Lady Cultivator

Ren Yufeng’s attitude immediately changed after he learned that Mo Tiange was Lord Daoist Xuanyin’s disciple. Although he didn’t treat her dismissively like he treated Jiang Shanghang and his other fellow disciples, he was just being polite on the surface before. Now, however, even his gaze was suffused with respect.

A Nascent Soul cultivator’s disciple—even if they were only a registered disciple—was still several times nobler than disciples of Core Formation cultivators. Besides, according to Ren Yufeng’s estimates, she was most likely an official disciple. It hadn’t been long since Lord Daoist Xuanyin formed his Nascent Soul, so most of his disciples were definitely still in the Foundation Building realm. Moreover, based on her cultivation level and methods of doing things, Mo Tiange was good enough to be an advanced inner disciple of a Core Formation cultivator.

Although Ren Yufeng corrected his attitude, his heart was also filled with envy. Why did other people have such luck? People like her worshipped a Core Formation cultivator as her master and as it happened, her master unexpectedly formed his Nascent Soul, while he had to go through all this trouble for himself…

However, no matter how envious Ren Yufeng was, he still had to display a courteous attitude now. Fortunately, Mo Tiange wasn’t arrogant, so he didn’t think it was too hard to bear.

While the two of them chatted, Lu Rongsheng’s and Xiang Zhiyang’s injuries were finally treated.

“Senior Martial Brother Ren.” It was the early stage Foundation Building cultivator named Tang Fang. He seemed to be the youngest among the nine people of Zhengfa Sect. He shyly sneaked a glance at Mo Tiange then said to Ren Yufeng, “Senior Martial Brother Lu and Senior Martial Brother Xiang seem stable now, so are we going to proceed now?”

“Oh.” Ren Yufeng looked around. Sure enough, Lu Rongsheng and Xiang Zhiyang were already on their feet. Although their faces were still pale, they already looked much more at ease. The carcass of the fifth rank Water Carp Beast had also been dealt with. “Then let’s continue.”

Ren Yufeng turned towards Mo Tiange and said, “Junior Martial Sister Ye, you don’t mind if we divide the demonic beast’s carcass up after we leave the Land of Hiding Dragon, right?”

“I don’t mind.”

The group of ten once again gathered around to proceed with Ren Yufeng leading the group.

Mo Tiange went along with the group silently, but she had a bad hunch in her heart.

Lu Rongsheng’s and Xiang Zhiyang’s injuries looked severe. Even though their injuries had been treated, they mostly wouldn’t have any strength. Ren Yufeng was too arrogant. Tang Fang and Yu Xiaoran were too inexperienced and the two female cultivators, Ai Xian and Xia Houyuan, seemed very passive. There was another male cultivator named Qiu Zhiming whom Mo Tiange still didn’t have an opinion on yet. As for Jiang Shanghang, she knew him well. Both his means and his wisdom were high, so he was the only one she could partner with.

The prospects weren’t great for this group, as they were entering a place that had been guarded by a fifth rank demonic beast.

She really didn’t believe what Ren Yufeng said about this place only having a fifth rank demonic beast guarding the door and so on. How could a place containing so-called “divine dragon’s breath” be simple?

As they proceeded in silence, Ren Yufeng suddenly made everyone stop. He turned around and said, “Junior Martial Brothers, Junior Martial Sisters, we’ve arrived at the divine dragon monument—prepare to lift the restriction!”

Arrived? Mo Tiange was filled with doubt. Didn’t the divine dragon monument possess divine dragon’s breath? Why hadn’t she sensed it at all? She lifted her eyes and looked around. There wasn’t the slightest difference in the surrounding scenery compared to the scenery elsewhere—there was still dark blue seawater and coral all over the place.

“Junior Martial Sister Ye,” Ren Yufeng called, “There’s a restriction around the divine dragon monument, so we have to remove it before we can enter. Junior Martial Brother Xiang and Junior Martial Brother Lu are injured, and the others’ cultivation levels are too low. You have to help me with this one.”

Mo Tiange muttered pensively for a moment but in the end, she nodded. “…Alright.” Aside from her, there were no other middle stage Foundation Building cultivators there.

