"Why the sad face, Yifan?" asked an ancient voice that seemed to echo with the Dao.
One could not determine whether the speaker was a male or a female, only that whoever it is, he or she must be ancestor-level old.
"Do you miss your family?"
Above the clouds, somewhere near the central part of the seemingly boundless lands, a beautiful white crane flapped its large wings against the midwinter wind. With a gigantic wingspan of one li, the crane looked nothing like an ordinary animal. Its feathers emitted a soft spiritual glow that wrapped its entire body with warm light, making it look equally sacred and majestic.
On the crown of its head, a middle-aged man with white brows and peppered hair, a skinny teenager with a scar on his neck, a little boy not even a decade old and an ugly, fat cat were sitting cross-legged.
Yes, even the ugly cat was sitting cross-legged. If one were to look closely, one could even see that the cat had a very humanlike expression of meditation on its face.
It could be guessed that these people were all cultivators and very strong ones at that, even the little boy not even a decade old, with deep attainments sufficient to resist with just their bodies the whipping winds that would otherwise easily rip apart a mortal. The fact that they were using a pure-blood demon crane as a mount proved that they had extraordinary backgrounds.
Suddenly, the cat opened its mouth.
"Do you desire to go visit your home?"
The ancient voice that asked those three questions was, surprisingly, not from the middle-aged man… but the ugly cat!
"This Seat understands. It has only been a year since this Seat took you under my tutelage." The cat seemed to recall a memory long forgotten. "For mortals like your family, a year must have been quite a long time. With your age, this must have been the first time you have been away from your family for so long. However, for us cultivators, a year is akin to a blink of an eye. Sometimes, even less."
When the ugly cat stopped talking, silence reigned on the group. When it realized no one was going to say anything, it continued to speak at its own leisurely pace.
"Yifan, you have yet to fully understand that for us cultivators to be able to reach the peak and touch immortality, one must always strive to cultivate the unyielding heart… an undistracted heart… a pure heart…"
Unable to bear it any longer, the middle-aged man lowered his head and he scratched his cheek. "Master, you have only accepted Junior Brother for less than two months—"
"You with the surname Chu! How dare you interrupt the Master as he discusses the Dao?!" the skinny teenager suddenly erupted in anger. Among the three, it seemed like he was the one truly lost in the wonders of their Master's teachings. "Off with your head!"
"S-Senior Brother, you already cut off three of my heads this month!" the middle-aged man, though appearing fearful, protested with a wronged expression. "The last one hasn't even properly regenerated yet because you borrowed Wuye Sect's Blade of Transgression the last time you lost our bet."
"How dare you talk back to your senior?!" The skinny teenager's ear had turned crimson. "Off with your head!"
"Master, Senior Brother Yun is starting again!"
"Alas, like this Seat always say, cultivate the heart," the cat sighed as if he was grieving about the fate of the universe. "Yifan, you must never learn from your senior brothers. This Seat has thoroughly failed to educate them."
Two sounds of rocks hitting rocks thundered through the sky. The middle-aged man with the surname Chu and the skinny teenager with the surname Yun were kowtowing towards the ugly cat. From the sounds alone, it could be deciphered how hard the defensive abilities of their bodies and the feathers of the crane were.
"Master, this disciple has failed you!"
"Master, it's really only Senior Brother that has failed you! It's not your fault!"
"What are you saying, you imbecile? Do you want to have your head cut off?"
"Why is it always my head? Don't you know other threats? Are you a kid?"
"What, you insulting kids now? Do you want me to cut your tail as well?"
"No! Junior Brother, save me! Tell him your sad face will turn really sad if my tail is cut off."
"Yifan, you must never be sad—"
"Master, I'm just hungry," the little boy, Wu Yifan, complained. He felt another headache incoming. Among them, he was the youngest but he felt like he was the only adult. "Can we stop in a nearby city to eat?"
The ugly cat opened its eyes, which were colorless like crystals. It reflected the light from the heaven and earth.
"Oh, why didn't you say so earlier?" Leisurely, it patted its furry paw on the crane. "All right, Xiao Feng, find us a city. But stay away from the north. I felt an ominously cold energy coming there. It seems like the peaceful days of this world is near its end."
"Master, I bet you are hungry too."
"Ooh, interesting playmates have appeared."In one of the mansions belonging to the Ye Clan, a little girl in clean white robes sat on the ledge of a window while casually swinging her pudgy legs. A naughty glint could be seen on her young eyes as she had a faraway look towards the southern direction.Of course, the little girl was no other than Yin, who had actually accepted being called Little Yin for no other reason than that the old fogey Ye Mo would not let her have extra midnight pudding if she did not agree.Her skin was still marked with wounds and bruises, but her inner injuries were all cured by Ye Hua earlier. Thinking that she needed to sleep some more, he assigned her a room for her to rest in and promised to come back again in the morning.Ye Hua, known to the rest of the city as Fourth Young Master Ye, is the top healer and alchemist of the Ye Clan's younger generation. He was highly c
"Wanna play with Little Yin?"By the time she finished speaking the sentence, the tip of the sword was already a hairsbreadth away from her throat.'Is she not dodging?' the black-robed man could not help but think. 'Is she stunned senseless in fear?'But then he remembered her age and realized that she was merely a mortal. Of course, she could not react on time.Though, this fact surprised him more. This little mortal girl found him despite the cloak of the night, not to mention that he was someone with decent cultivation. How did she do it?'No matter what, she is unlucky to catch sight of me.'He was an assassin and his mission was of utmost priority. It might be a pity to kill a child, but this would not be the first nor the last innocent that he had to silence in his trade.'In your next life, do not stay up so late at night, brat!'
