Ji Mingcheng’s explanation only made Ji Yutang feel it was utterly ridiculous.
Her parents had always indulged her in everything, but on this matter, they just wouldn’t budge.
Still, she wasn’t discouraged—if not this time, then next time.
Sooner or later, she’d get to the bottom of it.
Who could really force her to get married anyway? Right now, cultivation was what mattered most.
Once she reached the Heaven-Human Realm, let’s see who could make her bow her head!
Ji Yutang told Ji Mingcheng in detail about the Ran Family sisters, hoping her parents would help her sort it out.
But to her surprise, the very next day, Ran Jingri and his wife came to visit, asking to see her specifically.
Ji Yutang had been flipping through Daoist texts in the library, but since they were elders, she had to show her face no matter how reluctant she was.
Cultivators used their magic to maintain their appearance, rarely showing age or the aura of death before their time was up.
Ran Jingri, standing before Ji Yutang, wore a scholar’s robe, a tall hat, and a dignified expression—his looks were striking.
Beside him, Wang Shenyu was fresh and elegant, like a lotus blooming on water.
Ji Yutang quickly looked away and bowed respectfully.
Although Li Jingyu was Ran Jingri’s daughter, their temperaments were completely different, and their faces only bore a slight resemblance—three or four points at most, leaning more toward her mother, Li Qingxun.
Unfortunately, she’d rarely seen that legendary Tai Shang successor, so she could only guess in secret.
As for Wang Shenyu, Ji Yutang could see a similarity in temperament to Ran Guzhu, but their inner natures were completely different—she wondered how much Ran Guzhu had learned.
“Yutang, did you see Ran Gutong?” Ran Jingri looked at Ji Yutang and spoke.
He rarely mentioned the name “Ran Gutong,” so his tone was a bit stiff and cold.
Ji Yutang frowned slightly, nodded, and said, “Yes.”
“And what about A Zhu? Did you see her with your own eyes? Are you sure it was Ran Gutong traveling with you the whole time?” Wang Shenyu followed up.
Though both were daughters of the Ran Family, Ran Gutong had already been expelled from the clan, and you could tell from the way she was addressed.
For some reason, Ji Yutang felt a flicker of annoyance.
She didn’t look up at the couple’s expressions, but answered firmly, “It was definitely Ran Gutong who traveled with me.
As for Ran… Guzhu, I didn’t see her.”
“So that letter really was forged, but the aura on it was real.
Could it be that A Zhu really fell into Ran Gutong’s hands?” Wang Shenyu looked at Ran Jingri, full of worry.
Ran Jingri said, “They’re sisters, after all.
I think Ran Gutong will have some restraint and won’t hurt her.”
“Really?” Wang Shenyu’s tone was full of doubt.
She frowned at Ran Jingri and said, “Senior brother, don’t forget, she lived with Huai Wanxiu for over ten years.
She’s fallen into the demonic path—how could she still have feelings? If she did, why wouldn’t she have come home all these years?” If a demonic cultivator returned home, would they be killed on the spot like Li Qingxun? Ji Yutang thought to herself.
Since they didn’t ask, she didn’t volunteer anything, just stood quietly to the side, waiting for the couple to finish their discussion.
Since there was a junior present, Ran Jingri didn’t want to argue with Wang Shenyu.
He looked at Ji Yutang and said gently, “Did she reveal anything about A Zhu? What are her plans?”
“I don’t know,” Ji Yutang shook her head, sounding very sincere.
Ran Jingri looked a bit disappointed, but Wang Shenyu suddenly got agitated, staring at Ji Yutang and saying, “Think carefully! When she was pretending to be A Zhu, didn’t she slip up at all? How could you not recognize her?” The urgency in her tone carried a hint of blame.
Ji Yutang frowned and suddenly looked up to meet Wang Shenyu’s gaze.
Why should she be able to recognize Ran Guzhu? Once she realized that gentle facade wasn’t Ran Guzhu at all, the knot in her heart had long since vanished.
Now, Ran Guzhu was no different to Ji Yutang than all those people who’d bullied her!
