Bai Qianqian lay beside a tree trunk.
Her mind had been strained just moments ago, and after the excessive exertion, her body had long since lost its strength.
When she saw the flowers blooming from her wounds and thought about how she was about to become a withered corpse, her gaze became incredibly dejected.
‘If Master sees me looking this ugly after I die, I’ll be hated…’
Bai Qianqian recalled how, in the past, her Master would show a look of disdain just by looking at a teacup with a pattern that was not delicate enough.
She imagined that her Master would likely kick her withered corpse aside in disgust.
Although Bai Qianqian hated this way of dying, she had no choice but to accept it.
However, after closing her eyes and waiting for a long time, the expected end did not happen.
When she opened her eyes in confusion, she discovered that the flowers growing in her wounds were continuously secreting nectar.
“This is…”
Puzzled, Bai Qianqian pushed aside the flowers at her wound, only to find that the secreted nectar had not only sealed the injury but had even stopped the bleeding.
‘Are these flowers healing me?’
At this thought, Bai Qianqian slowly stood up.
She looked at the endless sea of flowers around her and the several withered skeletons at her feet.
A hint of a blush began to creep onto her cheeks, and a look of intoxication appeared in her eyes.
‘So, I have been protected all this time. I want to see Master so much. I… I can’t hold back anymore…’
Bai Qianqian covered her face tightly with her hands, but the gaze peeking through the gaps in her fingers revealed an indescribable fanaticism.
If Lin Xinyi were here, she would certainly think that the side effects of the girl’s cultivation technique had flared up, but Bai Qianqian’s consciousness was perfectly clear at this moment.
….
On the other side, Lin Xinyi only felt that someone had triggered her arrays—in fact, several had been triggered at once.
Her body, which had been traveling at high speed, stopped in mid-air.
Only after sensing that Bai Qianqian’s life was not in danger did she slowly open her eyes.
‘Truly, she causes so much worry. Still, who has the audacity to trespass into the area I’ve cordoned off…’
A trace of cruelty flashed in the corners of Lin Xinyi’s eyes, but now was clearly not the time to go back and settle accounts.
Looking at the mountain range in the distance that pierced the clouds, she really wanted to go back and figure out what had happened, but since she had already arrived, she had to go in and take a look.
“Greetings, Master Changqing.”
Lin Xinyi arrived before the sect’s formation.
Despite her wearing a mask, the moment she produced the token in her hand, the two guarding disciples immediately bowed with their hands clasped.
Lin Xinyi waved her hand and walked straight inside.
“Is this the sect you belong to? The scale doesn’t look small at all~”
As soon as Lin Xinyi entered the sect, Luo Qingyao, who had been silent, floated out again.
She looked at the mountain ranges in the distance.
Those mountains seemed far apart yet were interconnected, appearing completely different from what was visible from the outside.
The view from outside was likely an illusion created by the sect’s protective array.
“The Hidden Immortal Sect… that’s a good name.”
Luo Qingyao looked at the three large characters written on the plaque at the main gate.
With just a single glance, she could see the Immortal charm within them.
The characters on the gate’s plaque were likely written by someone with a cultivation level in the True Immortal Realm—perhaps the ancestor who ascended to immortality when the sect was founded.
‘Whether this sect is good or not has nothing to do with me. It’s just a place to rest…’
As Lin Xinyi walked into the sect, every disciple she passed bowed in greeting.
She did not stay for long, immediately taking flight toward her own branch’s peak.
“In such a large sect, although it seems glorious, the spiritual energy erupting from these mountains is actually quite different from one another…”
Luo Qingyao’s eyes faintly emitted a deep blue flame as she took in every mountain peak.
Lin Xinyi did not pay much attention to Luo Qingyao’s words, though she hadn’t expected the other woman to notice such subtle variations.
Then again, considering her identity as the remnant soul of an Immortal Venerable, it made sense.
