The date of departure had been set for three days later. Fang Xing decided to hide inside the Myriad Beasts Sect until then, but he didn’t simply waste away the days and sought out every piece of information and gossip related to the old man Hu Qin he could. From this, he found out this old man was a bit of a legend in his own right.

　　Hu Qin had come from humble beginnings as an old man who’d been a street performer his entire life. He was poor and had achieved nothing but—during his late years—he chanced upon the full inheritance of a rogue cultivator and was finally able to step onto the path of cultivation. Despite being over fifty years old without any foundation, resources, or teachers to help guide the way, he was able to use nothing more than a mid-quality spirit manual left behind by that rogue cultivator to reach the heavens and achieve renown throughout Chufung.

　　As a Foundation Stage cultivator, he then joined the Melodic Ice Palace and assisted them in slaying demons and devils. His name became even more well known, allowing him to become the palace master for a hundred years before he grew tired of all worldly matters and decided to retire. He’d kept himself from public view ever since.

　　Although another hundred years had passed since then, the name “Hu Qin” had yet to be forgotten and had simply become more enigmatic. It was established during this period that he was the best cultivator in all of Chufung, and his status became extremely lofty. There was even a rumor that when the people of Fuyao Palace first came to Chufung Kingdom, not only was the Melodic Ice Palace the first place they visited, they didn’t flaunt their status and instead showed Hu Qin the same esteem they would show someone on equal standing.

　　Throughout Hu Qin’s life, it was rare for him to take in any students. The Melodic Ice Palace had grown stronger by the day, and although it was still paired up with the Qing-Yun Sect and Ephemeral Butterfly as one of the top three sects of Chufung, the truth was it had somewhat surpassed the other two by now and entered a league of its own. A great number of talented disciples could be found within the palace, yet within these hundreds of years, Hu Qin had taken in only a total of three disciples.

　　Hu Qin’s first student was the current palace master; his second student had once been an elite of their generation, but had died in battle; his third student was the current top genius of the Chufung Kingdom still in Spirit Stage, Ye Gu’yin. Put simply, for Ying Qiaoqiao to get the opportunity to become his student was like rising to the heavens with a single step. Even the title “Hu Qin’s pupil” alone was many times more valuable than her current “Myriad Beasts princess”.

　　After Fang Xing learned from Ying Shihou why she’d been accepted as a student, however, he was only confused. As it so happened, Ying Qiaoqiao hadn’t been accepted into the Melodic Ice Palace because of some connections or particular method, but because this grand-elder who hadn’t been in the public eye for nearly a hundred years had actively sent out a message for her. The message spoke of how he’d heard of her innate talent, about how he had a sense of appreciation for a newly risen great sprout and wished to take her as his student.

　　To Ying Shihou, his daughter being given the chance to study under the wings of Chufung’s top cultivator meant she wouldn’t need to be stuck inside this small Myriad Beasts Sect forever. He hadn’t been able to contain his joy and accepted it without a second thought, but Fang Xing felt something was a little strange about this.

　　Within the realm of cultivation, there were cases where this “appreciation for a new sprout” would motivate a highly skilled old monster to compete over a certain genius in order to take them as their student. This wasn’t too uncommon, either, but everyone qualified to have these old monsters fight over them were nothing short of true, legitimate geniuses. Fang Xing had met this Ying Qiaoqiao before, and although her innate talent wasn’t bad, that would depend on who she was compared to. Perhaps if she was compared to his past D-Rank she could be called a genius, but when compared to someone like Ye Gu’yin, it was like setting a sparrow next to a phoenix….

　　This level of talent shouldn’t have been enough for the grand-elder of the Melodic Ice Palace to proactively send out a letter to take her in as a new student, right?

　　The puzzle was difficult to solve, so Fang Xing decided not to dwell on it further. There were still three days until departure, and although Fang Xing was bored with nothing to do, he’d also been making some preparations in secret.

