“Senior Sister, you’re… far too good at lining your pockets.”
“…I’ve never seen this many spirit stones in my life.”
“Is the Fan family really that generous?”
“Senior Sister, I think I heard some unpleasant rumors in the Fan family.”
The junior brothers and sisters looked at Shu Xin with some concern.
“Oh, you mean the rumors that there’s something improper going on between me and the father and son of the Fan family?” Shu Xin smiled. “I spread those rumors deliberately. There’s no helping it. From ancient times to the present, tales of infatuated men and lovesick women, along with romantic gossip, have always been eternal topics. They’re the only things that can make people lower their guard. Aside from ruining my reputation, they’re completely harmless.”
Besides, it didn’t matter if her reputation was ruined.
After all, the entire Fan family probably wouldn’t exist once this was over.
The people of a clan that was destined to disappear—why should Shu Xin care what they thought?
“Besides what you’ve seen so far, Fan Xiang will probably give me another large sum of spirit stones soon.” Shu Xin propped her chin on one hand and spoke lazily. “These fools’ money is truly easy to swindle. Their understanding isn’t worthy of the wealth they possess. I’m merely helping them spend a little of it.”
Even though the five junior brothers and sisters had followed Shu Xin long enough to see their fair share of the world, and even though they considered themselves not to be greedy, watching Shu Xin earn such an enormous fortune in just a few days through methods like these still left their hearts shaken.
Was this really right?
Were the sayings about Heaven rewarding diligence and hard work leading to prosperity all lies?
After leaving with Senior Sister, they had earned, in a short time, a vast amount of spirit stones they had never even dared to imagine. By contrast, their master had always seemed to have more difficulty earning spirit stones than cultivating.
The difference was simply too great.
Could it be that their master’s honest, hard-working approach to earning money was wrong, and that only someone like Senior Sister was doing it right?
For a moment, all five of them fell into confusion.
“All the ways to make money in this world are of dubious origin.” Shu Xin stood up and tapped each of them once on the head. “You don’t need to overthink it. People can’t earn money beyond the limits of their understanding. Your master and all of you are upright people. Unlike me, you don’t want to try everything under the sun. My methods offer high returns, but they also carry high risks. Fortunately, I have no concern for my reputation and rarely provoke anyone stronger than myself. Most of the time, I just bully the weak.”
That sounded even more wrong.
The five of them looked at Senior Sister with deep resentment.
Senior Sister had to be teasing them again.
“Perhaps I should put it another way.” Shu Xin looked at them with a beaming smile. “You’re all relatively pure and upright. In this world, that makes you rare treasures. So I searched and searched, and in the end, I decided on the Inquiry God Sect.”
With Shu Xin’s intelligence and talent, if she sincerely wanted to stay in the Longevity Dao Sect, it would not be difficult for her to find a way to win the favor of a cultivator in the Wugou Realm—or even one in the Mahayana Realm—and become their personal disciple.
But Shu Xin had no desire to do so.
Anyone who had worked for a long time knew that finding a conscientious leader was far more important than finding a capable one.
Even if the former fell on hard times, they would still properly handle matters for their subordinates. The latter, on the other hand, might lead you to enjoy short-term gains, but once a crisis arrived, you would be the one taking the blame and serving as the sacrificial pawn.
This was especially true in a place like the Longevity Dao Sect, where the hierarchy was rigid and internal struggles were endless. Unless one wanted to spend an entire lifetime embroiled in schemes and intrigues, one could only resign oneself to becoming a chess piece.
Shu Xin did not want to live that kind of life.
A cultivator’s life was so long. If she had to spend it all fighting internal battles with others, merely imagining it was exhausting. She might as well choose a sect with upright traditions, few members, and—preferably—a decent reputation.
After comparing all her options, she had chosen the Inquiry God Sect.
So it had never been that the Inquiry God Sect had taken Shu Xin in.
It was simply that Shu Xin had chosen the Inquiry God Sect.
“Senior Sister, do you mean that you came to our sect because of Master and us?” Cao Ru practically sparkled from head to toe, looking overjoyed.
“Yes.” Shu Xin gave a slight nod.
The others were delighted as well.
Ah, although Senior Sister did act in somewhat unexpected ways, everything she did was ultimately for the sake of eliminating evil and upholding justice. Using a few unconventional methods was perfectly normal.
If those enemies hadn’t been so cunning, Senior Sister wouldn’t have been forced to resort to such tactics.
When all was said and done, it was the Fan family’s fault!
“Then, Senior Sister, what should we do next? We want to help you too.”
