Chapter 86

New Era 5012 was nearing its end.

With the new year soon to arrive, the entire cultivation world grew lively.

When Song Yi got out of bed, she rubbed her eyes and looked out the window, nearly suspecting she had transmigrated again.

After a single night, the scenery outside had completely changed. Beautiful silver flowers floated in the air, and the spiritual plant greenery outside had turned into brilliantly blooming red flowers—the same species as the big red flower that had previously been pinned to Song Yi’s chest.

This ornamental spiritual plant was known as the flower of the cultivation world, because it could barely survive in environments corroded by the Void. With its tenacious vitality, it was treated as a symbol of life and courage.

Right now, the spiritual flowers blooming outside were opening and closing, exhaling and absorbing spiritual energy.

And Song Yi could also see quite a few cultivators flying outside on swords. Had Cloud City not always forbidden sword-riding?

Song Yi turned to look around the room. She was indeed still in Wenwen’s house. She hurriedly woke Li Wenwen, who was still sound asleep. “Wenwen, wake up. Hurry, look outside.”

Li Wenwen was still her old self, sliding deeper under the covers and refusing to communicate with her.

Usually, Song Yi would have left her alone, but the sky outside had practically changed. How could Song Yi let her keep sleeping?

With practiced ease, she dragged Li Wenwen out from under the blanket—do not ask why she was so practiced at it—then took a tuft of Roundy’s fur out of her storage pouch and placed it by Li Wenwen’s nostrils.

Li Wenwen let out a huge sneeze and woke up with tears in her eyes. “Little Song Yi, you always get up so early. No wonder you never grow taller!”

Usually, if Song Yi heard that, she would definitely have to argue properly with her. What did she mean, never grow taller? She just had not started growing yet!

But that was not the point today. She dragged Li Wenwen to the window. “Look! It changed outside!”

Unexpectedly, the moment Li Wenwen saw the scene outside, she sprang up and woke completely. “I almost forgot from playing too much. New Year’s coming! Woohoo!”

New Year?

“Little Yi, you’ve never spent New Year outside before, so you don’t know yet. New Year is our liveliest holiday! You’re going to be a year older too. You’re a big kid now.”

Li Wenwen imitated the tone her parents used when speaking to her in the past as she instructed Song Yi.

Of course Song Yi knew what New Year was. She just did not understand what was so worth celebrating.

Cultivators had long lifespans. A year was like the flick of a finger. If they entered seclusion, several decades would pass. Could it be they would still come out specially to celebrate New Year?

Cultivators of the Old Era did not have the custom of celebrating New Year, and neither did Song Yi. Ordinary commoners did, but before Song Yi began cultivating, she had not liked New Year very much either, because it often fell in the depths of winter. For a beggar child, winter was still a little too hard to endure.

Song Yi said suspiciously, “If New Year is celebrated every single year, then converted into an ordinary person’s lifespan and rounded off, doesn’t that basically mean celebrating New Year every day?”

The thought in her mind that “this cultivation world is doomed” was about to start hopping around again.

How could these people live so slackly?

When Li Wenwen listened to people talk, she only listened for the key point. She immediately asked with great interest, “Where can you celebrate New Year every day? I want to go!”

Song Yi pressed her furry, bedhead-exploded head a little farther away. “This place already counts as celebrating New Year every day!”

She could still understand celebrations like the sect exhibition, because their fundamental purpose was still promotion and development. But making such a big fuss about celebrating New Year seemed to have no meaning in itself.

She was already content with everyday life and did not really understand where Li Wenwen’s excitement came from.

Looking at Song Yi’s indifferent reaction, Li Wenwen was heartbroken. “Little Yi, this is called a sense of ceremony! No matter how long or short your life is, you have to live every year properly. That is the meaning of New Year!”

She had decided. She absolutely had to let Song Yi properly experience the charm of New Year!

Li Wenwen quickly changed clothes and dragged Song Yi out the door.

Naturally, the changes outside were all preparations for the New Year celebration.

During the week of New Year, many bans would be lifted.

