Seeing Bao Gu’s expression turn a bit strange, Qing Ying blinked in confusion.
“What’s wrong?”
She thought for a moment, then her eyes suddenly lit up with excitement.
“From now on I can use my cauldron to stew earth-immortal meat too! Master, do you think using earthfire to stew earth-immortal meat is better, or should I use something like true solar flame?”
Bao Gu was speechless for a long while before she finally managed:
“You people keep taking supreme imperial artifacts from the upper realm and using them as cooking pots. You really think that’s appropriate?”
Qing Ying froze, then said, baffled,
“I’m not just using it as a pot. It can store things, and it can raise dragons…”
As she was speaking, her divine sense swept into the cauldron. She let out a sharp yelp of shock, grabbed the cauldron up, shoved her head inside, then turned it upside down and shook it hard several times. After that she sent her divine sense back in again, searched inside and out for a long time, and finally confirmed—
Her cauldron was empty.
She looked at Bao Gu with big, pitiful eyes.
The moment Bao Gu saw that look, she knew nothing good was coming. Her head started to ache; she rubbed her forehead.
“What is it this time, little ancestor?”
Qing Ying pouted and said, aggrieved,
“I used to have a dragon in my cauldron, and a huge little world in there, and tons and tons of spirit treasures and precious herbs. That bad little fox is bad, really bad. She didn’t leave me anything. She took it all.”
The Demon Saint really couldn’t watch this anymore and interjected,
“Ba… Qing Ying, your cauldron once fought the Myriad Spirits True Cauldron and nearly got beaten to pieces. The little world inside was almost shattered. A lot of it collapsed. A good number of the things inside probably couldn’t be preserved.”
Qing Ying thought for a bit, then nodded.
“Right! That bad little fox doesn’t have the ability to seize my cauldron.”
Once she said that, her brows pinched together. Her delicate little face screwed up like she’d just bitten into bitter herbs. She threw herself at Bao Gu, hugged Bao Gu’s arm, and wailed,
“Cheap Master!”
Her expression was on the verge of tears, as if she’d burst out crying any second just to show Bao Gu.
Bao Gu’s pretty face tightened. She snapped coldly,
“Speak properly.”
Qing Ying let out an “oh,” withdrew her hands, then squatted beside Bao Gu very properly.
“That… if the stuff in my cauldron had been taken by that bad little fox, I could still go find her to get it back. Even if I couldn’t recover everything, I could at least get half back. But… the bad little fox didn’t take what was in my cauldron, and I…”
She flipped the Heaven-Refining Cauldron upside down again and gave it a shake.
“Look, the cauldron’s empty.”
Bao Gu stared at her, utterly exasperated.
“So you’re here to ask me to compensate your loss?”
Qing Ying nodded her head so hard it was like pounding garlic.
Bao Gu was so angry she actually laughed.
Off to the side, Zi Yunshu was trying his hardest to reduce his sense of presence to nothing, terrified Qing Ying would realize that the dragon she’d been raising hadn’t grown up yet before he’d already eaten it.
Bao Gu’s gaze dropped onto the Heaven-Refining Cauldron that Qing Ying had shoved under her nose.
An ancient ruin… Back then Xuantian Sect had searched for a full ten years for that ancient ruin. She’d wandered around in it herself, and even swindled a huge medicinal field out of that Flood Dragon Corpse Demon. Most of the rations Qing Ying was gnawing on these days came from that very field of precious herbs.
Qing Ying caught that hint of hesitation in Bao Gu’s eyes and instantly sensed hope. She stared at Bao Gu, eyes shining.
She squatted extra straight beside Bao Gu, her gaze crystal bright. In everyone else’s eyes, there was something inexplicably comical about it. If she’d grown a wagging dog tail behind her, it would have been perfect.
