This junior sister was as sly as a snake, revealing nothing valuable. The only thing Hua Jian learned was that the Peak Lord was in a good mood.
They arrived at the Wanling Sect’s outpost at Fangling Gate, reaching the courtyard where a space array had been recently set up.
Helin pointed to a nearby grand hall with its door ajar. “The Peak Lord is waiting inside.”
“I can only accompany you this far; you have to go the rest yourself.”
She gently pushed Hua Jian’s back, signaling her to hurry inside so the Peak Lord wouldn’t wait too long.
“Okay.” At this point, Hua Jian was surprisingly calm. She responded softly and strode toward the hall.
Thinking back over recent days, she was full of confidence!
Caidie was her little sister, her soul companion. Two Venerables had nearly fought over her and even stirred a Saint to intervene.
She was no longer a nobody struggling in the lower realms of the cultivation world. Now, two Saint Sect Venerables were watching her—a big genius!
Helin’s eyes flickered with surprise as she watched Hua Jian walk confidently forward without a trace of fear.
This girl was truly something special.
When Helin first met the Five Poisons Peak Lord, she was terrified and wouldn’t even dare raise her head.
Even now, she was cautious when meeting Venerables, unlike Hua Jian, who marched in head held high.
Was this youthful recklessness, or genuine fearlessness toward Venerables?
Helin didn’t know, but this impression only improved her opinion of Hua Jian.
She liked energetic young girls like this.
……
“Peak Lord, are you inside?” Hua Jian pushed open the slightly ajar door and asked quietly.
“No need for formalities, come in,” a voice drifted from within—slightly cold but kind.
Hua Jian stepped inside and immediately saw an elderly man with white hair and beard, wearing a deep purple robe.
Caidie sat obediently by his side, and upon seeing Hua Jian, immediately brightened.
“Sister Hua Jian, this is my Master!”
With Caidie’s reminder, Hua Jian cupped her hands and greeted the Five Poisons Peak Lord.
What he said next gave Hua Jian goosebumps.
“I’ve heard about you. To have Lingcai and Fenghua personally come down to fight over you—that’s impressive.”
Wasn’t that recent? How does the Venerable have such quick news?
Hua Jian felt embarrassed. If even the Five Poisons Peak Lord knew, then surely other Venerables in the Saint Sect knew too.
Two Venerables personally fighting over a young genius appearing in the Secret Realm—that was juicy gossip.
“Haha…” Hua Jian’s expression turned awkward, and she didn’t know how to respond.
“Unfortunately, you have no connection to Five Poisons Peak. Otherwise, with your performance in the Secret Realm, I would have at least put in a word.”
The Peak Lord laughed heartily, clearly acknowledging Hua Jian.
More subtly, Hua Jian realized he valued not her strength but her fighting style.
“My performance in the Secret Realm…” Hua Jian hesitated.
She had many victories, but none were especially glorious.
“Hmph, winning is a good performance. The dead have no right to speak. Those you defeated couldn’t say a word back then!”
The Peak Lord cared more about results than methods. Since Hua Jian didn’t use Magic Path tricks, he deemed her victories legitimate.
This aligned with his own fighting style. The Five Poisons Peak bred spirit beasts that used poisons and ambushes—no wonder he found Hua Jian’s style appealing.
The Peak Lord’s visit was to see in person the genius that made two Venerables fight.
Tomorrow, he and Caidie would return to Jingmen for her formal disciple ceremony. The two girls would likely not meet again for a long time.
Though high-ranking, the Peak Lord was emotionally rich, knowing the importance of saying goodbye to a good friend.
After tearful farewells, he waved his hand and gave Hua Jian a Jade Slip.
“These are some poison formulas I’ve found. Consider it thanks for taking care of Caidie in the Secret Realm.”
“H-hey? That’s too kind…” Hua Jian protested verbally but eagerly slipped the Jade Slip into her storage pouch.
She had confirmed the Peak Lord was a good person and felt free to act more openly.
The Peak Lord smiled helplessly. If he and Hua Jian were the same age, they might have been good friends.
Back then, he was much like Hua Jian now.
Perhaps it was a mutual attraction among those who played dirty tricks.
After the meeting and gift exchange, the Peak Lord chatted briefly and then let Hua Jian go.
The meeting lasted about an hour. When Hua Jian left the hall, the sky was just turning pale yellow.
“Need me to escort you back?” Helin was still waiting outside, not having moved for an hour.
