Luo Qingci had been troubled lately.
The root of her troubles was somewhat absurd—she was getting “more and more beautiful.”
This should have been a good thing.
At first, she didn’t pay it much mind either.
For cultivators, as their realm improved, their meridians cleared, qi and blood flourished, and some improvement in appearance was normal.
But her changes had clearly surpassed the ordinary scope.
But… what use did she have for being this beautiful?
She was a sword cultivator, and before this, she’d been a man.
Being too beautiful wasn’t really a good thing…
She didn’t want to get caught up in romance either.
Another point was that while her cultivation was rising like the tide, now at Foundation Establishment Third Layer… her Spirit Stones weren’t enough…
Luo Qingci sat cross-legged on her meditation cushion, an account book spread out before her, calculating every single entry.
Before her master left, he’d left her a stash of Spirit Stones, saying it should last her a few months.
She’d been quite touched at the time, thinking that while her master was usually unreliable, he could be dependable when it counted.
But she had underestimated her own appetite.
Her cultivation speed was indeed fast, but the speed at which she consumed Spirit Stones was even faster.
On top of that, she would spend a bit of money to buy some Osmanthus Cake to eat, so naturally, she was getting poorer and poorer.
By today, she only had three Spirit Stones left.
Three.
If she was frugal, that was enough to eat for half a month.
But cultivation?
Don’t even think about it.
Luo Qingci closed the account book and took a deep breath.
Her master said he would arrange for her engagement annulment and told her to focus on cultivation.
But now that she had no Spirit Stones, what was she supposed to use to cultivate?
She couldn’t exactly expect Spirit Stones to fall from the sky.
She bit her lip and made a decision.
Go to the Task Hall to accept a mission.
By the time Luo Qingci arrived, there were already quite a few people in the square.
They were gathered in small groups—some studying the tasks on the bulletin board, some talking in low voices, and a few who were clearly just returning from a mission, looking dusty and tired, squatting on the steps as they gnawed on dry rations.
The moment Luo Qingci appeared, the noise in the square noticeably dropped.
Not because she was famous, but because of her face.
Today, she was dressed very plainly.
An old moon-white Daoist robe, her hair casually pinned up with a wooden hairpin, an unadorned face, not a single piece of jewelry on her whole body.
But this simple attire only made her face stand out even more, like a little fairy who had accidentally fallen into the mortal world.
“Which peak is she from? Haven’t seen her before?”
Luo Qingci pretended not to hear, quickened her pace to the bulletin board, and looked up at the tasks.
The tasks were divided into four grades: A, B, C, and D.
Grade A was the hardest, Grade D the easiest.
Grade C was slightly better, offering a dozen to several dozen Low-grade Spirit Stones, but it required a certain level of combat ability.
Grades A and B were out of the question for now.
Luo Qingci stood before the bulletin board for a moment, her gaze sweeping past the Grade A tasks and stopping at the Grade C section.
There weren’t many Grade C tasks.
Most had already been taken down, leaving only a few Bounty Notices with slightly curled edges still stuck to the board, like the leftovers no one wanted.
She read them one by one—collect Frost Herb, reward five Low-grade Spirit Stones; clear out a Beast Nest, location on the northern slope of Cangwu Mountain, reward one hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones; find the missing Outer Disciple, reward eight Low-grade Spirit Stones.
None of them were quite right.
Gathering type tasks paid too little, finding people took too much time, and clearing out a Beast Nest had good pay but required at least three people to form a team.
Luo Qingci’s gaze swept across the bulletin board once more, finally settling on a corner of the Grade C task section.
“Dusk Cloud City Sewer Cleanup—Recently, a large number of first-tier Bone-devouring Rats have appeared in the sewers of Dusk Cloud City. They travel in packs and have already injured several mortals. A reward of two hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones is offered for cultivators who complete the task, to be settled upon presentation of Beast Cores. Requirements: Foundation Establishment early stage or above. It is recommended to go as a team.”
Dusk Cloud City.
She knew the place.
It wasn’t far from the Qingyun Sect, about half a day’s journey by the sect’s Spirit Boat.
It wasn’t a very large mortal city, but because it was at the foot of a branch of the Cangwu Mountains, the spiritual energy was still quite abundant.
Rogue Cultivators often stopped there, and over time, it had gradually formed a small gathering point for cultivators.
