Since everyone has gotten serious, let’s have a real showdown and see whose seriousness is the truest!
The Demonic Cultivators were confident; fighting had never been Wanhuagu’s strong suit.
As long as they demonstrated power enough to crush Wanhuagu completely, those people would obediently submit.
Wanhuagu’s disciples were inherently soft in spirit, lacking firm conviction, and easily bowed to might.
So when they acted insufferably, the best way to deal with them was to reason with fists.
Only then would they behave!
“I believe they will value their lives more.” The Demonic Cultivator clenched his fist tightly, voice cold.
……
Oh!
“Here, take a look.”
Hua Jian stacked a large pile of ancient books filled with the weight of time in front of Linglong and pointed at the things she had brought from the Su Family.
She didn’t really want to waste time on such low-efficiency tasks, but since neither the old family head nor the new family head’s rooms yielded any valuable clues, she had no choice but to go straight to the Su Family’s Sacred Library Pavilion and take everything out.
After filtering out the books obviously unrelated to Yao Mei, the remaining ancient books formed Hua Jian’s list of suspects. The two of them had to go through them one by one.
Linglong picked up a book and flipped through a few pages. “This one is about commerce.”
“Who knows if it’ll suddenly switch topics halfway through? Let’s finish reading it first. If we still can’t find clues after these, we’ll have to dig through the rest.”
Hua Jian shrugged. She wished things were simpler.
If she were a Spirit King by now, she would have gone and dealt with that Spirit King who dared threaten her already.
She’d make that guy answer with the gun in her hand!
But there was no way. The other’s strength was higher, so she had to find another approach.
“Or you could just kill that Demonic Cultivator Spirit King?”
“I’m not that strong.” Linglong lowered her head, embarrassed.
If she really had the strength to defeat a Spirit King, things would be much easier. Unfortunately, she was still only a Spirit Master.
Reality wasn’t like a game where taking the initiative and landing a few brutal hits could win easily.
Spirit Kings completely suppress Spirit Masters in every way.
Without perfect timing, environment, and support, a Spirit Master simply cannot defeat a Spirit King.
Even Linglong, a genius with noble Dragon Blood, was no exception.
“Then we’ll have to resort to a battle of wits. Oh, is this a diary?” Hua Jian flipped through a few pages of the book in her hand and then glanced at the name on the cover.
Good, it’s someone unknown.
“I’ll ask Yao Mei!”
After taking a few steps out, Hua Jian suddenly changed her mind. “No, why don’t I just have her come help us?”
Yao Mei wasn’t a treasure in the traditional sense. Before becoming an object fought over by many factions, she was first and foremost a person.
And she could work.
Previously, because of Yao Mei’s special status, Hua Jian didn’t want her to expose herself. But now it was different. Reading books wouldn’t reveal her identity.
So, to protect the target, get up and work!
Thus, Hua Jian dragged Yao Mei over, shoving a book she had never had the chance to read before into her hands.
“Is… is this really for me?” Yao Mei’s hand trembled. Since childhood, she had been taught that the books in the Sacred Library Pavilion were extremely precious treasures reserved only for the Su Family’s core members.
As an illegitimate granddaughter, she was not qualified to read these books.
Yet now she was handed this book—and there were so many more, all taken from the Sacred Library Pavilion.
“The Su Family’s finished anyway, why care about outdated rules? By the way, do you recognize this person?”
Hua Jian curled her lips and handed the diary with some years on it to Yao Mei.
Taking a glance at the diary, Yao Mei took some time before recalling the name signed inside.
“This is my grandmother. She passed away before I was born.”
“She died quite young… cough, so young, what a pity.” Hua Jian forced herself to soften her words under the oppressive gaze nearby.
Yao Mei was about twenty this year, and her grandmother had died twenty years ago, which means she was around fifty or sixty at death.
In this world, that was definitely considered an early death. Cultivators extended their lifespans through practice.
Even the lowest-level Spirit Practitioners outlived normal mortals by decades.
Spirit Masters, without major setbacks, could easily live to 150.
Residents of Huiyue City bathed in the silver moonlight left by the Spirit Lords, and their bodies were naturally more gifted. Spirit Masters were everywhere, especially in great families like the Su Family, where almost everyone was a Spirit Master.
“Let me see… this diary is dated thirty years ago, a few years before she died.” Hua Jian flipped through the diary, searching for any possible clues.
