After the others awoke from their drunken dreams that morning, they gradually realized that something was wrong with the atmosphere.
When they saw that the nest Lou Chengfeng had specially prepared for Blackfur and Whitefur was empty, they assumed the two had slipped away and angered him. But Lou Chengfeng gritted his teeth and said, “I’m going to hang a sign outside later: ‘Xiao Rangchen, Blackfur, and Whitefur are strictly forbidden from entering!’”
Compared with Lou Chengfeng’s fury, Lou Yue was as calm as if nothing had happened.
Under the inquisitive, curious, and worried gazes of the three people lined up before her, Lou Yue offered a brief explanation. “He did something bad, so he was kicked out.”
Hong Chou asked, “What kind of earth-shattering thing did he do to make Uncle so angry? His mood changed completely overnight.”
Liufeng Xin said, “He even kicked Blackfur and Whitefur out along with him. It must have been a serious offense.”
Xiao Aiai asked, “What did my brother do?”
Before Lou Yue could answer, Lou Chengfeng let out a heavy snort, his voice filled with anger and heartache. “He stole the tender cabbage I’d spent years carefully raising!”
Then he added, “Right in front of me, too!”
Liufeng Xin looked around, utterly confused. “Huh? Since when did we start growing vegetables? I never saw any cabbage.”
“This is the one-and-only treasure in all the world. How could it possibly be planted in an ordinary field?” Lou Chengfeng was both furious and heartbroken. “He did it with a plan! He’d had his eye on it for ages. And to think I trusted him so much before!”
Xiao Aiai hurriedly defended her brother. “Godfather, my brother isn’t that kind of person.”
“Aiai, people change—especially men.” As he said this, Lou Chengfeng deliberately glanced toward Lou Yue.
But Lou Yue, the cabbage in question, completely ignored him.
Not only did she disregard him, she was even planning to go down the mountain.
Lou Chengfeng blocked her at the courtyard gate. “Don’t even think about going after him. He’s already gone.”
When Lou Yue looked over, he continued, “That’s right. I drove him away. I made him swear a soul oath that he would never touch you or use you for the rest of his life. He didn’t dare swear it. See? His so-called sincerity only goes that far.”
Lou Yue arched her brows slightly before saying, “I’m not going down the mountain to see him.”
“You’re not allowed to go anywhere, either! Who knows where that ill-intentioned scoundrel is hiding, waiting for you to show yourself so he can abduct you? For the next few days, you’re staying home and behaving yourself!”
Lou Chengfeng had expected Lou Yue to bargain with him, or even argue back. Instead, she merely gave him a faint glance, turned around, and went back inside.
Lou Chengfeng was left standing there, utterly bewildered.
He stared at the place where Lou Yue’s figure had disappeared and stroked his chin, muttering, “Since when did I, her father, become so intimidating?”
Lou Yue spent the entire afternoon meditating and cultivating in her room. By the time she finished, she had made up her mind.
Rather than remain in the dark, she would confront Lou Chengfeng directly. At worst, if he refused to tell her the truth, she would burn incense for her original body’s mother ahead of time and leave immediately.
She had had enough. She was tired of guessing.
But when she came out, Lou Chengfeng was nowhere to be seen, so Lou Yue went to ask Xiao Aiai.
“Godfather should have gone to pay his respects to Godmother. The attic at the very top,” Xiao Aiai said, pointing it out to her.
Lou Yue nodded, then explained to Xiao Aiai, “Don’t believe what that old man said. He was angry and talking nonsense.”
Xiao Aiai responded with a muffled sound. Seeing her dejected expression, Lou Yue changed the subject. “So, is doing business fun?”
“Mm.” A clear smile appeared on Xiao Aiai’s face at the mention of it. “It’s very interesting. Last month, I helped my master sell a batch of beast materials acquired from rogue cultivators to Qingzhou for twenty percent above the market price.”
