Sure, her origins weren’t great—she’d nearly starved to death when she first opened her eyes.
But her situation was so complicated it defied description.
“You say she’s not doing well, but really, aside from being poor, she has no other troubles.”
“While others are painstakingly cultivating the Basic Cultivation Technique, she just pulls out her family’s Ancestor’s Cultivation Technique from under her bed—the Huashen Canon that the Valley Master of Wanhua personally modified for her.”
“Truth be told, that thing is on the same level as the secret cultivation methods of the Saint Sect.”
“And when she couldn’t support herself independently, Wanhuagu arranged for Huaxinyuan, a Ling Emperor, to serve as her bodyguard—basically, everything about Hua Jian’s life was already taken care of.”
“With conditions like that, Hua Jian felt she couldn’t honestly claim to come from humble beginnings.”
“As for what happened afterward… ugh, she was tired, she didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Stop stop stop, enough, no need to say more, I’m a genius, alright?” Hua Jian quickly covered Linglong’s mouth, feeling that if Linglong kept going, she’d turn into a fairy descended from heaven.
In her eyes, Linglong was the one who looked more like a fairy descended from heaven!
So pretty, and a Little Dragon Girl too, perfectly matching Hua Jian’s imagination of what a fairy should be!
“This is the time where you can be a little more confident.” Linglong looked at Hua Jian helplessly, unable to figure out why Hua Jian was so sensitive to these kinds of compliments.
“I have thin skin and can’t handle praise. Let’s go, let’s go, it’s getting late and we should head back!”
Hua Jian forcefully cut off the compliment topic and pushed Linglong toward the Frozen Winter Inner City.
Linglong was still staying with the Qian Family for now, while Hua Jian stayed occasionally—well, frequently occasionally.
As for her habit of not liking her own home, the Wanhuagu cultivators in Frozen Winter City couldn’t do much about it.
Huaxinhu was always on Hua Jian’s side, and Hua Xinyou didn’t dare to interfere.
When two Ling Emperor great ones both turned a blind eye, what could the small fry do?
Ahem, their Saintess was feeding herself to the tiger—no risk, no reward.
She was braving extreme danger to extract intelligence from the enemy’s heart!
This spirit was worthy of study by all Wanhuagu cultivators. Everyone would remember the contributions the Saintess had made to Wanhuagu!
Yeah, that was it.
If anyone had the biggest complaint about this, it would definitely be Miss Qian Feixu.
She just wanted to ask these two Saintesses one thing: couldn’t you find anywhere else to stay? Why do you keep running to my place all day long?
Every day Linglong and Hua Jian stayed here was another day her House Arrest got extended.
From the start of her confinement to today, she’d already been locked up for over a month!
Anyone hearing about this would think she’d done something treasonous.
In the past, when she was confined, it was at most ten days to half a month. But over a month now? That was way too strange.
The key thing was she hadn’t done anything wrong.
Those little mistakes should’ve been settled after a few days, but… wah wah wah! It was definitely that bad woman’s fault. Because of her, she couldn’t go out!
What made Qian Feixu even more upset was that despite hating Hua Jian so much, every night she still had to put on a smiling face and teach Hua Jian and Linglong how to make Dolls.
Right, it was for the Love Token Doll that Hua Jian was exchanging with Linglong.
This was too much. Was she the tragic victim from some bizarre novel? Why did she have to suffer this kind of torment?!
“Look, my doll is almost done. Isn’t it pretty!”
Holding up the snow-white doll with both hands, Hua Jian excitedly showed off her work to Linglong and Qian Feixu.
For a Cultivator, making a Doll wasn’t really that hard—especially for a non-human like Hua Jian who could grow several pairs of hands at any time. For her, it wasn’t difficult at all.
Linglong, on the other hand, was still stumbling along a bit, falling behind Hua Jian’s progress by quite a margin.
“Not as pretty as the ones I make.” Qian Feixu puffed out her cheeks and muttered quietly.
Half of that was probably true. The Doll Hua Jian made wasn’t ugly, but compared to the Dolls made by her, a true fan, it was still a step behind.
The ones who loved the idol the most were the fans, not some wild woman who popped out of who-knows-where!
Every Doll Qian Feixu made carried her admiration and love for her idol—completely, utterly different from Hua Jian’s idle little craft project!
“But she’ll definitely like mine more, because mine was made by me.”
And Hua Jian’s favorite thing to do was sprinkle fine salt on Qian Feixu’s wounds.
“Oh my, jealous? Envious? No matter how much you hate me, you still have to watch your idol coo in my arms~”
So this was the thrill of stealing someone’s beloved, huh? Truly addictive.
Qian Feixu’s eyes were practically red with anger. After three full seconds of deliberation, she decided she couldn’t take it anymore.
“Damn you, Hua Jian, I’ll fight you!”
Qian Feixu charged at Hua Jian swinging her pink fists, only to be gently dodged and redirected, ending up scooped into Hua Jian’s arms.
“Don’t be so angry. Your big sister will give you a piece of Candy, and after you eat it, you won’t be angry anymore.”
