Yan Changlan couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed, but he remembered that he was currently with his fellow disciples. He quickly restrained his emotions and suppressed his disappointment—he believes Azhuo will certainly come, even if he is just a bit late. He can wait.
However, despite Yan Changlan’s attempts to reassure himself, he couldn’t help but feel a tinge of anxiety deep down, making him uneasy.
After walking for a while, Yan Changlan nearly bumped into Zhu Yao’s back. Fortunately, he reacted in time and stopped, realizing he had been somewhat lost in thought. Now, standing next to Zhu Yao, he asked, “Senior Brother Zhu, what’s the matter?”
Zhu Yao replied, “Someone is fighting up ahead.”
Yan Changlan was taken aback. “Is fighting allowed in the market?”
Zhu Yao said, “Of course not, but if it’s just a minor scuffle, they’ll simply be expelled.” He paused, “Let’s go have a look.”
Yan Changlan didn’t understand why they needed to watch the commotion.
Ruan Hongyi, standing nearby, couldn’t help but speak up, “These days, it’s our Qixiao Sect disciples who are enforcing the law. If the two fighting now cause trouble, we, as Qixiao Sect disciples, should stop them since we encountered it.”
Only then did Yan Changlan understand.
Xia Yuqing said gently, “Let’s go quickly. If someone gets hurt, it won’t be good.”
As they spoke, they took a few steps forward, bypassing the onlookers, and reached the front.
When they saw the scene before them, they all frowned.
Amidst the crowd of onlooking cultivators, a young cultivator at the third level of Qi Refining was being oppressed by a cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining—oppressed indeed. The young cultivator was already quite injured, holding a sword and struggling to defend himself, his face full of anger. The fifth-level Qi Refining cultivator, wielding a whisk, attacked the young one with left and right swipes. Each attack added new wounds to the young cultivator, while the attacker seemed to be playing, not taking the young cultivator’s counterattacks seriously at all.
Ruan Hongyi was the first to express her displeasure, “This person is truly despicable. Why is he humiliating others like this?”
Yan Changlan also admired the stubbornness in the young cultivator’s eyes and began to develop a distaste for the cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining. He didn’t know what had transpired between the two, but regardless, the behavior of the cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining was inappropriate.
Xia Yuqing and Zhu Yao calmly inquired with the people around them, and soon they understood what had happened.
Just a quarter of an hour ago, the young cultivator was walking down the street when a cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining came over in a rage. They collided, and the cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining seemed to have been offended, so he scolded the young cultivator and accused him of stealing a magic weapon. The young cultivator naturally refused to admit it, so the cultivator at the fifth layer of Qi Refining attacked him. After that, things happened as the others had seen.
A nearby cultivator sneered and said, “Calling it theft is just a baseless accusation. The young man clearly didn’t steal anything, and even the collision was caused by the other one’s anger. Now the one who caused the collision is turning the tables… I think the higher-level cultivator must have been frustrated somewhere else and is now taking it out on someone weaker.”
Yan Changlan and his companions fell silent.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Zhu Yao said, “Even if it were theft, there’s no excuse for such humiliation. Yuqing, let’s work together to stop him.”
Xia Yuqing smiled at him, “Alright.”
With that, Zhu Yao and Xia Yuqing stepped forward, placing themselves between the two fighting cultivators.
Zhu Yao raised his voice and said, “Fellow cultivators, fighting is not allowed in the market!”
As he spoke, he and Xia Yuqing moved in sync to separate the two fighters. Xia Yuqing protected the young cultivator by pulling him behind her, while Zhu Yao drew a long sword to block the cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining.
Both Zhu Yao and Xia Yuqing were at the fourth level of Qi Refining, not particularly high, but their intervention seemed to calm the cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining. He noticed the Qixiao Sect tokens hanging from their waists and stopped.
The cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining then put away his whisk and turned to leave.
Ruan Hongyi quickly rushed over to help the young cultivator up. “Are you alright?”
The young cultivator waved his hand. “I’m fine. Thank you all for your help today.”
Ruan Hongyi said straightforwardly, “It’s our duty as Qixiao Sect enforcers to stop anyone breaking the rules. You don’t need to thank us.”
The young cultivator smiled. “I still must thank you. I see that you are not the on-duty enforcement disciples, so your willingness to help is deserving of gratitude.”
Ruan Hongyi replied, “Alright, I’ll accept your thanks then.”
The young cultivator relaxed a bit upon hearing this. “I was really unlucky today, running into someone in a bad mood…”
At this point, Yan Changlan and the others were standing nearby, listening to him. They couldn’t help but silently praise his quick wit—he had understood the situation swiftly and responded accordingly.
After tidying himself up, the young cultivator asked, “I came here hoping to join the Qixiao Sect, but I don’t know how to enter the sect. I was looking for information when I ran into you. Could you possibly give me some guidance?”
Ruan Hongyi, being the most enthusiastic, grabbed him and said, “You want to join the sect? This year we are not accepting new disciples, but there is an opportunity in May next year. You can try then, and if you pass the test, you can join the sect.” She thought for a moment, then took out a spiritual root testing stone from her storage bag. “Come, come! Test your spiritual root. If it’s good, I’ll recommend you to my master!”
Zhu Yao and Xia Yuqing, who knew her well, were somewhat helpless seeing Ruan Hongyi’s enthusiasm.
Yan Changlan thought about it and wasn’t surprised—when he had first joined the sect, his junior sister had been just as lively. Her boldness now didn’t seem out of character.
The young cultivator was momentarily stunned but then boldly took the testing stone. “I was adopted by my old man. When he was alive, he taught me some basic techniques, but I never knew what kind of spiritual root I had. Now I can find out.”
