55: Chapter 55: Subduing the Arrogant Senior Sister

Ye Qingcen: "..."

Her hands were already raised, spiritual power surging in her palms, but she just... couldn't bring herself to strike.

Xiao Yuan scoffed: "A Half-step Foundation Establishment fighting a Qi Condensation 4th Layer could slap me to death with a single palm. Go ahead and strike."

Ye Qingcen bit her lip, glaring at him, her eyes turning a bit red.

But that palm simply refused to fall.

Seeing her like this, Xiao Yuan's mischievous streak was immensely satisfied.

"Alright, stop glaring." He picked her up and walked towards the cabin, "Since you delivered yourself to my doorstep, don't even think about running."

Ye Qingcen panicked: "Y-You, what are you trying to do?!"

"What do you think?" Xiao Yuan lowered his head close to her ear, lowering his voice, "If you say another word of nonsense, I'll take you right here."

Ye Qingcen's body stiffened, but her mouth remained stubborn: "You dare! I... I am a Half-step Foundation Establishment! You, a mere Qi Condensation 4th Layer..."

Before she could finish her sentence, she was tossed onto the bed by Xiao Yuan.

She let out a cry of surprise and instinctively tried to crawl up, but Xiao Yuan pressed his body forward, pinning her down so she couldn't move.

"Whether I dare or not, you'll know once you try."

Ye Qingcen glared at him, her face so hot it could fry an egg.

She wanted to push him away, but she had no strength in her hands at all. She wanted to scold him, but though her mouth opened, no voice came out.

In the end, she simply closed her eyes, putting on an expression of "kill me or carve me up as you please."

But her slightly trembling eyelashes and the hand quietly clutching his lapel betrayed her.

Xiao Yuan smiled and lowered his head to kiss her.

"Mmph..."

Ye Qingcen's cry of surprise was blocked in her mouth.

The sunlight outside the window spilled in through the gaps, casting a warm hue over the cabin.

(Three thousand words are omitted here)

After a long while, the cabin finally quieted down.

Ye Qingcen curled up in Xiao Yuan's arms, burying her face in his chest, stubbornly refusing to look up.

Xiao Yuan looked down at her, seeing only her thoroughly red ear tips and slightly trembling shoulders.

"What, do you know how to be shy now?" He teased her deliberately, "Just now, someone was..."

"Shut up!" Ye Qingcen covered his mouth with a hand, dying of embarrassment and anger, "You are not allowed to say it! You only know how to bully me!"

Xiao Yuan smiled as he pulled down her hand and kissed her lips.

Ye Qingcen's body trembled, but she didn't pull away.

The two of them stayed quietly like that for a moment.

After a long while, Ye Qingcen's muffled voice came from his arms:

"You... are going out again?"

Xiao Yuan raised an eyebrow: "How did you know?"

"I guessed." Ye Qingcen raised her head, looking at him with complex eyes, "A person like you can never stay idle."

Xiao Yuan smiled: "You understand me quite well."

Ye Qingcen glared at him and buried her face back in.

"Where are you going?"

"Jing Country."

"What for?"

"Looking for someone."

Ye Qingcen was silent for a moment, then asked softly: "A woman?"

Xiao Yuan didn't deny it: "Mhm."

The person in his arms stiffened, then heavily pounded his chest.

"Bastard!"

Xiao Yuan let her pound him, and only when she had enough did he hug her tighter: "Wait for me to come back."

Ye Qingcen didn't speak, merely burying her face even deeper.

After a long while, she gave a muffled "Mhm."

Xiao Yuan lowered his head and kissed the crown of her hair.

This tsundere Senior Sister, although her mouth was stubborn, her heart...

had long since softened.

...

At the foot of Jade Maiden Palace, the market was as lively as ever.

Xiao Yuan stood at the entrance of the market, looked back at the mist-shrouded direction of the Sect, and took a deep breath.

"Jing Country... Luo Ziyan, wait for me."

He found a secluded corner, his thoughts stirred slightly, and the Great Turtle Breathing Technique began to circulate.

His bones made a slight clicking sound, and his facial muscles slowly shifted—a moment later, a strange middle-aged man appeared in the mirror.

