In the eyes of the world, Ning Yuzhou was an arrogant waste.
Clearly, he was only a mortal, yet because he had a good father, he acted without restraint.
His previous behaviour had also shown his arrogant side. Although Ning Yaozhu and Sun Hongmao had indeed been wrong to harm him, his aggressive manner was also extremely hateful. Not to mention, even Ning Pingzhou, a prince of the Ning clan with decent talent, had to ask for his permission in front of him. This showed just how wilful Ning Yuzhou usually was, relying on Emperor Chenghao’s favour.
For a mortal who could not cultivate to be this arrogant, his life had truly not been lived in vain.
“Fifth Brother, I don’t want to go in…”
Ning Yaozhu’s face was full of resistance. Not only did she have a gut feeling that going in would bring disaster, she also did not want to face Ning Yuzhou. Clearly, they were the disciples the Ning clan should value. Why should they give way to that useless Ning Yuzhou?
This time, he had chosen to enter Lin Tai Hunting Valley himself. When the maze collapsed, why had he not simply died there?
Ning Pingzhou pulled her along and said, “Ah Jiu, if you don’t want to be punished by the elders of the Law Enforcement Hall, then apologise to him first.”
“I did nothing wrong! I truly didn’t expect Sun Hongmao to act at that time. Fifth Brother, you have to believe me!” Ning Yaozhu said anxiously.
Ning Pingzhou touched her face and said gently, “I know you wouldn’t do such a thing. But… Ah Jiu, haven’t you noticed that Third Miss Wen has not appeared at all?”
Ning Yaozhu froze. Thinking of something, her face paled slightly.
Just now, she indeed had not seen Wen Qiao. There was only one possibility: Wen Qiao had already died in Lin Tai Hunting Valley. Although Wen Qiao was a sickly invalid destined not to live past twenty, dying from illness herself was one matter; being killed early by someone else was another.
“Could it be…” Ning Yaozhu’s throat went dry. “Back in the maze, she already died when she was attacked by the demonic beast?”
Before the maze collapsed, Ning Yaozhu and the others had fled back together and happened to see Ning Yuzhou holding Wen Qiao, who was covered in blood and whose life or death was unknown. At that time, Wen Qiao’s appearance had been terrifying. She had lost so much blood, her aura almost gone. She might really have died…
Even if she had not died then, the maze collapsed afterward. Falling from the maze to the space below, from tens of thousands of zhang high, a severely injured person would have found it very difficult to survive.
Ning Pingzhou’s gaze darkened slightly. “Ah Jiu, no matter what, apologise to Ning Yuzhou first and try to gain his forgiveness.”
“I…”
“Listen.”
Ning Yaozhu’s face looked ugly, but she reluctantly said, “Fine.”
Seeing that she had agreed, Ning Pingzhou patted his sister’s head again and led her toward Ning Yuzhou’s resting tent.
According to past custom, after Lin Tai Hunting Valley closed, a small market would be held here.
The disciples of each clan would trade away resources they had obtained in Lin Tai Hunting Valley but did not need. Usually, they bartered, exchanging them for things they lacked. With the imperial Ning clan and the elders of the various clans jointly guarding the area, there was no need to worry about murder and robbery. Such small markets were very popular among cultivators.
Later, many merchants and cultivators who had not been able to enter Lin Tai Hunting Valley would also come specially to purchase various resources, making this temporary market even more prosperous.
Therefore, after Lin Tai Hunting Valley closed, the cultivators would usually remain here for a day or two before leaving. Naturally, the camps of the various clans would remain, and they would not break camp too early.
The siblings arrived before Ning Yuzhou’s tent and saw the Shadow Scaled Guards standing guard there.
Ning Yaozhu felt uncomfortable again. The Shadow Scaled Guards were elite guards carefully trained by the Ning clan, yet they had been sent to protect a waste. It was simply using a great talent for a petty purpose. He was clearly someone who contributed nothing to the clan, yet he used clan resources as if it were only natural. Even someone with a good temper would feel dissatisfaction and jealousy.
Their father emperor was clearly a wise and fair emperor, but whenever it came to Ning Yuzhou, he always became extremely muddled.
Ning Pingzhou glanced calmly at the Shadow Scaled Guards and led Ning Yaozhu inside.
The Shadow Scaled Guards did not stop them, clearly having received Ning Yuzhou’s instruction.
