Can a Cultivation Sect's Little Darling Become Everyone's Favorite?

Chen Sui had never imagined that one day she would be surrounded by a group of seductive women, teaching her how to read erotic paintings.

It all started at the beginning.

She was the child picked up by the head of Qingyun Sect. The sect leader was a young widow. Her wife had died for the Dao when she was just twenty-seven, leaving her alone to watch over the vast main peak, so lonely that even mosquitoes were a rare sight.

Then she found Chen Sui in the snow.

That year, Chen Sui was still a little bundle of a child, soft and tiny, clutching her finger and refusing to let go.

The sect leader's heart softened.

And so Chen Sui grew up in Qingyun Sect.

Her childhood was simple: in the morning, she practiced swordsmanship with her mother; at noon, she ate in the dining hall; in the afternoon, she helped her fellow disciples with their questions; and at night, she went back to her room to sleep.

Her mother was beautiful. Though widowed for many years, she had lost none of her grace. Growing up around her, Chen Sui learned to treat people with gentle courtesy. Her eyes curved into crescents when she smiled, and she spoke softly. She had never quarreled with anyone.

Her senior female disciples called her Little Sui Junior Sister, while her junior disciples called her Senior Sister Qingxuan. Everyone liked her.

No one paid attention to what that kind of “liking” felt like.

Not until the spring she turned fifteen.

A junior sister from the neighboring Sword Sect came to deliver an invitation. Chen Sui gave her directions, and when the girl turned to look at her, she blushed.

The next day, she showed up carrying a food box and brought a pot of tremella and lotus seed soup.

On the third day, it was osmanthus-scented glutinous rice lotus root.

On the fourth day, it was fermented rice balls.

Chen Sui was deeply touched. What a nice junior sister.

On the fifth day, the junior sister did not come. Her mother did.

“Sui Sui,” the sect leader began carefully, “what's going on between you and that girl from the Sword Sect?”

Chen Sui thought for a moment and answered honestly, “She brought me food, and I ate it.”

The sect leader was silent for a moment, then waved her away.

Chen Sui thought the matter was over.

Until, somehow, a handkerchief embroidered with mandarin ducks playing in water appeared outside Chen Sui's door.

The sect leader burned it, her brows furrowed so deeply they could have crushed a fly.

“Sui Sui,” she said, “tell me honestly. What did you do to that girl?”

Chen Sui protested, “I didn't do anything.”

The sect leader stared at her for a long time.

If you hadn't done anything, why was that girl insisting she would marry no one but you?

She didn't believe it.

But what she didn't know was that this was only the beginning.

The year Chen Sui turned seventeen, the Grandmaster's Dao companion came to stay on Qingyun Peak.

She was a beauty as cold as ice, a five-hundred-year-old woman who looked no older than thirty, graceful as a white plum blossom blooming in the snow.

Her name was Yun Qian.

Chen Sui saw her once on the training grounds, gave her a proper bow, then went on with whatever she had been doing.

That night, someone knocked on her door.

She opened it, and Yun Qian stood outside.

Beneath the moonlight, she wore a plain white cloak and held out something neatly folded, thin and satin, embroidered with curling lotus vines.

“For you,” she said.

Chen Sui froze.

Yun Qian turned and left.

She closed the door and unfolded the neatly folded item.

It was a bellyband.

Bright red, embroidered with twin lotus blossoms.

Chen Sui stood there, stunned, unable to understand why a woman would give her a bellyband.

She remembered that this senior was famous for being cold-hearted and detached. Countless suitors had pursued her for centuries without success.

What had she been thinking?

Who knew? In any case, she left the next day.

Her mother's expression grew more and more complicated whenever she looked at Chen Sui.

“Have you been secretly practicing some wicked cultivation technique?” she asked.

Chen Sui shook her head.

“Then why do you...”

Her mother could not finish.

She couldn't exactly say, “You haven't done anything, yet women keep throwing themselves at you one after another.”

It was absurd.

Life went on. Chen Sui continued practicing and studying, continued being gentle and polite, and continued smiling whenever she met someone.

Only the way women looked at her grew more and more strange.

The widow who sold tofu in the town below the mountain gave her two extra pieces. The sect's eldest senior sister mended her clothes for her. A little girl of eleven or twelve in the teahouse blushed whenever she saw Chen Sui and brewed her tea three times stronger than everyone else's.

Her fellow female disciples began avoiding her.

One junior sister confided in her that whenever anyone got too close to Chen Sui, the junior sister's Dao companion would start arguing with her.

Chen Sui: “...”

She really hadn't done anything.

But she just couldn't figure out what she had “done” by doing nothing at all.

The turning point came in the autumn of the year she turned seventeen.

A seductive woman from the Hehuan Sect passed by Qingyun Peak.

The mountain-protecting formation activated, and eighteen young women surrounded her. She remained unruffled, leaning against an old pine tree with a lazy smile.

Chen Sui happened to be leaving the Scripture Pavilion and glanced over from a distance.

The woman was stunningly beautiful, dressed in a pomegranate-red gown. Her eyes and brows were full of alluring charm, like peach blossom wine in the third month of spring.

Chen Sui looked away and continued on her way.

She had barely taken two steps when laughter rang out behind her.

“Stop.”

Chen Sui halted and turned around.

At some point, the seductive woman had appeared behind her, only three feet away.

“Born with a bewitching bone,” she murmured. “Little succubus, do you know who you are?”

Chen Sui shook her head.

“You're a child of the Hehuan Sect.” She grabbed Chen Sui's sleeve. “No, that's not all. You're a natural-born succubus, the kind who appears only once in a hundred years!”

She laughed, swaying with mirth.

“Now I understand. How could a place like this backwater mountain produce someone like you?” she said. “Little sister, do you want to know why those women can't move on when they see you? Do you want to know how that bellyband ended up outside your door?”

Chen Sui's eyes darted elsewhere.

Her mother's sword light was cleaving toward them.

The seductive woman dodged it, then quickly whispered in Chen Sui's ear, “If you want to know the truth, come find me at the Hehuan Sect. My name is Hong Luan, and I'm at the Zuihua Yin peak.”

Then she transformed into a streak of light and vanished into the sky.

That night, Chen Sui knelt before her mother.

“Mother,” she said, “I need to know who I am.”

The sect leader was silent for a long time, then nodded.

“Go.”

She gave Chen Sui a storage pouch. Inside were spirit stones, a change of clothes, and a cultivation manual that had been left in Chen Sui's swaddling clothes.

Her family belonged to the Hehuan Sect.

Theme: Promote love and justice.