The First Senior Sister Is Weak and Helpless - Chapter 7

Mu Yao hung Wenjiu on the Frost Sword, and then returned to the study pavilion alone, only to hear Ah Jiu crying waah waah outside the pavilion.

Yue Yue shivered upon hearing it, thinking that Senior Sister was truly terrifying.

“Senior Sister, if there is nothing else, I will head back first. Master also instructed me to decoct some medicine.”

“Mm, thank you for your hard work.” Mu Yao gave her a slight nod.

Before leaving, Yue Yue cast a glance at the little junior sister hanging in midair, shuddered, and scampered away.

Mu Yao set up a soundproofing array inside the study pavilion, leaving Ah Jiu to cry outside by herself.

An hour later, Mu Yao put down her book, opened the door, walked outside, and flicked her hand. The Frost Sword immediately turned around and flew back.

The little one was still crying with intermittent sobs. Mu Yao squatted down, took out a handkerchief, and wiped her face.

“Do you know your mistake? Did Senior Sister tell you that you cannot tear books at will? Did you promise Senior Sister last time?” Mu Yao’s tone was calm and not very fierce, but Ah Jiu still felt a trace of fear.

She nodded obediently. “Ah Jiu knows she was wrong.”

Mu Yao lifted her chin and wiped her snot. “Are you very scared?”

“It is so high. Ah Jiu is scared.”

Mu Yao flicked her nose. The little junior sister was indeed quite mischievous, but when she was well-behaved, it was truly deceptive.

She opened her arms, and Ah Jiu immediately threw herself into her embrace. Although she had just been thinking in her heart that she would never like Senior Sister again, she was now clinging affectionately, rubbing back and forth.

“You are not allowed to wipe your snot on me.” After all, the little one had done such things before, and Mu Yao felt it necessary to remind her.

Ah Jiu obediently stopped moving, only resting her chin on Mu Yao’s shoulder.

“Senior Sister, Ah Jiu is hungry.” After whimpering a few times, Ah Jiu said pitifully.

Mu Yao thought to herself, did she not eat the Bigu pill yesterday? Logically speaking, she should not have gotten hungry so quickly, right?

As a result, she reached out and probed her meridians, only to find that the meager spiritual energy of the Bigu pill had long since been refined by her.

Mu Yao felt rather helpless. “Senior Sister will go make you something.”

Ever since Ah Jiu no longer needed to drink rice soup, Mu Yao had simply been making her random meals herself.

In the beginning, it was truly unpalatable, but Ah Jiu had no other food, so she had no choice but to eat it obediently. Although the little one had frequent diarrhea during that period, fortunately, she grew stronger afterward.

Mu Yao went to make two dishes for Ah Jiu, watched her eat them all, and then could not help measuring the little one’s height.

Eating so much, why was she still so tiny?

Mu Yao had no idea what her own cooking skill level actually was. After all, back when she was brought back to the sect, her master had simply fed her Bigu pills directly, and the other two junior sisters were the same.

She remembered her master’s exact words. Human delicacies are such extravagant things, I cannot even afford to eat them.

Yet the person who could not afford to eat delicacies had her wine gourd filled with spirit wine every single day.

Although she did not know what level her cooking was, Ah Jiu still gave her face by finishing everything.

She even let out a resounding burp.

Mu Yao cast a cleansing incantation to tidy up the bowls and plates, returning them to their places.

“Rest for an hour, then go run laps in the bamboo forest.” With that, Mu Yao vanished again.

Leaving Ah Jiu all alone in the Chengfeng Pavilion, full of reluctance, she still disliked Senior Sister.

When Mu Yao left Chengfeng Pavilion, she returned directly to her own dwelling. For some reason, recently she seemed to faintly sense an impending breakthrough, yet there was also a persistent feeling of deep unease and a dull, throbbing pain in her eyes.

She returned to the cold spring in the Jiexue Pavilion, as only the chilling aura within the cold spring could slightly suppress the chaotic spiritual energy rampaging through her body.

Back then, her master had said that although she possessed top-grade water spiritual roots and an ultimate talent for perceiving heaven and earth spiritual energy, her body was naturally antagonistic to water spiritual energy. This was because the demons who slaughtered her village had planted a demonic seed inside her body when she was young. That demonic seed possessed fire attributes, and once it fused into Mu Yao’s body, even Feng Yang and the entire Tianqing Sect were unable to extract it, ultimately leaving behind a disaster.

It was also the reason why her eyes, blind from birth, were so difficult to heal. Over the years, the elders of the Dan Peak had flipped through countless medical texts yet failed to find a method of treatment.

Mu Yao herself had gradually lost her obsession with curing her eyes; after all, it did not overly hinder her movements.

However, the experiences of her youth caused her to suffer excruciating pain every time her cultivation improved even slightly.

Feng Yang had expelled the demonic energy within the demonic seed, but the fire spiritual energy fused into her meridians could not be forced out. She could only rely on her own slow cultivation to expel it bit by bit.

Mu Yao sat within the cold spring, her brows furrowed tightly, her delicate face covered in agony.

The flare-up of the fire spiritual energy inside her body conflicted with the cultivation technique she practiced, making Mu Yao feel as though she were trapped between ice and fire.

Yet she had no other cultivation path to choose from. Her innate top-grade water spiritual roots left her with no alternatives.

Unless she abandoned the pursuit of power and directly cultivated fire-attribute techniques, but if she did so, she would remain stuck at the Soul-Condensing Realm for the rest of her life. Putting aside Feng Yang’s regret over her talent, even Mu Yao herself was unwilling.

At this moment, Mu Yao was enduring great suffering in the cold spring, while back in Chengfeng Pavilion, Ah Jiu had finished her rest, and the spirit sprites began urging her to go run her laps.