Around forty years old, square-faced, sporting a short beard, with a steady gaze.

His Cultivation Realm was also released from the concealed "Qi Condensation 4th Layer" to the Qi Condensation 9th Layer—this Realm was already considered an expert among Loose Cultivators, and ordinary people wouldn't dare easily provoke them.

Xiao Yuan touched his face in front of the mirror and nodded with satisfaction.

"Not bad, quite the expert aura."

He straightened his clothes and strode into the market.

People came and went in the market, with vendors setting up stalls, hawking, and bargaining, bustling like a vegetable market.

Xiao Yuan wasn't in a hurry to go to the spirit boat dock; instead, he strolled around the market.

What was he lacking the most right now?

A foundation establishment pill Formula! A foundation establishment pill! Even a Medicinal Pill that could raise the Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivation would be fine!

Unfortunately...

"Boss, do you have any foundation establishment pills?" He came to a Medicinal Pill shop that looked quite capable.

The shopkeeper was an old man at the Qi Refining Stage 8, who raised his eyes to look at him and scoffed:

"foundation establishment pills? Fellow Daoist, are you drunk? Can such a treasure be displayed and sold out in the open?"

Xiao Yuan refused to give up: "Then what about the foundation establishment pill Formula? Or Medicinal Pills that boost the Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivation?"

Although Xiao Yuan knew it was impossible to get these Medicinal Pills outside, he still wanted to try his luck and understand the situation along the way.

The old man looked at him like he was a fool: "Fellow Daoist must be stepping out for the first time, right? Foundation Establishment-tier Medicinal Pills can only be obtained by attending auctions or exchange meetings of Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators. Right here in this market? You're dreaming!"

Xiao Yuan: "..."

He asked a few more shops, and the answers he got were mostly similar.

foundation establishment pills, don't even think about it. foundation establishment pill Formulas were even more of a dream.

As for Medicinal Pills that boost the Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivation... they occasionally leaked out, but they all appeared in underground auctions or small circles of Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators.

"Then... where are there auctions?" Xiao Yuan asked.

"Luoxia City," a shopkeeper said casually, "Five hundred li to the east, it's a big city with underground auctions every month. But you need connections to get in."

Xiao Yuan silently noted down the name.

Luoxia City... once he found Luo Ziyan, perhaps he could go take a look.

But he didn't have time to make a detour right now.

"Go to Jing Country first," he made up his mind, "Find that girl first and talk later."

The spirit boat dock was at the easternmost part of the market.

Calling it a dock, it was actually just a large plaza where three huge spirit boats were parked. These spirit boats traveled between various major cities and Sects in the Northern Domain, operated by the Northern Domain's largest Cultivation merchant house, the Northern Domain Gu Clan Merchant House.

Each of them was over a dozen zhang long, crafted entirely from spirit wood, with their surfaces carved full of formation patterns, emitting a faint spiritual power fluctuation.

Xiao Yuan walked to the ticket counter, where a female Cultivator at the Qi Condensation 3rd Layer was dozing off.

"When is the next spirit boat to the Imperial Capital of Jing?" He tapped on the counter.

The female Cultivator jolted awake, rubbed her eyes, and said lazily: "There's one in an hour, arriving in four days, fifty Low-Grade Spirit Stones. Deck seat, one hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones, lower-class cabin, five hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones, middle-class cabin, one thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones, high-class cabin!"

Following the female Cultivator's introduction, the corners of Xiao Yuan's mouth twitched slightly. Fifty Low-Grade Spirit Stones. That was just for a deck seat.

For an ordinary Outer Sect Disciple, this was nearly a year's stipend. No wonder not many people took the spirit boat—it was expensive!

As for the lower-class cabin, that was even less something ordinary people could afford.

However, the advantage was that this kind of cabin had a Spirit-Gathering Formation. Not only did it not delay the journey, but one could also Cultivate inside it.

The higher the cabin Rank, the higher the Rank of the Spirit-Gathering Formation.

Although he wasn't lacking Spirit Stones right now, he didn't have the necessity to take an even more expensive cabin.

He pulled out fifty Spirit Stones.