Career Line Interpreted This Way

Naturally, organizing a temple fair isn’t just about widening the roads for vendors to set up stalls. After all, why set up stalls there when you can’t? Why must they be right at the temple entrance? And why do they have to pay you for it?

The organizers of the temple fair—the Zen Forest Temple—had to host activities that could attract crowds.

On the fifteenth day, the Water Forest Dharma Assembly was held. A group of monks chanted sutras to offer salvation to the departed. For a fee, one could place their ancestors' spirit tablets in the most prominent position.

In Yuzhou City, people joked about it: "Spending thousands of taels of gold just to place ancestors' tablets on the Buddha's head."

Wealthy people who cared about their reputation naturally wanted to see their ancestors' spirit tablets elevated above others.

This could be considered the Zen Forest Temple’s most profitable project. Despite being mocked by the people of Yuzhou City every year, it was never taken down.

On the sixteenth day, there was a martial arts competition hosted by the temple. On the seventeenth, the Ten Thousand Lantern Festival. And on the eighteenth, a grand procession of Buddha statues.

In short, to make the event lively, the Zen Forest Temple would do almost anything, even carrying out the statues of arhats for a parade.

The reason they didn’t carry the Buddha statue was simply because it was too heavy—they couldn’t lift it.

They even glorified it as "divine wandering to protect peace."

Although the Zen Forest Temple was wealthy, populous, and famous, such worldly behavior was uniformly despised by other temples.

Today was the first day of the temple fair, and the event was the Water Forest Dharma Assembly.

On the road to the temple fair.

Li Yingling wore a light yellow embroidered dress with two pouches hanging from her waist—one black for copper coins and one silver for loose silver.

At the moment, she held a candied hawthorn stick in her left hand and a small round fan embroidered with white lotuses on a blue background in her right, gently fanning herself.

Countless eyes couldn’t help but linger on such a radiant young woman.

But no one dared to approach her, largely because of the imposing figure following her—Li Xingtian.

This cold-faced, muscular man only needed to glare to make anyone with ill intentions back down instantly.

As a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, a single glance from him was enough to terrify ordinary people.

Li Xingtian, dressed in black casual attire, was carrying a candied hawthorn stick rack for his senior sister.

"Sorry, these candied hawthorns aren’t for sale," Li Xingtian said with a slightly helpless expression, refusing a child who wanted to buy one.

Li Yingling turned her head and saw that the one wanting to buy the candied hawthorn was a six or seven-year-old child. She waved her fan generously and said, "It’s fine, junior brother. Give her one."

The little girl happily accepted the candied hawthorn and said, "Thank you, uncle and sister."

Li Xingtian was speechless. Why did she call his senior sister "sister" but call him "uncle"? Did the age difference really look that big?

Li Yingling smiled with satisfaction and said, "Well, wasn’t that little girl adorable?"

"If she were mute, maybe," Li Xingtian replied with a hint of resignation.

Watching the little girl turn around to find her parents with a big smile, Li Yingling nodded in satisfaction. "That last remark was very much in the style of our master. Though, if it were him, he’d probably snatch the candied hawthorn back."

"You’re really underestimating the master," Li Xingtian said.

Li Yingling pouted unhappily and raised her eyebrows, signaling him to look to the side.

Li Xingtian glanced over.

A group of beautiful young women were surrounding a handsome man in white robes.

The chirping and giggling were audible even from a distance.

"Where do you live, young master?"

"You’re not from Yuzhou City, are you? I’ve never seen you before."

"Young master, I’ve been feeling some pain here lately. Could you take a look?"

Li Xingtian shook his head and sighed, "Didn’t you insist that the master wear the outfit you gave him before we left? He said if he wore that, he’d be surrounded by women."

"I thought he was exaggerating," Li Yingling said with dissatisfaction. "Who knew those girls would be so shameless, sticking to him like glue."

"Supposedly, this was supposed to be a sect team-building activity, but now the master’s off team-building with others."

Li Xingtian looked away and said, "Then why don’t you go pull him back, senior sister?"

"No way! Look how happy he is. He’d just blame me later!" Li Yingling said, annoyed. Then her eyes suddenly lit up.

Li Yingling saw Yaoqin walking up the slope in the distance.

Yaoqin wore an elegant white lotus-patterned dress, her smooth black hair adorned with a white jade hairpin. In her hand, she held an exquisitely crafted round fan painted with fireflies.

Her exceptional beauty and grace should have made her the center of attention at the temple fair, but the bustling crowd seemed to ignore her entirely.

Moreover, as she walked forward, the crowd naturally parted to make way for her.

The master’s unofficial lover is here!

Li Yingling chuckled inwardly. It wasn’t that the disciples didn’t want to cover for their master, but he was the one who abandoned them first!

Li Xingtian’s gaze quickly locked onto Yaoqin, and he immediately turned to warn the master.

"Junior brother," Li Yingling called out to stop him.

Li Xingtian turned to her with a questioning look.

Li Yingling covered the lower half of her face with her fan and said in a tempting tone, "You need to make the master understand that beauty is a bone-scraping knife."

Li Yingling knew her junior brother was, in the master’s words, a "steel-straight man." Though she didn’t know what had happened to him, he was particularly wary of women.

Every time he saw the master talking to a woman, he would show a hint of pity, as if the master had strayed onto the wrong path.

Hearing this, Li Xingtian paused, a conflicted expression on his face. After some hesitation, he stopped.

If it were anyone else, Li Xingtian might have ignored the suggestion, but since it came from his senior sister...

And it did seem to make some sense.

If the master got really angry, he could just blame it on his senior sister.

With that thought, Li Xingtian also stopped in his tracks.

Yaoqin quickly spotted Li Xingtian in the crowd—after all, a burly man carrying a candied hawthorn rack was hard to miss.

Her gaze shifted slightly, and she saw Li Yingling waving at her from not too far away.

Yaoqin nodded slightly in acknowledgment with her fan, then noticed with some confusion that Chu Xingchen wasn’t with them.

From a distance, Li Yingling seemed to understand her confusion and pointed her fan in a certain direction.

Yaoqin followed the direction and saw the back of a young man in white robes.

The figure was all too familiar, and with Li Yingling’s guidance, Yaoqin immediately knew who it was.

Well, well, well.

So this is how you "accompany your disciples" to the temple fair?

Yaoqin tightened her grip on the white jade handle of her fan and strode toward Chu Xingchen.

As she got closer, she could hear the women surrounding him.

"You really are a master! What you said was spot on. Could you take a closer look at my career line and see how it’s going?"

A voluptuous woman in a dress was practically leaning on Chu Xingchen, her hand hovering ambiguously, making it unclear who was taking advantage of whom.

Chu Xingchen looked down at the woman’s hand and smiled, "The true career line isn’t seen in the palm."

"Then where is it seen?"

A cold voice interrupted.

Chu Xingchen, thinking it was another woman, didn’t pay much attention and teased, "Guess..."

The woman in the dress blushed slightly, covering her face and cooing, "Master, you’re so naughty!"

"The career line is seen there?!"

The cold, angry voice came again, and this time it was all too familiar.

Chu Xingchen quickly turned toward the source of the voice.

There stood Yaoqin, smiling with a hint of menace in her eyes.