Yun Wan wasn’t human, so she accepted the order immediately and contacted Li Xuanyou’s junior brother.
The other party had been searching for him through the glass mirror for half a month, enduring either sarcasm or teasing every single day.
Li Xuanming: [Don’t mess with me.]
Yun Wan: [No trouble at all. Your senior brother is with me.]
Li Xuanming fell silent in confusion. [Is that true? Aren’t you just toying with me?]
Knowing he wouldn’t believe her, Yun Wan secretly sent a mirage image through the mirror—Li Xuanyou happily eating melon seeds.
“Look. Is this your senior brother?”
Li Xuanming leaned closer. It was indeed that knife-happy senior brother of his!
His voice trembled with excitement.
“I’m in Diyun City right now. I’ll need to wait until tomorrow to go over. Could Xiaoyou please help me keep him there one more night? Don’t worry—the reward will be generous.”
Yun Wan replied smoothly, “No need for trouble. I’ll just send him to you directly. Don’t add more payment—just eighty is fine.”
Though still skeptical, Li Xuanming eventually agreed.
After settling the details, Yun Wan put away the mirror and approached Li Xuanyou with a bright smile.
“Have you eaten well?”
Li Xuanyou wiped his mouth, pure innocence radiating from him.
“Very well. Thank you, girl, for taking care of me.”
In this treacherous cultivation world, he had met such a good-hearted girl—his chest warmed at the thought. Perhaps truth, goodness, and beauty really did still exist.
“Then I’ll—” Yun Wan began.
“I still have an escort order. I don’t know if you are willing to take it.”
Li Xuanyou blinked in surprise, pointing to himself.
“Me?”
“Hm.” Yun Wan nodded.
“I’m going to Diyun City tomorrow. The road is dangerous, and I need someone to escort me. Since fate brought us together, why not accept it? There’s payment too—”
“Girl, you’ll break me!” Li Xuanyou slapped his thigh before she finished.
“I actually want to go to Diyun City. And we don’t need to talk about remuneration.”
Sword cultivators lacked the wealth of pill cultivators or the refinement of yin cultivators, but they were straightforward, chivalrous, and valued loyalty above all.
Since leaving the mountain, he had slept in the cold every night and been tricked out of all his belongings. Receiving this assignment now felt like salvation.
“Don’t worry! I, Li Xuanyou, will definitely escort you!”
Yun Wan smiled quietly—her heart already celebrating.
She had planned to spend ten spirit stones to send him to Diyun City, then collect eighty. Now she spent nothing and still earned the full travel fee.
Perfect.
“Then I’ll catch a few more fish for you to roast,” she said, heading toward the river.
Watching her figure disappear, Li Xuanyou clicked his tongue.
“Such a good-hearted girl… but I don’t know her name…”
Tall, heroic, and… not very bright.
Xie Tingyun, who had cultivated for a century, felt a rare twinge of sympathy.
He stirred the bonfire with a stick, voice low.
“I advise you to leave.”
Only then did Li Xuanyou notice him—but his attention immediately shifted to the sword beside him.
“Daoist, are you also a sword cultivator?”
“Hm.”
“How coincidental! So am I. Do you know my sword’s name?”
Before Xie Tingyun answered, he announced proudly,
“I’ve fought across three thousand li and blocked a million troops with one sword. Therefore, I named it—”
“A thousand li,” Xie Tingyun praised sincerely.
Li Xuanyou froze.
“It’s called Million.”
He coughed awkwardly.
“Then what is your sword called?”
“Peerless Sword.”
“I know it’s peerless. I mean its—”
“Its name is Peerless Sword.”
Silence. Heavy, suffocating silence.
After a long time, Li Xuanyou finally asked,
“Daoist friend, earlier you told me to leave. What did you mean?”
Xie Tingyun continued stirring the fire.
“It means… the one who entrusted you is not human.”
Li Xuanyou mulled this over—but before insight arrived, he saw the mirror in Xie Tingyun’s hand flash gold. Assigned.
So this was a fellow worker.
Li Xuanyou sneered,
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll steal your business?”
Xie Tingyun blinked. He had truly not expected such a ridiculous idea.
“I thought we sword cultivators understood each other. Seems I overestimated it,” Li Xuanyou muttered, then promptly fell asleep.
