Chapter 189 (Part 2): Doesn’t the Saintess Have the Right to Go Without Socks?

“I’ll cooperate. After all, aside from my status and strength as the Saintess, I have no other strengths,” she replied with a smile.

The Spirit Emperor’s expression clearly became strained. She would have felt much better if Hua Jian hadn’t said that.

“Can I make some slight revisions to a few of the answers? I feel some of them don’t suit me,” Hua Jian asked next.

“Which ones?”

A vine extended from Hua Jian’s arm, traced a couple of lines on the paper, and wrote down a new set of answers.

After finishing, she handed the paper back to the Spirit Emperor, and sure enough, the Spirit Emperor’s expression became quite difficult to read.

Her revised answers weren’t too excessive—the meaning hadn’t changed much—but the word choice and phrasing were much more in line with her personal style.

They were rather irritating, like a smug little brat standing in front of you shouting “Weakling~ Weakling~” making you want to teach her a proper lesson.

Was this the true nature of the Saintess? The Spirit Emperor couldn’t help but take another look at Hua Jian. After seeing her revisions to the paper, her opinion of Hua Jian… actually improved!

‘So you’re not really a good person either. You’re just pretending to be one. Still a little act of playing innocent, but not as bad. I forgive you.’

The Spirit Emperor thought she had figured out Hua Jian’s true personality. After learning her real nature, she pulled her slightly out-of-control expression back together.

“The Qian Family is our Wanling Sect’s long-standing ally. Please be a bit more polite, Saintess,” she said, rejecting Hua Jian’s revisions to the paper.

Hua Jian’s tone might have been fine when used against other Magic Path sects or the Sacred Sects, but it wasn’t polite toward the Qian Family. She had to refuse.

“Tch.”

Oh, now she was upset? If Hua Jian was unhappy, the Spirit Emperor was happy. She wanted nothing more than to see this Saintess, who had appeared out of nowhere, get put in her place.

The position of Wanhua Saintess had been vacant for so long, and then suddenly, four years ago, it fell onto the head of an unknown little girl. The Wanhua Valley had gone all out promoting her.

She hadn’t even shown her face, but her portrait had already spread everywhere—even the Central Continent knew what the Wanhua Saintess looked like.

The image of Hua Jian on that Immortal Maiden Ranking had been leaked from the Wanhua Valley.

The Valley’s intent was clear: they wanted to brand Hua Jian with their mark completely.

Jade Pool and the Wanling Sect had also tried to control the rampant rumors, but they couldn’t openly step forward to clarify things for Hua Jian.

They couldn’t exactly announce to the world that Hua Jian was actually a promising girl the Sacred Sects had their eyes on first, only for the Wanhua Valley to snatch her away through underhanded schemes during the Ascension Gathering?

That would be too shameful. Where would the Sacred Sects’ face be?

They could only secretly order the Guardian Dao Department and their disciples not to discuss these matters, trying to minimize the impact.

But the effect of this was minimal at best. The Sacred Sects could control the Central Continent, but could they control the Four Regions?

If they forced a ban, it might cause even bigger trouble, and worse rumors might spread. That would be hard to handle.

So they had to swallow this bitter loss and secretly plan how to snatch Hua Jian back when the time came.

After all, the current Wanhua Saintess was only known through her portrait. No one had seen Hua Jian’s real appearance.

When they stole her, they could just point at her and claim she wasn’t the Wanhua Saintess, and it wouldn’t be a big problem.

That was the idea of the Sacred Sects. Naturally, the Wanhua Valley would do the opposite. They now wanted Hua Jian to walk around outside as much as possible.

That way, everyone would know what the Wanhua Saintess looked like, and it would be harder for the Sacred Sects to secretly pick her up later.

The Wanhua Valley’s Spirit Emperor naturally had no idea about these behind-the-scenes conflicts.

She only saw the Wanhua Valley’s special treatment of Hua Jian—something none of the veteran disciples with the Hua surname had ever enjoyed.

Before this, even Hua Xinhu, who had been nurtured by the Wanhua Valley all the way, hadn’t been treated like the apple of their eye like Hua Jian.

