Chapter 2 Two-Hit Slash
[A 300-year-old beauty with a water-elemental root is easily fooled: Looking at your Foundation Establishment cultivation, how many more years do you think you can cultivate? Even if I burn some paper money for you to extend your lifespan by tens of thousands of years, you still won't catch up to Luo Mingshu.]
[Simp #4: You—] SB!
Luo Mingshu typed at a faster speed.
[A 300-year-old beauty with a water-like spiritual root is easily fooled: Didn't your master teach you not to provoke people randomly on the spiritual website?]
[Simp #4: I—] Damn it!
[A 300-year-old beauty with a water-like spiritual root is easily fooled: I really want to curse you, but I'm afraid you're a cunning masochist.]
[Simp #4: --] No time to type!
[A 300-year-old beauty with a water-elemental root is easily fooled: Stop sending messages, little brother. In the time it takes you to type one message, I can type ten. With your level of spiritual power, you should just log out of the Four Directions Water Mirror.]
[Simp #4: I'm sorry.]
The speed at which cultivators send messages on the Four Directions Water Mirror is closely related to the strength of their divine sense. Judging from Luo Mingshu's speed, at least at the Nascent Soul stage or above, she directly shut down the other party, leaving them no chance to reply. The sycophantic number 4, a Foundation Establishment disciple, was so frightened that he dared not utter another word. There was no way around it; this was the power of the Spirit Network bully.
Luo Mingshu argued with him until he apologized, and then ended her online surfing session, satisfied.
Seeing that it was already afternoon, she asked Ah Fa, who liked to stay at home, to stay and watch over the stream, while she took the Soul-Calling Bell and headed towards Fuyun Peak.
Within the Yuling Sect, the various peaks representing different cultivation directions are also ranked in different ways. Fuyun Peak is the most powerful lineage under the sect leader, while Shuixijian, where Luo Mingshu is located, is only the lowest lineage. Currently, there are only her and her junior sister Afa in Shuixijian.
However, the weakness of Shuixijian does not mean that Luo Mingshu will bow down to Fuyun Peak. The entire Yuling Sect is wary of Luo Mingshu—not because they are afraid of her “terrifying” strength that has not advanced for a hundred years, but because… Luo Mingshu is very rich.
The Yu Ling Sect is one of the four major sects in the human realm. Although its overall strength is the weakest, it leads the other three sects by a wide margin in one particular area: wealth. The Yu Ling Sect possesses the most precious mineral veins and spiritual springs in the human realm, and the accumulation of this wealth and resources began two hundred years ago after Luo Mingshu joined the Yu Ling Sect.
Luo Mingshu has an extremely accurate and discerning eye. If an inconspicuous stone is placed in front of her, she can tell at a glance whether it contains gold and jade or worthless rubbish. When it comes to finding treasure land to develop mineral veins and spiritual springs, Luo Mingshu only needs to glance at the site to see the value of the wasteland.
Of course, any resources that have been appraised by Luo Mingshu will generate profits for her, and the Yuling Sect will give her three-tenths of them. The reason is that the villainous female supporting character never works for free. She single-handedly takes three-tenths of the wealth of an entire massive sect. Ordinary cultivators cannot even imagine how rich Luo Mingshu is.
Even with such immense wealth, Luo Mingshu still frequented every opportunity to make money. Her nature was greedy; she loved shiny little things, treasures, spirit stones, and high-grade magic weapons. Anything that could glow caught her attention.
Although the Soul-Summoning Bell is a coveted treasure, Luo Mingshu, while valuable, didn't find it light-polluting, so she left it in the storeroom.
She arrived at Fuyun Peak and was immediately met with the stares of five elders. She thought to herself, "Good heavens, Lu Yaoyao has invited all the elders who are on good terms with Fuyun Peak. She probably wants to use public opinion to pressure me into lending out the Soul-Summoning Bell."
These five elders of the mountain gate all had cultivation levels above the Nascent Soul stage. Despite the oppressive gazes of so many powerful cultivators, Luo Mingshu was still able to maintain her light steps. She walked to the side, did not even bow, and sat down directly in a chair.
