Chapter 4

A paper lantern illuminated a small patch of the world.

Jun Yu was dressed in snow-white robes. They were plain and clean, yet not simple; the collar and sleeve edges were embroidered with delicate hidden patterns made of silver thread. The night wind shook the branches and leaves, and also stirred her thin clothes and the ink-black hair scattered by her temples.

Jun Yu raised a hand and tucked the strands of hair behind her ear. Her gaze was still focused on Xu Yizhuo’s face.

“We meet again.”

Xu Yizhuo suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

The Jun Yu she knew of was the ice and snow on a mountaintop that never melted, the bright moon among the clouds that could be seen but never reached. She had never imagined that when Jun Yu paid attention to someone, she would look at them so gently.

Xu Yizhuo raised her round fan and covered the lower half of her face, revealing only a pair of bright eyes like autumn water.

In her eyes, Jun Yu saw the lantern light reflected.

Xu Yizhuo’s voice was actually a little soft. In her memory, her own voice had not been like this. Perhaps because she had become younger, her voice inevitably carried a bit more of a young girl’s green immaturity.

“You still remember me?”

Xu Yizhuo suddenly felt that she was standing a little too close to Jun Yu. With the difference in their current heights, Xu Yizhuo had to raise her head to look directly at her.

Jun Yu smiled. “You remember me too.”

Anyone who has seen you once—how could they possibly forget?

Xu Yizhuo thought.

“It’s late at night,” she asked. “Miss, are you still not resting?”

Jun Yu gently shook her head. “I couldn’t sleep, so I simply took a stolen content lantern and went for a walk at night.”

There were homes all around them, but all that could be seen were courtyard walls. Who knew how long Jun Yu had been walking?

Xu Yizhuo originally wanted to exchange a few polite words, such as telling Jun Yu to be careful, but on second thought, this person was the number one figure in the cultivation world. What in this small Qingping Town could possibly hurt her? Xu Yizhuo swallowed those words back and only nodded vaguely.

Instead, she was a little worried that Jun Yu would ask why she was wandering outside so late at night. Xu Yizhuo did not know how she should answer if asked.

Fortunately, Jun Yu did not ask. Instead, she said, “Miss, you don’t seem like someone from here.”

Xu Yizhuo tilted her head in confusion. “Why do you say that?”

Jun Yu answered, “Your words and mannerisms are all somewhat different from the people here.”

Xu Yizhuo was a little lost. Perhaps those involved could not see things clearly; she herself could not detect the difference. Thinking of how she came from another world, Xu Yizhuo felt that Jun Yu’s words were not false.

“Moreover…” Jun Yu paused.

Xu Yizhuo asked, “Moreover what?”

Jun Yu did not answer Xu Yizhuo’s question. Instead, she changed the topic.

“Miss, do you know where Qingping Town is located?”

Xu Yizhuo could not quite remember. This sort of thing, which had only been mentioned once during the beginner quest, was truly difficult to remember. She lowered her head and thought for a long time before barely recalling a place name.

Uncertainly, she said, “In… the west of Wuqin Kingdom?”

“Changming Commandery of Wuqin Kingdom.” Jun Yu nodded with a smile. “Then, where is Wuqin Kingdom located?”

This touched upon Xu Yizhuo’s blind spot in knowledge.

It felt as if a teacher had suddenly called on her to answer a geography question. Xu Yizhuo, who knew nothing no matter what was asked, panicked a little.

“Wuqin Kingdom is east of the Yangshu Desert. As for the Yangshu Desert, it borders the Dayan Dynasty.” The place names Jun Yu spoke left Xu Yizhuo utterly confused. Her mind was filled only with the phrase: up is north, down is south, left is west, right is east.

“The westernmost part of the Dayan Dynasty is the Lidan River. The Lidan River connects to the Xun Sea in the north and the Tu Sea in the south, dividing the Mingxu Domain into two halves. Mingxu Domain is the name of the land beneath our feet.”

