Clutching the bamboo slip, Nathan Young darted around several corners, only stopping when he was sure he had gone far enough. He sprinted out of South Heaven Gate's range, looked around to confirm no one was nearby, wiped the cold sweat from his brow, and nervously glanced at the bamboo slip in his hand.
With just one look, he snapped the bamboo slip shut again.
Blinking and swallowing hard, he took two deep breaths before reopening it for another look. After repeating this several times, he finally gave up in despair. He hadn't misread it.
Reading further and seeing the wish-maker's name and address, Nathan Young felt his vision go black. He couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh.
The hairpin depicted on the bamboo slip looked exactly like the one Anna Yang wore.
The Three Realms are vast, and nothing is truly impossible. Similar hairpins might exist, but for one so alike to be enshrined with his own divine statue, and right in Mount Hua territory—such coincidence could only be called divine.
Without hesitation, he pressed his hands together and turned the bamboo slip to flying ash, scattering it on the ground.
"Sister Anna... what are you trying to do?"
He stared blankly at the ashes on the ground for a long while, pursed his lips, and turned to leave.
......
At this moment, it had been exactly two months since Ian Liu began making wish-petitions before Nathan Young's statue.
During these two months, Ian Liu's life could only be described as extremely uneventful.
Although the Liu family was never wealthy or noble, they had a few acres of thin land and a property left by their ancestors—just enough for the whole family to get by.
In this era, being educated doesn't guarantee wealth, but scholars still hold a respectable social status.
As a scholar, Ian Liu naturally couldn't go to the fields to work. So those few acres of land were rented out to other townsfolk to farm, bringing in a modest rent each year. Before his mother's illness worsened, he worked as a substitute teacher at the town's private school.
Though the pay for substitute teaching was meager, it was still a respectable job. In the village, unless the generational gap was too great, people would call him 'Mr. Liu' when they met him—a title that honored his father's hopes for his son to become someone great.
Unfortunately, fate is unpredictable. Not long ago, as his mother's illness worsened day by day, he had to quit his teaching job and return home to fulfill his filial duties. Now, as her health improves with each passing day, he has begun to resume his old teaching work.
For a while, aside from the few taels of silver he owed for his mother's treatment, everything else seemed to have returned to how it once was.
Every morning before dawn, he would get up to wash, light the stove, and prepare breakfast. Once everything was ready, he helped his mother out of bed, then went to the private school to teach. He would stand proudly at the lectern, recite the classics—even those he barely understood himself—scold a circle of unruly children, and return home before sunset to boil water and cook dinner. In the evening, he'd tutor his own child, hoping that one day his son might become an official and not end up like himself, just a private school teacher.
A mother gradually recovering her health, a smart and filial son—everything seemed to resemble the beautiful life he'd once imagined, except for the absence of a loving wife. Oh, no... there was one more thing: a divine statue.
According to the Third Saintess's instructions, whether it took one month or three, as long as he kept making wish-petitions, Nathan Young would surely appear before him. As a mere mortal, Ian Liu dared not neglect a divine command—he worshipped morning and night, never daring to slack off no matter how busy he was. But...
"It's been two months—what if Nathan Young never comes at all?"
Every time he looked at that crudely made statue, Ian Liu couldn't help but have this thought.
If Nathan Young never came, his world would be perfect. Without Nathan's arrival, he wouldn't have to find Simon Sun, and naturally couldn't become his disciple. That way, he wouldn't have to worry about his own life and could peacefully continue as a schoolteacher, leading a simple yet comfortable existence.
That... shouldn't count as breaking the pact, right? If Nathan Young doesn't come, that's his problem—not something that should be blamed on me.
As long as it wasn't a breach of contract, even if the Third Saintess really escaped Mount Hua one day, she shouldn't have any reason to hold him accountable.
Thinking this, Ian Liu quietly scraped away a bit of the cinnabar totem painted on the base of the statue with his sleeve, making it look like accidental damage that he hadn't noticed.
Yet that very night, the person Ian Liu had been waiting for—but truly didn't want to see—arrived without a sound...
"Are you Ian Liu?" Nathan Young appeared silently behind him, tilting his head and looking at him with undisguised disdain.
After a brief panic, Ian Liu quickly composed himself, knelt, and saluted, "Your lowly subject Ian Liu pays respects to Prince Nathan."
Nathan Young cast a casual glance at the hairpin enshrined beside his own statue on the table and asked softly, "Who gave you this hairpin?"
As he spoke, Nathan Young silently cast a sound-sealing spell, completely isolating the room from outside noise.
"It was the Third Saintess," Ian Liu hurriedly replied, bowing his head. "The Third Saintess asked this humble subject to deliver a message to the Third Prince."
"Speak."
"Her Holiness said... she requests the Third Prince to take me to see the Great Sage..."
......
