Chapter 43: A Stirring of Mortal Desires

"Good morning, seniors."

Lu Xing summoned the beauties in the mirror, casually throwing out a greeting. Surrounded by snow-capped mountains and overcast skies, with no clocks in sight, he had no way of knowing the actual time.

A single sentence immediately exposed his identity.

"The little fellow is here?"

The Empress rested her cheek lazily on her hand, still seated upon the dragon throne at the peak of the mountain, her slender phoenix eyes carrying a hint of playful amusement.

"The young gentleman from Earth, we meet again~"

The girl in the blue dress giggled. She was still sitting on a rock by the stream, kicking up water splashes with her fair, tender legs.

"Lu Xing, Aunty sees you once again."

The Rainbow Fairy, dressed in a red gown, looked at him with gentle eyes. She then said with delight, "Because of you, my daughter's heart has been stirred by mortal desires, and she is finally willing to step out of the ice cave! Lu Xing, use her physical body to take her and let her witness the hustle and bustle of the mortal world—to laugh and to cry, so that her reincarnation will not have been in vain!"

Wait!

Lu Xing was utterly shocked. The fairy's heart was stirred by mortal desires because of him?!

Before he could ask, a woman in a black dress said coldly to Lu Xing:

"What is so good about crying? And what is so good about laughing? If you are to lead her into the mortal realm, you might as well have her seek the path to immortality; that would at least fulfill our wish."

"Immortal ascension is so boring!"

The girl in the blue dress retorted, turning to Lu Xing as well. "Hurry and take me and these good little grand-nieces into the mortal world! I've grown sick of this place long ago, it's practically boring to death!"

"I think... becoming an immortal is good."

"What is an immortal, and what is a human?"

"Are we entering the mortal world now? Can we choose not to go?"

They all spoke one after another, leaving Lu Xing at a loss as to whose advice he should follow. He could only gather that they all cared deeply about the fairy entering the mortal world—some said they didn't want to go, others urged him to take them, but the majority remained indifferent.

"Seniors!!"

Lu Xing called out to halt them. Once things quieted down, he quickly asked, "I wonder what the Rainbow Fairy meant by her mortal desires being stirred?"

"It means exactly what it sounds like~" The girl in the blue dress cup-held her blushing cheeks with both hands, looking terribly shy as she murmured, "The lord is no ordinary man, and this concubine has stirred her mortal heart for the lord. Willing to become cultivation companions with the lord, to know and understand one another through this lifetime..."

"Stop talking!!!"

The girl holding the zither cried out with a blushing face.

"Bah! As if someone like him could ever make *me* feel romantic longing," the Empress laughed and spat lightly.

The rest either laughed or blushed, though most still remained indifferent.

The girl in the blue dress immediately akimboed: "What do you all want to rebel or something, how dare you show disrespect to your elder!!"

The girl holding the zither hid her flushed face and fell silent.

The Rainbow Fairy also smiled without speaking.

Lu Xing roughly understood now. The Ice Fairy's "stirring of mortal desires" wasn't about romantic yearning, but rather the literal meaning: her heart had been stirred to enter the mortal dust and worldly affairs.

No wonder she had stepped out of the ice cave.

"I think," Lu Xing looked at the Empress sitting atop the mountain peak, "you're nowhere near as pretty as the Ice Fairy—your master. If my heart were to be stirred, it would definitely be for the fairy!"

This remark was originally meant as a retort to the Empress. Who would have known that once spoken, not just her, but the souls of all the beauties in the mirror would burst into laughter.

It left Lu Xing completely baffled, only vaguely discerning that this group of mirror beauties was once again mocking his ignorance.

Dammit, one day he would make them pay the price!

"In other words, I can go down the mountain now?"

Lu Xing changed the subject.

Many in the mirror said yes, but the girl in the blue dress protested, "We've answered so many questions for you; shouldn't you repay us a little?"

"What do you seniors want me to do?"

"Very simple, just tell us where Earth is."

Last time they didn't specifically ask him anything—were they observing him instead?

Lu Xing smiled. "Even if I wanted to tell you, I couldn't give an answer. All I can say, based on my deductions, is that Earth is another world. Your Three Realms and Six Paths are one world, and Earth is a completely different one."

Fearing they might misunderstand his meaning of "world," he explained it once more.

"How marvelous!"

The girl in the blue dress sat by the stream, filled with emotion, and asked, "Then how did you get over here?"

