Your Abacus Beads Are Smacking Me in the Face

"Long time no see, Junior Sister Dong Dong," Tan Shuchang took the initiative to greet her.

As soon as he spoke, he clearly sensed the slender girl before him stiffen slightly. So he stared at her.

Until she reached up and removed the conical hat from her head.

The girl's brows and eyes were picturesque, her face just the right size. Though it was not a melon-seed face, it was still exquisitely delicate. She wore an unremarkable dress, yet on her, it somehow seemed like flawless heavenly raiment.

Clothes make the man, but clothes also depend on who wears them.

The same outfit looked entirely different on different people.

"How did you know it was me?" Dong Dong asked with a blank little face, her eyes unblinking as they stared at Tan Shuchang. She could not understand it. She had clearly disguised herself so well!

After all, this was not merely her own opinion of her disguise.

Three years ago, she had relied on this very disguise to escape the Dong Residence. Then she had encountered Poet Fairy of the Jian Gorge Sect, become her disciple, and gone with her to the Jian Gorge Sect.

This disguise had deceived even Cultivation Realm experts like her parents, grandparents, and so on. Why had this demonic cultivator recognized her?

Hearing this, Tan Shuchang extended a hand, indicating that she should give him the conical hat.

Dong Dong handed it over without hesitation.

After taking the hat, Tan Shuchang did not immediately put it on. Instead, he pointed at the top of it and said, "Look. There's nothing there, right?"

The girl immediately nodded her little head.

"Now watch carefully." Tan Shuchang placed the hat on his own head. At once, the phantom of a broken sword, its sharpness fully exposed, appeared above it.

It was a thread of Sword Qi from the Heavenly Heart Sword Realm.

It was both a symbol of identity and a form of intimidation.

Sword Disciple Mountain possessed the supreme art known as the Sword Canon of Severing Immortals, something many cultivators knew. The Heavenly Heart Sword Realm of Heavenly Sword Manor was the same. This supreme art was equally famous.

Rumor had it that among cultivation arts whose rank surpassed even superior canon techniques were these two.

"Here."

Tan Shuchang returned the hat to her.

Though the hat concealed its true nature and was very likely a disguised sentient Dharma artifact, Tan Shuchang still knew what artifacts he could take and what artifacts he could not.

He was a greedy man, but not a greedy man.

However, Dong Dong did not take the hat. At this moment, the blank-faced little girl's watery almond eyes were filled with obvious confusion and dullness.

Yet she quickly regained her composure. She took a deep breath, then said to Tan Shuchang, "You know the Sword Young Master, right? I know what treasures he has on him. He also brought three thousand Upper Profound Seals. I'll lead him somewhere secluded, you lie in ambush beforehand, then seize the chance to beat him up. Everything on him will be yours."

Hearing this, a strange look appeared in Tan Shuchang's eyes. If he remembered correctly, the Sword Young Master seemed to be her uncle, did he not?

So this conical hat had been given to her by the Sword Young Master?

Tan Shuchang smiled. "You mean the Sword Young Master?"

"Mhm!" The little girl nodded hard. She could not make a move against one of her own, or else it would be hard to explain things to her parents.

"I don't know him," Tan Shuchang continued.

"You can acknowledge him now even if you don't..." Dong Dong said with her blank little face. She was still unwilling to give up.

"What makes you so sure I can beat this Sword Young Master?" Tan Shuchang asked curiously. He had cultivated for only three years, yet she wanted him to compete against one of the top prodigies of a sacred land for sword cultivators. Did she truly think he was that powerful?

"Because you came to Luo Province." Dong Dong remained expressionless, but her gaze toward Tan Shuchang was laden with meaning.

Tan Shuchang was somewhat surprised by that answer.

From the sound of it, this little girl had clearly discovered that he was concealing his strength.

Just then, a wave of cheers sounded out.

The disciples of Rainbow Cloud Valley had officially begun selling the medicinal pills that could increase cultivation power. Tan Shuchang was finally seeing what it meant to treat money as though it were nothing.

Just one pill was shouted up to the staggering price of eight hundred Upper Profound Seals in a short time!

Tan Shuchang could not help drawing a sharp breath in his heart. He had expected these pills to be popular, but he had not expected them to be popular to such an extent.

At that price, ordinary Rogue Cultivator families could not afford them. Even cultivator clans that ruled over a region would be reluctant to pay it.

At this point, Tan Shuchang noticed that the little girl beside him was also looking toward the disciples of Rainbow Cloud Valley. An idea stirred in his heart, and he said, "How about we play house?"

Dong Dong heard this and merely stared at Tan Shuchang with her watery almond eyes, her little face blank and silent.

"Are you playing or not?" Tan Shuchang asked again. "If not, forget it."

Dong Dong still wore that blank little face, but this time she spoke. "I'll play..."

She did not know why, but something that sounded so childish and even a little stupid somehow made her heart stir.

"Then you'll play a wife who did something wrong. To make me forgive you, you buy a pill that can increase cultivation power and give it to me. But I'm still angry, and after taking the pill, I ignore you anyway."

"..." Dong Dong glanced at Tan Shuchang, her little face expressionless. Then she said, "We're acting, right? But I don't think that sounds fun. How about this instead? You play a wife who did something wrong and still makes an unreasonable fuss, while I play the husband who gets so angry that he cuts you down."

After saying that, the little girl placed a hand on the hilt of the sword she carried with her, looking as though she might draw it at once.

"Why did you bring a Dharma artifact to this Peaceful Heart Charity Fair?" Tan Shuchang had noticed it long ago, and he asked curiously. After all, who would dare refuse to give Luojia Mountain face? Even though Luojia Mountain had not said so, all the cultivators attending had consciously refrained from bringing Dharma artifacts.

"Because this sword serves the same purpose as Rainbow Cloud Valley's pills," Dong Dong replied. She had no real intention of drawing her sword. First, this was currently Luojia Mountain's Peaceful Heart Charity Fair. Second, this was not her top-grade flying sword. Though its quality was not bad and it was an upper-realm Dharma artifact coveted by many sword cultivators, it was still far inferior to her top-grade flying sword and could not bring out her full strength.

There was also a third reason. If she relied only on this flying sword meant for sale, the little girl felt that she would not be a match for the person before her.

Tan Shuchang was about to speak when a sudden commotion erupted from somewhere nearby. Immediately afterward, the fluctuations of cultivators battling broke out.

Tan Shuchang looked over just in time to see a crystal-clear Sword Qi dragon soar into the sky. With magnificent force, it cleaved apart a mass of Five-Colored Cloud Aura.

The instant the Five-Colored Cloud Aura was severed, several cries of agony rang out from within it.

"Whose sword cultivator is this, cutting down Rainbow Cloud Valley's disciples?" Tan Shuchang could not help asking. Every sect had a signature Dharma artifact or divine ability, and this Five-Colored Cloud Aura was the hallmark divine ability of Rainbow Cloud Valley's disciples.

"I don't know them, but I can say for certain they aren't from my family." Dong Dong glanced over there, then shook her little head.