The Suyue Sect could only be considered a third-rate sect in the cultivation world.

But Suyue Sect’s sect master, Yue Chanjuan, was the old lover of the Dong Fushang Sect master. Not only that, she also had secret relations with an elder from the Demonic Path’s Hidden Blood Sect. This made the Suyue Sect’s backing extremely solid, and the sect’s disciples had very abundant cultivation resources.

After the Suyue Sect disciples entered, they could receive ten high-grade spirit stones and a bottle of Qi-nourishing pills every month. This kind of wealth rivaled even first-rate major sects. If she could get in and mix around for a few years, her cultivation would advance by leaps and bounds. Then she could explore secret realms and obtain inheritances based on her previous life’s experience, living freely and contending for supremacy over the world.

However, to reach the Suyue Sect, she first had to cross Qilian Mountain.

Qilian Mountain was also called Seven Maidens Mountain and Seven Fairies Mountain.

Legend had it that the Qilian Mountain area was originally a sea. Very long ago, an evil flood dragon appeared in the sea. The evil dragon stirred up clouds and rain, harmed the people, and raised terrifying waves, intending to flood thousands of miles of rivers and mountains. Seven immortal fairies descended from heaven and fought fiercely with the evil dragon for seven days and seven nights, finally killing it. However, before dying, the evil dragon raised sea waves, determined to drag countless mortals down with it even in death.

So the seven fairies transformed into great mountains to fill the sea, saving tens of thousands of surrounding mortals, sacrificing themselves to save all living beings.

Su Zhuyi looked up at the distant mountains and even counted them with her hand: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Indeed, there were seven peaks, and from afar, they did have human-like silhouettes. No wonder those mortals would make up such a story.

There weren’t any high-level spiritual creatures in these deep mountains, but there were quite a few fierce wild beasts. Zhang Enning’s father had been killed by a pack of wolves while hunting in these mountains. If Su Zhuyi had taken this route right after her rebirth, she would probably have been gnawed down to nothing by now. Although there were no high-level spiritual creatures, Qilian Mountain had a type of colorful ink flower that would grow on the mountainsides every March and April, like tying a colorful belt around the green mountains.

The villagers of Changning Village called this the fairy’s waist sash.

Why not call it the fairy’s bodice?

Colorful ink flowers were an ingredient female cultivators needed for refining beauty pills. Merchant caravans came to Changning Village every year specifically to buy some colorful ink flowers at low prices.

In her previous life, Su Zhuyi had never eaten beauty pills – her face didn’t need them.

It was still the end of February now, and the colorful ink flowers on Qilian Mountain hadn’t grown yet. Looking from afar, it was just a dark mass, like a giant beast crouching there, ready to swallow people whole at any moment. Su Zhuyi held a tree root in her left hand as a snack and gripped her hoe in her right hand, following the mountain path left by hunting villagers up the mountain. She had to cross seven mountains in succession to reach the town on the other side. With good luck, it should take three to five days.

The mountain path was very remote, overgrown with wild grass as tall as a person. Of course, this was also because she was currently too short. Su Zhuyi enlarged her hoe to clear the way, pushing down all the weeds with the hoe, so her forward progress wasn’t slowed. When she climbed to the mountainside, she could sense the auras of some fierce beasts around.

Even the trees had wild monkeys hanging on them, following her all the way.

Having gone through an entire winter, the wild beasts in this forest probably hadn’t filled their bellies. Suddenly seeing such a tiny little person, tender and delicate-looking, clearly quite tasty, they naturally didn’t want to let her go. However, the wild beasts that had survived the harsh winter were mostly clever and alert, and could sense that faint aura about her. Although they wanted to eat her very much, they didn’t act rashly, just secretly following all the way, planning to observe before making their move.

Su Zhuyi walked all night and was getting a bit hungry. Although eating just tree roots provided spiritual energy, there was no feeling of fullness. Her cultivation was still low, and she hadn’t reached fasting yet. Now that she was hungry, she simply found a cleaner place to sit down, crossed her legs, rubbed her ankles, then picked up a stone and squinted at the sky. She aimed the stone at her eye and saw the monkey hiding behind the leaves shrink back and hide behind the tree trunk.

She flicked her finger, but not to hit the monkey – instead, she struck down a bird from the sky.

Monkey meat didn’t taste good; better to roast a bird.

After Su Zhuyi picked up the dead bird and efficiently plucked its feathers, the several fierce beast auras following behind her instantly disappeared. She chuckled twice, used spiritual energy to perform a fire control technique, lit a pile of dry grass, and roasted the bird to eat.

After finishing her meal, Su Zhuyi discovered that the monkey in the tree was still there, and immediately felt somewhat surprised.

The fierce beasts following behind had all run away, yet that monkey hiding in the tree was shaking like a sieve, with the surrounding leaves trembling constantly, which was enough to prove the monkey was terrified. However, it hadn’t run, and she still planned to follow her.

