Almost nothing but desert lay between Xiyang City and the Azure Mist Sect. The sun blazed overhead, scorching the land as though it had been set on fire.
On the way, Li Lingzhou briefly went over what had happened that day with Jiang Chen. As she listened, she kept nodding, and a money-making scheme seemed to take shape in her eyes.
Her sword-riding style was all swerves and swagger, but she was fast. Before long, they reached the Azure Mist Sect.
The Azure Mist Sect was still repairing its mountain-protection array and investigating the Demon Sect spy and Liu Ruyan, the fox demon.
Jiang Chen was glad he had slipped away so quickly!
Li Lingzhou led Jiang Chen straight to the main peak's administrative hall. When she saw no sign of Luo Qingzhou, she shouted:
"Luo Qingzhou, come see me at once!"
Resting in his cave dwelling, Luo Qingzhou felt his scalp prickle. He had no choice but to drag his weakened body to the administrative hall.
Luo Qingzhou had always been frail, and the Heavenly Demon's demonic energy had gravely injured him the day before yesterday. Standing was already at the limit of his strength.
But Li Lingzhou had arrived. If someone else received her and said the wrong thing, the resulting disaster might be worse than the demoness herself.
When he reached the administrative hall, Li Lingzhou looked as radiant as ever.
In the past, she had always brought a pretty female cultivator when she visited the Azure Mist Sect.
Today, she had brought a handsome male cultivator in Qi Refining instead.
He had known Li Lingzhou for five hundred years. Had she finally changed her tastes?
"Senior Sister Li, I trust you've been well. And this young friend is..."
Li Lingzhou made no attempt to hide it.
"This is Jiang Chen, a former disciple of your sect and an eyewitness to the demoness's assault on the mountain. He works for me now."
A disciple who had witnessed the demoness attack the mountain?
Luo Qingzhou's expression froze.
He had planned to tell Li Lingzhou that he had risked his life to drive the demoness away.
Now he was finished. Li Lingzhou had come prepared, and the two of them were sure to join forces today and use the matter to fleece him.
"I never thought Senior Sister Li would take an interest in men."
Luo Qingzhou spoke through a stiff expression.
Li Lingzhou dropped into the administrator's chair. She had no intention of making small talk with Luo Qingzhou and went straight to the point:
"I know everything that happened three days ago. Tian Mingye tore through the Azure Mist Sect single-handedly.
"Even after your sect's elders trapped her and devoured her demonic energy, she could still transform into a Heavenly Demon and slaughter all living things. Neither a Nascent Soul Cultivator like you nor the rest of that rabble could possibly defeat her.
"The demoness clearly suffered a terrible loss, yet she didn't slaughter your sect in revenge. Why do you think that was?"
Luo Qingzhou gritted his teeth and refused to take the bait. He coughed twice on instinct.
"Perhaps Tian Mingye was never cruel or bloodthirsty to begin with."
Li Lingzhou sipped her wine and sneered:
"You're saying the demoness who slaughtered more than a dozen cities in Fireburn Kingdom isn't bloodthirsty?
"She killed the two elders beside you without a second thought. Why would she spare your miserable life?
"Think about it. Whose classmate are you?"
Luo Qingzhou had heard enough. He laid his cards on the table and took out a brocade pouch filled with spirit stones.
"Our sect is repairing its mountain-protection array, and we need every coin. Here are five hundred spirit stones from my own pocket, Senior Sister Li. Consider them payment for your travel expenses and the use of your reputation."
Five hundred?
Li Lingzhou took a small sip of wine and said without a flicker of emotion:
"My reputation may not be worth much, but it saved all five thousand disciples of your Azure Mist Sect. Are their lives worth nothing too?"
Luo Qingzhou broke into another fit of coughing, then looked up at the sky and sighed.
"Alas, my life and finances are both lamps running out of oil. I truly can't produce any more."
For the sake of their old friendship, Li Lingzhou could not press him too hard. She turned to Jiang Chen instead.
Jiang Chen was ready. He spoke calmly:
"The year before last, our sect discovered an underground mineral vein fifty li to the east. By conservative estimates, the crystals extracted were worth hundreds of thousands of spirit stones.
"Last year, Sect Master Luo sent Yellow Maple Valley eighty thousand spirit stones as a betrothal gift to marry one of its prodigies.
"This year, Sect Master Luo paid eight thousand spirit stones for Zhang Wanxiang's masterpiece, A Thousand Miles of Mountain Views."
Luo Qingzhou's breath caught.
He pointed at Jiang Chen and spat out a mouthful of blood.
Then he staggered and collapsed to the floor...
Unfortunately, his acting was not up to par.
In the end, he still had to pay five thousand spirit stones before he could send off the formidable Li Lingzhou and that traitor Jiang Chen.
On the way back to the city, Li Lingzhou could barely resist throwing an arm around Jiang Chen as she strode across the blazing desert.
"You look like such an honest lad, but you bled your mother sect dry without spilling a drop of blood!"
