Chapter Fifty-Nine: Returning Once More to the Lingnan Marketplace

In ordinary mortal villages and towns, cultivators are rarely seen, but in the areas near the market, whether they are wandering cultivators or disciples of a sect, they are anything but scarce.

After only half an hour of flight, Chu Xiner spotted a man at the peak of the fourth stage of Qi Refining. A smile appeared on her face as she sped toward the man in green without hesitation.

“Please spare me, immortal! We have no grudges between us…”

Faced with the mysterious young woman descending from the sky, the man in green pleaded for mercy while reaching for his storage pouch, intending to secretly retrieve a magical weapon and launch a surprise attack.

Given the vast difference in cultivation levels, he knew escape was impossible; only a desperate gamble remained. If he could catch her off guard, perhaps there was a slim chance of turning the tables.

Yet, with her mind set on the safety of little Wen, Chu Xiner gave him no opportunity. She activated her magical sword and struck. The man in green gritted his teeth and summoned his own weapon to resist.

Boom! Boom!

The tenth stage of Qi Refining against the fourth was pure dominance, and the Daoist techniques of the Greenleaf Sect far surpassed the crude methods of wandering cultivators. The outcome was never in doubt.

The man in green’s magical weapon was knocked aside, and his protective aura was as fragile as paper. When the sword pressed against his throat, he dropped to his knees and begged for mercy. Chu Xiner casually unleashed her spiritual power, rendering him unconscious.

When he awoke, his body was covered in countless itchy welts, and his cries of agony echoed through the woods.

Meanwhile, inside the spirit beast pouch, Xiao Wenzi was happily refining the fresh blood in his belly.

The laws governing the spirit beast pouch allowed the world’s spiritual energy to flow inside, making it the ideal place for a spirit pet to accompany its master and cultivate.

The space within this low-grade spirit beast pouch was not large, but for Xiao Wenzi, whose size was only three or four times that of an ordinary mosquito—barely larger than a soybean—it was spacious enough.

To allow him to freely enter and exit the pouch, Chu Xiner had not marked it with a spiritual imprint. In essence, this pouch belonged solely to Xiao Wenzi.

Over a hundred miles away from the low plain where the man in green lay, dusk had fallen. Exhausted and drained of spiritual power, Chu Xiner halted her flight and walked toward the nearby town.

“All right, from now on, no one is allowed to disturb my peace. Otherwise, don’t blame me for being rude.”

Settling into the most luxurious guesthouse in the town, Chu Xiner instructed the attendant sternly before sitting cross-legged on the bed to meditate and cultivate.

Cultivators were known for their eccentric tempers, and killing without provocation was commonplace. The innkeeper and attendants obeyed her instructions, not daring to test her patience.

Time slipped by, and soon it was the middle of the night. In the silent private room, Chu Xiner’s breathing was calm, and threads of spiritual energy were drawn in, merging with her body—she was deep in meditation.

Within the spirit beast pouch, Xiao Wenzi exchanged another mid-grade Monster Gathering Pill and swiftly refined it with his Blood Spirit technique.

With nearly two thousand fourth-stage celestial coins at his disposal, he had no worries about acquiring pills. Though he didn’t break through to the peak of the fourth stage in one night, his demonic spiritual power had been compressed and purified, growing much stronger than the day before. He could already feel the bottleneck at the peak of the fourth stage; another day or two and he would surely break through.

At dawn, Chu Xiner finished her cultivation, refreshed and full of energy. She picked up Feng Liang’s storage pouch and used her spiritual sense to erase his imprint.

Feng Liang was dead, and the imprint left by his soul was unable to resist. After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, her spiritual sense penetrated the pouch.

“Hmm, so many spirit stones and pills—he was quite wealthy.”

Though Feng Liang’s storage pouch was also low-grade, it contained no fewer than a hundred spirit stones, several jade bottles filled with pills, and two jade boxes containing spirit herbs and flowers.

Greenrock Grass and Rainfall Celery Flower—both were needed by the Pill Pavilion’s senior uncle. Handing over just one of these to the sect would fulfill her mission.

For the penniless Chu Xiner, the sight of so many treasures was a delight she could hardly conceal, and her thoughts grew lively.

Though her time away from the sect had been short, she had faced many schemes and life-threatening dangers, which deeply affected her. The bottleneck hindering her advancement had loosened somewhat.

If she could find suitable pills in the storage pouch, she would delay her journey to the Blackrock Forest and focus on improving her cultivation first.

After all, whether adventuring in Blackrock Forest or traveling with Little Wen to help him feed, her ultimate goal was to grow stronger.

Breaking through her cultivation would be best done back at the sect, but the Greenleaf Sect was too far, and there was that bothersome Huang Yipeng.

Weighing her options, Chu Xiner decided to find a secluded spot to establish a cave dwelling.

Setting up a cave dwelling outside risked disturbance from passing cultivators or wild beasts. The best she could do was arrange a basic defensive array—not to block high-level cultivators, but at least to deter the low-level ones.

Chu Xiner’s plan was sound, but when she checked all the jade bottles, her pretty face flushed and she cursed repeatedly.

It turned out that of the seven or eight jade bottles, only one contained pills to aid cultivation; the rest were aphrodisiacs for pleasure, in powder and liquid form. She nearly fell victim just by opening them to inspect.

Feng Liang’s stash of aphrodisiacs disgusted Chu Xiner, though his wealth was considerable.

Selling the double-hook magical weapon, the storage pouch, and one of the spirit herbs or flowers, plus the spirit stones inside, should be enough to buy a basic defensive array, and perhaps another pill or two.

Thus, Chu Xiner resolved to return to the Lingnan market.

With her plans made, she glanced at Xiao Wenzi in the spirit beast pouch, who was still pretending to be weak, and left him undisturbed as she departed the guesthouse.

With her face concealed by a mask and after changing into a new black robe and bamboo hat in town, no one at the Lingnan market recognized her as the girl from yesterday.

Fair trade was the rule of the market—at least on the surface—so Chu Xiner easily obtained what she wanted.

“Take care, fellow Daoist. We welcome your return.”

After selling Feng Liang’s magical weapon, storage pouch, and the Rainfall Celery Flower, Chu Xiner finally gathered enough spirit stones to buy a basic defensive array and two pills suitable for her cultivation stage.

This time, she was cautious. Whether buying pills, arrays, or selling her goods, she visited smaller shops with few customers, never the same one twice.

Thus, even after she had left the market for some time, no cultivators pursued her.

In the days that followed, Xiao Wenzi remained in the spirit beast pouch, happily consuming pills and cultivating, while the young woman searched for a suitable mountain to establish her cave dwelling, always keeping an eye out for lone, inexperienced cultivators for him.

“No, my hands, my face!”

Half a day later, in the dense woods at the foot of the mountain, a young man covered in itchy welts awoke from unconsciousness. Due to excessive blood loss, he felt weak and dizzy.

Yet the unbearable itching and pain throughout his body quickly made him aware of his miserable state, and he could not help but cry out in despair to the sky.