“Sigh, I wonder when Senior Sister will come redeem us,” Han Rui leaned against a tree in the courtyard, murmuring while gazing at the sky.
“You traitors! Treacherous and shameless!” Hearing Han Rui, a Ling King from Tianmomen burst out cursing.
To him, this was clearly a trap set up by Wanhuagu and the Protectorate Supervisor to lure them in!
“I understand. You don’t want our elder to break through Saint Grade. You selfish bastards!”
“You deliberately sought us out, alright? Senior Sister told you many times the person you’re looking for isn’t here. What can we do if you don’t believe her!” Han Rui retorted fiercely.
They were truly wronged this time, just doing their business honestly when Tianmomen smashed their stall and the Protectorate Supervisor caught them.
Those Tianmomen guys really harmed themselves as well!
As the two sides exchanged curses, the courtyard gate was gently pushed open, and a girl with colorful eyes and an awkward expression entered.
“Is that you?”
“Huh? Why are you here?”
All eyes turned to Hua Jian.
Under the gaze of both sides, Hua Jian forced a dry smile and pressed the remote given by Xia Xuan.
With her action, the spirit ropes binding Han Rui and the Wanhuagu Ling King dimmed, slackened, and dropped to the ground.
Han Rui, who was just wondering when she would be redeemed, was stunned, then showed immense joy. Was she really being freed directly?
“Y-You’re colluding with the righteous path!” The Tianmomen cultivators shouted angrily.
What was this? Just moments ago, they said they had nothing to do with the righteous path, and now they did this right before their eyes!
Wanhuagu, you’re so despicable and shameless!
The two Wanhuagu girls remained unfazed. Come on, who would ally with these guys? Not long ago, you wanted to bully us!
“Don’t slander. We were clearly wrongfully caught!” Han Rui retorted fiercely, confidence strong in her heart.
She had been in Wanhuagu a long time and hadn’t done any bad things.
Bribing other cultivators for intelligence—is that really a bad thing?
No one could say that!
Han Rui happily turned to Hua Jian and scolded the demonic cultivators, “You provoked us first, and now that you’re caught, you want to drag us down. Disgusting!”
After scolding, she proudly followed Hua Jian out of the courtyard.
Outside, she saw several sword cultivators guarding the door. Their previously imposing aura instantly deflated, and they shrank behind Hua Jian.
Seeing Han Rui’s lively transformation from arrogant to submissive, Hua Jian suddenly felt that being mistaken for a Wanhuagu cultivator wasn’t so unreasonable.
In a way, she really resembled Han Rui.
Only after leaving the sword cultivators’ sight did Han Rui dare to step out from behind Hua Jian. She patted her still-beating chest and looked at Hua Jian admiringly.
“You weren’t afraid of those sword cultivators at all, that’s impressive.”
Seeing those sword cultivators almost scared stiff, Hua Jian remained calm and confident.
Though she knew the relationship between Wanhuagu and the righteous path was ambiguous, Han Rui still felt she was demonic and was a bit nervous around sword cultivators.
After all, sometimes sword cultivators wouldn’t listen; surrendering might not even work.
“There’s nothing to fear. I’ve done nothing wrong,” Hua Jian said confidently, walking upright and firm, except for her habit of drugging and charming people, she had no bad habits.
“That means you’re amazing. So what’s going on today? It’s all related to you, right?” Han Rui muttered, then asked for the truth.
She roughly understood why Tianmomen targeted them now. They mistook Hua Jian as one of their own, though Hua Jian hadn’t confided in Wanhuagu members here.
She probably didn’t even know she had fellow disciples here.
“We ran into three Ling Kings who died together. Then my young lady wanted to help others. I was just a playmate; what could I do?” Hua Jian shrugged. “At first, I didn’t realize Han Rui was Wanhuagu.”
“Later I suspected, but exposing you didn’t make sense, so I pretended to know nothing.”
“Your young lady’s identity is unusual too, right? Who is she exactly?” Han Rui nodded knowingly and asked about Linglong.
