"No one will steal your spirit stones again."
Qing Ye didn't understand what Ye Xiaoyao was talking about, so she could only answer that way.
Suddenly, the muttering in her sleep stopped.
It was as if she had finally let go of her worries. Her adorable face, stained with blood, wore a sweet smile.
Her tense body gradually relaxed, too.
So that was it.
She'd been worried about this the whole time.
Even after passing out, she still couldn't stop worrying about her spirit stones.
A cold fingertip slowly brushed across the girl's cheek.
The stiffness of the dried blood stood out against her delicate skin.
The arms slowly drawing her in belonged to Qing Ye.
Or perhaps it was Ye Qingxian's silence, sinking again and again beneath the Blood Moon.
Ye Xiaoyao was so light, as if she could drift away at any moment.
"I promise you."
"There won't be any more thieves on Heavenly Sword Peak."
A murderous glint flashed across Qing Ye's face.
Clouds gathered once more in the Sky Curtain. The night sky, cleared for just a moment, seemed like a fleeting marvel, so unreal that it made one's eyes swim.
"Mm."
A voice so faint it was almost inaudible made Qing Ye freeze for a second.
She wasn't even sure she'd heard it clearly, or whether Ye Xiaoyao had said it at all.
The little girl looked even more docile in her sleep.
All her sharp edges, all the hedgehog-like spines she'd pointed at the outside world, instinctively drew back.
Qing Ye formed a Purification Technique and settled Ye Xiaoyao onto the bed.
She didn't change the girl's slightly tattered clothes.
Instead, she waited for Ye Xiaoyao to wake up and change them herself.
Looking at Ye Xiaoyao's peaceful sleeping face, Qing Ye suddenly gave a self-mocking laugh.
Ye Qingxian had always treated Ye Xiaoyao as someone who needed saving. She would never be able to enter the girl's world; the unbridgeable divide between them seemed like a wall they'd carry for the rest of their lives.
But Qing Ye treated Ye Xiaoyao as an equal, and in just one week, she'd done what Ye Qingxian never could.
Just as with the trust Ye Qingxian had never been able to earn before.
In that moment, Qing Ye had briefly gained it.
How bitterly ironic.
Ye Qingxian was laughing at her own foolishness.
Her Junior Sister had always been a living, breathing person. She had her own life, her own intense feelings, her own joys and sorrows, and a pride stronger than most. She didn't have to follow other people's wishes and become a puppet whose life they could control at will.
The greatest respect you could show someone was to treat her as an equal.
In the past, Ye Qingxian had been wrong about so much. So, so much.
The next day.
I woke up groggily and immediately caught a scent in the room that wasn't mine. I jerked my head up and noticed Qing Ye asleep by my bed. Only then did my worried heart finally settle.
I shook my aching head.
What had happened yesterday?
I only remembered that I'd gone crazy and tried to fight the black-clothed person who'd stolen my spirit stones. And somehow, I'd actually beaten him?
Could it be that cultivators like me had adrenaline too, letting us briefly go berserk and unleash our full potential?
It didn't sound very plausible.
Then Qing Ye had arrived, too.
After I saw her take care of the black-clothed person, I'd felt relieved and passed out on the spot.
She'd come to help at such a critical moment. I had a pretty good impression of Qing Ye.
As I was thinking about this, Qing Ye had already woken up.
Seeing that I was all clean, I knew Qing Ye had used a Purification Technique on me. I didn't even mind the tears in my dress; I sat cross-legged on the bed and curved my eyes into crescent moons. My soft voice easily made people like me. "Come on, let's split the spoils."
"Thanks for yesterday."
"My whole fortune nearly got stolen."
Qing Ye recalled the last thing she'd seen yesterday.
Could Ye Xiaoyao have used some kind of body-refining technique?
Five blood-red shadows.
Even Qing Ye hadn't been able to make out what they were.
"Mm, this is what they had on them."
"One of them had a Storage Bag, so I put everything inside it."
Qing Ye added, "I also cleaned up the courtyard while I was at it."
"I've already notified the Law Enforcement Hall. They'll throw the bodies into the mass grave."
"They broke in to rob you. They deserved to die."
