At this thought, Wen Shuxian felt a wave of frustration. All of his previous patience and gentleness vanished instantly, and he hastily instructed:
“Aside from the forbidden island behind Cloud Listening Peak, you can wander around anywhere else you like. I have things to attend to, so I'll be off first.”
Without waiting for the two to reply, he soared directly into the sky and vanished in the blink of an eye.
Su Ye watched his hasty departure with a completely speechless expression. “This elder is far too emotionally unstable. He was perfectly fine a moment ago, and then he suddenly ran off.”
“Yeah, how strange,” Xue Mingzhao agreed, nodding.
Before her voice could fade—
“Grumble—”
A loud stomach growl cut through the air.
Xue Mingzhao clutched her stomach and looked up weakly. “Senior Brother, I'm hungry.”
Only then did Su Ye remember.
His little junior sister was still a mortal. She hadn't eaten or drunk anything since yesterday, so she was already starving.
He highly suspected that in this massive Grand Primordium Sect, there wasn't even a place to prepare meals for disciples who hadn't reached Foundation Establishment.
After all, out of the fifty-odd people here, his junior sister was probably the only mortal.
Su Ye immediately summoned his small spirit boat. “Come on. There are plenty of wild fruits on the mountain. I'll take you to find something edible to fill your stomach first.”
Starving to the limit, Xue Mingzhao agreed with both hands raised.
...
The spirit boat drifted slowly over the mountain forests, finally stopping beside a secluded spirit field.
There was no one around, making it exceptionally quiet. A spirit field of over a dozen mu was densely packed with all kinds of spirit herbs and spirit fruits, growing with extraordinary lushness.
“Stay here and don't move, and don't touch anything. I'll go pick a few edible fruits for you,” Su Ye instructed before plunging deep into the spirit field.
Xue Mingzhao stood obediently on the ridge of the field, her gaze scanning back and forth.
Strange.
The spiritual energy in this place is pitifully thin. Why are the spirit plants growing so well?
She looked down and saw a dusty little fruit at her feet. It looked completely ordinary, but it smelled quite sweet.
Xue Mingzhao hesitated for a second.
Starving.
Whatever, I'll eat one to tide me over.
She picked up the fruit and took a crisp bite.
It was sweet.
In fact, it was quite delicious.
She had only chewed twice when Su Ye emerged from the field.
The moment his eyes fell upon Xue Mingzhao, he froze on the spot, as if struck by lightning.
Xue Mingzhao's lips were pitch-black, and her cheeks and neck were covered with a fine web of black toxic veins. Seeing him return, she even gave him a silly, toothy grin.
Su Ye: “!!!”
His mind buzzed. He rushed over instantly, grabbed her shoulders, and shook her violently, his tone frantic with panic. “That's a Dark Spirit Fruit! Even cultivators who eat it will lose all their spiritual power, spit up blood, and collapse! For a mortal like you, eating it is direct suicide! Spit it out! Hurry up and spit it out!”
Xue Mingzhao was shaken so hard her head spun and her stomach churned. The half-eaten fruit she had just swallowed was instantly vomited out.
Seeing Su Ye panicking so much that he was about to stick his fingers down her throat, she quickly spoke up to stop him: “Senior Brother, stop shaking me! I'm fine, I still have my family's ancestral detoxification pill!”
As she spoke, she pretended to rummage through her collar, quickly bringing her fingertips to her lips—though in reality, she swallowed nothing at all.
A brief moment later.
Her pitch-black lips returned to a rosy pink, the toxic veins on her face completely receded, and she looked perfectly fine, without a single trace of poisoning left.
Seeing this, Su Ye's heart finally settled back into his chest. He was both angry and terrified in hindsight. “I clearly told you to stay put and wait for me! The spirit fruits here are a mixed bag, and many are highly toxic. You know nothing about them. If I had come back a step later, the consequences would have been unthinkable!”
He sighed helplessly and handed over the fruits he had picked. “Hurry up and eat these to fill your stomach. Seriously, whoever planted this spirit field is an absolute psycho. I searched for ages, and more than half of them were poisonous. It took me so much effort just to pick out a few edible ones.”
