Lady Cultivator

Ye Jingwen meant what he said. From that day onward, he and Mo Tiange went to Combat-Training Hall every day, learning from each other’s skills. As a sword cultivator, he was more focused on comparing his skills with others’, so he had a better understanding of fights of magical powers. Since Mo Tiange compared notes with him, her skills in fights of magical powers progressed very quickly.

A month later, Mo Tiange was already able to win two out of three matches by relying on her magic weapons. Ye Jingwen was extremely motivated by this, so he decided to go back and enter Closed Door Meditation.

Soon after, Mo Tiange’s ten-year period ended. Lord Daoist Jinghe told Mo Tiange she had already been in Closed Door Meditation for a long time and her cultivation level was high enough, so she could leave the mountain and travel around.

Mo Tiange wrapped up her tasks, sealed her Immortal’s Cave and soon left Mount Taikang, bringing Ye Zhenji along with her.

There were more than a dozen countries in the Celestial Pole. Wei Country was located in the middle of the continent. To its east were Jin and Yan and to its west were Qin and Chu—it was surrounded by enemies.

Because of this, Wei Country supported several master immortals and even went as far as to confer a marquis title on a cultivator from a declining cultivation clan to protect its peace and safety.

After Mo Tiange came down from the eastern part of Kunwu Mountain Range, it only took her several days to take Ye Zhenji to Tong’an District of Wei Country.

Tong’an District wasn’t just the biggest town in Wei Country—it was also the transport hub connecting the entire Celestial Pole. It was the juncture of the north and south, and it was built next to a river, so it was connected to both the land and the water. Its western border was connected to Qin’s mountains and Chu’s land while its eastern border was adjacent to the plains of Jin and Yan—its location was very strategic. Consequently, Tong’an District became the busiest place in the entire Celestial Pole.

But something embarrassed them quite a bit. Ye Zhenji was too young when he left home, so he simply didn’t remember where Ye Clan was located. Fortunately, Ye Clan had the title “Marquis of Changning” in Wei Country, so they were able to find Ye Clan very quickly after asking around along their way.

Within Tong’an District, the wealthy resided in the eastern part, the nobles lived in the western part, the poor gathered in the southern part, and people with low status were in the northern part. Ye Clan belonged to the nobility, so they lived in the western part of the district.

When they arrived at the western part of the district, vermilion gates and guardian lion statues could be seen everywhere. But even among these noblemen’s houses, Ye Clan’s residence was also very conspicuous. On the horizontal plaque above the gate, the four words “Residence of Marquis Changning” were inscribed.

Ye Zhenji was ecstatic and wanted to enter immediately, but unexpectedly, one of the young servants guarding the door blocked his path and arrogantly said, “This is the Marquis of Changning’s residence; no unauthorized people are allowed to enter.”

Ye Zhenji was dumbfounded. Mo Tiange, who was walking behind him, suddenly had the urge to laugh. In the secular world, everyone was judged by their appearances. Even though Ye Zhenji was an outstanding, handsome young man, his clothes were plain and he didn’t have the appearance of a young master, so these gate-keeping young servants naturally thought he was just a commoner. It simply didn’t cross their minds that he was actually their family’s young master.

After staring blankly for a moment, Ye Zhenji shouted, “What do you mean unauthorized people!? This is my house! I’m from Ye Clan!”

One of the young servants cast a sideways glance at him and said with the same arrogant tone as before: “Go! If you have no important business, don’t come looking for trouble!”

Ye Zhenji started to get anxious, so he said angrily, “My surname’s Ye and my name’s Zhenji. You guys can go and report it to the marquis.”

Now that he brought up his name, those young servants finally took a proper look at him.

“His surname’s Ye, could he really be…”

“It isn’t just our family that has the surname Ye.”

“But what if he is?”

…

The young servants muttered to each other for a while. Eventually, one of them said, “Wait here. I’ll report your name first.”

Although he complied, he still didn’t show Ye Zhenji any respect.

Ye Zhenji controlled his temper and snuck Mo Tiange a glance. Upon seeing her calm expression, he finally forced himself to nod. Once that young servant disappeared, he walked to Mo Tiange’s side and said apologetically, “Martial Uncle, I’m sorry. The servants in the house are unruly, so please wait a moment.”

Mo Tiange just smiled without saying anything. She actually thought this was quite amusing. In fact, people from the cultivation world were just the same. It was just that instead of judging people by their clothes, they judged people’s cultivation levels.

