The room Lian Xue had prepared for Jiang Luo was a small house with white walls and gray tiles.
Simple in design, peaceful and secluded—more than enough space for just Jiang Luo alone.
In the green woods around the house, Jiang Luo saw a few birds fly by. Though the outside world was gripped by winter winds, here it was like spring.
Lian Xue smiled as she explained, “The Tianbi Pool water runs beneath the Lian household, so it’s like spring all year round here. But outside the Lian estate, the seasons change normally. In about half a month, senior brother, you might see snow-covered mountains behind the house, while still surrounded by lush greenery here.”
Jiang Luo imagined it. “That must be really beautiful.”
Lian Xue nodded happily. “It really is.”
Jiang Luo walked around the room. There was a large window in the bedroom that looked out to the back mountain. The vegetation there was in normal autumn-winter condition—bare, black branches, yellowed ground, and bald mountain tops.
“Is that mountain also part of the Lian family’s land?”
Lian Xue shook her head, expression calm. “The Lian ancestral home only takes up a tiny portion. That mountain belongs to no one—it was born of heaven and earth.”
Jiang Luo suddenly laughed. “But the Qi family has a little villa in the mountains that includes the entire mountain top.”
Lian Xue sighed. “They care too much about that sort of thing.”
Though small, the place had everything needed. There was a kitchen in the room, but meals would be delivered regularly. The facilities were excellent—except, there was no sign of an internet cable.
“Is there internet here?”
Lian Xue paused for a moment. A pained look flashed across her face. “No.”
Jiang Luo gasped, staring at her in shock.
Lian Xue nodded heavily. Jiang Luo could no longer smile. “You mean I’m going to live an entire month without internet?”
“There’s a TV that can get the national channel, and aside from that, you can read books,” Lian Xue forced a smile. “We have a lot of books here.”
Jiang Luo’s mood instantly soured.
But no matter how frustrated he was, no internet still meant no internet. That night, he picked out a book on medicine that seemed vaguely interesting and fell asleep quickly after reading only a few pages.
From that day on, Jiang Luo began a boring, internet-free life.
The person mainly responsible for cleansing Jiang Luo’s body was Lian Xue. Every day at noon, when the sun was at its strongest, Jiang Luo would soak in a wooden tub filled with Tianbi Pool water, for a full hour—that is, two hours.
He would wear clothes while bathing. Lian Xue would bring along her junior brothers to help every day. As time went on, Jiang Luo became familiar with the younger members of the Lian family.
The water from the Tianbi Pool could dispel evil, cleanse filth, and keep the body and soul pure. The Lian family liked to call it “holy water.” For someone like Jiang Luo, whose impurities needed to be washed away, even his drinking water came from the Tianbi Pool.
Each time he bathed, the water would slowly turn from clear to pitch black. A whole tub of water could only last for fifteen minutes with Jiang Luo soaking in it. Lian Xue had to keep changing the water. Every time he finished, she and her junior brothers were soaked in sweat from the work.
At first, Lian Xue remained calm. She thought everything was hardest at the beginning—just like the first rinse when cleaning something dirty was always the filthiest. With more washing, things would clear up. But after five days straight, the water still turned pitch black within fifteen minutes.
The filth in the water was so intense that even the holy water could only resist it for a quarter of an hour.
This time, Lian Xue was truly panicked. She gathered the juniors to test whether something had gone wrong with the Tianbi Pool water.
Jiang Luo felt a little embarrassed. He suspected that, in the eyes of the Lian family, he was like a lump of ink—no matter how much water you poured on him, it would all turn black.
The test results came quickly. The Tianbi Pool water was fine—meaning the problem was with Jiang Luo.
Lian Xue found this result both reasonable and astonishing.
Just how evil did that ghost have to be, to taint Jiang Luo so thoroughly?
They couldn’t solve the issue on their own, so they decided to have Jiang Luo keep soaking while waiting for Daoist Wei He, who was in closed-door meditation on the back mountain, to come down after seven days. Wei He was the Lian family’s most learned elder in witchcraft and healing. He would surely know what was going on.
But after seven days, Daoist Wei He didn’t come down. Instead, he sent word to the Lian family that his insights hadn’t yet reached completion and he needed three more days. But three days later, even if he wanted to come down, he couldn’t—because it had snowed in the mountain.
Early December, still the beginning of winter, brought a rare heavy snowfall.
Snowflakes fell thick like goose feathers. Jiang Luo, bored out of his mind, stood by the window holding a cup of hot tea, watching the snow blanket the ground in white. It formed a stark contrast with the green grass and blooming flowers nearby.
It felt unreal, like he wasn’t quite standing on solid ground.
Looking at the white snow, Jiang Luo itched to run out and stomp in it. He sighed and took a sip of tea.
So boring.
Utterly boring.
Jiang Luo drooped his eyes and yawned as he looked at the ground.
In the dozen or so days he’d been staying with the Lian family, Jiang Luo had experienced peace and quiet—but more than anything else, he felt it was soul-crushingly dull.
Even hanging out in the dorms with Lu Youyi and the others, playing games and poker, would’ve been better than this desireless life.
