The Young Lady Only Wants to Cultivate Immortality Chapter 26

The sky was on the verge of brightening, A’Ling yawned, emerging from her room with half-open eyes, tightly clutching a palm-sized Three Purity True Fire Furnace in her arms.
Even at the dining table, her eyes couldn’t fully open. Under Sun Juhao’s incessant chattering, she had just gained a sliver of conscious awareness before drifting back into drowsiness.
One hand unconsciously hugged the Three Purity True Fire Furnace, while the other instinctively continued her breakfast.
As for what she ate, A’Ling had no idea. She had spent several consecutive nights exhausting her spiritual energy to refine artifacts, barely sleeping a wink. Today, A’Ling felt that if someone gave her a pillow, she could sleep for days, oblivious to day or night.
Her ability to wake up and leave her room now was entirely thanks to sheer willpower.
She ate some food without tasting it, then A’Ling groggily left the house.
Reaching the door, she lifted her eyelids slightly, vaguely seeing that the carriage was already waiting for her. A’Ling walked forward swaying, with her eyes closed, only occasionally opening them to glance at the path.
As soon as she got into the carriage, A’Ling found the seat closest to the door, leaned against the carriage wall, and immediately fell asleep.
Anyway, the hired driver knew the way and would call her when they reached Hongjian Academy. She had been up too late last night and desperately needed to catch up on sleep, otherwise, if she fell asleep in the classroom, Qi Leshan would undoubtedly cause trouble for her again.
Fortunately, Hongjian Academy’s classes were only in the morning. It wouldn’t matter if she couldn’t endure the afternoon classes at Taichuan Academy and canceled them.
Accompanied by the rolling sound of the carriage wheels, A’Ling’s breathing gradually deepened.
Watching the departing carriage, Chen Qiniang scratched the back of her neck. This morning, family matters had delayed her, so she rushed as fast as she could to the East City. Just as she was about to reach her employer’s house, she saw the young lady who hired her board the carriage ahead.
Chen Qiniang hadn’t been a carriage driver for long. This was her first long-term monthly contract, and with such a generous young lady, she was very grateful. Every day, she would wait early at the employer’s door, only today she was late.
She was extremely anxious, wondering if her employer was angry about her tardiness and intended to dismiss her.
But she had already received the payment in advance. Thinking of the seven or eight mouths waiting for her to feed at home, Chen Qiniang, with a tear-streaked face, followed the carriage ahead, neither too close nor too far.
Inside the Huo family’s carriage, Shi Qingqian slightly furrowed her brows, looking at A’Ling, who seemed to have fallen asleep in front of her.
She leaned sideways on the seat, one side of her face pressed against the carriage wall adorned with plain silk. Her round, oval face was indented on one side, making her red lips pout slightly. Fine hairs on her face softly shimmered in the light, like a ripe peach.
Shi Qingqian didn’t understand how this peach had suddenly abandoned its mountain and come to her place, making her heart feel as if a patch of weeds had grown, their leaves bearing tiny serrations, pricking her heart with a faint itch.
She slightly turned her head, lifted the curtain, and glanced back. She had just heard a carriage trailing behind them. Looking up, it was indeed the woman who had been driving A’Ling’s carriage these past few days.
Shi Qingqian narrowed her eyes slightly and immediately understood that the groggy person in front of her had boarded the wrong carriage.
The moment A’Ling entered the carriage, she had noticed the dark circles under A’Ling’s eyes. She must have been too tired to even keep her eyes open while walking.
It had been a month since they last met so closely. This past month, A’Ling seemed extremely busy; Gu Jingyang said she was even studying spiritual arts at an outside academy.
Shi Qingqian’s brows furrowed tighter. Did A’Ling want to become a magic cultivator in the future?
The carriage wheel rolled over a small stone, causing the carriage to jolt slightly. Shi Qingqian’s heart abruptly clenched.
The person’s cheek rubbed lightly against the carriage wall, likely causing some discomfort. She shifted slightly, propped her head against the wall, hugged the item in her arms tighter, and pursed her lips, continuing to sleep.
