Chapter 56
The Pearl Harvesting Office was not hard to find. It was wherever the thick smoke had still not dispersed. Most of the people from Liuzhu City’s City Lord’s Manor had gone to chase the people causing destruction, so for the moment, the situation at the Pearl Harvesting Office had not been properly handled.
When Xu Yizhuo and Yuanwu arrived, they just happened to see several cultivators being escorted back in chains.
They were the cultivators who had entered together with them.
Xu Yizhuo: “…”
Robbing the Pearl Harvesting Office really was too risky after all. Liuzhu City’s strength could not be underestimated. But Xu Yizhuo also heard the guards escorting the cultivators report to their superior that several cultivators had not been caught and were currently hiding somewhere unknown.
The guard leader’s brows furrowed, and he ordered that they be wanted throughout the city.
Xu Yizhuo blended in among the Liuzhu City residents watching the excitement and waited for quite a while, but she did not manage to get any valuable information. Naturally, there was no chance to take advantage of the chaos either. The fire at the Pearl Harvesting Office had already been controlled at the start of the explosion. After most of the culprits were caught, the cultivators belonging to Liuzhu City’s City Lord’s Manor soon used spells to restore the Pearl Harvesting Office to its original state.
At the Pearl Harvesting Office, Xu Yizhuo and Yuanwu split up. Xu Yizhuo was no longer in a hurry to search for jiaoren pearls. After writing the words “goddess” on her jade plaque, she planned to wander around Liuzhu City and see if she could trigger some hidden plot. As for Yuanwu, collecting jiaoren pearls was still an extremely urgent matter.
The rules Jun Yu had set were actually rather unfavorable to Yuanwu.
As the person with the highest cultivation among this batch of cultivators who had entered the Realm of Reincarnation, very few people would be so unable to think straight as to challenge Yuanwu. And if Yuanwu went to challenge others, cultivators who still had chances to refuse challenges would probably use them without hesitation.
What especially troubled Yuanwu was that the fact she came from Shiwai Tower had already spread among the cultivators.
This matter had to be blamed on Su Ling. After they came out of the Burning Mountain Secret Realm, Su Ling had dragged Yuanwu off to find a medical cultivator in front of everyone. No one had seen Yuanwu’s face before, but many people in Yunwu City had an impression of Su Ling, the sword attendant who followed by Jun Yu’s side.
Cultivators like Xu Yizhuo, who had come alone to participate in the secret realm, were in the minority. Most cultivators were accompanied by relatives or friends, and those relatives and friends waiting outside the secret realm would not overlook Su Ling. Through their words, Yuanwu’s relationship with Shiwai Tower entered the ears of the cultivators participating in the trial, then spread among them. The number of people wary of Yuanwu would only grow larger and larger.
If Yuanwu’s cultivation were the only eye-catching thing about her, then perhaps cultivators with similar cultivation might still challenge her. But if Yuanwu also came from Shiwai Tower, the others would avoid her like the plague.
Xu Yizhuo had no such trouble at all.
In fact, although she had originally planned to wander around, not long after separating from Yuanwu, she encountered someone who came to challenge her. In name, it was a challenge, but the stance of the cultivator opposite her really looked like he had come to rob her.
Xu Yizhuo lacked experience and could not accurately judge cultivators’ cultivation levels from the fluctuations of spiritual energy on their bodies. She could only sense that this cultivator’s cultivation was somewhere in the middle among their batch of people.
This level of cultivation was not particularly high and could not defeat many people, but in front of a “bottom-tier” cultivator like Xu Yizhuo, it was quite presentable.
The other party looked as if victory was already in his grasp, and Xu Yizhuo suddenly realized that this person seemed to have come prepared.
That made sense. In his eyes, since she had been walking together with Yuanwu, she had probably obtained quite a few jiaoren pearls by relying on Yuanwu. Now that she and Yuanwu had separated, wasn’t this the perfect chance to make a move?
Xu Yizhuo had guessed correctly. That cultivator was indeed thinking exactly this.
