Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
“What do you want? We saved your life!” Zhou Xuanji loudly asked as he held Jiang Xue’s hand.
The voice rang across the sky and pulled Qiu Baili’s thoughts back to reality.
He tried to squeeze out a smile and said, “Don’t worry, I’m not some demonic cultivator, it was the other person last time. I’m from a well-known and upright sect, the Hidden Sword Sect, have you heard of it before?”
Zhou Xuanji and Little Jiang Xue looked at him, they were lost.
Qiu Baili shook his head and laughed. Of course, how could the two kids know about the Hidden Sword Sect?
He descended slowly and asked with a smile, “Which clan or sect do you come from? Do you need me to bring you back?”
He expected that this child had an extraordinary background, and so he wanted to build a positive relationship with him.
Zhou Xuanji held on to the Frost Wave Sword and answered decisively, “No!”
“He’s not emanating any killing aura,” The Sword Spirit informed him. Only then could he breathe a sigh of relief.
Faced with an Inner Pellet cultivator, he did not expect himself to win.
Qiu Baili stopped in mid-air and said helplessly, “Believe me, I have no ill-intentions. Do I look like a bad guy?”
“If I’m a bad guy, I could have struck you without you knowing, but I did not.”
He stored his Frost Wave Sword and said, “Alright, I believe you, but you cannot touch us!”
He could not defeat him anyway, so he may as well treat him as a good person.
Qiu Baili looked at them and laughed. He landed on the cliff, waved at them, and said, “Come over, be careful not to fall.”
Zhou Xuanji and Little Jiang Xue were a lovely and adorable pair of kids, and Qiu Baili looked at them favorably.
However, last year, the younger child was ruthless in his attack, which reminded him to be more alert.
He did not want to die by the hands of a three-year-old child.
Zhou Xuanji was already on alert. He held Little Jiang Xue’s hands and went over carefully. The scene was hilarious to Qiu Baili.
They only began to converse after they reached the shoulder of the mountain.
To lower the guard of the two kids, Qiu Baili began with where he came from.
So, the demonic cultivator that he slew was a prodigy from the Demonic Inferno Sect called Ye Feifan!
Ye Feifan ranked ninety-second in Great Zhou Empire’s Hero Ranking Board.
The Hero Ranking Board is a ranking for prodigies under a hundred years old. Within the Great Zhou Empire, there are countless cultivators, and to rank ninety-second amongst all cultivators under hundred years old, he was indeed formidable.
Qiu Baili became Ye Feifan’s enemy ten years ago when Ye Feifan was slaughtering a village. Qiu Baili was passing by and saw the atrocities Ye Feifan was committing and helped the village out, which caused him trouble.
This time, Qiu Baili left the Hidden Sword Sect and was preparing to recruit disciples in a town under the Hidden Sword Sect’s banner. However, he encountered Ye Feifan, and the two of them inevitably engaged in a fierce battle.
Although Qiu Baili was not as powerful as Ye Feifan, he still wounded Ye Feifan, which allowed Zhou Xuanji to slay him.
Of course, the reason he was able to defeat him was primarily because of his appearance as a two-year-old child.
A prodigy that the Demonic Sect was proud of died in the hands of a two-year-old, who would believe that?
Qiu Baili sighed, “The reason I came to find you is to thank you for saving me. The two of you are alone and uncared for. It is dangerous to wander around outside. Why don’t you let me send you back, I don’t need you to do anything to repay me.”
He looked at Zhou Xuanji with eyes of sincerity.
The three-year-old kid before his eyes was just fascinating, he could not treat him as a child.
He even suspected that he had his body possessed by some senior cultivator, which could explain why his soul was rather mature.
Little did he know, he was half right.
However, he also heard some legends about certain clans with powerful bloodlines which gave birth to prodigies whom no ordinary person could compare to.
Zhou Xuanji waved his hand and said, “You don’t need to send us home, but you can leave us with energy techniques, pills, and enchanted artifacts. You can give as much as you are willing to.”
He did not reveal that he and Little Jiang Xue had no one to care for them, to prevent Qiu Baili from having evil intentions.
