She had just obtained three spirit stones.

Su Zhuyi didn’t hesitate to grip the spirit stones in her hand, directly intending to crush them to absorb the spiritual energy within. Her gaze was locked tightly on the jumping corpse on the eaves. She held the old tree branch in her left hand and clutched the spirit stone in her right, gently squeezing.

It didn’t break…

Her hand hurt from the pressure.

Cultivators could directly absorb spiritual energy from spirit stones for cultivation, so spirit stones had always been highly valuable. But spirit stones varied in quality, and the three pieces hidden in Su Xiang’s home were the lowest grade inferior spirit stones that the former demoness Su Zhuyi wouldn’t even bother to glance at. Spirit stones were very hard, but anyone who could use spirit stones would already be a cultivator and wouldn’t be unable to crush a mere stone. The original Su Zhuyi could split mountains and crack stones with ease – her pair of soul-stealing eyes and exquisite golden web were renowned throughout the cultivation world. Now she couldn’t even break a spirit stone…

She had very little spiritual energy left in her body. Seeing the jumping corpse pouncing down again, Su Zhuyi grabbed several old tree leaves and stuffed them in her mouth, gathering all her meager spiritual energy in her teeth, then grabbed the spirit stone and bit down with all her strength.

The spirit stone cracked open.

Her front tooth also broke.

The jumping corpse’s claw still caught her shoulder, nearly slicing off her arm like a radish.

As spiritual energy entered her body, Su Zhuyi endured the pain and circulated her cultivation technique. Spiritual energy overflowed from her palm. When the jumping corpse attacked again, she crouched down, passed through the corpse’s legs, then struck its buttocks with her palm. This was the most powerful Blazing Palm she could currently execute. With this strike, the jumping corpse howled in pain, turned its head stiffly to glance at Su Zhuyi, then changed direction and charged toward other villagers.

It had already gained some intelligence. Seeing that Su Zhuyi was a tough bone to chew, it immediately switched targets. Once it fed on other blood, its strength would continue to increase! Then, dealing with Su Zhuyi would be much easier.

With Su Zhuyi’s current tiny size, how could she outrun a jumping corpse if she tried to flee?

Therefore, she could only take advantage of the jumping corpse’s incomplete advancement to eliminate it and prevent future troubles!

Seeing the jumping corpse charging toward a child who had fallen on the ground, Su Zhuyi flipped her wrist, injecting some spiritual energy into green leaves, making them instantly hard as iron and stone. She shot them out as hidden weapons – whoosh, whoosh – creating several green streaks of light in the air, blocking the jumping corpse for an instant!

Then Su Zhuyi looked around, grabbed a hoe that a villager had brought over, bit her tongue tip, and spat out fresh blood onto the hoe. She drew talismans in the void, causing three red lines to circle behind the jumping corpse of Old Lady Lu. After completing all this, her face was pale and her whole body weak, but she still hefted the hoe and charged forward with huffing and puffing!

The originally black, ordinary iron hoe became bright and gleaming after her fresh blood was sprayed on it, as if it had gained spirituality.

Su Zhuyi struck the jumping corpse with the hoe. The corpse’s body no longer bled, but after being struck by the hoe, black blood flowed from its seven orifices, looking extremely terrifying. Some villagers had originally been desperate enough to protect their relatives and wanted to help, but seeing Old Lady Lu’s face covered in black blood, they retreated repeatedly, not daring to approach anymore.

Only one person came forward to drag away the frightened child.

Su Zhuyi’s hoe was still embedded in the jumping corpse. The moment she struck, she felt something was wrong. The jumping corpse’s strength was even greater than she had imagined. She had already used her innate secret technique and been forced to refine the ground hoe as her natal magic weapon in desperation, yet dealing with the jumping corpse was still difficult!

The jumping corpse suddenly grabbed the hoe with both hands, lifting Su Zhuyi into the air, then violently swung her toward the wall. Su Zhuyi could either let go and fall to the ground or be smashed against the wall. However, this hoe was now her natal magic weapon – if it was destroyed by hitting the wall, she would also be doomed. Therefore, she didn’t let go. Just before hitting the wall, she kicked hard with her legs…

Using the rebound force to fly backward, she also pulled out the hoe, but her leg was broken. Seeing the jumping corpse continue approaching, her legs trembled, and she couldn’t even stand up.

Su Zhuyi never placed her hopes for survival on others. Though her leg was broken, she gritted her teeth and stood up, dragging the hoe across her body again. She circulated her cultivation technique, mobilizing her last spiritual energy to fight the jumping corpse to the death. At this moment, her entire being seemed to glow.

But just then, a voice called out: “Old thing, look here!”

What use was such luring! Su Zhuyi also heard the voice, but she knew it was useless and sneered coldly in her heart.

Jumping corpses wouldn’t be affected by external sounds – only blood could attract them. But the next moment, she widened her eyes in surprise, discovering the jumping corpse actually charged toward the direction of the shouting voice. The one calling out was the steamed bun boy, shouting while trembling, shaking like a sieve.

The jumping corpse was extremely fast, reaching the steamed bun boy in the blink of an eye. But just as it rushed over, white stuff scattered from the bamboo basket overhead, falling on the living corpse and instantly producing black smoke.

Glutinous rice!

They were scattering glutinous rice!

