Three days had passed since then, and Lu Zhiyun could finally get out of bed and move around.
During those three days, while she lay in bed, her body would still occasionally spasm from the lingering side effects.
Recalling that day, Lu Zhiyun’s mind was filled with lingering fear.
She had foolishly trusted Lin Shu’s words, and in return, her body and mind had been devastated.
On that day, she had been inexplicably tied to a chair, unable to move. Immediately afterward, a powerful surge of electricity coursed through her limbs and bones, even touching her primordial spirit.
Although her Thunder Spiritual Root had indeed been revitalized, the price was being a vegetable for three days.
Three days!
During those three days, Lu Zhiyun could do nothing. She could only obediently let Lin Shu support her to feed her meals and milk, and change her clothes… Wait! The job of changing clothes was handled by the Immortal.
Speaking of the Sanqing Immortal, Lu Zhiyun felt a bit aggrieved.
The Immortal was clearly inside her mental space at the time, yet she simply refused to step in and help.
Lu Zhiyun sighed, smoothed out a few stray hairs, and sat at the table in a daze.
In the end, she only had herself to blame. She had been too carried away by her own arrogance, which led to everything that followed.
She had thought that with the Sanqing Immortal backing her up, she could act spoiled toward Lin Shu without restraint or even try to order him around.
But it had backfired. Instead, she had been outmaneuvered.
‘That’s right! All of this was just a warning from that evil cultivator!’
If she had chosen to run in that hamster wheel obediently from the start, none of this would have happened.
It was precisely because she had been careless enough to ask the evil cultivator for an alternative plan that she had committed a grave taboo.
Thinking about it carefully, such behavior was no different from indirectly rejecting him and challenging his authority.
Lu Zhiyun bit her lip, resting her chin on her delicate hand as she began to recall the biggest suspicious point of the past few days — Brother Wu Qinglong!
His appearance seemed accidental, but in reality, it was all Lin Shu’s clever arrangement and layout.
From the moment she heard about the Nine Heavens Divine Lightning to his appearance, and then the evil cultivator Lin Shu proposing the cultivation of Thunder Magic, Wu Qinglong had conveniently introduced the legendary 2.0 Dharma Tool.
Everything seemed perfectly natural and seamless, but…
There was a massive loophole in the middle: Wu Qinglong had not appeared once since then!
During the three days Lu Zhiyun lay in bed, the only people who came to visit were Lin Shu and the Immortal.
‘Suspicious! Extremely suspicious!’
Logically, as the person who recommended the use of the dharma tool, he should have checked on her condition. Afterward, even Lin Shu had looked after her for several days with a hint of “apology.”
Yet, Wu Qinglong never showed his face.
During this time, Lu Zhiyun had cautiously asked another senior sister who came to clean her room. The response was, “Brother Wu has recently received profound guidance from the Eldest Senior Brother. He has gained new insights into his techniques and plans to enter secluded meditation for a while.”
‘That answer is obviously suspicious!’
Lu Zhiyun thought about it. It was likely that the evil cultivator was afraid Wu Qinglong’s appearance would lead to too many questions, which might expose something!
Otherwise, as a fellow disciple of Green Phoenix Peak, there was no reason for him not to visit her…
‘It seems I really have to be careful in the future!’
While Lu Zhiyun was lost in her thoughts, her door was kicked open with great force by a graceful figure.
“Xiao Lu! I’m so angry! I’m telling you, your senior brother again —” The Sanqing Immortal’s chest heaved with indignation. When she saw that Lu Zhiyun could move freely, she exclaimed in surprise, “Oh! You can get out of bed now?”
Lu Zhiyun was already feeling aggrieved because the Sanqing Immortal had stood by and watched her get played. Now, she accidentally caught a glimpse of those magnificent, rolling waves. Comparing them to herself, her anger flared even more.
“Hmph!” Lu Zhiyun turned her head the other way, refusing to look at the Immortal.
The Sanqing Immortal walked over and looked at her. Lu Zhiyun turned away again. The Sanqing Immortal moved to the other side, and Lu Zhiyun turned again…
“Xiao Lu, are you angry?” the Sanqing Immortal asked.
“No!” Lu Zhiyun said flatly.
“You clearly are! Let me think…” The Sanqing Immortal began to ponder what she could have done to upset Lu Zhiyun recently.
First, she ruled out the time she didn’t help her a few days ago.
Then there was the matter of taking care of Lu Zhiyun. She was responsible for changing her clothes, while the feeding and milk were all handled personally by Lin Shu. So, that had nothing to do with her.
‘Changing clothes? Is there a problem with the clothes?’
The Sanqing Immortal’s limited brain cells began to work overtime.
She remembered that every time she took off Lu Zhiyun’s top, the girl would glare at her intensely whenever she leaned down, then look down at herself… Finally, she would wear an expression of complete despair, as if she had given up on life.
The Sanqing Immortal finally understood. So that was it.
She stepped forward to straighten Lu Zhiyun’s shoulders and said, “Xiao Lu, actually, you’re still young. You can still grow. Just drink more milk!”
“Who… Who’s angry because of that!” Lu Zhiyun’s face flushed as she snapped, “I was trying to say, why didn’t you help me when you saw me tied up back then?”
“Ah? So it was that!” The Sanqing Immortal slapped her forehead and said, “I can explain that!”
“Didn’t you obtain your Three Spiritual Roots by consuming the Green Wood Immortal Fruit?”
Lu Zhiyun asked in surprise, “How did you know?”
“It’s simple! I’m an Immortal! I can tell with one look!” The Sanqing Immortal laughed. “While that kind of immortal fruit can improve your spiritual root aptitude, it comes at a price.”
