畅想听

"?" Song Shuhang looked at Soft Feather with a puzzled face, not understanding what she was trying to do.

After Soft Feather was done digging for things, she set up the table facing towards Venerable White on the bed and placed the incense burner on it.

Next, she pinched the top of the incense, releasing true qi to light it up.

After lighting it up, she held the incense firmly and bowed towards Senior White, paying respects to him. Her face looked serious, as though she was offering sacrifices to a deity.

After paying her respects, she respectfully stuck the several sticks of incense into the incense burner.

"..." Song Shuhang.

What kind of joke is this? It feels really strange... Venerable White is still alive, and he isn’t an idol!

Hence, he couldn’t help but ask, "Soft Feather, what are you doing?"

"Eh? Senior Song, you didn’t know?" Soft Feather looked at Song Shuhang with a shocked expression. "Don’t tell me you’ve never offered incense to Senior White?"

"That’s why I’m asking, why would I need to offer incense to Senior White?!" Song Shuhang exclaimed.

"Senior Song, your cultivation knowledge is too weak." Soft Feather’s face filled with sorrow.

Upon hearing this, Song Shuhang stared blankly. "Could it be that, whenever a cultivator meets a senior, he or she has to set up the table and offer incense?"

Is it possible that the junior cultivators always have to carry an incense burner with them everywhere they go, and when they meet a senior, they have to pay respects and offer incense to him on the spot? No, this is impossible!

"No, when you meet other seniors, you don’t have to do this. But Senior White is rare and special!" Soft Feather drew a large circle with both hands.

Thereafter, she continued explaining, "Most of the people in the cultivation world know about this. If you meet Senior White when he’s in secluded meditation, if the circumstances permit, you can offer Senior White incense while making a wish... it’s very effective!"

"Offer incense, making a wish? Very effective?" Song Shuhang used all his might to rub his face.

Senior White’s ‘heaven-defying luck’ had become formidable to such an extent?

...But then again, he immediately thought of the situation of him bringing Senior White back from the ‘Nameless Celestial God Temple’. At that time, Senior White was mistaken as a Celestial God statue, standing there in the midst of the crowd with everyone offering incense to him.

Additionally, the Nameless Celestial God Temple was rather famous—it was said that as long the person wishing for something was sincere, their wishes would come true.

So it was true... even in the cultivation world, Senior White’s reputation had spread for a long time.

However, wouldn’t it be dangerous, entrusting your wish to Senior White? For example, if your wish was to gain a peerless technique, you might fall off a cliff first—if you’re lucky, when falling halfway, you might land into a cave, allowing you to successfully get your peerless technique; but if your luck is bad, you might end up falling all the way to the ground, breaking your entire body into a pile of broken bones!

"Soft Feather, can I ask a question? After making their wishes, did anyone end up dying or hurting themselves when their wishes came true?" Song Shuhang asked warily.

Soft Feather thought for a moment or two and shook her head. "As for this, I don’t know. The rumor in the cultivation world has it that if you keep making wishes to Senior White when he is in secluded meditation, your wishes can possibly come true. That’s all."

As they were talking, the incense Soft Feather lit up all finished burning.

"Ah damn it, using true qi to light it up is indeed problematic, it finished burning too quickly," muttered Soft Feather.

However, she did not have any intention to light up and offer more incense—she silently started putting the table and incense burner away.

Song Shuhang looked as she used the small purse to hit the incense burner lightly, immediately causing it to decrease in size until it was no bigger than a marble. Then, Soft Feather put it back into the purse. Soon after, she used exactly the same method to put away the table as well.

What a good item... if only I had the opportunity to find the shed skin of a Little Finger Snake, that would be really great.

Eh, wait a minute!

Senior White, that wasn’t a wish! Song Shuhang looked at the Senior White, who was still cultivating with his eyes closed on the bed, and quickly added that statement.

❄️❄️❄️

Next, Song Shuhang brewed a cup of Spirit Green Tea and gave it to Soft Feather.

"Eh? Since when did you have Spirit Green Tea?" Soft Feather asked out of curiosity. The one she sent was still packed. But earlier, the Spirit Green Tea that Song Shuhang took was from his room.

"Su Clan’s Sixteen of the Nine Provinces Number One Group sent it over. Last time, I did her a small favor, so she probably sent it to thank me," said Song Shuhang.

"Oooh, Senior Seven’s junior. I saw other seniors mention that before in the group." Soft Feather sat on the side of the bed, shaking her small feet, and naughtily raised her spotlessly white toes that were sparkling and clear.

Earlier, when she set up the table to offer incense, she didn’t even wear sandals.

Song Shuhang pulled out a chair from below the computer table and sat down. He suddenly recalled Soft Feather making a wish to Senior White and asked out of concern, "Soft Feather, what kind of wish did you make? If you want to tell me, that is."

It was after all a wish—if it was a private matter, it wouldn’t be nice to share it with others.

"Ah, it’s just a small matter, I can tell you. Earlier, I wished for Senior White’s blessings to let me complete my next task without a hitch." Soft Feather smiled.

Next task? Song Shuhang had a sudden epiphany. "Are you referring to the treasure map? You want to hunt for the treasure?"

Soft Feather once mentioned it to Song Shuhang on the Instant Messaging Program, saying that she’d found a treasure map amidst her dad’s notes. She also said that if time permitted, she and Song Shuhang should go hunt for the treasure together.

