When the Sect Leader gave Xiaoqing and Cheng Yun their top-grade swords, he also assigned them three missions.
The first was the mission they had accepted from the inner list: capture his younger sister Ouyang Yue, dead or alive.
The second was to eliminate several evil cultivators who held grudges against Shuangji Sect, ensuring that they could no longer harm anyone.
The third was to spend three months as bodyguards for the current head of the wealthy Feng family in the Northern Kingdom’s capital. They could not let any other mortal discover that they were cultivators. Success would earn them ten thousand sect contribution points and three hundred spirit stones.
Xiaoqing would have to split the ten thousand points with Cheng Yun, leaving them five thousand each.
But five thousand was still a great deal.
Once she received those points, Xiaoqing could borrow dozens of books on alchemy and artifact refining. She could finally begin learning those two essential skills.
Afterward, who cared about Ouyang Yue, the other evil cultivators, or the tired routines of the hero and heroine’s plot? Xiaoqing could simply report that she had found no one, close her door, and study in seclusion. At worst, she would return the Sect Leader’s top-grade sword.
It was a lovely plan.
Reality, however, had other ideas.
They could not reveal their cultivator identities—which meant they could not even get through the Feng family’s front gate. How were they supposed to solve that?
“Why are you two still here? If you don’t leave, I’ll truly fetch a stick and beat you. Get out!” Feng Qian had grown angry when Xiaoqing and Cheng Yun refused to move. His master would be leaving soon. What if he saw these women loitering outside?
Feng Qian shouted, “Ergou! Bring a stick. We’ll teach these two girls a lesson.”
A servant of seventeen or eighteen actually answered. He jogged over carrying a wooden staff nearly as tall as he was and scratched his head.
“Is this really a good idea?”
“Of course it… isn’t.”
The crisp female voice startled Feng Qian. He turned, saw the newcomer, and felt his heart pound even faster.
“S-S-Sixth Miss.”
She was Feng Yao, the head of the family’s cherished daughter and the most favored Sixth Miss of the Feng household.
Her oval face was small enough to fit in a palm. Clear, bright eyes shone like glass, red cinnabar decorated her forehead, and her brows curved like crescent moons. Lustrous black hair was tied in a youthful ponytail. A sapphire bracelet engraved with auspicious clouds circled one delicate wrist. She looked elegant and pure.
“Have you come to see my father? The sun is strong outside. Please follow me in.”
Feng Yao gave Feng Qian a sidelong glance before he could object, then offered the two women a soft, gentle smile. “This way, dears.”
What a strange person.
Still, Xiaoqing followed her inside. She was tired of arguing with Feng Qian and wanted nothing more than a bath and a good sleep.
The Feng family was worthy of its place as the richest household in the Northern Kingdom. They passed countless pavilions, terraces, gardens, and waterside halls. Every structure was exquisitely lavish, built from rare timber or precious jade seldom found in the mortal world.
*Rich people, please be my friends.*
More captivating still were the maids. Each was beautiful and graceful, yet each possessed a different air: gentle, innocent, ethereal, charming, or alluring.
It was a feast for the eyes.
Cheng Yun was far less pleased. After Xiaoqing’s gaze lit with admiration for what felt like the hundredth time, Cheng Yun finally lost her temper. She began an incantation, swallowed it back, then snorted.
“A beauty becomes white bones. Powder and rouge conceal a skeleton!”
Appreciating handsome young men and beautiful young women was proof of youth. Xiaoqing muttered, “Are you jealous because that girl is prettier than you?”
Cheng Yun’s face flushed with rage. “You!”
Why would she be jealous of a mortal? What did that woman possess that could possibly inspire envy?
Xiaoqing placed a finger against her lips. “Quiet. Listen. I hear a secret—gossip!”
Cultivators had keen hearing. Around the next corner, a maid was whispering.
“It was terrifying! I actually saw Sixth Miss the Tyrant Flower wearing a dress. She took tiny lotus steps, put rouge and powder on her face, and even painted that cinnabar mark. Terrifying! Truly terrifying!”
The supposedly terrifying Sixth Miss settled Cheng Yun and Xiaoqing in two adjoining guest rooms.
“Father will not return until tomorrow. Please rest here until then. I have ordered the kitchen to prepare delicacies in every flavor—sweet, salty, mild, and spicy. There will be pastries and drinks after the meal. Each room also has a hot spring, fragrant soap, and fresh petals picked from the flower house. Please enjoy yourselves. I will take my leave.”
The maids departed with Feng Yao, leaving Xiaoqing and Cheng Yun staring at each other.
Cheng Yun blinked, then rubbed Xiaoqing’s hair. Xiaoqing slapped her hand away, but she did not mind.
After clearing her throat, Cheng Yun said, “No one offers such hospitality without wanting something dishonest in return. Either that, or our cultivator identities have been exposed. But that possibility is almost nonexistent. This is our first visit to the Feng family, isn’t it? Never mind. Whatever she plans to gain from us, we might as well enjoy ourselves first.”
No, the first possibility was not remote. It was extremely likely. In fact, it was the truth.
