When I woke up, the entire cultivation world was talking about my master.

Before Chu Xianlan could say more to Yi Chen, the half-demon swarmed forward, their eyes fixed on the zither in the young man's arms.

"Where did this zither come from? How... how did this ancient artifact end up in your hands?"

Niu Shi also asked, "You're actually alright?"

The fact that a magical artifact that should have disappeared was in the hands of someone who should have disappeared as well is a scene that is really hard to explain.

The half-demons exchanged knowing glances. They were still unsure of what Chu Xianlan had done, but the magical artifacts were the lifeblood of the entire Peach Blossom Spring, and their current possession by outsiders made them uneasy.

Yi Chen's expression remained unchanged, but the hand on the sword hilt slowly tightened.

Sensing the slightly tense atmosphere, Chu Xianlan glanced down at her robes, narrowed her eyes, and raised an eyebrow, saying, "An ancient spiritual artifact?"

Is this for real? This broken violin?

...How could that be? That's amazing.

"You..." Ma Mian moved his lips, "You don't know this is an ancient magical artifact?"

Chu Xianlan genuinely didn't know anything about this, and honestly replied, "I don't know."

Seeing their terrified expressions, as if facing a formidable enemy, he thought there seemed to be some story behind the origin of this guqin. Fearing it might cause an inexplicable misunderstanding, he simply shoved the guqin into Niu Dice's hand and said, "Take it."

"ah!?"

Niu Dice had never touched such a treasure in his life. He frantically tried to hold it, almost dropping the ill-fated zither on the ground, and nearly died of fright.

The half-demons hadn't expected things to turn out this way, and their vigilance turned to bewilderment. But when they turned around to ask Chu Xianlan where she was, they were shocked to find out.

The world spun around him, and before he could even regain his footing, Chu Xianlan was swept from head to toe by Yi Chen's spiritual power. After confirming that his disciple was unharmed, Yi Chen bent down and embraced him almost without hesitation.

As the familiar, icy aura enveloped her, Chu Xianlan could feel her master's hand pressing down on her lower back, while the other hand rested on the back of her neck, fingertips piercing her hair, palm against her skin.

Perhaps it was the instinct of snakes to coil around each other that caused them to adopt a heavy posture that made it impossible to break free when they embraced.

Such tension and worry seemed a bit strange coming from Yi Chen. Chu Xianlan was still being held, neither pulling away nor pushing him away, but she was gradually beginning to understand something—

He thought, "My master is not the same as before."

When immortals are touched by emotions, they are no longer unattainable phantoms, but reveal an unprecedented side of themselves.

Moreover, these changes were initiated by him.

In the past, Chu Xianlan would feel ashamed and guilty for desecrating things, but now he is slowly able to accept it calmly.

I even felt for no reason that... this wasn't so bad.

It's no longer a one-sided worship and following by the disciple, or a cautious admiration and speculation. After all, the master needs him very much now, right?

Unbeknownst to him, the shadow of fear of being abandoned in the boy's heart quietly faded away, because someone was teaching him the feeling of being cherished and loved in an equal way, and he was no longer a young beast lacking security.

"Master, I'm not injured."

Chu Xianlan raised her hand and embraced Yi Chen's body, her voice gentle and soothing.

"Um."

After she finished speaking, she was hugged even tighter.

The boy was warm all over, and the warmth intensified when he took the initiative to approach. His dry yet fragrant scent was natural. Yi Chen gently stroked the soft strands of hair on his fingertips, and then let go of him.

He asked, "What happened?"

After that, Chu Xianlan explained her strange encounter underground from beginning to end.

The terrifying-looking monster seemed to be something like an altar guardian spirit. It showed no malice and behaved like a silly, dazed child, living alone in a town made of sand and stone.

After the guqin reappeared, Chu Xianlan realized the monster's intentions and could only helplessly touch the broken strings again, pretending to play the guqin like Yin Xiu.

