“Mm, compared to everything else in this world three thousand years later, the food is at least acceptable.” Sheng Ge gracefully ate a slice of lotus root and gave her calm evaluation.
In the courtyard outside the main hall, Ah Bao was struggling to swing his sword while speechlessly and helplessly watching Grandma Grandmaster sitting at the stone table nearby. She was hugging a self-heating hotpot and eating without the slightest bit of elegance—completely unaware of it herself. Several empty instant noodle cups and canned food containers were already piled up on the table.
Wuwuwu…
In only two days, Grandma Grandmaster had almost eaten all the self-heating hotpots. He had only gotten half a box himself, and that was after all the meat had already been picked out by her!
More importantly, if Grandma Grandmaster kept eating at this “I can devour the world” pace, they would soon run out of food.
Seriously, they were already in the apocalypse! What kind of person still ate this recklessly in the apocalypse?!
Grandma Grandmaster really…
Did not know how to live frugally at all!
“What are you staring at? Have you finished today’s five thousand sword swings? Memorized the cultivation manual yet?” Sheng Ge finished the last bite and coldly looked toward Ah Bao.
Ah Bao’s little hand holding the sword trembled.
“N-not yet…”
“Then keep going!”
“Yes…”
Sheng Ge glanced at Ah Bao’s trembling hands with obvious disgust. His aptitude was poor enough already, yet he still wanted to slack off. Dream on.
She then took another yellow peach can out of her storage ring.
Mm, although it was not as refined as the desserts her chefs used to make, it was decent enough for cooling the spice.
Ah Bao, whose stomach was already growling from hunger: …
But he could not do anything about it.
After all, he had been the one begging Grandma Grandmaster to teach him in the first place.
Thinking about how different the sword techniques his master taught him felt after learning the cultivation method from Grandma Grandmaster, Ah Bao’s heart burned with excitement again.
Maybe…
He really could become stronger by following Grandma Grandmaster.
Then, in the future, he could protect the people he cared about instead of helplessly watching them die protecting him.
By the time Ah Bao finished practicing his sword and completed his meditation session as instructed, more than three hours had passed. He was starving and exhausted, dragging his bent little back while hugging Fanshuang like a walking corpse as he shuffled over to Sheng Ge.
Sheng Ge handed him several pieces of bread and some water.
Ah Bao did not mind at all that it was food Grandma Grandmaster disliked eating. He grabbed the bread and wolfed it down.
Only after several pieces of bread entered his stomach did he finally recover a bit of strength.
Then he suddenly remembered something.
“Grandma Grandmaster, when I went outside this morning, I noticed the grass at the entrance is starting to mutate too. Does that mean the formation is about to completely fail?”
“Mm.”
Sheng Ge brewed herself a cup of tea and sipped it lightly.
The teacup came from her storage ring, while the tea itself had been found among the Huosha Squad’s supplies. There was only a tiny amount.
Ah Bao looked at Grandma Grandmaster, who had once again returned to her elegant, immortal-like demeanor, and pouted.
“So… are we leaving?”
“Mm.” Sheng Ge remained calm. “Go pack your things. Once you’re done, we’ll depart.”
“Okay, Grandma Grandmaster!”
Ah Bao immediately skipped away happily to pack his belongings.
Everything in his room had to be moved.
And the things from his master’s room too.
As well as all the antique heirlooms passed down through the years, several practice swords from the weapon storage, and all the pots, bowls, and utensils from the kitchen.
Ah, right!
And Xiao Huang, the last chicken who had miraculously survived!
In the end, Sheng Ge looked at the giant pile of stuff stacked in the courtyard. There were even several tree saplings with dirt still attached to the roots.
Then she looked at Ah Bao, who stood nearby hugging a large yellow chicken while staring at her expectantly.
The corner of her mouth twitched.
“I told you to pack some things. This is what you packed?”
Why not just move the whole mountain while he was at it?
“But these are all treasures passed down through generations of the Wuji Sect,” Ah Bao explained pitifully.
“And those broken tree saplings are treasures too?”
“Of course! They’re the children of the thousand-year-old ancient trees at our gate. We can’t take the parent trees with us, so taking their children is good too. Otherwise they’ll probably disappear forever later.”
Sigh.
Actually, if he was not worried that Grandma Grandmaster’s storage ring could not fit everything, he would not even want to leave behind the tables, chairs, benches, and beds.
Who knew what things would be like outside?
