The next morning.

Shrine Water called Shuiqin Lin up the mountain, the air thin as silk and pine-scented. From now on, she said, you’ll stay on Stream Peak with Luo’er. She’d tell the sect herself. Shuiqin just had to follow Nana Toki and report her daily life each day.

Shuiqin froze, thoughts fluttering like startled sparrows. Maybe she’d misheard.

Only when she saw Nana Toki slouched at a stone table in the courtyard, gnawing a pear without a care, did it sink in like sun on frost—this was real.

“Th-thank you, Second Elder...”

Spirit Peaks were reserved for elders who carried the sect, mountains that nourished soul and tempered flesh. Inner disciples could visit like drifting clouds, but they couldn’t stay.

Now her master told her to settle in. Awe bubbled like warm spring water. She felt cherished.

“We’re of one sect; don’t be so stiff.” Shrine Water slipped bottles and jars from her sleeve, porcelain clinking like rain, and handed them over with a touch of guilt. “Since you joined, I’ve cared for you too little. Take these pills. In the days ahead, keep Luo’er company.”

“Th-thank you, Master.”

After knocking her head on the ground in grateful bows, Shuiqin walked to Nana’s side and leaned close, voice soft as willow shade.

“Senior Sister... so you slipped to Master’s place. No wonder your room was empty last night.”

She flicked a glance toward Shrine Water, heart fluttering.

“Why were you in my room at midnight?” Nana held her half-eaten pear, eyes a cool pond. “You don’t have a voyeur kink, do you?”

Good grief—plotting a night raid?

“What? We said I’d bring you rice porridge at night. What are you even saying?”

Shuiqin’s cheeks flushed like peach blossoms. She tapped Nana’s shoulder, playful heat in her eyes. “Since when did you get so improper, Senior Sister?”

Nana: “...”

She’d forgotten that. The junior had kept it tucked in her sleeve.

“It’s fine. We’ll have porridge tonight.”

She soothed a few words, finished the pear, wiped her hands, then flicked her sleeves and drifted toward the back mountain like a swallow.

“Where are you going?”

Shuiqin hurried after her, steps quick as beads rolling. “Master’s still here.”

“I’m going to cultivate. Master gave me pills and told me to reach Foundation Establishment before the sect tournament.”

On Stream Peak, Nana found a tucked-away cave, cool as a shaded well, and bent to slip inside. Shuiqin reached out and caught her sleeve, fingers light as rain.

“What now?” Nana looked back, face flat as a stone tablet.

“What about dinner?” The junior still clutched last night’s missed porridge like a grudge cloud.

Nana: “...”

“Leave it at the cave mouth. I’ll eat when it’s time.”

“Food goes cold. It won’t taste good.”

Nana: “...”

“I don’t care.”

“I do. Eating cold food wrecks your stomach, hurts your spleen and guts, Senior Sister...” Her words poured out like a long river, never ending.

Nana stood at the cave mouth and listened, the mountain breeze combing her sleeves. Only after a good long stretch did Shuiqin run dry.

“So you absolutely can’t eat cold food.”

Nana: “...”

“I’ll come back to eat then.”

She twitched a smile, reclaimed her sleeve, and stepped into the cave. “Head back first.”

“Then I’ll wait in the room for you!”

“...”

...

“Does the host even know how to cultivate?”

Inside the cave, shadows pooled like ink. The System popped up in her mind, needy as a stray cat.

“Who are you looking down on?”

Nana rolled her eyes at the darkness, the echo soft as a sigh. “I may not have eaten pork, but I’ve seen pigs run. Cultivation? Small stuff.”

“Cultivation is dull as dust. Can you endure it?” The System doubted her heart would settle like still water.

“Heh. I’ve stomached things duller than cultivation. This is nothing.”

She took out two pill bottles from her cheap master, porcelain cold as moonlight. She swallowed a pill from the bottle labeled Gathering Qi Powder, then sat cross-legged. The cave breathed damp and quiet, a mossy temple.

And then—

One careless sit became nearly half a year, time dripping like stalactites.

Only when she had drawn in most of the cave’s aura did Nana open her eyes, slow as dawn over pines. She flicked her fingers. A crimson flame blossomed in her palm, a red lotus in winter ice.

Compared to months ago, the color had deepened, secretive as wine. In the scarlet, a faint violet thread glinted, lightning sleeping in silk.

