Wen Li stayed hidden in Yongdi City with Yao Dai and Xie Tinglan for two days before concealing their auras and leaving during the day disguised as mortals.
The three sat in a horse-drawn carriage, having hired a servant to drive it.
“Master, aren't we going to collect Li Bincheng's reward?”
Yao Dai leaned against the carriage window, her eyes fixed on the picturesque mountains and rivers outside.
Beside her was another tiny head—Xie Tinglan. He, too, had never felt so relaxed and free, finally in the mood to admire the roadside scenery.
The two rested side by side against the window sill.
“Collect it how? By trading Xie Tinglan for the money?”
Wen Li leaned back on a soft couch, reading a storybook in hand, not even raising her eyelids.
Li Bincheng's condition back then had been capturing the demon beast. Moreover, the people from the Beast Taming Sect might trace the incident at the Li family's main mine back to Li Bincheng. Going there would likely be walking straight into a tiger's den.
“...” Xie Tinglan bared his teeth.
In the end, he curled his lips and remained silent.
Yao Dai choked on her words. Well, sigh. The bounty fee she had worked so hard to secure was gone.
“Master, why did you only kill those six cultivators, but spared Du Mojin and Lin Qing?”
That day, Wen Li had sent her a divine sense voice transmission, telling her to take advantage of the opportunity to kill those six cultivators quickly. Having fought Xie Tinglan for so long, they were already gravely injured and powerless. If they weren't killed then, news of Wen Li and the others having seen Xie Tinglan would eventually leak out and bring disaster upon them.
She had also stripped everything off their bodies and used a spare talisman provided by Wen Li to burn the corpses to ashes.
Wen Li looked up. “Why? Did you really want to kill the two of them as well?”
Seeing how Yao Dai had laughed and chatted with them while roasting chicken legs that day, she had thought the girl felt somewhat fond of them.
“Master said that only dead people can keep secrets.” The girl's remarkably beautiful face looked dead serious. “If they threaten our safety, they naturally cannot be allowed to live.”
The ideas Wen Li had instilled in her during this period had already enabled her to kill calmly.
“You are so young; there's no need to harbor such heavy bloodlust.” Wen Li leaned forward and tapped her forehead with her hand.
“While caution is necessary, you should also leave a margin. Du Mojin constantly brought up the Grand Elder of the Lingjian Sect, and the sword in his hand is a High-Grade artifact. Even if gravely injured, he had plenty of spiritual pills to take. Someone like him is often a favorite of his sect and bound to possess life-saving treasures given by old monsters. Before you completely understand your opponent's trump cards, do not act rashly.”
The reason Wen Li had dared to let Yao Dai, who was only at Qi Refinement Fourth Layer, kill those six Foundation Establishment cultivators was that she had seen through their situation: having fought with all their might against Xie Tinglan, they had exhausted all their trump cards, and their severe injuries made them no different from mortals.
Yao Dai winced in pain, but a smile broke out on her face upon hearing the next sentence.
Wen Li added, “However, you have indeed made progress, knowing how to quietly assist me when we fled.”
Yao Dai pursed her lips, unable to stifle her grin. “That's all thanks to Master's great teaching.”
“Master, do you think we will ever meet Du Mojin and Lin Qing again?” Those two guys were decent enough; at least they didn't share any grudges at present.
Wen Li paused. She had originally intended to use this opportunity to let Yao Dai establish ties with the Lingjian Sect, but unfortunately, plans couldn't keep up with changes.
“They belong to one of the four major sects in the Western Province, and Du Mojin is a core disciple. If you work hard enough, you should meet them at the Western Province Qingyun Gathering ten years from now.”
Ten years later, the other four provinces besides the Central Province would all host Qingyun Gatherings to select young generation disciples to go to the Central Province for the centennial Rising Stars Grand Tournament.
The top performers with outstanding rankings would gain access to superior cultivation resources and development in the Central Province.
It was also an important benchmark for allocating resources among the provinces in the future.
Although the cultivation world seemed calm and tranquil over the years, every sect was secretly going all out to strive for the top. Only those with strength had the right to speak.
