A Tale of Encounters with Immortals: A Peach Blossom Temple in the Martial World

Inn, night, well.

Six shadows gathered together for a meeting.

A hoarse voice said, "Keep a low profile lately. This woman is no human being; she's not someone to mess with. Just the moment she walked in, I felt like I couldn't breathe."

A woman's voice said, "Let's all stay hidden in the well. As long as we don't show ourselves, she won't have any reason to bother us, right?"

These words...

That's incredibly weak!

A gruff voice said, "Second Senior Sister, you're being too cautious. Let's not even talk about whether this woman can beat us. Even if she can, we can't show weakness. We are a reputable sect."

There was also a weak male voice: "Even if... we're from a reputable sect,... we were still killed! We've been dead for so long..."

A delicate female voice: "I...I miss my mother, sob sob..."

"Junior sister, don't cry. You won't be pretty if you cry and your face is all messed up."

A fawning voice, like that of a simp, came from a young man.

"Wow……"

The junior sister cried even harder.

"Cry your mother!"

The rough voice became irritable.

"At a time like this, all you can do is cry? That woman who bought the house doesn't seem like a good person, she's not exactly a saint, do you think she'll help us pass on to the afterlife?"

The junior sister's voice: "I don't want to be saved, I want to be with my senior brother."

The gruff voice said disdainfully, "Don't you want to be helped to pass on your soul? Look at yourself now. Your stomach has been ripped open, and you come out every day to scare people with your belly hanging around. Don't you get scared yourself?"

The second senior sister's voice said, "You still dare to talk about junior sister? What about yourself? Look at your half-head, it's full of all sorts of colorful things. It's like you've unleashed all the wicked thoughts you couldn't see when you were alive."

"Hehe, everyone stop arguing. We're all born and die in the martial world anyway. There are countless ways to die. Don't those of us in the martial world have any self-awareness?"

The voice that spoke was hoarse.

"Now we need to discuss how to avoid being discovered by that woman. I can sense that she is absolutely capable of wiping us out."

"Senior Brother, how about... we scare her a little? Like before, those people run away as soon as they're frightened."

Then everyone stared at the junior sister's shadow as if she were an idiot.

The junior sister's self-confidence gradually disappeared.

"Actually... I was just saying it casually... Let's listen to Senior Brother."

"After all that talk, we still haven't come up with a good idea! Let's just stay put and not leave the well."

A lazy, languid voice sighed.

"Third Senior Brother, don't talk such discouraging things," the young man said. "It's said that after becoming a ghost, it's entirely possible to absorb moonlight, and then..."

"We're not zombies. The corpses are all infested with maggots. Do you want to go take a look at the mass grave?"

The burly man showed no respect whatsoever.

He flipped the table over.

How can we continue our conversation?

The corpse was infested with maggots, and the flesh was rotting. That's a fact, so no one can argue with it. But it's hard to accept; emotionally, people still prefer the feeling of a whole, intact body.

What are you talking about?

Suddenly, a young girl's voice came from above the well.

The six shadows were struck dumb, staring blankly upwards.

A little girl's face appeared above the well, and she looked at her reflection with a grin, saying, "I know you!"

"Ouch——"

The second senior brother suddenly revealed half of his face in the moonlight, and abruptly opened his mouth towards the little girl, revealing half of his white teeth and even half of his tongue.

"So ugly!"

The little girl said something with disdain.

The worried junior sister frowned, pinching her nose with one hand: "It stinks! Aren't you going to rinse your mouth?"

What witty banter!

We're all ghosts, so when I exhale, does it smell bad? I'm not a corpse or rotting flesh, why would I have bad breath? Pretentious!

"You...you can see us?"

The young voice said in great surprise.

Is not this nonsensical?

The junior sister turned her head 180 degrees away from him in disgust, so that the back of her head was facing him.

"Why don't you reincarnate?"

The little girl continued.

“Master said that after a person dies, their soul will enter the underworld, where your merits and demerits will be judged. You might go to hell, become a ghost messenger, become a ghost immortal, or enter the cycle of reincarnation. Are you here because you are imprisoned?”

Upon hearing this, all six shadows couldn't help but howl.

