“I want to learn, but I’ve been running around everywhere with you lately. How would I have the time?” Hua Jian indicated this wasn’t her fault.
“Then I’m truly sorry.”
“No need for apologies. Just give me some extra emotional distress compensation later… Hey, why did you hit me again!”
……
Despite being hit, Hua Jian still got Ling Long’s help and successfully signed a companion contract with the little spirit cat.
From this moment on, she had finally officially brought the little cat into her household. From now on, she could proudly tell everyone that this peerless cat was hers!
This made Hua Jian very happy. When they set out the next day, she even held the cat in her arms, pampering it like a treasure.
“She’s showing off, isn’t she? She definitely is!”
Shiqi looked at Ling Long and received a confirming nod from her eyes.
Yes, Hua Jian was definitely showing off.
Anyone who got a rare spiritual beast would show off like this; it was only human nature.
Since they were still in the mountains, the trio continued to ride the large wolves that Hua Jian had brainwashed into loyal dogs.
Although the riding experience wasn’t great, the speed was indeed faster than walking.
However, this was deep in the mountains. Even taking the shortest path out, it would take several days of running to leave the range and reach inhabited areas.
This wasn’t a problem. The three of them had lived like wild people in the mountains for quite some time, so staying for two more days was acceptable.
Thus, after traveling through the forest on the wolves for three days, they finally reached the edge of the mountain range.
Dismounting, Hua Jian waved at the large wolves, which seemed reluctant to see her go, telling them to return to the mountains and live their own lives.
Once the wolves had completely vanished from sight, Hua Jian turned to look ahead.
Not far away was a fairly bustling small town. Many cultivators were entering and leaving. According to Ling Long’s introduction, this seemed to be a small entrance into the mountain range.
Or rather, a supply point. Here, one could team up with other cultivators wanting to explore the mountains or conduct trades.
As for entering the mountains, one could actually enter from anywhere. This place wouldn’t have a cordon with only a few fixed entrances.
If you really wanted to enter, you could just find any spot and fly in; no one would stop you.
Hua Jian’s trio emerging from the mountains surprised the nearby cultivators. After all, it was rare to see such a team these days.
Three young and beautiful girls, with one holding a snow-white little cat in her arms—at a glance, they looked like pampered young ladies from wealthy families.
Otherwise, who would bring a useless pet into the peril-filled mountains?
Hua Jian sensed their gazes and roughly guessed their thoughts.
To this, she could only say their vision limited their heights. Shouldn’t you have recognized the spirit cat’s identity at a glance, gasped, and exclaimed that this was actually a Frostflower Spirit Cat?
Holding a regular white cat made her a young lady of a wealthy family, so holding a Frostflower Spirit Cat would make her a super eldest miss of a wealthy family, right?
This group of people still wasn’t up to par.
“Shuangshuang, look at them. They can’t even recognize you. How useless.”
Shuangshuang was the name Hua Jian had given the spirit cat. Since they had signed a contract, she had to give the cat a name, right?
After ruling out super-common names like Mimi, Hua Jian chose to use the cat’s race to name it.
Frostflower Spirit Cat called Shuangshuang—wasn’t that natural?
To this, Ling Long and Shiqi basically said, “As long as you’re happy.” This name wasn’t much better than Mimi.
“It’s getting late. We’ll rest in town for a night, make some preparations, and set out tomorrow morning. How does that sound?” Ling Long looked up at the sky.
The sun was gradually sinking in the west; they likely didn’t have much time to travel further today.
“No objections.”
Hua Jian and Shiqi answered in unison.
Since this small town’s business was hosting cultivators entering and leaving the mountains, there were countless inns of all sizes.
Ling Long habitually led the two toward the largest inn in town, wanting to book rooms for the night.
However, that largest inn seemed to have some issues and was actually closed to guests.
Hua Jian asked some nearby cultivators and learned that about ten days ago, the innkeeper had a conflict with a few passing cultivators, who then trashed the place.
The innkeeper couldn’t take the insult and fought them. He won the fight, but the inn was so damaged it couldn’t host guests, so it had to close temporarily for repairs.
