Volume One, Chapter Sixteen: He Qiang?!
Jiang Mo Li said nothing more and walked away with an air of indifference.
"Senior Sister Jiang actually left! Senior Brother Ji, how did you get out of that predicament?" Wu Han sidled up to Ji Die, his eyes shining with even greater admiration.
"Senior Sister Jiang is reasonable. I explained everything to her, and after learning the whole story, she was magnanimous and didn’t blame me," Ji Die replied casually.
"Then what did she mean by 'five days'?" Wu Han looked skeptical.
"Some things are better left unasked. That’s a secret between me and Senior Sister Jiang. If I told you, she’d be angry." Ji Die smiled, patting Wu Han on the shoulder, and out of the corner of his eye saw He Song leaving with a dark expression. Ji Die sneered inwardly.
"I’ll let him live a little longer, for now."
That fellow had tried to kill him time and again, buzzing around like an annoying fly. Ji Die was no saint and had his temper, but this was the Seven Mysteries Sect—he couldn’t kill He Song here, so he would let him survive a while longer.
And with He Song’s strength, he was only capable of being a nuisance, unable to stir up any real trouble.
Shaking his head, Ji Die returned to his room.
Life in the beast stables soon returned to calm. Yet, after all the recent upheaval, the atmosphere had subtly changed. Now, every disciple in the beast stables, save for He Song, looked at him with deep respect and awe.
He had become, in a sense, the unspoken leader of the beast stables. Naturally, this drew the envy of some, and their gazes towards him carried a deeply hidden hostility.
"They fear me because of my strength," Ji Die realized, accepting that this change was a result of his own power—a fact he could not alter. Every day, he continued feeding the black snake as usual.
Of course, to help it reach the fourth level of Qi Refining, he rewarded it with an Ascension Fruit each time he fed it, causing the black snake’s cultivation to increase steadily.
With one day left, the black snake finally broke through to the fourth level of Qi Refining.
No one knew this but Ji Die.
A soft hissing came from the enclosure. The black snake, now at the fourth level, was much more confident and no longer seemed as afraid of him as before.
"You wretched beast, are you looking for a beating again? Have you forgotten who helped you reach this level?" Ji Die looked at the snake with a half-smile, cracking his knuckles meaningfully.
Seeing this, the black snake’s vertical pupils flickered with renewed wariness.
Not bothering with it further, Ji Die turned and left the animal shed.
Now that the creature had reached the fourth level, he could finally relax.
He hadn’t been idle these past days, either. In the art of Object Manipulation, he had made significant progress.
He could now control objects weighing several pounds at will, sending them flying within a ten-step radius as he pleased.
To this end, Ji Die had crafted a wooden sword, practicing with it inside his room, sending it whizzing about at great speed. Anyone below the fourth level of Qi Refining would hardly be able to dodge it.
If it were a real sword, it would pierce right through a person!
"Return!" Ji Die called out with spirited vigor, feeling like one of the sword-immortals his mother had described in stories when he was a child—those who could take a head with a flying sword. With a single word, the sword hovered before him and he stowed it away in his storage pouch.
Smiling, Ji Die took out an Ascension Fruit to restore his spiritual energy.
"After stabilizing my cultivation these past days, my foundation is more solid than when I first broke through to the fourth level. Though I haven’t reached the fifth, I have a feeling that no ordinary fourth-level cultivator is my match."
Just then, the sounds of hurried footsteps fleeing outside his room caught his attention.
"Someone's been watching me!" Ji Die’s vigilance was instantly aroused. He leapt from his bed like an arrow, rushed to the window, and flung it open.
The bright sun shone, but there was no one in sight.
"Gone?"
He frowned, noticing a fresh hole in his window, as if something had just shot through it. He stepped outside to search, but found no trace of anyone.
"Senior Brother Ji, what’s going on?" Wu Han happened to be approaching from outside the beast stables, noticing Ji Die searching around in puzzlement.
"Did you see anyone outside my room just now?" Ji Die asked.
"No, but I did see He Qiang leaving the beast stables in a panic. Why?" Wu Han’s face was full of confusion.
"He Qiang? Was it him just now?" Ji Die frowned. He vaguely recalled this He Qiang as a third-level Qi Refining cultivator. Hearing Wu Han’s words, he wondered if it had been He Qiang who had been spying on him.
But why would he do that?
"Senior Brother Ji, what’s wrong?" Wu Han looked at his flickering expression, even more puzzled.
"It’s nothing." Ji Die waved him off with a casual excuse and returned to his room.
As Wu Han watched him disappear behind the door, a glint flashed in his eyes, and he too walked out of the beast stables.
"He Qiang… Why would he be watching me?" Ji Die sat cross-legged on his bed, frowning in thought.
"No matter the reason, this serves as a warning. I must be more careful from now on. Luckily, I didn’t take out the bronze censer just now." Ji Die let out a slow breath.
This incident was a wake-up call: the beast stables were not safe. He must avoid exposing the bronze censer or using the Ascension Fruits for cultivation here.
He’d need to clear out the remaining Ascension Fruits from his storage pouch as well.
Whoever had just seen him consume the Ascension Fruit—he didn’t know their intentions, but he had a bad feeling.
From now on, he’d keep as few Ascension Fruits in his pouch as possible, and consume them on the spot if he had to.
...
"So, you’re saying he’s already at the fourth level of Qi Refining, can manipulate objects, and even took out an Ascension Fruit to consume?" In a certain tower, a horse-faced man looked at the beast stable disciple who had come to report, his eyes narrowing.
"Absolutely. I saw it with my own eyes," the disciple nodded repeatedly.
"An Ascension Fruit—how did an outer disciple like him get one?" The horse-faced man stood up, pacing back and forth in confusion.
He had ordered someone to secretly watch Ji Die, merely wanting to know how Ji Die had managed to make Jiang Mo Li let him off so easily.
He hadn’t expected to receive such an astonishing surprise.
"Could it have something to do with Senior Sister Jiang? Maybe she gave him the Ascension Fruit?" the disciple ventured.
"I doubt it’s that simple," the horse-faced man replied slowly.
That boy’s cultivation had progressed far too quickly. In just about ten days, he’d broken through from the first to the fourth level of Qi Refining.
His instincts told him: Ji Die must have more Ascension Fruits on him!
"You may go. Not a word of this to anyone!"
The horse-faced man dismissed the disciple, his eyes gleaming with greed.
"Ji Die! No wonder you could reach the fourth level in such a short time. I want to see just how many secrets you’re hiding!"
If he tried to force Ji Die to hand over his treasures, the boy would never agree—and might even be alerted to his intentions. The horse-faced man’s eyes glinted wolfishly as he pondered his next move.
Originally, he had targeted Ji Die because the latter had offended Senior Sister Song, but now, having learned that Ji Die might possess several Ascension Fruits, his attitude changed completely.
He had cultivated for over a decade, yet was still at the fourth level.
And that country bumpkin, in such a short time, had broken through to the fourth level—on what grounds?
Everything Ji Die had must become his!
Shaking his head, the horse-faced man muttered to himself,
"Whatever secrets he’s hiding must all be in that storage pouch of his!"