Lou Yue smiled along with her. “And Qingzhou agreed?”
Xiao Aiai gave a soft snort. “Qingzhou has always thrown its weight around and forced prices down, relying on the Yue Clan behind it. But I had already found out that they were urgently short of a batch of high-grade beast fangs for refining magical weapons, and that batch happened to contain them.”
“They usually use their aristocratic background to bully rogue cultivators, forcing prices—which are already low—to drop even further. Those cultivators risk their lives working for their materials, yet receive pitifully few spirit stones in return. It’s completely unfair.”
“So after negotiating the higher price, I persuaded my master’s merchant house to keep only an additional ten percent. The other ten percent was distributed among the rogue cultivators. That strengthened our partnership, and from now on, whenever they obtain anything good, they’ll surely sell it to us first.”
Lou Yue listened to her speak with such confidence and clarity, then smiled and praised her. “Aiai, you’ve become so capable.”
Her earnest praise only made Xiao Aiai feel awkward. She quickly pushed Lou Yue along. “Oh, stop it. Go find Godfather already.”
As Lou Yue approached the attic at the highest point, she concealed her aura and used the cover of night to leap through a second-floor window.
Lou Chengfeng’s rambling voice drifted up from below.
“Ah, Jing He, the older our daughter gets, the less I can control her. If you were here, I wouldn’t have to worry so much.”
“I truly don’t want her to follow in those people’s footsteps and ruin her entire life.”
“It’s all that old tortoise Xuanba’s fault. If he hadn’t recklessly removed the Wuxiang seal from Lou Yue, none of this trouble would have happened!”
Xuanba’s voice followed. “You should ask what Lou Yue herself wants.”
Lou Chengfeng replied, “There’s no need. If she finds out, things will only become more troublesome. Aren’t the tragic fates of the previous two women with the Zhuoxi Physique warning enough?”
Lou Yue’s brows drew together slightly.
What was the Zhuoxi Physique?
The term had also appeared in the Lou Clan’s jade slip on cauldron physiques.
“I absolutely will not let Lou Yue end up that way.”
Xuanba asked coldly, “And did your attempt to break up the lovers succeed?”
Lou Chengfeng ground his teeth in hatred. “That brat is far too tenacious. I can’t drive him away no matter what I do. I don’t even know how Lou Yue managed to attract such a clingy pest.”
“Jing He, send me a dream and give me some guidance. What exactly am I supposed to do to separate the two of them?”
“All I’m missing is a hint—a brilliant plan delivered straight from heaven.”
Listening to his mournful muttering, Lou Yue simply flipped over the railing and descended, landing leisurely in front of Lou Chengfeng.
“Here’s your hint. And your brilliant plan has descended straight from heaven.”
Lou Yue lazily lifted her eyelids, looking every bit as arrogant as possible.
Lou Chengfeng fell silent.
His eyes widened. “When did you get here?!”
Lou Yue shrugged. “I came in right behind you.”
She walked over and sat down in a nearby chair, gazing at the frozen Lou Chengfeng. “Come on. Tell me about the tragic fates of those two women with the Zhuoxi Physique.”
Lou Chengfeng fell silent again.
Lou Yue folded her arms and said casually, “You begged Mother to give you a hint, and she really sent you one. Yet now you’re pretending to be deaf and mute. I don’t think you should count on her appearing in your dreams again.”
“You little brat! How dare you mock your father!”
Lou Yue merely looked at him.
After hesitating for a moment, Lou Chengfeng sighed. “Yue, the fact that you possess the Zhuoxi Physique… Your father kept it from you for your own good.”
Lou Yue raised her brows. So she really did possess this so-called Zhuoxi Physique.
But after saying that, Lou Chengfeng once again began hemming and hawing, with no sign of continuing.
Lou Yue immediately stood and made as if to leave. “With that information, I can investigate the rest myself.”
Lou Chengfeng glared at her. “Can’t you show a little patience?”