When Jun Yu said this, Xu Yizhuo finally understood what those place names were.

Jun Yu was using Qingping Town as the starting point to explain this continent to her… and was even about to explain the complete appearance of the world, something many mortals would never know in their entire lives.

A thought suddenly surfaced in Xu Yizhuo’s mind.

…No way, right?

She hurriedly suppressed that thought. Her expression became a little stiff.

Jun Yu continued, “Where we are now is the Eastern Continent of Mingxu Domain. The Eastern Continent is where mortals live. The storybooks here say that the opposite [Read on BaiLianTales]bank of the Lidan River is where immortals reside, but in reality, aside from mortals, the ones living there are cultivators. Cultivators are not gods. They are only people who possess greater power than mortals and take ascending to immortality as their goal.”

Xu Yizhuo moved the fan upward, wishing she could cover her entire face.

Jun Yu looked directly into her eyes.

“Miss, you possess immortal bones. You should not be confined to Qingping Town. Are you willing to enter my sect? Once the matter here is settled, will you follow me to the Western Continent?”

Xu Yizhuo closed her eyes. She was afraid her gaze would expose the complaints in her heart.

Yellow Springs Mirror was a game with a high degree of freedom. One of its most praised features was its apprenticeship system.

This apprenticeship was not between players. Instead, players could become disciples of a sect in Mingxu Domain. The production team had put great effort into this aspect. The planners had once revealed that Yellow Springs Mirror currently had forty-one sects players could join, and this number would increase in the future.

At present, however, fewer than ten sects that could be joined had been discovered by players. More sects were still waiting for players to explore and uncover.

During an interactive segment, a player asked whether Shiwai Tower could be joined.

The planner gave a clear answer to this question. Because Shiwai Tower’s map would not be opened for a long time, and out of consideration for the setting, Shiwai Tower would not be included in the apprenticeship gameplay.

This answer made the live comments howl in grief. Countless players who had wanted to become disciples and get close to Wife Jun Yu had their hearts shattered all over the floor.

And now, this thing that players had longed for but could not obtain had actually fallen onto her head?

For a moment, Xu Yizhuo even suspected that she had misheard.

But Jun Yu’s gaze and expression were both telling her that she had not misheard, and Jun Yu was not joking.

An invitation from Shiwai Tower was truly too tempting.

And the invitation had come directly from Tower Master Jun Yu herself, which made it even more tempting.

Xu Yizhuo smiled helplessly.

She lowered her fan and rejected her very apologetically.

“Yizhuo is only an ordinary person. I do not long for the immortal path, nor do I seek longevity. Staying in Qingping Town and living an ordinary life is already very good.”

Tonight, she had only just made up her mind not to get involved with the matters of the game’s main storyline. Xu Yizhuo knew her own limits. Playing the game from behind a computer screen was one thing, but after transmigrating into the game, how could those complicated and chaotic affairs be something she could meddle in?

Xu Yizhuo raised her head and looked at the moon. The moon was also about to set.

She said to Jun Yu, “I should return home. Immortal Master, please rest early.”

Jun Yu did not get angry because of Xu Yizhuo’s answer, nor did she try to make her stay.

She remained where she was, watching until Xu Yizhuo’s figure disappeared at the end of the alley. Only after Xu Yizhuo had walked far away did she feel the lantern light that had been behind her vanish.

Xu Yizhuo returned home when the sky was read the original at bailiantales.com nearly bright. She fell asleep the moment she lay down, sleeping until the sun was high in the sky.

She was startled awake.

In her daze, a thought surfaced in her sleep—how was Old Li doing?

The moment this question appeared, Xu Yizhuo was frightened awake.

She had forgotten to check Old Li’s room first!

All her sleepiness instantly vanished. Xu Yizhuo flipped out of bed, casually threw on a piece of clothing, and ran toward Old Li’s house. When she saw that she had actually forgotten to close Old Li’s courtyard gate last night, half her heart went cold.

