Xie Jingfei was quickly moving through the roofs of the building's like a silver shadow that disappeared if you blinked, but even though she believed she was being chased she stopped on a dark and deserted alley. The darkness hid her figure, but if you got close enough you could notice that she had changed.

She had grown a couple of centimeters taller, her previously black hair had turned azure in colour, and she had also grown numerous, fish-like scales on her arms, legs and neck, but the most eye-catching were the three that formed an upsidedown triangle on her forehead.

After she calmed her breathing she furrowed her brows as she felt something on her chest. "Little Gold.... what is the problem? Are we being followed?"

*Schweee*

She didn't receive a normal answer, but a high pitched squeal. Surprisingly she seemed to understand what that meant and she quickly took something out of her robes.

"Little Gold....." said Xie Jingfei as she lovingly saw the thing she just took out. She stared at her spirit beast , the small ' Gold Scavenger Mouse' on her palm . The ' Gold Scavenger Mouse' looked like a normal Earth mouse , except that it had yellow fur, a furry tail and very long whisker's that looked to be made with the finest and purest gold thread's.

"Are you sure? We are not being followed?"

*Scquee*

The small rat nodded it's head, but he immediately shook it again. This made Xie Jingfei confused so she asked it a couple of more questions before she understood what had happened, and she clearly wasn't pleased by the angry look on her face.

' Those damned ghost cultivators of ' Ghost Flame' Sect really are a bunch of filth, but I have to admit that they sure are resourceful. If I didn't have Little Gold as my spirit beast I wouldn't have noticed that they have put some sort of mark on me. ' thought Xie Jingfei as she looked at her hand ' Tch, it's not use, I can't even detect it, so even if I know it , I can't do anything about it.

If I would guess it's most likely a 'curse' that was cast during the previous battle..... but that doesn't matter anymore.....'

Xie Jingfei raised her head up to see nothing but the clouds blocking the sky, and casting a solemn shadow below.

" Sigh.... father, I'm tired....so so tired. No matter what I do, no matter where I go.....nggggg...." Xie Jingfei groaned as she held back her tears that threatened to stream down her face.

' If only I was stronger, if only I was stronger then the situation would have been different! If the divine blood in my veins was more concentrated I would have advanced by leaps and bounds and not be stuck at the 15th meridian.....I would have even been on the 'Dantian' stage making the ones following me the same as ants in my eyes. Alas....the road to cultivation is not that simple.'

As she lamented on her weakness she couldn't help but feel her dry throat making her remember the cold tea she had drank this morning. It's sweetness still lingered on her tongue , making her also remember about the strange situation she had experienced. These thoughts spun repeatedly in her mind, making her put a couple of things together.

'Wait....now that I can't remain anymore under the radar it's useless to care about the consequences anymore. What's the difference between angering one dragon and two dragon's....

If I can retrieve the artifact that held the dragon Qi Little Gold detected on that restaurant I could unravel it's mysteries and I could even advance, or maybe even learn a new martial technique. Heh,a movement technique would be best.' hopefully thought she as she felt somewhat better.

And so , Xie Jingfei steeled her resolved before once again jumping onto the roofs and heading towards the restaurant she had been in the morning. She was completely under the cover of the night, but also completely unaware that she was being watched by a ghostly apparition 200 m away.

"Hekhek hek... you can't escape anymore....

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

...............

Rex was as always lazily looking at the items he had in stock, and waiting for any customers to arrive when he suddenly noticed someone with a considerable amount of Qi entering his formation, and that made pause for a moment.

"Hmmmm.....

He closed his eyes to try to feel the Qi and it's direction , and he found out ii was surprisingly heading straight at his direction.

' The fuck....why is someone of that caliber coming towards here?! Did one of my customers spill the beans?' thought Rex in panic, but he quickly remembered that he had a formation and somewhat calmed down.

' Shit, although I have a pretty good formation, it's primary purpose is to hide and make me look like a powerful cultivator that can be trusted, so it doesn't have any attacking capabilities. All I can do is manipulate the surroundings so that the intruders come face to face with the ' Soul Seeking Bonsai ' and then trap them in that position for a long time, or until they become a vegetable as their souls has been heavily damaged.

But would that work out on the cultivator I've noticed commi...... shit he's almost here.....'

