Chapter 6.1

Ji Qingzhuo Is a Piece of Wood (1)

She tugged at Ji Qingzhou’s sleeve. Ji Qingzhou might be awful at rejecting others, but she had her own special means.

That was to pretend not to hear; no matter what Ying Xiu said, she could automatically filter her speech.

So, Ji Qingzhou only stroked Maomao’s head, lifted her feet and then walked towards the Peach Blossom Mist.

Seeing that she paid her no attention, Ying Xiu gritted her teeth, lowered her head and rushed forward again, and then clutched Ji Qingzhou’s arm.

Ji Qingzhou lacked the strength to break free from her. When she seized her arm, she could only stop in her tracks and turn her attention to her.

“Princess… most of the map fragments in Princess’s hand were picked by me in the lake.” Ying Xiu looked into Ji Qingzhou’s eyes and murmured to her, “If I fail to pass the Immortal Ascension Conference, I’ll have to go back to the palace again.”

Ji Qingzhou tilted her head and considered Ying Xiu. She wondered why it would be so bad for her to return to the palace. She could wear gold and silver. Wouldn’t she be able to lead a comfortable life in the palace?

She exerted effort in her hand in an attempt to pull her arm back from Ying Xiu’s grasp.

Due to the sudden move, the cloth on Ying Xiu’s wrist topped with silver ornaments slipped off and exposed her skin. The tinkling clash of silver jewelry was more like some kind of shackle, and under the shackle were long scars. The new overlapped the old, marred and terrifying.

Ji Qingzhou was stunned, but Ying Xiu quickly pulled down her sleeves. She hid her own scars and did not speak again.

“Let’s go in.” Ji Qingzhou said to her, “But, I only have one map segment.”

“I’ll enter and then … I’ll set out by myself.” Ying Xiu clutched Ji Qingzhou’s arm, like a drowning person clinging on a driftwood.

Ji Qingzhou flexed her fingers and frowned. She was not used to being with people… so all her nerves were tense because of the close proximity.

Soon enough, Ying Xiu let go; her wrist silver jewelry jingling.

Ji Qingzhou looked down at her hand and stayed silent.

Ying Xiu followed her into the Peach Blossom Mist. Once in the mist, Ji Qingzhou’s vision was shrouded by layers of fog. She felt like she was in the middle of a sea of clouds, unable to find the direction, be it east, west, north or south.

When she came back to her senses, she and Ying Xiu were already standing in a forest, still surrounded by fog, unable to find an exact direction.

Ying Xiu came to her senses ahead of her. Seeing that Ji Qingzhou looked dizzy and confused by the fog, she offered, “It looks very dangerous here. Shall I go on with you? I-If something happens, I should be more capable of dealing with it than you.”

Ji Qingzhou massaged her temples and shook her head. She was unaccustomed to other’s help, much less accepting assistance from someone she had just met.

Ying Xiu was just grateful to Ji Qingzhou for bringing her in. Since she refused her offer, she didn’t insist any longer.

She stood still and gave Ji Qingzhou a deep look. After a while, she reminded her, “Miss, if you see our Princess again, don’t tell her you brought me in.”

Ji Qingzhou thought about it. The chances of striking up a conversation with that delicate princess was close to zero.

Ying Xiu excused herself and left, clenching her fist as she drifted away, as if she had made up her mind about something.

The white bird that was originally left on Mount Jian Lake also entered, and its eyes recorded the conversation between Ji Qingzhou and Ying Xiu just now.

“That Ying Xiu’s immortal bone aptitude is not inferior to her master’s.” Jiang Qianke observed Ying Xiu’s figure as she disappeared into the mist, and couldn’t help but sigh. “If you enter the Immortal Sect, there you would not be differentiated on the basis of status such as in the mundane world.”

“We initially thought that reaching the other bank of Mount Jian Lake was her limit, but she accidentally entered the Peach Blossom Mist. If she had agreed to Ying Xiu going with her, Ying Xiu might have protected her to some extent.” Jiang Qianke couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for her. “I don’t know how she will survive moving forward.”

Of course, Ji Qingzhou didn’t consider the difficulty of simply surviving. Instead, she took a respite under a tree. She took out the only map fragment in her hand and began to study it.

The map fragment that Maomao accidentally fished up was a critical one. Almost a third of the correct route was drawn on it, but Ji Qingzhou found the messy lines on the map hard to interpret. She scratched her head.

The system reminded her with embarrassment, “Host, the map is upside down.”

Ji Qingzhou flipped the map upside down, and only then did she understand it. From her location, going west was the real entrance to Yunshui Peak, but the second half of the road was missing on the map.

However, she decided to keep going. She would cross the bridge when she came to it.

She then proceeded to lead Maomao to the west. The thick fog drifted against her face, and a path opened up in front of her eyes. In the depths of the dense fog, strange dark shadows occasionally swept by.

From the dense forest on Ji Qingzhou’s side, numerous vines ‘swished’ out of the damp trees, clamoring to wrap Ji Qingzhou’s ankles, and drag her into the trees to devour her body to sustain the forest.

However, the vines merely crossed the tip of Ji Qingzhou’s toes, and they exploded into streaks of light before disappearing the moment they touched her.

Maoao, who was beside her, was the same. It happily trotted forward and crushed the evil vines along the way with its hooves.

Ji Qingzhou’s system failed to find them. It might be smart, but it was scared to death, and didn’t even make a sound to alert her.

Peach Blossom Mist was an illusory realm where, as long as the immortality seeker had even a trace of immortal fate, that immortal fate could resonate with the illusion and give rise to wonderful scenes.

However, Ji Qingzhou did not have the aptitude to cultivate immortality at all.

When playing the lute to a cow, it might be able to hear the music, but it would barely react.

But if you play the lute to a piece of wood, the wood would only think that the lute was also wood.

That was the case with Ji Quizhou. The illusion set up all sorts of difficulties for her, but to her, they simply were non-existent. They weren’t on the same channel at all. She should have been too scared to step forward when she saw these dangers.