Six Jiang Fusheng was taken away by Daoist Zhiyang. Wumei Mountain was a floating peak that required flying swords to reach from the ground, a place that outer disciples and laborers on the lower peak looked up to with envy and longing.
Gu Junshi was now being led to the lower peak to arrange accommodation and await the assignment of miscellaneous tasks.
At the foot of the mountain, there were rows of houses built around green bamboo and clear water. The pillars of each row were connected horizontally by crossbeams that passed through them. The outer disciples and laborers numbered just over a hundred, ensuring that each person had their own single room.
The one who led her to the laborers' quarters was a female outer disciple named Xiao Yuan. She had a miscellaneous spirit root and had entered the sect at seven. Ten years had passed, and she still hadn't established her foundation, which was the common state for outer disciples struggling to advance.
After learning about Gu Junshi and her husband, the one with the heavenly spirit root, Xiao Yuan felt a great deal of sympathy for her. She chatted enthusiastically with Gu Junshi along the way. Although Gu Junshi wasn't an outgoing person, she was polite and not arrogant, occasionally responding to keep the conversation flowing.
Xiao Yuan told her about the Great Evolution Sect and the life of a laborer that she was about to begin.
The laborer tasks in the Great Evolution Sect were not complicated. In essence, any chore that inner disciples were unwilling to do fell to the outer disciples, and any chore that outer disciples were unwilling to do fell to the servants.
Of course, laborers did not work for free. They received sect points based on the simplicity of the assigned tasks. Considering that laborers were generally those with pseudo-spirit roots, which were worse than miscellaneous spirit roots, the tasks were usually not difficult and mostly involved hard labor. Therefore, their monthly points were meager, only enough to exchange for some daily necessities.
After explaining some basic sect matters, Xiao Yuan felt that she had gotten to know Gu Yi. She directly asked, "Gu Yi, do you still want to persevere?"
Laborers also had nameplates inscribed with information such as their names and ages for reference.
"Persevere?"
"Regarding you and Uncle-Master Fusheng, to be honest… you were quite compatible when you were both mortals. But now it's different. The cultivation world doesn't speak of favors, only strength and cultivation. You…"
She hesitated to speak further. She liked the steady and patient Gu Yi and didn't want her to harbor unrealistic hopes.
Gu Junshi understood her meaning. Her wasted spirit root was even worse than a pseudo-spirit root, meaning she wasn't even qualified to be a laborer in the Great Evolution Sect.
But if one were to talk about strength and cultivation…
Gu Junshi smiled lightly and said in a soft, indifferent tone, "I will not abandon him for now."
Xiao Yuan was stunned. She still said she wouldn't abandon him… these were just face-saving words, she thought. It wasn't certain who would abandon whom.
Not wanting to upset her, Xiao Yuan followed her lead and advised, "If you truly cannot bear to part with your young husband, then you must hold onto him tightly while you are still young and beautiful. I heard that Uncle-Master dared to defy convention and defend you in front of the Sect Leader, so their feelings must still be there. If you move him a bit more, your entire life is truly nothing compared to him. He will only guard you for these fleeting decades. With him, you won't have to spend your entire life as a weary laborer on the lower peak."
She didn't know that Gu Junshi's face was also branded with a soul-locking curse.
In the past, Gu Junshi only had subordinates who obeyed her implicitly. She never had close friends or companions. Thus, this was the first time she had heard someone timidly advise her to use her charm to keep a man.
She found it amusing, "Move him?"
Xiao Yuan nodded, clenching her fist, "Yes, make him fall deeply in love with you!"
Gu Junshi pondered for a moment and said slowly, "Whether he loves me or not is of little importance. But tell me, how does one make someone fall in love?"
She was unable to feel emotions, and if she waited until her cultivation reached the peak of Tribulation Crossing again, would she have to start all over?
