Don't Cause Trouble Chapter 5: Hanging People Under the Sword

In the middle of the cloud-filled sky, Ye Su stood on the sword, controlling it as it wobbled forward. Three iron chains hung beneath the sword, with junior brothers and sisters sitting on them.

After relentless effort and countless collisions, she finally mastered how to fly with the sword. However, the three who hadn't established their foundation couldn't stay stable on the sword, so after a unanimous discussion, Xiyu melted a knife on the spot and fashioned three fine iron chains, which were then tied to the sword.

In the end, Ye Su stood on the sword’s body, flying with the sword, while the three junior disciples hung below the sword, creating this strange sight of "severe overloading."

Ming Liu Sha felt the wind blowing toward them and said with great satisfaction: "So—comfortable—"

Xiyu, who was in the middle, held a small mirror in one hand, her arm wrapped around one of the fine iron chains, and with the other hand, she tried to remove some grass debris from her hair.

After a while, she even pinned a small pink knife to her hair as a hairpin. After finishing all this, she casually asked, "Senior Sister, when will we reach Dinghai City?"

Ye Su, who had been concentrating on controlling the flying sword, suddenly remembered after hearing the third junior sister's question: "Does anyone know the way to Dinghai City?"

"Huh?" shouted the last one, Xia'er, looking up at Ye Su on the sword. "Senior Sister, aren’t you flying toward Dinghai City? We don’t know the way!"

Ye Su: "…" The key point was that she didn’t know the way either.

The four of them only knew the general directions of north, south, east, and west, but they had no idea about the specific route.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Ye Su coughed and asked tentatively, "Does anyone have a map scroll?"

A map scroll could show the route to the destination as long as it was input, and it covered most of the Floating World Continent.

Xiyu looked up: "Senior Sister, a map scroll costs at least two mid-grade spirit stones."

Currently, all their belongings amounted to only one thousand low-grade spirit stones, which were given by the junior sister.

Another silence followed. Then, Ming Liu Sha suddenly pointed to the distance and said, "Someone up ahead!"

"We should ask them." Ye Su said, then immediately sped up to catch up, calling out, "Fellow Daoist, please wait."

Up ahead, a few fellow Daoists were also flying with their swords. It didn’t take long for Ye Su to catch up.

These individuals were all wearing blue Daoist robes, embroidered with sword shadows, so they were likely from the same sect. They all appeared to be young disciples.

Although the cultivation world doesn’t judge age by appearance, one could roughly infer from their eyes that these people were only slightly older than Ye Su and her companions.

The group of people turned upon hearing the sound, and their gazes instinctively landed on the three who were sitting on the iron chains below the sword. They were immediately stunned—could flying like this even be possible?

They stared at the three hanging from the chains, their eyes filled with curiosity and wonder.

They had seen people standing on swords before, but they had never seen anyone hanging from below the sword. It was such an odd sight, yet they couldn't immediately figure out what was wrong with it.

Hanging from the sword... didn’t seem like there was anything wrong with it?

Ye Su hovered at the same level as them, and seeing that they were all staring below, she coughed lightly and asked, "Excuse me, fellow Daoists, do you know the way to Dinghai City?"

At this moment, everyone snapped back to their senses, and one of the young men slid out from the group: "Fellow Daoist, are you heading to Dinghai City?"

Ye Su nodded. "This is our first time leaving the sect, and we don’t have a map scroll. We’re not familiar with the exact location and route to Dinghai City."

"Didn’t your sect prepare map scrolls for you?" one of the others asked curiously.

Ye Su answered directly, "Our sect is currently facing some financial difficulties and hasn’t been able to prepare these for us. If it’s convenient for you, could you lend us a map scroll to take a look?"

There was a slight stir from the group, clearly unable to comprehend how a sect could be so financially strained that they couldn’t even afford a map scroll.

"Of course." The young man took out a map scroll from his Qiankun bag, pushed it toward Ye Su, and handed it over to her.

Ye Su opened the map scroll, poured her spiritual power into it, and wrote "Dinghai City" on it. Instantly, the blank map displayed a bird's-eye view along with several possible routes.

