In a flash, a week had passed, and the Peak Lord of Anlue Peak was about to return. The Peak was a hive of chaos. Disciples were running around madly, arranging things for their shizun’s return from his long mission outside the sect. Ling Luoying had been sent on a mission to Dongguang Peak, Qiuhai Mountain Sect’s logistics and management peak for a few errands with their Head Disciple after he safely delivered Shi Lianfeng to his bed.

Hordes of disciples clad in the emerald green and white Dongguan Peak uniform scurried around with boxes stacked higher than their heads in their arms, Hallmasters chasing after them to make sure nothing was broken if disciples collided. Such a scene was apparently the norm on Dongguang Peak, according to ‘Racing Against Divinity’. Why? It was because Qiuhai Mountain Sect’s Dongguan Peak didn’t just take care of everything in the sect, but they also took care of the logistics of the three or so towns closest to them.

A long time ago, when demons still ran rampant across the world and there were little to no actual tests to enter a sect, the common people were in despair. Having no power to protect themselves from demons like the cultivator immortals, their only hope was to send their children off to a sect to ensure they weren’t brutally slaughtered. The mass of children being accepted resulted in a sudden cultivator boom, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing. So many of the children had little to no talent in cultivation, it was hard to find actual talent. Thus, many materials were wasted and talents were hard to find.

It was only thanks to a famous cultivator did the problems stop. He was said to have single handedly mended the rift between the demonic realm and the human realm, and ascended to immortality soon after. However, he made a rule before that. All large sects were supposed to offer their protection to any towns or villages in a certain radius. There were three towns in the allocated radius of Qiuhai Mountain Sect that ended up getting protection.

Ling Luoying’s eyes trailed across the chaotic expanse, wondering where the heck he was supposed to be going when a lanky boy with robes a few centimetres too short for him and eyebags so dark even pandas couldn’t compare stopped next to him. “Ling-shixiong.” He said respectfully, placing his hands together and bowing.

Ling Luoying did a double take. Was this kid who looked like he was still having his growth spurts really the Head Disciple of Dongguan Peak? “Fei-shidi?” He asked curiously.

“Yes, shixiong? I was sent by my shizun to help aid you in the preparations for Yan-shibo’s return to the sect.”

Ling Luoying showed Fei Luoci the list of things Anlue Peak needed for the welcoming, and followed his shidi around. As they walked, Fei Luoci idly chatted, pointing at different buildings practically stacked on top of each other and bursting with shelves stacked with scrolls and boxes filled to the brim with materials. Ling Luoying raised an eyebrow. How did the buildings manage to stack so haphazardly without toppling at every single demonic invasion that would definitely happen at least once or twice a year?

His questions were answered when he passed the central column of a building, absolutely plastered with solidity talismans of varying levels and techniques. Some were sloppy, clearly made by a disciple new to the craft of talisman making while others were refined and practised, created by a Hallmaster who taught talisman making or even the Peak Lord himself. Ling Luoying could barely make out the actual colour of the column underneath it all, but he caught a few glimpses of a soft jade green.

Ling Luoying was still busy looking around when Fei Luoci stopped walking, almost running into the boy. “Ling-shixiong, this is the warehouse where most of the things you need are stored.” Fei Luoci said, pushing open the large double doors.

Ling Luoying’s jaw dropped as he stepped inside. Although the buildings were already large on the outside, the space seemed to have been multiplied several times from the inside. The roof beams towered over them at an almost worrying height, and Ling Luoying couldn’t help but shudder at the ominous thought of what would happen if one of those ever cracked.

While he was inattentively following Fei Luoci through the large area, he noticed large boxes made from a strange, black wood emanating with ominous energy. They were uniformly stacked high in a corner and a strange smell drifted through the air into the surroundings. “Hey, Fei-shidi,” He nudged Fei Luoci, “What’s that?” He pointed at the boxes.

