Chapter 5: This Girl Seems to Be an Ungrateful Wretch

Wei Changgeng withdrew his hand, the spiritual light at his fingertips fading away.

"How strange — such a tremendous commotion, yet not a trace of spiritual energy?"

He furrowed his brow slightly, gazing at the black ash on the ground, a flicker of puzzlement crossing his eyes.

What was this substance?

He crouched down, pinched a bit of the black ash between his fingers, and held it beneath his nose for a sniff.

Hmm?

Why did this smell so similar to the aftermath when those Old Fellows over at Pill Peak blew up their furnaces?

Had someone's alchemy furnace exploded?

Wei Changgeng froze for a moment, then shook his head.

What was he thinking?

Who would be doing alchemy out in the middle of the street? This surely couldn't be furnace slag.

Wei Changgeng dusted off his hands and stood up, waving dismissively at the other disciples. "Resume your patrol."

There were no fluctuations of spiritual energy, nor any signs of a fight. Though the scene was peculiar, it didn't seem to pose any real danger.

"Yes, sir!"

The disciples bowed respectfully, then left the alley and returned to their assigned areas to continue patrolling.

Wei Changgeng glanced left and right once more. Just as he was about to take to the air and leave, he suddenly heard a stream of curses coming from the alley on the other side — and faintly caught the two words "Feng Yang."

Who was cursing their Pill Peak Elder?

Wei Changgeng's face went stiff as he shot toward the source of the sound, appearing at Feng Ling'er's side in an instant.

"Who are you, and why are you spouting such insolence here?"

Feng Ling'er was sitting on the ground, still hurling abuse in the direction Bai Chen had left.

Wei Changgeng's sudden appearance gave her a tremendous fright.

After a moment to collect herself, she recognized the Elder's token hanging at Wei Changgeng's waist — the token of Hexu Sect — and asked tentatively, "Are you an Elder of Hexu Sect?"

Wei Changgeng's brow furrowed slightly.

What a rude little girl.

Feng Ling'er suddenly burst into tears with a wail.

"I want to find my great-uncle! Someone bullied me — Hexu Sect must stand up for me!"

Wei Changgeng was so assaulted by Feng Ling'er's wailing — like a demonic chant boring into his ears — that he involuntarily shut his eyes and raised his voice to cut her off.

"Silence! Who are you, and who is your great-uncle? Stand up and speak properly."

The shout, imbued with spiritual energy, immediately brought Feng Ling'er up short.

Feng Ling'er hiccupped, then rose from the ground with a sniffle and replied, "My name is Feng Ling'er. My great-uncle is Feng Yang, the Elder of Pill Peak."

"You are Feng Yang's niece, Feng Ling'er?"

Wei Changgeng looked her over with undisguised surprise.

"Shouldn't you have been escorted directly back to the sect by a guide envoy? How did you end up here?"

On the Xuancang Continent, children who triggered heavenly phenomena the moment they were born were taken into the sect early for protection. All others could only have their Spiritual Root talent assessed once they reached the age of fifteen.

Ordinary people who wished to determine whether they possessed a Spiritual Root had to travel to the various sects themselves and participate in the Disciple Recruitment Ceremony for testing.

However, great clans — owing to their considerable strength and large numbers of kin — were visited by guide envoys dispatched by nearby sects, who would travel to the clan's territory to test their recommended candidates.

Those who qualified would be escorted directly back to the sect under protection, with no need to attend the Disciple Recruitment Ceremony.

Feng Ling'er's clan, the Feng family, was included in the scope of guide envoy escorts because of Feng Yang's position.

And since she was a "relative" of the sect, the guide envoys sent to receive her numbered more than one, and all were of considerable cultivation.

There was simply no way she should have appeared here alone.

This was far too abnormal.

Hearing Wei Changgeng's question, Feng Ling'er was overcome with grief anew, and she sobbed out her account.

