As they spoke, the two arrived outside a small room in the rear courtyard of the temple.
Women seemed to have forgotten both their conversation and their usual harsh attitude.
She pointed to the well in the yard, sneeringly, "So dirty! Quickly fetch some water and wash. I'll find you a clean dress here. Wait here and don't wander around again!"
Wuzhu Mian cunningly nodded: "Alright."
After the woman left, she fetched a bucket of water and carefully washed her face. The clear water in the bucket reflected a pale face clearly.
After eating the Huichun Dan, those unsightly bruises and blood marks were completely healed. She was too thin, so thin that her cheeks were slightly sunken. Still, it was possible to faintly see her eyebrows and eyes like clear lotus after the rain, clean and beautiful.
It looks completely different from her original face, with only a tiny mole on the left corner of her eye identical.
She deliberately made her face dirty before to make it easier to play the victim, after all, her spiritual energy was stagnant, she was grievously injured, and all her wealth amounted to only an old dress and three copper coins. She might really have to rely on begging to get by for a while.
Wuzhu Mian has absolutely no taboo about begging. After all, when only she and her master were in the sect, their life was so difficult.
Her master was a sword cultivator, with the temper of a sword cultivator. He had no way to make money, and he loved to challenge others everywhere. Every day, as soon as he opened his eyes, it was time for fighting. Sometimes, if he accidentally broke something belonging to someone else, he even had to pay for it.
In addition, as a sword cultivator, he naturally treats his sword as his life.
Most spirit swords require monthly maintenance, but for someone like him who fights several times a day on average, they need to be maintained every two weeks.
Not to mention that he also likes to dress up his spirit swords. Even if he has to tighten his belt and economize, he still needs to buy a new scabbard for his spirit sword every few days, which involves a significant expense for materials, decorations, and labor.
At that time, Wuzhu Mian was only seven years old. Her master was a sword cultivator, so she naturally learned how to wield a sword as well. She didn't learn his aggressive temperament, but she completely copied his love for decorating spirit swords.
So in a month, the spiritual stones they earned were not enough to cover the cost of their spirit swords.
Later, when they were too poor to even make ends meet, of course, more importantly, they couldn't afford to buy cinnabar to decorate the scabbard for the spirit sword, so the master disguised himself and took her to Qianji Pavilion to take on a job.
The reward was 200,000 high-quality spiritual stones. The task was to capture a recently popular evil cultivator.
The evil cultivator was originally a follower of the righteous path, but because of his talent inferior to his fellow students, he became envious and secretly practiced evil arts. He killed several fellow students, absorbed their cultivation, and turned it into his own.
Before the incident was uncovered, he escaped prematurely when he sensed something was wrong.
Wuzhu Mian followed her master for nearly a month, until they finally found the trace of the evil cultivator in the Never-night City of the Abyss, but they were also on their last legs. They couldn't even afford to buy a half-block of spiritual stone.
Faced with the dilemma, she, still young, took on the heavy responsibility of supporting her family. With just a swipe of her face and unchanged clothes, she could go to the city to beg for food.
The relationship between humans and demons has always been strained, and at that time, they had almost exposed the identity of the human cultivator...
"Ah, child."
He Liushuang's voice came from behind her, intentionally lowering its pitch, interrupting Wuzhu Mian's recollection.
He walked over, glancing out into the courtyard to keep an eye out for the woman returning unexpectedly, and whispered, "For some reason, the people within this restriction don't seem to care about me and my senior brother. He's gone to look for the two senior sisters; I'm here to protect you."
"I'll use invisibility charms to hide my form later," He Tingcang said seriously, "You don't need to be afraid; I will follow you and protect you!"
Wuzhu Mian's eyebrows curved up: "Thank you, He Xianzhang."
He Tingcang nodded solemnly, took out a hidden figure talisman from a small jar, held it between his fingers, slightly accelerated his spiritual power, and his figure quickly vanished from its original place.
In his opinion, Wuzhu Mian was just an ordinary person without spiritual power, and the talismans he wore were exclusively for cultivators and needed to be activated by spiritual power. Otherwise, he could give her a few for protection.
Wuzhu Mian shook off her wet hands, her gaze accidentally scanning over the attentive He Tingcang beside her, her dark and glossy eyes empty, but this didn't mean she couldn't see.
There's nothing to do about it. The sect is too poor, and being a sword cultivator costs too much money. To make a living, she had to start some side businesses that could earn her money.
It is well-known that the three most profitable occupations in the cultivation world – alchemy, artifact creation, and spell casting – and she is most skilled at spell casting.
The woman returned quickly. Seeing that Wuzhu Mian had washed her face clean, she nodded in satisfaction: "That's the way it should be. Clean and fresh, you may have a chance to win the favor of the Moon Goddess."
She handed over the green cloth skirt, urging, "Hurry up and change into this. On the way back, I saw that everyone else had already gone to the Moon Goddess Temple, we can't be late."
Wuzhu Mian didn't refuse, taking the green cloth skirt and went into the room to change.
When the two hurriedly arrived at the Moon Goddess Temple, the selection ceremony had already begun. Two deity attendants stood under the Bodhi Tree, wearing a twin blossom mask. The gem-grain tassels dangled from their ears, and their white robes trailed the ground, exuding an aura of aloofness and haughtiness.
