The Kind of Good That Even the Third Senior Sister Can't Compare To

The rains came, overflowing rivers and mountains.

The scorching sun came, drying up the countless forests.

Everything Went As Wished Star-Returning Sect now sought the Authorities, hoping to exchange them for their master’s return.

Everything they had lost was pain, and all pain was despair.

All that remained for everyone was an answer whose truth Bai Xuanling herself did not know.

Yet this answer of unknown truth was the only chance they had left.

No one knew how long it took Li Yingling to pull herself together.

Alone beneath the bright moon, she sipped the wine of sorrow in her heart.

Flowers bloomed and withered several times, and leaves fell and regrew again and again.

Cui Hao could not find his Third Senior Sister, but holding up this sect—which seemed small to outsiders—had consumed nearly all his strength.

San Dong kept asking where the Sect Master had gone.

Yuan Kong could no longer even sweep the fallen leaves from the doorway.

Lin Luoyu, this great Confucian cultivator, could not find the answer in his heart, nor discover what he truly ought to do.

Xie Lingyu was also fulfilling the promise she had made to Chu Xingchen.

The Only True Immortal sat in the sect, yet even she could not steady every heart.

Cui Hao had thought he could rely on his Second Senior Brother at a time like this. But one day, he too left without a word, just as their Third Senior Sister had vanished.

The sect was small, so every person within it was a core member.

The departure of their most reliable Second Senior Brother dealt yet another blow to the already scattered morale.

San Dong wept as she begged everyone not to leave Myriad Flower Ridge anymore.

Nothing in this world would ever be easy.

Cui Hao had no solution. All he could do was everything within his power.

He had Lin Luoyu take Yun Li and search nearby for the Authorities.

He said that it did not matter whether the opportunity was real or false, or how great or small it might be.

So long as they did not give up on their master, they would be able to bring him back.

Even if there was only the slightest chance, even if the road was difficult.

Lin Luoyu shouldered the task.

Within the sect, everyone was gradually assigned duties they were capable of handling—some to contact the immortal sects, others to develop the sect itself.

Lv Xuan, Xu Jin, and Yuyang gave the greatest support to Everything Went As Wished Star-Returning Sect, which had lost its backbone.

With their help, Cui Hao, alone, managed to hold up the sect despite its unsteady foundations.

Li Yingling did not keep Cui Hao waiting long. She too rekindled the hope in her heart and personally led a team to search for the Authorities.

After all, her master had once said that if one needed a miracle, one had to bravely pursue it oneself.

Cui Hao did not know how he had endured that period.

Chen Baiqing’s whereabouts were not easy to find, and Bai Xuanling knew only the general region.

It was not until later that Cui Hao received news: his Second Senior Brother was now searching for the Authorities together with his Third Senior Sister.

They crossed the Myriad Seas and the deep mountains.

According to the reports, these two senior disciples—his Second Senior Brother and Third Senior Sister—were like prophets. They always found news of the Authorities first.

Seventeen years later, Li Junzi entered the Saintly Sage Realm. At last, another Saintly Sage had appeared in this world.

After reaching the Saintly Sage Realm, Li Junzi personally inscribed the sect’s name on a plaque for Everything Went As Wished Star-Returning Sect.

At Cui Hao’s request, he also wrote several plaques bearing only the name Star-Returning Sect.

After thirty-seven years had passed, while not one of the Eighteen Immortal Sects had found anything, Second Senior Brother personally brought a scattered Authority back to the sect.

Yet when Cui Hao saw him, he discovered that white had already appeared at Li Xingtian’s temples.

Li Xingtian was already in the middle-to-late stages of the Divine Transformation Realm. His cultivation advanced at an astonishing pace, and his lifespan was long. Thirty-seven years should have passed for him like the blink of an eye, yet now his temples had turned gray.

That day, Second Senior Brother stayed at the sect for half a day.

Cui Hao asked, and Li Xingtian answered.

Cui Hao did not know how to ask, and Li Xingtian did not know how to answer.

In the end, it seemed they merely asked after each other’s well-being and told the other to take good care of himself.

Then Li Xingtian turned and left Everything Went As Wished Star-Returning Sect once more.

But Cui Hao understood. His Second Senior Brother’s departure was only so that, in the future, he would not have to leave again.

Later, Third Senior Sister’s reputation grew worse and worse. She gathered people around her, willing to pay any price and use any means for news of the Authorities.

Without her master, Third Senior Sister seemed to have returned to her old carefree self.

She also gained a new title: the White Nether Witch.

Although the title was terrifying, the Three Sects withstood all pressure, and no one was permitted to act against Chen Baiqing.

Bai Xuanling went even further, declaring:

“Whoever dares touch her will face the slaughter of the Three Sects. Not one innocent person will be spared.”

By then, Cui Hao had come to understand somewhat.

His Second Senior Brother must have known everything. That was why he had left the sect to search for Third Senior Sister.

He still wished to protect the Third Senior Sister everyone knew, and bring her back exactly as she had been when he left.

Cui Hao could only sigh.

His Second Senior Brother was, in the end, still the dependable Second Senior Brother.

