Farming was still something I had to do.
Life still had to go on.
After Qing Ye left, it wasn't long before I set off with my little hoe in hand.
Having a Storage Bag really was wonderful.
No wonder so many people wanted to cultivate.
As for the problem of the Storage Bag being a drab gray and looking ugly hanging from my skirt...
I simply stuffed it into the hidden pocket in my skirt.
A Storage Bag was a spatial item, so it wasn't actually very big. I could easily wrap my hand around it. On the outside, it was just an unremarkable piece of cloth sewn shut.
A lighthearted tune rang out as I went along. In a good mood, I automatically filtered out the gossip around me.
"Junior Sister Xiao Yao, did you take a face-first tumble on your way out? How'd you end up with so many tiny cuts on your legs?"
At the sound of that voice, my smile gradually disappeared.
My singing came to an abrupt halt.
Pretend I never said that just now.
Sure enough, it was impossible to completely ignore the words of a dumbass.
I pressed my lips together and smiled faintly.
The soft, adorable little girl looked like she held no grudges at all, but she'd already memorized this person's name.
My Black Death Note was packed with names, so densely written that I'd lost count of how many there were.
Handyman Disciples weren't included in the sect's resource distribution, so for now I had no way to get back at them. But the mountains were high and the rivers long, and the days ahead were even longer. We'd see about it in the future.
When I ignored them, there was no fun in picking on me. As usual, laughter rose from nearby, then everyone gradually went back to their own business.
I was already used to days like this.
Behind me, Qing Ye stood on a field ridge, quietly studying their faces.
Her phoenix eyes narrowed slightly beneath the mask of a human face.
A sudden chill swept in, and quite a few people shivered involuntarily.
In my Spirit Field, I diligently hoed the earth.
Even if I struck it rich overnight, I couldn't forget my proper work.
Steadying my mood was also one of the lessons I had to master.
Qing Ye walked over at an unhurried pace. I noticed her and smiled apologetically. "Sorry I made you look after me yesterday and kept you from tending your Spirit Field."
"It's fine. I still got ninety spirit stones." She'd received ten more afterward.
Qing Ye's gaze slowly dropped. The white over-the-knee socks I usually wore had disappeared, replaced by a pair of smooth, bare feet. The tiny cuts covering my legs clearly weren't just a little painful.
When I noticed her looking, I blinked at her.
"Something wrong?"
Even if you're my partner, you can't just stare at my legs for no reason.
I muttered to myself inwardly.
Qing Ye took out a jar of ointment. "Put some on. It'll heal faster."
There were better ways to recover from an injury, like swallowing a blood-and-qi replenishing pill and bouncing back in an instant.
But Junior Sister definitely wouldn't take one.
"How much does it cost?" I asked, tilting my head. I'd secretly apologized for wrongly suspecting her.
"No spirit stones. It's a folk remedy I put together myself. The herbs are ones I pick in the mountains when I have time. They're hardly worth anything."
"All right. Thank you."
I sat down on a large rock, and my legs—neither of them particularly short—instinctively drew together. Beneath my skirt, the fair skin of my legs caught the eye, smooth as jade and tender as milk. Only the dark-red cuts marred them, lending the flawless work of art a sense of broken fragility.
Ye Qingxian's gaze followed them for a second before she casually looked away. At last, her eyes settled on my pretty pair of strappy shoes and the small feet beneath them, their toes white as jade with a faint blush.
It was the first time she'd seen what color Junior Sister's toenails were.
Her fingernails had always been painted the same shade of pale black, while her feet were usually hidden beneath cute over-the-knee socks.
"Here," she said coolly.
I took the ointment and dabbed some on with my fingertip. The cool salve stung much less once I rubbed it in.
This ointment was great. That folk remedy really worked.
There couldn't possibly be a pill mixed in, could there?
"Want a sesame flatbread?" I smiled. I looked especially lovely when my smile held no false affection. When my faint dimples appeared at just the right moment, my smile naturally curved, sweet enough to reach the heart.
I took a large flatbread from my chest.
"I made it myself. There are wild vegetables in it too, so it should taste pretty good. It's just a little cold."
Qing Ye accepted the flatbread, which was as big as my face. She didn't dwell on the mystery of how I managed to pull one out of my chest every time.
She'd already recognized it as the thing I hugged and munched on every day.
"What are you going to eat?" she asked in return.
"I made this for you. I've still got more." I patted my chest, which made a thumping sound like steel plates colliding. Ye Qingxian's mouth twitched involuntarily.
The day went by quite pleasantly. Every now and then, I'd see Qing Ye, who could now chat happily with me, and for some reason think of the annoying Ye Qingxian.
Comparisons really were infuriating.
Look at her, then look at Ye Qingxian.
The Female Protagonist and I were clearly two volatile creatures who could never get along in this lifetime.
The busiest days of the week had finally passed. I could lounge on the swing in my courtyard again, bask in the sun while nurturing my baby, and count the days on my fingers.
I opened the barrier that blocked divine sense, secretly lifted a corner of my clothes, and glanced at my soft belly.
With my clothes on, there wasn't any visible difference.
It was just that my belly had gotten a tiny bit bigger.
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Hehe, three months!
I looked forward to the birth of my first baby, and to the first time my talent improved.
