Chapter 110: What to do when you encounter an enemy? Go all out

Ending this Real-scene Simulation, Ruan Xing's consciousness returned to reality, and she was still lying in her little nest in the treehouse.

After organizing the information she had obtained, she realized Meng Hui had not told her about the Golden Core Stage cultivation method, and based on current speculations, Qintai He would not tell her either.

Since Meng Hui said the Peak Master would not hinder her cultivation and she only needed to wait patiently, Ruan Xing decided to trust her once.

As for the other matter, it was that she had gained an enemy, Xu Sirui, and this still had to be resolved somehow.

She was suddenly very curious: in those simulations where Elder Wen and the Sect Master did not intend to give her the bamboo leaf, whose peak did she enter after joining the Xuanbing Sect? The Peak Master in those simulations treated her like a transparent person, neither valuing nor suppressing her, letting everything take its natural course.

Could it be the Qingyuan Daojun that Meng Hui mentioned?

What was the reason for taking her in and then leaving her to fend for herself, completely ignoring her?

However, all of this was now impossible to know; after all, she had already entered Yaoguang Peak and could not go back to simulate it again.

She could only walk forward step by step, and the obstacles placed before her also had to be resolved one by one.

She closed her eyes and opened the Real-scene Simulation once more.

After walking out of the range of Yaoguang Peak, Ruan Xing took out a Mask Artifact, concealed her cultivation to the Foundation Establishment Early-stage, and changed her appearance into that of an unremarkable, ordinary male cultivator.

After the disguise was complete, she headed to the Artifact Refining Peak, sat down in a random vacant spot, and if anyone asked, she would reply that she had just entered the Inner Sect, was interested in learning artifact refining, and had come to observe.

Although she looked like a stranger, there were thousands of Inner Sect Disciples, so not everyone knew each other; furthermore, since she said she had just entered the Inner Sect, it was normal for no one to recognize her as she must have just come from the Outer Sect.

After waiting for a moment, she finally saw a familiar-looking female cultivator in yellow, who was holding a Dharma Sword she had just refined and was spiritedly performing a set of Sword Technique, drawing cheers from the crowd.

Xu Sirui seemed to be in a good mood, smiling and tilting her head toward the Junior Brother beside her, "Catch!"

She threw the sword over, and the Junior Brother caught it, looked it over, and praised, "Senior Sister is truly amazing, another Mid-grade Magical Artifact successfully refined. It was worth these seven or eight days of effort. Now, Senior Sister's success rate in refining Mid-grade Magical Artifacts must be fifty percent, right?"

"Just about." Xu Sirui nodded reservedly, "It's yours."

The Junior Brother's face immediately lit up with joy, "Many thanks, Senior Sister!"

Although he was also an Artifact Refiner and did not lack Dharma Artifacts to use, this Dharma Sword refined by Xu Sirui was a Mid-grade Magical Artifact of good quality; even if he sold it, it could fetch seven or eight hundred Spirit Stones, which would be enough to exchange for materials to try refining Mid-grade Magical Artifacts several more times.

Xu Sirui stretched her arms and legs, which had become a bit stiff, and walked past the others with her head held high and a touch of pride.

It looked like she was about to leave the Artifact Refining Peak... Ruan Xing waited for a few minutes, then slowly stood up and followed.

Xu Sirui's cultivation was on par with hers, and the range of her Divine Sense was likely similar to hers as well. Although Xu Sirui shouldn't be scanning with her Divine Sense randomly while inside the Sect, Ruan Xing still followed her from a far distance, just to be safe.

It was just that the direction she was walking in was a bit familiar... it was the road to Yaoguang Peak.

Could she be going to cause trouble for her? Ruan Xing could not know, so she could only follow for now and see what would happen later.

When they reached a certain spot on Yaoguang Peak, Ruan Xing discovered that Xu Sirui had suddenly become very stealthy, tiptoeing as if afraid of being discovered.

