Chapter 49: Gathering
The next day, early morning.
Jiang Huai slowly opened his eyes.
He woke up because soone had opened the curtains, letting light stream in. Jiang Huai sat up groggily and saw Luo Yueguan in a purple dress tidying up the clothes on the table. She was holding a pair of black lace panties, seemingly examining them closely.
Jiang Huai’s face darkened.
What the hell does this an?
Noticing Jiang Huai getting up, Luo Yueguan’s expression remained as calm as ever. She neatly put her lingerie back in the wardrobe. As a cultivator, she was not tainted by dust, and bathing and changing clothes were just for inner peace. Even if she didn’t change clothes for ten years, they would still sll fresh.
“I feel like eating noodles,” Luo Yueguan said, looking back at him.
She had often co to Guangxue Mountain to freeload als, especially liking the Yangchun noodles Jiang Huai cooked.
“I didn’t bring noodles, so dumplings will have to do,” Jiang Huai replied grumpily, getting out of bed and starting to dress.
After getting dressed, he went to the kitchen to cook dumplings.
Luo Yueguan picked up a dumpling with her chopsticks, took a delicate bite, and soon recognized the filling, “The erald spirit fish from Yunze Lake?”
“Mhm.”
The erald spirit fish was quite valuable, usually used in dicine, and cooking it as a delicacy was sowhat extravagant.
Jiang Huai softly added, “Master likes it.”
“It seems you’ve done your howork to win your master’s favor,” Luo Yueguan said, glancing at Jiang Huai with a hint of implication.
“Serving my master dutifully is a disciple’s obligation,” Jiang Huai naturally replied.
“Tonight, there will be a gathering of spiritual cultivators at the Qingxuan Sect’s Ziyuan Mountain. Will you accompany Qingyu for a stroll?”
“Sure,” Jiang Huai nodded lightly in agreent.
“Those Ziyuan Mountain disciples fancy themselves cultured and often compose poetry. There will be a poetry gathering tonight. I rember you have so literary talent; don’t embarrass .”
Jiang Huai suddenly felt a bit overwheld.
He didn’t have any literary talent; the best he could do was to copy a few romantic poems from the poets of the past world in his mind. But copying wasn’t the sa as creating, and Jiang Huai always felt a strange sense of sha.
The breakfast ended there, and Luo Yueguan continued to teach Luo Qingyu to dance in the courtyard. Luo Qingyu’s body was exceptionally flexible, and she quickly caught on to so of the essence. Jiang Huai played music for them on the side. It was a warm spring day in the courtyard, with bright light and butterflies fluttering about.
Jiang Huai made lunch for the two of them, and after the al, Luo Qingyu and Jiang Huai sat side by side on the lounge chairs. After a while, she quietly approached Jiang Huai, and before he could say anything, she sat down on his lap.
Jiang Huai helplessly wrapped his arms around her slender waist, “What’s wrong?”
“Hug,” Luo Qingyu whispered, clutching his hand.
So, Jiang Huai held Luo Qingyu peacefully, and she stopped wriggling her hips, leaning against Jiang Huai like a little lazy cat basking in the sun.
…….
As evening approached, the sky was ablaze with the red glow of the sunset.
Jiang Huai was led by Luo Qingyu to Ziyuan Mountain.
Ziyuan Mountain belonged to the Ziyuan True Person, a particularly famous female cultivator in the Eastern Region, known for being a seventh realm cultivator specializing in the soul. There were many seventh realm cultivators in the Eastern Region, but only a few specialized in the soul.
The gathering was held at the mountain’s peak, where disciples in splendid attire gathered, and the banquet was filled with fine wines and delicacies. Although there weren’t many people, it looked very lively. Jiang Huai and Luo Qingyu found a spot to sit down casually.
So disciples were deeply engrossed in playing Go, while others were painting the sunset, trying to outdo each other. The sound of the zither was constant, and Jiang Huai turned to see an orange-clad woman playing intently, her fingers agile and her posture graceful.
Jiang Huai occasionally liked to join in the fun. He and Luo Qingyu sat at their seats, opened a pot of wine, and sipped it slowly. The disciples around them surely recognized Luo Qingyu and Jiang Huai. After all, on the day Jiang Huai first arrived at Qingxuan Sect, he had defeated all the sect’s proud disciples with a single sword.
People were puzzled; the two had already broken off their engagent, so why were they sitting together, still so intimate? But since no one was well-acquainted with them, it wasn’t appropriate to approach and chat, so they kept to their small circles.
Curious, Jiang Huai turned his attention to the Go board, where many people were queuing up to play against a white-clad man.
Gradually, he picked up bits of conversation from the disciples and learned about the night’s event. There were four challenges: zither, Go, calligraphy, and painting. Ziyuan True Person had brewed a jar of Forgetsorrow Wine, divided into five pots, and tonight, the best perforrs in the four challenges would each receive a pot.
Jiang Huai knew about Forgetsorrow Wine; Ziyuan True Person’s brewing skills were famous, but she didn’t sell her wine, only gifting it to those with fate.
Jiang Huai’s interest was piqued, and he suddenly wanted to win two pots to take back for his master to try. For so reason, he also thought of Chu Xianning’s lips.
Damn it, why did he keep thinking about getting his master drunk and kissing her?
