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Don't Cause Trouble Chapter 22: Either a Demon or a Fox
Once a magic artifact was forged, it usually wasn’t altered again—most materials, once mixed, would lose their original properties.
So when Ye Su refined the Monk's Spade, she took a different approach.
She couldn’t restore all the materials later, but she could leave room to add new ones in the future—essentially allowing the artifact to be upgraded down the line.
In the Tracing Image, Ye Su spent several days figuring out how to balance the materials before she even started forging the spade.
She had only wanted to freeload materials from Poyuan Sect, but by accident, she ended up taking a path that matched the thinking of current top-tier artifact masters: crafting evolutionary artifacts.
On the Floating World Continent, spiritual energy was nowhere near as abundant as it had been ten thousand years ago. It was now rare to forge artifacts with artifact spirits, so upgradable artifacts had become the only viable future for artifact refiners.
Artifact cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage typically didn’t even touch this realm of refinement—their skill level was too low. Simply forging a usable magic artifact was already considered impressive.
But Ye Su had thought so far ahead.
No wonder Father had wanted to take her as a disciple that day.
Even he couldn't accurately balance all those materials in such a short amount of time.
The only reason he had taken first place in the trial was because the ranking was based solely on destructive power. If it had been the Baiqing Ranking, which judged from multiple aspects…
Ye Su would’ve been number one.
Quan Jiaying waved the Tracing Image away, sat at his desk in a daze for a moment, then got up and strode toward Ye Su’s residence.
But when he arrived, he only saw a young disciple sweeping the courtyard—the place was already empty.
"Senior Brother Quan," the disciple looked up in surprise, eyes full of admiration.
"The people staying here… where are they?" Quan Jiaying asked, holding onto a faint thread of hope.
The disciple followed his gaze to the wide-open door and answered with confusion, "You mean those folks from Qianji Sect? They left early yesterday morning."
They didn’t join Poyuan Sect as inner disciples, so of course they had left with the others.
Only then did Quan Jiaying snap out of it—he had spent too long watching the Tracing Image.
"Senior Brother, were you looking for them?" the disciple asked curiously.
"No," Quan Jiaying shook his head, then turned and walked away.
---
At that moment, Ye Su and the other three were already on their way back to Qianji Sect.
They were still flying by sword, but this time, instead of being chained together with blackiron, they used a large bamboo basket to hold Ming Liu Sha, Xia Er, and Xiyu together.
"When we get back, I’m going to learn sword flight too," Xia Er declared solemnly.
"I’ll—join—in—too," Ming Liu Sha said, squished and uncomfortable.
Xiyu reached into her storage bag and touched her Uneven Blade, the weapon she’d forged. Sword flight was just a term—flying with a blade worked just as well.
"Sword flight isn’t hard," Ye Su stood atop her sword, clearly hearing everything. She controlled the sword steadily as she replied, "Crash into things for a few days and you'll get the hang of it."
"Senior Sister… don’t you think your gift for our new junior brother is a bit stingy?" Ming Liu Sha said in a low voice.
The giant bamboo basket they were squished in? That was Ye Su’s welcome gift for their soon-to-arrive junior brother. They were just testing how stable it was.
"Jiuxuan Peak is way too tall. It’ll be hard for him to get up and down," Ye Su said with confidence. "I’m giving him ten free rides—he’ll definitely be thrilled."
Maybe because they were all children when they were accepted into Qianji Sect, Ye Su just assumed the new junior brother would also be a young kid.
Not even full ownership of the basket—just ten rides? Xiyu touched the tiny pink knife tucked in her hair, forged from scrap material, and thought: Senior Sister’s getting stingier by the day…
"Did you tell Yi Xuan about the new junior brother?" Ye Su asked Ming Liu Sha.
"I—sent—a—message," Ming Liu Sha was busy adjusting himself inside the basket, "he—ignored—me."
Yi Xuan had always been the quiet, aloof type. Everyone was used to it by now.
……
Qianji Sect was unusually lively today.
