Chapter 42: Curiosity

Once Xia Ying’s head cooled, however, she realized something was wrong.

As the eldest young lady of Listening Crane Manor, if Ah Qing had truly given birth to a child, there was no way it could have happened without the slightest whisper getting out. Claiming this was He Qian’s daughter was actually far more believable.

Besides, Ah Qing was only four years older than her. By traditional reckoning, she was just twenty-four this year. There was absolutely no way she could have a daughter this old.

Thank goodness. Thank goodness it was not some strange man’s child.

But that did not make sense either. Ah Qing’s mother had passed away long ago. Even if Manor Lord He had fathered a second daughter, the girl should not look so much like Ah Qing. Come to think of it, that was strange in itself. People always said daughters took after their fathers, yet Ah Qing resembled He Qian by no more than twenty percent.

Could it be that Ah Qing’s mother had never actually died?

Xia Ying tried hard to remember, but she was not particularly familiar with Listening Crane Manor. In the past, she had only ever dealt with Ah Qing.

In truth, she had never liked He Qian, Manor Lord He. She only felt that he was far too shrewd and mercenary, with calculations she could never understand constantly hidden in his eyes.

Rumor had it that he was deeply devoted. After his first wife passed away, he never remarried and instead focused solely on raising his daughter.

But after spending so much time with Ah Qing, Xia Ying knew He Qian did not actually care that much about his daughter. He was not even as attentive as her own paternal uncle had been in raising her.

Listening Crane Manor possessed a vast estate, yet He Qian had no intention of passing it down to his daughter. Nor did he seem interested in recruiting a live-in son-in-law.

For cultivators, twenty-four was merely the age when they had first set sail. For ordinary people, however, most had already married and established families by then. Wealthier households in particular often began arranging matches while their children were still in their teens.

Of course Xia Ying did not want her good friend marrying just anyone, but He Qian’s attitude was oddly ambiguous. He truly did not act like a loving father.

Still, Ah Qing had told her not to interfere in Listening Crane Manor’s affairs. Xia Ying was also afraid that her good intentions might only make things worse, so she had not acted rashly.

Who could have known that the moment she entered Yonglu Mountain, Ah Qing would disappear without a trace?

They had searched all of Langyuan City and found nothing. That old bastard He Qian had not shown the slightest concern. He had not even allowed word to spread that anyone was searching for her.

And now, instead of finding Ah Qing, they had found a child who looked remarkably like her.

“Junior Brother, where did you find this little girl?”

“To tell you the truth, Senior Sister, you were there at the time.”

Xia Ying froze slightly. “Could it be…”

“That’s right. Don’t let her tiny size fool you. This little thing has an enormous appetite. Every time she comes to my place, she eats three huge buckets of fish. She doesn’t even spit out the bones.”

Xia Ying stared at him in even greater shock. “How big are the buckets?”

“I have a shadow-recording stone as proof. Senior Sister, take a look if you don’t believe me. You’ll understand once you see it.”

Naturally, Xia Ying did not believe him.

But facts spoke louder than words, and a shadow-recording stone could not fabricate what it captured. Yet how could an ordinary human possibly eat that much fish?

It was simply inconceivable.

Unable to restrain herself, Xia Ying stepped forward and examined the little girl with spiritual energy. There was not the slightest trace of demonic aura on her.

Even with Xia Ying’s current cultivation at the peak of the eighth level of the Qi Refining Realm, she could not tell whether the child before her was human or demon.

She looked like nothing more than a perfectly ordinary little girl.

“What’s your name? Will you tell this big sister?”

The little girl had been extremely wary whenever she looked at Bian Chunzhou, so Xia Ying had assumed she would react the same way toward her.

Unexpectedly, although the child’s expression remained timid, she seemed exceptionally close to Xia Ying. Yet when she opened her mouth, not a single sound emerged.

“She can’t speak. Senior Sister, don’t pressure her.”

She could not speak?

Xia Ying gazed into the little girl’s clear, translucent eyes, as pure as an infant’s. A sudden sense of familiarity rose within her.

