Lady Cultivator

Next, Mo Tiange took some spiritual plants from Kunwu and exchanged them one by one for some beast cores and materials, many of which were good quality.

That unruly young lady surnamed Hua finally stopped pestering her. She just sat by the side with an unhappy expression on her face and glared at Mo Tiange from time to time.

Mo Tiange turned a blind eye to her. She never had a childish personality, so how could she possibly have the patience to quarrel with a big miss who had never seen how the world really looked?

And sure enough, “Junior Martial Brother Tang” was constantly surrounded by female cultivators who were willing to exchange their medicinal pills with him. Mo Tiange noticed that the number of medicinal pills he received far exceeded others’, and other male cultivators looked unhappy about it. But there was nothing they could do about it; he was Mr. Popular after all.

Before long, the Exchange Gathering finally ended. Mo Tiange bid farewell to several female cultivators she was quite familiar with then headed downstairs.

Yi Liu was waiting for her downstairs. When she saw Mo Tiange coming down, she walked over and greeted her: “Senior Ye.”

Mo Tiange said, “Let’s head back.”

“Yes,” Yi Liu replied then led the way.

As Mo Tiange watched Yi Liu in front of her, she suddenly asked, “Your group has a Foundation Building cultivator surnamed Tang?”

Yi Liu looked back and answered, “Senior Ye, Tang is the surname of our Grandmaster Qingxi and consequently, there are many cultivators surnamed Tang in our group; which one of them is Senior Ye referring to?”

“Oh?” Could it be that Junior Martial Brother Tang was related to Elder Qingxi? “The one I’m talking about is a male cultivator; his cultivation level’s in the early stage of the Foundation Building realm. He was the one who came two hours late to the Exchange Gathering just now.”

After a pause, Yi Liu furtively snuck a glance at her then said cautiously, “Senior Ye, you’re talking about Martial Uncle Tang Shen, aren’t you? Martial Uncle Tang Shen is Grandmaster Qingxi’s great-great-grandson.”

“I see…” No wonder his status didn’t seem to be low despite being a male cultivator. Those female cultivators who called him Big Brother Tang must have familial backings too, right? “Does he not have a Dual Cultivation partner?”

Yi Liu cautiously cast her another glance then took a short moment to ponder her answer. “Senior Ye, Martial Uncle Tang doesn’t have a Dual Cultivation partner now, but his wedding is already being discussed; it just hasn’t been settled yet.”

From her response, Mo Tiange knew Yi Liu must’ve misunderstood her. Nonetheless, she didn’t explain anything and simply nodded to show she understood.

Yi Liu seemed to still be quite troubled after thinking about it, so she added a few more sentences: “Our Grandmaster Qingxi really dotes on Martial Uncle Tang. Martial Uncle Tang grew up under Grandmaster Qingxi’s watch, so although he’s a male cultivator, his status is very high in our group.”

Even if Mo Tiange didn’t have eyes, she could still see this. She then asked with a smile, “Many people like him?”

Yi Liu was rather taken aback by such a candid question. She thought for a moment before finally nodding. “Yes. Martial Uncle Tang… is elegant, and he’s also the beloved descendant of Grandmaster Qingxi, so everyone naturally likes him.”

This reason… Mo Tiange could accept. Although it was superficial, it was also a fact. There were also lots of female Xuanqing School disciples who liked that Senior Martial Brother Shoujing of hers, and didn’t many of them like him because of this exact same reason? Nevertheless, when she saw the flush on Yi Liu’s face, she couldn’t help but feel curious. “You like him too?”

Upon hearing this question, Yi Liu was dumbfounded for a moment, but she then looked around in a flurry before she finally whispered to Mo Tiange, “Senior Ye, please don’t talk carelessly. The matter of Martial Uncle Tang’s Dual Cultivation has caused many fights between the martial uncles in the group. You’ll kill me by saying such things!”

“They fight often?” Mo Tiange couldn’t help but feel amazed. She’d seen how the scene at the Exchange Gathering was full of sparks, so she wasn’t surprised at all that those women fought, but the fact that it happened often… Did their elders not care?