Lou Yue shot back at once, “You’re the one dragging your feet.”
Xuanba spoke from the side.
“The Zhuoxi Physique is born alongside a golden lotus. Through dual cultivation with its bearer, one can reach the Divine God Realm, a realm beyond the Deity Transformation stage.”
“That is recorded in the Lou Clan’s secret canon, but the upper echelons of the Four Great Clans all know it.”
“In the past several thousand years, the Zhuoxi Physique has appeared only three times.”
“You’re the third.”
Lou Yue sat back down, propping her head up with one hand. Her tone was languid. “And then?”
Lou Chengfeng was so frustrated by her calm, indifferent manner that his teeth nearly hurt. “What do you mean, ‘and then’? Can’t you have even a little sense of danger?”
Lou Yue glanced at him. “The first two were nervous. Did that do them any good?”
Lou Chengfeng was instantly rendered speechless.
“According to what you said, then how come he didn’t become a god?” Lou Yue asked in confusion.
Lou Chengfeng immediately flew into a rage. “You still dare bring that up!”
Was she trying to anger her own father to death?
“I’m raising a reasonable objection.”
Lou Chengfeng muttered a curse under his breath. After a while, he said disdainfully, “The Zhuoxi physique is suited to dual cultivation, but the Golden Lotus must be brought forth first.”
Lou Yue followed up at once. “How do you bring it forth?”
The veins on Lou Chengfeng’s forehead throbbed. His eyes were practically blazing with fire, yet the person involved still wore such an utterly frank expression.
He endured it again and again, but in the end, he pulled out a jade slip engraved with the character “Lou” and tossed it over, letting her read it for herself.
Lou Yue sent her divine sense into the jade slip. It was like the one Hong Chou had given her earlier, except this one was complete. Lou Yue skipped straight to the end.
A moment later, she withdrew her divine sense and looked up. “What happened to the first two?”
Lou Chengfeng sat down across from her.
“When the first Zhuoxi physique appeared, there was no precedent to go by. Later, her husband suffered severe damage to his spiritual meridians during a trial, and his cultivation fell back to the Mahayana stage. He became depressed day after day. Unable to bear seeing him like that, she wanted to use the dual-cultivation method recorded in the secret patterns to help stabilize his cultivation. Instead, she accidentally brought forth the Golden Lotus.”
“That very night, her husband returned directly to the Deity Transformation stage. After two more dual-cultivation sessions, he crossed the threshold of perfect Deity Transformation in one leap and entered the legendary Godhood realm.”
Lou Chengfeng’s voice grew heavy. “But that was also when the tragedy began.”
“Once he became the most powerful person in the cultivation world, fame, power, status, and countless temptations came rushing toward him. The two of them had originally loved each other deeply, and he had been grateful to her. But after only two years, he discovered that no matter how many times they practiced dual cultivation, his cultivation would not advance any further. Having tasted the thrill of rising to the heavens in a single step, he could no longer settle his heart and cultivate.”
“After his endless attempts to obtain more yielded no results, he developed wicked thoughts. With people around him fanning the flames and pushing matters along, he began treating her as a tool for securing his own interests.”
“He had several of his subordinates violate her, forcing her to bring forth the Golden Lotus again and again. In the end, they forcibly created six Deity Transformation experts. But human greed knows no bounds. Once those six had tasted the sweetness of such power, how could they willingly let go? One after another, they took turns abusing her again.”
“Unable to endure the humiliation, she finally found an opportunity and swallowed a deadly poison capable of completely annihilating her soul. After her death, her husband and those six men slaughtered one another. In the end, some died, while others went mad.”
Lou Chengfeng fell silent for a long while before continuing with the story of the second Zhuoxi physique.
“The second woman with the Zhuoxi physique was born with the Golden Lotus already present. Having learned from the tragedy of the past, the Lou clan guarded her closely from childhood. When she came of age, they betrothed her to the most talented young man in the clan.”
