Chapter Fifty-Six: The Market of Lingnan

Xiner~~

Choosing to continue addressing Chu Xiner as “Master,” Xiao Wenzi had his own reasons. Not to mention anything else, by following the young girl before him, he could at least easily obtain the blood of minor cultivators.

Yet he hadn’t expected that Chu Xiner would treat him as a friend and ask him to call her Xiner instead.

Truth be told, Xiao Wenzi also didn’t want to keep calling others “Master” every day. Calling the little girl “Xiner” felt much like the affectionate nicknames he’d used for his girlfriend in his previous life, and it brought him genuine joy.

“Mhm, Xiao Wen, what are your plans from now on? Whether you choose to stay or leave, I won’t stand in your way.”

Hearing him change the manner of address just as she’d hoped, Chu Xiner nodded softly and asked if he still wished to stay by her side.

“Xiner, I won’t be leaving you for now, at least not until you can no longer help me capture cultivators for their blood,” Xiao Wenzi replied, not making any binding promises, but Chu Xiner, understanding his meaning, was already smiling brightly.

For one at his current level, Xiao Wen had managed to ambush and seriously injure the Cangshan Twin Heroes of the Eleventh Heaven. If he continued to grow, he could very well wipe out Golden Core or Nascent Soul cultivators with ease.

Not to mention he’d saved her; even for the sake of potential future assistance, Chu Xiner was willing to make sacrifices.

“Oh, right, Xiner, do you really believe that Huang Yipeng’s arrival was just a coincidence?”

Now that he’d chosen to be friends with Chu Xiner, Xiao Wenzi began to think from her perspective and directly asked about Huang Yipeng.

“No, I don’t. I even suspect he’s the one who took my storage pouch, but I have no proof. This place is remote, and to prevent him from acting out of desperation, I could only feign ignorance and deal with him superficially earlier…”

Mentioning Huang Yipeng, the smile vanished from Chu Xiner’s face. She bit her lip in anger.

Hearing her say so, Xiao Wenzi was reassured. Next, Chu Xiner spent a short time imprinting and refining her flying sword artifact, then transformed into a streak of light soaring into the sky.

Not only had she lost all her possessions this time, but she’d also misplaced two precious spiritual herbs. Chu Xiner’s losses were severe, and she was unwilling to return to the sect just yet. Her goal remained Blackrock Forest.

Without her spiritual beast pouch, until she could buy a new one, Xiao Wenzi could only perch on her fragrant shoulder.

Thus, to avoid exposing the secrets of his system, he refrained from exchanging for Monster Gathering Pills to cultivate for now. Instead, he could seize the opportunity to whisper sweet nothings close to Chu Xiner’s ear.

Chu Xiner was no brainless, naïve beauty. Since she suspected Huang Yipeng, it was only natural that she was cautious about the storage pouch he gave her.

However, the tracking imprint was extremely subtle, and their cultivation levels differed greatly, so she noticed nothing unusual.

Still, adhering to the principle that caution never hurts, when she found a lone cultivator of the Fourth Heaven on a mountain peak, Chu Xiner captured him for Xiao Wenzi to drain his blood. She also swapped his storage pouch for her own, since both were the lowest-grade, ordinary storage devices.

Naturally, Chu Xiner pocketed everything inside the unfortunate cultivator’s pouch—since she was so short on resources now, who could blame her?

Time passed slowly, soon night arrived. Chu Xiner didn’t stay in town.

Aside from occasionally meditating to restore her spiritual power, she devoted all her time to traveling, deliberately making several detours along the way to avoid being tracked.

“Damn it, that girl is definitely suspicious now.”

By dusk the next day, realizing something was amiss after interrogating the unlucky rogue cultivator, Huang Yipeng cursed furiously.

Too much time had passed, and he could no longer locate Chu Xiner.

Having spent another half day searching fruitlessly, he had no choice but to return to his sect in frustration.

After traveling over a thousand miles non-stop, Chu Xiner was confident Huang Yipeng could no longer track her. She decided to find an inn tonight to rest.

After all, she’d just survived a life-and-death crisis and trekked for more than ten hours. Her body and spirit were exhausted.

Moreover, with Xiao Wen guarding her, Chu Xiner felt at ease. She intended to take this chance for a proper rest.

Yunling Town, located in the southeast of Tiannan County, was an ordinary settlement. Though its population numbered over ten thousand, they were all common folk.

Since her artifact mask was still intact, Chu Xiner’s delicate and stunning face was hidden. As she entered the town and checked into an inn, she drew little attention.

Before long, Chu Xiner was fast asleep under the brocade quilt in her room—clearly, she was utterly spent and needed rest.

Meanwhile, Xiao Wenzi, seated in a chair in the outer room, continued to cultivate, swallowing mid-grade Monster Gathering Pills one after another, rapidly advancing his cultivation.

Just like with cultivators’ techniques, the higher the grade, the harder it was to break through to the next realm.

Naturally, speed of advancement also depended on the practitioner’s constitution and the resources available.

Take Xiao Wenzi, for example: he’d managed to break through to the middle stage of the Fourth Heaven in a matter of months, relying solely on vast amounts of spiritual liquid and pills.

Now possessing over thirteen hundred Fourth Heaven system coins, Monster Gathering Pills were supplied without restraint. By the latter half of the night, after consuming more than a dozen mid-grade pills in succession, he sensed the opportunity for a breakthrough.

Seizing the moment, Xiao Wenzi swallowed another four or five Monster Gathering Pills. His body brimmed with pure, potent monster spiritual power; his Blood Spirit Art whirled at full speed. By dawn, he had finally stepped into the late stage of the Fourth Heaven of Monster Qi.

“Oh! Xiao Wen, you’ve gotten even stronger. Wonderful, wonderful!”

After a refreshing sleep, Chu Xiner arose, pushed open the door, and immediately sensed the surge of monster power in the outer room. Noticing Xiao Wenzi’s obviously strengthened aura, she couldn’t help but express her delight.

“Mhm, Xiner, I owe it to you for capturing cultivators for me. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have improved so quickly…”

Xiao Wenzi replied with a smile. After all, he still needed Chu Xiner to seek out lone cultivators for him—how could he be stingy with praise?

Laughing and chatting, Chu Xiner led Xiao Wenzi out of the inn, departing Yunling Town.

Her destination remained Blackrock Forest to search for spiritual herbs, while also assisting Xiao Wenzi in advancing his realm.

But before that, they needed to visit a cultivator’s marketplace to purchase supplies, including a spiritual beast pouch for Xiao Wenzi to reside in.

As an inner disciple of Greenleaf Sect and an experienced traveler, Chu Xiner was well-acquainted with the various cultivation sects and marketplaces throughout Tiannan County.

Half a day later, she stopped her flying light outside a marketplace called Lingnan and entered.

Lingnan Marketplace, unlike the remote Tianyun Valley deep in the mountains, was essentially like any bustling secular town, except for the illusion arrays at its perimeter to keep ordinary folk away.

Of course, here, both sellers and buyers were almost entirely cultivators.

The protective illusion outside Lingnan Marketplace had no offensive capability; anyone with decent cultivation could easily enter.

Before entering, Xiao Wenzi slipped from Chu Xiner’s shoulder into her sleeve, hiding his aura and remaining motionless. Unless someone deliberately probed, he would not be discovered.