The most obvious sign was that Hua Xinhu, who used to be the center of attention, had become just one of the stars around the moon after Hua Jian arrived.

And yet, Hua Xinhu actually seemed to enjoy it, licking up to her with enthusiasm.

What a shameless vixen!

This Spirit Emperor considered herself not that kind of person.

She would fight to the end against a predestined Saintess like Hua Jian, which was why she gave her such a hard time.

If it weren’t for knowing that Hua Jian was favored now, she would certainly have made things difficult for Hua Jian along the way, letting her know that in the Wanhua Valley, even the Saintess wasn’t invincible.

“Saintess, you are the face of our Wanhua Valley. I hope you won’t lose face in front of the Qian Family,” the Spirit Emperor said, pointing at Hua Jian’s feet covered in white socks. “For example, that—you’d better put it away first.”

A vein bulged on Hua Jian’s forehead. ‘You people of the Wanhua Valley are all crazy. Why is everyone staring at my feet?’

‘What’s wrong with the Saintess wearing socks because she’s cold?! Does becoming the Saintess mean she loses the right to wear socks?!’

‘This is ridiculous!’

“I think going to meet the Qian Family with nothing on would be even more impolite…”

To be fair, everyone else was dressed neatly. If only she was dressed like this, the one with the problem would obviously be her, right?

This rebuttal made the Spirit Emperor pause for two seconds. After imagining the meeting scene, she found that what Hua Jian said was indeed true.

But what did that have to do with her wanting to make Hua Jian uncomfortable? It wasn’t like she’d be the one embarrassed.

“But this is how you should look as the Saintess. That’s how you appear in the portrait,” the Spirit Emperor said earnestly.

‘That portrait was completely baseless to begin with! How long had it been since Hua Jian came out of the Fruit Shell? There’s no way she had time to have someone paint that kind of portrait!’

In fact, that image was generated by the Wanhua Valley using Hua Jian’s figure and face, combined with the Spiritual Garment they were making for her at the time.

It wasn’t that she put on the clothes first and then had someone paint her—it was the other way around: the portrait came first, and then she put on the clothes to cosplay the portrait of herself.

So the person who painted that on the spot was definitely a pervert. How did they come up with the detail of bare feet?

Who had that stroke of inspiration?

It probably could only be that dead fox vixen.

“I don’t think there’s any problem. No need to say more,” Hua Jian cut off the topic forcefully, indicating that this was something she could decide herself.

If she had the guts, she could report her to her parents. Hua Jian didn’t believe the Wanhua Valley Master would make trouble for her over such a trivial matter.

The Spirit Emperor’s face darkened at Hua Jian’s shameless attitude. This entitled, spoiled behavior was irritating every time she saw it.

But what Hua Jian did wasn’t really a big problem. The instructions she had received about Hua Jian didn’t say she couldn’t wear socks when meeting people.

It just told her to watch over Hua Jian and not let her do anything too outrageous.

And this… obviously wasn’t that outrageous.

She could only swallow this bitter anger and jot down a mental note against Hua Jian.

Because of this exchange, the atmosphere between the two on the journey became even more tense.

By the time the Qian Family Main City appeared before them, they weren’t even speaking to each other.

Compared to the various northern cities she had seen along the way, the Qian Family Main City was much larger and clearly divided into two layers—inner and outer.

This was somewhat similar to Ascension City, but unlike Ascension City, there was no barrier between the inner and outer city here—at least not an obvious one.

The massive city had over a dozen gates scattered around its walls.

An icy river flowed past the city, and the lake surface had completely frozen over. Some cultivators seemed to be sparring on top of it.

A long queue of cultivators waiting to enter the city lined up at the gates.

None dared to cause trouble, because fully armed guard cultivators stood right beside them.

If anyone made a move, they would be subdued immediately.

These guard cultivators didn’t hold back. If you were killed by them, there was nowhere to argue.

“This is the largest city in the Northern Region, Frozen Winter City. All Five Great Sacred Sects have people stationed here, so we can’t enter through the main gate,” Hua Xinrui whispered in explanation to Hua Jian.

The Qian Family held a transcendent status in the Northern Region. Even the Five Great Sacred Sects would give them some face.