“But that man already had a childhood sweetheart in his heart. Though he did have some affection for her, he viewed her more as a tool for increasing his cultivation. Unfortunately, she had fallen deeply in love with him.”
“That man became the second person in the cultivation world to enter the Godhood realm. His success was tantamount to announcing that the Zhuoxi physique was a shortcut to ascending to heaven.”
“There are no walls in this world without cracks. The secret of the Zhuoxi physique was eventually discovered by the other great clans. The Lou clan wanted to protect her, but it was difficult to guard against hidden arrows. Someone captured that man’s childhood sweetheart and their illegitimate child and used them to threaten him.”
“To save the two of them, he personally tricked her into leaving.”
“That woman had an arrogant nature. Upon learning that the man she loved had betrayed her, she was overcome with grief and indignation. In the end, she chose to follow the second man instead and urged him to kill her former husband. When that failed, she turned to a third man, then a fourth…”
“But for some unknown reason, no one else was able to use her to enter the Godhood realm. In the end, she died at the hands of the fourth man’s wife, who assassinated her.”
Lou Chengfeng let out a long sigh. “Neither of the two women with the Zhuoxi physique met a good end. They either became tools for others to improve their cultivation, or became so ensnared by love that they gradually lost themselves.”
He looked toward Lou Yue. “Your father only wishes for you to live a carefree life… even if that means you can only spend your entire life as a man.”
“Yue, can you understand your father’s good intentions…?”
Lou Yue lowered the hand that had been supporting her head. Her eyes were clear as she asked, “Why didn’t they kill those men themselves?”
Lou Chengfeng was instantly left speechless.
Lou Yue said calmly, “Didn’t you say that the higher the cultivation, the stronger the power of a cauldron? If that power was truly so formidable, then their cultivation talent should not have been poor either.”
Lou Chengfeng said, “…Perhaps they simply had no interest in cultivation.”
Lou Yue asked, “Then why do you assume I would end up like them?”
She raised her eyes, her gaze sharp and confident. “If I were betrayed, I would repay it a hundred, a thousand times over. Kill myself? Why should I? Why should the people who hurt me be allowed to live well while I destroy myself?”
“I will not rely on anyone else. I trust only my own strength. Since I can help someone else reach the Godhood realm, then I can do it myself.”
“To everyone who has hurt me, betrayed me, or used me—I will personally make them pay.”
Her words rang out like metal striking stone, echoing through the silent attic.
“Your daughter has more backbone than you do,” Xuanba suddenly remarked.
Lou Chengfeng was stifled with anger. “…You’re one to talk! If I hadn’t made the decisive choice back then, how would she have the chance to make these glib remarks now?”
Xuanba ignored him. He merely looked toward Lou Yue and slowly revealed the truth from many years ago.
“When you were born, you were wrapped in the light of a Golden Lotus. The moment your father saw it, he knew that you possessed the Zhuoxi physique.”
“Whenever a direct descendant of the Lou clan is born, the clan’s Grand Priest will sense it. At that time, your father had refused an arranged marriage and eloped with your mother. The two of them were being pursued all the way—”
Lou Chengfeng abruptly raised his voice and cut him off. “Why bring up our elopement out of nowhere?”
Xuanba acted as though he had not heard him and continued, “The farther you were from the Grand Priest, the weaker the sensation became. Your father used half of my inner core as the core of the ancient secret art Without Form, forcibly sealing away your female body.”
“Your mother had already been poisoned by then. To prevent the poison from entering your body, she concealed the matter from us and forced all the poison into her own heart meridian. After giving birth to you, she was utterly spent. When the poison finally erupted, there was nothing anyone could do to save her.”
“To prevent the Grand Priest from calculating your true sex from your birth date, your father willingly lowered his cultivation by an entire major realm. He preserved your mother’s body for a full month, pushed your birth date back, and only then managed to deceive the Grand Priest and those pursuing you. That was how he truly changed your identity to that of a boy in the eyes of the world.”
