Chapter 1073: Chapter 587: Shi Qingjun Is an Innocent Maiden (Double-Length)

——

Shi Qingjun lowered her head, her gaze calm.

It wasn’t that she had accepted the situation, but for a moment she had given up on thinking.

The Qing Jun of Chaoyun Sect, who seemed to have long transcended the world’s changes, was in truth a very simple and pure person.

Previously, besides the goal of ascension, she cared for nothing else, which defined her character—whether it was schemes or intrigues, they held no meaning to her, so she could disregard them entirely.

But now, the Immortal Chaoyun who descended from the heavens began to use her mind to ponder over things, forcibly redirecting her vision from the Heavenly Dao to the mundane... and found her once clear mind somewhat inadequate.

The simplest example being, even as Ah Qing’s sword dance was nearing its end, Shi Qingjun’s mind was still in a state of chaos—

She was merely sitting there, slowly eating the fruit in her hand, her thoughts fragmented.

For such a pure-hearted lady, handling these complex interpersonal relationships was undoubtedly a daunting task.

Shi Qingjun now somewhat missed her former self.

If it were her old self, let alone seeing Ah Qing dancing here as a courtesan, even if Ah Qing had shed her clothes in the process, she would likely have had no reaction, because she only saw herself.

"Becoming a woman... turns out to be a troublesome thing," Shi Qingjun murmured.

"What...?" A woman looked at Shi Qingjun in apparent contemplation, puzzled. "Sister Shi, what did you say?"

"Nothing, I just think all of you are remarkable ladies," Shi Qingjun said, a sentiment she would never have expressed before.

"Remarkable... us?" The woman blinked, not quite understanding.

However, when she glanced at Ah Qing’s figure on stage, perfectly merging with the light and shadows, she suddenly understood and waved her hand: "Sister Shi, don’t think too much, none of the girls here possess Ah Qing’s skills. She’s a half-demon, so she’s also considered a cultivator... what she can do, I can’t. But... after this dance, she’s already a class of her own in sword dancing."

The woman assumed Shi Qingjun was praising Ah Qing’s sword dance and did not claim any credit but instead admired the figure on stage in awe. "Ah Qing’s physique... indeed, she’s born for this line of work."

Shi Qingjun: "..."

"Born for this line of work..."

Meaning, was Ah Qing innately a brothel woman?

Destined for this from birth.

Her fingers gently pressed against her brow.

Proud and aloof as Shi Qingjun was, she acknowledged equals who could call her ’Ah Qing’ as a peer; if not for contending for Dao Rhymes, they should have been fellow seekers of the Dao.

However, the girl next to her danced with skill and grace, while she watched the performance from below.

Perhaps, in a way, this too was akin to standing shoulder to shoulder.

Shi Qingjun fell silent for a while, offering no explanation.

Simply put, Ah Qing’s fate could never match hers... but now, her cultivation had been inexplicably reduced by twenty percent, and even this was enough for the other to catch up...

Was the dance flaunting her figure something for everyone to see?

Yet, the girls from the Flower Moon Building could comfortably admire and even brazenly comment on Ah Qing’s figure. In a short while, Shi Qingjun had heard many comments from them that were normal in their eyes but were ’unbearable’ to her.

Discussions about food, warmth, baths, and taking advantage of others lingered in Shi Qingjun’s pure Sea of Consciousness.

The most surprising thing to Shi Qingjun was Ah Qing’s composed demeanor; with her abilities, only the karmic entanglements of the Qiankun Realm could not influence her; otherwise, even at this close distance, had Li Zhibai and Zhu Pingniang thought of her, she could have sensed their thoughts.

In other words, Ah Qing was very much aware of the ambiguous, even lustful glances cast her way by the group of women below.

Yet Ah Qing wasn’t at all angry. On the contrary, her steps became lighter, as if... she was pleased with ’inner charm’ and other degrading remarks.

