Why do you always want to be my Taoist partner?

Jiang Li really wanted to persuade her a few more times with all his heart, but after thinking about it, he gave up. The head is determined by the butt. He is not Mu Bingning, so naturally he cannot understand Mu Bingning's thoughts.

This was her responsibility as the Holy Maiden of Xuantian Dao Ji Zong, so Jiang Li naturally couldn't stop her.

He looked at the cold-looking girl in front of him and sighed helplessly.

She was only sixteen years old, but she had to shoulder these responsibilities that she shouldn't have. He didn't know whether to find it ridiculous or to pity her. He asked tentatively, "Is it really that important?"

Mu Bingning nodded, turned around and walked towards the depths of the dense forest in front of her.

Jiang Li said quietly behind her, "If you die, who will take over the future of Xuantian Dao Ji Zong?"

Mu Bingning's steps stopped, but she couldn't speak. Jiang Li continued to persuade her, "Isn't it because of this that the Sect Master didn't let you go? Why do you want to waste her hard work?"

Mu Bingning turned her head and looked at his face, but her steps did not hesitate at all.

After she took several steps, she suddenly stopped and turned her head.

Jiang Li thought she had changed her mind, but she just looked at his face seriously and spoke to him softly.

"Thank you."

..............................

Mu Bingning initially focused her attention on the soul-burning flower.

The various areas in the Zhongzhou Secret Realm are marked on the map, so they are not difficult to find. The Soul-Burning Flower is a good thing in high-resource areas that can be used to temper the soul. However, there is a Virtual Phoenix Bird next to each Soul-Burning Flower. The Virtual Phoenix Bird guards the Soul-Burning Flower. With the help of the miraculous effects of the Soul-Burning Flower to practice, the power of the soul will be particularly strong.

Mu Bingning originally wanted to steal the Soul-Burning Flower secretly while the Void Phoenix went to drink water, but she had just walked a few meters closer to the Soul-Burning Flower when a phoenix cry that almost tore her soul apart rang in her ears. The Void Phoenix was already flying towards her at an extremely fast speed. The pain of her soul being torn apart made her unable to react at all. She could only see the flames burning on the firebird, gushing towards her, as if it would devour her in the next moment.

It was clearly a life-and-death crisis, but she found that no matter how hard she tried, she could not move her body at all. She couldn't tell whether she was desperate or afraid at this moment. The fireworks kept getting bigger in her sight, as if the world was about to fall down.

"Fool."

An inappropriate voice sounded beside her, but it made her feel extremely relieved. She was pulled into a warm embrace, and the next second she was grabbed by the neck and ran away like a chicken. She ran for an unknown distance until she finally stopped hearing the cry of the phoenix bird. She came back to her senses, but her soul was still a little broken at that time, so her expression was dull. Jiang Li stretched out his hand in front of her and waved it, with a curious look on his face, "You are a fool to begin with, you won't become a big fool, right?"

Even though he was saying teasing words, Jiang Li still took out the elixir used to nourish the soul from his storage ring, moved close to her lips, pried her lips open with his fingers, and forcefully fed her the elixir.

Jiang Li's medicine was very effective. The disease was cured immediately. Mu Bingning's eyes soon regained clarity. Jiang Li sat opposite her and said in a gentle tone, "Tell me, why are you so stubborn?"

Mu Bingning looked at the gentle expression of the young man opposite her, but she couldn't say a word.

She is the daughter of the sect leader and has shouldered the fate of the future of Xuantian Dao Ji Zong since she was born. Therefore, she has been practicing sword very diligently since she was young. Apart from practicing sword every day, she is also comprehending sword, practicing, and discussing sword. She has very little time for herself.

In fact, she didn't love swordsmanship, but no one had ever asked her whether she liked it or not. Her mission was to become the number one swordsman among the younger generation of Xuantian Dao Ji Zong.

But practicing sword skills can also be tiring, and loneliness can drive people crazy. On countless lonely nights, she practiced sword skills under the moonlight until she was exhausted. She lay alone on the bluestone in the yard, with the light of the stars and the moon falling on her body, so cold that it made her bones ache.

She is Mu Bingning, the envy of all cultivators, the Bingning Fairy of Xuantian Dao Ji Zong. Everyone has seen her glamorous and dazzling halo, but no one has ever seen the fragile girl gritting her teeth in the middle of the night, trying hard not to let tears fall.

Jiang Li was waiting patiently, but Mu Bingning said nothing in the end. She turned her face away, not wanting Jiang Li to see her slightly red eyes.

