Chapter 11
Chapter 11: Want to Switch Jobs
What began as a duel became a full brawl. By the time the groom arrived, Hu Qing had already been swept outside with the shifting battle line.
The main hall behind them was a wreck.
The Tenth Princess stood with her Demon Clan attendants, glaring at the green-robed Junior Sister and the Human Clan group behind her. The groom looked like his head was splitting.
Hu Qing felt it for him. She leaned toward Juan Bu and muttered, “See that? This isn’t cultivation. This is pure internal grinding.”
Juan Bu took a guess at her meaning and nodded. “It’s tempering. If you endure it, you win.”
Hu Qing thought, Is it really worth it?
The first day’s chaos passed. The Tenth Princess cursed the green-robed woman for being shameless and poured all her rage on outsiders, never turning it on her own people.
The servants here included both the Tenth Princess’s attendants and the groom’s. Hu Qing heard the Junior Sister had been punished with confinement. She also heard the truth: the groom did not care much for that Junior Sister at all. She was the one constantly forcing her presence.
Hu Qing looked up at the elegant mountain peak and the hall perched upon it. This was not an immortal mountain. This was an asura arena.
One Junior Sister was gone, but there were plenty more.
After that, the Tenth Princess’s days became lively to the point of ridiculous. Every day she was bright-eyed and energized, whipping this one and fighting that one.
To be fair, it was not really her fault. Since marrying in, the Tenth Princess had not even stepped off her peak. It was always the Junior Sisters who came to provoke her—each one talking in circles about how the Tenth Princess did not deserve their Senior Brother, or how their Senior Brother’s heart belonged elsewhere, sneering at her background and every other thing they could find.
With a nest of sisters-in-law like that, Hu Qing could only say the Tenth Princess had married blind. That man did not deserve her.
And yet the Tenth Princess looked like she enjoyed it. She fought all day and seemed happier for it. Hu Qing began to suspect the princess had some… particular tastes.
Still, it was good for Hu Qing. The Tenth Princess got addicted to fighting and forgot about food. After the first few days, the kitchen barely mattered.
Hu Qing finally had free time to get friendly with Changdao Sect people. Since they were all Human Clan, they treated Hu Qing a little more kindly, answering her simple questions with surprising patience.
The more she learned, the more she started thinking about switching jobs.
Becoming a disciple was impossible. She was the Tenth Princess’s person, and Changdao Sect had to consider politics. But becoming a nominal disciple—a menial—might be workable.
So Hu Qing went to the menial hall and studied the task board. The tasks were all tiny, tedious chores. Real disciples took work from the mission hall; only the things they looked down on ended up here.
Most of these jobs took time and energy for very little gain. Hu Qing could not afford to be picky, but she also could not afford to be stupid. With her cultivation, she could not even handle many of the “small” chores.
Processing scraps from low-tier Demon Beasts, for example. Tools not provided.
What tools did she have? She did not even own the lowest-grade immortal weapon. The only “weapons” she had were the lords lounging in her sea of consciousness—and she could not exactly ask them to come chop bones for her.
She searched until she finally found something she could do: a back-kitchen helper position at the dining hall.
In the Little Li Realm, the food path was not popular. People like Qiao Yu had complained at first about disciples eating three full meals a day. Cultivation was supposed to abandon worldly desires, after all. Eating and drinking were fine as occasional indulgences, but never something that could interfere with practice.
But in the Immortal Realm—at least here in Changdao Sect—the food path was a legitimate way of cultivation. The dining hall fell under Food Peak, where elders and disciples cultivated through cuisine.
Hu Qing had no intention of changing her path. She still preferred artifact forging.
But ideals had to bow to reality.
Reality was that she had not a single coin of Immortal Realm currency. The Tenth Princess did not pay wages. She had even complained, “We came too hastily. I should’ve brought more spirit stones. Now I can’t even afford my own cultivation.”
It was not that the Tenth Princess had been poor. She had even carried top-grade spirit stones. But when she subdued Scorching Sun Blaze, she burned through everything.
Juan Bu sighed. “Who would have thought you’d be dragged straight into the Immortal Realm? Now we don’t even know where we are. I’ve never heard of this Changdao Sect.”
Hu Qing sighed too and stared at the dining hall posting again. There was no danger of competition. It almost felt like it was waiting for her.
Did she need to get the Tenth Princess’s permission first?
She carried the question back with her. A maid spotted her and snapped, “I can never find you. From now on, you stay in the kitchen and don’t go anywhere.”
Hu Qing smiled politely. Her cultivation was lower. She endured.
“The Princess wants jade-heart pastries. Hurry up and make them.”
Hu Qing nodded and went to the storeroom for ingredients.
Jade-heart pastries were made from ten kinds of green fruits and flowers. She had learned them from a cookbook. The ingredients were not expensive, but the method was complicated, and only she could do it properly.
The Tenth Princess’s kitchen team never asked her to teach them. Hu Qing did not offer. They probably looked down on her status and did not care about her skills.
Fine by her. She had no interest in teaching for free.
The maid lingered a moment, watching Hu Qing work, swallowed, then got bored and left.
Even so, the maid could not deny it. This plain little Human Clan woman had real skill. If the Princess got angry and refused to eat, the rest of them would be the ones benefiting.
Hu Qing, head down and working: Just wait until I find an ascension pool and remake myself.
She made other sweets too, rounding it out to ten kinds.
A maid led her toward the hall. Halfway there, another maid hurried over and exchanged a look.
The maid cleared her throat. “You deliver it yourself. Be smart in front of the Princess.”
Hu Qing’s scalp tightened. Again?
She had no way to refuse. She went in alone, already trying to guess which woman had come to stir trouble today.
The hall was clean. The only sign of chaos was a few fresh marks—meaning whoever had come had already been whipped out.
Hu Qing slipped behind the curtains. The Tenth Princess leaned by the window.
Hu Qing stopped at a respectful distance and spoke softly. “Princess, I’ve placed the pastries on the table.”
She started to retreat.
“Wait.”
Hu Qing’s mouth twitched.
“You’re human. Answer my question.”
Hu Qing stopped and stood obediently, bracing herself for an employer who did not pay.
The Tenth Princess walked over and sat, flicking her skirt aside. She stared at Hu Qing with genuine confusion. “Wen Ting and I are married. Changdao Sect recognizes us as Dao Companions. So why do those women still cling to him and come to trouble me?”
Hu Qing heard the emphasis clearly. The Tenth Princess cared about the women versus her. The groom himself was almost an afterthought.
Hu Qing began, “Th-that—”
“Doesn’t what they’re doing count as breaking the rules?”
The Tenth Princess tilted her head, truly baffled. She was angry, yes, but not heartbroken. If this marriage ever became a love story, it would be a slow one—after the fact, not before it.
She kept staring as if Hu Qing held the key to the universe. “You’re human. Explain to me how this makes sense.”
Hu Qing resisted the urge to say she did not need the reminder.
“Uh… maybe their feelings make them stop caring about rules,” Hu Qing said, forcing a laugh. “There’s a saying: love is higher than the sky.”
Love is higher than the sky?
The Tenth Princess leaned back, frowned, and pouted. Somehow, it made her look almost cute.