“I’ve never suffered this kind of humiliation in my entire life—cough, cough…”
Si Zhuo leaned weakly against the wall, eyes closed as he tried to catch his breath.

 

Zhu Yin gave him a strange look, then lowered her head and continued rummaging through her embroidered pouch.

 

“You should’ve stayed at the academy. Now look at this—you finally took some medicine, and it’s all been wasted.”

 

“By the way, why haven’t the instructors shown up yet?” Luan Ling frowned in thought. “How are we supposed to deal with that deaf idiot…”

 

It was obvious Guan Mo couldn’t stop Fuli. A Divine Lord wasn’t a title earned for nothing—let alone for people like them.

 

“Senior Sister, what are you looking for?” Luan Ling asked, noticing Zhu Yin had been digging in that pouch for quite a while.

 

Zhu Yin didn’t answer. She let her actions speak instead—

 

She pulled out a suona.

 

Luan Ling froze.

 

She really should have realized this earlier. Her senior sister… wasn’t exactly normal either.

 

“Step back,” Zhu Yin said coolly.

 

She rose onto her toes and ascended into the air.

 

It was a scene of pure immortality—except for the suona in her hand, which somehow made everything feel… complicated. As if an indescribable force had been added to the picture.

 

“Senior Sister, what are you—”

 

Before Luan Ling could finish her question, the most action-oriented member of Qilin Hall gave her the answer.

 

Zhu Yin began playing funeral music.

 

The moment the suona sounded, a profound sorrow swept through the world—heart-piercing, as though a god had fallen and all creation had fallen silent.

 

Luan Ling glanced at Zhu Yin, then at the guards at the gate who were trying to rush forward to stop her, and waved her hand, releasing divine power.

 

She couldn’t fight proper Divine Lords or Immortal Lords—but guards? That was doable. Even weakened, she was still a god.

 

Si Zhuo, standing nearby, was about to raise his hand when Luan Ling snapped, “Don’t move! I’d like to live a few more years!”

 

He shot her a look, lowered his hand—

 

Then suddenly raised it higher.

 

A burst of searing flames erupted from his palm, nearly scorching Luan Ling.

 

The heat was terrifying.

 

She hurriedly stepped aside, watching as his flames sent the guards flying, then darkened in color as they devoured the mansion’s main gate. Cracks appeared in the barrier.

 

“You can use dragonfire now?” Luan Ling stared at him in shock. “Then why can’t I use my usual control abilities?”

 

Si Zhuo didn’t answer.

 

His face was deathly pale, yet the smile on his lips grew increasingly unhinged. Bathed in firelight, Luan Ling suddenly felt like she was the villain.

 

This isn’t going to turn into some ‘awakening gone wrong’ disaster, is it…?

 

Fortunately, after casting the spell, Si Zhuo merely closed his eyes and staggered back a few steps, exhausted. Luan Ling reacted quickly and caught him.

 

“Why won’t this fire go out?!” several young immortals shouted in panic, desperately casting spells to suppress it—without success.

 

The flames burned through the barrier. Zhu Yin’s mournful suona echoed across the heavens. Before long, many immortals arrived to investigate.

 

Luan Ling didn’t manage to escape.

 

“YOU AGAIN!”

 

An academy instructor recognized Si Zhuo immediately and grabbed him angrily. “We haven’t even settled your last mess, and you’re causing trouble here again?!”

 

Luan Ling: …Innocent. Truly.

 

“Immortal Lord… putting out the fire is more important,” she said weakly.

 

The immortal shot her a glare and rushed off to deal with the flames.

 

Last time, they couldn’t extinguish them completely, but they’d learned how to contain the spread. This time, things wouldn’t get that bad.

 

The immortal raised his hand and summoned water—

 

And to everyone’s surprise, the raging fire was actually extinguished.

 

Does he have the potential to become the next Water God?!

 

He stared at his own hands in disbelief before hurrying off to extinguish more fires, following the trail inward.

 

The situation had clearly escalated. Zhu Yin stopped playing and vanished into the chaos.

 

Luan Ling looked at the still-burning gate, then at the unconscious Si Zhuo. After weighing her options, she supported him and slipped away.

 

---

 

“Caused trouble again?”

 

The moment they returned to the academy, Duguxian’s voice echoed in Luan Ling’s consciousness.

 

She supported Si Zhuo through the corridor and entered Bamboo Grove Pavilion.

 

Li Xiao sat at his desk, his expression complicated as he looked at them.

 

Luan Ling helped Si Zhuo sit down, took out a pill from a porcelain bottle, stuffed it into his mouth, poured in water, and deftly covered his mouth while tilting his head back.

 

Once he swallowed, she let go, allowing him to collapse onto the desk, then obediently returned to her seat.

 

“Instructor, we didn’t cause trouble,” Luan Ling said preemptively. “The trouble came to us.”