All the disciples had come out, craning their necks and peeking around, clearly waiting for someone. Even the sect leader and the elders from the other peaks had canceled their lectures, their minds clearly elsewhere.
Ye Su and the others were coming back.
Only one person seemed completely out of the loop.
"Fushi?" Zhang Fengfeng, who was just about to head down from Jiuxuan Peak to welcome his returning disciples, spotted his newly accepted little disciple at the courtyard gate. "Come with me to greet your senior brothers and sisters? They even brought a gift for you."
You Fushi wasn’t wearing the standard black robe of Qianji Sect. He didn’t like the coarse fabric, so he wore a Moonshadow White outer robe instead. As he moved, the material shimmered faintly with silver light.
Anyone with a keen eye could tell at a glance that the robe wasn’t ordinary. But Zhang Fengfeng didn’t pay it any mind.
Wealthy mortals had all sorts of tricks—owning a few rare garments wasn’t that strange. No wonder so many cultivators owed favors to the mundane world.
"Your senior brothers and sisters know Qianji Sect inside out," Zhang Fengfeng said, trying to help the new disciple get familiar with his new home. "Follow them around once they return. Don’t just stay up here on Jiuxuan Peak all the time."
…Know the sect inside out?
He couldn’t even remember where he’d left his own belongings. He’d been stuck on the peak these past few days searching, but maybe he’d thrown them somewhere else years ago.
You Fushi trailed behind Zhang Fengfeng as they made their way down the mountain at a slow pace. Inwardly, he couldn’t help but note how pitifully low the sect leader’s cultivation was.
At the entrance to Qianji Sect’s grand formation—
Ye Su swooped down from the sky. The formation, sensing her identity as a sect disciple, didn’t activate its defenses. The group entered without issue.
"That’s Senior Sister!"
"Senior Sister’s back!"
In an instant, the entire sect buzzed with excitement as crowds of disciples rushed over.
Xia Er leapt out of the large bamboo basket and immediately pulled out spirit stones to distribute among the nearby junior disciples.
"Senior Brother Xia, we haven’t even used up the spirit stones you sent us last time!" someone said, trying to decline.
"Just take them," Ye Su said as she stowed her sword and handed it back to Xia Er. Then she asked the nearby disciples, "Anyone been to Silent Sect recently?"
"We went twice in the past month," a lively junior replied. "And the Silent disciples didn’t try anything sneaky."
Ye Su understood. Xin Xin had probably warned them in advance.
"Master—" Xiyu spotted the sect leader from a distance and had just started to call out when she caught sight of the person walking behind him. She gasped and instinctively backed up, tugging on Ye Su’s sleeve. "Senior Sister, look!"
Ye Su looked at Xiyu in surprise, then followed her line of sight. Zhang Fengfeng was already close.
"Master," Ye Su greeted him, still unaware of anything strange. She caught a glimpse of a moon-white figure behind him and tilted her head slightly to get a better look.
The figure didn’t try to hide at all. With a slight shift of his steps, he walked out from behind Zhang Fengfeng.
Ye Su instantly sensed a hush fall over the crowd around her. A spirit stone slipped from Xia Er’s fingers, rolling to a stop at her feet.
Ugly people were rare in the cultivation world—and Qianji Sect even had someone like Yi Xuan to raise the bar. Their new junior brother, as it turned out, was breathtaking. A red mark between his brows shimmered faintly with a seductive charm, almost unnaturally beautiful, subtly resetting everyone’s standards.
And yet, the figure before them was the embodiment of a different kind of beauty: long black hair, dark eyes, features as if carved from ice and snow, draped in moonshadow-white robes, emanating an ethereal, untouchable aura.
While everyone else was still frozen in awe, Ye Su bent down to pick up the fallen spirit stone. For some reason, a strange old phrase floated into her mind—"Such beauty does not belong to the mortal world—he must be either demon or fox."
Ye Su chuckled softly. That phrase suited Yi Xuan much better. This one…
He had the grace of a phoenix, the elegance of a crane—cold and remote, like a celestial being.
