Chapter 84: The Early-Death White Moonlight in a Cultivation Novel (Part 15)

By now, night had already fallen. Going out to kill spirit beasts at this hour clearly wasn't a wise idea, so Zhou Yanxi decided to sit in meditation and cultivate in the cave she had found.

She had carefully chosen this cave—it showed no signs of beast activity, and was surrounded by a ring of poisonous bramble thorns.

If not for her powerful spiritual sense and meticulous scouting, she might've missed this perfect resting spot.

Then Zhou Yanxi pulled out her aura-concealing formation disk from her storage pouch and used a Cleansing Spell to tidy up the cave. Just as she was about to sit down on her newly arranged meditation cushion—

She suddenly heard voices coming from outside—three people talking.

Zhou Yanxi didn't dare use her spiritual sense to probe, so she perked up her ears. At first, she couldn't make out what they were saying.

Her inner gossip gremlin stirred restlessly—based on the tones she heard, it sounded like one man and two women, and at this time of evening…

Her mind unhelpfully conjured up the cliché image of a "two women fighting over one man" soap opera scenario.

Still, she knew her safety came first. She remained steady in her meditation posture.

She could've gotten up and quietly readied herself for a fight—but in her excitement to eavesdrop, Zhou Yanxi forgot that she had already set up an aura-concealing formation disk.

If she hadn't, with her presence so clearly detectable, those people outside wouldn't have remained so oblivious.

Soon, the three voices seemed to be getting closer. They were chatting and laughing.

Here they come. Zhou Yanxi listened even more intently.

"No need to worry, junior sisters. With me here, I'll definitely find a safe place for us—"

A flash of sword energy struck the man's vital point mid-sentence. One of the female cultivators nearby followed up with a second, finishing strike. The man didn't even get to finish his noble words before he collapsed.

"Senior sister, your plan is amazing. We act weak at first, lure the men in, and then strike together to take the treasure—brilliant…"

"Senior sister… why… why are you killing me too…"

The lively voice of the younger female abruptly cut off. She truly didn't understand—why had her beloved senior sister betrayed her? They'd been so close in the sect.

"Let me teach you one more lesson—never turn your back on anyone."

With that, the cold-faced woman yanked her sword from her junior sister's chest, entirely unfazed by the blood splattering onto her face.

Her name was Leng Ling'er, and she was cold-hearted by nature.

She hadn't killed them without reason—they had something she needed. And besides, that junior sister wasn't exactly innocent either.

Despite her lack of ability, the girl had begged their master to make Leng Ling'er protect her in the secret realm. Hah—why should she get first pick of every treasure, while Leng Ling'er did all the dirty work?

Leng Ling'er was done being a lifelong babysitter. Now that she had the chance, there was no way she would let it slip.

As for that unfair master and sect—they were long irrelevant. From now on, she would be the master of her own life.

Inside the cave, Zhou Yanxi had heard most of what happened once they got close. In her view, it was simple: three people with their own agendas, and the crueler one won.

A little disappointing—she'd guessed the beginning right, but the ending had swerved into the abyss.

Sure enough, in any world, when women get ruthless, men are irrelevant.

Zhou Yanxi had no particular opinion on this. She just stayed quietly hidden—after all, she didn't know the full extent of this female cultivator's strength. If she acted rashly, she might not come out of it alive.

After taking the two victims' storage pouches, Leng Ling'er quickly cleaned up the scene. Once everything was dealt with, she left the area with a flicker of her robes.

But even though the noises outside had stopped, Zhou Yanxi still didn't move.

Sure enough, about a quarter of an hour later, Leng Ling'er came back—not just once, but three separate times to double- and triple-check the area.

Clearly, she wasn't just ruthless—she was extremely cautious too.

Afterward, Zhou Yanxi returned to peaceful meditation. No one else passed by for the rest of the night.

That was partly because the Shuangzi Secret Realm was vast—tens of thousands of cultivators tossed in were like rivers merging into a sea. That's why she had only encountered five people in total so far.

But even those five had all been far from kind or good-hearted. Zhou Yanxi had long decided not to team up with anyone whose background she didn't know. Just look at those two dead cultivators outside—that was warning enough.

The next morning, Zhou Yanxi left the cave and moved to a new location. There, she successfully killed a late-Foundation-Stage Cang'er Ox, and even recorded the whole thing with a shadow stone. This time, no idiot came to bother her.

With her mission complete, she could finally start treasure hunting in earnest. For now, she focused on gathering spiritual herbs and fruits, especially since she'd already collected quite a few beast materials while practicing her combat skills.

Sure enough, now that her luck value had returned to normal, she no longer had to waste hours searching roadsides in vain.

Even low-year herbs weren't spared. Zhou Yanxi now just casually swung her spiritual herb hoe to scoop them up and sell them directly to the system marketplace. The system would auto-filter out the useless weeds anyway.

She'd discovered this lazy-person hack while trying to cut corners. Since it worked, why go to the trouble of carefully handpicking every plant?

Of course, the high-year herbs and spiritual medicines were always guarded by spirit beasts.

If she didn't drive them off or kill them, there was no way to harvest those treasures.

So Zhou Yanxi came up with a devious little trick—she smeared her homemade spirit-sealing powder across areas the guardian beasts regularly passed through.

With this tactic, Zhou Yanxi effortlessly acquired high-year treasures like:

Marrow-Cleansing Fruit

Rejuvenating Bloom

Starlight Grass… and more.

Naturally, there were times when the alert beasts retaliated, chasing her down.

Whenever she could fight, she did. If not, she ran like hell.

Eventually, the month-long secret realm trial ended, and Zhou Yanxi was forcibly ejected from the Shuangzi Secret Realm.

Author's Note:

What do you all think of this world arc? If you don't like it, I'll wrap it up soon and move on to the next one.I honestly haven't written a xianxia/cultivation novel before, so I'm worried this arc might not be to everyone's taste. Just wanted to hear your thoughts~