"I was on my way from home to Hexu Sect, with guide envoys escorting me. But halfway there, we were suddenly ambushed by the Demon Race! Those guide envoys from Hexu Sect were no match for the Demon Race at all — I nearly died on the road!"

At this, she cried even harder, her shoulders heaving with each sob.

"I barely managed to make it into Shunhe Quarter. I thought that once I was on the sect's territory, I'd finally be safe — but then I ran into three disgusting scoundrels who blocked my path and harassed me!"

She snapped her tear-streaked face upward, cheeks puffed with indignation as she made her accusation.

"And then there was some sneaky, skulking lecher! He appeared out of nowhere and set off some earth-shaking thing that nearly scared me to death!

"Scaring me wasn't enough for him — he grabbed my hand and dragged me along by force, and he wouldn't listen no matter how much I cursed at him! Elder Uncle, you must find that bastard for me. For treating me so disrespectfully, I will absolutely flay that bastard alive!"

Feng Ling'er delivered her tirade through a torrent of tears and snot, aggrieved beyond measure, as though she had suffered the greatest injustice in the world.

But Wei Changgeng's brow only creased deeper.

So the man and woman Chen Shouqing had mentioned earlier — the ones being chased — had been her.

Judging from both Chen Shouqing's account and her own description, this girl seemed to be an ungrateful wretch.

After she entered Shunhe Quarter and ran into those street thugs, it was the so-called "lecher" of hers who had used a device called a "Thunderclap Bomb" to save her.

Yet not only did she feel no gratitude, she had cursed her rescuer as a lecher and now wanted to track him down to repay kindness with malice.

As Wei Changgeng looked at Feng Ling'er, a clear dislike had already surfaced in his eyes.

That fellow Feng Yang was usually quiet and unassuming, seemingly without desires or ambitions.

How could his own flesh and blood be of such character?

"Silence."

"I will take you back to the mountain gate."

Wei Changgeng kept his face impassive as he grabbed Feng Ling'er by the back of her collar and took to the air, heading straight for the mountain gate.

He would hand her over to Feng Yang and see just how Feng Yang intended to deal with this fine niece of his.

* * *

Every time Bai Chen turned a corner, he would stop first, hold his breath, and listen carefully for any movement, while his peripheral vision swept rapidly over the alley behind him.

Only after confirming no one was following would he continue winding his way through the lanes.

He took three turns, deliberately walked down a dead-end alley, then climbed out through the back window of an abandoned warehouse — and only then made his way toward the small courtyard he rented.

The courtyard he rented sat in the most secluded corner of Shunhe Quarter.

Earthen walls and a wooden gate — it looked no different from the farmhouses around it.

When Bai Chen reached the courtyard gate, he did not push it open immediately. Instead, he crouched down and peered through the gap beneath the threshold.

Before leaving, he had wedged three thin blades of grass there.

The three blades of grass were still arranged in the same crossed pattern he had set them in when he left that morning — undisturbed.

Bai Chen gave a slight nod, pushed open the gate, and walked in. He then examined the door bolt once more.

He had wound a single strand of hair around the bolt, with one end tied to the door ring and the other pressed into the wooden groove of the bolt.

The strand of hair was also intact — neither broken nor shifted.

He moved to the window, confirmed that the leaf he had wedged into the window crack was still in place, and only then pushed open the door and entered.

Once inside, he turned and secured the bolt behind him, then dragged a stone slab from beside the door and braced it against the door panel.

Then he slipped under the bed and finally let out a long breath of relief.

"Phew — safe for now."

He knew that in a world of cultivation, none of this would stop someone with real power — but what he was guarding against was petty villains.

He had been spending a lot of money these past few days, and it was hard to avoid drawing the attention of thugs like that Skinny Monkey.

Better safe than sorry.

He had been so focused on running just now that he had only caught the System saying the copy was successful before it rattled on about something else he hadn't had time to hear.

Something about this being the first successful copy — what about it?

He hadn't caught it.

Bai Chen pulled the cloth wrapping from his face and excitedly brought up his attribute panel to check.