Qian Yu tilted her head to look at the unknown mass behind the immortal master.
It was still twisting, but it had grown much smaller—from the size of an adult to the size of a child.
Qian Yu took two steps toward it, then looked uncertainly back at the immortal master.
The woman remained cold and expressionless, but she nodded.
That meant it was safe, right?
Qian Yu turned and continued toward the black mass. She stopped half a step away and could not resist asking, “What is this?”
“I don’t know,” the immortal master answered seriously.
“It looks dangerous.”
“It is not dangerous now.”
“Then A-Ling…” Qian Yu had grown up in a happy family. Even her ninety-year-old grandparents remained healthy. She had received lessons about death, but she had never experienced a real death.
She could not accept that a living person—one who had been torturing her for information only moments ago—had suddenly died.
“That was her fate,” the immortal master said. “Her fate was to die this way today.”
Qian Yu could not bear such emotional indifference. With her back turned, she pursed her lips in displeasure.
The black mass had now shrunk to the size of an infant. It stopped getting smaller and hovered there. Slowly, a head separated from a torso, and then facial features began to form.
Qian Yu stared in amazement as the unknown substance transformed into a baby within moments. She glanced at the immortal master, who still stood there with the same icy expression.
For some reason, the word safe passed silently into Qian Yu’s mind. It felt like an understanding they had always shared: if this immortal master showed no reaction, then their immediate surroundings were safe.
Qian Yu reached out and carefully lifted the infant.
The black substance faded, revealing normal baby skin. The tiny “person” waved two plump, segmented arms in her embrace.
“Ah!” Qian Yu cried. She held the baby up for the immortal master to see. “It’s A-Ling! A-Ling turned into a baby.”
“That is not A-Ling,” the immortal master said coldly—still coldly. “A-Ling was not this ugly as a baby.”
“Oh.”
“Besides, this is a boy.”
Prompted, Qian Yu looked down. Sure enough, he had something she did not.
The infant squirmed in her arms. In moments, he had learned to babble.
“Mama.”
“Who is your mama?” Qian Yu extended both arms in disgust, suspending the child between her hands.
Qian Yu was mighty and heroic. Her arms did not tremble at all. The baby thought they were playing and babbled even more happily.
“This is also your fate.” After watching them play for a moment, the immortal master left those words behind and turned away.
“My fate? My… child?”
She was not married. She had never even dated!
“There must be a mistake! Who calculated this? I want a refund without returning the product.”
Qian Yu passed the baby from her left hand to her right. He showed no fear and laughed continuously, entirely unaware of his new mother’s tragedy.
“How much longer will you play? Are you not coming back with me?”
The immortal master had stopped about ten paces away and turned to wait.
Qian Yu froze. She asked uncertainly, “You know me?”
“Qian Yu. My precious eldest disciple.”
For the words precious eldest disciple, a rare note entered the cold woman’s voice.
Then she added, “I simply do not know whether you are worthy of her destiny.”
She resumed walking without checking whether Qian Yu followed.
Yunliu Mountain was beautiful. Its trees were lush, its water green, and its forests overflowed with life and variety. Every few steps brought rabbits, squirrels, or even deer into view.
Qian Yu held Qian Duoduo in both arms—the name she had given him ten seconds ago. Its meaning… was exactly what it sounded like: lots and lots of money.
If the immortal master truly meant that the boy was her child, then giving him her surname was perfectly reasonable. At first, Qian Yu had wanted to call him Qian Ling or Qian Xiaoling to commemorate A-Ling’s hasty death.
But when she shared the idea, the immortal master glanced back at her. Qian Yu somehow read sadness in that gaze.
So she abandoned the thought.
At that moment, a deer burst from the forest and nearly collided with mother and child. It jumped aside at the last second and stopped near a thicket to watch them.
Qian Yu noticed a coin-shaped marking on its right haunch, like a cute cutie mark from an animated pony show. The reminder of her old world made her laugh.
The immortal master turned. “What amuses you?”
“Nothing.” Qian Yu bounced the baby in her arms. “Your name is Qian Duoduo. Qian Duoduo—”
“Wah!”
Qian Yu did not particularly like children, but a tiny thing this fresh and adorable still overwhelmed her. She rubbed cheeks with him and kissed him fondly.
Instant motherhood, everyone. No childbirth required. What a bargain.
The Free and Easy Sect occupied a quiet valley on Yunliu Mountain. To reach it, one first had to pass through a narrow crevice wide enough for only one person.
At first, the passage was so narrow that one could barely squeeze through. After several dozen steps, the view suddenly opened.
Sunlight filtered through bamboo leaves and scattered across Qian Yu’s eyelids, making her squint.
“We have arrived.” The immortal master stopped and guided Qian Yu toward the buildings.
The Free and Easy Sect was as loose and insignificant as a sect could be. Calling it a sect was generous.
Its total assets consisted of one Nascent Soul immortal master, three disciples—now only two—a collection of talismans, one bamboo grove, and one house.
In front of that lonely house, a single little girl hunched over a solitary table in the courtyard, writing something.
At the sound of footsteps, she lifted her head and revealed a childish face smudged with black and red ink.
“Master! Eldest Senior Sister!”
She looked utterly astonished. Abandoning her brush and paper, she rushed over.
This was probably Xie Yingying, whom A-Ling had mentioned. Qian Yu allowed the girl to wrap both arms around her waist and sway from side to side. She looked very young, perhaps not even ten.
“Eldest Senior Sister! Waaah, I missed you so much! Senior Sister A-Ling said you died, but I didn’t believe her. Look, you came back perfectly fine!”
“Oh, right! I pestered Senior Sister A-Ling until she said she would look for you. I wanted to go too, but she wouldn’t let me. She said—she said that if I finished practicing the Thunderfall Talisman before she returned, she would make osmanthus cakes for me!”
Xie Yingying chattered and tugged Qian Yu’s clothes.
“When will Senior Sister A-Ling return? I miss her…”
Qian Yu did not know how to answer. She looked helplessly toward the immortal master.
But the woman stared directly into empty space without displaying a trace of emotion.
Fortunately, Qian Duoduo babbled and captured the little girl’s attention.
“What is that?”
She pulled at Qian Yu, who bent down to show her the baby.
“This… I found him beside the road,” Qian Yu lied. “No one wanted him, and he looked pitiful out there alone, so I brought him back.”
“Ah! Are we getting a new junior sister? Or…”
Xie Yingying fell silent, unable to calculate the proper seniority for her senior sister’s child.
Qian Yu reminded her, “He’s a little brother.”
“Impossible!” Xie Yingying abruptly grew serious. “He cannot be a little brother.”
Qian Yu assumed she disliked boys. Smiling, she prepared to console the girl over her shattered dream of gaining a younger sister.
Then Xie Yingying spoke.
“A male cannot survive on Yunliu Mountain.”