Song Jixing received Xu Kai's phone call early in the morning. The person on the phone sounded depressed: "...Got notified of the postponement first thing in the morning, didn't even say when it would be rescheduled. I reckon this thing's a bust."
"Oh right, did you see the news? The film studio closed down last night, and a lot of forests and scenic spots have been shut down too. They said it was for fire safety inspections! There are a lot more police patrolling the streets, seems like some important figure is coming to town."
It was unclear whether the last part was hearsay from Xu Kai, or his own guess.
Song Jixing gave him a simple response in a couple of sentences. Xu Kai was still rambling away over there: "Now there are more restrictions on organizing events too! Early this morning I heard my colleagues say many previously confirmed outdoor events were directly cancelled..."
"Less events means less pay!!!" Xu Kai complained.
Song Jixing glanced at the call time, 19 minutes 18 seconds, his first long call.
Still, Song Jixing reassured him in a few sentences: "Don't worry, it'll get better soon!"
There was a long sigh from the other end of the phone before he finally hung up.
The sigh had barely ended when shrieks sounded from the house.
Song Jixing clearly heard the shriek coming from Elder Bai, and there were even sounds of cheers after.
Bai Ling: "...You're saying the Sect Leader and other Elders aren't here! Wonderful! Hahahaha..."
The clear, silver bell-like laughter echoed throughout the house.
It made Song Jixing rather worried!
When Song Jixing came to the living room on the first floor, Bai Ling was still wearing yesterday's robes, slippers on her feet. She was sprawled lazily on the sofa, messily chewing on the snacks on the table.
Beside her, Xiang Zhi sat upright, pouring tea and serving water.
Qi Yun stood to the side, looking utterly helpless.
Seeing Song Jixing, Bai Ling casually greeted, "Nephew Song, you've come at the right time. Can you arrange a car to take me out to see the mortal world that's so different!"
Bai Ling spoke very naturally, showing no discomfort at all from having just arrived or being unable to use spiritual energy.
But now was not the time for carefree wandering!
The city was already under martial law!
Song Jixing sat down on the sofa beside and explained the current situation very seriously to Bai Ling.
Like, there were surveillance cameras here, and they had no ID.
And, spiritual energy had revived here, so they couldn't use it.
The most crucial problem was they were broke, couldn't take a single step without money.
Song Jixing felt like a parent trying to coax a 3-year-old who wanted candy but couldn't have it, racking her brains to tell little Bai Ling they were poor and couldn't afford it.
But there was still room for compromise, "Elder Bai, why not first get familiar with the house here, and I'll take you out in a few days? If you go out alone, it'd be inconvenient if anything happens."
Although Bai Ling was fooling around, she still understood priorities. Otherwise she wouldn't have become Peak Lord. "Then I'll have to trouble Nephew Song."
The two reached an agreement on this matter. Song Jixing handed Bai Ling a tablet and taught her how to surf the Internet. Xiang Zhi watched by the side.
During the time Song Jixing was being a thoughtful surfing instructor, she caught some subtle clues from Bai Ling's way of speaking.
This Elder Bai did not seem to actually be human, neither was Xiang Zhi.
It was not uncommon in the cultivation world for spirit beasts who had cultivated human form with the aid of heavenly treasures.
Cultivators were not particular about such things. After all, everyone relied on their own abilities to cultivate, it wasn't a shortcut to ascend to heaven just by race.
Just as Song Jixing was thinking this, she saw Bai Ling scroll to a short video of a panda. The silly-cute panda in the screen clutched a small bowl as it drank milk.
Fortunately Bai Ling wasn't interested in the video, directly scrolling past it.
The afternoon entertainment was a lot simpler. Shen Fei brought everyone a restored high definition video to watch.
It was a scene of a mouse running past a street lamp, and two men blindly searching for it like the blind men touching an elephant.
Upon hearing of the mouse's deeds, Bai Ling was rather disdainful: "It awakened its spiritual wisdom, yet it's so useless? All it thinks about is cats!"
"The rats where we're from are just as useless. So many years have passed, not to mention ascension, I haven't even seen a handful with Nascent Souls, can't even make it onto the Hundred Beasts List! Such a loss of face!"
It was undifferentiated fire.
What surprised Song Jixing was that after Bai Ling toured the spiritual gathering array here and learned Song Jixing and the others couldn't see the spiritual energy, she smiled and threw out a hook to Song Jixing.
"Since you can cultivate here, I have a cultivation method that may let you see some things, want to give it a try?"
Song Jixing naturally wanted to. Being able to clearly see the spiritual energy of this world would save a lot of trouble.
However, there were no free lunches under the sky.
Song Jixing nodded honestly. "I do!"
-
Bai Ling liked drinking and wanted to try the fine wine of the mortal world.
Song Jixing thought for a bit then brought her to the largest supermarket in Y City.
The shelves of the supermarket held all kinds of wine.
As was a girl's nature, when seeing fresh things she had never seen before, she would want to try them out.
Aside from wine, Bai Ling pointed out everything along the way she was curious about. It took a full five carts before everything she wanted to see was loaded up.
Because there were so many things, the supermarket specially arranged a cashier just for them to scan the items.
While waiting to pay, Bai Ling still looked around the cashier area curiously.
Not far away, a young couple stood there, the woman holding flowers waiting outside while the man paid. After he finished, he came out holding a gift box which he handed to the woman.
Extremely happy, the woman affectionately kissed the man: "Thank you darling~"
Man: "Babe, I'll buy anything you like!"
Bai Ling looked at them, seemingly in thought as she shifted her gaze to Song Jixing beside her and huskily called him nephew.
Song Jixing was wholly focused on picking out items from the cart.
Deaf in the ears, can't hear anything!
On the drive back, Song Jixing was stopped by traffic police for the first time in a while. They quickly checked all the documents and items in the back.
It seemed all passing vehicles were being searched, so the whole process was very fast.
At the end, the officer also reminded the two people in the back seat to put their seatbelts on.
After the car window slowly rolled up, Bai Ling grumbled and complained, "How annoying!"
It had indeed been pretty annoying recently, but all within expectations.
Bai Ling: "Nephew Song, do you still have those identity tokens? Get me a few too!"
Bai Ling went straight for the crux on the first day.
Although officers on the road would usually just check the driver, at least for now, Song Jixing did not plan on making fake IDs.
She didn't have that skill.
Song Jixing: "Elder Bai, wait a few more days."
Bai Ling nodded without pursuing the issue further.
They couldn't use the spiritual energy here, and had no money. They were even more paralyzed than ordinary people.
At least Song Jixing could still cultivate, there was hope.
After watching the scenery outside the window for a while, Bai Ling seemed to recall something. "Oh right, your master came drinking today too. Don't know if seeing this explosion, he'll come faster..."
Song Jixing looked at the steering wheel she had accidentally detached and silently reinstalled it, wrapping spiritual energy around the car to protect them as they continued forward.
