After Xue Qing used the True Spirit Cauldron of All Creation to refine away the blood baleful death qi in Qingying’s body, she let Qingying out of the cauldron. The moment she looked up, she met Qingying’s tear-bright, aggrieved eyes. Her translucent pink lips were slightly pursed and trembling, as if she might burst into tears at any moment.
Xue Qing was a little stunned.
“Now that the blood baleful death qi in your body has been refined away, you won’t need to rely on spirit treasures and precious medicines to suppress it anymore. Isn’t that a good thing? With the way you eat, even if that cheap master of yours had a mountain of gold, you’d eat her poor.”
Xuantian had only left Bao Gu so many things. Even if Bao Gu didn’t feel the pinch, Xue Qing did.
She coaxed her.
“All right, don’t feel wronged. I only helped you refine away the blood baleful death qi. It’s not like I stewed you and ate you. From now on, you’ll save your master a lot of rations.”
When Qingying heard that, she felt even more wronged and heartbroken. Tears rolled out of her eyes and fell to the ground with a sharp plop.
The blood baleful death qi in her body had been completely refined away. From now on, she would no longer need to eat spirit treasures and precious medicines to suppress the death qi. What if her master stopped giving her delicious things? So many tasty spirit treasures, precious herbs, and Earth Immortal meat, and she wouldn’t get to eat them anymore? How was anyone supposed to live like that?
The more Qingying thought about it, the sadder she became. The more she thought about it, the more she felt that this nasty little fox was far too awful.
She was crying?
Xue Qing was startled. She looked at the tears on the ground, then at Qingying, who quickly wiped her eyes, stomped her foot, and shouted,
“Bad little fox! I hate you!”
Then she turned and ran off.
Xue Qing was speechless.
What was going on? She had refined away Qingying’s death qi, and Qingying actually felt wronged? Judging by that look, she was extremely wronged too.
The Envoy’s Estate.
Bao Gu was buried in paperwork, handling the affairs of the gang, when she suddenly heard a familiar voice.
“Master…”
It was Qingying’s voice, and this time she had even omitted the words “cheap master.”
Bao Gu shuddered inwardly. Every time Qingying skipped the word “cheap” and just called her “Master,” nothing good ever happened.
She lifted her head and saw Qingying running up to her, clutching one leg of the Heaven-Refining Cauldron as if she were dragging a little stool. Tears swam in her eyes. Her mouth was pursed, and she looked so wronged it was unbearable.
“Master…”
Tears spilled from her eyes, slid down her cheeks, and hung from her chin, crystal-clear like pearls.
She was crying?
She was crying!
Bao Gu stared in terror, dumbfounded. Her little heart trembled wildly.
Living ancestor, don’t scare me like this! The drought demon that struck fear into the entire cultivation world was standing in front of her, crying!
Bao Gu froze for quite a while before dryly asking,
“What happened?”
She raised a finger and touched the tear hanging from Qingying’s chin.
It really was a tear!
Qingying probably also felt that crying was unsightly. She wiped her tears with the back of her hand, flipped her cauldron over, and shook it upside down with the mouth facing the floor. Then she brought it close to Bao Gu.
“Look, it’s still empty! All my divine gold and all the magical treasures refined from divine gold are gone. That bad, bad little fox took them all! She took my divine gold, but she wouldn’t even pluck a single strand of fur for me. She even put me into her cauldron and stewed me for dozens of days…”
She counted on her fingers, then gritted her teeth and cried,
“A full eighty-one days! Not one day less!”
The more she thought about it, the more wronged she felt. She was so wronged!
She had almost thought she had been tricked again like last time, when she had been sealed inside the drought demon coffin. She had swung her cauldron and smashed it with all her might, but she still couldn’t break open that bad little fox’s cauldron. She had nearly been frightened senseless!
