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Translator: Fate
Translation Checker: Silavin
Ah Man was around fifteen to sixteen years old. She had always been mature, even as a child. Numerous life experiences had led to her being a lot calmer and more composed than her peers.
Nevertheless, the emotions she felt today left her a little muddled. She did not know what they meant.
As she cultivated, her mind was filled with unwarranted distractions. Gu Changge’s silhouette would subconsciously surface in her mind.
Initially, Ah Man thought that she felt nothing more than awe and respect for him, and that she idolised him for his formidable power. However, she never thought that her cheeks would burn and that she would have a hard time calming down.
The two had only known each other for several days. They had barely spoken to each other. Yet, Ah Man felt something about Gu Changge that drew her to him. She could not help but desire to be close to him.
Her heartbeat would quicken whenever she was in his presence.
[Perhaps it’s because of the Demonic Heart that Senior mentioned? Is it because we both have Demonic Hearts? Did I develop such feelings because they were alike in that way? Or, is it simply just an innocent enjoyment of beauty the way little girls liked pretty things and attractive people?]
After all, Gu Changge looked like a man in his twenties. To say that his flawless visage was perfect would be a gross understatement.
“Am I also an ordinary person who becomes drawn to someone solely because of their appearance?” At last, Ah Man regained her composure. She could not help but shake her head and question herself.
She began to think about the current situation. Thanks to that cauldron of Superior Blood Essence, she was able to reach the fifth level without any problems. It was unthinkable that someone managed to break through three consecutive cultivation levels in a row.
Even when up against her Master, an expert in the sixth-level, she was confident that she did not even need to resort to poison.
Furthermore, Ah Man was confident that she would reach the sixth level by the time her Master returned to the mountain peak.
The past her would never have thought that such an alarmingly rapid speed of cultivation would be possible, and yet, it had happened so easily. She felt like she was dreaming.
After returning to her room, Ah Man changed her clothes and neatly folded the white outer robe Gu Changge tossed to her. She planned on washing it first before returning it to him. After all, she had worn it already. Even though it was only for a short while, it did come into contact with her skin.
She was worried that Gu Changge would be displeased by that.
She could tell that he kept himself completely untainted, so she figured he would not accept an article of clothing that had been sullied.
For the next few days, Ah Man saw no sign of Gu Changge.
At first, she felt lost and despondent. She would peek out into the courtyard now and then while she cultivated. But after a while, her emotions subsided, and she began to focus entirely on her cultivation.
During this time, she sought out Song Qing’er, whom she poisoned under the pretext of providing the latter with the antidote to the poison. She had the latter look into the Life Plaques of the various Elders on her behalf.
Song Qing’er, a sheltered young woman with barely any self-preservation skills to speak of, was naturally too afraid to refuse. She valued her life.
Thus, Ah Man gathered quite a bit of information without any issues, though they only left her even more confused.
All along, she knew that the Elders of the Primeval Deity Sect had a Life Plaque that was connected to their living state. These were stored in an inner hall in the Sect under the watch of disciples who would periodically check on them.
If a Life Plaque ended up lost or destroyed, it would immediately alert the Sect of the Elder’s death.
This was no secret in the sect. Some of the disciples who showed the most promise would also be awarded a Life Plaque to ensure their safety.
Nevertheless, the Life Plaque would only inform the sect of the Elder’s death. There was no way of determining how he had died or the person who might have caused his death.
From the visions that Gu Changge showed Ah Man, she saw that she had gotten rid of all the traces right after killing her Master. She did not leave any clues behind. Therefore, it seemed unlikely that the Primeval Deity Sect confirmed that she was the killer through the Life Plaque.
“How did the Sect find out about it then?” Ah Man became lost in thought as she considered other possibilities.
[Did someone else know that I killed my Master? Did that person then inform the sect about it?] According to the visions of the future, her settlement had been annihilated soon after her Father left in search of the Primeval Deity.
But, she killed her Master quite some time before that.
“Could it be that I told someone about this, and that person informed the sect?” Ah Man felt chills down her spine as she thought of the most likely possibility. Knowing her own personality, she would have only told the people closest to her that she trusted the most.
“It might’ve been Father or Grandfather… But, Father ended up dying at the hands of Grandfather, so does that mean Grandfather’s the one who’s most likely to leak the news to the Primeval Deity Sect?” Ah Man’s gaze grew cold. All at once, she began to connect the many dots.
