Lady Cultivator

Shui Linbo finally opened her eyes.

She glanced first at Ye Zhenji and said softly, “Why are you still here? Shouldn’t you be cultivating?” There was a trace of reproach in her voice, which made Mo Tiange recall that she also used to urge Ye Zhenji to cultivate like this before. Mo Tiange couldn’t help the corners of her mouth from curling as she smiled.

Ye Zhenji walked forward and sat down beside her. “Linbo, my Aunt and Master are finally back safe and sound. Come, you should meet them.”

Shui Linbo didn’t seem to notice that there were other people in the room until now.

Even though Mo Tiange and Qin Xi had restrained their breaths, they were Core Formation and Nascent Soul cultivators with strong presences, after all. Yet Shui Linbo hadn’t felt either of them. This showed her divine sense must’ve been severely injured, causing such slowness.

She looked up curiously to sweep a gaze over Qin Xi first, then she rested her eyes on Mo Tiange’s face and didn’t glance away.

This was interesting to Mo Tiange. Whenever women encountered the two of them, be they mortals or cultivators, their eyes were bound to rest on Qin Xi’s face. But this woman saw Qin Xi and just gave him a glance then stared at her face instead. Mo Tiange speculated in her heart that if the woman didn’t have a good inner state and didn’t care about appearances, she must be scheming deep inside and pretending to be cool on the surface.

The next moment, however, Shui Linbo’s reaction overturned Mo Tiange’s guess.

A faint flush arose over Shui Linbo’s thin, pale face, and she gradually became a little excited. She even forgot to salute but she asked Mo Tiange, “Fairy, are you the Fairy?”

The other three were all puzzled and stunned upon hearing this. Ye Zhenji asked back strangely, “What Fairy? Linbo, what are you trying to say?”

But Shui Linbo ignored him. She still stared at Mo Tiange with expectant eyes, and she continued, “Fifty-eight years ago, at the Coast of the Eastern Sea. I’m An’an of the Shui family—Fairy, do you remember?”

Mo Tiange was lost in her thoughts. The figure of a little girl with yellow skin, thin and anticipating eyes gradually floated into her mind. Fifty-eight years ago, at the Coast of the Eastern Sea, she gave a little girl a book of ordinary cultivation techniques which evidently helped her enter the road to immortality.

“It was you…”

“You are the Fairy!” Tears of joy fell down Shui Linbo’s face, then she tried hard to kneel. “Fairy, thank you so much for the book you gave me. If it weren’t for you, Fairy, I wouldn’t have survived.”

“You don’t have to do this.” Mo Tiange raised her hand lightly, and an invisible spiritual aura pushed Shui Linbo back to the bed.

Ye Zhenji finally reacted. He looked at Shui Linbo then looked at Mo Tiange with disbelief. “Linbo, is my aunt the Fairy you mentioned who gave you a book of cultivation techniques?!”

Shui Linbo nodded and said happily, “It turns out the Fairy was your Aunt! No wonder I always felt that Xuanqing School’s uniform was very similar to the Fairy’s…” She was only eight years old, and many things were remembered only faintly. She only remembered Mo Tiange’s general appearance, and she wouldn’t have recognized her if Mo Tiange had changed in appearance and dressed differently as she had in years past.

Mo Tiange also felt very surprised. Mo Tiange originally thought that this female cultivator came from the Eastern Sea so maybe she had some relation to her, but Mo Tiange didn’t expect it would be such a coincidence. Mo Tiange’s one casual act formed a female Foundation Building cultivator today who even had a very good relationship with Zhenji. Just as the saying went, there was no story without coincidences.

Mo Tiange never told Qin Xi about such a tiny matter, but upon seeing them behave like this, Qin Xi asked, “What’s this, is she your old friend?”

Mo Tiange nodded and smiled. “I also didn’t expect this to happen. When I went on a voyage on Master’s orders, I came to the shore in the East. This child was born with spiritual roots, so when her parents asked me for help, I gave her a cultivation technique book. But I really didn’t expect her to reach her present cultivation level.”