 

Duguxian fanned himself. “I went to the back mountain to deal with a few demons. By the time I got back, you’d already reached the final chapter?”

 

When he’d returned to find the academy completely empty, he’d been utterly dumbfounded.

 

Only then did Li Xiao notice the dark bloodstains on Duguxian’s rolled-up pant legs.

 

So he’d been fighting—that explained why they couldn’t reach him.

 

“Instructor, a mortal was smuggled into the Celestial Realm,” Li Xiao said, defending his juniors. “We only intervened with Teacher Ju’s approval.”

 

Duguxian fanned himself faster, unsure how to describe the situation.

 

“Honestly, you all handled the emergency quite well,” he said. “If Zhu Yin hadn’t spoken up, I wouldn’t have imagined a Divine Lord daring to commit such a crime.”

 

Love affairs were just gossip to ordinary immortals. Rational ones immediately thought about oversight failures at higher levels.

 

Speaking of recklessness—

 

Duguxian looked at Luan Ling with disappointment. “The elders haven’t even decided how to punish you for the last fire you set in the academy—and now you’ve set another one. Are you planning a full-blown rebellion against the heavens?”

 

Luan Ling: I—

 

She glanced at Si Zhuo, who was already awake and calmly drinking water, utterly speechless.

 

“This time things have blown up,” Duguxian said. “I’ll take you to the Council of Elders early. Maybe we can get a lighter sentence.”

 

He turned to Li Xiao. “Xiao Li, take your junior sisters to review their studies. I’m bringing your junior brother to the elders.”

 

“Yes, Instructor,” Li Xiao replied worriedly.

 

“What are you waiting for? Move,” Duguxian said to Luan Ling.

 

She followed numbly, glaring back at the true culprit on the way out.

 

Si Zhuo raised an eyebrow and gave her a sympathetic smile.

 

---

 

“So that was your reason for setting the fire.”

 

Luan Ling recited her carefully prepared justification word by word, facing the assembled elders.

 

Seeing them was exhausting. It always had been.

 

“So you nearly burned down a Divine Lord’s residence just to save one person?” an elderly immortal asked.

 

“Yes,” Luan Ling replied. “If a life could be saved, it was worth it.”

 

“And what about the other immortals who could have died?” he pressed. “How do you account for that?”

 

Inside the residence?

 

Luan Ling’s eyes widened. She distinctly remembered the fire being confined to the front gate—and controlled afterward.

 

“I never set fire inside,” she said. “I only meant to draw attention. If I’d truly intended destruction, the entire estate would’ve been ashes.”

 

“But the academy reports say the fire spread into the inner residence.”

 

…That bastard.

 

Luan Ling froze. She had nothing to say.

 

“Arson, severe circumstances, and no remorse,” the Grand Elder declared, flicking his whisk. “I hear you helped build structures in Qilin Hall. You will personally repair the buildings you damaged.”

 

“Three days,” he added. “If it’s not completed, you will no longer remain in the heavens.”

 

With that, he departed. The other elders voiced no objections—clearly a decision already made.

 

“But Grand Elder,” an immortal reported urgently, “the fire inside Fuli’s residence was an illusion. Why punish her for that as well?”

 

“It was just for show,” a female elder said lightly. “That brat is far too unruly. Without a proper warning, he’ll end up burning down the Divine Palace one day.”

 

“But isn’t repairing buildings too light a punishment?” the immortal asked.

 

The elder smiled. “Just wait. The elders know what they’re doing.”

 

After the judgment, Luan Ling seriously considered jumping off the Southern Heavenly Gate.

 

Duguxian patted her shoulder. “They’ve already gone easy on you. Repairing buildings shouldn’t be difficult for you.”

 

He added softly, “I’ll have the other three help you when they can.”

 

Instructor… that’s not the point.

 

Luan Ling felt utterly dejected.

 

She’d been wronged—yet from a practical standpoint, nothing was incorrect. That was the worst part.

 

If she looked at it optimistically, this at least offset the ten lashes Si Zhuo had taken from the Empress.

 

Still, no matter how she thought about it, she felt she’d lost out.

 

So when they returned to the academy, she glared at Si Zhuo with undisguised irritation.

 

Why did his face look more and more detestable the longer she stared?

 

That evening, during independent cultivation, Luan Ling slammed her hand onto his desk and lowered her voice.

 

“Why did you set fire inside the estate today?”

 

“So I set it,” Si Zhuo replied casually, picking up a scroll.

 

“Do you know how many immortals live there? If anything had happened, I couldn’t survive even one lash in this body!”

 

He stopped, looked her in the eye, smiling faintly. “Was the academy fire last time smaller? Did any immortals die?”

 

“That was before—you could control fire then! I can’t! If today’s fire had spread, it wouldn’t have been just one life!”

 

“You can’t control fire,” he said softly, stepping closer, “but I didn’t use my fire.”

 

He leaned in.

 

“This body of yours,” he whispered,
“is quite useful.”