Chapter 20: Moonlit Beauty

To Ye Wenxin, however, this one week was the freedom she longed for.

“I’m not.”

“This girl, why do you always not play by the rules. Do you want to stay with Senior Sister for a few days?” Nonetheless, Long Qing’er was unwilling to give up. The more they got along, the more Ye Wenxin found that Long Qing’er was not as unruly and capricious as rumored, instead she was really nice to Ye Wenxin, would always slip snacks and sweets to her, and even taught Ye Wenxin the Golden Age Dynasty’s fundamental techniques on the sly.

“No, I have bad sleeping posture, I’ll keep you up at night.” Ye Wenxin declined tactfully, and Long Qing’er returned even more nonchalantly, “Not a problem, my sleep posture is excellent, steady as a rock.”

Amused by Long Qing’er’s statement and seeing her sincerity, Ye Wenxin simply said, “In a few days then. I have some recent assignments I haven’t completed yet. I’ll stay with you for one night once I’m done.”

Although still very reluctant, seeing Ye Wenxin’s persistence, she could only dip her head, saying, “Very well, but you still have to watch out for yourself these few days.”

Ye Wenxin nodded solemnly, watching Long Qing’er leave.

Now, there was only her left in the Alchemy Workshop. Accustomed to being accompanied by others, Ye Wenxin suddenly felt how empty this place was at this moment.

But solitude was freedom. After tidying up the workshop and settling the newly forged alchemy furnaces for the day, she quickly locked the door and left. Instead of returning to the courtyard, Ye Wenxin went to the dining hall, bought some food, and then headed towards the backwoods.

“Brother Crow…”

“Brother Crow…”

She called out in the deserted backwoods, hoping to attract the attention of the crow she had met last time. However, the backwoods was vast, and Ye Wenxin’s voice was too quiet. She had to give up her plan to bribe the crow and found a remote place for herself.

Leaving her clothes on the ground next to a stream brimming with spiritual energy, Ye Wenxin carefully stepped into the waters, and what should have been a small and thin body gradually grew bigger in visible speed.

The moment she reverted to her original form, she could not help but make a sound. It was still a beguiling and beautiful appearance, but only the evening breeze was there to appreciate this enchanting scenery.

“I’ve become much faster.” This was also the first time she tested her body after her bone had been shattered.

She had not forgotten the things she had learned, only her cultivation seemed to have been extracted from her body. Ye Wenxin sat down somewhere to meditate, trying to search the true reason behind her cultivation’s disappearance, to no avail.

“Maybe that mute learned some Stellar Absorption Technique and sucked my cultivation dry?” Another absurd idea came to Ye Wenxin’s mind, but no matter how she thought about it, she could not figure out where her cultivation had gone.

She fretted about for roughly one hour and still had no clue. Thinking she was not going to solve anything like this, she stood up, planning to head back to the small courtyard where she lived.

Due to demonic beast activity, there were sparse signs of human habitation in the backwoods, so Ye Wenxin did not transform back to a child and instead roamed the surroundings in her true form.

The breeze blew just right, the air fresh, and there were no demonic beasts coming to disturb Ye Wenxin.

“Caw caw caw caw caw…” Just as Ye Wenxin thought this, she suddenly heard the crow’s urgent voice, and when she looked, there was a black shadow in the air coming right for her in frightening speed.

Ye Wenxin dodged hastily, but the crow still managed to injure her arm. Blood ran down her arm, yet the crow was gone again.

Ye Wenxin had to muster all her spirit and, at the same time, confide her identity to Brother Crow.

“Brother Crow, it’s me.”

The crow paid no attention to Ye Wenxin’s confession of her identity and flew back towards her. Ye Wenxin quickly dodged, but the trees behind her were clawed by the crow, emitting a creaking sound as if they might collapse.

The crow became even more audacious, showing a smug expression in its eyes, evidently not intending to kill Ye Wenxin but merely teasing her. Irritated by this, Ye Wenxin attempted to use a few basic skills from her memory, but to no avail against the crow.

Instead, the crow perched on the branch, chirping triumphantly, wearing a look that seemed to challenge Ye Wenxin. It made her feel compelled to discipline it properly.

“This is all your doing,” Ye Wenxin sighed in frustration. She had no desire for this magical confrontation, but the crow’s antics forced her to take it seriously.

As she spoke, a flowery scent drifted in the air, and the crow’s eyes lost their focus. In that momentary trance, Ye Wenxin already flew in front of it. The crow evaded lightning fast, yet Ye Wenxin still managed to pluck one of its feathers.

The crow cried out in pain, flapping its wings threatening Ye Wenxin. Ye Wenxin ignored it, and before the crow could react, she appeared before the crow once again, this time using both hands, she plucked out a dozen or so feathers.

Being plucked alive, the crow screamed loudly in pain, albeit with much diminished vigor.

“If you dare make a fool out of me again, I won’t just pluck your feathers, I’ll pluck your life right out…” She obviously did not have a strong cultivation but the aura Ye Wenxin emitted immediately turned the crow obedient. It blinked its dark eyes, approaching Ye Wenxin with the intention to curry favor.