"Thank you, fellow Daoist." After quickly memorizing the routes, Ye Su handed the map scroll back to the young man.

The young man didn’t take it back, however. Instead, he returned the map scroll to Ye Su and smiled. "We have other map scrolls. Since we’ve met, it’s fate. This one is for you and your companions."

Ye Su glanced down at the map scroll, didn’t refuse it, and cupped her hands in thanks. "The disciples of Qianji Sect thank you, fellow Daoist."

She lightly tapped her toes on the sword’s body, and Ming Liu Sha from below quietly fumbled out a wooden token from her Qiankun bag, tossed it upward, and Ye Su caught it.

"Qianji Sect? So you’re from Qianji Sect?" one of the round-faced disciples beside them asked in surprise. "Why don’t your Daoist robes have the sect’s name?"

Five hundred years ago, the robes of Qianji Sect were embroidered with large gold characters spelling 'Qianji Sect,' a feature that made them easily recognizable. However, as the sect declined, they could no longer afford gold thread, and even the fabric had been downgraded. Only the robes of the sect leader and elders had a little bit of gold thread on the collars and cuffs.

Ye Su succinctly responded with one phrase and said again, "Tight on funds."

Not being able to afford a map scroll or embroider their sect's name seemed entirely normal to the people on the other side. They thought to themselves, 'Seeing is believing. Qianji Sect has really fallen to this point. No wonder they’re trying to get by any way they can.'

"Which sect do you belong to?" Ye Su asked.

Although the young man was surprised that they didn’t recognize their robes, he cupped his hands and replied, "We are from Sword Sect, Xu Cheng Yu."

Sword Sect, one of the two major sects. The junior brother would likely join this sect in the future? They happened to run into people from Sword Sect so soon. The disciples here seemed quite nice.

Ye Su then asked for their names in detail. Afterward, she used her spiritual power as a pen to carve a message on a wooden token and handed it to the young man, saying, "Daoist Xu, we’ll be leaving now. Thank you for the map scroll."

The young man instinctively took the flying wooden token. When he looked up again, all he saw was a blur of shadows as the peculiar sword carrying four people instantly disappeared into the eastern direction.

"Senior Brother, what did she give you?" Another round-faced young disciple leaned over to ask.

Xu Cheng Yu looked down at the wooden token in his hand and only then realized that there were characters written on it: 【Owe Sword Sect Xu Cheng Yu, disciple of Qianji Sect, Ye Su.】

Xu Cheng Yu pondered, "Qianji Sect Ye Su…"

There are many ways to fly in cultivation, but non-sword cultivators rarely fly using a sword. However, some weapon smiths, who focus on forging swords, are almost like half-sword cultivators. So, this Daoist Ye is skilled in sword forging?

Their Sword Sect’s sword flight speed could only be compared to that of the Kunlun Sect, and yet the Daoist Ye from earlier, with three people hanging from beneath her sword, was still able to catch up. It was clear that her strength was no ordinary matter.

A female disciple next to him said, "Senior Brother, the people from Qianji Sect are interesting. They actually use chains to hang people from their sword."

Xu Cheng Yu smiled as he recalled the strange sight from earlier. "It’s probably the work of a weapon smith. Alright, let’s continue on our way."

"Understood."

……

Flying with the sword consumed spiritual energy, and Ye Su was still carrying three people. Moreover, they had only recently established their foundations, so they often ran out of spiritual power halfway through their flights, suddenly falling from the sky. They could only rest in place for a while.

After flying intermittently for six days, they finally arrived at Dinghai City.

"Senior Sister, look!" Xia'er pointed to the words on the city gate. "We’re here."

Ye Su bent down to stow the sword and, after returning the fine iron chains to Xiyu, said, "Let’s go inside."

The four of them excitedly walked through the city gates. The crowds were bustling, and sword cultivators could be seen everywhere, each holding a sword. It was far more prosperous than the area beneath Qianji Sect’s mountain.