At this moment, Jiang Li whispered in her ear in a helpless but still gentle and friendly tone, "I am not you. I don't need to bear the mission of Xuantian Dao Jizong, so I have never been as hard as you, so I can't empathize with you, but I always see a gloomy aura from you."

"You have to respond to the expectations of the sect master as well as the expectations of all the disciples of Xuantian Dao Ji Zong. The disciples all think that you are high and mighty and dare not get close to you. You practice swordplay all day long, so I guess you don't have much time to play like other disciples. Practicing swordplay is such a boring thing. Anyone who practices for more than ten years will feel painful. Even if it's no longer painful, it's just because you're numb."

Jiang Li took out a candy from his storage ring, stretched out his hand and gently poked her shoulder. When she turned around, he stuffed the candy into her hand and said, "Would you like to try it? It's blueberry flavored and very sweet."

Mu Bingning listened to him and carefully put the candy into her mouth. Jiang Li did not lie to her, it was really sweet.

"Where is this candy sold?"

She likes to eat sweet things very much, but no one knows even this little secret. She would only buy a little candy secretly, and eat it secretly when she was too tired from practicing sword skills.

But she had never eaten such delicious candy.

Jiang Li grabbed a handful of candies and stuffed them into her hands. "These are all for you. Let's get through the next few days in the Zhongzhou Secret Realm safely and don't put ourselves in danger again, okay?"

Mu Bingning stared blankly at the colorful candies in her hands. Perhaps Jiang Li’s words made her heart beat for a moment, but she subconsciously recalled the sect master’s expectant and sad eyes.

She thought of the time when she practiced sword late at night, and the moonlight in the night. The moonlight always fell behind her, urging her not to stop.

In the end, she tried hard to return all the candies to Jiang Li, but unfortunately Jiang Li didn't want them. He just sighed helplessly and touched her head.

"Come on, I'll take you to find a snow-blooming dark flower."

Mu Bingning slowly raised her head to look at him. The young man in front of her had a helpless look on his face, but his eyes were still gentle after all.

The tip of her nose suddenly felt a little sore. Jiang Li deliberately walked in front of her without looking back once. Mu Bingning was behind him, gently wiping her tears with the back of her hand, trying hard not to make any sound.

He took Mu Bingning and hid in the far north for a whole day. Finally, he caught the giant eagle that guarded the Snow Dark Lotus when it went out to mate. He used a formation that could completely conceal his aura, stole the lotus, and then escaped.

Afterwards, the two of them left the Zhongzhou Secret Realm. Jiang Li told Mu Bingning to keep everything in there secret. He didn't want to become the target of public criticism because he had no identity or background. Mu Bingning agreed.

The subsequent story is known to many people in Xuantian Dao Ji Zong, and is talked about with great relish.

Jiang Li, the second best in Hidden Sword Peak, pursued Mu Bingning, the saint girl of Xuantian Dao Ji Zong, but was eventually humiliated by Mu Bingning in public. Since then, Jiang Li has been devastated and became a decadent prodigal son. He neglected his cultivation and became a laughing stock among many male disciples.

Chapter 38: Chapter See you again

Bai Sheng's voice brought Mu Bingning back to reality from her memories.

"What is Senior Sister Bing Ning thinking about?"

Mu Bingning came back to her senses. She looked at Bai Sheng in front of her and was silent for a moment. "Do you want to hear how I met him?"

Bai Sheng naturally nodded hurriedly.

So Mu Bingning told her the story, how they met in the Zhongzhou Secret Realm. The story started and ended in the Zhongzhou Secret Realm. As for what happened later, Mu Bingning did not mention a word.

Bai Sheng did not ask any further questions. She looked into Mu Bingning's eyes, which were still a little cold.

Four years have passed since then. She is no longer the little girl who appears cold but is actually fragile. She has long become indestructible and has truly become the first sequence of the Xuantian Dao Ji Sect. She is no less capable than the saints and saintesses of the other two sects.

Mu Bingning finished her story, so she stood up and said, "Jiang Li has flirted with many women in Xuantian Dao Jizong over the years, but what he said is indeed true. He has never practiced dual cultivation with any of his junior sisters or senior sisters in the true sense."

"Every woman he pursued rarely lasted more than a week, but you are a special case."

"If he really loves you wholeheartedly, he will be a good support and a good match for you. As for what he is thinking in his heart, only you can figure it out. I will not advise you to leave him. Everything is your own choice."

