Chapter Seventeen: The Mighty Bindweed

Ao Qing was even more satisfied to hear Wen Yue say this. As a spiritual pet himself, Ao Qing understood that choosing a master was a matter of great importance; a good master brings many benefits to a spiritual pet, and vice versa. It seemed the little Golden Silk had good luck.

"Thank you for having no intention of enslaving the little Golden Silk," Ao Qing said, thanking Wen Yue solemnly.

"She’s so tiny; it’s nice enough just having her to talk to."

"Hmm!" The little Golden Silk was perfectly fine with that.

"She is very strong; you will discover that gradually. Moreover, she has limitless potential. You must cherish her well," Ao Qing advised.

"I like this little one very much and will certainly cherish her, but... you say her future is limitless?"

Looking at this plant, which wasn't even as big as a palm and lacked both roots and leaves, Wen Yue felt the world had become surreal.

"It seems you are truly a novice in cultivation. You should know that she belongs to the category of ordinary plants. Under normal circumstances, she would never have become a spiritual plant in her entire life. Yet, she broke those shackles and underwent a metamorphosis. Because of that, her future holds infinite possibilities." This was why Ao Qing valued the little Golden Silk so highly.

"Furthermore, her innate skills are exceptionally powerful. Think about it: even as an ordinary plant, she already possessed parasitic and strangulation abilities. Many spiritual plants do not even have such traits."

For an ordinary plant to have skills superior to those of a spiritual plant was already heaven-defying.

Wen Yue suddenly recalled information she had read in her past life, which stated that the language of the dodder flower was attachment and strangulation.

In her past life, people used to compare women with no capability to dodder flowers, but that was a grave error. This creature was even more formidable than a Rafflesia! You would be on guard against a Rafflesia, but who on earth would ever be on guard against a dodder flower?

Yet, this formidable dodder flower was currently looking at Wen Yue and Ao Qing with a soft, naive expression.

"Since she has such great potential, would a master-servant bond be appropriate?" Wen Yue knew Ao Qing had the little Golden Silk's best interests at heart, but wouldn't an equal pact be better?

"How long have you been cultivating? How much do you know about plant pets and spiritual pets?" Ao Qing looked at Wen Yue with disdain.

"I’ve only been cultivating for a little over a month. I only know that spiritual beasts and plants can recognize humans as masters. I came from the mortal realm."

In other words, her cultivation knowledge was essentially zero.

"Read the materials I gave you carefully. Don't tell such ignorant jokes next time," Ao Qing said, speechless.

He felt he wasn't Wen Yue's teacher; there was no reason he should have to teach her such basic concepts.

Later, under Ao Qing's guidance, the little Golden Silk completed the master-recognition process. Once bound, they no longer needed to speak aloud and could communicate through thoughts.

"I will send you both out," Ao Qing said, and Wen Yue suddenly found herself in a different place. The little Golden Silk immediately burrowed into Wen Yue’s sleeve.

It was dawn, the sun just beginning to peek over the horizon; it seemed they had spent the night in the Xuantian Tower.

The others from the Sky Demon Sect had already emerged. Seeing Wen Yue suddenly appear, they crowded around her. "Wen Yue, why did you come out so late?"

Wen Yue had anticipated that these people were just here to fish for information.

"I was digging in the dirt. What was your trial?" Wen Yue asked with a feigned, clumsy innocence, which was quite convincing given her small stature.

"We were just meditating and practicing," they replied. They only told her this because everyone else was doing the same; otherwise, they wouldn't have uttered a single word of truth.

"You guys are lucky then. I had to dig a whole acre of land; my hands are aching," Wen Yue said, rubbing her arms in a performative display.

"So, what cultivation technique did you get?"

"A wood-element one, for farming. How about you? Did any of you get farming techniques?" Wen Yue asked innocently.

At this question, the group from the Sky Demon Sect scattered like birds, and no one bothered to pester her with questions anymore.

"Master, why did they all leave?"

"Because they don't want me to know what techniques they obtained."

"Master, if you want to know, we can go ask Ao Qing."

"No need. I just didn't want them prying into my business. I don't care what they’re cultivating; it's enough to finish learning what I have for now," Wen Yue said.

Wen Yue estimated that learning everything in her sea of consciousness would be no simple task. This was cultivation, after all; in her past life, she probably wouldn't have finished learning it in a lifetime.

Wen Yue wandered around the spot where they had landed from the airship, but she couldn't find Granny Corpse anywhere. Judging by the behavior of the others, they were also looking for her, but it seemed none of them had found her either.

"Master, what are you looking for?" the tiny, milky voice echoed in her mind.

"Granny Corpse, the old lady." Among their group, which consisted mostly of children and young people, only Granny Corpse was elderly.

"Why look for her?"

"She brought us here, so we have to take her airship back. Do you expect us to walk all the way back on two legs?"

"Is it the one wearing ugly black clothes, with a dark face and pustules on her skin?"

"Yes! That’s her!"

"Don't bother looking; you won't find her."

"What do you mean?"

"She broke the rules, and Ao Qing slapped her away somewhere. Ao Qing told me."

So that black shadow from earlier was her!

"That's trouble. How are we supposed to get back?"

"Don't go back. Let's just stay here and play with Ao Qing. Besides, those people from earlier were really annoying; the little Golden Silk doesn't like them."

The little Golden Silk was sensitive; she could faintly sense the sins on those people, which was why she disliked the members of the Sky Demon Sect so much.

"I don't like them either. If I could, I’d just walk away and never go back to the Sky Demon Sect."

That was indeed a fleeting thought that had crossed Wen Yue's mind, but it wasn't feasible. There wasn't a single soul for ten thousand miles around Tianluo Mountain; the area had been ravaged by the Sky Demon Sect, and those who survived had long since fled.

"Then let's go! We don't have to be with those annoying people," the little Golden Silk said naively.

"There are no humans for ten thousand miles around. Where could we go? The wild beasts here could eat us alive, and the Sky Demon Sect will surely come looking for us. We wouldn't get very far before being dragged back. So, that plan really won't work." What Wen Yue didn't say was that if they were caught, they’d be branded as traitors, and who knew how the Sky Demon Sect would deal with them?

"Then how long do we have to wait?"

"It depends on the situation. Let's see what these people do. I'm a bit hungry. Good thing I brought buns, or I'd be starving," Wen Yue said, pulling a white steamed bun from her storage bag and eating it.

Wen Yue had her own spatial storage, which was far more advanced than this one-cubic-meter storage bag, but she hadn't dared to use it since arriving at the Sky Demon Sect. Who knew what methods the cultivation world had to uncover secrets? For safety's sake, she wouldn't use it until she was stronger and understood things better.

Wen Yue knew the importance of being prepared. Before setting off, she had gone to the kitchen and given the head chef two spirit stones, and he had generously filled a large bag with buns for her. They served as her rations.

She hadn't really planned on using them, thinking it a waste to carry an empty storage bag, but it turned out to be useful after all.