Especially along the roadside, there were various stalls, some of which were selling freshly made food that smelled incredibly fragrant.

"Senior... Sister... I'm... hungry." Ming Liu Sha stared at a dumpling stall and said slowly.

Having traveled for several days without eating much, they were indeed hungry, so Ye Su approached the stall and asked how much they cost.

"One hundred low-grade spirit stones each." The stall owner opened the steamer lid, and the aroma wafted out even more strongly. "Our dumplings are made with spirit pigs, and the filling contains spiritual qi."

Upon hearing the price, the four of them silently swallowed their saliva. Ye Su turned her head and said, "I think the Pill of Qi Suppression is a good option."

"The Pill of Qi Suppression is both effective and affordable," Xia'er raised her hand in agreement.

"Buy the Pill of Qi Suppression." Xiyu raised her hand as well.

The three of them looked at the silent Ming Liu Sha, who slowly said after a moment, "I... choose... the... Pill... of... Qi... Suppression."

Thus, they gave up the fragrant dumplings and found a shop selling medicinal pills along the way. They went inside to buy the Pill of Qi Suppression.

"What kind of Pill of Qi Suppression would you like?" the shop assistant asked. "We’ve just received a new batch. A single pill can sustain a cultivator in the Nascent Soul realm for ten days. A bottle contains ten pills, and we have various flavors like green peach, honey, and fragrant plum."

Ye Su was hearing for the first time that the Pill of Qi Suppression could come in different flavors. "How much for one?"

"It’s not expensive." The shop assistant raised one finger.

Xia'er immediately said, "Senior Sister, this Pill of Qi Suppression is only one low-grade spirit stone each? No wonder Dinghai City is so famous." The Pill of Qi Suppression they bought near Qianji Sect’s mountain cost fifty low-grade spirit stones each.

The shop assistant's smile faltered for a moment. "Guest, this isn’t Linquan City. This bottle of Pill of Qi Suppression costs one mid-grade spirit stone."

Linquan City was the territory of the Pill Sect, and there were countless alchemist sects there. Naturally, medicinal pills were much cheaper than elsewhere. For example, the Pill of Qi Suppression was considered a basic pill and, it was said, could even be found lying on the ground with no one picking it up.

Xia'er: "…One mid-grade spirit stone?!"

The spirit stones earned by Qianji Sect never pass through the hands of disciples. The sect leader needs them to maintain the protective formation and distribute them to the elders.

Ye Su and the others had only seen a mid-grade spirit stone once, when Ning Qian Yao had shown them one a few years ago. They hadn’t even dared to touch it, and it took ten thousand low-grade spirit stones to exchange for one mid-grade spirit stone. They couldn’t afford this Pill of Qi Suppression.

"How much for your cheapest Pill of Qi Suppression?" Ye Su directly asked the shop assistant.

The shop assistant sized them up. Earlier, he had thought they looked quite respectable and assumed they were from a large sect.

But now, seeing their coarse clothes, he immediately lowered his head.

He turned and pulled out a bottle of the lowest grade Pill of Qi Suppression from the bottom drawer and tossed it onto the table, saying listlessly, "A bottle of twenty pills, one hundred low-grade spirit stones."

Ye Su paid the price, took the twenty pills, and distributed five to each person.

The shop assistant, standing inside, watched her actions with an expression of disdain.

He frowned, shaking his head, not knowing where these poor disciples came from. They bought the lowest grade Pill of Qi Suppression and even divided it into four portions. They weren’t even as well-off as wandering cultivators.

It was a pity, though, that they looked so impressive.

"Senior Sister, there’s a shop across from us selling magic tools," Xiyu tugged at Ye Su’s sleeve. "Shall we go have a look?"

Ye Su ate one of the Pill of Qi Suppression and put the bottle away. "Let’s go."

The four of them walked across with great confidence, exuding a strong sense of presence.

Behind them, the shop assistant who sold pills peeked at their retreating figures, clicking his tongue.

He wasn’t surprised by his misjudgment. These people, at first glance, didn’t look like they came from a poor sect.

They were too confident.