The distance was too far, and Ruan Xing dared not release her Divine Sense recklessly for fear of alerting Xu Sirui. After pondering for half a second, she released her Sword from her Storage Bag, let the Sword carry her into a state of concealment, and walked to Xu Sirui's side.

Looking in the direction of Xu Sirui's gaze, Ruan Xing was stunned.

She saw Qintai He bathing.

Of course, he was not bathing himself, but was washing the white wolf.

Beside the flowing stream, the white wolf lay prone on the ground, its wet fur sticking to its body, letting Qintai He brush and wash it.

The loose fur brushed off its body was also gathered and placed to the side.

This was the fur of a Golden Core Stage Monster Beast; even the stray fur that fell off naturally belonged to the category of Yellow-tier materials.

Ruan Xing looked at the engrossed Xu Sirui beside her with a complicated expression.

What did this woman come here for? Was she interested in the white wolf or the white wolf's fur? That shouldn't be right... wasn't their Xu Family a Cultivation Clan? They should be quite wealthy.

Over on Qintai He's side, things were nearing the end. After grooming the fur, he cast a Magic Art to dry the white wolf's fur, used a Magic Art to destroy the loose fur he had combed off, and then rode the white wolf away.

Xu Sirui also stood up, satisfied, and prepared to leave in a pleasant mood.

Ruan Xing followed for another stretch of the road. There were not many disciples on Yaoguang Peak, and it was rare to encounter two or three people on the way. Xu Sirui was acting sneakily, walking along paths that were rarely traveled. Seeing that there was no one around, Ruan Xing broke out of her concealment and called out to Xu Sirui.

"Senior Sister, please stay!"

She ran toward Xu Sirui's direction while shouting.

Xu Sirui was startled, looked at Ruan Xing with a vigilant gaze, and guarded herself, "You were following me?"

"No, no!" Ruan Xing hurriedly shook her head to deny it.

Xu Sirui seemed to relax slightly, but she had not completely let her guard down, and continued to ask, "What did you see just now?"

Ruan Xing looked somewhat bewildered, "Just now? I saw Senior Sister passing by here, so... so I thought I would come over to say hello."

As she spoke, a faint blush appeared on her plain, unremarkable face.

Seeing this, Xu Sirui understood a little, thinking this was one of her pursuers, and could not help but feel a bit smug.

She and Xu Sixi were half-siblings born to the same father but different mothers. Her mother had followed her father and given birth to her when she was at the Foundation Establishment stage, so her mother gained status through her daughter and received many resources from her father, rising rapidly all the way to the Golden Core stage. However, it was completely unexpected that when she was thirteen and about to begin Spirit Refining, everyone discovered she had no Spirit Bone.

Both parents had Spirit Bones, yet the child born to them had none; this was an event of such low probability, yet she happened to encounter it. No one had ever considered this possibility, so the matter was only discovered when she was thirteen. Her and her mother's status plummeted instantly, and her father also found other female cultivators of low cultivation to keep him company. Therefore, most people in the Xuanbing Sect knew about the relationship between her father and mother, but the two of them were not Daoist companions.

Fortunately, her father had not completely given up on her; he found her a method to practice martial arts and the Luoqi Pill, which miraculously allowed her to possess a Spirit Bone. Unfortunately, it was a life-and-death struggle to reach the Golden Core stage with a Spirit Bone obtained through the Luoqi Pill. She had long since reached Foundation Establishment Perfection but hesitated to form her core, so she had to choose to become an Artifact Refiner to gain her father's attention through other means.

In the Xuanbing Sect, others flattered and curried favor with her only because her father was the Hall Master of the Law Enforcement Hall and because she bore the surname Xu and was a member of the Xu Family of a Cultivation Clan; it was never because of her as a person.

Now, seeing a Junior Brother who would blush upon seeing her, Xu Sirui's attitude was surprisingly much better, even though she did not think much of this male cultivator with low cultivation and an ordinary appearance.

