Chapter 72 – The Fiancée in the Broken Engagement Revenge Story…

The original host had always focused on alchemy, neglecting his cultivation and never taking on any disciples. When Xie Hui held this little girl, crying like a kitten, the thought occurred to him:

Even if she were bullied in the future, at least she could call on a few senior brothers to help bully them right back.

Of course, bees in the cultivation world were no ordinary bees. Even after applying top-quality ointment, the swelling on her forehead hadn’t gone down completely after two stings.

“I’ve told you how many times already? You need to be more careful and steady. Why won’t you listen?”

The little girl leaned against her father’s shoulder. She was already upset after being stung, and now she was being scolded, so tears kept falling as she sniffled and explained:

“I wanted to play with butterflies, not bees.”

Seeing her so righteously defending herself, Xie Hui could only helplessly carry her into the house. He found some herbs stored by the original host, crushed them, and applied the paste to the swollen parts of Xie Yin’s face.

Holding her hand, he led her to the backyard. Looking at the large overgrown plot back there, Xie Hui felt it was a shame to leave it unused.

He had a frugal personality and was good at making use of every available resource.

For example, when he was an alchemist, he would absolutely never buy herbs if he could grow them himself.

There were quite a few rare seeds in the original host’s spatial pouch, but since the host only specialized in alchemy and had failed at several planting attempts, he had simply given up.

This mountain under Yongchang Sect was already rich in spiritual energy, making it ideal for growing spiritual herbs. Any spiritual herbs planted here would grow nearly three times faster than those in the wild.

While Xie Hui was carefully planning what to grow in the backyard, Xie Yin—whose face had stopped hurting after the herbal treatment—washed her face by the pond and ran over to him.

“Daddy, what are you looking at?”

“Yin’er, once Daddy finds a suitable disciple, how about learning alchemy with me?”

Xie Yin sat down on a rock, propped her chubby cheeks up with her hands, looked up at her father, and frowned.

“But Daddy, I don’t want to spend all day like you. Alchemy isn’t pretty at all.”

The original host didn’t care about appearances and wore all sorts of dark robes in rotation, always looking somewhat disheveled.

A four- or five-year-old girl naturally loved pretty things, so she had no interest in looking dirty and dusty all day like her father.

“Yin’er has great talent in alchemy. Wouldn’t it be a shame to waste it?”

The original host had thought Xie Yin was a once-in-a-generation genius when it came to cultivation. But from Xie Hui’s perspective, with her natural wood spiritual root and the way spirit bees that loved collecting nectar flocked to her, even the original host couldn’t match her talent in alchemy.

“Then… can I wear a pink dress while I’m making pills?”

To coax his young daughter into learning alchemy with him, Xie Hui nodded without hesitation.

“Of course. If you like, you can even wear dresses in all the colors of the rainbow.”

Xie Yin frowned again, tugging her skirt closer to herself and leaning away from her father in disdain.

“Dresses in all kinds of colors are ugly, Daddy. You’re so silly.”

Xie Hui just wanted to coax her into agreeing. He hadn’t expected to get scolded again, so he could only rub his forehead and explain helplessly:

“Daddy meant, when you’re making pills, you can wear whatever you like.”

“Well, I still wouldn’t like rainbow-colored dresses.”

After finishing her complaint, Xie Yin tugged on her father’s arm and dragged him into her room. Standing in front of her wardrobe, arms crossed, she began to point out things one by one.

“You bought all these for me, you know. Look at this one—what a weird dress!”

Xie Hui followed her finger and saw a deep blue and bright yellow combination. He rubbed his nose innocently—this weird taste definitely came from the original host, and had nothing to do with him.

“And this one—do you even remember how old I am now? Even if I flew, it’d still drag on the ground!”

After arriving in this new world, Xie Hui hadn’t expected the first challenge wouldn’t be the difficulty of the mission, but his daughter’s disdain for his sense of fashion.

Looking at how Xie Yin’s little brows were furrowed tightly, clearly full of disdain for everything in the wardrobe, he admitted defeat.

“Daddy was wrong. I swear I’ll never buy anything like this again.”

Admitting his mistake without hesitation, Xie Hui led his still-pouting daughter into the courtyard. Pointing to the overgrown yard, he asked:

“Yin’er, what do you think we should plant here?”

Xie Yin crossed her arms, walked over for a closer look, then returned to her father’s side and answered seriously:

“I think we should plant cabbage over there, so we can make sour and spicy cabbage in winter.”

“And over there, sweet potatoes. Roasting them by the stove in winter is the best!”

“And here, some pretty flowers. I’ll pick one every day.”

Xie Hui watched her counting on her fingers, every suggestion revolving around either food or pretty things. He reached out and gently pinched her topknot, whispering:

“Daddy meant, what kind of spiritual herbs should we grow? Doesn’t the sect already have plenty of the food you like?”

“Then just plant whatever’s easy to grow.”