Rex quickly activated the illusion formation as he felt the cultivator was 20 m away from the entrance of the restaurant , making them immediately stop in their tracks. As soon as that happened Rex disguised himself as usual and went to greet his ' customer ' only to find out she resembled the girl who had been to his restaurant in the morning, only she looked a little flashier now.

"Where...is this place?" said the young woman as she was clearly surprised by the sudden change in the surroundings and the sudden apperance of a man from a building that wasn't there before. Rex clearly noticed the worry on the girls face and decided to exploit it, but not push her. He quickly found the right words, but he noticed another strong Qi signature entering his formation.

'The....fuck...is.... going...on...

Rex was clearly angry at this as he knew that it wasn't good news, but beeing trash at the ' Millennium Forest Sect ' had made him have a calm attitude, even if he was angry. So, Rex decided to do the only thing he could and enforced his persona as a strong cultivator by only speaking five clear words.

"It seems we have company.....

"Huh....?"

As soon as those words left his mouth a black robed figure came out of the mist and immediately stopped to observe the surroundings. He stared as he saw Rex's flashy apperance, and didn't move his eyes from him, clearly on his guard.

' Good, good, it seems that this cultivator is not rash. I can use this to my advantage.....' thought Rex as he saw the two uninvited cultivators in front of him.

"Welcome my lucky friend's." cheerfully said Rex" I welcome you to my humble shop."

"Shop..." softly said Xie Jingfei as she kept an eye on the two men around her.

"Yes, a shop, or more exactly a Mart. You can think of it as a shop that sells all kinds of things, Cultivator related things." cheerfully said Rex.

"Ohhhh.....and what kind of things do you sell, do tell. I am very curious....hekhek...." said the man, clearly more interested on Xie Jingfei then Rex.

Rex somewhat annoyed moved his attention to the man who had just asked and answered with the usual enigmatic tone "Oh.... you will find out... ",but the results were not as expected. Instead of a yes or a no, or any usual response, the man just laughed.

"Hekhekhekhekhek.....Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~

You're good! I don't know where she found you, but it's time to end this farce. I'm not in the mood...." said the man as he completely ignored Rex and completely focused on Xie Jingfei " Girl, I was thinking of playing with you for a little more, but now I've changed my mind. I'll just kill you here and now so you can finally rest in peace with your pathetic Sect."

"Hmph....bold words for someone weaker than me, but no matter, I forgive your stupidity!"

"Girl.... did you just call me an idiot? Hekhek.... you really wanna become part of my collection."

"Try it.....

*Bam*

Two needles flew from Xie Jingfei's sleeves , but we're stopped by an unknown force , 2 cm from the man's face. This made Xie Jingfei immediately retrieve her weapons and back of a couple of meters.

"Hehe, surprised I see..... but you haven't seen anything yet! Come ' Ghost General' !" exclaimed the man out loud as a 3m tall, red eyed, translucent humanoid covered in rotten armour riddled with numerous arrows appeared behind the man. As soon as that happened numerous black hands sprung from it's back and rushed towards Xie Jingfei who had her eyes wide open.

*Bamm....Booommm.....

The two figures clashed , the man using the translucent humanoid, and Xie Jingfei using her needles together with some water elemental techniques. From their clash you could see they were power as even a couple of windows on the first floor were shattered, even though they were 20 m away.

The ground was torn up, flooded, corroded and also frozen, all while the third vein popped in Rex's face. It was the first time he had been this pissed in all his life. ' These fuckers......I'll fuck you up!' said he as he cast an immobile illusion of himself. Immediately after that he headed to the second floor, grabbed the ' Soul Seeking Bonsai' in anger, took aim, and threw it out of the window at the two of them.

"Fuck you!" yelled Rex in English as the bonsai made a beautiful ark and feel right beside the man who just questionably gave it a glance, just before everything went to shit.

'A plan.....

*Boooommm*

Before he realized what was happening the bonsai exploded outwardly with a wave of Qi that immediately incapacitated the him, the ' Ghost General', and Xie Jingfei before it started to ravenously sucks the translucent humanoid that was previously fighting Xie Jingfei.

"Kuuuuoooooooo......" screamed the ' Ghost General' in fear of the small plant not far away from it.

This turn of events also surprised Rex who just stared at the situation with a deadpan expression.