Monkeys were quite intelligent animals, and there were spirit monkeys that cultivated to become spirits. Back then, a Demonic Path cultivator had trained a spirit monkey to steal things. When seizing treasures and gathering herbs in secret realms, that monkey was nimble and fast – while others grabbed one item, the monkey could grab five, one in each of its four claws and one wrapped in its tail. It was so fast that others couldn’t match it, even with grappling techniques. That Demonic Path cultivator was poor at fighting but excellent at escaping – in the blink of an eye, both master and monkey would disappear, absolutely infuriating everyone else.

Su Zhuyi couldn’t even remember that cultivator’s name; she only remembered that black monkey with a tuft of red hair on its head.

The one in the tree was a golden monkey with black eyes that rolled around, looking quite clever.

Noticing the faint spiritual light floating in its eyes, Su Zhuyi felt somewhat surprised. She hadn’t expected this monkey to be a spirit monkey – one that had encountered fortune by eating spirit herbs or absorbing spiritual energy, with a constitution different from ordinary wild beasts, a mutated monkey. Looking at the glow in its eyes, it probably had the strength of a human cultivator in the early Qi Refining stage. If this type of monkey had no one to guide it in the early stages, it would only cultivate according to instinct. Its speed would get faster and faster, its movements more agile, and its claws sharper.

In other words, if Su Zhuyi used the same force and speed she’d used to hit the bird to hit this monkey, she definitely wouldn’t hit it. It was shaking so vigorously – there was a trick involved.

Seeming to sense that Su Zhuyi was already curiously examining it and hadn’t shown killing intent, the monkey slowly poked its head out from under the leaves and threw a small stone in its hand toward Su Zhuyi.

The small stone was red, about the size of an ordinary chess piece, with faint spiritual energy floating on it. Su Zhuyi reached out and caught the stone, rubbed it with her fingers twice, and held the stone while putting on a thoughtful expression.

The little monkey chattered and threw another stone at her.

This stone was orange with more abundant spiritual energy on it. After hitting her, the monkey jumped to a nearby big tree and bared its teeth at Su Zhuyi, as if provoking her. Seeing that Su Zhuyi didn’t move, it threw out a third stone. This stone was emerald green with even more concentrated spiritual energy, just like a piece of crushed spirit stone.

After throwing it, it started shouting again, bouncing back and forth between two trees while shouting, appearing very agitated.

Oh, both provocation and enticement – this monkey was planning to lure her somewhere?

Su Zhuyi wasn’t a little child. She had lived for over a thousand years and felt she had seen every trick. How could she be deceived by a monkey?

This monkey wanted to lure her to some place.

If she had an impulsive and easily angered temperament, or if she got greedy at the sight of spirit stones, she would have chased after the monkey to fight long ago. But Su Zhuyi stood firmly in place without moving, waiting as the monkey threw the third, fourth, fifth stones…

After waiting a while longer, Su Zhuyi noticed the monkey started anxiously throwing tree leaves, so she understood it had no more of those spiritual energy stones on it. She waved at the monkey in the tree and even playfully winked, giggling twice before saying, “Thanks, I’ll be going first.”

After saying this, Su Zhuyi turned around gracefully and left, completely untempted by the monkey’s lure. In her previous life, she had never heard of any treasures appearing in Qilian Mountain. This monkey had bad intentions – she wouldn’t be fooled.

Seeing Su Zhuyi turn and leave, the golden monkey in the tree immediately bared its teeth in anger, grabbed a vine to swing over with its claws extended. Before it could touch Su Zhuyi, it saw a hoe descending from the sky, directly cutting the vine it was grasping. The monkey immediately fell from the air, but its speed was strange – at the moment of falling, it kicked off the hoe with its hind legs, leaped back into the air to grab a tree trunk, spun around twice, then started howling at Su Zhuyi.

When it howled, the hoe confronted it. Though it wanted to hit the monkey, due to its peculiar shape, it looked like it was bowing to the monkey. The monkey wanted to chase Su Zhuyi, but was blocked by the hoe. It anxiously scratched its ears and cheeks until its eyes turned red, but still couldn’t break through the hoe’s defense. The golden monkey stretched its neck to look at Su Zhuyi walking away and finally gave up. After clawing at the hoe once, it turned and jumped to another tree, disappearing in a few leaps.

After the monkey ran away, Su Zhuyi beckoned and called back her natal magic treasure. She didn’t put it away but let the hoe stand behind her.

Back then, many female cultivators loved beauty and liked to buy magic treasures with halos. After wearing them, they would be surrounded by blooming flowers and immortal qi. Once, a man had given her a magic treasure called Moon Tide to win her favor. When she wore Moon Tide, moon shadows followed her as she walked, and floating light appeared beneath her feet.

Now she had wild grass under her feet and a hoe behind her back.

How truly lamentable.

Su Zhuyi sighed and continued forward. By evening, she had crossed two more mountains – she had conquered three of the seven maidens, with only four mountains left to reach the town on the other side. At this rate, she could reach the town below the mountain in at most three days.

These stones the monkey threw should be fine for exchanging some gold. Then she could use the gold to rent a horse carriage in town, arriving at Suyue Sect a few days earlier.

After walking another stretch, the sun set in the west, and there was no more light in the dense forest. Su Zhuyi found a cave to rest in. She set up a simple formation at the cave entrance, had her natal magic treasure come out to stand guard, then sat down to cultivate.