Nangong Yu put her outer robe back on and began wandering around the spirit-beast garden.
There had to be spirit beasts that had not escaped yet, as well as treasures that had not been collected.
Unfortunately, she had only arrived recently, and Ruo Zhu had not taught her everything. Thinking this, Nangong Yu walked over to the territory of the spirit cranes, intending to swipe a couple of eggs.
“…Little Yu?” an uncertain voice called from the side.
Nangong Yu paused and slowly turned around.
“Steward Liu?” Wasn’t that Liu Shun? What was he doing here?
Come to think of it, Liu Shun had been the one to bring her into the Lin Family, and he had also been the one to dump her in the spirit-beast garden. But afterward, whether because he had been busy or simply had not thought much of her, she had never seen him again.
Nangong Yu blinked and said, “Steward Liu, you’re finally here! I’ve been waiting for you for so long!”
Once Liu Shun got a clear look at her, he walked over, his face full of confusion. “Waiting for me?”
“You were the one who brought me here. You said you’d give me work to do, food to eat, and a place to live.” She put on a mournful expression. “But now I have no food, nowhere to live, and no work.”
Liu Shun’s face darkened. “Are you stupid?”
When he reached her, he saw that she was filthy, with leaves and bits of grass clinging to her clothes. “You’ve been here all this time?”
“Mm!” Nangong Yu nodded. “Every so often, I dig out a steamed bun to fill my stomach. Boo-hoo.”
Liu Shun’s face grew even darker.
He wanted to curse at her, but when he saw the girl’s damp hair, her clothes covered in dead leaves, and her utterly bedraggled appearance, he pressed his lips together and took out a handful of spirit stones.
There were roughly forty or fifty of them. He held them out to her. “Leave this place. Don’t come back, and don’t tell anyone you saw me.”
What?
No, wait. Huang Hu was a hidden member of the demon race. What was Steward Liu’s identity?
“You don’t want them?” Liu Shun made as if to take the spirit stones back.
Free loot from a minor monster!
Nangong Yu immediately reached out and swept every last one into her hand. “Thank you, Steward Liu. But what am I supposed to do from now on?”
What did that have to do with him? Liu Shun could not be bothered to answer and merely waved her away.
Apparently oblivious to the hint, Nangong Yu stuffed the spirit stones into her pocket and followed him step by step. “Steward Liu, which family are you working for now? Can I follow you?”
Steward Liu’s eyes narrowed. Killing intent surfaced in their depths. “Are you trying to die?”
The girl finally seemed to understand the situation. She stopped in her tracks and muttered, “Th-then I’ll be going.”
She turned and ran.
Her back looked panicked, and before long, she disappeared from sight.
Liu Shun did not spare the matter much thought. She was just a lowly servant. He had originally placed her in the spirit-beast garden to see whether the spirit beasts were stealing food, but later, he had simply forgotten about her.
He had many chores to deal with while working for the Lin Family. He had only recognized her today after taking a moment to remember her name.
Pulling his thoughts back to the present, Liu Shun walked through the spirit-beast garden, searching for any spirit beasts that had failed to escape.
That night, when the Head of the Lin Family had fought Huang Hu, Liu Shun had heard Huang Hu say, “It’s not like I slept with your first wife.”
At those words, a warning had risen in Liu Shun’s heart, and he had immediately turned and run.
Who had the right to hear that the Head of the Lin Family had been cuckolded?
Only the dead.
He had escaped in time. The next day, when he learned that the Lin Family had been reduced to ruins, all he felt was relief.
Liu Shun avoided the times when the other three major families came to investigate, and also avoided the time when the Ziyang Sect came to examine the scene. Only after the Lin Family had been sealed off did he sneak inside.
Even a starving camel was bigger than a horse. The Lin Family had operated in Sunset City for several hundred years and had accumulated an immeasurable fortune.
If he could find one or two magic treasures—or perhaps cultivation manuals—in the treasure vault, it would be a windfall from heaven.
After all, he was only a Qi Condensation cultivator.
Thinking this, Liu Shun decided to look around the spirit-beast garden first and see whether there were any spirit beasts that had failed to escape. He could tame one or two of them and keep them as spirit pets.
After leaving the Lin Family, Nangong Yu began strolling around the streets.
When she had entered Sunset City, she had had two goals: buy a map and confirm her spiritual roots. She had accomplished both.
She rewarded herself with a packet of cultivation-world pastries, holding it in her hands and eating as she wandered through the streets.
Her next goal was to join the Ziyang Sect and find Zhao You, then demand compensation for the little hotpot.
