cooperate

Lin Shi first went to Xuan Tian City, the first city she visited after ascending to the Yuan Shu Realm, to gather the latest news. Upon entering Xuan Tian City, she headed straight for the busiest inn. While going up to the second floor, she overheard some low-level cultivators downstairs whispering about the Lower Realm Cultivator Hunting Alliance.

"Have you heard? The Lower Realm Cultivator Hunting Alliance hasn't been able to hunt down any ascended cultivators from the lower realms in the last two years. In fact, they've had over thirty cultivators killed instead." A male cultivator leaned closer to his companion and whispered.

"Really? Did a cultivator from the same small world who ascended to the lower realm do it?" The cultivators at the same table and the next table immediately turned to look at the first male cultivator who spoke, and someone else immediately chimed in with gossip.

"Not necessarily. I heard that at least three groups of cultivators participated in the counterattack. After all, they always hunt down cultivators who ascend from the lower realms, and some people have long been fed up with them. Once someone took the first step, others joined the revenge."

"Haha, they've finally met their match. What goes around comes around, karma is vengeful."

"Shh, keep your voice down, don't laugh so loudly, lest they hear us and retaliate against us."

"Tch, do you think I'm afraid of them? They don't even know who my sect is."

"That's true, I almost forgot that you're backed by a major sect."

...

Lin Shi heard similar discussions in many places in Xuan Tian City, but she just listened and let it go. However, she was also a little curious about which other cultivators, besides herself and the seven cultivators who had ascended from the same small world, had participated in the counterattack against the cultivators of the Lower Realm Hunting Alliance.

However, this is not Lin Shi's primary concern at the moment. Lin Shi's most urgent task is to earn some spirit stones and cultivation resources, so as not to become a penniless cultivator in just a few years.

Since ascending from the Dream Heaven Small World to the Yuan Shu Realm, Lin Shi has neither joined any sect nor traveled around to gain experience. She hasn't had any income from spirit stones or similar items for a long time. Materials for refining arrays and artifacts will eventually run out. The remaining spirit stones, spirit plants, and spirit ores in Wen Zhao'an's small spirit realm can continue to support her for a few more years, but they will eventually be exhausted.

Besides gathering the latest news in Xuantian City, Lin Shi also wanted to see if there were any ways to earn spirit stones and cultivation resources. After wandering around the city and gathering all the information she wanted, she stayed in her rented inn room, silently calculating her options. After careful consideration, she ruled out joining a sect, innovating refining techniques, exploring secret realms, trading cultivation resources, opening a shop, and mining for treasure, leaving only alchemy, medicine making, array and weapon crafting, and participating in issuing quests.

Lin Shi worried that the protective array she had set up in the ascension passage of the small world might be betrayed by the arrays and magical artifacts she had refined and sold. Therefore, she only chose alchemy and medicine making, and participating in mission postings to earn money. She chose the most reputable alchemy shop in Xuantian City and used their provided pills to refine high-grade pills for a whole month, exchanging them for a large amount of spirit stones and some alchemy materials. Afterward, Lin Shi participated in the swordsmanship competition in Xuantian City, randomly paired with cultivators of her level, and won for a week in a row, obtaining a large amount of spirit stones. Then, she quickly left the city and went into hiding.

As soon as Lin Shi left Xuantian City, a group of cultivators secretly followed her out of the city. Lin Shi guessed their intention to kill and plunder, so as soon as she left the city, she used concealment and hiding techniques, as well as a concealment artifact. Then she chose a remote cave in the deep mountains and forests to cultivate in seclusion, and to refine pills, artifacts and formations for her own use.

After Lin Shi emerged from her seclusion, she went to the other twenty-two cities in the Yuan Shu Realm and repeated her actions in Xuan Tian City. Through alchemy, medicine making, and local swordsmanship competitions, she earned a considerable amount of spirit stones and cultivation resources, and successfully avoided all the murders and robberies.

Spring goes and autumn comes, and three years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Lin Shi had been in the Yuan Shu Realm for five years, and her cultivation was still in the mid-Nascent Soul stage. Starting from the third year after her ascension to the Yuan Shu Realm, Lin Shi would travel to various cities in the Yuan Shu Realm once a year to help with the refining of pills and sword fighting competitions. After earning spirit stones and cultivation resources, she would immediately leave the city and find a place to cultivate in seclusion.