Ye Wenxin felt no exhaustion, and even stranger, her Flower Step was an advanced skill, yet now she could use it despite only having Qi Refining stage cultivation.

Even so, she could not sense any other cultivation inside her body. Such a marvelous thing made Ye Wenxin firmly believed that her cultivation had not actually vanished, but was merely residing in some part unknown even to her.

This discovery made Ye Wenxin feel much better, while the crow felt much aggrieved, looking at the feathers Ye Wenxin had dropped to the ground, its heart ached beyond measure.

A short while after, it turned to Ye Wenxin again, flapping its wings to express its discontent.

One human and one beast, looking at each other in these desolate wild mountains.

“Forget it, I originally wanted to give this to the mute, but I’ll let you have it for cheap.” Ye Wenxin truly could not stand being stared by the crow like that, she opened her bag of holding and took out the meal she had prepared.

The crow appeared to already be accustomed to human food, one look at the food Ye Wenxin had conjured up, it stepped forward without any hesitation and dug in. Not knowing how it managed so with that beak, right before Ye Wenxin, it rapidly ate up what equaled to three servings’ worth of food.

At first, Ye Wenxin wanted to see the mute through the crow, but what about now, she not only did not see the mute, the crow also relentlessly devoured three people’s dinners, hers included.

Done eating, the crow seemed to still want more, and brandished its wings in Ye Wenxin’s direction.

“Stop asking, if you hadn’t attacked me just now, I would’ve given you more.” As if it completely understood Ye Wenxin’s words, it leaned close in a flattering manner.

Such a big head looked extremely huge even when standing in front of Ye Wenxin in her original form. Ye Wenxin pushed the crow’s huge head away slightly and took out a bottle of medicine from her bag of holding.

“It’s too late to flatter me now, you go give this bottle of medicine to that mute.”

This medicine bottle contained the pills recently refined by Ye Wenxin, even if they might not be enough for that mute, they also counted as Ye Wenxin’s most heartfelt intentions.

She recalled although that mute had removed her cultivation, she had been taken care of by her for the few months that followed, so Ye Wenxin felt it was better to find a way to repay this favor.

The crow bobbed its head and volunteered one of its claws. Ye Wenxin tied the medicine bottle on it. The crow stretched out its claws invitingly, as if it wanted Ye Wenxin to come with.

“No, I’m a bit tired today, so I’m going back first. You take good care of your master, don’t let her fall into Qi Deviation again.” Thinking of that mute’s pure cultivation, its foundation firm, clearly so, and still it could deviate, it was not hard for Ye Wenxin to imagine how strong-willed the mute must be.

Previously, Ye Wenxin had assumed this mute was the rumored Fairy Fengya and thus was friendly to her, but now that this assumption had been resolved, Ye Wenxin naturally had no need for further contact with the mute.

With these pills and this meal, Ye Wenxin regarded it as having repaid the mute’s care; from this point on, she would have no more dealings with the mute.

The crow did not seem to fully understand, tilting its head to look at Ye Wenxin, one claw hooked on her clothes.

“If you don’t want to become my dinner, you better put your claw away.” Ye Wenxin naturally caught the crow’s surreptitious movement and gave a warning.

The crow retracted its claw, glanced at Ye Wenxin again, before finally leaving with the medicine. Ye Wenxin changed back to her child form among the trees and unhurriedly made her way back to the small courtyard where she lived.

The small courtyard was quiet. Wind blew occasionally, rustling the bamboo forest, the sound accompanied by the frequent fragrance of bamboo. This fine time and beautiful scenery left Ye Wenxin suddenly craving a drink.

She opened her bag of holding and did a little scrounging, then noticed the dozen or so bottles of spirit wine she initially had were now down to the last one, and suddenly could not bear to drink it.

This spirit wine had been personally brewed for Ye Wenxin by the Saintess of the Wind and Moon Palace. For one with a constitution that was prone to Qi Deviation like Ye Wenxin, it was simply the best medicine.

Now that she had left the Wind and Moon Palace, Ye Wenxin naturally no longer had a source for spirit wine and would cherish the last pot.

“Screw it, just take one sip.” Ye Wenxin suggested to herself and uncorked the wine, releasing an intense smell.

This wine was extremely spicy, both the materials used and their selection highly precious and demanding, and if it was sold in the market just its minimum price would go over ten thousand spirit stones.

Fully knowing how valuable this wine was, Ye Wenxin did not take much of a sip.

As the alcohol entered her system, her body immediately warmed up, making her feel very comfortable. Just a sip, yet Ye Wenxin unexpectedly found herself feeling somewhat drunk.

In the past she clearly could not get drunk even after drinking a whole pot, but she had surprisingly become so weak. In her melancholy, Ye Wenxin gazed up at the bright moonlight, her face finally showing some loss and hopelessness.

“Where the hell did my cultivation run off to?”

Sadly, there was only the bright moonlight around, and it could not offer the answer to any of Ye Wenxin’s questions.

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TL notes: Made some changes. I’ll edit them into the previous chapters as well.

‘back mountains’ to ‘backwoods’,

‘alchemy courtyard’ to ‘Alchemy Workshop’