But after reading through, she only found one potentially useful piece of information: thirty years ago, the old Su Family head left for a Secret Realm treasure hunt and disappeared for half a year before returning.
“Did any Secret Realms appear near Huiyue City thirty years ago?” Hua Jian turned to Linglong.
“I don’t know. I’ll ask the city lord.” Linglong wasn’t from Huiyue City and didn’t even exist thirty years ago. This was a question only the city lord could answer.
After meeting the city lord, Linglong obtained a token to communicate with him anytime, which was just the right moment to use it.
Soon, the city lord confirmed that thirty years ago, a Secret Realm had indeed appeared near Huiyue City. At that time, many factions rushed into the realm.
Unlike the safe Secret Realms that Linlang Pavilion now controlled, more than half the cultivators who entered never returned.
Those who did return had mostly grown much stronger.
The old Su Family head was one of those who came back.
“Later, Linlang Pavilion took over that Secret Realm. It was some sort of Medicine Valley, wasn’t it?” Linglong relayed the city lord’s words.
Hua Jian pondered for a moment, then tossed the diary aside and began rifling through the pile of old books.
“You guys help me look for the old matriarch’s diary. I think the breakthrough lies there!”
Thirty years was a very sensitive time. A few years later, the old matriarch died young. Then, a few years after that, Yao Mei was born.
Hua Jian knew linking these events might be far-fetched, but her instincts told her something was off.
And the old matriarch’s diary was the key to unraveling these mysteries!
What could be more trustworthy than the firsthand record of the person involved?
Hua Jian’s greatest worry was that the diary might not be in this pile of old books, which would be troublesome.
Luckily, her luck held, and she successfully found another diary of the old matriarch, which just happened to continue where the other left off.
The diaries weren’t continuous.
The old matriarch seemed to record only periodically or after certain events, which actually saved Hua Jian some effort in hunting for useful information.
“The old matriarch said that after returning from the Secret Realm, the old family head often locked himself in with his two sons to argue late into the night.”
“Originally, Yao Mei’s mother had arranged a marriage and was just waiting for the families to meet, but due to the old family head’s interference, the engagement was called off.”
“The reason was that he pitied his daughter, didn’t want her to marry out, and wanted to bring in a son-in-law to live with them.”
As they listened, Linglong and Yao Mei sensed something was off. The old family head definitely didn’t make this decision out of concern.
He had his own schemes.
And those schemes would ultimately fall on his daughter, culminating in Yao Mei herself.
“So, Yao Mei might not be an innate spiritual body but an artificial one.” Hua Jian pointed at Yao Mei. “How feasible is that?”
“I don’t know for sure, but generally speaking, such acquired spiritual physiques are meant to assist others in cultivation.” Linglong frowned deeply. Special physiques rarely form after birth.
And those formed after birth usually don’t benefit the host.
These methods mostly come from the Magic Path. How would the Magic Path do anything self-sacrificing?
“Yao Mei, did anything strange happen when you were little?”
Yao Mei stroked her chin, thinking for a few seconds, then shook her head slowly. “No, but I heard Mom and Dad say I often accidentally fell and scraped my skin. Every time it hurt so much I cried loudly. Grandpa cared a lot and sent people to heal my wounds…”
Fell down, scraped skin, healing?
Hua Jian heard these details and her mind instantly cleared. Hey, this chain of evidence might be connecting!
“Hold out your hand!”
“Huh?” Yao Mei was startled by Hua Jian’s sudden loud voice but obediently stretched out her pale little hand.
Hua Jian grabbed it, and with the other hand’s fingertip, condensed a small thorn of Spiritual Power and drew a line across Yao Mei’s palm.
She applied some force, easily cutting through the palm. As blood beads surfaced, Hua Jian caught a faint medicinal scent.
“Did you smell it?” Hua Jian turned to Linglong.
Linglong’s golden dragon eyes widened, filled with confusion.
“Smell what? There’s no scent. I can only smell the floral fragrance on you.”
Hua Jian slapped her forehead upon hearing that. So her physique had a downside: with her nearby, no one else’s fragrant physique could be detected.
“Then I’ll go out first. You should be able to smell it now.”
A few minutes later, Hua Jian returned to the room.
Linglong had already healed Yao Mei’s wound, and the few drops of blood Hua Jian had drawn were preserved in a small transparent cup.
After Hua Jian came in, Linglong immediately shared her guess about Yao Mei’s physique.
“I suspect Yao Mei is an artificially cultivated medicine physique.”
“Oh? Explain.”
