CHAPTER 21: Have We Met Before? 

Yu Youyou hadn’t expected that they would have to go to the Yunhua Sword Sect first.

In other words… she was about to come face to face with Long Aotian’s overwhelming dominance?

However, she wasn’t worried about Yu Bumie recognizing her. According to the plot’s progression, that scumbag father was currently busy romancing some newly introduced young girl, rekindling his youthful heart, and had long since forgotten that he even had a daughter.

Such was the busy life of Long Aotian, who had a vast harem.

What was even more ridiculous was that even if the name “Yu Youyou” were mentioned right in his ear, he probably wouldn’t remember it.

After all, that name was given by the original body’s mother. In the mouths of Yu Bumie and everyone else, this child had never had a name.

Even Aunt Hua calling her “Yu girl” was because she had once overheard Granny Zhang complaining, learning from that chance remark that this child’s surname was Yu.

Before that, everyone had simply called her—

“Little Bastard.”

Before dawn, the trio snuck back into the sect under the cover of darkness.

Unfortunately, just as they returned to the floating mountain, they ran into a group of senior brothers and sisters who were about to head out.

Yu Youyou stopped in place and greeted them obediently.

Qu Qingmiao, who led the group, returned the greeting but hesitated slightly, as if there was something she wanted to say but ultimately only remarked lightly, “Perhaps due to its age, your courtyard has collapsed. I’ve arranged a new one for you, right next to mine.”

Yu Youyou hadn’t expected Senior Sister to not demand compensation. When the house collapsed, she had suddenly remembered Elder Ma’s fate after falling into debt and had regretted it for quite a while.

She was touched. “Thank you, Senior Sister, but there’s no need for the trouble. I can squeeze in with Qi Nanfeng.”

After all, she usually spent her time farming jade tokens in the library pavilion. When she got tired, she’d just take a nap on the floor—she barely went back to sleep anyway.

Qi Nanfeng, demonstrating the love of a fellow sect member, nodded repeatedly. “Yeah, Senior Sister, Little Fish sleeping at my place is perfectly fine.”

He had plenty of rooms, and all the furniture was already set up.

More importantly, Yu Youyou attracted mosquitoes like crazy. Wherever she was, mosquitoes would ignore any repellent and flock to her instead—what an ideal roommate!

Even Su Yizhi nodded along. “Yeah, Senior Sister, the three of us living together isn’t a problem. Saving two courtyards means saving a lot of spirit stones.”

However, as soon as these considerate words were spoken, the expressions of the inner sect disciples turned increasingly difficult to describe.

In the end, they all turned their condemning gazes toward the two young men.

Qi Nanfeng felt something was off and subtly nudged Su Yizhi’s arm. “Why do I feel like Senior Sister and Senior Brother’s gazes seem… odd?”

“Perhaps they were moved by our camaraderie,” Su Yizhi said, looking rather pleased with himself, thinking he had made a good impression in front of Senior Sister once again.

After bidding farewell to Qu Qingmiao, the trio also parted ways.

Su Yizhi, ever passionate about alchemy, headed straight for the pill refining room.

Although Qi Nanfeng didn’t enjoy reading, he was interested in the jade tokens stored in the library pavilion and went off to research the various rare medicinal herbs found in the Eternal Ancient Forest.

As for Yu Youyou, she went to find Elder Ma as per their agreement from the day before.

Just as she arrived at the sect’s entrance and was about to speak, a celestial crane suddenly plummeted straight down before her eyes.

At the same time, its feathers were continuously shedding. By the time it actually crashed to the ground, it was already a completely bald crane.

“Girl, pick that up for me.”

Inside the sect gates, Elder Ma had already built a fire and prepared an array of seasonings, clearly just waiting to roast that crane.

Yu Youyou picked up the crane and, driven by her frugal nature, couldn’t help but remind him, “Elder, a single crane costs a hundred spirit stones. And that’s for a high-quality one.”

Elder Ma shot her a sidelong glance. “Hah, your vision is too narrow.”

Taking the crane from her, he skillfully cleaned it and began basting it with barbecue sauce. “I already owe over a million in debt—what’s another hundred? Besides, anyone who has a problem with it can come argue with me. In this sect, the only ones who can beat me are the Sect Master and the Grand Elder. But they’re both in seclusion, so who can do anything to me?”

His tone was so righteous that even Yu Youyou, who considered herself thick-skinned, suddenly felt inferior.

“So, your grand vision is just ‘more lice don’t make an itch, and more debt doesn’t bring worry’?”

“Tch, if it weren’t for demonstrating for you three, would I have needed to take on another two hundred thousand in debt?” Elder Ma said it so naturally, as if completely forgetting that it was his own grandstanding yesterday that caused the floating mountain to collapse.

Yu Youyou once again pulled out her empty money pouch and shook it.

Elder Ma’s eyelid twitched as he suddenly remembered that the girl in front of him was just as broke as he was. He clicked his tongue in frustration. “How can an alchemist be as poor as you? It’s disgraceful!”

