"Your sister took part in the Spirit Road?"
Tang Qian'er was a little surprised too. Anyone chosen by the Five Great Academies to enter the Spirit Road was clearly no ordinary person.
"Hey, maybe you even know her, Mu Chen," Tang Qian'er said, turning her gaze toward him.
"Not necessarily. The Spirit Road is huge, and I left a year early. There were plenty of people I never met."
Mu Chen shook his head.
"Huh? Big Brother Mu Chen, you went to the Spirit Road too? Does that mean you're really strong?"
Sun'er stared at Mu Chen with wide, curious eyes.
"I qualified for the Spirit Road back then too, but Mother said I was too young and wouldn't let me go."
At this, a trace of regret crept into Sun'er's voice.
"You qualified too?"
Tang Qian'er lightly covered her mouth, her eyes filled with astonishment.
In all these years, the Northern Spiritual Realm had produced only one qualifier, Mu Chen, yet both sisters in this family had qualified for the Spirit Road.
(The rich grew richer, the poor grew poorer, and class divisions became entrenched.)
Mu Chen, however, was not particularly surprised.
From what he had observed, Sun'er seemed to possess an exceptionally high aptitude for Spirit Arrays. In terms of destructive power, she was already on par with someone at the early Divine Soul Realm; she merely lacked experience.
Su Qing likewise showed little interest.
When it came to talent, his body had been fashioned from the clay left over after Empress Wa created humanity and carried the Yanhuang Bloodline. His extraordinary gifts were no weaker than anyone else's.
"Not going there was probably a good thing for you. Otherwise, you wouldn't be who you are now."
Mu Chen smiled faintly.
Having experienced the Spirit Road firsthand and caused the Spirit Road Blood Calamity, he had a profound understanding of its cruelty.
To Mu Chen, the Spirit Road was indeed an excellent place to temper oneself, but that was not true for someone as innocent as Sun'er.
Had she gone, she might no longer have possessed such a simple, pure nature.
Su Qing watched them with an indifferent gaze, harboring reservations about Mu Chen's words.
In his former world, in that harmonious society, there would certainly have been nothing wrong with such a notion.
But in this world, where the strong openly devoured the weak, that notion was far too naive.
Su Qing also understood Mu Chen's feelings.
Both he and Mu Chen had witnessed this world's cruelty, bloodshed, and treachery at an early age, and had taken part in it themselves.
Thus, when Mu Chen saw a soul as pure as flawless white jade, he could not help feeling an urge to protect it.
Fourteen... What was I doing when I was fourteen?
In my previous life, I think I'd just started my first year of high school. I spent the whole summer playing after the entrance exams, then failed to settle down once school started and scored zero on my math final.
In this life...
Sigh...
At that thought, the sense of danger weighing on Su Qing's heart grew another degree stronger.
Su Qing bit off the last mouthful from his meat skewer. Rather than join the other three in their chatter, he sat cross-legged with his sword in his arms, closed his eyes, and began cultivating.
A few days earlier, Su Qing had broken through from the early to the middle Divine Soul Realm, and the sword force emanating from him had grown ever sharper.
Within the Qi Sea in his dantian, the Nine Nether Sparrow lay listlessly atop his Spirit Wheel. One common saying perfectly described her current state: stuffed to bursting.
Ever since entering the Northern Cang Realm, Su Qing had plucked feathers from every passing goose when seizing others' marks, leaving neither chicken nor dog untouched. He had sent every Spirit Beast Essence in their possession into his dantian, feeding them to the Nine Nether Sparrow to help her recover.
Now, the Nine Nether Sparrow had reached a temporary bottleneck in her recovery.
As the saying went, a weakened body could not withstand excessive nourishment. She had recovered too quickly and needed to pause for a while to adjust.
"Hey, I'm so bored. Talk to me for a bit."
The Nine Nether Sparrow spoke listlessly to Su Qing. Lying idle on his Spirit Wheel while digesting the Spirit Beast Essences she had absorbed really was a boring affair.
"Sure. Come to think of it, after all this time, I still don't know your name."
Su Qing spoke calmly.
The Nine Nether Sparrow fell silent for a moment before answering, "Call me Nine Nether."
"Tell me about your past. For instance, where did you come from before reaching the Northern Spiritual Realm?"
Su Qing asked softly.
"Back then, I left my clan to gain experience and went to the Luo Continent, one of the Great Thousand World's ten great super continents."
A flicker of reminiscence appeared in Nine Nether's eyes as she spoke.
"Then, on an elder's recommendation, I joined one of the Luo Continent's top powers and became one of its higher-ups."
"Oh?" Su Qing asked. "That was the Luo Continent, after all. You hadn't even reached the Supreme Realm back then, so how did you become a higher-up?"
Nine Nether rolled her eyes at Su Qing and explained, "I had powerful backing. I did come from the Nine Nether Sparrow Clan, you know. Besides, I'm very talented, and the elders all doted on me."
"After that, well, I failed my tribulation. After all sorts of twists and turns, I ended up in the Northern Spiritual Realm and met you."
At this, Nine Nether sighed, lamenting life's unpredictable turns.
"What, you wish you hadn't met me?"
Seeing Nine Nether sigh, Su Qing answered.
"Of course! Who would want to meet a walking calamity like you? And I even formed a Bloodline Link with you. I got the short end of the stick, all right!"
"What do you mean, the short end of the stick? You've eaten plenty of my Spirit Beast Essences these past few days. Spit them back out if you've got the guts!"
The young man and the bird both began laughing within the Qi Sea in Su Qing's dantian.
"Mmph!"
Sun'er forcefully swallowed her last mouthful of roasted meat and announced loudly, "I'm full!"
Mu Chen and Tang Qian'er watched the young girl from the side with faint astonishment in their eyes.
Just now, this slender little girl had eaten an entire Flame Leopard all by herself.
They could not help wondering where she had put it all.
Having eaten and drunk her fill, Sun'er rubbed her rounded belly. Her large, dark eyes suddenly turned toward Mu Chen, and she spoke hesitantly.
"Big Brother Mu Chen, could I ask you all for a favor?"
"Hmm?" Mu Chen looked at her.
"Could you take me to my sister? She should be somewhere nearby too. I have a Spirit Disk that can find her."
"And," Sun'er said, touching the mark on her forehead, "people keep trying to steal this from me. I've had to hide here and there, and I keep getting lost."
The two smiled helplessly at her words. The Third-Level Mark on Sun'er's forehead was indeed immensely tempting to others.
Given her age and innocent nature, she would probably be swindled out of everything before she had gone very far.
"Big Brother Mu Chen, you're a good person."
Sun'er blinked her innocent eyes, handing him the good-guy card, then continued.
"Please help me. Once I find my sister, I'll definitely have her thank you properly."
Sun'er pleaded. After traveling all this way in fear and trepidation, Mu Chen's group was the first she had met who not only harbored no ill intentions but had even treated her to a meal.
Faced with Sun'er's beseeching gaze, the two beside the campfire wanted to agree, but the final decision still rested with Su Qing.
If he refused, none of this would matter.
Yet while Su Qing had shown no obvious dislike of Sun'er, his indifference toward her was plain to see.
Mu Chen exchanged a glance with Tang Qian'er and shook his head, feeling far from optimistic about it.