A Beauty Looking for Trouble

After Chu Zeming finished speaking, the Immortal Residence in his palm seemed to stiffen.

It had existed for so long. Many had begged it and cursed it in hopes of forming a contract with it, but Chu Zeming was the only one who had threatened to toss it into a dung pit... The Immortal Residence found it a little hard to believe that this oddball would truly dare do such a thing, but when it felt the young man in black actually pressing it toward that revolting spirit beast dung, it immediately fell apart.

Its corners were really... really about to touch the dung!

So disgusting!

If the Immortal Residence could move, it would surely have gone pale with fright and scrambled to flee.

Unfortunately, it could not move.

Then Chu Zeming felt the Immortal Residence tremble slightly. A force came from the treasure in his hand, tugging at him, unwilling to let go.

Chu Zeming stopped, drew the Immortal Residence back, and raised a brow with a smile. "A contract?"

The Immortal Residence spun in circles without pause. Powerful spiritual energy fluctuations arose from its body as its consciousness actively entwined itself with Chu Zeming's divine sense.

Chu Zeming set up a barrier and contracted the Immortal Residence right there in the reeking beast stable.

His consciousness connected to the Immortal Residence, and it suddenly vanished from his palm. Feeling the little cube that had abruptly appeared in his sea of consciousness, Chu Zeming was in an exceedingly good mood.

After straightening his clothes, Chu Zeming strolled out of the beast stable and softly hummed, "If you'd done this from the start, there wouldn't have been so much trouble. I'm not a bad person. You won't regret following me."

Since its existence began, the Immortal Residence had never followed such a weak master.

It felt somewhat aggrieved, but it could not say so.

After all, the dung pit truly stank. If it went in there, it would be the greatest humiliation of its life.

After returning to his room at the relay station, Chu Zeming changed clothes and took a comfortable bath before heading back to the entrance of the Divine Wood Secret Realm. Having contracted the Immortal Residence, he suddenly had a powerful trump card to save his life, and his mood became excellent.

Chu Zeming was happy, and Xiao Hei was happy too.

It even unusually took the initiative to return to Chu Zeming's spirit beast sea of consciousness, intending to persuade this newly joined companion.

Cultivators gathered at the entrance to the Divine Wood Realm. Every sect had its own designated spot, where they placed spirit-gathering formations, recovery pills, and other supplies as they waited for their sect's disciples to emerge. Everything had been prepared for disciples injured within the Divine Wood Realm.

The larger the sect, the grander the display they laid out. That was their foundation.

The Nine-Clear Haoran Sect had one too—but compared with the supplies of the other sects, theirs looked exceedingly shabby.

Before Chu Zeming even reached where his junior brothers were, he saw a crowd gathered before them. Then a spoiled, petulant voice rang out from within.

"I heard five people from your sect made it into the top two hundred and fifty this time? Tsk... Joining your sect is simply a waste of talent."

Chu Zeming's expression darkened.

As he approached, he saw a girl in pink standing before seven or eight men with powerful auras.

She was squatting on the ground, using a jade flute to pick through her sect's healing medicines with obvious distaste. Bottles lay scattered crookedly across the ground. As she inspected them, she said disdainfully, "A third-rate sect is still a third-rate sect. You actually have the nerve to put out such paltry things. The healing medicine our sect gives outer disciples' servants is better than this. How about it... Why don't you all come to our sect? Your treatment would definitely be far better than in your own sect."

Several disciples were furious but did not dare speak.

Suddenly, a cool, low voice sounded from outside the crowd. "Why could I hear a dog barking from so far away? How irritating."

The five junior brothers looked up and saw their handsome eldest senior brother striding over from beyond the crowd, his face black as thunder.

They cried out in delight, "Eldest Senior Brother!"

Chu Zeming glanced at them and said flatly, "What? When I'm not around, anything can come bite you twice?"

The five junior brothers looked slightly embarrassed. They moved behind Chu Zeming and said in small voices, "Senior Brother, she... she isn't just anybody. Her name is Yan Xin. She's the Guiyuan Sect Master's daughter..."

"Who are you calling just anybody?!" Yan Xin stood up and pointed her jade flute at Chu Zeming. Her pretty, adorable face had flushed red with fury. "You just called me a dog? Apologize to me right now!"

Chu Zeming did not even look at Yan Xin. He brushed aside her jade flute, lifted the hem of his black robe, and crouched down. As he righted the healing medicines and spirit stones on the ground, he said coldly and expressionlessly, "The Guiyuan Sect has always had a good reputation. You are its greatest disgrace."

Yan Xin grew even angrier.

She wanted to call for the attendants behind her to tie up and beat this foul-mouthed man, but remembering her father's warning not to cause trouble when she left, she forcibly swallowed the rage in her heart. She put away her jade flute, sauntered forward, then seemingly carelessly kicked over the porcelain pill bottles Chu Zeming had just arranged. One of them shattered outright.

Yan Xin feigned surprise. "Oh my, I'm sorry... I didn't see it. But it's only such trifling stuff. Surely this gentleman is magnanimous enough not to make me pay for it?"

After saying that, she made a face at Chu Zeming and lifted her foot to leave.

