"However, you don't need to be too nervous. After all, you don't have much interaction with her on a daily basis, nor do you have any deep grudges. Just keep practicing as usual."
"With your talent, even without the chance of obtaining some rare good fortune, you may not necessarily lose to her in the future."
"..."
Jiang Ning'er remained silent, nodding slightly.
...
Morning.
Lin Yuhe waited quietly outside Shen Mu's room early in the morning.
It was not until the sound of the door opening, "click", and Shen Mu stepped out that she stepped forward and asked, "Senior brother, where are you going next?"
Looking at her curious face, Shen Mu let out a soft sigh and said as he walked, "Don't blame me for not warning you. The places I'm going to next are quite dangerous.
For cultivators at our level, it's the kind of place where a single misstep could cost us our lives.
If you still insist on following me, I won't be able to save you if something unexpected happens."
He was giving her a heads-up in advance, hoping that she would back down and not take such risks with him.
After all, in some areas of those places, one has to push their physical limits to barely get through. Not a single mistake can be made!
"I know all this..."
Lin Yuhe caught up with Shen Mu and walked beside him. "Don't worry. I won't easily let you take responsibility for my life now."
As the talented young miss of the Lin family who is highly regarded, once she leaves the sect, there are others secretly protecting her.
So, there's no need to worry too much about her safety.
"Do as you like..."
Shen Mu didn't want to waste any more words on her.
Teaching someone with a hundred words is useless; experiencing something once is what really makes them understand.
Anyway, he had said what he needed to say and done what he needed to do. If something unexpected happened to her later, it wouldn't be his fault.
...
Huangtian City.
The Lin family.
A middle-aged man in a purple-gold spiritual robe was flipping through a military strategy book, listening to his subordinate's report.
"Master of the family, the young miss and that Qi-refining realm man named Shen Mu have taken the teleportation formation to Shenyan City today."
"En."
The middle-aged man's eyes remained calm as he replied softly, as if he was already used to such things.
"What's the attitude of the Luo family?"
"Master of the family, the head of the Luo family is still taking a wait-and-see attitude and doesn't want to get involved in this court dispute."
"Wait-and-see... don't want to get involved..."
The middle-aged man clenched his fingertips, and with a "snap", he closed the book and let out a breath.
"... You can go now."
"Yes."
After saying that, the subordinate reporting in front of him slowly disappeared into the void.
"Sigh..." The man let out a helpless sigh and casually threw the book on the desk.
"They're all a bunch of old foxes who only know how to curry favor with the winning side... None of them want to get involved in the court affairs.
Could it be that... in the end, we really have to resort to using that weapon?"
The man let out another deep sigh, and a complex glimmer flashed in his eyes.
...
"Senior brother, if I'm not mistaken, this Fire Infant Fruit often appears in the auctions of some large cities, right?"
"Yes, this kind of spiritual fruit has a relatively high chance of appearing in auctions. But have you ever considered the price?"
In a city where the sun was shining brightly and was only a thousand miles away from the Gobi Desert, Shen Mu and Lin Yuhe walked side by side. He was quite speechless about the question she asked.
If he had the financial resources to bid for natural treasures that started at a hundred thousand spirit stones, would he still need to take risks everywhere?
"Price?"
Lin Yuhe frowned and thought carefully, "For Fire Infant Fruits above grade four..."
"The starting price is at least 120,000 high-grade spirit stones, with no upper limit." Seeing her still unable to remember the details, Shen Mu said indifferently.
After learning this starting price, Lin Yuhe twitched the corner of her mouth slightly. "This... it's so expensive?"
120,000 high-grade spirit stones were almost equivalent to half of the Lin family's spirit stone consumption in half a year.
"For cultivators with fire spiritual roots, eating a grade-one Fire Infant Fruit during the breakthrough can increase the success rate of condensing a perfect Nascent Soul by 50%."
"Do you think something with such an amazing effect will be cheap?"
"..."
Lin Yuhe was momentarily speechless.
Such natural treasures related to the Nascent Soul realm breakthrough were indeed resources that all major families and sects were vying for.
After all, even in some mid-level forces, except for those with special skills such as alchemy, weapon refining, and formation arrangement, only those who reach the Nascent Soul realm have a certain say.
"I've clearly said that the dishes I ordered must be extremely spicy. Are you even listening, you shopkeeper!"
"Bang!"
Accompanied by a shrill angry shout, a pot-bellied middle-aged man in brocade clothes suddenly crashed through the wall of a restaurant and flew out from the upper floor of the restaurant!
He landed heavily five steps away from the two of them!
Then, a figure of a young girl in a bright red dress followed from the upper floor and plopped down on the man's belly!
This made the man let out a painful scream, "Wow!" as if his Golden Core was about to shatter.
"Esteemed guest... that's already... the spiciest spirit pepper in our store..."
"Any spicier and even ordinary cultivators would explode and die..."
The man spoke intermittently, his face as pale as a sheet.
"Hmph! I'm not an ordinary cultivator."
At this time, the onlookers gathered around, eager to see what was going on.
However, the young girl with a single black ponytail glared with her golden eyes and directly scolded the onlookers, "What are you looking at! If you keep looking, I'll gouge out your eyes!"
Hearing this, the onlookers looked at each other and whispered among themselves.
"This little girl doesn't look very old, but she has quite a temper."
"I estimate her cultivation level to be around the Golden Core stage. How can she be so arrogant?"
"Ah... let's go. Anyway, it has nothing to do with us."
"Yeah, that's right. She's so flat-chested, has no figure, and has a bad temper. She probably won't be able to find a Taoist partner in the future."
"Exactly..."
"..."
The onlookers talked a lot, and most of them left with various expressions.
Some of them, when leaving, cast a hint of disdainful glances at the young girl's flat figure.
"(▼ヘ▼#)"
The young girl had extremely sharp hearing. Hearing the fading comments about her figure, she gritted her silver teeth, her face turned gloomy, and a substantial red pressure began to spread around her.
"If you keep talking nonsense... I'll cut out your tongues!" The young girl almost growled out this angry voice.
The pressure she emitted made the onlookers' hearts tremble, and they felt a natural sense of fear towards a superior. The comments about her gradually died down.
"Let's go. Don't look anymore."
Shen Mu nudged Lin Yuhe's arm with his elbow, reminding her with a gossipy soul. Then he walked around the sparse crowd...
"Stop!"
At this time, the young girl spoke again, making everyone look confused.
Shen Mu was also briefly puzzled. But thinking that the person the young girl called out might not be him, he didn't pay too much attention.
"The guy in black. If you take one more step, I'll make you feel what it's like to be off the ground."
At this moment, Shen Mu stopped in his tracks, his eyes blinking quickly. He slowly turned his head to face the gazes that were all looking at him...
"..."
Come on, man...
I'm just a passerby...
I haven't said anything derogatory...
How did I end up being targeted?