When she left, Jiang Ke’er didn’t take the little monk with her.
It wasn’t that she flaunted her power and then ran, happily forgetting about her teammate. It was just that she was well aware of what a hot potato she was.
She admired the little monk’s uncorrupted values; his views were a breath of fresh air in this world, so she didn’t want to bring trouble to him.
He couldn’t handle it; no one in this world could.
Not even Qiao Xiaoxian.
Opening the newspaper on the cloud boat, Qiao Xiaoxian looked at the news of Jiang Ke’er winning the championship three days ago.
She didn’t even have to think to know that Jiang Ke’er must have run away early and was probably already hiding in the Ancient Realm of Learning.
“Only took half a day, huh?”
Qiao Xiaoxian closed the newspaper, feeling both relieved and shocked at the same time, her mood a bit complex.
She had deliberately extended Jiang Ke’er’s life by half a year, so she wouldn’t have to stay by her side.
At that time, she knew Jiang Ke’er would run.
And she would go all out, seize every moment, and use every trick in the book to escape!
Therefore, in this God of Gamblers competition, she would absolutely not hold back, so that she could truly test Jiang Ke’er’s limits.
She had expected the competition to end in three days, guessing that Jiang Ke’er would deal with the other contestants within three days, but she never expected her methods to be beyond everyone’s expectations—it only took half a day!
She didn’t know if this was Jiang Ke’er’s limit, but from the competition’s record, Jiang Ke’er seemed to be playing a long game and thus hadn’t fully unleashed herself.
“The Demon Race’s First Constable, Constable Jiang.” Qiao Xiaoxian couldn’t help but laugh.
She knew Jiang Ke’er’s secret, and of course, she knew she wasn’t a constable at all.
She was a thief, the most brilliant thief she had ever seen in her life.
As long as she lived for a few more years, her reputation as the Saint of Thieves would sooner or later spread across the Kyushu land… but no one would ever have thought that this Saint of Thieves was the legendary First Divine Constable of the Demon Race.
Of course, the title of First Divine Constable of the Demon Race was currently fake, but in a few more years, it might not be.
The more Qiao Xiaoxian thought about it, the more interesting she found it.
This little fox had only recently transformed, her strength wasn’t even at the Two Forms Realm, and she had no self-preservation ability whatsoever… yet she had already wreaked havoc across the entire Beiju Luzhou, and now she was continuing to cause trouble in Dongsheng Shenzhou.
She really was a troublemaker!
But then again…
Qiao Xiaoxian narrowed her eyes—Jiang Ke’er, there are some things that won’t work, no matter how much you show off.
Getting off the cloud boat, Qiao Xiaoxian headed straight for the entrance of the Ancient Realm of Learning.
She pulled out a black pass from her bag, which was a free entry pass to the Ancient Realm of Learning.
The King of Aolai’s life had brought her benefits not just in the chaos of the Aolai royal family; this entry pass was also one of the benefits.
Since she knew Jiang Ke’er would run, how could she not have a backup plan?
“Heh…”
She currently had a belly full of anger to vent.
Although she didn’t know the reason for all the recent misfortunes, she would investigate it sooner or later, and before that… her cultivation had reached the peak of the Two Forms Realm and needed a sublimation exercise.
Qiao Xiaoxian stopped thinking too much and was about to walk into the Ancient Realm of Learning when she suddenly saw a demon girl walk out of its entrance.
If Qiao Xiaoxian hadn’t reacted quickly, they would have collided.
“Excuse me,” the demon girl apologized repeatedly, but then asked, “Oh, by the way, have you seen a dog demon named Jiang Ke’er? Big ears, fluffy white fur, super cute!”
“Hmm?” Qiao Xiaoxian became alert.
She didn’t know any dog demons, but she had certainly slapped a fox.
Looking for Jiang Ke’er so hastily, she was probably another silly little person who got scammed, or perhaps, she was one of the people chasing Jiang Ke’er?
Her tone didn’t sound like it.
“I think I’ve heard that name somewhere. What are you looking for her for?”
“Hello, my name is Mu Guoguo,” Mu Guoguo introduced herself politely, then anxiously said, “Before she entered the Ancient Realm of Learning, I forgot to tell her some important things! Like definitely not going to Myriad Blades Prefecture or something… but she went in too fast, she just darted in like she was hiding from a monster.”
