Chapter 52: The dove occupies the magpie’s nest

The two returned to Wuyou Peak, the familiar cracked yellow earth still beneath their feet.

A gale swept up dust and sand, making it impossible to keep one’s eyes open.

Ling Xiyue descended steadily on her flying sword.

She extended a slender finger, pointing toward several pitch-black cave openings halfway up the mountain not far away.

“There are a few vacant cultivation caves over there. Pick one.”

Her voice was cool and aloof, as always.

“Settle in first. If you have any cultivation questions, feel free to come find me anytime.”

With that, Ling Xiyue turned and, out of habit, headed toward what was now her luxurious, sprawling dwelling.

Her long-term solitary lifestyle had led her to subconsciously believe that everyone should have their own independent space.

However, she had only taken two steps when she felt something amiss behind her.

Ling Xiyue halted her steps and looked back.

There was Luo Qingchen, following her like a little tail, sticking close without leaving an inch.

She had her hands behind her back, looking around everywhere except at the empty caves.

A hint of confusion appeared on Ling Xiyue’s cool face.

“Junior Sister, what do you mean by this?”

Luo Qingchen spread her hands in full confidence, her expression as frank as if she were stating a perfectly natural fact.

“Going home.”

A question mark slowly appeared above Ling Xiyue’s head.

“Senior Sister, look,” Luo Qingchen began counting on her fingers.

“I paid and contributed effort to renovate our home into such a luxurious place. I laid the flooring, bought the furniture, and even set up the Spirit Gathering Array for you. Now you can’t just kill the donkey after it’s done grinding the mill and kick me out, can you?”

Ling Xiyue frowned.

She felt something was off, but couldn’t put her finger on it.

She thought for a moment, then reminded her very seriously.

“There is only one bed inside.”

Upon hearing that, Luo Qingchen’s little face fell, but she quickly perked up again, patting her chest without a blush or a racing heart.

“Senior Sister, you’re being so distant!”

“Who are you? You’re a powerful cultivator in the mid-Core Formation stage! Meditating for one night gives you more energy than sleeping for three days and nights straight!”

She pointed at herself, her face clearly saying “I’m so delicate.”

“I’m different. I’m just a pitiful little Qi Condensation cultivator, still growing. If I don’t sleep on a bed for one day, my cultivation will regress the next day!”

“Besides, I’m a lazy dog. Since there’s a ready-made comfortable big bed, who would go sleep on that hard stone floor?”

“…”

Ling Xiyue was completely speechless.

In all her years of life, this was the first time she had encountered such a shameless statement.

Yet, she still felt that what the other had said had a tiny bit of logic.

A Core Formation cultivator indeed did not need to rely on sleep like a mortal.

She looked at Luo Qingchen’s roguish “I’m weak so I’m right” expression, and ultimately gave up arguing.

Never mind.

She silently turned around, walked to the stone door of her cave dwelling, raised her hand, and prepared to form a hand seal to dispel the defensive restriction of the cave.

“Aiya, Senior Sister, too slow.”

Luo Qingchen’s voice came from the side.

Before Ling Xiyue could react, she saw Luo Qingchen dash to the door in one step, completely ignoring the complex restriction.

She raised both hands, her ten fingers dancing so fast that only a blur was visible.

Breaking and entering skill pushed to the extreme!

Click.

An extremely clear, light sound.

Ling Xiyue’s complex hand seal was only half-formed, her spiritual power not yet activated, and that impregnable cave restriction just…

Opened.

The stone door swung open in response.

The entire process was smooth and swift to the extreme, so practiced it was heartbreaking.

Ling Xiyue’s hand, still suspended in midair, froze.

Her entire body froze.

‘This… what kind of move is this?’

The defensive restriction she had personally set up, on the entire Hidden Sword Mountain, except for the master and a few elders, no one below the Nascent Soul stage could break it.

Yet in this little girl’s hands, it was like a rotten wooden lock in the mortal world—

Pried open with a single poke?

‘Is she a successor of a physiognomist, or a bandit from somewhere!’

Luo Qingchen was completely oblivious to the storm in her senior sister’s heart.