Lou Chengfeng seemed lost in thought. His entire body slumped, stripped of the lively, carefree spirit he usually possessed.
Lou Yue looked toward the portrait hanging directly in front of them.
The woman in the painting was delicate and graceful, a faint smile on her face. At first glance, she seemed unfamiliar, yet the longer Lou Yue looked, the more she sensed an inexplicable familiarity. It was not a resemblance in appearance, but a feeling she could not put into words.
Lou Yue rose and walked toward the portrait.
The spirit tablet bore the inscription:
The spirit tablet of my beloved wife, Yang Jinghe
Yang Jinghe… Yang Jinghe…
She suddenly trembled from head to toe.
She immediately turned around and hurried to Lou Chengfeng, asking urgently, “My mother’s name was Yang Jinghe? How did you know her? Did she often say strange things? She was the one who came up with the name ‘Good Things in the Making,’ wasn’t she? And she was the one who hung those eight strings of copper bells too, wasn’t she?!”
Seeing how calm Lou Yue had been just moments ago, yet how anxious she now appeared, Lou Chengfeng could not help asking, “Yue, what’s wrong?”
“You answer me first!”
“Yes. Your mother said her name was Yang Jinghe. When I met her, she was in a remote village. The people there said she was mentally ill and wanted to burn her alive, so I rescued her.” Lou Chengfeng paused. “Although I occasionally couldn’t understand what she was saying, she wasn’t sick.”
“Everything in this house was designed by your mother. Although she never got the chance to see it with her own eyes, it was built according to her drawings—even the locations of the strings of bronze bells.”
Lou Yue’s body felt weak. She braced herself against the back of the chair and asked, “When you met her… how many years ago was it?”
“Twenty-one years ago.”
“So it really was…” Lou Yue murmured.
Lou Chengfeng frowned and was about to ask what she meant when Lou Yue spoke again. “When she left… was she in pain?”
Lou Chengfeng fell silent.
The only sound in the attic was the crackling of the candle flames.
Leaning against the back of the chair, Lou Yue sat down beside Lou Chengfeng.
No one knew how much time had passed before Xuanba slowly spoke. “She had been poisoned with the incurable Seven Severing Powder. Whenever it flared up, it felt as though ants were gnawing at every one of her seven orifices. But she endured it too well. She was even smiling when she died. We… didn’t realize she had been poisoned at all. It was only later that we…”
Lou Yue closed her eyes and asked hoarsely, “Who did it?”
“That woman. Your father killed her with his own hands,” Xuanba said. “She held a grudge because your father rejected her marriage proposal and would rather elope with your mother, a rogue cultivator.”
Lou Chengfeng leaned back in his chair, covering his eyes with one hand. His voice was heavy with regret. “It was my fault… I’m sorry to your mother. If it hadn’t been for me, she wouldn’t have died so young…”
The candle flame flickered, casting shifting shadows of light and darkness.
Lou Yue slowly opened her eyes and said softly, “But if she had never met you, she might have been burned to death. Perhaps she was happy—she got to be with you again for several years…”
Lou Chengfeng abruptly lowered his hand and stared at her in shock. “How do you know what your mother said before she died…?”
Lou Yue tugged at the corner of her lips. “I suppose it’s a mother-daughter connection.”
She turned her head and looked once more at the portrait.
At Yang Jing, whose face was unfamiliar, yet who was her own mother.
Yang Jing had passed away from illness when Lou Yue was five years old. Even though her father had tried every possible means, he had been unable to save her. She didn’t want to die in agony at the end, so she chose euthanasia and passed away in her father’s arms.
Her father had then held her mother’s body for two days, refusing to eat or drink. In the end, the family had broken into the room and knocked him unconscious.
If Heaven had given her another chance to meet her father in another world, she thought her mother must have been happy.
