The moment Ba finished speaking, the teleportation array had already dumped her and Bao Gu out in front of a teleportation domain gate.
The guards stationed at the gate watched two unfamiliar people tumble out of the gate—neither wearing Xuantian Sect robes nor carrying Xuantian Sect identity tokens—and immediately surrounded them.
A man in Xuantian Sect inner disciple robes stepped forward and asked,
“Who goes there?”
Two people popping out of the teleportation gate without being escorted—this was downright spooky. He scrutinized them with full vigilance, only to realize he couldn’t see through either of their cultivations.
While he was speaking, another cultivator flew over. His cultivation was at the Spirit Transformation stage. His clothes were very similar to Xuantian Sect’s style and bore its emblem, but it was a style Bao Gu had never seen before.
The man gave them a cold look.
“You two have barged into my Xuantian Sect without permission. What is your purpose?”
Ba was instantly entertained. Hugging Bao Gu’s arm, she laughed.
“Cheap Master, we’ve been blocked. You’re trespassing in Xuantian Sect, you know.”
Bao Gu shot Ba a glance and pulled her arm out of Ba’s embrace.
“No causing trouble. No running around. Stay right behind me.”
The Spirit Transformation cultivator’s face darkened when he realized he was being ignored. He flicked his sword out and pointed it at Bao Gu, then barked to the surrounding disciples,
“Take them down!”
Bao Gu pulled out her Xuantian Sect identity token.
“Bao Gu of the Lingyun Peak lineage, Xuantian Sect.”
The Spirit Transformation cultivator gave the token a cursory glance, snorted, and said,
“You forge an identity token for a Xuantian Sect disciple and don’t even bother making it convincing? Of all people to impersonate, you pick Bao Gu?”
He swept his sleeve. The Nascent Soul disciples guarding the gate immediately formed up and charged.
Bao Gu’s gaze swept the surroundings. She stirred her protective spiritual power, sealing off the three feet around her in an airtight shield.
She was only defending, yet the power of the aura she released still made every Xuantian Sect disciple feel as if they were facing a mortal enemy. None of them dared to act rashly.
She rummaged in her enormous storage bag and fished out the sound-transmission jades for Zi Yunshu and Yu Mi.
The one for Yu Mi remained unresponsive.
The one for Zi Yunshu, however, rang back at once—accompanied by Zi Yunshu’s shrill scream.
“A‑Sheng, this is creepy, Bao Gu’s sound jade just activated! Come help me check whether it’s broken!”
Bao Gu: “…”
She called out,
“Little Martial Aunt, I’m back. I’m right at the main gate.”
Zi Yunshu sucked in a sharp breath.
“Where?”
“At the main gate.”
There was a brief pause. Then Zi Yunshu’s indignant voice snapped,
“Liar! I just checked. There’s not even a ghost at the main gate.”
The Demon Saint’s voice came from the jade.
“Maybe she means the mountain gate.”
Zi Yunshu’s voice turned doubtful.
“Are you really Bao Gu?”
Wind rushed through the jade, and the next instant two figures floated into view, descending before the teleportation gate.
The moment Bao Gu saw the familiar silhouettes, her eyes instantly filled with tears. She withdrew her protective qi, took a few quick steps forward, and rushed to Zi Yunshu and the Demon Saint.
“Little Martial Aunt, Saint Aunt.”
Zi Yunshu stared at Bao Gu in stunned disbelief. She grabbed Bao Gu, looking her up and down from head to toe, then pinched her cheeks and turned her head this way and that.
“A‑Sheng, is this really Bao Gu? Am I dreaming? Quick, pinch me—”
Halfway through the sentence, she saw the color drain clean from the Demon Saint’s face as if she’d seen a ghost. The Demon Saint was staring fixedly at something behind Bao Gu.
Zi Yunshu turned her head to look.
A girl of about fifteen or sixteen, exquisitely pretty like carved jade and powdered porcelain, was standing there staring fixedly at her Saint Aunt. She kept swallowing and sniffing greedily, and her beautiful eyes shone so brightly it was as if, in her gaze, only Zi Yunshu’s Saint Aunt existed and no one else in the world.
