Li Yunxian and Su Wenjing fell into deep thought, pondering over the sheer amount of information in Zheng Yue’s words.
Seeing that neither of them spoke up, Feng Songhua turned to Zheng Yue and asked about what he and Li Yunxian had just discussed: “Old Zheng, do you know what those Nascent Soul and above fellows on the other side of the foreign clans are actually doing?”
This question struck Zheng Yue as abrupt, as if a whole series of causes and effects had been skipped.
“What do you mean, what are they doing?” Zheng Yue frowned and countered.
Feng Songhua went on to recount what Li Yunxian had said earlier.
Zheng Yue was stunned as well.
He had never considered this question before.
After thinking carefully, he frowned and said, “But they all stay obediently in their caves.”
During the beast tide, while everyone else fought against the monsters, he and Feng Songhua and the others also went to check on the high-cultivation foreign clans’ status.
“So how did Hui Sheng advance to the Spirit Severing stage?” Feng Songhua asked.
The Hui Sheng he spoke of was a foreign clansman from Qingxing, who had advanced from Nascent Soul to Spirit Severing ten years ago.
“Are the foreign clans just like us? As long as they focus on cultivation, can they advance?” Feng Songhua wondered aloud.
Hearing his question, both Li Yunxian and Su Wenjing had question marks popping up over their heads.
Li Yunxian couldn’t help but ask, “Who told you that we just need to focus on cultivation to advance?”
“Cultivation is important, but so is staying true to yourself.”
Feng Songhua and Zheng Yue were dumbfounded again. They exchanged glances, their eyes full of gravity.
What Li Yunxian said was a basic principle—even those at the Qi Refining stage knew it.
But when Feng Songhua had spoken, he hadn’t even thought of this, and Zheng Yue hadn’t noticed anything odd about it, either.
They were prepared to consider the worst-case scenarios for the current situation.
For instance, maybe they had been affected.
Or maybe, it wasn’t just the two of them who had been affected.
“I’m going to talk to the others.” Feng Songhua pulled out his phone and stood up.
“I’ll go, too.” Zheng Yue also got up, face serious.
The two of them went to the study and the lounge of the suite, leaving Li Yunxian and Su Wenjing in the living room. Once the others had disappeared, Su Wenjing turned to Li Yunxian.
“Is your soul alright?” Su Wenjing asked, noting that Li Yunxian still looked weak.
However… if he was truly that weak, how would he have the energy to argue with people for so long?
“It just hurts, it’s not an injury.” Li Yunxian replied, his expression paling a bit under Su Wenjing’s gaze, then gradually recovering.
“Maybe it’s because I’ve tempered my golden light of merit and soul before and have some experience, or maybe it’s because the foundation I forged is purer.”
“I think I can control the golden light of merit inside me now,” Li Yunxian said.
Back when his soul had shattered into pieces, as long as it was wrapped in the golden light of merit, there was no pain at all.
Now, Li Yunxian was only using his soul as a blade, so it just hurt a little; for the golden light of merit, this was a minor issue.
He just needed to pretend to be in a severe backlash state after using his ultimate move.
Catching Li Yunxian’s meaning, Su Wenjing:
He didn’t pursue the topic, but instead said to Li Yunxian, “Bohai Chamber of Commerce was probably set up as the scapegoat.”
“Wanyu Mountain said that when they first found out you were in Qingxing, the information was sent by someone else.”
This was what Su Wenjing had learned from interrogating Wanyu Mountain in his own space before Feng Songhua arrived.
“He doesn’t know who exactly it was.”
“He’s just a Guest Elder. Those who can cultivate to the Body Integration stage generally don’t spend too much energy on commerce.”
“He was interested in Qingxing as a new city, so when the Chamber of Commerce wanted a Body Integration cultivator to go with them, he agreed.”
“He heard that the direct line of Bohai Chamber of Commerce, who led the team, was angry—everyone said it’d be fine, yet in the end, only their family sent a Body Integration cultivator.”
After listening, Li Yunxian waved his hand. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t want to play these mystery games.”
“Anyway, it’s confirmed Bohai Chamber of Commerce stepped up.”
“Whoever steps up, just kill them.”
“Kill your way through, you’ll always reach the right one eventually.”
She was a sword cultivator, and her creed was simple—destroy your enemies.
Her analysis and observations never centered on the truth of the matter, but on identifying the enemy.
Su Wenjing:
How should he put it… That was definitely Li Yunxian’s style.
And seeing Li Yunxian’s reaction…
“What are you going to do?” Su Wenjing felt Li Yunxian already had an idea.
Li Yunxian didn’t answer directly. Instead, she relayed to Su Wenjing everything she’d seen around Central City these days and what she’d heard in the video hall from others.
What others in the video hall hadn’t understood at the time, Su Wenjing understood immediately upon hearing her account.
