Chapter 5: All for Survival, Except Treating Others to a Meal

Five years passed in the blink of an eye. The Three Thousand Immortal Steps were still covered in fallen leaves, and the Giant Spirit Tree remained lush and full. It had entered a new blooming season, with pale purple petals drifting in the wind, forming a mottled path leading straight to the heavens.

Under the Giant Spirit Tree, three people were sweeping the ground while chatting idly.

“Shen Si, when is Sister Lian coming back?”

“I don’t know either.” Shen Si swung his broom lifelessly. “She found a job down the mountain and hasn’t had time to come sweep lately. She told us to cover for her for a few more days.”

There was no helping it—after all, they were the grandsons under Lian Mu’s staff.

Shen Si sighed, recalling how, over the past five years, they had gone from being the bosses of the Three Thousand Immortal Steps area to being reduced to lackeys at her beck and call.

It really was like they were cursed.

Ever since they were first beaten by her, Shen Si and the others had been burning with rage, feeling utterly unconvinced. So after recovering from their injuries, they sought another chance to corner Lian Mu again.

After the first encounter, the second time became familiar. Having learned his lesson, Shen Si deliberately chose a deserted place to fight back. However, he didn’t expect that the other party wouldn’t follow the usual script. Even barehanded, she still managed to break a few of their arms.

She was highly skilled at avoiding her weaknesses, never engaging in a direct contest of brute force. Instead, she took advantage of her small stature, dodging faster than anyone else. Every move she made was unexpected, yet precisely targeted, using softness to counter hardness. Her actions were practiced, as if she had drilled them countless times before.

Every time they sought trouble, they would return with broken arms or aching pressure points, leaving them unable to get out of bed the next day.

Especially in the past two years, as Lian Mu started to grow taller, she somehow acquired many spirit stones, allowing her to eat and drink well. Her physique gradually returned to normal, and with her constant training, they stood even less of a chance against her.

Shen Si increasingly felt that Lian Mu was possessed. His fear and awe of her grew day by day, and eventually, he simply surrendered without resistance.

The other two also accepted reality. Instead of getting beaten every day, it was better to serve obediently. Although Lian Mu was usually stingy, possessive over food, and fond of exploiting others, she would sometimes share a few extra steamed buns when in a good mood—leftovers she didn’t want to waste.

Lian Mu spent most of her time sweeping the mountain paths. It was said she had saved up a sum of spirit stones. Over the years, she lived comfortably, and she was always the first to snatch up the mantou (steamed bun) from Yasui peak.

Shen Si took on the tasks of cooking and fetching water for Lian Mu, handling all the chores. She never asked them to help sweep, instead offering to sweep their assigned areas herself—because it meant she could get an extra meal.

She never passed up an opportunity for an extra meal.

With others handling the chores, she had plenty of free time. After sweeping, she would either train or simply lie down.

But in the past two months, Lian Mu had frequently gone down the mountain, running around to earn spirit stones. She was rarely seen from dawn to dusk.

Among the three, one of them was a bootlicker, eager to please, and took the initiative to clean Lian Mu’s area for her. Shen Si naturally couldn’t sit by and watch someone else gain favor, so he joined in as well.

“It’s been days since we got beaten. Sure enough, ever since she left, our bodies feel stronger.” They had once been foolish enough to repeatedly provoke Lian Mu, angering her to the point that she would drag them out under the excuse of “combat training” to use them as practice dummies.

“Just focus on sweeping. If we don’t finish, our food rations will be cut.”

“Got it, got it. Do you have to be so annoying?”

—

Meanwhile, in Xi City’s Peony Market

The person they were talking about was currently chatting with someone.

The Peony Market in Xi City was a place for buying and selling flowers and birds. Most of the plants here were visually striking but purely ornamental, with little practical use. The birds and insects were common varieties, lively but unremarkable.

Lian Mu wasn’t here for herself; she was accompanying someone. A month ago, through an introduction, she had come into contact with an underground organization in Xi City. This group specialized in training recruits, then pricing them based on their abilities and hiring them out as temporary guards to wealthy families. The earnings were split fifty-fifty between the individual and the organization.

In Xi City, those who needed such services were ordinary people without any combat ability. Spirit power wasn’t required—just good fighting skills.

Lian Mu had only trained for half a month before she ranked among the top ten temporary guards, earning several sums of spirit stones. Recently, she had received the biggest job since she started.

Her employer was the young lady of a prestigious family from the misty southwestern Wu Ridge. Unable to endure an arranged marriage, she had secretly run away.

Lian Mu had little information. The client had arranged to meet her at the Peony Market, but after waiting half an hour, her legs were getting numb, and there was still no sign of the person. Meanwhile, a fruit vendor beside her was chattering non-stop, telling stories from childhood memories to neighborhood family dramas, filling her ears with gossip.

The vendor generously gave her two crisp peaches to snack on. Just as Lian Mu took a bite, a black butterfly suddenly fluttered over and landed directly on her peach.

“You must be Lian Mu?”

She had registered with her real name. Looking up, she saw a tall girl holding a silver umbrella standing before her.

The girl had striking features, with sharp phoenix eyes and dark eyebrows, exuding a decisive and fierce presence. She wore a slim-sleeved, duck-egg blue dress with silver tassels hanging from her waist belt. The tassels were intricately woven with floral patterns and tiny silver butterflies.