Mm. Not only had her cultivation recovered, she pushed into Foundation Establishment. An auspicious omen.

That Spirit-Forming Salve from her cheap master had gone unused. Should she turn it in later?

She pinched out the flame, stretched like a waking cat, then strode for the exit, steps light.

Her stomach rumbled, a lonely drum. How long had it been since she ate?

Cultivators don’t need food—but that’s after Golden Core. Before Golden Core, you just stretch the intervals. You still eat.

What good food hid on Stream Peak?

As she planned her feast, she stepped out—and bumped straight into someone, bodies colliding like drifting clouds.

“Ya!” A sharp yelp.

Nana’s hands moved on reflex, catching the falling figure. She looked down. It was Shuiqin Lin, the junior staying on Stream Peak, eyes bright as spring.

“Senior Sister, you’re out of seclusion!”

Joy bloomed on Shuiqin’s face, warm as morning sun.

Nana: “...”

“Why are you outside my cultivation cave?”

She had chosen a cave far from paths, a quiet bone of the mountain. Even a lost guest on Stream Peak wouldn’t likely end up here.

What was Shuiqin doing at her door?

“Because you flaked again.”

At that, Shuiqin turned plaintive, like a willow in rain. “We promised dinner. You made me wait almost half a year.”

“...Unavoidable force majeure. How was I supposed to know Qi Refining would take that long?”

“Wait. Did you say you waited almost half a year?”

“Yeah.” She rubbed her belly, voice small. “If Master hadn’t found me fainted in my room, you might not be seeing me.”

Nana: “...”

In some ways, her junior’s IQ seemed... not high, a bird chasing its reflection.

“What about the sect tournament?”

If she’d cultivated that long, the tournament might have come and gone.

“The Sect Master had to travel, so the tournament got pushed back.”

Sect Master traveling? Tournament delayed?

That wasn’t in the original plot, a ripple across still water.

“Something wrong, Senior Sister? You look off.” Shuiqin picked up the lunch box she’d brought, steam curling like white snakes. “Hungry? I brought hot food.”

Nana: “...”

...

After washing up and resting, Nana learned what shifted while she sat in the dark.

First, Yiling Shen went on a sect mission and blundered into the Fallen Demon Cliff, hidden deep in the mountains like a sealed wound. Rumor said she found several Golden Core beasts inside, maybe even a Nascent Soul beast.

The sect feared those beasts would spill into the mortal world like a flood, so they organized disciples to crusade.

The sect tournament was postponed to after the New Year, lanterns waiting on strings.

“Yiling Shen is a beast herself. Qi Refining, yet she dares linger in a Golden Core beast’s lair?”

Nana suspected heavy plot armor, a shield bright as noon.

Beasts didn’t walk human realms. They started at Foundation Establishment. At equal levels, a beast was two or three minor realms stronger than a human.

Especially after level five of the Golden Core Stage, when a monster formed a true will and gaze like knives.

Even Nascent Soul experts avoided angering Golden Core Stage monsters.

“Yep. I heard Yiling Shen was chased by two Golden Core Stage beasts. If not for the Sect Master’s artifact, she’d be dead in that cliff. She’s in seclusion now.”

As expected—the heroine’s golden finger was thick.

“But, Senior Sister... what does ‘niu bi’ mean?”

Shuiqin frowned, words new as a wild herb. It sounded powerful.

Nana: “...”

“It’s... how you praise someone as amazing.” Nana let the explanation drift like smoke.

“Oh, oh.”

“What about Master?”

Nana ate the food Shuiqin brought, warmth spreading like sunlight, then asked the question that mattered.

Shrine Water’s life was tied to her main quest. If Shrine Water died, she had no reason to stay in this world.

“Master is an elder. Of course she went to hunt the beasts.” Shuiqin handed over tea, steam rising like mist.

“But don’t worry. Master is a Nascent Soul level five powerhouse. Those beasts are nothing to her. And she wasn’t alone. The Third and Fourth Elders went too.”

“Mm...”

Nana sipped tea and thought, unease drifting like a thin cloud.

“Yiling Shen is in seclusion now?”

“Yeah.” Shuiqin tilted her head, eyes curious as sparrows. “Why ask? Don’t tell me you want revenge on Yiling Shen.”

“As if.”

I’m not crazy enough to pick fights with the heroine of a cultivation world.

I can’t beat her. My golden finger isn’t as thick.

“We’re going to the Inner Hall.”

“Eh?!”