Chapter 41

Killing Clams in the Forest

One must not go deep into the wild forests of Purple Essence Mountain, and once one leaves the formation where one's own grotto-abode is located, there is no absolutely safe place. This was something Steward Feng had said several times on the way to bring her here. She was a steward of Spirit Valley Peak, and Spirit Valley Peak usually looked after all outer sect disciples, so Steward Feng naturally had to make things clear. If Both Both Ruan Ci didn't listen, that was her own business, and it had nothing to do with her if she died. But for Both Both Ruan Ci, she also had her own reasons for having to enter the forest—if she didn't enter the forest, where would she find a way to eat?

It is pitiful to say, but Both Both Ruan Ci had never eaten a proper meal of mortal food in her life. When she was in the Song Kingdom, she cooked jade-eating rice, and once she left the Song Kingdom, she couldn't eat ordinary rice or meat. At first, she relied on Wang Panpan to hunt for her. Wang Panpan was a cat after all, in charge of killing but not cooking. If there was no special method for spirit beast meat, all the spiritual energy would dissipate within a few days. Wang Panpan also didn't know how to make the beast meat into jerky. Every ten days or half a month, she would kill a demonic beast, and she and Both Both Ruan Ci would share it. Both Both Ruan Ci would be so hungry that she couldn't stand it, and Wang Panpan would go hunting again, complaining for half a day. Later, after refining the Donghua Sword, Both Both Ruan Ci's skills went up a level, and Wang Panpan let her hunt for herself. Sometimes she would even lead her to the territory of Foundation Establishment demonic beasts, let her confront the demonic beasts, and circle around for a while until she couldn't hold on anymore, then come out to kill them. The two of them even quarreled repeatedly because of this, because although Both Both Ruan Ci was hungry one meal and full the next, she was still very willful. Whenever she saw cute and gentle demonic beasts that did not invade mortal villages, she couldn't bear to kill them, only killing those ugly and bloody wolf demons, wild boar demons, and tiger demons that were unpleasant to look at.

Demonic beasts each had their own territory and were not lined up waiting for them to challenge them. On the way to Altar City, she still only ate one or two meals every ten days. When she arrived at Altar City, it was even more pitiful. Where were there any wild demonic beasts around Altar City? All beast meat was clearly priced, and one could only enjoy it if one had money. Both Both Ruan Ci was just a little clerk, where would she have spirit money? If it weren't for Wang Panpan often calling her over and giving her some jerky, Both Both Ruan Ci would have really starved to death in Altar City.

Although she could go without food for several days, she had not completely achieved Grain Grain Bigu after all. It was best to eat a full meal every five or six days. Now that she had stepped into the Qi Condensation stage, her appetite had become even larger than before—Qi Condensation stage cultivators didn't achieve Grain Grain Bigu in the first place, and they had to eat as much spirit food as possible to nourish their body's origin. If their constitution was good, their consumption would be greater, and they would eat more. If they ate less, they would have to meditate more and nourish themselves by refining spiritual energy.

For Both Both Ruan Ci, the speed of refining spiritual energy did not depend on her aptitude, but on her connection with the Donghua Sword. That trace of connection became thicker and thicker, and the spiritual energy transmitted became faster and faster. Now, the spiritual energy transmitted was not sufficient to the extent of allowing her to achieve Grain Grain Bigu. Even if it wasn't her special situation, for general disciples to advance in cultivation, the monthly stipend sent by the Profound Heaven Sect was actually not enough. How to make up for this difference depended on the disciples showing their own magical powers.

For Both Both Ruan Ci, she could ask the Purple Void Grotto-Heaven for help. It was no problem for a Grotto-Heaven True Person to reward some spirit food, and even a Nascent Soul True Person could afford to raise her. Both Both Ruan Ci had never gone hungry in the years she was in Junping Prefecture; spirit food was all available for her to take, and she ate until she was full. She didn't see Lin Ji feeling sorry for anything, but instead sent it to her in various ways. It was just that Lin Ji didn't give her any food reserves when she got off the boat. From getting off the Heavenly Boat and boarding the One Qi Cloud Sail, four or five days had passed until now, and no one had sent her spirit food. There was only the remaining half plate of jerky, which was the last bit of food she brought that she hadn't finished on the Heavenly Boat.

Once a cultivator steps onto the Dao path, their ears and eyes are sharp, and their thinking is eloquent. Even if there were omissions, they should have thought of it these days. What's more, Wang Panpan was still being raised by Lin Ji, so she couldn't have forgotten. If she wanted to send it, she should have sent it. If she didn't send it, it meant that Junping Prefecture didn't intend to send it. Both Both Ruan Ci didn't blame them either. She wasn't a disciple of Junping Prefecture. As an outer sect disciple, she should have managed her own food. If Junping Prefecture didn't send it, then she would go and catch it herself, wouldn't that be fine?