“Oh, those are some materials from demonic beasts that we received as a gift from one of the other sects. It’s just been sitting here because there’s nowhere else to put it at the moment. Anyways, apparently the sect’s quite renowned in the northern region, but refused to give us a name or location when we tried to send something back. Guess northerners are really conservative with their information.” Fei Luoci told Ling Luoying, happy that he’d found someone he could gossip to freely.

Ling Luoying nodded as he took in the information, sparing the boxes one last glance before they disappeared from his view. Fei Luoci chatted on, discussing his theories on who the mysterious sect could’ve been, and what their motives were for sending them. Though he didn’t care about much of what was being said (he wasn’t one to indulge in gossip), Ling Luoying managed to pick up that Fei Luoci was a huge chatterbox and gossiper. He nodded occasionally, mumbling a few words of agreement here and there, more focused on the hordes of things that were stored in the warehouse.

There had to be enough types of wood to build a whole skyscraper with each floor made of a different type. There was oak, birch, pine, and a bunch of planks in various shades on the colour spectrum that definitely shouldn’t have been the colour of wood. It seemed like the warehouse they were walking through was one that stored building materials and the like, since more than once did Ling Luoying see stacks upon stacks of different woods, metals and stones.

When they finally stopped walking (Ling Luoying reckoned the walk took at least ten minutes), there was a huge block of jade in front of them. “Ling-shidi, your list says that you need um… enough of the Primordial Everjade to… construct a bamboo pot?” Fei Luoci said, reading the messy handwriting on the slip of paper.

In his defense, Ling Luoying was not used to writing traditional Chinese characters. His handwriting when he was writing the simplified ones were fine, but traditional characters were so much harder and more time consuming, and he hated using brushes. The ink would always smudge everywhere and no matter how many classes his parents enrolled him in back in his world, he’d ever once managed to get the feel of the brush, the strokes always being too thin or too thick.

“Yes. We wish to make a bamboo plant out of the Primordial Everjade as a gift for my shizun.” Ling Luoying said seriously, hoping Fei Luoci didn’t realise it was his handwriting that he was struggling to read.

“Alright… well, you can use Qingtao to take a chunk of the Primordial Everjade, Ling-shixiong.”

“Ah. Alright then.” Ling Luoying was, using the word he’d heard Rong Yao complainingly say every time there was a minor inconvenience, cooked.

Qingtao still decidedly did not listen to him. Although it had saved his life once with the Fire Scorpions, Qingtao for some reason still didn’t follow any of his orders.

Ling Luoying smiled. “Fei-shidi, could I trouble you to wait away from this area? Qingtao is unpredictable… ly strong?” He said, hoping Fei Luoci fell for his harmless white lie.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Fei Luoci shrugged. “Uh, sure, Ling-shixiong.”

He left quickly, curly hair swaying with each step he took. After he was a substantial distance away, Ling Luoying took a deep breath to calm himself down and looked pleadingly at Qingtao. “Come on. Please just help me this once, otherwise I’m probably going to get kicked off the Peak or exorcised.” He begged the sword deploringly.

Perhaps Qingtao really did know that he’d replaced its real master. But there really wasn’t anything Ling Luoying could do to get its real owner back. He placed it gently on the floor and sat down next to it. “Listen,” He started, wondering how on earth he was supposed to comfort a clearly sad (and probably angry at him) sword. “I didn’t want to come here to replace him, and I’m sure he didn’t want to leave either - or get replaced by someone like me. But what’s been done has been done, and I can’t reverse it, as much as I want to.”

“Help me out until I can clear my quest, and I’ll be able to leave this body and go back to my own, okay? Of course, I don’t know if your real owner will come back if I leave, but we should try, right?”

He winced at his own lackluster - and somewhat cringe - comforting, but Qingtao seemed to believe it. Slowly unsheathing itself, the sword floated over to Ling Luoying, glowing faintly with a soft teal light that Ling Luoying reckoned could be the sword aura. It hovered for a few seconds, as if pondering whether or not his words could be trusted, before slowly landing in Ling Luoying’s lap, the sword aura fading away.

