Lady Cultivator

Chapter 146: Old Affair at Mount Yunwu

Translator: Cenniwdyl Editor: Caron_

Mo Tiange was both shocked and happy to see an old friend. Even though she escaped from Mount Yunwu in a miserable state back then, she was now the advanced inner disciple of a Nascent Soul cultivator from Xuanqing School, the second greatest cultivation group in the Celestial Pole. She basically had nothing to fear even if Jiang Clan of Mount Yunwu found out about her, so she calmly acknowledged her identity.

Sooner or later, she would personally deal with that Jiang Clan! But for now, she would let Jiang Clan know that she was still alive, that she was faring very well through Liu Yidao. Infuriating them wasn’t a bad idea either.

The two of them hadn’t seen each other for twelve years. After reminiscing for a while, Mo Tiange invited Liu Yidao to visit her place.

Seeing that she lived inside Lord Daoist Jinghe’s Immortal’s Cave then hearing how the gate-keeping disciples calling her martial uncle, Liu Yidao looked completely astonished. He couldn’t help but ask, “Junior Martial Brother Ye, why are they calling you martial uncle?”

Mo Tiange smiled but didn’t answer. Instead, a maid took the initiative to answer on her behalf: “Martial Uncle Mo is Grandmaster Jinghe’s advanced inner disciple, so we naturally have to address her as martial uncle.”

Along with the rise of Mo Tiange’s status and the firm foothold she gained in Xuanqing School, the maids also became well-behaved. Not only did they not dare to make things hard for her, but they also scrambled to curry favor with her.

The maid’s answer shocked Liu Yidao. When he ran into this “Junior Martial Brother Ye” in Xuanqing School, he originally thought she was able to enter Xuanqing School and even built her foundation out of luck. He never expected she actually had this status!

With a wave of her hand, Mo Tiange told Qingqi, who came to deliver their tea, to withdraw. She then invited Liu Yidao to sit: “Senior Martial Brother Liu, please sit.”

Inside the small sitting room, the two of them sat together. Liu Yidao spent some time focusing on drinking his tea, but in the end, he couldn’t help but ask, “Junior Martial Brother Ye, what happened to you all these years? Not only have you advanced to the middle stage of the Foundation Building realm, but you’ve also been accepted by a Nascent Soul cultivator as his disciple!”

Mo Tiange chuckled. “I’m just lucky.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “Back then, everyone thought my spiritual roots were simply five spiritual roots which were equal in strength. It was only after I came to Xuanqing School that I found out that they were actually a type of special spiritual roots. Later, I was accepted by Lord Daoist Jinghe as his registered disciple. After I built my foundation, I finally became his official disciple.”

She only told the gist of what she experienced, but Liu Yidao answered with a long sigh, “Back when you suddenly disappeared and Branch Master Jiang said you were a traitor who killed Jiang Chengxian, I was beyond shocked. Later, there was no news about you at all, so I even thought you already… As it turns out, you actually went to Xuanqing School.” After he said that, he asked, “Oh, Junior Martial Brother Qin and Junior Martial Brother Jiang disappeared at the same time as you. The sect was very secretive about the incident, so I couldn’t find out any news. I always assumed the two of them also had something to do with the incident, am I correct?”

After a moment of hesitation, Mo Tiange finally nodded. “Yes. Back then, I fled from Mount Yunwu because Jiang Chengxian harassed and forced himself on me. Senior Martial Brother Jiang was the one who saved me, but he was consequently implicated by me in this matter.”

“Junior Martial Brother Jiang saved you?” Liu Yidao said with astonishment. But his reaction wasn’t surprising. At that time, Jiang Shanghang was completely indifferent towards them. It was unimaginable for him to offend his own clan just to save her. In addition, what happened when she left Mount Yunwu was also a shock to him.

Seeing her nod, Liu Yidao took some time to digest the truth of what happened before asking, “Then what about Junior Martial Brother Qin?”

This time, Mo Tiange was silent. A long while later, she finally said, “Senior Martial Brother Liu, just think of it like there’s no such person in this world.”

Liu Yidao was stunned. “Why?”

“This person didn’t exist in this word to begin with.” Mo Tiange smiled but didn’t explain further. “Right, why does Senior Martial Brother Liu not seem too surprised by my real gender?”

