畅想听

"Soft Feather, what are you doing?" At this time, a gentle voice echoed from a distant place.

Soft Feather quickly switched off her laptop and turned her head, looking at the incoming person.

This girl looked to be 25-26 years old, but she seemed far maturer than someone of her age. She was Soft Feather’s good friend and the daughter of the first wife of the leader of the Chu Family, Chu Chunying.

"Elder Sister Chu, I was chatting with a senior. Hehe..." Soft Feather put the laptop away and stood up, stretching her body. Then, she trotted to Chu Chunying’s side and positioned her ear on Chunying’s slightly bulging belly. "How is the baby? Did it kick you? How many times did it kick you yesterday?"

Smiling, Chu Chunying said, "How can I even reply to such a question? After all, it’s not like I was counting the times it was kicking me."

"Once I’m pregnant, I’ll make sure to count them all and firmly keep them in mind." Soft Feather grinned. "Each time the baby kicks me, I’ll note it down, and once the baby grows up, I’ll make sure to make him, or her, pay the price!"

After gazing at the serious-looking Soft Feather, Chu Chunying didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. "You haven’t even gotten married. Isn’t it a bit too earlier to talk about babies?"

"Hehe." Soft Feather glued her ear to her abdomen, trying to listen to the baby’s movements.

Chu Chunying gently patted Soft Feather’s head.

She was a bit envious of Soft Feather. Many years had passed, and Soft Feather’s disposition had hardly changed. She was still the same naive girl full of enthusiasm and curiosity. Venerable Spirit Butterfly really doted on this daughter of his!

On the other hand, although she was only three years older than her, Chu Chunying had experienced a lot of things. And after getting married, she felt as though she had become even older.

When she was with Soft Feather, she felt as though she was more like her ’mother’ than her ’elder sister’.

In the end, the world of cultivators was a place where the one with the strongest fist would win, and the Chu Family’s fist wasn’t strong enough. It was precisely for this reason that they had fallen into their current predicament.

❄️❄️❄️

Although she had a gentle expression on her face while gazing at Soft Feather, Chu Chunying still secretly sighed.

She had no intention of involving Soft Feather in their mess. She didn’t want her to see the dark side of the world of cultivators just yet.

But she hadn’t expected the information network of the Spirit Butterfly Island to be so formidable. After she cut off relations with her, Soft Feather came to her place directly to help her.

"Thank you, Soft Feather," Chu Chunying said in a soft voice.

"Why are you thanking me? I haven’t even helped you yet." Soft Feather raised her head and conveniently asked, "How are things going with that school? They can’t deal with the Chu Family by staying in the dark and playing tricks, right? If they want the sword technique, they would have to show their faces, right?"

"They indeed want the sword technique. However, they want us to bow our heads and gift it to them," Chu Chunying said softly.

The opposite party’s behavior could be described as such: leading the life of a whore and wanting a monument put up to one’s chastity.

Soft Feather clenched her teeth in anger. "Elder Sister Chu, how are your seniors planning to deal with this situation?"

"The family leader said that if they want face so much, we’ll not give them any." The corner of Chu Chunying’s mouth rose, and her eyes narrowed. "The family leader wants to force them to fight it out on the Grievance Settling Platform."

In the world of cultivators, when two factions had an unsolvable conflict, and things hadn’t reached the point where they would start killing each other, they would send their representatives to fight on the Grievance Settling Platform to resolve their grudges.

On the Grievance Settling Platform, no one would be held responsible for deaths. And after the match was over, all gratitude and grudges would be written off—of course, they were written off just in name. If one of the two parties still harbored hatred in their hearts, there was nothing that could be done.

"The Grievance Settling Platform? I want to go, I want to go!" Soft Feather’s eyes lit up as she clenched her fist. "Elder Sister, let me go on stage. I’ll wipe out their entire school."

Soft Feather’s confidence came from her strength—after all, the opponent was only a small school. This school was much weaker than the Moon Saber Sect that had been wiped out during the incident with Su Clan’s Sixteen. Actually, it was even weaker than the Immortal Farming Sect.

In that small school, the strongest person was an elder that had barely reached the Fourth Stage Realm. Moreover, their lifespan had almost come to an end.

Amongst those that had reached the Third Stage Realm were the head of the school, the vice-head, as well as three protectors. The rest were mostly disciples that had reached the Second Stage.

As long as that elder didn’t join the fray, Soft Feather alone could kill every person in their school.

But even if that elder were to intervene, Soft Feather wasn’t afraid—her father had prepared several treasures for her. Let alone a cultivator of the Fourth Stage, even if a Sixth Stage True Monarch were to attack her, she could still escape.

"I understand how you feel," Chu Chunying said gently. "However, no one is accountable for eventual deaths on the Grievance Settling Platform. Moreover, only the members of our Chu Family and the opposite school can fight on the platform. All external aid is forbidden."

