“Li-Li, you need to come with us today,” Hu Die said one day. “Take the afternoon off after lunch. We’re going to meet Gu-ge. Since you’re new we need to introduce you.”

“Yes, shijie,” replied Li Mei obediently. With that, she finished as much of her chores as she could that morning and talked to Hong-Hong at lunchtime.

“Hong-Hong, I’ll be going out in a bit, okay? Can you cover for me?” asked Li Mei, getting up from her seat at the table. “I’ll make it up to you tomorrow, I promise.”

Hong-Hong looked at her jealously, her cute plump lips twitching in a childish manner.

“Are you meeting someone?” she pouted. “Li-Li, I’m so jealous. But I’ll be good and stay. Bring me back something nice, alright?”

“I will!” grinned Li Mei, sprinting off. Darting to the main hall, she met up with Hu Die and the others.

“Are you ready?” asked Hu Die, stepping on her sword. “All of you, we’ll be leaving the peak for the base of the mountains today. It’ll be a two-hour journey since we need to maintain stealth. Some of our disciple brothers and sisters have grown a bit restless as of late. Sun Ying-shidi, for example, suspects that we may have stolen his chickens which have gone missing the other day. As we can’t explain ourselves without giving what we’re cultivating away, we must be careful not to be seen.”

The girls nodded seriously at each other. Sun Ying, a younger martial brother from Sun Guang Peak, was very protective of his livestock. His whole life was invested in a dish called salted herbal chicken. As such, if any of his chickens went missing, he would go on a rampage to extort for explanations from everyone and eventually the path of the Rotten Dao would be exposed.

Nobody could fight Sun Ying. Although he was young, he was a prodigy who appeared only once in a millennium and could flatten boulders with just one swipe of his spear. Unfortunately, his chickens were often going missing, so it was an additional threat to all of them cultivating this secret path. The only one he feared was his eldest disciple brother from the same peak who was a good cook, but as none of the girls could cook as well as he could, they didn’t have any protection against this particularly frightening shidi’s potential wrath.

The girls slowly and stealthily flew down their peak. As their own peak was adjacent to that of Sun Guang Peak, it was a bit difficult to avoid flying over a portion of it. The group had to steer clear from the farmland and take a longer detour around it as opposed to flying straight over as usual.

At last, after a gruelling two hours, they arrived at the base of the immortal mountains. Nearby was a crudely erected pavilion with a man waiting under it.

“Gu-ge!” some the girls cheered, running towards him. “Did you wait long?”

“No, you’re just in time,” replied the man. “Anyway, I see a new face among you. Who may this young lady be?”

“My name is Li Mei,” Li Mei bowed courteously. “It’s nice to meet you, Gu-ge.”

“She’s just recently started cultivating the Rotten Dao,” said Min Yi, smiling. “We thought we’d bring her down the mountains and introduce her. Li-Li, this big brother here is called Gu Yang. He may not look it, but he’s actually an imperial shadow guard.”

Li Mei was shocked. “An imperial—”

Gu Yang grinned. “Don’t worry, as long as it’s not an imperial matter that’s extremely important or a kingdom’s secret, this path is fine for us to cultivate. There are quite a number of Rotten Dao cultivators in the palace. We’re each other’s ears and eyes – it’s how it is in the line of espionage.”

“Gu-ge cultivates this path too?” Li Mei was surprised. But then again, they were meeting each other to be introduced, so it only made sense.

“He’s a fussy cultivator as well,” remarked Hu Die, folding her arms with a large grin. “Li-Li, you should know that Gu-ge here only cultivates the aesthetics between high-classed men. It’s only the princes or nobles for him.”

Gu Yang shrugged. “It comes with the job.”

“That’s right, da-shijie! Gu-ge can’t help it,” cried some of the girls. “He works for the palace after all. There are only kings, princes and nobles there…”

“You lot are always siding with him,” Hu Die rolled her eyes. “Gu-ge, what made you call for us today? Anything good?”

Gu Yang nodded.

“The imperial prince Chundeng is meeting up with one of his cousin’s friend, another prince from the north,” said Gu Yang. “Now, as you probably already know, Prince Chundeng is the fairest in the land. He’s not called the kingdom’s light for nothing. As for the prince from the northern kingdom, well…”

“Also handsome?” asked one of the girls, her eyes shining.

“Come and see for yourself,” laughed Gu Yang. “It’s what I called you for. To be honest, the prince himself is aware that I’m friends with all of you. I’m his most trusted guard, after all, but since I can’t pass judgement alone on one man, he told me to invite all of you to come and see.”

The girls looked at one another. This was news!