Judging by how quickly she changed the subject, Liu Yidao naturally understood she didn’t want to talk about it any further. As a cultivator who had wandered around the secular world, he naturally had the skill to discern people’s thoughts through their body language and facial expressions, so he immediately stopped probing about the matter. He just smiled and said, “Junior Martial Brother Ye’s disguise at the time was indeed impeccable. Nobody else ever suspected that Junior Martial Brother was a woman dressing as a man. However, it was unavoidable for people who interacted with you all the time, like us, to find some oddities about you. At that time, Junior Martial Brother Xu…” As he mentioned Xu Jingzhi, Liu Yidao’s expression turned a bit dull. Nevertheless, he immediately smiled again and continued speaking, “Junior Martial Brother Xu once talked to me in secret. He wondered why he always felt there was something strange about you…”

She never expected that the two of them would actually talk about this kind of thing in private. This was already a matter of the past, but it didn’t stop her from feeling somewhat curious. “Oh?”

Liu Yidao shook his head with a laugh. “In fact, all of us felt like that. It was just that we never put much thought into it.”

“Really? Which part of me was strange?”

“For example, Junior Martial Brother, you never grew taller…”

Mo Tiange was dumbfounded but burst out laughing soon after. “That was something I couldn’t do anything about…”

Liu Yidao nodded. “At that time, Junior Martial Brother Qin just said you were a feminine man and that there was nothing surprising about it. We thought he was right; you were indeed very woman-like. Because of that, finding out that you’re actually a woman isn’t that much of a surprise for me.”

“He actually said that…” Mo Tiange mumbled to herself. No wonder he didn’t look surprised at all. Turns out he’s known for a while… Well, it isn’t weird—is there anything I can hide from him?

Her expression now made Liu Yidao hesitate for a long time but in the end, he still couldn’t help himself from asking, “Junior Martial Brother Ye, Junior Martial Brother Qin, he…”

“He’s good,” said Mo Tiange with a smile. That smile, however, was rather cold. “He’s good beyond imagination; he’s better off than the two of us.”

These words were very scathing. The coldness in her smile flashed so quickly that Liu Yidao almost thought he was imagining things. Right after, he heard her say: “Let’s not talk about this. Senior Martial Brother Liu, it’s been a long time since I left Mount Yunwu, so can you tell me about what happened after I left that year?”

Liu Yidao swallowed the questions in his mind and nodded. “Of course I can.”

He thought for a while then began speaking: “I’m going to start from the moment you left Mount Yunwu. At that time, I obtained favor from my current master and was accepted by him as a disciple. I also obtained a Foundation-Building Pill, so once I recovered from my injuries, I began half a year of Closed Door Meditation. Unexpectedly, my luck was quite good; I succeeded in building my foundation. It was only after I finished building my foundation and came out of Closed Door Meditation that I learned about you guys. Junior Martial Brother Xu passed away in an accident, and the three of you disappeared at the same time. The five of us used to live together, but in the end, I was the only one remaining…” Loneliness appeared on Liu Yidao’s face. He used to be an individual cultivator, so he treasured friendships more than cultivators from cultivation clans did. After that unexpected incident happened, he also felt worried for a long time. It was precisely because of this that he was so excited when he saw that Mo Tiange was alive.

“About the disappearance of Junior Martial Brother Jiang and Junior Martial Brother Qin, the sect didn’t provide any statements. You, however, were labeled as a traitor. They said you committed crimes for the sake of gaining wealth and killed Junior Martial Brother Jiang Chengxian. I didn’t believe it, but I couldn’t find you, so I could only keep my thoughts in my head. Now that I know the truth, I finally know how shameless Jiang Clan was. Fortunately, they got their lesson!”

Bewildered, Mo Tiange asked for further detail. “What kind of lesson did they get?”

Liu Yidao said, “I don’t know what kind of experts the two martial uncles from Jiang Clan offended, but one night, Branch Master Jiang was beaten until he was severely injured, and the other Martial Uncle Jiang also wasn’t spared and was also severely injured. Jiang Clan then started to decline. Later, they even had to give up their Branch Master position.”

Mo Tiange looked astonished but soon seemed to understand something, causing Liu Yidao to ask, “Junior Martial Brother Ye, do you perhaps know who did it?”

“… Probably.” Mo Tiange quickly recovered her composure. “Senior Martial Brother Liu, how are you faring in Mount Yunwu nowadays?”

