Vol. 1 - Ch. 5 - Chi Xiu

The Shuangxia Valley of Tiyu Prefecture in Wan Hua is a place with a beautiful name but has barren land. In Shuangxia Valley, there is the Chi Xiu Palace. Which occupies the mountain with the richest spiritual energy in Shuangxia. The amount of spiritual energy here isn’t even enough for high-level immortals to have as a snack, but for low-level cultivators who drift outside the Three Mountains, Two Seas, and Five Great Celestial Sects, it is enough to make them fight for a spot.

Many, many years ago, the owner of this place was a proper cultivator. Later, he picked up a female cultivator from somewhere, and after they engaged in some intimate relations, the proper cultivator experienced the joy between men and women and became less proper. Thus, he built this Chi Xiu Palace with the female cultivator.

Later, the improper male cultivator reached a bottleneck in his cultivation, couldn’t advance, and died when his lifespan ended. Chi Xiu Palace was then taken over by that female cultivator, becoming a minor part of the vast sea of sects in the Wan Hua cultivation world—Mei Sect.

Cultivation sects also have their ranks, and Mei Sect is among the lower ones. Therefore, Chi Xiu Palace is not well-regarded, and its cultivators are even less so. However, the palace master, Madame Ying Shuang, has a high ambition and works hard to lead her disciples into the higher echelons of the celestial world.

Who is Madame Ying Shuang?

She’s the female cultivator who tricked the proper male cultivator into improper relations, and the current owner of Chi Xiu Palace.

————

After finishing the story of Chi Xiu Palace, Jiao Tao was parched and poked the forehead of the person opposite her with a forceful orchid finger.

"I said, do you remember or not?"

Sitting opposite her was a young girl, looking about thirteen or fourteen. However, the appearance of cultivators is often as they wish, some mature, some youthful, some beautiful, some innocent, so age is indiscernible.

The young girl wore a snow-white cross-collar dress, with a small red plum undergarment inside, her waist barely held together. If she had a fuller figure, the undergarment would bulge out with white waves and a deep cleavage. Unfortunately, the girl was skinny, and the undergarment lay flat against her chest.

"No," the girl rubbed her eyes, looking like she hadn’t slept enough.

Seeing her like this made Jiao Tao angry. She slapped the girl’s head and said, "Everyone says you’re a fool, and you really are one! Cultivating for more than ten years without making any progress, getting beaten so badly you forgot even your ancestors. We don’t even know who to seek revenge on."

The girl’s face remained blank, indifferent. This annoyed Jiao Tao even more. She pulled a porcelain bottle from her storage bag and threw it at her, "Take it, take it. I must owe you from a past life. Use this to heal yourself. Those memories can stay lost. Soon there’ll be the Dual Cultivation selection. Looking like this, who would want to dual cultivate with you? With no progress in cultivation, in a few years, your body will age and become frail. You’ll die in the woods."

"Thank you, Senior Sister Jiao Tao." The girl accepted the porcelain bottle with a bow, her head hanging.

After nagging a bit more, Jiao Tao instructed her to take the medicine and heal, then swayed her hips and left, the fragrance lingering in the small stone cave.

　　————

The cave quieted down. The girl opened the wax-sealed porcelain bottle, pouring out a dark green pill the size of a longan seed. A faint medicinal fragrance filled the air. It was Qinghua Pill, a low-grade healing medicine, not something great. But from Jiao Tao’s pained expression, it seemed valuable. Shuangxia Valley must be very poor, and so was Chi Xiu Palace.

The medicine wasn’t great, but she had no other choice.

Swallowing the pill, a cool sweetness spread in her mouth, easing the pain in her chest. Sitting cross-legged, she tried to circulate her energy to heal, but every attempt found her dantian empty. Jiao Tao said she had been cultivating for over ten years, but her meridians were filled only with chaotic, murky energy, no spiritual energy at all.

This body’s aptitude was worse than she anticipated—mortal flesh, ordinary bones, blocked meridians, and almost no spiritual energy, like a dull stone. The original owner likely had poor comprehension, seemingly giving up on cultivation, neglecting even the basic Qi Refinement and body strengthening, resulting in a weak constitution. After over ten years, she was still at the third level of Qi Refinement.

With this body, cultivation seemed almost impossible. Forget seeking revenge on Baili Qing, even reaching Wan Ren Mountain was unlikely. Moreover, without sufficient cultivation, the mortal body would age and die naturally, and even with some spiritual medicine, it would only delay the inevitable. Given her current frailty, her lifespan wouldn’t be long.

Reaching her previous level of cultivation seemed like an impossible dream.

————

Thinking of the past, she felt a bit lost.

