“What the hell were you thinking??”
Li Qiang gave a flat look at the panicking Da Wei while calmly sipping his tea, completely unbothered by the random bursts of Primal Qi from Da Wei due to his control slipping in his panic.
“I was thinking that you are coddling the girl too much. Face it, Da Wei, you can’t keep her safe all the time. She needs to learn how to live by herself-“
“Why the hell can’t I keep her safe all the time?? Isn’t that the whole reason why I am running myself ragged like this? To keep all of my loved ones safe??”
This time, Li Qiang put down his cup and glared at the twenty-five-year-old man.
“Da Wei, your love for your daughter is apparent to everyone. However, it would be best if you acknowledged that you have sheltered the girl too much, making her forget her survival instincts and making her too naïve to live in our cruel world. I am not the only one who thinks this way, Old Feng, Chief Chen, and even the Han couple think the same way. When she asked me to help her choose a place for hunting low-level beasts, I saw it as an opportunity to let her spread her wings without you watching after her all the way.”
The lie smoothly came out of the man’s mouth as Da Wei collapsed into his chair.
While he had no choice but to tell Da Wei about Da Ling’s departure from the village without his knowledge, he was unwilling to betray Da Ling’s trust by spilling her real plan to her father, even if he felt guilty for lying to his friend like this.
“…..It is not right, Old Li. She is just a child. She should not have to learn such things at such a young age.”
“She may be young, but she is more mature than you give her credit for. And don’t forget that you can’t shield her from the darkness of this world since she has already seen it before you stumbled upon her.”
“It is precisely because of this that I don’t want her to suffer anymore. It is only fair that she gets to enjoy her childhood to compensate for the hell that she suffered through before meeting me.”
“Da Wei, I have never said it before because I did not want to interfere with the way you do things, but the way you coddle Da Ling is similar to what usually happens in powerful clans and sects with their heirs. Da Ling will end up becoming a spoilt princess if you continue to raise her in the same way as you have done until now.”
Da Wei’s expression took on a bitter look as he looked at his friend.
“What else am I supposed to do? Old Li. I have no experience raising a child. I am only doing what I know to make up for my lack of experience.”
“Meow~”
Little Xing jumped into Da Wei’s arms and rubbed her head against his chin, trying to soothe her master in her own way.
At his words, Li Qiang’s expression shifted from stern to compassionate.
“Da Wei, I am not saying that you are doing anything wrong. I just want you to give Da Ling the chance to grow on her own. To give her the freedom to make her own mistakes and learn from them on her own without you hovering over her shoulder and shielding her all the time.”
“….Fine. Since we have already cleared out most of the dangerous Demonic Beasts thanks to your practical lessons to our Body Cultivators, she should not face any beasts higher than the Foundation Establishment realm at most. I’ll let her get the experience that you are talking about. However, next time, I want to be kept in the loop regarding things like these. I would rather not have the kind of panic I had when she did not turn up for lunch like this and I failed to find her with Jin Ruiying, Guo Yufeng, or the other children.”
Once again, Li Qiang suppressed his guilt for lying to his friend in such a way. However, Da Ling really did need this opportunity to learn to do things by herself.
Just like Da Wei, Li Qiang has also come to look at the girl like a granddaughter and would not endanger her in any way. It was for this reason that he took out that old token that he had not touched in more than half a century to ensure her protection.
“That girl has a storage ring full of food I made for her so she should not have any problem feeding her monstrous appetite despite not needing to eat as much food as a mortal. She also has a ring full of pills and artifacts I made for her. She also has that Bracelet I made for her birthday last year so she should be safe from most threats.”
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
This time, Li Qiang glared at Da Wei.
“If you knew all that, why were you panicking like that and made me feel bad as well?”
“Hey! I can’t help it ok? My memory doesn’t work well when I think my loved ones are in danger.”
“Fine! Whatever. What are your plans now since she won’t be back for nearly a week?”
Da Wei had a contemplative look on his face.
“I was going to continue stress testing the train but I have already put it through every kind of scenario I can think of so it is basically ready to be placed in service at full capacity. So I have some free time to either work on my own cultivation or take care of something that I’ve been looking into for some time now.”
