Chapter 28
Chapter 28: Out of Money
Shui Xin swallowed hard, then nodded like the solution was obvious. “I’ll go.”
“I’m going too,” Qiao Yu said, stepping forward without hesitation.
Ever since he’d seen Hu Qing tear demons apart with her bare hands, every time Hu Nuan was in danger, the first thought in his mind was always the same: How am I going to explain this to Hu Qing?
Neither of them waited for anyone else. They jumped into the array together.
Bang. Bang.
The bright pattern flared and bounced them out like it was swatting flies. They slammed into the ground hard enough to rattle their bones.
It wouldn’t let them in.
Lin Yin tried, face dark—bang.
Shuang Hua hesitated, then jumped—bang.
Di Yuan didn’t jump. The answer was already clear.
He blurted, “Then… maybe try someone younger?”
A younger monk, maybe.
But the idea was monstrous. How could they push another child in when they had no idea what waited on the other side?
Di Yuan immediately regretted speaking. “Or… we wait and ask an immortal who comes back? Someone with more knowledge.”
They had no better options.
The old monk snapped orders. “Clear out everything within a hundred zhang. Prevent spatial disturbance. Set a Vajra barrier.”
They needed to guard against the array’s unpredictable changes—and against trouble coming from outside.
“We should inform the Sect Master,” Qiao Yu said.
“And Ancestor Chan Ming,” Lin Yin added heavily. “His daughter hasn’t returned. Now his grandson is missing too. When he arrives…”
He didn’t finish. No one needed him to.
Shuang Hua spoke up. “I’ll call my Master.”
At least someone could break up a fight.
The other monks exchanged uneasy looks. Were they really planning to fight right now?
On the other side of the array—
Hu Nuan hit the ground first. “Waa—!”
Hu Hua Hua landed right after her. “Waa waa—!”
Then the rest followed in a chorus of “Waa waa waa—!”
If Hu Qing had been there, she would’ve called them illiterate on the spot.
Feng Yuan Immortal Realm. A teleport array.
Hu Qing emerged from the array and sneezed three times in a row.
People nearby recoiled like she’d thrown something at them, fanning the air with open disgust. Hu Qing’s face heated.
Why was she sneezing? Was it colder inside the teleport array?
It hadn’t felt cold.
She’d asked around before leaving. Feng Yuan Immortal Realm was supposed to be wealthy.
And yes—there were poor Immortal Realms. Some had barely any spiritual qi at all and still counted as Immortal Realms. The world was strange like that.
But a wealthy Immortal Realm meant people, commerce, and opportunities. Feng Yuan was rich. The next stops—qing ting, a nan shang realm, wei ming realm, si si realm—were rich too, and all had Gourmet House branches.
Hu Qing decided not to linger. She wanted to go straight to Qing Ting Immortal Realm.
Only after arriving did she truly understand how teleport arrays worked. They were one-way. Each array connected to a single fixed destination.
If you wanted to go somewhere else, you had to find a different array.
In Feng Yuan, this location hosted multiple arrays, probably because the space here was unusually stable.
That stability benefited her.
From Feng Yuan to Qing Ting, the fare was five thousand spirit crystals.
Five thousand—at a discounted public rate.
Da Mu had been right. Tickets in Deng Yun Realm Immortal Realm were dirt cheap compared to everywhere else.
Five thousand wasn’t the real problem. The next stop after that jumped straight to twenty thousand.
But when she thought of the eastern route—where a single ticket could cost two hundred thousand—she felt a twisted kind of relief, like she’d somehow gotten a bargain.
In the end, she was just poor.
A few years ago, would she have cared about hundreds of thousands of low-grade spirit stones? One furnace batch of blades could sell for more than that.
She sighed. Wealth really did come and go like wind and clouds.
Ancestor Qin Yang’s fortune-telling echoed in her head: money comes like a river, and leaves like a storm.
Now she understood it far too well.
She queued up again and paid for the next array.
The moment the five thousand spirit crystals left her hand, it felt like something tore inside her.