Shi Qingqian gently exhaled the breath she had been holding, her gaze flickering as she looked at the Three Purity True Fire Furnace in A’Ling’s hand.
She had heard Gu Jingyang mention that A’Ling was refining artifacts, but she hadn’t expected her to carry the furnace with her everywhere, even hugging it in her arms.
Shi Qingqian gazed deeply at the faintly glowing furnace, and after a moment’s thought, she turned her palm upwards, summoning the magic artifact she had recently refined.
A purple light flared in her palm like a flame, sparkling with specks of golden light.
A whip radiating purple-gold light gradually appeared. The Vermilion Bird carving on the whip sheath looked fierce and malevolent under the dark purple light. The whip itself was entirely purple, its material indiscernible; it resembled profound iron yet possessed a curvature that could entangle people; it was like leather but also remarkably hard and offensive.
Shi Qingqian reached out and gently stroked the whip in her palm, gazing at the Three Purity True Fire Furnace in A’Ling’s arms, a flicker of determination swiftly passing through her eyes.
With a hand seal, the whip’s tail, which had been hanging to the ground, began to curl upwards.
Just then, A’Ling, who had been sound asleep, suddenly opened her eyes, staring directly at the dim purple-gold light. Her eyes sparkled, showing no trace of drowsiness, only immense surprise.
In her daze just now, A’Ling felt a familiar aura. Her intuition told her she had to wake up. She struggled against her sleepiness, forcing open her eyelids that felt like a thousand pounds.
It was her Wandering Amethyst Gold Whip!
A’Ling lunged forward, snatching the whip from Shi Qingqian’s hand.
The furnace in her arms dropped onto the padded floor with a dull thud, but A’Ling’s attention was entirely on the Wandering Amethyst Gold Whip in her palm. She didn’t notice at all that the Three Purity True Fire Furnace, upon hitting the floor, suddenly opened, emitting a wisp of white smoke that dissipated beneath Shi Qingqian’s skirt.
“Little Wandering, it’s really you, Little Wandering!”
For a moment, A’Ling thought she was dreaming, until a tingling sensation from her palm confirmed that this was not a dream!
Her Little Wandering had truly been refined!
A’Ling stroked the dark purple whip body, her eyes sparkling with dancing purple light. She bent the whip and fiercely kissed it, then without a moment’s delay, performed the magic artifact recognition ritual.
With a hand seal, she gathered the spiritual energy from her inner dantian into her palm, directing it through her fingertips into the whip body. She then carved a unique spell known only to A’Ling onto the Vermilion Bird carving on the whip sheath.
The magic artifact gradually seemed to gain a soul. The whip body freely and joyfully swung its tail, and the whip sheath gently rolled a few times in A’Ling’s palm. The purple-gold light gradually receded, and the whip body slowly curled up, eventually coiling around A’Ling’s wrist.
In the blink of an eye, the whip vanished from A’Ling’s palm, replaced by a purple bracelet on her wrist, shimmering with golden light.
A’Ling excitedly touched the bracelet on her wrist. This was truly wonderful; her Little Wandering could accompany her in this life too.
Wait!
A’Ling suddenly realized something was wrong. Why was her Little Wandering in Shi Qingqian’s hand just now?
And why was Shi Qingqian in her carriage?
A’Ling clenched her wrist, hiding Little Wandering. Her entire body tensed as she vigilantly stared at the other person in the carriage.
“Why are you in my carriage? What do you want?” A’Ling felt the warmth of Little Wandering in her palm and remembered how Shi Qingqian seemed to be doing something to Little Wandering when she opened her eyes just now. “Are you here to steal my things?!”
A’Ling’s sudden awakening caught Shi Qingqian off guard. She didn’t have time to put the refined magic artifact back into A’Ling’s Three Purity True Fire Furnace and was just about to retract it when what happened next caught her even more by surprise.
A’Ling saw Shi Qingqian remain silent, her face tense, and assumed she was guilty. Just as she was about to lash out, she realized that this carriage didn’t seem to be the one she had rented.
She yanked open the curtain and glanced forward. The driver wasn’t Chen Qiniang, whom she had hired, but the Huo family’s driver.