Zi Yunshu instantly felt displeased.
Where had this little brat come from, staring at my Saint Aunt like that? Doesn’t she know my Saint Aunt is timid and easily scared?
She took a step forward, placing herself in front of the Demon Saint, tilted her chin ever so slightly, and looked at the girl.
“Little one, who are you?”
The “little one” rudely ignored her. In the next moment, she vanished from where she stood and, in a bizarre blink, appeared right beside the Demon Saint. Her hand slashed toward the Demon Saint’s neck as she opened her mouth wide, revealing sharp fangs, and lunged to bite down.
Just as Qingying’s hand was about to land on the Demon Saint’s neck, Bao Gu was already there. She wrapped an arm around the Demon Saint’s waist and yanked her backward, shielding her with her own body. At the same time she whipped out the Xuantian Sword and thrust it forward, precisely stuffing the sword into Ba’s mouth.
Ba bit down hard.
Instead of sinking her teeth into the Demon Saint’s neck, she clenched them on the sword blade. She’d used so much force that the clack of her teeth on the metal carried a faint ache. Sword intent flooded out, shredding the inside of her mouth with a burning pain, and there was a horrid, metallic taste of Da Luo Red Gold besides.
She spat the Xuantian Sword out in one go, fanning frantically at her mouth with both hands and blowing air in great gusts.
Only then did she notice the rare, razor‑sharp look in Bao Gu’s eyes as Bao Gu stared at her. Ba finally realized what she’d just done. She gave Bao Gu a fawning smile.
“Um, I wasn’t trying to eat her.”
Zi Yunshu finally processed what had happened.
So this little brat had just tried to eat her Saint Aunt—and judging by those fangs, she was no harmless sort.
She turned to Bao Gu and snapped,
“Where did you pick—”
She cut herself off mid‑sentence, suddenly letting out a shriek.
“Isn’t this a ba?!”
Ba wrinkled her nose in displeasure.
“You’re the ba, your whole family are bas. My name is Qingying—Qing for clear, Ying for ripples!”
Zi Yunshu sucked in a terrified breath; all the color drained from her face.
Ba, having failed to eat the World‑Purifying Holy Lotus, was in a very foul mood and grinding her teeth. Then she saw that her cheap Master seemed unhappy with her, and remembered how ugly she looked with her fangs out. She hurriedly hid her teeth, shot Bao Gu a weak glance, hunched her shoulders, and fell silent.
Bao Gu said,
“Come pay your respects to your grandmaster and Martial Aunt‑grandmaster.”
Have her call a little flood dragon and her food source “Martial Aunt‑Grandmaster” and “Grandmaster”?
The scent coming off the Demon Saint made Ba’s mouth water uncontrollably. That fragrance made it torture not to take a bite and swallow her down. She told herself in her heart:
“I can’t eat her, I can’t eat her, I promised my cheap Master.”
Then she thought again: if she ate the World‑Purifying Holy Lotus, she wouldn’t need those spiritual treasures and precious medicines to suppress her death qi anymore. That was a huge bargain, and her resolve wavered all over again.
She eyed the World‑Purifying Holy Lotus, ready to make a move, only to realize that her cheap Master had already shifted into position to block her, firmly guarding the lotus and faintly poised to attack.
Bao Gu’s gaze sank as she looked at Ba.
“At the ceremony, you kowtowed three times and nine times again and served tea to become my disciple. Are you really planning on betraying your teacher and annihilating your ancestors?”
Ba pressed her lips together and swallowed her drool.
Of course betraying teacher and ancestors was wrong. But Grandmaster smelled so delicious, and the benefits were enormous.
Bao Gu saw Ba’s expression go wrong and called out,
“Qingying, are you really going to force me into a life‑and‑death confrontation with you? If you take one bite, you and I will no longer be master and disciple, but mortal enemies who will never rest until one of us dies. Across the ten realms of the heavens, you will no longer have a single relative. Do you want a family who will dote on you, or a whole world of people determined to destroy you at all costs?”
