Yu Mi carried Bao Gu into the inner quiet room of the bedchamber and laid her down on the soft couch.
Bao Gu’s cultivation far outstripped her own. Since Bao Gu hadn’t consciously reined in the power in her body, Yu Mi’s divine sense couldn’t penetrate to check her condition. But seeing that Xue Qing hadn’t stepped in, she knew Bao Gu was still within the range she could handle herself.
After a brief pause, Yu Mi asked,
“Is there anything else you want me to take care of?”
Bao Gu said,
“Don’t worry about my safety. Just take good care of your shishu and protect yourself. If you have time, go up to the main ship. It’ll help you a great deal. There’s a star map on the flagship—study it when you can.”
As she spoke, she moved all the jade slip books she’d gotten from the War King’s Manor in the Wildlands Realm into a storage pouch and handed it to Yu Mi.
“These are some classics I obtained in the Wildlands Realm.”
Yu Mi wrapped her fingers around the jade slips Bao Gu was giving her, and a surge of indescribable emotion crashed through her chest like a raging sea.
What Bao Gu had just dropped into her hands was, in the cultivation world, practically the greatest wealth and power any force could dream of. So what if they’d been dao companions five hundred years ago? So what if they were fellow disciples? The cultivation world was full of so‑called dao companions and fellow disciples. In front of power and profit, even brothers and fathers could turn on each other and fight to the death.
And yet Bao Gu dared.
She dared to hand over her entire foundation—her life and everything she possessed—into Yu Mi’s keeping. She wasn’t afraid Yu Mi would grow greedy and black‑hearted and stab her in the back?
If Bao Gu “fell into qi deviation” and something went wrong in seclusion, all of this would rightfully fall into Yu Mi’s lap.
Even if Yu Mi had no such intentions. Even if Bao Gu trusted the “her” from back then—didn’t she at least need to guard against the possibility?
It had been over five hundred years. Never mind that Yu Mi’s memories had been sealed—even without that, five centuries was more than enough to change a person beyond recognition. No matter how Yu Mi had treated Bao Gu in the past, on what basis could Bao Gu guarantee she would remain the same and never betray her?
Yu Mi really wanted to ask Bao Gu outright if she wasn’t afraid Yu Mi would secretly kill her for all this.
But seeing Bao Gu in such pain that cold sweat beaded on her skin, she didn’t dare waste any more of her strength.
“The Cleaver Decree and the army command token—I’ll hold onto them for you for now,” she said. “I’ll wait for you to come out of seclusion.”
Bao Gu saw the shock written all over Yu Mi’s eyes and face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Yu Mi ground her teeth and asked,
“You’re really not afraid I’d kill you for all this power and wealth?”
Bao Gu let out a soft “heh” and smiled, her eyes full of tenderness.
Five hundred years, and Yu Mi was still the same as before—not changed in the slightest.
Yu Mi had never pursued power or riches. She sought only her own strength, cultivating for her own body and path. If Yu Mi wanted it, Bao Gu could even give her life to her, let alone a few external possessions.
She chuckled, lifted a finger, and lightly tapped the bridge of Yu Mi’s delicate nose.
“Killing me would take thought and effort. That’s too tiring. Just give me one smile, and forget everything I own—I’ll even wrap myself up and gift myself to you.”
She finished with a playful wink.
Watching Bao Gu’s body tremble slightly from the pain, yet still having the mood to tease and joke about something that concerned life and death, Yu Mi was so furious she glared fiercely at her.
“Just focus on your seclusion!”
She turned and strode toward the door. At the threshold she stopped, stamped her foot, and looked back.
“I’ll stand guard for you and keep watch outside. If you need anything, call me.”
Bao Gu said,
“No need to guard for me. I’m only reforging my sword soul—nothing will happen. And if something really did go wrong, you wouldn’t be able to protect me with your current strength.”
Seeing Yu Mi’s slight frown of disbelief, she added,
“My battle strength is comparable to an Earth Immortal.”
Earth Immortal?
That was a legendary realm. Bao Gu could fight on par with an Earth Immortal?
Yu Mi didn’t believe it—but when she saw Bao Gu’s expression and then recalled all the unbelievable things she’d seen Bao Gu do, she couldn’t quite disbelieve either.
She nodded lightly, not daring to linger and delay Bao Gu any longer, and pushed the door open to leave.
With Bao Gu in seclusion, every burden fell onto Yu Mi’s shoulders.
She settled Xue Qing properly, used a sound‑transmission jade talisman to contact the Demon Saint and invited him to stay with Xue Qing, then hurried to the main hall to meet the various cultivators who had come.
None of the powerhouses present stirred up any trouble over Bao Gu and Xue Qing’s situation. Compared to that, the news of Ba’s return was far more shocking to them.
The Kan Gang had already firmly seated itself as the number one force in the cultivation world. Even adding another three hundred thousand troops and a Daluo Crimson Gold Warship larger than Shadow City was just icing on the cake. So long as Bao Gu didn’t have any further plans or actions, the overall situation in the cultivation world wouldn’t change because of this.
