Duan Yuxian

The True Martial Great Hall. Nestled amidst the undulating peaks of Mount Wudang, the True Martial Great Hall was a renowned tourist attraction. It took an hour and a half to drive there from the city center, and an endless stream of tourists visited every year to burn incense and pray for blessings. Its thriving incense offerings drove the development of the surrounding local economy. Some tourists plagued by evil spirits had come with the mindset of giving it a shot, only to find the malevolent entities completely dispelled. Some tourists beset by constant misfortune queued up before dawn to burn the very first incense sticks at the True Martial Great Hall, and miraculously, everything went smoothly for them thereafter. However, whenever such tales were posted online, the official account of the Mount Wudang Scenic Area would always reply in the comment sections, urging everyone to burn incense rationally and reject feudal superstition. Little did the tourists know that the True Martial Great Hall they revered like a deity was merely an outer gate meant to pacify mortals. The true Great Hall was encircled by layers of a sect-protecting grand array. Even if drones flew overhead to film, they captured nothing but mountain scenery; without knowing the secret method, an ordinary person could never step foot inside in an entire lifetime. Within the inner gate of the True Martial Great Hall, the scenery was picturesque. Pavilions and towers nestled against the mountains and along the water. Every single roof tile was exquisite and had a history of at least five hundred years. Cut off from the outside world, time seemed to stand still here. At the edge of the inner gate, from within an ancient-styled building, the furious cursing of Duan Yuxian—the True Martial Great Hall's most outstanding disciple—rang out. "It's not that I suck! My internet connection here just sucks!" Duan Yuxian sprawled halfway across a hard wooden bed playing a mobile game, her slender, fair calves dangling haphazardly over the edge in complete disregard for propriety. The ping indicator in the upper-right corner of her screen flickered between red and yellow, making her grit her teeth in fury as she used a voice changer to passionately trade insults with her teammates. Her natural voice was melodious and soft; even when swearing at someone, it sounded gentle and sweet, making it impossible to get angry at her. Without a voice changer, it would easily turn into her teammates begging her to scold them more. "Defeat." Duan Yuxian tossed her phone aside in vexation, harboring deep resentment toward her stubbornly obstinate master, the Hall Master. The sect-protecting grand array was certainly impressive—passed down through millennia and perfected by generations of great sages, it was practically flawless and could withstand attacks even from great Creation realm cultivators. Precisely because of this, the Hall Master of the True Martial Great Hall believed the grand array must not be altered, repeatedly rejecting Duan Yuxian's pleas to run an ethernet cable inside. The phone she had tossed into the corner chimed with a special notification tone. Duan Yuxian hooked a finger, and the phone floated unsteadily back to her hand. Seeing that the message came from Su Tingxue, she was instantly amused. "She's actually messaging me first?" Su Tingxue soon received her reply: "Are you serious?" Duan Yuxian had always wanted to spar with Su Tingxue. In her eyes, only Su Tingxue among the younger generation was worthy of being her rival. Unfortunately, Su Tingxue had never shown much interest, only reluctantly going through the motions a few times, which left Duan Yuxian thoroughly unsatisfied. Her fingers flew across the screen as she sent another line: "Just to be clear, you don't mean an in-game duel arena or an Honor of Kings ranked match, right?" "...Do you take me for you? I'm serious." Duan Yuxian: "Why the sudden urge to fight me? That doesn't sound like you. Did you finally realize the point of immortal cultivation isn't wellness and preservation, but combat?" Su Tingxue couldn't be bothered to explain. "Never mind all that. Are you fighting or not?" "Yes, of course I am!" Duan Yuxian agreed at once. Opportunities for a fight knocking on her door were rare; usually, she was the one challenging others. Su Tingxue: "I have one condition, though. The outcome of the battle must be made public." Duan Yuxian: "?" What was that about? Su Tingxue: "Agree to this condition and I'll fight you." Overflowing with confidence in her own prowess, Duan Yuxian typed: "Deal." Duan Yuxian: "Spill the beans, what are you plotting? I promise I won't tell anyone." Su Tingxue went offline. Duan Yuxian: "Hey, don't run! We haven't even settled on the time or place!" Su Tingxue (Offline): "A week from now. Come find me in Chang'an." Su Tingxue's talisman arts were on the verge of a breakthrough, which she estimated would happen within a week. She was studying talisman arts specifically to deal with Nuomi, so