Lady Cultivator

After laying a Concealing Formation, Mo Tiange, who was hidden inside the formation, stared at the Jade Slip in her hand and let out a sigh.

She felt she had become even more cold-blooded with the passage of time. She recalled that when she was a child, she always liked to read in the Ancestral Hall’s library. At the time, she really admired those heroes written about in the books – sword-wielding heroes who were outstanding at martial arts and roamed the world. Now, she was already a cultivator, yet she found that she couldn’t even compare to the river and lake heroes in the secular world.

Maybe it could be said that this was the iron law of the cultivation world. There were only Immortals, not heroes; there was only a little justice left, but interests were everlasting.

Thinking about this, she couldn’t help but laugh at herself. Why should she make excuses for herself? It was enough as long as her heart was clear about what she could and couldn’t do. She didn’t want to be a bad person, but she also wouldn’t go out of her way to be a good one. There were some matters that were better left alone if she didn’t have sufficient power to handle them. Otherwise, not only would her actions be useless, but she could also create a mortal disaster for herself. Besides, in a world where everyone was prioritizing their own interests, she didn’t think she could bring about any kind of change. The only person she could control was her own self.

Once she calmed down, Mo Tiange separated a thread of her divine sense and inserted it into the Jade Slip. This Jade Slip was filled with densely packed words. Once she skimmed through them, she was completely astonished. The content… was precisely about the Constitution-Enhancing Pills those people mentioned!

It was written on the Jade Slip that Constitution-Enhancing Pills were miraculous medicinal pills passed on from the Distant Past era. If taken together with other medicinal pills, they could strengthen the effect of the medicinal pill no matter whether the user was in the Aura Refining realm or the Nascent Soul realm. The amazing thing was that most of the materials required to make them weren’t at all uncommon, although the age of some required spiritual plants needed to be very old.

Its usefulness, apart from the effect of a few heaven-defying, unique medicines, was practically unparalleled! From what was written on the Jade Slip, taking one pill during foundation-building or core-formation would be tantamount to increasing one’s odds of success.

Mo Tiange became so excited that she felt somewhat dizzy. She wondered where the cultivator Jiang Chengxian killed obtained the pills. Besides, how did Jiang Chengxian know he had it?

It took her quite a while to regain her composure then she thought about several problems. First, since the effect of Constitution-Enhancing Pills was so unique, she absolutely couldn’t let anyone else know about them. Otherwise, her small life might be at risk. Second, she couldn’t concoct medicinal pills herself, but since knowledge of these pills couldn’t be given to others, should she learn about pills-concocting herself?

The first problem was easy to handle. She wasn’t someone who liked to show off, so she just needed to store this pill recipe properly. The second problem was the one that made her quite conflicted.

The Law of Pills-Concocting wasn’t at all simple. Concoctions Masters had to come up with piles of spiritual plants, have a good understanding of the materials, have a good grasp in controlling heat, and even have good timing regarding when to open the furnace. It was something that couldn’t be thoroughly learned by theory; one had to go through numerous concoction processes to slowly master it. Therefore, expert Concoctions Masters normally emerged from cultivation groups or prominent cultivation clans. They were hardly seen among small cultivation clans and individual cultivators. Even if they were, their success rates were usually low.

Although Mo Tiange felt that she could be considered as quite rich, educating herself to become a Concoctions Master with only 3,000 spirit stones was very difficult to achieve. Moreover, she still didn’t know whether she had the ability or not.

After studying the Jade Slip for a while, she suddenly frowned, stored the Jade Slip away and stared outside the formation. She sensed someone coming her way.

Before long, there was indeed someone running hurriedly. It was actually Jiang Chengxian!

After mulling things over, Mo Tiange deduced that Jiang Chengxian probably came back for the Jade Slip in her hand. When those two people died, he must’ve been nervous and left hastily. Now that he thought things through, he must’ve returned to search for the slip.

Nevertheless, since the Jade Slip was now in her hands, she naturally wouldn’t take it out. Assuming she hadn’t left any traces behind in that cave, he wouldn’t find anything.

She calmed herself down and waited. Sure enough, after a short while, Jiang Chengxian left looking exasperated, completely oblivious of her, a “siskin bird,” currently stalking him, the “mantis.”

With a faint smile, she continued to study the pill recipe. Truthfully, she didn’t take Jiang Chengxian seriously at all. He was only a good-for-nothing person with powerful elders; he had both the cultivation foundation and treasures, but he didn’t like to cultivate and instead liked ordering people around. His skills in fights of magical power were definitely not up to scratch; the fact that she had been following him for so long yet he hadn’t discovered her presence was already proof.

