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Chapter 2: Longing


The senior sister took A Lian to the arranged accommodation.

The Ninth Heavenly Pavilion treated all new disciples in the same stringent manner. Newly entered disciples, no matter what background, had no right to live alone in a house, and so most of them were divided between the rooms in groups of four. However, someday, she would become a senior sister of the Ninth Heavenly Pavilion, and naturally, there would be no need to worry about this type of treatment, and she could live on the Island of Immortals alone.

Dongze Lake was relatively far from the Ninth Heavenly Pavilion, causing A Lian to arrive late. When she arrived, the three other roommates had already been living there for three days.

The senior sister lead A Lian inside, and soon afterwards the three girls residing in the place, politely greeted her. They looked as though they would be easy to get along with. However, after the senior sister left, except for a slightly darker-skinned timid young girl, the other two tall and exquisite ones held back a smile.

The one wearing a dark green dress, indifferently glanced at her then opened her mouth to speak, “So late, I even thought it would be someone divine, but it turned out to simply be a bighead carp.”

The family of silver carps[1] thoroughly did not like the nickname ‘bighead’. But A Lian had a good temperament. Besides, when she was around an excited A Pang, she did not stop excessively calling her ‘bighead’, so A Lian did not take it to heart.

Generally, A Lian’s appearance seemed like someone who was easily bullied, but contrary to expectations, the two girls were not interested in bullying and quickly glanced at her before leaving.  A Lian slowly leaned to the side to look at those two people’s silhouettes, with naturally graceful and gently wavering postures of incomparable beauty, one could see right away that she, a silver carp from a little lake was unlike their kind.

These two people were difficult to get along with. The young round-faced girl who was shorter than A Lian, greeted her with a wary look.

The young girl was named Tian Luo, she was a river snail with four hundred years of cultivation. Tian Luo grew up in a pond, but as for the two with arrogant postures, they came from the East Sea—one of the most high-end aquatic places. Although they were all aquatic types, the environment in which they grew, decided the level of status; it was no wonder that those two people did not want to talk to her.

Knowing that A Lian was from Dongze Lake, and also looked easy to get along with, Tian Luo turned towards the wronged, with big watery eyes, and complained, “Clearly we are all aquatic types, but these girls from the sea always look down on us from lake neighborhoods….”

Looking at Tian Luo’s appearance, it could be assumed that for several days she had suffered at the hands of the sea clan women’s bullying.

A Lian, although she looked foolish, did not have a muddled brain. Eh, but how can those from the lake or pond, be allowed to come anywhere near the vast and mysterious sea? Furthermore, this East Sea was a land worth an inch of gold[2], and also produced numerous famous people. All of those from Dongze Lake with some future prospects, each and every one of them, had all crushed their scalps trying to go to the East Sea.

Tian Luo listened in bewilderment, with eyes as big and wide as a copper bell as she curiously tilted her head, “Aren’t they afraid of being unacclimatized? How can freshwater fish live in the sea?”

A Lian, whilst eating the local specialties brought by Tian Luo, with cheeks bulging with flour noodles, unhurriedly replied, “The reason why we have so many fish is so that we can urinate and let them eat more salt when they are developing their offspring. Because my tastes are heavier, someday I’ll be able to settle down in the sea, and quickly adapt.”

Tian Luo listened, only slightly understanding.

******

Tian Luo had been in high spirits ever since arriving at the Ninth Heavenly Pavilion, but recently, those two sea clan women had given her a big blow. Because she was alone, the days were especially hard. But today, after meeting the agreeable A Lian, she would be completely devoted to her and was anxious to always cling to her.

Tian Luo knew that A Lian had gained her spot by relying on her own abilities, causing her to admire her incessantly.

As she listened to Tian Luo, her face reddened with embarrassment. Actually, A Lian thought that since Tian Luo had come to the Ninth Heavenly Pavilion, she naturally had abilities. Besides, she had cultivated one hundred years longer than her.

“…If it depended on me, where in this Ninth Heavenly Pavilion could I go, yes…it was my dad who paid for it.”

Money will make the devil turn millstones[3], however, the Ninth Heavenly Pavilion was excessively lofty in A Lian’s heart, now that she’d heard these words, inevitably some of that image collapsed. At the same time, she ate some snacks.

A Lian did not speak, causing a somewhat worried Tian Luo to whisper, “A Lian, you…you won’t despise me, ah?”

Although the feeling in her heart was unpleasant, A Lian did not look down on her.  

Nowadays, it was the way of the world to rely on one’s father’s wealth to get ahead. She had no father or mother, and had to depend on herself, because there was no other way. Tian Luo was very different, even though she was from a small place, she had a parvenu dad and was naturally treated like a little princess. Naturally, she was reluctant to suffer even the slightest injury, and had the way paved for her early on.

Hearing A Lian say no, Tian Luo was relieved, and once again, muttering to herself she said,  “I was thinking about my cousin…before leaving, he was already worried that once I came to the Ninth Heavenly Pavilion, after seeing the world, I would not see him.”

Tian Luo was a confabulator. This older male cousin, A Lian had heard her mention being close to many times, the two childhood sweethearts, were waiting on Tian Luo to cultivate into an immortal, to be able to get married and have children.

As Tian Luo thought about her cousin, she tilted her head curiously and lowered her voice and asked A Lian, “What about you? Do you have a man you like in mind?”

So that was her situation. A Lian thought, then nodded a little, but did not blush as Tian Luo had. Instead, she laughed and said, “There is, um….”

She who was originally fair and beautiful, became even more charming when she smiled, lowered her voice and said, “That’s why I came to the Ninth Heavenly Pavilion.”


Footnotes:

[1]Specie of carp, the Hypophthalmichthys Nobilis, also called the bighead carp, hence A Lian’s nickname.  

[2]Idiom meaning a place that is worth a lot.

[3]Idiom meaning with money one can do anything.


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