But the monster was not satisfied.

It stammered and couldn't utter a complete sentence, but it looked very anxious.

Chu Xianlan made a bold guess: was it possible that the monster's goal wasn't to make her play the zither... but rather to make her repair it?

That's easy.

He's not good at playing the piano, but he's good at repairing them.

So Chu Xianlan quickly removed all the broken strings and, with a wave of his hand, offered a free one-stop service: cleaning, polishing, repainting, and stringing. After the series of renovations, he felt as if he had seen this instrument somewhere before.

But I couldn't remember it for a moment.

Once the task was completed, Chu Xianlan casually plucked a string to test the sound, and was instantly sent back to the altar. At the same time, the monster disappeared without a trace.

"Is what you're saying true?" the half-demon leader asked incredulously.

Chu Xianlan nodded.

The half-demons looked at each other speechlessly upon hearing this.

He had lived in Peach Blossom Spring for so long and had never heard of any monsters beneath the altar. The other half-demons were completely baffled.

However, the half-demons witnessed Chu Xianlan being captured by the mechanical puppets and knew that the boy had no need to fabricate a story.

The existence of Peach Blossom Spring can be traced back to a thousand years ago. The events of that thousand years have long been blurred and difficult to discern. They also only have a vague understanding of the deeper secrets of Peach Blossom Spring.

Although the cultivation world often talks about "millennial inheritance" and "millennial magic treasures," in reality, there are very few cultivators with a lifespan of a thousand years.

Almost no one in the world knows exactly what happened a thousand years ago.

Such a time dimension is far too long even for cultivators. To this day, there are only two thousand-year-old ghosts known to the world—the Pointing Moon Immortal and the Three Phases Venerable.

The former is elusive and unpredictable, with a rather eccentric personality. Although he is in charge of the Taiyi Sect, a major immortal sect, he is merely a figurehead sect leader, and Pei Fang'an handles all the affairs of the Taiyi Sect.

The latter has been in seclusion in the imperial city for many years, rarely appearing in public. As the pillar of the Southern Cang royal family, the Three Phases Venerable is an even more mysterious figure than the Pointing Moon Immortal.

The half-demons were temporarily unsure of the subterranean monster that Xianlan had mentioned, and their most pressing task was to resolve the immediate crisis facing Peach Blossom Spring.

"Is that zither really an ancient spiritual artifact? Could there be a mistake?" Chu Xianlan paused, voicing her doubts. "If it's a spiritual artifact, how come there isn't even a trace of spiritual energy fluctuation?"

Because I didn't feel there was anything special about it, I went through the same process as repairing ordinary objects.

The team leader sighed, "Perhaps something went wrong."

Not far away, the half-demon weapon cultivators were fiddling with the ancient zither.

Chu Xianlan thought for a moment, then went over to join in the fun. All sorts of blueprints were spread out on the ground, and several artifact crafters were lying on the ground, gesturing and arguing with the blueprints and the guqin, as if the situation was very complicated.

One of the artifact cultivators was scratching his head frantically, truly at his wit's end. Seeing Chu Xianlan approaching, he narrowed his eyes and asked:

"You didn't break the ancient magical artifact, did you?"

Chu Xianlan refused to take the blame and rolled her eyes inwardly, "It was already like this when I got it."

After all, the magical artifact malfunctioned even before he entered the forbidden area, so no matter how you try to shift the blame, you can't pin it on him.

The repairman stood up and sighed, "The Frost Heaven Harp is damaged far too thoroughly. These blueprints aren't complete enough; I need to go back and look for them again."

Chu Xianlan picked up the blueprints from the ground and looked at them.

It looks familiar.

...It seems like I've seen it somewhere before.

As the half-demon artifact refiner was about to turn and leave, he heard a voice behind him, "The Frost Heaven Harp, one of the four ancient spiritual artifacts—is this the one you're talking about?"