“Not bad.” As they talked about this, Liu Yidao appeared happy. “My master already advanced to the Core Formation realm. Furthermore, Jiang Clan is no longer the one who has the final say in Mount Yunwu. In fact, I’m faring very well now.”

From how he looked, he indeed seemed to be faring very well, so Mo Tiange also felt happy for him.

The atmosphere between the two of them once again returned to the happiness of friends reuniting after a long separation. Liu Yidao seized this opportunity and said, “There’s something else. Junior Martial Brother Ye, you’ll certainly feel happy after you hear it.”

“Oh?”

Liu Yidao had a very secretive look. But with that muscular figure of his, having that kind of look was really laughable. He then couldn’t hold back and said, “Zixia Sect thought that by annexing Yunwu Sect and Jindao School, its strength would soar, and it would become one of the great cultivation groups. But in the end, in the competition to obtain the Foundation-Building Pills, the disciples from the three groups suffered disastrous damages. Sometime later, its Nascent Soul grandmaster also suffered an accident while cultivating. Nowadays, the strength of the three groups has greatly decreased. Let alone becoming one of the great cultivation groups, it doesn’t even have the ability to control us and Jindao School.”

“So that means… Yunwu Sect and Jindao School could be considered to have separated from Zixia Sect?”

“That’s more or less the case.” Liu Yidao nodded. “Zixia Sect dared to treat the other two cultivation groups like that only because it had a Nascent Soul cultivator as its patron. Nowadays, its Nascent Soul cultivator isn’t far off from death and it lost many of its elite disciples—how could Zixia Sect have time to deal with us? Junior Martial Brother Ye, you’re not an outsider, so it doesn’t matter if I say these things to you—we’ve joined hands with Jindao School. Once the opportunity arrives, we’ll deal with Zixia Sect together!”

A blazing hatred emerged on Liu Yidao’s face. Back then, among the five people in the house, he always considered himself to be the eldest martial brother and always looked after the others. However, Xu Jingzi was killed in the competition to obtain Foundation-Building Pills and since then, there was always a fire nesting inside Liu Yidao’s heart. Now that he had the opportunity to take revenge, he would naturally participate.

“Senior Martial Brother Liu, in the event I can’t return to east Kunwu, you have to take revenge on my behalf,” Mo Tiange said coldly, “Back then, we couldn’t do anything to avenge Senior Martial Brother Xu, but sooner or later, we have to avenge him!”

“Correct!” The two of them then smiled at each other. Liu Yidao couldn’t help but say, “Junior Martial Brother Ye, you look very beautiful now; why did you have to pretend to be a man back then?”

Mo Tiange’s skin was thick, and the one praising her was Liu Yidao, whom she always considered her elder brother, so she didn’t feel shy in the slightest. She simply chuckled and said, “Back then, I didn’t have anyone backing me up and my aptitude was also inferior. I was scared I would be forced into Dual Cultivation or even arranged as someone’s concubine, so I just…”

“Oh, I see…” Liu Yidao said with understanding, “It’s not surprising that you had those thoughts. Female cultivators with neither patrons nor adequate aptitudes are indeed susceptible to forced arrangements; even being arranged as a Human Furnace is possible…”

At that point, Mo Tiange suddenly remembered something. “Oh! Senior Martial Brother Liu, how are Senior Martial Sister Murong, Senior Martial Sister Wang and the others?”

When she mentioned them, faint disappointment and frustration appeared on Liu Yidao’s face. However, he immediately squeezed out a smile and said, “Junior Martial Brother Ye doesn’t need to worry about them. Junior Martial Sister Murong has the full support of her clan. Although she failed her first attempt in building her foundation, she finally succeeded not long ago. As for Junior Martial Sister Wang and Junior Martial Sister Shen… Once the former Sect Head of Zixia Sect fell from power, his son had an accident, so Junior Martial Sister Shen is free now. Junior Martial Sister Wang… is still that person’s wife, but because she’s always been a very capable person, she’s safe in Zixia Sect now. This time, we were able to plot against Zixia Sect from inside and out because we’re coordinating with Junior Martial Sister Wang and Junior Martial Sister Shen—Oh! Both of them also built their foundation.”

“I see…” This was actually better than she imagined. Presumably, Wang Qianyi’s freedom from her torment was just around the corner.