Lady Cultivator

Although that shriveled old man looked like a dead tree ¹ , it was actually the middle-aged fellow Daoist who was named Daoist Kumu. On the contrary, the shriveled old man’s name was quite a decent name—he was called Tong Tianyun.

Upon hearing what Qin Xi said, Daoist Kumu replied with a laugh, “Fellow Daoist Shoujing’s too modest. What’s so embarrassing about it? Core Formation cultivators like us, who’ve wasted several hundred years without making progress and didn’t even have a chance to form our Nascent Souls, are extremely envious of you.”

Qin Xi smiled and said nothing further. He moved to the side to make way then turned towards Mo Tiange. “Fellow Daoists, this is the junior martial sister I mentioned; her Daoist name is Qingwei.”

Kumu and Tong Tianyun had long noticed Mo Tiange. It was just that Qin Xi hadn’t introduced her up until now and they also found it embarrassing to stare at a female cultivator, especially since she also wore a Xuanqing School Daoist robe like Qin Xi, so they obviously came from the same cultivation group. Now that Qin Xi introduced them, they could finally center their gazes on Mo Tiange openly.

Mo Tiange raised her hands, lightly cupping her hands towards them as a greeting. “Greetings to the two Fellow Daoists.”

Upon seeing how polite and calm she was, both Kumu and Tong Tianyun also stood up and earnestly returned her greeting.

Just as the people on this side finished greeting each other, the bald fatty with a booming voice shouted aloud: “Qin Shoujing, this is your junior martial sister? I heard your master has an extremely talented disciple who also advanced into the Core Formation realm before reaching a hundred years old—it’s not her, right?”

Qin Xi wasn’t as polite when he faced that bald fatty. He said coldly, “Who else could it be if it wasn’t her? How do I have so many junior martial sisters?”

Before that bald fatty could say anything, the woman Qin Xi called Madam Feng already laughed at him. “Old Lei, I told you before that someone who could gain his consent to be his companion on this journey is undoubtedly someone he’s close with, but you didn’t believe me. What about now? I guessed correctly, right? Not only did he allow her to journey with him, but he even brought her over personally.”

The bald fatty hugged his wine jar; his face was all wrinkled up. He said unhappily, “Hmph! You just know how to analyze things!” After he said that, he raised his chin towards Mo Tiange, but his words were directed at Qin Xi. “Among the five of us, none is a novice. What are you bringing a little girl who’s just formed her Gold Core for? Dangers lurk everywhere on Demonic Mountain; what should we do if she drags us down?”

Qin Xi “humphed,” glanced at Mo Tiange then turned towards that bald fatty again. He spoke with a rather arrogant tone: “Aren’t you also considered a novice? If I was afraid of being dragged down, I would’ve gone with just Fellow Daoist Kumu and Fellow Daoist Tong; what would I need you for?!”

“You—” The bald fatty’s ferocious-looking face trembled as if he was going to blow up.

Qin Xi went on to say: “This junior martial sister of mine… She’s just formed her Gold Core, but she has quite a lot of treasures in her possession. Although her attack force is rather inferior, she won’t have any issues with protecting herself. Besides, her safety is going to be taken care of by me—you guys don’t need to worry about it!”

Even though they were friends with Qin Shoujing somewhat, these people were cultivators who’d roamed the cultivation world for a few hundred years; how could they possibly let a cultivator, who had no skills and would only be a burden to them, journey with them? Upon hearing Qin Xi’s words, all of them stared at Mo Tiange skeptically.

They believed Qin Shoujing wouldn’t bluff, but Mo Tiange was only a cultivator who just formed her Gold Core—how strong could she possibly be?

Under everyone’s scrutiny, Mo Tiange unexpectedly revealed a small smile. “Fellow Daoists, is there perhaps anyone willing to compare notes with me?”

Kumu and Tong Tianyun showed no response to her question. The bald fatty carried his wine jar and wanted to speak, but that woman moved one step faster than him.

The woman already smiled before saying anything. She walked over and intimately tried to hold Mo Tiange’s hands. “Little Sister—”

Before she could finish speaking and before her hands touched Mo Tiange, Qin Xi flung his sleeve, sending a gust of wind that forced her back several steps.

After being personally forced back several times by Qin Xi today, the woman finally became angry. She wrinkled her brows and placed her hands on her hips, looking just like a shrew in the market without the least bit of flirtatious attitude she exhibited earlier. “Qin Shoujing, you’re really unreasonable! It’s not like I’ll eat your junior martial sister; what’s the meaning of acting like this?!”

Qin Xi’s expression didn’t change. His gaze was fixated on her hands. “If you wanted to talk to her properly, I naturally wouldn’t stop you, but what did you smear poison on your hands for?”

