Bao Gu understood perfectly that in front of Ba, these cultivators were no different from chickens penned up for slaughter—but she herself was absolutely not going to meekly submit.
She glanced around and saw, at the seat of honor in the hall, a massive chair made entirely of bones. Though made of white bone, it was clear and lustrous like jade, and its armrests and back were inlaid with decorative skulls.
She dragged that bone throne down from the main seat, hauled it to the center of the palace, and slammed it down onto the bone-paved floor. Then she pulled out a thick, furred demonic-beast hide from her oversized storage bag, spread it over the bone throne as a cushion, and finally sat down.
From the treasure trove inside her giant storage bag, she took out a pile of refining materials, then shifted out a large artifact furnace. Sitting on Ba’s bone throne, she settled in beside the furnace and began operating it to refine something.
Her main material was Profound Iron, with one-third Da Luo Golden Essence mixed in.
To move Ba’s throne and use it as a chair, then openly set up a refining furnace and start forging on the territory of a man-eating Ba—this was something so unthinkable that none of the people present had ever even dared imagine it. Yet Bao Gu was doing exactly that. And Ba only turned her head, frowned lightly, and let Bao Gu do as she pleased.
After the initial shock, many people came back to their senses and understood that Bao Gu was silently telling them with her actions:
From now on, in this place, Bao Gu calls the shots.
Her goal? Her intent?
Obviously, they still had value in the eyes of the Cleaver Order Master. She was planning to recruit them. Otherwise, why make such a show?
A hopeful light appeared in many eyes.
Some of the cultivators who had been scared witless and lacked composure fell to their knees with a “thud,” crying out in desperate supplication:
“Order Master, save me…”
But that shameless, broken-down group only made up a tiny fraction of everyone here.
Most people chose to watch quietly, waiting to see what Bao Gu would do next. Her actions had already told them she had the ability to get them out from under Ba’s claws. With the danger of immediate death likely removed, there was no need to rush and lower their bargaining position.
Those from major powers took the chance to secretly gather their sectmates, organizing their own disciples and appointing leaders among the survivors. One person’s strength was limited, but the combined strength of tens of thousands was enormous. If Bao Gu wanted to use them and they had such numbers, then they had leverage to negotiate with her.
Before long, the Profound Iron and Da Luo Golden Essence inside the furnace melted down into a single pool of liquid.
Bao Gu drew the molten metal out and used her spiritual power to slowly shape it. That sphere of fiery red alloy floated in midair, gradually elongating and transforming into a cauldron, cooling as it solidified.
Before the cauldron was fully cooled and the alloy had completely hardened, she took out a carving knife and began swiftly engraving sealing sigils and lines of runes all over the inside and outside of the man-high cauldron.
Cauldron-type artifacts were notoriously hard to refine—actually getting one to form as a true artifact was extremely difficult. If she tried to refine this cauldron as a proper magic treasure, she might fail ten times and not succeed once.
So she could only use mundane casting methods to forge it. A cauldron cast this way was just a cauldron—no magic power of its own. Anyone watching Bao Gu mix Da Luo Golden Essence into Profound Iron just to cast a mortal cauldron would feel it was sheer waste.
The cauldron was a mortal cauldron, but the material was anything but ordinary. At the very least, it was solid enough. Bao Gu then filled its surface with densely packed runes, weaving them into a sealing formation.
As the myriad runes emerged on the great cauldron, the originally ordinary piece suddenly became extraordinary—one could even say it now counted as a low-grade magic treasure.
After finishing the carvings, she let the cauldron cool naturally. Once it had fully solidified, she pulled out a ground-fire-collecting artifact from her storage bag and ignited roaring earth fire beneath the cauldron.
Then she poured in vast amounts of spirit spring water, not stopping until the water inside reached higher than a person’s height. After that, she started throwing ten-thousand-year spirit herbs into the cauldron like they cost nothing at all, added a few leaves of Coiling Dragon Enlightenment Sacred Tea, plucked a petal from a ninth-rank Ice Lotus, and dripped in several drops of pure essence sap from a Primordial Soul Fruit Tree.
