Chapter 501 : Lingering Concerns
501: Lingering Concerns
Jiang Mo didn't know how her Senior Sister had seen through everything, but she wasn't surprised by it either.
Yun Qingyue led Jiang Mo as they rushed from one spirit peak to another throughout the entire day. Sometimes the harvest was plentiful, like at the Crimson Blood Sect, where almost all elders with levels higher than Jiang Mo's graciously accepted her challenge. Other times the harvest was meager, such as when visiting temporary residences of smaller sects where only one person qualified for Jiang Mo to challenge.
Fortunately, Yun Qingyue had sent messages inquiring beforehand, and only brought Jiang Mo when the other party agreed. This prevented any unpleasantness or wasted trips.
After such a busy day, when evening came and Jiang Mo checked her gains, she had earned nearly eighty thousand experience points and close to eight thousand combat power in proportion—compared to yesterday's struggle of begging people to spar with her, today's process of farming points felt incredibly smooth. Most of her time had actually been spent traveling.
Jiang Mo felt delighted, and this was only because they weren't familiar with the routes on the first day, which had caused problems with the challenge schedule. If she could farm points like this every day, her efficiency could improve even further!
The little tiger grew increasingly excited. Seeing that it wasn't yet midnight, she even thought about going out to challenge a few more people.
After midnight would be even better, as it would count as the next day, and she could start a new round of... challenges, not point-farming.
The more Jiang Mo thought about it, the brighter her eyes became, until her Senior Sister walked up to her. Her eyes curved into a smile as she took her Senior Sister's hand, wanting to mention the system task but swallowing those specific words, asking vaguely instead, "How did Ah Yue think of arranging all this for me?"
Yun Qingyue raised her hand to stroke the little tiger's eyes, which had almost curved into crescents from her usual round tiger eyes. Seeing how happy she was, Yun Qingyue felt quite pleased herself and said, "Yesterday I saw you unhappy, today I see you happy. It seems what I've done wasn't wrong."
Not just "not wrong"—it was incredibly thoughtful!
Jiang Mo released her Senior Sister's hand and simply wrapped her arms around her waist, leaning in to nuzzle her face with her nose. "Of course it's not wrong. I'm so happy. The person who understands me best and is most in sync with me is indeed Ah Yue."
Yun Qingyue smiled without rejecting Jiang Mo's embrace, merely pinching her nape. "As long as you're happy."
Jiang Mo paused slightly at these words. Although her Senior Sister didn't mean anything by it, the phrase sounded somewhat peculiar to her ears. This interruption pulled Jiang Mo from her elevated mood. She still didn't remove her arms from around Yun Qingyue's slender waist, but her words became a bit more serious. "I thought Xuanqing Sect had the most high-level cultivators, but I didn't expect so many hidden talents among those who sought refuge here."
Yun Qingyue casually replied, "When I first formed my Golden Core and went out to travel, Master warned me that there are always people beyond people, and heavens beyond heavens. Most of those who have come seeking refuge still belong to sects, and there are countless powerful individuals who seek secluded places for closed-door cultivation."
Jiang Mo deeply agreed with this. After all, during her years of traveling, she had truly experienced the vastness of the cultivation world. Within such vast territories, all kinds of people existed, and all manner of things could happen.
Despite her internal reflections, this wasn't what Jiang Mo wanted to say. She remarked with some admiration, "Ah Yue is still well-informed and has a broad network of friends, knowing there are so many powerful beings in the sect now. I can't do the same—I didn't even notice there was a fellow cultivator of similar cultivation level on Purple Cloud Peak..."
These words unintentionally carried a hint of sourness, as if she felt others were occupying her Senior Sister's attention.
Yun Qingyue didn't miss that trace of sourness and shook her head with amusement. "How would I know so many people or so much information? I simply asked Sect Leader Uncle a question, and he gave me the list of these powerful beings."
Upon hearing this explanation, Jiang Mo suddenly changed the subject and asked, "Then what benefit did Ah Yue offer in exchange?"
Yun Qingyue froze, as if she hadn't processed the question. "What?"
Jiang Mo's expression suddenly became serious. She stared at Yun Qingyue and asked very earnestly again, "I'm asking what benefit you offered in exchange? So many powerful beings might be willing to give face to Xuanqing Sect, but you and I can't represent Xuanqing Sect. Besides the Crimson Blood Sect, including the Buddha Sect and Harmony Sect—we have connections, but not enough for them to cooperate like this. Not to mention those smaller sects we're not even familiar with."
