Mu Xunzhen had barely returned to the main peak when her eldest senior brother shouted her down. "Mu Xunzhen! Have you no respect for the rules at all?"
After Qi Yan opened her eyes, Mu Xunzhen no longer held any of her former respect for her eldest senior brother. Her smile vanished, and she said flatly, "When sect disciples accept missions and leave, approval from the External Affairs Hall is enough. There's no need to report everything to you, Senior Brother. If you think that's wrong, you can petition the sect to change its rules. I'm tired from my journey, so I won't stay to chat. Farewell."
With that, she turned to enter her cave abode. Her eldest senior brother instinctively stepped sideways to block her, but Mu Xunzhen's footwork flowed like a roaming dragon, and she vanished in a flash.
Having blocked nothing, her eldest senior brother stood rooted to the spot, his face twisted with fear. "She really reached Golden Core..."
He had long felt a mountain of pressure from this girl's terrifying potential. As soon as their master entered seclusion, he had found ways to suppress her, and everything had been going smoothly.
Little Crybaby was too honest. Her fellow disciples piled plenty of dirty, exhausting work onto her, took her help for granted whenever something came up, and felt equally entitled to "borrow" her things. The girl never uttered a word of complaint.
Unfortunately, in many groups, an honest, hardworking old ox like her rarely made anyone feel ashamed; they only took her efforts for granted all the more. When they discovered that the exhausting work had not slowed Mu Xunzhen's cultivation at all, and had even become a whetstone for it, even more people grew restless instead.
By the end, they had even resorted to the Essence-Draining Incantation, yet no one spoke up against the injustice to her.
And the result? Had the Essence-Draining Incantation gone too far and forced her to rebel? Now she really had reached Golden Core. Given a little more time, she would truly surpass him...
His eyes flickered, and he turned toward his sixth junior brother's cave abode.
Openly suppressing her would look bad. He had to find someone to be the bird that stuck its head out.
Inside her cave abode, Mu Xunzhen quietly sensed the shifts in her eldest senior brother's presence. Only after he left did she snort and take out the jade pendant.
Then her expression lit up with anticipation. "Brother A-Yan, are you free?"
Qi Yan did not answer.
Mu Xunzhen immediately wilted, curling into a ball like a panda, unwilling to do anything.
She clearly had nothing in particular to ask Brother A-Yan right now. Why did she feel so dispirited and listless? Mu Xunzhen herself could not understand it.
In fact, Qi Yan had received the vibrating signal from inside his ring, but he did not dare answer.
He was aboard someone else's ship now and had no idea whether there were any means of surveillance. Better not to attract attention. Other things could be stolen, but losing the jade pendant would be no different from losing his life.
So he painfully ignored it and sat down to cultivate.
To achieve his modest goal of reaching the "middle Qi Refining stage" as soon as possible, Qi Yan now made every second of cultivation count. He spent all his time cultivating except when traveling or eating. In any case, sitting cross-legged looked the same either way, and his meager cultivation produced no unusual outward signs. No one could tell whether he was practicing Witchcraft or Dao Arts, so it did not matter.
With the travel funds Luo Chaoge had given him, he had no shortage of cultivation resources in the short term. Besides Spirit Stones, there were pills.
Unfortunately, now that he had resources, his breakthroughs were less efficient than before.
He had quickly succeeded in breaking through from the first layer to the second, perhaps because he had already been on the verge of a breakthrough. Now, going from the second layer to the third, he had cultivated whenever he could every day for the past several days, yet still felt he was falling a little short.
Sure enough, cultivation was not something accomplished in a single bound. It required gradual accumulation. Not everyone was an outrageous freak like Little Crybaby.
Qi Yan shook his head and began studying incantations.
He could neglect neither his cultivation method nor his incantations... With his cultivation so low at present, incantations felt quite practical.