While she was at it, she also intended to ask Zhao You, on behalf of the villagers of Little Swallow Village, why he had killed the mortals there.
That was, assuming everything went smoothly.
Plan B: if the Ziyang Sect refused to accept her, she would quietly follow the others and sneak into the sect.
In any case, she had to find Zhao You, and she had to get her compensation.
A cultivator’s spirit pet, a giant antlered deer, came over and nudged Nangong Yu with its head. Nangong Yu fed it two pieces of pastry before it was satisfied.
The cultivator leading the giant antlered deer grabbed a handful of spirit stones, exchanged them for the pastries in her hands, then nodded at her and led the deer away.
Nangong Yu counted them. There were more than fifty.
She had made another small fortune.
In high spirits, she returned to the inn beneath the cover of night, humming a tune with a light step.
“She’s back!”
“Little Yu!”
“Over here!”
Nangong Yu heard her name and craned her neck to look. Before she could see clearly, a young cultivator had already hurried over.
“Come this way.” Wang Hezheng grabbed her by the arm and pulled her toward the Ziyang Sect’s seats.
Nangong Yu asked curiously, “What’s going on?”
Wang Hezheng pulled her to Elder Lu’s table. “Elder, she’s here.”
Nangong Yu looked over with interest. “Elder Lu, you wanted to see me?”
“Junior Brother Meng Yanqing broke through today. I heard it had something to do with you?” Elder Lu’s gentle face was filled with warmth.
Nangong Yu hurriedly waved her hands and explained, “It had nothing to do with me. I didn’t do anything. He just broke through all on his own, out of nowhere.”
Elder Lu found this somewhat amusing. “That isn’t a bad thing. On the contrary, you deserve some credit. Aren’t you going to claim it?”
“But I really didn’t do anything,” Nangong Yu said honestly. “I’m just a mortal.”
What was there to claim?
When players wanted rewards, they took them for themselves.
Sometimes a boss’s reward was a chomp that took your head clean off. Nangong Yu had no interest in that.
“All right.” Elder Lu nodded. A token appeared in her palm. “I thought you might want this.”
She placed the token on the table.
Chen Zhi, Wang Hezheng, and the others all had one of these tokens.
It was a disciple token of the Ziyang Sect.
“What is it for?” Nangong Yu leaned forward to examine it. “If I take it, does that mean I’m a disciple of the Ziyang Sect?”
Elder Lu nodded. “Yes.”
“Can I enter and leave the Ziyang Sect whenever I want?” Nangong Yu asked.
Elder Lu nodded. “Yes.”
“Can I eat at the Ziyang Sect’s dining hall?” Nangong Yu continued.
Elder Lu smiled and nodded. “More or less.”
Was that a yes or a no? Why say “more or less”?
Nangong Yu reached out and picked up the token. It was pleasantly heavy, with a fine, substantial feel in her hand. “Then if I’m traveling outside and someone bullies me, can I invoke the name of the Ziyang Sect?”
Elder Lu remained gentle and amiable as she answered, “Of course.”
But one of the disciples said, “You may not use the Ziyang Sect’s name to swindle people or commit evil deeds. Otherwise, you will be severely punished.”
Nangong Yu looked over at him. “What about killing a large number of mortals, like whoever destroyed our village? Would that count as an evil deed in our sect? Would there be punishment?”
The disciple’s expression darkened. “Such an atrocious evil cannot be forgiven!”
“We cultivators must not oppress mortals or bully the weak!” another disciple declared.
“If you incur a killing sin, heavenly lightning will be poured into your body, and you will be locked away in the Sin Cliff to endure a hundred years of torment!”
Nangong Yu waited for a while, only to realize that there was nothing more to it.
She asked again, “What if a disciple of the sect kills another cultivator? What if they kill a disciple from another sect? What if they kill a disciple from a small sect? And what if they offend a disciple from Zhongzhou?”
Everyone was taken aback.
This time, Elder Lu spoke. “If you can smooth things over, that’s your ability.”
This child was still a mortal, yet she was already so sharp and outspoken. If she ever succeeded in cultivating the Dao, she would surely bring a storm of bloodshed.
But with her spiritual root, attaining the Dao would probably be no easy matter.
She would be lucky not to be killed by someone first. There was no need to give such questions a serious answer.
“I was just asking.” Sure enough, she knew her own limits and honestly added, “When you’re out in the world, of course you should make money through harmony.”
Chen Zhi and Wang Hezheng couldn’t help glancing at her.
They hadn’t seen much harmony, but they had certainly witnessed the money-making.
In short, Nangong Yu was admitted ahead of schedule.
