Cultivation Nerd (xianxia)

"Who is it?" she asked.

"I have no idea," I shrugged. "But your enemies would be stupid not to put at least one spy in your team."

In this case, I was putting myself in the shoes of whoever Song Song was against. If there was one thing someone could trust Song Song to be, it was unpredictable. So it would make sense to have someone keep an eye on our dear psycho girl here so she didn't do something like... just decide to lead this team toward one of the rival camps and slaughter them.

"If your enemies did not put a spy in your team, there is nothing to worry about. You will win this, or you would have already won by now," I stated the obvious.

Of course, her enemies were not dumb; we both knew that. One of her enemies was surely her other cousin, the kid who was the Sect Leader's son. Given how the Sect Leader himself had come into power, I doubted he raised a naive son.

Song Song calmed down and sighed. With her sigh, it seemed like everyone else on the team also breathed an internal sigh of relief.

"It seems like the only people I can trust here are you and your cousins," Song Song shook her head.

"Do not trust my cousins," I quickly refuted her. "While they might work for you, they ultimately have the clan's best interests in mind. If betraying you benefits the Liu Clan, then you can be sure they will stab you in the back."

"Oh? Is that so?" Song Song asked rhetorically as an eerie feeling ran up my spine and a strange chill spread through my body. "Then, what about you? Should I trust you? If your cousins have their clan's intentions at heart, what about you?"

Well, I had stumbled into very dangerous waters here. I would have to answer carefully, or I would not take a step further before my head would be rolling at my feet. But at the end of the day, anything other than the truth would be a lie. But I had to be careful how I came off.

"If I were in your place, I would not trust me either, just to be sure," I shrugged. "But there is one thing that you can trust."

"And what is that?" she asked.

"You can trust my lack of strength. I am only a Body Tempering Cultivator, and if I decide to betray you or stab you in the back, you can rip my head off before I can even bring the knife down," I answered with the facts that she could easily prove.

Almost immediately, Song Song put a hand on my shoulder, and I felt a soft Qi run through my body in a split second and leave before it did any harm. She had gotten better at imbuing Qi in someone else's body compared to the last time we did this.

"You truly are a Body Tempering Cultivator and don't have Qi spread through your body like any Qi Gathering Cultivator would," she stated her findings and let go of my shoulder before stating. "I have decided to trust you on this. You haven't lied or led me wrong until now."

"Well, if I were to lie about the traitor, the only benefit a spy would get was making you appear paranoid or crazy…" I carefully thought of my following words and contemplated if I wanted to say such things to her face. Ah, screw it. "But we both know you don't need much help since they already see you like that."

"True," she agreed without any of the anger.

Huh, she was more self-aware about her problems than I expected.

While Song Song looked at everyone in her team like a hawk searching for her prey, I kept my eyes on the one person I knew for a fact would betray Song Song if she ever got the chance, and that was Ye An.

"You can put the array down and return to the others. I need some time to think," Song Song said, waving me away.

"Call me if you need anything," I said before dismissing the silencing array around us with a single thought and returning to the rest of the team.

Unlike before, it seemed like they no longer seemed angry or even thinking of me. Everyone was looking at the ground, not daring to raise their heads to meet Song Song's gaze.

I stayed back with my cousins, who spoke very little the whole way, only occasionally staring at some of the people in the crowd. To be more precise, Liu Bo talked a ton and acted as friendly as always. But the other two were stone-faced and impossible to read.

Slowly, the sky turned dark as we continued on the road. Song Song had not stopped or told anyone after what I had told her. Perhaps telling her was not the best decision, but she needed to know. Because if anything were going to happen to her, this was the perfect time for someone to pull off an assassination and blame it on the monstrous beasts.

Was she even paying attention to her surroundings?

It was weird even thinking about how Song Song could be overthinking something. She was not that kind of person at all and often reprimanded me for doing it.

Instead of calling out to her, I muttered a chant under my breath, and the Qi around me fluttered for a split second. No barrier arose, but it was enough for attentive individuals to notice.

My cousins were the first to sense the irregularity since they were so close to me. Only two other people sensed it after them: Song Song, who immediately turned toward me, and Ye An. The latter's sense of this was a bit worrying since it showed that her Qi senses were recovering, meaning that her cultivation could be recovering, too.

But I had no time to worry about Ye An, and instead, I met Song Song's gaze and pointed at the sky.

She looked up and noticed it was getting dark, and realization dawned in her eyes.

For a group of this size, traveling at night was dangerous. Many monstrous beasts out there would have an advantage or could ambush us. Someone like Song Song might not be in danger, but many would be, and I definitely would also be in danger.
"Everyone, stop!" Song Song ordered, and the group complied. "Tonight, we will set camp along the road and rest. We will set off again Tomorrow as soon as the sun rises."

My cousins immediately turned toward Liu Qian, who removed a string necklace with a bronze ring attached to it. She then put the ring on her pointing finger, causing four backpacks to pop out.

My two cousins and Liu Qian picked up their backpacks with little ado. Liu Qian then glanced at the last backpack, then at me, and then back at the backpack again. "We prepared this for you. We didn't think you would have time to prepare your own, and we assumed Song Song didn't send you a message."

