Chapter 106: Isolating Me Again, Don’t Cause Trouble

“I’m quite interested in your sword, little friend. If you’re willing, would you mind telling me more about it?”

So, it was because of the Wealth Bringer.

He had only just met her, yet he immediately targeted her sword. It was hard not to suspect his intentions.

But Lian Mu was also curious about his modified beasts, so she said, “What do you want to know? I’m happy to talk to you about it, but I have one condition.”

“Go ahead, speak your mind.”

“I have a friend who’s very interested in your modified beasts. How did you transform them into that form?” Lian Mu asked, getting straight to the point.

Silver Crane was stunned for a moment, seemingly not expecting her to ask that. He took a few steps closer and was about to speak when Green Bean suddenly lunged toward him, pretending to sting him.

The golden toad on Silver Crane’s shoulder was immediately bitten to death by Green Bean, its body chewed up and swallowed. Green Bean pinned Silver Crane down with its pincers, its red eyes opened on its back.

Lian Mu: “?”

Lian Mu: “Come back, stop causing trouble.”

For the first time, Green Bean didn’t listen to her. Instead, it became even more restless, flicking its tail hook.

Silver Crane immediately used a transmission talisman he had on him to avoid the attack.

Green Bean swung its pincers, its normally dull red eyes now showing a hint of viciousness, as it continued to aim its tail hook at Silver Crane.

It wasn’t harming anyone else, just attacking Silver Crane.

Lian Mu tried to control it with a binding spell, but she quickly realized it had entered a berserk state and was completely out of control.

It had never been this agitated before. Even when it was hungry, it only gnawed on the floor to vent its emotions.

Lian Mu knew Green Bean was a spiritual beast, not a dangerous monster corrupted by toxic energy. Usually, it simply didn’t like being disturbed by strangers. At most, it would scare people, but it wouldn’t actually sting anyone.

So the problem had to be with Silver Crane.

She remained silent for a moment and then said, “Never mind, there’s no rush today. My Spirit Pet is hungry, I’ll take it to eat something first.”

As she spoke, Silver Crane dodged and said, “Since you’re in a hurry, we’ll talk another time. I’m always at Feihai Pavilion. If you head south along Feihai Street, you’ll find my residence.”

“How can I be sure it’s yours?” Lian Mu asked, seeing that he had information on the modified beasts she wanted.

“Just head south, you’ll recognize it immediately.”

Green Bean had already grabbed his collar with its pincers. In a hurry, Silver Crane burned a transmission talisman, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Lian Mu waited for a while, but he didn’t return, confirming that he had truly left.

Once he was gone, Green Bean stopped. It seemed to sense that the person had run off, and it scuttled back to Lian Mu, looking up at her innocently.

Lian Mu petted its shell. “What’s wrong? Did he make you uncomfortable?”

Green Bean squeezed its pincers and started blowing bubbles.

Lian Mu: “I see. But he has information I need, so I’ll be careful the next time we meet.”

But the next meeting might take a while.

It didn’t matter. She wasn’t in a hurry. The Wealth Bringer was still at the seventh tier and still had room to grow.

Lian Mu thought for a moment and decided to first go to the silver-faced man to get her stone exchange token.

Before leaving, she glanced at Green Bean’s rank. After exchanging with Silver Crane, Green Bean was now around rank 300. Gong Yu was still in the lead, and with two months remaining until the next round of the qualifiers, no one seemed able to surpass him.

She asked the silver-faced man, “If someone leaves and doesn’t come back for a long time, will their rank drop?”

The silver-faced man replied, “Are you leaving Feihai Pavilion temporarily? Don’t worry. If you don’t compete, your rank won’t change.”

“Good,” Lian Mu said. “I have some matters to attend to and may not return for a while.”

She was already well-known in the qualifying rounds, and the silver-faced man had remembered her. He added, “Just come back within two months. Don’t forget your entry deposit. The new qualifying round will begin in two months.”

Lian Mu nodded, taking her stone exchange token and heading to the spirit ore shop. As agreed, the shop owner directed her to choose from the best stones in the third hall.

To get rid of her quickly, the shop owner went all out, laying out a row of top-quality raw stones. He just wanted her to pick quickly and leave, not wanting her to say another word.

With her experience selecting stones, Lian Mu picked quickly and had them cut on the spot. After that, she took the Refined Jade to the Artifact Refiner’s special room.

Xu Xianxing had slept in a disheveled state, knocking over the tools on the desk and lying on the floor in a strange posture, his hair covering his cheek.

Lian Mu entered, thinking he had been secretly attacked. She walked over and kicked him. He opened his eyes, glanced at her, and then went back to sleep.

Lian Mu: “…”

He can sleep so soundly on the floor?

She had really underestimated Xu Xianxing’s endurance.

Lian Mu lit the lamp herself, threw the Refined Jade into the forging table, and proceeded with the third refinement for the Wealth Bringer.

She felt a faint pain in her dantian, as if her spiritual energy was running low, so she had to stop.

Lian Mu reached into her Spatial Pouch, only to find that her replenishing pills were all used up. She had plenty of spirit plants, though. Every time she entered a mirage, she would collect a bit, and it had accumulated to the point where she no longer lacked spirit plants. She still had a monster core from a Thorn-tailed Wolf.

But this place didn’t have a pill furnace, and just having pill materials wouldn’t help.

Lian Mu thought for a moment, then silently shifted her gaze to the clean forging table on the other side.

“…”

The pill furnace was a spiritual tool, and so was the forging table. Both could fuse materials together, so the forging table should also be able to refine pills, right?