“For instance, the other branches of your spiritual roots will be weaker than a normal cultivator’s, or perhaps you can’t cultivate for a period of time after consuming it, otherwise you’ll face backlash…”
The Sanqing Immortal listed a whole bunch of precautions before finally concluding, “In short, the body-tempering effect of that dharma tool was the best possible option at the time. It wasn’t as dangerous as a Heavenly Tribulation, yet it was more effective than ordinary cultivation. That’s why I didn’t help!”
At this point, the Sanqing Immortal fell into deep thought, muttering, “But logically, that kind of dharma tool needs a lightning tribulation as a catalyst. Does Little Shu have a better way to draw down lightning?”
‘Can’t figure it out, forget it. I’ll ask another day.’
After hearing the explanation, Lu Zhiyun immediately forgave the Immortal, but she noticed something else.
‘You can’t cultivate for a while after consuming the Green Wood Immortal Fruit? But I managed to draw Qi into my body in a very short time back then…’
And yet, her body hadn’t shown any side effects. Why was that?
Before she could think further, the Sanqing Immortal interrupted her thoughts, becoming indignant again. “Xiao Lu, your senior brother is really infuriating!”
“What happened?” Lu Zhiyun asked.
“He! He actually rejected my grave-robbing adventure plan again!” The Sanqing Immortal sighed. “I just want to see if that Sanqing Priest is really my clone or not. Even that’s not allowed…”
The key was… that bastard actually made up those kinds of lies to trick her!!!
“Immortal, if Brother says no, then let it be,” Lu Zhiyun advised.
She was now the ‘Enlightened’ Lu Zhiyun. She would no longer try to challenge Lin Shu’s authority.
She needed a fresh start!
“Xiao Lu! I think you’re just too obedient!” The Sanqing Immortal shook her head and immediately decided to change her approach. She sighed deeply. “Sigh, my immortal soul is incomplete. Who knows when it will ever be repaired…”
“Immortal…”
As expected, Lu Zhiyun was drawn in by those words.
The Sanqing Immortal laughed inwardly but forced herself to continue the act. “After hundreds of thousands of years of slumber, waking up to find the world has changed… I feel so lonely by myself…”
“Immortal, you…” Lu Zhiyun was visibly moved.
“It’s fine. It’s just that taking care of you these past few days was quite tiring. It was my first time changing someone else’s clothes…”
“Immortal, say no more! I’ll go with you!” Lu Zhiyun lowered her head.
“No taking it back!” The Sanqing Immortal giggled.
Seeing that Lu Zhiyun was still worried, she patted her chest and guaranteed, “Don’t worry. If your brother blames us, I’ll take the fall for you!”
“Mm — okay!”
Lu Zhiyun decided to trust the Sanqing Immortal one more time. After all, she was an Immortal. She should… probably… maybe… be reliable?
“Then we’ll set off in a few days!” the Immortal said.
In truth, she had her own little scheme.
Lu Zhiyun was Lin Shu’s most precious junior sister. If she brought her along and they got into trouble, Lin Shu wouldn’t be too harsh on her for Lu Zhiyun’s sake.
And!
As long as they sneaked out without Lin Shu knowing, how could he possibly find out?
It wasn’t like Lin Shu would be sleeping in that ghostly place in the middle of the night, right?
‘Hahaha! How could I have such a ridiculous thought? How absurd!’
The Sanqing Immortal shook her head and began planning with Lu Zhiyun on how to enter the forbidden area.
—
A few more days passed.
At Green Phoenix Peak, inside a small pavilion, Lin Shu sat in the tea room as usual, sipping tea.
On the desk was a pile of unannotated documents, scattered and stacked like a mountain.
“Sigh, I really can’t catch a break!” Lin Shu lamented.
Ever since his Master and Senior Sister ran away, he was the only one left on the mountain to handle these affairs. He had been a protector for a while recently, causing quite a backlog.
Fortunately, the weather was nice today, making it a good time to handle them.
He leisurely picked up his brush and began making annotations.
The so-called “affairs” were nothing more than sect coordination tasks and minor issues on Green Phoenix Peak.
For example, a certain junior brother was going into deep secluded meditation and requested a massive amount of healing medicine. Lin Shu’s annotation: **Approved.**
Or, a certain Elder was strongly protesting Green Phoenix Peak’s interference in his sale of pirated books and demanding a refund of Spirit Stones. Lin Shu’s annotation: **Rejected. Request an extension of his confinement.**
Or perhaps, a certain Martial Uncle decided to host a culinary exchange gala and intended to invite the disciples of Green Phoenix Peak to be judges. Lin Shu’s annotation: **To be discussed. Green Phoenix Peak is currently holding a Bigu Competition. Please, Martial Uncle, give up on this idea.**
…
In less than a morning, Lin Shu had processed more than half of them.
“Speaking of which, the Immortal has been much quieter lately. She hasn’t mentioned digging up graves again…”
These past few days, the Sanqing Immortal had been seriously teaching Lu Zhiyun how to cultivate that “Thunder Shadow” spell, staying busy every day.
Lin Shu was very pleased. As expected, giving the Immortal something to do was the right move.
However, because he had been busy these last few days, system missions hadn’t been triggering much.
‘I still need to interact with people proactively!’
Just as he thought this, the system popped up.
**[Go back to your room to sleep. Spirit Qi: +10,000]**
**[Go back to Lu Zhiyun’s room to sleep, and sleep under the bed. Root Bone: +∞]**
**[Go sleep in the Sanqing Priest’s coffin. Special Attribute: +1]**