"Not that, though I brought the treasure map out with me on this trip too. But the main purpose of this trip is something else!" As Soft Feather spoke, she sat upright and started speaking in a serious manner.

❄️❄️❄️

Soft Feather had a good friend named Chu Chunying; she was a girl from a small aristocratic family of cultivators. When Soft Feather was little, she used to follow Venerable Spirit Butterfly to have fun around the world, and that was when she got to know her.

Thereafter, both of them kept in contact intermittently.

But not long ago, Chu Chunying suddenly stopped contacting her. Hence, Soft Feather was very curious and got people to investigate.

Only then did she find out that Chu Chunying’s aristocratic cultivator family faced a bit of a troublesome problem.

About a hundred years ago, the Chu family gained a rather decent cultivation sword technique. Initially, this issue was very well-concealed, no one knew about it. The Chu family also secretly practiced behind closed doors.

But for some reason, people got wind of it and it attracted the attention of a sect. Even though this sect wasn’t a big one, it was still a lot stronger than Chu Chunying’s small aristocratic family.

Hence, that sect started to make things difficult for the Chu family... to force them to hand over the sword technique.

It continued for more than half a year.

"Is there no one to manage things like that? Song Shuhang asked. "It can’t be that within the world of cultivators, there isn’t a ‘cultivator alliance leader’ of some sort who can step forward and stop that sect, right?"

"Actually, there is an alliance leader of some sort. But, from what I can remember, that alliance leader had already been in secluded meditation for over 600 years and nobody knows when he will come out." Soft Feather sighed.

This was the most frustrating thing in the world of cultivators—in order to be the alliance leader in the cultivation world, you need to at the very least be very strong, or else what can you use to make others obey you?

But for seniors who were strong and formidable, they’d spend at least several hundred of years in seclusion, and it could even reach up to a thousand years. Over the course of hundreds of years, who was gonna take over the management of the cultivation world?

You can’t possibly move on and choose another alliance leader, right?

But what was the point... for all you know, when you selected a new alliance leader, the next thing he might do was to cook up a ‘ten thousand-year secluded meditation set meal’.

Hence, the alliance leader issue in the cultivation world could only remain unsolved like this...

"However, apart from the alliance leader, a few big Daoist and Buddhist sects do secretly look after the cultivation world to prevent chaos. If anyone goes too far, stirring the anger of the public, then they can’t blame anyone for taking action when the time comes," explained Soft Feather.

And precisely because of that, that sect did not dare to forcefully seize the sword technique directly, but instead engaged in all kinds of tricks to make things difficult for that small aristocratic family.

❄️❄️❄️

"So, Soft Feather, you wanna help your friend, right? How are you gonna help out?" Song Shuhang asked.

"I haven’t thought of that yet to be honest... I plan to go over to take a look first and see if there’s anything I can help with. If the other party went overboard, I will go back to Spirit Butterfly Island and get a couple of people to go there to support my friend’s family! If we can’t solve this with logic, then we shall see whose fist is stronger!" Soft Feather clenched her fists and drew back the corners of her mouth, revealing her tiny eye-teeth.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Song Shuhang asked—a sect VS. an aristocratic family conflict was pretty cool if you thought about it. If it was possible, he would like to experience it for himself.

Soft Feather looked at Song Shuhang and said as tactfully as possible, "No can do, Senior Song, your cultivation level is kinda on the low side; even if you go over, you wouldn’t be able to help much."

Tears were streaming down Song Shuhang’s cheeks immediately. Excuse me if I’m such a weakling!

"Wait for me to finish helping my friend with her matter, and if daddy hasn’t sent anyone to come and get me to go back, I will go with you to hunt for the treasure!" Soft Feather reached out her hand and patted Song Shuhang, consoling him.

"Alright," Song Shuhang answered.

"Right, I heard that True Monarch Yellow Mountain’s Doudou is also at your place? How come I don’t see him? I never had the chance to see Doudou. Whenever dad brought me to True Monarch Yellow Mountain’s house as a guest, Doudou would always coincidentally be running away from home at the same time." Soft Feather asked out of curiosity.

"Doudou is currently accompanying the small monk Guoguo to treat his hemorrhoids at the hospital. After counting the days, the small monk should be receiving the last treatment today, and Doudou should be coming back too," Song Shuhang answered.

Speaking of Doudou, Song Shuhang’s cell phone rang. He glanced and saw it was indeed Doudou calling him.

"It should be Doudou coming back, let me pick up the call." Song Shuhang smiled and picked up his phone.

"Hello, Little Friend Shuhang. I am Zhou Li." Zhou Li’s voice came from the other end of the line. His voice at this moment sounded exceptionally serious and one could sense his powerlessness very strongly.

Song Shuhang himself was also very puzzled just how he could sense so many emotions from simply hearing Senior Brother Zhou Li’s voice alone. In any case, he could sense them all!

Song Shuhang immediately asked, "Senior Brother Zhou Li, did anything happen? The tone of your voice sounds a little off."

"Doudou ran away." When Zhou Li said it, he seemed to have exhausted all his energy. "Also, he didn’t run away alone; he kidnapped the small monk Guoguo too. Forgive me, Little Friend Shuhang. I was clearly standing next to them, yet I couldn’t keep an eye on them!"

"..." Song Shuhang felt the blood rush to his throat and almost spurt out.