Qiu Baili heard his request and promptly took out the storage bag at his waist. From the bag, he took out two books, a dagger, and three small bottles made of white jade, putting them beside Zhou Xuanji and Little Jiang Xue.
“Here are two energy techniques that you can choose from. I can teach them to you. Since I’m not fully recovered from my injuries, I can accompany you for two years. After two years, I will have to leave immediately and not delay further.”
“You don’t have to worry. If I had ill-intentions toward you, I have thousands of ways to seize both of you,” Qiu Baili explained, sighing in his heart. How could this three-year-old child be so alert?
Did he not receive love or attention since he was born?
Little Jiang Xue sucked her finger and timidly asked, “Old grandpa, are you telling the truth? We are very pitiful. I have had no parents since I was young, and now my grandma doesn’t want me anymore. Xuanji’s parents were eaten by demons. Don’t lie to us…”
Zhou Xuanji almost fainted. Did you expose our past just like that?
Fortunately, that was not his real past.
After Qiu Baili heard their history, he expressed sympathy for them. He then suggested, “How about this, make me your grandpa and let me bring you back to the Hidden Sword Sect, and from now on you will be my grandson and granddaughter.”
Putting away his sympathies, the boy’s talent also moved him.
However, such talent might also bring trouble.
After she heard this, Little Jiang Xue asked with surprise, “Really?”
Zhou Xianji rolled his eyes at her, and said, “We will not go to the Hidden Sword Sect. We will stay here.”
If they went to the Hidden Sword Sect, he might be exposed because of the high volume of people there.
The Hidden Sword Sect was within the Great Zhou Empire.
Little Jiang Xue obediently nodded, “I will go where Xuanji says he will go.”
After that rainstorm, she no longer called him her little brother.
Qiu Baili shook his head and laughed, this little kid.
“Alright, I will accompany you for two years first. What energy technique do the two of you want to train?” Qiu Baili said, compromising.
Little Jiang Xue looked at Zhou Xuanji. She waited until he nodded his head before she picked up the two books.
One has to acknowledge that although Little Jiang Xue’s grandmother was not responsible, her grandmother still taught her how to read when she was three years old.
One could count the number of literate people in her village with the fingers on a single hand, and one of them was Little Jiang Xue.
If she were on Earth, she would be a prodigy for being literate at three.
Qiu Baili saw that Little Jiang Xue was a little hesitant, and said gently, “Since you are a girl, why not choose the Spring Snow Technique? When you reach Great Accomplishment, you will be able to condense and form an Inner Pellet, so your appearance will never grow old, and you can live up to five hundred years.”
Little Jiang Xue heard him and nodded her head promptly. “What is an Inner Pellet?” she asked as she blinked her eyes in curiosity.
Qiu Baili explained to her patiently and taught her knowledge about cultivation in ways simple enough for her to understand.
Zhou Xuanji had never told her about it before because he was worried that she could not understand, and it would be futile to talk to her about it. It would be better for her to train with the sword instead.
After Little Jiang Xue understood, Qiu Baili turned to him and asked, “Do you want the other book?”
He had already taken a look at the energy technique in the other book, which was not suitable for sword cultivation. So he shook his head and said, “It’s okay, I have an energy technique passed down by my family.”
Qiu Baili nodded. This little child had already reached the fifth level of Qi Nurturing after all.
And so, Qiu Baili settled down too.
He did not allow Qiu Baili to stay with them in the same room. Since there was no other place to sleep, Qiu Baili had to build a wooden hut for himself.
Throughout the next month, Zhou Xuanji made sure to stay vigilant.
Qiu Baili spent most of his time healing his wounds and occasionally taught Little Jiang Xue to cultivate.
At first, he took an interest in the White Crane Sword Technique that Little Jiang Xue was training, but after he observed it for a long time, he could not see much from it, because Little Jiang Xue was too shoddy in her sword technique.
The days went by as usual.
Three months later.
There was a massive snowfall. Zhou Xuanji had a breakthrough and reached the sixth level of Qi Nurturing. Little Jiang Xue had also entered into the first level of Qi Nurturing.
Qiu Baili sat on the peak and looked over at the horizon. Amidst the snow that filled the sky, the mountains were faintly discernible…
“What is that?”
He muttered to himself as he knitted his white brows, alert.