Recalling the earlier abnormal behavior of Feng Songhua and Zheng Yue.
No need to overthink—whoever among the foreign clans was plotting, in short… someone wanted to stir up something big.
“Shenzhou is now connected to the interstellar.” Li Yunxian didn’t say anything about wanting to be a good person and gain the golden light of merit.
“If we don’t let them handle this before we’re fully connected, then…”
“We don’t even have a single Tribulation Transcender now.”
That was, of course, the result Su Wenjing wanted. His eyes flickered. “You know what the problem is with all this?”
“No idea,” Li Yunxian replied crisply, “and I don’t need to know.”
“Their setup will always be in one place.”
“Just tear it down.”
Complex problems should be made simple.”
Su Wenjing stared deeply, thinking about where Li Yunxian meant. At that moment, Feng Songhua and Zheng Yue walked out of their respective rooms, one after the other.
There was little conversation. They simply glanced at each other and saw the answer in each other’s serious expressions.
It was the same for the others as it was for them.
Li Yunxian noticed, too, and asked, “Did you ask your people on other planets?”
Feng Songhua nodded. “I did.”
Zheng Yue gave a positive answer. “Asked them all.”
At this point, neither was in the mood to fuss over Li Yunxian’s business disputes.
Feng Songhua spoke up. “I’ll report this directly up the chain to Kui Xing.”
That is, to the two Tribulation Transcenders at the very center of the Silver Sea Galaxy.
If even the righteous Tribulation Transcenders couldn’t be trusted, then the foreign clans might as well have already seized control of the whole galaxy, even the interstellar space—no point discussing what to do, just figure out how to survive.
After he finished, Feng Songhua glanced at Li Yunxian curiously, “How did you realize something was wrong?”
“The onlooker sees more than the player,” Li Yunxian replied succinctly.
She put on a pensive look. “I might know how they’re affecting everyone.”
The moment she said this, Feng Songhua and Zheng Yue both fixed their eyes on Li Yunxian. “Tell us.”
Li Yunxian pointed at her feet. “City.”
“A natural cage that’s lasted nearly ten thousand years.”
“Everyone lives inside it—if someone wants to influence anything, there’s no avoiding it.”
Feng Songhua and Zheng Yue, although Body Integration cultivators, certainly weren’t several thousand years old.
They’d both grown up in the new generation of cities.
Feng Songhua looked exasperated. “So? We at our level don’t need to rely on any city, but what about ordinary people?”
“They simply can’t survive outside the city.”
As one of Qingxing’s top figures, Feng Songhua knew far more than Chu Qianqian.
For example, people in this world had also suspected there was something wrong with the cities.
Otherwise, Feng Songhua wouldn’t have responded this way.
“I know that,” Li Yunxian replied, “I’m not saying everyone should leave the cities.”
“But rather…”
Li Yunxian looked at Feng Songhua. “When you report to Kui Xing, ask them something for me as well, see if Kui Xing’s side will agree.”
Feng Songhua: “…What is it?”
Li Yunxian smiled faintly.
***
At that moment, on Shengyu’s side, the debate over what constituted the righteous path was getting more and more heated online.
News of Li Yunxian’s injury had also spread out of control, and everyone knew about it now.
However, this topic didn’t cause much of a stir in the wider righteous path debate.
The discussion had already shifted from what the righteous path was and what justice was, to whether certain people and factions could even still be called the righteous path.
Was what Li Yunxian released not good enough, not beneficial to the righteous path as a whole?
Everyone knew that stopping those people and those forces was only to protect their own interests and selfish desires.
Was that righteous? Should those forces still be considered righteous?
What came out was not just this one incident, but many past cases as well.
But they’d never been resolved.
Everyone said this was human nature. The righteous path didn’t deny the darker side of human nature—no one was perfect, and one should accept oneself.
But after accepting oneself, shouldn’t one then restrain oneself?
How could it just be a casual “that’s normal,” a few words of condemnation, and that’s it?
Case after case, the discussion spread from Qingxing throughout the Silver Sea Galaxy, and finally the whole interstellar, with everyone talking about it.
In the end, regardless of what the majority or even the highest authorities decided, the answer was clear:
Righteousness is righteousness. Tolerating human nature is not righteousness.
All the old cases were brought up again, and there was no one not exhausted by it.
Everyone on Li Yunxian’s list—those forces and people—had, without a doubt, done many infuriating things under the pretense of human nature.
As a result…
The cultivators Su Wenjing was holding in his space—well, they were stuck.
No force came to negotiate their ransom.
Only Bohai Chamber of Commerce sent someone to ask about Wanyu Mountain.
That someone was Zheng Yue.
Recalling his own experience being locked up and madly ridiculed by Li Yunxian, Zheng Yue was furious and harshly berated Bohai Chamber of Commerce.
This message never made it to Su Wenjing.