“That’s right, Senior Sister. We can’t just let you fight alone.”
…
【You’re really quick at winning people over.】 The sword spirit watched as the group surrendered to Shu Xin in such a short time and was utterly amazed.
To be honest, many people couldn’t accept Shu Xin’s way of doing things.
This was especially true of those who were inexperienced and overly pure and upright. They always believed that the world was divided into nothing but black and white, and so they acted recklessly and on impulse. Put nicely, one might call it youthful spirit. Put less nicely, it was simply having no sense and being stubbornly one-track-minded.
But Shu Xin’s strength lay precisely in the way she won people over—quietly and imperceptibly.
Just look at them. What had these five innocent young men and women been molded into under Shu Xin’s influence?
They hadn’t noticed at all—or rather, they had no awareness of it—but they had already grown accustomed to treating everything Shu Xin said as an absolute standard. All their principles of conduct were now based on her words.
When Shu Xin praised them, they could remain happy for days.
When Shu Xin showed even the slightest displeasure, they would reflect on themselves and wonder whether they had done something wrong and angered Senior Sister.
Once they returned to the sect, Xu Guan would probably be so distraught he would beat his breast and stamp his feet. His five disciples had gone out with Shu Xin and been completely spirited away.
At the thought of the scene that might unfold in the future, the sword spirit couldn’t help wanting to laugh.
But when it looked at the five fools as they were now, it suddenly thought of itself and could no longer laugh.
Sigh. Why criticize others?
After all these years spent with Shu Xin, it was the one she had trained most successfully.
Back then, it had clearly been a sword spirit that simply charged over and hacked apart anyone it disliked. Now it was practically an old nanny.
In the past, all it had to think about was hacking people to pieces.
Now it had to think about everything—except hacking people to pieces.
“Helping me is actually quite simple.” Seeing that the five of them had finally gotten themselves together, Shu Xin slowly revealed her true objective. “I need to find the Divine Water of the Bright Mirror, and that thing should be hidden somewhere in the Fan family. The spirit-parasitic demonic cultivator who was captured by the Wanquan Dao Sect has a clone hidden in the Fan family. I need a sufficiently large internal upheaval to force that person to reveal themselves!”
The five of them were stunned by the sheer amount of information.
Huh?
Wait, let them sort this out.
Senior Sister, when had this happened?
…
Recently, the entire Fan family had begun to grow restless.
“This cannot continue.” One of the Fan family elders slammed his palm down on the table and rose in fury. “The family head has been completely bewitched by that demoness. He keeps sending piles and piles of spirit stones to her, as though he’s lost his mind.”
“He’s not suffering from hysteria. He clearly wants to cast aside the family and use it as a stepping-stone for his own advancement,” another elder sneered. “He’s been practicing some powerful divine ability lately, and now he’s currying favor with that Shu Xin. You’ve known Fan Xiang for so many years. Do you really think he’s the sort of person who cares about romance and moonlight?”
“I think what happened to the Hu family may have changed his mind.” As one of the few female elders in the Fan family, this elder’s words carried a touch more credibility. “It’s incredibly difficult for a family to grow stronger. But if an individual wants to advance and is unwilling to let the family become a burden, that’s entirely possible. Fan Xiang probably had exactly that thought. He wants to turn everyone in our family into resources for his own cultivation, offering us up to Shu Xin and the Seeking God Sect behind her in exchange for his personal advancement.”
That… actually sounded more plausible!
“No! The Fan family isn’t Fan Xiang’s personal property. It belongs to the entire clan. He wants to sacrifice the whole family to advance himself? Not a chance!”
“Heh. If you had such an opportunity, you’d make the same choice.”
“The biggest problem isn’t even that.” One of the elders sighed. “I heard that the Myriad Dao Sect has recently been investigating families connected to the Hu family. Anyone who looks suspicious is being arrested. Fan Xiang must have received the news as well. He wants to find himself an even stronger backer.”
As it happened, the Fan family had planted quite a few spies in the Hu family while competing for spirit herbs. They had even sent their young clan leader there.
Now that something had happened to the Hu family, was it really possible for the Fan family to claim they knew nothing?
“We’re innocent. We never colluded with demonic cultivators.”
“Heh, don’t say things like that. Which family doesn’t secretly maintain ties with a few demonic cultivators? Take that shop, for instance. Back then, we hired a passing demonic cultivator to slaughter the entire family running it, all so we could make up for our losses in spirit stones that year. Don’t tell me you’ve all forgotten.”
