When the last beast was torn apart and turned into a pile of flesh and fragments, the crowd erupted in intense cheers.
“Long live the City Lord!”
The massive green cocoon slowly retracted back into Shen Biqian’s body under the envious gazes of everyone. Feeling the abundant and almost overflowing spiritual energy within her, she was quite surprised.
“Su Jianmo, your control over spiritual energy is getting stronger and stronger. I didn’t expect the spiritual energy to not only not be depleted today, but actually increase so much. What a gain.”
Su Jianmo looked at Shen Biqian, whose face was full of excitement, and smiled faintly. His somewhat pale face now looked much more lively.
Shen Biqian felt a little distressed and helped him up.
“Your face looks really bad. I’ll help you go rest.”
Su Jianmo followed her strength as they walked back.
“Mm, okay.”
The near-slaughter-like battle greatly boosted the morale of the people of Peace City. Xia Sishong was a competent leader; since Shen Biqian preferred to be an “armchair city lord,” he immediately began organizing people to rebuild defenses.
Li Li, on the other hand, rushed over like a fluttering butterfly.
“Boss, you were so cool just now!”
Seeing Shen Biqian only supporting Su Jianmo and not responding, she grinned and asked shamelessly, “Boss, can you teach me that move? I’ll be just as impressive as you in the future!”
Shen Biqian glanced at her calmly.
“Have you been properly cultivating the technique I gave you? What level are you at now?”
Li Li instantly deflated.
Her personality was lively and she couldn’t imitate Shen Biqian’s monk-like, rigorous cultivation. Instead, she spent her days running around, fighting beasts, and collecting food, enjoying life. As for her cultivation progress—it was obvious.
Only then did Shen Biqian continue:
“That move consumes too much spiritual energy. You’d drain yourself dry before you even use it. However, I can teach you Wood Binding later…”
She suddenly stopped.
She felt a powerful fluctuation of spiritual energy approaching.
Su Jianmo and Li Li also sensed it immediately and tensed up, looking up.
A group of people arrived, flying on swords.
It was Mo Yao’s group. Bai Xue and Mu Ranzhu had ultimately failed to stop her.
They landed above Shen Biqian and Su Jianmo. Mo Yao looked at the three of them and asked coldly:
“Who was the one who came out of that green cocoon just now?”
When Mo Yao arrived earlier, the battle had already ended, so she only saw the massive green cocoon from afar. All the spiritual energy had poured into it, so she assumed the person responsible must be inside it. However, she could not clearly see who it was—only that two people had come out.
Shen Biqian looked at the stunning girl in front of her and grew wary.
This woman was extremely strong. Anyone capable of sword flight had at least reached the 8th level of Qi Refinement, and Shen Biqian could clearly sense that she was likely even beyond that—possibly Foundation Establishment. If so, this would be the first Foundation Establishment cultivator she had ever faced.
Behind her were two familiar faces—Mu Ranzhu and Bai Xue. They looked at Shen Biqian and Su Jianmo with worried and serious expressions but did not speak.
Shen Biqian remained silent, but Su Jianmo stepped forward, slightly shielding her.
“It was me. Do you have a problem with that?”
“You?” Mo Yao sized him up.
Su Jianmo had no spiritual energy fluctuations at all, and earlier he had poured all the gathered wood spiritual energy into Shen Biqian, so now he appeared completely ordinary.
Mo Yao did not believe him.
From her observation, everyone here had very low cultivation—around Qi Refinement level one or two. Only the girl behind him was slightly stronger, around Qi Refinement level five. Because Su Jianmo was blocking her, Mo Yao assumed he was covering for Shen Biqian.
So she became even more certain that the source of the fluctuation was Shen Biqian.
“Is it the girl behind you?” she asked coldly.
Hearing this, Shen Biqian relaxed slightly and stepped forward.
“It’s me. What do you want?”
Mo Yao frowned.
“At most you’re Qi Refinement level five. How could you possibly control such a massive amount of spiritual energy?”
Shen Biqian’s heart tightened.
She could already vaguely guess the other party’s intention. Su Jianmo’s ability was extremely attractive to anyone, and her vigilance toward Mo Yao deepened.
“Just luck,” she said lightly.
“Luck?” Mo Yao sneered.
“Do you think I’m an idiot? Hand over your cultivation technique!”
Seeing the situation escalate, Xia Sishong led people over.
“What’s going on?”
Shen Biqian shook her head.
“It’s nothing. Take everyone back to guard the area.”
This girl was too strong—bringing more people here would only cause unnecessary casualties and serve no purpose.
Although Xia Sishong knew it was not that simple and the newcomers looked hostile, their strength was limited. Staying would only be a burden, so he nodded and led the others away.
Here is the English translation:
“How about it? Are you going to hand over your cultivation technique?”
Shen Biqian didn’t respond, but Li Li couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Why should the boss give you her cultivation technique? Who do you think you are?!”
“Impudence!”
Mo Yao instantly flew into a rage. In the entire small cultivation world, no one had ever dared to speak to her like this—especially not a trash cultivator at only the second level of Qi Refinement!
She casually threw out a fireball, sending it flying toward Li Li.
Shen Biqian pushed Li Li away at once, and a green whip materialized from her hand, lashing out and striking the fireball directly. The fireball was shattered by the strike, while the green whip also dispersed into scattered green light and vanished.
“What she said is right. Who do you think you are, demanding my cultivation technique?!”
As she spoke, countless green whips emerged from her body, forming into a massive green cocoon again.
Originally, she had thought about casually giving a fake cultivation technique to get rid of the situation. But even if she could deceive her for a while, she couldn’t deceive her forever—sooner or later she would find out. And what then? Would she really hand Su Jianmo over?
That was absolutely impossible.
In that case, she might as well fight.
Mo Yao sneered coldly.
“Trying to fight me with your Qi Refinement level five cultivation? You’re basically seeking death.”
She drew her sword and slashed, cutting apart the green whips that were lashing toward her.
The others who came with her silently stepped aside.
Mo Yao was right—someone at Qi Refinement level five was no match for her at all.
However, Bai Xue and Mu Ranzhu looked at the two fighting figures with hidden worry in their eyes.
No matter what, Shen Biqian could not possibly defeat Mo Yao. And Mo Yao was the kind of person who was narrow-minded and vengeful—if she was provoked, Shen Biqian might not even be able to keep her life.
And Su Jianmo would certainly be taken away by her and used as a tool to rapidly increase her cultivation.
Bai Xue’s eyes showed deep pain.
She had liked Su Jianmo for three years, yet when he was in danger, because of her family, she could only stand by and watch helplessly.
Meanwhile, Shen Biqian—despite her low cultivation—dared to step forward without fear.
She… couldn’t compare to her.