After answering, Xie Yin sighed deeply. She figured her father would probably give up in half a month anyway. Maybe he wouldn’t even last that long—once he found out none of the seeds sprouted, he’d obediently let her grow cabbage and potatoes instead.

Xie Hui called in a few disciples to help clean up the yard. Then he selected some hardy spiritual herb seeds to test first.

Although planting had been relatively easy in his previous world, this wasn’t quite the same. The general principles were probably similar, but the finer details would have to be figured out through practice.

“Daddy, you have to promise—even if nothing grows, you’re not allowed to get mad!”

Seeing her father roll up his sleeves and personally select the seeds this time, Xie Yin leaned over and gave him a reminder.

“Mm, I promise.”

Compared to previous ones, the target of this mission was much easier to deal with. She wasn’t an infant who couldn’t leave one’s side, nor was she a pitiful child lacking a sense of security, and certainly not some unruly, rebellious teenager. She was simply an ordinary, cheerful, and outgoing little girl.

Different missions naturally required different approaches. This time, the mission’s main focus wasn’t the target herself—it was… that male lead, Li Qing.

That Li Qing, the one people always talked about with phrases like “don’t look down on the poor youth,” whose cultivation soared like he had some cheat code.

But now that Xie Hui was here, there was no need to worry. After all, with Xie Hui watching over his daughter, even if Li Qing reversed his fate for thirty years straight, it would still be useless.

After the disciples cleaned up the back courtyard, Xie Hui held a brocade pouch filled with spirit herb seeds in one hand and a small hoe in the other.

Xie Yin, who had been lounging on the swing reading a storybook out of boredom, immediately put it down and followed her father when she saw he was going to start planting.

Recalling the client’s memories, Xie Hui understood why all those past planting attempts had failed: the client’s heart was never really in it.

He was only passionate about alchemy and couldn’t be bothered with anything else. He had tried growing spirit herbs a few times, but he always left them to grow wild after planting.

And he even tried to justify it by saying, “Don’t wild spirit herbs also grow like that? Don’t they thrive just fine?”

Even ordinary flowers need careful care—let alone something as precious as spirit herbs. Wild herbs and cultivated ones simply couldn’t be compared.

“Dad, you planted it wrong—its head goes this way.”

Xie Hui had just placed a seed in the soil when Xie Yin quickly reached out and scooped it back up, flipping it the right way up.

Xie Hui hadn’t even considered such details while planting. On average, for every five seeds he planted, Xie Yin had to dig up and fix two of them.

Xie Hui picked up a seed and studied it carefully, but he truly couldn’t see anything wrong with it.

Eventually, the task of planting the seeds fell entirely to Xie Yin. As she tucked another seed into the soil, she glanced up at her father and asked tentatively:

“Dad, how about we just plant cabbage and potatoes instead?”

With the way her dad was planting—with the seed’s head buried—did he expect the seed to flip itself over when it sprouted? Or grow downwards?

Maybe ordinary plants could adjust themselves underground, but freshly sprouted spirit herbs were way too delicate for that.

“If we can successfully grow these spirit herbs, then we won’t have to buy them from others. That way, we can save all that spirit stone money… and use it to buy you pretty dresses.”

The moment she heard that, Xie Yin dropped her laziness entirely. Tossing seeds became a task filled with motivation.

Even though they hadn’t spent much time together yet, Xie Hui had already seen through the nature of this little girl—she was a complete sucker for pretty things. But that wasn’t a bad thing. What girl didn’t like to look good?

“Don’t worry, Dad! I’ll definitely grow them all!”

Right now, all she could think about was turning those spirit herbs into new, beautiful clothes. She’d had enough of those outfits her dad had given her—they all needed replacing!

“How about this—why don’t you take full charge of these spirit herbs? You buy the seeds from me with spirit stones, and when they mature, I’ll buy the herbs back from you. What do you think?”

Xie Yin did some silent calculations on her fingers. It actually seemed like a pretty good deal, so she nodded.

“Okay!”

With the task of caring for the herbs handed over to his daughter, Xie Hui returned to the original host’s personal library. After flipping through several of Yongchang Sect’s most treasured books, he quickly lost interest and set them aside.

In Xie Hui’s opinion, most of the sect’s carefully guarded books had major flaws. The early sections on cultivation were acceptable, but as they progressed, the shortcomings became increasingly obvious.

It was just that no one had ever cultivated far enough to discover them—so the problems had remained hidden.

Remembering the cultivation manuals he had accumulated from traveling through various cultivation worlds, Xie Hui took out a sheet of paper, ground some ink, and began copying down everything he remembered.

He only got halfway through before his wrist started aching, and he had to set the brush aside.

He walked to the window and looked outside. Little Xie Yin was diligently watering the seeds, carrying a wooden bucket in one hand and a ladle in the other. The tassels on her hair ornament swayed lightly with her movements.

Time flew by, and the day of Yongchang Sect’s disciple recruitment ceremony arrived. The thing that stirred the most gossip during this time was—Elder Xie, known for his expertise in alchemy, was actually taking a disciple! And not just any disciple, but a personal one!