Volume One, Chapter 18: Calm Waters

“Such a grown person, yet still managed to fall off the bed while sleeping—it's embarrassing just to say it.”
“You say that, but it’s all because of the wine at noon. I only had two cups, and I ended up sleeping through the entire afternoon!”
Yan Jin complained irritably to Si Nanxi.
“Luckily there were no classes in the afternoon, or I’d have been doomed. By the way, what happened to your injury? The masters at the Academy keep warning you not to fight with others here, but you never listen. Now look, you’ve been beaten again, haven’t you?”

At the Spirit Appraisal Academy, Yan Jin had only recently enrolled. To maintain the dignified image of a master, she deliberately adopted a cold and aloof demeanor during class, precisely to intimidate disobedient students like Si Nanxi.
As for after class, most of her classmates were children around ten years old, making it difficult to find anyone to talk to casually.

Today, whether it was because of the wine or her nature, Yan Jin was resting her cheek on her palm, watching Si Nanxi and chatting away.
“About that observation class last time... thank you.”
“For what? You make it sound like I’m not even part of the Earthly Branch class. By the way, who came up with the names of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches? They’re really ugly and awkward to say.”

Si Nanxi didn’t reveal how Vice Dean Xing and Song Han had teamed up to set a trap for her. He knew Yan Jin’s character too well; she would never believe such scheming existed at the Spirit Appraisal Academy.
“Hey, next time there’s wine, remember to secretly invite me.”

Yan Jin lightly bumped Si Nanxi’s heavily bandaged right hand with her arm.
Looking at Yan Jin, still flushed from the wine, Si Nanxi disdainfully retorted,
“Girls shouldn’t be drinking.”
“Si Nanxi! You’re acting all high and mighty now? Who says girls can’t drink?”

They chatted idly for a while, until Yan Jin suddenly realized that Mo Daoke, who had come along with her, had disappeared.
“You didn’t see anything after Mo Daoke took me out of the Immortal Spirit Building?” Si Nanxi was surprised and somewhat puzzled.

While Si Nanxi and Mo Daoke were drinking, Yan Jin, bored, remembered the effects of the millennium-old snow mountain Lingzhi soup. Seeing that neither of them intended to eat, she finished the entire large bowl spoonful by spoonful.
Later, when the Divine Dawn Wine took effect and Si Nanxi and Mo Daoke started fighting, Yan Jin had already dozed off at the table, completely unaware of what happened afterward.

The Immortal Spirit Building wasn’t far from the Spirit Appraisal Academy, just under half an hour away. The carriage arranged by Qin Yuan soon stopped. Before leaving, Si Nanxi requested a few days’ leave for Yan Jin, citing his limited mobility.
Yan Jin knew Si Nanxi was just trying to slack off and scolded him a few times, but said no more.

Halfway through their walk, Yan Jin returned to pull back the carriage curtain and gave Si Nanxi a long list of academic reminders.
The same few things over and over again: don’t fall behind on your homework, study hard on all courses except Spirit Appraisal Practice, the midterm exams at the Academy were coming up soon, don’t answer like you did on the entrance test...

After all, she was a teacher. Si Nanxi patiently listened through half a cup of tea before setting off for home.

On the way back, Si Nanxi asked Xiao Liuli through the carriage curtain, “Do you think this woman really gets that drunk?”
“The young master forbids me from drinking; how would I know?”
“That’s true, alcohol isn’t good. You shouldn’t try it in the future.”

By the time they reached Liuhua Street, night had fallen. From the neighboring building came the sounds of lively music and singing. Through the window lattice, Si Nanxi spotted a plump figure—it had to be Old Wu.

Strangely, after all these years, Si Nanxi knew nothing about Old Wu’s background.
Where was he from?
Which school or sect did he train under?
What level of cultivation had he reached?
Why had he been following Si Nanxi since childhood?

Si Nanxi had no answers.
The only certainty was that Old Wu would never harm him and followed him without expecting anything in return.

In this world, people either seek fame or profit. If there’s an exception, it’s someone like himself, who is solely focused on completing the system’s task and returning to the real world.

Old Wu was a native of the Wild Lands; surely he hadn’t come from another world too?
Thinking this over, Si Nanxi began to doubt his own judgment. Could it be that this fat man had a system as well? Or maybe his task was to accompany Si Nanxi for life.

The thought made Si Nanxi chuckle to himself. What a boring system mission that would be.

Back at the mansion, after Xiao Liuli finished serving Si Nanxi, she was so exhausted she fell asleep immediately.

When Si Nanxi woke, it was already noon the next day.

For some unknown reason, Xiao Liuli hung row upon row of wind chimes on Si Nanxi’s windowsill.

Listening to the chimes tinkling in the breeze, Si Nanxi suddenly became lost in thought.

In another world, the eaves of his house had the exact same wind chimes. He had no parents growing up; it was his grandmother who raised him. Six years had passed in this world, which, calculated by the one-to-twelve time ratio, equated to six months.

He didn’t know how much longer his grandmother, who had been his only family, would hold on, nor whether he still had hope to return in time to accompany her through her final journey.

“What are you thinking about, young master?”

Xiao Liuli saw the heavy expression on Si Nanxi’s face and knew he was brooding over some unhappy thoughts again.
She quietly sat beside his bed, her big watery eyes fixed on the swaying wind chimes.

After a long while, Si Nanxi came back to himself and forced a smile at Xiao Liuli.

While Si Nanxi was feeling sentimental, Mo Daoke was having a truly miserable time.

In a cave on the Netherworld Peak, a short, slightly stooped old man entered, holding several square plates inscribed with the words “Lotus Seal Formation.”

“Such a disgrace—getting beaten like a drowned rat by a mere kid in front of so many people.”

“Master! I just held back out of consideration. If I had attacked with full force, he wouldn’t have been able to harm me in the slightest!” Mo Daoke shuffled toward the cave entrance, explaining excitedly.

“Enough! Stay inside and behave. That Jin Chanhai had the audacity to bring you before me and demand a fight! Who does he think he is? Does he really think the Seven Peaks of Xuyao are his turf?”

The old man, called Jin Minghe by Mo Daoke, had once been a monk. After wandering the Wild Lands for decades, he settled in Lin’an City and became one of the seven masters of the Spirit Cultivation Academy.

Due to his early Buddhist training, he was also known as Master Minghe.

Though the Cultivation Academy appeared unified, it was divided into inner and outer peaks. Only ten disciples belonged to the inner peak; the rest, numbering several hundred, were outer peak disciples.

Outer peak disciples were taught by masters with a cultivation level of at least third stage, while the ten inner peak disciples were personally mentored by seven profoundly accomplished masters.

To distinguish the inner peak masters, these seven were given the title “Heavenly.”

Simply put, the seventeen people of the Seven Peaks of Xuyao formed a small sect of their own.

When Si Nanxi previously called Mo Daoke the tenth-ranked expert in the Spirit Cultivation Academy, it seemed like praise but was actually mocking him for being last among the inner peak disciples.

Jin Minghe waved his sleeve impatiently and shouted at Mo Daoke,
“Enough whining. Something big is about to happen on Xuyao Peak. You’re to stay in this cave for ten to fifteen days, nowhere else. Use this time to deeply comprehend the ‘Cloud Dragon Startling Phoenix’ technique I taught you.”

With a flash, the square plate in Jin Minghe’s hand revealed an ancient manual. A gentle stroke sent the manual flying past the seals into Mo Daoke’s hands.

Then Jin Minghe stepped out of the cave, muttering,
“I really don’t understand how Mo Danyang ended up with such a useless son.”