Ah Qing was shy, but that shyness was focused on the stage.

"Then..."

Shi Qingjun slightly raised her head.

Her mind wandered to the discussions of the Flower Moon Building’s girls and the boy who had taught her to eat snacks, ground flower pollen, and pulled her down from the frosty heavens.

So, the reason Ah Qing fell so far was because of that boy.

Yes.

The source of all this change was Xu Chang’an.

Thinking of him made all the irrationalities suddenly make sense... although she couldn’t comprehend Ah Qing’s motives for taking a liking to Xu Chang’an, Shi Qingjun indeed understood the lethal attraction of Xu Chang’an’s soul to people like them.

She was simply amazed at how quickly Ah Qing had descended.

You must know, not long ago, she worried about a full-blown conflict with the Demon Sect upon her decline in cultivation, and before she knew it, the other party had become a prostitute.

’Perhaps... perhaps it wasn’t so quick after all,’ Shi Qingjun mused.

For she didn’t know when Xu Chang’an and Ah Qing first met, but according to the records, Xu Chang’an and Yun Qian had always lived in Beisang City, and because of Zhu Tongjun’s connection, they frequently interacted with the girls at the Flower Moon Building.

So, Xu Chang’an likely met Ah Qing earlier than she did.

How long had Shi Qingjun known Xu Chang’an? She had already transformed from an immortal into a lazy girl monopolizing all the candied fruits in the shop, being fed by the courtesans. She could come to the Flower Moon Building to listen to songs today, and with time... it might not be impossible for her to perform on stage one day.

If Ah Qing knew Xu Chang’an longer than she did, the time it took for her to fall from the figure in her memory to now... may have been much shorter than she imagined.

Maybe after all, there was nothing too surprising about it.

The only thing Shi Qingjun still pondered was when Ah Qing came to Beisang City and for what purpose?

What was the opportunity for meeting Xu Chang’an?

The first thought that emerged in Shi Qingjun’s mind was about the Heaven-Reaching Thunder Tribulation.

At the time, that tribulation descended upon Chaoyun Sect, bringing ’Peaceful World,’ even causing her to fall from the sky, fainted after being sealed; Ah Qing couldn’t have reacted slower than she did. Moreover, as a half-demon, Ah Qing valued cultivation far more than she did.

If it was to investigate this matter, then coming to Beisang City to approach Tong Jun made perfect sense...

But Shi Qingjun quickly dismissed this notion from her mind.

Because if it started at this time, that would mean her and the other’s contact with Xu Chang’an happened at an extremely similar time... which reflected onto Ah Qing now—

Seeing Ah Qing’s eyes and gestures filled with emotion, Shi Qingjun lowered her head.

Lest it appeared Ah Qing had fallen too swiftly.

For this first girl in her life to use an equal form of address, Shi Qingjun held onto an ineffable sense of herself, believing Ah Qing couldn’t experience so-called ’love at first sight’ because it was too cheap.

So Shi Qingjun instinctively abandoned this guess, basing her thoughts on... the assumption that Ah Qing knew Xu Chang’an longer than she did.

The evidence also included Yun Qian.

Shi Qingjun found Yun Qian hard to approach, but Ah Qing had clearly established a decent relationship with Yun Qian, implying it wasn’t a sudden development.

Without reason, the other shouldn’t have appeared in Beisang City, and... Shi Qingjun’s eyes paused on the figure of the girl on stage for a while.

This was no simple avatar.

The girl on stage wasn’t a puppet; rather, the Sect Leader, at great cost, extracted a part of her youthful ’time’ from the river of time. This method, though costly, might even impact her present self, but the benefit was that without witnessing it firsthand, it could never be discovered merely through Divine Sense.

Meaning, if she hadn’t descended the mountain this time... given her usual reclusive nature, Ah Qing could have lived in Beisang City for a hundred years, possibly even ascending to Chaoyun Sect without her ever realizing it.

What was she truly after?