Chapter 28
When Zhang Xiaoxiao woke, her mind was still somewhat hazy.
“You’re awake?”
A breathtakingly beautiful face suddenly appeared before her.
Zhang Xiaoxiao smiled foolishly without thinking. “Fairy, you’re so beautiful… Dying was worth it.”
The woman she had called a fairy smiled. “Thank you for the compliment, but I’m sorry to disappoint you. You’re still trapped in the cruel mortal world.”
Zhang Xiaoxiao’s eyes widened in disbelief.
She was not dead?
But her entire body felt light, without the slightest pain. She tried moving her fingers and discovered that she could still feel them.
Looking down, she saw herself dressed in a brand-new gown, with not a single wound remaining on her body. There was no trace of her earlier wretched condition.
Zhang Xiaoxiao shot upright and studied Yu Tai. Then her eyes filled with tears. “Benefactor, did you save me?”
She had been muddleheaded earlier. Now that she was calm and fully awake, she recognized the woman’s white collar and jade-green sleeves, her jade hairpin and coiled bun, her snow-white skin and lovely smile. The “fairy” before her was clearly Yu Tai of the Qingshan Sword Sect!
“I did save you, but there’s no need to offer yourself in marriage,” Yu Tai said with a nod.
Zhang Xiaoxiao’s little face turned scarlet. She had actually been about to say exactly that.
“Why are you alone? Where are the other Beast-Taming Sect disciples?” Yu Tai asked.
At those words, the color instantly drained from Zhang Xiaoxiao’s face. She scrambled out of bed and fell to her knees before Yu Tai, tears gathering in her eyes. “Benefactor, please save my Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters! I’ll do anything you ask. Please!”
Yu Tai stepped aside to avoid her formal bow and replied calmly, “I owe you this favor. Even if you hadn’t asked, I would have saved them. Where are they?”
The tears in Zhang Xiaoxiao’s eyes finally spilled over. She understood what Yu Tai meant by a “favor.”
Her Senior Brother had only done something trivial. Moreover, he had agreed because Yu Tai belonged to a major sect they could not afford to offend.
Who could have imagined that such a minor act would be repaid with a life-saving grace?
Zhang Xiaoxiao had been well protected by her Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters, but she was not ignorant of the rules of this world.
Living in a minor sect, she had witnessed far too much helplessness, reluctant compromise, and forced surrender.
Everywhere in the Three Realms of cultivation, strength reigned supreme. To brave hidden danger and rescue the weak without any definite benefit or reward required extraordinary magnanimity and compassion.
“Zhang Xiaoxiao of the Beast-Taming Sect thanks her Benefactor,” she said solemnly, her voice overflowing with gratitude.
The System: [The way she’s looking at you… It’s like she’s gazing at the shining light of righteousness.]
Yu Tai helped the sobbing Zhang Xiaoxiao to her feet and gently patted her trembling back to comfort her.
Poor girl. If she survived this, everything would be all right.
Others might not know, but Yu Tai clearly remembered that after every major sect in the Middle Realm suffered a devastating catastrophe later in the novel, only the Beast-Taming Sect stubbornly survived.
That neglected minor sect rose amid the disaster and eventually became the new number-one sect of the Middle Realm.
After asking where Zhang Xiaoxiao had last seen the others, Yu Tai carried the exhausted young woman, who had fainted again, back to bed.
Yu Tai had no idea what she had endured before being rescued. There had not been a single uninjured place on her body, and all her wounds had been soaked in water. Fortunately, the person who found her was Yu Tai.
The two things Yu Tai lacked least were money and medicinal pills-in that order.
Yu Tai gently closed the door and stepped outside. At a glance, she spotted Shu Li leaning beside the doorway as though waiting for someone.
Sensing her gaze, Shu Li curled his lips. “I never knew Junior Sister possessed such a gentle and kindhearted side.”
His gaze paused on her slightly disheveled collar for several seconds before moving away.
Yu Tai glanced at his uncovered face. He was not wearing his veiled hat. “What’s wrong? Are you jealous, Senior Brother?”
Shu Li chuckled without answering. His fingertip brushed Yu Tai’s collar as though by accident, and he offered a mild suggestion. “Junior Sister’s identity is rather sensitive. You should avoid too much contact with other people. Some cultivators can glimpse certain secrets with nothing but a touch, so caution would be wise.”
Yu Tai’s heart jolted.
That was possible?
This truly had been an oversight. She was hiding an enormous secret while living among people who called themselves righteous cultivators. She could never be too careful.
The System: […]
It needed to check the manual once they got back. How had it not known something so important?
According to Zhang Xiaoxiao, the Beast-Taming Sect disciples encountered a high-ranked demon beast along the way. While they fought it to the death, the sky suddenly changed and torrential rain began to fall.
Most of them were injured, and they were trapped in a barren plain with nowhere to shelter. They used spiritual qi to raise a barrier and huddled inside, waiting for the deadly rain to pass.
No one expected the rain to continue for days. Already gravely wounded, they eventually ran out of spiritual qi to sustain the barrier. Their eldest Senior Brother spent the last of his spiritual qi shielding the other disciples, keeping the flood from swallowing them completely.
But the meager spiritual qi protecting them soon dispersed in the raging current.
Zhang Xiaoxiao encountered several aquatic demon beasts along the way and only narrowly escaped being eaten.
A barren plain…
Two words were hardly enough to go on, but an idea suddenly occurred to Yu Tai.
Shu Li quietly followed as Yu Tai looked around for something.
She searched the ship and soon found Xia Mo playing around a pillar.
Yu Tai lifted the bewildered Xia Mo and pointed at the pile of bloodstained clothes removed from Zhang Xiaoxiao. “Smell these. See if you can find a similar scent.”
Xia Mo: […]
“Chirp, chirp, chirp!” *I’m a panda! Not! A dog!*
“They’re from the Beast-Taming Sect. Their sect raises many things that demon beasts love to eat,” Yu Tai said with a beaming smile.
Xia Mo snorted disdainfully.
Was this panda the sort to abandon its dignity for a mouthful of food?
With obvious distaste, it sniffed the bloodstained gown, then extended a paw and pointed in one direction.
Yu Tai smiled in satisfaction and rubbed Xia Mo’s furry head. “Good.”
Xia Mo: *Hmph.*
After confirming several more directions, Yu Tai determined that most of the disciples were not far away and appeared to be alive.
Sure enough, following Xia Mo’s directions, Yu Tai found several people wearing Beast-Taming Sect disciple robes.
Those who were conscious marveled at the ship’s grandeur and cost. After recognizing Yu Tai, they all looked disbelieving and overwhelmingly grateful.
Once Zhang Xiaoxiao woke, she came outside and burst into tears at the sight of those familiar faces, embracing several female disciples as she sobbed.
Nothing brought greater comfort than reuniting with family after a disaster.
Unfortunately, though Yu Tai found many survivors, she also found many who had stopped breathing forever.
That was especially true of the Beast-Taming Sect’s eldest Senior Brother, the cultivator who had once spoken with Yu Tai.
He had most likely perished in the disaster.