Hmm? Hiding from a monster?
“…Who are you?” Qiao Xiaoxian couldn’t help but ask in surprise.
“I’m her friend,” Mu Guoguo said.
“If you see this little dog demon named Jiang Ke’er, please be sure to tell her that there are a few places she can’t go. I wrote those places on page sixteen of my notes, after ‘Top Ten Rich-Getting Places for Beginners,’ but I was too lazy to write a new heading to separate them…”
After Mu Guoguo finished, she bowed to Qiao Xiaoxian, thanked her, and then continued to stop the next cultivator who was about to enter the Ancient Realm of Learning, repeating the above process.
“I can find Jiang Ke’er, come with me,” Qiao Xiaoxian grabbed Mu Guoguo and led her away from the entrance of the Ancient Realm of Learning towards a roadside restaurant.
“Sit down and tell me about Jiang Ke’er’s situation.”
Mu Guoguo was completely unguarded and happily agreed when she heard that Qiao Xiaoxian could find Jiang Ke’er.
“How did you two meet?” Qiao Xiaoxian asked directly, with a hint of worry in her tone.
“We met during a border inspection,” Mu Guoguo answered truthfully.
“Be more specific.”
Mu Guoguo smiled slightly and fell into a memory: “Well, that’s a long story. So…”
The distant lights filled Jiang Ke’er with a surge of warmth, a feeling of comfort after a narrow escape and a turning point.
But this feeling didn’t last long.
A cold wind swept by, and she shivered, feeling deeply uneasy in her heart.
“Is the cold poison acting up again?” Jiang Ke’er wondered.
“That doesn’t make sense; that dragon supplemented me with demonic energy for half a year…”
“Or am I just over-exhausted and depleted?”
Jiang Ke’er sensed the spiritual energy flowing within her.
Her depleted Dantian was already full and bulging as if nothing had happened, even more so than before.
There was no sign of over-exhaustion.
“Then it seems someone is having ill intentions towards me again,” Jiang Ke’er mused, touching her chin with certainty.
But then again, this Furnace Cauldron Technique comes at a great cost, but it’s truly powerful!
She didn’t know about other cultivators, but only a dozen minutes after that bitter battle, she had already fully recovered.
She sensed two types of energy in her Dantian.
One was pure spiritual energy, and the other was an inky black, strange energy.
Those black energies hid in the very center of her Dantian, forming a magatama shape the size of a grain of rice, rotating spontaneously like the black yin fish in a Taiji diagram.
Each rotation would drive the surrounding ordinary blue spiritual energy to rotate with it, forming a swirling nebula.
It took about an hour to complete one rotation, and with each rotation, the nebula would grow a little larger.
Jiang Ke’er sensed the magatama and felt something was very wrong.
Logically, what monsters in this world cultivate should be demon cores.
They should be smooth and round.
But her demon core wasn’t round at all; it was a half-Taiji magatama shape that would make anyone with OCD extremely uncomfortable.
This was very un-fantasy-like.
“Never mind,” Jiang Ke’er stopped delving deeper, realizing this must be the fault of that Furnace Cauldron Technique.
She knew very well that the Furnace Cauldron Technique was incomplete without dual cultivation.
But even without dual cultivation, this technique was already powerful enough.
As long as she worked hard, it would be fine.
She’d worry about the future when it came.
For now, she definitely didn’t want to be caught by Qiao Xiaoxian.
“I don’t want breasts, I want power!” Jiang Ke’er cried out to the sky.
She needed to put in more effort.
Fortunately, this was Myriad Blades Prefecture.
Myriad Blades Prefecture was a good place, gathering sword cultivators from all over the world, perfectly suited for her to study and hone her swordsmanship.
Even though humans believed that the sword was a noble and elegant weapon, only fit for humans to wield, and were unwilling to see lowly little demons like Jiang Ke’er learn it… Jiang Ke’er was determined to learn it anyway.
The more others looked down on demons in a certain place, the more she wanted to surpass everyone!
She had been stubborn since she was a child.