Upon obtaining her compliance, Ren Yufeng pointed at a spot next to him and said, “This restriction was placed by the Nascent Soul seniors from our sect. I have a method to temporarily lift the restriction, but it requires too much spiritual aura, so we have to lay a Spirit-Gathering Formation first. Nonetheless, a makeshift Spirit-Gathering Formation can’t accommodate so many people. Right now, Junior Martial Sister Ye has the highest cultivation level aside from me, so I have to ask Junior Martial Sister Ye to stand within the Spirit-Gathering Formation with me. Later on, Junior Martial Sister Ye will only need to transfer spiritual aura to me.”

After Mo Tiange stood at the designated spot, Ren Yufeng promptly laid a simple Spirit-Gathering Formation around the two of them.

Mo Tiange looked at the formation. This Spirit-Gathering Formation wasn’t ordinary—it seemed to be the product of a Core Formation cultivator. This Ren Yufeng seemed to have many possessions, so how could he possibly have had no methods to deal with that Water Carp Beast from before?

She didn’t have time to ponder more thoroughly. The Spirit-Gathering Formation was laid, and Ren Yufeng started using an art. He took out a Jade Slip then made a slash on his finger, forcing out a drop of his blood essence which he then dripped onto the Jade Slip. A thread of bright light rose from the Jade Slip and in the next second, the Spirit-Gathering Formation emitted a blinding light. Spiritual aura gathered madly in the formation.

“Junior Martial Sister Ye, lend me a hand!” Ren Yufeng shouted.

Without saying anything, Mo Tiange clasped her hands to gather the spiritual aura then pressed her hands against Ren Yufeng’s back, injecting the spiritual aura into his meridians.

The light from the Jade Slip grew increasingly brighter and eventually converged into a beam of spiritual light. Mo Tiange felt that in a split second, all the spiritual aura inside her was gushing into Ren Yufeng’s body like crazy—to be exact, she wasn’t transferring spiritual aura into Ren Yufeng’s body but rather, Ren Yufeng was absorbing her spiritual aura!

The Jade Slip was absorbing Ren Yufeng’s and her spiritual auras, but it was still greedily absorbing the spiritual aura from the Spirit-Gathering Formation. Mo Tiange was helpless. She fumbled for a Restorative Panacea and stuffed it into her mouth. However, the bit of additional spiritual aura she received was quickly depleted as it was also absorbed by the Jade Slip.

Mo Tiange’s expression changed. What kind of restriction was this in the end? They already had the token to open it but it still required such a huge amount of spiritual aura; it was really too overbearing!

Fortunately, just as her spiritual aura was almost empty from being absorbed, the Jade Slip stopped absorbing spiritual aura. Ren Yufeng suddenly shouted, and the Jade Slip once again emitted a burst of bright light which drowned all of them inside it…

Mo Tiange felt something starting. Soon after, a formidable force rushed into her body, suddenly bursting into her meridians tyrannically.

“AH—” A sudden wave of extreme pain struck her. From her meridians to her internal organs, everything was grounded by that force, causing her to practically lose consciousness.

“Junior Martial Sister Ye! Junior Martial Sister Ye!”

In her half-conscious state, she heard someone calling her. This was… Jiang Shanghang’s voice!

Jiang Shanghang said somewhat angrily to Ren Yufeng, “Senior Martial Brother Ren, are you trying to kill Junior Martial Sister Ye!? This restriction bounced back, yet you actually let Junior Martial Sister Ye bear that force by herself!”

After a while, Ren Yufeng’s somewhat annoyed voice came through. “I didn’t expect Junior Martial Sister Ye’s cultivation to be so profound that the spiritual aura she transferred to me would surpass my own. That force automatically rushed towards her; I didn’t have time to…”

Right afterward came Ai Xian’s haughty voice, “Junior Martial Brother Jiang, what do you mean? Would Senior Martial Brother Ren deliberately have let your Junior Martial Sister Ye get injured?” When she reached the latter part, her tone was contemptuous. Her meaning was obvious.

Jiang Shanghang was enraged. “Senior Martial Sister Ai! I was the one who invited Junior Martial Sister Ye, so I naturally have to ensure her safety!”

“Then what are you roaring at Senior Martial Brother Ren for?” Ai Xian wasn’t willing to yield in the slightest. “Don’t forget your position! You’re just an ordinary disciple while Senior Martial Brother Ren’s an elite disciple! You actually have the guts to talk to Senior Martial Brother Ren like that?”

Jiang Shanghang stopped refuting, but Mo Tiange could feel the hands, which were holding her, shaking.

At that moment, whatever resentment Mo Tiange had towards Jiang Shanghang also vanished. With Jiang Shanghang’s status in Zhengfa Sect, he hadn’t dared to offend Ren Yufeng before, so the fact that he was willing to defend her now was indeed a feat.