Ba’s heart trembled. She lifted her head to look at Bao Gu and saw an expression on Bao Gu’s face that she had never seen before.
If she ate the World‑Purifying Holy Lotus and dispelled all her death qi, would Bao Gu still make pills for her, still find her delicious things to eat, still bother with her?
She had promised Bao Gu she wouldn’t eat the World‑Purifying Holy Lotus.
Then a thought struck her: Bao Gu’s pill‑refining skills were learned from the World‑Purifying Holy Lotus. That meant the lotus made pills even better than Bao Gu did. If she gulped the lotus down in one bite, she’d lose everything.
Whereas if she let things play out slowly, she’d have good pills forever.
Her mood snapped back. She beamed and said, with great swagger,
“I want to eat four—no, five Resurrection Pills every month!”
A black line all but appeared on Bao Gu’s forehead.
Her expression eased slightly.
“Aren’t you afraid you’ll eat me poor? Five pills a month of whatever grade I’m refining at the time, plus a small pot of monkey wine of the fifth grade or above. But only if you protect my Saint Aunt and don’t let her suffer so much as a scratch. From now on, my Saint Aunt is your grandmaster. If you can coax her into being happy, she might even make you treasure‑grade pills that I can’t refine myself.”
Ba nodded very obediently and let out a heavy “Mm,” her gaze soft and shining as she looked at the Demon Saint.
The Demon Saint’s skin crawled. If she weren’t very clear on Ba’s strength and aware that if Ba really attacked, there was no way she could escape, she would have bolted long ago.
When she finally recovered from her fright, she discovered that Bao Gu had somehow bought Ba’s loyalty for the price of five Resurrection Pills a month. Judging by how smoothly the two of them haggled, they obviously did this a lot.
What shocked her most was that Bao Gu had actually made Ba call her “grandmaster.”
Bao Gu said to Ba,
“Pay your respects.”
Ba was not very happy about it, but thinking of having one more ‘person’ to refine pills for her, and not wanting to fall out with her cheap Master, she knew that by seniority she did in fact owe the World‑Purifying Holy Lotus a “Grandmaster.”
She hesitated, then pouted, looking thoroughly unwilling, and bowed.
“Qingying greets my cheap Grandmaster.”
Suddenly she remembered—when you paid respects to a senior, the elder was supposed to give you a meeting gift, right?
Her eyes lit up at once. She smiled radiantly at the World‑Purifying Holy Lotus. Seeing the lotus staring at her in a daze, she hurriedly winked, hinting for a gift. But the World‑Purifying Holy Lotus was too dense to catch her signal.
So Ba had to ask sweetly and clearly,
“Cheap Grandmaster, did you forget to give me a meeting gift?”
Bao Gu sighed inwardly, pulled out a bottle of pills, and shoved it into Ba’s hand.
“You scared your grandmaster.”
The Demon Saint’s eyes dropped to the pill bottle in Ba’s hand, and her mind finally started working again. She strung the events together in order and more or less understood.
Her thoughts moved; she took out a bottle of pills and handed it to Ba as well.
Ba shot Bao Gu a delighted look, then popped the Demon Saint’s pill bottle open and peered inside.
Her eyes went instantly round. Her red lips parted in a soundless “oh,” and she smiled so widely her eyes curved into little crescent moons. In a flash she darted to the Demon Saint’s side, hugged her arm, and called out in a syrupy voice,
“Grandmaster.”
She smiled up at her, fawning.
“What kind of pills are these?”
Bao Gu couldn’t even bear to look directly at this scene.
Zi Yunshu: “…”
Being suddenly glomped and grabbed by Ba made the Demon Saint’s whole body go stiff with fright. She didn’t even dare move.
“I just… casually refined those.”
Qingying let out an “oh,” her eyes growing even brighter, her smile practically unable to fit on her face.
“Where do you live? Can I stay next door to you? I used to live next door to my cheap Master, but she’s always in seclusion. Once she goes into seclusion, I have to go hungry. If I’m hungry in the future, can I come找you?”
Zi Yunshu steeled herself, forced down her fear, and stepped forward to pry Ba’s claws off, rescuing the Demon Saint, whose legs had almost gone to jelly.
