Chapter 184
Chapter 184: Rong Shu Wants to Bonk Him!
Rong Shu muttered under her breath as she watched the man ahead: “Senior brother, do you think this person is up to something bad?”
Wu Hua looked at Rong Shu’s bright, scheming expression, as if she had already thought of a plan, and smiled: “Most likely.”
Rong Shu straightened her face and spoke with grave righteousness: “Then, senior brother, as righteous cultivators, shouldn’t we go and investigate the enemy’s movements to prevent him from doing harm and endangering innocents?”
Ordinarily, Rong Shu would never have considered tailing a demonic cultivator at the Golden Core. But right now she had her senior brother with her. With a chance to learn the situation and keep control of the board, she naturally could not let it slip by. Otherwise, one day trouble would drop from the sky right onto her head and she would not even know why it had come. That would be far too passive.
Wu Hua said with easy approval: “All right, let’s follow and take a look.”
Seeing her little junior sister so interested, Wu Hua had no intention of stopping her. Whatever happened, he would be there to protect her.
Since Wu Hua did not object, Rong Shu happily tucked Little Hamster in her arms and shadowed Yun Wu Ya all the way.
At first, Rong Shu had planned to stick on a Concealment Talisman herself, but Wu Hua was one step ahead and laid down an aura-suppressing barrier.
Yun Wu Ya noticed nothing. Though he stayed vigilant against a tail on the road, from beginning to end he never discovered the two behind him.
In this way, Rong Shu watched Yun Wu Ya enter a winery.
Guards were posted inside and out. Even so, the two slipped in without trouble.
Inside the winery, Rong Shu watched Yun Wu Ya meet person after person. Those people were deferential to the extreme, their mouths addressing him as something like “Young Valley Lord.”
Rong Shu glanced at Wu Hua and whispered: “Is this a demonic cultivator stronghold?”
Wu Hua answered with calm certainty: “It should be.”
Rong Shu quietly probed the cultivations within the place and reported in a low voice: “At most Foundation Establishment inside… most of them are in Qi Refining.”
Wu Hua offered a blunt, objective assessment: “Mm. Pretty weak.”
Rong Shu nodded in quick agreement: “Mm. Also pretty easy to rob.”
“Mm?”
For a moment Wu Hua suspected he had misheard.
Rong Shu’s eyes had taken on a bright gleam as she looked over the demonic cultivator stronghold before her. “Senior brother, once the Alchemy Conference ends, let’s come here and sweep the place. Most of them are only Qi Refining demonic cultivators, easy enough to handle.”
The demonic cultivators shuttling to and from might as well have become walking Spirit Stones, spirit herbs, and Storage Pouches in Rong Shu’s eyes. Money never weighs you down, and top-shelf robbery resources were right in front of her. Not taking them would be a waste. Besides, they were the forces of a demonic sect. As a disciple of a righteous sect, striking down evil and punishing wrongdoing was her duty.
This time Wu Hua understood. He let out a helpless laugh: “Little money-grubber.”
“Hehe…” Rong Shu scratched her cheek, a touch embarrassed.
Wu Hua said with indulgent patience: “After the Alchemy Conference, take whatever you can carry. I’ll hold the line for you.”
The implication was clear. He would not take the initiative to rob alongside her, but he would guarantee her safety.
Rong Shu beamed: “Mm-hmm, thank you, senior brother!”
Yun Wu Ya stayed only a short while before leaving the winery. Rong Shu and Wu Hua memorized the location and slipped back out as well.
On the street, Rong Shu fixed her eyes on the smoothly rounded back of Yun Wu Ya’s head a short distance ahead and murmured with longing: “Senior brother, I really want to bonk him…”
What a round head. It would be a shame not to knock it. More importantly, she still held a grudge over that chase in Dragon Ridge Palace.
She considered, then shook her head at once: “Forget it, forget it. After the Alchemy Conference.”
“Now isn’t the time to startle the snake. I’m still counting on him to expose a few more hideouts,” she added, half talking to herself.
Wu Hua shook his head in helpless amusement: “He’s getting away. Let’s keep up.”
[Bonking him isn’t off the table.] He added to himself, thinking of a better option: once his little junior sister claimed her spirit herbs at the conference, they could use Ancestor Yun Xie’s grand-disciple to help her vent some anger.
“Oh, oh!” Rong Shu stroked Little Hamster in her arms and gazed at Yun Wu Ya as if she were looking at a “walking egg.” One swing of a stick and—chickens scatter, egg shatters. [Still have to wait a bit…]
First loot the demonic stronghold, then bonk the target. Delightful.