Bao Gu suddenly going into seclusion and putting Yu Mi in charge was actually a good thing for them. If Bao Gu had any moves beyond their expectations, those would now be delayed, and they wouldn’t be caught off guard.
They’d dealt with Yu Mi for over five hundred years and knew she was a conservative by nature. If Yu Mi held the reins, nine times out of ten things would stay as they were.
Everyone present could see perfectly well that something was wrong with Bao Gu’s body. If anyone wanted to move against her, this was the perfect chance. But no one was stupid enough to poke this hornet’s nest.
Openly confronting her head‑on was courting death. As for a secret assassination, unseen by gods or ghosts?
Leaving aside the fact that a powerhouse from the Demon Domain was sitting here in person… leaving aside the horrifying existence of Ba they might provoke… to try and assassinate Bao Gu right under the nose of Yu Mi, the Fire‑Mad Dragon—someone who had taken assassination to the level of a grandmaster?
That would just be tossing all the assassins and dead‑soldiers they’d raised with such effort straight into the river, then dragging a massive calamity home with them.
Just imagining Yu Mi being provoked into coming to their door made their scalps tingle.
It was worse than offending a god of plague. A god of plague only wanted your life. This one could melt the ground your sect stood on.
Yu Mi’s cultivation path and combat power were both terrifying. Add to that her ghostlike movements and unpredictable whereabouts—if you provoked her, you could kiss any peaceful days goodbye. You’d never know when she’d pop out to stab you once or set something on fire.
And she was the Enforcement Envoy of the Kan Gang. With the Kan Gang’s enormous, all‑pervasive intelligence network, there was simply no one she couldn’t track down if she wanted to.
Offend Yu Mi, and she could use your sect as her personal training ground, your sect members as practice dummies for her sword, and set fires everywhere until the sect was reduced to ruins—while you could only watch her commit arson and murder without even touching a single hair on her head.
Then, when she was done, she’d even openly declare, “I’m just having a one‑on‑one with you. Me alone against your entire sect. Not convinced? Come kill me, then!”
It wasn’t like Yu Mi had never been hunted down. Once, a battle maniac with a few screws loose had chased her all the way to the Extreme North.
Then that shameless bastard actually suppressed his cultivation and deliberately left tracks behind. When his pursuers had finally forced Yu Mi into a corner, she suddenly triggered a tribulation.
The idiot was standing too close to Yu Mi. Originally, he shouldn’t have been undergoing a tribulation at all, yet he was forcibly dragged into it with her.
He was a full major realm above Yu Mi and only half a step from entering the tribulation stage himself—and yet, thanks to Yu Mi, he ended up being smashed to pulp by the Blood Tribulation Heavenly Lightning.
Yu Mi, on the other hand, had a Duobao Spirit Monkey raising treasures for her, an inexhaustible stockpile of cultivation resources left by Bao Gu, and a Demon Saint personally refining a mountain of life‑saving pills for her. When she faced the Blood Tribulation, she just hugged a pile of spirit treasures, rare elixirs, and spirit wine, gobbling and chugging while the lightning fell, and actually enjoyed the tribulation.
If you tried to hunt down Yu Mi—even if you were a full major realm above her—all you’d get out of it was exhaustion to the point of vomiting blood, plus anger to the point of vomiting more blood.
And when Yu Mi really couldn’t run anymore, she’d just dive into Qingzhou, grab hold of the Qingzhou Grand Array, and stand right on the border. Even if you had ten thousand times the courage, who dared step into Qingzhou and face the slaughter of that grand array just to fight Yu Mi?
After Yu Mi had settled Bao Gu and Xue Qing, the leaders of the major factions all took their leave.
Qu Yirou, Jade Shura, Si Ruo, and a few others who had close personal ties and formal alliances with Bao Gu stayed behind.
Once Yu Mi had seen the visiting cultivators off, Wang Ding, Sun Dilong, Kuang Mo, and the commanders and stewards from the flagship finished their discussions on how to settle the three hundred thousand cultivators from the Daluo Crimson Gold Warship and brought their proposal to Yu Mi for approval.
Yu Mi normally didn’t interfere much with the Kan Gang’s internal affairs, but she knew them inside and out. She glanced through the jade slip they presented and didn’t comment, simply called for a map and marked out a region for the three hundred thousand troops to establish a military encampment.
She told the people from the flagship to submit a full personnel roster and ordered them to keep everything as it had been and maintain the original structure.
She’d never thought of herself as an expansionist warlord. She knew her own limits and had no intention of charging into things she wasn’t good at.
Under Bao Gu’s governance, both the Kan Gang and the three hundred thousand cultivators on the Daluo Crimson Gold Warship already operated under a complete and effective system. As long as there was no major upheaval—or she herself didn’t go around stirring things up—even if she couldn’t make it flourish further, she could at least maintain what was there.