She had no idea why that line had popped into her head just now.
You Fushi recognized her instantly.
That cultivator with the bag full of garbage… is a disciple of Qianji Sect?
With vision that poor, she can refine artifacts? No wonder this sect is in decline.
"This is your new junior brother, You Fushi," Zhang Fengfeng introduced. Then to Ye Su, he added, "Now that you’re all back, show him around when you have time."
"Li—ttle—jun—ior—bro—ther—this—is—a—meet—ing—gift—from—senior—sister," Ming Liu Sha said dramatically, setting the large bamboo basket down in front of him. This was their 'well-prepared' gift—no way they could let Senior Sister’s efforts go to waste.
Ye Su: "…"
"What is this for?" You Fushi asked, poking the basket with a single pale finger.
His voice was cool and smooth, carrying an almost musical quality—like fine porcelain tapping gently together. Ye Su instinctively glanced at him again.
"Senior Sister said you can use this to find her, and she’ll take you flying by sword ten times," Xia Er eagerly explained.
You Fushi raised his long lashes and tilted his head slightly, looking at the mortal. "You’ll take me flying?"
Ye Su denied it on the spot. She stepped forward, retrieved the bamboo basket, and said, "Second Senior Brother misunderstood. That was just a welcome gift for you."
She rummaged through her storage bag—besides talismans and spirit stones, only two artifacts and some reward materials remained.
The Monk's Spade wasn’t suitable for him, and she didn’t want to give away the Mistflower Fang.
In the end, she took out some materials and handed them to her new junior brother. "You can use this for artifact crafting in the future."
You Fushi looked at the item in her hand. It was so poor in quality he didn’t even want to store it. Besides, he didn’t refine artifacts at all. If it weren’t for the thing he needed to find…
Everyone was watching, waiting for him to accept the gift.
You Fushi forced himself to take the material, but silently decided: Next time, he would stuff all his trash straight into this mortal’s storage bag.
"The rest of you can disperse," the Sect Master spoke up, then turned to Ming Liu Sha and the others. "You just got back—go get some rest."
……
"Junior Brother, that’s Senior Sister’s room."
Xiyu watched the new junior brother casually walk into Senior Sister’s room and couldn’t help but remind him.
You Fushi didn’t even look back. He ignored her completely and shut the door behind him.
"Good looks, bad attitude," Ming Liu Sha concluded, judging by the behavior of both their recent junior brothers.
Xia Er immediately objected, "Senior Sister doesn’t have a bad attitude!"
"So… where’s Senior Sister going to sleep tonight?" Xiyu wondered aloud. "I’d better tidy up—she can stay in my room."
Senior Sister had gone to report everything that happened during their journey to the Sect Master. Who knew how she’d react when she returned and found her room occupied?
On the summit of Jiuxuan Peak, in the courtyard—
"The new junior brother hasn’t officially started cultivating yet," the Sect Master said, hands clasped behind his back as he looked up at the tall tree in the courtyard, speaking in a solemn tone. "Guide him well. Help him learn how to draw spiritual energy into his body."
Ye Su exposed him mercilessly, "You just don’t want to do it yourself, do you, Master?"
Zhang Fengfeng flushed with embarrassment. "You talk too much! He’s your responsibility now—no backing out."
Ye Su didn’t mind. "What’s his background, anyway? He doesn’t seem like an ordinary person."
"What else could it be?" Zhang Fengfeng said dismissively. "Probably some young master from a noble family or something."
Otherwise, how could someone walk around with so many expensive-looking things?
"Got it. I’ll teach him when I have time," Ye Su replied casually. She had only asked out of passing curiosity, reminded of something from the original novel.
After the second male lead, Yi Xuan, left the sect, Qianji Sect never accepted any new disciples again—not until its eventual downfall.
You Fushi was like a character who had appeared out of thin air.
Even in the original novel… he was never mentioned at all.
Little Snake: So now even people with poor eyesight can become artifact refiners?