Starting in her fourth year, Lin Shi occasionally took on missions to escort scions of cultivation families with no cultivation level or low-level female cultivators to and from different cities. Each time she took on such a mission, she used magic to change her appearance from naturally beautiful to that of a female cultivator with similar features but an ordinary appearance. These escort missions were very well paid, and she quickly accumulated a vast amount of spirit stones and cultivation resources.

That day, Lin Shi had just completed an escort mission, escorting a beautiful but low-level female cultivator from a powerful cultivation family from Xuan Tian City to Xiao Yao City, for which she received a high reward. After completing the mission, Lin Shi promptly left Xiao Yao City and went to a deep, remote mountain forest far outside the city. She sat atop a high mountain peak, then, gazing at the setting sun, divined some auspicious and inauspicious omens, preparing to cause trouble for the cultivators of the Lower Realm Cultivator Hunting Alliance in a few days.

Lin Shi opened her several storage rings, storage bracelets, storage bags, and the small spirit realm she carried with her. She found that the spirit stones she had earned were already piled up like small mountains. Storage boxes filled with spirit plants were also piled up like small mountains. Spirit ores and refining materials were neatly stacked up to fill one wall.

For independent cultivators, this is quite a fortune, but it's far from enough to establish a sect. It would be best to find new spirit mines and veins, learn from the major sects, secure territory, establish a sect, and recruit many disciples. Lin Shi thought to himself.

"Establishing a sect is really difficult. I should have known better than to take Wen Zhao'an's things and agree to his request to rebuild the Dream Heaven Sect!" Lin Shi sighed, then silently complained to herself. She was already a Nascent Soul cultivator, and most of the time she could maintain a calm demeanor, but sometimes the thought of rebuilding the Dream Heaven Sect in the Yuan Shu Realm still made her feel a little troubled and disappointed. But this only lasted a moment; she quickly regained her energy and enthusiastically refined more pills, magical artifacts, and formations.

After Lin Shi had refined enough pills, magical artifacts, and formations, and had spent a month or so in seclusion cultivating, she went to the city to gather the latest gossip and news about the Yuan Shu Realm. Afterwards, she secretly avoided the cultivators and went to the exits of other small world ascension passages that hadn't been protected by formations.

Lin Shi had just set up protective formations for the exits of the two small world ascension passages when she sensed something amiss and felt watched. Like a cat whose tail had been accidentally stepped on, she instantly transformed into a flying sword and sped away, fleeing far away. Her figure vanished in an instant, like a wisp of smoke. But even with such a swift reaction, something still relentlessly pursued her.

Lin Shi flew almost from one end of the Yuan Shu Realm to the other, yet she still sensed a cultivator closely following behind. However, she reasoned that the other party hadn't yet reached the Nascent Soul stage, otherwise they wouldn't have been chasing her for so long without catching up. With this thought, Lin Shi stopped, hovering in the air, waiting for the other party to reach her. She assumed a defensive stance, gripping the Demon-Slaying Sword in her right hand, while her left hand was prepared to set up various chain-killing formations and throw out various talismans and magical artifacts at any moment.

After Lin Shi stopped, the cultivators who had been chasing her also gradually stopped. They dispelled their concealment and hiding spells, slowly revealing themselves in front of her.

Upon recognizing the other person's face and figure, Lin Shi's eyes widened in surprise. She exclaimed, "Ye Ruxue, why are you chasing me?" The newcomer was none other than an old acquaintance, Ye Ruxue, a cultivator from the Peach Blossom Sect of the Dream Heaven Small World—the female cultivator with almond-shaped eyes and peach-blossom cheeks, yet always bearing a cold expression. Lin Shi recognized her, but remained vigilant. Instead, she gripped the Demon-Slaying Sword even tighter, keeping a close eye on the other person's every subtle movement.

After revealing herself to Lin Shi, Ye Ruxue carefully examined Lin Shi's appearance. She found that Lin Shi was still the stunningly beautiful female cultivator, with bright and spirited eyes, abundant energy, and excellent condition, clearly indicating that her cultivation had improved. She also noticed Lin Shi's slightly wary expression, but she pretended not to see it and simply smiled at Lin Shi, saying, "Lin Danmeng, it's been five years! I didn't expect your cultivation to have improved so much!"

Lin Shi then casually complimented him, "Your cultivation has improved quite a bit too."

"I'm still not as good as you. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't catch up with you; I was always just a little behind."

"Haha, that might be because I've been practicing my escape skills a lot lately, so I'm running faster. After all, the Yuan Shu Realm isn't that peaceful. We're all cultivators, after all, and we always have to compete with other cultivators to seize precious cultivation resources."