“Can other swords use sword auras by themselves?” Ling Luoying asked himself as he grabbed Qingtao’s hilt with more care than he’d done so before.

“Please pardon my skills, I’ve never done this before.” He said sheepishly to Qingtao.

He used one hand to experimentally take a soft blow at the jade, intending to test how hard it was. Qingtao swung through the Primordial Everjade like it was water, a perfect piece sliding cleanly off and landing on the floor with a gentle clinking noise. Ling Luoying raised Qingtao, staring at it in wonder. He was seeing the previously sulking and difficult sword in a new light.

Alliances were really beautiful. Before, when he was training in his grove, it took him ten swings to cut down one stalk of bamboo by himself, Qingtao making itself dull and difficult to use. Now, it barely took a flick of his wrist to carve out a whole chunk of jade that was impossible to break with physical force, as Ling Luoying saw from it falling to the ground impeccably.

“Fei-shidi, you can come back now.” He called over in the direction he’d last seen Fei Luoci.

Not even a minute later, Fei Luoci popped up from behind one of the large stacks of wood, dust and grime smeared all over his face. “What were you doing to get so dirty, Fei-shidi?” Ling Luoying asked exasperatedly.

Fei Luoci giggled nervously and looked suspiciously at a large pile covered by a cream coloured cloth. “Nothing much. Nothing much at all.”

Ling Luoying raised an eyebrow but chose not to think too much of it.

“Let’s go find everything else on the list now!” Fei Luoci started cheerfully tugging Ling Luoying along, wiping away the dirt on his face with his sleeve.

-

“I’m here, Ling-shixiong!” Fei Luoci called, dragging a huge wagon behind him.

Ling Luoying recognised it to be the cloth-covered thing that Fei Luoci was no doubt fiddling with back in the warehouse. “What exactly is it, Fei-shidi?” Ling Luoying asked bemusedly.

“Some stuff one of the Hallmasters asked me to bring.”

“Oh, which?”

“Uh… Hallmaster Song, I think his name was?”

Ling Luoying didn’t recall a Hallmaster with that surname, but then again, none of the npcs were usually described much, so he was probably just a no name extra.

Ling Luoying followed Fei Luoci through Dongguan Peak, probably to the closest waypoint location. Seeing the lanky guy scuttle around with a wagon practically double his height was an amusing sight, and was going to attract all sorts of attention from nosy disciples. Ling Luoying thanked the previous Sect Leader for implementing Waypoint Bridges into the sect.

As the peaks of the Qiuhai Mountain Sect were arranged in a specific order, it had always been difficult getting from peak to peak, especially if the peaks were farther apart on the mountain range the Qiuhai Mountain Sect was situated in. Thus, the previous Sect Leader came up with an ingenious idea called the Waypoint Bridge. At a few set locations on every peak were waypoints that connected to the other peaks. All one needed to do was step inside and use the hand seal allocated to the peak they wanted to go to, and a bridge would form. As long as the person who activated the waypoint was alive and on the bridge, it wouldn’t dissipate and other people would be able to cross as well.

“I’ll open the waypoint.” Fei Luoci offered.

“Are you sure? You’ve got so much stuff to carry.”

“I don’t mind. Besides, I need some practice with this.”

Ling Luoying shrugged and let Fei Luoci do his thing. He didn’t really know how it worked either, and if he messed up, he could get exposed.

What happens if he gets exposed? He turned to ask MiSi, but then he realised the little pixie had been suspiciously absent for a long time now. “MiSi?” He whispered. “Where are you?”

There was no reply. Over by the waypoint, Fei Luoci was struggling to form the right hand seal to get them to Anlue Peak.

Ling Luoying sighed. MiSi was probably off relaxing at the System Headquarters, if something like that existed. It was only reliable if it was in the mood to be useful was Ling Luoying’s private opinion about it.