Si Ruo couldn’t hold back and the corners of her lips curved. She almost raised her hand to pat Qing Ying on the head, but then remembered how terrifying Ba was and didn’t dare put her claws out. Instead, she handed Qing Ying a small palm-sized storage pouch.
Qing Ying turned her head and looked at the pouch Si Ruo had passed over.
“What for?”
Si Ruo said,
“Didn’t your Heaven-Refining Cauldron get emptied? Just build it back up again. You aren’t getting all that loss back overnight anyway, so better to replenish little by little. Add a bit today, a bit tomorrow. Given time, it’ll be another little world. I have some high-grade spiritual treasure and precious herb seeds here. Later, put some spirit soil and spirit spring water into your cauldron and plant them.”
Qing Ying was about to refuse, but she let her divine sense sweep through the pouch and found more than just a bunch of herb and treasure seeds—there was also a huge pile of miscellaneous materials, which she instantly recognized as array materials. In another corner lay a lake-like region of water, all of it spirit spring. The interior of this storage pouch was a hazy chaos space, yet extremely large, packed with things. By storage artifact standards, it was a very good piece.
She also saw many high-grade spirit treasures kept alive in jade boxes, as well as spirit fruits that looked like they’d just been picked from the branch. At the sight of all that delicious food, she wavered.
She glanced at Si Ruo, then turned back to Bao Gu.
“Master, she’s trying to give me stuff?”
What she meant was: do I accept it? I want to, but I’m afraid you won’t let me.
Bao Gu said,
“Accept it.”
Qing Ying beamed and happily took the storage pouch from Si Ruo’s hand, even thanking her out loud. Then she thought for a moment.
“Cheap Master says I can’t just take other people’s things for free.”
She opened up her Blood Prison world and rummaged around inside. Aside from piles of human bones, there was only a White Bone Hall and some wasteland thick with deathly aura. The only things she considered presentable were the artifacts she’d cast out of divine metal when she was bored.
She’d once been chained by divine metal, so she had a serious grudge against the stuff. Just the sight of it annoyed her, and she lived in fear of being locked in it again. She wished she could break every bit of divine metal into scrap so no one could ever again put together a coffin and nine chains.
So she very “generously” pulled out a suit of divine metal battle armor and handed it to Si Ruo.
“Cheap Master says gifts should go both ways. This is for you.”
Zi Yunshu had just gotten his hands on a suit of divine metal battle armor. Now, seeing Qing Ying casually wave a hand and give another whole suit away, he couldn’t help asking,
“Qing Ying, do you have a lot of divine metal armor or something?”
To just give one away like this without even blinking…
“Not really,” Qing Ying said.
As she spoke, she revealed the place where she stored her divine metal armor to everyone.
Every person present sucked in a sharp breath.
Nearly a thousand suits of divine metal battle armor were lined up in neat rows. To the side lay hundreds of divine metal weapons—swords, sabers, spears, halberds and more. Next to them was a big heap of divine metal pots, bowls, tables, chairs, benches, and half a divine metal coffin, plus several lengths of divine metal chain, each broken into short segments.
Bao Gu was so shocked her eyes went blank.
She had never imagined Qing Ying had refined this many divine metal battle armors.
Her gaze shifted.
“Qing Ying, I’ll trade you medicinal treasures for this divine metal…”
Qing Ying refused with a perfectly serious expression.
“No.”
Bao Gu was stunned.
“Why not?”
Qing Ying glanced sideways at her.
“If I trade them to you and one day I offend you, what if you cast them into a coffin and chains and seal me up?”
Bao Gu choked and couldn’t get a word out for a long time.
She actually couldn’t refute that.
After thinking it over, she said,
“Qing Ying, I have an idea. It’ll let you trade this divine metal for what you need, and also make sure no one uses it to forge a coffin and chains to seal you.”
Qing Ying said quickly,
“Say it.”