As for the reason for the fight… it seemed to be because the inn served food that the guests were allergic to, even after the guests had repeatedly emphasized their dietary restrictions.
After hearing the reason, Hua Jian could only say the inn deserved to be trashed. She would have done the same!
“Bullying guests, huh? But since this place is closed, where are we staying?” After telling Ling Long what happened, Hua Jian asked with some helplessness.
“There are plenty of people over there soliciting guests. I’ll go ask.” Before Ling Long could think, Shiqi pointed toward a group of people holding signs outside the large inn.
The signs they held all listed prices in spirit stones per night. Clearly, they were from other inns coming to snatch customers.
Just a moment ago, Hua Jian was wondering why there was such a crowd here. Now she understood; they were here to feed on the fallen giant.
“Go ahead, just don’t get scammed.” Hua Jian made the decision for Ling Long.
“Don’t worry. It’s not like I’m some naive idiot.” Shiqi was, after all, an old hand who had spent years rolling through blood and fire. Trying to scam her wouldn’t be easy at all.
She slapped her face hard and walked toward the solicitors, only to be quickly surrounded. The group chattered away, introducing how great their inns were, leaving Shiqi momentarily dazed by the noise.
Seeing this, Hua Jian couldn’t help but burst into laughter. She just said not to worry, and she was exposed in a second.
“Don’t laugh at Shiqi. Let’s go help.” Ling Long gave Hua Jian a helpless look and walked toward Shiqi.
Hua Jian didn’t hide her smile. After catching up to Ling Long in a few quick steps, she said she just wanted Shiqi to have a sense of participation.
“Look, Shiqi is trying very hard to control the situation. I think she’ll pick a decent inn soon.”
Shiqi was indeed a bit overwhelmed by the enthusiastic people at first, but she quickly calmed down and began to methodically compare the pros and cons of each inn. She should have a result soon.
“Meow~”
The spirit cat in Hua Jian’s arms suddenly made a soft sound.
Through the contract’s connection, Hua Jian realized the cat had discovered something interesting.
Following the cat’s gaze, Hua Jian saw a petite girl trying hard to squeeze toward Shiqi but constantly being pushed out because of her frail body.
“Could it be… this is my fated beauty for this part of the plot?” Hua Jian’s eyes narrowed, though she said something that made little sense.
Ling Long immediately put a hand to her forehead. Sometimes she really wondered what was inside Hua Jian’s head. At a time like this, the first thing Hua Jian thought of was a “fated beauty”?
Too strange!
Looking closely at the petite girl, Ling Long noticed that while the child was a bit thin and weak, her strength hadn’t fallen behind her peers, already reaching the average level of the Spirit Master rank.
Placing her in the Immortal Ascension Assembly, she would be a little genius capable of entering the outer sect of a Saint Sect.
“Her talent seems good. Why is she doing menial work here?”
“There’s a hidden story. Let’s go ask.” Hua Jian nudged Ling Long toward the girl and, under the girl’s confused gaze, asked, “Little sister, do you run an inn too?”
Please forgive Hua Jian for calling this girl “little sister.”
After all, the child was even shorter than her, and Hua Jian had a clear self-perception, knowing her own height wasn’t considered tall among girls her age.
If this girl was shorter than her, could she really be older?
The girl looked Hua Jian up and down and nodded somewhat shyly.
“But… it’s very deserted,” she answered in a tiny voice.
The wooden sign she held listed a pitifully low price. And everyone knew that cheap goods weren’t high quality.
If they could earn more spirit stones, who would refuse? The fact that her sign only had such a miserable price was enough to show how little confidence she had in her inn.
At that moment, a young man who had already been eliminated from Shiqi’s price comparison saw their conversation.
He cleared his throat and, without much malice, warned Hua Jian, “Miss, don’t go there just because you feel sorry for her. Her inn is famous around here for being haunted.”
When he said this, he didn’t show disdain or mockery; instead, his expression held a bit of pity.
“Oh? Haunted?” Hua Jian blinked. Ghosts did exist in the cultivation world, though they were relatively rare and required specific conditions to form.
“Real ghost or fake ghost?”
