lady cultivator
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The burly, bearded man hugged his comrade and burst into tears.
As Mo Tiange looked at the tall, burly man bawling his eyes out, the bafflement in her heart became even stronger. What was the relationship between those two in the end? The two people’s personalities were obviously poles apart, but the feelings between them seemed excellent. Furthermore, they also mentioned those commandments…
That man wept for a while, but when he saw Mo Tiange, he dejectedly wiped his face. “Senior, just kill me if you want to. It was us who offended you first. It was our fault for not following the commandments and failing to recognize that we could land in this situation.”
Mo Tiange frowned. She stared at him without saying anything.
After a while, that man finally noticed that she seemed to have no intention to attack him. He looked up and stared at her. His gaze was filled with bewilderment. “Senior…”
“Are you a Buddhism cultivator?” Mo Tiange suddenly asked.
The man hesitated. He was silent for a moment before he eventually nodded. “Yes, Junior’s a Buddhism cultivator…”
Sure enough. In Yunzhong, Buddhism cultivators and Dao cultivators weren’t the same. They had stricter commandments. However, she was quite baffled. Their actions made sense if it was that wretched-looking man, but this burly man—he was obviously still holding onto those commandments in his heart, so why was he robbing passerby with that wretched-looking man?
“Since you’re a Buddhism cultivator, why did you pretend to be a Dao cultivator and rob people here? Am I the first person you robbed?”
Upon hearing her question, the man sank into silence. Quite a while later, he smiled bitterly and said, “Senior, that matter’s my secret, something I’ve decided I’ll never tell. You’re indeed the first person we robbed. We hired a child to sell maps at the Transporting Formation site. If we settled on someone, we’d tell that child to sell the sabotaged map to that person. Who knew—it was our first time, yet we already misjudged. It really was an evil we brought upon ourselves.”
After saying that, he suddenly heaved a sigh. “Senior, just kill me if you want. I have nothing to say.”
But although he closed his eyes and waited for a long time, what came from her was only another question. “Which way leads to Ling Clan?”
That man opened his eyes, staring blankly at Mo Tiange. “You… aren’t going to kill me?”
Mo Tiange stared at him calmly and once again repeated her question: “Which way leads to Ling Clan?”
“That way…” He blankly pointed at the path on his right.
With a nod, Mo Tiange turned around and walked away.
“Senior?!” the man yelled from behind her.
She stopped. Her gaze was cold. “What? Do you want me to kill you?”
The man hastily shook his head. “That Inescapable Net…”
Mo Tiange couldn’t help but smile. “Don’t tell me you still want it back?”
“…” The man was silent. He realized he was thinking wishfully. They robbed a Core Formation cultivator. It was already good that the other party didn’t kill him; how could she possibly return the magic weapon to him?
Nevertheless, it was still fine if he lost his life—he didn’t need to think about anything anymore. Now, however, his junior martial brother died and he lost the Inescapable Net, but he retained his life… how was he worthy of his master?
This wouldn’t do! He mustn’t become decadent just like this. At least he had to go back, back to Mount Baifu! As he stared at the back of Mo Tiange’s retreating silhouette, the man’s gaze gradually became fervent.
Now that she’d returned to the correct path, Mo Tiange took out the golden net from inside her sleeve and carefully examined it. This net was made of unknown golden threads and was exquisitely created and practically weightless. The spiritual power attached to it was very odd, greatly different from Dao cultivators’ spiritual aura. Could it be that this was Dharma power?
She thought about the matter for a moment but eventually shook her head, threw the golden net into her Qiankun Bag, and proceeded with her trip.
In fact, if she really wanted to know the inside story, she was completely capable of using the Soul-Searching Technique on him. However, this wasn’t anything important, so it wasn’t worthwhile to do so. Currently, this was only a trivial matter for her. She loathed that wretched-looking man, so she just needed to kill him. She didn’t want to kill the burly, bearded man, so she didn’t. She didn’t have to think about the consequences. If one had strength, many problems weren’t problems anymore.
