Cultivation Nerd: Chapter 134 (Patreon)

Chapter 134 - A Slow Journey

After that incident, Ye An kept an eye on the sleeping turtle. However, it proved needless as the monstrous beast dozed off for the rest of the way.

When they were halfway through the journey, Ye An looked at the setting sun and contemplated continuing to finish the trip in one swoop. If she kept traveling, she could have been done by dawn.

After all, if she knew Song Song well enough, she would have gotten into another sort of trouble. There would be no time for that psycho to come to deal with her. Song Song hadn't done it when she was in Whitewall Town and doubted she would do it now.

She looked at the setting sun and decided to set up camp. It never hurt to be careful, and tonight was a full moon.

Ye An flew down into the shadow of some trees, and with a wave of her hand, an already-made tent appeared. She set the turtle next to her tent, and even though the monstrous beast touched the cold ground, it didn't wake up.

Ye An noticed out of the corner of her eye that the sun was almost set.

She hurried and, after making sure no one was around, took off her clothes and stood naked as the day she was born. The setting sun glistened on her pale skin.

She took a small bottle from her storage ring and rubbed off the sour oil on her body, making it even shinier. Ye An ended up looking like a porcelain doll by the end of it. Even the scar Song Song had left behind after cutting off and reattaching her arm as punishment was barely visible and didn't detract from her charm.

If anyone had seen this scene, they would have been mesmerized and seduced instantly. But Ye An didn't care how attractive she might look. She felt a looming sense of desperation as she saw the full moon in the distance.

Her heart began beating faster, her breathing grew heavier, and a strange look settled in her eyes. For a second, she considered giving up—if she just let it play out, she wouldn't have to continue enduring this pain…

But such thoughts vanished as quickly as they came. Ye An's gaze sharpened.

Ye An took a red crystal from her storage ring and entered her tent. The inside of the tent was nothing special, containing only a futon. She laid down and took out a red crystal, an artifact that, when imbued with Qi, would create a small flame at the top.

She took a deep breath and applied the artifact to the tent. Without much effort, the tent caught fire.

Despite the situation, Ye An didn't seem surprised. Her gaze hardened, and every muscle in her body clenched as she prepared for the incoming pain.

Through the fire in her tent, some faint light from the full moon peeked through the burning tent flap and landed on her skin.

Ye An screeched in pain, feeling like a freezing root was spreading through her body. The slow growth that her spiritual roots usually experienced suddenly surged violently, and she felt like she was painfully freezing from the inside.

She thrashed around as her spirit roots violently grew. It was like a plant growing inside her; the process was violent, and it felt like her blood was freezing, yet she was somehow still alive.

The tent was almost burned, and a spark landed on Ye An's skin. That spark was enough to silently ignite the flammable oil she had covered herself.

Ye An felt like crying, but her tears both froze and boiled as her body caught on fire. At first, the flames began burning her jade-like skin. Yet it was only a sensation; she wasn't actually burning.

Even the flames weren't enough to cull the Yin Energy generated by the full moon. As she felt a biting cold spread through her body, Ye An still felt the sensation of being burned on the outside and frozen on the inside.

She grunted in pain. It felt like every organ inside her body was being pricked by tiny needles. Soon enough, even her screams became silent. She could only open her mouth, no longer able to scream.

This was a pain that no one could ever understand... With each passing full moon, it grew stronger and got closer to killing her.

To stop feeling this torturous pain, she would be willing to do anything and kill anyone. Ye An tried to think of what she would be willing to do to eliminate this pain as a distraction. It was useless as the pain grew worse.

The freezing feeling reached her bones, or at least that was what it felt like. Her bones felt like they were growing jagged, and worms dug under her flesh as her spiritual roots grew.

Of course, she didn't get a wink of sleep through the night.

...

The morning sun rose in the distance, shining its light on a naked Ye An left on the scorched ground. Despite the fire, not even a strand of her hair was burned.

The Yang Energy from the sun, and that contained in flames, would slow down the progression of Ye An's physique. However, it was growing less effective every day, and if she didn't find a way to solve this soon, she would die within a year or two. No matter what, the last years of her life were not going to be pleasant, so it was useless to even count them.

After taking a breather and staring at the blue sky, Ye An forced herself to stand up. Her hand ran through her silky hair, and she noticed more white strands amongst it.

"This is like a ticking clock," Ye An grumbled under her breath.

Despite her beauty, she never liked looking at herself in the mirror. The white strands of her hair represented how long she had to live. When her hair turned entirely white, she would either be dead or have found a way to handle an Extreme Physique.

"I will fix this. I refuse to accept this fate," Ye An said, convincing herself since no one was around to listen to her.

Ye An glanced at the only other creature in the vicinity, the sleeping turtle. Despite the commotion she had caused last night, it seemed like the turtle hadn't even bothered to wake up.