Ye Qingxian hadn't come by once lately.
It would be even better if she never came looking for me again.
Then she'd never find out who the baby's father was.
I'd secretly give birth to a hundred babies for her sooner or later and meet my assigned quota.
I grinned, showing the sharp tip of a little canine. "No need to thank me. After all, I'm the number-one good person in the Cultivation World."
Who could have imagined that I'd make Ye Qingxian a happy mother without all the pain?
It would also count as revenge for the way she'd casually slap me to death in the future.
As long as Ye Qingxian didn't come pick a fight with me this time, she and her Male Lead could stay together forever while I looked after my baby and dreamed of the future. We could keep the peace indefinitely.
The Male Lead probably wouldn't show up for several more decades.
I had plenty of time. I could pack my things and run during the final year before he arrived.
Wouldn't that be just perfect?
As I hugged my flatbread and munched away on the swing, dreaming about the future, Ye Qingxian had already left Wuya Sect alone, following members of her family back to the Ye Family.
People from Hidden Families claimed they never ventured out into the world.
The Ye Family had no way to raise Ye Qingxian, a peerless prodigy who ranked among the very best throughout history, so they'd chosen to let her join one of the strongest sects, Wuya Sect.
The Ye Family.
Forbidden Grounds.
A vast formation had been laid out. Even before approaching it, one could sense its boundless, ancient aura. Countless top-grade spirit stones—nearly extinct in the outside world—had been placed at the formation's nodes. Using Essence Blood to force a divination of one's closest kin wasn't difficult; the hard part was including multiple lower realms in its reach.
The Ye Family elders stood by to oversee the formation, ready to step in at any moment should anything unexpected happen.
Ye Qingxian bit her fingertip and circulated all her Spiritual Energy, slowly forcing a drop of Essence Blood from her heart out through her finger.
As the drop emerged, Ye Qingxian's face paled slightly. Her eyes remained fixed on the formation below, afraid of missing even the smallest detail.
Drip—
The Essence Blood fell at the center of the formation.
With a rumble, the formation began to spin at high speed. Amid the swirling clouds and mist, a blurry point of light appeared above it, though its exact location wasn't revealed.
The divination had produced a result.
Ye Qingxian's eyes went blank for a moment.
A blurry point of light, and only one.
What was going on?
When someone was alive in the world, the point of light should appear clearly in the divination results. How could it be completely blurred, leaving everything so vague?
It was like being in Schrödinger's state.
Only the phrase "both alive and dead" could perfectly describe it.
"Third Elder, what does this mean?"
The moment Ye Qingxian spoke, the shock in the Third Elder's eyes grew even more apparent.
The old woman reacted at once. Looking furious, she reached out to grab Ye Qingxian by the arm.
She demanded loudly, "As the Ye Family's Young Mistress, are you already pregnant?"
"Let me see your Guardian Sand."
How could Ye Qingxian let someone else grab her arm?
She dodged with a flash, moving just far enough to evade the elder.
"Elder, what are you trying to do?" Ye Qingxian's expression turned cold.
Seeing that Ye Qingxian still dared to talk back, the Third Elder grew even angrier. She practically roared, "You're asking what I'm trying to do? Shouldn't I be asking you whether you know what you're doing?"
"The Ye Family's Young Mistress bears the hopes of the family and is the heir to the position of future clan leader. You never informed anyone in the family, nor did you tell the world or openly take a Dao Companion. Yet you made such a major decision about your life on your own. Tell me, do you have any regard for the Ye Family, which raised you with such care?"
Ye Qingxian was even more confused. "Third Elder, what on earth are you talking about?"
"How could I, Ye Qingxian, ever forget that I belong to the Ye Family?"
"Fine, fine, fine." The Third Elder laughed in fury and pointed at the light above the still-running formation. "You won't believe it till you see the coffin, will you? Here, I'll tell you exactly what this blurry point of light means."
"The absence of any other bright points proves that your parents are long dead."
"And this blurry point of light means you have an unborn child."
"That's why it appears blurry, and why the formation can't detect its exact location."
"Oh, you're asking why I'm questioning you?"
"You're an unmarried young maiden, yet now you have an unborn child. Tell me, how am I supposed to stay calm?"
The Third Elder, who regarded the Ye Family's honor as the sole obsession of her life, had turned completely red in the face as she spoke, shouting at the young woman in mounting agitation.
Hearing all this, even Ye Qingxian's peerlessly beautiful face—the sort that could make an immortal willingly descend from the heavens—seemed to crack.
She, Ye Qingxian, had actually been slandered by an elder of her own family.
Whether she was pregnant or not, wouldn't she know better than anyone?
At that moment, Ye Qingxian didn't even have the energy to worry about her biological parents.
Before Ye Qingxian could explain whether the formation had malfunctioned, the Third Elder split a Sound Transmission Talisman on the spot and notified every high-ranking member of the family.
A moment later.
The Ye Family's forbidden grounds were packed with a dense mass of powerful figures.
Facing the increasing pressure in countless elders' gazes, Ye Qingxian still looked as ethereally beautiful as an immortal. Only her hands, previously folded over her chest beneath the long sleeves of her Immortal Skirt, had quietly lowered.
Could someone tell her—
What level of misunderstanding was this?
How was she not an unmarried young maiden anymore?
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