Meng Yanqing was, of course, not her senior brother.
After all, she had never officially been accepted into the Ziyang Sect. Elder Lu had merely tested her spiritual root; he had never said he would take her as a disciple.
“I really wish I were,” Meng Yanqing sighed repeatedly, gazing at Nangong Yu expectantly.
Nangong Yu glanced at him, then turned toward Wang Hezheng. “Immortal Wang! Immortal Wang!”
Wang Hezheng had no intention of answering her and pretended not to hear.
“Immortal Wang!” Nangong Yu called again.
Even Chen Zhi looked over, yet Wang Hezheng continued to ignore her completely.
Meng Yanqing offered her a suggestion. “You can just speak. He can hear you.”
Nangong Yu stopped calling and shouted in Wang Hezheng’s direction instead, “Immortal Wang, I’ve found someone even more shameless than you. You only wanted to kill me, but some people actually trick children out of their lunch!”
With one sentence, she offended two people at once.
The veins in Wang Hezheng’s neck bulged with anger. He squeezed his eyes shut and sat completely motionless.
Yesterday, his senior brothers and sisters had reprimanded him, telling him not to stoop to arguing with a mortal child. It was beneath his dignity.
Chen Zhi, who had been brewing tea and reading, gave a slight shake of his head.
“Ha ha ha!” The other person she had offended burst out laughing and pounded the ground, showing no sign of anger whatsoever.
Nangong Yu stared at him in horror. This had to be some kind of psychic-type NPC. She continued cooking while keeping a wary eye on him, afraid he might tamper with something.
“You invited Xie Jinyue to have soup yesterday. Why aren’t you inviting me to dinner today?” Meng Yanqing asked after finally stopping his laughter.
Nangong Yu replied, “Sister Xie helped me light the fire yesterday, conjured water for me, and gave me the pot. All these pots, bowls, and utensils were gifts from her.”
An NPC who gave you items obviously wasn’t the same as one who robbed you, right?
“Oh.” Meng Yanqing nodded. Then, with a casual wave of his hand, everything on the ground vanished piece by piece, including the stove and cookware in front of Nangong Yu.
Only the spatula remained in her hand. She instinctively swung it, but struck nothing but empty air.
“I gave you fire too, conjured water for you, and gave you a pot,” Meng Yanqing said with a beaming smile.
Chen Zhi, who had been absorbed in his book, paused.
Wang Hezheng, sitting in meditation, twitched his ears.
“Are you angry?” Meng Yanqing asked with a bright smile. “But my eyes don’t seem to hurt.”
He was testing Nangong Yu.
He wasn’t genuinely bored enough to amuse himself by teasing a child. Nor had her stir-fried chicken somehow tempted him into mooching a meal.
Nangong Yu watched him silently.
“Oh dear, they really don’t hurt at all.” Meng Yanqing blinked, pretending to be surprised.
Nangong Yu silently searched through her titles, then equipped one.
【You Just Had to Open Your Mouth:】Since you love talking so much, why don’t you tell me where you hid your secret stash and the combination to your safe?
Meng Yanqing smiled at the girl across from him. Anyone looking closely would have noticed that there was not the slightest trace of amusement in his eyes.
Elder Lu had said nothing, but how could a mortal girl have injured the eyes of two cultivators? One of them was even a Golden Core cultivator.
What did that mean? The head of the Lin family was only a Golden Core cultivator himself.
There was a secret hidden within this girl. Just as he was about to investigate further, an uncontrollable impulse suddenly seized him.
“I have three storage rings and two storage pouches. My most valuable possession is a Nine-Revolution Great Restoration Pill, which I obtained during an adventure when—”
“What did you do to me?!”
Meng Yanqing was greatly alarmed. He hurriedly drew his sword and thrust it straight at Nangong Yu.
Yet he continued to babble, “I snatched it during one of my trials. As long as I still have a breath left, it can save me—it’s my second life. My most treasured possession is—”
“Murder!”
