Chapter 51 Part 2

“…” Ye Zhenzhen shivered from her words, then thought of something. “Fine, those cannibals are one thing, but why are these women so willingly accepting this humiliation?”

“Do you know what the saying ‘three men make a tiger’ means? The principle is the same. Especially when you’ve grown up in this kind of environment since childhood, never having seen the outside world, you naturally believe your family’s words are supreme truth. What’s more, in this kind of environment, if you don’t submit to the patriarchal system, you risk being ostracized and targeted. Perhaps… you might face even greater humiliation, maybe even death.”

Even Ye Zhenzhen, always so alluring and radiant, wilted upon hearing this.

Liuli patted her shoulder: “You don’t need to feel sorry for them either. When everyone around you is like this, they can convince themselves to endure it for a lifetime. When pain reaches its extreme, there is a certain happiness in it too.”

“What kind of happiness?”

Liuli turned her head and glanced at the few who had just been seeking death: “The happiness of sacrificing yourself and being moved by your own sacrifice. Little do they know that they are moved by themselves, but some people still complain that this flesh and blood didn’t fetch a higher price!”

Among the group, a few silently clenched their fists and lowered their heads.

The last girl she sent home lived in a remote mountain village. When they arrived, Liuli realized it was actually a familiar place—the small mountain village where they’d caught the toad spirit before. This girl was, naturally, Granny Sun’s granddaughter.

News from Huishui City hadn’t reached here yet. Miss Sun hemmed and hawed, dealing with her grandmother as the old woman alternated between eagerly asking if the City Lord treated her well and gave her spending money, and wailing over her precious grandson who had died. In the end, Miss Sun couldn’t keep the deception going, but she didn’t dare tell the truth either.

She just said she had been cast aside by the City Lord.

Granny Sun’s face immediately changed: “What did you do to get cast aside?! Oh, heavens above, you wretched girl! Did you offend the Lord City Leader?! No, no, how dare you come back! What if you bring trouble down on our family!”

Liuli: “…Hmph!”

Alright, that marked the complete and total game over for the “Somewhere to Go Squad”.

After this, Liuli found some people to help identify the dozen or so bodies of those who had already perished and led the group of girls to send them home. For those whose families showed genuine grief, the bodies were handed over to the family. If the family showed an attitude of disgust, they were taken back.

Finally, Liuli brought them to a graveyard and had them dig graves with their own hands, burying these girls who had shared their same experience but tragically not survived.

The heavens weren’t very cooperative that day. Liuli secretly cast a spell to make the sky cloud over and rain down. Sure enough, slowly, that group of girls burst into uncontrollable, loud sobs.

She had only intended to let them vent, to let them gain a little more insight. Somehow, eventually, Liuli’s own eyes began to sting.

She turned her back to rub her eyes. When she turned back around, she was the cold, unreasonable Liuli once more.

After burying the bodies, Liuli brought them back to the City Lord’s Mansion. She made them line up in two rows, tall ones in back and short ones in front. With her hands behind her back, Liuli paced before them and lectured:

“Get this through your heads and remember it well: your lives all belong to me! I did you a massive favor, and I don’t need you to repay it in the next life. You can do it in this life! Just work like oxen and horses for me, and be obedient!”

Zhang Wanniang, slightly bolder than the rest, asked, “Miss Fairy, what do you intend to have us do?”

“Can any of you read?”

Among these twenty-odd people, only three could read.

“That’s a small number, but you three will just have to work a bit harder.”

Liuli found the most widely common Qi Refining technique. This thing could be practiced even without a spiritual root, though you wouldn’t get much real result out of it. Still, becoming stronger and healthier wasn’t bad.

“Start copying! Write the characters big. Those who can’t read, just copy the pictures. My apologies, but you three will also have to help the others learn to recognize the characters.”

With orders from the Fairy, the twenty-plus people immediately became busy. And wow, they were truly masters at work. They self-organized, dividing tasks—some cleaned, some cooked, taking turns doing chores and copying the book. Liuli didn’t have to worry about a thing.

This Qi Refining technique was very simple and short, just a few thin pages.

Once they finished copying, Liuli pulled over a chair and stood on it domineeringly, hands on her hips, looking down upon them all.

“Next, I’ll say it, and you write it. Put this introduction at the very beginning of the Qi Refining Art.”

“Ahem… This art assists women in smoothing their qi and blood, and aids in bearing and raising children. It can also help women beautify their features and delay aging. Any woman who cultivates this art will invariably enjoy a house full of children and grandchildren, a harmonious family, a strong and healthy body, and be hardworking and capable!”

Ye Zhenzhen / Lin Mengxian: “???”