Originally, he had not held any hope of obtaining a token for Knocking on the Immortal Gate. He had only planned to gather some treasures in the Burning Mountain Secret Realm. Who could have imagined that something would go wrong in the Burning Mountain Secret Realm midway? And after carefully thinking over the rules inside the Realm of Reincarnation, that cultivator had excitedly realized that even an ordinary level of cultivation like his had a chance to win!
As long as he carefully avoided cultivators with higher cultivation than him and only targeted those with lower cultivation.
He had noticed Xu Yizhuo early on, this soft persimmon who was the easiest to squeeze inside the Realm of Reincarnation.
When he saw Xu Yizhuo yesterday, he could not understand how a Qi Refining cultivator had the courage to enter the Realm of Reincarnation. However, after seeing Yuanwu beside Xu Yizhuo, he suddenly understood. So she had found herself a backer!
As a rogue cultivator, this cultivator looked down on Xu Yizhuo’s behavior of clinging to the thigh of a major sect disciple.
When Xu Yizhuo and Yuanwu split up, he could not help mocking Xu Yizhuo’s stupidity in his heart. If she was going to cling to someone’s thigh, she should have clung to it to the end. With Xu Yizhuo’s cultivation, once she left Yuanwu, anyone could pinch her in their hands.
Although her cultivation was a little higher than when she first entered, a cultivator who had only just broken through to Foundation Establishment and whose foundation was unstable was still nothing much in front of him.
Thinking this, the cultivator could not help speaking with a trace of arrogance. “Little girl, you should just admit defeat on your own. I don’t want to hurt you either.”
Xu Yizhuo looked around.
“You aren’t thinking of looking for someone to save you, are you?” The cultivator sneered. “Your backer has long since gone far away. It’s already too late to call for help now.”
“I’m just checking whether there are many people nearby,” Xu Yizhuo said slowly. “I’m afraid of being arrested for fighting in public.”
Fortunately, the place she had walked to was fairly secluded. At least right now, there was not a single person around.
After hearing Xu Yizhuo’s words, the cultivator looked bewildered. He saw that at some unknown point, a mirror had appeared in Xu Yizhuo’s hand. The person holding the bronze mirror raised her head to look at him, and Xu Yizhuo’s gaze only made the cultivator’s doubts deepen.
Her gaze was too normal. It was precisely because it was normal that such a gaze appearing on her seemed strange.
There was no fear, no wariness, and no collapse from being forced to face a higher-level cultivator.
Xu Yizhuo looked at him as if she were looking at an opponent she was confident she could defeat, yet still had to treat seriously.
Right.
The cultivator suddenly remembered that Xu Yizhuo had previously been inseparable from Yuanwu. Her three chances to refuse challenges should not have been used yet, right?
But Xu Yizhuo seemed as if she did not know she could refuse. From beginning to end, she had not mentioned this matter.
In that flash of lightning, the cultivator already realized something was wrong. But the bronze mirror had risen into the air, and the cultivator did not notice that the shadow beneath his feet had already turned into the shape of a mirror.
The image in the water mirror suddenly switched.
Cheng Xuanduan asked in confusion, “Tower Master Jun, are you not going to continue watching?”
He had still wanted to see how that little girl called Xu Yizhuo would deal with the cultivator whose cultivation was higher than hers. Rationally, Cheng Xuanduan felt that Xu Yizhuo had no chance of winning, but Xu Yizhuo’s calm demeanor made him feel that this girl had something to rely on.
Before Cheng Xuanduan could see Xu Yizhuo make a move, Jun Yu cut off the water mirror.
This time, fifteen water mirrors had been arranged, controlled by different people. Most of the controllers were cultivators from Xuanyu Immortal Sect, but Tower Master Jun seemed to be in rather good spirits and personally controlled one herself, even following Xu Yizhuo with it.
Tower Master Jun seemed to value this little cultivator greatly, but Cheng Xuanduan thought for a long time and still could not match Xu Yizhuo’s face to any of those favored children of heaven.
Could Xu Yizhuo really just be an ordinary person?