“Yes.” Maybe this topic evoked Yi Liu’s desire to gossip, but she examined the surroundings carefully as she spoke. “Many of the martial uncles under the tutelage of the three grandmasters have feelings for Martial Uncle Tang! Those under Grandmaster Qingxi: Martial Uncle Yang and Martial Uncle Wen; those under Grandmaster Qingmiao: Martial Uncle Hua, Martial Uncle Ming, and Martial Uncle Yun; and there’s also Martial Uncle Liu, who’s under Grandmaster Qingyi. Those are the major ones who fight relatively fiercely, but there are also those who aren’t that strong in this competition… There’s nothing to be done about that. There aren’t many high level male cultivators in Linhai, and the good-looking ones are even fewer.”

Mo Tiange’s gaze wavered slightly when she heard the surnames Yun and Liu. So those two people were the disciples of Qingmiao and Qingyi? But this had nothing to do with her. She already decided on burying this matter inside her, so she just needed to act like she didn’t know anything about them.

Mo Tiange’s wavering gaze made her look as if she was pondering something, so Yi Liu called out with hesitation, “Senior Ye…”

“En?” Mo Tiange responded absent-mindedly.

Yi Liu remained silent while biting her lips, but in the end, she finally decided to talk. “About Martial Uncle Tang, you better not get involved… You’re a cultivator from Kunwu, and the grandmasters definitely won’t let Martial Uncle Tang leave with an outsider…”

Mo Tiange was stunned but soon burst out laughing. Did Yi Liu really think she also fell for Tang Shen? Although she admitted Tang Shen’s looks didn’t lose out to Qin Xi’s, appearance wasn’t everything.

“Rest assured, I don’t have any romantic inclinations.” Right after she said that, they arrived at the distinguished guest house, so she stopped talking and just proceeded into the house.

Yi Liu looked around. Some part-time disciples were still taking care of the manual work in the distinguished guest house, so she gave up on the topic and followed Mo Tiange into the house. “Senior Ye.”

“Is there anything else?”

After a moment of hesitation, Yi Liu asked, “Senior Ye, I heard you’re very proficient in the art of pill-concocting. I… I want to ask—could we trade our things for senior’s medicinal pills?”

Mo Tiange said, “I don’t have any Foundation Building realm medicinal pills left, but if you want Aura Refining realm medicinal pills, I still have some of those.”

“Really?” Yi Liu was ecstatic. “Senior Ye, we only need Aura Refining realm medicinal pills. I have beast cores and spirit stones, and… these.”

Once she discovered there were still some medicinal pills to be exchanged, Yi Liu hastily pulled on the Qiankun Bag hanging on her waist. She poured some things out of it then said, “Oh! Senior, please wait—some things are in Yi Qiu’s hands.” Without waiting for Mo Tiange’s reply, she ran out of the room jubilantly.

Mo Tiange shook her head and chuckled. Right after, she once again laid a defensive formation.

One had to be very careful with everything if they were on a journey on the outside, especially when the surrounding people could scheme against them. Mo Tiange had always been careful. She allowed the cultivators of Bixuan Court to perceive her to be useful but not useful enough that they might get the idea to imprison her there. Nevertheless, being vigilant against others was a must, so a defensive formation was indispensable.

Before long, Yi Liu came back, running hurriedly while pulling Yi Qiu with her; both looked extremely happy. The moment Yi Qiu arrived, she immediately took out her Qiankun Bag and extracted all kinds of things from inside it. “Senior Ye, please take a look—can we exchange these for your medicinal pills?”

Mo Tiange briefly swept a glance over the objects. The two of them each had about one or two hundred spirit stones, several first rank beast cores, and also some bits and pieces of materials.

In the end, they were just Aura Refining cultivators; their possessions were naturally inferior to those of Foundation Building cultivators.

Thinking that Mo Tiange was dissatisfied with their offerings, Yi Liu said somewhat shyly, “Senior Ye, our cultivation levels are low, so we couldn’t come up with anything good. We took a very long time to save up these spirit stones—”

Mo Tiange raised her gaze with a smile, cutting off Yi Liu. “Alright, I’ll exchange my medicinal pills with you.” She then took out four jade bottles from her Qiankun Bag. “The two bottles contain the most commonly used medicinal pills among Aura Refining cultivators—Aura-Nourishing Pills. There are a total of thirty pills in each bottle. These two bottles contain Aura-Converging Pills. Their effectiveness is ten times better than Aura-Nourishing Pills. Each bottle has ten pills.”

As Mo Tiange put the four bottles on the table, both Yi Liu and Yi Qiu were beside themselves with joy. According to standard prices in Kunwu, these things ought to worth around five to six hundred spirit stones. In Linhai, where medicinal pills were even more difficult to obtain, their prices were certainly much higher.