Ba was drawn over by the commotion. She wandered to the cauldron, circled it a few times, then crouched down to peer at the earth fire underneath. She was sure this wasn’t for bathing.
This was for boiling soup.
She braced her hands on the scalding hot cauldron wall, now heated to rolling boil, and glared at Bao Gu in dissatisfaction.
“Where’s the meat?”
She reached up, snatched the Ice Lotus petal floating on the surface, and popped it into her mouth, taking a big bite and chewing. After swallowing, she gave her verdict:
“The taste’s not as good as a Hell-Breaking Blood Lotus, but it’s not bad. At least thirty thousand years old, right?”
The Ice Lotus petal, about the size of two palms, was gone in a few mouthfuls. Then she asked:
“Got any more?”
Bao Gu asked, “Do you want to gnaw on flower petals, or do you want meat?”
Ba hesitated, then said, “Meat.”
It tasted better.
Bao Gu grunted, then, heart aching, snapped off another Ice Lotus petal and tossed it into the cauldron.
She turned and glared fiercely at Ba.
“If you fish any more ingredients out of there, I’m going to smack your hands.”
Ba said airily, “You think you can beat me?”
Then she sauntered over to her own bone throne and flopped down, completely unladylike, one leg thrown over the armrest, half-leaning sideways. She wasn’t wearing any clothes, and in that completely unrestrained posture, her most intimate parts were fully, blatantly exposed.
Bao Gu pressed a hand to her forehead, almost unable to bear the sight.
Inwardly she howled, Under so many watching eyes, you’re really going to sit like that—like anyone who walks up could take you on the spot—and you think that’s fine?
They were both women; Bao Gu absolutely could not just sit by and watch Ba like this. She pulled out a robe and draped it over Ba. Seeing Ba frown in displeasure, Bao Gu paused to think, then took out a jar of sixth-grade Monkey Wine and handed it to her.
“Try it. Is it good?”
Ba uncorked the sixth-grade Monkey Wine and took a sniff. Her eyes lit up.
“Monkey Wine!”
Her face bloomed into a brilliant smile. She hugged the jar to her chest like a treasure.
“It’s Monkey Wine!”
She carefully took a tiny sip, letting it sit in her mouth and savoring the flavor. Her eyes narrowed with pleasure. Her smile was幸福 and content, yet tears suddenly rolled from the corners of her eyes.
She raised a hand to wipe the wetness away and said in bafflement, “Why is water coming out of my eyes?”
Bao Gu froze when she heard that.
She really wasn’t seeing things.
Ba was actually crying?
Ba took another tiny sip of Monkey Wine, then another, drinking slowly, little mouthful by little mouthful. After a few sips, she muttered under her breath:
“I feel like I drank this somewhere before…”
Bao Gu said, “If you promise me you won’t go around naked anymore except when you bathe or sleep, I’ll give you ten more jars of Monkey Wine like this.”
Ba frowned at Bao Gu.
“You said you’d let me drink my fill.”
Bao Gu replied, “I never said it would be Monkey Wine. You know full well Monkey Wine doesn’t count as common spirit wine.”
She put another set of clothes over Ba.
“Put your clothes on. Once you’re dressed, come find me for the Monkey Wine.”
Ba pinched the garment between two fingers, looked it over with clear distaste, then tossed it back to Bao Gu. She lifted her hand, and a thick divine metal chain appeared out of thin air in her palm.
The chain was as thick as a forearm and extremely long; one end was in Ba’s grasp, while the rest piled up into a small mountain in the middle of the hall.
Ba said to Bao Gu, “Lend me your War God Sword for a bit.”
Bao Gu stared at her, horrified.
“You’re not planning to chop divine metal with my Xuantian Sword, are you? My Xuantian Sword is cast from Da Luo Golden Essence. You want to use it to hack divine metal? Aren’t you afraid of chipping my sword?”
“Won’t chip,” Ba said flatly.
“If you chip it or notch it,” Bao Gu ground out through clenched teeth, “I’m docking your rations.”
At the mention of rations, Ba glanced at the cauldron again.
“No meat.”
“There’ll be meat in a while,” Bao Gu said, then summoned the Xuantian Sword and handed it to her.
