She wasn’t planning on luring Shiqi to any particular sect. She hadn’t even decided herself.
She was just tempting Shiqi because she wanted another companion on the journey to the Central Continent.
A stubborn, cross-dressing Miss—wasn’t that fun?
Hua Jian loved hanging out with girls, especially those with a strong, interesting personality.
“Me? No way. And Ascension City in the Central Continent is so far—by the time I get there, I’ll have missed it…”
“What do you mean missed it? I’m going too! After you get your revenge, we’ll go together!”
There was a flicker of excitement in Shiqi’s eyes. Youth always carried hope.
Maybe she’d never dreamed of setting foot in the heart of the Central Continent—in that city that symbolized the path to the heavens, to compete with the continent’s and the Four Domains’ most outstanding young talents for the chance to join the Saint Sect.
But now, at Hua Jian’s suggestion, a tiny spark was lit in her heart, telling her that after her revenge, there was still somewhere she could go.
“Even if you don’t win, you’ll gain experience. When you come back, you can brag about how awesome you were, and how you were just this close to joining the Saint Sect.”
Hua Jian gestured “this close” with her fingers.
Shiqi stared at the gap between Hua Jian’s fingers for a long, long time.
Go to Ascension City in the Central Continent?
The hesitation in her eyes gradually faded—her heart had made its decision.
“Yeah! Let’s go together!”
“That’s the spirit! Young people need the courage to strive. For guiding you, I’ll only charge you three hundred Spirit Stones for the trip…”
“You’re charging me?!” Shiqi gasped.
Wasn’t Hua Jian inviting her along? Why did she have to pay? How did that make sense?
Hua Jian thought it made perfect sense. “You’ve never been to Ascension City, and you’re alone. With us, you’ll have protection and someone to guide you.”
“So isn’t it reasonable for me to ask for a small reward?”
She hadn’t finished before a tiny bolt of lightning zapped her from the side, making her stagger.
“Linglong!”
“Hua Jian, have some shame.” Linglong had opened her eyes at some point, and was helplessly lecturing her.
How could this Miss always be looking for ways to scam people? Was that really okay?
Linglong agreed with Hua Jian roping Shiqi into the Ascension Gathering, but as for making money off it, she was totally against it.
“How am I…”
“Pfft, you two don’t really seem like Miss and guard, more like good friends.” Shiqi couldn’t help laughing.
She’d already thought there was something off about their relationship—not much of a distinction between Miss and guard in the way they spoke.
Now, seeing Linglong physically “discipline” Hua Jian, she was more convinced their relationship wasn’t normal.
“Actually, she’s the Miss, and I’m her guard. Believe it?” Hua Jian pointed at Linglong, clearly annoyed.
“No, you’re weaker than her.” Shiqi shook her head—Hua Jian didn’t seem like a guard at all, with her tiny strength.
Called weak again, Hua Jian was speechless. It wasn’t her fault she’d never trained her body growing up—not everyone had good cultivation conditions!
“I really am good friends with her, though. You got that right. And she really is a Miss—a Miss bigger than you could possibly imagine.” Hua Jian propped her chin and snorted.
In this world, probably no one outranked Linglong as a Miss.
A half-dragon, the Saintess of the Saint Sect—definitely the number one Miss!
As for Hua Jian, well, her only “Miss” quality was her looks. Otherwise, not much.
She wasn’t “big” at all. In fact, by some standards, she might not even count as a proper Miss.
“You must’ve accumulated good karma in your last life to meet us. With us here, the Gang Wolf Legion will pay such a Blood Debt that even eggs will have scrambled yolks and earthworms will get split down the middle!”
“Miss, please spare me some trouble.” Linglong was thoroughly exasperated.
Why did it seem like the more Hua Jian talked, the more excited she got?
Shiqi’s gaze drifted between the two of them. Suddenly, she felt they did have a little bit of the Miss-and-guard vibe after all.
In those storybooks she’d read, the serious guard and the mischievous Miss always had this kind of dynamic, right?
