Golden eyes glinted with undisguised jealousy.
Under Hua Jian’s look of ‘you’re not going to ask too, are you,’ Linglong opened her mouth and said something that made Hua Jian’s expression even more helpless.
“I want some too!”
‘Where did this inexplicable competitive urge come from?’
If it was jealousy, Hua Jian did not feel that her relationship with Linglong had reached the level where jealousy made sense.
She had read Linglong’s thoughts. In her heart, the Little Dragon Girl only saw her as a prospective Junior Sister.
Everything she was doing now was to lure her into Yaochi and make her a Junior Sister.
No matter how one looked at it, this was all for Yaochi’s sake. Hua Jian could understand that.
But what was this now?
Why was it that after she fed Shiqi a pastry, Linglong also came over asking for one?
Shiqi had a valid reason. What reason could Linglong possibly have?
“Don’t give me any, and I’ll deduct your pay.”
Hua Jian’s eyes widened instantly. She had not expected it, truly not expected it. Linglong, with your thick brows and big eyes, you could actually say something so terrifying.
‘I worked so hard accompanying you everywhere, earning just a bit of hard-earned money, and now you want to scam even that. Shameless.’
But the spirit stones were in Linglong’s hands. Hua Jian could only give in, put on a smile, pick up a white pastry, and hold it to Linglong’s mouth.
Linglong expressionlessly opened her mouth and ate it, as if her request had simply been that she did not want to be treated differently.
‘What a baffling competitive streak.’
“The bathtub is ready. Go in, and be careful not to soak until you get dizzy,” Linglong said, chewing on the pastry Hua Jian had fed her while pointing to the large tub nearby.
“I’m not a child. I won’t get dizzy,” Hua Jian replied.
The white fabric on her body quickly retracted to her neck, returning to the form of a choker.
Then she slightly circulated her spiritual power and exhaled a dense mist that wrapped around her body.
Under its cover, she began to undress.
Before Linglong could say anything, Shiqi, who had already been soaking for a while, spoke up first.
“Why are you being so shy? Aren’t we all girls?”
“Are you afraid that Linglong and I will gang up and take advantage of you?”
‘I’m thin-skinned and shy. Is that not allowed?’ Hua Jian gave Shiqi a perfunctory answer.
As she spoke, she folded her clothes neatly and set them aside, then turned and entered the bathtub.
Once inside, she dispersed the mist and enjoyed a hot spring bath she had experienced only a few times across both lifetimes.
‘Ah, the Saint Sect’s hot spring water really is different. It feels much more comfortable than hot water elsewhere.’
Thinking this, Hua Jian looked down at her chest submerged beneath the water.
The colorful floral patterns there had become more complex and vivid than before.
She had not observed them carefully in recent days, but now she realized just how much they had changed.
“Hua Jian… what are you doing?” Linglong asked, her expression turning a bit strange as she saw Hua Jian touching her chest.
She believed that Hua Jian was not the kind of person to perform strange acts in public, but her current movements were indeed suggestive.
Hearing Linglong’s question, Hua Jian realized that her actions could be misunderstood and quickly lowered her hand to explain.
“I’m looking at the patterns on my chest. There seem to be more than before.”
As she explained, she stood up slightly in the bathtub, exposing her chest to Linglong.
At this moment, she did not seem shy at all.
There was not really anything there worth looking at anyway. The small, barely budding curves were less eye-catching than the vividly colored floral patterns on her chest.
Compared to the beginning, when there had only been the colorful Illusory Dream Flower, there were now clearly visible red and white colors in the patterns, as well as several pitch-black broken lines entwined around the edges.
“This is the Illusory Dream Flower, this is the Venerable’s White Flower, this is the Dragon Blood Vine, and this one is the Heart-Eating Vine?” Linglong moved closer and pointed out the origins of each pattern.
Her finger nearly touched Hua Jian’s skin, startling Hua Jian into quickly sinking back into the water.
“Why are you so close?”
“Pfft. You only look a bit like a girl at times like this,” Linglong could not help but laugh softly.
This shy, sensitive Hua Jian was truly a rare sight, one seen only once in a century.
Could it be that Hua Jian’s personality changed based on how much clothing she wore?
