“Huh, were you a boy before?” Mu Yanxi asked, having caught Wei Ling making a slip of the tongue. She had claimed that “a real man should go sharpen himself,” something only someone who was once a man would say.
“That was already three years ago…” Wei Ling’s face turned beet red, and she could only whisper, “That…”
“Oh~” Mu Yanxi remembered. Wei Ling had been promoted directly from the Spiritual Moon Chuzong. This meant that by the time she entered the Chuzong, she had already transformed from a boy into a girl.
She told herself she had already accepted her identity as a woman as much as she could, but she still felt uncomfortable being scrutinized by Mu Yanxi.
Throughout her three years at the Spiritual Moon Chuzong, she had felt Mu Yanxi’s attitude toward her was strange.
“W-what? Is it wrong that I was a boy before?” Wei Ling asked, feeling a bit defiant.
“It’s nothing.” Mu Yanxi had intended to say, ‘No wonder I always felt you had an inexplicable fondness for Shangguan Yun,’ but she figured there was no need to ask.
Mu Yanxi changed the subject, asking, “Why are the senior sisters of the Idol Enthusiast Club mostly former boys? And what does that ‘dead-end Otaku’ mean?”
Wei Ling explained, “Girls like male cultivator idols. It was originally one single club, but those who chased after these fairy idols were mostly boys, while those who liked male cultivator idols were mostly girls.”
“Because the differences were too great, they fought and even dueled all day long, eventually splitting into the Idol Enthusiast Club and the Star-Chasing Society. This is a secret history only disciples who have stayed in the Spiritual Moon Chuzong would know.”
Mu Yanxi recalled the names of the clubs she had seen, which had several different suffixes.
Summarizing them, it seemed they were divided by scale: society is larger than department, department is larger than club, and clubs are at the bottom. As expected, the vast majority of disciples in the spiritual moon High Sect were true female cultivators.
“As for ‘dead-end Otaku,’ it refers to those who only know how to stay at home in seclusion, watching these idols or streamers all day, letting them guide their cultivation, or drowning themselves in the illusions of the Taiqing Immortal Domain and just getting by.”
“They usually have empty cultivation bases, but their actual combat capabilities are a total mess,” Wei Ling continued.
“There are also those who only know how to bury their heads in cultivation, who are completely ignorant of combat and have no practical experience; ‘dead-end Otaku’ is surprisingly fitting to describe these people.”
“So that’s how it is.” Mu Yanxi nodded. In her past life, she hadn’t looked down on cultivators who lived in seclusion, as cultivation level was everything.
However, this world seemed to value practical combat more; even in a sect like the Spiritual Moon High Sect, which aimed to produce service-oriented female cultivators, being an Elite disciple depended on combat.
Since Wei Ling was a soldier-cultivator, her high regard for combat ability was greater than most, so it was no surprise she looked down on these senior sisters from the Idol Enthusiast Club.
Just then, the senior from the Spiritual Moon Palace on the screen finished singing a song, the picture cut, and a dance troupe appeared.
On the screen was a goddess-like fairy with beauty that could cause the fish to sink and the geese to settle. Her cool, noble temperament made one feel inferior, as if she were a banished immortal from the heavens.
Mu Yanxi was somewhat familiar with this fairy’s image. Her ethereal temperament was completely different from the woman from the Spiritual Moon Palace just moments ago.
Although the former was also beautiful as a fairy, her temperament was lively and approachable. If anyone were asked who the true fairy was, everyone would agree it was the latter; she was born to be an immortal.
“Ah, it’s Fairy Luyue from the Qingjin Palace, the national-level idol of the Qingxu Kingdom. Even many girls like her very much; she should be the most uncontroversial idol… hmm?” Wei Ling was halfway through speaking when she seemed to sense something and looked at Mu Yanxi.
“Fellow daoists, today I will play a song of ‘Spring River Flower Moon’ for everyone,” Fairy Luyue said in a cold, clear voice. She placed her hands on her zither and began to play.
A classical melody rang out, the rhythm pulling at the circulation of mana within Mu Yanxi’s body. Every time Fairy Luyue’s jade fingers plucked the strings, her Divine Soul pulsed with the music.
She then parted her cherry lips slightly, humming softly as she played. The sound was like the singing of a lark or the gentle trill of an oriole, enough to make one intoxicated, unable to stop.
When the woman from the Spiritual Moon Palace was singing and dancing earlier, there were shouts of support from the audience, and the atmosphere was wildly enthusiastic.
But now, the stage was completely quiet; there was only Fairy Luyue’s singing, the sound of the zither, and the glow sticks swaying slowly with the music.
However, the aura did not weaken in the slightest; it was simply that the two performers had different styles. In fact, Fairy Luyue’s aura was even deeper and more intense, with more profound emotions and spiritual power, making it clear they were not idols on the same level.
This time, the range covered by the aura was even larger, and even Mu Yanxi and her two companions on the edge were enveloped.
Mu Yanxi was completely immersed in it, her own energy even resonating with the aura, causing the mana in her body to surge like it was boiling.
“So, Yanxi, you are a fan of Fairy Luyue!” Lei Mulan said, too straightforward to keep it to herself.
Mu Yanxi was also surprised. She hadn’t expected she could integrate into the support aura of the Idol Enthusiast Club and enjoy the effect of accelerated cultivation.
The reason was simple: the original host was a fan of Fairy Luyue, and the statue of Fairy Luyue was still in her Terminal Ring.
But what she didn’t expect was that although the original host’s Divine Soul had long since gone missing, replaced by her own, the connection between this body and Fairy Luyue had not broken at all.
Her mana even flowed through her Meridians spontaneously with the rhythm of the zither and the singing.
The reason was simple: this portion of mana was originally cultivated while listening to Fairy Luyue’s songs. It was just like the supreme oneness sword Qi she had cultivated using the spiritual moon art after her double cultivation with Shangguan Yun last night.
Because the former Mu Yanxi had no spiritual root, her rare opportunities to practice likely included buying tickets to watch Fairy Luyue’s concerts, then absorbing spiritual energy from the resonant aura at the scene and converting it into mana as she followed the songs. One could tentatively call it “Luyue Mana” or “Luyue Qi.”
Now that she heard the sound of her zither and singing again, the mana, which was originally of the same root and origin, moved automatically and underwent self-cultivation.
This was originally a good thing, and it was no wonder there were so-called “dead-end Otaku cultivators”—they only listened to songs and watched dances, allowing for automatic cultivation without having to work hard at it themselves.
Through this, Mu Yanxi could truly understand the incense path of this world. The path of songs, the path of dance, and the path of idols essentially all belonged to the incense path. The mana in her body was equivalent to something “bestowed” by Fairy Luyue.
But this also meant that if the two were to stand face-to-face, Fairy Luyue could completely withdraw this mana in an instant, or even use it to influence or control Mu Yanxi—this was the flaw of the incense path.
The only awkward one was Wei Ling. She had just said a whole bunch of things looking down on the Idol Enthusiast Club, and she hadn’t expected that her own mistress was also an idol chaser. That made things a little embarrassing.