Several hours later, I finished the last stroke of my seal. Six circles of glowing text surrounded me like a ball. I even sat on a whole section of writing. But that was fine. By the time the ink dried, it wasn’t corporeal.

But there was an issue. I only had this one shot. If I messed this up, then I might not know until some evil cultivator started munching on my soul.

So, I meticulously reviewed each part to ensure the perfection of every stroke. I even moved out of the seal so I could check from the outside.

While I had confidence in myself and my ability, I wasn’t stupid enough to not review every inch of it in a situation like this. Not when I couldn’t even see it working. Stupid low cultivation. Stupid Bloodsword!

My eyes traveled down the last bit of the final line. Perfect! Down to the last stroke. Now it just needed power and a drop of blood.

I returned to my seat in the center of the ball and took out one hundred spirit stones — I’d been saving them for living expenses but this seemed like a good place to use them. With a gesture, I grabbed their energy and saturated the seal with it. The glow intensified, becoming nearly blinding. I scratched the back of my arm and threw several crimson drops onto the text.

“Seal!” I yelled.

The lines of glyphs grew closer to me, shrinking. Something in my mind tightened almost painfully. My eyes watered. A hurricane inhabited my cultivation room. The flags I’d so carefully placed, scattered even as they became drenched. A loud screeching sounded as if the laws of the world bent and broke.

My cloud-patterned robes blew in every direction. One blue-trimmed sleeve smacked me in the face. And stuck there. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was finishing this damn seal!

And the indignity of having my own fucking robes attack me then plaster itself to my nose, eyelids, and cheeks... Well, that merely had to be endured.

Then the text vanished inside of me and everything stopped.

This seal had very strange side effects, but I’d seen weirder.

Little Spring burst into the room — his hair disheveled and his eyes terrified. When he saw me he came to a screeching halt.

“Um. Fairy Lin. Are you okay?”

I peeled my sleeve from my face. “I’m fine. Why?”

“Um. You might want to adjust your clothes... And hair.”

I looked exactly how you’d expect a child with flowy clothes to appear after riding a bike in a fucking storm. There really wasn’t a need to point that out.

I glared at Little Spring. “Did you learn how to create sword Qi?!”

He beamed. “Just before I came in here!”

“Then hurry up and show me!”

“Yes!”

He stood in the perfect stance I’d taught him and swiftly moved the sword while stepping forward. A single, beautiful and pure blade of sword Qi flew from the attack. It looked nothing like the bloody, disgusting Qi that saturated Bloodsword’s every slash in our past life. But, unfortunately, while it looked beautiful it did not stop mere inches from the wall. Instead, it bore into it, causing a large crack. And these walls were made of expensive ironwood!

I breathed out a sigh of frustration. “You realize that we’re leaving tomorrow, right?”

“Ah, yes.”

“And that we have to pack up the yard and house tonight and tomorrow so we can leave.”

He nodded.

“Then why did you add more work onto our plates by ruining the wall?”

“Um. You told me to show you?”

“I thought we would move outside, first!” Or that he’d stop it before it went too far at the very least!

“You’re the one who told me to do it,” he mumbled under his breath.

This kid. Was he already showing the classic Protagonist’s trait of destroying things he really shouldn’t?

“Come on. If we hurry, we might make it to a lumber shop... before everything closes.”

***

The next day — after spending a sleepless night repairing a damn needlessly broken wall and packing our belongings — we began putting the yard back in order. Just as I threw a boulder into my space ring(to later place in its original spot), I received a sound transmission from White Lily. Apparently, she and Ruthless (Pill Otaku) waited outside my courtyard.

I’d sent them a message earlier informing them that I was leaving today so this was not entirely unexpected.

As the older and more respected sister, I sat my ass down at the outside table and had Little Spring go fetch them. I didn’t think that this was the proper etiquette for this era or area, but the two higher realm cultivators didn’t seem to mind it so, whatever.

They arrived in front of me. I stood and bowed to them since they were technically my Nascent Soul seniors. A week ago, I’d learned from Ruthless’s little assistant that the Pill Master had finally increased his realm. Of course, that was all thanks to a comment I had made in passing.