She deeply felt that before meeting Bao Gu, it had been absolutely right for her to hide in her old lair. If she had gone out back then and gotten trapped inside that cauldron, wouldn’t she really have been stewed?
That bad, bad little fox was terrifying. That cauldron was terrifying too. It could even boil the blood baleful death qi out of her bones. It had hurt so much she had wanted to die, and she couldn’t even get out.
Bad fox. Bad little fox. Bad fox…
Qingying hurriedly hugged Bao Gu’s arm, tears streaming down her face. She looked as pitiful as pitiful could be.
Bao Gu stared in shock at Qingying, who was crouched in front of her, hugging her arm and bawling. She was so frightened that she nearly started crying too. She secretly pinched her own thigh hard.
Hiss. That hurt!
This wasn’t an illusion!
She composed herself, steadied her mind, tightened her expression, and said in a low voice,
“No crying.”
Qingying had never expected that her master would not comfort her and would instead be fierce. She instantly stiffened, raised her head, and stared at Bao Gu in disbelief with wide eyes.
Bao Gu took out a handkerchief and wiped Qingying’s tears.
Once Qingying saw that she was being coaxed and not scolded, she quickly hugged her master’s arm again and cried even louder.
“That bad little fox even said that from now on, you shouldn’t give me rations anymore! She wants to cut my rations! If I don’t even get to eat, what’s the point of being alive…”
Bao Gu silently took out several bottles of pills and handed them to Qingying.
Qingying accepted the pills and sobbed twice more. Then she thought about it and felt a little embarrassed to keep crying after taking her master’s pills. She wiped her tears, stood up, leaned against Bao Gu’s desk, and sniffled.
“That… that… I was just a little scared! Mm, and wronged!”
She looked at Bao Gu with eager eyes.
“That bad, bad little fox took all my divine gold and wouldn’t even pluck a single strand of fox fur for me.”
Bao Gu asked,
“Has the blood baleful death qi been completely refined away?”
Qingying widened her eyes and looked at Bao Gu, then blinked. Very reluctantly, she nodded, then stiffened her face and said,
“I didn’t ask that bad, bad little fox to refine me. I… I… I… I would have found a way to refine it myself!”
Bao Gu said,
“Then from now on, you won’t need large amounts of spirit treasures and precious herbs to suppress the death qi anymore, will you?”
Her eyes lit up, and she said happily,
“That saves me a huge expense! I just happen to be poor lately…”
Before she could finish, a tear fell onto the desk in front of her with a plop.
Bao Gu was so frightened that she looked up at Qingying, who had started shedding tears again.
Had a trip to the demon territory and a round in the True Spirit Cauldron of All Creation refined away the blood baleful death qi, only to refine her into a little bundle of tears?
Qingying stared at her with tear-filled eyes, silently accusing her.
Bao Gu blinked blankly. After thinking for a moment, she understood.
She hadn’t been frightened by the True Spirit Cauldron of All Creation. She was worried that her rations were gone.
Bao Gu shouted inwardly, “Can you have a little ambition?”
After thinking it over, she said,
“Stop crying. If there’s anything good to eat, you won’t be left out.”
Qingying still looked at Bao Gu. Anger flashed in her watery eyes, and her meaning was clear: If you dare cut my rations, I’ll never let this go.
Bao Gu stuffed the handkerchief into Qingying’s hand.
“Wipe your tears.”
After a pause, she said,
“When we were drifting through the starry sky, did I ever short you on rations? Now that we’re here, would I short you?”
Then she made up for the two months of rations Qingying had missed while trapped in the True Spirit Cauldron of All Creation, as well as next month’s share.
When Qingying found that her rations remained the same as before, her mood finally improved a little. But she still felt deeply wronged.
“Master, I had so much divine gold and so many things refined from divine gold…”
She brought the cauldron close to Bao Gu again, letting Bao Gu look at her empty cauldron.