Despite being exposed, that woman wasn’t at all embarrassed. On the contrary, she smiled brightly and said, “It’s your junior martial sister who said she wants to compare notes. I was just testing to see if she’s vigilant or not; is this not allowed? You blocked it on her behalf; how should we consider this?”

Qin Xi still looked calm. “Even if you used poison on her, it’d be useless, so you might as well not waste your efforts.”

“Huh?” That woman was puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“Her constitution’s special. Both her meridians and dantian are different from others’. That little trick of yours is completely useless against her.” Qin Xi moved his gaze towards Mo Tiange and said, “Junior Martial Sister Qingwei, this is Madam Poison, Du Fengjin—you can call her Madam Feng. As for him, his name’s Lei Dongqing.”

Madam Poison Du Fengjin? A thought emerged in Mo Tiange’s mind. She heard a bit about Madam Poison’s reputation before. She was an individual cultivator, and her moves were extremely ruthless. Her cultivation technique belonged to the Righteous Path, but her means in doing things were rather evil. Those who liked her called her Madam Feng, while those who didn’t like her called her Madam Poison. Mo Tiange really never expected that this Senior Martial Brother Shoujing of hers was actually related to this kind of person.

However, Qin Xi’s words weren’t wrong. A cultivator’s physical body had a very strong resistance against poison, so to poison a cultivator, one had to start from their dantian and meridians. She indeed wasn’t afraid about this point at all. After going through the process of Five-Spirit Cultivating Body, both her dantian and meridians had become extremely durable and hard to injure. In her body, poison could hardly have any effect.

Mo Tiange raised her hand to salute them. “So it’s Madam Feng and Fellow Daoist Lei. Nice to meet you.” Towards these two, she obviously wasn’t as courteous as she was towards Kumu and Tong Tianyun. Since the two of them weren’t that courteous to her, she also treated them the same way.

This time, Tong Tianyun, who’d been watching them all along with a smile, finally stepped up. That old man cast a glance at Madam Feng and Lei Dongqing then, still with a smile, he said to Mo Tiange: “When Fellow Daoist Qingwei came in just now, I felt that Fellow Daoist’s divine sense seems to be stronger than that of cultivators in your realm. Why don’t Fellow Daoist Qingwei and I have a fight of divine senses to see?”

“Fellow Daoist Tong!” Madam Feng and Lei Dongqing both called out after a moment of shock.

A so-called fight of divine senses could only be performed by cultivators whose divine senses had strengthened to a certain degree. Generally speaking, only the divine senses of cultivators who’d formed their Gold Core were at this level. A strong enough divine sense could imitate a cultivator’s spells, and these imitation spells were directly related to the cultivator’s combat power. Because of that, if cultivators weren’t willing to directly face each other’s swords, they could use their divine senses to simulate a fight of magical powers to determine who was stronger. However, this kind of fight would also damage the cultivators’ divine senses, especially divine senses that were already weak to begin with.

Seeing as they seemed very astonished, Mo Tiange guessed this Fellow Daoist Tong might have a very strong divine sense. She lifted her gaze to glance at Qin Xi, but she then saw him secretly nodding at her, so she immediately smiled and said, “Fellow Daoist Tong, I’ve just formed my Gold Core, so I hope you can guide me.”

Her answer was a straightforward agreement to his suggestion. Daoist Kumu clapped his hands and laughed. “Fellow Daoist Qingwei might be young, but she’s more courageous than others, worthy of being Lord Daoist Jinghe’s disciple! That being the case, shall I be the witness?”

Qin Xi said, “Daoist Kumu’s right.”

Tong Tianyun said, “It’s naturally good to have Fellow Daoist Kumu as the referee.”

So-called fights of divine sense didn’t require too much space; they could be carried out even in a tiny room like this. However, this place was a restaurant after all. Not only were there many mortals here, but even the cultivators present were mostly low level cultivators. Core Formation cultivators weren’t so easy to run into. The majority of Core Formation cultivators in Kunzhong City were most likely in this room now.

Mo Tiange originally thought they’d move somewhere, but unexpectedly, Daoist Kumu took out a lidded glass wine cup then closed his eyes and began mumbling something. After a while, he suddenly shouted: “Go!” The wine cup suddenly emitted a burst of bright light and enlarged, completely swallowing half the room into it.

Mo Tiange looked around. Since the glass was transparent, although the five of them were inside the wine cup, they could see the outside very clearly.

Daoist Kumu smiled. “The two may begin, but please be careful. Although my Heaven-Covering Cup is a magic weapon, it won’t be able to bear your full-power strikes.”

