Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 53 Misunderstanding
"We are not—"

Before Xu Wen could finish speaking, a peach pit flew over with a whooshing sound, heading straight for Xu Wen's right eye.

Li Qi was immediately enraged and shot out a hidden arrow, which hit the peach pit.

But no one knew what the peach pit was made of; it was incredibly hard and actually knocked off the sleeve arrow with the specially made fine iron arrowhead from Li Qi's hand. The attack didn't diminish, but its direction was slightly off, barely grazing Xu Wen's temple.

Xu Wen was so frightened that his face turned pale. He stumbled backward and fell to the ground, his legs trembling.

Knowing that his opponent was skilled, and that the "White Stone Immortal Sect" was the very sect mentioned in the letter from Xu Ying, the third young master of the Xu family, Li Qi suspected there was some misunderstanding. He quickly shouted, "You have no grudge against us, why have you resorted to such a vicious attack?"

Xu Wen finally realized what was happening. Although he was still pale with fear, he nodded repeatedly, echoing, "Yes, yes! It must be a misunderstanding! It's a misunderstanding!"

"Hmph! A misunderstanding? You two little thieves still want to make excuses!"

Accompanied by a crisp sound, a woman dressed in ancient clothes but with an otherworldly air emerged from the depths of the mulberry grove. She looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old, with a blush on her face from anger. She was a stunningly beautiful fairy, and it was none other than Murong Ruyan who had come to "shake the tree" to collect the fallen petals!

As soon as Murong Ruyan revealed herself, several mulberry leaves flew out of her hand.

The bright green mulberry leaves flew in the air, like iron leaves, and even made a whistling sound.

Li Qi dared not be careless. He didn't even have time to ponder how a little girl could pluck leaves and flowers. He quickly took out the twin darts from his waist and shot them out one after the other.

The mother-and-child darts, imbued with Li Qi's inner energy, swirled around in a large circle, severing the seven or eight mulberry leaves before causing the "hidden weapons" to fall to the ground.

Li Qi breathed a sigh of relief, but shouted again, "Girl, hold on! We are not thieves!"

Upon hearing this, Murong Ruyan indeed refrained from attacking again, but her tone remained icy: "What you're holding is something from our White Stone Immortal Sect! Caught red-handed, do you still intend to deny it?"

Upon hearing this, Xu Wen was startled and instinctively threw the beehive in his arms over in a flurry.

Upon seeing this, Murong Ruyan raised her eyebrows and her eyes filled with even more anger.

But she seemed to cherish that honeycomb very much. With a light touch of her feet, she leaped into the air, caught the honeycomb, and landed on the ground.

Even disregarding her previous skill of plucking leaves and flying flowers, her lightness skill alone is already among the best of the younger generation. If we also consider her age, she is probably a once-in-a-century genius!
Xu Wen, who was standing to the side and knew nothing about martial arts, seized the opportunity to explain, "This, this is really a misunderstanding! We found it here too! We really didn't steal it!"

Li Qi also cupped his hands and said, "May I ask if you are a disciple of Immortal Baishi? We are here to visit a friend, we are certainly not thieves!"

Hearing the two say this, Murong Ruyan's anger subsided somewhat. She looked them up and down and asked suspiciously, "If you're visiting a friend, why didn't you use the main entrance?"

Seeing that the other party had stopped being violent, Xu Wen stopped trembling. He stood up, brushed the dirt off his clothes, and awkwardly cupped his hands, saying, "Please forgive our rudeness, young lady. We are newcomers here and don't know the way. We just wandered around and ended up here!"

Murong Ruyan still seemed unconvinced: "Is that really true?"

Xu Wen's expression was sincere: "That's really true!"

She paused for a moment, then asked, "Since you say you've come to visit a friend, who is your friend?" Xu Wen quickly replied, "To be honest, do you know Xu Ying, Xu Zhongping? I am his cousin, and it was he who invited me here!"

Murong Ruyan's eyes widened: "Steward Xu?"

Xu Wen nodded repeatedly, like a chicken pecking at rice: "Yes, yes, yes! What he said in his letter seems to be that he is in charge of the White Stone Immortal Sect!"

"Then come with me!"

As Murong Ruyan spoke, she tossed the honeycomb into her Qiankun bag and led the way.

The Qiankun Bag was made by Zhang Chengdao after collecting a batch of silkworm cocoons in the past two days. He only made three and distributed them, not even making one for himself!
因为灰色品质的乾坤袋合成材料是1份蚕丝、1份丝绸和5份麻布，而1份蚕丝要2个蚕茧，1份丝绸更是要10个蚕茧。

The three Qiankun bags used up half of the silkworm cocoons that Zhang Chengdao had painstakingly saved up—these things were not easy to obtain. First, you had to shake the mulberry tree to get silkworm eggs by chance, and then raise silkworms in the [Silkworm Room] to get silkworm cocoons.

The growth cycle of a batch of silkworms is 3 days, which is shorter than the actual growth cycle of silkworms, but it is still very troublesome for Zhang Chengdao. Therefore, the materials used to consume silkworm cocoons are very precious.

It's quite remarkable that Zhang Chengdao was so generous to make three Qiankun Bags and distribute them!

On the way to the thatched cottage, Murong Ruyan was somewhat embarrassed, probably because she had mistaken someone for someone else.

As she walked, she cleared her throat and said, "My surname is Murong, and I am the second disciple of Immortal Baishi. Just now... cough cough, I apologize for my rudeness!"

Xu Wen readily bowed and said politely, "So you are Fairy Murong. I am Xu Wen, courtesy name Wenhe. Greetings, Fairy Murong."

Li Qi also cupped his hands in greeting, but his registration number was very concise: "Li Qi, sixth-rank martial artist."

Upon hearing this, Murong Ruyan glanced to the side.

She has been diligently cultivating these past few days, either internally or studying magical techniques. Although she feels that she is not much worse than her senior brother, she still cannot make an objective comparison with martial artists outside, so she is always somewhat insecure.

Upon hearing that the martial artist she had just exchanged blows with was actually a sixth-rank expert, she was overjoyed—she had only been cultivating immortality for a little over a month, yet she was already able to compete with a sixth-rank expert!

So, Murong Ruyan smiled and praised, "Your hidden weapon skills are quite good."

Whether it was the peach pit she threw at the beginning or the few mulberry leaves she casually picked later, she had no intention of killing; she just wanted to cripple the other party so she could bring them back to the sect to claim credit.

Even so, the sixth-rank martial artist was helpless against him and even used his natal mother-and-child darts. How could she not be happy?
Li Qi felt a little strange being praised by a girl so much younger than him, but then he thought that she was a disciple of a deity, so he suppressed his displeasure and politely said, "Fairy Murong, you flatter me."

Hearing the repeated calls of "fairy," Murong Ruyan's smile grew increasingly difficult to suppress, but remembering her master's low-key yet noble moral character, she stopped the two from flattering her and reminded them, "There's no need to call me fairy. I'm just a cultivator who hasn't even stepped into the threshold yet. Just call me Murong!"

The two immediately complied: "Miss Murong."

(End of this chapter)