourself. I don’t know how."
That night, they actually did hunt a wild rabbit. Lei Xiuyuan set up a fire in the courtyard and roasted it himself, turning it occasionally and sprinkling salt with surprising skill.
Li Fei moved the table outside, watching him cook while teasing, "Master isn’t as clever as you. If he wants meat, he has to go down the mountain."
Lei Xiuyuan suddenly asked, "He goes down alone? And climbs back up alone too?"
"Yeah, Master scales Tiger Jaw Cliff really fast. Don’t let his age fool you—he’s more agile than me."
He fell into thought. Ever since arriving at Green Mound, he’d felt something was off. As the rumors said, this was a wild, monster-infested mountain forest. Even with the Evil-warding Pearl, the overwhelming demonic aura couldn’t be hidden—if anything, there were more monstrous creatures here than expected. So how had the two of them lived here safely without the pearl?
If Li Fei’s Master was truly just an old man who knew only scraps of arcane arts, as she claimed, it was strange that he and a little girl could survive in a place like Green Mound, teeming with demons. Had they never encountered monsters? Creatures that fed on human essence would find someone with only a trace of spiritual energy and weak abilities especially tempting.
Setting aside the issue of monsters, after entering Green Mound, he had observed the terrain—jagged peaks and sheer cliffs everywhere, with Tiger Jaw Cliff being the shortest. Even if one used ropes, they’d still have to climb barehanded first. The middle of Tiger Jaw Cliff was concave and slippery; not even a monkey could scale it. How could an ordinary person climb it? The only explanation was that her Master could fly—at least the first time he came up.Being able to fly and live safely in Green Mound, a place teeming with monstrous creatures, Li Fei's master was most likely from an Immortal Sect, and his skills must have been formidable. Yet he lived in seclusion, hiding his identity and posing as a charlatan who only knew bits of Arcane arts, which suggested he was evading someone. A year ago, when he abruptly left home with only a letter, it was likely because he had been discovered. Moreover, he instructed Li Fei to seek out her senior brother, implying he intended to entrust her to his care from then on.
The more Lei Xiuyuan thought about it, the more he doubted her master was still alive. There was probably some internal conflict within the Immortal Sect involved as well.
Looking at Li Fei's oblivious smile, he decided against voicing his thoughts.
She had never questioned her master's origins, which was understandable—people rarely doubted their closest kin. There was no need to spell everything out and add to her sorrow. Besides, if this involved disputes among Immortals, it was best to stay far away. Her master must have thought the same.
"Why did you suddenly go quiet?" Li Fei handed him a bowl of rice and sat beside him, watching as he roasted the rabbit.
Lei Xiuyuan flipped the rabbit over and said, "I want bamboo shoots."
Li Fei calmly picked up a slice of bamboo shoot with her chopsticks and held it out to him. "Here."
Just as he opened his mouth to take it, she pulled her hand back and stuffed the bamboo shoot into her own mouth instead. He shot her a glance, and she grinned triumphantly, her cheeks puffed out like a squirrel's from the food.
He couldn't help but laugh. "Dummy."
That night, sleeping on the familiar wooden bed—though the mattress was hard and the blanket stiff, far less comfortable than the Academy—Li Fei felt an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head touched the pillow.
After what felt like hours, a familiar voice suddenly shrieked in her ear, "...Bed! Idiot! Get off the bed right now!"
Bleary-eyed, Li Fei opened her eyes to see Ri Yan perched on the blanket, his beady green eyes glaring furiously at her. "I've been calling you forever! Are you a pig or what?!"
She yawned and rolled over, mumbling, "Oh, Ri Yan, you're awake... I'm so tired, let's talk in the morning..."
"Get down now!" Ri Yan roared.
"What's the matter?" Li Fei sighed and reluctantly sat up, rubbing her eyes. Outside, the moon still hung above the treetops—it was the middle of the night!
"When did you return to Green Mound? Why didn't you tell me?" There was an unusual note of urgency in his voice.
Li Fei mumbled, "Last time you were awake, I didn't know the Academy would give us fifteen days off. Since we had the break, I came back to visit."
Ri Yan froze for a moment before suddenly bursting into laughter, doubling over with mirth. Li Fei was startled. "What's wrong with you?"
"Heaven helps me!" He floated lightly to the ground, ears and tail twitching excitedly. "Quick! Come with me right now!"
He seemed ready to dash out the door. Li Fei was baffled. "Where are we going this late?"
"Less talking! Get moving!"
Utterly confused but seeing how frantic he was, Li Fei had no choice but to dress, put on her shoes, and push open the door. The cold mountain wind hit her, instantly sharpening her senses.
