Chapter 291 - 182: Hardship and Great Fortune (And a Cat, Too!)

Chapter 291: Chapter 182: Hardship and Great Fortune (And a Cat, Too!)

"What? Going after little girls now? Or are you just looking for a change of pace?"

Lu Changyuan felt Qiu Yuehan was being utterly unreasonable.

’What is this Black Skirt Fairy even saying?’

Su Youwan, however, chimed in, "Young Master Lu prefers tall, aloof beauties. And he especially enjoys making them kneel."

’What are *you* talking about now?’

Lu Changyuan felt like he was losing his mind.

If only Su Youwan, or only Qiu Yuehan, were in the room, neither would ever dream of speaking to Lu Changyuan this way. But as fate would have it, there were two women present.

Two women are a whole stage play, and Lu Changyuan couldn’t stand to listen to the things they were saying.

’They’re both so well-behaved when I see them separately. How did they turn into this when they get together?’

The Black Skirt Fairy sneered. "Now that I think about it, when my master sister was your disciple, I’m sure she received plenty of your ’lessons,’ too."

Lu Changyuan could only say with a sigh, "What kind of person do you take me for?"

Qiu Yuehan looked away. "Oh, could it be we’ve misunderstood you?"

Su Youwan gazed at the lantern, no longer teasing Lu Changyuan. "Why give you a lantern for no reason?"

Lu Changyuan actually hadn’t thought about it. The Little Princess had given it to him, and he’d simply taken it. It had felt perfectly natural.

"I made a deal with the little girl. Call it a way of thanking her for the directions."

Qiu Yuehan glanced over. "What kind of deal?"

"To bring her some ’Rolling Donkey’ to eat." Lu Changyuan found it amusing as he recalled it.

The Mortal World was an interesting place precisely because it was filled with so many interesting people.

Su Youwan looked at Lu Changyuan in confusion. "Why would you make a deal with that little girl, Young Master Lu? And why agree to it?"

Lu Changyuan smiled faintly. "Because it was fun. People need to do fun things on a whim every now and then, or they’ll get lost in the monotony of life."

He said as much, but he still found himself frowning.

’Do I really act on a whim?’

He still remembered the little girl’s face clearly. Though she had yet to fully blossom, she already had the makings of a noble bearing, and there was a slight resemblance to Leng Xuanshuang in her features.

Lu Changyuan couldn’t help but think of his own good disciple.

His disciple was already twenty when she arrived at Celestial Mountain, with no trace of childishness left on her face. Her years at the apex of the Mortal World had bestowed upon Leng Moyuan an ineffable air of dignity and composure.

Come to think of it, his disciple and the Little Princess did look somewhat alike.

It was just that their personalities were worlds apart. If he hadn’t thought about it carefully, he never would have made the connection.

His train of thought was broken by the Black Skirt Fairy’s voice. "Rolling Donkey... What’s that?"

Lu Changyuan turned his head. "It’s a kind of snack. You’ve never had it?"

Qiu Yuehan shook her head. "I haven’t."

In truth, Lu Changyuan had eaten it several times before.

That was from back when he was still a mortal.

The Little Fairy in a White Skirt had insisted he close his medical clinic and dragged him to a lantern festival. By chance, someone there was selling the snack. The Little Fairy paid, and Lu Changyuan got his first taste.

He couldn’t recall the taste very well, only that his thought after finishing it was that the stuff was a little too sweet.

"You’ve never had it? I’ll take you to try some in a few days."

Lu Changyuan stretched languidly and exhaled. "Eating delicious food is part of experiencing the Red Dust. Miao Yu Palace really ought to learn a thing or two from the Qingcao Sword Sect."

Su Youwan tilted her head. "And why is that?"

"That bunch of lushes from the Qingcao Sword Sect love their wine. And when you drink, you need something to go with it. That’s why they love coming to the Mortal World to buy fresh snacks."

"I haven’t had it either."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wang Dayun left his hometown.

In truth, there wasn’t much he could do. He could only use his Magical Power to help cleanse the old man’s grandson’s body and make him a bit stronger. He couldn’t do anything else.

The war was finally over. It should have been followed by a long period of recovery.

Humans are resilient creatures. Give them even the slightest breathing room, and they can bounce back to how they were before.

"Have you heard? The Eldest Princess wants to press the advantage and continue the assault on Great Yu."

Wang Dayun had yet to reach Luoyang, but he overheard this news at a post station just outside the city.

He looked toward the richly dressed Luoyang locals. "Is what you’re saying true?"

"How could it be false? The Eldest Princess says she wants to ride the momentum of General Shi and the frontline soldiers to expand Great Xia’s borders. The army might be deployed in about a month."

Wang Dayun didn’t know the state of the soldiers on the front lines, but he had seen the state of the Mortal World with his own eyes.

’Great Xia really can’t fight anymore.’

’Even if they win, it will be a catastrophe for the people of Great Xia.’

Wang Dayun started to reach out a hand but stopped himself.

He couldn’t go and persuade the Eldest Princess. Immortals were forbidden from interfering in the wars of mortals, and persuading a side to stop fighting fell under that prohibition.

"Great Xia can’t fight anymore!"

"And why not?" the Luoyang locals asked.

The words caught in Wang Dayun’s throat.

Even in years of great famine, Luoyang never wanted for food, let alone for its life of hedonistic luxury.

When the vassal kings rebelled, the people of Luoyang were still listening to singers performing on the river.

Explaining the suffering of the common folk to these people would be a fool’s errand.

People cannot imagine, let alone believe in, scenes they have never witnessed for themselves.

What’s more, Great Xia was riding a wave of success. By all appearances, it was a golden age. Claiming that the common people were suffering terribly in such an age was simply unbelievable.

Yet Wang Dayun couldn’t shake the feeling that Great Xia’s current prosperity was a lie—a lie that simply hadn’t been punctured yet.

’What on earth is the Eldest Princess trying to do?’

’I’ve met the Eldest Princess before, which makes this even more confusing. She didn’t seem like such a reckless person.’

’This won’t do.’

’I have to get to Luoyang and see for myself.’

With this thought, Wang Dayun left the post station, heading for Luoyang with the greatest speed he had ever mustered.

BAM!

Lost in thought, he’d accidentally slammed into a tree.

The tree was so massive it would have taken several people to encircle its trunk, and judging by its appearance, it had to be a few hundred years old. But a tree was still just a tree. It was no match for a Fifth Realm Cultivator and collapsed with ease.

Wang Dayun paused. He thought he saw something.

After the great tree collapsed, a section of its trunk began to glow. The sliver of light was incredibly bright in the night, as if demanding all attention.

"This is..."

Wang Dayun hesitated for a moment before stepping forward and retrieving the source of the light.

It was a simple, ancient-looking box. There was a seal on it, but before Wang Dayun could even try to break it, the seal just so happened to lose its luster and fail completely.

Wang Dayun opened the box with ease. The Dragon Pattern Elixir inside immediately released a rich, fragrant aroma.

It seemed someone had hidden the Elixir in the tree countless years ago, and it had remained undiscovered. Now, the seal had just been eroded by time, and he had happened to stumble upon it. What a stroke of luck for him.

"My luck... is getting better again?"

Wang Dayun muttered to himself, put the Elixir away safely, and continued toward Luoyang at an even greater speed.