Chapter 43

From that day on, Su Jiu threw herself wholeheartedly into drawing talismans. Besides Ice Spike talismans, she also drew Ice Binding Talismans and Ice Wall Talismans.

On the first day, she drew a full sixty before exhausting the last trace of spiritual energy in her body. While meditating that night, she discovered that spiritual energy was rushing into her body almost twice as fast as before. It circulated rapidly around her, and anyone who approached her then would have felt the intense cold surrounding her.

After Su Jiu circulated her energy through two complete cycles, spiritual energy quickly filled all her meridians, and even her Cultivation Level rose a little. She spent that night meditating. By the next morning, the exhaustion of the previous day seemed never to have existed, and her body and meridians brimmed with strength.

She repeated this day after day. Five days later, Su Jiu had drawn over a hundred more talismans than she had expected, but she did not intend to hand them all over.

When Su Jiu handed two hundred talismans to Xiang Li, his expression successfully made her laugh.

Adding the seven hundred spirit stones she had received from Xiang Li the day before and the three hundred or so already in her Storage Bag, she now carried the enormous sum of five thousand five hundred spirit stones.

She thought she could probably count as a wealthy young lady among the Qi Refining disciples now.

Su Jiu browsed the market some more, buying a few pills and a middle-grade defensive magical artifact.

The defensive magical artifact was a Handkerchief, but that simple square of cloth cost Su Jiu four thousand five hundred spirit stones.

Although Su Jiu had few spirit stones left now, her equipment was reasonably good for the time being: a Robe of Protection, a Handkerchief, a Flying Sword, and a Tassel Sword Pendant.

Once she had everything in order, she went to the Mission Office.

By the time Su Jiu arrived, quite a few people were already in the Steward Hall. When she spotted Bai Su and her party, she could only say that without coincidence, there would be no story.

This time, however, Bai Su did not have many people behind her. Besides Lu Tianqi and Ran Chao, there were only two cultivators whose Cultivation Level Su Jiu could not discern. She had never met either of them before.

"Fellow Daoist Su, over here." Zhou Xing waved toward Su Jiu.

Zhou Xing's shout also drew the attention of Bai Su's party to Su Jiu.

A flicker of surprise crossed the faces of the two late Qi Refining stage cultivators beside Bai Su. "That little girl has reached the sixth Qi Refining layer?"

Lu Tianqi was the first to cry out, "Impossible!" He himself had a single spirit root, so he knew better than anyone how quickly someone with one could cultivate. Besides, he had taken plenty of pills provided by Bai Su, yet he had only reached the fourth Qi Refining layer.

The two late Qi Refining stage cultivators exchanged a glance without saying anything.

Ever since Su Jiu had shattered that Jade Pendant, Bai Su had begun to pay more attention to her. Even she could not explain the feeling. Su Jiu had clearly never done anything to her, yet she felt an inexplicable dislike for her.

That feeling was like an instinct, and it had grown increasingly pronounced lately. In particular, she found herself checking Su Jiu's Cultivation Level from time to time. She had just advanced to the fifth Qi Refining layer a few days earlier and had thought she was finally on par with her, only for the late Qi Refining stage cultivator beside her to tell her that Su Jiu had already reached the sixth Qi Refining layer.

Bai Su secretly dug her fingers into her palm, suppressing her agitation and trying her best not to pay attention to Su Jiu.

Lu Tianqi still resented Su Jiu for shattering the Jade Pendant last time and making him lose face. "So what if she's at the sixth Qi Refining layer? Her Cultivation Level was piled up with pills. One real fight, and she'll probably give herself away."

One of the late Qi Refining stage cultivators raised an eyebrow. Apparently, this fellow had never heard about Su Jiu's battle record. Still, he needed something from them at present, so there was no need to spell certain things out.

As long as they did not clash directly with Su Jiu's group, all would be well. He had also heard a little about the other four in the Outer Gate. Their cultivation foundations were all extremely solid, and even many late Qi Refining stage cultivators might not be their match.

If they really fought those five, there was no telling who would win. Their own group might have two late Qi Refining stage cultivators, but he knew all too well how much actual strength the two of them possessed.

Besides, theirs was merely an employment arrangement. There was no need to throw their lives away on a mountain patrol mission.

Bai Su also felt rather awkward upon hearing Lu Tianqi's remark. After all, her own Cultivation Level had been pushed up with pills.

Of them all, Ran Chao wore the ugliest expression. Even after forcing his Cultivation Level upward with pills, he had barely reached the fourth layer, and his unstable cultivation was teetering on the brink. He suspected Lu Tianqi had deliberately aimed those words at him and could not help stealing a dark glance at him. Sooner or later, he would deal with that brat.

Everyone in Bai Su's team harbored their own thoughts, while things were much more harmonious on Su Jiu's side.

"Fellow Daoist Su, do you know Bai Su? I keep seeing her look your way," Zhou Xing whispered.

Su Jiu considered it briefly. "We've met a few times, but we aren't close."

"The way she looks at you doesn't seem very friendly."

It's because of that Jade Pendant last time, but that Jade Pendant wasn't even hers.

Lie Changfeng joined in too. "Xingxing, how could you tell? Bai Su did glance at Fellow Daoist Su, but she wasn't as unfriendly as you're making her sound."

Zhou Xing tapped Lie Changfeng on the head with his fan. "Idiot. Is Bai Su the sort of person who wears her emotions on her face? At first, I thought I'd seen it wrong too, but look at her palm."

Lie Changfeng glanced over. "It's just a little red. That's nothing."

Zhou Xing sneered. "That's from digging her fingers into it when she looked at Fellow Daoist Su."

"No way."

Su Jiu's heart gave a sudden lurch. Apart from that piece of jade, she had clearly done nothing in this life yet. How had she drawn Bai Su's attention? Although she felt they would clash sooner or later, it absolutely should not be now. She still lacked the strength to guarantee her own safety, and she no longer even had the backing she had possessed in her previous life.

Could shattering a piece of jade really have changed the plot this much? Su Jiu quietly raised her guard against Bai Su.

It went without saying that a Child of Destiny would not be easy to kill. Even if she intended to kill her, she would have to wait until the book's plot timeline ended before attempting to weaken this so-called Female Protagonist's destiny.

Su Jiu felt that things seemed to have become troublesome.

"Team seventy-four!" the young boy at the front called.

Shu Bai led the group forward and registered their Mission Token.

The boy recorded their names without even raising his head, speaking as he wrote. "You're responsible for patrolling the mountain range around Golden Guard Peak. Judging by your usual mission results, you've been doing quite well. The first-tier demon beasts there shouldn't pose much of a problem for you."

"If you detect demonic qi during your patrol, don't act rashly. You must launch a Signal Flare. Once it goes up, people from the Enforcement Hall will come to assist you. All you need to do is make sure you keep your own position concealed." As he spoke, the boy handed the Signal Flares to Shu Bai.

There were five Signal Flares in total, clearly intended for each of the five of them to carry one.

Even if something happened to one person, the other four could still launch theirs, rather than letting the entire force be wiped out.

Su Jiu did not think demonic cultivators were that foolish. Even if a couple had previously been holed up in the Azure Tide Sect's mountains, they should all have withdrawn by now.

Rather than saying this large-scale patrol was meant to drive out demonic cultivators, it would be more accurate to say it was meant to intimidate them so they would not dare invade again.