Don't Cause Trouble Chapter 13: Making a Pact

Ye Su held talismans in both hands and silently circled behind the sword cultivators on the highest platform. They were currently fighting with Silent Sect. It wasn’t easy to make all of them fall for her tricks at once.

So, Ye Su chose to rise into the air with her flying sword and manually scatter talismans from above. If there was one thing she had in abundance, it was talismans.

Sure enough, even though Silent Sect had drawn most of the sword cultivators' attention, the moment she threw the talismans, one of them reacted, turning and slicing a Sleep Talisman in half.

Still, the air was filled with talismans, and the sword cultivators were too busy dealing with Silent Sect's attacks to clear them all away. As long as one talisman stuck to their bodies, it would take effect instantly.

Ye Su put away her sword and slowly approached the sword cultivators who were still standing. She kept applying Diamond Talismans to herself while casually tossing more talismans at them.

Manually throwing talismans is kind of tiring… I should invent a talisman-spraying artifact next time, Ye Su thought to herself.

The cultivators from Silent Sect watched in shock as the sword cultivators who had just been on the verge of cutting them down were now being knocked out cold by flying paper.

"...Ye Su?" Xin Xin stared at her in disbelief.

From his point of view, the Qianji Sect disciples had been so poor they couldn’t even afford spirit stones to take the teleportation array. He’d assumed they were practically beggars looking for adventure. How did they end up in the secret realm—and with so many talismans?

"Brother Xin, long time no see." Ye Su stood in front of a sleeping sword cultivator, her eyes drifting to the center of the high platform where a stone pillar had risen. In the middle was a square indentation—something had clearly once been embedded there, but it had already been taken.

"You… how…" Xin Xin's face was complicated. Talismans like those were expensive. Ye Su had actually used them to save his people?

"Talismans aren’t cheap," Ye Su said seriously. "I used this many talismans to save your Silent Sect disciples. Brother Xin, are you going to reimburse me?"

Xin Xin’s mixed emotions instantly vanished, leaving behind just four words in his mind: I knew it!

"This is a dangerous place," Ye Su continued. "To save your lives, I used the only protective talismans I had on me." She pointed to the yellow-robed cultivator still trying to sell the last talisman down below. "See? He’s charging two hundred spirit stones per talisman. I’ll just charge you one hundred each, how about that?"

Seeing Xin Xin remain silent, Ye Su smoothly changed the subject: "But since our sects are neighbors, I’ll give you a discount—ninety-nine each. I used about thirty talismans just now, so let’s say thirty. That’s two thousand nine hundred and seventy mid-grade spirit stones."

She was still standing next to the unconscious sword cultivator. Xin Xin couldn’t help but think: If I say no, is she going to rip off the talismans and wake them up?

"…I don’t have that many mid-grade spirit stones on me," Xin Xin said stiffly.

"Whatever you have, give me that first. You can pay the rest later," Ye Su replied sincerely. "I trust Silent Sect."

A moment later, Xin Xin tossed over a pouch. "There are a thousand mid-grade spirit stones inside."

Ye Su peeked inside and accepted it without hesitation.

"Senior Sister," Ning Qian Yao stepped forward, biting her lip with a troubled look. "Those spirit stones were all that Silent Sect’s disciples had prepared for this trip. If you take them, they’ll be left with nothing…"

"What’s that got to do with Senior Sister?" Ming Liu Sha said coldly, helping Yi Xuan up. "If Junior Sister’s so concerned, she can just donate a thousand low-grade spirit stones to them."

Further behind, Lu Jiu, not understanding the situation, asked Xiyu: "That one in white—is she your Junior Sister? Why’s she siding with outsiders?"

Xiyu shrugged, "She’s just like that."

Her voice wasn’t loud, but it was just enough for Yi Xuan to hear clearly.

Meanwhile, Ning Qian Yao was still trying to persuade her: "Senior Sister, Silent Sect has always been kind to me…"

Ye Su gave her a look, then took the pouch of spirit stones back out. "So this was all the spirit stones you brought with you? Brother Xin, you can have your one thousand back."

