ON FAIRY LIN’S TIMELINE: AROUND 400 YEARS EARLIER...

While grinning, I poured Sect Leader Peerless Resolve another portion of the Fragrant Resplendent Plum Wine I’d purchased for him. Several bowls and hours in and his old cheeks had a healthy red glow.

”So what is this really all about, Sect Leader?”

”So impatient.”

What?! Really? Did he want to drink for a whole day before getting to the point?

”Fine. I know that look... I'm going to retire soon.”

”Congratulations!”

”Hush. Let me finish.”

I poured myself another bowl and took a sip. I had a feeling I'd need it.

”I’m considering having you take over as sect leader.”

I managed to swallow my drink just before I could accidentally do a spit take. Instead, I coughed. He patted my back but I waved him away.

”Me? Have you met me?”

”It took you around four hundred years to reach the Immortal Bone Creation realm. And the only reason you haven't reached Immortal Ascension yet is because you spend too much time researching when you could be cultivating. You are the second most brilliant cultivator of your generation.”

I glared at him for the ’Second most’ comment. Just because Bloodsword was always a half step ahead of me...

”You’re a genius.”

That was better. Unfortunately, I couldn't accept this position. ”A sect leader needs to be good with people. And genius doesn't necessarily mean anything close to that. In fact, it’s often quite the opposite.” It also didn’t mean, ‘always right.’

He sighed deeply and took another sip of his wine. ”Trust me, I know, ” he mumbled. ”You just need more practice at it.”

”What? And being the sect leader will force the issue?” I’d rather continue my research. Handling the day-to-day operations of the sect sounded beyond boring.

”Yes. It would.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. ”This is why you’ve given me all those tasks lately! I thought you’d just been giving poor Daoist Li a break. You know, he thinks you’re going to give him the sect leader position.”

”The leader of this sect needs to be above Nascent Soul.”

And Daoist Longest Li was not.

”Frankly, he should take a break to spend more time cultivating before it’s too late... Like it is for me.”

I stilled. ”What do you mean, too late?”

”I have a few years to train my successor then I need to go into emergency closed-door cultivation. If I can’t reach the Immortal Ascension Stage...”

He would die.

My hand shook a minuscule amount, but it was enough to show how out of sorts I was.

I took another gulp of wine. It was hard to believe that I'd lose another friend to time... No. He would breakthrough. This was the Sect Leader here!

”Anyway. I think this position will be good for you.”

”How?”

”Because you have a tendency to want to be alone. And I worry that with me gone, you'll hole yourself up in your cave and never come out until you ascend. As it is, you’re well on your way to becoming an awkward hermit.”

”You’re one to talk, old man.”

”Hey!”

”Sorry, sorry. But, you have to admit that outside of your position you’re just as much of a loner as I am.”

”Humph. I wasn't always like this.”

”What happened?”

He sighed. ”It must have been a year or two before you even joined the sect; after I was poisoned by that idiot from the Demonic Blood Eye cult. I fell into a coma and the only cure required several specific spiritual plants that we didn't have on hand.”

I took a sip while I deduced the poison and replied almost automatically with the names of the flowers he was most likely speaking of, ”The Resplendent Ochre Narcissus of at least fifty years, the Five Petaled Windy Spider Orchid at three hundred years or greater, and one of the harder flowers to find, the Blood-Soaked Resonant Rhododendron.”

”The way that mind of yours works....” He shook his head. ”You’re correct.”

His hand swirled the liquor inside the bowl then he finished it. ”At the time of that incident, the peak elders all thought it was a good idea to send out several teams to find these spiritual flowers. And one of them consisted of Unyielding Firestorm, my inheriting disciple; my nephew; as well as a few others, including my disciple’s girlfriend at the time.”

He sighed.

I poured him another cup.

”The girlfriend and my nephew came back, but my disciple and two others didn't. And frankly, the whole thing reeked of something unpleasant.”

”Oh?”

He glanced at me sideways. ”Keep in mind that this is all according to my late nephew.”