She continued to walk on the right path and before long, a courtyard made of white stones emerged in her line of sight. The gate of the courtyard was guarded by several low-level Aura Refining cultivators. If cultivators came to visit, they could talk to them.
As Mo Tiange approached, someone quickly came to greet her. “Senior, are you coming to rent a cave?”
Mo Tiange nodded. “Yes.”
That person said, “Please follow me.”
She followed that Aura Refining cultivator into the courtyard then into a room. This room seemed to be only a common study room, about the same as the steward’s hall at Xuanqing School. There was a huge table placed on the side. A Foundation Building cultivator was laying his head on the table, completely unmoving. Moreover, his hand was still holding a wine bottle. The whole room reeked of alcohol.
Upon seeing her frowning, the Aura Refining cultivator who led Mo Tiange into the room hastily opened the windows and gave several pushes to the Foundation Building cultivator who seemed to have passed out drunk. “Second Uncle, Second Uncle!”
Quite a while later, that cultivator finally stirred, saying with dissatisfaction without even lifting his head: “What?!”
The Aura Refining cultivator smiled. “Second Uncle, there’s a Foundation Building senior coming to rent a cave.”
“Oh.” After some time, that cultivator finally reacted. He rubbed his eyes then did some stretching. His gaze finally fell on Mo Tiange.
When he saw that Mo Tiange was a young woman, he slightly curbed his wild manner and said, “Fellow Daoist, did you come to rent a cave?”
“En.” Mo Tiange answered calmly. This Ling family’s cultivator seemed very young. He looked only about thirty years old and had a short beard and ruddy complexion. Unfortunately, he was too slovenly and thus looked very unkempt.
He looked at her then pointed at the chair across him. “Please sit.”
Mo Tiange looked at the pitch-black huffs of his dark blue Daoist robe then looked at that chair. After hesitating for a moment, she cautiously took a seat.
The cultivator probably felt embarrassed upon seeing her expression. His face reddened and he started rolling up his sleeves.
“May I know what kind of Immortal’s Cave Fellow Daoist wants to rent?”
Mo Tiange said, “I’m not familiar with Sky Snow City; I don’t know what the differences are between the caves you’re renting. I hope Fellow Daoist can explain to me.”
“Oh, I see!” The cultivator nodded. He took a scroll from the table, spread it open and put it on display.
This scroll was enormous. It almost covered the whole table. There was a mountain shape drawn on it—obviously, it was a map of this white stone mountain. There were many circles drawn on the mountain—some were big, some were small. The colors also varied between white, blue, green and purple. Some of those circles were crossed while some weren’t.
The Ling family’s cultivator said, “Our Ling Clan’s caves are divided into four kinds according to the spiritual aura. The purple ones have the densest spiritual aura, the green ones are just passable, the blue ones are slightly lacking, while the white ones have only a trace amount of spiritual aura. The size of the circles shows the size of the cave. Small caves only have three stone rooms each. Medium-sized caves have everything you might need: cultivation room, spiritual beasts’ room, pill-concocting room, medicinal garden… Whatever you need, you’ll find it there. The large caves not only have all that, but they also have cultivation rooms for one’s disciples or juniors. As for the price… the larger the cave is, the more expensive the price, naturally.”
At this point, that cultivator lifted his gaze and once again looked at Mo Tiange. “Fellow Daoist, are you by yourself?”
“Yes.”
“If Fellow Daoist’s alone, Fellow Daoist doesn’t need one that’s too big. Just choose the small or the medium ones.”
Mo Tiange nodded as a sign of approval. “Then how’s the price according to the spiritual aura difference?”
Instead of answering, the cultivator asked, “Fellow Daoist, are you going to stay for a long time, or is it just a temporary break?”
Mo Tiange took a moment to ponder her answer. “Maybe I’ll stay for a couple of months, but maybe I’ll stay for one or two years.”