That was considerate of them, and although the backpack might not be needed since I already had my own, I picked it up and unrolled a sleeping bag.

"Thanks," I smiled. "I can set up four tent arrays for all of us. Also, by 'us,' I mean the family and not the whole group."

"No need. If we get better or more convenient things, others might grow jealous. Some might even ask you for help to make something of their own, and if you refuse, it will just create needless conflict," Liu Qian stated matter-of-factly.

The way she spoke about it seemed like she was familiar with such situations. Unlike me, they had no one from the inner sect of the Liu Clan supporting them, so their journey to the inner sect must have been filled with hurdles.

Liu Qian was also tactful in how she handled things. Despite growing up as the princess of the Liu Clan, she seemed like someone worthy of following—a good leader with a good head on her shoulders. If she survived to adulthood, the Liu Clan had a bright future.

"Do you guys need any help starting a fire?" A familiar voice interrupted my bonding time with my cousins.

It was Song Sia, wearing an awkward smile. "I went to help Song Song set up a tent, but she told me to go and wander around being helpful. So here I am! At your service!"

"No need, Lady Sia," Liu Qian shook her head, her nonchalant demeanor present as always, even when speaking to someone so respectfully. "But you are a member of the Song Clan, essentially royalty compared to us. It would be dishonorable if we allowed you to do such menial work."

"As the youngest, that work falls to me," I stepped forward with a smile. "I have a couple of arrays in mind that would help with that."

Despite my standing with Song Song, I was still a junior compared to my cousins. Also, they had helped me with that whole inner disciple problem a while ago, so the least I could do was cook a good meal for them.

Without waiting for any of them to respond, I moved a step away from the rolled bed I had placed on the damp, grassy ground. I put my palm on the earth and felt its wetness.

Starting a fire here was going to be annoying. But I pointed at the ground and muttered a fire barrier array under my breath, and a small red circle formed around a patch of grass just bigger than my head. The ground began steaming as all the water evaporated, and soon after, the now-dry grass caught on fire.

But before I could ask Liu Qian if she had any pans or pits in that storage ring, Song Song's cousin came and sat beside me. She was starry-eyed as she stared at the fire I had started.

"Wow, Song Song was right. You're really good with arrays! Did you memorize an array just in case you needed to start a fire?" Song Sia looked at me with a smile, her eyes gleaming with childlike excitement.

"Something like that," I answered vaguely.

"Oh! Cool! Do you think I can work with this fire..." she scratched her head and uncomfortably smiled. "Despite Song Song telling me to go around doing menial work or something, I brought nothing to start a fire with or anything like that."

"Did you bring cooking tools?" I inquired.

"Of course!" Song Sia smiled brightly and showed me the bronze ring on her finger. A dozen pans and pots popped out in front of her. "Tada! Look at this!"

She had enough space to carry so many pots and pans but brought nothing to start a fire with?

Perhaps Song Song was right; her cousin seemed to lack foresight. She had turned out quite peculiar in her own way for someone who grew up with Song Song.

"Did you bring any meat or other foodstuff?" I asked.

"Yep!" She then took off her strange ring and handed it to me. "You can check it all and take anything you need from in there!"

I raised a questioning brow and examined the storage ring in my hand. It felt and looked like a typical ring; there wasn't even a speck of Qi around it.

How were these things made?

Despite my curiosity, I turned toward Song Sia and clarified, "I can't use Qi to open a storage ring."

"Oh! Sorry about that!" Song Sia hurriedly took back her storage ring and began listing the contents she had brought.

Was she actually this slow, or was it all an act? It made little sense for someone who grew up with Song Song as a friend to be so naive.

Though some people were just born less astute, and no amount of life experience could change that.

If she was acting, then she was an exceptional actress. Also, she would have had to act around Song Song all the time, too, and my psycho friend had an instinct about these things.

Even as Song Sia put everything up and began making some meat stew, she kept up a one-sided conversation with me, unaware of my lingering gaze.

There were no inconsistencies in her acting, not an ounce of suspicion. She hadn't even noticed me looking at her.

From an outside perspective, if someone were a spy, Song Sia fit the description perfectly. She had been with Song Song for a long time and could have kept an eye on her. But at the same time, she did not come from the part of her family connected to the Sect Leader.

"So, how did you and Song Song meet each other?" Sia asked, trying to make some small talk.

"It kind of just happened," I answered vaguely.

She didn't seem to mind the answer and continued talking about food and some recipes she came up with when she was younger.

"By the way, Song Song seems quite happier with you around," Sia remarked. "She seemed more at ease, too."

I raised a questioning brow and looked at Song Song, who was leaning against a tree and staring at the group like a hawk. Then I turned back toward Sia and asked, "Does this look like someone happy?"

Sia chuckled, her voice soft and friendly, nothing like her cousin's. "Yes, Song Song is usually much worse."

After that, she picked up the pot and walked away with a happy leap in her step, calling out to anyone hungry.

What a strange girl...

 

 

 

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