Two hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones were not a small amount for her right now.
Enough to buy half a month’s worth of Elixirs, or to eat Osmanthus Cake for several months.
And Bone-devouring Rats were first-tier demon beasts; no matter how strong they were, they couldn’t be that tough.
She did a quick mental calculation, then reached out and tore down the Bounty Notice.
The moment she took it down, a male cultivator beside her noticed the notice in her hand.
He leaned in and lowered his voice: “Junior Sister, things have been unstable in Dusk Cloud City lately. I heard there aren’t just Bone-devouring Rats down there, but other things too. You’re going alone? Want to form a team?”
Luo Qingci glanced at him.
Foundation Establishment early stage, average-looking, his gaze lingering on her face for far too long.
“No, thanks.”
She smiled, folded the Bounty Notice neatly, and put it into her Storage Pouch before turning and walking away.
Behind her came the low murmur of the male cultivator and his companion—”That’s someone from Lingyun Peak, right? She’s really…””Don’t get any ideas. She’s a Personal Disciple. Would she ever take a liking to you?”
Luo Qingci didn’t slow her steps.
The smile on her lips gradually faded.
She returned to Lingyun Peak to pack her things and informed Gu Changqing.
The Senior Brother was in the courtyard, studying a new method for cooking a Spirit Herb.
When he heard she was going out on a mission, he looked up, his gaze pausing on her face for a moment before looking away.
“How many days?” he asked.
“Three or four days,” Luo Qingci said.
“Dusk Cloud City. It’s not far. I’ll come back as soon as I’m done.”
“Be careful.”
Gu Changqing lowered his head and continued fiddling with the Spirit Herb.
“Use a Spirit Message Talisman if anything comes up.”
“Mm.”
She also told Chen Mo.
The Second Senior Brother was chopping wood.
With each swing of his axe, a log as thick as a bowl split cleanly in two.
Hearing her words, Chen Mo didn’t even pause in his movements, only giving a barely perceptible nod.
Luo Qingci left a note for her master and Yun Jinzhou on the stone table.
She put the Jade Pendant that the Senior Brother had given her into the Storage Chest.
After all, they were just a bunch of Qi Refining stage rats.
Using a Jade Pendant that could cleave anything below the Nascent Soul realm in one strike would be a bit of a waste.
Standing on her Flying Sword as she weaved through the clouds, she pulled her gaze back from the Cloud Sea and looked down at her own hands.
Slender fingers, well-defined knuckles, nails tinted a faint pink.
This shell of a body was indeed getting more beautiful.
She had to admit it herself.
Whenever she looked in the mirror, she would sometimes freeze for a moment.
What had her old face looked like?
She tried hard to recall her appearance before the age of seven.
Her memories were already very blurry, leaving only scattered fragments—she only felt that she must have been quite handsome back then…
Even if she wasn’t very handsome, she should have been fairly delicate.
The Flying Sword landed at the Landing Point outside Dusk Cloud City.
Luo Qingci jumped off the sword, stepped onto the solid ground, and took a deep breath.
Dusk Cloud City wasn’t large.
The city wall was built of bluish-grey stone bricks, showing their age, with ivy crawling all over the surface.
At the city gate, a few mortal soldiers were checking the passersby.
They saw Luo Qingci dismount from her Flying Sword, their gazes lingering for a couple of extra seconds, but they didn’t ask any questions.
She bore the insignia of the Qingyun Sect.
She must be here for a mission.
Luo Qingci paid the entry fee and walked into Dusk Cloud City.
The city looked just as she had imagined.
The streets weren’t very wide.
Shops lined both sides, row upon row—cloth merchants, grain dealers, apothecaries, weapon smiths—everything one could need.
There were quite a few pedestrians on the streets, both mortals and cultivators.
Most cultivators wore various colored Daoist robes, with Storage Pouches or tokens hanging from their waists, walking with an air of importance.
When mortals saw them, they would instinctively step aside.
She didn’t rush to the sewers.
First, she went to find the City Lord to inform him.
“Be careful, young miss. Things have been unstable in the city lately,” the City Lord’s voice said.
“The demon beasts in the sewers have already injured over a dozen people. A couple of days ago, a cultivator went down. When he came up, he was covered in blood.”
Luo Qingci nodded.
“Thank you for the warning. But I’m at the Foundation Establishment stage. I’ll win.”
