I spent the next few weeks lounging around, cultivating new techniques to perfection, and enjoying the soft white snowfall of winter, which was stunning combined with the weirdly glittery mountainside outside of my cave.

It was The Cave of Glittering Immortal Sarcasm cave now. It took me a long time to come up with that name, but it just felt right, heh. I dunno. Just feels perfect, doesn't it?

By the time another group of villagers came to see me, the Great Immortal Xia Yue, the pink buds of spring were beginning to blossom on the trees outside my cave. Thankfully, I didn't have pollen allergies in this immortal body, or I would've been as swollen as a dumpling by now.

They arrived when I was meditating — again. I sensed their presence approaching on the mountainside, so I super quickly fixed my robes and went to sit on a rock and meditate like a professional mysterious immortal cultivator.

I even made that "Om" sound.

"Ommmmmmm..."

They had approached the cave now. I ommed louder.

"Ommmmmmm!"

It was a small group of people — I sensed five. They started whispering to each other, and my superior hearing caught their conversation. They were debating whether to interrupt the Great Immortal. I grinned internally.

"Ahem...O Powerful Immortal Xia Yue! Excuse the intrusion of these poor villagers, and have mercy for our plight!"

I opened one eye, then grumbled.

They were groveling with their faces in the dirt again! What the heck?

This had to be a trend. Either that, or I just looked so freaking amazing I had that effect on people. Heh. Must be the second.

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Or the first. I don't know, eh.

"Speak, mortal. What is it you require?"

"Thank you, O Divine Immortal! Please save our village! Many of our villagers are falling victim to an evil spirit that haunts their dreams! It gives them nightmares that cause them to die of fear and fall ill from stress! Please save us, O Great Immortal Being! Saaaaaave ussss!"

More groveling. I coughed.

Hmmm...an evil spirit, haunting dreams?

A supernatural task! I could exorcise some evil spirits!

"All right, all right. If you insist. Take me down to your village. This Awesome Powerful Badass Divine Immortal will help you."

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Their village was kind of far, and I was getting pretty fed up with walking like a normal person when we finally reached it.

It was a tiny village tens of li away from the foot of the Glittering Mountains. As soon as we entered, a delicious smell filled my nostrils.

"What's that smell? It's delicious!"

"I am flattered that you find it so," answered the old beansprout man with a wispy white beard who led the entourage that had come to find me. "That is the smell of my signature baozi buns. I cook a large batch each day to eat for dinner, and the smell fills our whole village of Běitiánliú! They are filled with red bean, sometimes meat, and other times savory vegetable filling — "

"Hey. Aren't you the village elder? How d'you have time to steam a giant batch of baozi every day?"

"Ahem...yes, I am indeed the village elder and shaman of Běitiánliú, O Beautiful Immortal Xia. However, I manage my time well, and I always find time to steam my baozi."

The rest of the people in the entourage rolled their eyes slightly, looking weary, like they'd heard him ramble about his bao buns before. Huh. Seemed this village elder wasted a little more time than he should on baking bao buns and less time than he needed to on village duties, and everyone here knew it.

Well, not my problem.

"All right! Whatever. Let's get down to business. On the way here, you told me that evil spirits have been tormenting your villagers at night, driving them mad with nightmares and causing illness and even death. Is that correct?"

The entourage nodded.

"Okay. Take me to whoever had the most recent nightmare."

The entourage coughed. Then, all at once, they looked at the village elder, who scratched his bald head while leaning on his walking stick.

"That would be me," he said in his scraggly voice, looking grim. "I had a nightmare last night. That is why we decided to come find you, Great Immortal Xia. Even I, the village shaman and elder, have been attacked."