Yu Youyou reminded him, “Elder, I don’t have any debt.”

Elder Ma felt like he had just been stabbed in the heart.

He didn’t bother arguing about who was poorer anymore. After finishing his roast crane in a few quick bites, he tossed the leftover bones at Yu Youyou’s feet, then looked at her with his eyelids drooping.

Yu Youyou understood—this was Elder Ma testing her.

She covered the crane bones with spiritual energy and began refining them. Moments later, the pile of bones turned into a small handful of black ash.

This was unexpected.

Elder Ma’s eyelid twitched in surprise. “You grasped it that quickly?”

Among alchemists, no one used pill refining techniques this way. They all saw it as improper—alchemy should be used to refine pills properly, not to refine living beings.

Elder Ma had always been an oddity. After he trained Senior Brother Zhu, who had beaten up dozens of fellow disciples, his methods became even more shunned by the other elders.

Yet, Yu Youyou not only took the initiative to learn, but after a bit of guidance, she actually understood it on her own!

Elder Ma’s interest was instantly piqued. He scattered the black ash on the ground and pointed at a fist-sized rock nearby. “Refine that.”

Yu Youyou followed his instruction, taking a little more time but successfully refining the stone.

Elder Ma gave no comment and simply pointed at a larger one.

One by one, she refined them, until finally, she stood before a boulder about the height of a person. At her current cultivation level, she could barely make it crack, but she couldn’t fully refine it.

However, Elder Ma seemed quite satisfied with this. He clapped her on the shoulder heartily. “Not bad, not bad! You’re even better than that Zhu kid!”

Yu Youyou subtly sidestepped to avoid Elder Ma’s greasy hand, which was still slick from eating roasted crane.

She then asked, “Elder Ma, if I were fighting a sword cultivator, wouldn’t there be no time to refine them?”

“A sword cultivator at the same Qi Refinement stage as you can barely execute their sword control techniques properly. Once their cultivation improves, your refining speed will naturally get faster as well. What are you afraid of?”

Elder Ma began imparting his battle techniques in all seriousness. “Besides, sword cultivators treat their swords like wives, cherishing them dearly. If you get the chance to refine their sword, even if you just damage it a little, they’ll break down crying on the spot. How would they have the heart to keep fighting you?”

“A spirit sword isn’t ordinary metal…”

“Pah! We alchemists refine pills using the bones of exotic beasts. That stuff is much harder to deal with than magic treasures. Besides, what decent sword could an average Qi Refinement-stage sword cultivator even have?”

Elder Ma earnestly advised, “If they do have a good sword, just refine their clothes instead. Sword cultivators love putting on airs; they wouldn’t dare fight you naked.”

Yu Youyou was instantly intrigued. “I wouldn’t dare either. Elder, would you?”

“…”

Elder Ma was silent for a moment before finally snapping in irritation.

“Scram, scram, scram! Go refine your damn rocks and stop bothering me!”

Yu Youyou suspected she had hit the nail on the head.

….

The next month was pure torment.

There were only a handful of disciples who met the age requirement, and they were all newly promoted from the outer sect with weak foundations.

As a result, aside from the elders who were in seclusion, almost all the inner sect elders personally took charge of teaching them.

Each day, the inner peaks echoed with their arguments as they fought over taking the disciples under their wing.

A group of disciples stood on the floating corridor bridges, unsure where to go, as the voices from each floating mountain only grew louder and louder.

Even the usually mild-tempered Elder Niu rolled up his sleeves and bellowed at the mountain gate, “If you don’t memorize all the medicinal herbs and pill formulas, how do you expect to refine pills? All of you, stay in the library and memorize them!”

Elder Yang, who was in charge of pill refinement, sneered sarcastically. “Oh, so now you remember they’re supposed to refine pills? What, you think the pills will just appear by themselves if they memorize a few books? All of you, come with me to the alchemy room! Not a single one missing!”

Elder Ji coughed, interrupting their quarrel. “We’re heading to the perilous Everlasting Forest, which is teeming with exotic beasts. It’s better to come with me and study the various beast species first.”

The arguing only grew fiercer, and the disciples on the floating corridor bridges remained frozen in place, not daring to move an inch.

“Where should we go?” Qi Nanfeng turned to his two friends.

Su Yizhi thought for a moment before pointing at Elder Yang. “I plan to go to the alchemy room. What about you guys?”

Qi Nanfeng glanced at Elder Niu, who was beckoning him over. He quickly turned away, pretending not to see, and made up his mind. “I’ve already memorized all the jade tokens. I’ll go study exotic beasts instead.”

Su Yizhi was dumbfounded. He still had half the content left to memorize. “You memorized everything?”

“Yeah, why?” Qi Nanfeng nodded, his expression full of unspoken subtext: What’s the big deal? It’s only a few tens of thousands of medicinal herbs.