He input his mana into the testing stone, and in an instant, it glowed with a red light.
Yan Changlan reacted swiftly. As soon as the red light appeared, he used his sheathed sword to cover the testing stone.
Zhu Yao and the others, standing close, saw the light and quickly noticed Yan Changlan’s swift action. They immediately moved to shield the young cultivator from onlookers.
Ruan Hongyi’s eyes widened. “Fire, fire—”
Xia Yuqing quickly covered her mouth.
Despite their efforts, some others noticed the young cultivator’s potential.
Zhu Yao made a quick decision. “Let’s go, back to the sect!”
Yan Changlan had no objections. With a quick exchange of glances with his fellow disciples, they each used their skills to swiftly take the young cultivator away.
Back at Qixiao Sect, to prevent any further delays, several disciples swiftly brought the young cultivator before Master Xun, the Peak Master of Baixiao Peak, and once again tested his spiritual roots. The red light burst forth again, visible to everyone. The testing stone glowed with a fiery red color, revealing that the young man, who had supposedly never had his spiritual roots tested before, actually possessed the rare Fire Attribute Heavenly Spiritual Root!
This was truly…remarkable.
The rarity of a Heavenly Spiritual Root was one thing, but to have such a rare root, and for it to belong to a cultivator who had been bullied by a cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining and had never even tested his own aptitude, was even more astonishing.
Master Xun made a decisive decision and accepted the young cultivator as his disciple. Afterwards, Zhu Yao took the young cultivator to receive various items and arranged his accommodation… Thus, they gained a new junior brother named “Ge Yuanfeng.”
Ge Yuanfeng had a proud spirit, resilient even when faced with adversity, but he had a cheerful and generous disposition. After becoming a “junior brother,” he got along very well with Ruan Hongyi. They often went down the mountain together and would return whispering to each other, leaving others curious about what they were up to.
One day, Ge Yuanfeng came to find Yan Changlan.
Yan Changlan was practicing swordsmanship when he saw his junior brother approaching and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Not far away, Ruan Hongyi also brought Zhu Yao and Xia Yuqing over, their faces full of helplessness.
Yan Changlan became increasingly puzzled.
Ruan Hongyi chuckled, “Senior brothers and sisters! We’re all fellow disciples. If our junior brother is being bullied, shouldn’t we bully back?”
Yan Changlan replied, “If the other party is being unreasonable, we should definitely seek justice for our junior brother.”
Hearing this, Zhu Yao looked even more helpless. “Third Junior Brother has always been upright. Fourth Junior Sister, why are you encouraging him again?”
Ruan Hongyi was indignant. “When did I encourage Third Senior Brother? Our junior brother was really being bullied!”
Seeing Yan Changlan completely puzzled, Xia Yuqing smiled at him. “It’s about what happened in the market before. These past few days, Fourth Junior Sister took our junior brother to inquire about the cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining. Now that they have the information, she came back to invite us to go and ‘bully’ that cultivator a bit in retaliation for our junior brother.”
Yan Changlan immediately understood.
Ruan Hongyi wrinkled her nose and said, “I’ve found out why that jerk took it out on Junior Brother. It’s because he had previously seen a magic weapon that he liked at the same time as someone else. But the other person offered a higher price, and he couldn’t outbid the shopkeeper’s assistant, so he left in anger. He couldn’t save up enough gold and silver, so why take it out on others? It’s his own fault he couldn’t buy a good magic weapon. Otherwise, wouldn’t that magic weapon be a pearl cast to swine?”
At this point, Ge Yuanfeng interjected, “Fourth Senior Sister and I went to that shop together. Although it’s a bit remote, the magical tools there are really good. If you senior brothers and sisters are interested in exchanging magical tools, you might find something there.”
The speaker had no intention, but the listener took it to heart.
Yan Changlan suddenly heard the words “good magical tools” and remembered the elusive Ye Shu he hadn’t found before. However, he didn’t dare to be too sure. After all, Jiutai City was different from the remote place where the Baixiao Sect was located. There were many craftsmen here, and many of them could craft excellent magical tools. Just because the magical tools in one shop were outstanding didn’t necessarily mean they were crafted by his dear friend.
However, he couldn’t help but become somewhat interested in that shop. He decided to wait until after his junior brother’s matter was settled before asking about the location of that shop and personally checking it out.
Xia Yuqing and Zhu Yao were also interested in the shop, but they still needed to care for their junior brother. So, they asked, “How do you two plan to retaliate against that cultivator?”
Ruan Hongyi thought for a moment. “Why not find a way to trap him and give him a beating? That should do it.”
Ge Yuanfeng nodded in agreement. “Exactly. I’ve suffered, so let him taste it too. However, my strength is lacking. It would be best if I could ask for help from you senior brothers and sisters… Let’s go quietly.”
The cultivator they were targeting was a rogue cultivator. Although he was at the fifth level of Qi Refining, his strength was actually not greater than either Zhu Yao or Xia Yuqing. Therefore, after some consideration, the two of them agreed.
Later that night, the group went to find the rogue cultivator. They caught him off guard, blocking his vision, and then proceeded to give him a thorough beating before leaving.
Ge Yuanfeng finally breathed a sigh of relief, saying, “That felt good.”
With that, the matter came to an end. Although the cultivator had some suspicions after being beaten, when he learned the truth of the matter, he didn’t dare to do much and eventually forgot about it.
The next day, Ruan Hongyi and Ge Yuanfeng eagerly dragged Yan Changlan and the other two to the magical tool shop.
Whether Zhu Yao and Xia Yuqing were interested is beside the point, but Yan Changlan… couldn’t be happier.
Finally.. they are going to meet. 😅
thamks for chapters ^.^