Girls of age lined up one after another, throwing the white silk cloth in their hands onto the tree.
The ones who hung on the branches happily entered the Moon Goddess Temple. The ones who didn't hang on, all embarrassedly began to cry.
Before Wuzhu Mian could find the figures of Bai Li De Yun and Su Ling Yi, she already heard a familiar voice.
"System?" Bai Li De Yun's voice trembled, confused and afraid: "What's wrong with you? What's going on?"
A strange "squeak" sound rang out, and the system's voice stuttered: "Temporarily... sizzle... has not discovered the fault... cause... The system needs... sizzle... to close for a period of time... self-cleaning, 24 hours, please host... carefully cope with..."
Is the system malfunctioning?
Realizing this, Wuzhu Mian became interested and quietly stood up straight.
At the sound of the system's words, Bai Li De Yun's shrill and terrified voice rang out immediately: "What? You're closing how can you protect me? This place is creepy and scary, what if something happens to me?"
After that, no matter how she screamed and cursed, the system did not respond.
Bai Li De Yun's face was adorned with heavy makeup, but it couldn't hide the terrified expression on her face. Her eyeballs rolled around aimlessly, her teeth clenched tightly on her rosy lips, and her body shook slightly.
Su Ling Yi, standing beside her, gave her a glance and couldn't miss the chance to mock her, her tone sarcastic: "Is that so? A great lady from the Bai family, and she's scared like this? It's really a disgrace!"
Bai Li De Yun's eyes flashed a faint trace of malice, but it was quickly lowered, and no one could see it.
“I really doubt it.” Su Ling Yi, who didn't notice, snorted and said in a suspicious tone: "How could someone like you possibly be a disciple of the Sword God Master?"
Hearing this, Wuzhu Mian's face wrinkled.
No, she's such a cute and diligent child, this is definitely not her little sister!
The others didn't know what Wuzhu Mian was thinking, but they heard Bai Li De Yun say in a pitiful and low voice, "Senior Sister Su, it's not that I'm scared. It's just that when I think of this nonsensical talk about the Moon God marrying, I feel some indignation."
Su Linyi was just about to retaliate when Chu Yi's low warning sounded: "Enough! Su sister, you're going too far! He is more powerful than He Tingcang, so he doesn't need to use the hidden symbol, but instead uses spiritual power to seal himself."
Bai Li De Yun slightly raised her face, with traces of tears still on her cheeks, looking particularly pitiful. Yet she managed to give a fragile smile that was even uglier than crying. She murmured self-deprecatingly, "Ziye brother, don't blame Senior Sister Su. She's not wrong. After all, she's so talented; I really can't compare to her."
Upon hearing this, Chu Yi's anger seemed to worsen. From Wuzhu Mian's perspective, she could see the tight side of his face and the anger surging in his eyes.
His voice grew even colder and more fierce: "She has been dead for a hundred years. Her spirit has dissipated, and once a person dies, they are nothing. Everything that belonged to her is already gone!"
Wuzhu Mian was somewhat surprised. It seemed from Chu Yi's words that he was rather dissatisfied with her?
But in fact, she and Chu Yi were not very familiar with each other. She only knew that he and her little sister were childhood friends and grew up together. In fact, their two families had even thought of making them marry as children.
But her little sister didn't like Chu Yi. She had once whispered to Wuzhu Mian that Chu Ziyue was too proud and too calculative. He was very self-respecting and had a strong sense of gain and loss. When they were competing, if he lost, he wouldn't say anything in front of elders and others, but would give her a cold face in private. It would only be until he won the next time that his expression would become pleasant again, which annoyed her very much.
Setting that aside, he's actually quite decent as a person.
Wuzhu Mian couldn't help but fall into deep thought. She couldn't understand why Chu Yi had such strong resentment towards her, as they had barely interacted with each other.
At the same time, it seemed that Chu Yi realized he had spoken too harshly. He pursed his lips and spoke in a softer tone: "What I meant is that we should be looking forward, moving forward, striving to improve our own cultivation instead of comparing ourselves to someone who has been dead for many years."
"I understand." Bai Li De Yun was very understanding: "Ziyue brother, I get what you mean. Over the years, I've been thinking the same. Senior Sister is no longer here. If I keep thinking of her, it will only add to my sadness."
Chu Yi seemed to breathe a sigh of relief: "That's right."
Before the words could be spoken, a commotion suddenly erupted in the crowd.
A wealthy, fair-looking young girl did not hang the white silk cloth on the Bodhi Tree. When the white silk fell, her family suddenly turned cold and surrounded her, sharply asking: "Have you done something disrespectful? Why don't you have the qualification to serve the Moon Goddess?"
The young girl looked flustered: "No, I haven't... "
Unfortunately, no one paid her any attention.
"You don't have a sincere heart?"
"Is your body unclean now?"
Sharp and piercing questions and scoldings continued in succession. The voices of men, women, old people, and children rose up one after another, their different tones blending together to create an eerie sense of oppression and suffocation.
Chu Yi and the others felt their blood surge in an instant, almost making the spiritual power they were cultivating wander off course, missing the mark.
The atmosphere around them became tense for a moment.
