The interrogation process was extremely simple. The entire time, Old Ancestor of Void Abyss discharged lightning, Comrade Shu Tiantian questioned coldly, shocking the bird soul until it almost ascended from its body, wishing it could bite this pair of dog man and dragon woman to death.

Sure enough, Shu Tiantian’s persecution radar had been ringing all the way—she truly had not wronged this group of bird people, because they had indeed come to seize the Medicine God’s inheritance.

This group of bird people came from an upper-realm sect called the Three Saints Sect. They claimed they had come to take the Medicine God’s daughter back, but their tone was extremely arrogant. They emphasized bloodline theory for a full ten minutes. In short, it was:

The Medicine God’s daughter is of mixed blood, we look down on her very much, but there is no helping it—we covet her inheritance and her father’s prestige. Bringing her back to the sect would be of great use. As for what great use? Heh, you mortals are not worthy of knowing.

And then the bird soul that had uttered such punchable remarks… was shocked until it cried.

However, having ancient bloodline flowing through its body was its final pride. It was still very stubborn, insisting on roaring out that derogatory term for mixed blood—

Then they heard Ji Wushu speak carelessly, coolly, “For example, you all, with ancient white-feathered wild chicken blood flowing in you?”

Bird soul: …..

The little medical cultivator immediately sneered, “Not content with being a proper person, insisting on being chickens!”

The bird soul cried, wanting to roar that it was clearly the ancient white-feathered brocade-plumed chicken, but upon thinking about it—still a chicken.

Its final pride wavered on the brink of collapse. And it discovered that this Old Ancestor of Void Abyss practically struck wherever that traitor pointed, yet he still went around outside crying misery about how he was suffering torture. Bah.

Amid its fury, it began trying to sow discord. “Do you know why we suddenly need thousand-year jade marrow? This jade marrow is an ingredient for our Three Saints Sect’s grand alchemist to refine the Heaven-rank Qingxin Pill. It is because miasma has also appeared in the upper realm.”

“Do you know of the saying of dragon miasma? The miasma of Void Abyss, why was it born? And why do you think that this time the upper and lower realms must, at all costs, exterminate him?”

Shu Tiantian raised a question from the soul: “Out of boredom?”

Bird soul: …..

Too infuriating. No, it must break apart this pair of dog man and dragon woman!

“At present, aside from Void Abyss, miasma has appeared in many places in the lower realm, even beginning to spread into the upper realm… It is precisely because this sinful dragon has yet to die. Now the miasma has already begun to evolve, even starting to erode spiritual qi. When spiritual qi grows thin, one cannot advance. Countless cultivators may not even live past a thousand years. Do you know how painful that is?”

In her previous life, even if she worked hard, she could at most live to a hundred. In this life, if she did not diligently cultivate, at the Foundation Establishment stage she would only live about one hundred and eighty years.

She simply could not empathize at all. She even felt flaunted at.

Finally, the bird soul revealed its true purpose in sowing discord.

“As long as that sinful dragon is killed, the source of the miasma will be cut off. If you still have any conscience, if you do not wish to see miasma spread across the three realms and the spiritual essence of cultivation severed, then correct yourself while there is still time and do not keep company with this fiend.”

As its words fell, it was locked onto by a pair of opened crimson-gold eyes. It felt as though some unspeakable terror seized its mind. That killing intent, almost condensed into substance, seemed able to slice its divine soul apart blade by blade.

The long-haired youth suddenly revealed a smile that made one’s hair stand on end toward the bird soul. The bird soul, which had already been determined to die, suddenly felt a tremor rising from the depths of its soul.

“Is that so?” the little medical cultivator asked doubtfully.

The long-haired youth’s hand tightened on the armrest.

“Do you truly think that killing the dragon will resolve the miasma?”

Shu Tiantian only felt that they were talking nonsense. As someone who possessed Withered Wood Meets Spring, she was probably the only one who had guessed the truth. Yet she had always believed that the so-called miasma was merely an excuse. Even if she argued and won against this group, would they truly stop targeting the dragon and Ji Wushu?