Come to think of it, she and Ri Yan had first met at Tiger Jaw Cliff in Green Mound. A thought suddenly struck her, and she whispered, "Ri Yan, have you lived in Green Mound before?"He leaped onto her shoulder, his ears twitching incessantly: "Good. I knew long ago that the Year of Calamity was approaching, so I sealed part of my Demon Qi in the Sweet Splendor Realm of Green Mound as a precaution."
Li Fei gasped in delight: "Where is it? I'll go right now!"
Ri Yan snapped angrily: "Quiet! Shouting so loudly—do you want that cunning boy next door to hear?"
Li Fei immediately shut her mouth and glanced back. The lights in Master's room were already out, so Lei Xiuyuan must have gone to sleep. Channeling her spiritual energy, she silently leaped onto the stone sword and soared into the sky.
"Ri Yan, we've been neighbors for ten years. Did you ever see me before?" she asked curiously as they flew.
Ri Yan replied indifferently: "Green Mound is vast. Since I attained enlightenment through cultivation, I haven't lived there for centuries. Fly west."
Li Fei adjusted the sword's course and sped westward. He occasionally gave directions, and after flying for a long time, she suddenly saw two towering peaks rising abruptly ahead, strangely hollow at their centers. Having lived here for ten years, she had never known Green Mound held such a wonder.
"Now, you should be able to see the Sweet Splendor Realm. Fly toward that gap."
Sweet Splendor Realm? Did he mean the large opening between the mountains? Li Fei suddenly recalled how Dongyang Zhenren had refused to take her to No Moon Court, saying she wouldn't even be able to see where it was. She murmured, "Ri Yan, is the Sweet Splendor Realm like No Moon Court—a place where the world's spiritual energy gathers? Could I not see it before?"
Surprisingly, Ri Yan was in a good mood and even spoke kindly: "Oh? Correct, you've guessed it. Though you had spiritual energy within you before, your spiritual apertures were unopened, making you no different from a mortal. You couldn't perceive places where the world's spiritual energy or miasma accumulate."
A place where spiritual energy gathers... and it looks this bizarre? No matter how you look at it, a hollow mountain is just too strange.
As Li Fei sped toward the center of the mountains, about to plunge into the gap, Ri Yan suddenly spoke: "Wait. Someone's behind us."
Someone? Could it be Lei Xiuyuan following them? How had she not noticed at all?
Li Fei halted abruptly and looked back. Amid the overlapping mountain shadows, a dark figure seemed to flicker in the distance before vanishing into the forest. Though her eyes were sharp, she could only make out that the person was tall and long-legged—definitely not Lei Xiuyuan. Their build suggested an adult. Instantly tense, she whispered, "There really is someone! What do we do? Should we still go in?"
Ri Yan closed his eyes, concentrating briefly, then opened them with a cold laugh: "It's that persistent fool again. Such patience—he actually followed us all the way from the Academy, biding his time just for this opportunity?"
Li Fei thought carefully, and a chill ran down her spine. She murmured, "Could it be... that Zhen Yunzi?"
No way! He'd been tailing them? Wasn't he afraid of becoming a target for all the Immortals?
Ri Yan chuckled darkly: "Driven by greed, he must have reached his limit—the arrow is already on the bowstring. Pay him no mind. That idiot will lose half his life here today."
Li Fei was utterly exasperated: "Ri Yan, I think it's us who'll lose half our lives. What if he follows us into the Sweet Splendor Realm?"Ri Yan said coldly, "Do you think my domain is a place anyone can just waltz into? If I weren't possessing you, even if you became an Immortal, you wouldn't dream of barging into the Sweet Splendor Realm! Without such methods, wouldn't those Immortal Sects have been blown to pieces by their enemies long ago?"
The implication was that even if these places where spiritual energy converged could be seen by cultivators, once they were established as abodes, one still needed the owner's permission to enter.
"Enough, get inside quickly," Ri Yan urged.
Li Fei protested anxiously, "What about Xiu Yuan if we go in? He's still asleep! Zhen Yunzi will kill him!"
Ri Yan snapped angrily, "Let him kill then! What's it to you?"
"Of course it matters! He's my friend!" Li Fei was furious too.
Ri Yan fumed at her lack of ambition, "With this attitude, you'll never achieve the Great Dao in ten thousand years! Fine! Don't worry about that brat. Right now, that so-called master's mind isn't on him at all. No matter how long we're inside, he'll be waiting anxiously at the door. Besides, while the mantis stalks the cicada, the oriole follows behind! Now get your ass inside!"
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