Chapter 21

Su Jiu went to the Steward Hall again and exchanged her saved contribution points for a low-grade Storage Bag. It could hold only about a cubic meter of belongings, but that was enough for an Outer Gate disciple like her, who owned little to begin with.

She took stock of everything she had accumulated over the past year: 255 Lower-Grade Spirit Stones, twelve bottles of Spirit-Gathering Pills, a Flying Sword, a set of sect robes, and three manuals issued when she joined.

It was enough to make anyone bristle at how pitifully poor she was.

Su Jiu carefully looked through the field-training missions one by one, finally choosing a task to gather ten stalks of blood-staunching herb.

The task was fairly simple and paid only five spirit stones. After all, blood-staunching herb grew everywhere in the cultivation world.

Blood-staunching herb could be used to refine Hemostatic Pills, which did exactly what their name suggested: stopped wounds from bleeding. In an emergency, the herb could be applied directly to a wound, but its trace toxins would have to be purged afterward. Hemostatic Pills were different. Their toxins were expelled during refinement, making them safe to take.

She then looked at the Demon Beast-hunting missions and discovered that they came in two varieties: group missions and individual missions.

Outer Gate disciples who dared take individual missions were usually already at the Late Qi Refining Stage.

At last, Su Jiu's gaze settled on a mission to collect Windfang Rabbit teeth.

Windfang Rabbits were first-tier Demon Beasts. Their attacks were not particularly powerful, but they were exceptionally fast. Few Demon Beasts of the same tier could match their speed.

Had she not practiced Lightfoot Step, she probably would not have been able to outrun the Windfang Rabbits either.

Just as Su Jiu was about to take the mission, another slender hand snatched it first.

It was Yu Yin, who lived in the same courtyard.

For some reason, Yu Yin had been openly hostile toward her ever since learning that she had an ice spiritual root. Whenever Yu Ying followed behind her, she would give Su Jiu an apologetic look, but Yu Ying was not here this time.

Once, half a year ago, when Su Jiu came to the Steward Hall to renew a mission, Yu Yin had even sneered, "What, does this mission belong exclusively to Su Jiu now? Is no one else allowed to take it?"

Su Jiu frowned. Not wanting to trade insults with someone like that, she turned to leave.

"Stop! Is that how you treat your senior? You're at the Fourth Qi Refining Layer, and so am I. What makes you so high and mighty?"

Yes, a month before that incident, Yu Yin had finally broken through to the Fourth Qi Refining Layer.

Su Jiu's expression immediately turned cold, but she still did not attack. One of the Azure Tide Sect's rules prohibited private fights within the sect.

Yu Yin, however, clearly had not read the Azure Tide Sect's rules carefully. Relying on her greater age, equal Cultivation Level, and extensive combat experience, she tried to launch a sneak attack on Su Jiu.

Su Jiu had, after all, been reborn, and her mastery of spells and swordsmanship had reached even greater heights. Rather than dodging with Shadow Veil Step, she met the attack head-on and broke Yu Yin's hand with her sword sheath.

There had been plenty of people around. Su Jiu cupped her hands toward them and smiled. "This counts as self-defense. When the Enforcement Hall arrives, please bear witness for me, senior brothers and sisters."

Su Jiu was young and cute, with a modest reputation in the Outer Gate. She kept a low profile and had never offended anyone, so naturally no one spoke up to make things difficult for her.

The Enforcement Hall arrived soon afterward. Once they understood what had happened, they took Yu Yin away. Su Jiu did not know what happened to her inside the Enforcement Hall.

She only knew that Yu Yin had been confined for a month before being released. Ever since then, Yu Yin's gaze had followed Su Jiu like a venomous snake, as inseparable as her shadow.

Seeing Yu Yin's behavior now, Su Jiu was no longer surprised.

Holding the wooden mission token between her index and middle fingers, Yu Yin waved it in front of Su Jiu. A venomous look flashed across her face before she smiled. "Oh, who's this? Isn't it our famous little genius of the Outer Gate? You collect twenty spirit stones from Ice Veil Peak every month, so why are you still here snatching missions from us?"

Su Jiu thought Yu Yin had a hole in her head—and an unpatchable one at that. Why else would she provoke a cultivator whose Cultivation Level exceeded her own?

Soon, however, Su Jiu understood why Yu Yin dared prance around here. A male cultivator at the Seventh Qi Refining Layer was walking toward her.

"Yinyin? What's wrong?" Yu Yin cast Su Jiu a smug look, then shook the man's arm with a coquettish pout. "Take me along on this mission, won't you?"

The man took the mission token, and his expression immediately soured.

The listed reward was attractive enough-thirty spirit stones-but he could not complete this mission alone. He simply was not as fast as a Windfang Rabbit.

He could not understand why she had chosen such a mission, but when he followed her gaze and saw Su Jiu, understanding dawned.

The man sighed helplessly. He seemed reluctant to antagonize Su Jiu. After all, the girl had reached the Fifth Qi Refining Layer at seven years old. Anyone could see that her prospects were boundless.