She did not know why her Grandfather would do something like that. All she knew was that the person she trusted the most and considered her family had been lying to her all along.
“Grandfather, not only did you kill Father, but you allowed everyone in the settlement to die at the hands of the Primeval Deity Sect…” Ah Man’s heart was as cold as ice. Now that she had figured everything out, she did not waste her time worrying too much about it. Her Master would be returning tomorrow, at the latest.
During this time, she was going to prepare a great gift for him.
Her Master was not the only target. She was not going to let the Primeval Deity Sect off the hook either. They would have massacred her settlement if it had not been for Gu Changge’s warning. They did not even spare the young and the old. Since they were cruel and merciless, she had no reason to hold back.
At noon, a divine rainbow cascaded down beyond the peak and a frail middle-aged man appeared. Dressed in a scholarly robe, he was ashen-faced and had sunken eyes that made it seem like he was sickly.
When he returned to the peak, he closed his eyes and took in the energy of the environment. After confirming that no outsiders had been in the area since he left, he nodded and headed towards his courtyard.
“Ah Man.” Upon noticing the messiness of the medicinal herb fields nearby, the middle-aged man’s brows creased slightly as he called out to Ah Man.
“Master… You’re back.” When Ah Man heard the voice, she quickly hurried over from her courtyard with a look of surprise.
The middle-aged man nodded emotionlessly at her before asking, “What happened to my medicinal herb fields?”
Ah Man looked anxious and uneasy as she hurriedly explained, “Master, on the day you left, Song Qing’er came over to cause trouble for your disciple again. She got people to destroy those medicinal herb fields. I’ve been trying to think of a way to…”
After hearing the explanation, the middle-aged man’s frown deepened, and he waved his hand impatiently. “I see. You’re always causing trouble for me.”
Naturally, he knew that Song Qing’er had picked on Ah Man in the past. He had driven her off by saying that she was disturbing his cultivation.
Therefore, having heard Ah Man’s explanation, he did not hold it against her. There was nothing of value growing on these medicinal herb fields anyway.
“I’m going to create a pill that might take me four or five days…” The middle-aged man began to speak, but before he finished his sentence, he sensed something and said with joy, “I can sense that your cultivation has grown by a lot.”
As the cultivation techniques of the Primitives differed from the Humans, he could not get an accurate estimation of Ah Man’s strength.
“This disciple was fortunate enough to break into the third level last night, Master.” Ah Man’s face lit up with a pleased smile, showing just the right amount of excitement.
“Excellent! Excellent! You’re my wonderful disciple, alright. Here. Take this bottle of pills.” The middle-aged man could not resist beaming when he heard her response. He seemed to be genuinely pleased as he tossed a bottle of pills to Ah Man.
“Thank you, Master.” Ah Man took the bottle with a look of gratitude, but she knew what these pills would do to her.
If she continued taking them, she would soon become this middle-aged man’s puppet.
“Very good. It’s almost time.” The middle-aged man nodded in satisfaction as his gaze washed over Ah Man. There was a subtle trace of greed and desire in his eyes. Then, he turned around and left.
All this while, Ah Man kept her head lowered. Once the middle-aged man was gone, her eyes flashed coldly.
In reality, she was already in the sixth-level. She would have had an eighty per cent chance of success if she tried to launch a sneak attack on her Master just now.
Nevertheless, she chose to be patient and wait until she had a guaranteed chance of success.
“Since you like using pills to hurt others, it’s time for you to get a test of your own medicine…” Ah Man’s gaze was murderous.
She had already formulated a detailed plan.
She secretly added some of her own concoctions to the ingredients that the middle-aged man had prepared for his pills. Even if any of the ingredients neutralised each other, there would not be any smells or signs of it.
Even so, once the added concoctions combined with the pills that the middle-aged man wanted to create, the medicinal effects would be affected, leading to completely unexpected consequences.
The middle-aged man would suffer the unintended effects once he tested the pills out.
He had left in search of a precious ingredient because the pill he wanted to create had the remarkable ability to greatly strengthen a cultivator’s Life Force.
The middle-aged man would not bear to let Ah Man test the pill for him. Therefore, when he tested it out himself, his Life Force would be thrown into chaos and his organs would rupture, leading to an instantaneous death.
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