◎The surrounding cultivators suddenly felt their scalps go numb and all retreated in unison.◎
“That’s enough.” After finishing her questions, Nangong Yu’s gaze settled on his face.
The girl’s expression remained unchanged, but Zhou Yun’s lips began to tremble. He sensed what was coming. “Senior…”
“Oh, right.” Nangong Yu suddenly remembered something. “You fought your way here, and your sword energy struck the ground, killing quite a few mortals. Did you know that?”
Zhou Yun froze. After a moment of hesitation, he said, “This junior was blinded by hatred and focused only on getting revenge. I neglected that.”
“But since I did something wrong, I’m willing to make amends!”
Zhou Yun was a clever man. Anyone who could reach Foundation Establishment at such a young age was undoubtedly exceptional in both intellect and temperament.
He had keenly sensed that this evil cultivator seemed to care somewhat about mortals. He didn’t understand why, but his survival instinct prompted him to react immediately.
“This junior is willing to compensate!” he hurriedly declared. “I swear to the heavens—”
Before he could finish, a celestial sword radiating white light and containing tremendous energy appeared in Nangong Yu’s hand.
The next moment, it pierced through his heart.
Zhou Yun still couldn’t believe it. He lowered his head and stared at his chest. Even after collapsing to the ground and breathing his last, his eyes remained wide open.
Nangong Yu brought the quantum light sword down in a vertical slash.
Then she slashed three times horizontally.
After inspecting him for a moment and confirming that he was thoroughly dead, she put away the light sword, took out a fire talisman, and tossed it onto the ground.
Roaring flames illuminated Nangong Yu’s face.
“Let’s go.”
With the matter settled, Nangong Yu returned to the flying ship, picking up Zhou Yun’s fallen sword along the way.
When she returned to the place where she had first discovered Zhou Yun, she found many immobilization talismans scattered in the grass. Nangong Yu bent down and picked them up one by one.
Once she had finally cleaned up every trace of what had happened, the flying ship continued onward.
There had been two minions, but she had only killed one. That was nowhere near enough to make up for her hotpot!
Two days later.
Nangong Yu arrived at a city of cultivators.
Its magnificent walls soared so high that their tops could not be seen. The flowing light of formations flickered faintly across their surface.
Countless cultivators descended from all directions, forming long lines in front of the city gates and entering in turn.
Nangong Yu put away her flying ship from a distance, then proceeded on foot and joined the queue entering the city.
Some people carried spirit beasts. There were lions with long manes, flying tigers with wings growing from their backs, and unknown beasts covered in hard scales. All of them looked imposing.
When the owners of the spirit beasts noticed someone staring, they looked over. Seeing that it was merely an unremarkable little girl, they withdrew their gazes without the slightest change in expression.
Nangong Yu’s current appearance had absolutely nothing to do with scavenging.
Her untidy, chest-length hair had been carefully combed and pinned up with a golden hairpin. Large pearls had been added as decorations—not sparingly, either.
She wore a magnificent palace dress of orange and blue, embroidered all over with golden patterns. It looked ornate and exquisite.
Her earlobes, neck, and waist were all adorned with various pieces of jewelry.
She looked no more than sixteen, with clear, bright eyes. She resembled a spoiled young miss from some wealthy family—mischievous and ignorant, but doted on beyond measure.
In a city of mortals, such an appearance would inevitably attract plenty of attention. But in the eyes of cultivators, she looked like nothing more than an ordinary mortal child, not worth a second glance.
“Little girl.”
A wave of heat flared up behind her. Nangong Yu could practically smell her hair burning.
She hurriedly turned around and saw a burly middle-aged male cultivator standing behind her, grinning brightly.
“Little girl, are you a mortal?”
Cultivators were easy to distinguish from one another.
Those with fluctuations of spiritual energy were cultivators. Those with muddled auras were mortals.
For a cultivator, finding a mortal was easier than finding a dog.
Nangong Yu wasn’t surprised that he had seen through her disguise, but she was curious. “Is something wrong?”
“Do you have an owner? Why don’t you follow me?” the middle-aged cultivator coaxed. “I can keep you young forever and preserve your beauty.”
Nangong Yu slowly twirled a lock of hair around her finger, letting it half conceal her face. She put on an innocent expression.
“If I die, I’ll never grow old. Is that what you mean?”
The middle-aged cultivator was stunned.
The surrounding cultivators also froze when they heard that, then burst into laughter.
This mortal girl certainly had guts. They had no idea where she got the confidence to be so insolent.
One by one, curious gazes turned toward them, everyone eager to watch the spectacle.
“You’re so obedient. How could I bear to kill you?” The middle-aged cultivator flipped his wrist, and a porcelain bottle appeared in his palm. “There’s a Beauty-Preserving Pill inside. It will keep you young forever.”
