Chapter 15

"Senior Sister, I don't want to eat meat; it's too hard to eat." Lu Xiaodeng was utterly unwilling. Compared to the soup she cooked, this stuff was so unpalatable it was like eating something from heaven.

Lu Yaohang calmly said, "Senior Brother, we don't have a pocket of chaos. With such a long snake, there's no way to preserve the meat. Whatever Senior Brother wants, just take it, and then exchange it for crystal fruits for the two of us."

"Crystal fruits?" Bai Zhen glanced at her indifferently. She really had some nerve, daring to haggle in this desolate place. If someone died here, their bones would rot without anyone noticing.

He thought they were trying to act innocent or use their cultivation to pressure him, but he had misjudged them.

Lu Xiaodeng tugged at her senior sister's sleeve and said pitifully, "Senior Sister, this time we came out with nothing. My parents' illness will have no cure. And your family will force you to marry that old man with no teeth, just to get some crystal beans to buy elixirs for your brother."

"Our lives are so miserable. I'm about to become an orphan, and you'll be taken over by that old man. Heaven is so unfair. Do we only have one way out, to die?"

Lu Yaohang patted her head and smiled bitterly, "Xiaodeng, you must live bravely. My life is over, but yours is just beginning. Don't worry, I'll ask the old man to increase the dowry and give crystal beans to treat your parents."

"Senior Sister, if we could find some spirit herbs or the corpse of a Wind Golden Horn Snake, we wouldn't be so desperate. Unfortunately, we have no cultivation and can only be preyed upon by others." Lu Xiaodeng said with deep sorrow, then buried her head in Lu Yaohang's chest and cried bitterly.

"Xiaodeng, we can only blame our own uselessness!"

Bai Zhen watched them speechlessly, wondering if they were telling the truth. It seemed genuine; he had proposed the distribution suddenly, and they hadn't had time to discuss it secretly. It couldn't have been fabricated on the spot. Fine, let them escape this life. Otherwise, they might curse him for the rest of their lives, and it would be uncomfortable to see them in the sect later. After all, it wasn't a huge amount of crystal fruits.

If Lu Xiaodeng and Lu Yaohang had been noisy and troublesome, Bai Zhen might have taken the items directly, and in a worse case, even beaten them. He wouldn't kill them, as they were from the same sect, and killing two medicine apprentices would be too inhumane.

Now, their cries of poverty and misery made Bai Zhen feel awkward. Taking things from women and causing their families to break apart could affect his Daoist heart.

So, Bai Zhen said generously, "Forget it, let's split the Wind Golden Horn Snake among the three of us. Selling it would be troublesome for you. I'll take the whole snake and convert your share into crystal fruits, which you can carry away."

Lu Xiaodeng suddenly looked up, her tears turning to a smile, "Thank you, Senior Brother Bai. You're a good person."

Lu Yaohang also agreed with this arrangement. Dealing with the scales and other parts would be too much trouble. It was better to take crystal fruits and buy the cultivation techniques and spirit herbs they wanted.

Neither of them knew the prices, but fortunately, Bai Zhen wasn't a bad person and gave them a fair price, dividing 26 pigeon-egg-sized crystal fruits between them.

Crystal fruits were more valuable than crystal beans, which were only the size of soybeans. The larger the crystal fruit, the more valuable it was. Pigeon-egg-sized crystal fruits weren't large, but they were common in the market. This made Lu Xiaodeng and Lu Yaohang, who had never held crystal fruits before, very excited.

With the items in hand, Lu Yaohang decided to return. As for Bai Zhen, he didn't need their help. He planned to contact the sect and have a disciple from Mount Taiyi, who managed the sect's warehouse, come to buy the items.

Although the price wasn't as high as outside, it was much more convenient, and he didn't have to drag the snake out to sell it. Bai Zhen's pocket of chaos wasn't large enough to hold the whole snake, and taking only the valuable parts wasn't worth it, as it would be picked up by others if left behind.

Lu Xiaodeng followed her senior sister, holding a torch and walking back step by step. When they had walked a fair distance, she whispered, "Senior Sister, I heard the laughter of a child coming from Senior Brother Bai."

"From him! Do you know what it is?" Lu Yaohang stopped and turned back, frowning.

"It's probably a spirit herb that has become sentient. It might be in a jade box with a seal, so even if it's right in front of me, I can't hear it. I only heard it when he opened his pocket of chaos to give us the crystal beads."

Lu Yaohang thought for a moment and said, "It seems the Wind Golden Horn Snake was guarding this spirit herb. When Bai Zhen took it, the snake chased after him. But it didn't expect to lose the spirit herb and almost lose its own life."