After going upstairs to put away her things, she set off.
The entrance to the sewers was in an alley on the north side of the city.
The alley was very narrow, flanked by high walls that completely blocked out the sunlight, making it dim even during the day.
A crowd had gathered at the entrance—mortals and cultivators alike, all peering down eagerly.
“I heard there are several hundred Bone-devouring Rats down there, packed so thick it makes your scalp crawl just looking at them.”
“Several hundred? I heard it’s over a thousand!”
“Whether it’s several hundred or over a thousand, I’m not going down there anyway.”
Luo Qingci pushed through the crowd and walked up to the entrance.
The sewer entrance was a square stone well, with an iron climbing ladder embedded in the walls.
It was pitch black, the bottom nowhere in sight.
A foul, rotting smell rose from below, hitting her nose and making her a bit nauseous.
‘Better get this mission done quickly and go back to cultivate…’
Without any hesitation, she grabbed the iron ladder and climbed down step by step.
“It’s another cultivator…”
“Such a beautiful girl. It’s a shame she’s going down there…”
“Say one less thing. She’s a Foundation Establishment powerhouse, and from the Qingyun Sect. She’s not like you.”
After climbing down about three or four zhang, her feet touched solid ground.
She took out a Moonlight Stone from her Storage Pouch and held it in her palm.
Its soft, white light illuminated a small area.
The sewer was more spacious than she had imagined.
The passage was about a zhang wide, flanked by rough stone walls.
The floor was made of slippery stone slabs covered in a layer of black sludge, soft and sticky underfoot.
Above was an arched stone ceiling, with cast iron drainage grates every few zhang.
Occasionally, water would fall from above, crashing onto the ground with a splash, sounding especially loud in the silent sewer.
The air was thick with a strong stench of rot, mixed with the smell of blood and an indefinable, acrid odor.
She walked along the passage, her footsteps swallowed by the sludge.
The halo of the Moonlight Stone moved slowly through the darkness, casting her shadow on the stone wall like a lonely ghost.
After walking for about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, she heard the first rat squeak.
Sharp, tiny, chittering sounds coming from deep within the passage.
Not just one, but many, densely layered on top of each other, like someone repeatedly scratching their fingernails across glass.
Luo Qingci slowed her pace, her right hand gripping the hilt of her sword.
Within the halo of the Moonlight Stone, the first pair of eyes appeared.
Green, small, glowing in the darkness.
Then a second pair, a third, a fourth… dozens, hundreds, packed tightly together like two rows of ghost fire suspended in mid-air.
Bone-devouring Rats.
Each one was the size of a house cat.
Their grey-black fur glistened with an oily sheen under the Moonlight Stone’s glow.
Their sharp mouths were stained with dark red bloodstains, their sharp teeth protruding from their lips, gleaming in the light.
Luo Qingci didn’t wait for them to charge.
She drew her sword from its sheath.
Ice-blue spiritual power surged from her palm, and a thin layer of frost condensed on the blade.
Her figure flickered in the darkness, and the sword light swept through the rat pack like a bolt of silk.
After killing for the time it takes to burn an incense stick, she had pretty much wiped them all out.
Just as she was about to head back to rest, she realized the passage she had come from was blocked.
Not blocked by the Bone-devouring Rats, but by something stronger.
A person.
In the darkness, a blurry figure stood there, blocking her retreat.
There was some distance between them, so she couldn’t see clearly.
All she could make out was a gaunt silhouette, draped in a dark Cloak, with a Hood pulled low, obscuring most of the face.
Luo Qingci sent her Spiritual Sense probing towards them.
The moment it touched the person, it felt like it had slammed into a wall and bounced back.
Golden Core?
A Golden Core stage cultivator, appearing in the sewer of a mortal city, blocking the path of a small Foundation Establishment cultivator.
She didn’t even need to use her toes to think that this was definitely not a coincidence.
“Hehe, I was just looking for a bit of entertainment.”
The person spoke, their voice low, carrying a chuckle that made one’s skin crawl.
“Taiyin Xuancha Constitution… I never thought I’d encounter such a constitution in a backwater place like this.”
Luo Qingci looked around.
No one else was there.
Taiyin Xuancha Constitution?
Me?
She had no idea what that was, but the moment the words left a Golden Core cultivator’s mouth, she turned and ran.
