Lady Cultivator

Mo Tiange secretly brought Jiang Shanghang back. Once they entered their house, Mo Tiange went to knock on Liu Yidao’s door. “Senior Martial Brother Liu, Senior Martial Brother Liu!”

After a moment, Liu Yidao finally opened his door. “Junior Martial Brother Ye, what’s wrong?”

Mo Tiange pointed backward. Liu Yidao shifted his gaze and was shocked by what he saw. Jiang Shanghang, whose face was completely covered with blood, was sitting lopsided on a chair, looking like he was barely breathing.

Liu Yidao came out of his room and checked Jiang Shanghang’s injuries. Once he was certain they weren’t life-threatening, he looked out to make sure that no one was outside then asked in a whisper, “What happened?”

Mo Tiange pointed at Jiang Shanghang then at Liu Yidao’s room. “Senior Martial Brother Liu, we’d better go inside first before we talk.”

He pondered over her suggestion for a while before finally nodding his head. The front door of this house was still wide open; this was no place to talk indeed.

At this moment, the doors of two other rooms were opened. Xu Jingzhi and Qin Xi also walked out of their respective rooms.

Seeing the scene in front of them, Xu Jingzhi was also shocked while Qin Xi furrowed his brows deeply.

Liu Yidao gestured at them to stay quiet and brought Jiang Shanghang to his room. He fetched a medicinal pill and fed it to Jiang Shanghang before hinting at the rest of them to come inside. It was only after the door was closed and a formation had been laid that he asked, “Junior Martial Brother Ye, what happened?”

Mo Tiange recited her experience. In the end, she said, “From what I saw, that Jiang Chengxian looked like he wasn’t afraid Senior Martial Brother Jiang would tell others about this matter. Because of that, I also didn’t dare to disclose the matter and secretly brought him back here.”

Xu Jingzhi interrupted her: “What Junior Martial Brother Ye did was correct. One of the two Core Formation grandmasters in the Jiang Clan is Jiang Chengxian’s direct elder. Having the protection of an elder makes him completely lawless. Since he dared to beat Senior Martial Brother Jiang into this state, he must’ve been sure people wouldn’t dare to do anything against him. If he found out that Junior Martial Brother Ye was the one who brought Senior Martial Brother Jiang back, Junior Martial Brother Ye might get in trouble.”

The rest of them weren’t as knowledgeable as Xu Jingzhi in matters about clans, sects, and schools, so none of them voiced an objection.

Mo Tiange’s expression looked bitter as she said, “I just thought that if I left Senior Martial Brother Jiang there, even if he could survive, he’d most likely be left with injuries. Besides, that Jiang Chengxian really bullied others too far!”

Liu Yidao patted her shoulder and consolingly said, “Rest assured, we’re the only ones who know about this, so everything should be okay as long as we don’t tell others. In the future, we should also tell Junior Martial Brother Jiang to go out less. Other people’s schemes are really hard to guard against…”

Among the group, Xu Jingzhi was the only one who came from a little cultivation clan while the others were individual cultivators. None of them had good impressions of sons of wealthy clans who liked to use their position to bully others. If he was to be compared to these wealthy sons, Jiang Shanghang was better since he was merely cold towards others.

Several people nodded their heads. Xu Jingzhi asked, “How’s Senior Martial Brother Jiang’s injuries?”

“Although his dantian wasn’t injured, his meridians were damaged. It’s not really serious, but his recovery will take some time.”

Having determined that Jiang Shanghang would be alright, everyone broke up. Xu Jingzhi and Qin Xi went to cultivate. As for Mo Tiange, she felt she had meddled in other people’s business and felt bad about leaving Liu Yidao to clean up her mess, so she stayed behind.

The two of them chatted idly. When nightfall arrived, they finally saw Jiang Shanghang moving.

Jiang Shanghang opened his eyes, looking at the two of them in confusion. Soon, alertness appeared in his eyes as he sat up abruptly. The pain from his wounds instantly made him grimace.

Liu Yidao appeased him: “Junior Martial Brother Jiang, rest assured, we won’t tell anyone about this.”

Seeing that this wasn’t his own room but the two men present didn’t seem hostile, Jiang Shanghang finally regained his composure. He asked, “Did you guys save me?” His tone was still negative; it was as if the real meaning of his question was: How could you guys save me?

After going through much difficulty to bring him back, Mo Tiange was unhappy to get this kind of response. She “hmphed” and said, “I just took you as a dead pig and brought you back. Since you’re alright, return the healing medicine back to Senior Martial Brother Liu and go back to your own room.”

Jiang Shanghang didn’t object. He took out a jade bottle from inside his robe and placed it on the table before trying to get off the bed and leave the room.

Watching Jiang Shanghang’s shaky movements, Liu Yidao helped him up while advising him, “Junior Martial Brother Jiang, you’d better go out less in the future. This time, it was fortunate that Junior Martial Brother Ye saw you and brought you back, otherwise…”

Jiang Shanghang uttered an “en” and said, “Thank you, Senior Martial Brother Liu.” Then he went back to his own room, shutting the door in Liu Yidao’s face. Obviously, he didn’t feel grateful at all.

Mo Tiange was angry. She said to Liu Yidao, “He really takes people’s goodwill for bad intent!”

