The boy removed the leaf from his face, opening his eyes to reveal a mischievous sparkle—it was none other than Baishuo. She looked a bit more grown than in previous years, wearing the outfit of a young herbal apprentice, with a small bun on her head and a medicine pouch at her waist. Stretching her limbs, she glanced at the beams of light in the sky and kicked the turtle’s shell, calling out brightly.
“Come on, Old Hei, let’s go back!”
The old turtle slowly crawled southward, moving away from the central hall."
“What a stroke of bad luck! I waited all morning for the dew from the peach blossoms, but just as I dozed off, they took it all,” muttered Bai Shuo, plucking a piece of horseweed from the roadside and biting on it in annoyance.
“If you weren’t so obsessed with sleeping, you wouldn’t have missed it! You’re already far less talented than the inner disciples, and you’re lazier than them too. Why even bother trying to cultivate immortality? You’d be better off returning home and saving my precious herbs and food!” the old turtle chided.
“Oh, you grumpy old turtle! If I didn’t spend every day searching for celestial herbs and elixirs for you, stoking fires and refining pills, would you have grown so strong and sturdy?” Bai Shuo tapped on his shell, grinning mischievously. “Keeping me around isn’t a loss. Besides, I haven’t felt hungry for days now. Maybe, just maybe, I’m about to master ‘bigu’ [the practice of abstaining from food, living on spiritual energy alone]!”
Bai Shuo chuckled, looking rather pleased with herself.
“Three years of cultivating immortality, and you still haven’t mastered bigu. You’re no better than a low-grade mystical beast. What are you so happy about? They mentioned earlier that Chong Zhao has already advanced to the rank of Immortal Lord. Girl, in a few years, if he truly ascends to the Heavenly Palace, you might never see him again.”
The old turtle sighed, exasperated by her lack of ambition. Bai Shuo lay back on his shell, squinting at the sky as she basked in the sunlight, lost in thought.
Bai Shuo had encountered immortals since she was a child, and her lifelong dream had been to become one herself and find the person she longed to repay. Yet, she never imagined that she wasn’t blessed with an immortal destiny.
Years ago, she and Chong Zhao had left the capital, enduring endless hardships before finally reaching the Eastern Sea. It was then, facing the vast ocean and endless skies, that she realized just how foolish a mortal’s dream of becoming an immortal was. Together, she and Chong Zhao ventured out to search for Miao Miao Island over a dozen times, each time narrowly escaping with their lives. On their final attempt, just when she was about to give up, they saved Master Song He, head of Miao Miao Island, who lay gravely wounded and unconscious on a deserted island after a battle with a sea serpent. As a result, they were taken to Miao Miao Island.
It just so happened to be the island’s once-a-decade disciple selection ceremony. Chong Zhao, naturally gifted in spiritual power and blessed with remarkable potential, was a rare prodigy in cultivation, and Song He accepted him as a formal disciple. Bai Shuo, however, lacked even the slightest trace of immortal bones or spirit roots. Only after Chong Zhao’s earnest pleas and Song He’s special permission was she granted an exception to remain on the island as a mere mortal. However, she was not allowed in the main hall and could only tend to medicinal plants as a little apprentice in the herb garden.
Although Master Song He returned alive to Miao Miao Island, his injuries were beyond healing. Near the end of his life, he transferred all his celestial power to Chong Zhao, which allowed Chong Zhao to surpass his senior brothers and sisters, some of whom had cultivated for over a hundred years, in just three years, becoming a standout among his peers on Miao Miao Island. He trained night and day in the back mountains, and Bai Shuo rarely had the chance to see him. The last time she saw him was half a year ago, on the day he entered seclusion for intense training.
It had been a full moon that night, and the herb garden was quiet, with only the faint light from the herb cauldron illuminating the straw hut. Bai Shuo had been nodding off with her chin propped on her hands by the cauldron, a hibernating old cat, Wang Ba, nestled by her feet.
Chong Zhao had sat beside the dozing Bai Shuo for a long time, simply watching her in silence. Only when dawn began to break did he stand to leave, but a hand reached out and tugged at his sleeve.
“The sky’s just lightening; it’s still chilly outside with the frost. Why not stay a bit longer by the fire and wait until the sun’s up?” Bai Shuo had woken at some point, smiling in her carefree way.
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