The Disciple Couldn't Read
"Fellow Daoist Zhou?"
Su Fuxi was only making an ordinary trip to the market and didn't want to use an expensive concealment pill. The trouble was that a first-tier low-grade disguise pill could only change her appearance, not her voice or figure.
People who knew her could still recognize her at close range, so Su Fuxi wasn't surprised.
Her spiritual sense swept lightly over him, just enough not to make him uncomfortable. Besides, everyone who had met her knew that Su Fuxi of the Azure Cloud Sect had an eye ailment and could only see with her spiritual sense, so they understood that she wasn't rudely casting it about.
He was a young male cultivator who had once partnered with her during training in the demonic beast jungle. He was twelve years younger than her, yet he had already reached the middle stage of Golden Core.
Su Fuxi nodded. "You're...?"
"Ah, it really is you! Long time no see, Fellow Daoist Su." Once he was sure it was her, Zhou Mu hurriedly rose from the little stool behind his stall. Beaming, he looked at the slightly lively eyes in her otherwise ordinary face after her disguise.
"I only got back from that jungle today. I thought I'd sell the materials I gathered for some spirit stones. I didn't expect to be lucky enough to see your immortal beauty, Fellow Daoist Su." Zhou Mu was unshaven and looked far too rough. He couldn't help regretting that, had he known he would run into her, he should have tidied himself up.
Now that he had seen her this time, he didn't know when he would see her again.
"I see." Su Fuxi nodded to him. Before she entered seclusion ten years ago, he had only been at the early stage of Golden Core. She hadn't expected him to make a breakthrough so quickly.
Deep down, she truly envied such a cultivation speed.
She didn't notice the way he was looking at her at all. Instead, following his words, she looked at the stall he had spread out on the ground. There were many demonic beast materials, and her spiritual sense spotted a deep blue demonic beast core in a cloth bag, along with a palm-sized porcelain bottle of demonic beast blood.
Because her spiritual sense was so important and useful to her, Su Fuxi had devoted considerable effort and resources to learning several spiritual sense techniques. Now, she concentrated it in her eyes, using it as her sight to examine the core.
She asked, "Is this a water-attribute core?" The pure energy within it gave off waves of cold air. It was the core of a second-tier demonic beast at the Foundation Establishment level.
A demonic beast core could be added to essence blood to aid body tempering, making it an excellent material too! Its grade was just right as well.
Zhou Mu said, "Yes. It's the core of a second-tier One-Horned Frost Jiao. Unfortunately, it's no use to me. Do you want to trade for it?"
"Yes! By the way, what about demonic beast blood? Is this all you have?" Paired with this cold-aura core, the frost jiao's blood would probably make the body-tempering effects even better.
"Ah, I have more jiao blood." Zhou Mu pressed his storage bag and instantly produced a porcelain jar as big as a bushel. It had to contain dozens of jin.
Su Fuxi's spiritual sense stirred, and her eyes brightened slightly. "Good, I'll take both the core and the blood. Do you have any other blood?"
"No." Zhou Mu shook his head regretfully, then his eyes suddenly gleamed. "How about this? If you need more blood, Fellow Daoist, we can work together."
Su Fuxi thought for a moment. "All right. I'll be collecting large quantities of demonic beast blood from now on. Can we trade once a month?"
At the later stages, using pure demonic beast blood would definitely be better than ordinary beast blood. With a reliable partner, she wouldn't have to go searching in the jungle herself.
"Of course, of course. Ah, spirit stones? Oh, just give me a thousand spirit stones for all of it."
The second-tier frost jiao core alone was worth more than a thousand spirit stones. Compared with Qi Refinement-level demonic beast materials, Foundation Establishment-level materials were as different as heaven and earth in value.
Su Fuxi couldn't shamelessly take advantage of him, of course. In the end, she insisted on paying two thousand spirit stones and arranged a time for their monthly trades before cupping her hands and leaving.
As soon as she turned away, Zhou Mu called her back. He immediately packed up his stall and brazenly asked to accompany her through the open market, saying under the pleasant pretext that he wanted to look at materials too.
Su Fuxi pretended not to know what he had in mind. After a polite nod, she set off on her own to search for the spiritual herbs she needed.
Waterside orchid, golden insect root, leafless flower, summer crimson grass, winterborn fruit... and so on. After searching for four hours, she finally bought everything.
