Chapter 47 Perhaps elderly spirits think differently.

Cheng Yingxue hesitated and said, "I've noticed several times that you seemed to be greeting something I couldn't see."

"Uh... I suppose so." Su Changling was momentarily choked by the young girl's question.

She glanced at the female ghost who was darting around and wandering aimlessly beside her, then looked back at the disciple trailing behind her. Scratching her head in deep thought, and seeing that their flying sword had already entered the territory of Mount Huang, she simply steered them toward a secluded little bamboo grove off the beaten path and touched down near the edge.

"This is... well, it's like this." Su Changling tapped her fingers together, raised her hand, and cast a spell to temporarily open Cheng Yingxue's spiritual vision.

When two faces that looked similar yet possessed completely different temperaments appeared before the young girl's eyes, Cheng Yingxue's brain uncontrollably fell into a brief state of confusion.

She stared blankly at the two figures before her for a long while before finally fixing her gaze with uncertainty. "T-two Masters?"

"Roughly?" Su Changling scratched her head even harder. "Actually, she is a soul fragment I lost long ago, and she is also that newlywed bride from your Cheng family who was strangled to death a hundred years ago."

"This matter... is a bit complicated to explain." The young woman rubbed her hands together and concisely recounted to Cheng Yingxue the entire origin story of her trip down the mountain, along with her six missing soul fragments, which had been lost since birth.

After listening, the young girl pondered earnestly for a moment, then patted her head in a sudden flash of realization. "Oh~ I get it! In other words, Master, you were an immortal in the mountains in your past life."

"It's just that later, when you entered the mortal world to guide others, you accidentally stumbled into the wrong reincarnation and ran into a harsh and uncharitable mother-in-law."

"No wonder you were so triggered that you passed out straight away the other day," Cheng Yingxue said, reaching out to rub her chin. "That is indeed hard to handle. Any normal person suddenly finding out about this—especially experiencing it firsthand—wouldn't be able to bear it."

"Especially since this matter seems to have exceeded your previous understanding."

"Though I don't really want to admit it..." Su Changling's lips twitched, "indeed."

"Ha." The female ghost nearby was struck by some invisible nerve and suddenly collapsed against Su Changling, shaking with laughter. "Little Changling, your little disciple is much more likable than you—"

"Got it, shut up." Su Changling unceremoniously clapped a hand over the female ghost's mouth while signaling the young girl to step back onto the flying sword.

The closer they drew to Buyun Ruins, the denser the spiritual energy surging through the mountains became.

At a certain moment, the female ghost, who had just been drifting about with great interest, suddenly frowned with severe discomfort. "No, this place of yours is still far too uncomfortable for a ghost."

"Little Changling, you'd better tuck me into the compass first."

"Tch, now that's a wonder," Su Changling clicked her tongue in response. "You aren't afraid of sunlight or the magical artifacts carved by Master... yet you actually hate the spiritual energy of the mountains!"

"Wake up, if you were refined into a ghost pearl by someone," the female ghost scolded, "and then sealed within a grand array for over a hundred years... you'd hate this damned place just as much as I do."

Ah, well, that was true enough.

Su Changling shrugged and acted efficiently, quickly stowing the female ghost away into the dark-cyan compass.

Since new disciples shouldn't fly straight into the Alchemy Peak on their very first day up the mountain, she landed the flying sword outside the mountain gate and led the young girl on foot toward the ruins.

"Master Su."

"Master Su is back." Junior disciples passing by greeted Su Changling one after another, and Cheng Yingxue, who had never witnessed such a sight, found everything in the mountains wonderfully novel.

"Wow, Master," the young girl whispered, tugging at the young woman's sleeve, "are all these people my senior martial uncles and aunts?"

"This... I suppose so." Su Changling wore a tangled expression—under normal circumstances, she was supposed to wait until her eldest senior brother and the others took over the sect leader position from her master before she officially started taking in disciples. But as it turned out, under those urgent circumstances this time...

Right now, Miss Cheng really seemed to have become the sole forty-eighth-generation disciple on the mountain.

"Oh~ Then what about that Mr. Ying that this disciple saw last time?" Cheng Yingxue blinked.

"Mr. Ying? Of course he doesn't count. In fact, he isn't even from our Buyun Ruins at all... Wait a minute, 'saw last time'?" Su Changling suddenly caught the blind spot in her words. "You saw Mr. Ying just now?"

"Yeah, right over there." The young girl tilted her head and pointed casually down the path at the youth in green robes who was strolling leisurely toward them, a trace of bafflement in her eyes. "I noticed that the senior martial uncles and aunts who met him all bowed and saluted him very respectfully."

"Ah... that's because—" He was the oldest tree on the mountain.

Su Changling reached out to touch her nose, intending to whisper an explanation to Cheng Yingxue, when Ying Wufeng, who had been strolling unhurriedly over there just a moment ago, flashed right in front of the two of them.

The young woman looked at the abruptly appearing youth, and her throat choked up once again. Ying Wufeng, however, brightened with a cheerful curve to his brows when he caught sight of her.

"Changling, I just heard the disciples say you were back, and I thought they were just being mischievous and misread the signs... Wait a minute." Ying Wufeng chatted amiably with a smile, his peripheral vision inadvertently sweeping across the young girl's curious face beside her.

Consequently, the smile on his face stiffened imperceptibly for a fraction of a second. His lips twitched slightly before he quickly reorganized his words: "Why has this young Miss Cheng come up the mountain as well?"

"Time has no years in the mountains; won't her family members worry?"

"W-well, my main reason for coming back this trip was precisely because of this." Faced with the current situation, Su Changling inexplicably felt a bit tricky. "This... could be considered a momentary impulse of mine."

"In short, Miss Cheng has now completely left the Cheng family and become my sole direct disciple."

"D-direct disciple." Ying Wufeng's pupils suffered a momentary collapse. "You took Miss Cheng as your disciple??"

"Um... Aren't I bringing her up the mountain to see my master and get acquainted with everyone along the way?" Su Changling furrowed her brows and secretly curled her fingertips. "Alright, Mr. Ying, if you don't have anything else, I'll take Miss Cheng to the back mountain to see my master first—lest his old man gets lazy again and sleeps through who knows what hour for his afternoon nap."

"Very well, you go ahead with your business then, Changling. We'll see each other later." Ying Wufeng nodded, and upon finishing, quietly stepped aside to make way for them.

"See you later, Mr. Ying." Su Changling gave a slight nod of her chin, then grabbed Cheng Yingxue and scurried off at a run.

Actually, she wasn't quite sure why there was any need for them to see each other later, but considering the age of this ten-thousand-year-old tree spirit standing before her—she figured it was best not to casually talk back to the old man.

Perhaps the things ancient spirits had to worry about were different from those of normal humans.

Su Changling muttered inwardly while silently quickening her pace.

The young woman, who had already led her companion over the ridge of a small hill, had no idea that the moment their figures completely vanished at the end of the mountain path, the youth who had been lingering by the roadside immediately plunged straight into the mountain forest.

"Taoist Master Zhang, I have an errand here that can temper little Yu's courage... Would you like to have him come over and try it?" Speeding away to a secluded spot, Ying Wufeng pulled out a sound-transmission talisman like a sneaky thief, executed a hand seal, and watched a streak of light instantly pierce into the horizon.

"Yes, yes, right here at Buyun Ruins... Rest assured, guaranteed."