Chapter 51: The Belated Reinforcements

"Senior Sister Xiao!" a blue-haired young man called out to Xiao Hong as he walked over. 

"Yes, Junior Brother?" Xiao Hong smiled happily. The feeling of being called Senior Sister was still great!

"Ahem!" The young coughed and looked away while handing over a storage bag, "T-This is your spoils of war, Senior Sister Xiao!" 

"Thank you, Junior Brother!" she smiled even more brightly. The respect afforded to a Senior Sister was truly refreshing. 

The flustered Junior Brother ran away while Xiao Hong was reveled in her 'Senior Sister prestige'.

***

In the rather intense battle, Xiao Hong had defeated quite a few Demonic Cultivators below the 5th Disaster, bringing her quite the income.

In total, she had gained more than ten thousand low-grade Spirit Stones and one mid-grade Spirit Stones, which added up to a total of eleven thousand low-grade Spirit Stones.

'So fucking poor!' Xiao Hong wrinkled her nose in disdain. 'Even I, an initial-stage Divine Sea Stage Cultivator, am richer than these damned paupers!

'If I had defeated as many Immortal Cultivators, I would have gained at least thrice the amount!' But Xiao Hong still eagerly rummaged through their belongings.

'Hmm. Some low-grade Magic Tools - meh - they aren't nearly as good as the ones from Mystic Sky Sect, let alone my precious Leiying Sword…' She dismissively tossed out a small pile of swords, sabres, spears and shields. 'Eh. I can use these to reinforce the Formation a bit.' She shrugged.

'Pills… ew. They call this garbage a Pill?' Her nose wrinkled even more as she rolled a dark red pill around in her hands. This pill had just barely reached the standards for 'good quality'. As a spoilt brat who never ate anything below Perfect quality, she could not even bear to come into contact with it for too long, let alone ingest it. So she threw it away. Besides, Heavens knew what these Demonic Cultivators used to refine these 'pills'.

She continued to rummage through the Storage Bag and did not find anything interesting other than a few 'Demonic Alliance' tokens. But she had no clue what they were for. 

"Tsk. What a bunch of poor ghosts!" she clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction as she threw away the storage bag after taking the Spirit Stones and the Magic Tools. "There isn't a single interesting thing in it at all!" 

If the dead Demonic Cultivators heard her thoughts and saw her actions, they would definitely curse her before bursting into tears! They might even come back to life and die out of sheer rage!

Who the hell do you think is responsible for our poverty, dammit?! Is it not because of you damned Immortal Path Cultivators?! You suppress us to the point we can't even catch a breath and you still expect us to be as rich as you?! 

Give your opponents some respect fucking dammit! Even if we're dead, we still have feelings, you know?!

***

A few days later, inside the Undead Wood Life Protecting Formation.

In these few days, Xiao Hong had summarised her strengths and her shortcomings.

Her biggest shortcoming was that she did not cultivate any Physical Battle Techniques. Despite her talent in Body Cultivation being better than her Essence Cultivation, she neglected it. Though, she could not really be blamed for this oversight. In the Immortal Path, almost no one considers Body Cultivation to be equivalent to Essence Cultivation. They consider it as little more than a Secondary Profession.

Why? Because the power it grants the user is only equal to that of Essence Cultivation and not nearly as versatile. Not in the lower Cultivation Stages and not in the higher Cultivation Stages. The only thing a Body Cultivator could do was punch and kick people. At the same time, Essence Cultivators could use numerous versatile Spell Arts, Refine Pills and Artefacts, create Talismans and so on. 

The only speciality the Body Cultivators had over Essence Cultivators was their resilience. But even that could be replicated by Defensive Artefacts like Inner Armor. 

And because of this 'neglect' for Body Cultivation, it was less popular among Cultivators. This resulted in fewer people taking the Path of Body Cultivation and thus fewer experts being born in this Path. This, in turn, resulted in there being fewer Physical Battle Techniques. 

In short, it was unpopular.

And Xiao Hong had subconsciously assimilated this strange 'neglect'. Moreover, the old Xiao Hong disdained Body Cultivation because the early stages of Body Cultivation really did make people uglier. The new Xiao Hong was also somewhat influenced by this.