"An immortal brought me here."

Lu Xing smiled.

"The brat is lying!" The Empress snorted.

A woman in purple said, "If immortals truly exist, they must be people of high antiquity."

"What is there on Earth?" someone else asked.

"Everything, and nothing at all. Since I've never experienced your Three Realms and Six Paths, how can I compare them? All I can answer is that Earth has no spiritual Qi and cultivation is impossible; as for anything else, I can't answer at all."

"Then hurry down the mountain and experience it!"

Quite a few of them urged him on. Those who had previously been indifferent about going down the mountain still remained indifferent.

"Don't rush, I need to make some preparations and take some things from the ice cave back with me."

Lu Xing said. Since the Ice Fairy paid no attention to anything, he had to make his own decisions.

"What's the point of bringing those pieces of junk along? Hurry down the mountain! If there's a fight, we'll help you!" The girl in the blue dress urged him again.

Lu Xing ignored her. He refused to believe that items allowed to be kept at home by a fairy were mere junk. He could leave other things behind, but he had to bring that sword along at the very least.

Holding the mirror, he walked all the way back.

Along the way, he finally had some leisure time to check the notification that had just popped up in the system. The reason he hadn't looked at it earlier was out of fear that being distracted would allow them to see through him.

"Novice Advanced Quest 2: Preliminarily experience the fairy's state of mind.
Option 1: Live in the ice cave for twenty years. Reward: Ten million experience points.
Option 2: Live in the ice cave for one year. Reward: One hundred thousand experience points.
Option 3: Live in the snow-capped mountain for ten days. Reward: One thousand experience points."

After reading it, Lu Xing fell silent.

What kind of bizarre quest contents were these?

Living in an ice cave for twenty years gives ten million experience—walk out and you're instantly max-level?

Lu Xing believed there were hardcore freaks on Earth capable of completing this challenge, but he certainly wasn't one of them.

Should he call it a typical "Swap Lives System"? Sensing that he hadn't completed Quest 1 and was about to leave the snow mountain, it had released this quest to experience the Ice Fairy's state of mind.

What would happen if he didn't do it?

Lu Xing tried asking, but unfortunately, there was no reply.

After thinking for a moment, oh well, he would just stay on the snow mountain for ten days. Fortunately, Option 3 allowed him to leave the ice cave, otherwise he really would have suffocated to death.

"Your steps have slowed down. What are you thinking about?" someone in the mirror asked.

"I'm wondering who on earth you people are."

Lu Xing asked outright. These people seemed to have a close relationship with the Ice Fairy—mothers? Ancestors? Masters? Friends? Sect inheritance?

From their fragmented words, some seemed to be the exact same person as the Ice Fairy, yet at other times they distinguished themselves from one another, making it hard to tell what was real and what was fake.

Perhaps it was similar to the concept of slaying the three corpses in primordial fantasy novels, but their numbers were simply too large. Lu Xing could recall at least a dozen, and those that had appeared numbered at least in the hundreds.

"Hehe~"

The beauties in the mirror merely smiled and refused to answer him at all.

They had reached a consensus to intentionally conceal the truth and simply not tell him.

Lu Xing didn't press further either. Once he went down the mountain later, he would try to investigate and see what this mirror and their origins really were.

Returning to the cave, he saw the inscriptions he had left behind last time. Looking closer, the Ice Fairy had also left handwriting here. So she must have had her mortal desires stirred only *after* finishing her writing, walked out of the cave to the garden, and left another inscription there.

To be honest, Lu Xing still didn't accurately understand what "mortal desires" meant in their vocabulary.

A heart to enter the secular world?

Regardless, this was his last time returning to this ice cave buried deep within the mountain.

Lu Xing picked a sword, a painting, and an ancient zither. The souls of the beauties in the mirror didn't teach him how to store them in a spatial pouch, intentionally wanting to watch him walk while carrying the ancient zither on his back. That girl in the blue dress even clapped and giggled happily—truly odious!

Lu Xing had no choice but to carry the sword and the zither on his back, stepping away from the home where the fairy had lived for God knows how long.

A quarter of an hour later, he walked out of the ice cave and stood in the wind and snow. Gazing at his reflection in the mirror, he saw an peerless sword immortal holding a sword and carrying a zither, dressed in white with a red silk hair tie.

Lu Xing was utterly dazzled by the fairy's stunning transformation!