An old man with silvery white hair, still strong as a bear in the waist and supple as a tiger in the back(1), appeared in between the unconscious Yin and the fleeing black-robed man."You think you can come and go as you like? You do not really put the Ye Clan in your eyes, do you?" he snorted, pushing his hand forward before making a grasping motion. "Come back here!"The old man was no other than Ye Wuqing, the current Patriarch of the Ye Family and one of the strongest experts in Leaf City!Without letting out a word, the black-robed man released his hidden weapons before dodging to one side. However, would the mighty Patriarch of Ye Clan, a venerated expert of his generation, allow him to escape?Of course not! Not only for safety, but also for face!As Ye Wuqing dealt with the intruder, a thirty-something-year-old man ran out from a nearby residence, to be followed by a youn
"S-So cold… I hope my arms make it and not fall off in the middle of the street…"Ye Mo could not help but grit his teeth as he flew out from the Ye Clan Manor. He sped towards the Leaf City's Ming Yue Sect branch, a place that was on the other side of the city.Despite covering his skin with qi, the icy coldness emitted by Little Yin was freezing his muscles and bones.To think that this girl was this capable despite still being a mortal…Ye Mo could not help but feel excited. One had to know that he was an accomplished cultivator. A mortal should not have been capable of leaving marks on his skin, much less injuring him.Little Yin was someone found and saved by the Ye Clan! As long as no one comes looking for her, she belongs to the clan!Imagine once she started the road of cultivation… wouldn't that mean she can make ice cubes fall and snow storms erupt with a flip of a single hand? In the Body Cultivation re
The heavily-bandaged Yin was roused by the abnormal smell in the air. It was heavy and sticky and irritating to the nose.In fact, it wasn't the room itself that smelled nasty. The room looked bland with its gray walls and lack of windows, but it did not stank to high heavens, only maybe a little stale.The culprit of the smell was those bandages wrapped around Yin. It seemed like they were soaked in blood and medicinal herbs before they were used on her. The bandages caused her to feel numb and the paralysis looked like it would not be gone for quite some time."Yuck! I smell!" She wanted to tear the bandages away, but she could not even move her finger, let alone lift her arm. "Wu wu, Yin is now disgusting! Disgusting! I don't like this!"She struggled to move but in the end, all she could do was flop around like a worm."Elder Sis Xuan'er?" she called out. "Bro Hua? Old fogey?"Where was everyone?Hey, is this some sort of game? Is
'Niu'er? What kind of boorish parents would give their daughter a cow 牛 character in her name?!'The old man claiming to be Yin's maternal grandfather was called Shangguan Ke, the Branch Leader and the person with the highest authority among Leaf City's Ming Yue Sect. After the ruckus that Ye Mo caused earlier, all the high-level members of the sect that wasn't in isolated meditation had gone to the entrance to see what the commotion was about.What they saw made their minds blow up.The well-known genius of the Ye Clan, a hero of his generation, titled Elder in-charge of the city's security for his depth of cultivation and battle prowess, the "Sword Flash" Ye Mo... that very man was standing in front of the sect entrance with a distressed appearance, as if he had passed through the nine hells just to get in there.On his arms was a block of ice...No, it was a body of a toddler
Claim to be an orphan's family!It was a foolproof plan. After all, the little girl is only a toddler. Even if she does not play along or denies the claim, how convincing would her words be? Who would listen to her?Proof? Evidence? Ming Yue Sect could produce hard evidence in a blink of an eye to show that Yin is a daughter of a sect disciple sent on a faraway mission. Who would dare question? Who would dare investigate the truth?Even if the Ye Clan wants, they would dare not. After all, the current Ye Sect is in a very delicate situation right now. If Ye Clan offends the Ming Yue Sect, it would be easy to see the future of the once-hegemon of the Leaf City.The two Great Elders of Ming Yue Sect could be said to be playing dirty, but who among those who have lived for so long not a cunning, old fox? Both Zhu Wei and Yan Yu refused to believe that Ye Mo would send such a precious "gift" to their foo
"Aaah! Grandpa!"A pitiful, heartbreaking little girl's cry rang out from inside the hot springs. Patriarch Shangguan Ke, and the Great Elders Zhu Wei and Yan Yu, along with the others waiting outside, could not help but be stunned.Yin continued to wail. "A-Auntie! Auntie needs help! Quick, help us!"If the maid was awake, she would have puked out blood and fainted once more in anger.She's only fourteen years old! Young, fresh fourteen! Which part of her is an 'auntie'?!In less than a breath's time, the door had been blasted open and everyone ran inside the hot springs, including the guards. Multiple divine senses swept out inside and outside, fearing the appearance of a powerful intruder.'Niu'er' is now a precious member of the Ming Yue Sect, a favored daughter of Heaven and the Saintess-potential that would lead the entire branch to greatness in the fut