"Where are you going again, Little Jia?"
In a large mansion on the eastern edge of Sun Moon City, to which the Sun Moon Sect belonged, a girl wearing a long white dress with embroidered flowers was about to climb over the wall and leave when a majestic baritone voice slowly came out from the middle of the courtyard.
"Fa— dear Father…"
The girl stood straight with her small head down. Her hair was coiled up like the deer god's, draping down and smooth as a black waterfall. She had a small and exquisite innocent-looking face and long eyelashes and eyeliner applied not long ago that added a touch of charm to her innocent look.
Especially with the girl's long legs…
"A girl who always likes to run outside, that's not how a girl should behave. Go back!"
"No! I don't want to stay at home. It's so boring!" The girl resisted, gathering her courage.
"You've only been at home for how long? Again, you've gone out to fool around, and you've gone to the sect tournament, and that Jiang Lin, whom else can't you team up with, but to go on a quest with him? I was uneasy when you teamed up with him. What if he goes wolfish on you? Luckily, you've come back safely this time. Otherwise, I'd go and tear down Twin Pearl Peak."
"What's wrong with teaming up with him? It's not like he's eating our food!"
"He… He sells undergarments at night under Twin Pearl Peak, did you know?!"
"What? Selling undergarments? Wait… Why would Father know about that beast Jiang Lin selling undergarments, and at night?"
Chen Jia remembered a peony undergarment she found in her father's study, and wondered how it could be in the style of a peony when her mother's preference was for lotus flowers.
Father Chen, who noticed that he had let the cat out of the bag, had a cold sweat break out on his forehead.
"No matter what, I will never agree to you going out anyway! That boy Jiang Lin has forgotten about you anyway."
"That's why I'm going out all the more!" Chen Jia pouted, taking her fist stance to face her father. "Even though he's forgotten me, I remember him when he was a child! That's enough! I'm going to help him!"
"Y-you haven't married yet! How dare you turn to the outside! You're going to hit your father for some damn brat!" Father Chen's beard trembled in anger. "Fine! I'll stand right here! If you can, hit me! Come! Beat me to death! I won't live!"
"…"
Looking at his daughter, who never moved, Father Chen was secretly happy; indeed, he was still more important than the bastard outside.
Unexpectedly, just at the moment Father Chen was just distracted, Chen Jia tied up her skirt and moved by guiding with her fists, and six steps later, interspersed with thunder, her small fist smashed her father's chest.
"Ah…"
A miserable scream spread throughout the Chen Family's residence.
"Hmph!" Chen Jia snorted, clapping her little hands, and going over the wall as usual…
But just as the girl landed from the high wall, picked up her bag and cleaned her hands, and took no more than two steps forward, a woman with a beautiful and clear face in a palace dress stood in front of the girl, and just by standing so demurely, the woman's fist aura gave off an invisible pressure.
"Dear… Mother…"
***
The Dragon Gate Sect…
"What should we do? Should we tell Senior Sister Lin about Junior Brother Jiang being sieged?"
"We can't. Senior Sister Lin has just entered Nascent Soul Tier, and is now in seclusion to stabilize her tier. How can she be distracted?"
"But what if something happens to Junior Brother Jiang? Even though Junior Brother Jiang betrayed the Dragon Gate Sect, he's still our junior brother."
"Why don't we ask Senior Brother Qin Xiao? Senior Brother Qin Xiao has the best relationship with Junior Brother Jiang."
"Good idea. Let's go find him now then."
"Don't bother looking."
In the sky, Qin Xiao's voice came down slowly. Retracting his sword and landing on the ground, looking at his senior brothers and sisters, and then remembering the recent events, Qin Xiao couldn't help but sigh lightly. "Senior Sister Lin has gone down the mountain."
At the bottom of Jade Maiden Mountain of the Dragon Gate Sect, as the woman in a long green dress paid her respects to the sect three more times and turned around to leave, an old man with a horsetail whisk floated down to the ground.
"Founding ancestor…"
Seeing the old man, Lin Qingwan bent down and cupped her hands in a salute.
"Qingwan, go back."
"No! Qingwan is not returning!"
"Because of Jiang Lin?"
Mentioning that name in her heart, the girl blushed slightly, but she still straightened her delicate posture and looked directly at Dragon Gate Sect's founding ancestor.
"Yes!"
"He's a man from a demon cult…"
"He's my junior brother!"
"He treats you like a senior sister, and you just treat him like a junior brother?"
"Of…"
"Senior Sister, my name is Jiang Lin. Hey, hey, hey, Senior Sister, your clothes are huge. No, your clothes are long. Forget about it.
"Senior Sister Lin, let's eat; a man is iron, and rice is steel. One can't go without a meal.
"Senior Sister, don't fight with the old man. Master is worried that you can't get married, because you're obsessed with cultivation all day, so he went to look for a man for you.
"Geez, Senior Sister, don't hit me, Senior Sister…
"Senior Sister, come, try the big sausage I just baked! I'm telling you! This kind of stuff is hard to make. Salami? Not salami, it's sausage. Come try my big sausage.
"Senior Sister Lin, did you know! I! like! you!"
The scenes from the past echoed in the girl's mind, and the word "of" had been said, but the last "course" could not be said.
"Sword cultivators cultivate the mind as well as the sword. The heart goes before the sword; without even understanding one's own heart, how can one be a true sword cultivator? How will one be able to defend oneself against the monsters outside the wilderness in the future?"
With a wave of the old man's horsetail whip, the girl loosened her grip on the longsword and her consciousness faded, and when the girl was about to fall to the ground, a woman of unknown age, but still looking in her prime, quietly appeared and caught her.
"Heh heh heh, Wife, what do you think of the chicken soup for the soul I just made? Wasn't that masterful?"
At the sight of his wife, the old man's eyes narrowed with a smile like a rural dog's.
"Hurry up and get your ass to the Sun Moon Sect. If something happens to Jiang Lin, Qingwan's dao will be damaged. See if you can come back after that! Just learn a foreign language outside for the rest of your life!"
***
"Sister Sword Spirit… let me out. Jiang Lin, he's in danger!"
"No! Xueli, you just entered the Dragon Gate Tier from the Mysterious Trails Mystic Realm, and you also suffered from the storm of that mystic realm's collapse. Your tier is extremely unstable; if you don't regulate it, you will even hurt the dao root! You absolutely cannot go!"
"But! Jiang Lin, he…!"
"There are no buts! Xueli, you have your quest! Have you forgotten about the revenge for the destruction of your sect?! Also, do you not believe in Jiang Lin that much?"
The girl clenched her teeth and lowered her head, her nails sinking into flesh. "I'm sorry, Sister Sword Spirit, I still have to…"
Before the girl finished, the sword spirit blocking the girl swept through the girl's brow, and the already weak Xiao Xueli slowly lost consciousness.
"Xueli, I'm sorry."
As the girl's eyes opened again, the sword spirit temporarily gained dominance of the girl's body.
***
At the same time, in one of the largest taverns of the Sun Moon Sect, two men walked in with big strides, and on top of one of the men's heads, a cute little dragon girl was lying.
"Daddy, what is this place?" Little Niannian asked softly, wagging her little tail.
"Ahem… Kids shouldn't ask too many questions."
Jiang Lin gently touched the girl's long silvery-white hair, and in his eyes, large "$" appeared…