Xu Sirui brushed her hair and said softly, "What is it, Junior Brother?"

The blush on Ruan Xing's face deepened, as if she were somewhat embarrassed, and she stammered, "I had heard of Senior Sister's reputation back when I was in the Outer Sect, and I have always admired Senior Sister... Today, not long after I entered the Inner Sect, I ran into Senior Sister. Isn't this a heaven-sent fate? That is why I boldly called out to Senior Sister. I hope Senior Sister does not blame me. By the way, I have a gift here that I have always wanted to give to Senior Sister, and I hope Senior Sister will not despise it..."

Ruan Xing said slowly, her hand reaching into her wide sleeve as if to take something out, which made Xu Sirui extremely curious, her gaze following the direction of Ruan Xing's hand.

A cold light flashed.

Ruan Xing pulled a chipped Short Sword from her sleeve and stabbed it toward Xu Sirui. Xu Sirui was startled and used her Spiritual Power to retreat, but who knew that a ray of light several inches long would suddenly burst from the tip of the sword, disrupting Xu Sirui's rhythm of evasion. She could only barely shift her body, letting the tip of the sword pierce through her shoulder.

The next second, blood soaked half of Xu Sirui's clothes. She had already summoned her own Dharma Sword and swung it with force, and Ruan Xing's sword broke into two pieces under her strike, with half in Ruan Xing's hand and half in Xu Sirui's shoulder.

From childhood to now, when had she ever suffered such an injury? The pain coming from her shoulder made cold sweat pour down. Xu Sirui pinched a seal to stop the bleeding and quickly swallowed a Healing Pill, looking at Ruan Xing with both shock and anger, "Who exactly are you? What do you want to do!"

Since she had already put distance between herself and Ruan Xing, Xu Sirui was not in a hurry to go find her father to report this. This person only had Foundation Establishment Early-stage cultivation, and could only injure her because she had been caught off guard. She wanted to find out this person's purpose and then torture him properly to take revenge for herself!

Ruan Xing just watched Xu Sirui complete the series of actions and secretly sighed that it was a pity; it seemed that she still could not achieve a one-hit kill without attracting attention on her own. She tilted her head and looked at Xu Sirui with composure, smiling slightly, "Do you think I would answer such a question?"

"What?" The other party was so bold; Xu Sirui only felt it was absurd. What kind of background did this person have? To act like this inside the Xuanbing Sect, what exactly was his reliance? She was just about to say something more when she suddenly looked down and saw a pale hand on her chest.

That hand pierced through her chest from behind.

She had not reached Spirit Severing, so she could not escape with her Divine Soul; she had no Golden Core, nor could she choose to self-destruct. She could only watch helplessly as that hand crushed her heart, falling to the ground sideways, unable to close her eyes even in death.

Ruan Xing watched this scene calmly; Sword Lai nodded at her and hid back into the air.

She was not in a hurry to end the Simulation; the purpose of this Simulation had not yet been achieved.

The first was to figure out the bottom line of Xu Sirui and see if there was a gap between her strength and her own.

The second was to see if the Xu Family had left any secret means on her, and whether they could trace the true culprit who killed her out of thin air.

The third was to know whether the Mountain Protection Array of the Central Province Xuanbing Sect could detect Sword Lai, and whether those high-cultivation big shots, whatever True Monarchs or Dao Lords, could see the traces of Sword Lai's concealment.

The fourth was that in her previous Simulation, she followed Meng Hui to Tianyan Peak, and from this, she learned that the people of Tianyan Peak were extremely skilled in the Magic Art of deduction; she had to see if the people of Tianyan Peak could calculate that she was the culprit behind the scenes.

The second and fourth points overlapped somewhat, but it was not a big problem; if the murderer the Xuanbing Sect was looking for was two male Cultivators, then it would confirm the second point, and if they were looking for her personally, it would confirm the fourth point.

Things had not yet yielded a result, so this Simulation was destined to take a few more days.