From what was written in this pill recipe, Snow Gall Flower, Yang-Locking Grass, and Seven-Leaves Lotus were all common spiritual plants; only the more-than-500-year-old Purple Ganoderma and Black Eagle Fern would be difficult to find . ¹

As she studied the pill recipe, she realized that making Constitution-Enhancing Pills wouldn’t be as easy as she imagined. Two kinds of spiritual plants older than 500 years wouldn’t be easy to find. Furthermore, there was also the probability of failing during the concoction process… In normal times, she certainly couldn’t afford this pill, but if she was trying to break through a bottleneck or advance to the next realm, she had to obtain this pill.

After thinking about this, Mo Tiange couldn’t help but feel happy. Although her cultivation speed wasn’t quick, it could be considered on par with cultivators with three spiritual roots. The difficulty for them laid in breaking through to the next realm, just like her present situation. But didn’t this medicinal pill recipe surface just in time to be used with her Foundation-Building Pill? This being the case, she wanted to go back and consult Second Uncle, or maybe she could learn to concoct medicinal pills herself. Once she had this Constitution-Enhancing Pill, she would have a bit more assurance in building her foundation.

With this thought in mind, she stored the Jade Slip and sat down to meditate.

Because of the change that occurred to the spiritual aura in her body, she had been afraid to continue cultivating. Nevertheless, there were no changes in her dantian and meridians, and the dark spiritual aura also didn’t have any effect, so she felt a bit more at ease.

The area was cool and brightly lit by moonlight, so before long, she entered a meditative state. She sensed that her body had fused with the world; there were no sentiments, thoughts, or emotions. Even her body seemed like it didn’t exist; what was left were only her slow, rhythmical breaths. It was as if she was a feather floating in the air, as if she had become one with the world that even time ceased to exist.

It was already daytime when she woke up from her meditative stage. She stood up and straightened her clothing then she used Light Body Technique to rush towards the market square. Naturally, she made a detour on her trip back to avoid people noticing where she came from.

Once she returned to the inn, a waiter immediately came to greet her. “Master Immortal, you’re back! There’s a guest looking for you.”

“Oh?” Mo Tiange thought it was probably Tianqiao since they made arrangements yesterday, so she asked straightaway, “Where’s the guest?”

The waiter politely led her while answering, “It’s a young madam. She’s still waiting. This way, please.”

After leading her upstairs, the waiter lifted the curtain of a private room. Sure enough, it was Tianqiao. Upon seeing Mo Tiange entering the room, Tianqiao, who was sitting beside the window, smiled.

Mo Tiange smiled back, but she suddenly felt helpless when she noticed the waiter’s strange gaze. Right now, she was wearing men’s attire while Tianqiao was dressed like a married woman, yet the two of them didn’t look like husband and wife… This waiter was probably making assumptions about their relationship.

Thus, Mo Tiange directly took out a piece of gold and gave it to the waiter. She said, “Thank you.”

This piece of gold weighed about two  taels ² , causing a smile to immediately appear on the waiter’s face. He nodded and said, “It’s nothing. Does Young Master need anything else? Don’t hesitate to tell me.”

Mo Tiange shook her head and said, “No, you may go.”

The waiter nodded fawningly before walking away with a bit of reluctance.

Once the waiter left, Tianqiao stared at Mo Tiange and said with a smile, “You’re really generous to easily come up with gold…”

Mo Tiange laughed. “What part of me is generous? It’s just that secular world items like gold are no different from chunks of rock for cultivators. Let’s go to my room.”

Tianqiao nodded and followed Mo Tiange to the rear courtyard. After they entered the room, she cautiously said, “I want to thank you again for the medicinal pills yesterday.”

Mo Tiange shook her head and said, “You thanked me yesterday. Are you really going to be this courteous with me?”

“I have to be courteous! Yesterday my husband told me that those medicinal pills are Aura-Converging Pills. A bottle would cost at least 200 spirit stones – we would have to have our small shop open all year round to earn that amount. What you gave was indeed too precious.”

Upon seeing how persistent Tianqiao was, Mo Tiange had no other choice but to say, “Alright, I’m accepting your thanks. In fact, if this was several months ago, I would certainly be reluctant to give them to you. However, I’ve already reached the peak stage of the Aura Refining realm now. As far as I’m concerned, these Aura Refining realm medicinal pills are already useless, so I just took them out as a meeting gift. You don’t need to be too concerned about them.”

Tianqiao couldn’t hold back her smile after hearing Mo Tiange’s words. “You just said you’re not generous, but you don’t even treat several hundred spirit stones like much… If you keep talking like this, I’ll come asking you for a meal so be careful in the future.”

Mo Tiange was dumbfounded. Soon afterward, the two of them smiled at each other, tacitly agreeing not to mention the matter again.

