Demise

On hearing this Grandma Mu turned pale and she started screeching hysterically "I am a cultivator of the bright pearl pavilion, if you dare do anything to me you and your family won't have a good end." On hearing this Vice- captain Hou's face blanched but Lin Qing only looked at her expressionlessly

"You are lying, no cultivator of the bright pearl pavilion will be so old and have such a low cultivation. I guess you are just a cultivator with no talent that was kicked out of the pavilion, besides based on how you, a cultivator, has been hiding here sneakily this means that what you've been doing isn't something righteous. Besides cultivators are not allowed to interfere in the kingdoms under the sects without the sect's permission "

The more Lin Qing spoke the worse Grandma Mu's expression became, she knew what Lin Qing said was true. The bright pearl pavilion was a pavilion was a trading company for cultivators.

They also searched for talented cultivators among the kingdoms with the permission of the supervising sect. However the fact that grandma Mu had been sneakily living in the white cloud kingdoms territory and kidnapping children definitely wouldn't look good not to mention she had indeed been kicked out long ago.

Lin Qing looked at the little girl that had been accompanying Grandma Mu, she seemed scared and bewildered at the turn of events, she stood there, cowering and intimidated. The madam walked towards and knelt by her and silently regarded her "what's your name?" she asked gently. The girl looked at her warily, but seeing the lady looked kind and gentle she answered haltingly "Qier. My name is Qier".

Lin Qing nodded gently then asked her "where are you from, where are your parents?" even though it could be cruel to ask this if her conjecture was correct, she needed to be sure so that she would know how to react. And predictably when Qier heard this tears unbidden sprang up from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks as she trembled in fear and agony and then began talking.

 From her halting sobs Lin Qing was able to gather that Grandma Mu had come to Qier's village and tested all children above four for spirit root. The villagers had of course been ecstatic and had quickly brought out their children to be tested.

Qier's parents had of course been among them and had also brought her to try her luck. However Granny Mu had seemed to be looking for something specific and had gotten more enraged and enraged as she seemed not to find it. But when she had tested Qier she had seemed to find it.

She had then summarily wiped out entire family, leaving not a single soul. She had then forcibly taken Qier with her and had been grinning madly to herself the entire way. Listening to her story, she looked at Qier strangely and pulled out a clear crystal which she placed on her.

 she watched intently as it burst out with a radiant bright light and the way Lin Qing looked at Qier changed drastically. Unlike the amateur villagers she was aware of something, the bright light that had risen indicated that Qier had top grade or better spiritual roots.

This meant that when she started on her cultivation path she was guaranteed to achieve twice the results with half the effort. Seeds such as her were immensely valuable to cultivation sects and families. She looked at the other kids and quickly measured them too. The results left her baffled as although none of them had a brilliance as bright as Qier's it was also extremely bright indicating that they were also extreme prodigies..

However that didn't make sense since such geniuses were rare even where she was from not to mention this lower world. The birth of such geniuses required intense spiritual and higher laws. Thus it was extremely difficult to find them in lower worlds since these conditions weren't abundant but now she had found several of them in one region. She remembered how she had found Wu Tian and she was certain that there was something off with this region.

Just as she was pondering, grandma Mu was also baffled. The reason she could identify the children was thanks to her cultivation technique, it had stunted her cultivation but granted her keen senses for such individuals. The crystal Lin Qing had seemed an improved version of the test that sects had although perhaps not as detailed.

Seeing that Lin Qing had found out she estimated that Lin Qing would silence her so she immediately mobilized her cultivation technique to hasten the recovery of her spirit qi, another benefit of the cultivation technique she had.

She watched as Lin Qing came to her, "you want to kidnap prodigies and sell them to the sects." The guards who were watching immediately had enlightened expressions, they wandered why a cultivator would choose to hide here but if it was this it was understandable.

Grandma Mu didn't deny it as it was useless. And the children who could understand what was going on such as Xiao Ren had complicated expressions. Most of them weren't very close to Grandma Mu as she had either traded them from their parents or snatched them.

But she had indeed been with them for months and years in Xiao Ren's case. To find out that she had been planning to sell them gave them a bitter feeling.

Just then Grandma Mu felt that she had recovered enough Qi. She quickly used her strength to push aside the guard holding her down. She then made a hand-sign and generate a gust of wind that pulsed and pushed the guards aside. She was tempted to go for Lin Qing but she resisted the impulse and quickly made another gust to push her as she made her escape.

The other guards were caught off-guard and were slow to react. However one of them managed to react and fire an arrow at her. The arrow flew true and lodged in her side, however she only grunted and continue fleeing. As the guards moved to chase her, Lin Qing halted them.

She had her own considerations. She made her way to the carriage and gestured for the children to be brought along. As they arrived at the mansion settled down while she contemplated the day's events. She then called for the vice-captain and the captain. She had them use grandma mu's scent and track her.

she knew the principal of digging out the roots and was worried that Grandma Mu would come back with a stronger cultivator. Thus she wanted them to track her and bring her back at all costs.

Heeding her words, the vice captain and the garrison leader took their men and found several hunting dogs and quickly went after Grandma Mu. They immediately found her scent as she had been injured and was bleeding and quickly rushed after her. They were hot on her tail, almost about to catch her when the trail suddenly disappeared.

Grandma Mu was limping hurriedly through a forest trail, she was doing her best to hurry along despite the injury. She had used a drug and her wind technique to scatter her scent but she was sure that her pursuers would eventually pick it up. She felt extremely bitter,

she had never though that she would one day make a wedding dress for others. She had considered going to her old contacts and causing trouble for Lin Qing but she was skeptical that they would believe her. besides she doubted she would be able to make it that far before she was captured.

She had decided to make for the mountains near which she had found the kids, she had a feeling that it had something to do with how she had been able to find several immortal seedlings. She hurried on, avoiding villages on her way and soon enough she saw the towering mountain range in the distance.

She was ecstatic and immediately made for them. It was only when she got there that the grim reality hit her. sure, she knew that this mountains had something peculiar but how was she supposed to find it.

As she pondered this she decided to make for the peak of the highest mountain in this range. However she moved more carefully, searching for opportunities and threats. This however, did nothing to save her life when she encountered a demonic beast.

When the vice captain finally found her remains. Even they felt a chill run up their spines, these mountains had not been known to have demonic beasts. They quickly wrapped her body and made themselves scarce.

When Lin Qing received the news even she was a bit shocked, she looked at the cultivation technique in her hand that had been recovered from Grandma Mu and although it was good. To Lin Qing it was only so-so.

She sighed as she felt relieved that this sequence of events was over. She wondered just what was going on as recently too many shocking occurences were happening one after another. She sighed and hoped that she could get a rest