His Excellency Li Shiyin

After eating, Tian Wenjin sat in meditation to heal her injuries, while Li Shiyin wrapped herself in a blanket and leaned against the door, watching the snow outside, watching the darkness outside, guarding the little lamplight inside the room.

The next morning, the two went to Peach Blossom Cave on the back mountain, dug a deep pit, and buried all the villagers' corpses - whether intact or not - and then covered it with soil and erected a tombstone inscribed with Da Shan Ridge Village Tomb.

They also checked inside and outside Peach Blossom Cave again and eliminated all the surviving Ghost-faced Spider spawn.

Only after taking care of everything did they bring back the remains of the Ghost-faced Spiders to the Dao Sword Sect to turn in the task.

"We need an explanation..." Tian Wenjin took out the remains of the Ghost-faced Spiders from her cosmic bag and placed them in the steward hall where she was handing over the task. She said to the steward disciple,

"The task description said that the rampaging demonic beast this time was a first-rank Rat-Catching Demon Spider; so why did it become a mutated, near fourth-rank demonic beast, the Ghost-faced Spider? You need to give us an explanation!"

A fourth-rank demonic beast?!!!

The steward disciple looked over the remains of the Ghost-faced Spider, and realized that even though it had already been beheaded, it still had a terrifying aura and bewilderingly weird appearance that confused the mind. His shallow experience told him that this did indeed look to be of the fourth rank's level of ridiculousness.

A first-rank task suddenly became a fourth-rank task...

Ah, no, that's not important. What's important is, with a fourth-rank demonic beast, how did these two female disciples who took on a first-rank task have the ability to slay a fourth-rank demonic beast?!

"This was slain by you?" He looked at the terrifying remains of the Ghost-faced Spider, then looked back at Tian Wenjin's delicate and pretty face, completely incredulous as he asked doubtfully, "It wasn't just luckily picked up from somewhere?"

It wasn't that he was overly suspicious, but rather that there had been far too many disciples recently who relied on picking up demonic beast corpses to hand in their tasks. Because of the Nightmare Weeping Willow incident, countless demonic beasts in the Hengduan Mountains had died or been injured, and so nowadays going to the Hengduan Mountains, it was easy to pick up demonic beast remains.

"You can send people yourselves to Da Shan Ridge village to investigate, it's just..." There was grief in Tian Wenjin's eyes. "All the villagers of Da Shan Ridge were harmed by this Ghost-faced Spider."

"They're all dead?" The steward disciple seemed to be laughing, "Then that would be an unverified death. How to investigate?"

"There are still large amounts of signs of battle there that can be used to verify this," Tian Wenjin said.

"And how can you guarantee that those signs of battle were left behind by you?" The steward disciple stared at Tian Wenjin with a laugh.

Tian Wenjin knitted her brows and looked up at this steward disciple. She realized what was going on, but didn't know why this man was deliberately making things difficult for her!

She reckoned she understood this man's train of thought.

She held up her own identity token to show the man, "Jian Feng, inner sect disciple, Tian Wenjin."

She also showed him Li Shiyin's identity token, "Dan Feng, personal disciple, Li Shiyin."

Inner sect disciple, personal disciple!

Tian Wenjin, Li Shiyin!

In an instant, the steward disciple's expression became rather interesting.

No wonder they were peerless beauties!

So they were two of the five great peerless beauties!

No wonder they could slay a fourth-rank demonic beast on a first-rank task!

It turned out she was Li Shiyin, the recently promoted to the top ten arrogances, who took on a task above her level!

In fact, he had always known of Li Shiyin and Tian Wenjin's reputations, he just hadn't had the chance to see them in person.

In addition, his lust had muddled his thinking, making him harbor some wishful thinking and hope that such beauties were outer sect disciples, or even miscellaneous disciples, which would give him a chance...

"Ah, so it turns out to be..." His mind went blank and he couldn't find for a moment an appropriate form of address with which to call Li Shiyin and Tian Wenjin. In the end, an obsequious expression unconsciously appeared on his face again as he finally said, "Esteemed misses!"

Tian Wenjin shot him a disgusted look. The world was always full of this kind of fawning, obsequious sort who toady up to the powerful.

She spoke coldly as she gave the final explanation:

"We were the ones who completed this task, and indeed it was not consistent with the mission intel. The Ghost-faced Spider was indeed a Ghost-faced Spider, and did indeed reach fourth rank in cultivation, we slew it. We can accept investigation and verification. However..."

She put forth requirements, "We need an explanation, and we also need rewards commensurate with a fourth-rank task."

"Yes, yes..." The steward disciple's attitude had already become completely different. He nodded and bowed, "I will explain the situation to the elders, and give you fourth-rank mission treatment."

Only then did Tian Wenjin, with Li Shiyin, turn in the task and receive credit for slaying the fourth-rank demonic beast.

After handing over the task, the two returned to Dan Peak. Just before they left, Li Shiyin suddenly stopped and asked the steward disciple, pointing to the Ghost-faced Spider: "This Ghost-faced Spider corpse, can we take it with us?"

"Task items cannot be taken away," The steward disciple shook his head and said, "Besides, your task still needs verification and investigation."

Li Shiyin then asked, "Then can I take this Ghost-faced Spider's poison gland?"

The disciple hesitated, but in the end couldn't refuse the young lady's request and nodded, "You can take it away, I'll just say later that it was damaged in the fight."

"Thank you." Li Shiyin nodded to him in thanks. Then she drew her sword and went over, extracting the Ghost-faced Spider's poison gland and carefully putting it into a jade box.

"She said thank you to me..." That steward disciple stood there in a daze for a while, waving goodbye to Li Shiyin and Tian Wenjin with a silly smile on his face.

Li Shiyin and Tian Wenjin left the Steward's Hall and flew towards Dan Peak. Along the way, Tian Wenjin asked Li Shiyin, "What do you want that poison gland for?"

"Master really likes these kinds of weird things," Li Shiyin laughed. "Master really likes doing research... and Seven also likes poison."

"Oh!" Tian Wenjin nodded. It was for Master again.

Arriving outside the mist surrounding Dan Peak, Li Shiyin used the sword-shaped token at her waist to open a passageway in the array, and Tian Wenjin followed her into Dan Peak. She took a few glances at the token at Li Shiyin's waist, knowing it had come from Qin Ran's hand.

As soon as they walked out of the mist array, they officially arrived at Dan Peak. Looking up, they saw the entire mountain covered uniformly in white, the rivers and lakes were frozen over, no smoke rose from the houses outside, there was only a single white stupid tiger lying on a cat tree sleeping in the icy and snowy weather.

"Chasing the Wind!" Li Shiyin shouted excitedly, flashing over in a blur to the cat tree and grabbing Chasing the Wind with both hands, embracing the thousand-pound little baby.

"Raaawr..." Chasing the Wind had originally been sleeping in the snow, but was suddenly picked up, and the sudden sensation of weightlessness made him panic as he flailed his limbs and claws wildly in the air.

Qin Ran came out from the log house and saw Li Shiyin playing happily with Chasing the Wind, safe and sound. The boulder hanging over his heart finally fell back to the earth.

"How was the task?" He smiled and asked Tian Wenjin who walked over.

Tian Wenjin shook her head. "Not great."