Jiang Huai took Luo Qingyu by the hand and stood up, joining the queue of disciples waiting to play Go. They were challenging Qingxuan Sect’s best at Go, known as the Go fanatic, Cen Lu.
Cen Lu, in a white robe, looked sowhat disheveled. He was currently focused on the board in front of him, but his eyes betrayed a hint of boredom and weariness.
His Go skills were unmatched in Qingxuan Sect, and his few friends could only entertain him and relieve his boredom. To this day, no one has beaten him, and the only person he truly wants to defeat is Ziyuan True Person, who has grown tired of playing and refuses to compete with him.
Being invicible was naturally lonely.
He had played five or six gas here, waiting to be declared the final winner and then take the pot of Forgetsorrow Wine ho for a good sleep.
That was until an unfamiliar face appeared before him.
“Who are you?” Cen Lu didn’t even lift his eyelids as he straightened the Go pieces.
“Tianxuan Sect’s Jiang Huai,” Jiang Huai replied with a smile, also straightening the Go pieces and softly adding.
“I’m very good at Go, so be careful.”
He felt a bit embarrassed as he said this.
Cen Lu sneered disdainfully but didn’t say much more, maintaining a leisurely and weary deanor. However, after half an incense stick’s ti, his laziness turned into seriousness, and his forehead began to sweat profusely. Each move he made in the ga was like facing an abyss, filled with hesitation.
Luo Qingyu curiously blinked at Jiang Huai. In her mory, he had never won a ga of Go against Aunt Chu, so how had Jiang Huai suddenly beco so formidable?
That’s why Jiang Huai felt a bit guilty and blushed. He had previously spent a point in the system store to purchase a smart Go program, but he had never used it against Chu Xianning. Chu Xianning seed indifferent, but Jiang Huai knew that Go was one of her few hobbies. If Jiang Huai could easily beat her every ti, then the joy of Go would be lost. Without that joy, how could he take advantage of their Go gas to sneak glances at Chu Xianning’s delicate collarbone?
“I won,” Jiang Huai said softly.
At this mont, Cen Lu was sweating profusely, his eyes filled with disbelief. His voice trembled as he suddenly looked up at Jiang Huai.
“Another ga!”
“Alright, but only one more,” Jiang Huai agreed.
This ti, it was Jiang Huai’s face that showed a hint of weariness. After all, he only needed to wait for Cen Lu to make a move and then follow the system’s prompts to respond. The Go board was ultimately inanimate, and Jiang Huai didn’t know the limits of the one-point program, but it was probably not sothing Cen Lu could overco. Another three incense sticks’ ti passed, and Cen Lu had completely lost the ga.
“I am not your match,” Cen Lu conceded.
“May we play a few more gas another day?”
“We’ll see if I’m free,” Jiang Huai waved his hand and then stood up, taking Luo Qingyu’s hand and approached the woman who was playing the zither.
“Fairy sister, I think there are so parts of your zither playing that aren’t quite right,” Jiang Huai said with a gentle and refined voice, though his words seed sowhat impolite.
The zither-playing woman was taken aback and looked up slightly, “Who are you?”
“Tianxuan Sect’s Jiang Huai.”
“A swordsman who understands the zither?”
“I know a little. May I have a chance?”
“Please.”
The zither-playing woman stood up and gave her seat to Jiang Huai, who sat in front of the ancient zither. His fingertips lightly touched the strings, and in an instant, lodies flowed from the strings. The woman had been playing a cheerful piece, fitting for the banquet scene, but Jiang Huai always felt it lacked sothing—the music was rely ford without enough charm.
This was not because his zither skills were superior, but his spiritual cultivation was better.
The mont he played the zither, he entered a state of forgetfulness, where the grass and trees on the mountain top trembled as if dancing joyfully with the music, and the birds circled above, twirling along with the lody until the piece ended, reluctant to leave.
The zither-playing woman seed still intoxicated by the music. When the sound stopped, her eyes, which had been slightly dissatisfied, turned soft and tender,
“Would you play another piece?”
“What would you like to hear?”
“Thinking of Spring and Autumn.”
Jiang Huai nodded in agreent. This piece was composed by a music cultivator a thousand years ago in this world. It had been passed down for many years, with a style that was gentle and tender. It started off lively and cheerful but turned lancholic and moving in the latter half. When the piece ended, the entire Ziyuan Mountain fell silent, everyone still imrsed in the music, speechless for a long ti.
Jiang Huai withdrew his hands and stood up, glancing back inadvertently, only to notice Luo Yueguan in a purple dress, dressed elegantly, sitting on a wooden chair on the other side of the mountain top. The twilight glow fell on her pale face, her eyes deep and serene.
When had she arrived?
Jiang Huai looked at her, and Luo Yueguan also glanced at him, but then she looked away after a mont, gazing at the distant sunset. She seed to be sitting there quietly, her proud deanor isolating her from the disciples, her silhouette slightly lonely.
After passing the challenges of zither and Go, it was ti for the painting challenge.
Jiang Huai was not good at painting landscapes, but he was skilled at painting people. He reached out and gently pinched Luo Qingyu’s face,
“Shall I paint you?”
Luo Qingyu’s lips blossod into a smile as beautiful as a flower.
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