Qinghe realized that her usual tactic of playing the victim, which had always worked before, was ineffective this time—Xie Lingyu was dead serious.
Damn it!
So what if it's an old flame? Does that mean she’ll never bring them back to visit?
Grandma Bai had already made countless trips there.
Would a few extra words from Qinghe really make a difference now?
Thinking of this, Qinghe quietly glanced back at Xie Lingyu, whose expression was frosty.
Could it be… she doesn’t know about this?
Qinghe quickly racked her brain—it seemed Xie Lingyu truly had no idea.
Xie Lingyu never asked where Grandma Bai had gone. Ever since returning to the Tianyan Sect, aside from handling necessary affairs, she had been solely focused on cultivation.
Even Grandma Bai had remarked that Xie Lingyu seemed like a completely different person.
A brilliant idea suddenly struck Qinghe—what if she used this information to bargain for Xie Lingyu turning a blind eye to her slacking?
Then her carefree, lazy days could continue.
Maybe she could still get her hands on those meat buns, and who knows, there might be even tastier treats here.
Convinced of her plan, Qinghe spoke in a negotiating tone:
"Elder Xie, if I tell you a secret, could you…?"
She didn’t finish her sentence but flashed a knowing smile.
Xie Lingyu’s voice was indifferent. "I have no interest in other people’s secrets."
Qinghe hurriedly clarified, "Not just anyone! It’s about your old flame!"
"I don’t have an old flame."
"It’s about your old flame and Grandma Bai!"
Xie Lingyu scoffed. "Are you trying to say my master went to Yuzhou City to find him? I already knew that."
Qinghe’s eyes widened in shock. "How did you know?"
Xie Lingyu glanced at the bewildered Qinghe but didn’t answer.
How did she know?
The sight of the sect leader looking rejuvenated after taking a Tenfold Elixir was proof enough of who had crafted it.
She hadn’t confronted her master simply to avoid unnecessary trouble.
If her master thought she was still in the dark, she might at least restrain herself instead of constantly pestering Xie Lingyu with questions.
Seeing Xie Lingyu’s unreadable expression, Qinghe knew her scheme had failed.
With no other choice, she reluctantly prepared to get to work—sleeping at the foot of the mountain would be too humiliating.
Qinghe grumbled, "Fine… I’ll go look for the opportunity."
An hour later, at the bottom of Cangzhou River.
Qinghe floated comfortably in the water.
As a flood dragon, being underwater wasn’t much different from being on land—if anything, it was even more comfortable.
Xie Lingyu, predictably, had no interest in joining her in the water.
As long as she didn’t have to work, slacking off was pure bliss.
Still, completely avoiding her duties wouldn’t fly, so she lazily drifted with the current, half-heartedly probing the water veins.
As long as she could produce something passable, it would suffice—Xie Lingyu didn’t understand water veins anyway. She could just claim they were difficult to detect.
Slacking off? Qinghe was a master at it.
As for the so-called "opportunity," Qinghe didn’t care much. In a barren, spirit-energy-deprived place like this, what kind of opportunity could there possibly be? Could it turn her into a true dragon?
Her cultivation would naturally rise with age. Even without effort, she’d reach the Soul Unity Stage beyond the Nascent Soul Stage.
With minimal training, she could ascend to the next realm—the Mahayana Stage.
After that, reaching Grandma Bai’s Tribulation Transcendence Stage wasn’t something mere cultivation could achieve.
This "opportunity" would only offer a marginal boost, and what use was that?
Who would dare lay a hand on the Tianyan Sect’s flood dragon anyway?
The Tianyan Sect was vast enough to support her until her dying day.
As long as the sect stood, she was invincible!
Just as Qinghe reveled in her laziness, she sensed an odd ripple of spiritual energy.
Frowning, she opened her eyes and extended her divine sense toward the source.
A moment later.
Finding nothing, Qinghe hesitated.
Then she decided: run first, ask questions later!
When something felt off, the smart move was to flee as fast as possible—not stupidly investigate why it was off.