Perhaps, she might never have practised Body Cultivation if it weren't for her system doing it automatically for her.

But Xiao Hong had learnt her lesson. She was going to give Body Cultivation a lot more attention now.

Another one of her shortcomings was the lack of trump cards. Yes, the Spirit Transformation could have been considered a trump card - but that was when she faced enemies her size. Unfortunately for Xiao Hong, almost every enemy she faced since her transmigration was far above her weight class - she only got to bully five Divine Sea realms before she had to face a small army of Disaster Stage Cultivators. So her 'trump cards' became the only way for her to keep her life.

Third, her Battle Experience was sorely lacking. The only reason she could take on so many Demonic Cultivators was because of her Perfection-level Mastery of the Star Shifting Steps and Physical Prowess. Without this, she would be courting Death if she took on so many opponents at once.

Though, from this, Xiao Hong realised one thing: Speed is King!

As long as her speed surpassed others, there was nothing others could do to stop her. No matter how formidable an attack was, if it never even touched her, it would be all for naught. So, Xiao Hong decided to pay attention to increasing her speed.

Just as Xiao Hong was meditating on her strengths and weaknesses she felt a jolt come through the part of her Divine Sense that was merged with the Array Formation.

'Hmm?' She raised her head and looked towards the setting sun.

Gu Ran and Jun Meiling also opened their eyes and looked in the same direction as Xiao Hong. 

"They're here." Gu Ran stood up and dusted himself.

In just a few breaths, a huge battalion of Cultivators flew towards them, radiating powerful auras. At the forefront, four extremely powerful auras at the level of 8th Disaster surged into the sky as they shot towards them at the fastest speed.

The fastest to arrive was a young immortal with pure white hair that was like a pristine veil of moonlight, flowing behind him like a river. This was the man who made Xiao Hong's jealousy soar to heights she did not believe possible! She believed if she cultivated a Cultivation Method that became stronger with jealousy, she would've become the Supreme Goddess of the Omniverse!

Indeed. It was Bai Hao.

And right behind him was an annoyance named Qiao Xuan.

'Tsk!' Xiao Hong's good mood instantly disappeared. She clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction, 'These Demonic Cultivators are so useless! 

'Could they not have killed this fellow?' Her eyes stared at Qiao Xuan distastefully, 'It was such a perfect chance too!

'Now I have to deal with this annoying little shit for the rest of my stay here… Three years… ugh!' Xiao Hong felt depressed when she thought about it. 'Though, now that I think about it, the Sect must have sensed what was going on here, right? They should cancel this Trial, right?'

Now that the Demonic Path was interfering, there was no way the Sect would still allow for the Trial to continue. The only thing that mattered was how long it would take for them to be pulled out.

'Dammit, I hope they don't bring us out too quickly!' Xiao Hong's mentality switched. Because she would lose access to the Yuan Essence. Then she would have to wait for more than three years for the Heaven-Devouring Roc Breathing Method to reach Beginner-level before she could once again reach the 333x Cultivation speed!

That was three years! She could not afford to lose a single minute, much less three fucking years!

Moreover, she might as well say goodbye to her guinea pigs - the Sect would definitely not let her keep these extremely useful sources of information to herself. 

She hoped the Sect would take its time saving them. Xiao Hong crossed her fingers and prayed to the Heavens, 'Oh Heavenly Daddy, please grant this poor, obedient and filial child of yours this small wish…'

Just as Xiao Hong was praying to the Heavens, Bai Hao and the others had reached just outside the Formation to meet them. 

After briefly confirming their identities with each other, Gu Ran opened the Formation and let in the disciples that had just arrived.

Quickly, Bai Hao, Qiao Xuan and the other disciples made their way inside. A lot of the disciples of the Purple Spirit Sect ran over and to disciples inside - there were many of their loved ones here after all!

Cries of relief and shrieks of joy resounded, filling the silent atmosphere.

As Xiao Hong watched this, a strange feeling swept through her heart, making her feel as though she were floating. A smile appeared on her face as she realised that she had played a crucial role in saving these lives. It might seem a bit arrogant, but she was one of the main reasons these people could see their friends and family again.