Yun Wu Ya went on to visit two more demonic cultivator strongholds in succession, with Rong Shu and Wu Hua shadowing him the whole time. When Yun Wu Ya returned to seek out Yu Ruan Ruan and the other two, Rong Shu and Wu Hua ended their pursuit.
Back at the inn, Wu Hua spoke to Rong Shu: “If there are three strongholds, that is probably all Wicked Heart Valley has arranged within Wanderer’s City.”
He continued with a gentle admonition: “No need to keep tailing Yun Wu Ya. Focus on your alchemy.”
Rong Shu nodded briskly: “Mm, I know.”
The demonic strongholds were windfall at best. The truly important matter was the alchemists’ gathering.
“Senior brother, I’ve bought all the spirit herbs. Other than going to take the qualification exam, I’ll go into seclusion to refine pills.”
“Good.”
After reporting in to Wu Hua, Rong Shu returned to her own room. She locked the doors and windows, set up formations, placed the Pill Furnace and various spirit herbs. Everything ready, she began refining.
She muttered as she worked: “Add this… and this… What should I refine… let me look over the fourth-grade pill formulas… Huh? Height Boosting Pill? What was that again? Toad Croak Pill… taking it makes you croak uncontrollably like a toad? Why isn’t there a dog-bark one?”
Little Hamster, having finished gnawing a fruit to the core, flopped onto the bed and rubbed his round belly. As he lay there, he grew drowsy, hovering between sleep and wakefulness.
All of a sudden, scattered memory fragments flashed through his mind. A world of pitch black. The Abyss of Death where one could not see one’s own hand, wreathed in layers of mist. In the depths of that darkness and haze, something seemed to be drawing closer bit by bit, about to burst through…
“…Useless.”
“So stupid.”
The two icy voices boomed as if from the depths of the soul, and Little Hamster jolted awake.
Startled, he clutched his head in his tiny paws. [It feels like I forgot something. Also… who scolded me? Who dares to scold me? I’ll stab him to death…] The thought flashed up, and Little Hamster himself was shocked. [Why did I suddenly think about stabbing someone?]
He sat up, glanced at Rong Shu working the furnace, and then, in his current small body, imitated her posture and sat cross-legged. When Little Hamster closed his eyes, the Flame Mark at his brow gave a faint glow.
On the other side of town, when Yun Wu Ya returned to the inn he happened to run into Yu Ruan Ruan, who had come out looking for someone.
Yu Ruan Ruan asked with concern: “Senior Brother Jin Yu, where did you go?”
A trace of impatience flashed through Yun Wu Ya’s eyes, though his face wore its usual mild smile: “Just stepped out to buy a few things. By the way, Junior Sister Ruan Ruan, weren’t you heading to Ice Lake today?”
Yu Ruan Ruan brushed a strand of hair back from her forehead, her cheeks rosy: “Mm. My senior brothers’ cultivations are so high. I can’t slack in my training.”
Yun Wu Ya offered an easy compliment: “Junior Sister Ruan Ruan is diligent and talented. I imagine you will achieve Golden Core within ten years.”
“Ruan Ruan…” At that moment Huo Yi Han and Qin Yuan walked over.
Qin Yuan sighed, his tone helpless yet indulgent as he chided her: “Ruan Ruan, you came out without saying a word to me and Second Senior Brother.”
Yu Ruan Ruan naturally slipped her arm through Qin Yuan’s: “No, Third Senior Brother. I just stepped out for some air. I was just about to come find you and Second Senior Brother.”
“You…” Qin Yuan started, then glanced toward Yun Wu Ya with a hint of warning in his eyes. Ever since this ‘Jin Yu’ had joined Heaven’s Evolution Sect, Ruan Ruan’s attention had been drawn to him. Qin Yuan was not pleased, though he kept it off his face. ‘Jin Yu’s’ background was already being quietly checked by their eldest senior brother during this outing. [Let him truly be clean. Otherwise, if he dares approach Ruan Ruan with ulterior motives, he should not blame us for being ruthless.]
Qin Yuan spoke with polite restraint: “Fellow Daoist Jin Yu, come along with us.”
Yun Wu Ya replied in kind: “All right.”
Huo Yi Han’s gaze swept over the group, his expression cool and unreadable. No one could tell what he was thinking. At last he spoke, cutting off the invisible sparring between Qin Yuan and Yun Wu Ya: “Let’s go.”
