Chapter 13

Xu Manman nervously dismissed Li Que and Ao Xiu before heading to the herb garden to see Immortal Lang Yin.

Actually, Immortal Lang Yin hadn’t come to find her, which reassured her greatly. She was almost certain he had no memory of last night’s events; otherwise, given those two slaps, he would have come to capture her for fertilizer as soon as he woke up.

When Xu Manman arrived at the hut, it was around noon, the gentlest time of the day for Immortal Lang Yin.

“Greetings, Immortal Master,” Xu Manman greeted with a warm smile, even warmer than the spring breeze.

Immortal Lang Yin looked a bit unwell; his handsome face was slightly pale and tired. It was unclear if the injury from spitting blood was severe or if Xu Manman’s blood-sucking had caused more harm.

Immortal Lang Yin gave Xu Manman a fleeting glance, revealing no emotion.

“What is it?”

“I’ve found some clues likely related to the Blood Sect and plan to leave for Youzhou today to investigate. Would the Immortal Master be willing to accompany me?” Xu Manman asked humbly.

Immortal Lang Yin nodded without much hesitation and said, “Alright.”

Xu Manman was taken aback. She had prepared a lot of explanations, but none were needed.

“Li Que and Ao Xiu will also accompany us. I’ve arranged to meet them at the mountain gate,” Xu Manman continued.

Immortal Lang Yin frowned at this. “Why are they coming?”

“One more person always means more strength. If there is some dirty and tiring work that Immortal Master is not convenient to do, just give it to them.” Xu Manman explained with a smile.

Immortal Lang Yin reluctantly accepted this reasoning after hearing her explanation. He scrutinized Xu Manman for a moment before saying, “Your name is Xu Yanyue?”

Xu Manman smiled, “The Immortal Master has a good memory.”

“Was your name inspired by the Lian Yue Crown?” Lang Yin asked thoughtfully.

“Daozun gave me this name. As for her thoughts behind it, I’m not entirely sure…” Xu Manman replied. The Lian Yue Crown had already been reclaimed by Immortal Lang Yin, and Xu Manman didn’t dare ask for it back.

Xu Manman had not known Li Que and Ao Xiu for long, but she had known Immortal Lang Yin since she was fourteen, treating him with the respect of a teacher. Before yesterday, she never would have imagined herself slapping him and biting his neck.

Fortunately,Immortal Lang Yin did not remember, but she could not erase the little bit of guilt, and her waist bent more devoutly.

Immortal Lang Yin started walking outside, and Xu Manman followed closely.

“Explain the clues you’ve found in detail,” Immortal Lang Yin instructed.

“Yes!”

Xu Manman finished explaining the details to Immortal Lang Yin just as they reached the mountain gate. Li Que and Ao Xiu were already there, standing back-to-back, ignoring each other.

Xu Manman approached with a smile to ease the tension.

“Both of you are here, right on time.”

The atmosphere grew more awkward…

Li Que, looking uncomfortable, whispered, “In the future, can you not call me ‘little brother’ in front of others? Just call me Li Que.”

Xu Manman replied earnestly, “There are no outsiders here; we’re all family.”

Li Que nearly choked with frustration, glaring at Xu Manman before transforming into his true form and flying into the sky. His beautiful tail scattered golden light, a breathtaking sight.

Xu Manman called out, “Don’t rush off; give me a ride.”

Hearing this, Li Que soared higher…

Xu Manman looked at Ao Xiu again, and Ao Xiu turned into a silver light without saying a word and flew towards Huizhou.

Shaking her head helplessly, Xu Manman realized she hadn’t yet subdued the two divine beasts. Forget it; don’t be impatient; she is a very patient person; otherwise, she would not be called Xu Manman. (Manman means “slowly”).

Turning back to Immortal Lang Yin with a smile, she said, “Immortal Master, my abilities are limited. If I fly on my own, I won’t reach Huizhou until tomorrow. Could you give me a lift?”

Immortal Lang Yin nodded indifferently, sweeping his wide sleeves. A long, narrow green leaf extended at his feet like a small boat.

Xu Manman quickly sat on the leaf boat, smiling, “The Immortal Master is broad-minded, unlike those two…”

Immortal Lang Yin made no comment, and the leaf boat rose with the wind, swiftly covering several miles.

Xu Manman sat cross-legged on the leaf boat, watching the Siyi sect gradually shrink in the distance, feeling a bit melancholy.