She closed her umbrella, brushing aside a lock of hair, revealing silver-white spider-shaped earrings that shimmered subtly. Looking closely, she was adorned with silver jewelry of various shapes—spiders, centipedes, and small snakes.

Lian Mu instinctively felt these accessories weren’t ordinary, so she kept her distance and asked, “Hello, may I know how to address you?”

“I’m Ji Mingyue. Let’s get straight to the point—I’m the daughter of the Valley Master of Hundred Poisons Valley in the southwestern Wu Ridge.” Ji Mingyue smiled at Lian Mu, easing the odd tension between them. “My bodyguards were ambushed and killed on the way here, but I still have important matters to handle and need protection. I had no choice but to hire you.”

Lian Mu raised an eyebrow. Revealing one’s identity so casually while traveling wasn’t common. Out of professional instinct, she didn’t ask any questions, finishing her peach in a few quick bites and preparing to get to work.

Ji Mingyue wandered around the Peony Market, while Lian Mu followed closely behind as a guard. Eventually, Ji Mingyue stopped at a stall selling insects and didn’t move for a long time.

The stall was simple, with only a cloth spread on the ground displaying a dozen ceramic jars of varying sizes. Inside them were crickets, large fuzzy spiders, crawling centipedes, and scorpions waving their pincers.

Most poisonous creatures sold in the Peony Market were either harmless by nature or had been treated to be non-venomous. Few people actually bought them—most just came to look.

Ji Mingyue directly reached out to grab a scorpion from one of the jars.

“Wait.”

Ji Mingyue turned back, puzzled. “What is it?”

Lian Mu pointed at her outstretched hand. “If you get yourself hurt, that shouldn’t count as my failure to protect you, right?”

“…It doesn’t.”

Ji Mingyue pinched the scorpion’s tail, inspecting it closely before putting it down in disappointment.

She had been in the Peony Market all this time, seemingly targeting scorpions and other poisonous insects. At first, Lian Mu thought she was just sightseeing and worried about potential thieves, but she soon realized that Ji Mingyue herself seemed more like the thief.

After leaving the market, they found a small noodle shop to eat.

“Do you know about the Spirit Scorpion King that awakens once every hundred years?” Ji Mingyue suddenly asked.

Lian Mu, slurping her noodles, paused and shook her head. “Is it related to me?”

Ji Mingyue explained seriously, “I came here to find it. Back in Wu Ridge, our valley’s insect master predicted that this year would be the time for the Spirit Scorpion King’s awakening. It’s a spirit creature that absorbs the essence of the sun and moon, only waking once every century. Its venom is so potent that even cultivators can’t withstand its sting.”

Her serious expression felt oddly familiar to Lian Mu. “You’re planning to catch it?”

Ji Mingyue slammed the table. “Exactly! I’m going to refine it into a puppet—I still need a bracelet.”

She lifted her left wrist, showing a silver snake coiled around it, while her right wrist was bare. Lian Mu silently sipped her soup.

So, this girl knew some kind of arcane art that turned venomous insects into silver accessories. Good thing she hadn’t touched her earlier.

“I’ve searched all over Xi City but found no trace of it. Now, I suspect it might be somewhere else.” Ji Mingyue’s hand glowed faintly green. “I have to check it out.”

“…”

Lian Mu had a lot of pent-up frustration when it came to sect entrance exams.

The incident with the demonic beast in the back mountain five years ago had been a heavy blow to her. Ever since then, her luck had taken a turn for the worse. She had originally planned to train diligently and try for the Gui Xian Sect’s entrance exam that year. However, an elder of the sect was suddenly ambushed and killed by a new disciple, leading to the sect shutting its doors for three years and ceasing recruitment.

In the fourth year, the sect abruptly moved up its recruitment period, but at the time, Lian Mu was trapped at the foot of the mountain and ended up missing the opportunity once again.

At present, Lian Mu’s meridians had been mostly cleansed, and she was only waiting for July to register.

As for reforging her spiritual roots, she had inquired about it over the years. Such methods were generally controlled by the great cultivation clans, and most of their members resided within the Four Great Sects.

The secret art of reforging spiritual roots was the specialty of the Wuyang Feng Clan. Over the centuries, they had produced three individuals who, after having their crippled spiritual roots reforged, became top-tier geniuses. Two of them had joined the Wunian Sect, while the most outstanding one had once been part of Gui Xian Sect. Currently, the manual on reforging spiritual roots was stored in Gui Xian Sect’s library.

This only strengthened Lian Mu’s determination to enter Gui Xian Sect. As long as she became an inner disciple, she would have a chance to access the method of reforging spiritual roots.

“Let’s go, then.” Lian Mu wiped her mouth and grabbed the saber beside her. The organization had issued them sabers—ordinary in material and not as handy as a sword, but better than nothing.

Ji Mingyue beamed with delight at her agreement. “You two are really reliable! When we get back, I’ll treat you to the most expensive restaurant.”

If not for the need to survive, who would want to run errands all day? Lian Mu thought expressionlessly.

Unless there was free food involved.

—

—The peony is a flower known for its large and beautiful blooms, symbolizing wealth, beauty, and love. In Chinese culture, it is regarded as the “King of Flowers,” representing prosperity and honor. In Western culture, peonies symbolize romance and a happy marriage.