Li Qiang leaned forward in interest.
“I am thinking about going on an expedition to the Baihu Empire soon. I need to gather a few materials for Jin Tianrui’s cultivation and to increase his innate talent.”
Li Qiang had a thoughtful look at those words.
“Jin Tianrui has triple spirit roots of average quality. Water, Yin, and Wood are his elements. As far as I remember, the only materials that could help him cultivate are things that you already possess in excess. The only thing that you lack is a perfect cultivation technique geared towards cultivating all his affinities at the same time instead of cultivating three different techniques for his three affinities.”
“Correct. While the technique problem is something that I have no solution for, there is something else that I think would help him cultivate faster.”
“Oh? And what is it?”
“Netherworld Yin Spring.”
“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND???”
At Li Qiang’s shout, Da Wei was momentarily taken aback before he sighed in exasperation.
“Old Li, calm down. I know what I am doing-“
“No, you don’t! do you think you are invincible just because you are a peak Nascent Soul realm expert?? That thing is one of the Natural Treasures and is considered the most dangerous out of the nine Heavenly Waters for a reason!!. And you want to go after it at your cultivation realm??”
Da Wei once again gave an exasperated look at Li Qiang as he did not want to repeat the same kind of argument that he had with Xiang, the old demon when he had initially asked him to reveal the location of the Natural Treasure.
In this world, there existed many strange and mysterious materials that formed spontaneously due to the concentration of Pure Qi in a location or an object, making them highly coveted resources for cultivation. Such items were called Heavenly Treasures. The Bodhi fruit that Da Wei once found alongside Little Xing was one such object.
However, few things were formed in such an extreme way and dangerous places with properties that defied the heavens that they were considered the most powerful yet most dangerous things to have ever been discovered.
These things were called Natural Treasures.
As far as anyone knew, these things always came with an elemental and conceptual affinity infused within them with only one of each variety ever existing at the same time across the continent. They are also said to only form based on the Wuxing cycle of elements as their base. It was due to this pattern that they were divided according to their base elemental affinity and state.
The Nine Heavenly Woods.
The Nine Heavenly Flames.
The Nine Heavenly Earths.
The Nine Heavenly Metals.
And the Nine Heavenly Waters.
The Netherworld Yin Spring is part of the Nine Heavenly Waters and is ranked as the most dangerous one on the entire list. Its base elemental affinity is water and its other affinity is the element of Yin. The best material possible for Jin Tianrui to refine so that he could improve the quality of his spirit roots and enhance his cultivation speed.
There was also an infinitesimally small chance of Jin Tianrui gaining additional abilities based on the Natural Treasure after refining it but Da Wei placed no hope in such a thing since the chance was so small that it might as well not exist.
“Old Li. I have already made up my mind so don’t bother trying to convince me.”
Li Qiang seethed at those words before collapsing into his chair with exhaustion.
“Fine! Do whatever you want! But let me tell you something, the girl will end up an orphan once again if you do something reckless and get yourself killed, I don’t think that is what you want for her.”
This time Da Wei gave him a confident smile.
“Don’t worry, I know what I am doing and have made more than adequate preparations for the task ahead. Trust me just like you have done so far.”
----------------------------------------
“Liehuo! Can’t you make this thing go any faster??”
“I am already pushing it to the maximum speed! Anymore is impossible! How far away is the seal?”
“A few hundred Li away, but it is moving rapidly in the opposite direction to us. If we don’t catch up to her now, I don’t think we will find her again once she returns to whichever Qi-rich land she is hiding in.”
Yan Liehuo grunted as he operated the massive airship to the best of his ability, hoping to finally find the girl that they had been hunting for so long.
Once again, he wished to ditch this cumbersome artifact and directly rush towards Yan Ling’s location using their cultivation. However, they could not do that since this airship was an artifact that they recently obtained after exploring a secret realm and killing a lot of cultivators to obtain it.
A Heaven-grade Airship was not a joke and not something that they could leave behind as they pleased, especially since it could greatly boost the prestige of their mistress and help solidify her currently shaky position in the Holy Land.
He only hoped that they would reach Yan Ling and wouldn’t end up losing track of her.
The future of their Holy Land and the fate of their mistress depended on it.