“Do you not want to leave Siyi Sect?” Immortal Lang Yin’s voice came from above.

Xu Manman looked up to see Immortal Lang Yin standing on the leaf, the mountain wind lifting his robes like a painting.

The Immortal Master is truly handsome—Xu Manman thought, feeling guilty for slapping him.

“Siyi Sect is a place of outstanding people and beautiful scenery. The disciples treat me well, so of course, I’m reluctant to leave,” Xu Manman admitted honestly.

“You’ve only been here a few days; how much could you know?”

“I’m naturally not as knowledgeable as the Immortal Master,” Xu Manman said, her eyes turning as she probed.

“I heard from Qun Yu Fangzun that sixty years ago, you were invited to the Flower God Palace but refused, saying you stayed at the Siyi sect for Daozun. Was that just an excuse?”

Immortal Lang Yin glanced at her and said, “Just ask whatever you want to ask; why beat around the bush?”

“Since the Immortal Master has spoken, I dare to speak frankly. The Immortal Master has a noble identity and an immortal status. No matter which sect he goes to, he is always a guest of honor. But the Siyi sect was in ruins, and the gates were deserted back then. Master Nian Yi was just an idle person who grew flowers and plants. What attracted the Immortal Master to stay here for a long time?”

“It was because of Xu Manman,” Immortal Lang Yin replied without hesitation.

Such directness caught Xu Manman off guard, but then she remembered Immortal Lang Yin’s straightforward nature, disdainful of lies.

“But everyone knows she had poor talent, only opening her spiritual aperture at sixteen. Did you see some hidden potential in her?” Xu Manman asked, puzzled.

“She had no exceptional potential,” Immortal Lang Yin replied bluntly.

Xu Manman smiled bitterly, rubbing her chin, “Then I don’t understand. If she had no special qualities, why did you stay for her for three hundred years?”

Immortal Lang Yin was silent for a long moment before saying, “At first, I had no choice…”

“And later?”

“Later… I stayed willingly.”

Immortal Lang Yin’s voice was as light as a sigh, carried away by the wind, yet it lingered in Xu Manman’s heart, causing ripples.

She suppressed the shock in her heart and couldn’t help holding her breath to peek at Immortal Lang Yin’s face. After knowing each other for three hundred years, this was the first time she saw such a melancholy look on the face of Immortal Lang Yin, which made him, who was high above, fragile and real as a mortal.

What had made him stay out of obligation, and when had it turned into willingness?

Xu Manman tried to recall the past but couldn’t find any clues.

She first met Immortal Lang Yin at the herb garden when she was fourteen. The sunlight that day was just as warm as today. She clearly remembered fainting in the garden from exhaustion the previous day and being carried back to the medicine hut by her master. When she woke up late in the morning, she smelled a captivating fragrance and saw a tall figure, like a pine tree, with sunlight filtering through the bamboo forest, creating a dreamlike scene. He was like a god from a dream.

“Manman, wake up and meet Immortal Lang Yin,” her master’s voice came, faintly.

The godlike figure turned slightly, and as a breeze rustled the bamboo, the dappled sunlight highlighted his delicate and aloof features.

In Xu Manman’s imagination, if there were gods in the world, they would look like this—exquisitely beautiful as painting and unattainable.

She was so mesmerized that it took her a long time to snap out of it. Not daring to get too close, she kneeled down from a distance and bowed, “Greetings, Immortal Lang Yin.”

Her master chuckled and said, “Manman, there’s no need for such formality. From now on, the Immortal Master will guide your cultivation. Treat him as you would your master.”

Xu Manman, puzzled, asked, “Master, but I have no spiritual aperture.”

Her master laughed and said, “You will have one eventually.”

She didn’t know where her master’s confidence came from. In this world, only one in ten thousand could open their spiritual aperture, so it wasn’t surprising she couldn’t. But her master believed so firmly, as did Immortal Lang Yin, that for the next two years, her master forbade her from tending flowers, focusing solely on her cultivation.

Although she hadn’t opened her spiritual aperture, she had opened the Yin and Yang apertures, enough to strengthen her body. Immortal Lang Yin should not be a master who would teach people, because she saw Immortal Lang Yin reading a book with “One Hundred and Eight Methods of Strengthening the Body” written on the cover, and what he did was to let her practice exactly according to the book.