Before long, sounds of eager footsteps came through, causing the two of them to glance at the gate. An old man dressed in a minister’s robes was leading a group of people who were rushing anxiously towards the gate. The small servant who made the report was behind them, nervously wiping the sweat on his face.

Right after Mo Tiange saw the old man, she could already guess the old man’s identity. Sure enough, once Ye Zhenji saw him, he looked both excited and conflicted.

He left the house when he was just nine years old, and it had been around eleven years now—that child had grown into this current youngster. Nevertheless, when he saw his elders, he actually felt both excited and nervous.

“Zhen’er!” From among the crowd, a noblewoman rushed over while stumbling over her feet, paying no attention to the jewelry adorning her entire body.

Ye Zhenji just stared blankly at her.

The madam threw herself at Ye Zhenji and began weeping on his shoulder. “Zhen’er! My Zhen’er, you finally came back!”

Ye Zhenji’s lips trembled. After a long time, he eventually called out, “Mother!” and wept silently.

Mo Tiange, who stood at the back watching the family finally reuniting after a long separation and greeting each other tearfully, only sighed in her heart.

This was also her family, but since there was no affection between her and them, she had to be this detached.

A long while later, when Ye Zhenji finished greeting everyone in his family, he finally remembered that she was still standing by the side. He promptly wiped his tears away and went to introduce his family to her. “Martial Uncle, I… This is my family.”

Upon hearing him referring to her as martial uncle, everyone in Ye Clan immediately straightened up their appearances while staring at her.

Mo Tiange had long used her divine sense to examine every one of them. This Ye Clan had several cultivators, but their spiritual roots were all weak. The cultivator with the highest cultivation level among them was someone in the third layer of the Aura Refining realm, and it was the old man leading the group.

The cultivators present also sensed the cultivation level secretly revealed by Mo Tiange and immediately looked respectful. They already asked and knew Ye Zhenji’s cultivation level was now in the tenth layer of the Aura refining realm. Upon hearing him addressing her as martial uncle, they knew Mo Tiange must be at least a Foundation Building cultivator. Therefore, although she looked like she was eighteen to nineteen years old, they didn’t dare to slight her at all.

“Martial Uncle, let me introduce my family. This is grandpa patriarch,” Ye Zhenji said while pulling Mo Tiange to stand in front of the old leader.

This old man had grizzled hair but was still very energetic. As a third layer Aura Refining cultivator who had remained in the secular world for such a long time, he was naturally very experienced, so he immediately cupped his hands as a greeting. “This humble old man, Ye Cheng, Patriarch of Ye Clan, greets Senior.”

So this is Ye Cheng, who second uncle talked about. According to seniority, he ought to be several generations under me. Mo Tiange calmly accepted his salutations and nodded in return.

Ye Zhenji proceeded by pulling her towards a middle-aged man. “This is my father.”

“Junior Ye Zhun greets Senior.”

He was also a cultivator, but his cultivation level was only in the first layer of the Aura Refining realm.

Ye Zhenji then pointed at the madam who hugged him tearfully a moment ago. “This is my mother.”

The noble lady bowed gratefully at her. “I can’t thank Senior enough for the care Senior’s been giving to our family’s Zhen’er.”

Mo Tiange finally raised her hand. “Madam doesn’t need to be too polite. Since I’m his divisional elder, I naturally have to take care of him.”

There were several other people introduced after the madam, and all of them saluted her one after another.

Some time later when the whole greeting ceremony was finally over, Ye Cheng attentively invited her to the sitting hall, telling quite a few people in the group to withdraw, leaving only several important figures to stay and sit with them.

Once everyone had gone inside and taken their seats, Ye Cheng said to Ye Zhenji, “Zhen’er, aren’t you going to introduce your martial uncle to us?”

Ye Zhenji only said Mo Tiange was his martial uncle and that she’d been taking care of him to his numerous family members earlier. He also said she intentionally accompanied him because he wanted to take a trip down the mountain this time.

Ye Zhenji hurriedly stood up. “Grandpa Patriarch, this martial uncle… is the last disciple of my grandmaster, Grandmaster Jinghe. My master is always in Closed Door Meditation, so Martial Uncle Mo has taught me everything—she’s indeed my real master who’s been teaching me.”

