The Attack of the Wastrel

Gu Lingzhi smiled blandly, "We’re all family, why would there be bullying? Linglong is just a little hard-headed at times, her actual personality is not that bad. It is natural that I give in to her slightly."

"… …"

Gu Chengze and Gu Ruoxun did not know how to reply to that and left after exchanging a few more words.

After their silhouettes disappeared from sight,, Cui Lian stood respectfully behind Gu Lingzhi.

"My lady, the confidant that the Clan Leader sent for has just left."

Gu Lingzhi nodded in acknowledgement before turning around to enter the house.

Cui Lian however, stood rooted to the spot in surprise. She could not believe that not only was her mistress talented beyond belief, she was also calculative in her schemes.

Cui Lian could not help but sigh inwardly in admiration when she thought back to a few days ago, when Gu Lingzhi suddenly asked her to report to Lin Yue-er on how the siblings had intentions to rope her in. 

The First Mistress had actually long deduced that Lin Yue-er would make a mountain out of a molehill of this incident and bring it up to Gu Rong. Obviously, upon hearing this news, Gu Rong was bound to send for his confidant to investigate.

After this incident, the First Mistress’ status in the Leader's heart was bound to change. It might even lead to the Clan Leader’s displeasure towards Lin Yue-er.

After all, from the attitude of the Leader on the day of the Spiritual Power testing, he had hopes that this daughter of his would become an excellent Alchemist.

Things were going exactly the way that Gu Lingzhi had planned. That very night, the confidant reported the full story of what he had heard in Gu Lingzhi's garden that day to Gu Rong, making him feel slightly guilty.

He never thought that his daughter, who he had neglected all this time, was actually so sensible. Even after being bullied by Lin Yue-er and Gu Linglong, she still did not harbor any grudges.

Even though it was true that he had been extremely busy these past few days, it was not to the point where he did not have time to even care about the progress of his daughter. In fact, he would allocate one hour to catch up on Gu Linglong's cultivation progress every evening. But he never thought to care whether his older daughter had met with any difficulties in her training, much less bother to send her any resources to assist with her training. He had assumed that all these would be prepared and arranged by Lin Yue-er and he would not have to worry about it. 

He did not think that Lin Yue-er would treat Gu Lingzhi with the same amount of indifference as she did in the past, and this was wrong on Lin Yue-er’s part.

In his study room, Gu Rong sent for Lin Yue-er so she could also hear about the attitude of Gu Lingzhi towards them. After the confidant had repeated Gu Lingzhi's thoughts, Gu Rong directed his anger at Lin Yue-er, "I will not go after the things you have done in the past, but now that Lingzhi has demonstrated talent in becoming an Alchemist, you need to stop making things difficult for her. You should properly discipline Linglong too, how can they grow up in the same environment yet have such drastically different characters? After all, Lingzhi is her older sister, is it not better to have one extra person to keep an eye out for Linglong?"

"Yes husband, I understand," Lin Yueer looked down and replied obediently. However, in her heart, her hatred for Gu Lingzhi grew even more.

In order to gain the title of main mistress of the Gu Clan, she had to wreck her brains to scheme against Gu Lingzhi's mother and get rid of her. Now, Gu Lingzhi had so easily gained Gu Rong’s attention. How dare she! 

She would have to quickly carry out her plan before Gu Rong valued Gu Lingzhi even more. When that happens, it would be too difficult for her to scheme against Gu Lingzhi.

After training the following day, Gu Rong arrived at Gu Lingzhi’s garden even before Gu Chengze and his sister.

Gu Lingzhi felt the irony when she saw the warmth and adoring smile on Gu Rong's face. Gu Linglong was so arrogant because she could bathe in Gu Rong’s love and adoration, whereas Gu Lingzhi had to plot and scheme just to get a little bit of attention form Gu Rong. In life, things were just unfair.

"Father, why have you come?" Even though she had anticipated that Gu Rong would come to find her, Gu Lingzhi still pretended she was surprised. 

Gu Rong felt even more guilty and the adoration reflected on his face became significantly more sincere.

"In the past few days, I have been busy attending to the Third Prince and neglected your training. You won't blame me, will you?

"Of course not," Gu Lingzhi shook her head fervently. “I’m already happy that Father has come to see me, why would I blame you?”

Gu Lingzhi’s words made Gu Rong feel even more ashamed of himself. Reaching into his Storage Ring, he retrieved another Storage Ring embedded with a green gem and thrust it in front of Gu Lingzhi, "This Storage Ring is for you. There is a book in there that will help you avoid some common mistakes that people make when they are Martial Students in-training, and another secret book on Alchemy. When you’re free, you should read up more on how to make medicine. After a few days, I will ask your mother to send some medicinal ingredients to cultivate your natural talent in Alchemy."

"Thank you Father, I will do my best," Gu Lingzhi said as she accepted his gift.

The Storage Ring looked like any other ordinary ring, but actually contained a built-in special space to store items. As long as a person was of status, they would carry a few of these Storage Rings. Gu Linglong carried two on her and now, she had one too. 

Wearing the Storage Ring on her finger, Gu Lingzhi could easily see the contents in the Ring by focusing her attention on it. 

The contents were stored in a room roughly 30 feet wide and 30 feet tall. Inside, there were a few books and a bunch of medicinal ingredients. There were also one middle-grade and numerous low-grade spirit Stones. Gu Lingzhi could not help but gasp, it was indeed different to have someone powerful supporting you.

All this time when Gu Rong had neglected her, she had to think of all sorts of methods to obtain the ingredients needed to make a Spirit Essence Bath for herself. Now, all these medicinal ingredients were easily within her reach. Gu Rong even stood by her side, his eyes full of encouragement when said to her, "The medicinal ingredients in the Storage Ring are common ingredients used to make low-grade medicine. Go ahead and use the ingredients as and when you like. When they run out, just go to the Medicinal Kitchen to get some more, I have already instructed someone to attend to you. As long as you ask for it, they will do their best to get you what you want."

Once again, Gu Lingzhi could not help but feel surprised at how life could be so much easier when there was someone supporting you. Gu Rong solved her problems with just a lift of his finger. 

"I understand. Thank you, Father."

Gu Rong stayed for a while longer at Gu Lingzhi’s house, saying a few encouraging words to her before finally leaving.

The siblings did not visit her today, maybe it was because they saw that Gu Rong was there. She could finally seclude herself and use her Spirit Essence Bath.

Pouring the blackish-green liquid into the warm water, it turned the water into a crisp emerald green.

Gu Lingzhi removed her clothes and jumped into the bathing tub, sitting cross-legged at the bottom of the bucket. Using a cultivation technique, she altered her internal spiritual energy to train her body. Under the dual influence of her technique and the Spirit Essence Bath, she could feel her muscles in her body strengthening.

Gu Lingzhi frowned when the water in the bathing tub started to boil fervently all of a sudden. Large beads of sweat rolled off Gu Lingzhi's forehead.

"I never thought that I would breakthrough at a time like this. With Father's promise, I won't need to worry about using up my Spirit Essence Bath anymore."

Gu Lingzhi then retrieved three bottles of the liquid, pouring it into the bath without any hesitation.