Bao Gu looked at the Heaven-Refining Cauldron, now shrunk to the size of a small soup pot, then at the way Qingying was holding it. Her pale, delicate little hand pinched one cauldron foot and held it out in front of Bao Gu, making her look exactly like a little beggar begging for alms.
Bao Gu felt that if Qingying’s Heavenly Emperor father saw her like this, he would burst into loud sobs and cry even more miserably than Qingying had just now.
If she weren’t afraid Qingying would explode, Bao Gu really wanted to take out a couple of spirit stones and toss them in.
After thinking for a moment, she said,
“Qingying, there’s a saying: asking others is not as good as relying on yourself. I’ll give you an idea.”
Qingying made an affirmative sound.
“Tell me!”
Bao Gu took out a map of this world, pointed at the territory of the Flame Saint Sect, and said,
“This is the Flame Saint Sect’s territory. The people of the Flame Saint Sect abducted your Tree Grandpa. Go to the Flame Saint Sect and demand your Tree Grandpa back. Then, on the grounds that they abducted your granduncle, demand compensation from them. Make them compensate you with their spirit treasure and precious herb gardens. Put the spirit herb gardens you obtain into your cauldron, then use the formation materials Si Ruo gave you to set up a Weather Four Symbols Formation. Add things bit by bit and nourish it slowly. After enough time passes, it will naturally become another world.”
Qingying tilted her head and thought about it. Her eyes shifted, and she asked with a smile,
“What if they refuse to compensate me? What if they don’t give Tree Grandpa back?”
Bao Gu looked at Qingying, who had been bawling moments ago and was now smiling radiantly, and froze.
Why did she suddenly feel that Qingying had cried earlier specifically to make sure her rations wouldn’t be cut?
Qingying gazed at Bao Gu, waiting for her answer.
Bao Gu rubbed her forehead in distress and said,
“If they refuse, then handle it the way you handle refusal.”
Qingying responded loudly,
“Understood! Same as always, right?”
She waved her little hand, pinched one leg of the Heaven-Refining Cauldron, and dragged it away.
Her cheap master really was good to her. Look, with a little acting spoiled and a little crying, she got everything. Even easier to fool than her father! Sometimes crying at her father and hugging his leg didn’t work at all.
Bao Gu watched Qingying drag the Heaven-Refining Cauldron by one leg as if she were dragging a little stool, with absolutely no attitude of reverence toward a supreme treasure from the upper realm. She could not help silently mourning for the Heaven-Refining Cauldron.
Then she remembered Qingying crying and thought, “Don’t tell me her brain got damaged in the refining?”
She hurriedly took out a voice transmission jade talisman and contacted Xue Qing, telling her that Qingying had come back and cried all over her.
She asked,
“Master’s Wife, would refining away blood baleful death qi damage one’s intelligence?”
Xue Qing said,
“It’s not as if I refined her soul.”
After a brief hesitation, she said,
“I think she may have cried on purpose for you to see because she was distressed over spirit treasures and precious herbs she hadn’t gotten her hands on.”
Bao Gu’s face darkened.
“Master’s Wife, Qingying isn’t a three-year-old child.”
Xue Qing asked in return,
“Don’t you think she seems like one?”
Bao Gu had nothing to say.
Qingying stepped out of the Envoy’s Estate and left the borders of Qingzhou. In an instant, her entire bearing and aura changed. Carrying the cauldron on her shoulder, she headed straight for Flamefire Holy City. Then she swung the Heaven-Refining Cauldron and smashed it into the formation pillar at the center of the city-protecting grand array.
The Flame Saint Pillar, which had stood there since the founding of the city, shattered instantly under that tremendous force. In the blink of an eye, the entire city-protecting grand array collapsed and vanished without a trace.
The Heaven-Refining Cauldron flew from Qingying’s hand and rose into the air. Its mouth turned downward. The cauldron, which had originally shrunk to the size of a small soup pot, instantly expanded until it was larger than Flamefire Holy City. A mighty force poured out from within the cauldron, sealing the entire holy city tight. Even the void itself was locked down.
