Chapter 043: The Contempt Chain in the Cultivation World

Li Xiuling sat astride her horse and asked Song Ye, “Who killed these Yan deserters?”
Song Ye replied with an excuse he had already prepared, “I don’t know either. When these deserters appeared at the entrance of the village, my sister and I hurried to find a place to hide.
When things quieted down outside, we came out from our hiding spot and saw that they had all been killed already!”
Although Song Ye had acted in self-defense, he could never admit to killing the deserters himself. If word got out, his unusually formidable physical prowess would attract too much attention and inevitably bring trouble.
The most crucial point was that Song Ye could not leave Qiuyu Village. If trouble came one after another and he was trapped in the village, there would be no way to escape.
Therefore, to avoid any unnecessary complications, he would rather have everyone regard him as an ordinary mortal.
In truth, Li Xiuling never really believed that an unarmed commoner like Song Ye could have dispatched more than twenty well-armed Yan deserters.
But as she rode north from the south, she had encountered a few bands of routed Yan soldiers, yet not a single ordinary civilian.
Here, however, there was a tea stall still open and a boy tending it—an oddity in itself.
Thus, Li Xiuling found Song Ye highly suspicious.
Even if he was just a mortal, he might still be a suspicious one—perhaps even a spy planted here by Yan.
Li Xiuling dismounted and walked over to the pile of corpses, carefully inspecting the wounds on each body.
She discovered that all their internal organs had been pulverized, but there was no trace of residual magical energy on any of the bodies. In other words, the killer hadn’t used any magical power, only pure physical skill.
To be able to kill so many people so neatly with nothing but physical prowess, and to shatter all their organs—this pointed strongly to a body cultivator.
Body cultivators were usually those who, out of some defect or limitation, had no choice but to embark on the path of physical cultivation—perhaps due to innate constitution, an inability to project qi, or difficulty mastering magical techniques.
In the world of cultivators, there was an unspoken hierarchy of disdain: sword cultivators looked down on qi cultivators, while qi cultivators scorned body cultivators.
Of course, the vast majority of cultivators practiced qi cultivation; sword and body cultivators were rare indeed.

Though body cultivators stood at the bottom of this hierarchy, that didn’t mean they were necessarily weaker than sword or qi cultivators.
Over seventy thousand years of cultivation history, there had been many legendary body cultivators capable of shattering all arts with brute strength alone.
As for Song Ye, he was, in a sense, a “pure” body cultivator.
Most body cultivators were able to generate qi internally, using its rapid circulation to maintain the extraordinary toughness of their bodies.
But Song Ye’s body could not generate qi at all; his physical strength relied entirely upon his own “vital energy.” In that sense, Song Ye was the purest body cultivator of them all.
Of course, body cultivators also had their own realms and cultivation levels. Li Xiuling had long since determined that Song Ye displayed no traces of cultivation, so she had eliminated him from suspicion as the true “culprit.”
As for who had killed those twenty-three Yan deserters, Li Xiuling surmised it was likely a body cultivator who happened to pass by and, feeling the urge, used them to test his strength.
Yet even if the tea boy wasn’t the murderer, Li Xiuling still found him suspicious; perhaps she ought to bring him back to Xuancheng, throw him in prison, and have him thoroughly interrogated.
But suddenly she remembered that Song Ye had mentioned a younger sister. Perhaps she, too, was a Yan spy planted here, in which case the net should catch them both.
Li Xiuling asked, “You say you have a sister who lives here with you. Could you call her out, so we can meet her?”
Song Ye smiled. “Of course, I’ll go fetch her.”
He could tell that Li Xiuling was already suspicious of him. To dispel her doubts, he had no choice but to bring out Song Yan.
After all, Li Xiuling was not someone to be trifled with—not only was she the Eldest Princess of Li, her cultivation was at the ninth level of the Void-Breaking Realm, her strength far surpassing his.
Soon, Song Ye returned from the backyard carrying Song Yan. When Li Xiuling saw the “sister” Song Ye spoke of was merely a three-year-old girl, she couldn’t help but be surprised.
In such chaotic times, he was living here with a child so young?
Song Ye carried Song Yan to Li Xiuling’s side. “This is my sister, Song Yan. She was born mute, so she won’t be able to call you ‘sister.’”
Li Xiuling saw how Song Yan clung to Song Ye’s neck with both hands, the closeness between them evident—surely, they were real siblings.

For a moment, Li Xiuling felt a pang of compassion. To forcibly take him away now would be traumatic for his tiny sister.
Besides, someone caring for a child this young was unlikely to be a Yan spy.
Perhaps he truly was just an ordinary villager, lucky enough to have survived the chaos.
“Your sister is called Song Yan; and what is your name?” Li Xiuling asked.
“My name is Song Ye,” he replied.
Li Xiuling had wanted to ask his name. For the sake of caution, once she returned to Xuancheng, she would have his household records thoroughly investigated.
“And your name?” Song Ye asked in turn.
Li Xiuling smiled. “I am Li Xiuling, Eldest Princess of Li.”
Song Ye was taken aback; he hadn’t expected her to reveal her true identity outright. He had thought, as in the dramas of the mortal world, that nobles like her would travel incognito and use false names.
But Li Xiuling mistook his momentary pause for astonishment.
In a rural place like this, it was only natural to be shocked to encounter the Eldest Princess in person.
Only then did Song Ye realize that he ought to put on a suitably astonished expression.
“Wh-what… You’re the Eldest Princess of Li?” he stammered, feigning amazement.
“There’s no need to panic, and certainly no need to make a grand show of obeisance,” Li Xiuling said. “I have come here, first, to personally drive off the scattered Yan deserters in the area;
second, to survey the extent of the damage to the nearby counties, so I might estimate the manpower and funds needed for postwar reconstruction.”