At these words, the old man glared at her fiercely!
"To hell with that! Your master here is still planning to ascend to Deity Transformation! I might even outlive you by a thousand years by the time that happens!"
Watching the two bicker, Jin Bao'er couldn't help but let a smile tug at the corners of her mouth. She knew they were just using this banter to put her at ease, and an indescribable warmth washed over her.
Once granted permission, the old man suggested that Jin Bao'er head to the Sect to collect the spar allocated for her over the past five years to use as travel funds for when she went down the mountain.
Those below the Golden Core Stage had not yet achieved inedia, so they still needed to eat three meals a day; thus, money was a necessity.
Jin Bao'er nodded and set off for the Sect that afternoon. When she reported her name and the name of her mountain peak, the disciple in charge of distributing the spar gave her a very strange look before handing over a single pouch of low-grade spar.
She was someone who had weathered great storms, so she knew exactly how much spar she was entitled to. A hundred low-grade spar were equivalent to one mid-grade spar, which was also the annual stipend for a single disciple. Yet, for five years of service, this was all she was given!
She harbored a vague suspicion, but her face remained impassive. She didn't care much for this pittance of spar, but she certainly wasn't going to let anyone else profit at her expense.
"According to Sect regulations, the annual stipend for a Qi Condensation Stage Cultivator is one hundred low-grade spar, and for a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator, it is one hundred and fifty. I’ll let you keep the rest, but the Elder of the Law Enforcement Hall and I are on good terms. I’m sure he would be very interested to learn how this happened."
With that, she turned and left, showing no intention of taking back the spar. The disciple was stunned by her words and couldn't even manage to stop her before she disappeared!
Realizing he had made a grave mistake, he hurriedly grabbed the rest of the spar and chased after her toward the Law Enforcement Hall, filled with regret for his petty attempt to cheat her. He had assumed that Jin Bao'er, having been in seclusion for five years, was ignorant of the rules, but he hadn't expected her to know everything.
Jin Bao'er, however, wasn't actually heading to the Law Enforcement Hall. She didn't have the spare time to make a scene over a few hundred low-grade spar, so she went straight to the Mission Hall instead.
The Miaomiao Sect’s Mission Hall was filled with all sorts of tasks, ranging from hunting for spirit herbs, monster beast cores, and hides, down to repairing buildings, weeding, and feeding spirit pets.
Jin Bao'er had come to accept a mission; not only would it allow her to exercise her body, which hadn't moved in five years, but it would also consolidate her cultivation and provide a generous reward.
Just as she entered and began searching for a mission, a disciple pulled her aside, whispering mysteriously that he knew where to find a Muling Flower.
A Muling Flower! It was a top-tier spiritual plant for repairing a Golden Core, though it had to be used in conjunction with several other rare materials to be truly effective. As it happened, a Cultivator with a damaged Golden Core had all the other materials but was missing the Muling Flower, which was why this mission had been posted.
However, high-level Cultivators had no need for spar, and low-level Cultivators dared not risk their lives for it, which was why the mission had sat unclaimed for so long.
As a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator, there was still some risk for Jin Bao'er if she took it, but the disciple beside her assumed she was unaware of the flower's purpose and the associated risks, pushing her to take the job as if it were a simple task.
"Don't be afraid, Junior Sister. I have received confirmed intelligence that the Muling Flower is in Qianbo Forest. I know that if you go, you’ll definitely find it! If I didn't have such weak offensive capabilities, I would have gone myself."
The words sounded reasonable enough, but Jin Bao'er detected a conspiracy.
"Oh? So you’re certain that I’m an offensive-type Cultivator?"
The disciple froze, then his expression grew somewhat unnatural.
"Just a guess. After all, your temperament clearly doesn't suggest you're a support-type Cultivator."
Jin Bao'er looked up and saw the Golden Core Stage mission board, and an idea formed in her mind.
"Fine, I’ll take the mission!"
With that, she took the mission placard without another word and left under the disciple’s gleeful gaze.
She wasn't an idiot; she naturally saw the malice in his eyes. Besides Su Xianzhi, that Daughter of Fortune, there was probably no one else in the Miaomiao Sect with that kind of sway.
Still... Qianbo Forest, eh? There really was a Muling Flower there.
At noon the next day, Jin Bao'er headed straight for Qianbo Forest.
Three days later, a delicate-looking young man in black male attire stood outside Qianbo Forest, his dusty appearance indicating he had just arrived.
Just as she was about to enter, a monster beast roared and charged straight at her, filled with towering rage and killing intent!
The young man quickly dodged the attack, and at that same moment, she spotted a woman hiding behind a tree!
The monster beast seemed to realize it had attacked the wrong person. Its massive nostrils flared slightly, and it quickly locked onto the location of its true enemy. It charged forward again with renewed ferocity. The girl in red behind the tree turned pale, scrambled up the tree, and at the exact moment the beast rammed into it, she leaped to the side of the young man in black.
"Fellow Daoist, help me!"
After saying this, she hid behind the young man, not caring whether he could handle the beast or not.
Jin Bao'er frowned. She didn't like strangers getting close to her, and seeing the beast’s aggressive stance, she realized the girl behind her was trying to use her as a human shield so she could escape on her own.
"To make a beast this angry, did you steal its cubs?"
Monster beasts might not be intelligent, but they were incredibly protective of their young. If it wasn't that, then this woman must have killed them.
Clearly, she had guessed right. The girl in red’s eyes darted around, looking guilty.
"Fellow Daoist, as long as you help me deal with this beast, I can share one of the cubs with you!"
Hearing this, it seemed the girl had stolen more than one cub! No wonder the beast was so enraged.
"A half-step Golden Core alchemy-beast—I can't beat that!"
The moment she finished speaking, Jin Bao'er dashed straight into Qianbo Forest, showing no intention of helping.
The girl in red immediately stiffened, her haughty face contorting as she tried to say something else, but she was cut off by the oncoming attack of the alchemy-beast.
"Ahhh!!"
The screams from behind reached her ears, but Jin Bao'er didn't waver. Stealing someone's children and then wanting to kill the parent? She wasn't about to play the role of an executioner for such a shameless Cultivator.
Looking at the vast, endless expanse of Qianbo Forest, Jin Bao'er frowned. In her memory, the Muling Flower matured right around this time, and the location... it seemed to be in the south.
In the next second, the black-clad figure vanished with speed. Not long after, the girl in red stood in the same spot, her gaze fixed with cold hatred in the direction where Jin Bao'er had disappeared.
Thinking of her previous predicament, where she had been forced to toss away the monster cubs just to save her own life, her teeth itched with spite. Damned brat! If she ever saw that person again, she would make sure they learned the true power of a Diyun Sect disciple!
At this moment, Jin Bao'er accelerated. Even after using up her teleportation talisman, she still hadn't seen the cliff where the Muling Flower loved to grow, so she stopped to rest for a moment.
Just as she was considering whether she had gone in the wrong direction, a massive, wild-boar-like monster beast came barreling toward her. In front of the beast, a frantic, gasping young man was running for his life, his face deathly pale, clearly having reached the limits of his stamina.
Having already dealt with the girl in red earlier, Jin Bao'er instinctively frowned. Another Cultivator who had stolen someone’s piglets?!