The Attack of the Wastrel

However, Ding Rou’s plans of tearing them apart had all gone to waste. Upon hearing her words that were filled with malicious intent, Rong Yuan did not show any sign of disapproval towards Gu Lingzhi. In fact, his heart started to ache for her and he lovingly helped Gu Lingzhi to a nearby chair. Softly, he pacified her, “Rest for a bit if you’re tired, don’t force yourself to do something that you don’t wish to do. It’s okay if the treasure has been taken by someone else, the only thing that matters is that you’re happy.”

Rong Yuan’s mushy words made Gu Lingzhi’s lips twitch, and she had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at him.

She knew that he had long ago instructed his bodyguards to join the effort in finding the treasure. Even Wei Hanzi had been deployed.

Even though she was aware of what Rong Yuan had done, Ding Rou was not. Ding Rou only knew that the person she liked for so long had finally developed an interest in her after putting in a great deal of effort on her part. Yet, Gu Lingzhi had appeared out of nowhere and received all of Rong Yuan’s love. Though they were searching for something in the Secret Territory, Gu Lingzhi could still throw a tantrum and delay the search. When Ding Rou compared the both of them together, she felt sour inside.

On the other hand, Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan were completely unaware of Ding Rou’s feelings. After they looked at each other, Rong Yuan immediately smiled at Ding Rou and said, “Xiao Rou, since Lingzhi isn’t feeling well, why don’t we let her rest here? Let’s go explore somewhere else.”

The treasures in the room were unlike the ones they had seen along the way. They were not as visibly obvious and required thorough searching before finding something that was valuable. When Ding Rou heard Rong Yuan’s invitation, the sourness in her heart instantly disappeared. She tilted up her chin slightly and accepted it, before turning to Gu Lingzhi when he was not noticing and flashed a delightful grin at her.

“Look at you pretending to be weak. Now, Rong Yuan is mine. You can stay here and rest all by yourself.”

Despite Ding Rou’s words, Gu Lingzhi had never planned on retorting. Her mouth twitched a few times, but she returned to examining the painting in front of her.

The objects that were laid out on the table looked so ordinary that it did not catch anyone’s attention. Though it had piqued the attention of some, it was not long before they turned in the other direction and walked away. They were slightly disturbed that Gu Lingzhi had such a cheap taste to be standing there and observing for so long.

Why was she admiring such a painting? There were so many other nicer paintings that were worth her attention.

Truthfully, those were Gu Lingzhi’s thoughts as well. However, when she tried to grab the corners of the piece of artwork so that she could keep it in her Storage Ring, she was shocked to find out that she was unable to. In an instant, she pretended to continue admiring the flowers in the artwork, though she was thinking about how she could take this painting away without anyone noticing.

The painting was extremely realistic, and even though it was incomplete, it was still worthy of attention. However, there were so many people that were walking past this artwork, and none of them had thought of keeping it in their Storage Rings. There must be something wrong with this artwork!

“Hehe… As expected by someone from the Spirit Tribe. You are much smarter than the others,” a sly voice rang out in her head suddenly, making her jump.

Someone had found out about her identity, who could it be?

Gu Lingzhi immediately looked around, wanting to find out who had managed to talk to her using the Secretive Voiceover technique. Her brows furrowed when she could not find anyone suspicious. Was she just imagining things?

“Hey! Lass, I just said you were smart, but you’re disappointing me. How could you think that I was part of the others around you? Look here, here… that’s right, I’m in the painting. Do you see me?”

As Gu Lingzhi followed the instruction of the voice, she saw that the incomplete painting on the table had changed. The flowers were still colorful, and everything had looked the same as before, except for the squirrel that had suddenly appeared on one of the trees in the artwork.

Perhaps it did not just appear and was always in the artwork, just that she had neglected it.

It was not important how it had appeared in the painting; the most important thing was that… the squirrel was alive. It started to move its tail, a proud expression on its face. Even though it had tried to look arrogant, there was a mischievous glint in its eyes.