Ah Jiu, being so young, was completely unwilling to go.

Only when she grew up did Ah Jiu understand that there were hardly any children in this world who had to train with such diligence at such a tender age.

Even though Senior Sister was not in Chengfeng Pavilion, Ah Jiu, having just been punished, did not dare disobey. It seemed that no matter what she did, Senior Sister would always find out, so Ah Jiu, having been punished many times, developed an ingrained reverence for the Eldest Senior Sister deep in her bones.

As for the master her senior sister spoke of, she had no real concept of her, for in her world, the master seemed to have never appeared.

After finishing her laps, Ah Jiu rode a spirit beast and scampered all around Chengfeng Pavilion.

Tired from playing by evening, she suddenly realized that Senior Sister had not appeared all day long.

Left alone to guard Chengfeng Pavilion, Ah Jiu suddenly began to feel a sense of desolation.

“Where did Senior Sister go?” The little one searched the entire Chengfeng Pavilion without finding her senior sister, feeling both frightened and aggrieved all at once.

In the past, whenever Senior Sister went out at night, she would always tell her and send Yue Yue over to accompany her.

But this was the first time that late into the night, Senior Sister had neither told her where she was going, nor had Senior Sister Yue Yue come over.

Little Ah Jiu returned to her small room and obediently took off her shoes. “Is it because I was not good today, and Senior Sister is angry and ignoring me?”

She hugged the small spirit beast in her arms and asked softly.

The small spirit beast licked her cheek, but spirit beasts cannot speak and could not answer her question.

Ah Jiu waited in the room for a long time without waiting for Mu Yao to arrive, and finally could not help crying softly to herself. After crying for quite a while, she ran to the study pavilion to look.

The study pavilion was brightly lit. The little one searched from the first floor to the fifth floor, checking every single level, but still could not find Senior Sister.

Because it was nighttime, and she had never been left alone for so long, Ah Jiu could not hold back and sat on the floor, crying.

Perhaps seeing her cry too sorrowfully, a wind spirit tugged at the corner of her clothing.

Ah Jiu lowered her head and looked at it. “Did Senior Sister come back?”

With her milky voice still carrying a sob, the little one’s eyes were red from crying, and her nose was red too, making her look exceptionally heartbreaking.

The wind spirit shook its head, and upon seeing this, Ah Jiu’s sparkling eyes dimmed once more.

“Then why did you call me? I want Senior Sister.” Ah Jiu wiped her tears and snot with her clothes, saying with a wronged expression.

“Did Senior Sister get lost, unable to find her way just like Ah Jiu?” The little one sat alone on the floor, hugging her knees and muttering to herself.

The wind spirit tilted its head in thought, hopped onto Ah Jiu’s head, and suddenly a gust of wind wrapped around Ah Jiu, whisking her directly out of Chengfeng Pavilion.

“Where are you taking me?”

There was no human voice responding to her, but the gentle breeze made sounds as if answering her question.

“You said you are taking me to see Senior Sister?” Ah Jiu immediately brightened up with joy.

The wind spirit brought Ah Jiu to the Jiexue Pavilion. The moment she crossed into the boundaries of the Jiexue Pavilion, Ah Jiu shivered continuously from the cold.

“So cold, where is this place?” Ah Jiu asked curiously.

This time the wind spirit did not answer her question, only carrying her all the way to the cold spring.

Xiaoyao Peak was too vast, and Mu Yao’s Jiexue Pavilion was located at the peak far away from everyone else. Ah Jiu could not cultivate and could not withstand the chill of the Jiexue Pavilion, so after Chengfeng Pavilion was built, Mu Yao no longer allowed the spirit sprites and spirit beasts to bring Ah Jiu over.

Thus, little Ah Jiu had not set foot in this place for the past two years.

Arriving beside the cold spring, Ah Jiu trembled uncontrollably from the cold. The Jiexue Pavilion was far too freezing, and this was right next to the cold spring; ordinary cultivators would find it unbearably cold when coming here, let alone Ah Jiu, who was merely a child incapable of cultivation.

The arrival of an outsider still disturbed Mu Yao. She diverted a tiny fraction of her focus to investigate who had come, and the Frost Sword landed in her hand as she instantly grew extremely alert.

“Ah Jiu?” However, upon sensing that the newcomer was Ah Jiu, Mu Yao lowered the Frost Sword, her tone softening considerably.

“Why did Ah Jiu come over? It is too cold here, go back.” Mu Yao coaxed her gently.

“Then why is Senior Sister here?” Ah Jiu asked uncomprehendingly.

Because of the extreme cold, the little one’s voice was trembling, which Mu Yao could clearly hear.

She channeled a wisp of the fire spiritual energy inside her body to wrap around Ah Jiu and insulate her. “Senior Sister is cultivating. Ah Jiu will disturb Senior Sister if she stays here. Be a good girl and go back first, okay? When Ah Jiu wakes up from a sleep, Senior Sister will be back.”

Mu Yao endured the pain within her body and coaxed Ah Jiu tenderly.

Hearing her say this, Ah Jiu obediently nodded. “Okay, then Ah Jiu will go back and wait for Senior Sister.”

For some reason, she felt that Senior Sister was very different today. She was unusually obedient, making no further demands and throwing no tantrums.

Mu Yao let the wind spirit take her away, and then she concentrated once more, attempting to resume suppressing the fire spiritual energy within her body.

The wind spirit carried Ah Jiu away once again. Just as they were about to leave the perimeter of the cold spring, Ah Jiu turned her head and glanced back.

She happened to see Senior Sister cough up a mouthful of blood, her body collapsing limply as if she had lost all support.

That was the first time Ah Jiu had ever seen Senior Sister look so frail, leaving a deep impression that little Ah Jiu kept in her heart forever.