Their mechanism was extremely unusual: they acted directly on the target's body through some form of resonance, without even a projectile trajectory. Their drawback was the windup needed to recite them, but once an incantation was completed, it took effect extremely quickly. In low-level combat, if an opponent had no precautions in place, this was a potent weapon for ambushing someone above one's level.
Besides, acting on a body did not necessarily mean the opponent's body. It could also mean his own. That was rather interesting too... Take this Copper Skin Incantation, for example? Unfortunately, it seemed to have a prerequisite: he could only use it at the third layer of Qi Refining...
Now he was stuck at both ends of the same road...
Qi Yan's gaze fell on the pills.
Luo Chaoge was a martial cultivator, and the pills she had given him included Body Refining Pills for tempering the physique. He wondered whether combining them with this might be useful...
While Qi Yan immersed himself in study and cultivation, Yun Ranyi sat on the tea table in the inner cabin, lightly gathering up her cloudlike sleeves as her pale hands brewed tea.
The seagoing ship was not so steady. Tea swayed in the cups and splashed onto the tabletop. Yun Ranyi sighed softly, set down the tea utensils, and turned to look at the waves outside the window, her eyes misty.
The little maid sat beside her with her chin in her hands, eagerly hoping for some tea. Now it seemed she would get none, and her little round face drooped. "Miss, it's unsteady at sea. We could use big mugs. There's no need for this..."
Yun Ranyi gave her an ambiguous smile. "Turning heaven and earth upside down, are you? Shouldn't you be brewing tea for me?"
The little maid smiled ingratiatingly. "But your tea tastes better, Miss. I'm all thumbs."
Had anyone overheard, they would have realized that the relationship between these two might not be that of mistress and servant, or at least not entirely.
Yun Ranyi ignored her and asked about Qi Yan instead. "Has that Qi Yan done anything?"
"He says his name is Yue Jinjiang, not Qi Yan, you know. Heehee."
Yun Ranyi could not help laughing.
The little maid smiled. "Apart from the sleep he needs, he's been cultivating the whole time. He's cultivated for three days straight, even replacing food with the nourishment from pills. He hasn't stepped outside and has been very diligent. It seems he really wasn't coming after us."
"Of course he couldn't have been coming after us. What could he do with that little cultivation..." As Yun Ranyi spoke, she frowned slightly, seemingly puzzled. "He has brains, works hard, and his Root Bone isn't bad either... It's strange that someone like him is only at the second layer of Qi Refining."
The little maid propped her chin in her hands. "Does he really have brains? Then why walk right into our net? Could he have been blinded by lust because you're so beautiful, Miss? Heehee."
"Even Qin Poxu never expected us to be from the Extreme Dao Sect. With his meager sources of information, how could he possibly think of that..." Yun Ranyi laughed. "We're merely weak women fleeing the ravages of war, without even a trace of cultivation..."
The little maid thought for a moment. "Then could this Qi Yan be like you, Miss, with something that hasn't been unsealed?"
Yun Ranyi shook her head. "Probably not. I can't sense any resonance of divinity."
"Then he's useless." The little maid said, "Anyway, this voyage kills two birds with one stone, and we're fishing too. We just happened to hook this little shrimp as well. Once we reach the open sea, how about throwing him overboard to feed the fish?"
How could Qi Yan have imagined that the cute, smiling, round-faced little girl had been thinking about throwing him into the sea to feed the fish from the very beginning...
Yun Ranyi shook her head slightly. "He practices Witchcraft. Those so-called righteous people won't tolerate him... Perhaps we can try to see whether he can be of use to me. If not, it won't be too late to kill him. Hmm... Go invite him over for tea."
The little maid's eyes widened. "He got our secret base destroyed and caused terrible casualties, and you're inviting him for tea? You might as well let me drink it."
"The root cause was Lü Xiang provoking Luo Chaoge for no reason and coming under Qin Poxu's scrutiny. Qi Yan played little part in it. Issuing the wanted notice was merely a stance we had to show the outside world. In practice, there's no need to be so rigid. Think things through more when you act in the future." Yun Ranyi said gently, "All right, go."