“It’s fine if you don’t know.” Ning Huaizhen couldn’t stand it anymore.
She reached out to pat Ji Yutang’s head, then looked up at Ran Jingri and his wife, speaking gently, “She wouldn’t have taken Guzhu for no reason—there must be a purpose.
Whether it’s her own idea or Huoxin Palace’s orders, it’ll come out eventually.”
Ji Mingcheng grinned and said, “Yeah, Brother Ran.” He paused, then added, “But I think it’s probably Huoxin Palace’s plan, right? When she left, she said she’d avenge Junior Sister Li, didn’t she?” He frowned in thought, not noticing Ran Jingri’s face suddenly turn cold.
“Huoxin Palace.” Wang Shenyu’s hand, hidden in her sleeve, suddenly clenched into a fist.
When she said those three words, her tone was laced with hatred.
“Senior brother, if it weren’t for the demoness from Huoxin Palace, would senior sister have ended up like this?” A Taishi Palace successor consorting with a Demon Sect woman—it was a joke! The Three Supreme Palaces had forcibly suppressed the news, but who knew it would lead to even bigger trouble?
Ran Jingri’s lips were pressed into a thin line.
Wang Shenyu was convinced that Huai Wanxiu had led Li Qingxun into the demonic path, and he thought the same.
His wife and daughter had both fallen because of Huai Wanxiu.
As long as that woman lived, the Ran Family would never have peace.
After getting the information they wanted, Ran Jingri and his wife didn’t stay long.
After a few polite words, they left.
Once they were gone, Ji Yutang looked up at Ji Mingcheng and asked, “Now that they’ve found Ran Gutong, what will the Ran Family do to her? Will they really sacrifice her for the greater good?”
Ji Mingcheng hesitated for a moment and said, “Probably?” Ran Jingri used to be utterly uncompromising, but after losing his wife and daughter, he seemed less strict—maybe he’d show some mercy.
Ji Yutang asked again, “Was it them who killed Senior Li?”
Ji Mingcheng’s face tightened.
He glanced at Ji Yutang and said, “Why are you asking so many questions? Just go out and have fun—don’t get involved in these messy things.”
“But I already know some of it,” Ji Yutang said quietly.
Ji Mingcheng looked at his daughter, who was so different after her trip, and couldn’t help but laugh.
It was Ning Huaizhen who spoke up about Li Qingxun: “It should be.
Even your father and I didn’t know about it.
When we got there, all we saw were the Three Supreme Palaces’ cultivators and Brother Ran, with the air thick with blood.
Senior Sister Li was nowhere to be found—only her Life-Bound Artifact, the Heartless Book, was left in a pool of blood.
They didn’t think much before acting, and even let a child see it.” Ning Huaizhen pressed her brow, recalling the past.
She’d been close to Li Qingxun, and even seeing her cold and emotionless after falling into the path of forgetfulness, she couldn’t bring herself to hate her.
Her strong feelings showed in the hint of resentment in her voice.
Ji Yutang picked up on it, but didn’t ask further.
Maybe she’d spent time with the Ran Family sisters before she was five, but now her memories were fuzzy—only Li Jingyu’s smiling face remained.
As a child, she’d seen her father and outsiders kill her mother.
That kind of trauma wasn’t something most people could handle.
It was only natural for her to feel resentment or even fall into the demonic path.
It wasn’t her fault—it was the Ran Family’s.
Now that she’d gone so far down the demonic path, unable to turn back, who was really to blame? She was the most pitiful one in the Ran Family.
“If that child comes back, try to persuade Brother Ran not to kill again,” Ning Huaizhen sighed.
Ji Mingcheng muttered, “But can we really tell the Ran Family what to do? Unless we take that child in and raise her in the Ji Family.” At this, his eyes suddenly lit up and he raised his voice, “She’s also a Ran Family daughter—she was supposed to be engaged to our Xiao Tang.
If she comes back and we cripple her cultivation, she can marry Xiao Tang.
A cripple wouldn’t mind Xiao Tang’s Scattered Spirit Body, right?”
Ning Huaizhen frowned slightly, not refuting him, as if considering it.
