Chapter 21

A thunderous explosion echoed across the flatland, raising a cloud of dust and leaving a small crater in the ground from its powerful blast.

Mu Chongxi stepped back in shock, exclaiming, “What an amazing bomb!”

He realized that his litte sister’s strange inventions were anything but ordinary. This bomb, for instance, had a power comparable to a strike from a Golden Core cultivator.

“What a fierce weapon.”

“Let me try, let me try,” he said eagerly, taking a bomb in hand after witnessing its power. “Litte sister, watch closely.”

Mu Chongxi, full of excitement, declared, “I’ll throw it farther than you did.”

Ye Qiao watched as he swung his arm, twirling it twice before hurling the bomb with all his might. It indeed flew quite far, approximately ten meters, and exploded with a dull thud.

From a distance, Qin Fanfan’s furious voice roared, “Who dares to ambush me?!”

Ye Qiao and Mu Chongxi exchanged a glance, wide-eyed.

A single thought arose in both of their minds: This is bad.

“Run!”

The two shared an unspoken agreement when it came to fleeing. They bolted without looking back, not wanting to end up in solitary confinement again.

Qin Fanfan was currently giving Elder Sun from Chengfeng Sect a tour of the sect. Both of them knew the real purpose of this visit: to gauge the strength of Changming Sect. Despite Changming Sect consistently ranking at the bottom for a thousand years, rumors had spread that their disciples’ strength this year was remarkable. Thus, Chengfeng Sect decided to send someone to investigate.

As Elder Sun exchanged pleasantries with Qin Fanfan, they strolled around, each uttering polite but insincere remarks.

“I hear your sect’s new disciples are quite talented this year,” Elder Sun remarked with a slight smile.

Qin Fanfan returned a forced smile. “You flatter us. This year, we’re just participating for the experience.”

Elder Sun masked a hint of mockery. He thought he had been overly cautious. Changming Sect’s abilities were well known, and if they had any strong disciples this year, Qin Fanfan wouldn’t speak so ambiguously.

Their conversation brought them to the back mountain, a place where sword cultivators often practiced. Just as they took their first steps, something strange landed at their feet.

Qin Fanfan was about to speak when the object at their feet emitted white smoke and then exploded.

Qin Fanfan, being highly skilled, wasn’t hurt, but the explosion was powerful enough to leave a small crater. His first thought was that someone was trying to harm him, and he roared in anger, “Who dares to ambush me?”

“…”

Silence surrounded them as the culprits had already fled. Elder Sun from Chengfeng Sect, having recovered from the shock, pointed at the remains of the bomb and stammered, “What kind of weapon is this?”

Qin Fanfan was equally baffled. But seeing Elder Sun’s shocked expression calmed his initial anger. For the first time, he felt a sense of pride in front of another sect. He knew that because Changming Sect had consistently ranked low, these elders had mocked him privately many times.

Qin Fanfan lightly coughed, stroked his beard with a knowing look, and casually said, “Ah, this is just a little gadget made by a few of our less capable disciples. Nothing valuable.”

Nothing valuable? A little gadget? What kind of “little gadget” had such power?

Elder Sun’s expression shifted from casual to serious, with a hint of reverence. He didn’t want to press further and reluctantly echoed Qin Fanfan’s words.

Throughout the rest of the day, Elder Sun seemed distracted. Once he left Changming Sect, he quickly took out a jade slip to send a message.

“Changming Sect is terrifying this year!”

Elder Sun’s hands trembled as he sent the message to his sect leader.

*

After leaving the back mountain, Ye Qiao and Mu Chongxi contemplated the possibility of creating a gun. Not a modern firearm with bullets, but something that could hold powerful items in its magazine.

Ye Qiao hadn’t yet figured out what to use, but she could draw up a design. As a skilled designer, her hands-on ability was strong.

After sketching the design, Ye Qiao turned to her companion, Mu Chongxi, and extended a sincere invitation, “Shall we go down the mountain together?”

Ye Qiao wasn’t an artifact craftsman and knew little about crafting weapons. While she had managed to make the bomb using her memory and books, creating a gun required professional expertise.

Mu Chongxi hesitated for a moment, “We have classes tomorrow.”