Yu Ruan Ruan lifted her chin with a satisfied little smile, savoring the feeling of several men vying over her, and secretly preened. The three senior brothers of Limitless Peak went without saying. She had been working on them for years and was confident no other woman would fit into their eyes. Senior Brother Jin Yu was also very considerate. Only, she did not understand why the System said his capture meter refused to rise.
Although Yu Ruan Ruan did feel some goodwill toward ‘Jin Yu,’ that goodwill, set beside cheap-to-hand power and reputation, did not seem so important. She looked at Yun Wu Ya’s profile and sighed inwardly: [Senior Brother Jin Yu, don’t blame me. Master and my three senior brothers are the ones I can rely on most in Heaven’s Evolution Sect. I can’t casually plunder their fortune, so I can only wrong you…]
In a blink, half a month passed. Wanderer’s City swelled with visiting cultivators, especially alchemists. You could hardly make a single circle down the street without bumping into one. The city’s annual Alchemy Conference was always a blaze of excitement.
Among the many auxiliary professions, the alchemist was one of the hottest. After all, you could do without weapons, talismans, or formations for a time, but you could not do without pills. From major breakthroughs in cultivation realms to the Spirit Gathering Pills needed for daily practice, alchemists were also tied to the physicians of the secular world. No one could guarantee a lifetime free of minor ailments. To befriend an alchemist—or even to acquire an alchemist’s contact information—was, for ordinary cultivators, a considerable fortune.
With a soft creak, a window in one of the inn’s rooms swung open. A small hamster poked out his head to look at the world outside. In no time at all, a pale, soft hand scooped Little Hamster up from behind and, with a crisp snap, shut the window tight.
Inside the room, Rong Shu spread the crook of her left hand, hooked Little Hamster’s tiny paws with four fingers and pressed his back legs with her thumb. Then her right hand flew over his soft belly, rubbing and scratching in a flurry.
“Gu gu gu…”
“Gu gu gu!!!”
Little Hamster wriggled and twisted, all in vain.
Rong Shu scolded in mock severity as her hands kept up their brisk work: “You opened the window while I wasn’t looking? What if you fell out? You’d be a meat pancake.”
In her heart, though, she sighed in contentment: [So satisfying to scritch.]
Little Hamster’s eyes went dewy as he protested in a small voice: “Gu… no, won’t… won’t fall.”
“I don’t care, I’m not listening. You’re being punished.”
After a burst of play, Rong Shu was refreshed, while Little Hamster looked like he had lost his soul, flopping into a limp, exploded-fluff bundle.
“Gu… Shu Shu… bad…” Little Hamster hugged himself with aggrieved little paws, eyes full of accusation at Rong Shu’s crimes.
“Hehe… This is for Yan Yan’s good. Scritches are healthy and help you grow taller,” Rong Shu replied without even blinking as she gave a few more indulgent strokes. This time she was kind enough to smooth his fur back down.
“Here.” She drew a piece of jerky from her Storage Pouch and handed it to him.
Set down on the table, Little Hamster took the food with both paws and nibbled bit by bit. After feeding him for a while, Rong Shu turned to tidy up the alchemy manuals and notes piled everywhere.
“One of these days I need to organize all this,” she muttered as she sorted.
Ever since Spirit Stones stopped being a problem, her little treasury had only grown plumper.
“My ice attribute is poor. I’ll need to find some herbs to refine into pills to warm and nourish it little by little…” she mused, eyeing the formulas she had collected for gently supplementing ice-aspected physiques.
At present, she was still suppressing her cultivation at the early stage of Foundation Establishment because she did not want to rush into Golden Core. She had two reasons. First, she planned to bring her ice attribute cultivation up alongside her main attribute, then form her core in one stroke. Perhaps her spiritual roots would undergo unexpected changes. Second, in the cultivation world, once you achieved Golden Core, your appearance—height and figure included—basically fixed. Those who reached Golden Core young would not show signs of age unless their lifespans were nearly spent.
She was only fifteen. She had not finished growing, and most important of all, her height had not even broken one meter sixty. If she advanced to Golden Core now, she would be stuck as a shorty for hundreds of years. Rong Shu rejected that idea without hesitation. [I am going to grow tall. One meter seventy.]
She glanced at the formula and grumbled to herself: “This Fourth Grade Height Boosting Pill… I hope it works.”
When she finished sorting her manuals and notes, she took out a bottle of Height Boosting Pills, tapped one pill into her palm, and swallowed it in one go. “Daily grow-taller doping goal: complete.”
She stowed the bottle, scooped Little Hamster into her arms, and headed out. At the door of the next room, she knocked and called softly: “Senior brother.”