Liu Yidao naturally didn’t feel happy to see Jiang Shanghang like that. However, he experienced a lot of things and was very mature, so he advised her, “Forget it. Since Junior Martial Brother Jiang doesn’t want to have any relations with us, in the future, we just need to stop interacting with him.”

Mo Tiange felt what he said was true. Anyway, they didn’t need to have any interactions with him. This time, she just happened to pass by so she brought him back; she didn’t need to be angry over such matters. She said, “So be it, Senior Martial Brother Liu. I’m going back to cultivate first.”

Except for this one episode, there weren’t any variations to Mo Tiange’s daily life. Oh! There was indeed one small change. That Senior Martial Sister Murong really did come looking for her to play by sending Summoning Talismans to her. Her housemates thought she was fooling around with someone, so they often gave her ambiguous smiles. Nevertheless, since Senior Martial Sister Murong had been so friendly in inviting her, it wouldn’t be appropriate if she didn’t go. Besides, this Senior Martial Sister Murong always brought all kinds of seeds to tempt her, so she really couldn’t help herself from going…

“Junior Martial Brother Ye, hurry up!”

“We can’t be hasty… Senior Martial Sister, don’t be impatient.”

Murmurs appeared from the grass. Two people seemed to be in a struggle.

“Done!” Mo Tiange eventually added the last layer of seasoning then passed the roast meat in her hands to Murong Yan. This Senior Martial Sister Murong really had the same interests as her. Every time she asked her out, it was only for one matter—to roast some meat for her to eat!

Mo Tiange thought to herself. For the past little while, almost every two days, she had to go out and accompany Murong Yan, so her cultivation hadn’t progressed at all. She frowned and said, “Senior Martial Sister, eating like this too often will disturb your cultivation…”

Murong Yan gnawed on a spare rib while rolling her eyes. “Don’t think I don’t know that the food contains spiritual aura and contains less harmful residue than the medicinal pills you eat! You just don’t want to roast meat for me!”

Mo Tiange smiled wryly. “It isn’t that I don’t want to respect Senior Martial Sister, but Senior Martial Sister, you have a huge tree behind you that can shelter you under its shade, so to speak. You don’t understand the difficulties faced by ordinary disciples like me. In another three years, the sect’s inner competition will be held. I’m currently in the eighth layer, and if I don’t cultivate diligently, I reckon by that time I won’t have any hope and can only wait for another ten years…”

Having listened to Mo Tiange’s explanation, Murong Yan actually understood. She pondered it for a moment then said, “I’m sorry for delaying your cultivation. How about this, Junior Martial Brother? Just send me a Summoning Talisman every time you secretly go to eat. This should be okay, right?”

What “secretly go to eat”?  Mo Tiange, feeling depressed, nodded her head. “That shouldn’t be a problem.”

While nibbling on a huge chunk of spare rib, Murong Yan giggled and reached out to pinch Mo Tiange’s face. “Aiya! Junior Martial Brother Ye, this expression of yours really makes Senior Martial Sister want to bully you~”

With grease smeared on her face, Mo Tiange firmly resisted. “Senior Martial Sister, you’re very bad! If you keep pinching me, I won’t roast anything for you again!”

Murong Yan was still giggling. “If you stop roasting, I’ll just pinch you again.”

Mo Tiange lost this round and retreated. “Fine, I’ll roast you another one. Don’t pinch me.”

Now that she’d been bribed, Murong Yan finally let Mo Tiange’s face go. She watched Mo Tiange roasting a chunk of meat with overflowing saliva and asked, “Junior Martial Brother Ye, are you really seventeen years old? Why do you look like a fourteen, fifteen-year-old boy?”

This remark made Mo Tiange feel even more depressed. This was really something she couldn’t do anything about. Even among girls, she couldn’t be considered tall, let alone among men. Moreover, her skin was bright and smooth and her face was hairless; she had to work extremely hard to pretend to be a man.

Fortunately, Murong Yan could be considered a kindhearted person. She patted Mo Tiange’s head and said, “Don’t worry, you’re still growing.”

However, Mo Tiange smiled bitterly in her heart. If she was a man, she might still be growing at seventeen years old. Unfortunately, she wasn’t. Her chance of growing taller was already slim.

Mo Tiange dejectedly finished roasting the meat and passed it to Murong Yan. She then went looking for a place to wash her hands and face.

Their spot was already the upper reaches of the small stream. There was a waterfall ahead. The water had eroded the ground underneath it and formed a deep pond.

After taking numerous turns, she finally reached the pond and was about to wash her hands when something she saw stunned her.

Under the rapid flow of water from this hundred-foot-high waterfall, there was actually someone sitting there in meditation!

But “sitting” wasn’t the right word. Under the waterfall was a deep pond; there weren’t any rocks to be sat on. Although that person looked like he was sitting, he was, in fact, floating on the water surface as he let the waterfall run against his body.

Mo Tiange was lost in thought.  What kind of technique is he practicing?  This seemed rather like martial arts in the secular world.

As a matter of fact, martial artists in the secular world actually practiced Body-Refining Technique; this technique just wasn’t as brilliant as it would be if it was practiced in the cultivation world.

However, this person… Mo Tiange couldn’t really explain it, but he seemed to have no cultivator’s breath. He also seemed to be very strong…

This person… he seemed very familiar to her… He looked like… Qin Xi?