Her Face is Thick

"Big Brother Xia Qing, you're up practicing your sword so early."

Xia Wantang was slightly surprised, for in the original body's memories, information regarding Xia Qing was scarce.

The original body had always kept to herself, and Xia Qing had spent the past few years almost entirely training away from home, rarely returning to the Xia Family.

Naturally, precisely because of this, he had not been spoiled into a good-for-nothing like Xia Ba by Xia Yingwu and his wife.

Upon seeing Xia Wantang, Xia Qing's expression was filled with pleasant surprise:

"Wantang, are you here to practice your sword as well?"

"I was just fretting over having no one to spar with. If Wantang doesn't mind my shallow cultivation, how about we practice together?"

Although Xia Qing was far inferior to Ye Xing, he was at least a human sparring partner.

For Xia Wantang to swing empty air by herself, the results were indeed somewhat lacking.

Besides, practicing with another person allowed her to familiarize herself with one more style of attacking. No matter how she calculated it, she would not lose out.

Thinking of this, Xia Wantang nodded:

"Alright, then I'll trouble Big Brother Xia Qing."

The two traded blows back and forth practicing swordsmanship for a while, and Xia Qing's admiration for Xia Wantang deepened even further:

He had originally assumed that since she used merely half a year to raise her strength to the perfection of the Mystic Martial Realm, her foundation must be unstable. He never expected her basic skills to be so solid, her spiritual energy controlled with such cleverness and precision, every single move fierce and clean without a shred of drag.

To match his pace, Xia Wantang had even purposely suppressed her spiritual energy to the early Mystic Martial Realm. To still pull off such a performance while intentionally suppressing herself was truly admirable.

If he had not known that Xia Wantang's cultivation really had been low previously, Xia Qing would have even suspected that she started practicing the sword straight out of her mother's womb.

Xia Wantang felt that Xia Qing was also a rather decent sword-practice partner.

Although the force of his strikes and his spiritual energy control fell far short of Ye Xing's, Xia Qing was quite good at taking shortcuts, and some of his attacking angles were exceptionally tricky. This practice session gave her a flash of insight; Xia Qing's moves were something she could also imitate and use in actual combat next time.

The two practiced for a short while before hearing two sets of footsteps approaching.

"I wondered who had such enthusiasm to practice the sword early in the morning, and it turns out to be the eldest young master and Wantang."

Xia Wantang turned her head at the sound, and saw one fat and one thin elder walking over from not far away.

Drawing upon her memories, she recognized them as the First Elder Xia Qian and Second Elder Xia Kun of the Xia Family.

Xia Qing took the lead in offering a greeting:

"Greetings, First Elder, Second Elder."

Xia Wantang also offered a lazy greeting:

"Good day to you both."

To be honest, even doing just this felt to her like she was giving them face.

The strength of these two clowns was at the early Mystic Martial Realm. Not only was their cultivation low, but they were also the masterminds who had pushed the original body toward her death.

Coming over to greet her this early in the morning, eight or nine times out of ten it meant no good news.

Sure enough, the moment Xia Qian opened his mouth, he came to look for trouble with Xia Wantang:

"I heard you asked the lineage head for quite a few things yesterday."

"Wantang ah, after all is said and done you are a member of the Xia Family, so you must keep the big picture in mind and consider the lineage."

"If the Xia Family hadn't given you a chance, you wouldn't have been able to become the Saintess of the Azure Cloud Palace either, nor would the ancestor have entrusted you with a dream."

"Therefore, you shouldn't open your mouth like a lion demanding such a massive amount of things."

This continuous string of accusations and accountability left Xia Wantang's head buzzing with a dull ache.

Moreover, she was not stupid; she could tell that Xia Yingwu regretted agreeing to her demands yesterday.

Xia Wantang had just helped Xia Ba out immensely yesterday, so Xia Yingwu knew he was in the wrong and found it inconvenient to speak up personally, which was why he had invited the two elders to act as lobbyists.

They dared to speak this way because they were gambling on her being young and thin-skinned, making her too embarrassed to talk back to her elders.

However, she was awfully sorry, for her skin was exceptionally thick.

"Hey, but I also had to rely on my own drive to succeed! The ancestor said that if my identity is discovered to have issues, the entire Xia Family won't be able to protect itself! To round it up, I am the Xia Family's life-saving talisman."