Ye Ruxue couldn't help but laugh out loud: "You really haven't changed much over the years."

Lin Shi laughed, "You haven't changed much!"

Ye Ruxue's smile faded, and she said seriously, "I'm not joking or flattering you. Lin Danmeng, I know you're a kind cultivator who wants to seek immortality while trying your best to save the world. You and I are both cultivators who ascended from the lower realms, and we're weak and vulnerable, making survival in the Yuan Shu Realm difficult. Why don't we consider cooperating directly? We can sign a partnership-type soul contract and work together to kill all the cultivators from the lower realms and hunt down the alliance's cultivators!"

Hearing this, Lin Shi was a little surprised. She asked in bewilderment, "For the past five years, have you been hunting down cultivators from the lower realms and those from the alliance?"

Ye Ruxue quickly chimed in. She said, "No, it's not that. Three years ago, I heard people talking about how some cultivators from the lower realms were specifically targeting and killing cultivators from the Lower Realm Cultivator Hunting Alliance, and they even set up protective formations to protect cultivators who ascended from the lower realms from their attacks. I wondered if it could be you. Over the past three years, I've also caused some trouble for the Lower Realm Cultivator Hunting Alliance cultivators on and off, and it wasn't until I happened to meet you today that I confirmed it was you who was helping the cultivators who ascended from the lower realms. I've also briefly cooperated with cultivators who ascended from the Dream Heaven Small World like us over the past three years, causing some trouble for the Lower Realm Cultivator Hunting Alliance cultivators. However, Yan Hezhi knows that they either joined major sects or focused on cultivation, so I only participated in causing trouble once or twice, and then we didn't cooperate again."

Lin Shi was very cautious. She said, "But I haven't been constantly causing trouble for the cultivators of the Hunting Alliance. I also spend at least half of my time cultivating and earning spirit stones and cultivation resources. It might not be suitable for you to cooperate with me, right?"

Ye Ruxue didn't give up and continued to try her best to persuade her. She said sincerely, "I'm in a similar situation to you, but the cultivators of the Anti-Encirclement and Suppression Alliance will accumulate more merit, which will greatly help our cultivation improvement. Why don't you reconsider the cooperation? After all, we are both cultivators from the lower realm of the Dream Heaven Small World, with similar backgrounds and interests. Cooperating will be much more effective."

Lin Shi thought about it seriously for a while, and finally nodded: "Okay, let's cooperate then."

The two then signed a partner-type soul contract on the spot. Afterwards, they became strong and reliable allies, working together each year to kill several cultivators from the Lower Realm Hunter Alliance, gradually gaining fame in the Yuan Shu Realm. Although they kept their true appearances and names well hidden, they were still called the "Twin Fiends" by many cultivators.

During the ten years of their cooperation, Lin Shi and Ye Ruxue jointly killed or ambushed more than twenty cultivators from the Lower Realm Cultivator Hunting Alliance. Many others also disapproved of the Lower Realm Cultivator Hunting Alliance's methods. They openly and secretly killed many of their own members. This resulted in the deaths of over fifty Lower Realm Cultivator Hunting Alliance members in those ten years.

In total, from the time Lin Shi and the others ascended from the Dream Heaven Minor World to the Yuan Shu Realm, a full fifteen years had passed, during which more than eighty cultivators from the Lower Realm Cultivator Hunting Alliance were killed in retaliation. Although the Lower Realm Cultivator Hunting Alliance had cultivators nearing the end of their lifespan but with no hope of advancing in cultivation entering each year, the deaths of more than eighty people still caused them heavy losses, leaving them no time to stop cultivators from other minor worlds from ascending to the Yuan Shu Realm.

But secrets never stay hidden forever, and Lin Shi and Ye Ruxue were eventually discovered. From the fifteenth year since their ascension to the Yuan Shu Realm, they had been relentlessly hunted down by cultivators from the Lower Realm Cultivator Hunting Alliance. They even issued missions, offering high prices to recruit other cultivators to hunt them down.

Having no other choice, Lin Shi and Ye Ruxue sought refuge in deep mountains and forests, concealing their tracks and cultivating in seclusion for another ten years. Only when their cultivation levels both reached the late Nascent Soul stage did they end their seclusion and emerge. However, neither of them dared to venture into major cities for the time being, instead choosing to stay in places like deep mountains, lakes, oceans, remote villages, and secret realms.