Bao Gu said to Qingying,
“Stop bothering your grandmaster. She has a pill room just for refining pills, and it’s packed with treasure‑grade pills she’s made. If you’re hungry, just go help yourself.”
Qingying nodded eagerly.
“Where’s the pill room?”
Bao Gu noticed that more and more fellow disciples were gathering around to gawk.
“This isn’t the place to talk. Let’s go back first. Where’s Senior Sister? I tried to contact her with a sound jade but got no response.”
Zi Yunshu’s expression turned a bit odd. She glanced at the Demon Saint without meaning to.
The Demon Saint steadied herself and finally shook off the lingering fear from Ba.
“We’ll talk back there.”
Bao Gu followed behind Zi Yunshu and the Demon Saint to a quiet grove. The trees here were far from the disciples’ quarters, forming a little world of their own. Several small courtyards sat side by side within the woods, laid out exactly like the ones in the cloud‑sea forest of Two‑Worlds Mountain back then.
She couldn’t help feeling a little dazed.
Ba looked around at the courtyards in curiosity. She pointed at the central one.
“Cheap Master, this courtyard looks just like the one you had on the Qingying.”
She craned her neck, peering more closely.
“There’s a formation.”
Bao Gu asked the Demon Saint,
“Saint Aunt, is the pill room still in the same place?”
The Demon Saint nodded lightly.
Bao Gu gave Qingying directions and the route to the pill room.
Qingying’s face lit up in a brilliant smile. In the next instant, she vanished on the spot.
Once Ba had gone, Bao Gu said to the Demon Saint,
“Saint Aunt, just leave ten or so high‑grade pills in the pill room every month. Qingying is easy to coax—so long as she has food, everything else is fine. In front of food, things like dignity and pride are all smoke and clouds.”
She roughly explained Qingying’s preferences and eating habits to the Demon Saint and Zi Yunshu.
Both of them were stunned speechless.
The ba they had once spent all the power of the Earth Immortals to seal away at such terrible cost, the ba whose calamity had nearly crippled this world for tens of thousands of years—could actually be handled with nothing more than a few high‑grade pills?
They both felt as if they were dreaming.
Bao Gu, whom they’d thought would never return, had come back—and she’d brought the ba back with her.
The terrifying ba had actually become Bao Gu’s disciple, and Bao Gu had coaxed her into obedience with pills.
The Demon Saint thought for a moment, then said to Bao Gu,
“I’ll tell you about Yu Mi in a bit.”
With that, she headed for her pill room.
When she walked in, she discovered that all the pills that had once been neatly arranged on the shelves were now scattered across the floor in a thick layer. Ba was hugging the pile of pills and rolling in it, so happy she could barely breathe.
When she noticed the Demon Saint, she froze for a second, then scrambled up and put on a look of perfect nonchalance.
“Um… um… um… From now on, I’ll mind your furnace for you whenever you refine pills.”
The Demon Saint: “…”
Ba said,
“I’m really good at watching the fire. My cheap Master lets me mind the furnace, and I’ve never made a mistake.”
The Demon Saint looked her up and down again, forcibly trying to connect the creature who had nearly wiped out all Earth Immortals and left this world listless for tens of thousands of years with this… pill‑furnace attendant.
Suddenly Ba remembered something.
“Um, cheap Grandmaster, can you refine pills with Earth Immortals as ingredients? I plucked seven Earth Immortals and don’t know the best way to eat them.”
As she spoke, she opened her Blood Prison world and dumped out the small mound of Earth Immortal corpses in front of the Demon Saint.
The Demon Saint’s eyes went instantly blank.
She stared for a long moment before saying stiffly,
“I think you’d better ask Yu Mi to handle something like this. She’s better at dealing with meat. You can handle these pills. I have something to discuss with Bao Gu, so I’ll leave you to… catalog them.”
She fled at top speed.
Before she told Bao Gu what had happened to Yu Mi, she absolutely had to make sure Bao Gu found a way to keep Ba out of her courtyard. Otherwise, Ba was going to scare her to death.
