Murong Zili casually cast a healing art at the body of Shuo Henduo, completely unfazed by the sudden attack.

“You're 'X,' correct? Do you have my scroll?” He asked the black-robed man. With a nod, the stranger slipped out a roll of paper from his sleeve.

The material of the scroll was tinted blue and had a vague aura of ancientness about it. There was a sense of majesty to the object, and carved clearly on the side was the character “水.” Sovereign Shui’s scroll was important because not only did it signify the owner’s position as one of the Five Elemental Sovereigns, but because it granted access to one section of the Desolate Lands. That place was this universe’s pocket dimension where cultivators could go and test their strength against Ancient Beasts and even find valuable artifacts of old.

Shui’s Scroll, in particular, opened up the gate in the northern part of the lands. Unsurprisingly, it was blandly named “The Northern Lands.”

“What do you want for it?” The man held up a hand, indicating for the other person to let him speak.

“Before we start anything, I just want to say something to you.” X seemed to take a deep breath.

“Do you know how fucking long I’ve been waiting for you to appear? Huh? I stole this scroll a month ago, and you’re only reacting now? I almost don’t even feel like negotiating with you anymore!” He dropped down onto his knees, slapping a hand against the ground. “I laid in this dirt for that long! Do you know how many times I’ve been pissed on or shit on by some wild beast? A pair of them even mated on this exact spot! Twice!” Pointing an accusing finger at Murong Zili, the aggrieved stranger glared at him.

“What kind of Elemental Sovereign are you? It was so easy to get this scroll, I thought it was a trap! I thought you would be notified and come immediately!”

Murong Zili stared wordlessly at him. Murong Yingyue stared wordlessly at him. Shuo Henduo, still suffering from his fatal wound and barely holding on due to the healing art, stared wordlessly at him. The demonic beasts who had been trying to kill each other stopped and stared wordlessly at him.

A tumbleweed not native to the area rolled past them in the silence...

... and stared wordlessly at him.

Hey, hey, hey! You’re the thief! Why are you blaming him for not getting here earlier?

“...Why the f*ck should I care about you?” Impressive! Even when he cusses, it’s still censored! Though...

Murong Yingyue checked up on Shuo Henduo. Yep, he looked like his entire worldview just got shattered when he heard her father swear. Not too surprising, considering Sovereign Shui was known for his godly-level patience and polite manners. But it seemed this time it was just too shocking. There were shameless people, and there were shameless people.

Although this does explain why he didn’t notice anyone entering the house. The scroll was already robbed a month before.

“Nevermind that. So what did you want from me?” Zili asked. X hopped up from the ground.

“Obviously, I want you to-”

“That’s nice!” Her father chirped. In less than a blink of the eye, he had frozen the cultivator’s entire body, except for the part holding his scroll. "Thank you for safekeeping this until now. It has been greatly appreciated.”

Murong Zili strode over to the still-dying Shuo Henduo. Now that he had time to properly focus on him and heal him, he was brought back from the brink of death to full health in under a minute. The one-sided fight was over, and it was time to wait for Shuo Henduo to finish his inevitable apology and/or ass-kissing.

“Sovereign Shui that was breathtaking the way you dealt with that cultivator and you were incredibly level-headed even when I had hindered you with my injury in fact I had given up hope of living and seeing another day content to take my last breath knowing that I had done it serving you and as I lay there taking increasingly laboured breaths I was able to witness the magnificence of your abilities and the speed in which you incapacitated that man by locking his limbs in place with the use of that cleverly executed water spell where you rapidly froze the vapor in the air around him with just a simple look and it was truly awe-inspiring how you were even able to drag my soul back from the depth of hell unwaveringly and with such precision and speed and unfortunately you were incredibly drained by such an effort-”

Huh? What did he just say?

“-and you felt so weak as to be unable to even move a finger so you could only collapse down onto the dry unforgiving sand beneath your feet and look in confusion and bewilderment as you lost your power-” Surprised, Murong Zili’s legs gave out from under him, and he hit the ground hard, nearly knocking Yingyue off of his shoulder.

“-and strangely enough, you found that even using your spiritual energy felt impossible and the black-robed man who had just been previously captured by your arts broke free as the ice inexplicably melted-” Murong Yingyue turned her attention to the man from before, and just as his words had described, the enemy cultivator had been freed from the ice trapping him.

Fuck! So much for being a Sovereign. This Level 70 here can’t beat those Level 90s! Now is not the time for the Level 100 to clock out! I should have seen this betrayal scene coming a mile and three quarters away!

As Shuo Henduo continued to speak, Yingyue realized that she could still move. Did his arts only work if he knew that the person was there? She quickly ran through different ideas, until she realized one key component: Shuo Henduo had not restricted her father’s divine sense.

While it may have seemed like a stupid blunder in a wuxia novel, in this universe, it seemed that cultivator upgrades were really lacking. Divine sense allowed one to scan their surroundings and communicate with others, but it could not be used as a weapon.

Taking advantage of this, Yingyue clambered up to his ear.

“Use your divine sense to talk to me.”

What is it?

What is it? What is it? You’re going to die!

Awww, I knew you cared about this father of yours!

Now is not the time! Do you have any artifacts of you? Anything to protect us? Why was it that even now, her father focused on unnecessary things?

