Chapter 8: The Painted Bun

Though not a shred of oppressive aura radiated from him, the old man’s mere question was enough to make one feel immense pressure, forbidding any thought of deception.

Song Zhiyou maintained a candid expression, her hand instinctively reaching for the spirit plant at her waist.

“Honored immortals, I came to Qixia Mountain to gather herbs. But suddenly the mountain shook, and I fell here.”

“A celestial treasure…” Song Zhiyou looked puzzled. “Is it that lotus that suddenly became fragrant?”

“Someone picked it.”

“Who was it?”

“Where is that person now?”

The group spoke almost in unison, finding her words credible.

Aside from a low-grade demon core and a spirit plant, the young girl had not the slightest trace of other spiritual power fluctuations.

Moreover, her face was pale, and her body carried no spiritual power at all, as if she were severely injured.

All this indicated that the celestial treasure was neither on her person nor had she consumed it.

Song Zhiyou shrank her neck. “I… don’t know him… He was a male cultivator, about sixteen or seventeen, dressed all in black.”

Recalling Song Lingtian’s appearance, she added more details.

Then, estimating the direction where Song Lingtian had been and the plot from the book, she raised her hand and pointed at the passage to the right, slightly toward the center.

“He seemed to have gone that way, but I was already losing consciousness, so I’m not sure if I saw correctly…”

At her words, their gazes all fell on the right passage.

They exchanged a glance, then swiftly sped off toward the second passage on the right.

Before leaving, Lu Wangshu stuffed a bottle of pills into Song Zhiyou’s hand.

She said it was a reward for the information.

She also told Song Zhiyou the way out.

Song Zhiyou’s conscience pricked, then she opened the pill bottle.

Inside were ten healing pills.

She tucked them away without eating, waiting on the spot for the next batch of people.

Song Zhiyou knew she wasn’t injured––her spiritual power was simply severely depleted.

Not long after, several more groups of uniformly dressed cultivators rushed in, and Song Zhiyou answered each one.

“I fell while gathering herbs…”

“The one who picked the lotus? That way…”

“Black clothes… sixteen or seventeen…”

“About here… I didn’t see clearly…”

Song Zhiyou’s hand wavered, then pointed to the passages on the right, both left and right.

She wasn’t sure which right passage would eventually lead to Song Lingtian, so she pointed at all of them.

No one paid much attention to Song Zhiyou, whose breathing was weak and who didn’t even have the lowest-grade spatial pouch. They only focused on contending for the celestial treasure, speeding away.

Judging that enough people had come, Song Zhiyou slowly crawled up from the ground, turned, and left through the hole the cultivators had blasted open.

When she emerged outside the mountain, it was already afternoon.

Her stomach growled with hunger, and the spiritual power depletion made her head throb with pain, her steps unsteady.

At this rate, she probably couldn’t walk back.

After a moment’s thought, Song Zhiyou hid behind a bush, pulled a milky-white scroll from her bosom.

She had no blank paper left, and her depleted spiritual power couldn’t sustain manifesting new sheets.

She took out another scroll and began composing on the existing green op art.

Song Zhiyou produced a brush and dipped it into the milky-white scroll.

The moment the brush touched the scroll, the previously still surface rippled like water, the brush staining milky white.

After the time it takes to burn an incense stick, a steamed bun appeared in Song Zhiyou’s hand.

The bun had a faint, strange green tinge and emitted a strong, bitter odor unique to Nourishing Origin Grass, completely killing any appetite.

But Song Zhiyou couldn’t care less.

She tentatively took a bite.

Unexpectedly, it didn’t taste bitter; instead, a feeling of fullness emerged, accompanied by gradually replenishing spiritual power.

Song Zhiyou’s eyes lit up.

The bun she had drawn could actually satisfy hunger!

It also had the effects of both Jade Nectar and Nourishing Origin Grass: replenishing spiritual power, nourishing the body, and tonifying.

But if not eaten, others would see it as an ordinary steamed bun with the bitter taste of Nourishing Origin Grass and extremely faint spiritual power.

Consuming Jade Nectar might invite scrutiny and suspicion, but eating a bun wouldn’t.

As she mused, she drew three more buns.

A single drop of Jade Nectar contains a vast amount of pure spiritual power and can remove impurities from the body, having some effects of the Jade Nectar Lotus.

But Song Zhiyou was extremely stingy; four buns shared three drops of the white liquid, maximizing frugality.

Song Zhiyou ate a bun as she walked all the way back to the Song family. Even though she used spiritual power during the journey, her reserves were still ample when she arrived.

Not far away, several children around ten years old stared at Song Zhiyou’s back as if they had seen a ghost.

After a while, someone finally reacted.

“Is that… the little debt collector?”

“Did she go mining?”

“What’s she holding? A bun with green mold? Eww… so disgusting.”

“Who would eat a bun? And a stale one at that!”

They chattered, startled, and finally burst into laughter.

Just then, they spotted Song Qingyao approaching from the other side.

Immediately, they all ran over to her, their voices growing increasingly exaggerated.

“Seventh Sister! Seventh Sister, look!”

“Seventh Sister, did you see that? That little debt collector totally offended my eyes!”

“Yeah, yeah! She, she was gnawing on a moldy green bun!”

“She’s a disgrace to the Song family!”

“That wretched look of hers isn’t even fit to tie our Seventh Sister’s shoes! She should be kicked out of the Song family!”

Song Qingyao instantly knew who ‘debt collector’ referred to.

Hearing their gleeful chatter, she felt no joy at all.

She followed their pointing fingers and saw only a back covered in injuries.

An inexplicable anger surged in her heart.

She glared fiercely at her younger siblings. “You’re the debt collectors!”

“Have you done your training today? All of you, go to the martial hall and wait for me to spar!”

Hearing this, the schadenfreude vanished from the children’s faces, replaced by terror. They began to wail and resist.

They didn’t want to spar with Seventh Sister!

Sparring with her was nothing but a beating!

And complaining to their parents was useless; their parents would even thank Seventh Sister for training them!

Song Qingyao set her hands on her hips and put on a stern face. “Three!”

With a wail, the children dispersed like startled birds, all rushing toward the martial hall and disappearing without a trace.

Song Qingyao stood hesitantly, biting her lip as she looked in the direction Song Zhiyou had gone.

If she went over now, would Song Zhiyou think she too had come to mock her?

But without her, Song Zhiyou might be alone in her room, weeping while eating moldy buns.

And those injuries—how did she get them? A grown person, not even taking medicine on her own…

No!

Song Zhiyou had nothing to do with her, and she was even annoying. Why was she worrying for no reason?

The more Song Qingyao thought, the more irritated she became.

Forget it…

When in doubt, take it out on the brats. She’d just beat those little rabbits first!

Song Qingyao still felt indignant.

Being a child was good—just eat, train, and get beaten.

Unlike her, who was an adult now and had to think about such complicated things.

Frowning, Song Qingyao rolled up her sleeves and stomped toward the martial hall.

Song Zhiyou was completely unaware of what had happened at the martial hall; she hadn’t even clearly heard what those children had said behind her back.

Only after returning to her little room did she relax, carefully pulling a scroll from her sleeve.

Painted on the scroll was a Jade Nectar Lotus.

More precisely, this was the Jade Nectar Lotus.

📚 Also on NHV Novels

I’m Not the Saintess! I’m a Good-for-Nothing Young Master!

Female ProtagonistGender BenderReverse Pursuit

Read Now →
Not interested