Xue Yueliang returned his gaze with a smile, leading him to walk over to her table, "Young Lady, are you headed toward the capital?" He warmly asked, "Are you in need of a companion?"

Xue Yueliang smiled and shook her head; she recognised this man; he was Lei Jian, the useless son of the Lei clan, one of Qinxia Kingdom's top clans, on par with the Qin Clan.

They were both looked down upon by the family members, and they sympathised with each other's pain.

She may have developed feelings for him in the past; naturally, none of that exists in the present. Other than reminiscing, she had sensed no other intentions from him, and the current her was not interested in playing house.

"Thank you for the offer, Brother Lei Jian, but I have my considerations."

After seeing that she rejected him, he suavely left, leaving behind a few words, "Stay safe."

Xue Yueliang felt a vague sense of threat as she watched his back. She did not know where this feeling came from, as he had no evil intent toward her.

"I hope you never become my enemy," she sighed and turned to leave.

Now that she could fly on her sword, instead of taking her three months to get to the capital, it would only take her four days of non-stop flying.

So she should make it in a week, which was good news for her since the inheritance ground would open up in a month. Xue Yueliang cursed her useless master under her breath and began to fly to her destination.

Unbeknownst to her, Lei Jian had been watching her and seeing her climb up to the sword; a doubtful glint appeared in his eyes, "Is that really you, Qin Yao?"

The Qin Yao he knew did not like travelling alone, nor was she a cultivator; if this was from her fortuitous opportunity, then he was genuinely happy for her.

But he was afraid that someone might have seized her body.

Lei Jian shook his head at his useless thoughts; even if someone had taken her body, what can the current him do against somebody with such means?

Rather than uselessly worrying, he was better off focussing on increasing his strength - only then would he be useful. Lei Jian then decisively walked toward the east, his silhouette having the bearing of a lonely hero.

Xue Yueliang kept a strict schedule as she headed toward the capital. She was either cultivating, flying or hunting food for Hei Yu.

As people could not detect her cultivation base thanks to the ring, Hei Yu's strength was her perceived strength, and if that duo from the forest had taught her anything, it was terrifying for something so adorable to erupt with such power.

Xue Yueliang chuckled and reput her focus into her cultivation. All these days of cultivation had been worthwhile as she had now stepped into the 8th level of the Qi Refinement Realm.

As her hands began to itch, Xue Yueliang came across a theatre play.

"Brother-in-law, how can you do this to me? " A pregnant woman pleaded, "I'm pregnant with your nephew; shouldn't you show some mercy?"

She wept as she held onto the edge of a man's clothes. The man roughly spat on the ground, "And what do you know about fidelity? Can you even prove that that kid is my brother's?"

He then kicked her away but did not leave. The woman desperately looked around before finally landing on Xue Yueliang's cold expression, "Young Miss, can you please help me? I have nothing left, and I won't be able to raise my young kid." She cried.

Xue Yueliang sneered at the third-rate acting. Who did they think of fooling? It seems like the inheritance did not only attract young cultivators but all sorts of trash that hoped to capitalise on their inexperience.

If he had suspected her of giving his brother a green hat, she would have already been dead by now, and even if he was soft-hearted, why would he wait around after getting what he wanted?

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Xue Yueliang had long since wanted to celebrate her breakthrough, so she retrieved her sword, augmenting it with the wind blade technique and slashed it toward him.

The sword attack quickly appeared in front of the bandit and cut his body diagonally in half, from his shoulder to his hip; the two parts of his body slipped past each other and landed on the ground, causing a small geyser of blood to land on the pregnant lady.

"Husband!" She cried, shocked at how quickly he died. Xue Yueliang calmly walked up to her, and in the pregnant woman's eyes, her petite figure was like that of an asura, quietly summoning her to hell.

Xue Yueliang placed her sword on the woman's neck and smiled at her, watching as her face turned pale and her eyes turned increasingly bleak, "Relax, I won't kill you."

But the woman still sat there stiffly, appearing to be in shock. Xue Yueliang used her sword to lift the woman's chin so that they could make eye contact, "If you have the intent to harm people, you should expect people to fight back, " she stated, "Otherwise, try to lead a good life, and don't forget to thank your child, they are why I spared you."