Su Wenjing, meanwhile, simply told the imprisoned ones that all the forces had abandoned them.
The ones Su Wenjing had locked up were all at least Spirit Severing or Body Integration cultivators, mid-to-high-level members of their respective factions, and none of them had expected this outcome.
All their faces went from blue to white, and they gritted their teeth and agreed to Su Wenjing’s terms.
They paid their own ransom.
—After all, as Body Integration and Spirit Severing cultivators, they still had some good things on hand.
Watching them storm off, full of rage and ready to settle scores with their old employers, Su Wenjing, having collected a bountiful harvest, took out two storage artifacts and handed them to Li Yunxian.
“Technical dividends,” Su Wenjing explained.
Li Yunxian might not be talented in business, but she was certainly gifted when it came to robbing people.
This idea for how to handle “stuck inventory” was naturally Li Yunxian’s.
She accepted it without hesitation.
By this time, it had been a month since they arrived at Qingxing.
In other words, the exclusive teleportation portal from Qingxing to Kui Xing had now been repaired.
During this period, Li Yunxian focused on healing and recovering her body—at least, that’s how it seemed on the outside.
With the crisis gone, everyone’s actions became more autonomous.
Some people began to study interstellar knowledge, some went out with the locals to hunt foreign clans in the wilds.
Others went sightseeing, some focused on cultivation, and someone, somehow, even managed to get an internship at the Command Center for Abnormal Situations in Qingxing’s comprehensive management building.
Truly, this exchange team was full of talent.
When they learned their time in Qingxing was over, many showed some reluctance.
Still, no one objected. Shortly after receiving the notice, everyone packed their things and gathered in front of the teleportation array.
Su Wenjing glanced around at the assembled group, lingering only for a moment on Ying Wenhe, whose eyes were full of longing, and gave a soft snort in his heart before speaking.
“Everyone’s here, let’s go.”
With that, Su Wenjing stepped onto the teleportation array, and the others followed.
Once in position, they looked out at the crowd outside the array.
Group after group had gathered to see them off—well, mostly to see off Li Yunxian.
“Boss!! Remember to come play in Qingxing again!!”
“If your people aren’t good to you over there, come to Qingxing anytime—we’ll kick out the planetary lord and nominate you instead!”
Inside the teleportation array, everyone:
That’s some pretty blatant poaching!
Everyone glared at the ones making offers, and at that moment, the teleportation array beneath their feet lit up.
The familiar white tunnel appeared around them.
Recalling what happened the last time they teleported, everyone was tense, keeping a close eye on their surroundings, afraid something might go wrong again.
After all, last time the explanation for the teleportation mishap was that the number of cultivators’ cultivation levels exceeded the upper limit—a completely nonsensical answer.
As if they had more than one Tribulation Transcender.
No one even bothered to hide their suspicions, except Su Wenjing, who stayed expressionless and silent.
This time, as most expected, the teleportation was calm, smooth, and reached the destination without a hitch.
When they saw the tall, expansive, and familiar teleportation site, exactly as the senior had described, everyone finally relaxed.
They’d arrived safely.
Duan Qiu cheerfully approached Li Yunxian.
“Yunxian, you don’t know much about Kui Xing, right? I’ll show you around today~”
Before, it was always Li Yunxian taking care of them—now they could finally look after her.
But…
In everyone’s eyes, Li Yunxian, who looked weak and unable to speak much due to “not yet recovered,” just gave them an awkward smile.
That… was not the kind of expression Li Yunxian would ever show.
Then, Su Wenjing’s voice sounded in everyone’s ears.
“That’s Shengyu. The mess she caused got too big, so to avoid trouble, she’s coming to Kui Xing with us. Take care of her,” Su Wenjing transmitted.
Everyone:
Contemplating.
Silent.
So the teleportation went so smoothly this time because Li Yunxian didn’t come with them?
Su Wenjing paid no attention to their reactions, eyes fixed ahead.
Their welcoming party at Kui Xing had arrived.
Meanwhile, Li Yunxian, who stayed behind at Qingxing, mingled with the crowd, watching her companions vanish in the teleportation array.
She turned to those beside her.
“Let’s go,” Li Yunxian said.
Feng Songhua looked at Li Yunxian with an extremely complicated expression.
At this moment, he sensed Li Yunxian’s cultivation was at early Spirit Severing.
Completely flawless Spirit Severing early stage!
When it came to Shengyu, even with Su Wenjing covering her cultivation and appearance, he could still see through her real level.
But with Li Yunxian…
Feng Songhua: …
Unwillingly, he followed Li Yunxian onto the teleportation array.
He felt like he was walking into a bandits’ den.
Li Yunxian didn’t care what Feng Songhua thought, and said, “Teleport to Boxing.”
Feng Songhua:
Alright.
He operated the teleportation array and silently paid the fare.
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