Once the idea popped into her head, Lian Mu immediately put it into action. She placed the spirit plants on the table and used her spiritual energy to awaken the forging table, attempting to merge the plants.

Her spiritual energy wasn’t enough, so she had to use Spirit Stones to add more energy. However, as soon as she infused the spiritual energy, the plants immediately caught fire, flames erupting and quickly turning them into ash.

She added more spirit plants, adjusting the spiritual energy. This time, with half the energy, the plants didn’t catch fire but became slightly charred instead.

She added more and continued adjusting. After several attempts, she finally found a balance. The plants slowly fused on the forging table.

At the end, Lian Mu threw the monster core in and increased the spiritual energy input. The core fused more easily on the table, probably because it came from a monster, so it was more compatible with the materials.

Lian Mu took the pill out and inspected it. The pill refined on the forging table wasn’t as pure as the one from the pill furnace. It was dull and misshapen, but at least it was usable.

She swallowed the pill, and after a short while, she felt the spiritual energy in her dantian fill up, and her body was energized.

Lian Mu returned to the other forging table and, racing against time, fused the Refined Jade, beginning the third refinement.

She had gotten the hang of it from before, so the third refinement was completed quickly. Wealth Bringer reached the highest tier of its current grade, and the red marrow line in the center of the sword began to flow, but it remained inside the groove, as if tightly flowing along the blade.

Lian Mu tested the sword. She wanted to recapture the sensation she had during the battle earlier that day and ignite the blade with fire again, but she couldn’t find that feeling anymore.

She thought for a moment and realized she couldn’t remember why the sword had suddenly caught fire earlier.

Lian Mu stood up, packed her things, and then kicked Xu Xianxing. “Get up, let’s go back.”

Xu Xianxing finally moved. He opened his eyes and saw Wealth Bringer in Lian Mu’s hand.

But the sword tip was pointing directly at him: “…”

Xu Xianxing immediately became alert, pushing the sword away from him and scrambling to his feet.

“Refined Jade, hand it over…” He glanced at Wealth Bringer, then fell silent, realizing it had changed back to a form he couldn’t understand.

“That’s about enough,” Lian Mu said. “There’s no need to come back for now.”

She had a feeling that Linghu Meng wouldn’t let things go easily. Until Bai Su dealt with him, it was better for her not to show up too often. After all, fighting consumed Spiritual Energy, and she didn’t want to waste time and energy on meaningless battles.

“We’ve been here too long already. We should go back.”

Xu Xianxing pointed at Green Bean. “What about it?”

Lian Mu: “…”

Green Bean, standing about half her height, stared back at Lian Mu. It was too big to just take back like this.

“Can it shrink?”

Green Bean shook its body, black mist began to leak out from the gaps between its shell and limbs, and gradually, the mist condensed into a small clump that formed into the shape of a scorpion.

It then returned to its original size, climbed onto Lian Mu, and burrowed into her sleeve.

Xu Xianxing: “…So you can transform. Why didn’t you do that when I asked you to before?”

The green eyes closed in the darkness of her sleeve, and it didn’t respond to him.

Seeing that the problem was solved, the two of them relaxed. Lian Mu took out a jade bamboo token and used her Spiritual Power to activate the teleportation runes.

……

……

Azure Profound Sect, Qinghe Garden.

The night was quiet, with no one around. A gentle breeze blew, and the only sound was the faint chirping of insects in the sparse grass.

Under the white wall, two shadows flashed past.

One of them rolled swiftly around the corner, with the other following closely behind.

“Where’s the house?”

“I don’t know. It’s too dark, can’t see clearly.”

“Your teleportation token’s messed up. How did it bring us to the Elder’s place? You startled me earlier, luckily we weren’t caught.”

In the darkness, Lian Mu fumbled along the road and said, “It wasn’t like this before. I don’t know what happened today.”

There was no moon tonight, and no one had lit a lantern nearby. It was so dark they couldn’t even see their own hands.

The two of them stumbled around like thieves, trying to find their way back to the house.

Xu Xianxing had originally planned to return to his own room, but suddenly remembered something he had left at Lian Mu’s, so he followed her.

“Don’t talk. You go that way and search.”

Lian Mu pointed him in a different direction. However, before they could separate, they were suddenly grabbed by the back of their collars, one on the left, one on the right, neither able to escape.

Lian Mu and Xu Xianxing were both startled. They didn’t dare to turn around, fearing they’d come face to face with the Elder.

Lian Mu, thick-skinned as ever, was the first to speak up. “Elder, we didn’t mean to sneak out during the forbidden hours to drink. He’s been feeling down lately and didn’t want it to affect the upcoming competition, so he needed some alcohol to drown his sorrows. I accompanied him.”

Xu Xianxing immediately played along, pretending to be drunk. “Elder… I… I don’t want to live anymore! My family lost a large sum of money, and the business is almost going under…”

There was a long pause from behind them before the voice slowly spoke. “Xu Xianxing, how many generations of your family would need to lose money to bankrupt themselves?”

The two of them: “…”

“So it’s you,” Xu Xianxing tried to shake off the grip, “Bai Li Que, what are you doing here?”

Lian Mu also relaxed. “What’s the matter with us being caught? Let go.”

Bai Li Que flipped them around to face him. He was wearing a smooth, round firestone that illuminated his expressionless face.

Bai Li Que didn’t intend to let go. He began to interrogate them directly. “I’ve been waiting here for several days. You two didn’t return. I asked the Elder in charge of the Azure Profound Sect’s barrier, and you haven’t gone out. I thought something happened to you.”

“So, are you isolating me again and secretly doing something behind my back?”