With this, Xue Yueliang turned to leave, and Hei Yu dragged the corpse away, leaving only the horrified woman behind.

"Hei Yu, eat your meal, don't drag it around." Xue Yueliang chided.

This man was only at the 6th level of the Qi Refinement Realm, so his corpse was useless to her.

Hei Yu was at the 10th level of the Qi Refinement Realm, and this corpse served as nothing more than a snack for him, but Xue Yueliang felt it would be better for him to eat before he got too picky.

She was happy with his progress; although he was an artefact, he appeared like a spirit beast, and if people thought she could tame him, they would assume she was more powerful than him.

The capital of the Qinxia Kingdom appeared in Xue Yueliang's view; it was named the Summer City, and according to the legends, the founding emperor reached an inconceivable boundary in the path of fire and changed the Heavenly Dao permanently, creating summer.

The current Qinxia Kingdom has devolved from the empire it was, and the royal family lost the path of the fire; that was present in their bloodline, weakening it further to the state it is now.

Xue Yueliang saw the immensely long line of people in front of the capital gates and walked right to the front of the queue, leading to murmuring and interested gazes following her.

She paid them no heed and presented her Qin Clan token to the guard, and he politely escorted her into the capital.

"Wait!" An urgent voice sounded, "That token is a fake."

Xue Yueliang expressionlessly pricked her finger and dropped her blood onto the token, causing it to glow with pure golden colour.

Marking her as a direct descendant of the Qin Clan, the man who shouted's face turned pale and backed away, "Kill him."

Xue Yueliang ordered the guard, leading that man's head to be swiftly decapitated. Disapproving noises came from the crowd, but Xue Yueliang was frowning for a different reason - she realised something.

It was not her first time experiencing something like this; this was her brother's method of humiliating her, as she was afraid of blood. He would then save her from this situation, appearing like a kind older brother. He was the reason she was so infamous, and why she hated travelling alone.

Xue Yueliang's expression turned cold, and directly entered the city; she had to avoid him.

The current her was too weak.

As soon as she entered the city, Xue Yueliang donned a wide black robe, covering her face and mixed along with the city's residents. Due to her brother, she could not stay in the Qin Clan Manor and had to find an inn to spend the next few weeks.

Thankfully the theatrical bandit had quite a few spirit stones on him, which she could use to live comfortably, but before that, she needed to buy pills.

She walked into a four-storey alchemist store, the ground floor catering to Qi Refinement cultivators and every higher level corresponded to a cultivation realm.

Xue Yueliang took off her hood and looked around; the ground floor was spacious, with stacks of pills on the right side of the room.

Each type had its name and a brief description of its uses. On the left side, there were many herbs, causing the sweet scent of medicinal herbs to waft through the store.

Xue Yueliang did not gawk for long and picked up two bottles of fasting pills and one bottle of healing pills and walked up to the counter. It cost Xue Yueliang about thirty low-grade spirit stones.

"Do you know where I can sell Qi Refinement Realm beast cores?" Xue Yueliang asked the worker.

"We can buy them from you." The worker stated disinterestedly.

As a result, Xue Yueliang emptied one of her pouches onto the counter, leading to a dozen different coloured beast cores spilling out, shocking the bored worker. The strongest beast core was at the 10th level of Qi Refinement and the weakest at the 4th level.

Since she left the forest, Xue Yueliang has been periodically hunting for Hei Yu, allowing him to reach his current realm; she had no use for the beast core, as she neither knew how to refine artefacts or pills nor did Hei Yu - who ate even the bones - bother with it.

It was almost as if he disdained it. The worker carefully examined the cores before handing her half a mid-grade spirit stone. A single mid-grade spirit stone was worth a thousand low-grade ones. Xue Yueliang earned a lot more than what she spent, leading her to smile brightly.

"Thank you for your patronage," the previously indifferent worker politely bade farewell.

After getting her necessities, Xue Yueliang booked a room for the next two weeks and entered seclusion. She had to, at least, reach the 9th level of Qi Refinement Realm before the inheritance site opened.