Chapter 21: Expose The Lies

After enduring three days of inhuman torment, Su Tingyun finally made it to the First Stage of Spirit Condensation.

Liu Feizhou said she was an unengravable rotten piece of wood to have only been able to barely reach Spirit Condensation Stage after eating an entire bottle of pills. Su Tingyun didn’t even have the energy to retort. In any case, this body wasn’t hers. If it’s rotten wood, then just let it be rotten wood. It’s already a person that has half a leg in her grave after all.

Liu Feizhou had his own medicinal farm. However, there were only a few medicinal herbs planted inside to supply ingredients for his usual research. Now, though, he threw the medicinal grass seeds to Su Tingyun. “Hurry up and plant them. If you can’t keep them alive, ‘carry head over to greet’!”

Carry whose head? If she really chopped off her own head, would she still be able to carry it over to see him? And this Liu Feizhou was still disdaining her. He should be the one who’s truly stupid. He probably refined so many pills that he refined himself dumb.

Su Tingyun was just about to leave when she saw Liu Feiyun’s expression change. He cupped his hand and bowed in greeting before starting to talk respectfully towards empty air. “Yes, this disciple did grab an old lady from outside a couple days ago and brought her in.”

“Yes, Master.”

After Liu Feizhou finished speaking, he turned around to glare at the old woman that was preparing to slip away and shouted, “Who allowed you to leave? Wait here, someone wants to see you.”

Who wants to see her?

Chu Ling and the others? Or was it Spiritual Master Lingwu? Su Tingyun’s heart felt a bit of fear when she recalled that putative husband of hers. After a while, Su Tingyun was stunned upon seeing the person that had arrived. She hadn’t expected that the person that came to see her would be Li Xinmei.

Li Xinmei looked pretty good. She was dressed like a little celestial fairy and when she walked, her dress would float like waves. Su Tingyun’s eyes even glazed over from staring at it. This dress was so pretty. If she could wear it once, coming here to visit the cultivating world would not have been in vain.

However, when she recalled this body’s age and its tall and sturdy physique, her mouth twitched. She could only look at that beautiful dress dejectedly.

“Grannie.” Li Xinmei walked with light and brisk steps to Su Tingyun, her face carrying a trace of a bashful smile. From the start, she was a shy little lady that wasn’t good at expressing her emotions with a knife-like mouth but a tofu heart. The fact that she could smile now was enough to make Su Tingyun extremely happy.

Seeing that Li Xinmei was living well, she also felt relieved.

Su Tingyun actually didn’t stay more than just a few days in the Su Residence of the Secular World. Due to that, she didn’t have many interactions with the people there and didn’t establish any deep friendships with those putative sons and grandsons. On the contrary, it was with the people that she had went through fire and water hunting and killing bugs with in the cultivating world that she felt life-entrusting bonds with.

In such a short period of time, she had already experienced two betrayals. After all the large waves and sand storms, the only one left was this Xiao Mei. Su Tingyun sincerely treated her like a little sister. Of course, with her current body, she can only think of her as a granddaughter.

“Grannie, have you been well?” Before she came, Li Xinmei had already decided that she must smile happily in front of Grannie so that she wouldn’t worry. However, after actually seeing her and seeing how her cultivation increased, causing her appearance to become much more youthful, it was clear that she was probably living pretty well. Due to this, Li Xinmei felt even more convinced that she shouldn’t say anything to cause her to worry.

Li Xinmei stared at Su Tingyun for a long time before reaching out to tug at the corner of her garment while smiling faintly. “Grannie, you look like you got ten years younger.”

Liu Feizhou, who was standing at the side, coldly snorted through his nose as he said with an expression of complete disdain, “To only get this little effect after taking an entire bottle of medicinal pills, her genes are seriously way too inferior.”

Normally, as cultivators advance they would get younger. Having jumped over an entire stage, she should have gotten a lot younger. Her bone age was seventy and in the mortal world, she would have gradually gotten old. However, it didn’t count as anything much in the cultivation world. It was just that she started cultivating too late and even if she advanced in her cultivation, she still wouldn’t be able to return to her youth. However, becoming a middle-aged missus was not bad.

Right now, the old woman looked about fifty. However, her skin was dark and yellow, her narrow and shrewd little eyes were sunken in her eye sockets, and her physique was sturdy so her appearance was clearly old. If it weren’t for the fact that he had a use for her, Liu Feizhou definitely wouldn’t be able to endure having such an ugly old woman in his sights.

This little lady, however, looked quite good. It was just that there seem to be a bit of problem with her body.

Liu Feizhou was not a meddlesome person so he also didn’t feel like bringing it up to them.

Li Xinmei coldly glanced at Liu Feizhou who slandered Grannie before biting her lips and kneeling down with a plop in front of Su Tingyun. “Many thanks for Grannie’s life-saving grace. Many thanks, Grannie, for finding a good teacher for me. Master praised me for my good natural aptitudes and said that in the future, I’d definitely be able to make the Array Sect famous and he’s especially nice to me. See my dress? It’s weaved from Spiritual Jade Water Thread. This was something Master bestowed me.”

When Li Xinmei knelt down, that dress spread out on the floor. All the waves rippled slightly and the scene was extremely beautiful. At that time, Su Tingyun was worried that Xiao Mei would not be favored due to the old injury she had. However, from the looks of it now, that Chu Ling’s words couldn’t be believed. Even if she had a hidden ailments, it was nothing that these almighty cultivators couldn’t cure.