‘Am I, a Foundation Establishment Initial Stage cultivator, supposed to fight a Golden Core?’
‘And with my spiritual power almost depleted?’
‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’
A Golden Core True Person was looking at her with a fittingly creepy smile.
Was she supposed to just stand there and wait for this Golden Core True Person to invite her for a meal?
‘That bastard definitely wants to force me to my knees, capture me, and do unspeakable things!’
The person emerged from the darkness.
The movement of their stride caused the Hood to slip back a little, revealing a pale, gaunt face.
His features were deeply set, his eye sockets sunken, his pupils a lifeless grey, like two stones that had been soaked in water for too long.
A faint smile played on his lips, not a friendly one, but the smug grin of a hunter who had found his prey.
“Don’t be in such a hurry to run. This humble one won’t kill you,” he said.
“Killing you would waste this constitution. This humble one will keep you, and use you slowly. But since you want to play hide-and-seek with me, then this humble one will play along.”
Luo Qingci’s face twitched.
‘Who the hell wants to play hide-and-seek with some deadbeat old man like you!’ ‘You look like you’re about to kick the bucket, but you’re still pretty childish. After you find me, are you going to give me a reward too?’
Luo Qingci ran deeper into the sewer.
The entrance was blocked by a Golden Core freak.
How was she, at the Qi Refining Third Layer, supposed to fight him?
The man laughed once, the sound echoing through the sewer, stabbing her eardrums with a piercing pain, like the grating sound of fingernails on a chalkboard.
“Where are you, where are you? Hee hee, I’m almost there, I’ll find you soon.”
‘What a psycho!’
The sound of footsteps came from behind her, unhurried, like a cat toying with a mouse.
“This humble one has been stuck at the Golden Core stage for centuries…”
His voice drifted over from behind, carrying a sickening sense of admiration.
“Today, I have finally found my Opportunity to Form Nasal Soul. The heavens truly favor me.”
Luo Qingci gritted her teeth, cursing him in her heart as she ran deeper inside.
‘Worthless old man, still at the Golden Core stage after centuries. If you have any guts, wait for me to break through the Golden Core stage!’
The sewer passage stretched ahead, getting narrower and lower.
Her forehead smacked against a crossbeam, the pain making her vision go black, but she didn’t stop.
She bent over and kept running.
She didn’t know how far she could run, or where she could run to.
But she knew one thing—if that man caught her, her life was over.
She understood perfectly what “use you slowly” meant.
The passage ended at a dead end.
A stone wall, solidly blocking the way.
Luo Qingci stood before the stone wall.
The halo of the Moonlight Stone shone on the cold stone surface, revealing no cracks.
She pushed against it with her hand; the stone wall didn’t budge.
She hacked at it with her sword; stone chips flew, but the thickness of the wall was far beyond what she could break through in a short time.
The sound of footsteps came from behind her.
The man walked over unhurriedly, stopping at the edge of the Moonlight Stone’s halo.
His grey pupils emitted a faint light in the darkness, like two dying lanterns.
“Can’t run anymore?” he asked.
Luo Qingci turned around, her back against the stone wall, her sword held horizontally in front of her, forming a barrier between herself and the man.
She looked at that pale, gaunt face, at the smug smile on his lips, at those grey eyes devoid of any emotion.
She was thinking, why was she so unlucky?
The accident at age seven, losing her identity, turning into a woman, abandoned by her family, coveted by her fellow disciples, and now being targeted by a Golden Core stage deadbeat old man.
It seemed like since she was seven years old, her life had been one accident after another, one stroke of bad luck after another.
“Your constitution hasn’t fully awakened yet, that’s why you only have this level of cultivation.”
The man walked slowly closer.
“Once I help you awaken it, you will truly be able to unleash the power of the Taiyin Xuancha Constitution. Then, when I break through to the Nascent Soul stage and step into the God Transformation stage, you will be my First Meritorious Minister.”
He reached out a hand to grab her.
That hand was deathly pale, without a trace of blood.
The nails were very long, the knuckles prominent.
Just as that hand was about to touch her shoulder, Luo Qingci made her final move.
She held her Iron Sword horizontally in front of her, ice frost condensing on the blade.
Since she couldn’t escape, she would fight to the very last moment, then fall on her sword and die.
…
[Ding—Your fiancée is facing a life-and-death crisis in Dusk Cloud City]
“What the hell?”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.