“Bird man, have you ever considered a question?” Shu Tiantian sighed. “I am a medical cultivator. The kind that is very strong at alchemy. If miasma spreads everywhere, who benefits the most?”

The bird man hesitated. “Who?”

She said sinisterly, “Of course the ones selling pills! Just think about it—when miasma appears throughout the upper and lower three realms, everyone will need pills. At that time, hehe…”

Bird man: …..

Its soul trembled, simply unable to believe that such a peerless great villain actually existed in this world!

The Dragon Bone Sword also trembled, shivering as it shrank back into its master’s sleeve.

But it sensed that its master’s originally gloomy emotions were melting like ice and snow, the solemn killing intent drawing back, as though the deep winter of the coldest days had turned into warm spring sunshine.

It was simply—gentle winds, bright skies, and clear air.

The Dragon Bone Sword thought, ah, Master, you… have finally gradually become abnormal after a thousand years of torment, haven’t you?

The bird man had never expected Shu Tiantian to also be a great antisocial villain. It was caught completely off guard, but quickly regained composure, revealing immense malice. “You probably don’t know, do you, what the prize of the Alchemy Examination Conference is?”

“It is… dragon sinew.”

As the words left its mouth, its tone carried twisted pleasure.

“The Alchemy Examination Conference will be held after the thousand-year calamity. By then, whether that sinful dragon will still be alive is already a question. Perhaps at that time, there will be even more prizes—dragon horns, dragon scales… whether he can survive even until next month is already a question.”

It was clear this bird man was seeking death wholeheartedly, trying to provoke Ji Wushu into granting a swift end. But Ji Wushu was very calm—so calm it was almost frightening.

He lowered his eyes to look at the meridians in his hand, as though he could still feel the lingering pain of having his sinews pulled and his core taken.

The thousand-year calamity was fact.

Whether he could survive past next month… was also fact.

But so what?

The long-haired youth revealed a smile of extreme mockery, and extreme coldness.

Shu Tiantian slammed the table and stood up, furious. “Have you laughed enough?”

The long-haired youth’s cold smile stiffened: …?

The little medical cultivator, usually good-tempered, had grown far more irritable after coming to Void Abyss. At this moment, she stared at the soul inside the lantern and said decisively,

“You will not succeed. You will not obtain the Medicine God’s inheritance, and you will absolutely not be able to kill that dragon.”

“Do you know why?”

She braced herself against the table, her aura instantly shooting to one meter eighty, and enunciated each word to the lantern—

“Because that dragon is—mine!”

The world fell silent.

Even the Dragon Bone Sword trembled three times from the shock.

The bird soul was silent for a moment too, then erupted into thunderous laughter.

It no longer mocked Shu Tiantian’s overestimation of herself. Instead, it seized upon the words “is mine” and began to ridicule wildly. “Heh, do you truly think that sinful dragon would listen to you? Your cultivation is so low, on what grounds do you think this sinful dragon would acknowledge you as its master?”

Shu Tiantian looked baffled. “Why would I need him to acknowledge me as his master?”

The bird soul choked. “Do you know that this sinful dragon cannot be raised tame, will never acknowledge a master? He will never bow his head and submit to you. If he cannot acknowledge you as master, how will you use him?”

The long-haired youth tightened his grip on the teacup.

Shu Tiantian was puzzled. “What do I need him to bow his head and submit to me for?”

“You are a pill cultivator. Do you not know that taking even a tiny bit from a dragon’s body can help you refine divine pills and attain the Great Dao? Do not tell me you are pure-hearted and have no desires, heh…”

But when he saw Shu Tiantian’s expression, his cold sneer faltered. What kind of expression was that?

Shu Tiantian: That’s a dragon. I already have a dragon. If I still abuse him, am I even human?

Just think about it—at eighteen, receiving her first dragon in life. She was practically about to spin in circles on the spot from happiness, all right? If she could heal the dragon, and occasionally have him take her flying through the sky for a spin…

“It’s not that I have no desires…”

The dragon, the sword, and the soul all felt their hearts jump.