Otherwise, how could she have coughed up blood and transmigrated from sheer stubbornness?
Under the bewildered gaze of the gate-keeping swordsmen, Jiang Ke’er walked into this small human city.
“Strange, are all the demons crazy these past two days? One by one they come to Myriad Blades Prefecture to send themselves to their doom…” the guard muttered.
As it was getting late, Jiang Ke’er decided to find a place to stay and cultivate for the night, and then embark on her journey of becoming stronger tomorrow morning.
To surpass Qiao Xiaoxian, practical combat experience was essential.
So, she decided to seek out more sparring partners.
If there was an arena, she’d go to the arena; if there wasn’t, she’d challenge a dojo.
With full humility and sincerity, she was determined to experience the most profound swordsmanship in this world…
She would visit as many sword dojos and sects in Myriad Blades Prefecture as there were.
Even if demons were unwelcome here, her determination to pursue the Way of the Sword was serious.
The sword shouldn’t be like this.
The Human Way was also wrong, and the Heavenly Way was even more ridiculous.
The only path she believed in was the one beneath her feet, the one she carved out herself.
The next morning, at the crack of dawn, Jiang Ke’er opened her eyes.
She had slept the night in a corner of an alley because all inns and lodgings would tell her, “There are no empty rooms, please look elsewhere,” as soon as they saw her tail.
The whole city was full, what a coincidence.
Jiang Ke’er smiled wryly, stretched, and brushed off the straw covering her.
Taking out the artifact sword that already had some chipped blades, Jiang Ke’er wiped off the residual blood from last night, sheathed it, and held it in her hand.
This small city had no weapon shops, but there was a sword dojo… Her journey of learning would begin at this sword dojo.
A young man with bright yellow cat ears stood on his tiptoes, pressing a large sticker onto the wall.
The little monk beside him saw it, quickly tore off the sticker, and shredded it.
“Chen Yi, what are you doing?” the cat-eared youth exclaimed in anger.
“Oh, little ancestor, are you tired of living by posting this kind of notice in Myriad Blades Prefecture?” The monk’s head throbbed.
The young man was similar to the little monk, but a bit older, around sixteen or seventeen years old.
However, he was dressed lavishly, and every gesture exuded an aristocratic demeanor, along with a lack of common sense.
“So what?” the young man proudly lifted his small head.
“My dad is Li Yuan!”
“Distant water can’t quench immediate thirst. Even the Venerable Lord Li Yuan, who is revered as a Qianniu Beishen and holds the positions of threezhou cishi, can’t fly here instantly to save you!” Chen Yi quickly covered the young man’s mouth.
“And also, please speak softer, you can’t just blurt out things like the Demon Race Revival Society…”
“If I don’t say it out loud, how can I recruit like-minded companions?”
“Amitabha, you’re asking me, a monk, such a question?” Chen Yi glared.
“A little monk who was mercilessly kicked out by the abbot and just narrowly escaped death? This humble monk knows nothing!”
The young man scratched his head, feeling a little dejected.
“However, this humble monk did meet a beautiful, powerful, and very cool demoness sister last night,” Chen Yi suddenly chuckled.
“If you want to recruit people, you might try looking for her. She should still be nearby.”
“Why do you, this stinky bald monk, have such good luck with women?!” The young man was sour.
Ever since he met Chen Yi, he noticed his own luck with women getting worse, while this monk had made friends with a bunch of female demonesses.
“Perhaps, this humble monk is more reassuring,” Chen Yi said with a wry smile.
“Alright, where did that demoness sister you mentioned go?” the young man asked.
“There—”
Chen Yi suddenly stopped, looked at the sword dojo entrance not far away, and pouted.
The young man looked in that direction.
The morning breeze lifted her clothes and also swept a few strands of the girl’s pure white hair.
As the wind swayed, the girl’s profile was vaguely visible, but even just this partial view already made the young man a little mesmerized.
He saw her gently bow forward: “Junior sword student of the Demon Race, Gale Stream Jiang Ke’er, has come to pay respects to the master of the dojo.”
Up to this point, everything was normal.
Then, Jiang Ke’er spread her five fingers, lightly grasped the hilt of her sword, and her crimson lips parted:
“I seek, defeat.”