Jiang Chen did not answer. He merely held out his hand.
Li Lingzhou pretended not to understand. She took his hand and studied it closely.
"I see romance in your near future. If you get yourself a pretty girl, don't forget me. We can all have fun together."
Jiang Chen kept a straight face, though a bad feeling crept over him.
"My five hundred spirit stones!"
Li Lingzhou let out a long sigh.
She had made five thousand spirit stones for nothing this time, and Jiang Chen's contribution had been indispensable.
She also wanted to win over this underling with his unusual physique. Gritting her teeth, she took out a brocade pouch containing five hundred spirit stones and tossed it to Jiang Chen with a flourish.
"If you wanted the money, you only had to say so. Would I, Li Lingzhou, ever break my word?"
Jiang Chen put away the pouch and patiently counted the spirit stones. Only when he found exactly five hundred did he breathe a sigh of relief.
He had spirit stones and the demonic energy in the Demon Shrine. All he lacked now was some demonic-beast energy, and he could raise his cultivation explosively in a short time.
Jiang Chen thought again of the Thousand-Faced Fox, and of that wealthy lady...
Trying to ingratiate herself with Jiang Chen, Li Lingzhou did more than pay what she owed. She slipped an arm around his shoulders and brought a mouthful of fragrant wine to his lips.
One swallow made Jiang Chen choke and turn scarlet.
When he savored it more carefully... he discovered it was fake wine. It was not even as fragrant or delicious as the saliva on the mouth of the jar.
Li Lingzhou's beautiful, muddled eyes darted back and forth. She seemed to have thought up another way to make money, and she asked Jiang Chen in a low voice:
"Do you have any way of meeting Tian Mingye?"
"No."
Jiang Chen's answer was absolute.
He could hear the wicked calculation behind her question.
When Luo Qingzhou had asked Li Lingzhou to help him out last time, he had promised her ten thousand spirit stones. That was why Jiang Chen had agreed to help her collect what she was owed. If they secretly joined forces with Tian Mingye and cooked up some crooked scheme to make money, wouldn't that be extorting his mother sect?
Jiang Chen would have no part in such a despicable act.
Li Lingzhou shoved Jiang Chen away and muttered gloomily.
"No fun."
As they spoke, the two of them walked all the way to the summit of a Flame Mountain.
It was still the chill of early spring, yet the place remained a natural furnace. Even the air warped in the heat.
Jiang Chen had no idea what Li Lingzhou intended.
"Why didn't we fly back on our swords?"
Li Lingzhou strode onto the summit. The surging heat set one of her jars of fake wine alight, and she seized the chance to drink it down, flames and all.
Jiang Chen stared, dumbfounded.
Li Lingzhou belched, then began to explain at an unhurried pace.
"You won't get a salary working as my underling.
"If you want a government salary, you'll need to become at least a Class C Prison Suppression Envoy in Xihe Prefecture. That requires, at the very least, cultivation in the Golden Core Realm.
"For you, raising your cultivation in the short term will be difficult.
"But your Half-Immortal Physique is an advantage. I can thoroughly assess your Basic Spirit Control, your ability in actual combat, and your judgment.
"If you excel in all three, I can apply for you to become a specially appointed Prison Suppression Envoy. Once you're in the Prison Suppression Bureau, the monsters there will have their own ways to raise your cultivation.
"For example, they could refine your dantian, or dissect it and manually reshape it to break through, or simply replace it with an artificial one..."
Wasn't that just another kind of mechanical ascension?
Jiang Chen's scalp prickled as he listened.
"So you brought me into the desert for special training?"
Li Lingzhou nodded.
"You'll be on your own... It's hot enough here, and there are plenty of man-eating Sandworms, not to mention giant Sand Monsters. Try to survive here for a month."
An extreme survival trial?
Jiang Chen paused, then asked:
"You're not planning to kill me over a mere five hundred spirit stones, are you?"
A murderous look was impossible to hide. Fortunately, Li Lingzhou had no such intention.
She gave a disdainful smile, drew her sword, and casually traced a large circle on the summit of Flame Mountain.
"I've marked out a Sword-Qi Domain covering ten zhang around the summit. Inside it, I can ensure you don't die even once.
"Of course, it can only help by slaying Sand Monsters you can't defeat, which will end the trial early. It won't keep you from dying of thirst, starvation, or depleted spiritual power.
"If you can't hold out, or if a month has passed, draw your sword and thrust it upside down into the summit. I'll come find you and end the trial."
As the Sword Domain opened, spiritual energy flowed backward and the Flame Vein reversed its course. A moment later, everything returned to normal.
Jiang Chen could tell at a glance that the Sword Qi was extraordinary. Suddenly, he felt she had thought things through rather well.
He had no desire to become a Prison Suppression Envoy, but the Sword Domain made this place safe enough. With Sandworms to train and cultivate against, it was also a good place to wait for the main plot to unfold.
The one thing he could not understand was why he had to stick his sword into the center of this woman's Sword Domain to end the trial.
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