The demonic siege around the sect with a major battle against the demon race imminent had everyone in Xuanqing Sect on edge. The higher their position, the busier they were. Perhaps normally these powerful beings would give face, but who had time for them now?
At first, Jiang Mo had been so elated by today's gains that she hadn't thought things through. But now that her Senior Sister had admitted she wasn't actually familiar with these people and had no real connections with them, why would they be so cooperative? Was it just because of the message tokens her Senior Sister had sent earlier? That was impossible. The only possibility was that some benefit had been offered.
Yun Qingyue's typically clear and resolute gaze flickered slightly, and she didn't answer.
Seeing this, Jiang Mo immediately grew anxious and even developed some unpleasant premonitions. She hurriedly asked, "Ah Yue, what exactly did you promise? It wasn't some important item or... something you can't tell me about?"
Jiang Mo left her words hanging after "or," because she suddenly remembered that they were both divine beasts, naturally carrying treasures on their bodies.
Yun Qingyue noticed Jiang Mo's anxiety and feared her imagination would run wild, so she sighed and had to speak directly: "It's nothing much, just a few molted feathers. They're of no use to me anyway, so exchanging them is putting them to good use."
She spoke casually, but Jiang Mo hadn't forgotten how precious the little swan goose had considered her feathers when she was holding grudges.
· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · · · · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·
With her Senior Sister's help behind the scenes, Jiang Mo's point-farming went extremely smoothly, but after learning that all this was exchanged with her Senior Sister's feathers, her mood was no longer so wonderful, and even the prospect of leveling up didn't make the tiger as happy.
After pondering alone for a long while, Jiang Mo approached her Senior Sister: "Ah Yue, can you keep your feathers? Would it work if I exchange my tiger fur instead?"
As fellow divine beasts, Jiang Mo felt her tiger fur wasn't inferior. Even if it couldn't match her Senior Sister's feathers in elegance or utility, she could always offer more... She'd gone bald more than once over the years and wouldn't mind going bald again. She would just hide and let it grow back. She wasn't concerned about herself—she was only worried about her Senior Sister's feathers.
Hearing her request, Yun Qingyue laughed and stroked her tiger head, saying, "No need. I've already given what needed to be given. Don't worry about it. Just focus on challenging them from now on."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Mo immediately gasped, her gaze unconsciously darting to her Senior Sister's head—having gone bald so many times, Jiang Mo had some experience. In the past, when she couldn't transform, it wasn't an issue, but after being able to transform, her most abundant hair was naturally on her head, so baldness in her original form was most evident in her hair.
The little tiger secretly observed her Senior Sister's hair, afraid to see any bald spots—she would probably be heartbroken. She didn't believe her Senior Sister's claim about molted feathers. How long had she been a swan goose? How long had she been grown up? Where would she get so many molted feathers?!
Yun Qingyue quickly noticed the little tiger's gaze. After a brief moment of surprise, she realized what was happening and promptly grabbed the little tiger by the scruff of her neck—not just pinching it as usual. "What are you looking at?"
Jiang Mo immediately sensed danger in her Senior Sister's tone. She hurriedly withdrew her gaze and shrank her neck, then gently caught her Senior Sister's hand. "Nothing, nothing, I was just looking randomly..."
Yun Qingyue didn't believe her nonsense but didn't stop her from looking either. After all, with her thick, black hair, she certainly wasn't bald!
After sneaking a few glances, Jiang Mo confirmed this fact and finally relaxed—giving away molted feathers was fine, and if more were needed, something else could be used to supplement, but there was no need to pluck her own feathers.
As she thought about it, Jiang Mo cursed the system in her heart, blaming it for issuing such an unreliable task.
The system, implicated for no reason: "???"
The system felt utterly wronged. She had been praising it earlier when earning so much experience, but this host really changed her attitude faster than turning a page!
……
Jiang Mo remained concerned about Yun Qingyue using her feathers to exchange opportunities for her. Especially since her Senior Sister had only heard Jiang Mo mention improving her cultivation without seeing any results yet—this showed not just trust but also indulgence.
However, since the feathers had already been given, the more Jiang Mo cared about it, the more she couldn't waste the opportunity—one phoenix feather in exchange for a month of challenge points, Jiang Mo decided not to miss a single day. If not for the system's rule that each person could only be farmed once per day, she would have farmed one person until they questioned their life choices and never wanted to duel anyone again!
With Jiang Mo's diligent efforts, she successfully reached level 76 in less than three more days. However, calculating everything, she had used four and a half days to gain just one level. The one-month time limit wasn't enough for her to gain ten levels.
After much deliberation, Jiang Mo finally gathered her courage and set foot on Zhiming Peak.