Chapter 219: Taoist Seats

Seeing Qiao Xiaoxian’s smile, Jiang Ke’er felt an ominous premonition and hurriedly dismissed her current thoughts, trying to avoid getting pulled into another “giving away for free” plotline.

“You said you had business to attend to, so why are you following me?” Jiang Ke’er looked unhappily at Qiao Xiaoxian tailing behind her.

“Just on the way.” Qiao Xiaoxian was staring at Jiang Ke’er with a lovestruck look, not bothering to hide her gaze at all, as she replied.

“On the way? Who are you fooling?” Jiang Ke’er was exasperated.

“And can you please stop staring at me like some perverted stalker?”

“So cute~” Qiao Xiaoxian propped her chin with one hand, eyes squinting with a cheerful smile.

“What did you just say?” Jiang Ke’er’s eyes widened, her face burning as she gripped her sword hilt.

“Didn’t say anything.” Qiao Xiaoxian tilted her head, keeping that same smile fixed on Jiang Ke’er.

Jiang Ke’er flew into a rage and, with a clang, drew her sword.

“Are you going to kill me?” Qiao Xiaoxian raised an eyebrow with a grin, her eyes sparkling with anticipation.

“…It’s nothing, I was just looking at my sword.”

She sheathed her sword again.

Jiang Ke’er wasn’t arrogant enough to test Qiao Xiaoxian with her own body; she knew she still had some way to go.

Even setting aside the System Dummy and Qiao Xiaoxian, there were bound to be plenty of talented geniuses in Shenzhou who could defeat her…

After all, Shenzhou was vast, and she was just a little frog in a well.

The places she’d seen so far weren’t even one millionth of its entirety.

Besides, if it hadn’t been for the last Trial, and for Qiao Xiaoxian having been injured before entering, she probably wouldn’t have needed to scheme so meticulously.

But, really—just what kind of person could injure Qiao Xiaoxian so badly? Could she have tried to court death by challenging a Venerable?

“How’s your injury?” Jiang Ke’er asked awkwardly.

“That’s not the sort of wound an ordinary person could inflict.”

“Thanks to your attentive care, I’ve completely recovered,” Qiao Xiaoxian said with a smile.

Every word cut to the heart.

Jiang Ke’er regretted it so much her insides turned green.

“If I’d known it was you, I’d have just given you a good whack when you were still gravely wounded!”

“~”

[You have gained 5,000 Orthodox Points from Qiao Xiaoxian.]

If the System hadn’t notified her, she would’ve been fine.

But the moment the prompt appeared, Jiang Ke’er got even angrier.

“Who did that to you, anyway?” Jiang Ke’er asked.

“The Eighth and Seventh Dao Seats of the Tribulation Immortal Hall,” Qiao Xiaoxian didn’t hide anything, “very troublesome opponents.”

“What kind of strength do they have?” Jiang Ke’er was puzzled.

“They’re only at the Five Elements Realm,” Qiao Xiaoxian replied.

Jiang Ke’er could hardly believe her ears.

Qiao Xiaoxian was also at the Five Elements Realm. Jiang Ke’er knew just how strong she was—how could people of the same realm injure her so badly?

Just how terrifying were those people?

“Those ‘seats’… what are they exactly?” Jiang Ke’er had long wanted to ask.

In the Void Realm, the seven-tailed Big Fox, Xun Fang-jie, had once told her she could obtain Tokens from the Nine Dao Seats of the Tribulation Immortal Hall.

Using those Tokens, she could unlock Chains to ease Xun Fang-jie’s pain.

“They’re training disciples of the Tribulation Immortal Hall in the mortal world—future Immortal Lord candidates selected and nurtured by the whole Immortal Realm, holding the richest cultivation resources of both realms,” Qiao Xiaoxian explained.

“The Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Dao Seats each belong to different Competition teams. If you participate in the Competition, you might encounter them.”

Oh, what a coincidence—she’d been wondering where to find them.

“So the ones who injured you were the Seventh and Eighth Seats? You fought two at once? What was the outcome?” Jiang Ke’er asked curiously, eager to know their true strength.