Qi Yan had just swallowed a Body Refining Pill and was refining it, feeling the tangible process of his muscles restructuring as he silently memorized and analyzed it. Body tempering differed from Qi Refinement and did not particularly require entering a meditative trance. It was rather like an enhanced version of working out...
Just then, someone knocked on the door, and the little maid called from outside, "Young Master Yue, are you resting?"
Qi Yan opened his eyes, rose, and opened the door. A little round face peeked around the doorframe. "Our miss would like a word with you."
Qi Yan tilted his head to look at her, and the little maid tilted hers the opposite way. They stared at each other for a while before she bared her teeth. "Why are you looking at me with your head crooked?"
Qi Yan said, "You were guarding against me so strictly before. Why suddenly invite me to meet her?"
"Because you've behaved yourself, of course." The little maid led the way with a huff. "You get a chance to meet Miss and don't even appreciate it. Do you know how many people can't get so much as a glimpse of her?"
It was precisely for that reason that the sudden invitation struck Qi Yan as a little odd. Still, whatever the case, he owed them a great favor for letting him hitch a ride on their ship. If they wanted to see him, what was there to say? Of course he had to go.
"May I ask your name?" Qi Yan asked the round-faced little maid along the way, making conversation.
The little maid pursed her lips. "Just call me Xiao Yuan."
Qi Yan was inwardly speechless. Yun Ranyi looked like such a cultured young lady from a distinguished family. Why had she named her maid so casually? Look at names like Baoqin-so elegant...
Xiao Yuan pushed open the door to the inner cabin. The instant Qi Yan saw Yun Ranyi sitting cross-legged beside a low table, all his quips vanished, and he felt his heart skip a beat.
Sandalwood fragrance curled through the air, pale smoke rising in wisps. The peerless beauty was graceful and serene. That sort of bearing truly struck a chord.
Many female cultivators looked beautiful because immortal cultivation improved their skin and bearing. Quite a few had originally been only average-looking and became beautiful after cultivating, no different from applying a beauty filter. But this Yun Ranyi really seemed to have no cultivation. Her splendor was entirely natural.
Even Qi Yan's cupped-hand salute unconsciously became a little more elegant. "Miss Yun, you wanted to see me?"
Yun Ranyi looked Qi Yan up and down and smiled faintly. "Please sit, young master."
Qi Yan sat cross-legged across the tea table, and Yun Ranyi asked, "Where are you headed, young master? Are you going to the Heavenly Prefecture Continent too?"
"Yes. I haven't yet thanked you in person for your help, Miss Yun."
Yun Ranyi asked, "Are you going there to join relatives, or do you have other plans?"
"Other plans."
"Do you have a definite place to cultivate? Or a position waiting for you?"
Qi Yan shook his head. "Neither for the moment. I'm simply wandering to gain experience."
Yun Ranyi nodded. "As you know, young master, our whole household is relocating. Naturally, we couldn't bring all our former servants and guards. Most were dismissed. So once we settle on the Heavenly Prefecture Continent, we'll still need to recruit locally... You and we have something of a connection. Might you be interested?"
Qi Yan genuinely thought that if he failed to find a master, getting a job with the Yun Clan to earn his meals would be a decent fallback. He therefore did not refuse outright, but said somewhat jokingly, "I'd still like to make my own way first. If I can't get by, would you still be willing to take me in if I came back to you, Miss?"
Yun Ranyi chided him lightly. "By then, we'll have recruited enough people long ago. You certainly make it sound easy."
Qi Yan smiled faintly. "What if, by then, I'm stronger too?"
Beside him, Xiao Yuan pursed her lips as though she wanted to say something, but the ship suddenly lurched.
Caught off guard, Yun Ranyi could not even maintain her cross-legged posture and toppled onto the floor.
Qi Yan whipped his head toward the window. He had assessed the weather and sea conditions earlier. There should not have been any large waves today. Could they be under attack?