“I see.” Qin Xi nodded.

Ye Zhenji then introduced Qin Xi to Shui Linbo upon seeing her shifting her eyes to Qin Xi without knowing what to call him. “Linbo, this is my Master, Master Daoist Shoujing. Oh, no—Master has advanced to the Nascent Soul realm, so now you should call him Lord Daoist Shoujing.”

Shui Linbo was startled and immediately became nervous. She knew Ye Zhenji wasn’t a normal person. Both his aunt and master were Core Formation cultivators—Elders of Xuanqing School. But Shui Linbo didn’t expect that Qin Xi had reached the Nascent Soul realm so soon.

She used to only be a normal individual cultivator who could seldom even meet Core Formation cultivators. Now that Ye Zhenji told her the person before her was a Nascent Soul cultivator, she was just so nervous that she forget how to salute him.

Qin Xi laughed and said, “You don’t have to be nervous. Since you’re Zhenji’s…” He paused and hesitated for a moment then changed his approach. “Since Grandmaster allowed you to stay, you’re now a member of Clear Spring Peak. Just salute me as they do.”

“Yes.” Shui Linbo calmed down then made a respectful salute and said, “Greeting to Grandmaster Shoujing.”

After that, Mo Tiange looked at Qin Xi.

The two of them lived in the Virtual Sky World for ten years and had familiarized themselves with each other very well on many things. Qin Xi understood what she meant, so he smiled and said, “It’s all up to you.”

Mo Tiange also smiled. She took out a jade bottle from her clothes and passed it to Ye Zhenji. “Zhenji, we’ll find a solution to treat Linbo’s injury. Before that, feed her this bottle of medicinal pills, one pill every three days. Each day after she takes a pill, you should help her heal her wounds with spiritual aura for two hours.”

“Yes, Auntie.”

Mo Tiange smiled and said to them, “Your Master and I just came back, so we have other things to attend to, so we’ll head back first. You can just heal and cultivate as usual.”

“Yes,” Ye Zhenji answered hurriedly. “Auntie, let me see you out.”

Mo Tiange raised her hand to stop him. “No need, just stay here with Linbo.” Mo Tiange nodded at Shui Linbo with a smile then left with Qin Xi.

Upon leaving Shangqing Palace, Qin Xi and Mo Tiange stepped forward at the same time, yet one of them headed to the east while the other to the south. After walking several steps, they discovered the other wasn’t following, so they stopped and turned to look at each other with surprise. “Why are you going that way?”

They asked simultaneously, then they were simultaneously stunned again. They realized that their Immortal’s Caves were in different directions.

The two of them smiled at each other then walked to each other and sighed.

“What now?” Qin Xi asked, “Shall we go to your place or mine?”

Mo Tiange said, “Let’s go back to our own homes first. We haven’t been back for a long time, so we should deal with some things. We’ll contact each other when we’re done.”

Qin Xi thought for a moment and nodded. “Okay. Remember to send me a Summoning Talisman.”

Mo Tiange nodded. They then separated and went back to their own Immortal’s Caves.

Now that they were married, they would naturally live together in the future, which they had also discussed. Qin Xi said that his cave looked inconspicuous, yet it actually happened to be located in a bigger spirit eye in the spirit veins on Clear Spring Peak. He had also thought about a lot of methods to strengthen the existing spiritual aura, so was now not inferior at all to Shangqing Palace. The most important thing was that it was very concealed and few other people showed up there, so it was suitable for people who enjoyed peace and quiet. While Mo Tiange’s current cave was big and had good spiritual aura, it was so big that it needed many people to take care of many things. Since the two of them probably wouldn’t accept lots of disciples and wouldn’t need such a big cave, they’d rather let someone else make the most of it.

Mo Tiange agreed after thinking for a long time. Her current cave was used by Lord Daoist Xuanyin before he reached the Nascent Soul realm. Mo Tiange only lived there for two years, so she didn’t have many things and it was easy to move.

But no matter how easy it was, she couldn’t just move right away. She had to go back and take care of some chores.