There might be something in my pocket? Your mother might have given me something. Suppressing a sigh, she ran over into his pocket, discovering a black orb. It was slightly transparent, and silver specks drifted around inside, reminding her of a snowglobe. Yingyue estimated its size to be about half the size of her palm in her normal body.

What is this orb supposed to do?

“-you felt yourself start to slip away into the realm of unconsciousness, your vision fading out-”

Answer me! When she didn’t hear a reply, Murong Yingyue gave up on him. Pushing her spiritual energy into the ball, she felt a sudden spike of energy from it. Hurriedly rolling it out of his pocket, she kicked it up at Shuo Henduo.

It was lighter than she expected, and the orb flew up to his face. Caught off guard, Shuo Henduo didn’t move in time, and the ball made contact with his face. It sparked, then lit up like a cheap plastic spinner toy, the silver specks swirling and expanding inside the orb.

The results were gruesome. The ball shot through his head, drilling a perfect circle through first, his nose, then his brain, and exiting through the back of his head. The unknown technique was immediately dispelled, and Murong Zili had frozen both of the enemy cultivators the moment he could move.

As she was still on her father as he stood up, she fell back inside his pocket, feet up and her face squished in the corner next to a piece of lint. Cursing, Yingyue climbed out of his pocket, growing back to her normal size.

Casually waving his hand, Zili put the two immobile opponents into a spacial pocket. Then he turned to his daughter, jumping onto her and wrapping his arms tightly around.

“I’m so proud of my Yueyue! You took down a ninth-realm cultivator alllll by yourself!” She pushed him off and walked towards where she saw the orb land. There was a flawless, circular tunnel in the ground, reaching very deep into the dirt.

Murong Yingyue attempted to expand the hole, forcing it to stretch with her power. As she was only in the seventh realm of cultivation, her spiritual energy was not dense enough to overtake the ambient energy in the ground in the Windy Plains.

As expected, the tunnel refused to expand, and she poked her father. He caught her gaze and understood what she wanted, waving his hand and digging out a large chunk of the dirt where the hole was. At the bottom of the newly dug pit, the orb had returned to its previous state, the silver flecks floating aimlessly inside again.

She jumped into the hole, gingerly picking it up with her hands, and leaped back out. Brushing it off and shining it with her sleeves, she put it into her own space ring. Eyes bright, she looked expectantly at her father.

“Do you have more of those?” Murong Zili rubbed his chin.

“Ah... Yueyue, your father picked that off the ground somewhere because he thought it looked pretty. He really doesn’t remember where he found it anymore.” She deflated slightly, not even bothering to address the fact that her father had just picked it off the ground. Dammit, it was super OP! I could’ve made just about everyone my bitch with more of those.

“Then I’m taking it as my birthday present. No need to get me anything else.” Her father often got her useless gifts, so taking this in exchange was pretty good. Ignoring her sulking father, she reorganized the artifacts inside of her space ring. Yingyue hadn’t had a chance to switch out the space ring from her fight with Di Jinming, so she still didn’t know what she had. Murong Yingyue would have used her treasures if she could, but most of them were too weak to harm ninth-realm cultivators. She had only taken down Shuo Henduo earlier because of sheer luck and his arrogance.

“Alright, let’s go home now. You do know the way back, right?” Giving a skeptical glance to Zili, she frowned when he plastered a nervous smile on his face.

“Yueyue, your mother usually takes us back home when we go outside. But I know where your uncle lives!”

“...You got lost and kept going to his house so he could take you back home.”

“...That’s not important.” Grinning widely, he took her arm. “Why don’t we go now?”

She pulled her arm back, her expression accusing.

“How do you even remember where he lives more clearly than your own home?”

“Yueyue-”

“No, I’m serious. How is it that you make more trips to his home than to your own?”

“Well... your mother likes to visit her brother when you’re gone, and sometimes I need to speak with her for some things.”

“You did something that irritated her, and she went to his house, so you had to remember where to go so you could talk with her.”

Murong Zili: ...Yueyue isn’t as cute when she’s like this. (T^T)

Unwilling to speak any more on the subject, he grabbed her hand, teleporting them to her uncle’s house. They landed on his porch, or the equivalent of it. Murong Yingyue’s uncle, Feng Wulin had built his house into the side of a cliff, slicing out a flat section in front of his door for visitors to teleport to.

“Hey!” She protested getting teleported suddenly, and yanked her hand away from him again, eyes narrowing. Without another word from her, Murong Yingyue opened the door, which swung out without any resistance. Walking inside, she spotted her mother and uncle sitting down and facing each other in large, plush green chairs. Both were drinking tea, and chatting quietly when they heard the door open, and they turned to see Yingyue stalking in, Zili following behind.

“What are you doing here?” Feng Ran asked Murong Yingyue. Catching sight of her husband, her face darkened slightly. “What are you doing here? Have you finished making a nuisance of yourself?”

“I can’t help it!” Murong Zili whined. “I almost never get to see her now! She’s grown up so fast...” He began to sob, covering his face with his hands, and walking away from them.

“Why did you even go out?” Feng Ran’s gaze flickered over to him when he froze at her question. Murong Yingyue rolled her eyes at her mother’s question.

“What do you think? He fucked up again and lost his-” Zili had stopped walking away and clamped a slightly damp hand over her mouth.

“We wanted to get some exercise!” He gave a shit-eating grin. “While we were outside, we decided to visit her dear uncle!”