Chapter 52
Yu Tai toyed with the jade token in her hand, a cold smile curling at the corner of her lips.
She had not examined it carefully before, but after Shu Li’s warning, she studied it closely.
It did not take long for her to discover that something was wrong.
There was demonic qi inside the jade token.
It was rather laughable.
An ordinary cultivator unfamiliar with demonic qi truly would not detect anything after receiving it. But the person those people from the Upper Realm wanted to frame-
Was Yu Tai, a genuine demonic cultivator.
No one was more familiar with demonic qi than she was.
Yu Tai was so angry that she laughed. So that was their plan.
The method they intended to use against Yu Tai was identical to the trick the original Yu Tai had once used against Shu Li.
After going around in circles, was this not simply retribution?
The System: [… I’ve told you countless times. You weren’t the one who did that.]
“What are you planning to do?” Shu Li asked softly, drawing Yu Tai out of her thoughts.
Yu Tai replied, “I’ll beat them at their own game. Don’t they want to see a demonic cultivator?”
Her lips curved into a harmless smile. “I wonder how everyone would react if Jiang Li, the Zuiyin Sect’s most valued disciple, turned out to be a demonic cultivator.”
With that, she stretched out a leg and nudged Shu Li in front of her. Propping her head on one hand, she smiled seductively. “Senior Brother, shall I drag Fellow Cultivator Jiang Li, whose aptitude far surpasses yours, down from his pedestal to keep you company?”
Shu Li looked at the smiling girl before him but shook his head. “With Jiang Li’s aptitude, his ascension to godhood is only a matter of time. It would be a pity to destroy him.”
Yu Tai rolled her eyes in a decidedly inelegant manner.
There it was again. His saintly nature was showing itself once more.
“Senior Brother, this Jiang Li you speak of is plotting against me-”
Her voice abruptly stopped, and Yu Tai narrowed her eyes.
The formation had sent her a message.
Someone had arrived.
“Stay inside. Don’t come out,” Yu Tai instructed before walking outside.
Her first thought was that the little thief from before had returned.
There was no one standing outside. But when Yu Tai swept the area with her spiritual sense, she discovered the visitor’s tracks.
However… it did not seem to be that little thief.
She opened the formation and walked out. The moment she lowered her head, she saw a girl crouching outside her cave dwelling.
The girl hugged her knees with both arms. Tear tracks stained her pitiful little face.
Yu Tai recognized her at a glance as the girl who had sat beside the old man from the Zuiyin Sect in the spectator stand.
Seeing Yu Tai, the girl raised her delicate, tearful face. “Sister, I’m lost.”
A disciple of the Zuiyin Sect had gotten lost inside the Qingshan Sword Sect, then helplessly crouched outside someone’s cave dwelling and asked for aid.
The story was absurd enough to make front-page news across the Three Realms.
Of course, the most infuriating part was-
*We look the same age. Why the hell are you calling me your older sister?*
At that thought, a “friendly” smile suddenly appeared on Yu Tai’s cool face. She crouched to the girl’s level and asked gently, “You poor thing. How did you get lost?”
The feeling of someone discovering her when she was helpless made the girl burst into tears. “I…”
Seeing her weep like a flower in the rain, Yu Tai reached out and wiped away her tears. “Don’t cry. I’ll help you find the way home. Where did you come from?”
And so, the helpful citizen Miss Yu successfully helped the lost girl find her way home.
The girl enthusiastically invited Yu Tai to visit the black tortoise where she was staying.
Standing atop the shell, Yu Tai gazed at the exquisitely carved building before her and thought that it was no wonder cultivators from the Upper Realm looked down upon the Middle Realm.
These people even embedded spirit stones in their houses.
Yu Tai looked at the harmless face of the girl before her and thought, *Let’s see what trick you’re trying to play.* Then she accepted the invitation.
Meanwhile, a certain person was still sitting obediently where she had left him, waiting for Yu Tai to return.
“Xiao Xin!”
The moment they entered, a shout came from upstairs.
Yu Tai and Xiao Xin looked up and immediately spotted several striking young men and women standing there.
They all wore the inner disciple uniforms of the Zuiyin Sect. The men were handsome and the women beautiful. Although their clothes were broadly similar, every ornament at their waists and every accessory in their hair displayed their noble status and deep family wealth.
“You’re here!” Xiao Xin’s eyes lit up, and she pulled Yu Tai upstairs at a trot.
Yu Tai frowned slightly at Xiao Xin’s hand around hers, but quickly smoothed her expression.
“Xiao Xin, why isn’t Jiang Li with you?” the group asked with teasing smiles.
They merely nodded when they saw Yu Tai, unaware of her identity.
At the mention of Jiang Li, Xiao Xin pouted. “Don’t mention him. I don’t know what he’s been busy with lately.”
“Even you don’t know what he’s doing? Now that really is strange.”
Xiao Xin’s cheeks reddened. She said shyly, “Don’t talk nonsense.”
“Why are you embarrassed? The only thing missing between the two of you is someone breaking through that last paper-thin barrier,” they teased.
Flustered and embarrassed, Xiao Xin began play-fighting with them.
Yu Tai stood to one side, watching in boredom.
She thought she understood the girl’s intentions now.
After they had joked around for a while, someone finally looked at Yu Tai and asked Xiao Xin, “Who is this Fellow Cultivator?”
Only then did Xiao Xin seem to “remember.” She tapped her head. “Oh! I nearly forgot.”
She walked to Yu Tai’s side and introduced her. “This is Sister Yu Tai from the Qingshan Sword Sect. I got lost, and she brought me back.”
“The Qingshan Sword Sect?” a young man asked in confusion.
“I’ve never heard of that sect. Where in the Nine Provinces is it?”
Xiao Xin waved her hand and said innocently, “It isn’t. The Qingshan Sword Sect is in the Middle Realm.”
At the words *Middle Realm*, contempt instantly appeared on the faces that had previously seemed relatively friendly.
One young man even rolled his eyes without restraint.
“Xiao Xin, why are you associating with an inferior? Hurry over here.”
Xiao Xin looked confused. “What are you talking about? Why are you calling Sister Yu Tai inferior?”
“What are cultivators from the Middle Realm if not inferiors?”
Watching the girl clumsily defend her, Yu Tai shook her head and thought that the performance was truly dreadful.
At least suppress that rising smile and the gloating in your eyes, little sister.
“Cultivators from the Middle Realm are inferior?” Yu Tai suddenly asked.
The young man who had spoken first lifted his chin arrogantly. “Of course.”
Yu Tai turned her wrist, and her blade instantly left its sheath.
The young man sneered disdainfully. “You use a sword too? You overestimate yourself.”
With that, an ornate sword inlaid with spirit stones appeared in his hand.
The atmosphere instantly became tense. Faced with Yu Tai’s slash, the smile on the young man’s lips deepened.
Her movements appeared to him as though they were happening in slow motion. As expected of an inferior. This was all she amounted to.
He twisted his wrist and swung, intending to sever the blade that did not even qualify as garbage in his eyes.
The sound of a sword breaking rang in everyone’s ears.
The young man watched his own blade snap and roared in disbelief, “That’s impossible-”
But before he could finish, the point of the “garbage” sword that had effortlessly severed his high-grade weapon was already at his throat.
Yu Tai kicked him in the chest and planted her foot atop him. Looking down from above, she curled her lips in a mocking smile. “Then what should we call someone defeated by an inferior?”
Everyone else: “…”
*Holy shit. That was unbelievably cool.*