“Oh?” What Ye Zhenji said changed everyone’s gazes at Mo Tiange. According to what he said, she might be referred to as martial uncle, but she was tantamount to his master. Furthermore, she was also the last disciple of a Nascent Soul sovereign from Xuanqing School. Obviously, the extent of her talent and her nobility weren’t something weak and insignificant cultivators who left Kunwu, like them, could imagine.

Ye Cheng stood up once again. “Turns out Senior has been showing such grace to our family’s Zhen’er… This humble old man once again thanks Senior.”

“You don’t have to be like this,” Mo Tiange said with a smile, “Zhenji’s an intelligent and well-mannered child. Although his talents are a bit lacking, he’s very diligent in his studies. Sooner or later, he’ll definitely become successful.”

Mo Tiange’s evaluation of Ye Zhenji made Ye Cheng extremely excited. He said, “If he really can become one, it’ll be because of his fortune, but it’ll also be because of the grace Senior gave him.”

The two of them continued with this polite talk for a while before Ye Cheng once again asked, “Did Senior perhaps come to the secular world to handle something? Although my cultivation level is low, I have some status in the secular world—perhaps I could help Senior in inquiring about some news.”

“Well… I came to the secular world not because I had something important to handle; I just came to travel around.”

“I see… Senior rarely comes to the secular world, right? Our Ye Clan has resided in the secular world for a long time, so we know a lot of unique things about the secular world. If Senior doesn’t mind, I can explain some of it to you,” Ye Chen said very enthusiastically.

Mo Tiange contemplated his offer then nodded with a smile. “That being the case, I’ll have to trouble you to do so.”

“It’s no trouble, it’s no trouble,” Ye Cheng said repeatedly, “Senior came all the way from Kunwu; you’re presumably very tired. How about you stay at my humble home for now? Later in the evening, this humble old man will send you all the news collected by my clan.”

Mo Tiange didn’t have much patience to interact like this with people, so she immediately agreed and left first.

Now that Mo Tiange had gone, Ye Cheng suddenly asked, “Zhen’er, who is this martial uncle of yours really?”

Ye Zhenji was startled and somewhat frightened. “Grandpa Patriarch, she’s… she’s my martial uncle!”

“Is she a Foundation Building cultivator?”

“Yes, martial uncle has been in Closed Door Meditation for five years; she just reached the peak of the middle stage of the Foundation Building realm. She’s now been ordered by grandmaster to leave the mountain and travel around. The purpose of this is to temper her mental state so she can easily make a realm-breakthrough into the late stage of the Foundation Building realm.”

“I see…” A slight frown formed on his brows. “How old is this senior? How’s her aptitude? Her cultivation level is only in the middle stage of the Foundation Building realm, but she was actually accepted by your Nascent Soul grandmaster as his disciple?”

Seeing as Ye Cheng didn’t look like he doubted anything, Ye Zhenji regained his calm and answered, “Martial Uncle… should be thirty-seven years old. I’m not very clear on what her spiritual roots are like—I only know that they’re a kind of special spiritual roots and aren’t inferior to single or mutated spiritual roots.”

“Thirty-seven years old?!” Ye Cheng looked shocked. She was only thirty-seven years old but was already in the peak of the middle stage of the Foundation Building realm… It was no wonder she was accepted by a Nascent Soul cultivator as a disciple—she must undoubtedly be extremely talented!

“Zhen’er, how’s your relationship with your martial uncle?”

Ye Zhenji thought for a moment before answering: “Ever since I became my master’s disciple, martial uncle has been teaching me personally. There’s nothing wrong in saying that martial uncle is my true master.”

“Then does your martial uncle have any other disciples?”

“No. Martial uncle’s still young; she’s just teaching me in my master’s stead. She doesn’t have any disciples of her own.”

Upon hearing this, Ye Cheng contemplated for some time while stroking his beard. All of a sudden, he cautiously said, “Zhen’er, from now on, you have to get close to your martial uncle. With your martial uncle’s current age and cultivation level as well as her status as the last disciple of a Nascent Soul sovereign, her future must be limitless. If you have a good relationship with her, you’ll certainly benefit!”

Ye Zhenji knew grandpa patriarch said that for his own sake, but grandpa’s words still made him unhappy. He was already close to his aunt, and it wasn’t because he was looking to benefit from her.

“Grandpa Patriarch, martial uncle is sincerely treating me well, and my respect to her is also sincere. Rest assured that the relationship between us has always been very good.”