-

Anlue Peak somehow seemed to be more chaotic than Dongguan Peak when they arrived. Disciples and Hallmasters alike were rushing around in groups hurriedly, stacking things around haphazardly on top of each other. “Well, I better get over to Hallmaster Song and get everything ready. See you soon, Ling-shixiong!” Fei Luoci said the moment he stepped off the bridge.

Ling Luoying watched Fei Luoci’s rapidly receding cargo wagon with a complicated look on his face. It truly was hard being a disciple on Dongguan Peak, always having to rush around wildly like that.

Ling Luoying was soon dragged into the havoc by Fang Yuan, who had been forgotten by Ling Luoying ever since Shi Lianfeng was delivered to Yaocao Peak for healing. “Ling-shixiong! Have you brought the materials we need?” He asked desperately, pouncing onto Ling Luoying and clinging to the corners of his sleeves.

“Calm down, Fang-shidi. I have everything.” Ling Luoying said calmly, pulling out a qiankun pouch that Fei Luoci had helpfully provided him.

“Many thanks, Ling-shixiong. I’ll take this and arrange everything now!” Fang Yuan exclaimed, practically snatching the qiankun pouch out of Ling Luoying’s hands out of his stress.

He dashed away, already opening the pouch and examining the contents inside. Ling Luoying was a bit confused. It was just their Peak Lord returning from some demon subjugation trip or something, right? Why on earth were they all making such a big disturbance?

[Well obviously it’s because he’s been gone so many times over the past few years it's rarer to actually meet him on the peak than it is to meet him outside. He’s settling back down at Anlue Peak and resuming his Peak Lord duties now though, don’t worry.] MiSi said randomly, popping up out of nowhere and giving Ling Luoying a mini heart attack.

“You do not have the right to disappear on me for who knows how long and then just pop back up with an attitude worse than the one you had when you left!” Ling Luoying lectured, grabbing MiSi by a tiny, pointed ear and shaking it a few times gently.

It made a moderately loud tinkling noise as it was shaken up and down. “Did you always have that sound effect?” Ling Luoying asked, pausing his shaking so MiSi could answer.

[Well, duh, as you youngsters seem to say.]

“MiSi I have no idea where on earth you got that from, but we don’t really use that anymore.”

[Oh. It seems my source of information is slightly unreliable.]

-

Finally, after three stressful days of preparation, in which Ling Luoying was dragged around to every possible place on the peak to do every possible thing there was, it was over. All the disciples and Hallmasters, even the irrelevant ones that didn’t even have a name or weren’t even mentioned as a background character in the novel, gathered at the entrance of Anlue Peak, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Peak Lord, Yan Pingxie.

Ling Luoying was trembling with the effort of controlling his excitement, if it could be called that. It was more like an urge to meet another person proclaimed to be a ‘genius’ by the people around them. After the Sect Leader, Anlue Peak’s Peak Lord was probably the person Ling Luoying wanted to meet the most. Being the Peak Lord of the famed scholar peak that produced a genius almost every decade must mean that he had brains and brawn, right?

And Ling Luoying (ok, not actually him, but the real Ling Luoying but they were basically the same person now, since he kinda took over the body) had the privilege and honour to be personally chosen by Yan Pingxie as Head Disciple. That meant Yan Pingxie had high hopes for him! At least Ling Luoying hoped it meant that.

He took deep breaths to calm himself down. It wouldn’t do to act all stiff and nervous when meeting his shizun, especially after apparently not meeting for the past year and a half or something.

As they waited, a figure was slowly approaching on the horizon. Too far to make out their distinguishing features, Ling Luoying’s heart raced. He was about to meet his shizun, the smartest, most logical Peak Lord out of all nine of them! As the figure approached, a sudden fog covered Anlue Peak. Murmurs of confusion rippled through the crowd of disciples, but they were quickly shushed by the Hallmasters and told to stay silent as a sign of respect for their shizun.

A silhouette slowly emerged from the fog, and Ling Luoying looked up expectantly. He could actually see what Yan Pingxie looked like, instead of just reading about it!