A Gift

"If you're not the master teacher's pupil, you've probably heard some malicious remarks from them. I've fought against demons alongside Li Qinglin on three occasions, and we only just killed a necro bug last night. Why do you think a demon fighter shouldn't hang out with Li Qinglin? That's discrimination."

"You didn't kill the necro bug," Minghe said calmly. "It fled, and I killed it."

Qin Yi was speechless.

"I wanted to check up on Prince Qinglin last night to confirm something when I accidentally saw what the three of you did," Minghe said indifferently. "Li Qinglin is more than capable of killing that demon, but he pretended to be helpless and let the demon flee. All he cared about was figuring out the mystery at the manor, and as long as he got what he wanted, he didn't care if the demon fled or died. He's a politician, not a demon fighter."

Qin Yi was abashed. Minghe was right. Of course, Li Qinglin didn't have a strong sense of justice and wasn't the type who was ready to help the weak—that was more Li Qingjun's style. But he couldn't criticize Li Qinglin for that, because people wanted different things.

Heaving a sigh, he said, "F- I mean, Priestess Minghe, what are you getting at?"

"I'm trying to tell you that a person like Li Qinglin would choose to work with demons if he found the option in his favor."

"Nonsense." Qin Yi was displeased. "The person really working with demons is…"

He stopped halfway. After all, he was in the Eternal Temple, and he couldn't afford to say the wrong thing.

However, the way he looked at the temple had given him away, and Minghe shook her head slightly. "I've seen the master teacher killing demons with my own eyes. He was resolute and relentless. On the contrary, the night when the crown prince was assassinated, I detected demonic energy flying in and out of the prince's residence, and the place is still filled with that dense energy now. That was why I paid Prince Qinglin that secret visit."

Qin Yi hesitated for a moment and chewed on those words in his head. Suddenly, his eyes widened.

Minghe went on, "I saw you destroying a demon with that club and solving the eight-door golden lock. It was obvious that you're a cultivator. Since you've been addressing Li Qinglin by his name, you're obviously now his subordinate, which gives me some leverage. If you still care about destroying demons to protect the moral integrity of this world, could you do me a favor?"

Qin Yi narrowed his eyes and asked, "You want me to investigate the possible demon in Li Qinglin's residence, don't you?"

"Yes," Minghe said with a sigh. "I've been traveling with ordinary people lately just to destroy monsters and demons, and I made an oath before I set out: I'll only use my skills on demons and never on ordinary human beings. Li Qinglin's residence is too heavily guarded for me to infiltrate, and it wouldn't be appropriate to break in by force."

Qin Yi studied her face for a while and looked serious when he said, "I'm sorry, but destroying demons to protect the moral integrity of this world just isn't my thing, but I do have nimble fingers and a warm heart."

His flirtation was so subtle that the Taoist priestess had no idea what he was talking about. She only stared at him curiously.

Only then did Qin Yi realize how naive this beautiful woman could be in certain respects, and she didn't seem as distant as before. Qin Yi chuckled and no longer found her so unapproachable.

He finally spoke in plainer terms. "I'm not a cultivator, and I can't sense any demonic energy. There's nothing I can do. I'm sorry."

He then turned to leave without entering the temple, because this priestess was a bigger problem to him than the Eternal Temple.

Minghe heaved a sigh behind him. "I see that you don't trust me."

Qin Yi carried on walking without replying and thought, Of course, I don't trust you! Li Qinglin had left a good impression on him, and even if they weren't friends yet, they had been through some things together. There was no reason for him to trust a strange priestess instead of Li Qinglin.

Your beauty won't work!

You haven't even asked my name yet! Qin Yi thought.

At the very least, even if Li Qinglin had demons living in his residence, it wasn't such a big deal. Like she said, Li Qinglin was a politician, not a demon fighter. If a king-to-be wanted to join hands with demons on certain matters, it wouldn't be all that incomprehensible, and Qin Yi didn't think he was in a position to meddle.

He was here to help Li Qinglin get rid of the master teacher, not to stick his nose in Li Qinglin's personal matters.

As for what happened the night when the crown prince was assassinated…

This Taoist priestess had just come out of a temple that belonged to the master teacher. God knew how close she was to that man. She could've been lying all along and wanted to use him.

Qin Yi decided that he should stay away from her.

He was still thinking when Minghe blocked his way. Qin Yi asked indifferently, "Priestess, how may I help you now?"