If she decided to start tossing everything around without the ability to oversee the big picture and strategize from a thousand miles away, she might well run the Kan Gang’s entire foundation straight into the ground.
Yu Mi had no intention of stirring things up. But she didn’t know how long Bao Gu’s seclusion would last. Since Bao Gu had handed these three hundred thousand troops to her, she had to guard this foundation well in Bao Gu’s place.
Not meddling in internal affairs didn’t mean not understanding them, not exerting control, or failing to nip problems in the bud. Besides, she was full of curiosity toward the Daluo Crimson Gold Warship, the five hundred years of Bao Gu’s experiences, and Bao Gu herself.
Before long, the detailed rosters from each division on the Daluo Crimson Gold Warship were laid out before Yu Mi.
She picked up the jade slips and swept her divine sense over the headings.
She couldn’t help muttering in her heart,
Well now. The structure on this Daluo Crimson Gold Warship is practically a copy of the Kan Gang.
Aside from some slightly simplified classifications, the overall setup was almost identical—even many of the department names were the same.
The division in charge of construction, for example, was called the Works Hall, just like in the Kan Gang. Under it were sub‑halls for Pills, Forging, Winery, Talismans, and Formations—exactly the same as the Kan Gang.
The one responsible for internal discipline was the Discipline Hall.
Since all three hundred thousand cultivators had sworn blood oaths and were, in effect, all dead‑soldiers, and there were no demon‑beast battle slaves on the warship, the troop categories differed from the Kan Gang and were not divided as finely.
The warship’s forces were split into two types: one group operated the warship itself, and the other formed the armored guard corps that charged into battle. Among the armored guards, those responsible for protecting Bao Gu and maintaining order throughout the ship were the Inner Guard—also called the Personal Guard—while those who fought external battles were the main Armored Guard.
As for cultivators who, after living out their lifespans without breaking through, died of old age and only left a Nascent Soul behind—whether they later turned to ghost cultivation or sword cultivation—they were all classified into the Reserve Armored Guard. Since this category was basically starting over from the beginning and their cultivation paths and techniques differed from before—especially the sword cultivators, who cultivated techniques personally taught by Bao Gu—the only real difference from the Kan Gang’s sword cultivators and ghost cultivators lay in their benefits. In all other respects, they were still treated the same.
With a single sweep, Yu Mi gained a rough understanding of the Daluo Crimson Gold Warship’s situation.
She memorized the names of the main commanders, hall masters, and stewards in charge of each division, then opened the detailed dossier to look over their personal histories.
And then she froze. Completely.
She stared in stunned silence for a long time.
One by one, she carefully examined the backgrounds of these hall masters, commanders, and stewards.
Aside from a small number of wandering cultivators, all of them had come from the very forces Bao Gu had wiped out over five hundred years ago—those who’d invaded the Yue Kingdom and the Xuantian Sect.
Hadn’t they said that in the later purges, those factions were almost wiped out to the last man?
And here, under Bao Gu’s command… there were over two hundred thousand, nearly three hundred thousand of their “remnants”!
Yu Mi felt as if a rolling clap of heavenly thunder had crashed just above her head. It took her a long time to come back to herself.
If Bao Gu weren’t in seclusion, she would really want to march over and ask what in the world was going on.
Since she couldn’t ask Bao Gu, Yu Mi summoned the steward in charge of personnel management and questioned him instead.
The steward explained everything to her honestly from start to finish—the origins and developments, every detail he knew from the past five hundred years. He held nothing back.
When he finished, he even went so far as to practically weep with gratitude while praising Bao Gu as a benefactor of unmatched kindness.
Yu Mi listened, stunned in place and speechless for a long time.
These two sides had once fought to the death with hatred deep enough to annihilate sects and nearly bring about the destruction of the world.
Turn around, and after a blood oath, one side swore lifelong allegiance and the other took them all in as trusted subordinates.
Thinking back over everything that had happened since she’d reunited with Bao Gu, Yu Mi felt that Bao Gu did absolutely nothing according to common sense. She never played by the rules.
Yu Mi was filled with nothing but astonishment.
This way of doing things was completely beyond anyone’s expectations.
She recalled how those cultivators earlier had tried to sound her out about Bao Gu’s plans for the future.
She wanted to know too.
Judging from Bao Gu’s previously unpredictable actions, was her next move really just targeting the Five Element Immortal Stones?
All of a sudden, Yu Mi felt that if Bao Gu decided to use the Five Element Immortal Stones to build a house or pave the floor, she wouldn’t even be surprised.
Yu Mi stared blankly at the steward in charge of personnel and asked,
“Bao Gu was already like this before she entered the void?”
This was completely different from the Bao Gu in the rumors.
The steward gave a discreet cough.
“Immortal Yu Mi, before I was captured by Ba, I’d never seen the Lord before. You are her senior martial sister and dao companion. Surely you’re the one who understands best how the Lord thinks.”
Yu Mi: “…”
She suddenly felt she really needed to hurry and find her shimu to undo that memory seal.
