Inside the Spring and Autumn Bell, two months slipped by quietly.
Jiang Tong had long since adjusted the time flow rate to about 1:100. Watching spirit stones being burned up in large quantities—saying he didn’t feel any pain would be a lie. But when he thought of the rapid increase in cultivation, it all seemed worth it.
In reality, it was around midnight when the sound of sword energy cutting through the wind came from outside. The light tapping of toes on the ground faded into the distance.
Jiang Yueliu had put away her flying sword and returned to her room.
Today was the Inner Sect Grand Competition. Before dawn had even broken, Jiang Tong continued to immerse his consciousness within the Spring and Autumn Bell.
He decided to first help his disciple shed her Sword Embryo. At worst, he’d just burn a few more spirit stones; he himself could also gain a bit more cultivation, perhaps even attempt to break through to Foundation Establishment.
After all, his disciple had already reached Foundation Establishment. As her master, if he was still at Qi Refining, it would be rather embarrassing.
……
Gu Xianyu was meditating cross-legged in the courtyard.
Two months had passed, and this girl had developed even more. Her old clothes gradually couldn’t contain her, and she’d had to switch to a few new outfits—her measurements almost catching up with her master’s master.
Jiang Tong knew that Xiao Yi had also changed quite a few clothes, but whenever Gu Xianyu needed to deal with the old ones, she would always wrap them up in cloth, keeping a close eye on his soul form.
“Master, you’re not allowed to look.”
Whenever he yawned and accidentally let his spiritual sense stray over, all that would be left in the courtyard was a burning ball of fire—and his disciple, who had gone back inside to change into proper-sized clothes, looking thoroughly comfortable.
Yes, the main thing was she could really eat.
Every time she had a meal, halfway through, she would look up and smile at him, cheeks bulging, like a hamster stocking up for winter.
Other than that, the only entertainment master and disciple had was to take walks by Guanye Lake.
Qingyang Prefecture rarely saw snow, except on the borders, so Guanye Lake never froze over.
Jiang Tong’s soul wasn’t yet strong enough to form a solid body; it was difficult even to manifest a proper shape. The hard work naturally fell on his good disciple’s shoulders.
It was common to see such a scene by the lakeside: a transparent, unidentifiable object floated in the air, while a young girl channeled her spiritual power with all her might to freeze the lake’s surface. Creak, creak, she’d step onto the ice and reach into the water. Before long, a handful of frozen water weeds and algae would fly out of the lake, landing steadily in her hands as if she were catching fish.
This was Gu Xianyu’s invented removal method. After listening to Jiang Tong ramble about eutrophication, she resolved to suppress the rampant growth of water plants and algae, hoping to make the water clearer.
All that green—her master would never get to see the stars reflected on the surface.
Jiang Tong had grumbled a few times, saying that even in a hundred years she’d never clear out all the algae, but seeing the lake become a little clearer day by day, he found himself at a loss for words.
Perhaps this was the simple wisdom of ancient cultivators.
Jiang Tong floated in midair, watching the girl’s willow-leaf brows knit together. Beads of crystal-clear sweat dripped from her chin, her expression faintly pained.
After a moment, she calmed down. The first thing she did when opening her eyes was to look all around for Jiang Tong, her little face brimming with irrepressible joy.
“Did you break through?”
Jiang Tong suddenly appeared from behind, startling Gu Xianyu, who reflexively lifted her small foot to kick him.
The light, soft sensation was like stepping on cotton. Jiang Tong drifted away several meters from the kick.
“How many times have I told you to wear shoes at home?” Jiang Tong sighed and said in a serious tone, “Do you know that your master has a foot fetish?”
“Master scared me, serves you right,” the girl huffed softly, her eyes a bit puzzled, “What’s a ‘string fart’ anyway?”
“Where I lived before, a lot of people had foot fetishes,” Jiang Tong said with a mournful face. “Because during the New Year, we ate a dish called ‘foot’. Maybe that’s where foot fetishes come from.”
After spending so much time with Gu Xianyu, he’d unconsciously let down his guard and started joking about his previous life. His silly little disciple never quite understood anyway.
