Lady Cultivator

This was Mo Tiange’s first time meeting Elder Qingmiao.

It’d been several months since she arrived at Bixuan Court, but up until now, she’d always been received by Wei Haolan or other Foundation Building cultivators, so she never met the three Core Formation elders.

But of course, they were Core Formation seniors after all. Generally speaking, Core Formation cultivators always cultivated painstakingly and rarely went out. Who would grant an audience with a junior who wasn’t even a member of their group if they didn’t have to? They weren’t that idle, and they also wouldn’t do anything that would drop their status like that.

However, although she never met the three elders before, Mo Tiange wasn’t worried Elder Qingmiao would really do anything harmful to her.

Ever since she took control over the affairs at Shangqing Palace and handled the social matters on Lord Daoist Jinghe’s behalf, Mo Tiange had a very deep understanding of the twists and turns of high level cultivators’ minds. For high level cultivators—especially high level cultivators who were propping up their cultivation groups—they might dote on their juniors, but that would never affect their inclination towards obtaining benefits. They could love their children, but these emotions would never interfere with the real matters at hand. Because of that, in the ears of people in the know, Hua Yilin’s threat was just ridiculous.

Nevertheless, the fact that Elder Qingmiao used this kind of tone and said such a thing to her was worth pondering.

Not simple… What did she mean by “not simple”? Aside from her proficiency in the art of pill-concocting, Mo Tiange was only an ordinary foreign cultivator to Bixuan Court cultivators. However, what Elder Qingmiao said clearly wasn’t meant to praise her pill-concocting skills.

Mo Tiange’s expression didn’t change. She just raised her gaze slightly. “Senior… over-praised me.”

Elder Qingmiao lightly swayed the teacup in her hand, but instead of drinking from it, she said softly, “I’m not praising you.”

“If Senior doesn’t explain, Junior can only take it as praise.” Mo Tiange still had a faint smile; it was as if she didn’t care at all.

Elder Qingmiao looked at her again. Her gaze was sharp.

Mo Tiange wasn’t afraid, so she just let her look as she wished.

Second after second passed by. Elder Qingmiao even used the spiritual aura pressure of a Core Formation cultivator, but Mo Tiange continued to show a faint smile. Although her smile became rather stiff and sweat started to drop from her forehead, she was, in the end, still smiling.

After a long while, Elder Qingmiao eventually withdrew her spiritual aura pressure. She then asked coldly, “You… Who are you in the end?”

Mo Tiange secretly heaved a sigh of relief. Although she practiced the Soul-Refining Art and her divine sense was much stronger than those of cultivators in the same realm as her, Core Formation cultivators were Core Formation cultivators after all—she practically had to go all out to bear their spiritual aura pressure.

She naturally knew why Elder Qingmiao was treating her like this. Mo Tiange had long formed a habit of paying attention to her surroundings with her divine sense at all times, so she was immediately aware of Elder Qingmiao’s arrival. And yet, despite knowing Elder Qingmiao was there, she still dared to speak like that to Hua Yilin.

Having her junior lectured like that by another foreign junior would’ve unavoidably hurt Elder Qingmaio’s dignity as a Core Formation cultivator. It was precisely because her dignity was hurt that she reprimanded Hua Yilin, thus showing her status as a Core Formation cultivator who’d never shield her junior and lose face for herself.

However, although she reprimanded Hua Yilin, Hua Yilin was still her own descendant in the end. She wanted to see why the junior, who dared to give her descendant a lesson, was so courageous—this person obviously knew a Core Formation cultivator was there, but she still dared to reprimand someone from Bixuan Court. Why was an early stage Foundation Building cultivator this daring?

Mo Tiange took only a moment to ponder her answer. “Junior’s a disciple of Lord Daoist Xuanyin of Xuanqing School.”

“Lord Daoist Xuanyin…” Elder Qingmiao slowly muttered this Daoist name. Soon afterward, her stare upon Mo Tiange gradually changed, and her strict expression also faded. She chuckled and said, “So your master is a Nascent Soul cultivator… No wonder you’re this bold.”

Even though she didn’t recognize Lord Daoist Xuanyin, those referred to as “Lord Daoist” were naturally Nascent Soul cultivators. As one of the people with the highest cultivation levels in Bixuan Court, as one of the three Core Formation elders, it was naturally impossible that she didn’t have this basic understanding.