Eternal youth.
To mortal women, it was something they would desperately seek, something they might go mad for.
The middle-aged cultivator had deceived quite a few mortal girls with this trick. He didn’t think he would fail this time, either. His smile grew increasingly eager, while his eyes became more brazen, as though he were already looking at his own possession.
“If it’s such a good thing, why don’t you eat it?” Nangong Yu curled her lips, completely uninterested. “Do you prefer keeping that old face of yours?”
Her utterly rude attitude wiped the smile from the middle-aged cultivator’s face. His expression darkened.
“Little girl, don’t refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit.”
He seized one of Nangong Yu’s hands, flames rising from his fingers.
He possessed a fire spiritual root and had nearly burned Nangong Yu’s hair earlier. Now, as he gripped her wrist, the heat baked her skin until it grew painfully hot.
She raised her eyes. “What are you trying to do?”
The middle-aged cultivator revealed his true, vicious face.
“What do you think I’m trying to do? I paid twenty taels of silver for you, and yet you secretly ran away. Of course I’m taking you back!”
“…”
Nangong Yu was speechless.
Twenty taels of silver weren’t even worth one of the pearls on the tip of her shoe.
She pulled out an immobilization talisman and slapped it onto the middle-aged cultivator.
Unlike Zhou Yun, who had been some distance away and had reacted quickly enough to flee, the middle-aged cultivator was standing close to her, with one hand still gripping her arm.
In other words, Nangong Yu’s arm was holding onto his hand.
Smack.
The immobilization talisman stuck fast.
“Can I kill someone here?” she asked the surrounding people, tilting her head.
The sudden turn of events left all the cultivators dumbfounded.
“You’re a cultivator!”
The talisman had appeared out of nowhere. This supposedly mortal little girl was not a mortal at all—she was a cultivator!
“What kind of illusion artifact are you using, Fellow Daoist?” asked a cultivator with an ordinary face, the sort that people forgot the moment they looked away. “How did you disguise yourself as a mortal?”
The cultivation world had many illusion artifacts capable of changing one’s appearance, cultivation level, and aura.
But those artifacts could only alter or conceal such things. At most, they could keep others from seeing through you. They couldn’t make someone appear to be a mortal.
“A family heirloom,” Nangong Yu said casually, making up an answer on the spot. Then she asked the female cultivator, “Big Sister, will I get arrested if I kill someone outside the city?”
“No.” The female cultivator looked at the immobilized middle-aged cultivator and smiled. “Only after you pass through that gate are you considered to be inside the city. Killing and fighting are against the law there. But out here, you can do whatever you want.”
Nangong Yu understood. She nodded.
“Thank you, Big Sister.”
She turned back, removed the storage pouch hanging from the middle-aged cultivator’s waist, and then took off all the accessories on his body, including the ring on his finger and the hairpin in his head.
She stripped off his clothes.
As for his shoes… she was too lazy to take them off. She wasn’t so desperate that she would pick up every piece of trash.
“Fellow Daoist, you’re going a little too far.” Someone who couldn’t stand watching any longer shouted, “Even when killing someone, there’s no need to humiliate them like this.”
Nangong Yu looked up. “So you’d rather I kill him?”
The man was left speechless.
Nangong Yu drew Zhou Yun’s long sword and shaved the middle-aged male cultivator’s head.
She couldn’t kill him—the NPC’s words were only meant to be heard, not acted upon.
“Fellow Daoist, why are you shaving his hair?” asked the female cultivator who had spoken to Nangong Yu earlier, unable to contain her curiosity.
Nangong Yu replied, “I’m going to twist it into a hemp rope. It should be pretty sturdy, right?”
A Foundation Establishment cultivator’s body could withstand being rammed by an airship. In that case, surely his hair ought to be sturdy too?
The female cultivator was dumbfounded.
Then her gaze grew thoughtful.
Nangong Yu carefully shaved every last strand of the middle-aged male cultivator’s hair, right down to the scalp.
The hair was long, black, and glossy—a bundle that looked quite valuable. She put it away, then took out an empty 500-milliliter mineral-water bottle and a venous blood-draw needle.
Bright-red blood gushed forth, gradually spreading across the bottom of the bottle before the level began to rise.
At that moment, all the cultivators nearby felt their scalps go numb. They backed away uncontrollably.
Before long, a wide circle had opened up around Nangong Yu, with no one willing to come near her.
“Is she a demonic cultivator?”
“If she isn’t, what else could she be?”
“Should we report this to the city lord?”
“Are you sick? If you report her to the city lord, who exactly are you planning to protect?”