Ren Yufeng didn’t know? Mo Tiange sneered inwardly. She was already on guard against him, but she never expected him to actually scheme against her before they even entered the underground palace! Apparently, she still wasn’t cautious enough! It’d never crossed her mind that Ren Yufeng would dare to plot against her like this despite knowing she was Lord Daoist Xuanyin’s disciple!

However, Ren Yufeng probably didn’t know that her meridians were different from most other people’s meridians, right? For her, this kind of rebounding force, which might’ve severely injured ordinary cultivators, wasn’t very forceful against her. As long as she took a moment to recuperate, she could recover 80% of her previous condition. At that time, she’d just need to take a Green Amplifying Pill and regulate her breath and she’d be fine.

Someone opened Mo Tiange’s mouth then stuffed a medicinal pill into it. After that, Jiang Shanghang transmitted his voice into her mind: “Junior Martial Brother Ye, I didn’t protect you well. If you’re still conscious, you should quickly recuperate. I’ll definitely help you out of here safely.”

Upon hearing what he said, Mo Tiange swallowed the pill then silently moved the spiritual aura inside her body.

She didn’t know what kind of medicinal pill Jiang Shanghang gave her, but once it entered her stomach, a thread of ice-cold spiritual aura burst and spread around her body freely, alleviating her pain in an instant.

“Junior Martial Brother Jiang.” The annoyance in Ren Yufeng’s voice was gone. “It seems the relationship between you and Junior Martial Sister Ye isn’t a normal one!”

Jiang Shanghang said coldly, “The friendship between me and Junior Martial Sister Ye has gone through life and death tribulations, so it’s naturally not like a normal friendship.”

“In other words, you’re very unhappy with me now?”

“How would I dare?!” Although he said that, Jiang Shanghang’s tone wasn’t as soft as it was before. “Senior Martial Brother Ren naturally doesn’t have to explain what he’s doing to an ordinary disciple like me.”

“It’s good you understand that!” Ai Xian cut him off and said, “If there was no Senior Martial Brother Ren, we basically wouldn’t have been able to enter, let alone look for treasures! You wouldn’t be that stupid to fight us just for Junior Martial Sister Ye, would you?”

“Of course not.” Jiang Shanghang slowly took a deep breath. “I’m a Zhengfa Sect disciple after all, and Senior Martial Brothers and Sisters all have higher statuses than me…”

“Junior Martial Brother Jiang, you’re always sensible—you don’t let me down.” Ren Yufeng unexpectedly spoke kindly, “We’re disciples from the same sect. Why should we lose our friendship for an outsider? Since Junior Martial Sister Ye unfortunately suffered serious injuries, there’s nothing we can do about that; our hunt for treasure is more important. We should enter the underground palace first and take Junior Martial Sister Ye with us when we leave…”

“Senior Martial Brother Ren!” Jiang Shanghang said, “This place isn’t really safe. What’d happen if we left Junior Martial Sister Ye alone and she encountered danger?”

“We’ll also face danger when we look for treasures!” This time, although Ren Yufeng no longer sounded arrogant, his insincere tone was even more unpleasant to hear. “If Junior Martial Sister Ye’s that unlucky, she can only blame her own bad luck.”

“…” Jiang Shanghang was silent for a long time.

Ren Yufeng continued on calmly: “Of course, I also can’t do anything if Junior Martial Brother Jiang wants to keep Junior Martial Sister Ye company. How about this then—we won’t close the entrance to the underground palace, so the two of you can enter whenever Junior Martial Sister Ye wakes up. How’s that?”

What he said sounded reasonable, but he was the only one who knew what the situation inside the underground palace was like. He gathered so many people to come looking for treasure, but he was willing to throw the two of them in there alone—by the time the two of them entered the underground palace, how big would their odds of survival be? Mo Tiange sneered in her heart. This Ren Yufeng was really shameless; he was still plotting against her even now. When her injuries were recovered, she’d definitely have to get him back!

Jiang Shanghang remained silent, but Mo Tiange could imagine his internal struggle. He longed to become strong and to advance to the next realm, so for him, this treasure hunt was very important. If he had to give this up, he would indeed be very unwilling.

In fact, even if Jiang Shanghang didn’t stay behind, Mo Tiange wouldn’t be afraid. Her injuries weren’t heavy, and she could wake up at any time. Nevertheless, she still hoped Jiang Shanghang would stay behind.