Xin Xin didn’t look pleased at all. Instead, he asked, "Then what kind of payment do you want?"

"We’re friendly sects, no need to talk about money—it’s too crude," Ye Su said casually. "How about this: for the next five years, Qianji Sect disciples can come train at Silent Sect, and no one’s allowed to mess with them."

Xin Xin frowned. As expected, Ye Su had planned this from the start. He took a deep breath and said, "One year. Ten days each month."

"Three years. Fifteen days a month." Ye Su used the tip of her shoe to flip up the talisman stuck to the sleeping sword cultivator and looked straight at him.

Xin Xin: "..." That was a naked threat if he’d ever seen one.

In the end, he could only agree. "Fine."

Ye Su lowered her foot. "Let’s make a formal pact, sworn on the cultivation levels of all Silent Sect disciples present."

In the Floating World Continent, once a cultivator makes a pact, breaking it would damage their cultivation.

Since Silent Sect had turned a blind eye while their disciples stirred up trouble and pretended no agreement existed between the two sects, she would make sure this matter was officially acknowledged.

And in three years, they should have figured out some reliable ways to "milk the system."

After the pact was made, some Silent Sect disciples couldn’t help feeling resentful toward Ning Qian Yao. If she hadn’t spoken up, this could’ve been settled with just a few spirit stones. Now, their own cultivation was on the line.

……

Inside the cave, the fight was chaotic and intense—but if you looked closely, you’d realize there wasn’t much worth fighting over. Eight out of ten boxes were completely empty.

"Brother Xin, did you guys take everything from inside?" Ye Su asked casually. Judging by the way they’d been stationed at the highest platform earlier, they were probably among the first to arrive.

Xin Xin’s face darkened. Those sword cultivators had assumed the same thing earlier, which was why they’d attacked them.

"Senior Sister," Ning Qian Yao said softly, "everything was already gone when we got here. They wouldn’t listen and insisted on searching our storage pouches."

Though it sounded like she was explaining, Ning Qian Yao’s words subtly made Ye Su’s question seem accusatory, grouping her with the sword cultivators who had tried to rob them.

Ye Su understood perfectly well, but didn’t care in the slightest. The Silent Sect disciples had disliked her for a long time—this was nothing new.

"Fellow Daoist Lu," Ye Su turned back and asked, "where would the exit to this inner realm usually be?"

"This is my first time inside an inner realm," Lu Jiu replied quietly. "I thought I was going to die in here."

Inner realms were typically formed by powerful cultivators and were extremely dangerous—not places foundation-level cultivators should be exploring. But this one… had nothing. No rare herbs, no powerful beasts. Nothing at all.

Just as Ye Su was deep in thought, the cave began to shift. The walls started to collapse, and a strange, sweet scent filled the air.

When Ye Su came back to her senses, everyone around her was gone. A thick white mist surrounded her. She tried calling out her junior brother and junior sister’s names, but no one answered.

A hallucination?

She had no way of breaking it, so she could only keep walking forward.

She didn’t know how long she’d been walking or how far she’d gone, but eventually the mist began to clear. Barren land came into view beneath her feet—dark red soil, dry and cracked. Looking closer, she realized the red was blood. In the distance, a towering stone forest stretched up toward the sky.

Ye Su’s body moved on its own, dragging her forward. In the heart of the stone forest, she saw a figure in black robes—tall and thin, his silhouette vaguely resembling Yi Xuan. Something about the eerie surroundings made her instinctively call out:

"Yi Xuan?"

The moment she spoke, the figure turned around. But before she could get a good look at his face—

She blacked out.

In the terrifying stillness of the stone forest, the black-robed figure finally turned fully around. In that instant, the oppressive aura around him broke like glass, and a faint, ethereal light spilled across his face—like he’d been blessed by the heavens themselves. He blinked slowly, his long lashes casting shadows, and walked barefoot across the ground, never once touching the bloodstained soil.

He came to a stop beside the unconscious Ye Su, bent down, and poked her cheek with a faint frown of disdain.

"…Mortal. Who gave you permission to call my name?"