Lady Cultivator

When she walked out of Blue Water Pavilion, a horse carriage was already waiting for her outside. Mo Tiange got on the carriage with Luo Qianshan sending her off. “Senior Ye, my seniors are already waiting for you in the monastery. Senior only needs to go; someone will come and meet you later.”

Mo Tiange relayed her thanks from inside the carriage: “I’m sorry for the trouble, Manager Luo. Thank you.”

Luo Qianshan hastily gave a polite reply and right after, the coachman brandished his whip. The horse neighed, and the carriage set off.

Mo Tiange lowered the carriage’s curtains and lowered her head, using the short travel time to meditate.

She didn’t trouble herself with remembering the route the carriage took at all. Until now, Bixuan Court didn’t seem like it harbored malicious intentions towards her—if it did, it certainly wouldn’t have sent a carriage to pick her up. Aside from expressing their cautiousness, this kind of secular world gesture really didn’t have any other purpose.

After she entered her meditative state, time passed very quickly. Less than an hour later, the carriage finally stopped, and the coachman, who was also an Aura Refining cultivator, said respectfully from the outside: “Senior Ye, we’ve arrived at the monastery. You may leave the carriage.”

Mo Tiange opened her eyes. At that moment, the person tasked with welcoming her was already there and lifted up the carriage’s curtain. “Senior, please get off.”

It was a delicate, pretty looking youngster with a respectful and solemn attitude. He was dressed in the same way as the coachman; apparently, he was a part-time disciple.

After getting off the carriage, she quickly spotted the jade stairs, the tall monastery gate, and the two Aura Refining female disciples waiting on the side.

These two female cultivators weren’t the same as the coachman or the youngster who lifted the carriage curtain. Their cultivation levels were comparably high—one was in the seventh layer of the Aura Refining realm, and the other was in the eighth layer of the Aura Refining realm. They didn’t have even a hint of humbleness in their bearings. Their clothing was gorgeous and they had the same Bixuan Court emblem on their cuffs and lapels.

Mo Tiange noticed their clothes were very similar to the clothes Yan Ruoshu and her two martial sisters, whom she ran into in Ziwei’s Immortal’s Cave, had on their bodies. The emblems on them were also identical.

When the two of them saw her getting off the carriage, they smiled and came over to welcome her. “Distinguished guest, are you Senior Ye? We’re Bixuan Court’s guest-welcoming disciples—greetings to Senior Ye.”

Since she was now in Bixuan Court’s domain, Mo Tiange also politely returned their greeting. “The two Misses are too polite, but I’m indeed Ye Xiaotian.”

She keenly noticed that the two of them seemed to be evaluating herself as their gazes traveled around her body. Eventually, they smiled at each other, seemingly satisfied with what they saw.

One of them then said, “We’ve reported Senior Ye’s origin back to the seniors in the group. When our Sect Head heard we had a foreign guest, a Foundation Building senior at that, she specifically told us to welcome Senior here.”

“Oh?” Mo Tiange raised her eyebrows, feeling rather flabbergasted.

The other female cultivator said, “The Sect Head is waiting for Senior. Senior, please follow us.”

“Your Sect Head wants to see me?” Mo Tiange asked with surprise. Right now, she was suppressing her cultivation level until it was in the early stage of the Foundation Building realm. With the power of the Spirit-Concealing Pendant, even Core Formation cultivators couldn’t detect any abnormalities, so she actually wasn’t worried the Bixuan Court’s Sect Head would discover anything. However, she was a foreign cultivator whose cultivation level was only in the Foundation Building realm—what did a Sect Head want to see her for?

She thought about the matter for a while but in the end, she felt she had no need to be anxious. Maybe foreign cultivators were simply too rare here and she was also a female cultivator, so the Sect Head of Bixuan Court took interest in her.

“Yes,” the female cultivators in charge of receiving her said. She then looked back and glanced at the youngster who lifted the carriage curtain before. “Go and notify the Sect Head—the guest’s arrived.”

Mo Tiange realized that both the coachman and the youngster behaved extremely respectfully to these two female cultivators. If this was in Kunwu, she would’ve merely thought these two female cultivators’ statuses were quite high, so they didn’t dare to show the slightest disrespect to them. However, after hearing from her inquiries that Bixuan Court was a place where female cultivators were considered superior, she noticed that in Bixuan Court, only male cultivators were tasked with small chores and had low statuses.