Minghe didn't seem to mind Qin Yi's tone. Instead, she handed him a wooden sword and said quietly, "It was very presumptuous of me to make that suggestion. Come to think of it, you really don't have any cultivation skills, and I shouldn't have tried to force you to confront a demon… If you insist on going to his residence, please take this sword. It'll keep you out of harm's way from demons."

Qin Yi looked down at the wooden sword before looking up at Minghe again.

Her eyes were as clear as ever.

They reminded him of the Milky Way again.

He thought about turning her down, but on second thought, he took the sword, bowed politely, and walked off without uttering another word.

…

"What's happening?" Qin Yi whispered to Liusu as soon as there was no one around. "Is she following us?"

Liusu only spoke after a long while. "No, she's not, but you still should keep your speech to a whisper. We don't know if she can overhear us with her mental power."

Qin Yi lowered his voice further and asked, "What's going on with you today? Normally, you can't shut up about things, but now that I need you to evaluate this priestess, you've gone completely quiet!"

Liusu slowly said, "That was a very capable cultivator. Although she can't detect me at her current stage, if I try to talk to you when she's around, she may detect my presence. We'd better be careful."

"A very capable cultivator?" Qin Yi was surprised.

He was so used to hearing Liusu sneering at other people that he believed it had to have had a very impressive owner once. This was the first time he had ever heard it praising other cultivators.

Liusu suddenly asked, "Why were you so nervous when she asked you about your weapon? Were you afraid that she would find out about me?"

Qin Yi said grumpily, "Of course! She was such an advanced cultivator! What if she wanted to kill you?"

Liusu fell silent. After a while, it chuckled, but Qin Yi couldn't tell how it felt.

It then switched the subject and started talking about Minghe. "Judging by the status of her bones, she can't be more than 20 years old, but she's already in the Lute Heart stage. No, she has almost reached perfection in that stage."

"What's 'Lute Heart'?"

Liusu didn't laugh at him, which was very rare. "Forget about it. You're all about 'Golden Core' and 'Foundation Establishment'. So just think of it as the Foundation Establishment stage."

"But she hasn't reached perfection yet. That's not so impressive…"

"She's not even 20 yet! Do you know what that means?!" Liusu couldn't maintain its mild tone anymore and snapped. "Most people can't even reach the Foundation Establishment stage before they're dead, but she's almost perfected her skills! Remember that demon tiger you couldn't do anything about? All she would have to do is blow some air at the tiger, and it would be dead. Do you think Li Qinglin is such an impressive martial arts practitioner? He'd be lucky if he could withstand a single strike from her!"

Qin Yi suddenly said, "Are you saying that she's a real cultivator?"

"Yes, there's no doubt of that. Plus, the knowledge she has is very profound, and some crappy essence-gathering formations can't even compare to what she knows. If you ask me, she's from one of the top orthodox schools! Do you know what that peach wood sword is?"

"Is it the type Yunzhongzi gave King Zhou?" [1. Qin Yi is referring to a 16-century Chinese novel "The Investiture of Gods". In it, Yunzhongzi gave a sword to King Zhou to kill an enchanting demon fox.]

Liusu had never heard of that story before, so it said, "This peach wood sword has her spell on it, and when a demon is in the vicinity, this sword will want to drink the demon's blood. It's harmless to human beings, but it's a formidable weapon in fighting demons. I don't know the working range of the spell, but this ability to attach a spell to an object means she's capable of making spirited objects."

Qin Yi stood there for a while before asking hesitantly, "Is she really trying to keep me safe?"

Liusu didn't say anything.

Qin Yi had decided to take the sword because he wanted Liusu to figure out where it was from and its function. As it turned out, it really was a demon-fighting tool. That was so strange. With a frown on his face, he combed through what he knew so far, but it didn't make him feel any less confused. What was an impressive cultivator of the Foundation Establishment stage doing in a remote kingdom at the southern end of the continent?

If she was a pupil of some orthodox cultivation school, she couldn't be the master teacher's student. If Donghuazi could teach such a capable cultivator, Li Qinglin would stand no chance in this fight.

But even if she was only passing through, she still showed a lot of hostility toward Li Qinglin, and there was nothing the prince could do if she really wanted to act.

"Forget about it. Let's just go back to the prince's residence. I'll figure it out eventually."