“Mm.” Su Yueli nodded.
Having just arrived in Qingzhou, she also wanted to go out and take a look around.
There wasn't much to pack in her room anyway. After putting down her only few sets of old undergarments, Su Yueli followed Tie Ling'er to the front yard to greet Tie Tu, and the two of them walked out the dojo gates.
Tie Tu merely watched them go without saying a word.
Outside, night had already fallen, but Qingzhou City had welcomed another kind of bustle instead.
Bright lanterns hung along both sides of the long street. The sounds of string and wind instruments drifted from restaurants and teahouses, while the cries of street vendors and the rumbling of carriage wheels intertwined, filling the great city's night market with a lively, bustling atmosphere.
Walking through the crowd, Su Yueli watched the street performers breathing fire and mothers holding their children's hands to buy sugar figures.
After twenty-five years of isolated, bitter cultivation on Black Wind Ridge, looking at this vibrant, mortal world gave her a surreal feeling, as if she were in another lifetime.
“Sister Yueli, we're almost there!”
Like a cheerful lark, Tie Ling'er pulled Su Yueli through the bustling crowd and arrived at a plaza.
In the center of the plaza stood a towering ancient tree.
The tree was lush and leafy, its branches draped with red silk ribbons fluttering in the wind. Illuminated by the surrounding lanterns, it looked like a vast red ocean.
Su Yueli glanced at it, immediately understanding what it was.
“Sister Yueli, this is the most famous Wishing Tree in our Qingzhou City.”
Tie Ling'er ran to a small stall beneath the tree, bought two red silks with wooden plaques attached, and handed one to Su Yueli. “They say that if you write your wish on the wooden plaque and hang it up high, once the wind blows, the heavens will see it, and your wish will come true!”
Su Yueli took the red silk, her thumb brushing over the wooden plaque as she smiled gently.
She didn't believe in such things.
If writing a few words on a wooden plaque could make the heavens answer, how could there be so many hardships in the world?
Cultivators stood high above, treating mortals like ants. If the heavens truly had eyes, her parents wouldn't have been murdered, Shen Qing'an wouldn't have frozen to death in a ruined temple, and her master wouldn't have inexplicably committed suicide.
Could it be that if she wrote 'Supreme Heavenly Bone' on this wooden plaque, this body, which completely lacked any Bone Talent, would somehow grow one out of thin air?
It was nothing more than ordinary mortals seeking a fleeting, illusory comfort in their desperate lives.
“I'm done writing!”
At that moment, Tie Ling'er finished writing with a brush in a few quick strokes. She blew on the wet ink, looking highly satisfied, and turned to look at Su Yueli. “Sister Yueli, what are you going to write?”
Su Yueli held the brush suspended in the air, but didn't put it down for a long time.
What was her wish?
She suddenly felt a bit lost.
Having transmigrated into this cultivation world where human life was as cheap as grass, her parents in this life had died, her only friend had died, and her master, who was like a father and grandfather to her, had also died.
Now, she didn't even have a single old friend left with whom she could share her true thoughts.
She carried a blood feud... but was revenge the entirety of her path through these endless years?
If there truly came a day when the vengeance was fulfilled and her enemies were all dead...
Where would she go in the endless river of time, carrying this monstrous, ageless body?
“What exactly is my Dao...?”
Su Yueli couldn't figure it out.
“Have you still not decided, Sister Yueli?”
Tie Ling'er leaned over, waving the red silk in her hand with a beaming smile. “Sister, you are the disciple of my father's life-and-death friend, which makes you my family from now on! I just wrote on my plaque that I hope my dad, Sister Yueli, and our family will...”
Before she could finish, a hand reached out and covered her mouth.
Su Yueli looked at the pure-eyed girl before her, a trace of softness appearing in her cool eyes.
“If you say it out loud, it won't come true,” Su Yueli said with a soft laugh.
Tie Ling'er's eyes widened, and she hurriedly nodded. Holding her own mouth with a deadpan, serious expression, she turned around, stood on her tiptoes, and hung her red silk on a branch.
Watching the red silk flutter in the wind, Su Yueli withdrew her gaze and looked down at her own hands, the confusion in her eyes gradually fading.
Since she had already stepped onto the martial path, and since she had already obtained longevity...
Cultivators stood high above, cutting off the path for mortals. In that case, she would forge a path of her own!
Su Yueli put brush to wood. Her wish was not some illusory immortal ascension, but to push this martial path—so often looked down upon as mere ants—to its absolute peak.
She wanted the rootless mortals of this world, when faced with the injustice and butcher's blades of immortals, to have the power to resist—even if they couldn't fly on flying swords, they would still have the strength to shatter a flying sword with a single punch!
Having finished writing, Su Yueli hung her red silk right next to Tie Ling'er's.
The two of them left the Wishing Tree. The surrounding air was filled with smoke and the mouthwatering aroma of meat skewers and osmanthus cakes.
Tie Ling'er bought snacks all along the way, like a child who had never known the taste of sorrow.
As they walked, Tie Ling'er's gaze landed on Su Yueli, her large eyes blinking.
“Sister Yueli, let's go get you a change of clothes.”
Su Yueli looked down at herself.
She had worn these coarse linen clothes for five years. Though they were washed clean, the cuffs and hem had long been torn in several places by mountain thorns.
On the streets of this prosperous Qingzhou City, it did indeed look excessively shabby and out of place.
“No need, these clothes are still wearable,” Su Yueli shook her head.
The main reason was that she didn't have a single copper coin on her; she was completely broke.
Tie Ling'er was very clever and saw through her embarrassment immediately.
“Oh, come on, let's go! The tailor shop ahead is very cheap. Just think of it as a welcoming gift from my dad! If you don't go, he'll definitely scold me for being a bad host when we get back!”
Without giving her a choice, Tie Ling'er grabbed Su Yueli's hand and dragged her into a shop with a sign that read 'Jinxiu Boutique'.
The shop was quite spacious and brightly lit.
It was filled with all kinds of ready-made garments, and a faint scent of incense drifted through the air.
On the left hung colorful, exquisitely embroidered silks and satins, mostly chest-high ruqun and wide-sleeved flowing fairy dresses worn by the daughters of wealthy families.
In the middle were the fine cotton and linen clothes commonly worn by ordinary folk, simple in style and mostly in cyan or plain white, exuding an elegant simplicity.
On the wooden rack to the right hung several outfits with cinched waists and tight sleeves.
Su Yueli's gaze immediately fell on the wooden rack to the right.
Wearing dresses was something she simply couldn't accept. She had long heard that for a girl, wearing a skirt felt practically like running around naked.
Although she now possessed a female body, she still couldn't fully accept this reality deep down.
She stood before the wooden rack for a long time, feeling a massive headache coming on.
The vast majority of the clothes were cumbersome dresses. Putting aside her personal aversion, if she actually had to fight someone in those things, even throwing a kick would be a struggle.
The moment she lifted her leg, her entire thigh would be exposed.
Seeing her hesitate, Tie Ling'er assumed she was just embarrassed about the cost, so she eagerly began rummaging through the racks herself.
Before long, she pulled out an outfit and handed it over.
“Sister Yueli, try this one! It'll definitely look great. Don't worry, the pocket money my dad gave me is more than enough!”
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