Mo Tiange was still showing a faint smile as she maintained her courtesy. “Junior’s just extremely lucky.”

Although that might be the case, would a Nascent Soul cultivator accept a disciple that easily? The advantage of having a Nascent Soul cultivator as a master didn’t need to be explained. After reaching the Core Formation realm, each cultivation step would be extremely challenging; typically, two out of three Core Formation cultivators would get trapped in the early stage of the Core Formation realm their whole lives. If one had a Nascent Soul cultivator advising them, not only would they encounter fewer detours during the Core Formation realm, they could also get pointers on forming their Nascent Soul…

As Elder Qingmiao pondered, she couldn’t help but start to feel envious. She was an elder in a cultivation group, a dignified Core Formation cultivator, but she still wanted to worship a Nascent Soul cultivator as her master and yet, she couldn’t accomplish that now.

Nevertheless, she was the elder of a group after all, so she soon calmed down. With a smile, she said, “In other words, Little Fellow Daoist possesses extremely terrific spiritual roots and is extremely talented?”

Mo Tiange answered faintly, “Junior’s aptitude’s not bad, and Junior managed to obtain master’s favor so Junior was accepted as master’s disciple.”

“Really? But honestly speaking, Little Fellow Daoist’s concocting skills are also extraordinary!” Elder Qingmiao refuted.

Mo Tiange sharply sensed something; her gaze fell on Elder Qingmiao’s half-smiling face. She then said bluntly, “Senior, do you maybe have something to say to me?”

Elder Qingmiao stood up and started to pace about at the edge of the pavilion, seemingly pondering something.

After a long time, she finally said, “Does Little Friend Ye know a kind of medicinal pills known as the Clear Sky Pill?”

Mo Tiange was a bit stunned. “It’s a high-grade Core Formation realm medicinal pill which is more than a dozen times more effective than Soul-Solidifying Pills.” When she first obtained the Virtual Sky World, she practiced her concocting skills by concocting Clear Sky Pills because many medicinal plants, which were suitable to be used in concocting this pill, were growing inside her Virtual Sky World.

“Correct.” Elder Qingmiao nodded. “As expected of someone who came from a great cultivation group, Little Friend Ye’s knowledge is indeed broad. There are very few people who know of this Clear Sky Pill.”

“… Junior’s master only advanced several years ago, so Junior has a clear understanding about matters related to the Core Formation realm.”

Elder Qingmiao, who was still pacing about slowly, smiled at her. “Even so, I can see that Little Friend Ye’s quite favored by her master.”

It was “Little Fellow Daoist” in the beginning, but now it was “Little Friend Ye”—the way she addressed her became much more familiar now. Mo Tiange could sense that Elder Qingmiao intentionally wanted to get closer to her, and based on what she said so far, this most likely had something to do with medicinal pills.

In any case, she was still confident about her pill-concocting skills, so she didn’t need to evade the matter. “Yes, what Junior has achieved up until now is all due to master’s wholehearted guidance.”

Mo Tiange’s calm appearance made Elder Qingmiao inwardly reassess her identity.

“Little Friend Ye, you’re so proficient in the art of pill-concocting, and you also know about the Clear Sky Pill—could you maybe concoct it?”

“Well… I concocted it a few times with my master before, so I more or less can. But if I try to concoct it on my own, I’m afraid the success rate won’t be too high.” She wasn’t telling the truth. In fact, she only concocted Soul-Solidifying Pills a few times, but she concocted Clear Sky Pills often. Her success rate in concocting Clear Sky Pills was much higher than her success rate in concocting Soul-Solidifying Pills. However, how could Clear Sky Pills be successfully concocted so easily by a Foundation Building cultivator? Therefore, what she said now was in accordance with what her skill level should be.

Sure enough, Elder Qingmiao didn’t doubt her words. She nodded understandingly as if what Mo Tiange said was a matter of course. “If you only concocted it a few times before, your success rate naturally wouldn’t be high—how successful do you think you will be?”

Mo Tiange took some time to think before she answered rather hesitantly, “About 40-50%.”

A smile emerged on Elder Qingmiao’s face. “40-50% is already pretty good. It seems Little Friend Ye’s concocting skills indeed cannot be trifled with.”

30-40% was the standard rate for ordinary concoctions masters. Although 40-50% seemed to only be an increase of about 10%, it was already close to the standard rate of great concoctions masters. Clear Sky Pills were high-grade medicinal pills after all, so it was many times harder to concoct those than Soul-Solidifying Pills. Even in Kunwu, there weren’t many who could achieve the standard rate of great concoctions masters in concocting Clear Sky Pills.