As for whether there would be any dangerous situations in the back mountain, she was not worried about this point. The Profound Heaven Sect wouldn't care about the life or death of ordinary disciples, but Both Both Ruan Ci was not ordinary. She knew this herself, benefited from it, and was burdened by it. Now she was even more prepared to rely on this point to be willful. In any case, she was only ten years old, and those old monsters who were thousands or tens of thousands of years old, she thought, would be too embarrassed to haggle with her.

Perhaps because she had been in the great formation of the Song Kingdom since she was a child and had been restrained for a long time, Both Both Ruan Ci disliked being restrained the most in her life. In the few years in Junping Prefecture, she was really bored enough. After getting off the Heavenly Boat, there were successive grand feasts, but Both Both Ruan Ci was not intoxicated at all—if she were a person watching the fun, she would definitely find it interesting, but she was the one being watched, so she only felt that her whole body was wrapped in spider silk, and the more she moved, the tighter it tightened. She understood that sentence of Liu Jizi at that time, and it was not wrong at all. Having obtained the Donghua Sword, she could do many things she couldn't do before, but there were also many things she didn't want to do that had to be done.

Human nature is just like this, not cherishing blessings and often harboring resentment. Xie Xie Yan Huan, who lent her the sword, had already gone beyond the heavens, and she didn't need to be grateful to others. Naturally, she felt that everyone's probing, beating, and demands were all entangled with the Donghua Sword, making people feel annoyed. Both Both Ruan Ci's manic-depressive feelings reached their limit in the Seven Stars Small Abode, even more unhappy than when the old man trapped her in a chess game. At this moment, walking in the mountain forest, her emotions had calmed down. In all fairness, the spiritual energy of Purple Essence Mountain was rich, the wind and smoke were clean, the sky and mountains were the same color, and the scenery was strange and beautiful everywhere, which was also the most beautiful scenery she had never seen in her life.

Both Both Ruan Ci hummed a song, not in a hurry to hunt, enjoying the mountain scenery to her heart's content, only feeling that her chest was wide open, and her playful heart arose again. She took off her boots, jumped into a small stream, chased the stream fish, and stepped on the water, making it splash loudly, like broken jade splashing, splashing everywhere with laughter. After such a mess, she sighed to herself, "If only Panpan were by my side, it would definitely scold me. This cat is very good at spoiling the fun, but without it, I feel like something is missing."

Chen Jun wanted to keep Wang Panpan, fearing the attitude of Wang Zhenren. Wang Zhenren would naturally not kill Both Both Ruan Ci, but might take action against Xie Xie Yan Huan's former beloved pet. Both Both Ruan Ci understood this point, but she didn't know when she would be able to get Wang Panpan back under the gate of the Grotto-Heaven True Person. With Wang Panpan not by her side, it was convenient for her to cultivate the "Yin Jun Dan Ge", but she also felt very lonely. Even if Wang Panpan was by her side, she knew very well that she was just one person, but this was two kinds of loneliness after all. Now this loneliness was even lonelier.

After messing around enough, she threw the little fish that kept jumping between her fingers into the stream—any fish that was easy to catch was not a spirit beast. This little fish was dull, and she caught one every time, it was just an ordinary fish. At most, because it had been in Purple Essence Mountain for many years, the fish meat was a bit more delicate than in the mortal world. Mortals could prolong their lives by eating it, but Both Both Ruan Ci still couldn't eat it. This kind of meat tasted bitter and astringent in her mouth, and she would spit it out immediately.

This place was still in the shallow part of the back mountain, not far from Both Both Ruan Ci's grotto-abode. According to common sense, there wouldn't be any high-level demonic beasts. Both Both Ruan Ci activated her spiritual energy, evaporated the water vapor on her feet, put on her shoes and socks, and first thought, "I should learn some talisman techniques. I don't know if I can learn them now, otherwise, it will still be very inconvenient. When in the Song Kingdom, everyone used the Dust-Avoiding Talisman, which could keep the whole body clean and pure, and it would be very useful now."

Thinking that after she cultivated the Dao, the first time she seriously used her spiritual power was actually to steam her feet, she felt it was very funny, couldn't help but giggle, and said to herself, "It's a good thing Panpan is not by my side, otherwise, it wouldn't let this go for a hundred years."

Just as she was saying this, she heard a light cry in the distance, like the meow of a little kitten. Both Both Ruan Ci wondered, "Panpan?"

Looking towards the source of the sound, she only saw the grass leaves moving lightly, darting away into the distance. Both Both Ruan Ci started to chase after it, calling out constantly, "Panpan, stop, wait for me!"