Right! His nephew, Glittering Iron Omniscience, died in a secret realm. Poor dude was unlucky enough to get sent to one of those with Bloodsword and his first wife.

I was there too but that was a really horrible memory that I tried not to think about.

Anyway, the guy never came back.

”So, what did he say about it?”

”He was a brilliant diviner and managed to have good fortune in finding a place with all three needed plants. It was called something like Three Kings Mystical Forest.” He grimaced. ”But even if he did divine the right location, he couldn't see the tragedy that eventually occurred.” He sighed and stared into the distance as if recalling the past.

”Don't leave me in suspense like that. What happened?” This was one of the forbidden topics in the sect that everyone refused to speak of. After hundreds of years, I was only now finding out.

”Everything went well up until they reached the last flower.”

”Ah. The Blood-Soaked Resonant Rhododendron.” I nodded. It was a flower that could only exist with the help of a naturally formed slaughter formation. And the only way to collect it was by passing through the formation without dying and reaching the center of that hurricane-like array. But as long as someone knew where to safely enter and had the path memorized, it was fairly easy to traverse.

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”He divined the right place to enter the array from but the formation master they brought with them — I believe her name was Third Peach Sapling, one of Persistent Red Bone’s kids — Anyway, she said that it should be from a different location.

”They argued and eventually, Unyielding Firestorm decided to follow her advice over my nephew’s. When he didn't return, his friend went after him. He also...”

He sighed deeply as if the heavy weight of years rested on his chest.

“Eventually, my nephew trusted his own divination despite not being trained in how to go through the array. He used his divination to find a safe path through, reached the flower, and returned with it.

”And on the way back, that incompetent formation master who got my disciple killed — the disciple who I loved like my own child — died when they set up camp.

”There were some Star Snake Poisonous Killing Vines in the area that attacked her in her sleep.”

I frowned. “Leaving your nephew and the girlfriend... I see what you mean.” That was fucking suspicious.

He briefly smiled but then it seemed like he remembered what we were talking about and delved deep into depression. “According to rumors, Third Peach Sapling was very-very close to my disciple’s girlfriend. With an unhealthy obsession for her. And she did not like Unyielding Firestorm at all.”

I narrowed my slightly blurry eyes at him. “You think she gave him the incorrect information on purpose?”

“And then, once they were leaving, my nephew avenged him by letting her sleep on top of a grove of those vines.”

Daaaamn! I tried to recall what I could about Glimmering Iron Omniscience but there wasn’t much. He kinda seemed like a very confident person and he always had that weird chicken-like spirit beast he tamed perched on his shoulder. Which was why I didn’t go near him.

Ugh, even after living in this world for near 600 years, low leveled spirit beasts still didn’t get along with me. It was as if they could sense that I came from a different world and they wanted to kill me for it. Or run away from me in terror... I mean, I actually liked animals. But it was hard to deal with spirit beasts when they kept attacking me for no reason.

“Thanks to my nephew, I did manage to wake from my coma... but the cost wasn’t worth it.”

I could have tried to comfort him in some way. Told him the truth, that I was glad he was still around. But, I didn't think that would help. I also wasn’t exactly a social expert so I decided to change the topic instead.

“You haven’t really inspired me to take over for you here.” Besides, with my luck, if I was named Sect Leader, the universe would make Bloodsword my martial ancestor.

The old cultivator scowled at me.

“How about you give me Virtue Peak and let me become a Sect Elder instead?”

“Again with Immortal Zhenren’s Peak? You know that it was purposefully abandoned after he ascended. I don’t even think it’s livable right now. And my whole purpose for inviting you here was to have you stop being such a hermit.”

“I’m just... tired of living with—”

“I know. But if you didn’t live with them, you’d run off to be somewhere all alone and then spiral into depression.”

“Hey! No, I wouldn’t. I adore myself! What's the point of striving for immortality otherwise? And I am perfectly happy alone! I live for myself and do what I love. Which is better than trying to rely on someone else to make me happy.” Like certain ridiculous harem members.

And if I’m alone then I don’t have to miss the friends who leave me behind.