Hua Jian instinctively shook her head. She wasn’t a child and wouldn’t get lost in the Saint Stronghold.
Then, familiar faces suddenly appeared outside—several outer sect senior sisters from Lingcaifeng.
“Hua Jian, we’ve made new perfumes these past two days. Come help us test them!”
“It’s getting late. Have dinner with us. The ingredients are our own Lingcao!”
The senior sisters flocked around the overwhelmed Hua Jian, guiding her toward where Lingcaifeng disciples gathered.
They didn’t know Hua Jian had already met their Peak Lord and was nearly their direct disciple.
Faced with this enthusiastic crowd, Hua Jian was helpless. No one could resist being surrounded by beauties.
Perhaps only those uninterested in beauty and solely seeking immortality could withstand it. Hua Jian was not one of them.
Her goal wasn’t to become an immortal but simply to live a comfortable immortal life.
Being pampered by so many beautiful senior sisters was a kind of immortal life, which Hua Jian could hardly refuse.
Helping with the perfume testing was a small matter.
She, she—
Hua Jian sniffed and frowned slightly. “The scent is too strong, it feels overdone.”
These perfumes were inspired by Hua Jian’s own floral fragrance but, obviously, were a messy failure.
A large mix of floral scents made the perfume overwhelming, almost torturous to normal senses.
Compared to Hua Jian’s subtle aroma, this was worlds apart—associating it with her was an insult.
“The sister who made this lowered her head and said regretfully, ‘This place isn’t Lingcaifeng. To truly reproduce Hua Jian’s floral scent, we’d need help from an inner sect senior sister at Lingcaifeng.’”
“Sigh, these perfumes are yours, Hua Jian. Although they can’t be used as perfumes, they’re good for annoying people with keen senses.”
Since this attempt failed, the perfumes had to be dealt with somehow. The senior sister thought giving them to Hua Jian as secret weapons was a good idea.
If Hua Jian ever met an enemy with sensitive smell, she could throw a bottle in their face, sure to stun them.
“Alright,” Hua Jian accepted this dubious gift and casually asked about Lingcao cultivation.
She had been fixated on how to plant the Seven-colored Lotus to continuously harvest seeds. Now that she was with Lingcaifeng disciples who were skilled in Lingcao cultivation, she naturally had to ask.
Upon hearing Hua Jian’s question, the outer sect senior sisters exchanged glances and became serious.
“Seven-colored Lotus? Even in Lingcaifeng, only the Peak Lord’s most trusted attendants can temporarily cultivate such a high-grade spirit item. Outer sect disciples like us can’t manage it.”
Of course, if Lingcaifeng Peak Lord personally tried, cultivating a Seven-colored Lotus wouldn’t be a problem.
But the Peak Lord was a peak Spirit Lord, while this lotus hadn’t even reached Imperial-grade.
The gap was two large stages; if the Peak Lord couldn’t raise this lotus, that would be a problem.
However, having a Venerable expend effort nurturing such a spirit item was too extravagant and wasteful, with no cost-effectiveness.
“This is the big difficulty in Lingcao cultivation. Those who have ideas can’t afford it; those who can afford it have no ideas. Sigh…” one sister sighed.
Lingcao growth requires harsh conditions, which only cultivators one or two ranks above the Lingcao can provide. But those cultivators don’t need such Lingcao.
Buying them with Spirit Stones or trading other goods is more convenient.
“So there’s no way?” Hua Jian felt a little disappointed after the explanation.
The lotus had floated into her hands. She felt uneasy just harvesting seeds and leaving it be.
Instinctively, she wanted to replant the lotus to revive it.
Continuously harvesting seeds was a bonus but not the main reason.
After all, seed production took unknown time—at least ten or twenty years, and Hua Jian might not even need them then.
……
After the Secret Realm ended, Hua Jian naturally needed a good rest.
She wasn’t a robot. After spending half a month interacting deeply with geniuses in the Secret Realm and encountering so many events, she was physically and mentally exhausted.
Besides, she had earned a huge pile of Spirit Stones and planned to rest for the next few months.
With nothing better to do, Hua Jian decided to check the cultivator market at the outpost for needed items.
She didn’t find what she wanted but ran into an old acquaintance.
Yes, the old lady who had conned her twice before!
Ding…
“Little girl, why are you staring at me like that? This old woman doesn’t have anything valuable,” the white-haired old woman chuckled hoarsely, pointing at her stall filled with small trinkets.
“You cheated me again last time!”