Many people communicated through voice transmission, but not a single one looked away. Even with their scalps crawling, they stared fixedly as Nangong Yu stripped the middle-aged male cultivator down to nothing but his undergarments and shoes.
She had shaved off all his hair and drawn a whole bottle of his blood.
Quite a few people were deeply shaken. Had they been too kind before? They had actually only robbed people of their storage bags?!
“Why aren’t you lining up?” Nangong Yu asked after finishing her work. She turned around and saw the large empty space ahead of her.
Everyone pointed forward in unison. “After you, Fellow Daoist.”
How polite?
Nangong Yu looked around and saw that they weren’t merely being courteous for show. She then hopped merrily ahead.
She had found so much more trash!
“Fellow Daoist, you really know how to pick them.”
The people nearby formed the line again. One cultivator standing ahead of the middle-aged man sighed with feeling.
With so many people around, he had somehow singled out the one person who was most difficult to deal with.
The middle-aged male cultivator was still held fast by an immobilization talisman. His eyes were wide open, and tears of blood streamed down his face.
Being immobilized didn’t mean he was unconscious. He could see and sense everything Nangong Yu did.
When he heard the people around him mocking him, even more blood tears welled up in his eyes, carving two bright-red trails down his face.
“She’s gone too far.” A plain-looking cultivator tore the immobilization talisman from the middle-aged cultivator’s body.
He looked toward the city gates. “She’s gone too far!”
Nangong Yu moved through the line quickly. Only three people remained ahead of her—she would be entering the city soon.
“Waaah—!”
The middle-aged male cultivator, now freed from the talisman, trembled as he let out a heartbroken wail.
He had been stripped of everything!
His clothes had been taken, his hair had been shaved off, and an entire bottle of blood had been drawn from him. Even spirit beasts had never suffered such misery!
“Fellow Daoist, stop crying,” the cultivator who had freed him advised. “Go after her! You can still catch up!”
There were only two people left ahead of Nangong Yu.
But the middle-aged male cultivator did nothing except cry, “Waaah—!”
He didn’t dare.
That female demoness had disguised herself as an ordinary mortal, hiding her true thoughts so deeply. Her methods were sinister and bizarre beyond belief.
Without a single spirit stone left on him, the middle-aged male cultivator couldn’t even afford the city’s entrance fee. Completely dejected, he turned around and left the line.
Everyone watched his retreating back and shook their heads. Then they began discussing the matter with great excitement.
Meanwhile, Nangong Yu paid ten spirit stones and entered the city.
Straight, spacious roads paved with white jade bricks stretched through the city. Tall pavilions and grand towers stood on either side, while waves of enticing fragrances drifted through the air—the scents of pills, food, and wine.
Countless cultivators came and went along the broad streets. Most were dressed in dazzling finery, though there were also plenty clad in dark clothing, some with blood still staining their faces.
Besides cultivators, there were many mortals as well. They stood along the roadside soliciting customers, helping lead spirit beasts, guiding cultivators through the city, selling information, and doing all sorts of other odd jobs.
In her palace-style dress, Nangong Yu looked utterly ordinary, completely blending into the bustle of the prosperous city.
“Little girl…”
“Little girl…”
A faint, ethereal voice drifted into Nangong Yu’s ears.
She looked left and right before finally spotting a shadow in the narrow alley between two towering buildings.
A hunched figure was shrouded in a black robe. One pale, bloodless hand stretched out from beneath it and beckoned to Nangong Yu.
“Little girl, want to exchange your spiritual root?”
“Exchange my spiritual root?” Nangong Yu jogged over excitedly.
A spiritual root was the foundation of a cultivator. Could it really be exchanged?
“Little girl, want to exchange your spiritual root?” the black-robed figure asked.
“How do I exchange it? Where do I exchange it? How much does it cost? What kinds of spiritual roots are available? Do you guarantee the exchange?” Nangong Yu fired off a string of questions.
The other party let out a strange laugh. “No guarantees.”
No guarantees?
Nangong Yu’s thoughts began to turn. “Will I die if it fails?”
A strange, drifting laugh came from beneath the black robe.
“Cultivation is already an act of defying heaven and changing one’s fate. Exchanging spiritual roots is defiance taken to the extreme. One chance in a hundred, with death almost certain. Little girl, do you still want to try?”
One chance in a hundred?
Nangong Yu’s eyes shifted as she asked, “How many people have already died?”
If ninety-nine people had already died…
The other party replied, “Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine.”
What?!
Nangong Yu was stunned. “Then how many succeeded?”
“Three.”
The mysterious, unfathomable voice gradually faded into the distance.
“Little girl, if you make up your mind, come find me.”
The black robe lost the support beneath it and crumpled to the ground. It gradually shrank, transforming into a single emerald-green willow twig.