At that moment, a pair of white boots with golden trim quietly stepped onto the sparse fallen leaves in the courtyard, making a faint creaking sound.
Clara Heart widened her eyes, glanced around, suppressed her aura, and tiptoed toward Ian Liu's room, crouching close to the wall.
After a moment, she frowned slightly—she couldn't hear a thing.
"Nathan Young isn't being careless this time," she muttered, already drawing a pointed magical tool from her waist and aiming it at the earthen wall.
Just as she was about to act, she turned her head and suddenly saw little Aiden Chen peeking his head out from his room, blinking at her.
Instantly, the two locked eyes, and the scene froze awkwardly.
"Big sister, what are you doing?"
"Children shouldn’t meddle. Go back to your room and sleep."
"This is my home. I’ve never seen you before... Are you a thief?"
"Am I... a thief?"
Clara Heart nearly choked. Looking up, she saw Aiden Chen still leaning on the doorframe, gazing at her expectantly.
"Do I look like a thief to you?"
Aiden Chen shook his head.
"Then that’s fine, isn’t it?"
"I mean, I don’t know. Because I’ve never seen a thief before."
Once again, they stared at each other, the scene frozen in awkward silence.
After a long moment, just as Clara Heart was about to cast a spell to make Aiden Chen faint, he suddenly spoke up, "Big sister, you’re really beautiful. I’ve never seen anyone as pretty as you."
With that, Aiden Chen gave a sweet smile.
Clara Heart’s hand paused mid-spell, and the words on her lips turned into, "Such good taste for someone so young."
Aiden Chen covered his mouth and giggled, then asked mysteriously, "Big sister, are you an immortal?"
"Have you ever seen an immortal?"
"No, but my dad has. My dad says an immortal will come to find him, then take him to see an even greater immortal. That greater immortal will teach him magic. Then, he’ll become an immortal too."
"Oh?" Clara Heart laughed, drawing a circle in the air with a casual gesture.
Sparkling points of light scattered within the circle, looking like a swarm of fireflies in the night before quickly vanishing.
Aiden Chen’s mouth dropped open in astonishment, and he clapped his hands in delight.
Clara Heart beckoned to Aiden Chen with a smile, "That’s right, I am an immortal. Come here and tell Immortal Sister, what else did your father tell you?"
......
Inside the room, Ian Liu had already recounted everything to Nathan Young. Hearing it all, Nathan felt thoroughly uncomfortable.
He sat on Ian Liu’s bed, expressionless and dazed.
"So, Sister Anna Yang wants me to take you to meet that monkey?"
Ian Liu stared at Nathan Young, nodding cautiously.
"Then have that monkey teach you magic?"
Ian Liu nodded again.
"And then you’re supposed to defeat my Second Brother and rescue her from Mount Hua?"
Ian Liu kept nodding, but his nods grew weaker—he could tell Nathan Young was getting annoyed.
Nathan Young shot Ian Liu a glare and snorted, "Do you even know what cultivation is?"
Ian Liu shook his head.
"With your talent, what are you—just over twenty? Even if you cultivated your whole life, you’d never reach Spirit-Refinement, let alone spar with my Second Brother, much less rescue Sister Anna Yang. What a joke."
Ian Liu swallowed nervously and said cautiously, "Her Holiness said there are elixirs that can help."
"With your talent? Even if you swallowed all the Heavenly Court’s elixirs, it wouldn’t be enough."
Ian Liu lowered his head and fell silent.
After a long silence, Nathan Young finally said softly, "Just tell the Third Saintess I think it’s impossible. There aren’t enough elixirs for you to cultivate, so I won’t take you."
With that, Nathan Young got up to leave, but paused, then added, "Actually, just tell the Third Saintess you never saw me. Say you prayed for a long time, but no matter what, I never came. Got it?"
Ian Liu nodded slightly.
After thinking it over, Nathan Young still felt uneasy. He beckoned Ian Liu over and said, "Forget it, come here. I’ll just erase your memory directly. That way, even if Sister Anna Yang interrogates you, she won’t get anything out of you."
"Erase... my memory?" Ian Liu was startled and quickly stepped back.
"What, you think you can dodge if I want to erase your memory?"
Ian Liu stared blankly at Nathan Young.
"Relax, at worst you’ll just turn into a fool. You won’t die." Without waiting for Ian Liu’s answer, Nathan Young loosened his limbs and approached with a wicked grin.
Ian Liu, terrified, kept retreating.
Just as Ian Liu opened his mouth to cry out for help, the door banged.
For a moment, both froze.
Before either could react, the door was pushed open with a harsh scraping sound. Clara Heart entered, carrying Aiden Chen, and swept her gaze around the room, finally resting on the hairpin.
Under Nathan Young and Ian Liu’s astonished stares, she smiled and said, "So, Third Prince, what are you up to? Descending to the mortal realm and casting a sound-sealing spell—could it be you’re hiding some unspeakable secret?"