Fortunately, the Steward’s Hall was very capable. During the ten years of her absence, the cave was still in good order, and nothing was left to be done. The consumption of spirit stones for the upkeep had been deducted from her offerings. She hadn’t been there to accept offerings for ten years, so now she received a large sum of money all at once.

After she finished handling all her matters and informed Steward’s Hall that she would change caves, Qin Xi’s Summoning Talisman arrived immediately.

Upon hearing that Mo Tiange wanted to move into Qin Xi’s cave, the supervising disciple of Steward’s Hall almost dropped his jaw in surprise. Then he saw Mo Tiange smiling as she received the Summoning Talisman, and the supervising disciple couldn’t help beginning to imagine things immediately.

Mo Tiange was about to send a message back when she suddenly felt a Nascent Soul cultivator approaching. Then she saw Qin Xi landing with his flying cloud and walking in.

She was surprised. “Why are you here so fast?” She had just received the Summoning Talisman now!

Qin Xi smiled. “I just remembered I had to retrieve my spiritual beast from the foster Spiritual Beast House, so I went out.”

“Oh.” Mo Tiange nodded. Then she realized the supervising disciple was still present, so she said to him, “Okay, I’ll leave everything to you. Go do your job now.”

“Yes.” The disciple glanced between Mo Tiange and Qin Xi then saluted Qin Xi and prepared to leave. But he suddenly remembered that Qin Xi was no longer a Core Formation cultivator, so he saluted him even more respectfully in a hurry before leaving.

Mo Tiange looked at the back of the supervising disciple and sighed. “I suppose he must be thinking to himself that: Martial Uncle Qingwei looks quiet and small; who’d have thought that she would hook up with Grandmaster Shoujing? It’s true that deep rivers move in silence!

She imitated his tone and made Qin Xi laugh.

Upon seeing Qin Xi laughing, Mo Tiange also smiled and she asked, “Have you finished handling all your affairs?”

Qin Xi sat down beside her and held her waist naturally before answering, “What things would I need to handle with my small cave? A few questions for others would be enough.”

Mo Tiange nodded. “Right, there are advantages to a small cave.” After pausing for a while, she asked again, “About Master’s injuries, do you have any thoughts?”

Qin Xi straightened his face and said, “It’s useless to worry about it. I think we can go see Master again in a couple of days. You’d better not mention the Virtual Sky World to him. How about this—we can show Master some kinds of medicinal pills first, telling him that we found a lot of spirit herbs on Demonic Mountain. In that case, Master would believe that we’re capable of helping him, then he might tell us if there are any medicinal pills that can heal his injuries.”

“Okay.” Mo Tiange agreed. “What about Shui Linbo?”

This question stumped Qin Xi. “To be honest, I’ve never seen anyone so badly injured. I don’t know what to do either. There are several medical cultivators in our sect who may have a clearer understanding about injuries. Why don’t we ask them?”

“Oh, you’re right!” Mo Tiange remembered Senior Martial Brother Kuang Zhu on Soul’s Retreat Peak. I’ll just find a time and go ask him, Mo Tiange thought.

“It’s no use worrying about either of these two matters. But I have a matter to discuss with you now.”

“En?”

Qin Xi looked at her and said helplessly, “The significance of me forming my Nascent Soul isn’t trivial to the sect, so Martial Uncle Zhenyang said he’s going to hold a Soul-Formation Ceremony for me. Besides, we’ve taken a Blood Oath and become husband and wife, but we haven’t held a Dual Cultivation Ceremony…”

“Don’t…” Mo Tiange rejected it immediately. Then seeing Qin Xi looking confused, she had to explain with her head lowered, “It’s up to you regarding the Soul-Formation Ceremony, but can we not hold a Dual Cultivation Ceremony? I really don’t like…”

Qin Xi thought for a moment then nodded. “I know what you mean. I don’t like the atmosphere either. Okay then—I’ll tell Martial Uncle Zhenyang that we can announce our dual cultivation at the Soul-Formation Ceremony.”

Mo Tiange agreed with that, so she didn’t say anything else.