With a thought, Ye An made the turtle levitate using the carpet under it. Then, with a wave of her hand, clothes materialized around her. Ye An's expression no longer resembled that of someone who had endured torturous pain through the night.

She would never show such weakness to anyone.

Without much thought, Ye An left the scorched scene behind as she took out her flying sword and used it for the journey.

...

By midday, Ye An finally caught sight of the Blazing Sun Sect's outer walls. A sense of relief and apprehension washed over her.

On one hand, Ye An was glad to be back. Simultaneously, she tried to sense whether Song Song was waiting for her at the front gate.

Despite Song Song being a monstrous fighter who easily fought someone above her level, Ye An wasn't afraid of confronting her right now. The full moon exuded so much Yin Qi that it almost killed her every night. This process filled her body and spiritual roots with so much Qi that her body couldn't handle it.

Even using techniques to drain the Qi was useless; she had tried many times before.

Still, this was the day after the full moon. So Ye An technically had a lingering boost. Even Song Song would have a hard time killing her.

Ye An was on edge as she approached the front gates of the Sect. She fully expected Song Song to do something as vile as a sneak attack.

That bitch was the type to do anything to gain an advantage. She was definitely the dishonorable type.

But as Ye An approached the gates, she saw the two inner disciples who usually served as guards. They were not the same two disciples as always, but they might as well have been the same as far as Ye An cared.

However, there was another person with the two disciples. The extra person was an old granny with many wrinkles who had a cane in her hands. One might assume she was the usual old granny who already had one foot in the grave.

But Ye An knew better. This old granny was a Core Formation Cultivator. Her identity was even more troublesome since she was Song Song's teacher and one of the few people who cared about that monster.

Ye An hadn't met the dangerous granny often, but she had seen her while she "worked" under Song Song.

Ye An knew that trying to escape a Core Formation Cultivator was useless. Despite her uniqueness, she was still just a Qi Gathering Cultivator. There was no way she could escape or even make a peep before being killed by this granny.

So with that in mind, Ye An concluded that the granny didn't want to kill her. With how close Song Song and the old woman were, there was little chance the granny hadn't learned what had transpired in Whitewall Town.

Why didn't the granny want to kill her despite everything? Ye An had no idea.

Ye An approached the two guards, put the turtle down, and stepped off her flying sword.

"I have brought the turtle here, and I expect to be paid a thousand spirit stones for the job," Ye An said.

While the deal she had made was with the governor of Whitewall Town, Ye An had intentionally "forgotten" to take the money from him in the hopes that Song Song would end up paying. A thousand spirit stones were nothing for Song Song. Still, if it caused her even a slight annoyance, like getting the news she would have to give money away to someone who had tried to kill her, Ye An was very petty.

"Good job," the old woman said in a raspy voice. Now that Ye An was so close to her, she saw the wrinkles on the granny's face had somehow deepened from how she remembered her. "As expected of someone with such plentiful talents. Your cultivation speed has exceeded even Song Song's."

What the old woman said was true, but Ye An couldn't take pride in it despite that. It wasn't like she had to work that hard to surpass even a genius like Song Song in cultivation speed. She had been working harder to stop her body from exploding due to allowing her cultivation to progress so fast.

"Can we please stop with the theatrics?" Ye An asked. "We both know you want something from me; that is why you haven't killed me yet. So, get on with it."

"The younger generation only keeps getting more rude," the old woman said. But she stopped hiding her intentions and revealed her greedy gaze. "Song Song has overstepped some unspoken rules recently."

Ye An was about as surprised by that as the sky being blue.

"As her master, I have sought to punish her. But some people got in the way of the punishment I had in mind. So the only thing I could do was renounce her as my personal disciple," said the granny.

Ye An nodded, not trusting herself to avoid saying something she shouldn't. Many Core Cultivators, or just cultivators in general, used raw power to handle everything for decades or centuries. That made them grow mentally stagnant and often even regress in sharpening their wits.

After a bit of silence and the old woman looking Ye An up and down, the granny finally broke the silence and said, "Will you become my disciple?"

When those words left the old woman's mouth, Ye An realized that the granny and her group had somehow lost Song Song.

Ye An had to try hard not to let a smile slip. She had been looking for a way to access Yang Element Resources, which the Blazing Sun Immortal might have left behind.

Then this just came and fell into her lap! She would investigate later to ensure this was not a trick. It sounded too good to be true! But after the previous night, she allowed herself to feel some joy.

Throughout her life, Ye An always felt like she was fighting against fate. She was born to die young, and even when she found an item to extend her lifespan, the red-haired bastard went and stole it!

But now she not only got an opportunity to gain access to the hidden areas in the Blazing Sun Sect, but this would also keep that crazy bitch off her back.

Ye An hoped that her fate might turn for the better!

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A/N: With this, the Ye An POV is done! It ended up being way longer than I thought it would be! It was supposed to be only one chapter, but it would have ended as a 7k word chapter.