Wen Shubai stopped in his tracks, and Ji Zhaoxi also halted, feeling a pang of guilt.
Wen Shubai looked down at her. In her hands she held some sort of object, and her face wore a sullen, unhappy expression, like a small cabbage struck by frost, with a smudge of dirt on her cheek to top it off.
He didn't know why, but seeing her like this, he actually found it a little amusing.
A faint wisp of spiritual light suddenly appeared in the air. It slowly gathered and condensed into a cloud the size of a palm.
The cloud wobbled as it floated over to Ji Zhaoxi's head, patting her gently on top.
Ji Zhaoxi suddenly felt something soft press down on her head.
She froze for a moment, then took the thing off.
She pinched the little cloud, squeezing it into a round ball, then stretching it into a long strip. She poked it, and her eyes lit up.
"Senior Brother, is this for me?"
Wen Shubai let out a soft laugh. "We came across it while taking the junior disciples down the mountain for training today. I thought the little junior sister might like something like this."
She had given him many soft things before, saying they could relieve stress, even though he didn't really have any.
Ji Zhaoxi was deeply moved. "Senior Brother, I will train diligently, and I will never let you down."
Wen Shubai was taken aback for a moment, not quite having expected that reaction, but seeing that Ji Zhaoxi was back to her usual cheerful self, he nodded anyway.
He had grown used to seeing his junior sister happy every day, and it suddenly felt wrong for any unhappy expression to appear on her face.
Ji Zhaoxi trained even harder every day. She didn't know how her senior brother had found out she had a magical tool, but he would occasionally teach her how to control it.
She no longer practiced with the other disciples, because they didn't dare spar with her, afraid of getting splashed all over with water.
Ji Zhaoxi trained alongside Wen Shubai instead, so now the water only splashed on him alone.
On the streets of the town, vendors' cries rose and fell on both sides, and the fragrant smell of fried pastries from the stalls wafted straight into people's noses. It was market day, and the streets were packed so tightly with traveling merchants that it was nearly impassable.
Ji Yingjin, holding a letter in one hand and munching on a fried pastry with the other, shouted curses across the street at his neighbor.
"This Heartless Dao, the more you learn it, the more heartless you become. Your daughter's been studying it for so long, soon she won't even recognize you as her father."
Liu Dazhuang nodded vigorously, also holding a fried pastry, wincing as it burned his mouth. "You're still here bragging to us? My daughter sent a letter home again. Your daughter's been gone for so long—has she sent you a single letter?!"
Liu Canfu, who had been looking down his nose at them just moments ago, stopped fanning himself with his folding fan at that question. He raised his voice: "My daughter is devoted to cultivation—when would she have time to write letters?!"
Liu Dazhuang said smugly, "Maybe she's already forgotten all about her old man."
Liu Canfu's face showed panic, but he kept up his stubborn front: "I don't want to talk to you pig butchers. You're crude and boorish!"
Before Ji Yingjin could even retort, Liu Canfu hurriedly went back inside his house.
That pig butcher's daughter had only been gone a few days, and she'd already sent several letters home. Why hadn't his daughter sent him even one?
The thought of what Liu Dazhuang had just said nearly scared Liu Canfu half to death.
He had only thought about how Tianjue Sect was the number one sect in the world, but he'd forgotten that his daughter was cultivating the Heartless Dao!
Tears welling up in his eyes, Liu Canfu hurried to write a letter to Liu Fuyin.
A few days later, after a day of grueling training, Liu Fuyin received the letter.
Seeing the pages dripping with tearful cries, the corners of Liu Fuyin's mouth twitched.
[Daughter, your father's heart is unsettled. Why have you been gone so long without writing to your family? Everyone else writes home often. Your father wants to cry, wants to cry, wants to cry...]
Liu Fuyin closed the letter. Her father must have been tricked by that pig butcher family again.
If Ji Zhaoxi, who had no spiritual root at all, could shamelessly come to Tianjue Sect to cultivate, then she, Liu Fuyin, who actually had a spiritual root, was surely fine.
Meanwhile, Liu Canfu waited anxiously day after day, and finally received a letter from Liu Fuyin.
[Father, take good care of your silkworms. Do not worry.]
When Liu Canfu saw the contents of the letter, his vision went black, and he nearly fainted.
His daughter really had internalized the Heartless Dao!
A desolate village at the foot of Tianjue Sect's mountain was shrouded in a faint demonic aura. The villagers cowered off to the side, trembling as they watched the group of ethereal, immortal-like disciples ahead.
Just then, several ferocious boar demons howled as they charged down the mountain. They were massive, and each step they took made the ground tremble. Their saliva was foul and reeking, and when it dripped to the ground, it immediately gave off wisps of green smoke.
The village chief was just about to speak when the leading disciple gently flicked his sleeve and traced a line in the air with his finger. The heads of the boar demons were instantly pierced through. There was no blood or gore—they simply froze in place, then turned into powder scattered by the spiritual energy.
The villagers were still in shock. A child, terrified, timidly grabbed onto Wen Shubai's sleeve.
"Don't be afraid, the demons are gone now," Wen Shubai said in a gentle voice.
Hearing his soft tone, the child burst into loud sobs, clutching tightly at him with his grimy, blackened hands. On the moon-white robe, that smudged little handprint stood out glaringly.
"Thank you, immortal masters..." The village chief's eyes were red too.
Those boar demons had tormented them for far too long.
The other disciples comforted the chief. "It's simply our duty."
The child was still crying. Wen Shubai gently tucked a jade token into his chest, then softly ruffled his hair to soothe him.
The chief looked at the child and sighed. "This poor boy, his parents were trampled to death by those boar demons."
The child clutched the jade token, not understanding much, just holding on to Wen Shubai's sleeve.
Wen Shubai stood up, his sleeve slipping unobtrusively from the child's grasp. He brought two fingers together and lightly brushed his left sleeve—a faint blue light slid across the stain on the fabric, and the cloth was clean again.
"Thank you for taking care of this child," Wen Shubai said quietly.
The chief gave a bitter smile. "He's from our village. There's no hardship in it."
Especially after everything their village had been through.
The child played nearby for a while, then seemed to think of something and reached out to pull at Wen Shubai again. A nearby disciple unobtrusively stepped into the way, turning to speak with the chief.
"Village Chief, since the boar demons have been eliminated, we'll be taking our leave now," the disciple said, bowing to the chief.
The chief hastily returned the gesture. "Thank you, immortal masters."
After Wen Shubai and the disciples had left, the child finally reacted and burst into tears, trying to run after them.
A villager quickly grabbed him. "Come now, child, don't hold up the immortals on their journey."
"Lucky they were so close to Tianjue Sect—if this were any other village, who would have come to deal with those boar demons?"
"They really are a kind-hearted group of immortals. Who says the Heartless Dao is heartless..."