She swaggered into the cave dwelling, pushed the stone door wider with her backhand, then turned and waved at Ling Xiyue, who was still stunned at the entrance.

The tone was as natural as could be.

“What are you standing there for? Come on in.”

“Don’t be shy, make yourself at home—treat it like your own cave.”

Ling Xiyue:

“…”

She felt the corner of her mouth twitching uncontrollably.

A sense of absurdity at being a cuckoo occupying a magpie’s nest strongly battered her tranquil Dao heart.

Luo Qingchen didn’t care about any of that.

She cheered and, like a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey, threw herself directly onto the large ornately carved golden-thread nanmu bed in the center of the hall.

“My bed! Here I come!”

She clattered out a bunch of items from her storage pouch.

A quilt made from the top-grade fluff of a Snow Cloud Fox obtained from the Secret Realm, so soft it could swallow a person.

A spirit wood pillow that exuded a calming and mind-cleansing aura.

In two shakes of a lamb’s tail, she made the bed all comfy, then in a big “大” shape, she flopped heavily into the bedding.

“Ahhh—so comfortable!”

Just as she lay down, the Deception Jade Slip, which had been silent, suddenly burst into a dazzling golden light in her mind!

[Ding!]

[Quest Complete: Found a divine artifact fragment within the Sword Grave.]

[Settling quest rewards…]

[Dispensing rewards…]

Boom!

A massive and pure stream of information mixed with a torrent of spiritual energy wildly poured back from the jade slip, instantly flooding Luo Qingchen’s limbs and bones.

Luo Qingchen felt her entire body shake, and she even shuddered from the pleasure.

[Congratulations! Acquired: Divine-level Forging Manual Forging Art Hundred Refinements (Complete Edition)!]

[Congratulations! Acquired: Forging Materials (Starshard Sand x10, Black Crystal x3, Earthcore Fire Essence x1, Hundred-Refined Mystic Iron x5…)]

[Congratulations! Acquired: Starter Array Material Pack (Array Flag x12, Array Plate x1, Low-grade Spirit Stone x20…)]

Luo Qingchen’s eyes instantly went wide.

‘Jackpot!’

‘This wave is a huge profit!’

Her divine sense sank into her mind, and that golden glittering Forging Art Hundred Refinements automatically opened.

Countless long-lost forging techniques, divine weapon blueprints, and material analysis methods turned into purest knowledge, deeply imprinted into her soul.

What made her even more ecstatic was that the last page of the manual recorded a heaven-defying technique called “Law Extraction.”

This technique could perfectly extract the core law from a divine artifact fragment that contained law power, and integrate it into other spiritual weapons!

‘My Five Elements Blade… can be upgraded!’

Luo Qingchen was overjoyed inside.

Her Five Elements Blade was a growth-type spiritual weapon, and that broken iron sword taken from the Sword Grave had at its core that trace of ultimate “Space Law”!

Once she merged the Space Law into the Five Elements Blade…

‘Wouldn’t that mean that from now on, whenever she stabbed someone, she could ignore distance and stab directly from the void?’

‘The value of being a sneaky bastard is maxed out!’

Inside the cave, Luo Qingchen hugged the soft quilt and rolled around on the bed, humming a tuneless song, like a child given candy, completely defenseless.

Ling Xiyue silently walked in, looked at the scene before her, and ultimately said nothing.

She walked to a chair nearby, sat down cross-legged, and prepared to begin her cultivation for the night.

The cave was very quiet.

Only the faint sound of spiritual energy flowing as the Spirit Gathering Array operated, and the occasional rustle of Luo Qingchen turning over.

The cave, which had been cold, dead, and silent with only her own breathing, was now brilliantly lit by over a dozen night pearls.

The air seemed to have gained a trace of lively mortal energy.

Ling Xiyue slowly opened her eyes and looked at the small figure who had rolled around enough on the bed and was now fast asleep.

She was sleeping soundly, with even a silly smile at the corners of her mouth, dreaming some happy dream unknown.

As she watched, Ling Xiyue’s cold eyes, unconsciously, softened bit by bit.

An unprecedented feeling of comfort and peace quietly welled up in her heart.

So this is how it feels to have company.