Linglong couldn’t help but glance at Hua Jian.
She was really starting to wonder if Hua Jian had learned bad habits from Wanhuagu—how could she just casually do such rude things to other girls?
Good thing she was magnanimous and knew Hua Jian was just messing around, or else Hua Jian would be facing her real jealousy right now.
Qian Feixu’s figure wasn’t petite at all—she was actually a bit bigger than Hua Jian. But at times like this, it wasn’t entirely about size.
Hua Jian’s external means were more than enough to hold the slightly larger Qian Feixu in her arms.
And the Candy Hua Jian mentioned was real Candy too—an orange, tiny glass-bead-like Candy.
Qian Feixu watched with her own eyes as Hua Jian’s Vines reached into her Storage Pouch and pulled out the Candy, even peeling the wrapper on the spot.
“I’m not a little kid, so I won’t—”
“Perfect timing!”
“Mm?!”
Taking advantage of Qian Feixu’s open mouth, Hua Jian shoved the Candy directly inside, then withdrew her Vine before Qian Feixu could instinctively bite down.
Click—Qian Feixu bit nothing, but the Candy slowly melted in her mouth, making her face twist into a suspicious expression.
This Candy… was actually pretty good?
“Has your sister Hua Jian ever tricked you? This is a treasure I found in the Outer City, and Linglong loves it too.” Hua Jian added with a giggle.
Of course, there was another reason Linglong liked this Candy: it looked just like a pearl, pretty and tasty—perfectly hitting Linglong’s sweet spot.
“You’ve only been back for so long, how could you possibly find something like this…” Qian Feixu didn’t believe it.
“Little one, are you doubting Wanhuagu’s intelligence-gathering abilities? Sure, they can’t get intel on what’s happening inside your family, but finding good food and fun stuff? That’s simple.”
Hua Jian reached out, grabbed both of Qian Feixu’s cheeks, and squeezed them lightly, earning an unhappy whimper from Qian Feixu.
“Tsk, so it wasn’t you who found it yourself.”
“Can’t help it. I’m a Saintess with a million things to do; I can’t possibly do everything myself. And if I ended up eating something awful, who would compensate me?” Hua Jian didn’t see this as a problem at all.
Since she had the Saintess identity, she should use it. Besides, it wasn’t even an inconvenience.
Wanhuagu didn’t need to make a special trip for her request—they just had to show her the information they’d gathered in passing.
The Qian Family was indeed wary of Wanhuagu and kept tabs on their every move in the city, but when it came to what good food and fun places a city had, they weren’t about to restrict Wanhuagu from knowing that.
“You and your ‘million things to do’…”
“That’s the truth. I’ve been dealing with a real Big Demon Head lately. If you don’t believe me, ask Linglong.”
Hearing Hua Jian drag her into the conversation again, Linglong helplessly put down her tools and shifted her attention to the chat.
What Hua Jian said wasn’t wrong—she was indeed dealing with a Big Demon Head, except that Big Demon Head’s current state was rather… delicate.
As a Saintess of the Right Path, Linglong simply couldn’t say anything good about Hua Jian on this matter.
She could only pretend she hadn’t seen anything, hadn’t heard anything, and didn’t know anything.
Brainwashing someone into being a pawn? That kind of thing really went against the conduct of the Right Path.
“Let’s not tell her about this.”
“Fine. I was hoping she’d cast admiring glances at me and say, ‘Big sister Hua Jian is so amazing, you’re my idol!'”
With Candy in her mouth, Qian Feixu was speechless. She seriously wondered if Hua Jian had some kind of mental problem.
Of all the things Hua Jian did on a daily basis, was there a single one worthy of her admiration?
So malicious-hearted, always picking on her, the softest target, never serious about anything. How could Qian Feixu ever admire Hua Jian or look up to her as an idol?!
Her idol had to be a Saintess like Linglong!
Even standing next to a super huge mass of black sludge like Hua Jian, Saintess Linglong maintained her noble integrity—rising unstained from the mud, remaining unsullied by the filth.
That was what a Saintess should be.
As for Hua Jian, she was just a seductive enchantress who falsely claimed the title of Saintess.
“I would never admire you!”
“Little girl, so stubborn with your words. One day you’ll understand how good your big sister is. If you ever run into trouble in the North, just call for me, and I’ll go through fire and water for you without hesitation!”
Qian Feixu tilted her head back so Hua Jian could see her face, then shot her the most vicious eye roll she could muster.
Listen to the nonsense Hua Jian was spouting—trouble in the North?
She was the eldest Miss of the Qian Family. What trouble could she possibly run into in the North?
Even if she did, she’d just call her own family. Why go through the trouble of calling Hua Jian? Was this a game?!
“A girl shouldn’t make such rude expressions, and I’m being very serious here.” Hua Jian rubbed Qian Feixu’s cheeks again and chuckled in reply.
She didn’t dislike cute, stubborn-mouthed little sisters like this.
If Qian Feixu ever truly ran into trouble, she absolutely wouldn’t mind lending a hand.