The Sect Master in the Gift Box - Chapter 1

Worried I would be lonely while cultivating in seclusion, my senior sister had someone bring me a present.

I opened the gift box to find a beautiful young man inside, his head tilted as he gazed at me in innocent bewilderment.

She had even thoughtfully tied an enormous pink bow around his neck.

Fair skin. Broad shoulders. A slender waist. Narrow hips.

Firm muscles, clearly defined contours, exquisite lines.

I swallowed.

My senior sister knew me far too well. Every inch of the man she’d sent was exactly to my taste.

The bow seemed to be making him uncomfortable. His cheeks and the tips of his ears were red.

I untied the ribbon and discovered that, although he was a mortal, he had been born with an Immaculate Spirit Body.

Unfortunately, he seemed a little simpleminded.

I resisted the urge to make a move and even draped a cloak over him. “It’s cold here. You need to wear more clothes, understand?”

He nodded, looking as though he only half understood, then caught my sleeve. His voice was low and lovely. “So I’m staying with you?”

“Yes.”

He hated the cold. Whenever I sat down to meditate, he insisted on sleeping right beside me.

He was a restless sleeper, too. Halfway through his nap, he would roll over and wrap his arms around me.

Every time he did, temptation set my heart itching.

If I weren’t such an upstanding person, I would have devoured him long ago.

Soon, however, I discovered that my character was nowhere near as lofty as I’d imagined.

The young man fell into the icy pool.

I had expressly warned him to stay away from it. He refused to listen, lost his footing, and fell in.

I immediately jumped into the water to save him.

His bright eyes were wide, his long hair drifting in the water as he struggled to reach both hands toward me.

I caught them. Instinctively, he clung to me, burying his face in the crook of my neck, his lips brushing my cheek so lightly I could barely feel it.

He seemed unable to breathe.

I breathed air into his mouth. His eyes widened in surprise. Perhaps his lips felt dry, because he tried to moisten them with his tongue—and met mine instead.

Once I had pulled him ashore, he said curiously, “That was interesting.”

“What was?”

He lowered his head and pecked softly at my lips, tentative and inexperienced.

I swear I wasn’t the one who started it.

I was even kind enough to ask his opinion.

“Would you like to cultivate? Your Immaculate Spirit Body is especially suited to dual cultivation. Shall I teach you?”

He rubbed his red lips absently. “Is cultivating fun?”

I told him the truth. “Very. Even more fun than what we just did.”

His eyes curved into a smile, rippling with light. “All right.”

After that day, my cultivation advanced faster and faster.

Far faster than it ever had through meditation.

The young man had developed a taste for it, too. Wearing the purest, most innocent expression, he asked me for all sorts of outrageous things.

In the snow, in the hot spring, in our little cabin, beside the frozen waterfall—he explored every place with fresh curiosity.

He even learned to take the lead.

Then one morning I woke to find the person in my arms gone.

I searched every corner of Cold Valley without finding him.

To look for him, I hastily ended my seclusion.

But no one in the sect knew where he was, either.

Since my senior sister had sent him, I meant to ask her, only to learn that she’d gone to the mortal realm on business.

I had no choice but to seek information at the Shanhai Sect, the greatest source of gossip around.