The Wrong Place (1)

“Ming Yu Zhenjun!”
With a flash of white light, a blue-robed female cultivator with a Taoist hat abruptly appeared in the centre of Guixu Sect’s teleportation formation, and the cultivators guarding the formation hastily bowed in greeting.

“Do you know where Li Wei Zhenjun has gone?” Ming Yu asked.

Just as a cultivator was about to reply, another flash of white light came from the teleportation formation that had been silent for days. A black-robed Buddhist cultivator stepped out from it. There was a three-petaled red lotus between his brows, and he was rotating a string of jade Buddhist beads in his right hand.

“Amitabha… Do you know where Li Wei Zhenjun has gone?”

Even the question was exactly the same.

The cultivator couldn’t understand what this was all about. Thinking that Ming Yu Zhenjun, Fu Sheng Zhenjun, and his sect’s Zhenjun had always been friendly, he thought it wouldn’t hurt to tell them.
“He seems to be heading down the mountain.”

“Down the mountain? Where to?”
Ming Yu didn’t know herself why she was so scared that she just had to know. If forced to explain, it could only be classified as some kind of intuition— she intuited that the person who had contacted Li Wei with the voice transmission jade talisman was a woman, and it wasn’t just any ordinary woman.

The news in the Heavenly Herald was always exaggerated, but they wouldn’t make something out of nothing. Perhaps, a woman who could move Li Wei’s heart had really appeared, and he even spent thousands on her, giving her a set of Heavenly Incandescent Robes.

“Well…” The cultivator scratched his head, “I don’t know.”

“Aren’t you people of the Beimian Sect the best at divining deductions?”
Fu Sheng Zhenjun began slowly rotating his jade beads. “How about making a divination or two?”

“Fu Sheng Zhenjun, what are you doing here again?”
Although Mingyu Zhenjun couldn’t really stand the ways of this demonic monk who wasn’t being a proper monk, she wouldn’t bother with that.

“I came to join in the fun.”

Fu Sheng Zhenjun didn’t get annoyed. Smiling, he watched this elite disciple of the Beimian Sect grab a piece of turtle shell and began divining. A moment later, she chose a direction and hurried away.

He smiled; a red lotus appeared at his feet, and he followed.

“Ah…”
The cultivators guarding the formation exchanged looks. “Did something happen inside? Why are they all looking for Li Wei Zhenjun?”

“Tch, knock on wood. What can happen? Elders of all the various sects are there maintaining things with a formation…”

Ming Yu stepped on her cloud and rushed down the mountain. She didn’t catch up to him, but instead, met a familiar face halfway.

Guixu Sect and Yuqing Sect were only separated by a river, so the chances of bumping into someone from the Yuqing Sect were not small. The yellow-robed female cultivator had a teleportation talisman stuck on her and was travelling at great speed, yet she didn’t seem rough in the least, and still exuded charm and elegance.

“Why is Ming Yu Zhenjun staring at people like this?”
Fu Sheng caught up with her. “Oh, it is that little cultivator. She’s already at the Centring rank, huh? That’s decent progress.”

“One with a severed fate, and an innate Dao core.” Ming Yu snorted. “Don’t say you haven’t been keeping an eye on her.”

“It’s only natural that I have. No matter what, she’s an old acquaintance from my third life.” Fu Sheng Zhenjun was about to descend the red lotus when he saw the young cultivator suddenly stop and talk to a handsome male cultivator. “Eh?” he said. “Who is that?”

Ming Yu took a glance.
“Your old acquaintance’s new lover.”

Fu Sheng Zhenjun’s eyes were still, and he merely gave a faint “Oh”. Ming Yu looked at him with a puzzled expression, “It seems to me that you’re not very happy. Could it be that you also like this little cultivator?”

“Like?”
Fu Sheng Zhenjun began rotating his beads, “Indeed, there was a time when I did.”

“That’s true. With your ten reincarnation cycles, every reincarnation will have something that they like…” Ming Yu manipulated the tortoise shell and gave an “Eh?”. She actually couldn’t divine Li Wei’s position anymore.

“He realised that I was snooping…”
She sighed and kept the tortoise shell. “Forget it.”

Fu Sheng Zhenjun smiled.
“That Li Wei is really a blockhead. To think he hadn’t noticed the wolfish ambition of this ‘brother’ of his.”

Ming Yu looked silently at the pair of young cultivators who were heading down the mountain, then suddenly said, “He practices the Way of Impassiveness, and is destined to cut off all of his seven emotions¹ and destroy all humanly desires in the future. I’m satisfied to be able to watch him like this.”

“Then, why did you rush down the mountain in such a hurry just now?”

Ming Yu didn’t speak. After a long silence, she said, “If Li Wei insists on practising the Way of Impassiveness, I would naturally retreat to a corner, so as not to damage his Dao heart; but if he’s not practising it…”

“What then?”

“Then, apart from me, there is no one else qualified to be the one by his side.”

Footnotes:

1 seven emotions: In Chinese culture, people have seven emotions. The seven emotions vary depending on teachings (e.g. Taoism/ Buddhism/ etc). In Buddhism, it’s: happiness, anger, worry, fear, love, hatred, and desire.