“And when we dealt with the Li family, our excuse was that they had colluded with demonic cultivators. Those demonic cultivators’ magical weapons were bought by us and secretly planted in the Li family’s home.”
“Oh, and there was also that time…”
They had known one another for many years. Who among them didn’t know the others’ secrets?
Every last one of them had, to one extent or another, colluded with demonic cultivators. If they were seriously investigated, not a single person among them would escape.
Trying to stay out of it was nothing but a pipe dream!
“Then what are we supposed to do? We can’t just sit here and do nothing.” One hot-tempered elder slammed the table in frustration. “Why are there problems everywhere we turn? The Hu family is dead, yet they still can’t stop causing trouble for us!”
“Such are the disputes over profit between aristocratic families.”
“There’s only one solution now: we have to make Shu Xin leave the Fan family,” the female elder suggested after some thought. “If Shu Xin decides that the Fan family is no longer suitable for her, or if she develops an intense dislike of Fan Xiang himself, then Fan Xiang’s plans will fail. Naturally, he’ll have to give up on that unrealistic fantasy of his.”
“That does sound like a possibility. But how exactly are we supposed to do it?”
“Doesn’t Shu Xin think Fan Xiang is hopelessly in love with her? Heh. Fan Xiang has so many concubines that no one can even count them, and at least a dozen children. Does he really think that simply keeping them out of sight means they don’t exist? Once they all appear in front of Shu Xin, her impression of Fan Xiang is bound to plummet!”
“If Shu Xin and her junior brothers and sisters are attacked outside and seriously injured, they’ll certainly have to return to their sect for treatment.”
The elders continued offering suggestions to one another.
In the end, they couldn’t decide which plan would work best, so they decided to try them all.
The next day.
Two children who looked to be about seven or eight years old stood guard outside the courtyard where Shu Xin was staying.
They were Fan Xiang’s fraternal twins. Fan Xiang had always doted on them, partly because they were both fairly talented, and had generally granted them whatever they asked for.
But ever since Shu Xin arrived, Fan Xiang had cut off contact with all his children.
Thus, with just a little provocation and a few carefully edited words whispered to the children—with the help of certain “interested parties”—they had easily managed to find Shu Xin’s residence.
When Fan Xiang received the news, he smashed a table in fury.
“Those short-sighted fools!”
Fan Xiang was practically driven mad by the idiots in his family. Although he did have personal motives for currying favor with Shu Xin, he was doing it even more for the sake of the family. It was just that, with so many people in the clan and so many mouths to answer to, he had no way to explain every consideration behind his actions.
But he had never expected the people in his family to be so stupid that they would actually ruin his plans.
They were good for nothing but causing trouble.
Did they really think that Fan Xiang’s failure would benefit the rest of the Fan family?
Fan Xiang immediately rushed to Shu Xin’s courtyard, hoping to take his children away before they could meet her.
However, by the time he arrived, his children were already standing there arrogantly, spouting nonsense.
“You’re only trying to marry into the Fan family, so you’d better show us some respect.”
“Believe it or not, if we so much as get a scratch while we’re here, Father won’t want you anymore.”
“Tell us how many spirit stones you want. How much will it take for you to leave our family?”
…
Shu Xin almost laughed aloud.
Good heavens. How many years had it been since she’d heard a scene like this?
And it was being performed by two children, no less.
Then again, that wasn’t quite right. In the cultivation world, there were very few true children.
Most of them were merely pseudo-children—cultivators who deliberately suppressed their physical growth and maintained a childlike appearance in order to preserve their sect’s favorable impression.
As luck would have it, Shu Xin had never indulged spoiled brats.
She lowered her head slightly and sent them a voice transmission without the slightest hint of politeness.
“You’re already in the Qi Refining stage, so you must be at least fifteen or sixteen years old. Do you really think it makes you cute to keep wearing children’s faces? You two idiots—didn’t you ask what my cultivation level was before coming here?”
With that, Shu Xin released a tiny fraction of her aura.
The two children’s legs went limp, and they dropped straight to their knees before her.
“Nephew, niece, there’s no need to be so courteous.”
Only after the two had knelt firmly before her did Shu Xin help them back to their feet.
By then, both children were drenched in sweat.
Their cultivation was too weak for them to sense just how powerful Shu Xin was, but they could tell from her bearing alone that her cultivation level was definitely formidable.
“Still, judging from the two of you, you might make decent older siblings in the future.”
Shu Xin had sensed Fan Xiang approaching from a distance. She immediately looked provocatively at the two spoiled brats and deliberately reached out to touch her stomach.