If they could not find a place to stay, maybe those things would still be useful.
At the very least, they could be burned as firewood, right?
Eight-year-old Ah Bao felt he was extremely prepared for danger.
Sheng Ge then looked at the big yellow chicken in his arms.
Wouldn’t it be better to slaughter and eat it?
“No! Xiao Huang is family.”
Sheng Ge: …
Fine.
There were barely any people left in the Wuji Sect anyway. One extra chicken could count as strengthening the sect.
“Grandma Grandmaster… can your storage ring actually hold all this?”
Surely it could not, right?
As expected, the protagonist-standard space ability was still better.
Too bad he did not have one.
Just as he was feeling depressed, something suddenly hit him.
He picked it up and discovered it was a simple black ring.
Could this be—
“Store your own things yourself.”
After tossing out those words, Sheng Ge turned and walked back into the house.
“It really is a storage ring?!”
Ah Bao screamed excitedly.
“Ahhh! A storage ring! This is amazing! I have my own portable space too! Eh—Grandma Grandmaster, you haven’t told me how to use it yet!”
“Figure it out yourself.”
Sheng Ge’s voice drifted over from afar.
Ah Bao did not mind. He continued fumbling around with the storage ring and, after struggling for more than half an hour, finally learned how to project his consciousness into it and store objects inside.
Ah Bao: Oh my god… could it be that I’m actually the real protagonist with the Long Aotian script?!
…
Meanwhile, Sheng Ge arrived at the Wuji Sect ancestral hall.
The memorial tablets of every sect master and elder throughout the generations were enshrined there.
At the very center was a tablet engraved with the name Ning Xiaozi.
That was her master, the founding ancestor of the Wuji Sect.
Sheng Ge took all the memorial tablets away and relocated them to the forbidden grounds.
Then, remembering something, she picked up a blank tablet and used her sword to carve Ning Zhengde’s name onto it before placing it beside her master’s tablet.
“Master, your disciple awakened thousands of years later just as you hoped. But the Wuji Sect failed to flourish as you wished. It has already declined to the point where a little brat is serving as sect master. Now even the sect itself is about to disappear completely. If your spirit still watches from above, please protect your disciples and descendants… otherwise, the sect truly will be destroyed.”
After offering incense to her master, Sheng Ge ignored whether her master would become so angry he would want to crawl out of his grave.
Then she took out several colorful stones from her storage ring.
They were the crystal cores obtained from the “remains” of the Huosha Squad.
According to Ah Bao, these things came from the brains of zombies and certain mutated animals and could help ability users replenish and upgrade their powers.
Later, while casually playing with them, Sheng Ge had accidentally discovered that the power contained within these so-called crystal cores actually shared similarities with spiritual energy.
However, spiritual energy in the past had been pure, with all five elements balanced.
These crystal cores, while containing the power of the five elements, were also mixed with countless impurities.
In other words, what these crystal cores contained was polluted spiritual energy.
When Sheng Ge first realized this, she had been extremely shocked.
After the shock came confusion.
After the great war, spiritual energy in the world had gradually vanished.
Yet thousands of years later, the so-called apocalypse virus had destroyed the world, and spiritual energy had reappeared in this form.
Was there some connection between the two?
Sheng Ge could not figure it out for now, so she stopped bothering to think about it.
Instead, she placed the crystal cores throughout the forbidden grounds and set up a Five Elements Protection Formation around the area before finally walking out.
When she returned to the courtyard, the giant pile of items had already disappeared.
Even the tables and chairs from the main hall were gone.
Clearly, after realizing how large the storage ring space was, Ah Bao had gone back and packed even more things.
“Grandma Grandmaster, I’m all done packing! Let’s go! Ah Bao will take you out to experience the world three thousand years later!”
“You think I need you to broaden my horizons?”
“Uh… well… actually, I want to go to the official base in C City to find my master’s family. Since we don’t really have anywhere else to go anyway… how about we go there?”
“Whatever.”
Sheng Ge did not care. Meeting the other disciple-grandchildren was fine too.
Maybe one of them would actually be promising.
If so, perhaps her retirement life still had hope.
Thinking that, Sheng Ge stopped hesitating and walked toward the main gate.
Ah Bao, who had been looking full of anticipation: ???
“Grandma Grandmaster… we’re just… walking out like this?”
What about the legendary sword flight?!
He had already mentally prepared himself for it, and this was it?!
Grandma Grandmaster… are you actually not capable of it?