Even though the matter of Ran Guzhu running away from marriage was over, she and her husband still felt a bit resentful.
It was an insult to their daughter and to the Ji Family—why should the Ran Family make them look so bad?
Ji Yutang: “…” She imagined the scene her father described and shuddered all over.
Afraid the conversation would go further, she found an excuse to leave the house.
There was no way she’d end up with Ran Guzhu, but as for Li Jingyu… Ji Yutang shook her head, pushing that face out of her mind.
In Tianshui City, the people worshipped dragons and held the Dragon Worship Festival.
When the festival came, every household hung up colorful lanterns of all shapes and sizes, tying them to sticks and setting them up at their doors.
The streets were full of shouting, the air thick with the smell of pastries, and the crowds were lively and bustling.
It had been a long time since Ji Yutang had walked through the city with such peace of mind.
Her steps were light, her demeanor relaxed and carefree.
She walked all the way to the area where cultivators had set up blessed lands and quiet abodes before stopping.
The worldly bustle faded away, replaced by cultivators moving so fast they left only afterimages.
Ji Yutang clicked her tongue, pulled a bag of spirit stones from her sleeve, and prepared to rent a blessed land.
Actually, in Tianshui City, the Ji Family was a top clan, with several spirit veins planted, and their spiritual energy was far richer than anywhere else.
But the ancestor had set up a great formation to convert the spiritual energy into pure, gentle qi.
If Ji Yutang could cultivate magic, the Ji Family would be the best place for her.
But after switching to dragon power cultivation, what she needed wasn’t gentle qi, but pure spiritual energy—the Primordial Qi of heaven and earth.
Plus, her parents didn’t want her practicing the power path, so she had to sneak to this street to rent a blessed land for cultivation.
Just as Ji Yutang took the token and was about to go in, a sharp, familiar voice sounded behind her.
“Isn’t that Ji Yutang? Didn’t she run away from home? Why’s she back?”
Ji Yutang froze.
The memories etched in her mind surfaced, and her face went pale.
She slowly turned around, and when she saw the arrogant person, she bit her lip and said, “You?”
There were plenty of cultivation families in Tianshui City.
As a Ji Family descendant, even with a Scattered Spirit Body, Ji Yutang still interacted with the other noble children.
The one in front of her now was Yan Yuzhen, the direct son of the Yan Family.
He made no secret of his desire for the Heart of the Great Dao, and had mocked and belittled her since childhood.
“Heh, what are you doing here renting a blessed land? Did the Ji Family’s spirit veins dry up?” Yan Yuzhen crossed his arms, his gaze sweeping over the token in Ji Yutang’s hand with amusement.
“Maybe there’s something special here that’ll let her finally cultivate some magic,” joked a boy with Yan Yuzhen.
“It’s no use to you anyway.
Why not give us the token? We need to cultivate too.” Yan Yuzhen saw Ji Yutang’s pale face and kept mocking her.
The taunts overlapped with the past, and that old sense of inferiority and helplessness swept over her again.
But now, Ji Yutang could quickly suppress it.
Ji Yutang sneered, “What a coincidence.
But I’m not giving up this blessed land.”
“Tsk, you’re just hogging the spot and not using it,” Yan Yuzhen said, not caring how crude his words sounded.
He’d never liked Ji Yutang, and now, seeing no Ji Family members around, he got an idea.
“Too bad, I’m taking this blessed land today.” So what if he bullied Ji Yutang? He was a talented Yan Family disciple.
Even if Ji Yutang’s parents favored her, the Ji Family wasn’t really her own.
With all the main and branch lines here, he didn’t believe the Ji Family would go to war with the Yan Family over a “cripple”—at most, they’d just apologize and be done with it.
Yan Yuzhen made his move in a flash.
A red light shot out like lightning, blazing with heat and wild energy, blasting toward Ji Yutang.
Ji Yutang had been on guard since she saw Yan Yuzhen and his group, so she was ready.
She reached out and grabbed the Falling Moon Bow.