“Right! I prepared a few things for you,” Tianqiao said. She lifted up the wrapped bundle in her hands.

“What is it?”

Instead of answering, Tianqiao revealed a secretive smile and proceeded to unwrap the bundle. Inside the bundle were a comb, mirror, and various kinds of hair ornaments and earrings, among various other things.

Bewildered, Mo Tiange said, “These are…”

Tianqiao pulled Mo Tiange up and then pushed her towards the table. As she picked up the mirror, Tianqiao said with a smile, “Didn’t you say you’ve been dressing as a man for ten years? I think you must’ve forgotten how to dress and doll up. Before, it was always you helping me. Now, just let me help you dress up for once.”

“Ah?”

“Sit up straight.” Tianqiao let Mo Tiange’s hair down and exclaimed with admiration, “You cultivators really have things easy – you don’t need to put any effort into maintaining your bodies. Take a look at your hair! I’m sure you must’ve never taken care of it, yet it’s still this smooth and easy to manage!”

Mo Tiange chuckled and said, “You’re also a natural-born beauty, why are you talking about me?”

“Despite being a natural-born beauty, I still have to doll up. After all, a mortal can never compare to people from the cultivation world. Think about it – are there any ugly women among the cultivators? Everyone is beautiful. You just wait. I guarantee that in a while, you’ll gape in astonishment when you look at yourself!” After finishing her speech, Tianqiao moved at great speed and began combing and styling Mo Tiange’s hair.

After a moment, Mo Tiange was indeed quite astonished when she stared at her reflection in the mirror.

The face in the mirror looked vivid. It had the softness and gracefulness that men didn’t have, as well as the valiance and courage that women lacked. The combination of these characteristics made her face look even more beautiful and attractive.

Tianqiao moved closer with satisfaction. She stared at the two similar faces reflected in the mirror and said, “Ever since I was a kid, I always thought you looked better than me. Take a look at you now – you’re really beautiful.”

Nevertheless, Mo Tiange shook her head and said, “This way… I feel really strange.”

“Don’t!” Mo Tiange was going to wipe her face, but her hand was hastily pushed away by Tianqiao. Tianqiao asked with confusion, “I’m the one who’s feeling strange. Why do you have to disguise yourself as a man? I’ve been in Kunwu for almost three years and seen a lot of female cultivators. Although they’re indeed incomparable to male cultivators, people in the cultivation world respect the strong ones. Powerful female cultivators are treated the same; people don’t dare bully them.”

This question caused Mo Tiange to reveal a bitter smile. She said, “Right now, I’m still far away from being powerful. There are so many powerful male cultivators and if one or two among them want to… I really don’t want to be a concubine or Human Furnace.”

Tianqiao answered, “I understand your meaning, but high-level male cultivators very rarely appear outside and you have a sect backing you up. There ought to be no one who would dare to force themselves on you, right? Besides, my husband once said that although cultivators can never really have a “pure heart and few desires,” they still strive to repress their worldly desires; only lustful ones who have power want the so-called concubines. As for Human Furnaces, every person who uses a Human Furnace is scorned among people of the Righteous Path, so not many people want to use a Human Furnace.”

Mo Tiange naturally understood the situation more clearly than Tianqiao did, but…

She sighed and said, “Do you understand what Dual Cultivation is?”

Tianqiao nodded.

Mo Tiange said, “Although Dual Cultivation is beneficial for both parties, I’m not willing to let myself lose my options.” She hesitated for a moment before proceeding to say, “Besides, people who use Human Furnaces are scorned just because the benefits of using Human Furnaces aren’t that big. If the benefits they get are big enough, they wouldn’t care whether they’re scorned by others or not.”

Tianqiao felt that there was some other secret in Mo Tiange’s words. She asked, “You mean…”

Tiange was a bit hesitant. Second Uncle said she must never let anyone know of this matter, but it was Tianqiao… She then said, “My constitution is rather special. It’s apparently very suitable for Dual Cultivation or to be a Human Furnace, so… I don’t mind letting you know about this, but you can never tell your husband. I’d be in great trouble if others found out about this.”

Her emphasis about the matter shocked Tianqiao. “It’s that serious?”

Mo Tiange nodded seriously. She was willing to tell Tianqiao first because their friendship was different and she believed Tianqiao would never divulge this matter; also, Tianqiao wouldn’t be in close contact with other cultivators except for Meng Sigui, whom Mo Tiange didn’t take seriously.

Besides, Tianqiao and her husband basically didn’t know which cultivation group she belonged to. They only knew her by this extremely common “Ye Xiaotian” name, so even if news of this matter was leaked, people wouldn’t be able to find her quickly. Moreover, she had long intended to separate herself from Yunwu Sect after she built her foundation.