That mess took a while to clean up. Zhao Yaoyao was taken care of, but more annoyingly, she'd vandalized my main Glittering Immortal Cave with really crappy drawings of herself! They were cursed, so it took both cultivation and a lot of scrubbing and elbow grease to get them off.

Thankfully, I still had Xu Yun and Li Cheng around for that. Students are supposed to do anything for their laoshi, right?

When at last things were back to normal, which took a couple days, Xu Yun and Li Cheng approached me together, their heads down.

I sighed. My heart...actually sank a little bit.

"You two...you're leaving now, right? It's been more than a week. Gotta get back to Xizhi, huh? Well, this Immortal Laoshi bids you farewell. You did bring me an evil, vengeful ghost, but that was an accident, so I forgive you. Just don't fall on the way down — "

"Immortal Laoshi Xia!"

Suddenly, both of them fell on their kneels and smushed their faces into the cave floor.

Ouch. That had to hurt.

"Immortal Laoshi Xia!" Xu Yun cried. "If you refuse, my younger scholar brother and I will understand! You are so wise and powerful, so refined and divine. We would not dare to intrude any longer if Immortal Laoshi Xia does not permit us to. But...we...Immortal Laoshi Xia! Please — please allow us to study under you longer! We — we feel there is so much more to learn from you!"

I blinked.

"You want to stay...longer?"

They...didn't want to leave?

Even after all the crazy stuff that happened?

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They still thought I was wise and everything after I totally messed up and almost got all the qi sucked out of my body?

I thought about the Glittering Immortal Cave before they came. It had been peaceful, yeah...but sometimes lonely.

"All right!" I grinned. "This Immortal Laoshi will allow you to stay! But not for that long, got it? Just...a couple of months or something. And then I'm getting my peaceful Cave of Glittering Immortal Sarcasm back!"

Xu Yun's eyes sparkled, and Li Cheng grinned goofily.

"Thank you, Immortal Laoshi Xia! We are so grateful for your generosity!"

"Yeah, yeah. Now, my temporary-students, there's still one more ugly mural of that potato shijie over there. Wash it off for this Immortal Laoshi, all right?"

----------------------------------------

It was winter now.

In the winter months, fewer people usually sought me out. You know, snow being deadly and all, especially when you have to climb a super tall glittering mountain covered in snow.

One day, I was refining my demon-catching array skills, when a group of young people stumbled up to my cave, bundled up in cloth and looking like they were frozen icicles.

"What mortals go there? Also, don't step on my array. I need to appreciate it for another hour before erasing it, or it'll be a waste."

"I-I-Immortal Xia, Wisest and M-M-Most Powerful of...Immortals! W-W-We...n-n-need — "

"All right, that's enough."

I waved my hand a cast the Warm-Heart Embrace technique. Immediately, the air around the icicle people warmed.

"Okay, start over from the beginning. What mortals go there?"

A young woman stepped forward.

"Immortal Xia, Wisest and Most Powerful of Immortals. My name is Gao Hong. I and my fellow villagers are from the village of Yingxuan Shan on the other side of the Glittering Mountains. We need your help, Great Immortal. Please help us! Our village is in trouble! Many of our villagers have fallen victim to a strange disease, which has been named the Frightful Aging Disease! Every day, more people fall ill and die."

"Let me guess — the Frightful Aging Disease makes you age frightfully?"

"Yes, High Immortal Xia! A month ago, our village elder suddenly began to age at a strange rate. We thought he was simply overworked, but each day he kept aging one year, until he was so old that he died! The disease quickly spread throughout our population, aging the eldest members of the village to death and even aging our babies into children! Please help us! If nothing is done — soon, we will all be infected, and then dead!"

"Hmmm..." I stroked my beautiful immortal chin.

Interesting. A disease that made people age.

I eyed this young woman, Gao Hong.

"All right. Lead me to your village. But first — XU YUN! LI CHENG! Get over here! We're going out for a lesson!"