The moment the Coiling Dragon Enlightenment Sacred Tea Tree saw Qingying appear and smash the cauldron against the grand array, it reacted. At once, it pulled its roots out of the void and swept up the two hundred or so eighth- and ninth-grade spirit treasures, ten-thousand-year precious herbs, and surrounding spiritual medicines that it had long been eyeing. It was just about to tear open the void and escape when it discovered that a giant cauldron had descended and sealed off this part of the world.
When it looked up again, it saw Qingying appear overhead, descending from the sky in a majestic and imposing manner. Then, in an instant, she landed right in front of it, raised a smiling face, and called out sweetly,
“Tree Grandpa, my cheap master said you were abducted, so she told me to come bring you home.”
The Coiling Dragon Enlightenment Sacred Tea Tree was so frightened by this scene that all its leaves stood on end. It almost screamed as it shouted,
“No setting fires!”
Qingying made an affirmative sound. Then she realized she was standing in a medicinal garden. Out of instinct, she raised her eyes and swept her gaze over it.
Then…
Where were the spiritual herbs?
She quickly turned her head and looked around in every direction, only to find that forget spiritual herbs, not even a single blade of grass remained.
Her eyes widened, and she glared at the Coiling Dragon Enlightenment Sacred Tea Tree.
The Coiling Dragon Enlightenment Sacred Tea Tree immediately stuffed the Treasure-Seeking Spirit Monkey into Qingying’s arms.
“Here!”
The Treasure-Seeking Spirit Monkey squeaked, and every hair on its body stood up. Then, with a whoosh, it tried to spring away, but Qingying raised a hand, grabbed its tail, and hauled it back.
The Flame Saint Sect cultivators who had originally been sitting around the Coiling Dragon Enlightenment Sacred Tea Tree, meditating and comprehending the Dao while also watching over the spirit treasures and precious herbs in the garden, had heard a tremendous boom and felt an incomparably powerful and vast force. In the next instant, a force suddenly kicked them in the rear and sent them flying.
At the same time, they clearly saw something descending from the sky. The spirit treasures and precious herbs on the ground vanished with a swish. Then Qingying ran over. The Coiling Dragon Enlightenment Sacred Tea Tree uprooted itself, looking as if it wanted to run but failed. After that, the Treasure-Seeking Spirit Monkey they had searched for over two months without finding was fished out of the Coiling Dragon Enlightenment Sacred Tea Tree’s “embrace” and stuffed into Qingying’s arms.
In that instant, they understood everything.
Then their faces went pale.
Just now, Qingying, the drought demon, the drought demon from the Ancient Desolate Mountains, had called the old tea tree “Tree Grandpa.”
Right now, the drought demon was standing in front of them.
That cauldron, the cauldron taken away by the one from the demon territory back then, the Heaven-Refining Cauldron that had turned the Ancient Desolate Mountains into a forbidden land, was now hanging over their heads.
And the Treasure-Seeking Spirit Monkey, that thieving monkey that came and went like a ghost, vanished without a trace, and could not be caught by anyone, was now being held upside down by the tail in the drought demon’s hand like a mouse.
Qingying stared at the Treasure-Seeking Spirit Monkey dangling upside down in her hand and said,
“Tell me. Were you the one who emptied the medicinal gardens here?”
The Treasure-Seeking Spirit Monkey squeaked and shook its head like a rattle drum. Then it squeaked again and raised its “index finger,” pointing straight at the Coiling Dragon Enlightenment Sacred Tea Tree.
It! It took them!
The Coiling Dragon Enlightenment Sacred Tea Tree roared,
“I gave you leaves for nothing!”
Then it lowered its roots back to the ground, adopting the posture of a quiet, dignified tree. In a solemn voice, it said,
“Ahem. Qingying, I practically raised you with my own branches. You must respect your Tree Grandpa.”
