After that, Fengli befriended Annu and he showed her around the trading outpost. At this point, the sheepboy sincerely believed that he was going to be employed by the merchant caravan soon, and travel the world with them.

However, his expectations were cut short by the cruel reality.

“Employ you? Do you have some papers where I promised you anything like that?” asked Banbao, the elderly wolfman in charge of the caravan.

A cloud of smoke left his pipe, as he started at the sheepboy with contempt, silently daring the frightened youth to challenge him.

“No, I mean…” Annu stepped back, tears pricking his eyes.

Thus, his dreams collapsed just like that, and it didn’t seem like he was getting his personal belongings back, either.

After all, he already checked out at the servant’s quarters, and that meant that officially, he didn’t have anything to do with the traders anymore.

“Young boy…” started Banbao, taking another puff “you don’t know life. Consider this your first lesson…”

But before he could finish, Fengli, who was standing nearby all this time, jumped in.

“Who needs your lessons, villain!”

And just like that, she swung her stick and knocked him out.

Unfortunately, they were in the middle of the encampment, and now every guardsman was upon them.

“Did you see? She killed the boss!”

“I didn’t kill him…” started Fengli, and gently tapped the old wolf with the very same stick she hit him in the head a moment ago. “See? He’s still breathing?”

The fact that she phrased that last sentence as a question and a small pool of blood forming beneath his temple suggested otherwise. And soon enough, she was taken down and beaten unconscious by almost a dozen guards twice her size.

As reality drifted away, she only had one thought

‘Ah, if only I could cultivate. I would summon a qi blast and blow them away…’

Meanwhile, Annu, who was promptly ignored by pretty much everyone, ran away to ask for help.

……………….

The aftermath of this incident was a difficult affair for both sides involved.

Although both caravan master Banbao, and servant Fengli survived the encounter, they were now heavily wounded and had to receive medical attention.

Fortunately, the healers employed by the Shuangshan sect were professionals, and the old wolf was treated and released the very same day.

Meanwhile, the girl was in much worse condition, and it was decided she should be under treatment for at least several more days, the infirmary becoming her temporary new home.

Neither party wanted to admit they were in the wrong, and both accused the other of foul play. Fengli and Annu both testified that the caravan cheated the young servant of his possessions, and thus ‘he was asking for it’. Meanwhile, Banbao cried about being assaulted and pointed out that even if he stole something, that doesn’t justify the use of violence.

Since in small villages like these the local sect is the only legal authority, a lot of paperwork followed, and Lan Caolu had to personally intervene in the matter.

Fortunately, at this point in time, he was still mentally stable, and his strength didn’t leave him, so he eventually managed to negotiate a compromise that didn’t satisfy anyone, but no one dared to disagree with him.

Meanwhile, Annu had nothing to do beyond giving his testimony and resigning himself to the fate of being a Shuangshan employee from now on. However, that fact didn’t matter to him anymore.

What hurt him the most right now, was getting Fengli in trouble- he blamed himself, and thus wanted to make it up in every way he could…starting with carving a new stick in place of the one she lost at some point while fighting the caravan guards.

He traveled the surrounding oak woods with a little hatchet he ‘borrowed’ with the help of Zhanzhan, then having found a suitable branch, he worked on it for countless hours, until he produced something resembling a wooden sword.

Quite proud of his work, he rushed to the medical wing as soon as he was finished, eager to gift it to his wounded friend. However, as he was walking down the narrow corridor connecting the administrative section with the infirmary where Fengli was currently the only guest, a young man wearing cultivation robes passed him by.

Even though Annu couldn’t sense killing intend, it was quite obvious that this person was angry like hell, and he couldn’t help but ponder what could be the cause of that?

…………

The man in question was Wang Shunji, and he just finished a rather unpleasant conversation he had with his wolfgirl protege.

After hearing what happened in the trading camp, he got immensely and uncharacteristically angry, and first went to old man Lan Caolu to bargain…not, to force him not to punish Fengli for the incident.

After confirming that the master had no such intention, he apologized, somewhat embarrassed, and next went to the caravan camp to give them a piece of his mind. Banbao listened to him patiently, and after confirming that young man has no intention of causing any real trouble, dismissed him with a swing of his pipe.

This made the teenage cultivator even more agitated, so to calm down, he drowned his frustrations in a jug of baiju.

Over the course of past three months, he stole it from the bakery so many times, that old man Mo begun charging him extra for every missing container, including the ones taken by other unruly students such as Ming Libai.