After entering the tent, they saw Ning Yuzhou sitting in the seat of honour. Aside from Qian Shou waiting at the side and Sun Hongmao, who had been brought over by the Shadow Scaled Guards, Wen Qiao was indeed nowhere to be seen.
Ning Yaozhu’s heart chilled slightly, and she suddenly did not dare look at Ning Yuzhou’s expression.
The tent was silent. No one spoke.
Ning Pingzhou raised his head and looked at Ning Yuzhou, who sat in the seat of honour. He held a white jade flowerpot in his arms. In the pot was a two-inch-tall seedling, and it was impossible to tell what kind of spiritual herb it was. On the small table beside him lay a rabbit slightly larger than a palm, its paws hugging a spirit pill. From time to time, it licked the pill while watching everyone.
Ning Yuzhou, flowerpot, seedling, rabbit… This combination was truly strange.
Sun Hongmao sat collapsed on the ground, his face slightly lowered.
His face was pale, and the aura around him was chaotic. Ning Pingzhou looked him over briefly and discovered that his spiritual apertures had actually been destroyed.
With his spiritual apertures destroyed, his cultivation was gone. He was equivalent to a mortal and would never be able to cultivate again.
Ning Yuzhou’s method was indeed vicious. Sun Hongmao had probably already come to hate Ah Jiu and would surely bite back at her.
“Seventh Brother, what happened earlier was indeed Ah Jiu’s fault. Ah Jiu has come now to apologise to you,” Ning Pingzhou said, secretly pushing his sister.
Ning Yaozhu still felt somewhat unconvinced, but thinking of Wen Qiao, who might already be dead, her confidence weakened. She said quietly, “Seventh Brother, I’m sorry. I didn’t expect Sun Hongmao to do those things at the time.”
Sun Hongmao lifted his deathly pale face and looked at Ning Yaozhu with hatred. He laughed coldly and said in a strange tone, “Ninth Princess, the situation was urgent then. If we didn’t do something, we would have been killed by that demonic beast. I only acted out of desperation. Besides, I did it for you. Haven’t you always hated the Seventh Prince? You thought the Seventh Prince was useless but always occupied the Ning clan’s resources. It was the perfect chance to kill him…”
“Shut up!” Ning Pingzhou shouted sharply, glaring at Sun Hongmao. “This is a matter of our Ning clan. What does it have to do with an outsider like you? Even if there are conflicts between Ning clan disciples, we will resolve them privately ourselves. Why would we need an outsider like you to worry about it?”
Sun Hongmao was silenced by this rebuke.
Without giving him a chance to defend himself, Ning Pingzhou continued, “Ah Jiu is indeed somewhat spoiled, but she remembers the Ning clan’s rules and would never act against a member of the clan without permission. That day, you merely wanted to drag someone down to buy yourselves a chance to escape and curry favour with Ah Jiu. You just didn’t expect Seventh Brother to luckily survive…”
Sun Hongmao’s actions were easy to understand. Ning Pingzhou naturally would not allow such a despicable villain to smear his sister.
Sun Hongmao was filled with resentment and still wanted to argue, but Ning Pingzhou refuted him one point after another until he choked on his breath, coughing violently and glaring at them with hatred.
Why was it that he had tried to kill someone Ning Yaozhu hated, yet in the end, he alone had to bear the consequences?
Since he could no longer cultivate anyway, he might as well drag someone down with him!
Ning Yaozhu was frightened by his gaze and instinctively hid behind Ning Pingzhou.
Ning Pingzhou ignored Sun Hongmao and said to Ning Yuzhou, “Seventh Brother, Ah Jiu trusted a despicable villain by mistake. It is only right for you to punish her. As her elder brother, I have no objections.”
“Fifth Brother…” Ning Yaozhu looked at him in shock. He had clearly been pleading for her earlier, so why had he changed now?
Ning Yuzhou had remained silent the entire time, calmly watching everything unfold.
Only after Ning Pingzhou finished speaking did he smile and say, “That is what I think as well.”
Ning Pingzhou and Ning Yaozhu: “…”
“I had Ning Yaozhu come here not to punish her, but to tell her that this time, Ah Qiao was implicated by her, and I will not forget this matter. However, since she is a Ning clan member, it is not suitable for me to overstep in dealing with her. I will report this matter to the elders of the Law Enforcement Hall and let them handle it according to clan rules.”