The key was Linglong. Han Rui was quite curious about the young lady’s identity, why Hua Jian treated her with such caution.
“I can’t say.” Hua Jian raised both hands and made a small cross with her index fingers. “Anyway, she’s not ordinary.”
“Does she know your identity?”
“Huh? Probably… she knows?”
“Cut it out. I bet she knows. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have sent you to free us,” Han Rui muttered softly.
Turns out righteous geniuses are that crafty, playing with Wanhuagu girls as playmates.
A righteous young lady playing so well with Wanhuagu? Well… on second thought, that actually makes sense.
Hua Jian also said Linglong gave her a lot of money; this was pure bribery, which happened to be the best method against Wanhuagu cultivators.
Bribed Wanhuagu cultivators brought enormous emotional value, making people feel it was worth it.
Hua Jian was even more confused. What does “knowing my identity” mean? What identity?
Other demonic cultivators mistaking her for Wanhuagu was one thing, but Han Rui is an official Wanhuagu member—how could she treat Hua Jian as one of their own? Is that reasonable?
Am I really that much like a Wanhuagu cultivator?
Hua Jian hesitated to explain but felt having such an identity might not be so bad.
She once thought Wanhuagu was like other demonic sects, harshly suppressed by the righteous path.
Now seeing the ambiguous relationship between Wanhuagu and the righteous path, having this identity seemed advantageous.
Hua Jian was a pragmatist; if the identity brought benefits, she wouldn’t give it up lightly.
She never admitted it; it was all Han Rui’s guess.
“By the way, I don’t know your name.”
“Me? I’m Hua Jian.”
“Hua Jian? Oh, got it!” Han Rui’s eyes lit up upon hearing the name.
A junior sister with the Flower surname! She remembered Flower Heart Fate Senior Sister telling her she might one day be granted the Flower surname by the sect elders and become a direct disciple of Wanhuagu.
Hua Jian was the second Flower-surnamed Wanhuagu direct disciple she’d met.
No denying it, direct disciples were impressive, able to thrive within the righteous path. She was far more capable than Han Rui.
Based on her performance facing the sword cultivators, Han Rui admitted Hua Jian’s Flower surname was well-deserved.
The Wanhuagu Ling King listening in showed a surprised expression. She hadn’t expected Wanhuagu’s infiltration of the righteous path to be so deep.
A Flower-surnamed disciple flourishing in the righteous path was unbelievable.
Though Hua Jian didn’t understand the meaning behind the looks of the two Wanhuagu girls, she thought it couldn’t be bad.
She recalled Youye had a similar expression when hearing the Flower surname. Apparently, the Flower surname was very important to Wanhuagu.
“It’s getting late. You should leave quickly,” Hua Jian cleared her throat, urging the two to flee. After all, this was the righteous path’s territory; two demonic cultivators should not linger.
“Mm, see you again if fate allows!”
After sending off the two innocent Wanhuagu members, what happened next had little to do with Hua Jian.
How dark the Su Family was, how many would be punished—all that was Xia Xuan’s concern. Hua Jian just stayed in her room to do her own thing.
After all, she was neither righteous nor demonic, just an unfortunate stray cultivator caught up in this event. Her role was minor.
The one who uncovered the demonic conspiracy was their Saintess Linglong. Hua Jian had only contributed a few not-so-useful ideas.
In the end, it was all thanks to their Saintess’s wisdom that the conspiracy was foiled.
“Anyway, if anyone asks me, that’s what I’ll say. Believe it or not, it’s their business.”
Carving delicate lines on a conical piece of jade, Hua Jian muttered this while working.
Sitting beside her wasn’t Linglong but Su Xiaoxiao; Linglong was assisting the Protectorate Supervisor’s investigation as the Saintess.
“Don’t get distracted; be careful not to carve the lines wrong again,” Su Xiaoxiao watched Hua Jian’s small jade piece attentively. If Hua Jian slipped, she would remind her.
On the table lay many shards of jade, failed attempts at crafting bullets.