It caused a feeling of pride to well up within her.

She finally felt she had made a positive difference to those around her.

***

The sun had just set and the disciples of the Purple Spirit Sect had gathered in groups, chatting away.

"So you're telling me Junior Sister Xiao not only took on dozens of Demonic Cultivators at the Disaster realm - some of whom were at the 7th and 8th Disaster, defeated several of them, and also set up this Formation?!" More of Bai Hao's facial features could be found on the ground rather than his face! He honestly felt like he was dreaming when Jun Meiling had told him all this was achieved by a puny initial-stage Divine Sea Cultivator!

Jun Meiling and Gu Ran nodded.

"Indeed." Jun Meiling continued, "Without Junior Sister Xiao, you'd probably never even find our corpses."

Bai Hao was left speechless for a while. He carefully scrutinised both of them to ensure that they were not actually pulling his leg. And he soon realised that it was all true!

All the remaining survivors attested to Xiao Hong's deeds. What really convinced them was the sincere admiration and gratefulness in their eyes. It was something that could not be faked. The debt of a life meant a lot to Cultivators and they would rarely fake something like this.

So Bai Hao pretty much believed all of this.

But there was a crucial point he still could not understand, "Isn't Junior Sister Xiao an Alchemist? When did she study Array Formations??" He remembered her very well because she was the one with the weakest Cultivation among all the participants.

Jun Meiling's mouth twitched violently, "... She dabbles in Array Formations…"

Bai Hao: "???"

What the hell do you mean 'dabbles'? This Formation is something even I can't break! Even if I go all out, I won't be able to break through this Formation. How the hell can someone who 'dabbles' create something so powerful?!

Looking at Bai Hao's weird expression, Jun Meiling explained, "She said it herself."

"Perhaps, she was being humble?" Bai Hai tried to rationalise.

"... No. She does not have a certification from the Sect." Even now Jun Meiling could not help but shudder in fear. They really threw their lives into the hands of an uncertified Array Formation Master! It was truly their fortune that Junior Sister Xiao had real expertise instead of being a scammer. If they did get scammed, they would have no one to blame but themselves.

"..." Bai Hao was utterly speechless. You guys are truly daring!

"Alright. Where is she now? I'll make sure to report her contributions to the Sect." Bai Hao nodded.

"I've sent her a qi transmission. She'll be here in a few minutes." Jun Meiling said.

While Qiao Xuan, who had been silent all along, started to doubt his life. He truly did not expect that this girl was so talented. He'd thought she was just a rather talented Alchemist, but now…

'Genius Alchemist, genius Formation Master, powerful Body Cultivation, Perfected-level Mastery of at least two spells and a Movement Art and she can use four-fold Spirit Transformation Art.' Qiao Xuan's eyes flashed with a strange light. Such a talent truly broadened his horizons! 

'Moreover, that might not be all! It is entirely possible she is hiding more…'

And this only made him desire her that much more! Before he had just thought of her as a piece of meat to relieve his desires; at most he'd keep her around as a concubine because of her beauty. Now, though, he genuinely wished to pursue her as Dao Companion. He believed only such a talented woman was worthy of him.

What's more, he was sure the Sect would protect her with all their might once they returned. His family would not be able to help him play tricks. Grade 2 Alchemist and a Grade Formation Master in 2 years?

That was even more monstrous than the legendary Master An! If the Purple Spirit Sect did not protect her despite all that, they might as well disband. 

Qiao Xuan's eyes flickered with desire as these thoughts flew through his mind. If he managed to woo such a talented Cultivator, his status would shoot straight through the roof! His competitors, within the Qiao Family and outside it, would no longer matter!

Then Jun Meiling looked at Bai Hao and asked, "Senior Brother, you said we have something important to discuss?"

Upon hearing Jun Meiling's inquiry, both Bai Hao's and Qiao Xuan's expressions turned sombre. Bai Hao let out he said deeply, "... Indeed. We have a lot to discuss. But let Junior Sister Xiao come over first, her help will be crucial."