"Are you having a party with so many people?" Luo Mingshu asked, resting her chin on her hand and glancing at Lu Yaoyao, who was standing in the center of the crowd.
"Ming Shu." Elder Meng Huang of Fuyun Peak stepped forward and called out to her. He looked like a handsome young man, but his eyes showed the vicissitudes of an elder. "Yao Yao really couldn't find the whereabouts of her senior brother Wei Qingyuan. She was just too concerned about her senior brother, otherwise she wouldn't have bothered you."
"I've come to say that I can lend you the Soul-Summoning Bell. I bought this Soul-Summoning Bell at the Mountain and Sea Market for three spirit stones, and it's been with me for two years now." Luo Mingshu touched the tip of his nose, which was covered in dust from the storeroom not long ago.
She could tell at a glance that Lu Yaoyao was rich. Since she needed her help, it wasn't unreasonable for her to extort money from her, right?
“I want the middleman to make a profit. Now, Lu Yaoyao is giving me 30,000 spirit stones—just her personal investment—and I'll lend out the Soul-Summoning Bell.” Luo Mingshu shook the Soul-Summoning Bell in her hand. “The Spirit Control Sect gives each Golden Core disciple 10,000 spirit stones every month. I want three months of your basic Golden Core disciple income in exchange for your senior brother's life. Is that too much to ask?”
Upon hearing this, Lu Yaoyao's eyes widened. She looked at Luo Mingshu in disbelief, stunned, because she didn't have any spirit stones on her. She had long since squandered her monthly sect spirit stone allowance; there was no extra left.
She didn't have any spirit stones on her, and Luo Mingshu's price was too high. Lending out the Soul-Summoning Bell wouldn't damage the magic weapon. Besides, this trinket for three spirit stones was just something gathering dust in her storeroom. What would happen if she lent it out casually...?
"Senior Sister Luo, I... I don't have any spirit stones. Besides, you only spent three spirit stones on this Soul-Calling Bell back then..." Lu Yaoyao said softly, raising her eyes slightly and facing Luo Mingshu with a vulnerable posture.
"So you're trying to get something for nothing after all this talk?" Luo Mingshu was shocked. She hadn't expected Lu Yaoyao to be even stingier than her. "Please, Lu Yaoyao, I'm someone who can earn millions of spirit stones per incense stick. You think you can get me to do things for you without paying me?"
“But Mingshu, the ordinary disciples in our sect are certainly not as wealthy as you. Giving her the Soul-Calling Bell is just a small favor,” several elders advised. “If you want compensation, just take it from us.”
"Moreover, the missing are fellow disciples. Ming Shu, we all know you are good at managing things, but isn't it a bit too cold-hearted of you to put a price tag on the lives of your fellow disciples like this?" someone else whispered.
Luo Mingshu looked at the mother-of-pearl necklace around Lu Yaoyao's neck with a puzzled expression, and then shifted her gaze to the jade bracelet on her wrist. Any one of the pieces of jewelry she wore was worth more than 30,000 spirit stones.
Lu Yaoyao is the stingy one!
Luo Mingshu couldn't stand it anymore. She stepped forward and picked up the mother-of-pearl bead necklace that Lu Yaoyao was wearing. Her slender fingers wrapped around the colorful mother-of-pearl, which was very beautiful. She spoke clearly: "It is a bead necklace made of thousand-year-old mother-of-pearl. This costs 50,000 spirit stones."
She then lifted the green bracelet on Lu Yaoyao's wrist, her movements becoming much gentler in the face of this exquisite piece of jewelry—which made Lu Yaoyao feel somewhat flattered.
“The best jade from the side mountains is a deep, rich green. This one is worth 100,000 spirit stones, and the craftsmanship... is something you can't see anymore.” Luo Mingshu stroked the jade bracelet with her fingertips. “You’re quite wealthy, aren’t you?”