Ruan Xing squatted down, pulled half a Sword body out of Xu Sirui's shoulder, and then left Yaoguang Peak without any lingering attachment.

Her Illusion Technique was only at the second level, and turning into the appearance of an adult male could only be maintained for at most a little over an hour; now, the time was almost up.

She let Sword Lai carry her to fly quickly to Xianyuan City, found a place where no one was around, and she removed her disguise to return to her original appearance. Sword Lai's sleeves were stained with some blood, which Ruan Xing cleaned off for him using a few Dust-Gathering Techniques.

She did not continue to put Sword Lai into the Storage Bag, but instead let him wander around everywhere to find places where arrays might exist.

As for herself, she leisurely began to go shopping.

Since artifact refining was a very expensive matter, she had to start scouting locations first.

Having no Contribution Points, she did not plan to go to the Sect's Treasure Pavilion; after all, finding someone to exchange Spirit Stones for Contribution Points was too troublesome, and it was not as practical as getting things for free from the Simulator.

There was more than one market in Xianyuan City, and they were basically all open twenty-four hours a day. It took her a full day and night to barely look through them all. First, she found some shops that concentrated on buying and selling Pill and talisman materials, and then asked a few shops about the prices for purchasing Pills. Although they were all two or three tenths lower than the market price, they were still within an acceptable range.

The Earth Fire she bought in Yunyang City had less than two years of service life left, and it was now an elderly Earth Fire, with the risk of misfiring from time to time. She also planned to buy a wisp of better-quality Earth Fire for her to use in refining Pills.

The Spirit Bone aptitude she originally obtained through the Luoqi Pill was of a very poor kind; even if she ate Pills to the limit for seventy or eighty years, it would be very difficult to form a Golden Core, not to mention that she did not put her mind into Cultivation in every Simulation.

After transforming her Spirit Bone through the ice pool water of Hanshan Snow Marrow, her Cultivation speed increased quite a bit, but it still could not compare to genius Cultivators like Fu Qinghong who had natural Dao bones.

Moreover, her Spiritual Power had also become somewhat cold and yin-leaning; if there was an opportunity in the future, she could choose to practice more Magic Arts in this area.

But for now, Ruan Xing was considering the issue of her new Dharma Sword.

Being able to be cut off by Xu Sirui with one sword, besides the fact that she used a middle-grade Dharma Sword which was one grade higher than Ruan Xing's, it also proved that this Dharma Sword should indeed be retired. Since Meng Hui was going to refine it for her personally this time, she had better choose one that suited her.

Pine Snow Stone, Blue Gold Ore, Cold Moss Jade, etc., were all materials with cold and yin attributes. She planned to collect a few more types to see which one would be suitable to use when the time came.

After confirming their quality, quantity, price, and the shops where they were located, Ruan Xing planned to return.

Twenty hours had passed, and there was no movement within the Sect Jade Token. People died on Yaoguang Peak; no matter what, they would definitely summon all Yaoguang Peak disciples back. Could it be that the body had not been discovered yet?

That shouldn't be the case, right? Although it was a small path that few people walked, Cultivators had sensitive five senses, and they would definitely be able to smell the blood from tens of meters away. She didn't believe that no one would pass within a hundred meters of that place for a whole day and night.

Moreover, Xu Sirui had been missing for a day and night; did her family and the fellow disciples she was close to not look for her? Ruan Xing lowered her eyes and pondered for a while, then recalled Sword Lai through their mental connection, planning to go back and take a look first.

If no one discovered Xu Sirui's corpse, what would happen if she were the first to discover it? Thanks to book friend 20240213144016024 for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Lucky Pearl One Type of Chicken for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to book friend 160828234348349 for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Green Plum 1996 for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Love Branch 12345 for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to One Hall Unknown_ for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to book friend 20210706151926948 for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to One Thought Impermanence for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to book friend 20220206122755693 for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to book friend 20190927135209710 for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Thousand Generations Child Realm for the monthly ticket~(End of this chapter)