“Stop crying. Do you want to enter the cycle of reincarnation? If you do, I beg my master. She is a practitioner under the Buddha. As long as she can chant sutras for you to help you be reborn, you will definitely be able to enter the cycle of reincarnation.”

Upon hearing this, all six shadows fell silent.

Finally, it was the senior brother with the hoarse voice who spoke.

"Thank you, young lady. How about we discuss it first and I get back to you tomorrow?"

The little girl nodded and said, "I shouldn't have made such a hasty decision. I'll come back tomorrow. I can ask my master again during the day. Goodbye!"

The little girl lightly touched the ground with her toes and floated up, as if she were flying above the moon.

The junior sister looked up at her.

"How beautiful! She can fly too!"

The second senior brother scoffed, "Don't even think about it. She can fly because she knows magic. You can fly because you're dead."

That hurts, junior sister.

Originally in a miserable state with her stomach ruptured and intestines spilling out, she was suddenly struck in the heart by her second senior brother's words, and her face immediately turned pale, and she was about to burst into tears.

"What are you crying about? What kind of behavior is this? Think about what the fairy said. Reincarnation means the end of our fate in this life. If we don't reincarnate, we'll be trapped in this dilapidated inn like prisoners. Everyone, think it over carefully tonight. Once you make a decision, there's no going back."

Suddenly, the area below the well fell silent.

The little girl's words made the six shadows, unusually, stop arguing.

Moonlight streamed through the window. Zixia sat in a chair, watching the shadow of a tree in bloom cast on her desk, swaying gently in the breeze.

The little girl's body was as light as a flower petal, carrying a fragrant scent, which drifted into the window and landed in the room.

"What did those six ghosts say?"

Zixia put down her book, looked at the little girl Chunhua, and said with a smile.

The little girl said, "They need to think about it and will tell me tomorrow. Master... if we help them reincarnate, will they be reborn into a good family? If they don't reincarnate, will they stay here forever?"

Zixia looked at her: "You really want to help them?"

The little girl shook her head.

Zixia suddenly became interested and asked, "Why? Isn't helping others a good thing?"

The little girl said, "There's a voice inside me telling me that everyone should have their own choices, because I can't be them, and I haven't experienced their lives, so I have no right to make decisions for them. Their decisions must have been made after weighing all their interests."

Zixia suddenly felt that this little girl seemed... to her surprise.

The little girl continued, "If I, an outsider, were to decide their fate and dictate their future, I think that would be unfair to them."

Upon hearing this, Zixia couldn't help but laugh.

He reached out and couldn't resist pulling the little girl into his arms.

“You’re right, your understanding is even more thorough than Master’s. So… let’s hear their decision tomorrow. I’ll help them do what they want to do, instead of making them do what I want to do.”

The little girl beamed with joy.

She felt appreciated that her master had listened to her, a feeling that was more fulfilling than a bowl of braised pork, even though her master's braised pork was truly delicious.

When the light from outside illuminated the room, Zixia looked out the window.

There seemed to be a layer of mist on the spring mountain.

Fog blanketed the sky, and the overcast sky was a sign that rain was imminent.

The little girl, worried about the rain, brought over a raincoat and said to Zixia, "Master, what lessons will we learn today? I already learned the Purple and Green Sword Technique yesterday."

The little girl is very diligent and learns things very quickly.

Zixia said, "Don't rush, haste makes waste. Let's solidify our existing cultivation first."

Smoke rose from the kitchen.

The little girl is very diligent; she's gone to the kitchen to make breakfast.

Before long, the little girl brought the food and set it on the dining table in the hall. Then she filled a bamboo basket with rice and some vegetables, and carried it to her father.

When she returned, the rain arrived as expected.

It only took a quarter of an hour for the drizzle to turn into a downpour of pearls.

After finishing their meal, the master and apprentice sat at the table in the hall reading.

Zixia was reading a Taoist scripture.

The little girl was also reading a Taoist scripture. However, as she read, she sometimes frowned and sometimes looked delighted, as if she had gained a lot of insight from it.

"Master...there's someone outside!"

The little girl suddenly said something.

She didn't see the person; she sensed them.