“Mutual injury. Both sides lost.” Qiao Xiaoxian said.

Jiang Ke’er immediately sounded the alarm in her heart.

Looks like if she wanted to place in the Competition, it wouldn’t be so easy.

Thank goodness that Ninth Seat hadn’t attacked her back then and instead became a captive to delicious food; otherwise, she might not have survived until now.

“If you want to join the Competition, I suggest you train yourself more. Otherwise, if the famed Demon Clan’s Hope, Jiang Ke’er, gets eliminated in the Selection Trials, that’d be a real disgrace.”

“As if I need you to say that?” Jiang Ke’er rolled her eyes.

“…And the best way to temper yourself is to follow me,” Qiao Xiaoxian continued.

So that was her main point after all.

“Don’t even think about it!”

The two walked side by side along a shady path, saying nothing further.

Because of their height difference, when Qiao Xiaoxian took one step, Jiang Ke’er had to take two.

This made Jiang Ke’er look puffed-up and annoyed, while Qiao Xiaoxian followed at an unhurried, leisurely pace.

Jiang Ke’er gradually got used to Qiao Xiaoxian’s brazen gaze.

“The day you left the Secret Realm, where did you go?” Jiang Ke’er asked again.

That day, she’d been taken to the Hall of the Wild Dragon, while Qiao Xiaoxian had left with the Hemostatic Pill Sect, so she didn’t know what had happened to Qiao Xiaoxian afterward.

“I tracked down a few descendants of immortals,” Qiao Xiaoxian recalled in a flat tone.

“And then I killed their entire families.”

“…”

Jiang Ke’er was dumbstruck for a while, then stammered, “Whoa.”

“After I heard you were safe, I stopped looking.” At this, Qiao Xiaoxian seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

“What are you trying to say? That you did it for me?” Jiang Ke’er turned her head.

“Tch, a weasel wishing the chicken a happy new year—I’m not touched at all…”

After another long silence, Jiang Ke’er still couldn’t help but ask, “How’s your Evil Curse?”

“Want to bite you.”

“?!”

“Just kidding,” Qiao Xiaoxian covered her mouth with a light laugh.

“Though there’s still some residual effect, Elder Luya has been helping me these past days, so it’s faded a lot. Even if I sometimes still want to drink your blood, I don’t need it as often anymore. When I do, I’ll come find you.”

“No, don’t come looking for me!” Jiang Ke’er felt a chill run down her back.

“That’s not up to you.”

“…You’ll be the death of me…”

“Mama! Mama!”

Suddenly, a childish shout interrupted Jiang Ke’er’s grumbling.

Jiang Ke’er helplessly took the Egg Hairpin off her head and tried to sound gentle, “What’s wrong? Hungry?”

The Egg Hairpin shook its yolk vigorously: “Mama and Mama, don’t be apart, okay?”

Jiang Ke’er froze.

This little rascal was only half a day old—how had its yolk developed so fast?

“Stop calling me Mama!” Jiang Ke’er said angrily. “She’s a bad egg.”

“No, she’s Mama too! Mama and Mama need to get along and not fight.”

“…If you keep this up, I’ll fry you. And who taught you to say all this? Who did you learn to talk from?”

“A Jin Wu is born knowing how to talk, quack!”

“What else can you do?”

“I can spit fire too~ Look, Mama~ Bleh—”

A bright flame suddenly danced on top of Jiang Ke’er’s head.

“…”

She pulled out a mirror.

After the flame went out, she stared at her shiny scalp between both ears, utterly dumbfounded.

I was wrong. I should’ve fried you from the start.

[Congratulations, you have fulfilled a Hidden Condition! The Mediterranean Limited Prize Pool has been unlocked! This round’s prize is—Ultra-Effective Instant Hair Growth Agent!]

Jiang Ke’er didn’t hesitate for a moment.

She immediately emptied out the Prize Pool, then, under Qiao Xiaoxian’s wild laughter, she shamefully slathered a thick layer of Hair Growth Agent on her head.

“Where are the human traffickers?” Jiang Ke’er choked as she asked.

“Human traffickers don’t accept Egg Hairpins.”