With Shu Fu's rather unsophisticated aesthetic sensibilities, she couldn’t make heads or tails of what Liu Ruyi was playing on his instrument—even if she could understand it, she wouldn’t have appreciated it.
So, with one hand clapped over her ear and the other gripping a fistful of Bai Tian’s glossy black hair, she resolutely threw herself into the lake.
The reason for yanking his hair was simple: Bai Tian was putting up a fierce struggle, and this was the only way to effectively subdue him.
Bai Tian: "Miss Liu—!"
Shu Fu: "Shut—up—!"
Splash!
All Shu Fu heard was the sound of water spraying around her, and then everything went dark as she plunged into the icy depths of the lake.
Bai Tian flailed wildly beside her, accidentally elbowing her in the shoulder. Caught off guard, she swallowed a mouthful of water, and a surge of irritation shot straight to her head. She was tempted to shove this lovesick young master straight to the bottom of the lake.
Wait a minute… the bottom of the lake?
It took Shu Fu a moment to realize that something about the underwater scene felt off.
She opened her eyes and looked down, but instead of the flat, open lakebed she’d expected—or the usual fish and aquatic plants—all she saw were bare, unremarkable rocks.
The bright, shimmering starlight from above had also vanished without a trace.
The only illumination left was the faint glow from the night pearl on Bai Tian’s sword, casting a firefly-like light over a small patch of the lakebed and the rock wall right beside them.
For some reason, she had the distinct impression that they hadn’t jumped into a forest lake, but rather a massive, rock-hewn swimming pool.
To test this theory, she braced one hand against the wall, pushed off the rocky lakebed with her legs, and shot up toward the surface.
"Cough! Cough!"
"Miss Shu, are you alright?"
Liu Ruyi’s voice sounded beside her. It seemed that once he’d finished his performance, he had followed the others into the water, sparing the forest’s flora any further torment.
Shu Fu turned to see Liu Ruyi floating nearby, his face scrunched in concern. "Ah, how careless of me. I should have prepared a water-repelling artifact for you. A young girl like you, just starting out, isn’t as tough as someone like me—"
"I’m fine, Fellow Daoist Liu, no need to—huh?"
Shu Fu wiped the water from her face and was about to reply when she froze mid-sentence.
Liu Ruyi’s hair had come loose in the water, and he had taken the opportunity to remove all his hairpins and ornaments. He’d even wiped away the layers of rouge and powder from his face, leaving his jet-black hair cascading like silk over his pale, flawless complexion—so fair it could shame snow itself.
Shu Fu was momentarily stunned, marveling once again at the transformative power of makeup. A masterful application could rival plastic surgery, and this was living proof.
Without the embellishments, Liu Ruyi’s bone structure and features remained the same, but his once-graceful, coquettish demeanor had shifted into something more refined and handsome. With his peach-blossom eyes and delicate features, he now looked like a man with a naturally androgynous beauty.
Compared to him, Shu Fu felt like she’d lived her past life like a stray dog—utterly uncouth.
Liu Ruyi noticed Shu Fu staring and, familiar with such reactions, tilted his head with a playful smile. "Do I look good?"
Shu Fu answered honestly, "Very."
"Of course he does."
Just then, a calm, unhurried voice drifted down from above. The next moment, Shu Fu felt herself being lifted by the scruff of her robes like a kitten and hauled out of the water. "Most people spend three days fishing and two days drying their nets. But him? He spends three days cultivating and three days preening—how could he not look good?"
Shu Fu: "..."
The voice was gentle, but the words were anything but. After less than a day in his company, she could already recognize Jiang Xuesheng’s distinctive way of speaking.
Yet despite his sharp tongue, Jiang Xuesheng handled Shu Fu with surprising care, setting her down gently on the shore and even smoothing out her disheveled hair.
Somehow, he had managed to emerge from the lake without a single drop of water on him, his robes pristine and his demeanor as composed as an immortal descending from the heavens.
The other young men, however, weren’t nearly as composed or graceful.
One was cursing loudly, "Who was it? Who provoked the Jade-Haired Rabbits?! My father always said female cultivators have long hair and short wits—today proves it!"