For example, sword-riding flight was forbidden in the city, but this week, everyone could freely ride swords.

For example, official stalls in the city normally had to go through formal application, approval, and payment procedures, but during New Year, all the streets and alleys radiating outward from Cloud City’s central plaza could freely set up stalls, forming a celebration street.

Stalls were not limited to buying and selling. They could be pure performances, casual giveaways, or perhaps some great power with nothing better to do might even come to hand out opportunities and bask in the festive luck.

Everyone could use their identity token to vote for their favorite stall. The three most popular stalls would receive additional rewards.

Earning money? Rewards?

Song Yi, whose money had just been ruined by her inner demon, immediately began thinking. “Looks like it’s time to make a wave of money!”

But the moment she finished speaking, Li Wenwen dragged her away. “This time, Little Yi, just have fun properly. Don’t be assimilated by unscrupulous merchants.”

Song Yi did not know whether it was her imagination, but when they went out, she felt like there were many more people on the street.

This was part of the reason sword-riding flight had been opened. During New Year, the city basically became very congested, and it was inconvenient for everyone to use travel artifacts.

Although swift-walking boots and swift-walking talismans were useful too, sword-riding made it easier to divert the flow of traffic. Besides, some aerial performances also could not do without sword-riding flight.

Li Wenwen held her sword dashingly. “Little Yi, today I’ll take you for a ride!”

Song Yi recalled the scenes from some time ago when she had taught Li Wenwen sword-riding, only for accidents to happen again and again. For the safety of both themselves and everyone else, she silently took out her own sword.

Considering that Li Wenwen’s ambition was to join the swordball team and become a star player, Song Yi had no choice but to worry a little about the future of Cloud Elementary’s swordball team.

But looking on the bright side, given her flying style of crashing wildly everywhere, perhaps directly smashing apart the opposing team’s formation was some kind of new tactic.

“Little Yi, you’ve changed. You actually look down on my sword now.” Li Wenwen gave a fake coquettish whine, then swiftly climbed onto Song Yi’s sword. “Hehe, this is my exclusive seat. Little Yi, help me overtake them!”

She knew Song Yi’s sword-riding ability. It was a bit of a pity that she could not ride her own sword, but hitching a ride on Song Yi’s sword gave her tons of face.

Song Yi was in charge of riding the sword, while Li Wenwen was in charge of directing. “This way, this way.”

“Take that person down!”

Li Wenwen was practically busy to death. While directing, she did not forget to pull aggro. “No way, no way. There can’t really be someone who can’t even overtake a seven-year-old child’s sword, right?”

“Too slow. Let’s switch opponents.”

This really did attract quite a few cultivators who wanted to compete.

And so, a long tail appeared behind Song Yi. From a distance, it looked like one lead bird was guiding the flock.

Because everyone wanted to overtake Song Yi, once too many people crowded together, accidents easily occurred.

With Song Yi’s sword-riding ability, this had absolutely no effect on her. No matter how dangerous the situation was, she could avoid it.

If she could not even control a sword properly, then she would have been a sword cultivator all these years for nothing.

But the people behind her might not necessarily have her level of control. Within a few minutes, someone crashed into someone else. Because there were so many people, what formed was a chain reaction.

Although everyone was wearing magical robes, and those riding swords were cultivators rather than ordinary people without cultivation, nothing serious would happen. The thick-skinned cultivators could get through it after taking some pills. But it would still alert the patrol police to come collect fines and determine who was responsible for the accident to prevent later disputes.

Zhang Xuan and Li Xiu were on duty.

During New Year, among the Human Realm’s three major systems, the Ministry of Education and the Sect Supervision and Administration Committee were basically on break, but the City Defense Department was at its busiest. The Police Bureau belonged to the City Defense Department, and the two of them were on duty almost every day.

Starting today, sword-riding flight was allowed, so there were even more matters to handle.

When they heard that a fairly large flying accident had occurred at a certain location, the two hurried over. Once they saw the “lead sheep” at the front, they were both speechless. Why were you two everywhere?

