New Clothes

“…”

Lu Qiancha pinched the base of her ears with a headache and sighed.
Her junior sister had grown up and wasn’t so easy to coax anymore.
She asked helplessly, “Then… what kind of compensation do you want?”

“I had a lot of little dresses custom-made down the mountain before…”

The pink eyes of Gan Tang, which had been full of accusation, suddenly burst with an extremely fiery light, and a triumphant smile quietly curled at the corners of her lips: “Senior brother, could you help me try them on?”

“…Junior sister.”

Lu Qiancha looked at Gan Tang with a gloomy expression, “Since they’re your clothes, I probably can’t fit into them, can I?”

“Ah… when I ordered them, I accidentally made them a little small.
They should fit you just right, senior brother.”

Gan Tang averted her head guiltily, not daring to look Lu Qiancha in the eye at all.

“…”

Lu Qiancha stared at Gan Tang for a long time and finally sighed.
‘How could she accidentally order them in a smaller size?’ She couldn’t be bothered to expose her silly junior sister’s clumsy excuse.

Lu Qiancha said directly, “You can try them on, but I have to change myself.”

“You agreed, senior brother?!”

Gan Tang’s face lit up with joy, and then she nodded her head like a chick pecking at rice, “No problem, senior brother, you can wear them yourself.
I’ll just watch from the side.”

“…When I’m changing, you sit obediently in the front hall.”

Lu Qiancha said with a blank expression.

“Oh…”

Gan Tang was a little disappointed, but she quickly cheered up and handed the storage pouch containing the clothes to Lu Qiancha.

Then, she said very solemnly, “Senior brother, take care!”

“Take care of your big head! I’m not going to a battlefield.”

Lu Qiancha unceremoniously scratched Gan Tang with her paw and then turned to walk towards the screen at the side.

Her spiritual sense entered the storage pouch, and the first thing she saw was a crimson cheongsam with a ridiculously high slit and gold thread trim placed in the center…

Next to it, neatly folded, was a classic children’s sailor suit in pink and white, with a blue sailor collar and a skirt hem adorned with fine white lace?!

“Hiss—” Lu Qiancha instinctively sucked in a sharp breath.

Her figure involuntarily took half a step back.

‘Why is there a cheongsam? Why is there a sailor suit?’

‘Are there any natives left in this cultivation world?’

Lu Qiancha’s spiritual sense lingered over the pile of clothes, some of which were intricately hollowed out, while others were frighteningly sparing with their fabric, for a moment.
Finally, with a sense of compromise, it reluctantly settled back on the sailor suit.

‘At least the skirt of this dress… looks the longest.’

Lu Qiancha quickly took off her dress.
The movements of her small wolf paws were already quite skillful.

Although they were still not as nimble as fingers, her experience in changing clothes had greatly increased her efficiency.

In less than five minutes, she had put on the pink and white sailor suit.

As soon as she put it on, a chill came uninvited.

The light top barely covered her little tummy, and the small skirt felt like it was leaking from all sides.

The chill of late autumn, like little snakes, slithered into the gaps in her cuffs, collar, and under the hem of her skirt.

‘Suitable for summer, but not very suitable for autumn.
It’s a bit chilly.’ Lu Qiancha came to a conclusion.

Just as she stepped out from behind the screen—

“Wow!”

A pink and blue figure pounced over like a lightning bolt.
Gan Tang’s eyes shone with brilliance, “So cute!” The three words were drawn out with a singing-like tail tone.

“The size is too small.”

Lu Qiancha extended her paw and pointed at her slightly exposed little tummy.

“Uh… about that…”

Gan Tang scratched her head guiltily, her pink pigtails askew to one side, “After all, I didn’t measure it.
The tailor made it according to the approximate size I gave…” she explained with a drifting gaze.

Then, her gaze couldn’t help but stick to Lu Qiancha, and she asked tentatively, “How about, senior brother, you take it off and give it to me? I’ll go and alter it?”

“No need for such trouble.”

Lu Qiancha’s refusal was decisive.
It was just a little short, not unwearable.

As her voice fell, Lu Qiancha’s spiritual energy circulated, and the light of the Myriad Phantoms Mirage Art flashed.

The familiar little blue-haired wolf disappeared, and the handsome young man Lu Qiancha reappeared.

He walked like the wind, heading towards the closed door without looking back.

“Take care, senior brother!”

Gan Tang’s cheerful voice drifted from behind.

“Mm, focus on your cultivation.
I’ll bring you sweet cakes later.”

Lu Qiancha’s footsteps paused slightly at the door, and she threw out a promise without turning her head.

Then she turned into a stream of light and flew down the mountain.

After buying sweet cakes for Gan Tang, Lu Qiancha rode a cloud and flew towards more distant countries and markets.

She didn’t expect to be able to buy the Shapeshifting Stone.
In any case, she would gather all the supplementary ingredients first.

Her footprints covered dozens of merchant guilds, and she participated in four or five of the cultivation world’s staple events—auctions.

The spirit stones in her purse disappeared like flowing water.

Lu Qiancha finally managed to gather a full set of all the supplementary ingredients.

However, the Shapeshifting Stone was still nowhere to be found.

“Alas…”

Standing on the eaves of a certain city, Lu Qiancha let out a soft sigh.
The cold wind blew against the clothes under her disguise.
‘I should find an opportunity to go and see the demon clan’s territory.’

Just as she was thinking, a cold, soft snowflake swirled down and landed silently on her palm.
It instantly melted into a tiny, wet, and cold spot.

“It’s snowing…”

She muttered to herself.
‘So, it’s already winter.
The new year is almost here.’

Time flew by like the melting snow in her palm.
After that fateful sect mission, half a year had quietly passed.

Many things had changed.
She had become the mountain god of the Peach Blossom Spring, with a new identity, new relatives…

It seemed that nothing had changed.
Master was still well, and junior sister was still lively.

She shook her head, shaking off the untimely daze.

A white cloud gathered under her feet.
Amidst the astonished cries and admiring gazes of the common people, a stream of light tore through the falling snow and shot towards the Tianyuan Sect.

Tianyuan Sect, Tianquan Peak, under the corridor.

“Phew~”

Gan Tang, wrapped in a thick woolly jacket, breathed out a large cloud of white mist at the small red clay stove.

She looked at the gradually accumulating, white, and soft first snow in the small courtyard.
Her little face was filled with a thick gloom that was completely out of place with the quiet snowy scene.

“Alas…”

Another sigh, her pink eyebrows furrowed into little hills: “Why hasn’t senior brother come back yet…”

“If he doesn’t come back soon…”

She glanced at the deepening snow outside the corridor with a sad and indignant look, her voice listless: “With such heavy snow… does that mean I have to sweep it all by myself?!”

“Ahem…” A clear, light cough suddenly came from the corner of the corridor.

Gan Tang shivered and whipped her head around.

When her gaze touched the familiar figure leaning against the corridor pillar, covered in a thin layer of snow, her pink eyes instantly burst with a brilliant light of surprise: “Senior brother, you’re back!”

“Mm.”

Lu Qiancha stepped into the corridor, shook the remaining snow from her cloak, her handsome face still as calm as ever.

Her gaze swept over Gan Tang, but the corners of her mouth seemed to lift slightly, almost imperceptibly: “I’m back.”

Lu Qiancha paused, her voice calmly adding: “I’m back to sweep the snow with you.”