She only saw a cat shadow in the forest, darting very fast, running upstream along the stream. Both Both Ruan Ci chased directly behind. The end of this stream was a small pool, with a short waterfall pouring in above, splashing water, and scattering a seven-colored small rainbow in the air, which was quite cute. Both Both Ruan Ci chased the cat all the way here and smiled, "Caught you!"

The little cat in the grass pounced forward and dived into the waterfall. Both Both Ruan Ci followed and grabbed forward. When she leaped into the air, her wrist turned, but she stabbed out with a long sword, and leaped back herself, smiling, "Interesting, it turns out to be a big river clam."

She only saw a puff of seven-colored smoke emerging from the pool mouth. The small pool, mountain wall, and short waterfall all disappeared in the smoke. There was only a giant clam, opening its shell, as big as a mountain wall, lying across the small stream. The small pool was its clam meat. It wouldn't be a problem for more than a dozen people to stand side by side inside this river clam. At this time, the clam shell was trying to close, but was stuck by a long sword, and the tip of the sword also nailed the clam's axe-foot. This axe-foot was born very long and thin, twisting and turning on the grass, thinking it must be the 'Panpan' just now.

"Full of spirituality." Both Both Ruan Ci smiled, "You heard me missing the little cat I raised, so you could transform into a cat shadow and lead me to chase for two miles. I think you must be close to Foundation Establishment, right?"

She used to infer the cultivation base mainly by her own intuition. Those she could beat were Qi Condensation stage, and those she couldn't beat were probably already Foundation Establishment. But at this time, she felt it was wrong again. At that time, she hadn't opened her meridians and only relied on her skills. Now that she had spiritual power, her cultivation base should be able to go a step further. Even if it was a Foundation Establishment demonic beast, if it lacked attack means, she felt she could probably beat it in her heart. After all, this ability to fight was not completely equal to the cultivation realm. If it was useful just to have a realm, cultivators wouldn't have to work hard to open up the Jade Pool and cultivate spiritual sense in order to build a high Dao foundation.

Xie Xie Yan Huan once told Both Both Ruan Ci that the eye-sense should not be opened randomly. If one peeped at a senior with a stronger cultivation base, the spiritual sense would suffer irreversible damage. Both Both Ruan Ci kept her instructions in mind and rarely opened her eyes to look blindly. At this time, it was no harm to look after stabbing the river clam, so she opened her eye-sense to look. She only saw that the aura on the top of the clam shell was like a high platform, divided into five layers, the bottom was solid like truth, but the two layers on the top were a bit illusory, so she couldn't help but smile, "It really is Foundation Establishment? The platform is five layers high, three solid and two illusory, not much."

This knowledge of Qi-viewing and grading was also taught in "Heavenly Boat Crossing". Both Both Ruan Ci saw that the giant clam's axe-foot was still moving wildly, obviously full of vitality, and she was also drooling, muttering, "So spiritual, it must be delicious. How should I cook you? Hmm, I really should have asked Sister Feng for a cook who knows how to cook."

She rubbed her hands, looking like she was happy to see the hunt. The river clam contracted sharply, obviously extremely afraid. However, Both Both Ruan Ci didn't sympathize with it. If she didn't have the Donghua Sword on her, calming her mind, and all external thoughts couldn't invade her sea of consciousness, she would probably really dive into the giant clam's mouth, and the clam shell would close, making her a meal in its belly. She was thinking about how to transport this giant clam back. Although the sect would also distribute Qiankun bags and some magic tools, she had to register and record them with the manager at Spirit Valley Peak after opening her meridians before she could receive them.

In Junping Prefecture, although Lin Ji treated her well, she didn't send any magic tools. Both Both Ruan Ci only had a few swords in her hand that she got from the Righteous Qi Merchant Firm. The material was quite good, and one of the swords could be transformed into a short flute at ordinary times. Pressing the mechanism would immediately pop out the sword blade. This was a rare sharp weapon in the mortal world, and Both Both Ruan Ci also kept it in her hand because she thought it was fun. She also had a sword, which was given to her by the blacksmith of the Righteous Qi Merchant Firm. She pulled it out to cut off the river clam's axe-foot, making it unable to walk, and squatted down, pondering how to tie up such a big river clam and bring it back to boil soup.

Before hunting demonic beasts, Wang Panpan was always on the side, pointing out how to deal with them. This was the first time Both Both Ruan Ci was foraging for food by herself. The river clam was different from swimming fish and wild beasts. A large piece of soft meat, as big as several people, she didn't know where the vital point was for a while, how to kill it. Although she cut off the axe-foot, the clam meat couldn't contract, obviously not dead yet. Both Both Ruan Ci couldn't help but feel very tricky, standing there with her hands on her hips, just pondering, her fingers tapping on the sword hilt. After a while, she finally made up her mind, pulled out her sword and raised her hand, her energy locked on the clam meat in front of her, and she swung her sword down.