No. The next realm had to make her money. She couldn’t keep bleeding like this.
She made it to Qing Ting smoothly, but as she stepped out, she pressed a hand to her chest, trying to settle a strange, tight discomfort.
Maybe it was the strain of consecutive teleports.
Or maybe her heart was just aching over the money.
In a strange, shadowed forest far away, Hu Nuan’s brow flashed with a thin line of bluish-black and then returned to normal. No one noticed.
She had one hand resting on a small, unremarkable tree. It looked weak and plain among the towering giants around it.
But Little Ou Hua had said this tree was the old ancestor of the whole forest.
And it was poisoned.
As he spoke, he drooled like he couldn’t help himself.
So when Hu Nuan passed by, she gripped the trunk casually—just a brief touch.
Poison surged like a wave into her palm and raced toward her body.
Little Ou Hua intercepted it instantly, opening his mouth wide and sucking greedily, as if the poison was a feast.
Hu Nuan stopped. “Wait. Let me look.”
The others yawned nonstop. Even Wu Ling Man, perched atop Hu Hua Hua’s head, was nodding off.
Jin Xin rubbed his eyes, alarm rising through the haze. “Little Nuan, something’s wrong here. We should leave. I’m scared if we fall asleep, we’ll never wake up.”
Hu Nuan yawned too, her eyelids heavy. “Mm. I’ll pick a direction.”
Little Ou Hua muttered that the whole forest was poisoned. The toxin was strongest in the little tree, but it had drifted into the air through the leaves. Once he sucked the poison out of the tree, the toxin in the air would gather back into it, and he’d suck that out too. Repeat it enough times and the forest would clear.
Hu Nuan thought of Hu Qing and shivered internally. If her mother were here, she’d probably get poisoned straight into sleep.
Sleeping Beauty? Snow White?
Wait.
Could there really be someone here?
“Little Ou Hua,” Hu Nuan whispered, excitement cutting through her drowsiness, “hurry up. I think we’re going to find something big.”
Elsewhere, Hu Qing had no idea Hu Nuan was hoping for a surprise. She had no idea she’d unknowingly taken the brunt of something meant to hit her daughter—if Little Ou Hua weren’t a poison-sucking expert, Hu Qing would’ve already died of it in Hu Nuan’s stead.
Hu Qing ran from the teleport array, heading for somewhere remote.
Working as an assistant at Gourmet House was too slow. It was steady, but it couldn’t cover teleport fares like this.
Better to refine and sell.
Her artifact furnace was spirit-treasure level, and with a Spirit-Gathering Formation, she could keep it running. She had piles of ore stored from little li realm—good ore. And she had even better material from the Gold-Devouring Beast’s leftovers.
Refining on Immortal Realm ground, she might even be able to forge immortal artifacts.
Low-grade was fine. Anything higher, she wouldn’t dare sell.
She spread her divine sense wide, flew for a long time while avoiding anyone she sensed, and finally found a plain, forgettable hill.
No beasts. No convenient cave.
She chose a shallow hollow, carved out a small cave dwelling with her heavy sword, stored the loose stone in her space, set a barrier, and slipped inside.
From outside, there was nothing to see.
Juan Bu’s voice finally sounded freely again. “Whew. I can talk like this.”
Hu Qing turned, surprised. “You recovered?”
“The spiritual qi here is abundant,” Juan Bu said. “I’ve regained a bit.”
“When are you turning human and crawling out?” Hu Qing asked, hopeful.
Juan Bu went silent.
Hu Qing took the hint and changed topics. “What do you need to recover fully? Tell me what materials, and I’ll find them.”
Juan Bu’s tone softened slightly. “No need. My true body isn’t damaged. My cultivation just fell. As long as you cultivate well and your realm rises, I’ll naturally recover.”
He added, “And absorb more spiritual qi. If Scorching Sun Blaze benefits, we all benefit. Haven’t you noticed? Once Scorching Sun Blaze appeared, those three in your sea of consciousness finally calmed down.”