“Then it’s neither long nor short,” the cultivator muttered. He then said, “Fellow Daoist, our rent is divided into daily rent and yearly rent. Daily rent is three times more expensive than yearly rent. If you want to stay for longer than four months, just take the yearly rent. If you’re not, just take the daily rent.”
“En…” Mo Tiange contemplated for a moment. “Then I’ll take the yearly rent.”
The cultivator nodded. “If we’re to calculate the price according to medium-sized caves for one year, the purple ones are four hundred spirit stones a year, the green ones are two hundred and eighty, the blue ones are a hundred and five, while the white ones are only thirty.” He gave Mo Tiange a quick once-over and said, “Fellow Daoist is a Foundation Building cultivator. Your cultivation level is quite high. Let’s not mention the purple aura caves; I think the green or the blue aura caves must be affordable for you.”
Mo Tiange said, “One year for either two hundred and eighty or a hundred and five—these can’t be considered cheap, right?” Ordinary Aura Refining cultivators couldn’t even afford the white aura caves which cost thirty spirit stones for a year. Back when she was in Yunwu Sect, she only got five spirit stones a month.
The Ling family’s cultivator laughed then said, “Fellow Daoist mustn’t look down on our Lin Clan’s Immortal’s Caves. Even the white aura caves are much better than other places in Sky Snow City. Coupled with the function of white spirit stones, these kinds of Immortal’s Caves aren’t easy to find even in other cities.”
This wasn’t a false statement. Take the North Pole Island for example; the small courtyard in that inn cost one spirit stone a day, so that’d still be more than three hundred spirit stones a year, and the spiritual aura there was just average. Along the way, Mo Tiange felt that although the spirit veins there were just so-so, if they were paired with white spirit stones, they could also be considered better than average.
“Alright,” Mo Tiange said, “I want a blue immortal’s cave. The small one will suffice. How many spirit stones will that be?”
Ling family’s cultivator seemed to be rather surprised and quickly cast a look at her. Nevertheless, he made no comment and just said, “Eighty a year.”
This was a price that ordinary Foundation Building cultivators could afford. Mo Tiange nodded, taking out a spirit stones pouch from inside her Qiankun Bag and pouring the contents onto the table. “This is the rent for one year.”
Ling family’s cultivator gave them a brief, rough look then flung his sleeve. In an instant, only several spirit stones were left on the table.
Mo Tiange lowered her gaze to look at the table. She was a bit surprised; she didn’t count the spirit stones and just grabbed a rough amount. However, this cultivator only gave a quick glance, and he was already able to count them?
After putting the spirit stones away, that Ling family’s cultivator said, “Okay, Fellow Daoist, you may choose where you want to live yourself. The ones which aren’t crossed are currently empty. You may choose as you wish.”
Mo Tiange took the spirit stones left on the table then looked down at the map. In the end, she chose a small blue circle in the corner. “This will do.”
Ling family’s cultivator nodded then pointed at the small blue circle, which emitted a blue light followed by a new line crossing the circle. Immediately after, he took out a jade tablet from inside his Qiankun Bag, cast a spell on it, and handed it over. “This is the token for the cave. Fellow Daoist should store it properly.”
Mo Tiange took it. “Thank you.”
Ling family’s cultivator waved while shouting loudly: “Xiaoshun, come here!”
The low-level cultivator who led Mo Tiange into the room earlier ran over hurriedly. “Second Uncle.”
That cultivator pointed at Mo Tiange. “Take her to Xuan No. 23 Cave.”
“Yes.” The low-level cultivator turned towards Mo Tiange. “Senior, this way please.”
As Mo Tiange walked out of the house, she saw the Ling family’s cultivator once again holding his wine bottle. She couldn’t help but shake her head. Of the cultivators in this world, there were also some who were so fond of drinking like this.
Once she had walked far away, that Ling family’s cultivator rubbed his nose while still holding his wine bottle, muttering to himself, “She has so many treasures in her possession, yet she’s actually only staying in a blue aura cave, and a small one at that. Really stingy…”