Another shrieked in protest, "Don’t you dare slander her! Little Rou did hold a rabbit, but Young Master Fang was the one who caught it for her! She studies talismans, not beast-taming—how was she supposed to know?"
A third voice piped up sheepishly, "I—I didn’t know either. I just thought those glowing rabbits were cute and wanted to make the girls happy."
Someone else was sniffling, "Waaah… I want to go home… I don’t want to be here… Mama… Papa…"
And then there was the sarcastic one, "Where’s Young Master Bai? Isn’t he supposed to be amazing? How did he end up getting chased by a bunch of rabbits and leading us to this godforsaken place?"
"..."
Shu Fu shook the water from her face, spat out a mouthful of brackish lake water—and if she could, she would’ve spat out the frustration boiling inside her instead.
This chaotic gathering of ancient-era brats was a circus of noise and nonsense, even more headache-inducing than Liu Ruyi’s death metal performance.
The familiarity of it all was uncanny—like being trapped on a high-speed train during the Lunar New Year rush, surrounded by screaming children under twelve, and feeling the faint stirrings of homicidal urges.
But now wasn’t the time for "kicking over the kindergarten."
Shu Fu surveyed their surroundings and confirmed that they were indeed in a dim, cavernous space with no visible exit. The "lake" they’d climbed out of was actually a modest-sized pool at the end of a narrow passageway.
Along the walls of the passage, a row of oil lamps burned with an eerie blue flame—cold and ghostly, like the flickering will-o’-the-wisps in a graveyard.
Shu Fu wasn’t a native of the cultivation world, but she’d read enough novels to recognize the signs. Between the strange, obsidian-like lake in the forest and the white-robed girl who had led them here, the conclusion was obvious:
—Someone had set up a massive teleportation array in that lake.
The real question was: Who would go to such lengths? And who—or what—were they trying to send, and where?
The "Qiongqi" had once been sighted near the Hidden Wood Forest, and the bones of the white-robed girl had been found there as well. This bizarre teleportation array had to be connected to both.
Jiang Xuesheng had mentioned that the Qiongqi of the past would vanish without a trace in the Hidden Wood Forest, leaving no clues behind.
What if, back then, there had been a teleportation array like this one?
Or, going even further—
What if there had been cultivators behind it, deliberately concealing the Qiongqi’s movements?
Could it be that the Qiongqi’s appearance had been man-made from the very beginning?
"……"
Shu Fu wanted to focus and think seriously, but the incessant noise around her made it impossible. She truly couldn’t understand why those sobbing youngsters had come here—perhaps their sole purpose was to cheer for Young Master Bai like a bunch of hype men.
As for Young Master Bai himself, he had fallen into the water alongside Shu Fu. While Shu Fu was being hauled out by Jiang Xuesheng, Bai Tian was similarly plucked from the water by Liu Ruyi, who carried him ashore effortlessly as if lifting a chick.
Bai Tian was clearly an innocent young man. Blushing, he opened his mouth to express his gratitude, only to freeze in shock the moment he looked up and saw the androgynous face of his "beloved." His jaw dropped so wide it could’ve swallowed an ostrich egg whole.
"L-Liu… Miss Liu, you… you’re…?"
Liu Ruyi: "Oh, I’m a man. Doesn’t it show?"
Show my ass! Shu Fu cursed inwardly.
"………………"
Stunned, Bai Tian’s gaze drifted into the distance, his mind momentarily blank. But instead of shutting down from the shocking revelation, he swiftly composed himself and declared with utmost solemnity:
"Miss Liu… no, Young Master Liu, I fell for your grace at first sight. Upon reflection, gender doesn’t matter. Though it may take me some time to adjust, for you… I can learn to love a man."
Liu Ruyi: "Sorry, I prefer women."
Bai Tian: "……"
Shu Fu: "……"
What a mess!
What kind of absurd drama is this?!
"Young Master Bai… my condolences."
Seeing that Bai Tian was still reeling from the emotional whiplash and unlikely to recover anytime soon, Shu Fu steeled herself and took charge of the situation in his stead:
"Everyone, please calm down—"
Before she could finish, a sudden burst of light flared behind them, revealing a scene that was anything but calming.
From the depths of the pitch-black pond, a radiant glow erupted, as if a full moon had materialized beneath the water’s surface.