It had only been ten days, but he already felt like his nerves were unraveling. His soul was screaming in boredom and misery. The “exploding ship” incident had only been two weeks ago, but when Jiang Luo thought back on it, it already felt like a whole month had passed.
Back when he first came to this world, Jiang Luo’s pursuit of excitement wasn’t so strong. But after one crisis after another, he could no longer endure the kind of calm life he used to tolerate.
He was completely out of place in the Lian family. No matter how well he acted on the surface, deep down, Jiang Luo still felt that even the Angonise, that ship full of blood eels, held more allure for him.
The others in the Lian family didn’t notice anything unusual about him. They just thought Jiang Luo had been low-spirited lately because he was worried about the filth clinging to his body.
In reality, it was the juniors like Lian Xue who were more anxious than Jiang Luo.
Back then, Lian Xue had confidently promised the Heavenly Master that Jiang Luo would be restored to purity in a month. But now a third of that time had passed, and there hadn’t been the slightest improvement. How was she supposed to explain this?
“Eldest Senior sister…” the junior disciples looked at Lian Xue with distressed faces.
Lian Xue frowned, looking out at the snow, and said, “Let’s see if it stops tomorrow.”
But the snow didn’t stop. It fell continuously for three days, turning the unremarkable back mountain into a scene like a snow-capped peak with year-round snow.
The snowfall had stopped, but the heavy snow had sealed off the mountain. People at the base could barely climb up, but those at the top couldn’t come down.
Lian Xue gritted her teeth and stopped wasting time. She told Jiang Luo to grab his things: “I’m taking you up the mountain to find the Daoist Elder.”
Jiang Luo didn’t hesitate for a second. He quickly packed his things, as if afraid Lian Xue would change her mind.
Once they stepped out of the Lian family estate and into the field of snow, Jiang Luo took a deep breath of the icy air and murmured, “Refreshing.”
He was finally out of the Lian family.
When there wasn’t snow, there was a mountain path they could use. But now that the snow had buried it, Lian Xue led them along a different, more stable route.
Aside from Lian Xue, two sturdy junior brothers came along as well: Lian Qiang and Lian Bing.
The two had just turned eighteen last year, brimming with youthful energy. Climbing the mountain didn’t make them feel cold—instead, they worked up a sweat, steaming like chimneys in the snow.
The two were lively and somewhat intimidated by their senior sister, Lian Xue. So they stuck close to Jiang Luo, chatting away. Wedged between the two of them, Jiang Luo started to feel hot as well.
Halfway up, Jiang Luo’s goggles had fogged up completely. He took them off to wipe them, and casually asked, “When will we reach the Daoist Elder’s place?”
“Elder Wei He likes peace and quiet. He lives at the summit. Normally it takes about three to four hours to climb, but with the path in bad condition today, I’d say six or seven hours,” Lian Xue panted, rubbing her cold hands. “We’ll arrive by six at the latest.”
“Oh,” Jiang Luo responded blandly. “So, six tomorrow evening? Where are we staying tonight?”
Lian Qiang burst out laughing. “Senior Brother Jiang Luo, what are you saying? Senior Sister clearly said tonight at six!”
“Tonight at six?” Jiang Luo paused mid-wipe, frowning at them. “You’re serious?”
Lian Xue was puzzled. “What’s wrong?”
Jiang Luo raised his elegant brows, incredulous. “You’re planning to hike all the way to the summit during a blizzard?”
Three sharp intakes of breath followed. The three Lian disciples stared at him in disbelief: “Blizzard?!”
Jiang Luo was even more confused. “Didn’t you check the celestial signs last night? It’s obvious a blizzard is coming this afternoon. I thought you were prepared and had shelter planned along the way. Don’t tell me… none of you knew?”
“Observing celestial signs before going out… isn’t that just basic practice?”
The three looked sheepish. Lian Bing admitted awkwardly, “Senior Brother, we haven’t gone out in a long time… we kind of forgot about reading celestial signs… We just looked at the weather forecast, and it didn’t say anything about a blizzard.”
Jiang Luo: “…”
He honestly couldn’t tell anymore who was the actual native of this metaphysical world.
Jiang Luo took a deep breath and tried to stay calm. “The weather forecast gives broad data. I’m certain there’ll be a blizzard this afternoon.”
The two young men exchanged glances and panicked. “Really? Senior Brother Jiang Luo, you’re not messing with us, right?”
Jiang Luo was already scanning the surroundings. “You think I’d joke about something like this?”
“How long until the blizzard hits?” Lian Xue, rarely dealing with this sort of thing, was at a loss. Her lips pressed tightly together, her heart thudding. “Do we still have time to return?”
Jiang Luo looked up at the sky and shook his head solemnly. “We don’t have time. The blizzard will hit in an hour.”
Talk about asking for thrills—he’d barely voiced the thought and now here came a life-or-death challenge.
Jiang Luo’s eyes showed concern, but under his scarf, the corners of his mouth lifted. Compared to those dull days at the Lian household, this was finally something interesting.