The girl pondered for a moment, then lifted her fair little foot, wiggling her toes, and gave Jiang Tong a kick right into the courtyard wall.
Of course, she held back her strength—this much force wouldn’t hurt Jiang Tong.
But her gaze lingered on him, dark and deep.
“Master, you’re so annoying.”
Jiang Tong floated back, unhurried: “I still miss the way you used to address me so respectfully as ‘Senior’.”
“I miss the master who really treated me as a junior,” Gu Xianyu retorted, feigning annoyance. “You’re hundreds of years old, yet you have thoughts about a seventeen-year-old girl’s feet.”
“Heh.”
“Hmph.”
“Alright, enough with the jokes,” Jiang Tong straightened his expression. “With your mid-Foundation Establishment cultivation, you can accept some bounty missions now. Swordheart Grass may be rare, but it isn’t priced too high.”
“Master, you’ve already gone to check?”
“I snuck out in the middle of the night for a look.”
As soon as he said this, the girl looked at him worriedly.
“Master, you really shouldn’t go out if you can help it. Your soul is so large—for some soul cultivators…”
“No problem, I know a few concealment techniques.” Jiang Tong finished and, seeing the girl still staring at him, added a bit guiltily, “I’ll cut down on going out.”
Only then did Gu Xianyu stop giving him that haunted stare.
“One Swordheart Grass—Shangyuan Sect offers two hundred contribution points. Five plants means a thousand.”
Although he could have gotten Swordheart Grass for Gu Xianyu in reality, it would never be as good as what she earned by honing herself.
He wasn’t sure about other cultivation paths, but for sword cultivators, one had to walk this road alone. Otherwise, even if the Sword Heart was forged, it would be unstable.
The master and disciple descended the mountain. Gu Xianyu wore a jingling red string around her wrist as she went to the Steward Hall to look for bounty missions.
Foundation Establishment tasks mostly offered twenty to thirty points each. If she only took these, she’d need to complete over thirty tasks to save up a thousand points.
Jiang Tong stayed inside the bell, using his divine sense to scan the missions in the token, when his eyes suddenly lit up.
“Did you see it?” he transmitted to his little disciple.
“I saw it, but…”
Gu Xianyu hesitated. Why would such a simple task offer eight hundred points?
They both had their eyes on the same mission—tracing the whereabouts of a demonic cultivator.
No need to kill, no need to injure—just find the trail and return alive to report to the sect.
“Yuan Nuhe, early Golden Core stage. Three months ago, he massacred a mortal village; two months ago, several early Golden Core cultivators besieged him—one was killed, and he escaped.”
“A month and a half ago, he destroyed three more villages. A mid-Golden Core cultivator fought him, but he escaped, and the mid-Golden Core cultivator… was seriously injured.”
“His weapons and methods are unknown; he often covers his face with black cloth. According to surviving cultivators, all they saw was a gust of black wind before losing consciousness—Yuan Nuhe vanished without a trace.”
“His name was revealed by himself: after slaughtering villages, he wrote it on the ground with villagers’ blood, taunting the righteous sects.”
Hiss…
After reading these paragraphs, Jiang Tong and Gu Xianyu finally realized the danger of the mission.
With early Golden Core cultivation, he had broken through the encirclement of cultivators of the same level and even killed one.
He’d also seriously injured a mid-Golden Core cultivator.
He even wrote his name to provoke the sects—utterly audacious.
Perhaps many cultivators had tried to track him down before, but none had returned—hence the high reward.
And since he hadn’t committed even more serious crimes, Nascent Soul and above cultivators had more important things to do and couldn’t be bothered with him.
Jiang Tong was about to have a serious discussion with Gu Xianyu, but unexpectedly, after reading carefully, the girl raised her head and handed the token to the elder.
“This one, please.”
The steward elder was briefly stunned, glancing at her cultivation level in disbelief. “Little Martial Niece, are you sure?”
“Yes.” Gu Xianyu ignored Jiang Tong’s frantic voice transmission and answered firmly.
“This one.”