Wang Shunji considered that, of course, injustice in its own right, but since his family was moderately affluent, he could afford it and after a bit of bargaining eventually gave in to old man’s demands. This, in turn, earned him gratitude and respect of other sectarian delinquents, for whom he unwillingly became a sponsor.

Finally, after sobering up a bit and feeling considerably more chipper, he made his way to the western hill, where Fengli was currently resting.

Over the course of the past three years, he grew very close to her, and was therefore concerned for her, but didn’t want to make it seem overly obvious, so he waited with visiting her until the last moment.

As he was making his way uphill, he kept pondering over everything he found out about the case over and over again…but couldn’t phantom what in the world was Fengli thinking when she picked a fight with a caravan leader in such unfavorable circumstances, surrounded by all these guards, in the middle of the potentially hostile encampment.

Was she courting death? But….

“Ehehe, I wasn’t thinking at all~”

Was her response, which left him in shock and disbelief.

‘She’s an idiot, he thought, ‘I was raising an idiot’.

Fengli was covered in bandages and acupuncture needless head to toe, and her face was adorned with purple bruises. But she didn’t think at all about that, and instead bragged about the event as if it was some kind of great achievement.

“You should have seen how he went down! With just one swing of my stick, this all-powerful big man just fell over! Oh speaking of sticks…” she made a swinging motion overhead, play pretending she’s holding something in her hands “Annu is making a new one for me! I asked him to find the heaviest, most unwieldy branch he can, and make me something resembling a two-handed sword! If I can learn to wield it in just one hand, wouldn’t that be awesome?”

He didn’t know who Annu was, and didn’t care.

“You got hurt so badly…don’t you have any preservation instincts? I thought you yaren are more survival-driven than humans! But the way I see it, you’re suicidal!”

“Ehehe, all’s well that ends well! And after I become a proper cultivator, these mundane enemies will be nothing for me!”

Wang Shunji exhaled deeply and then resolved himself to finally pass the sad truth to her. Perhaps if he had done so earlier, this wouldn’t have happened!

“You can never become one! Your cultivation base, although exceptional for a yaren, is just like average humans! It would take you decades of intense training just to establish a golden core, and then decades to reach any notable level of power!…” now for the punchline “And if you tried to randomly use your powers to hurt people for irrelevant reasons like these, you’d end up being hunted and killed like a devil cultivator!”

“Irrelevant?” now Fengli got angry, too “That guy committed injustice! He cheated the newly arrived servant of his belongings and gave him false hope. Don’t you think that’s deserving of wack to the head?”

“What if you killed him?”

“Then he’d be dead! I don’t care!”

“Think of the repercussions. Right now, master Lan is negotiating in your name, cleaning up your mess!”

“Never asked him!”

“You don’t see the big picture!”

“And you are….” she looked like she was about to cry, but at the same time, her face was red with rage “privileged!”

“A what?”

“You are a prodigy, and can achieve anything with ease! You can never understand the feelings of us, weaklings!” she exclaimed, then smirked as if she was congratulating herself on saying something smart for a change “Tell you what! I think the reason why I didn’t make any progress so far is that you’re such a worthless teacher! I don’t need you! I can obtain power on my own!”

Wang Shunji’s expression darkened, but he didn’t say anything, letting her scream her lungs out.

“….that’s right, I’m better off on my own! I’ll train harder than anyone else! I know, I’ll obtain secret medicinal pills that will rapidly make me stronger! Or maybe I’ll meet a mystical spirit and make a pact with it! Or get a forgotten family heirloom, a legacy of a grandmaster! Or I will unlock….”

Finally, he stood up, and not willing to listen to this drivel anymore, left without saying a word.

…….

On his way out of the building, Wang Shunji was intercepted by Ming Libai. His friend was all red and he was breathing heavily, which was rare for someone of his rather impressive physique.

“Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you the whole day!”

“What for?”

“Bai Lianfei returned!”

“….First I heard…!”

“That’s exactly where the problem is!” Ming Libai stomped the ground for emphasis, and puffed his cheeks, which made him look quite comical, all things considered. “She came back, and didn’t even say hello to us! And what about the gifts she promised to bring us back from Yafan? I bet she forgot, and she’s too embarrassed to face us now!”

Frankly speaking, Wang Shunji was in a foul mood, and at this point, didn’t care one bit for whatever she’d bring him anyway. But, not wanting to trouble his musclebrain friend, he smiled in a carefree way and pretended to agree with him.

“That’s right! Let’s go and give her a piece of our mind!”

They fist-bumped and hurried to meditative quarters, where Bai Lianfei was last spotted.