Chapter 264.1– Beggars’ Union

“Dammit, I didn’t bring an abacus! How could I have not brought an abacus!”

Xia Xue ran out of the tent helter-skelter, looked around, and then suddenly fixed her eyes on Phecda.

“Phecda, can you become an abacus?”

Xia Xue grabbed Phecda and stared at her with narrowed eyes.

Huh –! Phecda issued a short, sad cry and promptly asked Xue Qilin for help. Xue Qilin, in turn, stretched herself, ignoring the other party.

“Boo… Qilin is bullying me!”

“Phecda, you haven’t answered my question!

“Yes, I can… But Older Sister Xia, the look in your eyes is scary!”

“You talk a lot of rubbish! Did you get it from Xue Qilin? If you can, then change at once! Do you understand? We may be talking about tens of thousands of taels here. Don’t you want a bigger allowance?”

When she heard “bigger allowance”, Phecda immediately nodded her head repeatedly like a chick pecking corn, and then used transfiguration to turn into an abacus.

Xia Xue immediately came back to Beiming Youyu’s side with the abacus in her arms and, while slamming the abacus’s beads, asked about the relevant details.

As the Attendant Elder, Xia Xue is in charge of the internal affairs as well as the financial affairs of the Merak Temple. She is rather skilled at business. In fact, Xia Xue is a little miser. When buying things, she not only compares the prices, but also possess great bargaining skills.

— incredibly sharp swords, matchlessly tough spears, and invincible blades.

Since Li Wanting took over the Sword Forging Workshop, the quality of the weapons produced by the Merak Temple has improved by leaps and bounds. And they aren’t expensive. Therefore, many sects and even some martial clans will purchase weapons from the Merak Temple.

For the Merak Temple, which lost a lot of businesses because of the events that took place five years ago, the weapons produced by the Sword Forging Workshop have become an indispensable economic pillar. For a long time now, the Sword Forging Workshop has been the largest source of income for the Merak Temple.

In other words, the income of the Sword Forging Workshop is equal to most of the income of the Merak Temple. In view of this, it is not surprising for Xia Xue, who has recently been worrying about insufficient funds, to become this excited.

The only issue is that this matter is some nonsense that Xue Qilin blurted out.

Looking left and right at the enthusiastic Xia Xue and Li Wanting, the corners of Beiming Youyu’s eyes and mouth are twitching continuously. She doesn’t know what to say.

However, Xue Qilin noticed a faint smile on the corners of Beiming Youyu’s lips.

For a Grandmaster standing alone at the summit, this kind of unrestrained familiarity may be quite rare.

*

Since she has no room to weigh in on the subject and because Xia Xue expressed that she’s in the way, Xue Qilin can only find something else to pass the time.

After contemplating for a moment, she remembered that she has yet to finish the training Qi Qiqi arranged for her, so she interrupted Xia Xue’s speech to borrow a sword from her.

Although she has a displeased look on her face, but since there is a good business opportunity in front of her, Xia Xue, who didn’t want complications to arise, didn’t bicker with the other party and readily lent her the sword.

After borrowing the sword, Xue Qilin walked into the forest, intending to find a deserted place to complete her daily training.

The training is in fact a practice of martial arts.

After several battles, Xue Qilin became deeply aware of her own shortcomings and the fact that, underneath the surface of peace, the world is actually full of crises. These crises have repeatedly targeted the people she values.

— with strength, defend your loved ones. Only strength can dispel all malice.

This is the only unchangeable truth in the world. Therefore, for her happiness, Xue Qilin can only shed her previous laziness and continue to pursue strength.

As a result, Xue Qilin resumed her training of magic, which she has been neglecting for years. At the same time, she started learning martial arts.

Although she is far less diligent than others, but she has one advantage, that is, she can learn things quickly. Like a shriveled sponge absorbing water, no matter what she studies, she will pick it up very quickly. If she hadn’t been limited by her innate talent, she may have reached the top in her original world.

Speaking of which, the reason why she made no further effort to improve herself was because no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t break through the bottleneck called talent.

When effort can’t be exchanged for results, people will gradually lose motivation, become frustrated, and even give up and stop bothering.

Fortunately, when Qi Guiyuan transplanted half of his spiritual root into her, it helped her break this bottleneck. Now her effort no longer seems to be wasted.

Xue Qilin came to some brook in the forest.

After confirming that there is no one around, she first untied a ribbon and let her long hair fall. Then she took off her clothes, only leaving the underwear on. The lass folded the clothes and put them by the brook, and then she started to “get in touch” with the forest.

She quietly raised her bare foot and walked to the middle of the brook with the borrowed sword.

The brook isn’t deep, only reaching above her ankles, and it’s water is a little cold. Xue Qilin inserted the sword in front of her, then closed her eyes and opened her arms to empty her mind.

Fair skin and beautiful curves are exposed to the world, flickering with hazy pale blue light. Long black hair spread across the water, extending along the direction of the stream. Occasionally, when the breeze blows by, it undulates.

Her breathing gradually achieved perfect harmony with the rhythm of nature.

From this time on, her mind began to disconnect from the body. Like a drop of water that fell into the sea, she assimilated into nature and began to feel the pulse of life around her and resonate with the spiritual qi around her.

Meditation — or in other words, spiritual resonance.

This state can only be entered with the help of meditation techniques. However, Xue Qilin was born with the ability to easily enter this state without the aid of meditation techniques.

The spiritual qi scattered between the heaven and earth quickly entered her body without any hindrance.

The sound of faint breathing came from her lips.

The feeling of spiritual qi coming from outside, transforming into true qi in her body, and flowing into her meridians gave her a sense of unspeakable satisfaction.

Everything is dancing along with her breathing.

In this moment, she seems to be the world; the world is contained within her body.

She can’t see how abnormal she is right now. And even if she could see, she wouldn’t realize how abnormal she is.

— like a bottomless pit.

The spiritual qi pouring into her acupoints is so dense that it can be seen with the naked eye or even touched. She seems to be the center of a vortex of spiritual qi.

The absorption of such highly-concentrated spiritual qi is unprecedented in the history of the Hua Dynasty.

However, she doesn’t know that her abnormal constitution cannot reject any external spiritual qi and allows it freely flow inside her.

If she could figure out where the spiritual qi that poured into her body when she rescued Gong Tianqing came from, then she might be able to understand the particularity of her constitution.

— anyway, she didn’t.