Yao Dai's eyes lit up. “Then can I go to the Qingyun Gathering too?”
Wen Li nodded. “The Qingyun Gathering looks at your realm and strength. As long as you can stand there, plenty of people will extend olive branches to you.”
“Then can I represent our Wuji Sect to participate?”
At those words, a flicker passed through Wen Li's clear, cool pupils. Remembering who knows what, she closed the storybook in her hand.
“...We'll see. Who knows if you can break through to Foundation Establishment in ten years?” Wen Li didn't say yes or no, throwing out a challenge first instead.
“The Qingyun Gathering is a grand event for the younger generation of the Western Province. As far as I know, Foundation Establishment Early Stage is the bare minimum, and there have even been Golden Core Late Stage participants above that. If you don't work hard, you won't even qualify for the preliminary trials.”
Hearing this, Yao Dai raised her brows in surprise. “Even Golden Core Late Stage... How old would they be? Isn't the Qingyun Gathering restricted to people under a hundred years old?”
Xie Tinglan, who had been silent all this time, spoke up, an utterly smug expression on his tiny face.
“The cultivation world never lacks talented people. By human age, I'm only four years old and already at Golden Core Late Stage. I could flatten you with a single finger.”
Yao Dai refused to yield. “Are you really four years old? You've lived for one hundred and ninety years! If I lived that long and still couldn't reach Golden Core, I'd rather go crash my head against a piece of tofu and die.”
Wen Li, who had spent ten thousand years at Foundation Establishment, quietly raised her eyes: “...”
Excuse me, I feel offended.
“Master, where are we going now?” Yao Dai didn't want to argue with Xie Tinglan and turned to sit beside Wen Li.
“Western Province, Heavenly Yuan Kingdom—a third-rank cultivation nation—and the Taixuan Sect.”
“Why go so far?” Xie Tinglan asked, puzzled as he memorized the map of forces in the Western Province.
Yet Yao Dai's eyes darkened. “To kill someone.”
Sensing something, Xie Tinglan didn't press further. He merely looked down slightly at the slowly healing wounds on his hands. What a coincidence; he also had people he wanted to kill.
Suddenly, Yao Dai's expression froze. She felt extreme discomfort in her body, something faintly surging in her lower abdomen, which she tried hard to hold in.
Unfortunately—
Pfft—
A loud farting sound lasted for several seconds.
“Did you poop or something? It stinks so bad!”
Xie Tinglan's nose twitched instinctively. His face darkened as he held his breath, darted over, poked his tiny head out the window, and inhaled the fresh air outside.
“Phew!” He let out a long sigh.
Wen Li silently sealed her sense of smell. Sigh.
“Wait, no, Master, I don't know why my body suddenly...”
Yao Dai's face flushed pale then red in turn.
Before she could finish, Wen Li realized what was happening. “Sit in meditation quickly. You're about to advance a layer.”
“Huh?”
Breaking wind can make me advance a layer?
Yao Dai hurriedly sat cross-legged and closed her eyes to regulate her breathing. She felt the cloud of gathered spiritual energy inside her dantian surging and churning, while the surrounding spiritual energy rushed violently into her abdomen.
White air currents continuously gathered in her dantian like ethereal clouds, growing denser and denser.
Yao Dai skillfully began guiding the wild spiritual energy, slowly converging the clouds into a sea of clouds within her dantian.
In an instant, a soft golden light burst from the girl's body.
When the light gradually faded, feeling her meridians flow more smoothly and her senses grow sharper, Yao Dai suddenly opened her eyes.
“Master, I'm at Qi Refinement Fifth Layer!”
Over the past half-month, aside from eating, she had spent virtually all her time cultivating diligently. She had finally advanced!
Wen Li gave her affirmation. “Not bad. Only a month after drawing Qi into your body, you're already at Qi Refinement Fifth Layer.”
She pulled out a cultivation manual and handed it to her. “Try practicing this Earth Grade First Order manual first to feel the control over water.”
Yao Dai hastily reached out to take it. “The Soaring Sea Classic... Master, can I handle an Earth Grade technique?”