A notification appeared.
Xie Tingyun glanced down—it was from Li Xuanyou.
[I met a kind person today!! She gave me lots of work and fed me delicious things! Her taste is bad, though—the sword cultivator beside her is average other than his face.]
Xie Tingyun, whose beauty was painfully average: “…”
Fine.
Some people could only learn through suffering.
He stopped trying to advise him.
Early the next morning, the other two also finished Yun Wan’s assignments. All that remained was to collect their payment. With so many orders to return, Yun Wan didn’t want to waste time, so she sent Li Xuanyou and Xie Tingyun to different locations—saving even more cost.
Their execution was superb; both returned before noon.
Yun Wan turned her back to them, squatted, and counted her earnings with careful delight.
Two bags of copper coins.
Five jade pieces.
Two hundred mid-grade spirit stones.
One hundred high-grade spirit stones.
Five hundred low-grade spirit stones.
All low- and mid-grade ones could be tempered into sword-casting stones and resold later.
A very profitable trip. Yun Wan was pleased.
She selected a jade piece and handed it to Li Xuanyou.
“Xiaoyou worked hard. This is for you.”
To Li Xuanyou, she shone like a celestial maiden descending from nine heavens.
“Girl, you are too polite!”
He tucked the jade away carefully, summoned his sword, and offered his hand.
“Come, I’ll take you flying.”
Yun Wan was about to place her hand in his when suddenly she was pulled into a strong embrace.
Startled, she looked up into Xie Tingyun’s stern brows.
“No need. My sword can carry people.”
His Peerless Sword appeared beneath their feet.
He held Yun Wan by the waist, lifted her easily, and as sword qi surged, they rose lightly into the air—ethereal and elegant.
Li Xuanyou stared blankly.
Then—the sword’s rental time expired. It vanished.
Both fell straight down.
Xie Tingyun regained footing midair and caught Yun Wan securely.
Facing the stunned pair, he spoke calmly, with immortal-like poise,
“Can your sword hold three people?”
“….”
Oh.
It was soft-rice, hard-to-eat jealousy.
Li Xuanyou coughed.
“My sword can only hold two… how about you—”
“Hm.”
Xie Tingyun tapped his shoulder.
“Get on.”
What?
Who rides what?
How?
Yun Wan, mind full of wrong ideas, didn’t sense danger, and before she knew it, she was on Xie Tingyun’s shoulders.
She yelped, grabbed his hair, and froze stiffly.
Ignoring the pain, Xie Tingyun held her ankles to steady her.
“I will cast a light spell on us. You won’t be injured across a thousand li.”
Li Xuanyou corrected helpfully,
“It’s called Million.”
“I know.”
You know?!
Li Xuanyou reluctantly stood at the head of the sword.
Xie Tingyun remained behind him, Yun Wan still perched atop his shoulders.
Million rose shakily into the sky.
Yun Wan clung to Xie Tingyun’s head, trembling.
“Can we… make the sword bigger?” she whispered.
In dramas, swords always had sword spirits. Enlarging should be easy… right?
Li Xuanyou laughed shyly.
“I… don’t have enough cultivation.”
If he could transform his sword, he would’ve already turned it into a ship to earn money.
Yun Wan tightened her grip silently.
The sword ascended into the clouds, everything a blur of white.
The wind stung her face; every wobble felt like death.
Just then, another sword body flew past—leaving behind an arrogant, provocative sword aura.
A voice drifted over the wind:
“Senior brother, they look so romantic~ I want to ride on your neck too~”
Romantic??
Her skull was about to blow off!
This was romance??
A boy’s soft reply followed,
“That sword is overloaded. Junior sister, let’s not imitate them.”
“Stop! Stop! I can’t!” Yun Wan’s lips quivered from the wind.
“Stop right here!”
Li Xuanyou immediately landed on a mountaintop.
Yun Wan staggered down from Xie Tingyun’s shoulders, hair in disarray, cheeks burning red.
She exhaled sharply.
“You should ride on my neck.”
If she flew like that again, she’d go bald.
She squatted and patted her shoulder.
“Come on. Ride me.”
Xie Tingyun: “…”
Li Xuanyou: “…”
This girl… so straightforward!!!
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