Her senior brothers and sisters all smiled and waved her over, warmly inviting her to sit beside them as they asked, “How did you help Junior Brother Meng break through?”
“Didn’t Senior Brother Meng bully you? Why were you still kind enough to help him break through?”
“Come on, tell us what you did.”
Meng Yanqing was nowhere to be seen.
He had broken through a minor realm and needed to consolidate his cultivation, so, like Xie Jinyue, he had gone into seclusion.
Chen Zhi and Wang Hezheng couldn’t tell the others what had really happened. Meng Yanqing had fallen into a trap and exposed all his secrets, so they had to keep it concealed.
Thus, what the other disciples knew was that Meng Yanqing had bullied Nangong Yu, taken away her cooking utensils, and argued with her. Then he had broken through.
“I didn’t do anything.” Sitting in the middle of the disciples, Nangong Yu looked obedient and well-behaved. “I only told him that cultivators shouldn’t interfere in mortal affairs.”
One of the disciples was stunned when he heard this. “Cultivators shouldn’t interfere in mortal affairs? That’s right. We have already embarked upon the Great Dao and cast off our mortal identities. We ought to keep a clear boundary between us and mortals and not disturb one another.”
The aura around him fluctuated, showing clear signs that his realm was beginning to waver!
The disciples around him were all shocked. “Is Li Lin about to break through?”
“Not quite.”
“He must have gained some insight, but it isn’t enough for him to break through yet.”
Sure enough, before long, Li Lin came back to himself, his expression faintly excited. “I’m going back to cultivate. Please excuse me.”
Before leaving, he patted Nangong Yu on the head. “Little Junior Sister, when I come out, I’ll treat you to some spirit fruit.”
Nangong Yu instantly became the center of attention.
“Little Junior Sister, talk with us a little longer.”
“Is there anything you’d like to say to us?”
“Speak freely. Don’t hold back. We definitely won’t hold it against you.”
Surrounded by their enthusiasm, Nangong Yu couldn’t help secretly glancing at the player panel. Why hadn’t any strange new section appeared?
Why did it seem as though she had triggered some sort of cheat ability?
“Senior Brothers and Sisters, it wasn’t me.” She placed both hands on her knees and sat properly. “The reason you were able to break through is that your foundations are solid from your usual cultivation. Everything happened naturally, and it had nothing to do with me.”
Everyone couldn’t help sighing with emotion. “That’s right. One must cultivate steadily and diligently.”
“Getting envious just because you see someone else break through is no good.”
As they spoke, the auras of two more people began to fluctuate faintly, indicating that they had gained some inspiration.
The two stood up excitedly and bade everyone farewell. Before leaving, they likewise reached out and stroked Nangong Yu’s hair.
Nangong Yu: “…”
Unwilling to give up, she carefully checked the player panel again. Nothing. No new sections, entries, skills, or talents had appeared.
She sat there honestly, not saying another word. All traces of her former clever boldness had vanished, and she looked exactly like an ordinary child.
Everyone thought that she was still a child. A mortal child. Her earlier boldness had all been forced out of her because she had been driven into a corner. Now that she had entered a sect and gained someone to rely on, her true nature had revealed itself.
They stopped making things difficult for her, told her to go eat something, and began discussing the day’s results.
“We checked every city gate. No suspicious people have entered or left recently.”
“There’s no sign of anyone from the Lin Family, nor any trace of the Mirage Bird.”
“Where could the Lin Family have gone?”
“Where is that Mirage Bird hiding?”
Elder Lu had traveled to each of the city gates that day, using the Retrospection Mirror. With the vast divine sense of a Nascent Soul cultivator, watching the images was as easy for her as breathing.
She had failed to identify any unusual figures and hadn’t caught a glimpse of the Mirage Bird’s movements. It was extremely strange.
“Could the Lin Family still be hiding somewhere in the city?”
“That Mirage Bird should be injured. It’s probably hiding somewhere in the city as well.”
Hearing this, Nangong Yu hurriedly asked, “Can divine birds be injured too?”
A senior sister answered, explaining gently, “Little Yu, divine birds have existed for a hundred thousand years. This newly hatched chick doesn’t possess much strength. Otherwise, how could it have been trapped in the Lin Family?”
For a great demon of this level, if it were an adult, the entire Falling Dawn City could, with a single cry, fall asleep, lose its reason, collectively take their own lives, or turn on one another.
“The Mirage Bird is the most terrifying of the demon races.” The senior sister spoke seriously. “Its ability to beguile others is far too frightening, practically unnatural. That is precisely why it was cast out by the Phoenix clan back then.”