That must be it.
And what Hua Jian said wasn’t completely false—Linglong really did seem to be a big-deal Miss, and they were clearly close friends, not just Miss and guard.
If she traveled with them, the journey would probably be interesting, right?
After tasting so much bitterness at a young age, Shiqi couldn’t help but wonder if she was dreaming. Could she really meet such good things?
Two girls so beautiful—could they really exist in the real world?
……
Half a day later, Shiqi was sure—Linglong might not be real, but Hua Jian was definitely a very difficult Miss to serve.
After the sun rose and they began trekking into the depths of the mountains, Hua Jian was never idle—looking around like a kid who’d never seen the world.
When she saw wildflowers by the roadside, she had to squat down for a closer look, and she loved to space out while holding a finely crafted jade token, for who knows what reason.
“What’s with her…” Shiqi glanced at Linglong.
Linglong, keeping an eye out for any threats, replied with a helpless look. She was the guard—she couldn’t control Hua Jian’s actions.
“It’s her first time in the Northern Mountains. It’s normal to be curious about everything.”
“Really?” Shiqi twitched her lips. Spacing out over a wildflower was a bit much.
Fortunately, Hua Jian didn’t space out for long. She quickly picked the wildflower and returned to the others.
As she walked back, she mumbled, “This field guide is useless…”
She’d been trying to identify the flower’s species, but after searching for ages, found nothing—probably because it was such an ordinary blossom, it didn’t even make it into the Lingcaifeng Master’s guidebook.
In terms of looks, Hua Jian thought the little flower was pretty nice, and its fragrance was very strong—perfect for decoration.
At first glance, Hua Jian instinctively thought it was a spirit flower, but strangely enough, it had no spiritual energy at all, and the guide had nothing on it.
“Linglong, do you recognize this flower?”
Linglong glanced at the little white flower in Hua Jian’s hand and shook her head decisively.
She just knew a bit more than most—not everything under the sun. There were too many wildflowers and weeds for anyone to know them all.
“It’s common deeper in the mountains. I’ve heard people mention it before,” Shiqi offered.
She was a local, so she’d heard about this pretty little flower.
“Deep in the mountains, there’s a White Flower Sea made up of these flowers. They say if you enter, your dreams come true. But I don’t buy it.” Shiqi shared the legend she’d heard.
The Northern Mountains were full of all sorts of stories, some true, some false.
Some claimed to have met a Lake Fairy, but turned out to have seen a Water Serpent Spirit Lord.
Others claimed they’d traveled through an Immortal Land, but really, they’d eaten some wild fungus and hallucinated.
Most tales were probably made up to fool people.
The White Flower Sea was likely one such story.
The flower sea might exist, but making wishes come true? That was too much.
Maybe the cluster of little white flowers gave off a dreamy scent, knocking out any who wandered in.
After hearing Shiqi’s guess, Hua Jian looked down at the flower, thoughtful. It did sound interesting.
If they had the chance, maybe they could go see the flower sea themselves.
“Do you know where that flower sea is?”
“No idea. I heard the story thirdhand at best, and everyone tells it differently. But it’s always said to be deep in the mountains.” Shiqi shook her head.
That was the thing with these tales—impossible to verify. If you cared too much, you lost.
As for why the mountain’s deep flowers bloomed here—probably the seeds were carried out by a Spirit Beast or something.
Seeds spread in many ways—wind, Spirit Beasts, floating tens or even hundreds of miles wasn’t hard.
After generations, it wasn’t strange for them to appear at the mountain’s edge.
“Too bad, I wanted to see it.”
“You want to have your wishes granted too?” Shiqi looked at Hua Jian, confused. She didn’t seem the type.
This Miss had always seemed shrewd and clever—how could she believe something so baseless?
Hua Jian rolled her eyes. Of course she didn’t care about wishes. She was just curious what the flower sea looked like.
Plus, if the flowers really made people dream, she might be able to steal their fragrance for her own use.