Without thinking, she blurted out her true thoughts, “I just want to occasionally touch and cuddle…”

Kiss and hug, maybe sleep together or something… wuwuwu, life would be complete!

Soul: !!!

Sword: !!!

Dragon: …..

The Dragon Bone Sword swore it had just seen the dragon’s horns emerge!

The bird man was furious. “Heh, so you covet beauty. Who knows whether you can even handle it.”

Shu Tiantian felt that this person spoke too insincerely, self-righteously at that. But she was still extremely angry. Suddenly she revealed a sinister smile. “I heard that your upper realm is particularly lacking in pills, and especially lacking pills that can resist miasma and stimulate vitality, is that right?”

Shu Tiantian took out everything from her storage bag and laid it out in a row—Qingxin Pills, Jingsha Pills…

That clean, surging vitality from Withered Wood Meets Spring caused the entire room to ripple with a strong pill fragrance. The bird man’s eyes widened. Vitality! It was vitality! These pills all contained surging vitality!

That was something only the Medicine God could—

He was shocked and doubtful, his gaze filled with greed and longing—

Then Shu Tiantian’s expression changed. She gathered all the bottles back into her arms and raised an eyebrow.

“See? These are all little snacks I refined for my dragon at home. I will give them all to him—none for you!”

Bird man: Ahhh dog dragon woman! Dog dragon woman!

Very quickly, the bird man died.

The entire small courtyard returned to silence.

Tonight was destined to be a world where only Shu Tiantian could fall asleep.

In the medical hall, the lights were brightly lit.

Among the envoys from the upper realm, only the leading cultivator surnamed Chu remained alive. He struggled to report back to his sect. Knowing that he had failed his mission, he could only seize the opportunity of Ling Ruoshui.

Fortunately, Ling Ruoshui was also a medical cultivator and took the initiative to care for this sole envoy from the upper realm, and so she toiled through the entire night.

But beneath the moonlight, the pink-robed maiden thought of her plans for tomorrow’s auction and revealed a radiant smile. She believed that as long as the envoy saw her pill formula, the position of the Medicine God’s daughter would naturally be secured by her.

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

In the Tianji Sect’s courtyard, the lights blazed brightly.

Most cultivators used the time for sleep to cultivate, but on this night, everyone in the Tianji Sect had no heart for cultivation.

Immortal Lord Chixiao sat upon a roof beam, repeatedly rubbing a small lotus pouch, and finally let out a faint sigh.

And in that great courtyard where no one was within a hundred meters—

While Shu Tiantian murmured in her sleep, she suddenly touched a familiar dragon horn. Filled with joy, she hugged and rubbed against it, and so this being that should have been a ferocious beast simply coiled around her.

Though it was clearly an extremely dangerous strangling posture, full of possessiveness, it was also cautious, rubbing the dragon horn into her palm.

In her dream, Shu Tiantian felt very happy, yet also a little confused—wasn’t Longlong sleeping in the flower field?

She probably did not know that a dragon’s divine soul could naturally transform into a human, and could also transform into a dragon soul.

But the cunning dragon, the incomparably fierce dragon… merely coiled around her, lying at her side, accompanying her into sleep.

Shu Tiantian probably also did not know—

This was a very lonely dragon.

For a thousand years it had walked alone, speaking to itself, even pulling out its own bones to keep itself company.

Only because heaven and earth were desolate, and it stood solitary and alone.

He was the last god, and the world’s abandoned child, the final remnant of a race that should have long since perished, the last lingering lone soul left in the mortal world.

Yet what had once been cast aside like worn-out shoes was now carefully treasured; what had once been ignored by all was now covered with wholehearted affection.

The delicate flower had once disliked its barrenness, yet it blossomed into lush abundance, trembling its petals in return for her impoverished soil. And so it rejoiced, cautiously offering its own nourishment—because that was its flower.

It has a flower now.