Of course, Song Yi was completely innocent. She had neither hit anyone nor been hit. The others’ skills were lacking. What did that have to do with a little kid like her?

You ask why these people were chasing them?

This was probably just their unique charm for causing trouble.

Looking at the innocent-faced little children, Zhang Xuan and Li Xiu’s hearts once again began itching to grab them and make them volunteers. If these two little cubs settled down, everyone could probably save themselves a lot of trouble.

Fortunately, though the children were troublemaking children, the adults were still reliable adults.

Zhang Xuan and Li Xiu both knew that the New Year celebration was the day children liked most, so in the end, they did not stretch their demonic claws toward them. They only reminded them, “Pay attention to safety.”

Song Yi proudly puffed out her chest. “I don’t have a problem. You should go remind other people.”

Compared with them, it did seem like other people’s safety was more worth worrying about.

Li Xiu could not hold back and rubbed her head. “Showing off now, are you? I’m telling you to also pay a little attention to other people’s safety.”

Song Yi bobbed her head, looking fully pleased with herself. She was relying on her own ability to mess around.

Then Li Xiu added, “But… have fun too.”

Although Song Yi looked as if she had not taken his words to heart at all, once she turned back, she asked Li Wenwen, “Come to think of it, what was our destination again?”

Li Wenwen had a destination at first, but once they started playing, she forgot it. She dared to direct blindly, and Song Yi dared to listen.

Li Wenwen was still a little unsatisfied, but she also remembered that today’s main purpose was to take Song Yi out to have fun, so she recalled the destination she had tossed aside. “Let’s go to the central plaza!”

From far away, Song Yi saw an enormous crowd in front of a certain stall. When she looked more carefully, she actually saw Tie Yuan.

“What’s he doing there?”

These past two days, Tie Yuan seemed to have been muttering about something with Lin Ze, but Song Yi did not know the specific details.

After they got closer, she finally discovered that this extremely popular stall was actually a haircut stall.

Why was it so popular?

First, this was a stall opened by the legendary Barber Hero.

That was right. Under Lin Ze’s instigation, Barber Hero Li Yang and the other students had occupied this stall.

Second, Tie Yuan had become the image ambassador here.

Some time ago, a patch of his forehead had gone bald. Li Yang had been unable to restrain himself and volunteered to help him change to a hairstyle that he was very satisfied with. Lin Ze then used money to tempt Tie Yuan, and Tie Yuan failed to resist the temptation, so he came.

With him standing here as the face of the stall, even if Li Yang and the others shaved everyone’s hair into a dog-gnawed hairstyle, everyone could endure it.

Lining up in a long queue was no problem. More time to interact with Tie Yuan was good too! Even if Tie Yuan’s business attitude was not proactive, it still did not affect this stall’s explosive popularity.

Once Song Yi arrived, she naturally had the privilege of skipping the line.

The people in line had objections, so Li Yang said, “But she’s the person who created Barber Hero.”

Song Yi covered her face. She had not created Barber Hero. She had only wanted to let sword Dao flourish. It was these people who had gone astray!

Tie Yuan also raised his little short paws and said, “She is my caretaker.”

Was that not worth special treatment?

Everyone immediately had no objections.

Li Wenwen stroked Song Yi’s long hair and said, “We need to give Little Yi a hairstyle that’s different from before and super cute and super handsome.”

The moment one heard this kind of requirement that seemed to say everything but actually said nothing at all, one knew Li Wenwen was the kind of especially troublesome client.

Li Yang stroked his chin, gestured twice around Song Yi’s face, and cut her hair into a mushroom cut.

It was not the slightest bit handsome, but it was even cuter than before.

As for Li Wenwen, she bought a magical treasure that could constantly change her hair color. She herself was very satisfied with it, but Song Yi thought that in the dark, she looked like a colorful lamp.

Forget it. As long as she was happy.

After fussing over hairstyles, it was time to fuss over clothes.

Under Li Wenwen’s direction, Song Yi was like a clothes-changing puppet. In the end, they finally settled on the New Year limited matching outfit from Fairy Dress-Up.