After telling the youngster to report to the Sect Head, the two female cultivators politely showed Mo Tiange the way. “Senior Ye, this way please.”

Mo Tiange nodded. “Thank you for your trouble.” She then followed behind them, walking up the stairs slowly.

Bixuan Court’s monastery wasn’t at all different from what Kunwu cultivation groups had, and its spirit vein was average—this was of course relative to the extensive number of spirit veins Mo Tiange had seen in the world. Mount Taikang was a top-notch spiritual mountain, while Bixuan Court was situated in a remote corner of the world; how could Bixuan Court’s spirit vein be comparable to one of the very best spirit veins in Kunwu?

However, although Bixuan Court’s momentum wasn’t noteworthy, its appearance was very exquisite. After she went up the jade stairs and entered the main gate, she saw pavilions and pagodas near ponds and gardens. Everything looked delicate and graceful, creating an extremely beautiful scene to behold. Presumably, women had detailed minds and skillful hands, so they were more thorough in arranging the scenery.

Mo Tiange followed the two female cultivators, and they continued to walk for about five minutes before they arrived at a hall.

There were two female cultivators in the eighth and the ninth layer of the Aura Refining realm guarding the door. When they saw the three of them approaching, they bowed and greeted: “Junior Martial Sisters have worked hard. Is this Senior Ye?”

Mo Tiange cupped her hands. “Yes, I am.”

They smiled and said, “Senior Ye, the Sect Head’s already waiting for you. Please come in.”

Mo Tiange nodded and said her thanks then stepped into the hall.

Once she did, however, she was completely stunned.

It wasn’t that there was anything strange inside the hall; rather, it was because the one sitting on the master seat in this main hall was only a middle stage Foundation Building cultivator. This female cultivator looked like she was about twenty seven or twenty eight years old. She was dressed beautifully and impressively charming. At one glance, Mo Tiange guessed that she must be a skillful person backed with enough resources.

There was some doubt inside Mo Tiange’s heart. When she entered, the Bixuan Court disciples said their Sect Head was waiting for her; why was only this Foundation Building female cultivator waiting for her? For a moment, she was at a loss over how she should open a conversation.

Fortunately, the moment the female cultivator saw her coming in, she took the initiative to stand up then said with a smile, “Are you Fellow Daoist Ye?”

Although there was still some doubt in her heart, it completely couldn’t be detected on her face. Mo Tiange cupped her hands as a salute and said, “Correct, I’m Ye Xiaotian. Greetings to Fellow Daoist.”

Upon hearing Mo Tiange personally announcing her name, the female cultivator also saluted her back and said with a smile, “Fellow Daoist Ye’s too polite. My name’s Wei Haolan; I’m the Sect Head of Bixuan Court.”

“You’re the Sect Head of Bixuan Court?” Mo Tiange blurted out in astonishment. She initially thought the Sect Head ought to be a Core Formation cultivator, so she was confused as to why a Core Formation cultivator wanted to meet her. But she never expected the Sect Head to actually be a Foundation Building cultivator!

Right after she blurted out those words, Mo Tiange immediately realized she had been rather rude, so she hastily bowed. “Forgive me, Sect Head Wei; that was rude of me.”

Wei Haolan seemed like she didn’t care. She just showed a small smile, stepped forward then intimately helped her up. “I heard from my disciples that Fellow Daoist Ye’s an outstanding disciple of our Celestial Pole’s great cultivation group, Xuanqing School. Presumably, you have extensive experience, so you didn’t expect Bixuan Court to take a Foundation Building disciple as the Sect Head, right? There’s nothing really rude about that.”

This Sect Head Wei was gentle and amiable, causing Mo Tiange to secretly heave a sigh of relief. She was originally worried that considering the power Bixuan Court had, they would be tyrannical. However, this Sect Head Wei was apparently a smart person as she still treated her guest with respect.

The two of them continued to exchange pleasantries for a moment before Mo Tiange finally sat on the guest seat.

Soon, an attendant came in to bring them some tea—it was another low level male cultivator. It seemed… in Bixuan Court, females were really considered to be superior to males. To Mo Tiange, who was used to seeing how the people of Kunwu always treated female cultivators as Human Furnaces, she felt really carefree at Bixuan Court.

“Fellow Daoist Ye.” Wei Haolan symbolically drunk the tea then said with a smile, “We have had no foreign cultivators in Linhai Town for a very long time. I wonder what kind of adventures Fellow Daoist Ye has been on; how did you end up in Linhai Town?”