"I fought with my life on the line for half a year, cultivating day and night, overdrawing my health and body. What's wrong with demanding a bit of compensation? Will the Xia Family not rely on me to soar to greatness in the future?"

"The meager items I asked for aren't even as valuable as the rewards the Azure Cloud Palace gave to the Xia Family. Can this even count as opening a lion's mouth?"

"And last night, regarding that matter with Xia Ba, wasn't it resolved by relying on me..."

Listening to Xia Wantang's little mouth rattle on incessantly, the other three people present all wore expressions of absolute astonishment.

What happened to the quiet and beautiful maiden they were promised??

Watching Xia Wantang stray further and further into outrageous territory, Xia Kun immediately stepped forward to play the peacemaker:

"Alright, alright, First Elder, Wantang, let us not argue over this matter any further. We should leave it to Wantang and the lineage head to decide their own thoughts!"

The meaning behind these words was that they were no longer going to help the Xia Family head do ideological work; he could solve it himself!

Hearing this, Xia Qian could only let the matter drop. With a cold snort, he left together with Xia Kun.

"Wantang, Father may simply lack foresight and fail to realize the true value of the Azure Cloud Palace's Saintess."

Xia Wantang turned around and saw Xia Qing looking at her with a complicated expression, clearly wanting to offer some kind of explanation for his father.

Unlike other members of the Xia Family, Xia Qing spent all year round training outside, so he naturally knew how immense the benefits could be for the Xia Family once they forged a connection with the Azure Cloud Palace.

Furthermore, what Xia Wantang said was not wrong. Half a year ago, because the Xia Family produced a Saintess who satisfied the Azure Cloud Palace, the palace rewarded the family with quite a few spirit herbs, pills, and magical artifacts—all rare treasures that could not be seen in Luoxia City.

"It's fine."

"Actually, your innate talent is quite decent, and your swordsmanship possesses your own clever ingenuity. You shouldn't be trapped here in tiny Luoxia City."

Xia Qing was somewhat older, already over twenty-five years old.

Although his talent could not compare to the disciples within the Azure Cloud Palace, joining some small or medium-sized sects would not be difficult.

He possessed the greatest cultivation talent among the younger generation of the entire Xia Family. If he could encounter some fortuitous encounter during his travels, breaking through to the Profound Heaven Realm in the future would not be difficult.

Hearing Xia Wantang's encouragement, the tips of Xia Qing's ears turned slightly red as he said earnestly:

"Alright, I will work hard."

After being disturbed by the two fellows Xia Qian and Xia Kun, Xia Wantang lost her mood to practice the sword and prepared to go directly find Xia Yingwu to take back what belonged to her.

"Thud! Thud! Thud!"

Hearing the knocking at the door, Xia Yingwu's expression turned bitter:

Without even needing to think, he knew that the person outside was definitely Xia Wantang, the debt collector.

The two elders had just reported to him that Xia Wantang was completely unfazed by moral blackmail and had even turned around to morally blackmail them instead.

The main point was that whether it was the matter from half a year ago or the incident last night, the Xia Family truly was in the wrong. For Xia Wantang to demand some benefits was also completely understandable.

Thinking this over and over, Xia Yingwu hardened his heart, accepted his fate, and turned to open the door.

The moment the door opened, he saw Xia Wantang wearing a beaming smile.

"Family Head Xia, have the items already been prepared?"

She cut straight to the point, refusing to give the other party the slightest chance of refusal.

Xia Yingwu:...

"This storage pouch contains the spirit stones, Heaven Grade Spirit Herbs, and Heaven Grade Spirit Pills you requested."

With a heart-wrenching expression, he handed the storage pouch to Xia Wantang while his hand still lingeringly stroked the fabric.

Xia Wantang snatched the storage pouch away and, after confirming that nothing was missing, continued:

"What about the treasures left behind by the ancestor?"

"Oh right, I heard the Azure Cloud Palace also gave a lot of good magical treasures. I want to pick out one more."

Faced with her shameless mid-game price inflation, Xia Yingwu widened his eyes and issued a flat-out refusal:

"Wantang, didn't we agree yesterday that you only needed one magical treasure?"