“Go to the demon domain and find my master’s wife,” Bao Gu told her. “If she wants to seal or suppress you, she can just use her Myriad Spirits True Cauldron to take you down. Whether she has this divine metal or not makes no difference to you. She has all the treasures accumulated by the upper realm demon imperial clan over generations. What I have doesn’t even count as a drop in the bucket compared to her. Sell these suits of divine metal armor to her and have her help you rebuild your little world.”
With this divine metal, once her master’s wife went back to the upper realm in the future, it would be a considerable boost.
Qing Ying thought it over.
“Alright.”
She stood up and said seriously,
“But, cheap Master, they say even brothers settle accounts clearly. Even if she’s your master’s wife, I won’t be polite. For each suit of divine metal battle armor, I want a ten-thousand-year-old precious herb in exchange.”
Bao Gu nodded expressionlessly.
She really wanted to ask, “Can you be any greedier?” A suit of divine metal battle armor for a ten-thousand-year herb… if divine metal had feelings, it would be bawling.
Qing Ying added,
“I won’t give her a discount.”
Bao Gu nodded again.
Qing Ying thought some more.
“Her cauldron broke my cauldron. I have to mark up the price. One suit of divine metal armor for a ten-thousand-year precious herb plus an additional spirit treasure that’s at least a thousand years old.”
Bao Gu lifted a hand to her forehead.
This was her disciple… Conducting business like this, she really wanted to die of embarrassment.
She didn’t want her disciple to get shortchanged, but she also wanted her master’s wife to get a good deal. It was very conflicting.
After thinking, she said earnestly,
“Qing Ying, when you find my master’s wife, let her name a price for you. She won’t cheat you. At the price you just quoted, at most you’ll end up with a tiny medicinal field. Do you still want to build yourself a whole little world or not?”
“Uh…” Qing Ying hesitated. “She won’t scam me?”
Bao Gu snapped,
“Even if she did, she couldn’t possibly scam you as hard as you’re scamming yourself right now!”
Jade Shura let out a snort and almost sprayed her drink. She laughed so hard she wanted to pound the table with her claws, but that would’ve looked too unseemly, so she forced it down.
Bao Gu shot Jade Shura a glance, then asked Qing Ying,
“Did everything I’ve taught you get eaten by a dog?”
Qing Ying protested,
“You only taught me how to read account books. You never told me what price divine metal can sell for.”
“…”
Jade Shura’s laughter, which had just been suppressed, burst out again.
Qu Yirou lowered her head to sip tea, hiding her smile, and quietly pinched Jade Shura to tell her not to laugh so happily, in case that terrifying Qing Ying flew into a rage and gave her a beating.
The Demon Saint could barely bring herself to look.
Suddenly, she felt she understood a little why Ba—who had once wiped out all earth immortals in this realm—had ended up sealed. If it had been Yu Mi or the others, the moment they realized they couldn’t win, they’d have run. Who would wait around to get caught and sealed?
Terrifying battle power and agility, but that head for calculations… honestly, it just made people… pity her.
That little schemer Bao Gu really had her hands full with such a disciple.
Yu Mi was laughing so hard her stomach hurt.
“Qing Ying, will you end up getting sold off one day and still help them count the money?”
Qing Ying glared fiercely at Yu Mi, furious.
“You’re the one who’ll get sold and still help count the money!”
At this point, even she realized the price she’d just quoted for the divine metal was way too low. She resentfully swept a glance over everyone.
“What’s so funny? I picked up all this divine metal! I didn’t spend a single coin. Cost-free business—no matter what I sell it for, I’m still making a profit.”
Bao Gu rubbed her forehead with a troubled look.
Inwardly, she thought, “Even if you picked up the divine metal, how much effort and energy did it take to refine it into artifacts? That doesn’t count as cost?”
Seeing Qing Ying was already embarrassed and angry, she didn’t push it.
She just lifted a hand weakly.
“I’ll give you the coordinates. Go to the demon domain and find my master’s wife.”
“No need for coordinates,” Qing Ying said. “I can find her.”
