Capítulo 037 — Remendo

Qin Qixian, a poor girl judged to have no future in Maple Forest Valley, felt her eyelashes tremble as she slowly opened her eyes.

Sunlight filtered through the window, casting a patch of brightness on the floor where a human silhouette was embedded. She turned her head and saw Dong Chiyan sitting by the window, toying with a maple leaf.

Does this guy even have a physical form? If he did, she couldn't touch him, and others couldn't see him. Yet, if he didn't, he wouldn't have a shadow. It was truly... quite unscientific. But then again, why bother with science in a fantasy world?

Her head still ached. Qin Qixian remembered overexerting her divine sense. She intended to check her consciousness sea, but upon trying, she discovered she couldn't enter it—it was as if her consciousness sea had ceased to exist.

"Where is my consciousness sea?" she asked Dong Chiyan, bewildered. "What happened to it? Can you still get in?"

Dong Chiyan turned his head and shot her a glance. "Useless. There was only a single demon servant below; had it harmed you, it would have suffered a backlash. And yet, you still managed to reduce yourself to this state." Because the creature below was merely a demon servant incapable of truly harming her, he had felt safe enough to absorb the demon crystal of the newborn monster. A freshly born Heavenly-tier Thousand-Illusion Demon—it had indeed tasted delicious.

In the cultivation world, to find someone raising demons, and for a Heavenly Demon to mutate among the brood—his luck was truly extraordinary. Who could have guessed that in the brief moment he looked away, Qin Qixian would have nearly wrecked her own consciousness sea, leaving him with nowhere to stay? He had spent several days laboriously patching things up, losing more than half of the soul power he had absorbed.

At the thought of this, Dong Chiyan frowned, his expression one of annoyance.

"If my consciousness sea had collapsed, you would surely have been in trouble. But you're perfectly fine..." Qin Qixian muttered to herself. She paused. "Could it be that my consciousness sea has leveled up—broken and then rebuilt?" With this thought, she called out to the system in her mind. Seeing the system panel appear before her eyes, she let out a long sigh of relief. "Fortune follows after surviving a great disaster." She had absorbed the demon vine and her cultivation had advanced to the second level of Foundation Establishment; now, with her divine sense strengthened, it was a double harvest.

Habitually swiping through the system panel, Qin Qixian noticed a new entry at the bottom: "Profound Qi Observation Technique." Behind it was a line of tiny text: *Limited-time discount, only one mid-grade spirit stone.*

Oh, so they knew they couldn't squeeze her anymore and were resorting to a clearance sale? Qin Qixian grumbled while rummaging through her storage bag. Since her divine sense was unusable, she had to channel spiritual energy into the bag and check it with her eyes. When she peered inside, she was stunned—not a single spirit stone remained, and even her spirit beads had vanished without a trace.

"Did you eat them all?" Qin Qixian asked. The system only deducted funds when she was in debt; now that every last one was gone, it was far more likely that Dong Chiyan had devoured them.

Dong Chiyan admitted it frankly. "Yes, it wasn't enough." He flicked his hand, and the maple leaf flew to Qin Qixian’s forehead, sticking there. He patted it twice before pulling it away. "I preserved your primordial spirit for you. Those few spirit stones weren't enough." Seeing Qin Qixian still confused, he said indifferently, "You overexerted your primordial spirit to unleash sword intent, damaging your foundation and nearly destroying your spiritual aspect. You have been in a coma for seven full days. Your master thought you were ruined and petitioned the sect for a piece of Ink-Fragrance Bone to help repair your soul."

He paused, sneering, "The others didn't agree. According to them, a piece of Ink-Fragrance Bone is worth a fortune, hard to buy even with spirit stones."

"So, do you have a problem with me taking those few spirit stones from your bag?"

"No problem," Qin Qixian replied hastily. "Not a single problem." She had actually slept for seven days; no wonder her stomach felt empty.

The "Profound Qi Observation Technique" seemed quite practical, but with not a single coin to her name, she couldn't learn it yet. She summoned a mechanical puppet to cook some porridge. While eating, she felt the beast ring vibrate and remembered the Fat Crane. She wanted to release it, but without her divine sense, she could only stare at the ring helplessly. She remembered that she and Dong Chiyan were connected by divine sense; since he could come and go from her consciousness sea freely, could he perhaps open the beast ring?

"Hey, can you let Little Fatty out?"

Dong Chiyan glanced at her, swept his divine sense over the beast ring, frowned, and then reluctantly said he could.

"Then let it out."

"I am not called 'Hey'," Dong Chiyan said. "Call my name a hundred times, and I will release it."

Qin Qixian obediently called "Dong Chiyan" once, then took out her old, discarded Profound Sound Bone, recorded her voice into it, and tossed the small, repeating bone to Dong Chiyan. "There, listen to your heart's content." A hundred times? Even a thousand or ten thousand would be no problem.

Dong Chiyan looked down at the slightly yellowed bone in his hand. Listening to the constant call, his furrowed brow smoothed out. With a cryptic smile, he said, "Sneaky and cunning."

He pinched off the small mechanism on the bone, tossed it into a corner of the room, and then channeled his divine sense into the beast ring, releasing the dizzy, starving spirit crane.

Qin Qixian was startled by the sudden appearance of the crane. How had it become so thin? Its feathers had lost their luster! Little Fatty was no longer fat; it had become a slender, lithe spirit crane. She had left some crane feed in the beast ring, enough for ten days!