If one of the factions were to summon helpers to represent them on the Grievance Settling Platform, the supervisor wouldn’t stand there doing nothing. If someone that wasn’t part of the two factions dared to go on stage, the supervisor would surely give them a good beating.

"It’s fine. Before I left the island, my father gave me a magical treasure that allows me to change my appearance. With that, I can impersonate a disciple of the Chu Family and fight on the platform on your behalf. Once your two factions apply to use the platform, the supervisor they’ll send over there shouldn’t be strong enough to see through my treasure," Soft Feather said self-satisfied.

There were many supervisors, with different levels of strength. The supervisor would be chosen according to the strength of the factions that were applying to fight on the Grievance Settling Platform.

Soft Feather felt her chest, looking for her brooch.

"..." Soon after, somewhat depressed, she said, "I forgot that I lent that magical treasure to Senior Song and that it is still in his possession..."

"Thanks for your support, Soft Feather. But there is no need for you to meddle in this matter. We can solve this problem on our own," Chu Chunying said with a smile.

❄️❄️❄️

In the East China Sea, Venerable White was sitting on top of a huge whale.

Doudou and the small monk had already woken up. However, they couldn’t move any part of their bodies except for their eyeballs.

On the huge whale, Venerable White was arranging some bamboo slips into a formation.

"Let’s give it a try and see how it goes. I really want to explore this mysterious island; it would be good if I could find it," Venerable White muttered.

The formation he had arranged seemed to be related to divination.

This time, Senior White was serious about finding the mysterious island.

❄️❄️❄️

On the Heavenly Island.

Song Shuhang and Nine Lanterns rowed the lonely boat once more and returned to the temple.

Nine Lanterns sat in her original position and rested her chin in her hand while tapping on the table with her fingers.

"Miss Nine Lanterns, do you have a paper and a brush?" Song Shuhang asked.

"Yes, what do you need them for?" Nine Lanterns passed Song Shuhang a white paper and a brush.

Song Shuhang took the brush and the paper. Afterward, he wrote on the paper in shaky handwriting the following words: skeletal dragon’s withered vine. Once the ink had dried up, he used the paper to wrap the sixteen withered vines.

After he was done, Song Shuhang suddenly thought of something and asked, "Miss Nine Lanterns, after my memories are sealed and I leave the island, there would be no need to delete these few words, right?"

After all, these withered vines were as fine as strands of hair... if he were to forgot about them after leaving the island and casually throw them away, he would probably cry to death.

"Don’t worry. Those words have nothing to do with the Heavenly Island. Therefore, they won’t be deleted," Nine Lanterns assured him.

"That’s good. Thank you very much!" Song Shuhang heaved a sigh of relief.

"Ahaha, I really like the sentence ’thank you very much’!" Nine Lanterns said with a smile.

"I’m happy that you like it!" Song Shuhang tried to continue the conversation.

Nine Lanterns replied stiffly, "Why did you say that? My happy feelings were instantly halved!"

"..." Song Shuhang.

Nine Lanterns gave him a supercilious look and took her notebook out, crossing out another line.

6) Fulfill a not too big and not too small wish of his. (Just crossed out)

This wish seemed very troublesome, but in the end, she completed it pretty easily.

Now, only one last wish was left! Nine Lanterns was a bit agitated—what would her last wish be?

After the sixth line was crossed, the last wish finally started to appear.

7) Lastly, I want to be a happy bride...

As soon as she read the first part, Nine Lanterns complexion changed, becoming deathly pale. She clenched her teeth and kept reading.

...then, I want to bear two children for him, a boy and a girl...

Nine Lanterns rubbed her cheeks and slammed her head against the table.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

A portion of that table made of an unknown material was smashed into pieces.

Song Shuhang gazed at the convulsing Nine Lanterns and asked, "Miss Nine Lanterns, what happened?"

Nine Lanterns raised her head and revealed a charming smile. "It’s nothing, I was just trying to calm down."

Song Shuhang opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Nine Lanterns plucked the pieces of the table stuck on her forehead off and kept reading.

Getting married and giving birth to children? Nine Lanterns felt that this wish was very scary.

As if that wasn’t enough, she had to give birth to a boy and a girl... how could she even choose the gender of the child? Well, maybe cultivators had some means to do it, but it wasn’t the main problem!

The main problem was giving birth to a child! This wish was really fearful!

Next, I want to age with him slowly, looking at our son grow up and get married. I also look forward to seeing our daughter grow up; I want her to grow long hair, and maybe a cute fringe. I also want to dress her up in pretty clothes and make her wear cute little shoes.

I remembered! Long hair!

At the time, when I discovered that I had to shave my head, I must have hated it, right? Dammit, what’s wrong with being bald, why did I hate it so much at the time?

Being bald has many good points! For example, I don’t need to take care of my hair, and I don’t need to worry about pressing it beneath my body while sleeping!

Nine Lanterns kept reading.

Then, once our daughter grows up, I want to see her getting married. After the wedding, we will both snuggle against each other in a sleeping bag and cry copiously.

"..." Nine Lanterns.