Yes, it was obviously teasing her. It started to show off its physique the moment it realized that Gu Lingzhi had found it. She resisted the urge to shove a mirror in its face. Originally, it would have been cute, but because of its actions, Gu Lingzhi could not help but feel bewildered.

“…I’ve lived since ancient times, it’s your fortune to be able to meet me! Now, won’t you hurry and keep this painting, I can’t stand being in such a suffocating place anymore. After not having interactions with living things for so long, I can’t even remember what it’s like to be alive!”

Finally, the squirrel had mentioned its true motives. It looked at Gu Lingzhi nervously, afraid that she would not take the painting with her.

She was speechless for a moment as she looked around her. When she realized that no one was paying attention to her at all, she lowered herself down to the painting and whispered, “How did you know that I’m…?”

Even though she did not finish her sentence, the squirrel understood what she was trying to ask. It propped an arm against its waist and said, “How could I not recognize you when you have access to the Inheritance Space in your mind? I thought that I was going to disappear together with the Spirit Tribe after not seeing someone from the Spirit Tribe for so long. Is Pan Luo finally dead from being too over-ambitious?”

Gu Lingzhi breathed out a sigh of relief when she heard its words, at least now she knew that the squirrel was not on Pan Luo’s side. In her head, she asked the squirrel how she could keep the painting in her Storage Ring.

The squirrel’s answer was simple – with a drop of her blood.

To think that the incomplete painting that no one had cared about was a Heaven-Level spiritual treasure!

She immediately did what the squirrel told her to do and grabbed the artwork with her hands. The squirrel that had been trapped in the artwork had subsequently also become a demon beast that belonged to her.

In the few moments that Gu Lingzhi had taken to keep the painting in her Storage Ring, people that walked past thought that she was daydreaming in front of the painting and since they found the incomplete painting to be useless, they did not think much of it. However, for Gu Lingzhi, it had been an extremely nerve-wracking event for her.

It turned out that the squirrel was not just an ordinary one, it was an ancient Demon Beast, the Duobao Spiritual Squirrel. The only way to tell the difference from a Duobao Spiritual Squirrel and an ordinary one was by a circle on its tail. However, the difference in rankings between the two were vast.

The Duobao Spiritual Squirrel had a great intuition for finding spiritual treasures. Having this ability meant that they were high in demand and many Martial Artists had coveted them.

In order to gain more cultivation resources for themselves, people started to catch and sell them in large quantities. Within a few hundred years, they had entirely disappeared from the streets. From then on, they became creatures that only existed in legends.

Now, Gu Lingzhi had one that belonged to her. In fact, its spiritual powers were extremely strong – such that it could transform into a human being and blend in with the crowds.

With this Duobao Spiritual Squirrel in her possession, she suddenly had the potential to become the richest person in the world.

The most shocking thing was that the previous owner of this squirrel had been a Sacred Maiden from the Spirit Tribe.

Before the tragic event that drove the Spirit Tribe to near-extinction, this particular Sacred Maiden refused to join forces with Pan Luo. Before she, the Spirit Tribe Leader and Elders had sealed the Secret Territory that was actually the Spirit Tribe’s Sacred Lands, she sealed the Duobao Spiritual Squirrel into an incomplete Heaven-Level Spiritual Weapon. The seal could only be broken by someone from the Spirit Tribe or by the Squirrel, if it had achieved a certain level of cultivation.

The Squirrel did not think that it would have to wait for so many years before finally being set free.

Perhaps its owner had been in a rush, but the Sacred Maiden had forgotten that the Duobao Spiritual Squirrel could not absorb any spiritual energy from the artwork as it was an incomplete Spiritual Weapon. As such, it could not achieve a high enough level of cultivation to break free from the painting.

However, there was a good side to this. Though the Spiritual Weapon had trapped the Squirrel for so long, time had frozen while it was stuck inside. Thus, when it was set free, it was almost as if time had not passed by at all. To this, Gu Lingzhi was envious of its fortune but also sympathetic towards how it had been stuck inside the painting for so long.