Chapter 93: Who Is Li Shimin? Does His Family Own a Mine?

Little Pinecone heard this and laughed in his simple, hearty way.

"Hey, Sister White, tell me—when will we ever be able to be like Snake Beauty, with escape arts, magic treasures, and even our own Five-Color Spirit Stone mine?"

"Hee-hee..." Little Bunny immediately teased him. "Little Pinecone, I never thought you were quite so greedy! You want escape arts, you want magic treasures, and now you want a whole Five-Color Spirit Stone mine—do you think you are Emperor Taizong of Tang?"

"Hey hey, Little Bunny, you really are learned! Who is Emperor Taizong? Does his family have a mine?" Little Pinecone asked without a trace of caution.

Little Bunny rolled her eyes and replied angrily,

"Not only did his family have a mine, they had an empire too! Illiteracy is terrifying! Little Pinecone, I am truly worried for you!"

"Heh heh," Bai Xiaoyue said with a smile. "Little Bunny, don’t put him down like that. Isn’t this just proof that he has great ambition?"

"Exactly!" Yan Chixia said with a grin. "Little Bunny, your tongue is something else. You never let people off when you have the upper hand, and even when you don’t, you can still argue yourself three points of victory! Take that earlier incident, when you called Snake Beauty a little enchantress. You clearly insulted her, yet you could still justify it as praise for her youth and promise, for being both alluringly beautiful and dazzlingly extraordinary... Little Bunny, tell me, how did you even come up with that?"

"Desperation breeds brilliance," Little Bunny said with a laugh. "Brother Yan, to tell you the truth, when Snake Beauty came to settle that matter, she really did scare me half to death."

"Heh heh..." Little Pinecone could not help laughing. "Little Bunny, whose fault was that? I told you not to provoke her, but you refused to listen."

"How could that be my fault?" Little Bunny shot back. "When she left, she said that a round trip to Death's End Valley would take five days. Who knew she would bounce back in less than a day?"

"Yes," Bai Xiaoyue said with feeling. "Snake Beauty's Clear Wind Scatter escape art is getting more and more formidable!"

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

Mount Li, Purple Glow Palace.

At this moment, Fairy of the Nine Heavens was seated in silent meditation on a cushion in her secluded chamber in Purple Glow Palace, eyes closed as she cultivated body and spirit. Suddenly, Snake Beauty came in with a radiant smile and called out joyfully,

"Master, I am back!"

Fairy of the Nine Heavens was astonished at the sound. She immediately opened her eyes and asked,

"Mei'er, you are back already? Did you encounter danger on the way..."

"No!" Snake Beauty came before her master and said in a sweet voice, "Master, I completed the mission with perfect smoothness and returned triumphant. Daoist Qingxu's Inch-by-Inch Char has been cured!"

"What?" Fairy of the Nine Heavens sprang to her feet and stared at Snake Beauty's flower-like smile in surprise. "How is that possible? With your present Clear Wind Scatter escape art, even exhausting all your true power would let you travel only five thousand miles in one go. After that, you would need a full day of cultivation to recover your true qi. By that reckoning, you should not have returned until five days later. How could you be back so quickly? Could it be that some miracle occurred along the way?"

"Master, your wisdom is truly peerless—you guessed right!" Snake Beauty said brightly. "Master, I have marvelous news: my cultivation has broken through the Heart-Moving stage, and I am now at the Golden Core stage!"

"Really?" Fairy of the Nine Heavens exclaimed, joy and shock mingling together. She hurriedly used her divine sense to probe Snake Beauty's elixir field and found that she truly had reached the Golden Core stage. Overjoyed, she cried,

"Heavens! Mei'er, a miracle really has happened to you! Quickly, tell your master—how on earth did this come about?"

"All right!" Snake Beauty agreed, and then recounted how she had broken through the Heart-Moving bottleneck. Fairy of the Nine Heavens listened with her mouth agape, unable to find the words.

She was stunned for a long while before suddenly seizing Snake Beauty's supple hands and saying in great agitation,

"Mei'er, my dear child, what tremendous fortune do you possess? How could Heaven favor you so greatly? Every time I break through a cultivation bottleneck, I must pay an incomparably heavy price, yet this time you broke through simply by flying into a rage—this is truly unheard of, beyond all reason!"

"Hee-hee-hee," Snake Beauty said with a coquettish laugh. "Master, isn't all of Mei'er's fortune given by you? If not for your devoted instruction and loving care, how could I be who I am today?"

"You little girl, your tongue is so sweet!" Fairy of the Nine Heavens said with delight. Looking at Snake Beauty's peach-blossom cheeks and lovely face, she was filled with tenderness. She wanted dearly to kiss her, but she held herself back and instead drew Snake Beauty into her embrace, overflowing with happiness.

At that moment, Snake Beauty smiled and said,

"Master, your calculations were truly uncanny. As you foretold, everything happened exactly as you predicted: once Daoist Qingxu's Inch-by-Inch Char was cured, he immediately wanted to give me a token of thanks. Following your instructions, I asked Daoist Qingxu for the Dew Jade..."

"And the result?" Fairy of the Nine Heavens asked anxiously. "Mei'er, did he give it to you or not?"

"Hee-hee," Snake Beauty said with obvious pride. "Of course he did! Master, please look..." As she spoke, she silently chanted an incantation and pointed casually.

Whoosh.

A full ten thousand pieces of spotless Dew Jade piled up on the redwood floor before them.

"What?" Fairy of the Nine Heavens' eyes lit up, and she cried out in surprise, "So much Dew Jade? It seems that Daoist Qingxu truly is a man of grand gestures when he speaks and acts!" As she spoke, she beckoned, and one piece of Dew Jade floated up into her hand. Holding it before her eyes, she examined it carefully and said, "Daoist Qingxu's Paper-Talisman Art is indeed formidable, worthy of its reputation. This Dew Jade is indistinguishable from naturally formed top-grade Dew Jade... Heh, good, excellent! Mei'er, now that we have so much Dew Jade, your master can drink immortal nectar with you at last! Come, Mei'er, bring all of it along. I will refine the nectar at once."

With that, Fairy of the Nine Heavens stepped forward and set out.

Snake Beauty immediately stored all the Dew Jade into her spatial ring and then followed her master out of the chamber, heading straight for the alchemy room.

As they walked, Snake Beauty said with a smile,

"Master, there is something you should know. Today, on my trip to Death's End Valley with Yan Chixia, it was not only I who broke through my bottleneck and entered the Golden Core stage—Yan Chixia did as well, breaking through his bottleneck and entering the Golden Core stage just like me!"

"What?" Fairy of the Nine Heavens, whose excitement had not yet subsided, was once again thrown into surging waves of astonishment. "Mei'er, you broke through your bottleneck in a fit of rage; then... how did Yan Chixia break through his bottleneck?"