A Storage Bag? My eyes went blank for a second, and I forced myself to look away.
Then I took two spirit stones from my clothes and carefully placed them in Qing Ye's hands. "Here, this is your fee for your trouble."
"We'll split the other spoils evenly."
"Honestly, if you hadn't come, I might not have been able to beat that person." Who knew whether I'd really gone berserk or whether the black-clothed person had just underestimated me?
"Maybe I was running out of strength or something."
"So you should take the bigger share. You can have the Storage Bag, too."
I, Ye Xiaoyao, wasn't greedy.
Yesterday had been so dangerous, and I didn't even know what had happened to me. Anything could have happened afterward.
My thoughts echoed in my mind.
I forced myself to look away from the tempting prize.
Qing Ye smiled and said, "You've already given me my reward. You should keep the Storage Bag."
"By the way, do you not have a Storage Bag?"
"I saw that big pit in the courtyard. You didn't bury your spirit stones underground, did you?"
I gave an awkward smile, my little face turning pink as if I'd had too much to drink.
I looked pretty cute.
"Hahaha, well, um..."
"Um."
Qing Ye didn't press me. She immediately understood. "You're not a Direct Disciple. How come you don't even have a Storage Bag?"
"Doesn't the sect give Direct Disciples a monthly allowance?"
My face stiffened. I was a little shocked by Qing Ye's accusation. "What allowance? I don't get one..." You can't just accuse me like that. I'm not even an Inner Sect Disciple, so what resources would I be allocated?
"Direct Disciples do get resources."
"You must be remembering wrong. I've never gotten any..."
Qing Ye slowly nodded. "Then I must have remembered wrong."
A cloud of gloom darkened her eyes.
After a quick inventory, we were disappointed to find no sign of the Treasure Seeking Rat. The two of us got about eighty spirit stones each.
I happily rolled around on the bed.
The depression that had nearly made me snap yesterday faded by several times over.
What was this—
A blessing in disguise?
Qing Ye was a little infected by my cheer, too.
No matter how strong my Junior Sister was at heart, she was still just a child.
That was the first time Qing Ye had ever seen a smile so genuine.
And in that smile, she could still see a trace of a young girl's bright, innocent spirit.
"I'll give you ten more spirit stones. I'm keeping the Storage Bag, after all, so I can't let you lose out," I insisted.
Qing Ye didn't refuse. She accepted the spirit stones.
"Mm, if you want to work together again, just ask me."
"We earned so many spirit stones this time, all thanks to you giving me the chance."
Why did that sound so nice?
After I saw Qing Ye off, I rolled around on the bed twice more, my loose hair clean and pretty.
"Baby, baby."
"Mommy's made a fortune this time."
"Soon I'll be able to feed you Spirit Milk ten times a day. Won't you be happy?"
My belly remained quiet, but I kept insisting that my baby could hear me, chattering to myself nonstop in the room.
The plan to rule the world!
One step closer!!
Ye Xiaoyao, I knew you could do it.
I'd been a little injured yesterday, but luckily I was already used to feeling unwell. A week or two of recuperation would get me back on my feet.
Ye Qingxian left her Junior Sister's cave dwelling, her expression suddenly darkening.
Without the slightest hesitation, she headed furiously toward the highest point of Heavenly Sword Peak.
She had to confront the Heavenly Sword Venerable face-to-face and get a clear answer about this.
No wonder her Junior Sister had to toil in the fields day and night, and could barely manage to feed herself.
When her Junior Sister had hugged the spirit stones she treasured so dearly and told Ye Qingxian, with an innocent, happy face, that they were the treasure she'd saved for over a decade, and that she was grateful Ye Qingxian had come to help, Ye Qingxian had felt as if her gaze had been stabbed through. Something had stirred in the softest depths of her heart.
It wasn't pity.
It was a feeling that had risen from the bottom of her heart.
No wonder her Junior Sister barely had any time to cultivate.
She'd been in the sect for sixteen years, yet she was still only at the Qi Refining Third Layer.
The reason behind it had always been so simple—and so infuriating.
It turned out she'd never received the cultivation resources she was supposed to have.
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