Chapter 14

As long as someone was a normal person, hearing that sentence in front of Sword Venerable Wen would make them excitedly say that they liked it.

But Shang Que did not like the sword path, and she did not like Wen Qingyin either.

So she stared at the floor, silent, even somewhat at a loss as she fiddled with the tassel on her sword hilt.

Sometimes, not answering was an answer in itself.

Wen Qingyin did not force her. “Then do you know what you like best?”

Shang Que hesitated for a moment, then still murmured, “I don’t know either. I used to be a wandering cultivator, and the cultivation methods I practiced were all over the place. I learned a bit of everything.”

“Everything seems difficult.”

She looked completely incapable of shouldering any heavy responsibility.

Wen Qingyin smiled. “You’re still young.”

A teenager’s age was still childhood among the dragon race.

Wen Qingyin picked up Shang Que’s hand again and felt her bones and foundations.

Unsurprisingly, they were excellent.

“Do you know what spiritual roots you have?” For wandering cultivators who had already cultivated before entering the sect, the sect would not test their spiritual roots.

Shang Que seemed to find it a little hard to say. “Five spiritual roots.”

Wen Qingyin nodded without the slightest surprise.

Dragons were natural-born spell cultivators. All five spiritual roots—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—were extremely complete and evenly developed, equivalent to having five heavenly spiritual roots.

She took out the cultivation manual she had just gone to the library pavilion to find.

“Practice this first. This cultivation method suits you better.”

After delivering the cultivation method, Wen Qingyin did not know what else to say. She truly had no experience initiating conversations with juniors. After establishing her persona as cold on the outside but warm on the inside, the junior sisters in the sect would come find her in groups. They would chatter noisily, and Wen Qingyin never needed to search for topics.

But Wen Qingyin was not in a hurry either.

There was still a long future ahead.

She looked at Shang Que’s simple living environment. Afraid that being too eager would frighten Shang Que, she temporarily set aside the thought of having Shang Que leave with her.

They should cultivate their feelings a little more first.

Wen Qingyin left, but that was not the end of it, because Wen Qingyin’s Dao attendants came next.

Unlike the taciturn Wen Qingyin, her Dao attendants had silver tongues. The Dao attendant in charge was extremely enthusiastic. As soon as she arrived, she began praising Shang Que, praising her as a young hero, the first person since ancient times to actually break Sword Venerable Wen’s sword formation.

Then she said Sword Venerable Wen valued Shang Que greatly. When Sword Venerable Wen came here and saw how simply Shang Que lived, she went back and asked around, only to learn that the person who had broken her sword formation had not received much reward at all. That was why she had sent them to make up for it.

And so Shang Que could only continue pretending to be expectant, even revealing a moved expression, as if saying, How can Senior Sister Wen be such a good person?

Seeing Shang Que like this, the Dao attendant only felt honored by association.

Knowing Shang Que had not refused, the head Dao attendant waved her hand, and the remaining Dao attendants filed in one after another, beginning to remodel her room in an extremely orderly manner.

Wait…

Only then did Shang Que realize what they were trying to do, but by that time, they had already started replacing things.

The broken wooden table provided by the sect? Thrown out, replaced with golden-thread nanmu wood.

The broken wooden bed? Thrown out, replaced with an exquisitely carved canopy bed.

Thrown out, thrown out. All the simple decorations in the room were thrown out.

They even ripped out her door and replaced it with one that was understated and luxurious, but at a glance, was clearly a defensive spiritual artifact.

They even set up a spirit-gathering formation beneath the carpet.

In just a few short minutes, under the operation of those Dao attendants, the room had practically transformed beyond recognition.

From a crude dormitory without the slightest sign of human life, without any decoration, clearly a temporary place to stay, into a princess’s boudoir.

No. It was even more luxurious.

Because everything in the room was a magical artifact.

Even if their grades were relatively low, they were still magical artifacts.

Even when she was still a dragon, even when her body had been at its weakest, her family had never spoiled her this much.

Shang Que was completely stunned.

The Dao attendants smiled and placed Shang Que’s original belongings on the wool carpet by her feet, without rummaging through them in the slightest.

At the same time, they took out several sets of magical robes and held them up against Shang Que. In the end, they left behind the ones that suited her best.

Then they said, “This is compensation from our Sword Venerable. Please accept it with peace of mind.”

After saying this, seeing that the room had been more or less tidied up, they bid Shang Que farewell and left together.

Only Shang Que remained, staring at the room that had changed completely, sinking into silence.

Shang Que: Huh??

What exactly did Wen Qingyin mean?

Why could she suddenly not understand her anymore?

Why had Wen Qingyin suddenly sent her gifts?!

Shang Que did not quite understand Wen Qingyin anymore. She simply pretended to look like someone who had never seen the world before, touching here and looking there. After making a full circle, she also confirmed that there were no magical artifacts inside meant to monitor people.

Good. Her disguise had not been exposed.

Shang Que let out a breath of relief.

Then what did Wen Qingyin mean by this?

Was this to tell her that the rewards she had given were already generous enough, so she should stop coveting the disciple position?

Then these things were far too little.

The famous Sword Venerable Wen’s disciple position was only worth this much?

There was not a single thing here that could be taken out and used properly.

Shang Que sat on the soft bed. The bedding was made of light and soft merfolk gauze. Sitting in it felt like sinking into a light, airy dream.

Too comfortable.

Was Wen Qingyin trying to corrupt her with luxurious living, kill her with praise through rumors, wait until she grew arrogant and self-important, then reveal her true colors so Wen Qingyin could openly refuse to take her as a disciple?

