Chapter 51

Chapter 51: Learning the Tea Arts

Two days later, the caravan reached the boundary of the Limitless Sect.

Bai Meng Xing climbed down from the carriage and stared at the vast expanse of mist and rippling water. He blinked, genuinely confused. “Aren’t we going to Limitless Mountain? Why does it look like the sea?”

“It’s not the sea,” someone answered coolly. “It’s a marsh.”

Bai Meng Lian seized the moment to scold him properly. “South of Limitless Mountain is a massive marsh called Cloudmist. If you’d paid attention in school, you wouldn’t be asking something this stupid. When we get back, you’re reciting the sect records.”

Bai Meng Xing’s shoulders drooped. “Oh…”

Cloudmist Marsh was bustling. Docks crowded the shore. Boats came and went like migrating birds, and inns and shops lined the water’s edge. Disciples in sect robes moved through it all, and for a moment it almost felt like an ordinary town—just one where the air carried a thin, clean pressure of spiritual qi.

As soon as the caravan arrived, someone came to receive them.

A delicate, luxurious ship eased up to the pier, its hull gleaming. The boatman hurried to lay down the gangplank.

Young Sect Master Ling didn’t even bother stepping out of the carriage first. He went straight aboard.

Only once the ship pulled away from the dock did Ling Bu Fei finally speak. “Want to go out and look around?”

Bai Meng Jin, half-buried in a pile of books, lifted her head and glanced at him.

[Oh? After two days, he finally stopped sulking?]

She still didn’t know what she’d done to offend him that night. Afterward, even when he’d invited her to ride with him, his tone had stayed cold and distant, as if speaking to her cost him effort.

Bai Meng Jin wasn’t the sort to coax anyone. If he didn’t speak, she simply minded her own business.

So Young Sect Master Ling wasted two full days being angry, and then—without anyone asking—soothed himself and decided the matter was finished.

“Sure,” Bai Meng Jin said easily.

If he was offering a way down, she might as well take it.

Ling Bu Fei let out a quiet breath and climbed down from the carriage to the deck.

Sunlight scattered across Cloudmist Marsh in glittering shards. The water breathed under the mist, and beyond it, Limitless Mountain rose like a single perfect brushstroke from a heavenly painter—clean, distant, and impossibly calm.

Bai Meng Xing whooped and pointed at the tiny specks darting across the sky. “What are those? Are they fishing?”

Ling Bu Fei leaned on the railing and answered without looking impressed. “Disciples clearing out water beasts. Calling it fishing isn’t exactly wrong.”

Bai Meng Xing yelped and leaned farther over, as if he could see through mist and water with sheer terror. “There are water beasts down there?”

“Of course.” Ling Bu Fei sounded almost amused. “Living off the mountain when you’re by the mountain, living off the water when you’re by the water. Half the meals in the Limitless Sect are seafood.”

Bai Meng Xing’s face went green. “Don’t tell me we’ll have to fish too.”

Ling Bu Fei nodded as if it were a matter of course. “If I remember right, the Steward Hall assigns disciples to take turns hunting beasts.”

Bai Meng Xing looked like his soul had been ripped out of his body.

Disciples of an immortal sect—moonlighting as fishermen?

His dream of floating around on a sword in elegant robes shattered on the spot.

Ling Bu Fei’s gaze swept over him, assessing. “The first step of joining an immortal sect is grinding off your bad habits. This place isn’t here so you can freeload.”

It was a fair point. Coming from a spoiled sect heir full of bad habits, it was also a little funny.

Bai Meng Jin turned her face away, a smile tugging at her mouth.

Ling Bu Fei caught it immediately. “What are you laughing at?”

Bai Meng Jin didn’t answer. That only made him snort. “When I was little, I got up at cockcrow and went to bed in the middle of the night too, all right?”

Bai Meng Jin looked genuinely curious. “If you got up that early, what did you do every day?”

“Attend lessons,” Ling Bu Fei said, as if it were the most tragic thing in the world.

Then, as if remembering, his expression darkened in exaggerated misery. “Martial Grandaunt said that even if I couldn’t cultivate, as the Young Sect Master I couldn’t be ignorant about everything. So whatever classes everyone else took, I took too.”

“Martial Grandaunt?” Bai Meng Jin frowned. Venerable Ku Mu was his martial great-uncle—so who was this Martial Grandaunt supposed to be?

Ling Bu Fei started to explain, almost against his will. “Martial Grandaunt is my maternal grandfather’s senior sister—”

Before he could finish, a commotion rose ahead.

Two neat lines of disciples rode spirit beasts out from the direction of Limitless Mountain. They formed ranks with practiced precision and shouted in unison, voices ringing across water and mist:

“We welcome the Young Sect Master back to the mountain!”

The display was grand enough to shake an ordinary person’s heart.

Under Bai Meng Jin’s startled gaze, however, Young Sect Master Ling suddenly looked like he wanted to disappear into the marsh and never return.

*