Having a station in Frozen Winter City was a special privilege the Sacred Sects granted to the Qian Family.

If something major happened in the Northern Region, the Sacred Sects would consult the Qian Family first, generally not acting unilaterally.

Likewise, if the Qian Family ran into trouble, the Sacred Sects would lend aid.

But because of this, Hua Jian’s group couldn’t enter the city openly. Their identities were still Magic Path—not people who could walk under the sunlight.

Besides, the line at the main gate was so long. The Wanhua Valley were guests after all—they couldn’t make these honorable guests wait in line like everyone else, right?

So the Qian Family had arranged a hidden passage specifically for the Wanhua Valley cultivators, allowing them to bypass the queue and enter the city quietly.

This passage would not appear normally. It only showed up when both sides used the corresponding techniques—meaning it only opened when both parties agreed.

The Wanhua Valley couldn’t open the passage on its own, which was the Qian Family’s precaution against them.

In the Northern Region, one could never let their guard down, even if the two families had been allies for thousands of years.

Stopping in front of a wall that seemed to have no path, the Wanhua Valley Spirit Emperor stepped forward and took out a wooden flower-shaped Token from her chest.

A multicolored glow shot out from the Token, breaking the Illusion Technique that covered the area.

The hidden passage specially opened for the Wanhua Valley cultivators was quite spacious—it could easily accommodate over ten people standing side by side.

And the Qian Family cultivators were already waiting inside the passage.

After opening the passage, the Token in the Wanhua Valley Spirit Emperor’s hand turned to ashes.

It could only be used once—this was an unwritten rule between the Wanhua Valley and the Qian Family.

A young-looking white-haired girl stood at the front of the welcoming party.

She bowed slightly to the Wanhua Valley group, then strode over to Hua Jian and threw an arm around her neck.

“Still remember your big sister?”

“Sister Feixue, please don’t—that’s not good…”

The moment she saw that white-haired girl, Hua Jian knew trouble was coming.

Sure enough, this Qian Family girl, whom she had met once before, walked straight over as soon as she saw her, flaunting their friendly relationship in front of everyone from both the Qian Family and the Wanhua Valley.

Qian Feixue laughed heartily and said there was nothing wrong with it. She disliked all those tedious formalities.

Since they were all acquaintances, there was no need for all that nonsense.

“Miss Feixue, official business! Focus on official business!” a white-haired youth couldn’t help but remind her from behind.

“Just communicate directly, why make it so complicated? Does Sister Hua Jian even know what she’s supposed to do?”

That wasn’t wrong. Hua Jian pointed at the expression-complicated Wanhua Valley Spirit Emperor next to her, indicating that this person was in charge of official matters.

She, as the Saintess, was purely a mascot and a bottomless pit for food.

“I’m not responsible for specific affairs. Please communicate directly with Senior Sister Xinyou here regarding matters related to the Secret Realm.”

This time, Hua Jian was answering very seriously according to the content on the slip of paper.

The Wanhua Valley Spirit Emperor, now named Hua Xinyou, put on a professional smile and stepped forward, indicating that she was the Wanhua Valley disciple handling official business.

Meanwhile, Hua Jian had already been pulled aside by Qian Feixue.

“Don’t mind them. You didn’t come here for that Secret Realm anyway, right?” Qian Feixue gave a sly smile. “Let me guess—is it for that person?”

She flipped her hair and shook it in front of Hua Jian’s eyes.

That was certainly a reference to a certain white-haired dragon girl. Hua Jian didn’t hide it and nodded openly.

“I knew back then that you had a deep connection with the Wanhua Valley, but I never expected you to be their chosen Saintess. Still, you’re certainly qualified to be the Saintess.”

Qian Feixue let out a light laugh, then raised her hand to greet Hua Xinrui. “Little Hanrui came too?”

“Hello, Miss Feixue. I’ve changed my name to Hua Xinrui now,” Hua Xinrui said very politely in front of Qian Feixue.

She had known back then that Qian Feixue was no ordinary person. Now, of course, she wouldn’t get too cocky just because she had become Hua Jian’s little follower.

Hadn’t she seen that Miss Hua Jian was being held in Qian Feixue’s arms like a little sister?