We’ve got gossip!
Nangong Yu held the spirit fruit in both hands and offered it eagerly to Zhegu. “What’s the story? Who did he betray? Does he not want to go back, or can’t he go back?”
Zhegu gently pushed her hands away, smiling. “This information isn’t free.”
“How much?” Nangong Yu asked.
Zhegu held up five fingers. “Information about Huang Hu isn’t worth much. But information about the people he offended is very valuable.”
“Five hundred spirit stones?” Nangong Yu ventured.
For a moment, Zhegu looked speechless. He pointed at her with his fingers. “Five hundred thousand spirit stones.”
“He offended a demon king?!” Nangong Yu’s eyes widened. “He’s that impressive?”
Zhegu had not expected her to guess correctly. After a moment of surprise, he shook his head. “Not a demon king. The child of a demon general.”
“Ask any more, and I’ll have to charge you,” he said, becoming serious.
Business was business.
“Then I won’t ask.” Nangong Yu didn’t particularly need to know. If the information truly proved useful, she could simply blow the jade flute and ask him directly.
There was no need to spend five hundred thousand spirit stones now.
Mostly because she didn’t have that much.
Nangong Yu rummaged around in her pockets, then took a card out of her storage space. “Contact me if anything comes up.”
The card was blank. Nangong Yu explained, “Write my name on it, then write the message you want to send beneath my name, and I’ll receive it.”
It was an item card.
They used it to send messages inside dungeons. Nangong Yu did not have many of them—only a few hundred, not even enough to fill one backpack.
But this NPC had given her a jade flute, and they might have dealings again in the future. So she decided to give him an item card in return.
“My name is Nangong Yu—the ‘yu’ from Kun swimming in the Northern Darkness.”
Zhegu: “...Then why not call yourself Nangong Kun?”
“My grandma said that giving a child a lowly name makes them easier to raise,” Nangong Yu replied casually.
After saying that, a faint melancholy rose in her heart.
Her mood instantly soured. She waved at Zhegu, turned around, and left.
Once she stepped out of the Heavenly Secrets Tower, she found herself on a broad street crowded with passing cultivators. Spirit beasts flew and ran everywhere, making the place lively and prosperous.
Nangong Yu remembered how she used to throw tantrums at her grandmother.
“I don’t want to be called Nangong Yu! Fish are meant to be eaten!”
Her grandmother would soothe her. “Only the fish in the market are meant to be eaten. A fish in the ocean can open its mouth and swallow tons of other fish and shrimp. And the fish that fly through the sky will be worshiped by people everywhere.”
Little Nangong Yu hadn’t believed her, so her grandmother had shown her a documentary. Blue whales could eat tens of thousands of tons of krill in a single meal.
As for the fish that flew through the sky, Nangong Yu had never seen one. But since it was true that blue whales could eat tons of food, the flying fish had to be real too.
She was a flying fish—a very, very powerful fish.
Those distant memories, images nearly erased by the infinite-flow trials, had been engraved into her heart by Yun Sheng’s dream. They were so clear that they seemed to have happened only yesterday.
The bitterness in her chest surged like crashing waves, making Nangong Yu’s nose sting. She had traveled for so long and gone so far, picking up so much trash along the way. When would she be able to go home and see her grandparents again?
Outside the city, the recruitment station overseen by Chen Zhi already had several lines.
The applicants ranged from children as young as five or six to boys and girls of fourteen or fifteen. Their faces were either filled with unease or burning anticipation.
“No spiritual root.”
“No spiritual root.”
“Five-element spiritual root.”
“No spiritual root.”
“No spiritual root.”
...
One child after another stepped forward and placed a palm on the formation disk.
To Nangong Yu’s surprise, people with spiritual roots were extremely rare—fewer than one in a hundred. Even five-element spiritual roots, which were considered mixed spiritual roots, had only appeared in a handful of applicants.