Each failed carving made the jade crack with a sharp snap, and Hua Jian had heard dozens of these cracks by now.
She was already numb to the sound. Refining spirit tools was clearly not something anyone could do casually. The frustration from repeated failure was enough to drown in.
For six or seven full days, Hua Jian had been locked in her room wrestling with the jade, redesigning the patterns over and over but failing to find a suitable one.
Su Xiaoxiao felt sorry for Hua Jian.
“I’m concentrating very hard… Miss, do you think the spiritual energy lines here should bend this way and connect here better?”
“Let me see. If it’s like this, then like that…” Su Xiaoxiao looked at the tiny, dazzling colorful lines on the small bullet body, feeling clueless.
She wasn’t a spirit tool expert; Hua Jian’s method was completely new to her. She had no idea.
“I don’t get it. Hua Jian, don’t ask me these questions. I’m useless,” Su Xiaoxiao plopped her head on the table, exhausted.
Too brain-taxing. She felt this stuff wasn’t for an outer disciple like her; inner sect seniors specialized in refining tools.
“The previous method failed, but I’m close to success. I should just adjust this part.”
Hua Jian didn’t fully understand the principle; she was relying purely on intuition.
The basic spiritual energy circuit was copied from Venerable Fenghua’s technique, and the rest was patchwork—fixing problems as they appeared.
Too many energy circuits made the jade fragile? Cut unnecessary circuits.
Problems after cutting? Add a processing circuit.
Through this crude trial-and-error, Hua Jian slowly approached her desired product.
After all, what she wanted was simple: a bullet that could be shot from a spiritual gun, remain stable in flight, and shatter on contact to release a mist.
Compared to other spirit tools, the requirements were loose.
Not demanding in strength or usage duration; it was disposable.
Even the sealed mist wasn’t a strong spirit technique, just a nearly harmless smoke.
Yet even this small item, if made by a master refiner, would be considered an insult to their skills—and it had stalled Hua Jian for many days.
It showed how difficult refining was.
No wonder spirit tools were so expensive. Refiners were all wealthy.
“Engraving complete. Jade state is stable. Now to inject the mist…” Hua Jian took a deep breath and proceeded to the final step.
Colorful spiritual energy flowed from her palm, gradually transforming into mist, then she infused it into the thumb-sized jade.
The energy circuits on the jade gradually filled with color. This time, unlike previous attempts, it did not crack but stood steadily on the table.
Hua Jian took a deep breath, carefully placing it into a small piece of soft, foam-like material before pumping her fist to celebrate.
“Success!”
Her joy was obvious. If Su Xiaoxiao weren’t there, Hua Jian would have rolled on the floor celebrating.
Since she couldn’t, she had another way: grabbing Su Xiaoxiao’s hand and hopping around, leaving Su Xiaoxiao bewildered.
This brought Linglong, who had just opened the door, to scowl.
“Ahem!” Linglong coughed loudly to announce her presence.
Excited, Hua Jian didn’t notice the dark aura on Linglong’s face and immediately hugged the little Dragon Girl tightly.
Linglong was caught off guard, unsure how to react, standing dumbfounded like a wooden stake.
Hua Jian spun Linglong around before letting go and explaining why she was so happy.
“My Spirit Technique bullet is done!”
She then handed Linglong the preserved bullet to see her work.
“So this is your Spirit Technique bullet?” Linglong took the bullet, eyes wide at the shimmering spiritual energy circuits.
It looked decent but somewhat bulky.
As she was examining it, a cracking sound suddenly rang out.
In Linglong’s horrified gaze, the bullet developed several cracks.
“Hua Jian, what happens if it cracks?” Linglong whispered.
“Uh… the mist inside will burst out all at once. The mist I put in could probably fill this room,” Hua Jian said, a cold sweat dripping down her forehead.
“Didn’t you pack too much?”
“No.”
“That’s good. Su Sister, hold your breath, it’s going to explode!”
Linglong tossed the bullet into the air, and in the next second, the fragile bullet burst open mid-air, blooming like a slowly unfurling colorful flower.