Tong Tianyun stroked his beard, chuckling. “Fellow Daoist Kumu’s too humble. If it wasn’t for this Heaven-Covering Cup of yours, we might’ve fallen inside Demonic Mountain eighty years ago.”

A thought emerged in Mo Tiange’s mind once she heard that remark. They’d also gone to Demonic Mountain eighty years ago?

She didn’t have time to say anything because Tong Tianyun already spoke. “Fellow Daoist Qingwei, shall we begin?”

Mo Tiange could only put the matter down for the time being. She nodded and said, “Alright. Fellow Daoist Tong, if you please.”

The two of them stood across each other in the middle, while the four other people all moved to the side to make room for them.

Tong Tianyun and Mo Tiange simultaneously closed their eyes, running their spiritual aura and regulating their breathing.

Some time passed. A gust of wind rose and slowly circulated between them, swirling up their robes and hair. Then the wind became stronger and stronger. It gradually enveloped the two of them to the point where the others practically couldn’t clearly see their figures.

Upon seeing this scene, Lei Dongqing let out a “huh” then said in a rather astonished tone: “Qin Shoujing, your junior martial sister’s just formed her Gold Core, but her divine sense can unexpectedly transform into wind already?”

The transformation of divine sense into wind seemed simple, but it was actually difficult. Only those who could operate their divine sense quickly could create wind. The two of them must’ve exchanged many blows with their divine sense to create the scene before them now.

Qin Xi said faintly, “I told you before—although she’s just formed her Gold Core, she won’t have any issues with protecting herself.” In these past years, even though he hadn’t seen her, master told him things about her. One would immediately know the magic weapons she possessed weren’t common goods at a glance. As for the Soul-Refining Art, it was something his master passed on to Senior Martial Brother Xuanyin, so he was naturally confident about it.

The wind at the scene was getting stronger and stronger; everyone could now hear the flapping noises of their sleeves. It wasn’t just Mo Tiange and Tong Tianyun; even the people who were watching from the sidelines also gradually showed dignified expressions.

“Bang!” All of a sudden, the Heaven-Covering Cup emitted a loud noise. The people who’d been fastened inside it, felt the wind becoming knife-sharp. Each of them used their spiritual aura as a barrier to resist the fierce wind. Although all of them had their own skills, the two people were having a fight of divine senses and thus mustn’t be disturbed, so they could only use their spiritual aura to form protective barriers around them to block the wind.

After the first noise, the Heaven-Covering Cup continued to emit one other noise after another; each fiercer than the one before. Kumu wrinkled his brows, looking extremely astonished. His line of sight fell in the direction where Mo Tiange was.

Since his Heaven-Covering Cup emitted such loud noises, their fight of divine senses was obviously quite fierce. He knew the strength of Tong Tianyun’s divine sense very well. This little miss had just formed her Gold Core and she also didn’t seem to be very strong, yet she actually had this kind of divine sense?

The inner wall of the Heaven-Covering Cup suddenly emitted firecracker-like rupturing noises. The gale around them suddenly came to a stop, and the two people could finally be seen again.

When he looked up to see what happened, Qin Xi saw Mo Tiange showing a painful expression. Her eyes were still closed, but blood was dripping from the corner of her mouth.

“Tiange!” With a frown, Qin Xi quickly stepped forward. He then grabbed her hand to check her meridians. After a while, he eventually heaved a sigh of relief and let go.

On the opposite end, Tong Tianyun’s face also didn’t look too good. He slowly opened his eyes then stared deeply at Mo Tiange.

Quite a while later, Mo Tiange finally managed to regulate her breathing. She wiped the trace of blood from the corner of her mouth then she cupped her hands towards Tong Tianyun with a smile. “I lost.”

Tong Tianyun unexpectedly shook his head. “Fellow Daoist Qingwei, you don’t have to humble yourself like this. I’ve been trapped in the middle stage of the Core Formation realm for three hundred years. Although I haven’t been able to make a realm-breakthrough, there are only a few cultivators in the same realm as me who could be my opponents. Fellow Daoist, you’re only in the early stage of the Core Formation realm, but your divine sense’s already this strong—this is already a feat.”

This fight was naturally won by Tong Tianyun. However, Mo Tiange didn’t lose badly either.

Daoist Kumu’s gaze shifted back and forth between the two of them. He then laughed and said, “Fellow Daoist Qingwei, the purpose of this competition wasn’t to win. Since Fellow Daoist Tong said this, Fellow Daoist obviously has enough skill to journey with us. That being the case, our deal with Fellow Daoist Shoujing will remain valid. From now on, Fellow Daoist is our companion.”