She could not shake the feeling that she had seen those eyes before.

Unable to resist, she reached out and gathered the little girl into her arms.

“Don’t be afraid. Big Sister won’t hurt you.”

The child actually allowed herself to be held with an almost instinctive affection.

Her attitude had practically undergone a complete reversal.

Bian Chunzhou: …

Fine, then. Apparently stinky men just weren’t popular with children.

Xia Ying coaxed the little girl to sleep. She had originally planned to take her back to the City Lord’s Estate and settle her there, but then she remembered the three enormous buckets of fish the child had devoured as easily as noodles, and unease crept into her heart.

Cultivators were always somewhat wary of nonhuman beings.

The City Lord’s Estate was crowded, with eyes and ears everywhere. Her paternal uncle was still in seclusion, while she herself would not be staying at the estate. There was no guarantee that someone malicious would not harbor ill intentions.

No demonic aura, yet seemingly not a mortal either.

According to Xia Ying’s understanding, there was only one kind of being that fit.

A half-demon.

Divine Venerable Chengwei, the granduncle-master of Yonglu Mountain, had once been a half-demon himself.

…

Wen Xu’s layered-wind fan had already begun to take shape.

At first, the arrays had been arranged individually and activated all at once. Now, they were arranged in a deliberate sequence, each taking effect one after another and layering its power upon the last.

As Chunzhou described it, every small array was like a domino, each one neatly positioned in advance. When Wen Xu’s spiritual energy struck the first array, the remaining arrays would be hit in succession, activating one after another.

The combined power of hundreds or even thousands of layered arrays had already far surpassed the force he could produce with a single large-scale array, yet it no longer required nearly as much time to set up.

There were still two areas he needed to improve.

First, the Folding Wind Fan was a low-level artifact. Layering arrays onto an artifact placed tremendous demands on his array-inscription technique. Ordinary spirit fans were simply not as easy for him to handle as the Folding Wind Fan.

Second, if the Layered Wind Array was interrupted midway, he would have to inject spiritual energy into it again. In a duel between cultivators, even half a heartbeat’s delay could be enough to determine victory or defeat.

No matter how good the Layered Wind Array was, he still needed sufficient physical strength to support it.

Otherwise, even the finest offensive method would fail to display half its true power.

For that reason, Wen Xu drew up a new cultivation plan.

The last time the Sect Master visited Spring-Crossing Peak, he had given Wen Xu a beginner-level spirit sword and a defensive artifact capable of withstanding an attack from a Golden Core Realm cultivator. He said they were belated gifts for their first meeting.

There were also several apology gifts sent to Yonglu Mountain by the Golden Cauldron Pavilion, most of them extremely practical.

Wen Xu had not wanted to accept them, but the Sect Master had said that only a fool would refuse a free advantage. Since the items came from the Golden Cauldron Pavilion, they should simply take them without feeling guilty.

Bian Chunzhou and Chen Zui had received gifts as well, and none of them were permitted to return anything.

Since the sect had accepted the gifts on their behalf, they kept them.

For now, however, Wen Xu was focusing mainly on tempering his body, so he continued using the practice sword Senior Brother Zheng Jin had given him.

Recently, he had increased the weight of the blade.

Wen Xu could clearly feel his body growing stronger. At the very least, he was in far better condition than he had ever been in the Mortal Realm.

Back then, he had exercised regularly in preparation for the imperial examinations. But his health had been weak since childhood, and the damage to his constitution ran too deep. After every examination, he was usually carried out, then fell ill for two days afterward.

Looking back now, he had not been in the cultivation world for very long, yet those days already felt as distant as though they belonged to a previous lifetime.

His revenge, however, did not.

He would never allow his enemies to live freely and comfortably into the next life.

He still had to cultivate faster.

Wen Xu warned himself that he had to reach the Golden Core Realm before the age of fifty. Otherwise, even if he returned, the resentment in his heart would never be resolved.

“What are you thinking about? You look so bitter and vengeful that your brows could crush a passing crane to death.”