Ning Pingzhou’s expression turned somewhat ugly.
He had originally intended to let Ning Yuzhou punish her himself. As long as Ning Yuzhou vented his anger, that would be better than handling it according to clan rules.
Who would have thought that Ning Yuzhou had called them over not to vent anger for himself and Wen Qiao? His manner seemed more like he was watching a show.
Even though Ning Pingzhou had always felt there was no need to argue with a mortal who could not cultivate, a faint anger still rose in his heart. He felt as if he had been toyed with.
Ning Yuzhou ignored him and said to Sun Hongmao, “As for you, you owe Ah Qiao a life. Pay it back.”
Pay it back? How?
While Sun Hongmao was still stunned, the Shadow Scaled Guards covered his mouth and dragged him away. After that, he never appeared again.
Ning Yaozhu seemed frightened. She stood beside her brother, silent as a cicada in winter, not daring to look directly at Ning Yuzhou.
As a cultivator, she had seen plenty of life and death. She had even killed people who dared offend her. But Ning Yuzhou was only a mortal, yet relying on the Shadow Scaled Guards, he could casually kill people. His ruthless nature was difficult to measure, even worse than a cultivator’s.
Would there come a day when Ning Yuzhou found her displeasing and calmly killed her too?
“You may leave,” Ning Yuzhou said calmly, lowering his eyes to look at the white jade pot in his hands, as if unwilling to spare them another glance.
Ning Pingzhou looked at him, then silently pulled his sister away.
After leaving Ning Yuzhou’s tent, Ning Pingzhou took his sister back to their own tent to rest.
As soon as they returned, Ning Pingzhou finally could not hold back and spat out a mouthful of blood, collapsing straight to the ground. Ning Yaozhu screamed in fright.
“Fifth Brother, how are you…” Ning Yaozhu cried.
Ning Pingzhou swallowed a healing pill and rested for a while. Only after the pain surging in his chest eased somewhat did he say, “Ah Jiu, Ning Yuzhou is not easy to deal with. This time, he definitely won’t let you off. You need to prepare yourself.”
At the end, he felt a little unwilling.
He had underestimated Ning Yuzhou before, thinking that a mortal could not stir up any waves. Who would have thought he would safely return from Lin Tai Hunting Valley this time, and his own sister had even provoked him?
Ning Yaozhu felt wronged and was also somewhat afraid of the punishment to come. Her heart was blank, and she gave a dazed sound of agreement.
Ning Pingzhou stroked her head and sighed.
Ning Yaozhu was dazed for a while before saying, “Fifth Brother, I still can’t accept it! Ning Yuzhou is only a useless waste. Why do we always have to give way to him? Is it just because Father Emperor favours him?”
Ning Pingzhou froze, then sighed faintly. “Do you think no one in the Ning clan has objections to Father Emperor favouring Ning Yuzhou like this? But over the years, have you ever seen anyone mention it?”
“Isn’t that just because Father Emperor is authoritarian…”
“Heh. Although Father Emperor is the clan head of the Ning clan, he cannot make every decision for the clan alone. There are still elders above him. Elder Yuan is impartial and upright, and he acts most fairly. But have you seen him say anything? If those elders had not allowed it, do you think Father Emperor would dare favour Ning Yuzhou so much? Would the Ning clan’s resources be available for him to use as he pleased?”
Ning Yaozhu stared blankly at him. At this moment, everything she had stubbornly believed in before seemed to be wrong.
Could it be that they, the Ning clan disciples, truly could not compare to Ning Yuzhou, that useless person?
Seeing her like this, Ning Pingzhou felt somewhat distressed.
His younger sister was innocent and simple. Although she was jealous of Ning Yuzhou, she would not truly do anything harmful. It was merely a little girl’s jealousy and did not matter much. He truly did not want his sister to suffer too many grievances, so in the past, he had indulged and spoiled her. But this time, Sun Hongmao’s cleverness had dragged her into the water and finally brought her into conflict with Ning Yuzhou.
They had been anxious and flustered over it, yet Ning Yuzhou had remained calm and composed. It was obvious who was stronger and who was weaker.
——
Ning Yuzhou had never considered himself a good person. Regardless of whether Ning Yaozhu had meant it or not, he did not intend to let her off.
It was understandable for a little girl to feel some jealousy, but if she was stupid enough to be used by others, then what kind of cultivator was she trying to be? She might as well become a mortal; that would be less troublesome.
