Chapter 43: I am Simple, Honest, and Terrified of Death

Ling Xi turned her head, her tongue sweeping across her lips, and hurriedly stuffed the reward given by the Sect Master into her ring. Then she reached out her hand, anticipation and joy intertwining in the depths of her eyes.

"Does the Sect Master have any other rewards he forgot to give out?"

Lu Buwei coughed dryly a few times, politely refusing to hand out any more rewards.

"Young people should not focus solely on material gains; what is needed more is spiritual sustenance. What I want to tell my junior niece next concerns spiritual sustenance. Are you interested in eliminating evils for the people and saving all living beings in the world?"

Lu Buwei looked at the two of them with a beaming smile.

Su An raised his hand, extremely excited, "Me, me, me! I can do it!"

Ling Xi stepped across the threshold, "It is not suitable for me."

The smile on Lu Buwei's face froze, his grand and lofty words stuck in his throat, and he looked at Ling Xi in disbelief.

"Don't young people all have a burning passion in their blood? Why are you not interested?"

"Because I am honest, simple, and very afraid of death."

"Don't you want to be a hero admired by thousands? When I was your age, I exceptionally revered heroes, dreaming of becoming a savior of the realm. To establish a destiny for the people of heaven and earth, to secure peace for all generations—what kind of glory is that? You actually don't want it? Do you really have no thoughts about this at all?"

Ling Xi looked back with a smile, "You said it yourself, a passionate hero; one must first have passion and blood before becoming a hero. I am thin and small, and I don't have much blood to shed."

Her clear eyes reflected the golden sunlight, covered with a layer of divine radiance. Her expression seemed to carry a smile, but in reality, her eyes were devoid of ripples, as if she could see right through everything.

Her eyes were clean, indeed, but unlike the gaze of a twelve- or thirteen-year-old child.

Lu Buwei rubbed his forehead in a dilemma. Seeing Ling Xi stepping out with her other leg as well, he hurriedly stood up.

"Speak your terms. What will it take for you to be willing to give your all during the Grand Competition?"

For nine consecutive tournaments, not a single disciple from the Dingkun Sect had passed the Immortal Alliance's selection. If nobody did so in this upcoming sect grand competition, Zhuxi in Qingchuan might no longer have a Dingkun Sect. After all, the Divine Continent did not need incompetent guardians.

Just now, he had probed repeatedly, but Ling Xi and Su An were airtight. However, there was one point they both overlooked. Guardians would protect ordinary people, but the people in a single city or even a village far outnumbered the three of them.

With limited energy and strength, in order to minimize losses, the successor of the Earth God would never choose to protect these few immortal sect disciples. Even though Baili Ze possessed decent talent, he still could not catch the eye of the divine successor. Such talent was only astonishing for the present moment; in the long, ancient river of time, it could not stir up even a single ripple.

Therefore, even though he was reluctant to believe it, he had to admit that the young girl before him must have extraordinary qualities.

Ling Xi was silently counting numbers in her heart, making a bet with Su An to see if Lu Buwei would call her back.

Su An hadn't thought deeply into the reasons behind it and simply exclaimed that it was awesome.

"The public resources of the sect—whatever I need must be distributed to me first. Besides, I eat a lot, and my monthly stipend is not quite enough." Ling Xi bared her pearly white canine teeth.

Lu Buwei was now at the stage where, for even a fraction more assurance, he would try his utmost to secure it. The centuries-old foundation of the Dingkun Sect could not be dissolved under his watch. A reduction in cultivation was a minor issue, but being nailed to the history pillar of the immortal sects and reviled for ten thousand years—the heroic souls of past sect masters would never let him off.

"These are not problems, but does my junior niece have the confidence to enter the Immortal Alliance's training roster? I can provide them to you first, but if the final result is unsatisfactory, I will demand them back tenfold. After all, the other disciples of the sect also need cultivation resources."

Lu Buwei smiled calmly, looking at Ling Xi as he awaited her answer.

Su An patted his chest and answered for her, "No problem at all. If Junior Sister succeeds, the rewards belong to her; if she fails, I will compensate with spirit stones."