Although this clam's axe-foot was cut off and the clam shell was nailed, it seemed extremely pitiful, but it was a Foundation Establishment demonic beast after all. It was not strange that Both Both Ruan Ci treated it so cautiously. Her cultivation base, which was not yet full of Qi Condensation, was actually very difficult to completely kill this clam. If she didn't know where the vital point was, she had to smash the Dao foundation to kill its vitality. At this time, her energy locked tightly on the river clam, which was looking for the weakest point in the Dao foundation. No matter the breeze blowing or the leaves swaying, none of them were in her heart. With her Qi Condensation stage spiritual sense, she could only strike a few swords with all her strength, so she was naturally focused and could not afford to lose.

Just as this sword was about to start, someone in the forest knew that the opportunity had arrived. He was ordered in a hurry and rushed over. The magic tool he was most comfortable with on weekdays happened not to be with him, so he had to use a magic sword. Although this little Ci was only at the Qi Condensation cultivation base, and it was said that she had only just opened her meridians last night, she was not his match in one round. But when a cultivator looks at an enemy, it is not just about looking at the cultivation base. The momentum around this little Ci made this person vaguely dare not underestimate her, and he was even more afraid that she was a descendant of a wealthy family from a different continent and had caught the eye of a Grotto-Heaven True Person, fearing that she had strange treasures to protect her body. Even if she was at the Great Perfection of Qi Condensation, vaguely capable of surpassing the cultivation base of many Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Peace Sect, he was like a lion fighting a rabbit, also using all his strength. At the moment when little Ci was fully locked on the river clam, his killing intent rose, the Jade Pool water surged, and he mobilized all his magic power, turning it into a sword that went forward without looking back, stabbing at little Ci's back.

It was too late, but it was fast. Little Ci was indeed unprepared, her empty gate wide open. This sword stabbed her back in an instant. The person hadn't had time to be happy, but only felt that what the sword tip touched was like stubborn stone and silt. The sword intent was stagnant and difficult to move in it, and it couldn't even stab in an inch, let alone cut the skin, but it was even tougher than the "No-Leak Golden Body" of many Foundation Establishment cultivators. He just called out "not good" in his heart, and in his panic, he only saw little Ci turn her head and smile. Her waist was struck by lightning, and a huge force came, kicking him into the forest. He wanted to take advantage of the situation to escape, but his waist was in great pain. As soon as he moved his energy, he spat out a mist of blood. It was just one kick, and his lungs and bowels were kicked to pieces, and he had no strength to escape.

But that little Ci didn't chase after him, but still pulled out her sword in a defensive posture. The person thought in his heart, "This girl's cultivation base is extraordinary, but she has no experience, and she is also a bit too careful. I'm already like this, and she still hasn't come over."

He still had some means to perish together before he died, just waiting for little Ci to walk closer to release it. But little Ci didn't even look at him, holding the precious sword, looking around, and said in a deep voice, "Your Excellency, since you have already leaked your energy, why don't you show yourself?"

This person only then knew that the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. There was another cultivator behind him, whose cultivation base was even better. It was likely that he had just leaked a trace of killing intent and was discovered by little Ci. And if he hadn't been called out by little Ci, he would probably not know until he died that he was actually used as a stone to ask for the way!

He was angry and anxious, ashamed and regretful for a while, let out a loud cry, and spat out a sky full of fresh blood. It was the Jade Pool drying up, his breath gradually cut off, and he was kicked to death on the spot by Both Both Ruan Ci's kick!

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Updated, sorry for the long wait, everyone. Today for lunch I had beef brisket rice noodles. Sigh, I still didn't write any buffer chapters yesterday, because when I was cutting things, my little finger was bruised by the scissors handle.

That scissor design is also outrageous... crying...

I'll send the red envelope from the day before yesterday to everyone in a while~

Thanks to the little angels who cast overlord votes or irrigated nutrient solution for me during the period 2020-07-27 12:05:26~2020-07-28 12:00:59~

Thanks to the little angel who cast a hand grenade: Yu Yu Wan Yao x1;

Thanks to the little angels who cast landmines: Li Li He Ping, Time's Delusion, Taoze Yingnai Sakurana, Long Qian x1;

Thanks to the little angels who irrigated nutrient solution: Shen Nie x20 bottles; Bu Yu x19 bottles; Long Qian, Jie Yin, Fryer x10 bottles; Cheng x7 bottles; Cat chasing yarn ball, Second-year girl bun face x5 bottles; Wa Wangwang x3 bottles; Maid Dragon, Pan Zhou x2 bottles; Laughing to death, akilayue x1 bottle;

Thank you all very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!