Lu Yaoyao pulled her hand back and hid the jade bracelet in her sleeve. She said aggrievedly, "Senior Sister Luo, everyone loves beauty. I just bought jewelry with all the spirit stones I had saved, so I don't have any spirit stones for the time being."
"If you really care about your senior brother that much, why don't you take these pieces off and give them to me? I wouldn't mind buying them back at half price." Luo Mingshu stroked his chin, his gaze still lingering on Lu Yaoyao's wrist.
"How...how could you do this?" Lu Yaoyao looked at Luo Mingshu with tears welling up in her eyes and a resentful expression. "That Soul-Summoning Bell is only worth three spirit stones..."
"You don't actually think your senior brother's life is worth less than a piece of jewelry, do you? You're just acting all this out so you can get something for nothing and make others think you're loyal and righteous?" Luo Mingshu never hesitated to assume the worst about the female lead, and she boldly voiced her thoughts.
Of course, this was just her guess, but she didn't expect that when her eyes met Lu Yaoyao's, she saw the guilty conscience deep in her eyes.
Luo Mingshu: "..." Damn, she really is a black-hearted person on the outside.
The elders: "..." Although it seems outrageous, she really seems to want to get something for nothing.
Luo Mingshu frowned during the brief silence in the hall. She stared at Lu Yaoyao, who, even after being exposed, was still able to meet her gaze with teary eyes.
Although she didn't really like Lu Yaoyao, she found a rare connection with Lu Yaoyao on the topic of "a man is not worth a piece of jewelry," and Lu Yaoyao made her happy.
So she handed the Soul-Summoning Bell to Lu Yaoyao: "Here you go. You told me earlier that your senior brother's jade bracelet is inferior to yours, how could I not give it to you?"
Lu Yaoyao was shocked. She really didn't care about Wei Qing's life or death. She just wanted to use this incident to show her image as a loyal and righteous person. But she didn't expect that Luo Mingshu would actually lend her the Soul-Calling Bell.
She moved her hand, but didn't take it.
Luo Mingshu directly forced the sale, then turned to Meng Huang of Fuyun Peak and said, "Have her bring Wei Qing's token to Fuyun Peak in three days. I will use magic to locate Wei Qing's primordial spirit. I don't lack these spirit stones. What I said earlier was just for fun."
—All she said just now was to find a way to trick Lu Yaoyao into giving her the jade bracelet. Although the jade material wasn't top-notch, the carving was a masterpiece, something that ordinary cultivators couldn't carve.
Thinking about it this way, it doesn't seem unreasonable for her to want to take away Lu Yaoyao's Glazed Spirit Root in the future. Luo Mingshu scratched her head, feeling that she was really awful.
This matter has come to a temporary end. Luo Mingshu still remembers the plot in the original book, where Lu Yaoyao asked her to borrow the Soul-Summoning Bell but failed, and even called the sect leader over to ask for it in person. She would not give Lu Yaoyao such a chance to show off.
Luo Mingshu returned to Shuixijian satisfied. Afa sat in the courtyard reading a storybook, crying uncontrollably over the tragic love story in the book. This infuriated Luo Mingshu, and she decided to find a way to find the author of the storybook and beat him up when she had time.
She found a clean handkerchief and handed it to Afa, then lay back on the recliner and continued surfing the Spirit Network. She had already defeated everyone in the Spirit Control Sect, so she could only seek validation on the Spirit Network.
As soon as she opened the Four Directions Water Mirror, a red-highlighted title caught her eye.
[Latest news from the cultivation world—An anomaly has occurred in the Demon Realm; the demons are extremely ferocious. Cultivators living near the barrier should be careful!]
Luo Mingshu thought to herself, "How dare this little brother from the Demon Realm steal my thunder?" In addition, she couldn't help but think of the Demon Lord of the Demon Realm who would betray her in the future. She was furious. After a moment's thought, she immediately replied in the comments to show off her arguing.
[A 300-year-old beauty with a water-elemental root is incredibly gullible: She seems less ruthless than... Luo Mingshu.]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