Cheng Xuanduan did not quite believe it. With Jun Yu’s status, the people she knew should also be people of extraordinary identity.
Regarding Cheng Xuanduan’s doubt, Jun Yu had a smile at the corners of her lips and gave no answer. After the image in the water mirror shook a few times, it gradually stabilized.
Yuanwu’s figure appeared in the mirror, looking around in all directions.
Cheng Xuanduan suddenly understood. What Jun Yu had been watching all along was probably not Xu Yizhuo, but Yuanwu, who had been with Xu Yizhuo earlier. See, the moment they separated, Jun Yu shifted the image to Yuanwu.
In reality, however, Jun Yu only knew that Xu Yizhuo carried many secrets. Before knowing Xu Yizhuo’s intentions, she chose to protect her secrets in front of others.
Xu Yizhuo crouched on the ground and looked at the cultivator she had beaten down. The cultivator, whose attitude had been quite arrogant earlier, was now lying limply on the ground, lifeless, as if his worldview had just been crushed and he could not piece it back together at all.
Without even having a chance to admit defeat, the cultivator lost the ability to move. Some jiaoren pearls automatically dropped beside him, just like coins dropping after a small monster was defeated.
Xu Yizhuo carefully reached out to check his breathing. After confirming he was not dead, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Even though this cultivator’s strength was far, far weaker than hers, Xu Yizhuo had still devoted her full attention when fighting him, not daring to be careless in the slightest.
She was afraid that if she got distracted, she would beat him to death.
After Xu Yizhuo put away the jiaoren pearls, she took out her jade plaque to look at it. The jade plaque had been recording her number of jiaoren pearls all along, and now that number had increased a little.
Unfortunately, that cultivator really was very poor.
After he was defeated, half his jiaoren pearls automatically dropped, and there were only thirty. They had only been in the Realm of Reincarnation for a day and a half, so collecting sixty jiaoren pearls seemed pretty good, but compared to the one thousand pearls Xu Yizhuo possessed, this number looked pitiful.
Better than nothing.
Xu Yizhuo stopped paying attention to that cultivator. In any case, he would not die. She felt she seemed to have found an easy path to wealth: just pretend to be an easy mark and wander around in front of other cultivators.
She did not even need to pretend. With her cultivation level displayed right there, there would always be cultivators unable to resist the temptation of bullying a soft persimmon.
And at this moment, the soft persimmon was sighing inwardly. So Foundation Establishment cultivators were actually that weak.
Since transmigrating, she had not really fought others, so she had never had an accurate concept of other cultivators’ strength. Jun Yu and Di Xiang must have hidden their cultivation, making it hard for Xu Yizhuo to even imagine the difference between Great Ascension cultivators and Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Xu Yizhuo still did not know exactly how strong Jun Yu was. In the Burning Mountain Secret Realm, Jun Yu’s sword qi had split the maple forest in two, but Xu Yizhuo was also someone who could instantly destroy the Lotus City ruins. Xu Yizhuo would not think that just because her numerical stats were higher than Jun Yu’s, she was truly stronger than Jun Yu. In the Burning Mountain Secret Realm, Jun Yu definitely had not used her full strength. It was even hard to say whether she had exerted any effort at all.
Xu Yizhuo did not know how strong the top combat forces in the cultivation world were, but now she understood how strong Foundation Establishment cultivators were.
They were at the level where she had to be careful not to accidentally kill them by failing to hold back.
Xu Yizhuo pulled up her own panel and admired those stats that had all been pulled to the limit for a while, sighing that so this was what it meant to win with normal attacks.
She stroked the smooth scales of the Rongqing Python in her sleeve. Previously, whenever she faced enemies, she had always attacked seriously. Thinking about it now, it had been too flashy and not plain at all.
“At the time, I could actually have just smacked them with the mirror directly, right?” Xu Yizhuo said thoughtfully.
The Rongqing Python trembled and silently coiled a little tighter around her arm.
Author’s Note:
Mirror: I don’t think that’s very okay.
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