Lan Zhuxuan shrank her neck in horror and hid behind the sect leader. Qingfeng Valley’s sect leader looked in distress at the magic tool cut by Qin Xiumo’s sword. But her sect’s disciple was in danger, she had no choice but to save Lan Zhuxuan.

Chu Tianfeng sneered. The smile on his face was filled with irony and contempt.

Even Su Junmo was a little surprised. His cultivation base was above Qin Xiumo, so he could clearly see that the younger man truly attacked with killing intent just now.

Only Lu Qingran reacted differently. She lightly bit her lower lip and took a step forward fearlessly. “This fellow Daoist, I also checked your body a bit in the cold pond that day. If you don’t mind, you might as well let me try…”

“I mind.” Qin Xiumo brashly interrupted Lu Qingran’s words. “No need.”

Lu Qingran bit her lower lip harder, her eyes reddened.

Qin Xiumo didn’t even spare her a look. He simply turned his body and walked towards the tent where Meng Qi was resting. Chu Tianfeng hurriedly followed, leaving only Su Junmo remained in place. Chu Tianfeng put his arm around Qin Xiumo’s shoulders and laughed in a low voice that could only be heard by the two of them, “Look, it seems that someone is being fascinated by a certain Lu.”

“Heh— ”

“Right.” Chu Tianfeng tilted his head slightly and took a quick glance at Su Junmo, “She did get along very well with him later. Do you remember? When she moved from you to him, she didn’t change your nickname, and called both of you ‘Brother Mo’——ugh!!”1

Qin Xiumo hit Chu Tianfeng angrily.

Chu Tianfeng knew that this guy wouldn’t genuinely hurt him, so he didn’t block. “Should we remind him?” He asked in a low voice.

“He won’t believe it.” Qin Xiumo replied. Both could hear a little gloating in each other’s tone.

Although Su Junmo was quite strong, he was still far from that person.

“When he started clinging to Meng Qi, I thought he might also remember the past. But it seems that he has nothing to do with Meng Qi.” Chu Tianfeng said, “Then just leave him alone.”

“Yeah.” Qin Xiumo nodded.

After reaching an agreement, they quietly stood side by side outside Meng Qi’s tent.

With Qin Xiumo’s sword as deterrence, no one from Qingfeng Valley dared to make any trouble. They simply grouped in small numbers, scolding in a low voice. But no one dared to come and disturb Meng Qi.

Meng Qi slept until the next morning. When her eyes opened, she felt completely refreshed. The tiredness from past days was gone. It was tranquil inside the tent. Xiao Qi leaned against her arm, his fluffy head softly rested on her body, sleeping soundly.

Meng Qi was lying on the bed for a while. After taking a deep breath, she carefully turned over and sat up. She didn’t want to wake Xiao Qi, but when her body moved, the little white tiger opened his eyes and looked at her.

“You should sleep a bit longer.” Meng Qi rubbed his head. She conjured some water with a spell and quickly cleaned her body before walking out of the tent.

Outside, Fentian Palace disciples had finished packing and were ready to depart at any time. The body of the five elements blue crane and its unused blood were also properly put back into a storage space by Chu Tianfeng. After yesterday’s commotion, Qingfeng Valley disciples had stopped talking to the Fentian Palace people. After Elder Xun Yan’s burst of anger, everyone knew that Qingfeng Valley could no longer merge into Fentian Palace and enjoy the backing of a large sect.

Some disciples still felt regretful. After all, Fentian Palace was one of the top ten sects in the Eastern Realm. Having their backing was definitely far better than staying at Qingfeng Valley.

After Lan Zhuxuan was cured, she completely stood by Lu Qingran’s side. After being threatened by Qin Xiumo yesterday, she spared no effort to preach to the Qingfeng Valley disciples: With such a talented cultivator like Lu Qingran, Qingfeng Valley would reach its glory sooner or later, and there was no need for them to go under someone else’s fence and live under their mercy.

Qingfeng Valley disciples were convinced by Lan Zhuxuan’s words. Fentian Palace elder and young master admired Meng Qi that much. But the injury that Meng Qi claimed she could heal, Lu Qingran also could accomplish the same thing in just a few days. In terms of talent, Lu Qingran was definitely better than Meng Qi. With her here, why should they worry about Qingfeng Valley’s future?

