Outer Market, outside Su Xuan’s house.
“This should be the kid’s house, right?”
Huang Gou thought to himself, carefully suppressing his aura as he climbed onto the outer wall.
They were a group of three Rogue Cultivators. They had seen Su Xuan carrying a large pile of items that appeared valuable and naturally grew greedy.
They didn’t dare act in the Inner Market. Following their leader’s orders, Huang Gou had been asking around and came to scout the place beforehand.
‘This impoverished place doesn’t look like the home of a wealthy Loose Cultivator.’
He lay on the wall, silently peering inside.
The dilapidated old courtyard was empty, containing nothing but some laundry hanging out to dry.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up as he spotted something.
A young girl in white was standing in the corner of the courtyard, holding a tree branch.
The girl abruptly looked up and stared intently at him!
“Holy… crap…”
Before he could even get a clear look at the girl’s face, Huang Gou felt an incredibly sharp Sword Intent lock onto him. The threat of death instantly surged in his heart.
He struggled to draw his sword and resist, but before he could pull it out, his life force vanished along with the Sword Intent. His entire body turned into a pile of ash, yet his clothes and belongings remained perfectly intact.
‘This feels wonderful…’
Dressed in white, Lin Zhiwei stood in the courtyard, watching the thief turn to ash. A sense of satisfaction filled her heart.
In the past, whenever they encountered such a situation, it was like facing a formidable enemy, and her heart would be incredibly nervous.
But now, with power, she could handle these people herself. She no longer had to live in constant fear.
The corners of her mouth curled slightly as she walked over to the wall where the man had been lying.
While her sword strike had destroyed Huang Gou’s body, his belongings remained. Lin Zhiwei remembered seeing a sword earlier.
With an excited expression, she picked up Huang Gou’s sword.
Since she used a branch every day, she had never used a real sword before!
With a flick of her wrist, she unsheathed the weapon, but the joy on her face faded.
She could feel that although the sword looked decent on the outside, it had not been maintained at all. Some parts of the edge were chipped, while others were rusty. It was nothing more than scrap metal.
Curling her lip, she picked up the clothes on the ground, planning to find a place to dispose of them along with the sword.
*Clatter!*
A small porcelain bottle and a booklet fell out.
Lin Zhiwei ignored the bottle and stared intently at the booklet. The cover was extremely familiar; it was the exact same sword manual her Master had given her!
She picked up the manual and examined it carefully for a long time. Finally, she confirmed that it was identical to the one she was practicing.
‘So, everyone has it…’
Looking at the sword manual in her hand, Lin Zhiwei felt a sense of irony. She had seen her own progress over the past few days and thought she had misunderstood her Master. She believed she simply had not understood the manual before and that her Master was not fooling her.
Yesterday, looking at her Master’s eyes, she even thought Su Xuan had feelings for her, which was why his personality had changed and he started treating them sincerely. She had even struggled with that realization for a long time.
It was just a common piece of junk that anyone could get.
‘I was just being sentimental…’
Lin Zhiwei’s expression remained calm, but her body was surrounded by Sword Intent, which shredded the items in her hands into fine ash.
“Zhiwei, Zhiyi, I’m back!”
Su Xuan returned from outside, carrying two large bags full of items, his face brimming with joy.
While in the Outer Market, he had prepared a large portion of each ingredient for the Medicinal Bath according to the Cultivation Method.
He had also found an ancient-looking, grand-style sword for Lin Zhiwei at a weapon stall in the Outer Market.
Altogether, these things cost ten Spiritual Stones. With his current savings, it did not hurt his wallet too much anymore.
With so many items, his Storage Bag could not hold them all, so he had to carry them back.
“Master.”
Lin Zhiwei greeted him, her emotions unreadable.
“Come, Zhiwei, look at the sword Master picked out for you!”
Seeing his eldest disciple in the courtyard, Su Xuan pulled out the sword and handed it over.
“I spent a long time picking this. This thing is —”
Just as he was about to happily start his pitch, he noticed something was wrong with the girl in front of him.
Lin Zhiwei took the iron sword from him. Looking at its texture and decorations, her expression became complicated, and her eyes turned slightly red.
This thing was exactly the same as the one from earlier, and the quality was even worse!
‘So I’m that easy to trick…’
She chuckled inwardly, feeling like a clown for being so flustered yesterday.
“Thank you, Master. I… like it very much.”
She did not want Su Xuan to notice her emotions, so she accepted it against her true feelings.
“Hmm?”
Su Xuan was slightly stunned by her reaction.
‘This doesn’t look like she’s happy at all. Did she find out? That shouldn’t be possible. She hasn’t even seen a real sword before, so how could she tell the good from the bad?’
He felt a bit guilty. After all, he had not only taken her sword in the game but was also using a worthless piece of junk to fool her.
“Well… Zhiwei, I’ll check your progress again tonight. If there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to tell me.”
After a moment of silence, he decided to keep up the act to add another layer of insurance. This way, he could handle any unexpected issues in advance.
“All right.”
Lin Zhiwei’s voice was cold and devoid of emotion.
“By the way, where’s Zhiyi?”
Seeing that asking further would not yield any results, Su Xuan changed the subject.
“She’s sleeping,” Lin Zhiwei replied after calming her emotions.
“Oh, never mind then. Let her sleep a bit longer.”
Su Xuan replied casually, and with a wave of his hand, he pulled out the Medicinal Bath materials from the pile.
“Zhiwei, help me carry these inside and sort them out according to the quantities I tell you. I need to start brewing something.”
“What is this?”
Lin Zhiwei subconsciously asked when she saw the pile of medicinal herbs.
“Oh, these are materials for a Medicinal Bath. I’ll brew them later to build a solid foundation.”
As Su Xuan spoke, he squatted down and began organizing the materials.
“A Medicinal Bath?”
Lin Zhiwei froze for a moment, her head tilting slightly.
“Will brewing this help with sword practice?” she asked, looking at the herbs.
“Sword practice? Oh…”
Su Xuan blinked, then realized she had misunderstood.
“This is for Lu Zhiyi. I found a good Cultivation Method for her this time, but she needs a Medicinal Bath to build her foundation first. Then, I’ll help her clear her Meridians!”
He explained, then added after a thought.
“By the way, Zhiwei, as her Senior Sister, you must supervise Zhiyi well. You can’t let her just eat and sleep anymore; she needs to cultivate properly.”
Lin Zhiwei stared blankly at the herbs without responding. She silently squatted down and helped him organize them.
‘So it’s specifically for Junior Sister.’
She had thought there was a share for her as well.
“Do you understand?”
Su Xuan asked again. In his memory, as long as it was for her Junior Sister’s sake, Lin Zhiwei would do anything. Once he finished speaking, she would start supervising her.
“Master is truly good to Zhiyi.”
Lin Zhiwei nodded, and after a long silence, she suddenly spoke.
“Of course. I only have the two of you as my disciples to depend on. How could I mistreat you?”
Su Xuan replied, following her lead.
‘So she does know who treats her well. And here I thought you were an ungrateful wolf! All my careful planning over these past few days wasn’t in vain!’
Looking at the “thoroughly fooled” Lin Zhiwei, Su Xuan felt incredibly invigorated.