Oh no, she got into the wrong carriage.
A’Ling immediately dropped the curtain, vigilantly watching Shi Qingqian. She felt incredibly fortunate; thankfully, she had woken up in time. If it had been even a moment later, her Little Wandering would have been stolen by this shameless person in front of her!
It must have been that she awakened the magic artifact while she was asleep, and Shi Qingqian saw it. Shi Qingqian’s greed to possess it must have been stirred, which is why Little Wandering was in her hand.
She recalled her previous life: A’Ling had also woken up one morning to find she had awakened a magic artifact, but that time it was in her room, with no one else around. Little Wandering had just quietly rested on her desk.
This time, it also happened in her sleep, but because she boarded the wrong carriage, she almost fell into the hands of a villain. How thrilling!
Seeing Shi Qingqian’s gaze still lingering on her wrist, A’Ling was filled with anger.
“Do you have no shame? You’d even steal a magic artifact while someone’s asleep. I clearly underestimated your shamelessness. I warn you, if you dare covet my magic artifact, I’ll twist your head off!”
Although she said that, A’Ling couldn’t guarantee whether she could keep Little Wandering if Shi Qingqian forcibly took it.
While a magic artifact, once recognized by a master, couldn’t be used by others if stolen, it could be recognized by a new master if its current master died.
What if Shi Qingqian, in her madness, decided to kill her for a magic artifact…
A’Ling’s heart abruptly clenched.
Suddenly, the carriage stopped.
A’Ling abruptly snapped back to her senses, leaped up, and darted out of the carriage. Of the thirty-six stratagems, running was the best!
Only after she exited the carriage and saw the majestic entrance of Hongjian Academy did A’Ling’s anxious heart settle. As long as others knew that Little Wandering was her magic artifact, Shi Qingqian wouldn’t dare to openly seize it.
Stealing other people’s magic artifacts in private was not uncommon in the cultivation world, but if others found out, it would be a huge stain on one’s reputation, something others would scorn upon mentioning.
As long as Shi Qingqian still wanted to enter the inner sect, she wouldn’t allow such a significant blemish on her reputation.
Upon seeing Gu Jingyang, who was chatting with others in front of the academy gate, A’Ling’s heart completely relaxed. At the same time, the excitement of having refined a magic artifact and reuniting with Little Wandering surged within her.
She quickly stepped forward, grabbed Gu Jingyang’s hand, and pulled her into the academy.
They ran all the way to the lounge Gu Jingyang had taken her to before, finally stopping to catch their breath.
“Quick, set up a barrier! I need to tell you something,” A’Ling excitedly told a bewildered Gu Jingyang.
Gu Jingyang was completely confused. A’Ling had grabbed her hand without a word, and she hadn’t even had time to ask what happened.
Now she was seriously telling her to set up a barrier.
Though puzzled, Gu Jingyang complied, setting up the strongest barrier within her capabilities. Even cultivators with higher cultivation than her would have to expend some effort to enter.
Seeing Gu Jingyang had set up the barrier, A’Ling extended her hand, revealing the purple bracelet on her wrist and shaking it at her.
Gu Jingyang raised an eyebrow: “Hmm?” She didn’t understand why A’Ling was showing her a bracelet.
A’Ling smiled brightly, noticing Gu Jingyang’s confusion. Little Wandering, stripped of its purple-gold light, now looked like an ordinary decorative bracelet.
“Wandering Amethyst Gold Whip, appear!”
As A’Ling called out, the purple bracelet on her wrist began to crackle and glow with a faint purple-gold light.
Instantly, a silver flash, and a whip radiating menacing purple electric light appeared in A’Ling’s hand. The entire whip body was a deep purple, crackling with electric light, and where its tail touched the ground, it sparked with golden flames.
With just one glance, it was clear that this magic artifact was no ordinary item; it was Grandmaster-grade.
Gu Jingyang’s eyes widened, her gaze flickering with a deep purple light. No wonder A’Ling needed her to set up a barrier.
Her heart gradually tensed with the crackling current.
“A’Ling, where did you steal this magic artifact from?”