Looking at the toxic spirit plants scattered everywhere, he grumbled endlessly. “Anyone who didn't know better would think this was some evil cultivator's private medicine garden, specifically grown with poisonous herbs and fruits to refine insidious pills.”
Xue Mingzhao was just about to put a spirit fruit into her mouth when the world suddenly spun. The strength drained from her body, and in an instant, she was bound by an invisible rope and hung upside down from a tree.
Beside her, Su Ye suffered the same fate, hanging in midair with his limbs flailing.
A cold, slightly indignant voice suddenly rang out of thin air:
“Stealing my fruits and calling me a psycho—you two certainly have a lot of nerve!”
Before the voice had even faded, a figure clad in green robes landed steadily on the ridge of the spirit field, carrying an air of composure and easygoing elegance.
The newcomer was gentle and refined, with a steady aura. He was none other than the Peak Master of Zhenlang Peak, Mu Tianqing.
He raised his eyes and glanced at the two hanging upside down from the tree, raising an eyebrow slightly. “Where did you two brats come from? Trespassing in my spirit field, stealing my spirit plants, and even daring to gossip about me behind my back?”
Su Ye quickly struggled to stabilize his body and hurriedly spoke up to defend them: “Elder, you misunderstand! We are personal disciples who just joined the sect. This is our first time at Zhenlang Peak, and we didn't know the rules. We really didn't mean to cause trouble!”
Hanging upside down from the tree, the blood rushed to Xue Mingzhao's head, but her desire to survive was fully activated, and she nodded in frantic agreement.
Upon hearing this, Mu Tianqing showed no intention of letting them off. Instead, he let out a chuckle. “Personal disciples of the Sect Master? The Grand Primordium Sect hasn't accepted any new personal disciples in the last two years. Stop lying through your teeth in front of me.”
In truth, he knew perfectly well.
Just this morning, Wen Shuxian had notified all the peaks that the Sect Master had taken in two new personal disciples.
However, all of his own disciples were currently out traveling, and the peak was sorely lacking hands to do chores. These two little fellows had essentially delivered themselves to his doorstep as free labor.
Punishing them on the pretext of trespassing in the spirit field and badmouthing him behind his back would serve a dual purpose: he could discipline these intruding brats and lighten his own workload so he could slack off. It was killing two birds with one stone.
Mu Tianqing's face darkened, and he scolded them with mock sternness: “Lying so easily at such a young age... It seems I must punish you properly to teach you a lesson.”
He raised his hand and pointed at the entire spirit field, his tone brisk and leaving absolutely no room for negotiation. “Today, the two of you will be responsible for tending to this spirit field—drawing water for irrigation, tilling the soil, and applying fertilizer to care for all these spirit plants properly. Until the work is done, don't even think about leaving.”
With that, Mu Tianqing waved his sleeve, and the spiritual energy ropes binding them vanished instantly.
Caught off guard, the two lost their balance and fell face-first into the dirt with a loud splat, getting a mouthful of mud.
Right after, Mu Tianqing summoned his spirit pet—a cloud-patterned white deer. “Work hard. Once the job is done, it will let you go. If you dare to slack off, face the consequences.”
With a flick of his sleeve, he turned and vanished into the forest, leaving only the cloud-patterned white deer behind to supervise them.
Knowing he was in the wrong, Su Ye had no choice but to take the farming tools and honestly bury his head in the work.
Xue Mingzhao climbed up, patted the dirt off her clothes, glanced at the non-poisonous fruit still clutched in her hand, and took a big, crisp bite.
Sigh, it's no big deal.
I'll just eat a couple more fruits after finishing the work to make up for it.
She squatted down to till the soil, but the moment her fingertips dug into the dirt—
She suddenly paused.
Without any warning, the birthmark on her palm burned with a sudden flash of heat.
It lasted only an instant before quickly fading away.
Xue Mingzhao looked up and quickly scanned her surroundings, but everything seemed perfectly normal.
Seeing her slacking off, the cloud-patterned white deer trotted over and nudged her backside with its hoof.
Xue Mingzhao stumbled forward. She quickly pulled back her wandering thoughts and hurriedly grabbed her small hoe to continue tilling the soil.
Sigh, back to work.
Rate on N.U.
