"Senior Brother Lin, Senior Sister Liu from Hongluan Peak wants you to come over."
Lin Fengmian quickly acknowledged and hurriedly got up to head for Hongluan Peak.
Behind him, the male disciples cast envious glances at his elegantly handsome retreating figure, a mix of jealousy and resentment in their hearts.
After all, Hongluan Peak was the dual cultivation ground of the Hehuan Sect. The senior sisters up there were all breathtakingly beautiful, skilled at... undressing, and masters of dual cultivation techniques that left male disciples with endless aftertastes.
If you passed a senior sister's assessment, you could enter the inner sect as a formal disciple and indulge in the pleasures of the clouds and rain with an inner sect sister.
Even if you didn't pass, your cultivation would still improve upon returning. Every male disciple from Qingjiu Peak yearned for it.
This Lin Fengmian, whether because of his handsome looks or some particular talent, seemed quite favored by the senior sisters of Hongluan Peak, getting called up frequently.
But Lin Fengmian, the object of everyone's envy, wore a somewhat sorrowful expression—hardly the look of someone who'd just been intimately entwined with a celestial beauty.
He arrived at the called-for Honglian Courtyard and stood respectfully outside the door: "Senior Sister Liu."
"Fengmian, is that you? The door's unlocked. Come in. This sister has been waiting for you for a while."
A lazy voice drifted from inside. Just the sound of it was enough to make one's blood race, giving a hint of the stunning beauty within.
Yet Lin Fengmian dared not let any impure thoughts arise. He carefully pushed the door open, and a thick, fragrant aroma wafted out.
He kept his head down, cautiously searching the room with his eyes, but after a while, he still couldn't find what he was looking for.
Perplexed, Lin Fengmian couldn't help but glance towards the edge of the bed. The woman on the bed let out a soft, tinkling laugh.
"Junior Brother Fengmian, is this sister really that scary? You won't even lift your head?"
Lin Fengmian swallowed hard. "Of course not. Senior Sister Liu is as beautiful as a celestial maiden. I was just afraid of being disrespectful."
"Coward!"
Senior Sister Liu snorted coldly and kicked something off the bed. There was a soft thud as something like a rolled-up quilt hit the floor.
It was, in fact, an adult male, but he landed on the ground with an eerie lightness, as if he had no weight at all.
Lin Fengmian stepped forward, head bowed, and picked up the man's light, withered corpse. He said respectfully, "Senior Sister, shall I take my leave now?"
But Senior Sister Liu suddenly spoke coldly, "Look at me!"
Lin Fengmian didn't dare disobey. He looked up and saw the woman on the bed. She had finely drawn brows and eyes like a painting, with a naturally bewitching beauty, and an unusual flush on her cheeks.
The woman was covered with a pink quilt, lounging languidly on the bed, propping her head up with one jade-like arm. Her alluring phoenix eyes gazed at him, soft and enticing.
"Am I beautiful?"
Lin Fengmian nodded sincerely. "Senior Sister is naturally beautiful!"
Senior Sister Liu touched her vermilion lips with a delicate finger, lightly licking them, and asked, "So, do you want to experience the pleasures of the clouds and rain with this sister?"
Lin Fengmian shook his head frantically. "I wouldn't dare. Senior Sister is like a celestial maiden in my heart. I have absolutely no intention of being disrespectful."
No kidding. Experience the pleasures of the clouds and rain with you? The brother I'm holding in my arms has already been drained dry.
This fellow here has probably already had half a bowl of Mengpo soup by now. I don't want to die.
Senior Sister Liu covered her mouth with a delicate laugh. "What a smooth talker. This sister is in a good mood today, so I'll let you off the hook."
Lin Fengmian, feeling as if he'd been granted a pardon, quickly carried the brother who had died beneath the peony flowers and left.
"Come see me in three days. This sister will examine your progress."
Senior Sister Liu's voice was sweet and melodious, but to Lin Fengmian's ears, it sounded like a ghost demanding his life.
He froze on the spot. It took him a moment to reply bitterly, "Yes, Senior Sister."
Lin Fengmian walked out of the room in a daze. Liu Mei watched his dispirited, retreating figure, a thoughtful look in her eyes.
Liu Mei chuckled lightly to herself. She'd gone to the trouble of taking off her clothes, and she still couldn't seduce a young lad.
She had even pinched her cheeks red to make it look like she'd just been intimate.