But the moment she tensed to escape, the once-friendly water around her suddenly constricted.
The faint spiritual energy lurking within the water solidified into chains, wrapping around her layer by layer.
The glowing water chains coiled tightly around her body.
Qinghe, at the mid-stage Nascent Soul realm, instantly recognized the overwhelming quality of the spiritual energy binding her—this was at least peak Nascent Soul cultivation!
Even more shocking was how seamlessly the attacker had concealed their energy in the water. As a flood dragon, she had only barely sensed something amiss!
Dammit! What is this?!
An ambush?!
Without hesitation, Qinghe unleashed her full power. She didn’t need to win—just break free and alert Xie Lingyu.
Once Grandma Bai arrived, whoever was behind this would die here!
"HAH!"
With a roar, her flood dragon strength erupted. The water chains trembled violently, on the verge of shattering.
"Still struggling? Just surrender quietly."
A man’s teasing voice came from behind her.
The moment he spoke, the spiritual energy in the chains surged exponentially!
Qinghe knew she couldn’t afford to delay.
She instantly shifted into her true form!
A furious dragon’s cry echoed as her body expanded into a massive flood dragon. The chains strained as she twisted violently, her claws slashing at the bindings.
Her human form was her weakest. A flood dragon’s brute strength and scales naturally resisted spells—and using water against a water-aligned creature? That was pure arrogance!
Qinghe channeled her energy into the chains, disrupting them, then spun with all her might—
She broke free!
Whirling around, she saw three figures standing in the water.
Two men and a woman, all wearing masks.
The leader wore a monkey mask, the second man a pig mask, and the woman a fox mask.
The fox-masked woman exclaimed excitedly, "Master, I told you! Cangzhou has something special! We’ve already found our target!"
The monkey-masked man nodded. "When have I ever doubted you? But stay back—this is a Nascent Soul flood dragon."
Qinghe’s draconic eyes locked onto the monkey-masked man.
How dare he act so arrogantly, as if capturing her was effortless!
But if he was this confident, he must be strong.
No way she could win—time to run!
She twisted her body, darting toward Xie Lingyu’s location—
But someone moved faster.
A Nascent Soul giant hand abruptly seized Qinghe by the tail, and in the next moment, he felt an overwhelming force yanking at it. Despite his dragon-serpent form, he faintly realized he was no match for this power. Simultaneously, a surge of violent spiritual energy erupted from the Nascent Soul hand, piercing through his scales as it began ruthlessly assailing his draconic body.
"Come here, you little mud-dragon!"
With a fierce jerk, Qinghe was violently dragged toward the riverbed.
esick Sect? Well, at least it's considered a respectable orthodox sect. Wait a minute— What kind of vibe are you all giving off? Shouldn’t this be a love-struck, romance-obsessed sect? Why does everyone here sound more like demonic cultivators? "Master, today he’s getting married. This disciple wishes to descend the mountain and crash the wedding, then toy with him to death right in front of his wife..." "Elder, I only got into your sect through connections, so why won’t you teach me anything?" "Because I also became an elder through connections." Thankfully, Su Ji was just an outer sect labor disciple. Surely, nothing too crazy would— "Junior Brother, you’ve broken through to Qi Refining. Once you sever your useless spiritual root, you can officially become an outer sect disciple." "The Great Dao is merciless. Don’t let a worthless spiritual root waste your essence and spirit, hindering your cultivation." Is this really the Lovesick Sect? ... Three years later, Su Ji sat in the seat of the Lovesick Sect’s sect master, sighing with emotion. His rise to this position all started when his junior sister adamantly insisted on preserving his "spiritual root." "Mmm... Senior Brother, what’s our relationship now?" "Stop talking. Keep going." "By the way, that newly promoted top-tier sect—didn’t they come to buy our Love Beans?" "One top-grade spirit stone per Love Bean—is that really so expensive?" "I suspect they’ve eaten too many Love Beans." "Now they’re lovesick." Well, this really is the Lovesick Sect after all.
【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