“Little Friend Ye…” Elder Qingmiao looked a bit embarrassed but a split second later, she finally made up her mind. “In these past few months, us few old fellows, have seen how you taught that girl Xia Qing your concocting skills, so we have an idea of your proficiency in the art of pill-concocting. It just so happens that during this period of time, the three of us have managed to scrape enough spiritual plants needed to concoct a furnace of Clear Sky Pills. However, Xia Qing hasn’t concocted Clear Sky Pills before, so she isn’t confident about making them. If we sent people to Kunwu to invite others to concoct the pills for us, that’d take too much time, and it also isn’t easy to find a trustworthy person, so…” She stopped pacing about and focused her attention on Mo Tange. “Little Friend Ye, would it be possible for you to concoct us a furnace of Clear Sky Pills?”

Mo Tiange didn’t reply right away. Concocting Clear Sky Pills wasn’t a trivial matter. Aside from the success rate, the time required for concocting them was also rather long…

“Naturally, we believe in Little Daoist Ye’s concocting skills, and we believe in Little Friend Ye’s character even more. We definitely won’t make things difficult for you if the concoction fails, but if you succeed, we’ll prepare another precious gift as a token of our appreciation for Little Friend Ye’s assistance.”

Mo Tiange glanced at Elder Qingmiao then continued to ponder the matter.

A long time afterward, a smile finally appeared on her face. “… Since Senior said that, there’s no reason for me to reject Senior’s request.”

Elder Qingmiao looked pleased. She grasped Mo Tiange’s hand affectionately and patted it. “Good! Although, since you’re a disciple of a Nascent Soul senior, you must be accustomed to treasures, giving you one or two unique little things is still doable for us old fellows. Liusu!”

Right after Elder Qingmiao called out, one of the maids stepped forward. She was already in the tenth layer of the Aura Refining realm—building her foundation was only a matter of time. In the end, she was a Core Formation cultivator’s maid, so her cultivation level was inevitably higher than Yi Liu’s and Yi Qiu’s.

“Liusu’s here, Grandmaster.”

“In a bit, give the Feifei ¹ we caught several days ago to Little Friend Ye.”

Astonishment flashed across Liusu’s eyes. However, she didn’t say anything about it and just replied compliantly, “Yes, Grandmaster.”

Mo Tiange herself also looked astonished. She thought for a moment then asked, “Senior, are you talking about that Feifei, the divine beast mentioned in the ancient texts?”

“Correct.” Elder Qingmiao was surprised for an instant, though she soon laughed and said, “Little Friend Ye’s knowledge is really extensive; there aren’t many people who know about these so-called divine beasts now. However, this thing I’m talking about isn’t a genuine Feifei. It just looks similar to a Feifei and has Feifei blood, so us people in the Eastern Sea region all call this type of spiritual beast ‘Feifei.’ Although Feifei’s cultivation level typically isn’t high, they have a very special mystical power which other spiritual beasts don’t have.”

“Oh? May I know what kind of mystical power that is?”

With a smile, Elder Qingmiao said, “The ancient texts say Feifei can dissolve people’s anxiety, and according to our experience, raising this Feifei by our sides indeed has the effect of calming our mental states. In addition, Feifeis are extremely sensitive to spiritual aura, so they’re great at looking for treasures.”

“I see…”

Elder Qingmiao continued on: “Although the Feifei we’re talking about isn’t an ancient spiritual beast or anything, they’re also not easy to obtain in the Eastern Sea region—consider this a meeting-gift for Little Friend Ye. When you finish concocting the Clear Sky Pills, we’ll give you another gift. Even if you fail, we’ll still give you something as a fee for your hard work.”

“… Since Senior said so, it’d be impolite for me to refuse.”

Elder Qingmiao nodded with a smile. “Little Friend Ye’s really a refreshing and straightforward person. If you weren’t already a disciple of a famous group, this old woman might’ve fallen for you. Unfortunately, unfortunately… Oh, wrong! It should be fortunately, fortunately…”

Mo Tiange raised her gaze, and the two of them smiled at each other. Regardless of whether or not each of them had their own motives, they seemed to be very amiable now. Nonetheless, her return to Kunwu would most likely have to be postponed.