Often, she was so exhausted that her limbs trembled, and Immortal Lang Yin would watch coldly, his fine, cloud-like brows slightly furrowed.

As handsome as he was, his words were equally harsh.

Xu Manman had faced many hardships growing up, hearing plenty of harsh words, but being criticized by the immortal she admired was heartbreaking. Yet she dared not cry in front of him and forced a smile, eyes wide, to hold back tears.

Every full moon, Immortal Lang Yin would leave for a few days, during which her master would secretly prepare medicine to nourish her body and comfort her.

Her master said, “The Immortal Master has no heart, doesn’t understand emotions, and doesn’t realize that sometimes a smiling face hides sadness. If you’re unhappy in front of him, don’t force a smile. If you’re exhausted, don’t push yourself. The Immortal Master isn’t heartless; he just doesn’t understand human emotions.”

“No heart? Can one live without a heart?” she asked, confused.

“Our human heart is in our chest, the source of life. For plants, their heart is in their spirit. Plants that become spirits first gain a heart, then consciousness. But the Immortal Master is different. He was formed from chaotic energy fused with demonic energy—neither flower nor spirit, neither human nor plant. He’s like chaos itself, being everything and nothing. He has a spirit but no heart.”

At fourteen, Xu Manman only partially understood her master’s words. Over time, she realized what it meant for Immortal Lang Yin to have no heart.

He couldn’t experience human joys and sorrows; the world’s liveliness was unrelated to him.

How could such a heartless Immortal Master willingly do anything?

Immortal Lang Yin’s flying boat didn’t head towards Huizhou’s Cardinal Tower as Xu Manman expected but flew towards the outskirts of the city.

After a moment of hesitation, Xu Manman pointed west and cautiously said, “Immortal Master, Huizhou is in that direction.”

“I know,” Immortal Lang Yin replied, looking ahead.

“I need to find something.”

Xu Manman was curious about what Immortal Lang Yin was searching for.

The boat quickly reached its destination, an abandoned village.

This village, hundreds of miles from Huizhou, was surrounded by mountains. It was easy to reach by air but would take three months on foot.

Three hundred years ago, Xu Manman left this place after three months of trekking through the mountains.

In those three hundred years, the village had fallen into ruin. No one knew that the renowned Lian Yue Daozun hailed from this tiny village of a few dozen families.

And someone else also from here…

Seeing the familiar figure, Xu Manman called out, “Ming Xiao Fazun.”

The person turned slowly, a refined and handsome face showing a trace of confusion, “Immortal Lang Yin… Xu Yanyue?”

Xu Manman smiled, “You should be addressed as Ming Xiao Daozun now.”

Ming Xiao shook his head and said, “I’m merely temporarily holding some Daozun’s duties without the title. We’ll discuss this after eliminating the Blood Sect. Why are you both here?”

Immortal Lang Yin looked directly at Ming Xiao Fazun and said, “I’m looking for something. Perhaps you know where it is.”

Ming Xiao Fazun was curious.

“What is it?”

“Xu Manman’s parents’ remains.”

Xu Manman was stunned, turning to look at Immortal Lang Yin’s profile in shock—what was he planning?

Ming Xiao Fazun looked equally surprised and, after a moment, asked, “May I know the Immortal Master’s purpose?”

“That can’t be disclosed.”

Immortal Lang Yin’s usual aloof attitude persisted even when asking for help…

Ming Xiao Fazun, familiar with Immortal Lang Yin’s temperament, wasn’t offended. He smiled faintly and said, “The Immortal Master might be disappointed. Xu Manman’s parents’ remains are not here.”

“Then where are they?” Immortal Lang Yin was pressed.

Ming Xiao Fazun shook his head and said, “I don’t know. She was an orphan, abandoned near the paddy fields close to Xu Village shortly after birth.”

Immortal Lang Yin frowned.

“No one searched for her parents?”

“This area is surrounded by mountains for miles. Villages are sparse, with only thirty to forty households each. After conscription, the villages were left with mostly the elderly, women, and children, who couldn’t travel far and were confined to the valleys. Before ten, the farthest we went was to the market, fifty miles away. If her parents weren’t found there, they couldn’t be found anywhere,” Ming Xiao Fazun said, looking wistfully at the distant mountains.

Immortal Lang Yin suddenly realized how little he knew about Xu Manman. He only knew she was an orphan raised in Xu Village, but he didn’t know she was abandoned. Today, he found this place by sensing Ming Xiao Fazun’s presence.