With a long dragon’s roar, the wrath of the heavenly dragon turned into a green light that smashed into the wave of energy! The glass lamps in the room shook and clanged, and the lazy shopkeeper’s eyes suddenly sharpened.
His aura surged, suppressing everyone in the room, but he didn’t intervene—he just sent everyone outside.
Yan Yuzhen had thought his “True Fire Shield” would leave Ji Yutang in a sorry state, but he never expected her to fight back.
That powerful force shattered his “True Fire Shield” and came right at him.
Yan Yuzhen’s expression changed.
Flames burst around him, his magic surged, and he barely managed to block the rest of the force with a fire barrier.
He squinted at Ji Yutang and sneered, “Three days apart and you’re a new person.
Not bad!”
He should have left, but Yan Yuzhen was too proud to accept defeat at the hands of a “cripple.” He pinched the air, and a flaming blade appeared in his hand.
He swung it in a half-circle, sending a wave far stronger than before—he was ready to show his true skills.
But that was all it was.
Ji Yutang thought to herself, the gloom in her heart fading.
Seeing Yan Yuzhen charge with his blade, she put away the Falling Moon Bow and used the Xuanxiang Pearl to channel her magic.
The red energy was fierce, but Ji Yutang ignored it.
She reached out, and her magic sword flew from its sheath.
With a flash of blue light and a clang, the blazing red energy was sliced in two.
This move was one of the Ji Family’s signature sword techniques, called “Clear Wind Severance.” It was as swift and unpredictable as the wind, elegant and free.
When Yan Yuzhen saw his energy cut by the Breeze Sword Technique, his face turned dark and vicious.
A streak of magnetic light shot from his sleeve, meant to counter sword energy.
As soon as it flew out, Ji Yutang’s sword was blocked, and Yan Yuzhen took the chance to strike her with a “Fire Cloud Palm,” laughing, “You’re just faking it with magic tools.
Let’s see how long you last!”
The flames grew fiercer, the palm strike roaring toward her.
Ji Yutang’s face stayed calm as she met Yan Yuzhen’s palm.
She cultivated a power path technique, using external medicine to forge her body to perfection.
Now, her body was so strong that a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator couldn’t hope to break it.
The moment their palms met, there was a crack of bone—Yan Yuzhen screamed and was sent flying.
He felt a strange force enter his meridians, tearing his body apart layer by layer.
Ji Yutang looked at Yan Yuzhen coldly.
The True Dragon Transformation Scripture included a palm technique called “Heavenly Dragon Split,” incredibly powerful and mysterious.
Usually, cultivators didn’t fight at close range, so this move wasn’t often used.
But Yan Yuzhen, relying on his “Fire Cloud Palm,” had chosen this way to fight.
Yan Yuzhen’s face went deathly pale.
The pain was so intense he thought even his foundation was cracked.
He pointed at Ji Yutang, lips trembling, “You, you—” But before he could finish, a sword light flashed, slicing off some hair and leaving a long cut on his cheek.
“Trash.” Ji Yutang looked at Yan Yuzhen and threw those two words back at him—the same ones that had tormented her for years.
She felt a weight lift from her heart.
Watching Yan Yuzhen’s friends scramble to carry him away, Ji Yutang didn’t care.
The Ji and Yan families were close, so she couldn’t openly cripple Yan Yuzhen, but she left a hidden true dragon force in his body.
From now on, whenever Yan Yuzhen cultivated, he’d suffer from it and never make progress.
Ji Yutang didn’t care what happened to Yan Yuzhen after he went home.
She turned and went into the blessed land to cultivate.
If you’re not strong, anyone can bully you.
So what if you have a family to rely on? How long can they protect you? What matters most is your own cultivation! With that thought, Ji Yutang’s resolve grew even stronger.
After Ji Yutang left, a figure appeared where the fight had been.
The newcomer’s long hair fluttered in the wind, their face hidden behind a silver mask, only a pair of deep, sea-abyss eyes visible.
They lingered for a moment, then turned and vanished.
Yan Yuzhen, as a talented Yan Family disciple, had always been protected by his clan.
His defeat naturally drew questions.