Mu Bingning took a deep breath, and her eyelashes trembled slightly. For some reason, her heart, which had been silent for a long time, suddenly twitched inexplicably and felt a little painful.

Bai Sheng's thoughts were exposed by Mu Bingning. She lowered her head slightly and whispered, "Senior Brother Jiang Li... doesn't like me."

Mu Bingning did not say anything else. She looked up at the sky. Raindrops were faintly falling from the gray sky. She walked towards the gate of the courtyard and held up the umbrella in her hand. "Who knows what will happen in the future?"

She turned her head, smiled self-deprecatingly, and walked into the rain with an umbrella.

..........................................

Mu Bingning returned to her courtyard.

As the first sequence of Xuantian Dao Ji Zong, she certainly has her own courtyard, and her courtyard is located on the center of the spiritual vein, which is the place with the most abundant spiritual energy. She returned to her courtyard and came to her room, but her expression seemed a little distraught.

She came to her cupboard, opened it, and carefully took out a box. In the box was a stack of neatly arranged candy wrappers and a few scattered candies. Her hands were trembling as she picked up one of them. However, the candies had become sticky because they had been stored for too long. Even so, she still tore open the candy wrapper with trembling hands and stuffed the candy into her mouth.

Those were the products Jiang Li purchased from the system, and their shelf life was only that long. Moreover, they had been stored for so many years, so the taste had already deteriorated. At this moment, Mu Bingning hugged the box tightly, tears streaming down from the corners of her eyes, soon soaking her cheeks. She squatted down and curled up like a helpless child.

....................................

When Jiang Li woke up, it was already evening outside the window.

The rain had not stopped yet. He sat up from the bed, stretched, then went to the table and continued to study his talisman paper and formation plate. These were the only two serious things he was doing.

The way of talisman paper and the way of formation are also divided into nine grades from one to nine. Above the ninth grade is Xuanhuang Ditian, above the heaven grade is Jue, and above Jue grade is sainthood.

However, saint-level talisman compilers and formation masters only exist in legends. It is rumored that the fallen Dark Moon Immortal had the opportunity to touch the threshold of the saint level, but unfortunately he fell for unknown reasons and was besieged by the lords of various domains, and eventually died.

Compiling the talisman and drawing the formation were like going to jail. After completing them, Jiang Li let out a long sigh of relief, stood up and walked to the corridor on the second floor. The sky outside was already completely dark. There were no stars or moon tonight. Jiang Li slightly activated some spiritual energy and opened all the fluorite in the bamboo building. Looking up again, the raindrops all over the sky looked like a sky full of stars.

March is almost over and April is about to come. At the beginning of the month, he will also prepare to complete his sect mission. As an inner disciple of Xuantian Dao Ji Zong, every inner disciple must complete an assessment task within a month. By completing the task, they can also obtain sect contribution points, which can be used to exchange for resources for practice.

However, the tasks of Xuantian Dao Ji Zong are not simple. Most of them involve hunting ferocious beasts, dealing with evil spirits, or picking spiritual plants. In order to ensure absolute fairness, the tasks are assigned randomly. If there are more difficult tasks, they will be assigned to several disciples to complete together.

Jiang Li witnessed the decline of Xuantian Dao Ji Zong in these years. After all, he had been in Xuantian Dao Ji Zong for fourteen years and had lived a good life in these years, so he had a lot of feelings for Xuantian Dao Ji Zong. It was like his home. Although he would occasionally have conflicts with his fellow disciples, they were just conflicts and would not lead to the loss of lives.

He quite liked the atmosphere of Xuantian Dao Ji Zong. It was much better than going down the mountain every year to explore the land of fortune and engaging in intrigue and deception with those independent cultivators.

This was also the reason why he chose to help Mu Bingning four years ago. Mu Bingning was the only daughter of the leader of Xuantian Dao Ji Sect. If she had died in the Zhongzhou secret realm back then, Xuantian Dao Ji Sect would have become even more decadent.

So Jiang Li chose to help.

In fact, he had thought about stepping forward and working hard to gain more resources for Xuantian Dao Ji Zong, but after returning from the Zhongzhou Secret Realm, he also had some secrets of his own.

If he had a choice, he actually didn't want to wait for so many years in the early stage of foundation building.

..........................................

The next morning.

Jiang Li got up very early and went to the inner sect where tasks were assigned to each disciple. What surprised Jiang Li was that, in addition to many senior and junior sisters greeting him along the way, there were also many male disciples who looked at him with strange eyes.

