Chapter 51: Mid-Stage of the Fourth Heaven

“What... what exactly do you want?” the burly man, whose protective spiritual light had been split open by the sword’s edge and whose throat was now pressed by the blade, stammered at the black-clad, veiled young woman before him.

Chu Xiner didn’t bother to answer. She simply channeled her spiritual power into him, knocking him unconscious.

“Xiao Wen, you can come out now.”

In a secluded forest, Chu Xiner, with a gentle smile, summoned Xiao Wenzi and pointed at the two young men at her feet for him to feed.

There was no need for courtesy. After sending a grateful and delighted glance to the young woman, Xiao Wenzi floated towards the pale-faced scholar and began to feed with relish.

By midday, mistress and servant had already vanished without a trace, leaving behind only the scholar and burly man. Once they awakened, they pressed their faces in pain and wailed. However, they soon discovered that, aside from the excruciating itch and pain at the puncture marks and the weakness from excessive blood loss, there were no other ill effects. What’s more, their storage pouches and all their belongings were intact. Perhaps the black-clad, veiled woman was not as wicked as her fearsome reputation suggested.

Xiao Wenzi returned to the spirit beast pouch, pretending to refine the blood he had absorbed, when in truth he was exchanging it for Monster Gathering Pills to cultivate. Meanwhile, Chu Xiner transformed into a streak of light and flew away from the Misty Swamp.

The sect task she had taken on this time was to search for spiritual herbs and flowers needed by the elders in the Alchemy Pavilion. The Feather Spirit Flower was one of the rarer varieties. The sect’s requirement was simply for disciples to do their best; there was no time limit or quota.

In other words, the more herbs you acquired, the more sect contribution points you could exchange for.

After all, even if you didn’t hand over the older herbs and flowers to the sect, selling them at the market would still bring in a great deal of spirit stones.

After witnessing how Xiao Wenzi’s cultivation improved dramatically in one night from absorbing a cultivator’s blood, Chu Xiner’s mind became more active. Having acted so effortlessly earlier, she decided not to return to the sect for now. Instead, she would search for Lotus Cloud Mushrooms, Jade Green Grass, and Spirit Frost Sprouts while allowing Xiao Wenzi to raise his cultivation as quickly as possible.

Moreover, her own cultivation was at a bottleneck that could not be breached in just a few days. It was a good opportunity to temper her mind in the meantime.

Between the Misty Swamp and the Heavenly Cloud Valley, there were some mountain ranges, but they were not vast nor dangerous, and no high-level monsters resided within.

Therefore, the older spiritual herbs and flowers had almost all been harvested by cultivators.

Of course, this was not absolute. Sometimes fortune smiled, as when Wu Kun stumbled upon a two-hundred-year-old Feather Spirit Flower in a small valley devoid of monsters. Such luck, however, was exceedingly rare.

The Greenleaf Sect had its own medicinal gardens, but for some rare, aged spiritual herbs, they still had to rely on buying or harvesting them from monster-infested dangerous lands.

That was why the sect frequently issued missions to gather spiritual herbs. Yet, knowing one’s limits was crucial; typically, it was only the Foundation Establishment elders who ventured to gather rare herbs in monster dens.

They usually traveled to one of two places: the Southern Sky Mountains, three thousand miles to the northwest, or the Blackrock Forest, two thousand miles to the southeast.

Disciples like Chu Xiner, still in the Qi Refining stage, were not forbidden from going, but they could only search the outskirts. Venturing deeper was courting death.

As the saying goes, jade uncut cannot become a gem. While the Greenleaf Sect forbade disciples below the fifth heaven from accepting sect missions, Chu Xiner, at the peak of the tenth heaven, was not bound by such constraints.

At present, she was on the outskirts of Heavenly Cloud Valley. Since the Southern Sky Mountains to the north were a bit too far, she decided instead to try her luck at the edge of Blackrock Forest.

She was in no hurry. Having already secured one Feather Spirit Flower was enough to fulfill her mission. Whether she found anything in Blackrock Forest was secondary; what mattered was letting Xiao Wenzi absorb enough blood to quickly evolve.

As she passed through hills and valleys, Chu Xiner would stop to search, hoping to find spiritual herbs or a lone, low-ranked cultivator.

Luck was not on her side. After searching for most of the day, she found not a single aged herb.

She did, however, encounter a third-heaven cultivator. Needless to say, once subdued, he unwittingly contributed a large quantity of blood.

“Damn it, what is that little brat up to? Has she noticed something wrong?”

As twilight fell, Chu Xiner landed gracefully outside a small town. In the distance, Huang Yipeng, who was watching her head into an inn, frowned and muttered to himself.

Soon after, two streaks of light flew in from afar, revealing a breathless Zhou Kai and Wang Tao.

Following Huang Yipeng’s orders, the pair had gone ahead to lay an ambush at Pine Ridge between Misty Swamp and Heavenly Cloud Valley, only for Chu Xiner to show no intention of returning to the sect.

They had only hurried over after receiving their senior brother’s message, having wasted much effort today.

After a day of relentless pursuit, Zhou Kai and Wang Tao were both exhausted; it was little wonder they were out of breath.

“Senior Brother Huang, do you think Chu Xiner has discovered something?”

Feeling as if he’d been led in circles, Zhou Kai finally managed to ask after catching his breath. Beside him, the short, chubby Wang Tao’s eyes were also filled with confusion.

“Who knows? But it doesn’t matter. Tomorrow, once she leaves the town, we’ll make our move. Don’t worry—if you can’t handle her, I’ll change my appearance and assist in the ambush...”

Huang Yipeng replied irritably, his eyes practically spitting fire, clearly having lost patience.

If things had gone according to plan, the prearranged trap would have lured her in, and he wouldn’t have had to act personally. Now that Chu Xiner was acting unpredictably, the trap might be useless; he had no choice but to adjust his strategy.

The process was irrelevant; so long as the result was satisfactory.

“Alright, Senior Brother Huang.” After two days of fruitless effort, Zhou Kai and Wang Tao’s patience had worn thin, and they did not object.

Inside the spirit beast pouch, Xiao Wenzi’s body trembled slightly. Having passed the time by munching on mid-grade Monster Gathering Pills like candy all day, he finally broke through the early fourth-heaven bottleneck and advanced to the mid-fourth heaven.

In the span of a day and night, he had crossed three minor realms. Not even those long-lived monsters who spent years on each step, nor the most gifted sect geniuses without the aid of pills, could match such progress.

Having a considerate mistress was truly a blessing.

Seeing that there were still over twelve hundred system credits in the third-heaven system exchange panel, and after exchanging for more than a dozen mid-grade Monster Gathering Pills still six to seven hundred credits left for the fourth heaven, Xiao Wenzi couldn’t help but marvel at his good fortune.

No wonder he was delighted—having absorbed the blood of cultivators twice today, his wealth had surged, and exchanging a few more Monster Gathering Pills was as effortless as flicking water from a leaf.

Having broken through to the mid-fourth heaven of his demonic cultivation, Xiao Wenzi’s demon sense grew even sharper. Through the spirit beast pouch, he could see Chu Xiner meditating cross-legged on the inn’s bed, and the darkness outside.

Knowing it was still early, Xiao Wenzi withdrew his senses and opened the Monster Gathering Pill exchange list again, swallowing a pill to continue his cultivation.