“The blood has a strange fragrance and is rich in medicinal power—typical of a medicine person. But unlike ordinary acquired medicine physiques, hers may have been adjusted even before birth, granting her effects almost as good as an innate medicine person.”
Linglong’s expression darkened. Medicine people were a technique universally banned by the righteous sects.
This technique aimed to refine cultivators into high-quality spirit medicine to replace rare precious spirit ingredients in elixirs.
Rare spirit ingredients were hard to find, but two-legged cultivators were everywhere.
Simply put, this was a method to turn cultivators into medicine, using them to refine pills.
No wonder the righteous sects banned it!
“So, she’s a kind of walking spirit herb, and the Magic Path wants to use her for pill refining? But she’s only a Spirit Master, right?”
Hua Jian understood but still had doubts.
No matter how powerful Yao Mei’s medicine persona was, she was still a low-level Spirit Master.
Her medicinal effect couldn’t possibly surpass high-grade spirit materials.
And the Magic Path mobilized so much force to get her—seemed excessive.
This was an answer they had to keep searching for. More secrets were hidden in her…
“Let’s keep going through these books; maybe we’ll find more clues!”
This time, Linglong urged Hua Jian to keep reading.
An artificial medicine person, a decades-long conspiracy, internal darkness in a great family—wow, this must be what her master wanted her to see.
Thinking that she would soon play an important role in such a major event, Linglong suddenly felt very motivated!
Though the Saintess seemed expressionless, she was still a normal girl at heart.
“Okay, okay, stop pushing, I’m reading!”
Flipping a couple more pages of the diary, Hua Jian suddenly thought of another investigative route.
She remembered Linglong had said that the Secret Realm was taken over by Linlang Pavilion.
What a coincidence—Hua Jian had connections there!
Though Su Xiaoxiao and Ma Shijie were expelled from Linlang Pavilion, asking them for information about the Linlang Pavilion Secret Realm shouldn’t be a problem.
After all, she had a good reason.
“Can I write a letter to ask the young miss about the Secret Realm?” Hua Jian asked Linglong.
Linglong frowned. She didn’t like Hua Jian thinking about other girls at this moment, but it was an efficient method, so she nodded in agreement.
“There’s a special messenger station in the city. That Sacred Sect stronghold isn’t too far from Huiyue City. Plenty of people would be happy to take your delivery job.”
“Okay, I’ll write the letter and send it out now!”
Though Linglong knew Hua Jian’s hurry, the thought that the letter would be delivered to her sort of competitor left her feeling a bit bitter.
She still felt too weak and useless. If only she were stronger, Hua Jian wouldn’t have to do this.
Hua Jian wasn’t at fault; the one at fault was herself.
She was too useless, neither strong nor clever enough, forcing Hua Jian to humbly beg other women.
As Hua Jian’s future senior sister, she had to become someone Hua Jian could rely on, not the other way around.
……
“How long will it take for the letter to arrive?”
“For this area, about two days.” The cultivator at the messenger station glanced at the spiritual energy map behind him.
He carefully locked Hua Jian’s letter inside a wooden box and put it in his storage bag.
These days, many cultivators made a living running errands. Just buy the cheapest flying spiritual artifact, and you could take gigs.
Walking along official roads, there wasn’t much danger—a fairly decent job for low-level cultivators.
Those confident in their combat abilities would go to Secret Realms to fight and loot; those who didn’t want to fight did regular work. Cultivators didn’t always chase immortality and longevity.
Those single-minded seekers were mostly in the Saint Sect or Magic Path.
The cultivator accepted the letter, confirmed the destination, and immediately left Huiyue City. Hua Jian estimated she would get Su Xiaoxiao’s reply in about seven days.
“Four days for a round trip, three days for the young miss to investigate, just seven days.”
Hua Jian counted on her fingers and was confident in her math.
“That’s exactly when the auction starts.” Linglong, accompanying Hua Jian, was sensitive to the number.
Seven days later, the grand auction in Huiyue City would begin.
Although her goal now seemed less about attending the auction and more about uncovering the Su Family’s secrets and thwarting the Magic Path’s plans, Linglong still looked forward to the auction.
“Don’t think about snatching good stuff. Those items have long been targeted by major factions. Without asking elders for spirit stones, you can’t compete.”
Hua Jian poured cold water on Linglong.
Linglong was indeed a little rich, but only on a personal level. The major factions had far more spirit stones.
The best items at the auction were probably already divided among those forces.