Upon obtaining the medicinal pills, the two of them impatiently opened the bottles to take a look then repeatedly thanked Mo Tiange. “Thank you for the reward, Senior Ye.” They naturally knew that the value of these medicinal pills was more than the spirit stones and beast cores they paid.

“No need to thank me. Just consider them a reward for taking care of the chores on my behalf every day.” Mo Tiange never expected to obtain anything valuable from an exchange with Aura Refining cultivators. In any case, these medicinal pills were just leftovers from the time she concocted medicinal pills for Zhenji.

Thinking of Zhenji threw her into a momentary daze. Right now, Zhenji must’ve returned to Mount Taikang already and participated in the test for Foundation-Building Pills, right? She wondered if he passed the test or not. If he did, he must’ve already entered Closed Door Meditation to build his foundation.

Actually, she wasn’t worried Zhenji would fail to build his foundation. Very few cultivators could succeed in building their foundation on their first attempt, and that master of hers would be watching over him—even if he failed, he wouldn’t encounter any danger. Besides, when she left, she secretly gave Zhenji several Foundation-Building Pills and Constitution-Enhancing Pills. She put them in a separate pouch and told him he could only take the pouch out when he built his foundation. With the additional Foundation-Building Pills she gave him, Zhenji presumably still had huge chances of succeeding in building his foundation. It was just that she didn’t know if he obeyed her instructions…

As she thought about all this, Mo Tiange suddenly wanted to go back. Although it’d been just more than a year since she left, she felt like it’d been very long. A little part of her missed Zhenji, missed her master, and missed that small Immortal’s Cave… Soon, it was going to be twenty years since she first joined Xuanqing School, and she now had a family, a master, and friends—she really considered Xuanqing School her home now.

This kind of feeling… was very positive. At least when she was injured or when she was tired, she had a place to return to.

Yi Liu and Yi Qiu withdrew from the house while repeatedly saying their thanks. Mo Tiange then pointed at the space between her eyebrows and entered the Virtual Sky World. Once she was inside, Mo Tiange sank into contemplation about what to do next.

It felt like she’d been gone for very long, so should she go back to Xuanqing School?

Generally speaking, even those with smooth cultivation progress took thirty to fifty years to advance from the late stage to the peak stage of the Foundation Building realm. Nevertheless, Mo Tiange’s current aptitude was extraordinary. Coupled with the fact that her medicinal pills were much better than ordinary people’s, she would presumably be able to accomplish that within twenty years more or less. As for forming her Gold Core, she might take several dozen additional years. As long as her luck wasn’t too bad, her odds of success in forming her Gold Core shouldn’t be too low. She was just thirty eight years old now; if everything went smoothly, she could try forming her Gold Core when she was about seventy years old.

However, she was a bit hesitant with this plan of action. If she went back and entered Closed Door Meditation, wouldn’t her deliberate suppression of her cultivation progress be pointless?

For ordinary cultivators, the quicker they could form their Gold Cores, the better. In the current cultivating environment, it was very hard for cultivators to advance to the Core Formation realm before they reached a hundred years old, no matter how hard they cultivated. That was the reason why the Celestial Pole had a saying: “Hundred year old Core Formation cultivators are rarely seen in a millennium”—those who could achieve it were all labeled geniuses. It was also for that reason that Senior Martial Brother Shoujing became famous—his aptitude wasn’t terrific or anything, yet he was able to advance to the Core Formation realm before he was a hundred years old.

On the contrary, things weren’t as simple as that for Mo Tiange. She had a cultivating environment similar to the environment during the Distant Past era, she had resources from the Distant Past era which could allow her to become a genius, and she had countless medicinal pills—her spiritual aura could increase very quickly, and it was also very hard for her to be caught in a bottleneck during ream-breakthrough, so advancing to the Core Formation realm before she was a hundred years old was practically an inevitability.

However, this wasn’t the Distant Past era after all, so she would encounter problems ordinary people wouldn’t.

That cheap master of hers once lamented in private. He said Senior Martial Brother Shoujing built his Gold Core too early, he was too young, and his foundation was unstable. Fortunately, he liked to run all over the world on his own so his experience could be considered rich, allowing him to make it out alright. This was also why her master repeatedly told her that her mental state had to be as mature as her cultivation level before she could form her Gold Core, because advancing her cultivation level prematurely wasn’t good.

That made Mo Tiange hesitate again. One year… the time she spent traveling wasn’t enough…