Chapter Seventy-Two: Return to the Greenleaf Sect

Chu Xiner cared little for anything else; her sole purpose in coming to the Skycloud Valley marketplace was to find a suitable rogue cultivator for Xiao Wen to feed upon. Casting her gaze around, she quickly spotted an elderly man at the peak of the fifth level of Qi Refinement. The gray-robed elder was currently haggling with a stall owner over some goods.

Naturally, there were more cultivators of the fifth level in the vast marketplace, but the others either had companions at their side or were shopkeepers themselves. Only this old man was alone. Furthermore, judging by his Daoist robes and his keen interest in cheap cultivation technique jades, it was clear he was a rogue cultivator—no sect disciple would bother with such lowly goods.

Xiner moved gracefully, feigning nonchalance as she strolled near the stall, quietly branding a tracking mark on the old man with a wisp of spiritual sense. The gap between their cultivation levels was considerable, and with the elder’s attention wholly focused on his bargaining, he noticed nothing amiss.

Since the mark had been placed, Xiner pretended disinterest in the stall’s wares and walked away, so as not to arouse suspicion. She then mingled with the crowd, occasionally purchasing trinkets that caught her eye, but her mind remained fixed on the gray-robed elder. She was certain that a low-level rogue cultivator, so miserly as to quibble over a mere handful of spirit stones, would never reside in one of the market’s lofts. He would surely leave before long.

Indeed, not half an hour later, Xiner sensed the old man with her tracking mark moving toward the formation array at the valley’s exit. She waited a little while longer before leaving the marketplace herself. Though the old man was nowhere in sight, the mark pointed her unerringly toward his location.

Without hesitation, Xiner transformed into a streak of light and gave chase. Along the way, she stopped in a deserted grove to change from her verdant dress into a black robe and donned a talismanic mask to conceal her features.

“What do you—what do you want?” The old man, who had relied on a broken cultivation method for decades to barely reach the fifth level of Qi Refinement, had little to his name. He’d always believed himself too poor to invite robbery. But the recent rumors of a vicious demoness were not unknown to him. When Xiner abruptly appeared and blocked his path, deep in the forest tens of miles from the marketplace, terror overcame him.

“I want nothing—if you surrender quietly, I’ll spare you some suffering.” Xiner’s reputation as a demoness was already well established; she saw no harm in using it. With a cold chuckle, she formed a spell gesture, and the flying sword at her side slashed toward the old man’s neck.

“Mercy, great lady! Spare me!” The old man, lacking even a passable magical weapon, dared not resist the girl whose aura left him trembling. Before the sword could touch him, he dropped to his knees, kowtowing and pleading for his life.

Surprised by how easily things went, Xiner smiled faintly and flicked a strand of spiritual energy into the old man’s forehead, knocking him unconscious. The rest was simple—Xiao Wen flew out from the spirit beast pouch, swiftly draining the required blood, and the two of them sped off toward the Misty Marsh.

Winter had come, and the world outside the marsh was draped in silver, but deep within, not a snowflake could be seen. On Greenleaf Isle in particular, the birds still sang, flowers bloomed, and the air was gentle and mild.

After more than two months of ceaseless travel, Xiner finally returned to her familiar sect, a trace of delight blooming on her fair face. Dusk was already falling, so she decided to report her mission the next day and then begin a long period of seclusion to cultivate.

She had few friends. Her only close confidante, Liu Hong, was presently in seclusion herself, stabilizing her realm in preparation to break through the Foundation Establishment bottleneck. Thus, Xiner encountered no obstacles as she returned to her residence.

The next morning, Xiner delivered several spirit herbs to the mission hall and exchanged her contribution points for two Water Cloud Pills.

As she stepped out of the hall, a man beaming with delight came up to greet her—it was Huang Yipeng. “Junior Sister Xiner, you’ve finally returned! Your absence has caused me no small worry… Eh? You’ve broken through already! You must have had quite an adventure—congratulations!”

Huang Yipeng’s uncle was a chief elder of Greenleaf Sect. There were plenty of sycophants such as Zhou Kai and Wang Tao in the sect, so it was no surprise he was the first to learn of Xiner’s return. His real purpose was to sound her out—after all, the crime of killing a fellow disciple was serious, and if she were exposed, even his uncle’s protection might not suffice.

But midway through his greeting, Huang Yipeng realized that Xiner’s cultivation was no longer at the tenth level as before, and his heart skipped a beat. Still, he maintained a genial smile.

“Thank you for your concern, Senior Brother Huang, but I have other matters to attend to and won’t keep you from your business.” With a polite smile, Xiner stepped around him and quickly left.

Though Xiner’s demeanor seemed warmer than before, Huang Yipeng could clearly sense her guarded courtesy. Watching her disappear, his smile slowly twisted into a cold sneer.

A moment later, as he walked out of the mission hall, Huang Yipeng muttered to himself, “Damn it, she’s gathered four or five valuable spirit herbs, and both her strength and temperament have improved. This girl will surely surpass me one day—she must not be underestimated.”

Knowing she’d obtained Water Cloud Pills and would soon break through again, Huang Yipeng was filled with frustration, but for now, there was nothing he could do. After all, private duels were forbidden in Greenleaf Sect, and male and female disciples lived in separate quarters. Even if he wished to plot against her, as long as she remained in seclusion, he could only watch helplessly.

Resigned, proud yet not particularly clever, Huang Yipeng had no choice but to assign someone to secretly watch Xiner, while he himself returned to his cave to cultivate.

With a tap of her jade-like hand, Xiner sent a beam of spiritual light from her array disk into the misty barrier ahead. The water-blue shield parted, revealing a passage. Sweeping it with her spiritual sense and finding everything within as she left it, she smiled and stepped inside.

Before leaving, she had already set up the Mist Veil Demon-Subduing Array. Otherwise, she would never have felt comfortable leaving her superior storage pouch and its contents in the residence. Of course, having Xiao Wen stay behind was also a key reason for her peace of mind.

It would be wrong to call Xiner overly cautious—there were elders in the sect whose spiritual senses far surpassed hers. If one of them were to notice anything unusual about her storage pouch, she would certainly be interrogated, and secrets, once exposed, are difficult to explain away.

Acting on the principle that caution brings no harm, Xiner had taken only a low-grade storage pouch and a few spirit stones with her to the mission hall. Naturally, nothing untoward happened.