This remark made Lu Shiyuan’s breath catch for an instant. But when she met Shang Si’s clear eyes, shimmering like autumn waters, she merely curved her lips. “Then I won’t leave. I’ll stay right here in Yedu.” Her soft words and laughter were ambiguous, impossible to take at face value—they sounded more like a playful jest meant to coax a smile.
Shang Si glanced at her twice but didn’t take it to heart.
After Shang Si reinforced the seal on the Cave Heaven Secret Realm, it was expected to hold for another two or three months. Once they descended the mountain and returned to the Imperial City, she immediately began tying up loose ends, ensuring that her departure from Yedu with Lu Shiyuan two days later wouldn’t cause any mishaps.
Of course, most of these tasks fell squarely on Hua Qiu’s shoulders.
Hua Qiu, already overwhelmed and unable to catch her breath, grumbled even louder. Yet at the moment of farewell, she still slipped a spirit ring quietly into Lu Shiyuan’s hand.
The ancient Teleportation Formation glowed to life, spiritual power rippled through the air, and a blinding flash enveloped them. In the next moment, the two found themselves outside a remote border town tens of thousands of miles from Yedu.
Feeling solid ground beneath her feet at last, Lu Shiyuan opened her eyes. She lowered her gaze slowly and spread her palm to examine the exquisite spirit ring nestled there.
She sent a wisp of divine sense into it and discovered it brimming with precious spiritual elixirs and one-time-use spirit talismans.
Valuable as they were—worth a fortune on the open market—they paled in comparison to the gifts Shang Si had bestowed upon her before.
“Hua Qiu gave you some protective spiritual medicines?” Shang Si took only a fleeting glance at the spirit ring in Lu Shiyuan’s hand before understanding completely.
Lu Shiyuan looked up. “How did you know?”
“She’s always been fond of collecting these things, and she only gives away the most effective ones. Since she handed them to you, just keep them safe.” As she finished speaking, Shang Si lowered her palm, holding it flat before her, and brushed it lightly. In an instant, an immortal sword materialized, its blade gleaming with icy, chilling light.
The sword seized Lu Shiyuan’s full attention the moment it appeared.
As a sword cultivator who had entered the Dao through the sword, she naturally had a keener eye for such a top-grade immortal sword than most.
Yet Lu Shiyuan hadn’t anticipated Shang Si flicking her sleeve, sending the sword drifting toward her in the next breath. “And this—the Azure Frost Sword is of superb quality. Nan Jin picked it up from a ghost demon in the Black Market two months ago. It’s wasted on him, so take it as an early gift to celebrate your survival after the ordeal.”
Spiritual medicines and talismans others would kill for, handed over without a second thought. Priceless spirit artifacts with no market price, gifted on a whim. There wasn’t the slightest hint that Shang Si saw her as an outsider.
Shang Si acted this way, and Nan Jin and Hua Qiu were no different. A whirlwind of emotions surged through Lu Shiyuan’s heart, and the cold northern wind brought a sting to her eyes.
Just then, the sound transmission talisman on her person flickered to life.
It was a message from the sect. Lu Shiyuan seized the chance to turn away and walk a short distance off, composing the flood of feelings in her heart.
Having specifically notified everyone in the sect before leaving Yedu, this was merely the standard check-in.
Lu Shiyuan didn’t linger long. But when she severed the connection and turned back, the scene before her gave her pause. “A Si, you…”
“How do I look?” Shang Si curved her lips in a gentle smile, every expression captivating the heart.
In the brief time Lu Shiyuan had been speaking with the sect, Shang Si had transformed her appearance entirely. She had doffed her flashy jewelry and traded her skirt robe—embroidered with subtle golden dragon motifs—for everyday attire common in the Mortal Realm.
The vibrant red dress was still striking and attention-grabbing, but worlds more subdued than her previous ensemble.
Lu Shiyuan’s long lashes fluttered, a gleam of astonishment sliding through her eyes.
Seeing her fall silent, Shang Si continued on her own. “It’s been years since I last visited the Human Realm. The last time I slipped away for a jaunt was thousands of years ago. But I know that when conducting business in the Human Realm, one should dress more restrained.”
She said this without the slightest awareness that her fiery red gown had little to do with restraint.
Lu Shiyuan knew her temperament well, though—for this Female Lord, such garb was the epitome of low-key.
Still, she shook her head with a helpless smile. “A Si, you won’t frighten ordinary folk dressed like this, but you’ll draw all sorts of unnecessary trouble.” The kind from blind lechers and such—Shang Si was a walking invitation to admirers.
“Is that so?” Shang Si tilted her face slightly, one delicate brow arching.
She grasped the implication in Lu Shiyuan’s words but dismissed it entirely. The amusement in her eyes only deepened. “No matter. I have you, Shiyuan, at my side, don’t I?”
As her words landed, Shang Si splayed her fingers and brushed them lightly over her face. When she lowered her hand, a gossamer veil now draped it. Thin as it was—barely there—in Lu Shiyuan’s eyes, it only heightened that tantalizing, half-veiled allure.
The two of them lingered for another fifteen minutes or so, until they had a clear sense of their current location. Once they determined the right direction, they set off toward the nearest border town, Stone City.
The teleportation array in Yedu had brought them to the outskirts of Stone City, near the Great Tang Kingdom’s frontier. The town wasn’t far from the Kunlun Mountains, but it was still a fair distance away. With their cultivation bases, they could have covered it in two or three hours by flying through the air on streams of spiritual energy if they were in a hurry. But Shang Si hadn’t visited the Mortal Realm in ages and felt a deep nostalgia for it, so their journey naturally slowed to a leisurely pace.