“If it were a real ghost, it would be easy. We’d just find an Immortal Master from a Saint Sect to perform an exorcism. But they’ve called Saint Sect masters several times, and none could find the cause of the haunting.”
The young man shook his head, pointing at the frail girl.
“She’s seventeen this year, yet she looks so thin and weak because she’s been living in that haunted house.”
Hua Jian’s expression nearly crumbled. So she actually had to call this girl, who looked like a little sister, “older sister”?
Wow, she was despairing over this world where she was only sixteen!
“Is what he said true?” Ling Long looked at the girl with the wandering gaze and asked directly.
The girl shook her head very hesitantly. “The Immortal Master said there are no traces of ghosts in my home, so it’s not a haunted house.”
After a few seconds of silence, she added timidly.
“But maybe something dirty really does live there. My mother is also in poor health like me. The inn used to have good business, but because of this, no guests dare to come anymore…”
“Her family’s inn used to be good. It was about five years ago when things started going downhill. First her father died of a serious illness, then her mother got sick, and now she’s become like this too.” The young man nodded from the side.
Looking at his expression, he seemed genuinely sorry for the family’s misfortune.
“I’d say, Xia Hui, you should just move away with your mother…”
The young man and the girl clearly knew each other, and their relationship seemed decent.
“I can’t. Mother says even if she dies, she wants to die here.” Xia Hui shook her head and flipped her sign over.
She felt that after knowing these things, it was impossible for Ling Long and Hua Jian to choose her place.
But the situation was a bit different from what she expected.
Question: What was Ling Long out here for?
Experience!
Now that an incident full of mystery had actively presented itself, could Ling Long refuse?
Of course not.
As for ghosts and the like, they were ultimately just souls that couldn’t dissipate for various reasons after death. And souls happened to be Hua Jian’s area of expertise.
She was much scarier than any ghost.
“Ling Long, what do you think?” Hua Jian nudged Ling Long with her elbow.
Ling Long didn’t speak but directly waved at Shiqi in the crowd, calling her over.
By the time Shiqi dismissed the enthusiastic solicitors and walked over, Ling Long had already started discussing accommodation with the disbelieving girl.
“I was almost done haggling! What’s with you two?” Shiqi looked at Hua Jian irritably.
If she didn’t get a reasonable explanation, she really was going to hit Hua Jian’s head.
Hua Jian pressed her palms down, signaling Shiqi to calm down.
“We found something interesting. The girl’s house seems to be haunted.”
“Haunted? You still want to go…” Shiqi got halfway through her complaint before finally remembering Ling Long’s role.
Oh, right. Ling Long was out for experience, which meant going wherever there was trouble—seeking out the tiger’s den was perfectly normal.
“Besides, if it really is a ghost, it’ll be easier. Do you think our group needs to fear ghosts?” Hua Jian pointed to her own chest.
The soul’s nemesis, the Dream-Illusion Flower, was right here. What ghost was there to fear?
If there really was a ghost, it should be the one afraid.
At that moment, Ling Long finished discussing the stay with Xia Hui. They tentatively planned for two days.
If they still couldn’t find the cause after two days, they would stay longer to keep looking.
She also told Xia Hui very plainly that she was choosing to stay there precisely because of the “haunted” reputation.
In other words, she was looking for trouble.
Before Xia Hui could say anything, the young man nearby muttered a quiet comment about how many people weren’t afraid of death these days.
Getting excited upon hearing about a haunted house—that was just too hard to understand.
“Young man, you don’t understand. This is called differentiated competition. We’ve seen plenty of ordinary inns, but a haunted one is much more interesting.” Hua Jian chuckled twice, indicating they were just bold.
The young man’s expression said, “Don’t treat me like a fool.” Only people like you would do this—staying in a haunted inn when there are perfectly good ones available.
“Hmph, mortals!” Hua Jian huffed, no longer paying attention to the young man. “Let’s go, let’s go. If we head over now, we can still make it for dinner?”
“Dinner… ah, I still need to buy some ingredients. May I ask what the three guests like to eat? I will do my best to prepare it for you.” Hearing Hua Jian’s words, Xia Hui also struck her palm.
She had almost forgotten; because the inn had no business, the original chef had long since quit.
Currently, she was the chef.
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