“Please don’t let anything have happened, Old Li…” Xu Yizhuo said. “I don’t even know if I’ve added any skill points to resurrection…”

Xu Yizhuo ran in a hurry and nearly tripped over something in the middle of the courtyard.

Xu Yizhuo staggered, hopped a few steps, and struggled to steady herself.

When she looked back to see what she had tripped over, Xu Yizhuo’s face turned deathly pale.

It was the few fingers she had cut off from the blood-robed person’s hand last night.

Only belatedly did Xu Yizhuo realize what brutal thing she had done. Her hands began to tremble, and she felt as if her own fingers had started hurting too.

She stiffly turned her head and walked step by step to Old Li’s room.

Great. She had not closed Old Li’s door either. What kind of brain did she have?

After seeing Old Li sprawled on the bed, sleeping with all four limbs spread out, Xu Yizhuo abruptly let out a sigh of relief and sat directly on the threshold.

Xu Yizhuo covered her chest and felt that the decision she had made last night had truly been wise. With her mental fortitude, what immortal cultivation was she even trying to do? Even the little bit that had happened last night was almost more than she could bear.

After sitting on the threshold for a long while and calming herself unauthorized copydown, Xu Yizhuo suddenly realized that something was a little off.

Old Li’s breathing… why was it so heavy?

Xu Yizhuo got up and walked to Old Li’s bedside with a solemn expression. After seeing his flushed face, she sucked in a cold breath and reached out to test his forehead.

He had caught a cold!

Xu Yizhuo forcefully shook Old Li awake. Old Li was so ill that he could barely open his eyes. After waking him, Xu Yizhuo hurriedly searched through her inventory and poured medicine into Old Li’s mouth, but it was completely useless. Her inventory had all kinds of medicines, but there was nothing for treating a cold!

There were also some medicines with descriptions so ridiculously powerful that Xu Yizhuo did not dare feed them to Old Li. Who knew whether, like in novels, an ordinary person who ate an immortal medicine would explode and die?

Xu Yizhuo gritted her teeth and helped Old Li down from the bed.

“Hold on. I’ll take you to see a doctor!”

The courtyard they had bought was in a very good location, and there was a medical clinic not far away. Xu Yizhuo supported stolen contentOld Li the whole way. One of them was too short, while the other was hunched over, but she could still barely support him. Old Li tried his best to walk on his own and did not let Xu Yizhuo bear all his weight.

But Xu Yizhuo could feel that Old Li was far too light.

The first time she met Old Li, he already looked like half his body was in the grave. At first, Xu Yizhuo had not even dared to speak too loudly to him. If someone who looked like he could be blown over by a gust of wind suddenly died, who would be responsible?

Although she later discovered that Old Li’s health was not as bad as she had imagined, Xu Yizhuo did not think it was much better either.

Based on her experience in reality, even a minor illness could take an elderly person’s life.

Xu Yizhuo did not dare walk too quickly because she was mindful of Old Li, but her heart was so anxious that she wished she could teleport directly to the clinic. When she finally arrived, she saw that the clinic was surrounded so tightly that not even water could pass through.

“What’s going on?” Xu Yizhuo was stunned.

She found someone she was somewhat familiar with on the edge of the crowd and asked him to help look after Old Li. Then she squeezed into the crowd and grabbed a worried-looking clinic apprentice.

“What happened? Is the doctor still seeing patients?”

The apprentice sighed. “Miss, you should go to another clinic. This clinic won’t open today.”

“What happened?” Xu Yizhuo tried to look inside the clinic through the small crack in the door. There were people moving around inside, and a woman’s crying could be heard.

The apprentice glanced at Xu Yizhuo awkwardly. After hesitating for a moment, he whispered, “This morning, my senior brother was found dead in his own room… All the blood in his body had been sucked dry!”