So, after Meng Qi walked out of her tent, Qingfeng Valley disciples all looked at her with hostility, as if looking at a traitor.

However, Meng Qi didn’t care. She glanced over the injured Qingfeng Valley disciples. Their complexion looked much better, and they were full of smiles. It seemed that they already alright now.

“Today, after going back to Qingfeng Valley, we are departing to Fentian City.” Chu Tianfeng walked to Meng Qi, “You also go with us.”

“No.” Meng Qi shook her head. She indeed had long planned to leave Qingfeng Valley and even thought about paying Fentian Palace to escort her to Fentian City. It was the city closest to the Western Realm. No matter what she saw inside the flame curtain CHu Tianfeng showed her, she was willing to trust her Master. So, she still believed his words that he came from a hidden sect in the Western Realm.

“Are you not going to Fentian City?” Chu Tianfeng quickly asked.

“I’m going.” Meng Qi gazes swept over him and fell on Qin Xiumo, who was standing not far behind. She explained: “Qin Xiumo owes me spirit stones for his treatment. I will hire him to escort me to Fentian City.”

Damn!

Chu Tianfeng turned around and glared fiercely at Qin Xiumo. He completely forgot their previous agreement to have a mutual alliance and united to protect Meng Qi from that person. At this moment, his head was simply filled with the intention to kill this shameless guy.

Why didn’t he think about it first?!

Chu Tianfeng was very upset.

“Young palace master Chu.” Meng Qi reminded him, “You still haven’t paid for the treatment I gave to your Fentian Palace disciples.”

“I also have no money!” Chu Tianfeng almost squeezed these words from between his teeth.

“Oh.” Meng Qi nodded, “Then I will go and ask them…”

“Wait!” Chu Tianfeng hurriedly stopped her, “They are just ordinary disciples. They are very poor.”

Meng Qi: “…”

“Let’s do it this way.” Chu Tianfeng’s brains turned quickly, “You should come with us to Fentian City. The way along the journey is tough and dangerous. You can take our protection as your payment.”

Meng Qi: “…”

Is Chu Tianfeng trying to scam her?! Is she looked so ignorant?!

She had never been to Fentian City but had visited it in her previous life. There were teleportation arrays between major cities. The ten-day journey from Qingfeng Town to Fentian City was indeed dangerous for a weak Qi Condensation cultivator. But now, she had Qin Xiumo, whose cultivation has been recovered to the third or fourth realm of Golden Core stage. She had enough safety measures.

“I want spirit stone.” Meng Qi insisted. She was going to use a tremendous amount of spirit stones to improve her cultivation and needed to collect as much as possible.

“I have no money!” Chu Tianfeng didn’t give in.

Meng Qi stared at him: “Then I’m going to find Elder Xun Yan.”

“Eh? Meng Qi!” Chu Tianfeng couldn’t afford this kind of shame. He quickly grabbed Meng Qi’s arm. He knew that this girl was serious. After all, she had asked for money from Elder Xun before and was now pretty skilled in debt-collecting.

“I-I’ll pay it.” With an aggrieved look, Chu Tianfeng took out the number of spirit stones he promised before and handed it to Meng Qi.

“Thank you, young palace master Chu.” Meng Qi saluted politely before turned around and left.

Qin Xiumo smiled triumphantly. He didn’t care about Chu Tianfeng’s ugly expression and quickly followed Meng Qi.

“I want to go to Qingfeng Town first.” Meng Qi said: “After that, we need to go back to Qingfeng Valley.” She glanced at Qin Xiumo: “To completely heal your injury, I have to refine some special medicine. I’ve asked people to find the ingredients for me. But it probably will take some time before they arrived.”

“No hurry.” Qin Xiu said leisurely: “Take it slowly. Anyway, I still owe you so many…” He prolonged his tone slightly: “…spirit stones. Moreover, my cultivation is still in the third to the fourth realm of Golden Core, so I am very cheap. It will take me a long time to pay back my debt, don’t worry.”

Meng Qi: “…” She never knew that someone could show such….a somewhat smug expression when saying that his labor was very cheap.

Meng Qi shook her head, too lazy to worry about these two strange men. Anyway, between her and them, there were only spirit stone transactions!

Meng Qi returned to her tent. Xiao Qi had already returned to the beast house and was carefully put back into her storage bracelet.

