63: Honoring Master

Some time passed.

"Hello, three elder sisters." Ye Qinghe, well-behaved and curious, blinked her large eyes as she looked at the three people in front of her.

There was Hua Xiangrong, in a plain white dress, with a faint floral scent, exuding the demeanor of a noble young lady; Jiang Wanqing, with a faint medicinal smell about her; and Liu Ruyan, brightly dressed and always with a smile on her lips.

She had heard Shen Qing mention all three of them before.

"Her name is Ye Qinghe, and she is also my Dao companion. From now on, she will move in and live with you all." Shen Qing rubbed the little girl's plump cheek: "Qinghe has a Clear Spirit Body, and her thoughts are quite simple."

"I'm not simple, I just don't have that many thoughts," Ye Qinghe pouted.

"Hello, Sister Ye," Liu Ruyan chuckled, her eyes sparkling, very bright, "My name is Liu Ruyan. My cultivation might not be great, but I love to read books. If you're bored, you can come find me for some fun."

"Okay~" Ye Qinghe responded.

"I am Jiang Wanqing, uh..." Jiang Wanqing was a bit unaccustomed to this situation. After some thought, she said, "I suppose I hit it off with Shen Qing. If you need elixirs, you can come find me."

"Mhm mhm."

"Hua Xiangrong." Hua Xiangrong opened her mouth, suddenly unsure what to say.

She was kidnapped?

How embarrassing to say that out loud.

And, well... she had also somewhat resigned herself to her fate.

Anyway, Shen Qing didn't seem like much of a demon lord, just a bit of a philanderer. But if he weren't a philanderer, Hua Xiangrong would genuinely worry about dying in bed.

Ye Qinghe took her hand: "Your surname is Hua, and mine is Ye. By rounding up, we're practically family."

Shen Qing had roughly told her about Hua Xiangrong's situation. Although not very detailed, she could still roughly piece things together by imagining them.

Therefore, helping Brother Qing and Hua Xiangrong get along would make it easier to create opportunities for Brother Qing in the future!

She just didn't have many thoughts, but she wasn't stupid.

Seeing the four getting along harmoniously, Shen Qing left first.

He needed to return to Xuanji Peak to report to his master.

And also ask what Wunian City was doing here.

At the peak of Xuanji Peak, where clouds and mists swirled, and spiritual energy was so dense it was almost tangible.

This place could be said to be another world entirely, a grotto-heaven personally opened up by Zhao Mingyue.

It just overlapped with Xuanji Peak itself.

The moment he entered, Zhao Mingyue was leaning on a phoenix couch, looking up and manipulating the trajectories of the stars in the sky.

Starlight flowed, shining brilliantly.

Within it, golden chains of laws appeared and disappeared in the void, and Dao runes floated and perished.

The Dao rhyme it contained was something Shen Qing couldn't even begin to understand.

At this moment, Zhao Mingyue was transcendent, truly embodying the feeling of an "Immortal."

But the next moment, this Immortal spit out a plum pit, making a "pffft" sound.

Yawning, Zhao Mingyue waved her hand, and a handful of plums flew in from outside. One of them, as it passed Shen Qing, conveniently jumped directly into his mouth.

Then the rest all tumbled into Zhao Mingyue's bowl.

Shen Qing felt that the bowl might be quite powerful if he took it out for a fight.

"Tell me, what did you do on this trip?" Zhao Mingyue said lazily.

Zhao Mingyue knew that he had taken over an organization called the Dragon King Hall, after all, his actions were, by and large, using her authority to mobilize the Star Sect cultivators outside.

She heard he even killed the original Dragon King.

Of course, none of that mattered. If he killed him, he killed him.

Holding the belief that if he didn't hug his own master's thigh, who would, Shen Qing went over and sat on the phoenix couch, scooping up Zhao Mingyue's feet and placing them on his lap to massage them.

"What are you doing?" Zhao Mingyue kicked him lightly.

You brat, you've got bad intentions, huh.

Shen Qing said with a serious face: "After many days apart, I've missed you greatly. Of course, I'm showing filial respect to my dearest master."

After speaking, his tone shifted, and he began to recount his experiences in Yongning Prefecture.

Of course, he didn't tell everything.

He conveniently omitted some less important details about Jiang Wanqing, Liu Ruyan, and Hua Xiangrong.

Zhao Mingyue found it amusing.

Zhao Mingyue had, in fact, heard about these little details more or less through Sister Hong Xiu.

As for the matters concerning Lin Yi and Lu Gui, Shen Qing told them as if they were stories or jokes for Zhao Mingyue to hear.

"Oh, right, on the way back, we also met a Dragon clan member named Ao Feng."

"Dragon clan?" Zhao Mingyue asked, "What realm?"

"Saint King."

"Did he provoke you all?"

"Mainly, he disturbed Junior Sister."

"Which sea?" Zhao Mingyue pointed a finger, and a certain star in the sky shone brightly: "I'll help you vent some anger."

This star, by accident, suddenly materialized in the sky, and then, by accident, fell into the sea.

And again, by accident, this star was filled with destructive Dao rhyme.

So, unfortunately, the Dragon clan in that sea happened to be directly beneath where the star fell.

Quite reasonable, right?

"No need, disciple can solve it himself," Shen Qing said, a smile on his face, massaging with professional skill, "Just leave Sister Hong Xiu to me."

Zhao Mingyue chuckled, raising her delicate, slender hand, as fine as jade shoots, and pressed it against Shen Qing's chest, grinding it slightly.

"As you wish."

"Oh, Master, what is Wunian City's so-called 'exchange' for?" Shen Qing asked.

He didn't believe that a sect leader personally bringing people would be for something trivial.

"It's nothing more than our sect and the people from their Wunian City simultaneously discovering an ancient grotto-heaven, and that grotto-heaven only allows people at the Dharma Aspect realm or below to enter."

"The current observation results for that ancient grotto-heaven indicate it was naturally formed, located in Mang Mountain. Good things are probably not lacking."

"Both sides want to monopolize it, but monopolization isn't really possible, so they'll develop it together, then."

Zhao Mingyue casually explained while eating plums.

An ancient grotto-heaven, sealed for many years and undiscovered, equated to immortal herbs, spiritual medicines, and opportunities.

"No wonder," Shen Qing understood.

"Where are you touching?" Zhao Mingyue frowned, kicking Shen Qing in the chest.

"Accident, accident."

Shen Qing removed his hand from her thigh, casually glancing at her.

A plum pit hit him on the forehead, and Shen Qing conscientiously averted his gaze.

"I say, did you eat some kind of immortal elixir?" Zhao Mingyue asked again.

How long had it been? He was already at the seventh layer of Golden Core, and not far from the eighth layer.

If she couldn't still sense it, she would have thought her Immortal Dao Aura had failed.

The Immortal Dao Aura she placed inside Shen Qing could only fail if he encountered a life-threatening crisis, and the Immortal Dao Aura automatically protected its master.

But in that case, she would naturally have sensed it, and the Immortal Dao Aura was still perfectly fine inside him.

It was swimming quite happily.

Shen Qing said: "Just a small fortuitous encounter."

A fortuitous encounter?

I'd believe it if you said an Immortal imparted cultivation to you.

However, seeing his realm was so solid and condensed, Zhao Mingyue was too lazy to investigate further. It was good as long as he wasn't injured and had no hidden dangers.

"Perfect, since you're at the Golden Core realm, you'll also go on this trip to the ancient grotto-heaven."