　　The first thing he needed to do was hide the Phoenix-Fear Zither he’d taken from Ye Gu’yin. The method itself was rather straightforward: he simply coated it in a layer of Refined Iron, changed it into a lance shaped like a one-legged man, and then had the Peng King carve a few intricate seals on the Refined Iron’s surface. The seals not only increased the power of the lance, but also prevented people from sensing the aura of the Phoenix-Fear Zither beneath the layer of Refined Iron. The Peng King even promised with unwavering conviction that a normal Golden Core Stage cultivator wouldn’t find anything abnormal whatsoever thanks to the seals he’d personally carved.

　　This all had to be done because Fang Xing simply didn’t have any better options. The Phoenix-Fear Zither was an invaluable high-quality Ancient weapon—it naturally couldn’t just be thrown away. It also so happened that this treasure couldn’t be placed inside a storage sack, so he had to resort to this in order to carry it on his back.

　　Once the zither was taken care of, Fang Xing forced Ying Shihou to open up the Myriad Beasts Sect treasure vault so he could draw in a large amount of good items for cultivation resources. All of the resources he’d collected for Spirit Stage were useless now that he’d formed his foundation, so he had no choice but to collect resources once again. Although he’d plundered the valleys of the three Foundation Stage elders and did indeed have a few resources for Foundation Stage cultivation—such as some suitable pellets and high-quality Spirit Stones—it was still far from enough.

　　His base was extremely solid, after all, and even though his foundation was contaminated, the underlying purity of his cultivation was still there. His purple foundation was an existence far beyond any ordinary cultivator, and so the pellets and Spirit Stones used by ordinary Foundation Stage cultivators weren’t very useful to him; at most, they’d only be able to help him replenish some of the Qi he’d use throughout the day. If he wanted to break into the second tier of Foundation Stage, he’d need considerably more high-quality resources.

　　It was rather unfortunate that while the Myriad Beasts Sect had a near-unlimited supply of resources for Spirit Stage disciples, the sect didn’t have much for those in Foundation Stage. Even after Fang Xing went through all of the sect’s vault—a process that left Ying Shihou with a pained heart—the boy was still left dissatisfied and felt it was only so-so. At least it was better than nothing….

　　In short, one person secretly cursed the other as a bandit, while the second cursed the first as a poor bastard.

　　Fortunately, three days passed by quickly and the little devil was finally set to leave.

　　The morning of the third day, all of the Myriad Beasts disciples gathered at the center of the city to see Ying Qiaoqiao off. In the central square was a thirty-foot-long spirit ship that had been prepared for Fang Xing and the party to travel to the Melodic Ice Palace.

　　Although it was only a mid-quality spirit tool, it was spacious and comfortable nonetheless. The distance between the Bohai Kingdom and Melodic Ice Palace wasn’t a short one, and not even a Foundation Stage cultivator would want to travel the distance using only their cloud. Traveling in such a spirit vessel was much more comfortable and didn’t require people to waste their Qi.

　　Ying Qiaoqiao boarded the ship alongside Elder Moye—who was going to be her protector for the journey—and her servants—which include Fang Xing disguised as Xiao Jiu. A total of five servants made up her retinue, two of which were old women in charge of looking after Ying Qiaoqiao’s daily life, while the other three were in charge of beast feeding, cleaning, and purchasing goods.

　　Fang Xing had been assigned the beast feeding job, meaning he would be in charge of feeding all the spirit beasts Ying Qiaoqiao owned once they arrived at the Melodic Ice Palace. Before they then, however, all of the spirit beasts had taken a Hibernation Pellet so they could be safely stowed away in storage sacks, leaving Fang Xing without much to do.

　　Before leaving, Ying Qiaoqiao lowered herself into a full bow towards the Myriad Beasts sect master and quietly bid farewell, “Father, Qiaoqiao will depart now. Please stay well.” After witnessing Chu Zhaoyang’s death, this little girl’s temperament had undergone a complete reversal, changing her from an outgoing and quick-witted girl to one that was quiet and taciturn. Even facing her father moments before her departure, her expressions showed very little change.