He didn't care and soon got the bamboo tube for his task this month.

His cultivation was at the initial stage of foundation building, so the tasks he got were generally not too difficult. Jiang Li unfolded the bamboo tube, which read:

Search for clues about the thirty-six children who went missing in Meihua Town and its three nearby towns within three months. Depending on the clues obtained, you will receive ten to one hundred sect contribution points.

Candidates for this mission: Jiang Li from Hidden Sword Peak and Bai Sheng from Extreme Sword Mountain.

There was a map of Meihua Town attached to the back of the bamboo tube. Jiang Li read it silently and memorized it.

Thirty-six children disappeared within three months, so there is a high probability that some evil cultivator is at work.

Evil cultivators are different from those in orthodox cultivation schools. Most of their cultivation is based on plundering, plundering the flesh and blood and souls of mortals in order to increase their cultivation.

In the Canglan Domain, evil cultivators would run rampant every once in a while. The one that caused the most profound impact and caused the most sensation was seven years ago. In order to break through to the Mahayana realm, the leader of the Blood Soul Sect activated a top-grade formation in the Southern Domain and sacrificed the blood of 200,000 ordinary people to successfully break through.

Because the impact of this incident was so great, forces from several domains joined forces to once again carry out a sweep against the evil cultivators. Unfortunately, they were ultimately unable to find the Blood Soul Sect's leader. But at least after this sweep, the evil cultivators were no longer so rampant.

But these filthy sewer rats are always there.

Jiang Li put away the bamboo tube and walked towards Bai Sheng's courtyard.

....................................

Bai Sheng got up very early today and started braiding her hair in front of the mirror. After hesitating for a moment, she changed into the moon-white dress that Jiang Li had given her before. Then she got up to feed the rabbits and sat quietly in the yard until there was a knock on the door.

She hurriedly ran to open the door, and Jiang Li outside smiled at her.

"It seems that Junior Sister Bai Sheng and I have a great affinity."

As he spoke, he took out the bamboo tube containing the task and handed it to Bai Sheng. Bai Sheng took the bamboo tube and read it carefully, then raised his head and looked at Jiang Li.

"Shall we set off tonight?" Jiang Li asked.

Bai Sheng nodded, and then Jiang Li handed her the wooden sword, "Practice sword fighting first."

Today is the fourth day that the two have been practicing sword skills.

Jiang Li could clearly feel that Bai Sheng had made a lot of progress. There was not much he could teach Bai Sheng, and the rest could only rely on Bai Sheng to study hard on his own. Today he still practiced sword for an hour. After an hour, Bai Sheng's body was already a little shaky.

Jiang Li walked up to her and opened his arms generously. After Bai Sheng hesitated for a moment, she fell into Jiang Li's arms.

Jiang Li picked her up gently and asked, "Where is the bath?"

Bai Sheng pointed her little hand in the direction of the bathing pool. Jiang Li took her to the bathing pool in the backyard and put her on the steps of the bathing pool. "I'll wait for you outside."

....................................

Jiang Li sat under Bai Sheng's eaves, waiting quietly.

The sky was still gloomy today, and the feeling of the wind blowing on his body was very comfortable. Jiang Li leaned lazily on the chair, but he never expected that there would be a knock on the door at this moment. He came to the door and opened it.

Not only he was surprised, but also Mu Bingning who was standing outside the door.

Mu Bingning was wearing a light blue chest-length skirt today, and there seemed to be some raindrops on her crystal collarbone. Jiang Li then realized that it was raining. The two of them stood inside and outside the door, both silent for a second or two, and then looked at each other for a moment.

Jiang Li spoke first, "Senior Sister Mu, Bai Sheng is taking a bath. If you want to see her, you have to wait a while."

His expression was calm, without any hatred or regret. Mu Bingning's eyes finally moved away from his face, but her face was still as cold as eternal ice.

"Why are you here at Bai Sheng?"

"I'm here to practice swordplay with Junior Sister Bai Sheng." Jiang Li answered innocently.

The two looked at each other for a long time, and Mu Bingning opened her pink lips slightly, "Bai Sheng is simple-minded, you... can't treat her like other women."

"Okay." Jiang Li did not make any excuses for himself, but nodded and agreed.

Mu Bingning looked at him one last time, turned around, and left Bai Sheng's courtyard.

Jiang Li also returned to the recliner and continued to look at the rain in front of him, tapping the armrests of the chair with his fingers, not knowing what he was thinking.