Others might not know, but the two of them were perfectly clear that this Qi Refining technique was completely gender-neutral. Anyone with a bit of talent who could open their apertures could try cultivating it!

Liuli put the final stamp on it: “Now write the title. The name will be—the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra!”

Several hundred copies of the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra were freshly produced. Liuli ordered everyone to practice cultivating it for a few days first. After that, they were to disguise themselves and go sell it in places where no one knew them.

“Sell it properly. One wen per copy. Just say you received teachings from a fairy and gave birth to dragon-phoenix twins at once. Now you’re here to give back to the common people. Tell them not to hold back!”

“What are you trying to do?” Ye Zhenzhen couldn’t quite figure it out.

Lin Mengxian, however, smiled: “I suspect Liuli wants the mortal women to have a means to protect themselves.”

“Exactly.” Liuli explained. “Women in the mortal world aren’t born base. It’s just that they have no power, so they can’t resist oppression. Unable to resist, not eating or dressing well, being timid and weak… they become even weaker. The daughters they raise will also be weak. It’s a vicious cycle that makes rebellion even harder. And after being brainwashed for so long, they wouldn’t even realize they could possess power too.”

“So, I’ll start from an angle that appeals to what they desire—winning a man’s favor… Hmph, I’m not making false claims. Cultivation really can strengthen the body, beautify, and delay aging.”

“It’s just that I’m not sure if this will actually work.” Lin Mengxian was somewhat skeptical.

“You don’t know, and I don’t know.” Liuli raised her head to look at the vast sky and said, “I just don’t want to leave without having done anything. I’ll do my best and ask only for a clear conscience.”

…

When they left Huishui City, perhaps because they’d been together for several days now, this group of girls no longer feared the three of them as much as they had at the start. After all, the three of them looked to be around their own age.

Zhang Wanniang was the one who took things most in stride. Urged on by a few other girls, she gathered her courage and came to ask: “Fairy Liuli, where do you plan to take us?”

Liuli stretched languidly and looked southwards: “Taking you all to a good place.”

“Being deliberately mysterious.” Ye Zhenzhen gave a light huff. “Spit it out!”

“We’re going to the Water Sect!”

“Water Sect?” Ye Zhenzhen murmured the name a couple of times, slowly remembering. “Could it be that Water Sect famous for its Gu poison arts, which only accepts female disciples?”

“That’s the one! We’re going there!”

Liuli knew about this Water Sect thanks to the original book. The book wrote that Water Sect Leader Yi Shui had a fling with Long Jingxing. Mm… it was the same Water Sect Liuli had secretly slipped Long Jingxing a note for, leading him down the southwest path to get hit with the Love Gu so he could enter the Small Secret Realm and get the Poison-Avoiding Pearl.

Although this route was a bit of a detour from the next mission objective, no one had any objections.

On the road, when she was alone, Liuli quietly asked, “Shizun, how do you think I handled things?”

The Feng Xiwu Little Cloth Doll didn’t come out, but that familiar, cool, aloof aura quietly brushed past the top of her head: “Very well. Liuli, you did very well.”

Liuli: “Mm!”

Liuli’s eyes curved into smiling crescents again. The troubling thoughts, just like the dark clouds above Huishui City, were all left behind.

…

While they were traveling, someone suddenly asked: “Back in Huishui City, Fairy Liuli and Fairy Zhenzhen were often away from the mansion. What were you doing?”

Ye Zhenzhen and Liuli exchanged a look, then tacitly turned their heads away in unison—one looked up at the sky, the other started whistling.

That girl hurriedly said, “If it’s inconvenient to answer, then please just forget it. We little women were merely curious. If there’s any dirty or tiring work, the Fairies should simply order us to do it. We’ll repay the Fairies’ kindness in this life, not the next.”

Lin Mengxian burst out laughing. It seemed they really had all been influenced by Liuli over this period of time. She laughed, “We were indeed doing a bit of dirty and tiring work.”

“Nonsense!” Liuli clamped a hand over Lin Mengxian’s mouth, speaking with righteous conviction. “We were just going out for a little entertainment, to relax our bodies and minds and soothe our mood. It wasn’t any dirty or tiring work!”

“That’s good, then.” The girl gave a simple, honest smile. “If this little woman doesn’t do something for you, I always feel guilty and uneasy. Please, Fairies, don’t stand on ceremony!”

“Of course, of course, hahaha…”

Liuli and Ye Zhenzhen had indeed gone out to relax their bodies and minds—the two of them had beaten up those girls’ frustrating family members one by one.

They didn’t kill anyone, just gave them a bit of suffering to chew on. If Liuli remembered correctly… the parents of this simple, honest girl had been among them.

Yeah… definitely better not to mention it.