Nangong Yu turned and ran toward the city gate, waving her shovel as she ran. “A cultivator from the Ziyang Sect is murdering someone!”
“Help!”
“If anyone saves me, I’ll give them a Nine-Revolution Great Restoration Pill—”
Whoosh, whoosh.
Two figures leaped up and landed in front of Nangong Yu, blocking her path. They were Chen Zhi and Wang Hezheng.
“Shut up!” Chen Zhi barked.
Wang Hezheng said nothing, but his expression was complicated. “Just who are you?”
Could an ordinary mortal truly possess such methods?
Yesterday, both he and Senior Brother Chen had injured their eyes. Today, Meng Yanqing had fallen victim as well, blurting out every last detail about his treasures!
“I have more than seventy-six thousand spirit stones. I carry fifty thousand on me, while the other twenty thousand are hidden in my cave dwelling, where I placed them—”
“Senior Brother, stop her!” Meng Yanqing was drenched in sweat, his face full of terror.
Chen Zhi had no choice but to cast a silencing spell on him, but it could not stop Meng Yanqing. He kept on prattling away.
Chen Zhi’s expression shifted slightly. He hurriedly cast a soundproofing spell on him as well. This time, it worked. Meng Yanqing’s lips were still moving nonstop, but no sound came out.
He hastily covered his mouth, concealing even the movements of his lips. With only his wide-open eyes exposed, he glared furiously at Nangong Yu.
At that moment, Nangong Yu switched to a different title: [What Are You Looking At? Never Seen Someone Picking Up Trash Before?]
The next instant, Meng Yanqing’s expression twisted grotesquely. He arched backward and collapsed to the ground.
Clutching his eyes, he rolled about without end.
“Junior Brother Meng, do your eyes hurt?” Chen Zhi quickly removed the soundproofing spell from him.
There was no need to ask, really. Judging by the way he looked, he had clearly been affected again.
The moment the spell was lifted, Meng Yanqing’s scream rang out: “I have twenty bottles of Spirit-Replenishing Pills and ten bottles of Spring-Returning Pills—”
Nangong Yu put [Is That Mouth of Yours Just for Talking?] back on.
Chen Zhi could only helplessly cast the soundproofing spell on him again.
“Wow!” Nangong Yu exclaimed as she watched the man rolling around on the ground, applauding in admiration. “Immortal master, what incredible acting!”
Rolling around like that and all.
“Yesterday, all your fellow disciples were affected, but none of them looked as though they were in as much pain as you!”
Chen Zhi also felt that Meng Yanqing’s condition was rather unusual, but he did not dwell on it. He swiftly took out a Spring-Returning Pill and fed it to Meng Yanqing.
After doing so, he turned to Nangong Yu and demanded, “What did you do to him?”
Nangong Yu was displeased. “Why don’t you ask what he did to me?”
She caught a lock of hair and lightly stroked its ends. “I told you before—anyone who harbors ill intent toward me may suffer retribution.”
She was a mortal.
And her talent was nothing special.
If she wanted to avoid being bullied in the future, she had to establish her image early on.
“It was my fault!” Meng Yanqing was covered in sweat as he crouched before Nangong Yu. “I offended you. I’ll return everything right now!”
The stove, the blue stone slabs, the table, the bowls and chopsticks… all of it returned to its original place.
“Look.” He gestured hopefully in that direction.
Who could have known how horrified he was? The sharp pain in his eyes was one thing—he simply could not control his own mouth!
If she could make him reveal all his possessions, could she also force him to divulge his cultivation techniques, his weaknesses, his desires?
This mortal girl was far too terrifying!
He felt as though he had provoked someone he absolutely should not have provoked. Regret filled his heart. “Please, be magnanimous and let me off this once.”
Nangong Yu’s eyes shifted as she slowly wound a strand of hair around her finger, idly toying with it. “Aren’t you already better?”
Meng Yanqing no longer blurted out anything he should not have said—not because he had regained control, but because he had already said everything. Not a single spirit stone had been omitted, nor even one fruit tree in his cave abode. He had recounted everything he could remember.