Finding this body in the valley, just as her spirit was about to collapse, he sent her into it. It had been half a month since then. Her primordial spirit reformed, but she remained unconscious until three days ago. When she woke, she was already in Chi Xiu Palace, and he was nowhere to be found. He had fulfilled his promise and left without even giving her his name.

Indeed, she didn’t even know what he looked like, only remembering those long, narrow phoenix eyes, unforgettable.

She took a deep breath, filling her lungs, then slowly exhaled, clearing her mind.

As he said, they met by chance. She helped him repel an enemy, and he helped her revive. Their paths crossed and then parted. Now, she needed to focus on herself.

Calculating the time, it had been over thirty days since Baili Qing took her body. Baili Qing likely returned to Wan Ren Mountain, gaining the sect’s trust under her name, while she, though not destroyed, ended up as a low-level cultivator in Mei Sect.

In just over thirty days, her life had turned upside down.

————

For the past three days since waking up, she hadn’t left the cave, using the excuse of healing to hide and let her spirit integrate with the body. During this time, people visited her. Although the original owner had low cultivation, she seemed well-liked. The most frequent visitor was Jiao Tao. Through their conversations, she learned a lot.

The original owner of this body was named Ji Yaoge, a human orphan taken in by Madame Ying Shuang of Chi Xiu Palace, raised under her care.

As for Chi Xiu Palace, she had never heard of it before.

Wan Hua has many low-level cultivators and countless sects, with many minor and obscure ones like this. Moreover, Chi Xiu Palace was a Mei Sect, specializing in seduction. As a disciple of a prestigious sect for over two hundred years, she had never encountered such a low-ranked sect.

Now, she found herself as a low-level cultivator in Mei Sect.

————

There was a large stone mirror polished on the cave wall, reflecting her current appearance.

She raised her eyebrows, and the unfamiliar face in the mirror mimicked her; she blinked, and the face blinked too—youthful features, delicate bones, a slender frame, making her look like a child who never grew up.

No wonder Jiao Tao sighed every time she saw her. With such a face and figure, how did she survive in a place like Mei Sect?

This face was delicate but not beautiful; not ugly, but not that attractive either. Among the many female cultivators in the immortal world who had mastered the art of maintaining their appearance, she was average at best. She couldn’t even compete with Bai Yun, nor even with ordinary female cultivators.

The only striking feature was her large eyes, pure and clear, reflecting everything like a mirror, with a captivating cleanliness. But on her small, thin face, they seemed oversized, giving her a somewhat eerie, soul-piercing gaze. Looking at her unfamiliar face in the mirror and the strange eyes, she felt a random thump in her heart.

These eyes were unsettling, even to herself.

So be it. A new body would take time to get used to.

In the past, she focused on cultivation and cared little for her appearance. The praise she received for her beauty meant nothing to her, so she wasn’t troubled by her current average looks.

What troubled her was something else.

She wasn’t sure if she had lost weight recently, but as she moved around the mirror, her loose collar slipped down her arm, exposing her collarbone. The ill-fitting red plum undergarment also slipped, revealing her barely-there chest. She looked down, seeing her meager figure—far from seductive, more like a child playing dress-up.

She couldn’t leave the cave dressed like this. Quickly, she removed her outer garment, tightened the undergarment, and was about to find a new set of clothes when the cave door suddenly blew open.

————

"Senior Sister Ji…"

A cool breeze carrying a hint of a sandalwood fragrance swept in, wrapping around with a gentle call. The intruder’s cultivation was far higher than hers and she couldn’t react in time. The person moved behind her, their cold hands snaking around her slender waist.

In an instant, she was pulled into an embrace.

Before seeing him, she heard his soft voice in her ear, "Senior Sister, Bai Yan is late." He picked up a clay teapot from the table, took a sip, and then turned his head, pressing his wet lips to hers.

Bai Yun—no, now she should be called Ji Yaoge—finally saw his face.

A face full of roguish charm, his eyebrows like a sky-blue stream, his eyes shimmering like clouds, half-closed and half-open with a seductive glint, his pouty lips naturally alluring—this was a man, a very beautiful man.

Ji Yaoge turned her head away, twisting her waist to slip out of his not-so-strong embrace. She sat on the table, raising one leg to place her bare foot against his chest, stopping him from approaching.

Though her cultivation was no longer there, her years of sword training and agility weren’t for nothing. The man in front of her, though higher in cultivation, was still only at the Qi Refinement stage and unprepared. Avoiding him wasn’t difficult.

The man’s eyes showed a flicker of surprise, quickly replaced by a smile. Seeing her resistance, he swallowed the water and said, "What’s wrong, Senior Sister Ji?" He raised his hand slowly, grabbing her foot.

Ji Yaoge noticed he was wearing a wide-sleeved robe, open at the chest, revealing his muscular torso. Her foot was pressing directly on his bare chest.

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