“Xinmei will definitely work as a horse and as a cow to repay Grannie for your life-changing grace.”

“It was nothing but the amount of effort to lift one’s hand. If it weren’t for you, I would still be stuck below the mountain suffering those people’s bullying.” Su Tingyun hurriedly helped the person up, thinking that the people here were seriously too polite. To kneel down with a ‘pah’ just to convey their thanks, it really caused her to feel a little uncomfortable.

“I know that Grannie climbed the Heaven Ascending Stairs while carrying me.” As Li Xinmei spoke, she couldn’t hold back her tears anymore and they fell. She still wanted to force herself to hold back. However, it was like an opened dam. No matter what she did, she couldn’t stop the flow.

“Wow, a freaking old woman like you actually carried someone up the Heaven Ascending Stairs?”

Back then, she was probably only at the First Stage of Qi Condensation? However, her personality was quite firm and persistent, like me, Liu Feizhou said in his heart. He finally discovered a teeny merit that the old woman had.

“The past is all past, just being concerned about the future is enough. Right now, you’ve already bowed and acknowledged Ning Xuzi as your master so you have to cultivate properly to fiercely slap those two little bastards’ faces.” Su Tingyun didn’t like Xu Wei and Zhang Zhizi at all. When she imagined those two’s dumbstruck and endlessly regretful faces in their future encounter, she felt especially refreshed. As expected, everyone likes refreshing storylines. In the past, when she read novels, she also liked counterattacking cannon fodders! Right now, wasn’t it right in front of her?

Li Xinmei froze for a moment before saying, “Alright, Grannie.”

“What little bastards?” The Liu Feizhou that was getting addicted to openly eavesdropping and felt unwilling to leave couldn’t help himself from asking this.

“Those two little kids that stole our spirit stones to register ah.”

Originally, Liu Feizhou was still listening pretty happily. However, now, his brows furrowed again. “I just praised you for having a little determination, but now you’re being so narrow-minded again. Cultivating properly is for the sake of seeking the Great Way. (Something like the flow of the universe.) Is it worth it for you to keep being concerned about two ants that aren’t even worth mentioning?”

Su Tingyun was just a common person. She was happy to be a common person. If Liu Feizhou was truly only concerned about seeking the Great Way like he said, what need did he have to compete with his own fellow disciples? What a hypocrite.

“Once you get stronger, you have find those people that snatched our Ghost-Faced Pig and get revenge as well. And there was also a lady that gave you three pills to treat your injury. Revenge must be repaid, but you also can’t forget grace.” Su Tingyun didn’t have anyone to talk to during this period of time and even ended up rambling on to the Purple Costus Roots for a long time. Since she finally got the chance to see someone familiar after a long time, she definitely had to have a good long chat.

“En.” Li Xinmei still nodded and her lips were slightly hooked in a smile. However, her tears still didn’t stop.

She didn’t have the chance to take revenge anymore.

At most, her cultivation can only reach the Spirit Condensation Stage. There was no chance to advance beyond that. Li Xinmei bit her lips tightly and tried her best to keep herself from sobbing. However, unexpectedly, Liu Feizhou, who was at the side, humphed again. “Of the two of you, one of you has abnormally terrible aptitude, to the point that you’ve barely only made it to the Spirit Condensation Stage after taking an entire bottle of pills. To advance in the future would be harder than climbing to heaven. On the other hand, one of you has really good aptitude. However, your path to cultivating in the Great Way has been broken off due to the injury your meridians received. Your cultivation limit will be at the Spirit Condensation Stage, so where does your confidence come from? To say that after you get stronger you’ll slap other people’s faces to take revenge?”

The exchange between this pair of old and young was extremely laughable. However, that fake smile caused Liu Feizhou to feel uncomfortable so he couldn’t stop himself from breaking that facade. It was just that, right after he spoke, he saw the stunned expressions on the two. Liu Feizhou suddenly had a strange feeling as if his heart had been stabbed.

There were too little sincere feelings in this world.

As cultivation resources became more and more scarce, it caused some friendships to be even rarer than celestial items and precious artifacts. Although he snorted disdainfully at it, he also once secretly envied it. If when he was bullied, if when he was trampled on by others, at his most hesitant and helpless moments, there was such a person to comfort him? Would he have turned out different?

He has always been described as a person with a poisonous mouth and a black heart. Even his fellow brother disciples said that he couldn’t control his mouth. Yet he still didn’t care since he was telling nothing but the truth. However, at this time, Liu Feizhou felt a trace of regret for the first time after speaking. He turned his head away. His long eyelashes that were fluttering nonstop showed that Liu Feizhou’s mood was a little unstable.

He would blink whenever he felt uncomfortable. This habit is way too much, even he himself couldn’t stand it.



After hearing what Liu Feizhou said, Su Tingyun turned stiff.

The person with abnormally terrible aptitude was her. Li Xinmei did have a hidden ailment, but didn’t she say that her Master really favored her and in the future she would have boundless prospects? That in the future she would help make the Array Sect even more famous? Why would her cultivation limit be at the Spirit Condensation Stage?

__________

Credits: Translated by Chiyomira, Proofread by Yours Truly