At the same time, the scarred boy Zhang Enning threw everything in his hands, hurling it all at the jumping corpse. While throwing, he shouted at the steamed bun boy beside him: “I told you to piss earlier and you wouldn’t, now you’re pissing your pants!”

Glutinous rice plus child’s urine – no, just these two things definitely wouldn’t have such an effect. But Su Zhuyi couldn’t spare time to analyze this now. She took advantage of the living corpse being trapped, endured the pain, and ran over to strike it with another hoe blow, directly knocking the jumping corpse to the ground, then continued smashing many more times until the corpse’s head was pulverized.

She had once killed people, like cutting grass, completely unaffected by this bit of gore. After finishing the smashing, she saw that the steamed bun boy had not only wet his pants but also soiled himself, and even Zhang Enning was crouched aside vomiting his guts out.

Su Zhuyi wiped her face and said, “If you don’t smash the living corpse’s head, it will rise again. Now it’s fine, but it still needs to be burned.”

After speaking, her body went limp. Even using the hoe to support herself, she couldn’t stand steady and collapsed directly to the ground. Then her vision went black, and she knew nothing more.

…

Su Zhuyi woke up from hunger.

When she awakened, she found herself lying on a bed covered with a quilt. The quilt had a faint pleasant fragrance and a strangely nostalgic soapberry scent. Just from the smell, she knew where this was.

When she was small, Su Qingxun had helped chase away dogs for her.

Later, because the family adults forbade it, Su Qingxun never acknowledged Su Zhuyi when people were around. However, she would sometimes secretly run to the small river outside the village, leaving a piece of candy or half a cake where Su Zhuyi often stayed.

Su Qingxun’s mother was called Yun Niang, a very diligent person. Although Su Qingxun didn’t have many new clothes, she always dressed cleanly every day, her clothes carrying a soapberry fragrance. The Su Zhuyi of that time was both familiar with and longing for this scent. Even long after Su Qingxun had left, she could still smell this fragrance by the river. Every time she caught this scent, she would be especially happy, because it meant she had good things to eat.

Back then, only Su Qingxun had helped her. She remembered all the other children throwing stones at her.

So she had been given the chance to escape to Su Qingxun. So even after achieving success in the demonic path, she had been merciful to Su Qingxun.

Unfortunately, in the end, she still killed her.

Su Zhuyi lay on the bed for a moment before struggling to sit up. After sitting up, she found her leg had been splinted and bandaged, and wasn’t very painful anymore. Her clothes hadn’t been changed, but the remaining spirit stone she had hidden in her torn pocket was gone.

Su Zhuyi felt around everywhere – nothing!

She was instantly shocked. Had she exhausted herself half to death for so long only to end up with nothing?

A nameless fire instantly flared up. Su Zhuyi threw off the quilt and was about to get out of bed when she saw Su Qingxun’s mother pushing open the door. She was holding a stack of things – a set of new clothes with a spirit stone placed on top. Seeing these, Su Zhuyi finally calmed down slightly. She had been ready to commit murder just now.

“Little master, you’re awake? Are you hungry?” Yun Niang asked with a smile. “You’ve been unconscious for four days. We treated your leg injury and originally planned to change you into clean clothes, but your hands were tightly clasped to your chest, and that hoe stood in the air guarding you, seeming to dislike our touch, so we didn’t change you.”

Speaking of the hoe, Su Zhuyi finally noticed her natal magic weapon lying at the foot of the bed. Her mouth twitched, and her heart bled.

Back then, her natal magic weapon was the Exquisite Golden Web, one of the finest magical instruments in the cultivation world. The golden threads in the center were refined from dragon whiskers, and the other golden threads were extremely precious, exquisite silkworm silk. The threads were incredibly sharp, cutting through iron like mud. With one cast of the net, she could capture whoever she wanted or kill people by shredding them into pieces suitable for making meatballs – its power was tremendous.

Now her natal magic weapon had become a hoe, the most common kind used by farmers. However, the situation had been critical then, and there was nothing suitable around her – just hoes, rakes, and sickles that the villagers had brought over. She had no choice but to pick the best from the worst options and grab the hoe. Regretting it now was useless.

Natal magic weapons could be changed, but changing them was very complicated. Not only did it require many precious medicinal materials, but you also needed a master to protect you during the process, otherwise, it would damage your primordial spirit. Generally speaking, cultivators chose their natal magic weapons very carefully, because many people couldn’t gather the materials needed to change their natal magic weapon in their entire lifetime, let alone find a master to protect them.

With a thought, the hoe flew to her bedside, nodding and bowing like a person bowing.

At least it wasn’t a rake, or she would have nowhere to cry…

Su Zhuyi didn’t want to look anymore. With a wave of her hand, the hoe fell to the ground and even smashed a hole in the floor.

Yun Niang was startled, fearing the hoe might go crazy. She approached holding the clothes and said nervously, “These are new clothes borrowed from another family. Little master, your clothes are dirty and torn – please change into a new set.” She took out some other things. “These all fell from your pocket when we carried you over. I put them here together. Please change clothes and check your belongings first. I’ll have Qingxun bring over porridge and vegetarian dishes.”

“Good.” Su Zhuyi nodded.

The spirit stone was still there. Su Xiang hadn’t shamelessly taken it back, so everything was negotiable.