“Demoness! She’s a demoness!” Yun Shushou and the people under the Wine Immortal pointed at Yun Shushou with terrified faces, then quickly fled.
The Wine Immortal, still shaken, looked at the stairs, one after another, before him. He raised a hand to his chest and stroked it, along with his white beard.
“Imperial Daughter, I told you I didn’t want it anymore?”
When the Wine Immortal recovered, he noticed the commotion below and the waiter Yun Shushou had thrown against the wall, unable to get up.
“Do you want to roll down from here?”
Yun Shushou followed the Wine Immortal’s gaze, saw the people running out below and the waiter she had thrown aside. Yun Shushou calmed down, realizing she had caused trouble.
However, when Yun Shushou’s gaze shifted to the unharmed Wine Immortal beside her, her posture immediately became relaxed again.
“This…” The Wine Immortal was speechless. He truly did not want to fall from here.
The Wine Immortal bowed slightly to Yun Shushou with a helpless gesture, “Little Immortal thanks Imperial Daughter.”
“That’s enough, you know why I’m here,” Yun Shushou said, turning her head and touching her nose, looking somewhat uneasy.
The Wine Immortal’s thick white eyebrows furrowed. He didn’t know what this little Imperial Daughter was thinking, nor whether he should tell her.
After a few seconds, the Wine Immortal tentatively asked, “Are you asking about Zhaoxue’s whereabouts?”
“Mm.” Yun Shushou’s voice was small, with a heavy nasal tone.
During the ten thousand years Yun Shushou spent secretly watching Zhaoxue, she had encountered the Wine Immortal, who often played chess with Zhaoxue.
At that time, the Wine Immortal casually tossed his wine gourd, which contained no wine, behind him, hitting Yun Shushou, who was hiding behind a tree.
Yun Shushou cried out in surprise, revealing herself and meeting the Wine Immortal’s distant gaze.
With Yun Shushou’s repeated insistence, the Wine Immortal agreed to keep Yun Shushou’s secret in exchange for the good wine she mentioned.
However, the Wine Immortal assumed Yun Shushou would only come to secretly watch Zhaoxue every few days. Whether Yun Shushou was coming to “plot” against Zhaoxue or to “secretly admire” him, he thought she might have already forgotten this nameless immortal, Zhaoxue.
The Wine Immortal had never imagined that Yun Shushou would fall so deeply in love with Zhaoxue. Not only did she come every few days, but sometimes she would wait by Zhaoxue’s door-front tree less than an hour apart on the same day.
“He went to the Fiery Body Abyss.”
“Fiery Body Abyss,” Yun Shushou murmured to herself, her expression tightening. Without further thought, she turned and left.
“Hey, Imperial Daughter, are you going to find Zhaoxue? Please bring him back,” the Wine Immortal had drunk a very potent wine today, and in his carelessness, he found Yun Shushou had already reached the downstairs.
Yun Shushou ignored the Wine Immortal behind her, her footsteps quickening.
The waiter who had fainted earlier had just woken up and saw Yun Shushou’s ghost-like movements before him. He was greatly alarmed, and in his nervousness, he fainted again.
As soon as she exited the wine house, Yun Shushou floated into the sky, transforming into a phoenix, and flew towards the far north under the full moon.
The Wine Immortal watched the direction Yun Shushou had departed. Due to the effects of the wine, he felt groggy, always feeling that he had forgotten to tell Yun Shushou a very important point.
The Nine Heavens were separated from the far north by one hundred and eighty thousand li. Yun Shushou, thinking of Zhaoxue, would surely find a place in the mortal realm to stay overnight on his journey.
Thus, after flying for a day and a night, Yun Shushou, convinced she had caught up to Zhaoxue, rested at an inn, waiting for him.
However, as days passed, Yun Shushou felt no trace of Zhaoxue’s spiritual energy. By the third day, Yun Shushou became thoroughly anxious.
Why hadn’t Zhaoxue arrived yet?
Had something happened on the road?
Yun Shushou stood by the doorway, gazing into the distance. A waiter approached, “Miss, you haven’t paid for today’s room yet.”
Yun Shushou frowned, not giving the waiter a glance, her eyes still fixed on the distance.
“Miss.” The waiter, thinking Yun Shushou hadn’t heard him, called out to her again.
Yun Shushou, without much thought, impatiently flicked her wrist and produced a gold ingot, placing it in the waiter’s hand.
“Miss, this is too much. You only need to pay with copper coins.” It was evident that this waiter had high emotional intelligence. He carefully avoided mentioning that the gold ingot was fake, giving Yun Shushou plenty of leeway.
However, Yun Shushou at this moment couldn’t see the hint. Her eyes were only on the vast expanse in the distance.
“No need for change,” Yun Shushou waved her hand dismissively, about to walk forward to search for Zhaoxue’s trace.
The waiter, not having received the payment, naturally wouldn’t let Yun Shushou leave.
The waiter grabbed Yun Shushou’s sleeve. Yun Shushou instinctively unleashed fire, and the waiter burned his hand.
“Who exactly are you? What underhanded trick did you play on me?” The waiter lowered his gaze to his blistered hand, then looked up and angrily accused Yun Shushou.
Annoyed, Yun Shushou directly transformed into a green bird and flew away, heading back the way she came.
The waiter was so frightened by this sight that he fell to the ground. He stared dazedly at the phoenix flying further and further away, his heart still pounding.
The innkeeper, seeing that the waiter had been gone for so long without returning, walked out with a grim expression to check the situation. As soon as he stepped outside, he saw the waiter lying on the ground, propping himself up with his hands, looking up at the sky.
Seeing that Yun Shushou was no longer near the waiter, the innkeeper guessed what might have happened and angrily walked up to him, “Did you get the money?”
The waiter subconsciously nodded, his attention still fixed on the receding phoenix.
A hint of surprise flashed across the innkeeper’s face.
“Innkeeper, have you ever seen a phoenix?”
The innkeeper squinted, looking the waiter up and down, wondering if the man had gone mad. “Of course I have. My second uncle has a wooden carving of a phoenix. What, do you want to see it?”
“As long as you work hard, let alone a phoenix, even a flood dragon…” The innkeeper eyed the waiter, tucking his hands into the sleeves of his other arm, and began to make grand promises.
“Innkeeper, I saw a live phoenix.”
“What, you want to see a live phoenix? That’s a piece of cake… No, what nonsense are you spouting?”
The innkeeper’s brow furrowed, becoming tighter and tighter.
At this moment, he had already decided on a reason to dismiss this waiter and how to completely distance his inn from the waiter’s supposed madness.
Meanwhile, Yun Shushou, having returned, had been searching for Mu Qi’s whereabouts in the mortal realm.
Immortals could also get injured. Besides the Nine Heavens, there were no other good places in the celestial realm. Therefore, if Zhaoxue needed to rest and recuperate, he would surely find a quiet place in the mortal world.