Rustling.
The sound of soil being turned over, like a mouse burrowing.
In the dead of night, it rang out with eerie clarity.
The moonlight showed no mercy to the mortal world. I pressed myself against the corner of the wall and inched forward, trying to make myself as small as possible.
My heart pounded like a war drum.
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
I was a nervous wreck.
The fingertips of the hand gripping my attack talismans had already gone deathly pale.
My gaze was fixed on the scene ahead.
A modest courtyard. The Ginkgo Tree still stood tall in the darkness, and the swing I'd put up myself had vanished into the shadows.
There they were.
Two figures dressed in black and wearing masks, digging away with a couple of tools at the spot where I'd buried my spirit stones.
One was at the sixth level of Qi Refining.
The other was at the seventh.
Either of them could crush me with ease.
I hadn't buried the spirit stones very deep. They only needed to dig a little farther to take the savings of my entire life.
The talismans I'd treasured could kill any Qi Refining cultivator in an instant.
But there were two of them.
"Second Brother, are you sure this woman buried her valuables in the ground?"
"She's a Direct Disciple, after all. Who knows how much space she has in her Storage Bag? Why would she leave anything valuable outside?"
The other voice said impatiently, "How should I know what's wrong with her? She just had to bury her stuff."
"Anyway, the Treasure Seeking Rat's nose never lies."
"When we scoped the place out last time, the Treasure Seeking Rat caught the scent of valuables inside the cave abode."
As I hesitated, my hand suddenly brushed against a Sound Transmission Talisman in my robes.
Without a moment's hesitation, I sent my voice through it with my divine sense.
[Someone's digging up my spirit stones.]
[I'm in a hurry. They're all I have.]
[Qing Ye, want to work together?]
[You take one, I'll take the other. We split the spoils.]
After sending that, I gripped the talisman nervously, then gritted my teeth and added,
[I'll give you two extra spirit stones.]
There was barely a pause before she sent back a reply.
[Hide. I'm on my way.]
Meanwhile, Ye Qingxian had just left the sect. She immediately raced back at top speed, her Evasion Light tearing through space until it shattered like glass.
This was her true, full strength—a supreme might worthy of one of the greatest prodigies of all time.
I relaxed.
Before even half a cup of tea had passed, one of the men in black let out a quiet laugh.
"Hahaha, that woman actually buried her spirit stones underground. How stupid can she be? She's got a perfectly good Storage Bag, but she hides her stones in a place like this."
I clenched my fists in humiliation.
"One, two, three..."
"Damn, how is she so poor?"
"A Direct Disciple, and all the treasure she hid away was these forty-seven spirit stones?"
"What rotten luck. We went all this way thinking we'd caught a big fish."
"And this is all we get?"
"What a deadbeat. No wonder nobody wants to hang out with her."
"She deserves it, too."
Their curses grew nastier and nastier. I bit the corner of my lip and listened in silence as they insulted me. The sting of their words made my breathing grow ragged.
Suddenly, the sounds in the courtyard stopped.
Both men flashed into the open space in front of me.
"Well, who have we got here? Someone eavesdropping from around the corner."
"Oh, look. Isn't this our great Direct Disciple?"
"You hear us cursing you and still don't get angry? You like it that much?"
"No wonder everyone says you're useless. Hahahaha!"
"Do you know you're becoming the laughingstock of Heavenly Sword Peak?"
My eyes gradually reddened. Silence and wordlessness filled the air.
"Put down my spirit stones."
My voice came out hoarse.
"I'm not putting them down. What are you going to do about it?" he said mockingly, clearly convinced he had me under his thumb.
"Do you know what level I'm at? I could crush you with one hand."
The other man grabbed him. "That's enough. She may be a Direct Disciple, but who knows if she has some trick up her sleeve? Don't drive her into a corner."
"Don't forget, we're thieves, not bandits."
"If word gets out that we're acting like robbery cultivators, we'll never hear the end of it from our peers." He knew his companion's temper, and lust was eating away at the man's brain.
By now, they'd packed my spirit stones away.
I stared at the bag in their hands and repeated calmly, "Put down my spirit stones."
"I'm not giving them back. What can you do about it? Come on, let's go. This is so boring."
"What's the fun in teasing a spineless loser?"