It had red as the base color, with silver edging embedded along the skirt hem and sleeve borders. The year 5013 was outlined in bold, sweeping strokes, grand yet exquisite.

This made Song Yi strongly suspect that Wenwen was treating her like a game.

But Li Wenwen’s eye was indeed very good. After the two of them put on the sister outfits, the other customers all looked over. “We want this set too.”

“Wuwuwu, Little Yi, you’re so cute.” Li Wenwen hugged Song Yi’s face and rubbed against it.

Song Yi proudly lifted her chin. “Cuteness is worth nothing in front of strength.”

Powerful was the adjective for her.

That was what she said, but in the next second, she took out the big red flower she had received as a previous reward from her storage pouch and pinned it to her chest. It actually matched better than any other accessory.

Li Wenwen: …

Her Little Yi was so smug.

Lin Ze popped out from who knew where and stared at them with burning eyes. “You two were the flying monsters who left everyone in the dust just now, right? Can I tie an ad banner to your sword? I’ll pay ad fees.”

He had more principal now and no longer ran errands himself. Instead, he had invested in quite a few small stalls, such as Li Yang and the others’ haircut stall, but he was still just as busy running in circles.

Li Wenwen rolled her eyes hugely at him. “Don’t come and pollute Little Yi!”

Hands on her hips, she said, “We changed this much, but the moment you showed up, all you did was mention ads. You didn’t even praise us a couple of times… I can already foresee that you’re destined to be single forever.”

Lin Ze glanced at her. “I’ll borrow your auspicious words?”

Women would only affect the speed at which he earned money.

Being destined to be single forever was practically a blessing!

At that time, he was still too young and did not know that some things came with a price once spoken aloud.

Since Lin Ze had delivered himself to their door, it would not be that easy for him to leave. Li Wenwen grabbed him. “Big boss, hurry and treat us to a meal!”

Today was also a paradise for food lovers. There was no lack of all sorts of specialties and rare delicacies.

And Li Wenwen had practiced the adapted version of the Whale-Swallowing Method together with Song Yi, so they did not even need to worry about eating too much.

Lin Ze clutched his wallet and silently shed tears.

Night fell, but the streets became even livelier. More and more people slowly made their way toward the central plaza.

Not only did little gift boxes unique to the celebration begin floating through the air, but the silver flowers that had been suspended in the sky since morning started flashing. Each stall also lit up with lights of different colors, even more dazzling than the colors of daytime.

Song Yi also saw a group of sword cultivators performing a sword dance, drawing the attention of many people. Some cultivators skilled in music simply stopped and accompanied them.

Someone recognized Song Yi. “It’s the child from before who’s amazing at sword-riding! Come on, come dance with us. Who says we sword cultivators don’t have artistic cells?”

Song Yi looked bashful. Her sword had killed many people, but she had never used it to dance.

“We’ll teach you. Don’t be shy. It’s very simple.”

Li Wenwen cheerfully pushed her forward. Now it was over. She had completely lost her way out.

Song Yi felt as if her limbs were stiff, and she could not keep up with the rhythm at all.

But she was surrounded by many kind gazes. The unfamiliar uncles and aunties smiled and said, “You’re doing great, little friend. Yes, that’s right. Keep moving!”

It was true that she was unused to it. It was false that she was unsuited for it. For a sword cultivator like her, who was extremely proficient in both movement technique and sword-riding, how could she possibly be unsuited for it?

What she needed to do was rein in the sharpness of her sword, make it more peaceful, and match the other people’s music and dance steps.

Song Yi’s body gradually relaxed as she adapted to the rhythm.

Brilliant sword light surrounded her. Because the broad sword had been tempered by the power of the Heavenly Tribulation, it carried a faint blue glow, making her the brightest cub in the entire venue and winning wave after wave of cheers.

The music and dancing drew even more people to join in. It did not matter if they were not sword cultivators. They were just joining the fun anyway.

In this world, there were “meaningless” celebrations, and there would also be “useless” swords.