“Let me make it up to you?” Meng Yanqing ventured. “What do you want?”
With his back to them, Wang Hezheng said to the cultivators who had rushed over, “This mortal acted improperly and offended my senior brother. It has nothing to do with any of you.”
The independent cultivators did not leave at once. From a distance, they gazed in Nangong Yu’s direction.
“Is it true?”
“What happened this time?”
“Looks like there’s another unlucky bastard.”
“How did she end up at odds with the Purple Sun Sect?”
News traveled quickly among independent cultivators. More than half a month ago, a demonic cultivator disguised as a mortal had appeared at the city gate and stripped a scheming male cultivator clean.
It had been quite an eye-opener for them. So this was something one could do!
Since then, word had spread by mouth, and independent cultivators around Luoxia City all knew about it.
And yesterday, the demonic cultivator posing as a mortal girl had supposedly appeared again—this time setting her sights on the Purple Sun Sect. The news spread like wildfire.
Many people wanted to witness the demonic cultivator’s antics for themselves. That was why there were considerably more people gathered at the city gate today.
After giving the notice, Wang Hezheng paid the independent cultivators no further mind and walked over to Chen Zhi.
“Senior Brother, should we inform Elder Lu?” he sent to Chen Zhi through voice transmission.
This mortal girl was far too strange. If he had mostly disliked her before, now he was mostly wary of her.
Chen Zhi remained silent, deep in thought.
“You’re not my senior brother, so it wouldn’t be right for me to take your things, would it?” Nangong Yu said with a look of utmost sincerity.
Meng Yanqing hurriedly said, “I delayed you from cooking and made you go hungry. Going hungry is a serious matter for a mortal. I did wrong—this is my apology. You have every right to accept it!”
No one knew her true identity. But since she insisted on being a mortal, Meng Yanqing had to help maintain the pretense.
Nangong Yu put on a reluctant expression. “I’m short on spirit stones. Just give me a little.”
How much was “a little”?
Meng Yanqing hesitated. Feeling the lingering pain in his eyes, his expression hardened. “I’ll keep twenty thousand on me. My sword was damaged before, and it needs repairs…”
Meeting Nangong Yu’s clear, bright gaze, his voice faltered. “Then I’ll keep one thousand for emergencies…”
Forget it.
Meng Yanqing emptied out a storage pouch and said earnestly, “Fifty thousand spirit stones. They’re all in here. I offended you, and I’ve apologized. Can you let me go now?”
Nangong Yu pointed to the ground beneath their feet. “Put the spirit stones on the ground.”
Meng Yanqing froze, then immediately realized something. “How are you going to carry them away?”
Nangong Yu did not answer. She merely gave him a look.
Meng Yanqing was hardly considerate enough to think of her feelings. Seeing that she insisted, he immediately took out fifty thousand spirit stones and piled them on the ground before him.
The little stones glittered, each one no bigger than a fingertip, shimmering with iridescent light.
Fifty thousand was not all that much. A single spirit stone was only about a centimeter in length, width, and height. With sufficient skill, one palm could hold several hundred of them.
Even piled on the ground, they did not reach Nangong Yu's knees. Yet the sparkling glow still drew the attention of the sharp-eyed cultivators.
As though she had not seen them, Nangong Yu placed her hand on the tip, and in the next instant, the pile of spirit stones vanished.
"You're a cultivator!" Meng Yanqing's pupils contracted as he blurted it out.
At the same time, Wang Hezheng abruptly seized Chen Zhi's arm. "Senior Brother! Did you see that?"
Nangong Yu glanced at them, then brushed at the hem of her clothes. "What are you making such a fuss about? Are cultivators the only ones who can use storage bags?"
Her words made Wang Hezheng frown.
Generally speaking, only cultivators could use storage rings, storage bags, and similar items.
But what if a powerful expert stood behind her and had crafted a magical artifact that even an ordinary person could use?
