The little girl glanced at the shopkeeper, and seeing that she didn't react to what she had just said, she said, "I saw her fall from mid-air into the chicken coop that day."
The mugwort blinked.
Her attitude was so calm that even the proprietress whose hand she was covering didn't get angry.
The little girl hesitated before continuing, "I wanted to take her with me to find my mother, but she gave me a stone and told me not to tell anyone else."
The proprietress sighed, her tone calming as she asked, "You really never mentioned it to me."
The little girl nodded.
She continued, "She came a few more times after that. Once she came to touch the eggs, and I caught her."
She proudly raised her chin.
The proprietress raised her hand to hold her head, feeling a headache coming on.
The little girl said, "She said she hadn't eaten an egg for a month, so she gave me another stone and told me she wanted to buy an egg."
“…An egg is more expensive than a stone.” The proprietress felt her head throb even more. “Next time, don’t do this kind of unfair business.”
The little girl blinked and said playfully, "I'm not stupid! That's not an ordinary stone. I've searched all over and only found this kind of stone in those cultivation shops."
She discreetly pulled a small, shimmering stone from her bosom.
The stone was only the size of her fingernail, but it was completely translucent and looked like something extraordinary.
Qingyun glanced at it and said, "Ah, a low-grade spirit stone." She played with her fingers idly and casually said, "That's pretty fair."
She added, "A low-grade spirit stone is worth one tael of silver. Buying an egg or even a hen is no problem, let alone an egg."
The proprietress pursed her lips and asked the little girl in a low voice, "Aren't there two stones?"
The little girl tilted her head and said confidently, "I buried the other piece."
"You didn't even tell your mother about this kind of thing..."
"I told you, you're going to start cursing me at dawn and keep cursing me until dark."
The little girl realized that Ai Cao and Qing Yun were on her side, and she spoke with much more confidence.
The proprietress was speechless, choked by her words.
Ai Cao smiled and asked, "And then?"
"Then she said I had extraordinary talent and was destined for greatness," the little girl said. "She also said that her place was a small, insignificant place and couldn't provide me with enough resources for cultivation, so she suggested that I go find some powerful immortals."
Ai Cao glanced at Qing Yun. Qing Yun, who was lying on the table bored, felt a jolt in his heart and cautiously looked back at her.
Qingyun asked softly, "You..."
“I want to talk to her.” Ai Cao smiled at Qing Yun, then turned to ask the little girl.
Qingyun sat up straight without making a sound.
She suddenly had a bad feeling.
"It's not like I can see her whenever I want," the little girl muttered.
“She is an immortal, so naturally she has a way to contact you,” Ai Cao said. She then asked, “Is that immortal a woman or a man?”
"...Why are you asking this?" the little girl asked cautiously.
“If it’s a man, kill him,” Ai Cao said casually. Seeing that the little girl’s expression remained unchanged, her earlier guess became more certain. “If it’s a woman, we can talk about cooperation.”
Qingyun felt that her bad premonition had come true.
Qingyun interrupted abruptly, asking, "What do you want to collaborate on?"
Ai Cao glanced at her and said, "Didn't you think I couldn't conquer the cultivation world by myself?" She curled her fingers and tapped the coffee table. "Isn't that what I'm doing now, looking for help?"
Qingyun slid down smoothly again.
The little girl looked at Qingyun, then at Aicao, and hesitated before saying, "...It's a woman." She pinched the hem of her dress and said, "She looks about the same age as this fairy sister, and she's wearing all white. She looks like a fairy who cultivates immortality."
Ai Cao nodded and said, "Let's talk to her tonight."
The proprietress asked in surprise, "Tonight?"
The room was already lit. Ai Cao glanced at the bright candlelight and said, "She must have heard about what happened today."
She spoke softer: "If she cares about you, she will definitely come."
The candlelight flickered in the room.
Artemisia stood up amidst the system's warning buzz.
A long, thin black shadow suddenly appeared behind her.
The shadowy figure twisted and grew larger behind her, and a young woman dressed in white emerged from it. The young woman pressed herself against Ai Cao's back, raising her hand to wrap the chain-like weapon around Ai Cao's neck—but the woman misjudged Ai Cao's height, and instead moved the weapon down to wrap around Ai Cao's waist.
Ai Cao turned around within the circle of weapons and calmly said, "Good evening."
The woman hurriedly looked at the others in the room. Qingyun, who was sprawled on the coffee table, lazily raised her hand to greet her; the little girl sitting next to her didn't seem aggrieved at all; the proprietress on the other side, however, looked like she had a headache, holding her head...
The woman quickly put away her weapon and turned to leave, saying, "Sorry to bother you."
The little girl's eyes sparkled as she called out, "Fairy Sister!"
The woman paused as she stepped out the door.
Two swords that were carried on Ai Cao's back flew out and blocked her way.
The woman said dryly, "Then I'm sorry to bother you." She took two steps back, turned around, and furtively looked around the room to see if there was any other place she could run.
Ai Cao took another teacup, poured her some tea, and said, "Come sit down and have some tea. Let's talk about this little girl."
Hearing Ai Cao mention the little girl, the woman's gait became a bit stiffer. She walked awkwardly to the little girl's side and sat down, stiffly picking up her teacup.
The woman asked, "You didn't poison me, did you?"
Qingyun laughed out loud.
Ai Cao couldn't help but laugh and said, "I didn't poison her. Don't you also want this little girl to have a better life from now on? We have the same idea, so we invited you here to talk."
The woman glanced at the little girl a few times, and seeing that she didn't seem threatened at all, she finally felt relieved.
The woman gulped down her tea, wiped her mouth, and asked, "What do you want to talk about?"
Ai Cao smiled and asked, "I heard you have a sect?"
The woman coughed violently.
“...It was established last month,” the woman said. “It only has one mountain with little spiritual power.”
"How many people are in the sect?" Ai Cao continued to ask.
"Me," the woman said resignedly, pouring herself another cup of tea. "I'm all alone."
"You founded your own sect?" Ai Cao asked.
The woman nodded. She downed her tea in one gulp and said indistinctly, "I disagreed with the original sect's philosophy, so I started my own sect."
The mugwort nodded.
She asked, "Are you interested in becoming the number one sect in the cultivation world?"
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