[There’s an egg in your belly. Why are you rubbing it for no reason?] The sword spirit was utterly speechless. [They’re just a couple of little brats. Was it really necessary to unleash such a devastating move?]
“There’s no helping it. The spirit stones Fan Xiang has been sending lately are becoming fewer and fewer. His cash flow has probably run dry. Since that’s the case, we can only make the Fan family even more chaotic.” Shu Xin chuckled. “Rumors have been spreading throughout the Fan family lately, and the voices calling for me to leave have grown louder and louder. It seems someone wants me out of the Fan family as soon as possible. But I refuse to go.”
Those two little brats weren’t truly ignorant of the world. Seeing Shu Xin’s actions and expression, they felt as though an enormous basin of cold water had been poured over them.
If this highly cultivated female cultivator gave birth to a child, would their father spare them another glance?
No. He wouldn’t.
They would end up just like the elder brothers and sisters they had once mocked and looked down upon—discarded by their father as though they were worthless. Either they would become tools for a marriage alliance, or they would be given away as gifts to various cultivators. Before long, they would vanish from the Fan family without a trace.
In that instant, a dagger appeared in the boy’s hand.
In the blink of an eye, he gripped the dagger and viciously thrust it toward Shu Xin’s lower abdomen.
Fan Xiang saw it from a distance, his eyes bloodshot with fury.
“You little bastards!”
At that moment, Fan Xiang was so enraged that he wanted to kill his own children.
Shu Xin appeared to be completely off guard, but the instant the dagger came near her, she flicked something onto its blade. She then took several steps back, making it seem as though she had not been injured.
It would make no sense for a cultivator of the Grotto-Heaven realm to be wounded by a little brat.
But what if demonic qi from a spirit-parasitizing demon cultivator remained on the dagger?
“Fellow Daoist Shu, are you all right?” Fan Xiang arrived beside her in an instant. Seeing that Shu Xin was unharmed, he finally relaxed—but the look he gave his children had already turned so cold it seemed capable of freezing water.
“I’m fine. But, Fellow Daoist Fan, you have a much bigger problem.” Shu Xin’s voice was even colder and harder than Fan Xiang’s. “Please tell me why your son’s dagger contains demonic qi from a spirit-parasitizing demon cultivator. Does your Fan family truly have no ties to demon cultivators?”
Fan Xiang was utterly dumbfounded by the accusation.
What? What was she talking about?
The Longevity Dao Sect, the Lin family’s ancestral grounds.
The Lin family ancestor had completely revealed his intentions. He had already made up his mind not to give Situ Jian the slightest chance to escape.
“You don’t seem surprised, my disciple.” The Lin family ancestor was rather astonished to see that Situ Jian remained calm.
In the past, disciples who heard him say such things either knelt down and declared their loyalty, hoping he would spare them, or attacked decisively and fought to the death.
Situ Jian was the first to remain so composed and indifferent.
“Master deliberately said all this to disturb my state of mind and make it easier to possess my body,” Situ Jian said, hitting the nail on the head. “You aren’t the sort of person who would waste so many words on someone about to die.”
The Lin family ancestor’s expression gradually returned to normal. “You’re clever. If you were truly my descendant, I might even be willing to spare you.”
“Master needn’t tell such lies. The only reason you chose not to possess someone from the Lin family is that their aptitude is inadequate and you look down on them.” Situ Jian continued, “A possession can only be carried out once. Since Master chose me, it proves that within the Longevity Dao Sect, my aptitude and natural endowments are among the very best.”
The Lin family ancestor did not answer immediately. Instead, he hesitated for a moment before saying, “That isn’t entirely true. After meeting Shu Xin, I realized that her aptitude is excellent as well. Unfortunately, I never imagined that you, former fiancés, would both possess such extraordinary talent. Otherwise, I would not have issued an extermination order so readily. I would have captured her instead. Having one more candidate would have been useful.”
As for possessing a woman’s body, what did it matter? Once his cultivation advanced, he could simply reshape a new body for himself.
Hearing the Lin family ancestor praise Shu Xin, Situ Jian actually smiled faintly. “Of course she’s exceptional.”
He was about to die, yet he was still thinking about whether someone else was exceptional?
The Lin family ancestor could only feel that this disciple of his had probably lost his mind.
Still, mere words would not be enough to shake Situ Jian’s state of mind. He had already seen through the old man’s tricks.
“Does my disciple have any last words?” The Lin family ancestor smiled smugly. “If you truly love that Shu Xin, then after I obtain your body, I can fulfill your wish on your behalf.”