She placed a bowl of spiritual porridge in front of the crane. No sooner had she set it down than the bird buried its entire head into the bowl, not like a noble spirit crane, but like a pig rushing to a trough.

After finishing, it began to honk, "I rested, then started eating. I finished it all on the first day."

Qin Qixian, having mastered the Beast-Heart Connection, understood it perfectly and was speechless. "And you claim to have phoenix bloodline? I think you're a glutton reincarnated."

As she spoke, Dong Chiyan floated over, and his hand—the one not holding the maple leaf—pressed onto the crane’s head.

"Hmm, it does exist," Dong Chiyan remarked, "though it is even thinner than a phoenix's bloodline, difficult to awaken, and can be considered negligible."

"You spirit beasts have rather chaotic ancestry, don't you?" Qin Qixian said, looking at Dong Chiyan. She didn't know what she had said to touch a nerve, but Dong Chiyan’s face darkened, and the maple leaf in his hand shattered, showering her head and face.

At that moment, the voice of the painting spirit, Hong Zhuang, came from outside, filled with delight: "Young Mistress, you are finally awake!"

"Yes, sorry for worrying you," Qin Qixian replied. After a moment, she asked, "How is Gongsun E, who was with me? Has the matter with the Chuhe Gate been resolved? And how are the spiritual fields in our handyman courtyard?"

Hong Zhuang answered, "Gongsun E is fine; I heard he broke through to the Soul-Condensing stage. I don't know the specifics of the Chuhe Gate, but the higher-ups will handle it. They’ve reportedly sealed off that entire area so it won't harm the surrounding land again. Don't worry so much, Young Mistress; focus on your recovery." She pushed the tray she was holding forward. "These are the rewards granted by the sect; take a look!"

Hearing that Gongsun E was safe and the fields were under control, Qin Qixian felt quite good. When she saw the rewards, her eyes lit up.

On the tray were ten high-grade spirit stones, a bottle of Profound Spirit Pills, ten sticks of Soul-Condensing Incense, a bamboo-leaf boat, and three tablets. Knowing her mistress might not be familiar with some of these, Hong Zhuang took the initiative. "Let me introduce them to you..." She picked up one tablet and read the inscription. "This is a Sect Contribution Tablet. For your meritorious service, the sect has awarded you five thousand contribution points."

"Contribution points can be used to exchange for cultivation techniques and magical treasures. This tablet..." Hong Zhuang picked up another dark red one. "A real treasure! It's an entry permit for the Dragon Blood Lake. With this, you can take your spirit beast inside to soak for three days; it has a chance to awaken high-level bloodline power."

Hong Zhuang then picked up the last jade tablet, which was engraved with mountain peaks. Her hand hesitated, and her eyes widened in surprise. "This is a 'Island Master Token.' From now on, Young Mistress, you have private property! All resources and yields on the island belong to you; you only need to pay twenty percent of the island's income to the sect."

"Let me see where it is." Hong Zhuang channeled spiritual energy into the mountain pattern, then frowned in disgust. "Ugh, Bitter Star Island. What a dump."

Qin Qixian thought for a moment and asked, "Is that the isolated little island near the boundary river of the Cangyun Realm?" She knew that place because the miscellaneous affairs hall had a task that every handyman disciple despised: stationed on Bitter Star Island to collect Bitter-Leaf Grass. The spiritual energy there was thin, and there was absolutely no profit to be made. Many handymen spent three years there without their cultivation advancing an inch—it was truly a bleak and bitter place. Because the task was so undesirable, it was eventually forcibly assigned to those who failed to complete their sect duties.

Hong Zhuang nodded. "It earns at most a few dozen mid-grade spirit stones a year."

Qin Qixian didn't mind. "Well, it doesn't require me to go there and manage it, so something is better than nothing."

"I suppose so." After handing over the items, Hong Zhuang sighed. "The Young Master has left. Young Mistress, you must be more careful next time; don't do such dangerous things again. You have no idea how worried I was while you were in a coma."

Wait, what did she mean by "The Young Master has left"?

"What happened to my senior brother?" Qin Qixian pressed.

Hong Zhuang replied, "He ran away from home! He left three days ago!"

"But didn't they say he was going to seclude himself in the Tribulation Valley for three months?" Qin Qixian’s head buzzed. She couldn't accept this news. If her senior brother had left, he must have gone to the Floating Life Demon Realm! He had just formed his golden core; how dangerous it would be for him to go demon-hunting alone!

"If he were obedient, he wouldn't be the Young Master," Hong Zhuang said indignantly. "The mistress has been sleeping after drinking the Worry-Forget Wine; when she wakes up, she'll surely be furious." After complaining, she looked worried. "I’ve set up a longevity tablet for the Young Master. May the heavens protect him and bring him back safely..."

Qin Qixian had no mood to continue the conversation. After sending Hong Zhuang out of the room, she opened her golden Profound Sound Bone, intending to try and contact her senior brother. To her surprise, she found a message waiting for her.

Tu Tan: "Xiao Qi, I have long planned to go to the Floating Life Demon Realm. This decision has nothing to do with you."

"If you don't believe me, I can take a heart-demon oath to prove that I planned this long ago and it was not caused by you. You need not feel guilty."