The two of them turned to leave.
All the humiliation I'd endured over countless days and nights couldn't compare to a fraction of what I felt now.
Two burglars had broken into my home, dug up my spirit stones right in front of me, hurled insults at me, and were still free to stroll away.
Blood rushed to my head. A bitter ache spread through my heart.
"I told you to put them down! Can't you hear me?" My emotions finally hit rock bottom. I yanked out the dagger I'd brought and charged at them like a madwoman. "You called me names and said I was poor. I put up with all of that. But why are you stealing my spirit stones?" I suddenly screamed, tears spilling uncontrollably down my face.
I screamed at the top of my lungs, my voice breaking.
At that moment, my mind went blank. I'd lost all ability to think straight.
Why?
Why were they doing this to me?
No one—no one treated me like a person.
I wasn't a laughingstock.
I had parents of my own, too.
I was somebody's baby, born to loving parents.
I hadn't offended anyone. I'd only wanted to quietly grow crops and quietly raise a few little ones.
These were the spirit stones I'd spent my whole life saving.
And now they'd mocked them as worthless.
Even after treating me like dirt, they'd still stolen my future.
All those endless judgments and snide comments, just like my height, had become a joke for everyone else.
These scattered little spirit stones—
No one knew.
They were all the hope I had left, saved up bit by bit from working the fields.
They were everything to me: the harvest of a little girl who went back to the fields day after day, even as others mocked her. They were the future I shared with my little ones.
At that moment, I'd forgotten all about being spineless, about swallowing my anger. I only wanted to fight them. Even if it cost me my life, I'd bite off a bloody chunk of them before I went down.
I... could live without dignity.
I could let others trample my personhood over and over again.
But they couldn't take away the last hope I had of surviving.
The man holding my spirit stones froze for a moment, then easily kicked me away.
I rolled across the ground again and again. My clothes were filthy, and my pale legs were covered in cuts and bruises.
I spat out a mouthful of blood, which ran down my chest.
I slowly stood up, arms hanging at my sides. My pink-and-white fur was tousled and scattered, obscuring my face.
Rumble—
Suddenly, lightning split the sky.
The clouds that had hung over Wuya Sect all year began to thin, revealing a moon no one had ever seen before.
It was a true Blood Moon.
The night in the Cultivation World was pitch-black, the clouds so thick that not a sliver of light could pass through.
No one had ever known that a Blood Moon hung in the sky.
Drip—
Drip—
Blood trickled down my arm.
Thump, thump, thump.
My heart trembled like a pounding drum. Suddenly, I could hear my own breathing, their breathing, even the sound of ants crawling across the ground.
Five bloody shadows tore through the air and appeared beneath the Blood Moon.
The shock of claws ripping through flesh.
Before a scream could ring out, the darkness fell silent again.
There was no fierce battle, only heartbeats abruptly cut short.
One of the men in black crumpled to the ground.
He was the one who'd insulted me the most.
A girl in a green robe stood in the doorway. With one punch, she shattered the remaining man in black.
My pale, tender hands were soaked in blood that wasn't mine.
I took back my spirit stones and gripped them as tightly as an iron clamp. The corners of my mouth slowly lifted into an innocent, pure smile. "That's wonderful. These are my spirit stones."
"Qing Qing, thank you for coming to help me."
I muttered to myself, "Little ones..."
"Look—"
"Mommy got the spirit stones back. Now we have something to eat again."
My mind was a blank.
I'd long since forgotten what had happened. Like an instinct of survival, I kept hugging the spirit stones tighter and tighter.
Suddenly, I collapsed.
Qing Ye caught me before I hit the ground and lifted me into her arms.
My already tiny body lay in the crook of Qing Ye's arm, clutching the spirit stones, my legs curled up slightly as I murmured words no one else could understand.
The girl stood in the center of the courtyard, its ground soaked with blood.
She gazed down at the figure in her arms, fragile as a porcelain vase, yet possessed of a strength beyond ordinary comprehension.
A long, wordless silence followed.
Deep inside her, something stirred again and again.
She couldn't understand what she was feeling.
But she knew—
She never wanted to see Ye Xiaoyao cry again.
"No one will ever steal your spirit stones again."
She whispered it with absolute conviction, as if making a vow.
Before you continue