She murmured to herself, "Lin Fengmian, what exactly is it about you that makes Uncle-Master Xie and Master think you're so important?"
Lin Fengmian, in a daze, arrived at the back mountain. He casually dug a hole in the ground and buried the shriveled corpse, its face frozen in a look of terror.
Looking at the corpse's expression of blissful agony, Lin Fengmian felt he was seeing himself three days from now.
He hoped that when his time came, he too could die without pain, amidst that blissful agony.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a surge of sorrow.
He had originally been the wealthy young master of a small city. Though not academically inclined, he had never bullied anyone, at most being a bit of a flirt.
Three years ago, some celestial-being-like fairies had come to the city, saying they were from a sect recruiting disciples.
Urged on by some bad friends, he had also signed up. Although they tested and found he had spiritual roots, his aptitude was too poor, so he was already out of the running for the immortal sect.
Then, unexpectedly, a fairy who seemed to hold a fairly high status took a liking to him and made an exception to let him join the sect.
After entering the Hehuan Sect, Lin Fengmian discovered that the Hehuan Sect seemed a bit... improper!
It was a dual cultivation sect, emphasizing the harmonization of yin and yang, advancing through dual cultivation.
Like all the other male disciples, Lin Fengmian was incredibly excited. He trained diligently, eagerly awaiting the call from a senior sister.
Whether he passed the assessment wasn't important; what mattered was getting close to the celestial-beautiful senior sisters, getting to know each other intimately.
But for some reason, no one ever called him up to Hongluan Peak, while all the familiar faces around him entered the inner sect.
As time passed, he discovered a horrifying truth.
He never saw any of the disciples who entered the inner sect again, not even his closest friends.
That was truly terrifying. So where were these so-called male disciples who had entered the inner sect?
Lin Fengmian finally realized something was wrong.
It seemed he had fallen into a trap!
As time went on, the people around him changed, batch after batch.
But still, no one ever called Lin Fengmian for an "assessment."
He felt it must have something to do with the woman who had brought him into the sect, but she seemed to have completely forgotten about him.
Gradually, the senior sisters of Hongluan Peak also noticed Lin Fengmian's special status and started asking him to do odd jobs.
These so-called odd jobs were simply disposing of the drained corpses.
And that's how Lin Fengmian uncovered the truth behind the assessments.
At first, those terrifying shriveled corpses had scared him shitless. But now...
He was numb to it.
Lin Fengmian looked at the back mountain, now filled with grave mounds, and couldn't help feeling a sense of mournful empathy for a fellow creature.
Want to become an immortal? Right now, he'd probably just turn to ashes.
All those able-bodied young men, old enough to know better—why were they still pursuing immortality?
Which sect recruited disciples who weren't trained from childhood?
But it was too late for regrets now. The priority was figuring out how to save his own skin first.
Although, generally speaking, the senior sisters of Hongluan Peak wouldn't drain a promising韭菜 dry in one go, Liu Mei was one of two exceptions.
Her assessment pass rate was extremely high. In other words, dual cultivating with her meant a nine out of ten chance of death!
Lin Fengmian rushed back to Qingjiu Peak non-stop. Amidst the envious and slightly risqué teasing of the other male disciples, he returned to his own room.
He couldn't be bothered with these lust-addled fools. A bunch of idiots who didn't even know death was upon them.
This Qingjiu Peak (Green Leek Peak) really wasn't named wrong. Weren't these fellows just like leeks, cut down only to grow back again?
And now, it seemed this old leek was about to be cut too.
Lin Fengmian quickly pulled out a double-fish-shaped jade pendant from under his pillow, his face set with the grim determination of a martyr about to face execution.
It was a yin-yang jade pendant of two fish biting each other's tails, with a dangling charm at the bottom engraved with the character "Snow." It was a family heirloom.
Three months ago, while burying a corpse, he'd cut his finger and accidentally gotten blood on this pendant.
Although he'd obtained a strange cultivation method from it, he'd also been plagued by nightmares ever since, tormenting him endlessly.
In the end, Lin Fengmian finally traced the source. He'd thrown this pendant, worn since childhood, under his bed, and only then did the nightmares stop.
Now, with his life hanging by a thread, Lin Fengmian had no choice but to try it as a last resort. He put the pendant around his neck and lay down.
He prayed silently, Sister, you absolutely have to be there these next few days!
If you're not, I'm done for.