Ba took the Xuantian Sword and slowly swung it a few times. Her wrist was unbelievably flexible; in her hand the sword seemed to come alive. She closed her eyes, feeling the sword’s aura, then glanced back at Bao Gu.
“Shame the sword soul’s bound to you.”
As soon as the words fell, her aura changed sharply.
She gripped the sword with both hands and rose into the air, her body like a rainbow streaking from the peak of the divine metal mountain straight down to its base in an instant.
As she passed through the mass of piled divine metal, a vast wave of sword qi exploded out. In a single moment, that mountain of divine metal chains shattered completely.
Bao Gu only felt something crashing down toward her head and face. She bolted in alarm, scrambling back behind a bone pillar.
A chilling sword intent swept through the hall, making everyone’s hearts go cold. From deep inside her chest, Bao Gu felt a summoning force, as if something not far away was calling to her—her Xuantian Sword.
At her mental command, the Xuantian Sword appeared in her hand, its blade humming ceaselessly. Bao Gu hurriedly looked down at it.
The whole sword was wreathed in a five-colored glow, without the slightest chip or flaw. She thought it through—she had merged with the sword; it was a part of her. If the sword had been damaged, she would have been injured too and coughing blood already.
Peeking out from behind the pillar, she saw the floor covered in shattered divine metal chain.
The longer pieces were several zhang long; the shorter ones had been cut down to thumb-length fragments, scattered everywhere.
Bao Gu suddenly felt that following her was a terrible injustice to the Xuantian Sword.
Look at how it performed in Ba’s hand—one strike and an entire mountain of divine metal was reduced to slag. In her hand, though… its greatest use was intimidation.
Look at me, the Order Master—I’ve got an upper realm immortal weapon.
When Ba saw Bao Gu reclaim the sword, she muttered in displeasure, “Stingy.”
Then, delighted, she flicked her sleeves a few times. Fierce winds swept the hall, gathering all the scattered divine metal into one place. She sat down right in the middle of the pile.
Bao Gu was stunned to see that Ba was actually going to refine artifacts from that divine metal.
She leaned closer.
“Hey, share a bit of that divine metal with me, yeah? Call it rent for borrowing my money earlier.”
Even she felt her own skin was ridiculously thick saying that.
Ba turned her head and gave Bao Gu a cool, flat look.
Bao Gu rubbed her nose in embarrassment and was just about to slink away when she suddenly felt something off above her head. She looked up—and there, right above her, a mountain of divine metal chain was falling toward her.
She slipped in fright and flashed more than ten zhang away in an instant. The divine metal mountain crashed down behind her, landing less than a foot from her back.
Bao Gu cried out in delight, “I’ll give you a jar of Supreme Monkey Wine later!”
She hastily used her enormous storage bag to scoop all that divine metal away. Then she walked back over to Ba and handed her a jar of Supreme Monkey Wine.
“Here. This is the real rare treasure. I barely have two jars of it total.”
Ba uncorked the Supreme Monkey Wine, glanced inside, and her eyes widened. She took a tiny sip, her lips parted, and her beautiful gaze fixed on Bao Gu, swirling with unspoken emotion.
Bao Gu tensed up all over.
“Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t brew this wine.”
Ba neither agreed nor denied it, simply storing the Supreme Monkey Wine away and continuing to refine things with the divine metal.
Bao Gu turned her attention back to the people locked in the cages. She offered them two choices:
One, remain as Ba’s food.
Two, hand over all their magic treasures and become her servants.
Anyone who had the courage and power to come to the Desolate Ancient Mountain Range to scheme for a sacred artifact had considerable strength and status. They feared Ba, but they did not fear Bao Gu. Now that they knew Bao Gu wanted to use them, and they had numbers on their side, how could they willingly accept the lowly status of a slave?
Even those who were inclined to become servants to fight for a chance at survival were secretly threatened by the power factions among them.
Those who had knelt earlier, begging Bao Gu to save them, had already been forced back to their feet under covert intimidation. None of them dared utter a sound. The disobedient ones had been quietly killed and stored away in their comrades’ storage artifacts.
At present, even locked in cages, these people were still under the control of the major powers. They had no way to resist Ba—but they had plenty of methods to resist Bao Gu.