Sinister!!

Shang Que finally understood why her whole body had felt so uncomfortable.

It was purely because Wen Qingyin was too sinister.

And so, when Shang Que looked at these decorations again, the feeling that her personal space had been invaded by Wen Qingyin became even stronger.

Leaving them here would not only fail to improve the quality of her cultivation, but would instead make her overthink things and possibly suffer qi deviation.

Shang Que hesitated for no more than one second before tossing all these things into her storage space. Then she went next door to carry over a bed and set up her own broken little nest.

This was still more reassuring.

What was even more reassuring was that the disciples who had been monitoring her all along had disappeared too. They had probably understood Wen Qingyin’s hint and knew they no longer needed to observe her from now on.

Shang Que let out a long breath and opened the forum with peace of mind.

She had originally wanted to see whether there were any interesting new posts in the forum, but unexpectedly, the comic had actually updated once this morning.

At that time, she had been busy fighting Wen Qingyin and had not dared split her attention at all. She had not even heard the notification that the comic had updated.

Shang Que thought for a moment, then clicked into the comic first. The comic page was still at the end of the second chapter.

It was the scene of her divining, and that ambiguous sentence she had spoken.

She really looked like a villain.

Shang Que could not resist scrolling upward, only to discover that a small circle had appeared beside the comic panels.

Inside the circle was a number: 37.

What was this?

She clicked the circle beside the image of her hand casting the divination, and lines of text began appearing.

Were these actually bullet comments?

So comic apps had bullet comments too.

She had always thought only video apps had things like bullet comments.

She read those lines of text clearly.

【Such beautiful hands】

【I prprpr】

【How annoying. Why did they draw my seat?】

Shang Que: !!

Her face turned red without her meaning to. She was deeply shocked.

Was this, this, this right?

Weren’t they a no-CP comic from the female lead’s perspective?

Wasn’t she a female villain? How could there be bullet comments like this?

The people reading this kind of comic should all be young girls, right?

This wasn’t a yuri comic, was it?

Shang Que found it strange.

Shang Que hurriedly shifted her thoughts and her gaze away.

Shang Que clicked open the next chapter.

The third chapter switched back to Su Tanghua’s perspective. She helped the Devouring Xuan Mother Crystal dig a hole, first digging out a dragon bone, then using the dragon bone as a tool to continue digging downward.

Perhaps because the digging scene was too monotonous, in the next panel, Shang Que’s figure appeared.

It was beneath lush, dense tree shadows. With branches and leaves blocking out the sky, only a few spots of light remained. Amid an extremely dark color palette, her back appeared as she moved through the forest, straight as pine and cypress. The flecks of light fell across her hair, like deep-blue stars.

The scene continued shifting. Jingchuan was dug out. The Devouring Xuan Mother Crystal could not wait to rush inside it, while Su Tanghua held Jingchuan, at a loss for what to do.

Shang Que, whose face still had not been shown, looked left and right, seeming to search for the path ahead.

Su Tanghua suddenly began suffering intense pain. She fell to the ground. After a series of panels depicted her agony, she began swallowing pills, enduring as she fought to leave the forest.

Everything was just as Su Tanghua had described. Even the wound on her arm had been cut by herself in order to maintain her reason.

But she had not noticed that her blood wound along her arm, flowed over Jingchuan, and not a single drop fell to the ground.

Jingchuan had started randomly eating things again.

Shang Que sighed. She kept scrolling down and found that Su Tanghua had fallen into the river.

And Shang Que appeared in the panels again.

It seemed she could not find the way.

She once again took three copper coins from her waist.

Only, this time, the author gave her waist a close-up.

At the time, she had still been wearing simple, crisp dark-blue clothes. A plain belt outlined her slender waist. Her upper body did not particularly show off her figure, only giving the impression of broad shoulders and a narrow waist.

Because of the contrast with the clothing, the hand holding the coins also looked even more long-fingered and fair.

There were still many bullet comments beside it.

46 of them.

【A close-up with clear meaning】

【Good waist, good waist, what a good waist, young lady】

【Her hands are pretty too [drooling]】

She should not have looked.

But this could also be considered a good thing.

At least it proved that her looks were still very competitive.

The coins were tossed up. The coins fell into her hand.

The author was probably trying to maintain her villainous aura. In the comic, she was actually very sparing with her words, but it still fully conveyed what she had been thinking at the time.

Then came a close-up of her lips, with the speech bubble right beside them.

She said, “The river.”

The bullet comments here contained a little more information.

【Is this the villain?】

【Is the “she” this villain is talking about the female lead?】

【What connection does she have with the female lead?】

【Could she be looking for that stone?】

Good. The comments were increasing. It seemed the comic’s readers were increasing too.

Comic author, you deserve it.

Because your art really is beautiful.

The heart Shang Que had been holding up finally settled halfway down.

Immediately afterward, she quickly passed through the forest and walked along the riverbank. Then Su Tanghua appeared, drifting by the river.

The bullet comments here were practically fighting each other.

Half were saying “Protect the queen,” “Someone hurry and protect the queen, the villain is attacking!!” The other half were saying, “Save the queen!!”

Fortunately, she had not done anything bad. The comic also truthfully showed the scene of her rescuing Su Tanghua.

This time, her eyes were finally revealed.

Deep-blue eyes.

After she saved Su Tanghua, she did not immediately confirm Su Tanghua’s identity. Instead, she stared for a long time at the sword in Su Tanghua’s hand.