Even my accidental wisdom was that good! Mwahahahaha!

But, New Nascent Souls found it hard to resist peering at others. Something I knew from experience... The first time I’d done it out of curiosity was when I’d peered at the blinding mass of oddness that was Bloodsword’s soul. Needless to say, I quickly learned that some things were better left unseen. Harem protagonists did not tend to have beautifully pure souls. (And if they did, it was likely from a soul cultivation of some kind, or the author ‘Gary Stuing’ it up.)

So, for the duration, I’d had to avoid Pill Otaku.

By now, he likely suspected something was up with me and wanted to take a good look at my soul. I planned to use his curiosity as an opportunity to test out my seal.

I stared at Pill Otaku, a polite smile fixed to my face.

Now, the question was, would this particular Nascent Soul resist the urge, or would he succumb?

And when he inevitably succumbed, would my preparations be good enough to hide my massive soul?

“Greetings Pill Masters. What brings you to my humble home?” I grinned and resisted the urge to use the cleaning technique on these two. I had already used it twice on myself while I waited for them to walk up to me.

“Apprentice Lin!” Lily said with a beautiful pout. “You’re leaving so suddenly and you have the guts to ask us why we’re here?”

I scratched my head and sheepishly smiled. “Oh. That.”

“Oh, that.” She raised a brow.

“Hehehe. Well, Little Spring and I are planning to meet up with some sect members soon and then we’ll travel to the sect together.”

“And where are these sect members meeting you?”

Ugh. So nosy. “That’s a sect secret,” I said proudly, pretending that I was just a kid keeping an important secret for the first time.

She looked like she was about to fake cry. “At least tell us what direction you’re going.”

I crossed my arms and shook my head. I was getting better at this acting-like-a-child thing. “It’s not safe for non-sect members to know.”

She rolled her eyes. “I was just planning on sending someone to guard you. And if you were willing, to escort you there by immortal boat. You two are a bit too young to travel by yourselves. And your realms are still too low.”

Well, she had a point.

“And as a genius of the Alchemists’ Guild,” Pill Otaku said, ”we need to do our part to protect you.” And that was when I caught it, the slight narrowing of the eyes. Baby Nascent Soul Cultivators did that when peering at souls.

And his reaction? He looked disappointed. Then impressed. Was that disappointment because I wasn’t an immortal inhabiting a child's body? And perhaps he was impressed that I was so intelligent while still being so young and adorable? I’d have to assume so.

The only correct reaction to seeing an Immortal Ascension stage cultivator’s soul for the first time was to shiver in fear. And possibly fall on one’s ass. I’d seen it happen one too many times.

Thank you for being my tester, Ruthless. Once I become a higher realm I’ll definitely send you a gift or two.

I bit my lip, considering their offer. Honestly, I couldn’t afford to say no to an escort. Especially one that came with a free ride on an immortal boat.

Doing the calculations, from where we currently were, it would take Little Spring and I six to seven days with little to no breaks to reach the forest. And this was going at our normal slow-ass speed. Meanwhile, it would take the Junior Sect Leader and his group a good twelve to fifteen days to get from the sect to the forest. It had already been six days. And I doubted that they were taking their time.

This meant that there was a chance that we might miss them. And that was unacceptable.

This also meant that we had no extra time to spend being chased down by any of the enemies I’ve made.

“In that case,” I said with all due respect, “I would appreciate your offered escort.”

White Lily beamed at me. “I’ll have them waiting out here in an hour then.”

I bowed deeply. “Thank you, Pill Master!”

She ruffled my hair and I scowled a bit. I was an adult on the inside, damn it!

“And here, take this.” She handed me a cheap storage bag. I briefly peered into it and my hands shook. Why was there so much money? She’d placed a variety of copper, silver, gold, and a few hundred spirit stones in there for me. I emptied it into my ring and bowed once again and handed her the empty bag back.

She was such a sweetheart. Then again, this might be her way of repaying me for the recipe I created that would help give those who shared her constitution a little more protection.