Qin Xiumo waited right outside the door. He saw Meng Qi took out a paper crane from her storage bracelet. “This is my only flying magic tool.” She told him: “What do you do?”

“Oh.” Qin Xiumo replied: “You can make it bigger to accommodate two people.”

In fact, a Golden Core cultivator could fly using their sword. But the current Qin Xiumo was only a half-baked Golden Core. He could use his power for a short time, but utilizing spiritual aura to fly himself back to Qingfeng Valley would only be detrimental to his injury.

Meng Qi nodded. “Then let’s go.” She placed the paper crane in the air and embedded a second-grade spirit stone on its head. The paper crane instantly became longer. Meng Qi sat on it, and Qin Xiumo also followed casually.

“Go to Qingfeng Town first.” She had stopped associating with other disciples of Qingfeng Valley. After making up her mind to leave the sect, those people’s conduct and opinion no longer affected her.

The paper crane couldn’t fly fast, but its speed was better than Elder Lu’s paper boat that accommodated dozens of people. Meng Qi used three second-grade spirit stones and finally returned to Qingfeng Town that afternoon.

She asked Qin Xiumo to wait at one of the teahouses in the town and went by herself to Beyond The Heaven relay station to fetch the array materials she ordered. After that, she went to the Cloud Immortal Pavilion and bought a bigger storage space. Her original storage bracelet was no longer enough for her. She immediately transferred the contents of the old storage bracelet, including the beast house with Xiao Qi in it, to the new storage space.

After finishing her business, Meng Qi went to the teahouse to pick Qin Xiumo. She didn’t use the paper crane but just walked towards Qingfeng Valley.

Meng Qi joined Qingfeng Valley for more than half a year. Even counting the previous life, her time in the sect was only one year. Even so, it was wrong to say that she had no emotion towards this place.

Meng Qi walked on the mountain road leading to Qingfeng Valley’s main gate in silence. In both her life, she had stepped on this same path countless of times.

“Are you feeling reluctant?” Qin Xiumo seemed to have guessed her mind. He followed all the way in silence, but suddenly asked: “Why?”

“People are not plants, we have emotion.” Meng Qi said, “Qingfeng Valley took me in and taught me cultivation. Here, I learn the foundation of my knowledge.”

“Heh——” Qin Xiumo sneered. He straightened his back and moved his gaze towards the south. “Do you know why I appeared at the bottom of the cold pond?” He asked.

Meng Qi didn’t reply. She wasn’t good at lying. But in fact, she knew the whole story. Not only how Qin Xiumo was betrayed by his best friend, but also how he later enacted his vengeance. The nickname of Little Devil Lord, together with his coldness and cruelty, had spread throughout the Southern Realm.

“I was betrayed by a best friend who injured me when I was facing a tribulation. I fell into Qi deviation and almost died.” Qin Xiumo stretched out his hand and stroked his arm. Once, there was a wound left by his best friend’s sword here. But after Meng Qi’s treatment, it didn’t leave any trace. However, he would forever never forget the pain and coldness he felt at that moment.

Later, he faced the indifference of his sect, the cruelty of his master who raised disciples as if raising gu1 and saw the woman he wholeheartedly loved changed her affection…

In the end…

When everyone thought that he was beyond saving and gave up on him, only one person still hurried over. It was a slender figure in a blue robe, carrying a faint smell of medicine…

“Meng Qi.” Qin Xiumo smiled, “You should always remember one thing.” He turned to look at Meng Qi: “If someone betrays and wrongs you in the future, don’t try to talk reason, just kill them.” He paused for a moment, then slowly said: “I know you can do it. As long as you don’t feel soft-hearted.”

Qin Xiumo took a step towards Meng Qi. The mountain wind stirred his black robe, but he kept staring at her eyes. With a low whisper, he softly spoke every word: “Including me…if one day I betray you, bring you harm, just kill me without hesitation.”

“Junior sister! Junior sister Meng Qi!” An anxious call suddenly came from a distance, breaking the weird silence between the two.

A young man in Qingfeng Valley’s blue robe sprinted along the mountain road. When he saw Meng Qi, he rushed forward as if seeing a savior. “Junior Sister Meng Qi, I finally found you!” The disciple breathed a sigh of relief, “Quickly go back. The seniors who were injured by the immortal devouring vine are now rolling on the floor in pain. And they…their condition…look so scary!”