Identity Token?!
Jiang Ke’er had just thought that the key slot at the base of the chain looked familiar. With this reminder, she suddenly understood.
“This one?”
Previously, Yuan Zheng, who claimed to be the Ninth Seat of the Jiu Xi from the Hall of Tribulation Immortals, had come by to scrounge a meal.
In the end, he was kicked out of the Realm of Novice Cultivator with a satisfied, poop-eating grin, and at that time, Jiang Ke’er managed to get her hands on his Storage Bag.
Aside from a pile of Magic Crystals, the Storage Bag only had a single Seat Token left. Back then, she hadn’t known what it was for.
“That’s it!”
Xun Fang exclaimed in delight, “How did you get it? The Jiu Xi Lingpai—even if it’s just the weakest Ninth Seat—should be very difficult to handle…”
“If you want to get something from someone, you don’t always have to confront them head-on.” Jiang Ke’er smiled. “I bought it, fair and square, with a grilled fish.”
“Fair and square?” Xun Fang eyed Jiang Ke’er suspiciously. “For those nine Dao Seats, the identity token is an item of utmost importance. There’s no way he’d sell it to you, no matter what…”
“Oh, Xun Fang-jie, don’t worry about such little details!” Jiang Ke’er grabbed the token and dashed to the chains, comparing them one by one, and soon found the chain that matched the token.
That particular chain was binding Xun Fang’s neck. Jiang Ke’er shoved the token into the keyhole—click—the chain broke with a crisp snap.
“Nice!”
[Received 15,000 Pleasure Points from Xun Fang.]
Xun Fang shook her head, sending the chain flying far away, smashing who knows how many Xubeasts to death.
“I haven’t felt this good in thousands of years! Jiang Ke’er… catch!”
With the shackle at her neck released, the balance of restraints was broken, and Xun Fang suddenly gained a huge range of movement.
She spat out a streak of azure cold light, which condensed in Jiang Ke’er’s hand into a slender, blue-glimmering sword.
Gripping the slender sword, Jiang Ke’er felt her mind become much clearer. A water-like, pure but not cold energy flowed through her body, even slowly refining the cold poison inside her, transforming it into pure energy.
“This is a sword I won in a gamble at the Ao Lai Kingdom casino. It’s called Shuang Ying. Its grade is about sixth or seventh rank, and the spiritual power inside is rather strange. I can’t figure out exactly what rank it is,” Xun Fang said, “but it’s pretty sharp, and the coldness inside is very potent. We used to use it for slicing watermelons—the slices came out chilled, absolutely delicious~ Since your sword’s broken, use this for now.”
A sixth… sixth or seventh rank magical sword?!
This big sister probably didn’t understand the current state of Shenzhou.
In the era she lived in, great deities roamed everywhere, so maybe sixth or seventh rank was nothing special, and using them to cut watermelons was no big deal.
But nowadays… seventh rank is the highest grade you can buy on the market!
What shocked Jiang Ke’er even more was that when she used Appraisal on this sword, it only showed “???”.
Unable to appraise it? Why is that?
“There should be some secrets on this sword, but it shouldn’t be anything evil. Just make do for now.” Xun Fang said, “Oh, there are two other swords like it—one’s called Qing Cheng, and one’s called Long Quan. Both were won at the Ao Lai Kingdom casino, but unfortunately, that casino boss cheated and won them back… If you get a chance, you should visit the Ao Lai Kingdom casino. That boss has a lot of good stuff, is addicted to gambling but terrible at it, practically a God of Fortune for the taking. But after all this time, she probably lost everything by now… Might not even be alive anymore.”
Jiang Ke’er silently memorized this information, thinking that if she ever needed money, she’d go collect some at Ao Lai Kingdom.
“The casino’s called ‘Zhushen The Gods’ Retirement Home’. The forces behind it are vast and mysterious. Mind your manners when you get there and don’t provoke them,” Xun Fang warned again.
“…”
She was probably already on their radar.
Jiang Ke’er still remembered the complicated look on the boss lady’s face back then, and that one word: “Awesome.”
She still didn’t know if that “awesome” was meant as praise or sarcasm.
“You’d better go back,” Xun Fang smiled, clearly in a very good mood. “Don’t come again.”
“I’ll be back,” Jiang Ke’er gripped the Underworld Province Cauldron. “Very soon.”
Suppressing the reluctance in her heart, Jiang Ke’er enlarged the Underworld Province Cauldron just enough to conceal herself, and hid inside with it, slipping into the Dark World.
In the distance, that massive figure sighed. The moment he saw the Underworld Province Cauldron, he knew he could no longer stop Jiang Ke’er.
Unless one possessed the ability to see through life and death, and switch between reality and illusion, no one could find anything hiding inside the Underworld Province Cauldron.
With no more Xubeasts blocking her way, Jiang Ke’er could easily slip through the spatial rift opened by the Xu Tide and jump back to her original world.
He could have closed the doors and trapped Jiang Ke’er here, but then the Xubeasts would have been trapped as well, wasting the precious opportunity for them to use the Xu Tide as a food reserve.
He had no choice but to let Jiang Ke’er quietly slip away. After all, everyone needed to eat.
Not only did Jiang Ke’er escape easily, she even picked a spatial rift closest to Sandao Village and returned near the refuge.
Of course, she could have chosen to run far away from Qiao Xiaoxian, to the other end of the Realm of Novice Cultivator… But this time, she didn’t want to run.
Running away wouldn’t solve anything, nor would it get rid of Qiao Xiaoxian.
Fingering the small paper packet of Sleepy Black Tea, Jiang Ke’er decided that after knocking Qiao Xiaoxian out, she would have a good talk with her.
This time, she would reason and appeal to emotion. If that didn’t work, she’d use force. If force didn’t work, she’d slay the dragon.
She believed that with Sleepy Black Tea, the problem would be solved—tonight.
Qiao Xiaoxian had just endured the hardest few hours of her life.
Outside, Xubeasts rampaged and crashed about. Looking out through the main gate at their savage fangs, her mind couldn’t help but imagine what Jiang Ke’er was facing right now.
Had she already… been torn apart by Xubeasts and eaten?
For so many years, she had never felt as anxious as today. She’d faced life and death countless times without flinching, yet now—she was actually losing her composure over a mere Furnace, feeling so wretched!
Your relationship with her is just master and servant, don’t overthink it, Qiao Xiaoxian… Stop letting your mind wander.
She kept telling herself this, afraid her resolve would collapse and she wouldn’t be able to keep going. But this suffocating feeling in her chest was something she’d never experienced, and had no idea how to deal with.
Her shifus had only ever taught her how to deal with enemies, never how to deal with a situation like this.
Jiang Ke’er is just a Furnace, just a tool for revenge. The loss of a tool should only warrant a tiny bit of regret, nothing to feel so bad about… So what was going on with her?
“Hey!” Jiang Ke’er appeared outside the refuge door, grinning cheekily. “Did you miss me? Everyone, and… dumb dragon?”
Huh? Was she hallucinating?
Qiao Xiaoxian was stunned.
Jiang Ke’er grinned wider and shook the Underworld Province Cauldron. “Well? Surprised? Unexpected?”
Seeing her so at ease, Qiao Xiaoxian’s worries vanished, only to be replaced by sudden, inexplicable anger.
A surge of irritation overtook her concern. Her fists clenched with a crackling sound, and her eyes brimmed with uncontrollable demonic light.
Yes, surprised, unexpected.
As repayment…
She hoped that tonight, Jiang Ke’er would also be surprised, and unexpected.