Pill Otaku handed me a bag as well. “Here. It will be a long journey to your sect, and you might get bored.”

When I peered into it I was flabbergasted... Was he seriously giving me a small library?! There were books on alchemy! That whole section consisted of treatises on basic cultivation! Wait, is this a fucking crate of herbs off to the side?

“Pill Master. This...”

“Take it. This is quite literally the least I owe you for your advice. And if you feel like it’s too much, then just remember to write to me when you come up with any new advancements in alchemy.”

Aww. Pill Otaku. You’re making me want to give you some secrets.

“You’ll be the first one outside my sect that I inform.” I bowed once again. And I took out two stacks of jade boxes. Each set was beautifully engraved. Pill Otaku’s set had a lovely cauldron design that matched the one on his clothes and Lily’s had her favorite orchid carved into the top. I’d created these myself from some raw jade that had recently made my wallet bleed.

“Seniors, these are a small thank you for all that you’ve done for us while we’ve been here. Please don’t hate them. I carved them myself.”

I was pretty sure the reason why I hadn’t been harassed by Violet’s underlings while in the city was because I was under the protection of these two. So this gift was also the very least I could give them.

Lily looked touched but quickly hid her reaction and put the boxes away.

Ruthless immediately put them in his ring and nodded. Eh, he’d be excited later once he figured out how good those were. Hehehe.

We chatted for a little longer before saying our goodbyes.

The life of immortal cultivators was long, and the cultivation world was small. There was a large chance that we’d meet again in the future.

I did find it a little odd that I’d never heard of those two in my past life, but it was always possible that we’d just run in different circles.

Or, maybe something terrible happened to them.

If that were the case, then I hoped that my brief intrusion into their lives flapped enough butterfly wings to change that outcome.

***

Two Golden Core cultivators arrived at our front door named Red Three and Red Seven. I double-checked with my divine sense to make sure they were who they said they were. I mean, if I hadn’t and they were actually assassins sent by Violet, we’d be dead before we left the courtyard.

The gold cauldron embroidered on the hem of their uniforms marked these two as guards for the Alchemists' Guild. Their names also signified that they were once loose cultivators who had sold themselves and their allegiance as warriors to the guild in exchange for the continuous supply of pills to help raise their cultivation.

Red Three had broad shoulders and a dark mole on his left wrist, while Red Seven had a white crescent scar under his right eye. He carried a bow slung over his shoulder and a sword at his belt.

Just how important of an asset was I? Or maybe, those in the know were terrified of my fake master and didn’t want to risk the ire of an actual immortal.

Well, whatever. I’d accept them as my temporary guards if it made my life easier and did no harm. The two brought a small immortal boat with them in the shape of a leaf and a permission token to leave via the nearby docks to save time.

With their help, Little Spring and I quickly finished returning the courtyard to normal before we all walked to the docks. I sent sound transmissions informing a few key people of our departure. Like our landlord. The tutors I hired for Little Spring. That one guy I had a standing order with.

As we pushed off from the docks and into the water, I found out that these guys didn’t have a problem with me randomly using the cleaning technique on them and their boat. Yay!

They didn’t even give me the side-eye. I think they may have been warned.

Our boat sped down the river until we crossed a translucent blue wall signifying that we passed the city’s flight ban. We rose high in the air and almost immediately bolted towards the opposite direction we needed to go.

For one last time, Little Spring and I admired the city that we had briefly made our home. It looked just as beautiful now as it did then.

“Ah, sorry about this,” I called easily since the properties of the immortal boat diverted the wind. “But we actually need to go down the south road.”

They merely shared a look then smoothly obeyed my directions.

After traveling a few minutes I realized that at least one of the two watched us at any given moment. Were these two not only our guards and escort but also spies for the Guild? Had I been too amazing, again?!

Well, as long as they didn’t get in my way, I could handle spies.

I took out a few of the books Pill Otaku gave me on general cultivation practices and handed one to Little Spring. Then I painstakingly went over each part and each character. Little Spring sent me that familiar look — like he thought I was crazy — then he went along with it.

I would have to explain to him later that one of the best ways to deal with spies was to bore the shit out of them.