Ling Xi smiled brightly and tugged at Su An's lapel, "You trust me that much?"

"There's a bit of that, but mainly it's because I am handsome, wealthy, and warm-hearted."

Ling Xi: "..."

My apologies, she had forgotten that her senior brother was foolishly rich.

Having successfully fleeced the Sect Master, Ling Xi felt refreshed all over, walking with a spring in her step.

Just as they stepped out of the assembly hall, a stumbling figure lunged toward them.

Ling Xi hurriedly alerted Su An, and the two of them leaped to the side.

Her luck was truly terrible; with so many people around, she just had to bump right into her path.

The white-robed figure crashed against the stone steps, arranging her body into an aesthetically pleasing posture. Bearing a pseudo-bare-face makeup look, she covered her forehead and wept softly.

"Senior Sister Ling, how can your heart be so cruel? No matter what, we are fellow disciples, and I treated you with all my heart, yet you went ahead and harmed me in the secret realm."

Lin Rou looked at Ling Xi with tear-filled eyes, teardrops swirling in her sockets, the corners of her eyes flushed red. Yet she bit her lip with feigned resilience, making anyone who looked upon her feel a surge of pity.

Su An shielded Ling Xi behind him and sneezed, "Achoo—you there, watching where you're walking, would you mind standing further away? The scent of face powder on you is way too strong; my junior sister is frail and can't handle it."

Wasn't it agreed that this person would be devoted to her from now on? Why did she look so disgusted? Could it be that she hadn't managed to cry, and thus didn't look pretty enough?

Lin Rou squeezed out a few tears, her eyelashes dotted with tiny water droplets, presenting a picture of pear blossoms drenched in rain.

Seeing the woman about to lunge forward again, Su An scooped up Ling Xi, retreated several steps, pointed a finger at Lin Rou, and put on Bu Jingyun's signature expression.

"Don't you come any closer!"

Overwhelmed by grievance, Lin Rou's tears flowed like a broken string of pearls, pouring down endlessly. Her lingering, unbroken sobs instantly attracted the attention of quite a few disciples.

Su An understood instantly and grew somewhat anxious, "What should we do? Junior Sister, she's trying to frame us!"

With Su An's roar, passing disciples gathered one after another, the crowd growing larger and larger.

Those who crowded around to watch the spectacle, hearing that there was juicy gossip to be had, quickly picked up their jade slips, calling upon friends and companions to secretly record and upload the scene.

Ling Xi secretly asked Su An, "Don't you think Lin Rou cries rather prettily?!"

Su An felt Ling Xi's forehead, "You don't even have a fever, why are you spouting such nonsense? That female disciple is crying a face full of water; it's a miracle it doesn't ruin one's appetite, where is that pretty?"

Ling Xi: "Don't tell me you don't recognize Lin Rou?! She's the one I carried up the stone steps earlier."

"Am I supposed to recognize her?!" A trace of bewilderment flashed in the depths of Su An's eyes, and then, seeming to recall something, he said, "Oh, it's her. But that still doesn't make sense. You carried her up the stone steps, so why is she trying to frame you?"

Ling Xi spread her hands and shrugged, "How would I know? Probably a mental illness."

Seeing that the crowd had grown sufficiently large, Lin Rou amplified her sobs, her eyes red and swollen as if she had suffered a monstrous injustice, drawing the sympathy of numerous disciples.

"Junior Sister, tell us properly what happened. The Sect Master is right inside the assembly hall; if they truly harmed you, the Sect Master will naturally uphold justice for you."

"That's right, Junior Sister, don't lie on the ground, the ground is cold." Someone reached out to help Lin Rou up.

Words of concern echoed one after another around Lin Rou, and some even went so far as to demand that Lu Buwei punish Ling Xi.

Ling Xi watched dumbfounded, unable to help praising in her heart: the protagonist halo is truly formidable.

"You must be that Ling Xi?! I've heard before that you always stole Senior Sister Lin's spotlight, and now that you've even changed your sect, how can you still have the nerve to keep stealing it?"