*System, say that again. I didn’t hear you clearly.*
> Ding! One reborn woman detected. Player, do not hesitate—go erase her! The system believes in you. Kisses!
>
> Ding! One reborn woman detected. Player, do not hesitate—go erase her! The system believes in you. Kisses!
>
> Ding! One reborn woman detected. Player, do not hesitate—go erase her! The system believes in you. Kisses!
>
> Ding! Important things must be said three times.
* * *
Hatred.
Feng Yao hated them.
Even at the moment of her death, she did not understand. Why? Why had everything changed? Why had the Feng family ended that way?
Her loving father. Her gentle mother. Her older brothers and sisters, who had cherished her. Why had she lost them all in a single night?
Yes.
It was because of cultivators.
A monster had brought corruption and chaos into the imperial harem, and the royal family needed cultivators to slay it. But finding such people was easier said than done.
After the chancellor dropped several hints, Feng Yao’s father volunteered. He said he could find cultivators.
It was true. Their family possessed a way to contact one.
They waited with hope for three days, then five, seven, ten, and fifteen. Two months passed, yet the supposedly almighty cultivators never came.
The royal family decided that the Feng family had deceived and mocked them. It ordered the entire household executed after autumn.
A person could possess enough wealth to rival a nation. Before an emperor, that person was still nothing.
They died.
They all died.
Blood, mockery, terror, slaughter.
Brilliant red.
Everything was red.
Red.
Where were the cultivators?
Where was the cultivator who owed such a great debt to the Feng ancestors?
Where were they?
When Feng Yao opened her eyes again, she had returned to a time before the execution of her entire clan.
The monster had already appeared in the palace. Too many questions surrounded it. Once the clever people of the royal court realized this, they would summon her father to the palace.
Everyone in the Northern Kingdom knew the Feng family had ties to a cultivator. The family could neither hide nor escape. Feng Yao’s only choice was to contact that cultivator early. At the same time, she sent her brother to a legendary immortal mountain in search of some trace of immortals. If everything failed, she had already prepared a path of retreat.
Just as she readied herself to flee at the first sign of disaster, they came.
The two cultivators had finally arrived.
Unfortunately, Feng Yao’s heart had gone cold. In her previous life, the Feng family had been exterminated because of cultivators like them.
In this life, she would make these two cultivators—who treated the descendants of their benefactors however they pleased—properly enjoy her “hospitality.”
The Feng ancestors had shown their sect great kindness. Yet when a benefactor’s descendants begged for help, cultivators could repay the favor if they wished or abandon the family to its fate if they did not.
So that was what it meant to be powerful.
* * *
The wealthy Feng family had one forbidden place: the family head’s study.
There, he handled the household’s affairs. It held letters, seals, ledgers—and astonishing secrets.
More than ten broad, muscular guards trained in martial arts stood openly outside. First-rate hidden guards from the martial world protected it in shifts from the shadows. Any outsider who came within twenty meters of the study could be killed without warning.
The Feng family head had once believed such defenses were so strict that even a fly could not enter.
That had been before two girls appeared from nowhere.
They looked sixteen or seventeen, wore the coarse green floral dresses common among ordinary people, and possessed exceptionally plain faces.
After staring for a moment, the Feng family head rose and cupped his fists.
“Heroines… whatever wealth or power the person who sent you promised, I, Feng, can offer the same—and more!”
The girls said nothing.
“Everyone in the Northern Kingdom knows that I keep my word and that one promise from me is worth a thousand pieces of gold,” he continued solemnly. “Turn away from darkness now, and I guarantee I will cause neither of you the slightest trouble.”
“Are you finished?” one girl asked.
“Ah.”
Why had they shown no reaction? Did they accept his offer or not?
The puzzled man saw half of a jade pendant carved with two fish tossed into the air. He caught it instinctively, then immediately regretted doing so. What if it was poisoned?
But the instant he recognized its design, surprise, fear, doubt, understanding, and disbelief passed across his face.
Ignoring the outsiders in the room, he turned an antique vase that appeared to be decoration. A square compartment opened in one corner of the wall. From an exquisitely carved box inside, he removed the pendant’s other half.
The two pieces joined. They flashed with dazzling light, then crumbled into powder.
Feng Nan, the famous head of the Feng family, stared at the two plain girls before him. He blinked in disbelief, then blinked again.
“You’re cultivators!”
“Yes.” Xiaoqing nodded solemnly. “Your family once did our Sect Leader a great favor, so…”
The old family stories were true. Cultivators truly existed, and they had come to repay the debt!
Even Feng Nan, a man tempered by many storms, could not keep his heart calm.
He cleared his throat. “The Feng family now possesses wealth and influence. We have reached the very height of prosperity in the mortal world…”
Surely it would be reasonable to ask the immortal maidens to examine the Feng descendants for the aptitude to cultivate. Yes, he would make that request.
“Wait, Immortal… My hearing is not very good. What did you just say?”
Xiaoqing blinked. “The Sect Leader sent us to serve as your bodyguards and protect your physical and emotional well-being for three months.”