After dismissing all the Shadow Scaled Guards, Ning Yuzhou took out spiritual medicinal liquid to feed the little seedling while chatting with her.
There was a soundproofing array inside the tent, so there was no need to worry about others hearing their conversation.
“Ah Qiao, Sun Hongmao caused your physical death and ruined your body. He repaid that with his life. As for the Sun clan, I believe they’ll know what to do.”
Wen Qiao drank the spiritual medicinal liquid while rubbing his leaves against him, telling him she had no objection to his decision. Besides, her husband was venting anger for her. Whether Sun Hongmao lived or died, she did not care at all.
Ning Yuzhou’s eyes curved slightly. In truth, he would have preferred to act personally, but he did not want to give Ah Qiao the impression that he killed people at will. So he handed the person over to the Sun clan. He trusted that with the Sun clan’s intelligence, they would not leave behind such a disaster and invite trouble.
After feeding her the spiritual medicinal liquid, Ning Yuzhou studied the little seedling in the white jade pot and suddenly sighed.
The little seedling moved her leaves, looking at him in confusion.
Ning Yuzhou touched the restless little seedling that kept leaning over to hook his finger and said softly, “I wonder when I’ll be able to raise you a little bigger…”
These days, he had gone through his inheritance and barely managed to dig out some examples of spiritual medicines cultivating into human form.
It was said that if some high-level spiritual medicines received the fortune of heaven and earth, cultivated, and transformed, they could become beings similar to demon spirits. Their flesh, blood, tendons, and bones would all be precious treasures. However, if spiritual medicines wanted to cultivate into human form, they required far more time than demonic beasts, even hundreds of times more time and effort, before obtaining such fortune.
Wen Qiao’s demonic body looked more like some kind of spiritual medicine.
Although she currently looked like a weed, her essence blood could break the seal inside his body and could attract a mutated demonic rabbit to fight over and guard her. She definitely did not have an ordinary demon-spirit bloodline. She was probably some kind of heavenly treasure.
Among demon spirits, the higher the bloodline, the harder it was to transform.
The comforting thing was that Wen Qiao had been born human. Her body had only inherited half of the miraculous bloodline from some unknown ancestor, and after awakening that bloodline power, she transformed into her demonic body. She did not need to spend thousands or millions of years like those natural spiritual medicines before she could transform.
But compared with the cultivation speed of humans, it might still take longer.
Ning Yuzhou sighed again and decided that after returning, he would look through more information and feed her more spiritual medicinal liquid to promote her growth.
Wen Qiao was completely bewildered.
She also did not know when she could transform. It was not her fault that she was underdeveloped, and it was even less her fault that she had failed to inherit the other half of her bloodline’s complete inheritance. Now, she could only slowly feel her way forward.
Fortunately, now that they knew each other’s secrets and she had a husband protecting her, she no longer needed to hide her cultivation so carefully. She had gained a little more confidence about transforming.
Wen Qiao was still rather optimistic.
So she comforted her husband instead. She was fine like this for now and would work hard to cultivate. Her husband did not need to worry.
Ning Yuzhou found the little seedling’s comforting behaviour both amusing and heart-softening. How could this little seedling be so cute?
The more he looked, the cuter she seemed, and he could not help wanting to do something for her.
After thinking for a moment, Ning Yuzhou took out a large piece of spiritual jade from his storage pouch.
“Ah Qiao, how about I make you a flowerpot? This white jade flowerpot is far inferior to one made from spiritual jade. You can also absorb the spiritual energy inside the jade. It will be useful.”
As Ning Yuzhou spoke warmly, he acted immediately and began carving a flowerpot.
Wen Qiao: “…”
Was her husband not treating her too well? Was spiritual jade something one casually used to make a flowerpot? How wasteful!
Just as Ning Yuzhou finished carving the flowerpot, Emperor Chenghao came over to see him after wrapping up other matters.
“Little Seven, what are you doing?”
Seeing Emperor Chenghao, Ning Yuzhou was slightly surprised. He glanced outside and asked, “Father Emperor, have the people from Sacred Martial Hall left?”
Emperor Chenghao froze and looked at him in surprise. “You know they are from Sacred Martial Hall?”
Ning Yuzhou gave a soft hum and told him about encountering Feng Sanniang in Lin Tai Hunting Valley.
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