“I’m starting to get curious. Is there anything you can’t see, Lady Immortal Venerable?”
Lin Xinyi spoke casually, but Luo Qingyao slowly floated in front of her.
Just as Lin Xinyi was wondering what she was up to, she found Luo Qingyao staring intently at her, making her feel quite uncomfortable.
Lin Xinyi intended to ignore her, but Luo Qingyao slowly let out a seemingly trivial comment.
“I can also see that your spirit seems to have been constantly strained…”
“…”
With that single sentence, Lin Xinyi, who was flying toward her Grotto-heaven, came to a halt.
Originally, she wanted to treat it as nonsense, but for some reason, her brain flared up with heat upon hearing those words, and she snapped back.
“What a joke. I reached the Nascent Soul Stage within 100 years and possess countless treasures. The world even calls me Master Changqing. What could I possibly be strained about?”
Lin Xinyi’s emotions fluctuated for a moment, but she immediately forced them back down.
Luo Qingyao saw everything but did not continue the topic.
She simply scratched her head and looked in another direction.
“Maybe I saw it wrong…”
Seeing that the other woman did not say anything else, Lin Xinyi chose not to pursue it.
She went to the foot of her mountain, extended a fingertip, and lightly tapped.
A dense cluster of arrays appeared before her.
Lin Xinyi tapped again, and the arrays began to flow along with the spiritual energy, looking like ripples on water.
An ordinary person would have been dazzled by the sight.
“You really are cautious. The complexity of the defensive arrays for this Grotto-heaven is comparable to the sect’s main protective array~”
“Lady Immortal Venerable, you have an awful lot to say today…”
After the array opened, Lin Xinyi stepped inside.
However, the moment she entered, she heard a melodious song that instantly made her soul feel as if it were being soothed.
Lin Xinyi slowly removed the mask from her face and looked up to see Qin Huaiyin.
The girl was currently sitting in a small pavilion in the center of the blood pool, the jade pipa in her hands bringing peace to one’s heart.
“You even have a woman like this in your Grotto-heaven? No wonder you set up such complex arrays. Were you afraid someone would steal her away~?”
Luo Qingyao watched from a distance and slowly closed her eyes, appreciating the wonderful skill displayed on the pipa.
Luo Qingyao didn’t know how long it had been since she had heard such music.
Perhaps from the moment she became a remnant soul, she had never heard it again.
Memories from when she was still an Immortal Venerable seemed to be stirred up.
‘This battle is good, but where is the musician to assist us?!’
As an Immortal Venerable, Luo Qingyao had not stood in the rear like others.
She had campaigned across the Great Thousand World, seizing countless territories.
With her Silver Dragon Spear and her steed, she had pierced through an unknown number of Immortal Emperors.
And her best friend had always stood behind her, playing music to bolster her.
“I really miss it…”
Seeing Qin Huaiyin’s figure, Luo Qingyao was momentarily pulled into those memories.
She had trusted that person more than anyone else.
Even when she was eventually drugged by her, Luo Qingyao had naively believed that her friend had been coerced.
“I’m not interested in your memories, Lady Immortal Venerable. However, my disciple’s attainment in music is indeed like celestial music~”
Seeing the other woman’s intoxicated look, a hint of pride appeared on Lin Xinyi’s face.
She looked very much like a parent boasting about their child’s grades.
“To be so young and already in the Core Formation Stage… however, her spiritual energy is a bit too pure, isn’t it?”
Luo Qingyao looked at Qin Huaiyin sitting in the pavilion.
Although the girl seemed perfect, under those insightful eyes, the flow of spiritual energy within her body was as obvious as a peeled apple.
“That… everyone has a different method of education.”
Lin Xinyi had no intention of explaining.
But how could Luo Qingyao not see through such a method of cultivation?
She merely glanced at Lin Xinyi and had no intention of exposing it.
“Is that so? Your method of cultivation is quite novel…”
“It’s average~”