Winterborn fruit was rare. That set of five fruits alone had cost her five hundred spirit stones, and one set would be used every seven days. If she weren't a Golden Core cultivator, she really couldn't afford to raise this cauldron!
"So you were gathering materials for your disciple..." Zhou Mu murmured. Watching her spend without the slightest hesitation, he saw that she had bought up practically everything on offer in the market.
"Yes. My little disciple's talent is decent, and I don't want to hold him back. Please, see me no farther, Fellow Daoist. I have other matters to attend to, so I'll take my leave."
Sighing inwardly at the painful expense, Su Fuxi parted from Zhou Mu and headed for the street of permanent shops in the center of the market on the other side. She bought two bottles of mid-grade body-refining pills from an alchemist she knew, spending another large sum of spirit stones.
"That's fifty pills in total, Fellow Daoist, for the kind price of five thousand spirit stones."
"Come again next time you need pills!" The dark-faced, middle-aged alchemist, whose hair had clearly been scorched by fire, was all smiles.
The pills were so outrageously expensive that Su Fuxi was considering learning alchemy herself, but the Azure Cloud Sect had no alchemy inheritance.
She had mixed fire, metal, earth, and wood spiritual roots. Only her fire root was slightly thicker and dominant; the other three were thin and tangled. She had only managed to reach Foundation Establishment because she had chanced upon a spirit-cleansing herb and the core of a Foundation Establishment-level fire-attribute demonic beast.
She had washed away her finest root, the metal one, and purified her fire and wood roots. Her earth root could be disregarded, so she barely counted as having dual spiritual roots.
But she had never obtained another spirit-cleansing herb or anything like it. Those in the shops required an enormous price, and countless experts fought over them as soon as they appeared. There could even be a risk to her life, so she had no choice but to give up.
She had paid such a great price this time for the sake of the future.
As she walked, she thought that if she really succeeded, she could send Lin Sui's soul into the cycle of reincarnation...
In the end, her Dao heart wouldn't let her get past it. The positive, uplifting education she had received amid the harmonious spring breeze meant that her conscience had not yet been extinguished... She sighed silently.
She headed toward the market exit, but spotted a ready-made clothing shop in the residential district on the outskirts.
Su Fuxi stopped, then abruptly stepped inside. That little brat had only one set of coarse hemp clothes, patched at that, and he could only have one set of disciple robes. She had better... buy him a couple more outfits.
Cultivators as young as Lin Sui were rarely found in this place, so the shop only had adult sizes. She waited a little longer while the seamstress altered them on the spot.
"All done! Two sets of brocade clothes, six spirit stones in total... Take care on your way out, honored customer!"
The black-robed female cultivator left the market gates, pushed off the ground, and turned into a streak of pale pink rainbow light that shot into the sky.
Nascent Soul old monsters were rarely seen strolling around this market, or even in the Tianshui Kingdom. Her cultivation realm alone was enough to inspire fear, so those watching from the shadows held their ground, none daring to provoke her.
These days, female cultivators who dared travel alone either had powerful backing or were ruthless fighters. One must never underestimate someone simply because she was a female cultivator!
Three hundred li took her no more than the time it took an incense stick to burn. Back at Azure Cloud Peak, she swept the area with her spiritual sense and found Lin Sui quietly holding a booklet and reading it.
He was sitting guard at the entrance to the underground chamber.
"Master! You're back." Lin Sui froze for a moment when she abruptly appeared before him, then immediately stood up.
"Mm. Did you understand that disciple handbook?" One sweep of her spiritual sense had told her what he was holding.
"I-I think I understood most of it..."
"Good. Rest and gather your strength tonight. Tomorrow I'll teach you the cultivation mantra."
"Lin Sui, these are the clothes I brought back. Take them to the rear courtyard and have a proper bath."
"Oh, wait, Master!"
After tossing the clothes to him, Su Fuxi intended to return to her room and rest. Wang Xiaohu and Lin Sui had already tidied the rooms on the first floor that day, so there was no need to avoid suspicion.
When Lin Sui suddenly called out to her, Su Fuxi had to turn and look at him. "What is it?"
After hesitating for a moment, Lin Sui shamefacedly raised the booklet in his hand.
"...Master, your disciple can't read."
"..."