Qingying rolled her eyes at the Coiling Dragon Enlightenment Sacred Tea Tree and exposed it directly.
“We only lived in the same courtyard for five hundred years. Who are you trying to fool?”
She shook the Treasure-Seeking Spirit Monkey in her hand again.
“Give me ten jugs of supreme monkey wine, and I’ll let you go.”
The Treasure-Seeking Spirit Monkey squeaked in horror, as if shouting, “What?”
Then its tail hurt. The pain made all its fur explode outward. It swiftly pulled out ten gourds of supreme monkey wine and shoved them all toward Qingying at once.
Qingying had asked for ten jugs, but when she saw the Treasure-Seeking Spirit Monkey suddenly take out ten gourds of supreme monkey wine, her eyes lit up with joy. With a wave of her hand, she accepted all of them.
In an excellent mood, she patted the Treasure-Seeking Spirit Monkey on the head and said,
“Good little monkey. Follow me from now on. I’ll protect you!”
The Treasure-Seeking Spirit Monkey squeaked, then looked back at its tail still being held, meaning, “Let me go.”
Qingying loosened her hand and released it.
Then she remembered her cheap master saying she couldn’t take advantage of people for nothing. She patted herself down and discovered that she was poor now. Other than spirit pills and precious medicines, she only had a few pieces of Earth Immortal meat left.
She dragged out an Earth Immortal corpse and offered it to the Treasure-Seeking Spirit Monkey, who had landed on the ground.
“Since you gave me so much supreme monkey wine, I’d be embarrassed to take it for free. I’ll give you this Earth Immortal meat. It’s delicious stewed. Use the bad, bad little fox…”
She paused.
“The blood baleful death qi in my body has been refined away. I’ll stew it for you later!”
So she took the Earth Immortal meat back with a clear conscience and even reminded the Treasure-Seeking Spirit Monkey,
“Another day, when I stew Earth Immortal meat, I’ll call you over to eat!”
The Treasure-Seeking Spirit Monkey looked pitifully at Qingying, still aching over the ten gourds of supreme monkey wine it had lost.
Qingying was very satisfied. She released her divine sense and swept it across Flamefire Holy City, searching for the spirit herb gardens and spirit fruit orchards she wanted. To her shock, she found that all the spirit herb gardens and fruit orchards were empty. Hundreds of gardens, large and small, had all been emptied!
She blinked blankly. After thinking for a moment, she looked at the Coiling Dragon Enlightenment Sacred Tea Tree again.
She had never realized before that Tree Grandpa could be this excessive!
Why was everyone like this?
The bad, bad little fox wouldn’t even give her a strand of fur. Tree Grandpa had cleaned out the medicinal gardens and fruit orchards that had been about to belong to her, leaving her not even a single root.
She stared blankly for quite a while before saying,
“Um, Tree Grandpa, you should have at least left me half. Thirty percent would have been fine too.”
The Coiling Dragon Enlightenment Sacred Tea Tree said sternly,
“I spent more than two months working hard to get these things. Why should I give them to you for free? If you want compensation, go find them!”
As it spoke, its branch swayed and pointed straight at the nearby Flame Saint Sect members, who were so terrified they were almost stupid and did not even know where to flee.
The Coiling Dragon Enlightenment Sacred Tea Tree gave Qingying an idea.
“You can make them compensate you with their treasure vault. Then you can use the things in their treasure vault to trade with Bao Gu for pills and precious medicines. Trade for whatever you want, buy whatever you want! Silly little thing!”
When the Treasure-Seeking Spirit Monkey heard the words “silly little thing,” it turned and glared irritably at the Coiling Dragon Enlightenment Sacred Tea Tree.
That infuriating tree had caused it to lose ten gourds of supreme monkey wine!
At this moment, every person in the Flame Saint Sect, from top to bottom, wished they could hold their heads and burst into sobs.