He did not even understand why his girlfriend insisted on targeting this little girl. She suffered every time, yet never seemed to learn, always throwing herself into the flames like a moth.

The man gave Su Jiu an apologetic look, but still chose to side with his girlfriend. Taking the wooden token from her, he went to register it.

Su Jiu shook her head in amusement, unbothered, and went to look at the other missions.

Every cultivator could accept three missions at once. With so many available, why worry about finding one?

Before long, another mission caught Su Jiu's eye. Instead of reaching for it, however, she reached for the one beside it. Sure enough, Yu Yin swiftly snatched that mission down again.

A sly smile flickered across Su Jiu's face. She was, after all, at the Fifth Qi Refining Layer. The first time, she had been caught off guard. If she truly wanted a mission the second time, how could someone at the Fourth Qi Refining Layer snatch it from her?

Su Jiu let another mission be snatched away. Yu Yin now had her full allotment and could take no more. She could only watch as Su Jiu smilingly took the two missions she had wanted all along. Choosing the registration desk with the shortest queue, Su Jiu registered them and left.

Only then did Yu Yin realize that something seemed wrong.

She looked down at the two wooden tokens she had snatched and nearly fainted.

One required the teeth and ears of a Saber-Toothed Tiger; the other, a Flame Fox's tail. Both offered extremely high rewards of a thousand spirit stones. The problem was that both creatures were second-tier Demon Beasts. Ordinary Qi Refining cultivators could only flee for their lives upon encountering one. Killing them was out of the question.

Yu Yin finally understood. She had been played!

Watching Su Jiu leave after registering, Yu Yin tried to chase after her, but a Steward Hall attendant stopped her. "Please register your missions first."

Yu Yin trembled as she looked at the wooden tokens in her hands, her expression apologetic. "Sorry, I took the wrong missions. Can I return them?"

Seeing Yu Yin stopped by the young boy at the entrance, her boyfriend frowned. As soon as he finished registering, he hurried over.

"What happened?"

Yu Yin's eyes reddened, tears already glistening at their corners.

"Su Jiu tricked me."

The man sighed, his head aching, and looked at the wooden tokens in her hands. "You snatched another two missions from Su Jiu?" As he spoke, he took them from her.

After reading their contents, his face turned green.

"Yu Yin! Have you gone mad? Don't you read what's written on the tokens before snatching them?"

Yu Yin bit her lip and said nothing.

"How many spirit stones do you have right now?"

Yu Yin looked at him warily.

The man's look at Yu Yin made him laugh in anger. "This isn't your first time taking missions at the Steward Hall, is it? Don't you know that accepting the wrong mission carries the same penalty as failing it?"

Yu Yin could not stand his tone either and shouted back, "I haven't registered them yet! Can't I just return them at the registration desk?"

"Ha! Yu Yin, have you ever read the Outer Gate disciple manual? To prevent people from snatching missions, the Outer Gate specifically stipulates that accepting a mission and not doing it counts as failure! Failure means paying a tenth of the original reward as a penalty."

Naturally, Yu Yin had never read it. Her face instantly paled. "Then... then what do we do?" There was no way she could produce two hundred Lower-Grade Spirit Stones.

The man smiled bitterly. "We can only wait and see if a Foundation Establishment senior is willing to take them over, or perhaps a small team at the Late Qi Refining Stage. But even if someone agrees, we'll still have to pay them."

The boy beside them reminded them, "Please register at the Mission Office within six hours. Otherwise, the missions will be reclaimed and treated as failures."

The man's face stiffened before he gave a bitter smile. He had nearly forgotten that there was a time limit after taking a mission.

Six hours slipped by. Yu Yin's expression had long since shifted from panic to calm.

The man kept feeling that something was wrong, but because Yu Yin was his girlfriend, he did not dwell on it.

Time was up. With no other choice, the man returned the missions.

When the boy saw Yu Yin standing behind the man, a trace of scorn flashed across his face.

"The penalty is two hundred spirit stones. Will you have it deducted from your monthly stipend, or pay it all at once?"

After a long silence, the man said, "All at once." He poured every spirit stone out of his Storage Bag. There were only 134.

The man looked at Yu Yin. "We're still sixty-six short."

To his surprise, Yu Yin rolled her eyes. "You're the one who took the wrong missions. What's that got to do with me? You actually expect me to make up the difference?"

The man's eyes widened, as though he were seeing Yu Yin for the first time. Then he sneered. "Ha! I must have been blind. All this time, I never saw what kind of woman you really were."

He gathered the spirit stones from the table and told the boy, "Deduct it from my monthly stipend."

Then he turned back to Yu Yin, his expression utterly cold. "This is the last money I'll ever spend on you. Consider it a breakup fee."

Yu Yin had felt a little guilty, but his words instantly made her explode. "Qi Fei, what do you mean?"

"Shouldn't you have been prepared for us to break up when you did that?" All the former tenderness had vanished from the face of the man named Qi Fei, leaving only endless coldness.

More and more people were gathering around them.

Yu Yin said bitterly, "You'd better not regret this!"

Qi Fei sneered. "Staying with you is what I'd regret." With that, he left without looking back.