　　“Good. Qiaoqiao, in this trip to join the Melodic Ice Palace, make sure you listen to Elder Moye….” Ying Shihou gave her this single bit of advice before releasing a soft sigh. He looked towards Fang Xing, traces of pleading in his gaze.

　　Fang Xing, on the other hand, just rolled his eyes, picked his nose, and turned his back on him. He only wanted to use this chance to enter the Melodic Ice Palace, yet this guy was acting as if he was trying to kidnap his daughter. How detestable.

　　“We’ll leave now, Sect Master….” Elder Moye bowed towards the sect master before letting out a loud command and activating the vessel’s energy source. The giant spirit vessel began to rise up into the sky like a giant palace before flying off into the distance, while all the Myriad Beasts disciples below bowed to see them off.

　　Miles upon miles of clouds were ahead, strong gusts of winds were to the sides, and scenes of mountains and rivers were below.

　　Flying was sometimes an incredibly tedious and boring thing for cultivators. The land was just too vast, and even the Vermilion Bird with its startlingly fast speed would require nearly a month’s time to make the trip from Bohai Kingdom to the northern part of Chufung. Bored, Fang Xing sat in the back of the spirit ship with his head in his hands, aimlessly watching the passing clouds and constellations while at times pouring a mouthful of wine into his mouth. Fang Xing sighed longingly towards the sky.

　　” Aii , life is so sad….” The more he stared, the more he felt a sense of sorrow inexplicably appear from nowhere. He’d finally broken into the Foundation Stage; he should have been traveling the world, robbing as he pleased with the golden crow right now, not dressing up as someone else’s servant to hopefully sneak into the Melodic Ice Palace to beg for a cure to his disease. The gods were just too cruel to him.

　　“What’s so sad about your life?” a soft voice rose up. A red glimmer appeared from the other end of the ship’s rear, the voice belonging to none other than Ying Qiaoqiao and the color belonging to the red outfit she now wore, the same outfit as when Fang Xing had first seen her. The scar on her face had fully healed and her cheeks were as smooth as china, but that quick-witted smile had disappeared, replaced instead with an expression laden with grief. Her eyes were without their usual shine as she looked towards the clouds and sunset just beyond the ship.

　　She’d been feeling rather stifled inside the ship’s cabin and had come to the back of the ship to find some fresh air, where she’d chanced upon Fang Xing’s anguished lament. For Ying Qiaoqiao, the tragedy in her life had begun only after meeting that little devil; what could a wine-drinking servant who’d hidden himself at the back of the ship possibly be depressed about?.

　　Fang Xing had sensed Ying Qiaoqiao’s presence much earlier, but simply didn’t want to deal with her. He rolled his eyes and lazily replied, “In any case, my sorrow is greater than yours!”

　　Seeing a servant unwilling to speak with her was actually a bit refreshing for Ying Qiaoqiao. She leaned lightly against the ship’s railing and calmly replied, “What do you know about sorrow? Did you know? My most loyal servant, Xiongnu, and my most beloved big brother, Zhaoyang, were all killed by a vicious devil. I have nightmares every night, and they’re filled with that little devil’s laughter. Every time I wake up, I’m covered in sweat…. I… I only wish I could kill that little devil with my own hands. Even better if… if I could cut him into a million pieces… but….”

　　After speaking so much, Ying Qiaoqiao suddenly paused. No matter how hard others had tried to get her to say these things, it was something she’d never spoken. Why had she blurted all of this out in front of a servant who had no manners?

　　Fang Xing was surprised to hear this, but he quickly turned around with a stern expression and spoke in a sincere and earnest tone. “Little sister, this is your wrongdoing, then. You should learn to let go of hatred….”

　　“Why?” This had left Ying Qiaoqiao surprised. She hadn’t expected him to tell her to do this.

　　“Because if you cannot let go of hatred, your life will only be filled with even more sadness,” Fang Xing replied with a serious tone.