Hua Jian could never have too many ways to knock people out.
Currently, her methods were the Dreamflower and her own breath, but breath was hard to produce, and the Dreamflower was tricky to use. She wanted more options, naturally.
“Of course not. I just want to uncover the flower’s secret.” Hua Jian’s palm grew slender vines, which tore up and absorbed the little white flower.
The sight made Shiqi’s scalp prickle—her instincts told her Hua Jian’s move was hardly that of a good person.
“Don’t scare Miss Shiqi,” Linglong reminded Hua Jian to take it easy.
Linglong wasn’t sensitive about Hua Jian eating flowers and grass with her vines—no one in the righteous path really cared about the life of spirit plants.
(Truthfully, even Spirit Beasts weren’t that cared for.)
As long as Hua Jian didn’t use her vines to eat people, the guardians wouldn’t come after her.
Linglong stopped her from eating Spirit Beasts only because their blood might trigger her hidden ferocity.
But eating roadside flowers and grass—who could stop that? What, should eating a flower turn her crazy?
Honestly, the pills they all took were made from spirit plants. Hua Jian ate those just fine, so why not ordinary grass?
It made no sense.
“How am I scaring her?” Hua Jian retracted her vines, completely speechless.
It’s not like she shoved the wildflower straight into her mouth—that’d be barbaric.
The best way was to use the vines’ absorption to check what energy the little flower held.
But Hua Jian was disappointed. The little flower, aside from its fragrance, was nothing special, and she couldn’t reproduce the scent with just one.
“Forget it, let’s keep moving. By the way, how long to the next Resource Zone?”
“We’re still in the first Resource Zone. There’s over a day’s journey between two zones—about three days to the next one.” Linglong, thoroughly familiar with the route, answered instantly.
Shiqi chimed in with info on the next Resource Zone—it didn’t belong to the Gang Wolf Legion, but to a new force.
“The Hei Long Gang—their methods are even nastier than the Gang Wolf Legion’s. I suggest we avoid them.”
Oh, Hei Long, huh~ Hua Jian glanced at Linglong, the little white dragon, thinking there was no way Linglong would want to avoid them.
Sure enough, the moment Linglong heard who controlled the next Resource Zone, she made a decision without hesitation.
He’s a dragon, I’m a dragon—why should I avoid him!
“No need. The Gang Wolf Legion has already sent out all their elites—the Hei Long Gang’s strongest shouldn’t be on their turf either.”
Linglong’s implication was clear. If all three Ling King captains of the Gang Wolf Legion went into the mountains for new resources, wouldn’t the Hei Long Gang’s Ling Kings do the same?
The next Resource Zone likely didn’t have a Ling King stationed there, just second-tier experts like in the Gang Wolf Legion’s zone.
As long as the enemy wasn’t a Ling King, in front of Linglong, they were just chickens—crushing them would be easy.
“We’ll just cross their territory directly.”
Shiqi raised her eyebrows. Why did Linglong’s suggestion sound like they were picking a fight on purpose?
Crossing their turf directly would definitely lead to conflict, right?
“Don’t overthink it. We’re here to stir up trouble anyway. Experience, you know?” Hua Jian patted Shiqi’s shoulder—she was right, they were here to make a mess.
Trouble? That’s exactly what we’re looking for!
See injustice and draw the blade, right? They already saved her like that!
Shiqi’s face was a bit grim—how confident did you have to be to pull something like this?
But Hua Jian was confident. Shiqi was not. She didn’t want more enemies.
“If things get rough, just hide behind us—or, here, take these clothes.”
Hua Jian fished out a brand-new Nightwalking Spirit Garment from her storage pouch. Once Shiqi put it on, nobody would recognize her.
Everything covered up—anyone who could identify her like that had to be cheating.
“Uh…” Shiqi hesitated, but took the garment in the end.
But she really wanted to ask—why would a Miss like Hua Jian carry a Nightwalking Spirit Garment around? Did that make sense?
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