Eastern Wilderness.
Longyin Village.
"Zi Qian, Fairy has gone to the Eastern Wilderness Secret Realm. She will return in as little as three months, or as long as half a year. If you truly wish to take Fairy Ranran as your master, then you must show a sincere heart during this time.
Go and stay on the mountain opposite Gu Ling Mountain. Do not worry about Grandmother, my health is fine. Just wait for Fairy to return. If she sees you waiting with devotion, she will surely be moved by your sincerity."
Lu Ziqian looked up at the sky. Even the biting winter wind could not stop his brush from dancing across the paper. "Grandmother, do not worry. Your grandson will patiently await Fairy's return right here."
One sheet of pristine xuan paper after another was filled with words expressing his thirst for learning. He was a scholar from Langgan City.
Before he was even born, his parents had already taken him away from his hometown.
The outside world was no calmer.
At three, his father died suddenly.
At five, his mother remarried.
At six, his younger sister drowned.
At seven, his mother abandoned him.
The bewildered Lu Ziqian was picked up by an old beggar living in a ruined temple.
Clutching the map of Longyin Village left by his mother, he cried.
The old beggar beat him, cursed him, humiliated him, and the next day even intended to break his legs and force him out to beg.
Lu Ziqian never resisted.
Yet the old beggar's back suddenly broke, and he passed away on the spot, heading to the afterlife.
Lu Ziqian buried him.
From then on, the ruined temple became his home.
But he still missed his family.
He would eavesdrop from the academy's walls, listening to the teacher's lessons, then study alone in the temple. Whether it was bandit attacks, mocking Taoists, or bullying children, he never wavered.
Because he knew—
As the book said: good and evil will be repaid, the cycles of heaven turn without end. Look up and see, has the sky ever spared anyone?
And indeed—
The moment he lowered his head, Those villains would be lying dead on the ground. So aside from reading, he would occasionally help collect corpses.
Until one day, a letter came from his hometown. There was family there who still missed him.
Lu Ziqian wept on the spot, filled with boundless gratitude toward the Fairy in the letter who had saved his kin. He would take her as his master, no matter what.
She was justice itself, the very Fairy from his books.
She could save the people and protect his family.
A single tear slid silently down, blooming into a faint mark on the pure paper.
…
The light of the righteous path appeared before his eyes.
In the final moments of his life, countless beautiful faces had flashed through Nie Rong's mind. Was he truly about to give up such a flawless body?
Before he could settle on the most perfect visage he had ever seen, darkness swallowed everything.
"Is this… hell?"
Panic and dread gripped him.
The next moment, a burst of sacred white light blossomed.
A beauty stood before him like a spirit among flowers. Layers of jade toads rose into the air, and even the moonlight seemed no more than her backdrop.
Nie Rong thought,
Perhaps when seizing a body and being reborn, one need not be bound by gender.
"You… are you alright?"
Yao Ranran looked at him with puzzlement.
Nie Rong wiped away the twin streams of blood from his nostrils. "I'm fine. Fairy, how many years have you graced this world? What is your name? Where do you live? Have you taken a master before?"
Yao Ranran blinked, then answered, "A woman's age is a secret. My name is Yao Ranran. I live in Gu Ling Mountain, and I am a loose cultivator."
Jiang Shengxiang, who was collecting the jade toad corpses, nearly tripped.
Fairy Ranran was far too honest.
Nie Rong rubbed his hands, eyes curving with a bright smile. "Since you have yet to take a master, would you be interested in joining my sect? Ah, I forgot to introduce myself—"
"Go, go! What nonsense are you spouting? How could Fairy Ranran possibly take you as her master?" Jiang Shengxiang couldn't hold back.
This man's movements were suspicious, as if he had deliberately followed them here. And now he even wanted to take Fairy Ranran as a disciple? Was he dreaming the grandest of daydreams?
Did he perhaps step in dog dung when entering the secret realm, to get such lofty ideas?
Yao Ranran regarded him with mild confusion. "I have no intention of taking a master. I'm sorry."
Nie Rong pressed a finger to his lips in a silencing gesture. "Do not be so quick to refuse. Once you see my strength, you will not say such words."
Jiang Shengxiang gave him a slow, skeptical look.
Tattered clothes. A body covered in injuries. Strange, erratic behavior.
What was this man playing at?
Had the scam artists these days grown so bold?
Xiao Rong's eyes widened, and he ran up eagerly. "Could it be… you are a hidden master?"
He had read about such people in picture scrolls.
True experts rarely revealed themselves, and often dressed as ordinary folk. Some even disguised themselves as beggars to test the character of the disciple they fancied. Could it be this man's strange actions just now had all been a test for his boss?
Nie Rong clasped his hands behind his back, his tone steeped in mystery. "A hidden master… would still pale before me."
"Wow!" Xiao Rong was awestruck.
Jiang Shengxiang began to waver.
Could this man actually have some skill?
Yao Ranran didn't care for any of this.
She focused on the Moonlight Grass beneath the moon, taking out a jade box to carefully harvest it. She was lost in her own world.
Nie Rong: "…"
At least give me a little face.
"Ranran, do you not believe my words?" Nie Rong raised his voice, as though ready to draw his sword should she shake her head.
Yao Ranran nodded. "I believe you."
And went right back to digging up the roots.
Nie Rong: "…"
"Ahem. Do not judge me by my current appearance. I am in truth a Yuányīng Zhēnjūn, an elder of the Wuxiang Sect in Central Continent!" Nie Rong straightened proudly as he spoke.
"An elder of the Wuxiang Sect in Central Continent?!" Xiao Rong and Jiang Shengxiang's mouths dropped open.
Nie Rong's brows arched with smugness. "That's right. I am Nie Rong, elder of Central Continent's number one sect, Wuxiang Sect!"
"Nie Rong?!" The two cried out in shock.
Nie Rong?
Yao Ranran's hands paused, nearly snapping the root of a Moonlight Grass.
Nie Rong clearly noticed her reaction, a flicker of arrogant delight in his eyes.
"How do you prove you are Nie Rong, elder of Wuxiang Sect?" Jiang Shengxiang stepped forward, stroking his beard solemnly.
Nie Rong spread his hands with utter confidence. "Earlier, I was ambushed by a cur, gravely injured, and my cultivation fell to the twelfth level of Qi Refinement. But my physique remains as strong as a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. To prove my strength, you need only strike me once. Then you will know the truth.
A half-crippled cultivator who can still maintain a body far beyond his cultivation—could a mere mortal achieve that?"
Jiang Shengxiang and Xiao Rong exchanged glances, both tempted.
"But if you make a move, Ranran will have to take me as her master!"
Nie Rong's gaze swept over them all.
At last, Yao Ranran plucked the final Moonlight Grass.
"And if you can't withstand a single strike from us?" Xiao Rong asked with interest.
Nie Rong smirked. "Then I will take one of you as my master."