As Song Yi danced, a huge smile had already unconsciously appeared on her face.

When Song Yi came out, there was still a layer of pink on her face. No one knew whether she was a little embarrassed, excited, or had exercised too much.

“Wenwen is up ahead grabbing silver flowers.” Lin Ze dug her out of the crowd, or else the child might accidentally be squeezed back in.

Silver flowers were not only used as decorations. They also had another name: flowers of dreams. During the day, they absorbed the power of wishes, grew, and swelled. At night, once they had absorbed enough energy, they would fall just like gift boxes.

When one landed in a person’s palm, it would turn into the “wish” they hoped for.

If someone’s wish was to earn lots and lots of money, they would be drowned in spirit coins.

If someone’s wish was to see a certain person, that person’s appearance would appear before them.

If someone wanted to see snow, countless snowflakes would fall into their palm, and they could even have a snowball fight.

Although the illusions would dissipate before long, it was good to dream occasionally too.

Li Wenwen liked this kind of thing the most, so of course she had to join the excitement.

“Do you want to go play for a bit?” Lin Ze reminded her. He was not worried that Song Yi would be unable to grab any.

Song Yi shook her head. “I think everything truly happening right now is already as beautiful as a wish.”

Lin Ze paused and looked at Song Yi.

Her smile had a special infectious quality that made people smile along with her.

Lin Ze took out a brilliant flower of the cultivation world and handed it to Song Yi. “If you don’t like false dreams, then I’ll give you something real. Wearing this really does look good on you.”

Dong, dong, dong.

Exactly midnight.

The bell of Tianyan Sect resounded across the cultivation world’s Four Continents.

An overhead view of Cloud City appeared on the largest screen in Cloud City’s central plaza.

Li Wenwen squeezed her way back again with all her might and hooked Song Yi’s arm. “I want to celebrate New Year with Little Yi.” Seeing the flower in Song Yi’s hand, Li Wenwen’s eyes went wide. “You unscrupulous merchant, you used a freebie from a little gift box to brush someone off again! See if your stinginess doesn’t kill you!”

Lin Ze ran off in a flash.

“Little Yi, hurry and make him change it for a better gift!”

Song Yi held Li Wenwen back. “All right, it’s time to celebrate New Year.”

“New Era 5013. Congratulations to the human race, congratulations to all living beings under heaven, and congratulations to the cultivation world.”

The roar of voices overturned the sky.

Countless transparent little teacups fell into their hands. Then sweet spring water scattered across the entire city, filling the teacups in their hands. Everyone raised their cups together in a toast to heaven and earth, then drank them down in one gulp.

Song Yi’s heart surged. Was this what a sense of belonging was?

Li Wenwen was no stranger to this process and did not have any particular thoughts about it. She was even more impatient to open her identity token, rubbing her little hands together. “Red packets! Red packets!”

Song Yi had no expectations for this stage of gifts from elders, because not long ago, she had received an entire storage bracelet full of homework.

Although it was not wrong to say that knowledge was invisible wealth, but… Song Yi could not bear such a substantial gift.

Song Yi opened her identity token without much interest, then her eyes went round. The red packets here were actually not homework, but real, solid spirit coins.

Zhang Xuan, Li Xiu, Qin Yao, even Wenwen’s parents, Honest Yuan, Old Yang, and the others had all sent her red packets. The red packets were big and small, but all at once, they filled up her deflated wallet again.

Song Yi could not help thinking: It seemed celebrating New Year every day would actually be pretty good.

Li Wenwen counted her money, her face carrying a perfectly satisfied smile.

“Little Song Yi, happy New Year.” She raised her arm and shouted, “My New Year wish is to grow up quickly. I want to be the head of the household!”

“Happy New Year, Wenwen. My wish is to be a child forever!” Song Yi said.

Li Wenwen burst into laughter. “Little Yi, you’re so childish. I really am your big sister after all.”

Song Yi only smiled without speaking. Only children wanted to grow up. Adults only wanted to be children forever.

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