What kind of disaster was this?
What had they attracted here?
But now was not the time to cry.
The sect master of the Flame Saint Sect hurried over after hearing the commotion, trembling all over and constantly wiping away cold sweat. With a single strike, she had destroyed the mountain-protecting grand array, yet had not damaged the city at all. With this battle power and this ability, wiping out the city would be as easy as lifting a hand.
The Heaven-Refining Cauldron overhead, the tragic state of the Ancient Desolate Mountains back then, and the calamity caused by the drought demon back then all vividly resurfaced in his mind. He wanted to deceive himself and say this little girl was not the drought demon, but even he couldn’t believe that lie.
Drenched in sweat, he came before Qingying and said with a mournful face,
“I… this lowly one… will immediately take you to the treasure vault. Take anything you like.”
When Qingying heard this, she immediately smiled.
“Sure.”
Her smile was bright as a flower, innocent and pure.
The sect master of the Flame Saint Sect led Qingying to the sect’s treasure vaults with his heart bleeding. He opened one vault after another, already mentally prepared to lose everything. After all, as long as the foundation remained, an emptied treasury could be filled again.
Qingying followed the sect master into the Flame Saint Sect’s treasure vault. Standing at the entrance, she swept her gaze over it and saw that it was full of magical treasures used by the cultivation world. She looked at the sect master with disdain and said,
“Another one.”
The sect master of the Flame Saint Sect led Qingying to the next vault.
Qingying glanced inside and saw that it was full of talismans. One look at the materials and runic patterns told her their power was not even as strong as her stomping her foot.
She glanced blandly at the sect master.
“Another one.”
She followed the sect master of the Flame Saint Sect and visited every treasure vault of the sect one by one. In the end, she emptied the treasury where the spirit stones were stored. Then she gave the sect master five bottles of her own rations.
After thinking for a moment, she took out a piece of Earth Immortal meat, tore off one leg, and handed it to him.
“You’re too poor. I’d feel bad cheating you.”
She thought about it and felt she might have given too little, so she took out an Earth Immortal head she didn’t like to eat and gave it to the sect master of the Flame Saint Sect.
“Although there isn’t much meat on the head and it doesn’t taste good, the ears are decent, and the brain marrow is very nourishing. The flavor is quite nice. If you open the skull, you can see a jade-like Earth Immortal bone covered in runes. That is where this Earth Immortal’s lifetime of cultivation essence lies.”
After saying that, she stuffed the Earth Immortal head, the Earth Immortal leg, and the five bottles of Life-Restoring Pills into the Flame Saint Sect sect master’s arms. Then she raised her hand, used the great cauldron to scoop up her Tree Grandpa, and left directly.
The Flame Saint Sect sect master held the Earth Immortal head, Earth Immortal leg, and several bottles of pills, then sat down on the ground with a thump.
If it weren’t too unsightly for the master of a great sect to cry, he truly wanted to burst into loud sobs.
The drought demon had emptied the Flame Saint Sect’s spirit stone treasury and blasted away the Flame Saint Sect’s mountain-protecting grand array. Then she had gifted them one Earth Immortal leg and one Earth Immortal head.
Without the city-protecting grand array, keeping these two things in his hands was practically inviting other powers to attack and rob them.
If you wanted to give a gift, couldn’t you do it quietly?
You shattered the formation over the entire city, then gave them to me in full view of everyone and said it out loud. The news that the Flame Saint Sect had obtained an Earth Immortal opportunity would spread across the entire cultivation world at once.
Were you feeling bad for us, or did you think the Flame Saint Sect wasn’t miserable enough?
But did he dare complain to the drought demon?
This was the drought demon who had nearly destroyed Yue Kingdom. She had come to the Flame Saint Sect without harming a single person and had been sent away with only one treasury’s worth of spirit stones. He should be incomparably grateful.
Besides, after taking things, she had even given a return gift.
How courteous of her.