One disappointed face after another was led away by their parents. They climbed into carriages, ox carts, mule carts, handcarts, and every other kind of vehicle before making the journey home.
Nangong Yu squatted there for two hours and found only three disciples with spiritual roots.
“How can there be so few?” she asked a cultivator beside her.
“How else would it be?” he replied. “Do you think everyone can cultivate to immortality?”
He said it offhandedly, but the three people who had tested positive for spiritual roots all lifted their chins with arrogant expressions.
“Hey.”
A very rude voice addressed Nangong Yu. “Are you one of the newly recruited disciples too?”
At first, Nangong Yu did not realize he was talking to her. Her name wasn’t “Hey.”
Then an even ruder voice rang out. “Hey! Are you deaf?”
She turned around and saw a little brat looking at her arrogantly. His dark eyes were bright and sharp, like the nastiest tadpole in a swarm.
Smack.
Nangong Yu slapped him across the face.
So what if he was an NPC? Couldn’t she hit a nine-year-old NPC?
In the infinite-flow world, the strange and supernatural did not care about age. When it came to harming players, they were all equally lethal.
“You dare hit me?!”
The little brat was sent flying by Nangong Yu’s slap and landed on the stone pavement three meters away, clearly in pain.
But compared to the pain in his body, the blow to his pride hurt even more. “Do you know who I am?!”
Nangong Yu was slightly surprised. “Who are you?”
Had another minor enemy just spawned? They hadn’t even changed maps yet.
“I am—”
The little brat lowered the hand covering his face. His rather handsome little features darkened ominously.
“Kneel! Apologize to me! Otherwise, you’re dead!”
Nangong Yu was startled and hid behind Chen Zhi. “Senior Brother, who is this? Is he the sect master’s illegitimate grandson?”
Chen Zhi’s mouth twitched. How could a grandson be illegitimate?
Nangong Yu wasn’t even afraid of the official disciples. Why would she fear a new recruit?
“His name is Mo Jiuyou,” Chen Zhi explained to her from behind him. “He has a single spiritual root—a mutated thunder spiritual root.”
As he spoke, he couldn’t help feeling envious.
Those with single spiritual roots were all geniuses. In any sect, they would be fought over desperately. And this boy possessed a mutated spiritual root on top of that.
Mo Jiuyou absolutely could not be allowed to come to harm. Chen Zhi lowered his voice. “Don’t provoke him.”
If a conflict broke out, Chen Zhi would certainly protect Mo Jiuyou.
He had not stopped Nangong Yu just now because the boy was already arrogant enough. If he continued shielding him, the child might become completely lawless.
“Hmph.”
Mo Jiuyou raised his chin from a short distance away. “You. Kneel down and kowtow to Young Master Mo. From now on, be Young Master Mo’s maidservant for a hundred years, and I’ll graciously forgive you.”
Nangong Yu looked troubled. “But what if I don’t live for a hundred years?”
Mo Jiuyou frowned, apparently never having considered that possibility. After a moment, he said, “You aren’t so useless that you’ll die before then, are you?”
The young boy had an extraordinary build and bone structure. Though he had not yet grown into his full height, he already possessed the elegant bearing of a fine jade tree in the wind.
He frowned tightly. “Fine. Change the terms. I’ll let you go whenever I get tired of you.”
Nangong Yu nodded. “All right.”
She stepped out from behind Chen Zhi and walked toward Mo Jiuyou.
Chen Zhi had a feeling that she was not the type to kneel and kowtow to anyone. A thread of divine sense shot out, and his hand tightened around the hilt of his sword.
Watching the woman approach, Mo Jiuyou raised his chin even higher. “You’d better apologize properly! While kowtowing, slap yourself and explain exactly how you offended Young Master Mo—”
Before he could finish, Nangong Yu had already reached him.
She raised her hand.
Mo Jiuyou’s pupils contracted. His body reacted before his mind could catch up, and he turned to run. Yet he still could not believe what was happening. His eyes widened.