He remembered Xu Manman saying she and Ming Xiao Fazun had known each other since childhood, like siblings.

“Is this her old home?” Immortal Lang Yin asked, looking at the ruins behind Ming Xiao Fazun.

“Yes,” Ming Xiao Fazun turned around, took a few steps forward, and his gaze fell on the graffiti in the corner of the wall.

Three hundred years of wind erosion had left only faint traces on the mottled wall, but in his mind, the images became clear again. It was as if he could once more see two small, thin figures squatting there, shoulder to shoulder, using sharp stones to carve their imagined image of their father into the wall.

Before he was born, his father, along with the other men in the village, had been conscripted into the army. Not long after, news came that all the men from the village had died in battle, and a small pension was sent back, extinguishing all hope for the village. Perhaps due to her sorrows and tears during pregnancy, his mother had a difficult childbirth, leaving him weak and sickly. In this small mountain village without a doctor, even a minor illness could be fatal. His grandmother, fearing for his health, kept him indoors. His only childhood playmate was Xu Manman, a girl slightly older than him who had been found and adopted by an old villager after being abandoned as a baby.

Xu Manman grew up eating food from many households. Though not particularly pretty, her sweet nature won her the kindness of even the harshest villagers. She was strong and capable, helping with various chores around the village. Gradually, people stopped minding that she was a foundling.

The two families were separated by a thin wall. He often heard the old woman next door calling “Manman,” followed by a cheerful, smiling response.

While he sat in his yard, he often saw a lively figure running past the door, sometimes doubling back to peek at him. Her eyes would curve into a smile, and her ordinary face would light up with a certain charm.

“Shenzhi, out sunbathing again?”

“Shenzhi, the fruits on the mountain are ripe. I’ll pick some for you.”

He couldn’t remember when they first met. Their interactions began before his earliest memories. She was a head taller, a few months older, and considered herself his elder sister, looking after him. When the adults weren’t around, she would sneak over to chat, telling him about the bustling market. He eagerly awaited the sixteenth of each month, when she returned from the market with stories and small trinkets.

—I heard there are even more strange and wonderful things in Huizhou City, and immortals who fly in the sky.

—But there are also many monsters and ghosts. Recently, a man-eating monster appeared in Huizhou City…

At the time, he thought it was an exaggeration until the monster came to Xu Village, turning the place into a bloodbath overnight.

She carried him, running barefoot through the mountains. The moonlight was dim, but the wind was fierce. He buried his head on her shoulder, not daring to look back, only hearing the screams carried by the wind and the stench of blood.

That year, his mother had already passed away, and his grandmother was too old and frail to flee. She entrusted him to Xu Manman, thinking her strength would keep him safe, not realizing she was just a ten-year-old child herself.

She ran towards Huizhou City for a whole day and night, her feet covered in cuts, until they encountered the flying immortals of legend, who saved them.

These immortals, who claimed to be the disciples of the Shen Xiao Sect, were hunting the demon wolf that had ravaged the village. Following their directions, they soon decapitated the wolf and brought back grim news—every single person in Xu Village was dead. All except the two of them.

He was even more fortunate when the sect leader, recognizing his extraordinary potential, decided to take him to the Shen Xiao Sect for training. He kneeled before the leader, pleading to take Xu Manman as well.

The sect leader frowned, and Xu Manman quickly said, “I’ve heard Shen Xiao Sect is the top sect in the world. It’s not easy to get in! Shenzhi, the leader has chosen you; it’s your fortune. We shouldn’t push our luck!”

The leader’s frown eased, and he gave her some advice: “Your aptitude is poor, but there are smaller sects in the southeast that accept anyone. You might try there.”

She bowed deeply in thanks.

“Shenzhi, follow the leader and train hard. When you become immortal, I’ll bask in your glory,” she said cheerfully, showing no sadness.

“Take care of yourself. We’ll meet again someday!”

She turned and left decisively, leaving a trail of bloody footprints.

In countless nights at Shen Xiao Sect, he remembered her back as she left and the blood-stained path.

A century later, when they reunited, she said, “Shenzhi, I have a wish. Can you help me?”

Without hesitation, he nodded.

In this world, everyone respected him as Ming Xiao Fazun, but only one person could call him “Shenzhi.”

He owed her too much.