Si Yan looked at the woman before him, appearing to be in deep thought. After a long hesitation, he said, “You used the lingering obsession in your Divine Sense to send me this dream… Do you want me to help find your daughter?”
Zi Yinqing knelt gracefully. “Indeed. I beg for your help, Benefactor.”
Si Yan sighed and paced within the dream. “How many years has it been since your daughter left?” he asked slowly.
“About 200 years,” Zi Yinqing replied.
Si Yan scratched his head. “That’s quite a long time. She was so young back then; I don’t even know if she’s still alive… Do you want her to return and pay her respects?”
Zi Yinqing stood up, her expression earnest. “I just want to see her.”
Si Yan looked at the young woman’s slender figure and ample chest, secretly sighing at the waste. “I’ll be going on a long trip in a few days,” he said. “Tell me your daughter’s features. If we’re fated to meet, I’ll tell her to come back and find you. How about that?”
Hearing this, Zi Yinqing quickly knelt and bowed. “Thank you for your great kindness, Benefactor!”
Si Yan stroked his chin as he listened to her description. “A red mole on the collarbone and a birthmark on the buttocks…” he weight. “Those aren’t exactly easy to confirm. They’re both private areas for a woman.”
Gazing at the beautiful Zi Yinqing and considering a daughter who likely resembled her, Si Yan spoke to himself. ‘To identify her for you, I’ll just have to find as many candidates as possible to check.’
After saying her thanks and sobbing softly, Zi Yinqing prepared to leave his dream.
“Wait a second!” Si Yan shouted. “Hold on!”
Zi Yinqing paused and stood elegantly. Her long, pitch-black hair draped over her shoulders, and her beautiful, watery eyes fixed on Si Yan.
Si Yan puffed out his chest and spoke with authority. “Madam, as the saying goes, no one wakes up early without a profit. If you want a horse to run, you have to feed it grass. If I help find your daughter, that’s a great merit on my part. Calling me ‘Benefactor’ is just a nice word. To put it simply, how do you plan to repay me?”
Zi Yinqing was stunned. She seemed a bit distressed. “I am already dead,” she stammered. “How can I repay you… If you don’t mind, you can take the Ice Soul Pearl that preserves my body.”
Si Yan waved his hand. “What would I do with an Ice Soul Pearl? Besides being better than a block of ice, what else is it good for? I don’t need it for now.”
Zi Yinqing tried again tentatively. “The coffin I lie in was refined from Condensed Jade from the Upper Realm. Although I turned it into a coffin, it can assist in cultivation and increase its speed. If you don’t mind, once you find my beloved daughter and bury my body, you can…”
Si Yan waved his hand again. “No, no! It’s just Condensed Jade! The floor tiles of my Destiny Pavilion are all made of Condensed Jade!”
Back in the Upper Realm, Si Yan’s Destiny Pavilion had been refined by the most outstanding celestial craftsman who had reached the pinnacle of the myriad worlds.
Zi Yinqing bit her lower lip. “Then… the purple dress I’m wearing was refined by an expert from the Upper Realm. It can resist spells related to the Grand Dao of Water and Fire. If you don’t mind, you could… carefully remove it and give it to your little disciple to wear… and then bury my body…”
Si Yan still shook his head, saying proudly, “No, no! I can refine clothes of that level myself. I still don’t want it! Not interested!”
“Then the bracelet on my wrist…”
“Don’t want it, don’t want it!”
“Then the inner lining I’m wearing contains Heavenly Silkworm Gold Silk…”
“No interest, no interest!”
Finally, Zi Yinqing bit her lip so hard she almost cried from shame. “Bene… Benefactor, if you don’t mind… my body is preserved by the Ice Soul Pearl. Although the Divine Soul is gone, the body will remain unchanged for 10,000 years. If you find it acceptable, you may take my body… perhaps… perhaps you could even conceive a child!”
Hearing this, Si Yan’s throat went dry. “You… you scoundrel! Do you think I am such a shameless and debauched person?!”
But as soon as those words left his mouth, Si Yan woke up. Zi Yinqing had already faded from his dream.
Si Yan stood up and drank some tea. Looking at the moon outside, he muttered to himself, ‘Jokes aside, how am I supposed to find her daughter?’
A cultivator’s promise carried the weight of cause and effect.
Since he had agreed, it meant their fates were now intertwined. Si Yan understood in his heart that this matter wouldn’t end easily.
Moreover, he had forgotten to ask her about the tragedy in that palace. Why would a being like a Deity be in this realm? And who would hunt her down in such a hidden place?
—
It was around the afternoon of the next day when the three of them returned to the Destiny Pavilion.
Coincidentally, it began to rain.
Si Yan threw the oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and various seasonings he had bought to Yuling, then sat under the eaves to wait for a meal.
Actually, Si Yan liked the rain. Watching it always brought him a sense of peace. He also used these moments to reflect on his past.
He looked at the sky, at the seemingly endless firmament.
Time passed like a song. A span of 10,000 years was but a blink of an eye. Were the people from back then—the disciples he taught and his former friends—still doing well?
He couldn’t help but fall into deep thought…
However, when his profound gaze landed on the clothes in the courtyard that hadn’t been brought in yet, his eyes suddenly lit up!
“Oh, oh, oh!”
Tao’er forgot to bring in her inner lining and bellyband!
‘Since my disciple isn’t here, I’ll take her place as her master!’