The more clothes she wore, the bolder and more mischievous her personality became.
The fewer clothes she wore, the more shy and demure she became.
Her previous judgment had been correct. Hua Jian was someone who talked a big game, but once it came to action, everything fell apart.
“Wow, she actually gets shy too. Hard to imagine,” Shiqi said.
Although she could not see clearly, she could hear the slightly bashful tone in Hua Jian’s scolding.
Hearing that voice from Hua Jian was genuinely surprising.
For a moment, she almost believed Hua Jian’s claim of being thin-skinned.
“The changes in the patterns should not be bad news. If you’re really uneasy, you could go ask Master Uncle,” Linglong suggested.
“Yeah, later I’ll have the Venerable and the Peak Master take a look together,” Hua Jian nodded.
She had not forgotten that she also had a wild Mother figure.
She could not forget the Lingcaifeng Master. This Peak Master was far more knowledgeable about flowers than Fenghua Venerable.
Seeing that Hua Jian still had not forgotten the Lingcaifeng Master, Linglong sighed quietly in her heart.
Lingcaifeng’s pull on Hua Jian was really too strong.
Even though Yaochi had seized the initiative early, it still seemed difficult to restrain Hua Jian’s desire to approach Lingcaifeng.
But this could not be rushed. It had to be done slowly and persistently to gradually change Hua Jian’s mindset.
What was so good about Lingcaifeng anyway? Wanling Sect was full of messy affairs. How could it compare to Yaochi’s unity and harmony?
“Why aren’t you getting in to soak? Could it be that you’re even shyer than me?”
“I’m worried about you,” Linglong glared at Hua Jian. ‘What a case of good intentions being mistaken.’
Forget it. Judging by Hua Jian’s condition, she would not get dizzy anytime soon.
She should hurry and enjoy it herself.
Unlike Hua Jian, Linglong was not shy in front of the two girls.
She calmly removed her clothes and set them aside.
Then she clasped her hands together and silently recited an incantation.
A silver light flashed, and she returned to her true Dragon Girl form.
“Wow!” Shiqi’s eyes widened instantly.
So the appearance she had seen in the Godsoul Space before had been real.
Linglong really was a Dragon Girl.
“Don’t look at me like that. This is my true form. What you saw before was just a disguise technique,” Linglong explained with a faint blush, then stepped into the hot spring pool.
The warm spring water rose past her shoulders, and Linglong felt the fatigue accumulated over the past days slowly being driven out of her body.
Her snow-white tail gently stirred the water, producing soft splashing sounds. At this moment, Linglong truly displayed her unique charm.
“Linglong, why don’t you usually look like this? You’re clearly so beautiful!”
“Actually, this is how I usually look. It’s only rarely that I don’t. When I’m in the sect, I mostly appear like this,” Linglong said, blowing a few bubbles and correcting Shiqi.
She had grown up in Yaochi. It was not like she could have learned the disguise technique from childhood.
Before she learned it, the Senior Sisters and elders in Yaochi had all seen her true appearance.
And faced with such a cute Little Dragon Girl, how could the Yaochi girls dislike her?
If not for the need to better conceal her identity when traveling outside, Linglong would not have learned the disguise technique at all.
“That’s nonsense. Weren’t you like this in that secret realm too?” Hua Jian retorted from the shore, secretly using her vines to coil up a pastry.
In that secret realm where they had tricked the Magic Path, Linglong had looked exactly like this.
“That was a competition. If I revealed my identity too early, I might have been besieged and eliminated early, so I needed some disguise,” Linglong explained.
Her disguise technique only hid the dragon features, but that was already sufficient.
If she hid too thoroughly, people from other Saint Sects might accuse the Saintess of Yaochi of being a schemer who plotted in the shadows.
By hiding the dragon horns and tail while keeping the white hair and golden eyes, she struck a balance between full exposure and suspicion.
It prevented immediate recognition while also leaving no room for criticism.
‘I’m a Half-Dragon Saintess. Is it wrong for me to have a human form that looks similar? No problem at all.’
“So you don’t need to disguise yourself here?”
“Yes. As long as I don’t go out to the outer city, I don’t need to. Come to think of it, Master and the others even want me to walk around outside like this more, to attract more people.”