practicing on Duan Yuxian first would serve as good preparation. Duan Yuxian gnashed her teeth. "You haven't logged off at all! You're faking offline status to deceive me, aren't you?!" Duan Yuxian waited a long time for a response, but no new messages popped up. "Did she really log off?" Duan Yuxian hurriedly typed: "Wait, I have something to ask. Fighting in a week is fine, but can you send another message saying: 'Three days from now, come find me in Chang'an'?" Su Tingxue (Offline): "Why?" Duan Yuxian: "Mind your own business." Su Tingxue (Offline): "Fine." ... The next morning, after finishing his morning scriptures, the Hall Master of the True Martial Great Hall walked out of the main hall, Taiyue Palace, and ran into Duan Yuxian, who had been waiting outside for a long time. The Hall Master was a middle-aged man with a slender beard and phoenix eyes. Dressed in a Daoist robe emblazoned with a Taiji yin-yang diagram on the back, he was widely praised throughout the cultivation world for his celestial demeanor. "Yuxian? What are you doing here?" The Hall Master was surprised. Duan Yuxian rarely sought him out on her own initiative. Could she be trying to leave the True Martial Great Hall ahead of time again? "Master, I need to make a trip to Chang'an." "Chang'an? The school semester hasn't started yet, has it?" Duan Yuxian was the same age as Su Tingxue, but had started school a year earlier and was accepted into Chang'an University through the college entrance examinations—all for the convenience of seeking out Su Tingxue. Currently, it was summer vacation, and the Hall Master had forcibly kept her cultivating within the True Martial Great Hall the entire time. In the Hall Master's opinion, there was no need for Duan Yuxian to attend university; she should just stay and cultivate in the True Martial Great Hall. "If you ask me, there is no need for you to attend college. Why not do as we did back in my day and simply buy yourself an official title with money?" *No wonder Master got played by the Sect Master of Mount Kunlun,* Duan Yuxian thought to herself. *That Sect Master hypes himself up on the forum every day as the Number One Under Heaven, while Master can only suffer in silence.* Between laughter and tears, she explained, "Master, times have changed." The Hall Master looked astonished. "Do they no longer accept gold for bribes these days?" "..." Sensibly dodging the subject, Duan Yuxian offered a placating smile, pulled out her phone, and opened her chat history with Su Tingxue. "Master, Su Tingxue challenged me to a duel three days from now in Chang'an. Since my university is in Chang'an anyway, this works out perfectly for me to head over early. I won't be coming back." The Hall Master scrolled through the chat history and found nothing amiss. "A battle? That is a good thing. Go on, then." Duan Yuxian felt smug. She had deleted her discussion with Su Tingxue beforehand, and with her master's rudimentary grasp of smartphones, he would never suspect such a thing was possible. "If only she had scheduled the duel two days later, you could have cultivated in the mountains for two more days," the Hall Master remarked regretfully, surprised that Su Tingxue was so impatient, demanding a battle right away. *Like hell I'm staying in these mountains,* Duan Yuxian thought. *No electricity, no internet—it's hardly a place for humans to live. Leaving even a day earlier is a win.* She hurried back to her room. Her suitcase had already been packed in advance, her sword tucked into a guitar bag, and her high-speed rail ticket bought. She was ready to leave immediately. At the outer gate of the True Martial Great Hall, crowds surged. These were all tourists vying to burn the first incense sticks. They had been waiting at the mountain gate since the early hours before dawn, sitting on rocks or squatting on the ground, oblivious to the morning dew soaking their shoulders. Faintly, they heard a commotion from behind the gate. "Martial Uncle, we can't open the gates yet! It's not time!" "If I don't open the gates, I'll miss my high-speed train!" The heavy gate was pushed open from within, somewhat earlier than the usual opening time. Mist billowed out from inside as the doors swung open, rolling forth like something from an immortal realm. A young girl pulling a suitcase and slinging a guitar bag over her shoulder stood at the threshold. Daoist Qianyuan, hailed by those at the foot of the mountain as an old immortal, came hurrying up from behind to stop her from opening the gate, but arrived a step too late. The girl wore a white sun hat that obscured her face, yet every contour of her skin radiated youthful vitality, evoking thoughts of everything lovely and bright in the world. "Chang'an, here I come!" Before the tourists' eyes, the world blurred. The girl vanished into thin air amidst the mist, leaving not a trace behind, as though she were nothing more than an illusion. The tourists were now even more convinced that true immortals dwelt within the True Martial Great Hall.