Wen Xu lowered his sword.

“Master is joking. This disciple cannot defeat the passing senior brother spirit cranes.”

Divine Venerable Chengwei crouched atop a snow-covered boulder.

“Oh, that’s true. Ah Xu, you seem to have been stuck at the seventh level of the Qi Refining Realm for quite some time. When I was your age… Hmm. I wasn’t as accomplished as you.”

Wen Xu: …

Master had started saying strange things again.

“When I was your age, I had not yet entered Yonglu Mountain,” Divine Venerable Chengwei continued.

He thought for a moment.

What had he been doing when he was twenty?

Oh, right. He had been running a street stall in the city and pretending to be a great master, specializing in swindling food and drink out of people.

But there was no need to tell his young disciple about that.

It would damage his perfect image.

“When did Master come to Yonglu Mountain?” Wen Xu could not help asking curiously.

According to rumors within the sect, his master had once been a half-demon, which had hindered his cultivation. In order to ascend the Immortal Stairway, he had abandoned the human bloodline within him and transformed into a complete divine dragon.

After that, his cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds. He had now become a Divine Venerable of the Body Integration Realm.

That had happened several centuries ago, yet even now, there were still people who criticized the choice his master had made.

In Wen Xu’s opinion, those people were merely sour because they could not have what he possessed.

Besides, whether one was human or dragon depended on what lay within the heart.

Many people in this world wore human skin while forgetting that they were not human at all. Yet they remained blindly arrogant, believing themselves qualified to pass judgment on everything beneath heaven, unaware that they were nothing more than frogs at the bottom of a well.

“When did I come to Yonglu Mountain? I don’t remember. That was more than a thousand years ago.”

Divine Venerable Chengwei sighed.

“My master, that old bastard, has already ascended and become an immortal. I wonder whether he can still get spirit wine up there.”

His master’s master?

Would that not make him Wen Xu’s grandmaster?

“Let’s not talk about him. If I mention him too much, I’m afraid he’ll come down just to join the excitement.”

Divine Venerable Chengwei waved a hand casually.

“Little disciple, there’s something on you… Where have you been recently?”

Wen Xu paused.

Something was on him?

“Recently, this disciple has remained on Yonglu Mountain, apart from going down the mountain to attend the opening of a friend’s new shop.”

“A new shop? That delicious hotpot place?”

Wen Xu said, “…Yes.”

“That’s strange. Since when did Langyuan City…”

Divine Venerable Chengwei propped his chin on one hand. Suddenly, he clapped both hands together and cast a spell that landed on Wen Xu.

“Disciple Ah Xu, you’re going down the mountain today, aren’t you?”

Wen Xu lowered his head and glanced at the ring-shaped pendant that had appeared at his waist.

“Down the mountain to Shared Cup Tavern?”

“That’s right. I also want to go down and have a look at the excitement. Ah Xu will surely grant this tiny little wish of mine, won’t you?”

Wen Xu said, “…Yes.”

Although he did not know what his master had discovered on him, it presumably posed no danger.

Since it was his master’s instruction, he naturally had to descend the mountain.

Besides, he also wanted to know what could possibly be inside Shared Cup Tavern that had caught even his master’s attention.

Could it be that little fish thief?

After completing the day’s training, Wen Xu first went to find Chen Zui. Upon learning that Chen Zui was busy, he descended the mountain alone.

Come to think of it, because he pretended to be blind, his friends rarely allowed him to go anywhere by himself. Even the disciples guarding the mountain gate, upon hearing that he intended to leave alone, made a point of warning him to be careful on the road.

“My, Ah Xu, you seem to be rather popular within the sect.”

Wen Xu had only just reached the foot of the mountain when his master’s voice suddenly sounded inside his mind.

“Master?”

“That’s right, that’s right. It’s me. Hurry, hurry! I haven’t visited Langyuan City in ages. Ah Xu, can you buy me some spirit wine?”

Wen Xu: …

So spirit wine had been the main objective all along.

Next Chapter >