A beautiful Little Dragon Girl was very appealing to most people.
Only a very small minority who disliked spirit beasts would feel dissatisfied with Linglong.
And Yaochi never intended to recruit such people anyway.
Those types could all go to Tiandao Sect. That was their proper destination.
“Doesn’t feel like it would work very well,” Hua Jian said, lying on the edge of the bathtub, eating pastries brought up by her vines while complaining.
If Yaochi were a sect that accepted anyone, this might have some effect. But one had to remember that Yaochi was an all-female sect.
Its positioning had been clear from the very beginning, which meant its disciple sources were largely fixed.
Those who wanted to join Yaochi would come without needing Linglong as a mascot.
Those who did not want to join Yaochi would not suddenly change their minds just because they saw a Little Dragon Girl.
No matter how one thought about it, it seemed unlikely.
“Look at Shiqi. She likes you like this too, but she’s definitely going to the Jian Sect.”
Hua Jian gave a living example.
Shiqi was dissatisfied at being used as an example, so she launched a counterattack.
“That’s true for me, but there are always people who waver between several sects. Yaochi is probably trying to attract those people, right?” As she spoke, Shiqi’s gaze drifted toward Hua Jian.
Who was wavering between several sects and unable to decide? It definitely was not Shiqi.
Hua Jian quickly swallowed the pastry in her mouth and shrank her head into the bathtub like a turtle.
‘Damn it, Shiqi. Don’t you know that discussing this topic at a time like this is deadly?’
Ever since arriving at Ascension City, Hua Jian had been trying hard to avoid talking about this, precisely because she feared being asked ‘so which one do you like.’
Other people’s indecision was just affectation, since it was the Saint Sects choosing them, not the other way around.
But Hua Jian was truly different. She really could choose, and she truly could not decide.
Shiqi shrugged at Linglong, signaling with her eyes that this was as far as she could help.
Once this topic came up, Hua Jian always shrank back and pretended to be deaf. There was nothing to be done.
“Shiqi is right. And as Saintess, I already bear the responsibility of being Yaochi’s public face, so I must do my part,” Linglong picked up the conversation, not delving deeper into the previous topic.
Ultimately, this kind of thing had to depend on Hua Jian herself. Forcing it would not lead to good results.
Hearing that Linglong did not intend to press further, Hua Jian finally dared to poke her head out again.
“So being your Saintess is actually pretty tough.”
“It’s already much easier now. In the past, the Saintess of Yaochi was effectively the next Sect Leader. Back then, the pressure was truly immense.”
Compared to being a successor, being a mascot was much easier.
Moreover, the current Saintess of Yaochi rotated every ten years, elected by the Yaochi girls themselves through voting for the most popular disciple.
Aside from increased visibility, there were not many benefits to being Saintess, which made each election purely a popularity contest.
The elected Saintesses were almost always beauties with both talent and looks, each able to occupy a high position on the legendary Xiānzǐ Ranking.
“Oh, then can you become Sect Leader? You’re the Sect Leader’s direct disciple. That position must be yours, right?”
“You can say things like that in private, but if you say it in public, be careful someone doesn’t hold a grudge,” Linglong warned, slapping the water heavily with her tail.
Even within the harmonious Saint Sect of Yaochi, conflicts could arise over the position of Sect Leader.
After all, this was the Sect Leader position of a Saint Sect, arguably the most exalted position under heaven.
“Besides, to become Sect Leader, the prerequisite is having the strength of a Saint. So the Sect Leader position represents not just status, but power as well,” Linglong lowered her voice, sharing secrets of the Saint Sects unknown to outsiders.
Look at the Black Dragon Venerable of the Magic Path. He had gone to enormous lengths and caused countless upheavals across the world just to advance to Sainthood.
Did people really think that advancement for Saint Sect Venerables was smooth sailing? Of course not.
To cultivate a Saint, a Saint Sect had to mobilize the strength of the entire sect to support them.
Within a certain period, a Saint Sect could only push one sufficiently talented Venerable to advance.
Under such circumstances, a Venerable with Sect Leader candidate status naturally had greater competitiveness.
After all, if two Venerables had similar talent and strength, in the end it came down to who had greater popular support, didn’t it?
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