Cultivation manuals, spiritual artifacts, and natural spiritual herbs shared the same ranking system, ascending from Mystic Grade, Earth Grade, Heaven Grade, to Supreme Grade, with ten orders per grade.
The higher the rank of a cultivation technique, the greater the difficulty of practicing it, but also the stronger one's combat power compared to opponents in the same realm. Yao Dai had read The Cultivation Techniques Record, which stated that Earth Grade techniques were suitable for cultivators above Golden Core, and a single Earth Grade technique was worth tens of thousands of Mid-Grade spirit stones.
Master looks so poor, yet her hand is so generous.
“Can't handle it...” Wen Li looked at her with disdain. “You possess a Supreme Grade Water Spiritual Root. If you can't handle it, then your talent is utterly wasted.”
Yao Dai pouted and silently accepted it.
Wen Li turned her head to look at Xie Tinglan, who was still leaning against the window sill. “Your cultivation is at the Third Realm Late Stage, and you possess the bloodline of the Ancient Soaring Serpent. Human cultivation techniques rarely suit you. We'll see during this trip if there are any techniques suitable for you.”
Xie Tinglan turned his head to look at her, the little kid acting smug.
“I know. You don't need to worry about me.”
He was still in his juvenile phase. Just cultivating casually, eating, drinking water, and living for a hundred or two hundred years would allow him to advance on his own.
This was the Heavenly Dao's blessing to the sparse lineage of the Ancient Soaring Serpent.
However, while his cheap Master was usually stingy—wearing patched clothes and eating plain steamed buns—the fruit she gave this smelly brat was actually a Mid-Grade Fifth Order spirit fruit. No wonder she could advance a realm just by breaking wind!
“Eat this herb first to recover your body. Once you're better, I'll give you spirit fruit as well.”
Wen Li, who had been looking down at her book, blurted out a sentence cold and out of nowhere. By the time Xie Tinglan wanted to retort that he didn't care for any stupid spirit fruit, a pile of herbs was already dumped into his arms.
? He was a serpent, not a cow or a horse. Why was he eating grass?
The four-year-old child's eyebrows knitted together. Raising his thin, short arms, he was about to throw the herbs away when he suddenly caught an unusual scent.
Wait, this herb...
Suspicious, he took a direct bite, smacking his lips as he chewed. In the next second—
“Bleh!”
He was revolted by the astringency of the bitter weeds mixed inside.
Just as he was about to spit it out, he heard Wen Li say unhurriedly, “If you spit it out, wasting immortal herbs worth a thousand High-Grade spirit stones is one thing, but it will be hard to boost the speed at which you grow taller.”
Upon hearing this, Xie Tinglan—who had always been brooding over his human form being stuck at four years old during his juvenile phase—stiffened his neck and forcefully swallowed the herb that was ten times bitterer than a bitter gourd.
“...” Strange. The immortal herbs given to him by the Beast Taming Sect in the past were never this bitter.
The bitterness made the little kid's face pucker up.
It wasn't until several years later, after he had just caused trouble and watched with his own eyes as Wen Li poured a whole bottle of bitter potion in, felt it wasn't enough, and directly soaked various immortal herbs in a tub, that he finally understood—it wasn't that the immortal herbs were bitter.
It was that human hearts were treacherous!
Unaware that a certain someone was petty, Xie Tinglan grew increasingly curious about her. If you said she was rich, she pinched pennies even when buying a bun. If you said she was poor, she could casually hand out High-Grade immortal herbs, and whole piles of them at that.
She was truly an oddity.
However, it didn't take long for Xie Tinglan to learn why Wen Li was both stingy and loaded with rare treasures.
[Ding! +1, Save the Villain Yao Dai progress bar: 10%]
[Ding! +2, Save the Villain Xie Tinglan progress bar: 7%]
The prompt that suddenly popped up in her mind caused Wen Li's lowered eyes to flicker.
The system said to save the villains by keeping them alive and well, preventing them from being killed by the male and female leads, lowering their resentment, and increasing their happiness.
In that case... whether they were villains or not didn't really matter.
To avoid being killed by the main characters, wouldn't it be fine as long as they became stronger than them? If grudges were formed, the resentment would belong to others anyway...
Rate on N.U.