Then, the "moon" began to rise, lifting higher and higher—until it revealed the pale, white-clad body beneath it.
Pah! No moon at all—it was the ghost woman’s head!
The ghost, who had earlier been meek and timid, now stood before them with a fierce scowl, her presence as imposing as a battering ram. She planted herself firmly in front of the group and bellowed with startling vigor:
"You! That pampered little chick of a young master! Are you seriously the famed heir of the Bai family? And these whimpering brats—they’re supposed to be the best cultivators in Qingcheng? Are you kidding me?! No wonder the Jiang and Qi clans have run rampant all these years! Look at you lot—not a single one of you could hold your own in a fight! Useless, the whole damn bunch of you!"
"I—you—!"
Bai Tian, already drowning in the sorrow of unrequited love, was now being verbally pummeled on top of it. His expression screamed, My own father never scolded me like this! He opened his mouth to retort, only to be cut off by another furious tirade:
"What ‘I’?! What ‘you’?! You’re a damn fool, and so am I for thinking you could help me get revenge! If it weren’t for these kind passersby, all my years of effort would’ve gone to—to—to waste! You don’t even recognize a Jade Rabbit when you see one, yet you had the nerve to provoke it? How many lives do you think you have to spare?!"
"……"
Shu Fu lowered her voice and asked, "Are these Jade Rabbits really that dangerous?"
Liu Ruyi: "A lone rabbit is just a minor spirit, but their kind is no ordinary breed. Their reproductive abilities are terrifying. Bury one rabbit in winter, and by spring, you’ll have a whole tree of them—bearing hundreds, even thousands more…"
Shu Fu: "???"
Asexual reproduction?!
"Enough about the rabbits for now."
The white-clad ghost girl paid no mind to the stunned expressions around her. She plopped down on a rock with the casual dominance of a seasoned general and waved a hand dismissively. "Now that we’re out of the Hidden Wood Forest, I can’t mask my ghostly aura anymore. So be it. And what’s with all the trembling? Never seen a ghost before?"
Everyone: "……"
Not one like you, no.
Seeing that the conversation was going nowhere, Shu Fu once again stepped forward as the living representative to negotiate with the dead. "Miss, may I ask why you lured us into the lake?"
"Ha! Isn’t it obvious?"
For some reason, the ghost’s tone softened slightly when addressing Shu Fu. "Little sister, ever read those folktales? A ghost like me taking form always means there’s an injustice to be righted, a grudge to be settled—always! I didn’t bring you here for anything else. I just wanted to tell you what Qiongqi really is."
"Then…" Shu Fu hesitated before pressing on, "What is Qiongqi, exactly?"
"That’s a long story. Eight years ago, when I first came to Qingcheng—"
"Silence!" A hoarse shout cut her off. "You vile specter, stop spreading your lies! Qiongqi is a vicious beast, a murderer—everyone knows that! What ‘hidden truth’ could there possibly be? You’re clearly in league with it, luring us here to be devoured!"
Shu Fu’s cold gaze snapped toward the speaker—none other than "Young Master Fang," the same boy who had earlier tried to gift someone a rabbit. His plain face dotted with freckles screamed background character from miles away.
Gods above, she thought bitterly, one of my least favorite tropes—just when the truth is about to come out, some random extra interrupts with ‘I don’t believe you!’ or ‘Shut up!’ How many grudges had been buried deeper because of such interruptions? How many misunderstandings had festered, leaving the protagonists stumbling in the dark?
And to think—this ghost girl had saved these young masters and misses. What gave Young Master Fang, the idiot who nearly got them all killed by provoking the rabbit, the right to act so high and mighty?
With that kind of confidence, why not go home and argue with your father instead?
Without a second thought, Shu Fu flicked her sword sheath forward, hooked it around Young Master Fang’s belt, and—with a firm yank—sent him flying back into the water.
Splash!
"……"
Amidst the splashing and the boy’s furious curses, Shu Fu allowed herself a small, hidden smirk before composing her expression into one of serene indifference. She even gave the ghost a polite, theatrical bow and gestured for her to continue.
"My apologies. Please, go on."
Try to interrupt my story?
I’ll interrupt you first.