Situ Jian silently closed his eyes, appearing to have completely abandoned all resistance.
The Lin family ancestor immediately circulated his cultivation technique. His spirit separated from his body and, without the slightest hesitation, burrowed into the center of Situ Jian’s brow.
To seize this body, he first had to force out the Dao Nascent Soul hidden within Situ Jian’s inner world and destroy his consciousness before he could complete the possession.
In order to strengthen his spirit, the Lin family ancestor had almost entirely neglected the cultivation of his physical body.
Once he obtained this superior vessel, with all his past cultivation experience, he would be able to return smoothly to the Immaculate realm even if he had to start cultivating all over again. He would no longer have to remain unable to hold his head up in the Longevity Dao Sect simply because he had relied on unorthodox methods.
Although he possessed the title of an Immaculate-realm cultivator, he had never received the treatment such a cultivator deserved!
However, the instant the Lin family ancestor’s spirit truly entered Situ Jian’s spiritual inner world, he felt a bone-chilling cold.
But he was currently in spiritual form. How could he feel cold?
The Lin family ancestor sensed that something was wrong and wanted to retreat first to see what was happening.
Yet in the next moment, Situ Jian opened his eyes and rapidly formed several hand seals. The cultivation and spiritual energy within the Lin family ancestor’s physical body began pouring out and streaming toward him.
The Lin family ancestor could sense that something was wrong with his body, and that it was even affecting him in his spiritual state.
But when he tried to leave, he discovered that he seemed to have been imprisoned.
“What a fine Situ Jian!”
He was merely at the Dao Nascent Soul realm. Did he really think that a few tricks would be enough to restrain the spirit of an Immaculate-realm cultivator?
What wishful thinking.
The Lin family ancestor had been worried that using too much force might damage this body, but now he could no longer concern himself with that. At worst, he would simply spend more time in seclusion recovering after completing the possession.
A tremendous force suddenly erupted within Situ Jian’s spiritual inner world.
The violent tremor caused Situ Jian’s body to sway, and the absorption of the Lin family ancestor’s cultivation became less smooth.
Yet this scene only made Situ Jian feel more at ease.
The Lin family ancestor had indeed chosen to make his move.
Everything had gone far too smoothly—so smoothly that even Situ Jian found it almost laughable.
It turned out that those Immaculate-realm cultivators who stood high above the rest could also be killed with ease if one used the right method. When faced with death, their reactions were no better than those of any other cultivator.
Situ Jian’s eyes brightened. “Wasn’t Master planning to possess me? This disciple is quite willing to open the restrictions on my spiritual inner world and let Master display his abilities.”
With that, Situ Jian truly released the restrictions he had placed on his spiritual inner world.
Could there really be such an idiot in this world?
The Lin family ancestor had not even had time to rejoice when he suddenly felt his spirit become completely rigid. He could not move at all.
No—it would be more accurate to say that there was something seriously wrong with this body to begin with.
Why had Situ Jian offered no resistance at all? Why was he even absorbing the spiritual energy from his own body while remaining outside it?
Because Situ Jian knew perfectly well that the Lin family ancestor could never successfully seize his body.
In fact, from beginning to end, the old man had deliberately approached him, deliberately trying to wheedle cultivation techniques out of him—and had even set his sights on his cultivation.
He wanted to use this opportunity to advance rapidly from the Dao Nascent Soul Realm to the Grotto-Heaven Realm.
“No, that’s not right. You aren’t…” The Lin family ancestor seemed to realize something. He shouted in alarm and immediately tried to escape from Situ Jian’s body.
But it was all in vain.
“You intended to kill me…” Even with death closing in, the Lin family ancestor still couldn’t believe that he had been defeated so easily.
“To kill you?” Situ Jian laughed when he heard that. “Master was merely an insignificant part of my plan. Nothing worth mentioning.”
The Lin family ancestor’s soul quickly dimmed, then began transforming into a dense mass of spiritual energy, which Situ Jian absorbed.
Begging for mercy? Threats?
None of it worked anymore.
From the day he took Situ Jian as his disciple and decided to kill Shu Xin, his fate had already been sealed.
“Sister Shu once said that the best hunters always appear in the form of prey.” Situ Jian smiled faintly. “Master, from beginning to end, we were the ones who chose you—not the other way around.”
Situ Jian: I want to pick a master who’s stupid, highly cultivated, and up to no good. Sister Shu, what do you think of the Lin family ancestor?
Shu Xin: Arrogant, conceited, stupid, and not long for this world. Perfect!