“Money for goods, that’s a fair deal. Changing your mind is unfair, little girl.”
“Hey, just because your stuff is low quality doesn’t mean I can’t complain!”
“Four Spirit Stones for these little things. They’re usable, so that’s fine.”
The old lady’s words left Hua Jian speechless. After all, the trinket was only four Spirit Stones. She should’ve expected it was mostly useless.
It was already a surprise it could add some color to the general Secret Technique—meaning it was somewhat useful.
Hua Jian felt the old lady was like an NPC in a game, always appearing at subtle moments (right after Hua Jian earned a big haul) to scam a few Spirit Stones with seemingly useful but actually useless trinkets.
This time was probably no different.
“Old lady, do you have any method for growing Lingcao?” Hua Jian asked, troubled.
“Oh… planting Lingcao isn’t simple. Let me see,” the old lady didn’t deny immediately but opened her storage pouch to search.
After a long search, she took out an old jade slip and told Hua Jian she actually had what she wanted.
“This slip records an ancient method for cultivating Lingcao. Sadly, this old woman lacks the talent to use it,” she praised the slip profusely.
“But it’s definitely real and useful. Master this, and any Lingcao can be easily cultivated.”
“Huh? All Lingcao can be cultivated? You’re kidding me, right?” Hua Jian was instantly skeptical.
If this method were truly so amazing, how could no one know?
Even if the conditions were harsh, big Saint Sects could manage it, right? It was a method that could cultivate all Lingcao with ease!
“I’m not kidding you. The requirements are extremely high. It needs a cultivator with a rare wood-element constitution and exquisite control over their spiritual power. Without either, the method can’t be used.”
The old lady shook her head, saying the difficulty was enormous. Many had been stuck at the first step.
Ordinary wood-element constitutions couldn’t use it; only a rare constitution seen once in millions of years could.
Cultivators with such constitution probably wouldn’t lack Lingcao.
“Since fate brought you to me, I’ll sell it to you for twenty Spirit Stones.”
“Twenty? You dare charge me twenty?!” Hua Jian gasped. The old lady was getting more brazen.
Previously she had conned her a few Spirit Stones; now she asked for twenty at once!
Did she think Hua Jian was a fool?
“You haven’t even used it yourself. Who knows if it’s real?”
“Little girl, think about it. If I could guarantee it worked, would I sell it for twenty Spirit Stones?”
The old lady laughed. One gets what one pays for. Cultivating Lingcao was a long-unsolved problem in the cultivation world. If this was real, the price would be beyond Spirit Stones.
Since she wasn’t sure, she gave Hua Jian a chance to pick it up.
“If it’s fake, haven’t I lost twenty Spirit Stones for nothing?”
“No, no. The slip also records a spiritual power Secret Technique devised by the ancestor who created this method. It helps you improve your control over your own power. Think of it as buying this Secret Technique and getting the Lingcao cultivation method for free.”
So, for twenty Spirit Stones, Hua Jian was basically buying an uncertain Secret Technique? She scratched her head, sensing something off but still thinking the deal was okay.
Mainly because she had just earned a fortune, twenty Spirit Stones was pocket change now.
“Here, take it!” Though it was a small sum, counting out so many Spirit Stones made Hua Jian’s heart bleed.
Every time she saw this old lady, nothing good came of it!
She was just here to scam her Spirit Stones!
“Little girl, Spirit Stones come and go. Holding onto them does no good,” the old lady shook her head at Hua Jian’s stinginess. “This old woman’s prices are fair; you won’t lose out.”
In a way, she was right. What she sold wasn’t fake and was roughly worth the price, though in a strange way.
Useful? Somewhat. Not really? Also somewhat.
“Yeah, can’t make a profit,” Hua Jian said after accepting the jade slip and scanning its contents with Divine Sense.
Hmm?
There was a lot of information on the slip.
Scanning it made Hua Jian surprised. She expected something like the previous Secret Technique fragments she bought, but this was completely different.
It was a complete Secret Technique, including theory, application, and countermeasures for various scenarios envisioned by the creator.
“Finally, you’re being honest with me?” Hua Jian looked at the old lady oddly. She hadn’t expected this time the lady to give her real stuff.
Though she only glanced at it, Hua Jian could tell this was genuine.
“When have I ever tricked you, little girl? This item has no use for me, so I give it to you and get some Spirit Stones in return,” the old lady chuckled. “Don’t be happy too soon, this technique isn’t as simple as you think.”