Without warning, someone seized her hand.

Turning back, she saw Chu Zeming's extremely unpleasant face. "Do you think you're very cute? I never said I don't hit women."

Yan Xin's wrist hurt a little from his grip. She struggled and shouted, "Let go of me! Let go! I'm warning you, don't go too far!"

She was only fifteen.

She had been indulged by her father since childhood and cherished in the palms of the elders and senior brothers in her sect. It was the first time she had suffered such grievance—how could she bear it? Did this man not know how to cherish beauty? She turned toward those behind her and angrily yelled, "What are you still standing around for? He's bullying me! Do you want me to go back and tell my father so he can punish you?"

The six attendants behind her exchanged glances, and their figures flickered.

The next moment, Chu Zeming felt his hand go empty.

Yan Xin had been effortlessly rescued by them.

These people looked utterly ordinary, but every one of them was a Nascent Soul expert or above. They shielded Yan Xin behind them and said in low voices, "We respectfully ask this fellow cultivator to forgive our young miss for being immature and thoughtless, and to show mercy."

Chu Zeming withdrew his hand, his gaze falling upon the shattered pills of his sect. He slowly said, "Then you need to compensate us."

Yan Xin was rubbing her wrist when she heard Chu Zeming's words. Her eyes widened. "For this, you want us to compensate you? Any pill bottle I casually take out from my person is worth more than all this trash on the ground. You want to use trash to swindle my top-grade pills? What a beautiful dream!"

Seeing their spoiled young miss start arguing with someone again, the attendants were helpless.

The leader among them stepped forward, took out a bottle of medicine from his robes, and offered it to Chu Zeming. He said apologetically, "We are truly sorry. This bottle of medicinal powder is a superior healing sacred medicine. Even injuries that spiritual energy cannot heal can recover with just a little of this powder. Would this suffice as compensation?"

Yet before he had even finished speaking, the medicine in the attendant's hand was knocked onto the ground.

White medicinal powder scattered everywhere.

Yan Xin glared with almond-shaped eyes, fury written all over her pretty face. "Am I the master, or are you the master? If I say no compensation, then there will be no compensation! He called me a dog and even squeezed my wrist until it swelled. My father has never even hit me. He should be apologizing to me! You are not allowed to apologize to him!"

Hearing this, Chu Zeming suddenly smiled as he looked at Yan Xin.

"Oh? It's swollen?"

Yan Xin froze.

When this man smiled, he was... rather good-looking.

"Of course it's swollen." As she spoke, Yan Xin rolled up half her sleeve and held out her hand for Chu Zeming to see. The next instant, the icy touch of a sword sheath landed on Yan Xin's hand and struck it heavily.

"Ah, it hurts!" Yan Xin abruptly pulled back her hand. Staring at her increasingly red and swollen wrist, the pain brought tears nearly spilling from her eyes.

Chu Zeming put away the Luminous Glaze Sword and smiled. "Fine. No need to compensate us. You may go."

"Thank you, sir!" Seeing this, several attendants hurriedly carried off their young miss.

This minor flesh wound would be fine after applying some medicine later. If they kept wrangling like this, they feared matters truly could not be settled peacefully.

The cursing Yan Xin was carried away by several attendants. Only then did the people from the other sects who had been watching the show disperse. It was merely a small sect—if they suffered a loss, then they suffered a loss.

Chu Zeming crouched down and once again set the scattered bottles upright. Looking at the shattered ointment, his heart ached fiercely. It might amount to nothing for a colossal force like the Guiyuan Sect, but these were all items Qin Elder had carefully selected and deliberately sought out before they came.

"Senior Brother, what are you doing? Why was there such a crowd around here just now?" Yue Lian, who never cultivated and instead spent his days admiring flowers and moonlight, returned. The moment he came back, he saw the young man in black crouching on the ground, staring mournfully at a shattered porcelain bottle.

A senior brother beside him explained, "Junior Brother, while you were gone, an unreasonable woman came looking for trouble and kicked our medicine to pieces."

Yue Lian crouched down, thought for a moment, and said, "If it broke, then it broke. Throw this away. I have some."

After speaking, Yue Lian rummaged in his robes for a while and pulled out a bottle of Spiritual Marrow emanating dense spiritual energy. Even the sealed jade bottle could not contain its terrifyingly thick spiritual energy. Everyone around them had their gazes drawn to that little bottle.

This was Spiritual Marrow.

Though it did not possess the terrifying healing effect of reviving the dead and regrowing flesh upon white bones, it was not far off.

With it, as long as someone still had a breath left and their divine sense had not perished, they could be brought back from the brink of death!

Yue Lian glanced at the Spiritual Marrow and thought of the three people still in the secret realm. Feeling that one bottle might not be enough, he rummaged around again—then pulled out a second bottle, then a third.

The people from the surrounding sects: !!!!

Fuck.

Who the hell could tell them how a small sect could casually produce two or three bottles of Spiritual Marrow?

Looking at the three bottles of Spiritual Marrow placed amid a pile of shabby medicinal herbs, everyone's eyes turned red and their hearts ached—this stuff should be enshrined, enshrined! Don't leave it on the ground, please!