Yan Yuzhen made no secret of his resentment toward Ji Yutang, but surprisingly, the Yan Family didn’t send anyone to the Ji Family to demand justice.
Instead, they quietly suppressed the matter and restricted Yan Yuzhen’s movements.
In the blessed land, Ji Yutang drew in the world’s Primordial Qi to cultivate.
She’d left a letter at home, giving herself plenty of time to act freely.
She secluded herself for a month, and when she felt her dragon power nearing completion, she opened her eyes.
Once she formed her dragon core, she could transform into a heavenly dragon.
But if she took that step, unless she destroyed her own Great Dao Dragon Pill, she could never turn back from the power path.
And destroying her Golden Core would damage her foundation—Ji Yutang didn’t want that.
If she wanted to escape the world’s constraints on power cultivators, maybe she’d have to do as Li Jingyu suggested and cultivate the Daode Heavenly Book as well.
For a qi cultivator to reach the Human Immortal fruit, the first step was to refine the True Core into a pill, and the second was to upgrade the Life-Bound Artifact into a treasure.
Her Great Dao Dragon Pill could replace the true essence pill, and maybe her Life-Bound Artifact would be to manifest the Daode Heavenly Book in her sea of consciousness.
Ji Yutang didn’t copy the Daode Heavenly Book again—she’d already given it away, and copying it again would turn Li Jingyu’s copy into a blank, which was her mother’s keepsake.
She couldn’t take that away.
Other than that, she could only try to use her own intent to connect with the distant Dao.
Fortunately, with her power path body as a foundation, she wouldn’t lose herself on the way.
And this process would gradually lessen the world’s constraints.
But as she meditated, Ji Yutang suddenly felt restless, unable to calm her mind or reach the higher Dao.
Maybe she needed to relax a bit? Ji Yutang thought idly as she walked out of the blessed land.
It happened to be a moonlit night.
The sky was full of stars and the moon, shining bright.
Brilliant dragon lanterns soared into the sky like flying dragons, lighting up all of Tianshui City.
The Dragon Worship Festival had arrived.
People in colorful masks followed the dragon dance, forming a surging tide.
Ji Yutang walked against the crowd, crossed the long street, passed over a stone bridge, and suddenly stopped in front of the dragon temple.
She lifted her eyes and looked at the figure sitting at the stone table ahead.
Her lips moved, but she couldn’t get a single word out.
That person was wearing a mask, but those eyes—Ji Yutang could never forget them, no matter what.
“You… how dare you come here?” After a long moment, Ji Yutang spoke softly.
Li Jingyu looked up, her laughter clear and cold.
She pushed off the stone table and jumped down, taking just a few steps to stand right in front of Ji Yutang, almost pressing up against her.
The magic power on her body surged like a tide, and the Jewel of the Rising Tides suddenly flew out, circling Ji Yutang with a brilliant, pure light.
Li Jingyu raised her eyebrows and smiled.
“Dragon Worship Festival.
I came to see my dragon.”
As she finished speaking, a wave of dragon energy suddenly spilled out from the Jewel of the Rising Tides.
A dragon’s shadow shot out, stirring up the cultivation technique in Ji Yutang’s body, making her start to “dragonize” as well.
Only then did Ji Yutang remember that back at the Dragon Mansion, she had received that senior dragon’s cultivation technique, while Li Jingyu had taken that dragon core, which contained dragon energy from the same source as the dragon technique.
Ji Yutang forced herself to stay calm, pressing her lips together to suppress the urge to transform.
She took a step back, but before she could even get the word “you” out, Li Jingyu pressed a hand onto her shoulder, fingers sliding up along her neck.
Ji Yutang’s body started trembling uncontrollably.
Before she could brush Li Jingyu’s hand away, she heard her bring up the past, and her body went even more rigid.
“Didn’t you enjoy yourself quite a bit when you turned into a dragon and crawled all over me that day? I’m just here to collect a little interest.”
Li Jingyu’s eyes were deep and dark.
She stared at those little antler-like horns, the smile at the corner of her lips growing wider and wider.
Author’s note: Li Jingyu: Hey? Let me see those dragon horns.