Everyone’s cultivation continued to rise with the passing years.

Although Everything Went As Wished Star-Returning Sect was somewhat fragmented, Cui Hao, after careful consideration, still chose to accept new disciples.

A sect with the Only True Immortal presiding over it might have had a strange name, but it still attracted quite a few favored geniuses of heaven.

Li Yingling presided over the recruitment assemblies held across the two realms.

They accepted batches of both outer and inner disciples.

The rules established in the beginning remained unchanged:

They could be mediocre, but they could not be bad people.

Everything Went As Wished Star-Returning Sect also expanded outward, constructing one immortal tower after another.

Cui Hao, the personal disciple with the slowest cultivation progress, had unknowingly reached the late stage of the Divine Transformation Realm.

Time left traces behind, and it also left different memories.

Yet the most deeply engraved memories were the thoughts of those who could not be erased even by time.

Eighty-three years later, Eldest Senior Sister also returned with an Authority. By then, her cultivation had reached the Body Integration Realm, and she seemed to be on the verge of entering the Great Ascension Realm.

The Authorities ultimately sank into the Shattered Spirit Butterfly Jade left behind by their master.

Cui Hao reached out and touched the Shattered Spirit Butterfly Jade, feeling the cracked patterns that remained even after it had absorbed the two Authorities.

He did not know how many more they needed to find, or how long the search would last.

He did not even know whether they could bring their master back.

Sometimes Cui Hao realized that he had gradually become a man of few smiles and fewer words.

San Dong could still tug on his hair, demand that he tell her stories, and treat him exactly as she had in the beginning.

But the newly accepted disciples all described Cui Hao as stern beyond measure.

Sometimes Cui Hao would let out a quiet laugh.

Without realizing it, he seemed to have become the old fossil in other people’s eyes.

Yun Li went to the Northern Reed Continent. After being completely cleansed by the blessings of a true dragon, he joined Li Yingling’s team as well.

Everyone in the sect had their moments of leaving.

But when Cui Hao looked back carefully, it seemed he had not left the sect in a very long time.

Cui Hao, who had once loved to play and wander wherever he pleased, was now best at sitting in the main hall, handling the dull messages and affairs that came his way.

The following year, the Saintly Sage Li Junzi died of old age.

The year after that, the martial artist Qian Qing was personally buried by Yuan Kong in Myriad Flower Ridge.

After one hundred and twenty years, Profound Clarity Heavenly Sect recovered an Authority.

Cui Hao advanced into the Body Integration Realm.

Xie Lingyu entered the Great Ascension Realm.

After one hundred and thirty years, Li Yingling entered the Great Ascension Realm.

Lin Luoyu reached the late stage of the Body Integration Realm.

Xie Lingyu presided over the sect’s third disciple recruitment assembly.

After one hundred and seventy years, Cui Hao suddenly decided to build a strange ship. The materials required were of incalculable value.

He left the sect and met with forces from every direction, seeking their support.

The Three Sects and the Buddhist Sect lent their aid. Later, Dreamcloud Pavilion joined them as well.

After two hundred and ten years, Li Yingling entered the Tribulation Transcendence Realm.

She became the youngest Tribulation Transcendent cultivator in this world besides Chu Xingchen, as well as the only great cultivator of that realm in Everything Went As Wished Star-Returning Sect.

The young girl who had once followed behind Chu Xingchen had finally become one of the supreme cultivators of this world.

Lin Luoyu entered the Mahayana Realm.

Two hundred and thirty-seven years passed.

Li Xingtian, his hair now completely white, and Chen Baiqing, who had not returned for more than two centuries, came back to the Myriad Things Go As You Wish Returning Star Sect.

They also brought back the final authority.

Both of them had already reached the Mahayana Realm, and it seemed they were not far from the Tribulation Realm.

The final authority sank into the Shattered Spirit Butterfly Jade.

The Shattered Spirit Butterfly Jade became whole, complete in every way.

But it still failed to bring their master back.

Chen Baiqing said nothing and left alone.

Li Xingtian remained silent for three days before leaving the sect as well.

Li Yingling, now in the Tribulation Realm, sat quietly beneath the moon.

No matter how high one's cultivation reached, there still seemed to be dreams forever beyond one's grasp.

Cui Hao did not lose heart.

Two hundred and forty years passed.

The Nai River Shuttle, which Cui Hao had spent decades constructing, was finally completed.

It took him two years to track down Li Xingtian. Through Li Xingtian, he then found Chen Baiqing, who had nearly vanished from the world.

Cui Hao said that he had found a way to bring their master back.

That day, Cui Hao used every means at his disposal to activate the complete Shattered Spirit Butterfly Jade. Taking all of Chu Xingchen's direct disciples, as well as Xie Lingyu, he entered the River of Ten Thousand Dao aboard the Nai River Shuttle.

Cui Hao, who had never liked reading,

read ten thousand volumes of On the Heavenly Dao and memorized ten thousand cultivation compendiums.

He comprehended everything his master had left behind.

Perhaps all he wanted

was to say one thing to his master:

Master and I are the best in the world.

The kind of best that even Third Senior Sister can't compare with.