"Senior Sister, let's just forget about it. Senior Brother Bai is very powerful." Lu Xiaodeng advised, sensing the danger from her intuition.

Lu Yaohang laughed, "You're overestimating me. I'm only at the initial stage of Qi Cultivation and know only a few spells. How could I fight him? Let's go; we'll buy things in Lusheng City tomorrow." She wouldn't even think of robbing him; she didn't have the skills, and it would be suicidal.

"I'm just worried you might do something rash. If it were someone else, I wouldn't care." Lu Xiaodeng felt relieved, fearing her senior sister might act irrationally.

The night road was harder to walk. They walked until the sky was misty bright and saw the mountain path they had taken earlier. They didn't plan to return to the Medicine Hall but went directly to the sect gate and reported to the guard that they wanted to go down the mountain.

Since they were just two medicine apprentices and under Yu Daojun, the guard simply noted it and let them out.

Lusheng City was located outside the Fangjing Mountains, only half an hour's walk from the Yunjian Sect. It was easy to get there on foot, and even faster on horseback. Lu Xiaodeng and Lu Yaohang didn't have horses, and they only went out once a year to buy miscellaneous items. If it weren't for the straight path and her senior sister's guidance, she would have been worried about getting lost.

There weren't many people on the road. The sect hadn't expanded, and taxes were collected by the Yunjian Sect. No ordinary people came here. The few people on the road were mostly low-ranking disciples of the Yunjian Sect, most of whom were visiting their families in Lusheng City.

Lu Xiaodeng asked, puzzled, "Senior Sister, are all the Yunjian Sect disciples from Lusheng City?"

"Many are. Every New Year's Day, the Yunjian Sect sends people to Lusheng City to check the spirit veins of children under eight years old. If a child's spirit veins meet the entry requirements, they ask the family's opinion. If they agree, the child will be given elixirs to take and will become a new disciple at eight years old." Lu Yaohang, who knew more about this, explained.

For those who didn't agree to join immediately, the Yunjian Sect didn't provide elixirs. They were left to their families to raise and would be tested at eight years old. This wasn't just the Yunjian Sect's test; it was a test for the entire cultivation world, where both righteous and evil sects recruited disciples under sixteen years old.

To join a sect, one had to meet the sect's requirements and agree to join. Evil sects sometimes forcibly took those they liked, while righteous sects used various benefits to lure them.

The Yunjian Sect was a second-rate sect but specialized in sword techniques. Despite being poor, they were rarely bullied and didn't intentionally cause trouble for others due to good teaching.

Many children who liked fighting and killing came from far away to become sword cultivators here. Of course, the sects mostly recruited children from ordinary families within their territories. The sects protected the safety of the towns and residents in their territories and collected taxes, so they naturally recruited more disciples from their own areas.

In the territories, half of the people in the towns had relatives in the sect. Suitable children from families were often pre-arranged to join the sect when they reached the right age, and after the two-year probationary period, they would enter the various peaks.

Children under eight were not required to join, as they couldn't take care of themselves and would be a burden to their senior disciples.

"That's why I, who was picked up, can only be a medicine apprentice and not a disciple." Lu Xiaodeng nodded, understanding the nepotism.

Lu Yaohang rolled her eyes, "That's not the reason. It's because you're too stupid. You have no soul or spirit veins. Who would make you a disciple?"

"How could I have spirit veins?" Lu Xiaodeng looked at her unconcernedly, patting her chest, "I'm full of spiritual energy. Why would I need spirit veins?"

"Don't tell anyone that. They'll take you as a furnace to refine elixirs." She was a fool, saying things that could get her killed.

Lu Xiaodeng stuck out her tongue and laughed, "I only told you, Senior Sister. I wouldn't tell anyone else."

"Really, you're hopeless. Lusheng City is almost here. You'd better keep quiet." The road was getting busier, and they had reached the outskirts of Lusheng City. They would enter the city in a moment.

For Lu Xiaodeng, this was her first time in a town. The shops on both sides of the street were dazzling, far more than the small market in the sect. Besides items for cultivators, half were for ordinary people's daily needs, making her eyes wide with wonder.

"Senior Sister, come and look. This shop has a sign with the word 'soul.' Are they selling human souls? Let's go in and buy some to nourish me." Lu Xiaodeng found a strange shop with a flag outside that read 'soul' and ran in excitedly.

This was the Yunjian Sect's territory; how could anyone sell souls? Lu Yaohang quickly followed, "Xiaodeng, they don't sell souls. Come out quickly; the things here are very expensive..."

She hadn't even finished her sentence when she saw the shopkeeper already holding something and approaching Lu Xiaodeng.