“How dare you—”
Smack.
The crisp, ringing slap sent the child flying. This time, he flew five or six meters before sliding another meter or two across the ground.
Before he could even get up, a foot was already planted on his face.
“Ah! I slapped you once, so I have to wait on you for a hundred years. What about now?”
Just a thunder spirit root. That was all.
The geniuses in this dungeon were a dime a dozen. Golden cores could be dug out, sects could be destroyed—who would care?
Just a minor mob.
Nangong Yu was utterly unimpressed. She pressed her foot hard against the child’s head. “I might not even live a hundred years. Wouldn’t that make this a terrible deal for you?”
Mo Jiuyou was so furious he howled, but he couldn’t budge the foot weighing on him like a mountain. “Let go! You’d better let go, you little—!”
His eyes blazed with fury, his features twisted with murderous rage, and his eyeballs looked as though they might pop right out of their sockets.
He was so young, yet already possessed such a fierce temperament. Chen Zhi’s heart gave a jolt, and he hurried forward.
“Xiaoyu, let him go!”
Nangong Yu didn’t move. Instead, she stomped on him again. “Call me Great-Grandma!”
What was with comparing ages, anyway? She was only sixteen herself, all right? They were both minors. Who was above whom?
As for the child’s burning rage and bulging eyes, Nangong Yu paid them no mind at all.
When you were dealing with the bizarre, that was simply how things worked. A head could be kicked around like a ball; while eating, your eyeballs could fall straight into your soup, only for you to fish them out, slurp them clean, and put them back in place.
“I’m going to kill you!” Mo Jiuyou roared.
Chen Zhi was already moving to intervene, but Mo Jiuyou was faster. Suddenly, bolts of lightning burst from his chest, and the sky above began to churn with wind and clouds.
A violent wind sprang up. The wild grass cried out, and the beasts hiding in the woods called to one another in alarm.
“He’s drawing qi into his body!?” Chen Zhi exclaimed. He hurriedly set up a defensive formation around them, then grabbed Nangong Yu by the wrist. “Junior Sister Xiaoyu, wait until he’s finished drawing qi into his body.”
Without realizing it, he had become much more respectful toward Nangong Yu.
Xie Jinyue and Meng Yanqing aside, she had slapped Mo Jiuyou twice and stomped on him several times—and Mo Jiuyou had actually entered the Qi Condensation stage because of it!
To draw qi into his body without any guidance from a sect was astonishing. There was no denying that he possessed peerless talent.
But Chen Zhi’s attention was also pulled away by something else. He couldn’t help glancing at Nangong Yu again and again.
“Junior Sister Xiaoyu…” He hesitated. “Were you always like this when you were little?”
Some people were born naturally attuned to the Great Dao, and cultivating was as easy for them as walking on level ground.
So, was it really so strange if someone could make other people’s cultivation as easy as walking on level ground?
“Did strange things often happen around you when you were growing up?” he couldn’t help asking.
Nangong Yu’s expression grew meaningful. “Nope.”
No?
Who would believe that?!
“Really, nothing.” Nangong Yu turned her head and looked toward the little brat NPC inside the formation, her thoughts beginning to turn.
Mo Jiuyou’s performance was very much like that of a special NPC—one who had a side quest.
But why were there so many side quests in this dungeon?!
Ruo Zhu and Yun Sheng were one side quest.
Huang Hu was another.
Zhegu of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion was one more.
The Lin family dungeon still hadn’t ended; for now, it was a bottomless pit.
And now another NPC had appeared: a nine-year-old brat with a single spirit root, a mutated spirit root, an overbearing personality, and a name straight out of a protagonist’s power fantasy.
And what about the other eight provinces? The Mystic Sea Forest? The ocean regions? The wastelands and secret realms? The demon race in the other domain?
Nangong Yu felt a little dazed. If she couldn’t live for a thousand years, she suspected she wouldn’t even be able to finish all these side quests.