Ye Qiao smiled confidently, dimples showing, and said, “Then let’s skip.”

Mu Chongxi’s eyes lit up, “Good idea!”

He had wanted to skip classes for a while. Previously, as the only sword cultivator in Duan Yu’s class, skipping meant solitary confinement. But now, with a litte sister to accompany him, he wouldn’t be alone if punished.

“Let’s go.”

Both were quick to act once they decided, happily running down the mountain. Yunzhong City had all kinds of shops, though prices were high due to being near the five major sects.

Upon reaching a shop that sold artifacts, Ye Qiao eagerly handed over her design.

“Can you make this?”

The shop wasn’t busy, as rogue cultivators rarely had the means to buy artifacts, and major sects didn’t favor the shop’s items. The shopkeeper leisurely smoking a pipe paused when he saw Ye Qiao’s design and examined it closely, intrigued, “What is this? Why is the shape so peculiar?”

It didn’t look like a sword or any other weapon he knew.

Ye Qiao calmly replied, “It’s called a gun.”

“Can you make it with the ability to hold multiple items inside?”

The shopkeeper was quite interested and nodded, “Yes, but the price… it will be about three hundred high-grade spirit stones.”

That was quite expensive. So Ye Qiao began to haggle, a process that took time but ended successfully. She managed to bring the price down to one hundred high-grade spirit stones.

Mu Chongxi was stunned. He had always paid whatever price was asked.

 Who knew you could negotiate?

Ye Qiao seemed to read his thoughts. “Of course, you can negotiate. But if you don’t lack spirit stones, you don’t have to.”

Mu Chongxi wasn’t exactly lacking, but thinking about how he could have paid less made him inexplicably unhappy.

“Let’s go,” Ye Qiao said. “Do you need to buy anything? We can finish shopping before heading back.”

Mu Chongxi sighed, “Forget it. I won’t buy anything today.”

“Why not?”

Mu Chongxi clutched his chest, “Just thinking about the extra spirit stones I spent hurts.”

“…”

Alright then.

Ye Qiao understood his frustration. If she had given away so many spirit stones for nothing, she would feel even worse. “Let’s go back to the sect. I have a few talismans that need testing.”

Previously inexperienced, Ye Qiao used to test her talismans on herself, leading to an incident where she accidentally blew a hole in the inn’s wall. Since then, she had become much more cautious.

After some painful reflection, she decided not to harm herself anymore. After all, why should she make life difficult for herself?

She was ready to make others her test subjects now.

Mu Chongxi scratched his head and naively asked, “Do you have many talismans?”

“Not many,” Ye Qiao replied, looking at him pitifully. “Just a few.”

She emphasized the words “few” and “just.”

Believing her lie out of a desire to protect his litte sister, Mu Chongxi agreed.

For the next three days, the two stayed in the back mountain, skipping all their classes and taking turns testing Ye Qiao’s various talismans.

Mu Chongxi soon realized that his litte sister’s words were deceptive.

“A few” his foot.

“Come on, Fourth Brother, this is the last one,” Ye Qiao said enthusiastically, holding out the final talisman. “Don’t worry, this one won’t make you uncomfortable. It’s called the Haha Talisman.”

“It’ll just make you laugh a little. Look at you, you look like a bitter melon.”

Having stayed up three nights in a row with her, Mu Chongxi looked pale and pitiful, clearly worn out. He sighed, “Fine.”

Honestly, her talismans were quite interesting.

If only he weren’t the test subject.

After getting his consent, Ye Qiao eagerly threw the Haha Talisman onto Mu Chongxi.

Sometimes, a talisman didn’t need to be powerful; making someone laugh to the point of distraction was a form of interference.

At first, Mu Chongxi didn’t react, maintaining his miserable expression. But soon, he tilted his head back and let out a series of villainous laughs: “Hahahahaha—”

“Hahahahaha.”

Mu Chongxi laughed so hard that passing sword cultivators were startled, almost thinking that Brother Mu had gone mad.

“…”

After a brief pause, just when Ye Qiao thought it was over, Mu Chongxi’s laughter resumed with varying pitches.

“Ha, ha, ha!”

Ye Qiao: “…”