Xiao Yuan thought she was asking how to make Uncle-Master Fusheng love her more. To help her, Xiao Yuan decided to selflessly share the contents of various melodramatic romance novels she had read in her spare time, combining them into a set of effective flirting techniques to teach her.
"Ayi…"
Gu Junshi said, "Call me Junshi."
Xiao Yuan paused and muttered, "Junshi? That's quite a domineering name."
"Go on."
"Oh, yes, the first rule—it must involve torment!"
"Hmm?"
"You have to make him heartbroken for you! Heartbreak lasts longer than attraction, just as hatred is deeper than love."
To be honest, Gu Junshi had killed her little husband so many times, but not once had she felt heartbroken.
"Then how does one make someone feel heartbroken?" she asked humbly for advice.
"It's about torment."
Once the topic came up, the seasoned bookworm Xiao Yuan became eloquent, "For example, you become blind while saving him, but another woman swoops in and takes your place. He doesn't listen to your explanation and continues to hate and hurt you due to misunderstanding, tormenting you relentlessly."
"Of course, the most agonizing part would be if you caught him being intimate with that deceitful woman, hugging and kissing. Then you would be heartbroken and decide to leave him. However, you get framed and disfigured by that wicked woman, fall off a cliff, and your fate is unknown. He finally learns the whole truth and deeply regrets his actions, his heart aching with pain."
"Think about it, if you then return with amnesia, and he sees what he has done to you, wouldn't he then be irrevocably yours, devoted to you forever!"
Gu Junshi had never read such old-fashioned, melodramatic romance novels, so she listened with surprise.
"The torment you speak of, does it mean one must first become blind, disfigured, fall off a cliff, and become disabled before one can elicit a moment of regret and guilt from the other person? Do you think the price paid and the result achieved are worth it?"
As a merchant adept at calculating gains and losses, she couldn't comprehend whether this method of torment was meant to torment herself or the other person.
Uh, after hearing her rational analysis, Xiao Yuan also felt that solidifying a relationship through self-harm seemed rather unprofitable.
"Then how about a sweet romance? Even a cold-hearted immortal lord can't resist this: an accidental pregnancy after a night of passion, then you run away with his child. Years later, you return powerfully transformed, with a cute little baby by your side. At that point, he'll be at your beck and call!"
Gu Junshi: "…"
She tried to imagine herself and her little husband in that scenario. This sweet romance seemed easier to execute, but he simply didn't have the function to carry a child, so how could she run away with one?
---
On Wumei Mountain, clouds swirled, creating a celestial landscape. Atop the peaks, winds blew and clouds dispersed – a paradise invisible to the mortal world.
Daoist Zhiyang received a summons from the Sect Leader midway. He could only entrust Six Jiang Fusheng to his sixth disciple, Chang E, a female disciple in the late stage of Foundation Establishment.
The senior sister was curious about this junior brother with the heavenly spirit root and asked him, "What are your plans with your wife now?"
Six Jiang Fusheng was in a foul mood and didn't want to bother anyone. However, he wanted someone to confide in. "My cultivation is for her. I will not separate from her."
Good heavens, what divine love was this!
The senior sister, having just developed a crush on Senior Brother Danya of Jiuntun Mountain, felt a sense of shared plight upon hearing this.
They were both destined to suffer greatly in love.
Her eyes welled up with tears, "Junior brother, senior sister supports you!"
Six Jiang Fusheng glanced at her. She seemed simple-minded. He hesitated and then asked, "Senior sister, do you know how to get revenge on a faithless person to make her regret it?"
He thought women might understand women's weaknesses better.
The senior sister, who basically liked the same type of melodramatic books as the female disciples outside, naturally assumed the faithless person was a man and replied without thinking, "Torment him! A faithless person always has a mistress creating misunderstandings. Therefore, the betrayed person must first go blind for him, be disfigured for him, fall off a cliff for him, and do everything to move him. And from the moment he realizes the truth and falls in love with her…" The senior sister chuckled sinisterly, "His hell begins…"