Mo Tiange put down her teacup once she heard the question. She then answered, “I’m going to be honest with Sect Head Wei. Several months ago when I left the mountain to travel according to my master’s commands, I happened to run into several other fellow Daoists, so we went together to a secret place to look for some treasure. Unexpectedly, however, that secret place suddenly collapsed when we were looking for treasure. I don’t know what happened, but when I woke up, I was already in Linhai.”

“Oh?” Wei Haolan was perplexed. “That was actually what happened?”

“Yes. Regarding how I ended up here, I don’t really know myself and I can also do nothing to investigate it further.”

Wei Haolan chuckled upon seeing Mo Tiange’s equally confused look. She said, “Fellow Daoist Ye, you’re very lucky to have kept your life intact and escape uninjured. Our Linhai’s isolated from the rest of the world, but we have received foreign cultivators from time to time. Many among them were heavily injured, and some were even dead by the time they arrived. This world’s full of extraordinary things, and we’ve only just entered the path towards immortality—some things are still beyond our ability to comprehend.”

“Exactly!” Regarding why she ended up in Linhai, Mo Tiange herself pondered it thoroughly. The landscape inside the Land of Hiding Dragon changed once every year, so according to her estimates, there was a huge chance that some kind of secret technique was hidden inside—it moved a certain place into the Land of Hiding Dragon every year and exchanged that place with another one the next year. This time, she happened to be transported along to Linhai.

After putting the matter to rest, Mo Tiange thought for a moment then simply asked honestly, “Sect Head Wei, I heard that your group had a Transporting Formation linked to the outside world in Linhai Town. Is that true?”

Wei Haolan nodded. “True.”

Delighted by what she heard, Mo Tiange stood up and cupped her hands. “That being the case, may I borrow your group’s Transporting Formation?” She paused for a few seconds then added another sentence: “Of course, I’ll provide some treasures as payment for using the Transporting Formation.”

Wei Haolan didn’t reply right away. Instead, she slowly drank her tea before she finally smiled and said, “Fellow Daoist Ye doesn’t have to be this courteous. The matter about lending you the Transporting Formation… can be discussed.”

Wei Haolan said it could be discussed, but after she said that, she didn’t say anything further. Instead, she lifted her teacup and proceeded to drink the tea very slowly.

Several years ago, Mo Tiange was in charge of the affairs at Shangqing Palace, so she also had a rough understanding about these methods of communicating—upon seeing Wei Haolan’s attitude, she immediately knew what was going on.

Apparently, this Wei Haolan was also quite savvy. She treated others kindly and cordially, but when she had a chance to scheme, she also wouldn’t hold back. Right now, she wasn’t speaking because she had the Transporting Formation; the power was in her hands. If Mo Tiange wanted to borrow the Transporting Formation, Mo Tiange had to set the payment herself. It was only after the payment offered by Mo Tiange was to her satisfaction that she would speak further.

Mo Tiange wasn’t anxious; she just followed Wei Haolan’s lead and drank her tea slowly. A while later, she finally put the cup down and said faintly, “Sect Head Wei, a straightforward person does not resort to insinuations, so let’s do this then; if your group’s willing to lend me the Transporting Formation, I’ll give you a thousand spirit stones. What do you think?”

For ordinary Foundation Building cultivators, a thousand spirit stones was a huge sum. Individual cultivators were rarely able to come up with this amount. Even disciples of cultivation groups also wouldn’t be able to pay this amount either if they weren’t good at saving. After all, although Foundation Building cultivators had high incomes, they also had a lot of expenses.

Nevertheless, Wei Haolan simply raised her eyebrows and chuckled. “Fellow Daoist Ye, you really prove yourself to be a cultivator from a great cultivation group. A thousand spirit stones… even I would be reluctant to bring up that number!”

Although Wei Haolan said that, Mo Tiange could sense she wasn’t very satisfied with her offer.

She took quite a while to think then said, “1,500 spirit stones.”

The Transporting Formation indeed consumed quite a few spirit stones, but using it once normally only required several medium grade spirit stones, meaning several hundred spirit stones should be enough. With 1,500 spirit stones, they would profit by a thousand spirit stones at the very least.

However, Wei Haolan still shook her head and said nothing. Obviously, she wasn’t too satisfied with this price either.