I poured another glass for the Sect Leader and waited for him to lift it to his lips. ”Those ladies are lucky that I'm not willing to take in a harem of male concubines just to spite them.”

It was his turn to nearly do a spit take. He coughed and I patted his back with a grin.

It was a thought experiment I called Spite Harem. Hehehe... But while interesting in theory, I wasn't so depraved that I’d demean myself and others just to spite people I loathed.

“I can’t believe you said that.”

“And I told you that I wasn’t Sect Leader material.”

But even as I smiled and took another sip of wine, my mind couldn’t help going back to that story.

I was still curious about what happened back then. Had the late junior sect leader really died by accident from an incompetent Formation Master? Or had that Third Peach Blossom purposefully given him the wrong information?

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FAIRY LIN’S PRESENT

I grinned up at an employee of the Formation Masters’ Guild as he, with a heavy sigh, placed a small bag of spirit stones, flagsticks, and flag silk in front of me. Without seeming eager, I grabbed it, emptied the contents into my ring, and gave the bag back to him.

“Will that be all, Fairy Lin?” He asked, obviously wanting me gone. But I was too excited to give a shit about leaving immediately.

This was the last bit of spirit stones I needed to reach the 12th layer of Qi Condensation. And for Little Spring to reach the 8th... But what was important was that the 12th layer was my path’s peak of Qi Condensation!

Each path was, of course, different. Some peaked at the 8th layer, others the 16th. But more layers did not necessarily make a better path. What mattered, was what was right for the person. And 12 happened to be right for me.

This also meant that I would finally be out of danger of dying from the dichotomy between my massive soul and tiny body... Probably. For the most part.

I was also hoping that this would end my headaches and completely clear my head... but having a soul like mine in my current body, to put it in terms from my past-past life, was like running a Windows 10 program on hardware that could run Windows XP at most.

The program wouldn’t work, but if you managed to get it to work there would be some massive issues.

Considering that, I think I’d been doing quite well for myself.

Take, for instance, my newfound cleanliness obsession. Once I was finally fucking able to use that cleaning technique, I found myself constantly casting it on myself, the area I stood in, and those around me.

Mostly Little Spring.

I couldn’t seem to remember if I had this habit back when I was at Immortal Ascension stage but I think I did, I just didn’t notice it. After all, who would complain to someone at the peak of the world, that they kept cleaning everything around them?

But this was also one of the reasons this employee gave me the stink eye. I sheepishly bowed to the super clean guy. “That is all, thank you.”

He appeared relieved and hurried away.

I turned to Little Spring who, in the past three months since the pill tournament, had shot up several inches and gained some much-needed weight and muscle.

I think he may have had a birthday in there somewhere making him eight years old. I was almost ten.

All this meant that it was about time we continued on our journey to the Indomitable Will Sect. In fact...

“The Sect Leader of the Indomitable Will Sect lost to the head of the Demonic Blood Eye cult?!”

My ears twitched. I turned to see two old men, one an employee of the guild and the other a customer. The customer leaned in.

“That’s right. Last I heard. He’s in a coma. The sect put out all kinds of requests searching for specific plants to cure him.”

Before I knew it, I had walked up to the man. I clasped my hands behind my back so I wouldn’t grab him by his collar and demand the information. Instead, I forced myself to smile like a cute child.

“Excuse me, senior. I don’t mean to be impolite, but did you say the Sect Leader is in a coma right now?”

The man turned to me and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “I did.”

“Do you happen to know how long it’s been?”

“Around five days.”

I bowed. “Thank you, senior.”

My mind started running through that old conversation I had with the Sect Leader a few years before he went into closed-door cultivation and never returned.

I grabbed Little Spring’s hand and very calmly walked all the way back to our current residence, a small traditional-style courtyard I rented after the first week here.

I bolted the door shut and immediately activated the privacy, obfuscation, and defensive formations I’d installed in our courtyard. I let out a long sigh.

“Fairy Lin, that poisoned person...”

“He’ll be our sect leader in the future so address him as Sect Leader.”

He nodded in agreement. “Will he be okay?”

“Absolutely. Because we’re going to help.” I grinned.