With that, a full face of displeasure, she turned, and vanished silently without a trace.
The Demon Saint shook her head with a smile.
“With Qing Ying like that, Her Highness the Eldest Princess would be failing herself if she didn’t fleece her a little.”
Bao Gu released her divine sense and swept the area. She didn’t sense Qing Ying’s presence anywhere, nor that faint, watchful gaze of hers. Knowing Qing Ying had gone far and wasn’t peeking at them, she said softly,
“Qing Ying might be simple and honest, but she’s a great laborer.”
Xuan Yue took Ling’er’s hand and stood up.
“Um, I just remembered something. I need to go home.”
She gave them a graceful bow and was already pulling Ling’er along to leave.
Bao Gu blinked, then called out,
“Senior Sister, she’s my disciple at least. You… you all, go easy on her.”
Xuan Yue smiled at Bao Gu.
“Don’t worry. We won’t manage to sell her.”
Her smile bloomed with a hundred charms, so alluring that Bao Gu stared, dazed.
Bao Gu felt Xuan Yue really did look even more beautiful than before.
Before she could react, she heard Ling’er exchange a few hasty words with Yu Mi, and then the two of them hurried away.
Bao Gu suddenly regretted sending Qing Ying to the demon domain.
Even a hundred Qing Yings wouldn’t be enough for her master’s wife and Xuan Yue to take turns calculating against.
But when she thought about it again, since Qing Ying was her disciple, her master’s wife and Xuan Yue really wouldn’t actually sell her. Her master’s wife had already decided to return to the upper realm for revenge; sending Qing Ying over would actually be a huge boost to her.
After Qing Ying, Xuan Yue, and Ling’er left, Bao Gu remembered how the Demon Saint had been thoroughly looted when Qing Ying cleared out her pill room. Feeling a bit guilty, she pulled some spiritual treasures and precious herbs from her massive storage bag, along with spirit stones and various rare mineral resources she’d collected from the void, and handed them to the Demon Saint.
The Demon Saint didn’t refuse.
She and Zi Yunshu took what Bao Gu and Yu Mi gave them mainly for cultivation and practice. The pills, artifacts, formation flags and such they refined, they couldn’t use that many themselves. Aside from Zi Tianjun occasionally taking a few things, and Feng Yi coming to ask for a couple pieces, the rest were all left for Yu Mi and Bao Gu.
Even though Qing Ying had cleaned out her pill room, Qing Ying had also given Zi Yunshu a suit of divine metal armor. As for the medicinal herbs and spirit treasures she used for alchemy, those came from Bao Gu and Yu Mi’s filial offerings anyway. Refining what Bao Gu and Yu Mi gave her into pills and giving them to Bao Gu’s disciple, and in return getting a suit of divine metal battle armor that surpassed sacred artifacts…
No matter how she counted, she’d come out ahead.
If earlier the Demon Saint had felt some fear toward Qing Ying, now she couldn’t muster up even the slightest trace of it. Just thinking of that kid made her want to laugh.
She’d thought Zi Yunshu was absentminded enough, but it turned out there was someone even more outstanding.
Thank goodness Qing Ying had a fiercely protective master like Bao Gu. Otherwise, she really might end up as Yu Mi had said—sold off and still helping count the money.
Out of regard for Bao Gu, none of the women on this boat could bring themselves to fleece Qing Ying, nor did they want to compete with Xue Qing for “business.” Otherwise, just from that little episode earlier, Qing Ying could have been tricked out of every last scrap by the women on this ship.
Dusk deepened. There wasn’t much to see on the lake at night, and everyone was still thinking about the jade slip books Bao Gu had brought back from the Wild Realm. They asked Yu Mi and Bao Gu to lend them a study so they could spend the night copying and transcribing.
After seeing them into the study and arranging attendants outside to serve them, Yu Mi and Bao Gu, reunited after so long apart, linked hands and went back to their room.