They followed the official road, and perhaps because their striking appearances and outfits drew so much attention, merchant caravans kept pulling over to inquire if they needed a ride.
Lu Shiyuan politely declined at first, but as the endless road stretched out ahead with no end in sight, she finally accepted the offer the next time a caravan stopped.
“Ladies, what are your names?” The caravan leader was a man surnamed Zhang, in his early thirties, with a handsome, plump face and the unmistakable traits of a seasoned merchant. After inviting them onto his carriage, he immediately struck up a friendly conversation.
“I’m surnamed Lu, and this is my… um, sister,” Lu Shiyuan said, hesitating for a moment when introducing Shang Si.
She noticed Shang Si shoot her a sidelong glance the moment the words left her mouth.
“So you’re the two Miss Lus,” Zhang Feng said with a smile. He paused thoughtfully before probing further. “This area’s pretty remote, right on the border— all sorts come through here. It really isn’t safe for two young ladies to be traveling alone like this…”
“To be honest, Brother Zhang, my sister and I aren’t ordinary folk. We have business to attend to here,” Lu Shiyuan replied candidly, with no intention of beating around the bush. For one thing, it served as a warning not to get any funny ideas and risk getting burned. For another, revealing their immortal sect background would create some healthy distance and discourage prying questions. After all, to ordinary mortals, the immortal sects were enigmatic and awe-inspiring existences.
Who would have thought that instead of backing off, Zhang Feng grew even more excited upon hearing her reveal their identities? He slapped his thigh. “I knew it! The moment I saw you two on the road with your extraordinary bearing, I figured you had to be from an immortal sect!”
“Ladies, to tell you the truth, I…” Zhang Feng’s face flushed red with agitation, but just as he was about to continue, the carriage jolted to a sudden halt. Heavy thuds echoed from the rear, followed by several shouts.
He paused, his expression turning awkward. “Sorry about that, ladies. Something’s happened with the caravan. I’ll go check it out.”
With a bow, Zhang Feng stepped out.
The carriage curtain swayed as the two women sat quietly inside, the clamor of voices rising from outside. They had no idea what was going on.
Lu Shiyuan gathered her focus, about to extend her divine sense for a look, when a faint, alluring fragrance wafted from her side.
She turned her head and found herself face-to-face with Shang Si leaning in close.
Lu Shiyuan’s fingers at her side curled slightly as she stared in a daze. “A Si?”
A thin veil still covered Shang Si’s face, but it did little to hide the subtle curve of her red lips as she enunciated Lu Shiyuan’s earlier words with a teasing bite: “The two Miss Lus?”
“I’ve heard that you mortals have a saying: marry a chicken and you’ll follow the chicken,” she said, lowering her gaze. Her long, thick lashes cast a delicate shadow, concealing the amusement sparkling in her eyes. “But it’s been less than half a day since we left Yedu, and you’ve already given me your surname?”
Her half-joking words brought a swift blush to Lu Shiyuan’s fair cheeks. She hadn’t meant to do it—she hadn’t even thought of it that way.
But Lu Shiyuan quickly recovered and changed the subject. “If we keep sitting here, someone in this caravan is going to get hurt or worse.”
Shang Si’s red lips pressed together lightly, neither confirming nor denying it.
In that short time, the commotion outside had grown louder, with some of the horses starting to panic and rear up uncontrollably.
Lu Shiyuan didn’t stay in the carriage any longer. She lifted the curtain and jumped down, with Shang Si following close behind—but far less urgently.
The moment they stepped out, they took in the scene at the rear of the caravan. The guards, who had been perfectly fine moments before, were like men possessed, brawling with fists and feet. Some had even drawn their blades, and it looked like blood would be spilled any second.
With her immortal sect background, Lu Shiyuan spotted the problem at a glance.
“Which demon is stirring up trouble here?” Her pretty face darkened, her voice turning icy as the Azure Frost Sword hummed in her hand, radiating sword intent and poised to strike.
It was unclear if the meddling demon sensed the threat, but the instant her words rang out, the berserk guards all collapsed limply to the ground.
Once the crowd came to their senses and realized what had just happened, they dropped to their knees with a collective thud. “Thank you, miss! Thank you, immortal, for saving us! Please, immortal, save us too! We’ve been stalked by these demons ever since we set out, harassed day and night with no chance to rest!”
The group kowtowed and bowed frantically to the two women until the terror gripping their hearts eased somewhat. Only then did they absorb Lu Shiyuan’s words and climb shakily to their feet.
“Brother Zhang,” Lu Shiyuan said, “didn’t you tell us you were mainly hauling scarce goods to Stone City? So how did these demons end up tailing you like this?”
“This…” Zhang Feng hesitated, shooting a timid glance at Lu Shiyuan as if he wanted to speak but thought better of it.
At that moment, a ferocious gust of wind arose without warning, churning up clouds of dust and spooking the horses and carriages. Even the heavy tarpaulin draped over the wagons in the back was ripped away halfway.
The bizarre wind had come as abruptly as it departed.
When it finally died down, the tarpaulin was gone, exposing the true nature of the wagons’ cargo.
The sight made even Shang Si—who had spent years stationed in Yedu, inured to life and death—narrow her eyes.
What cargo? These were clearly half-grown children, innocent and utterly naive to the world’s harsh ways!
