Chapter 3974

Translator: Silavin & Jon

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

After Yang Kai worked for half a day, he realised that both the Proprietress and Bai Qi were nowhere in sight. Curious about where they were, he went to the counter and asked the accountant about it, "Where are Proprietress and Old Bai?"

The accountant took a glance at him and quickly looked away, "There's something they have to do."

Yang Kai knit his brow before nodding and going back to work.

Meanwhile, across from a particular inn in the Star City, Bai Qi was seated by the window on the second floor of a teahouse. There was a pot of tea and plates of fruits on the table. As he drank tea and ate fruits, he stared fixedly at the inn that was across the street.

In fact, he had been keeping watch here for a few days now. This was a task assigned to him by the Proprietress, so he wouldn't dare to slack off.

Right then, three people stepped out of the inn. They were a young man, a middle-aged man, and an elderly man. Presently, the elderly man was leading the way for them while the middle-aged man was supporting the young man's weight. The young man's pale face suggested that he had been severely injured, and there was a trace of blood on his back. Besides him, the middle-aged man and the elderly man seemed to be injured as well.

After looking around, they shot into the air and headed to the Star City's dock.

Bai Qi stared in the direction they left with a conflicted gaze and only a long time later did he let out a long sigh and fished out a Communication Artifact. Upon pushing his Divine Sense, he sent out a message.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the void outside the Spirit Province where the Star City was located, an alluring woman abruptly opened her eyes. Her gaze appeared so cold that it was as though it could even freeze space itself.

This woman was none other than the First Inn Proprietress.

Time seemed to tick by slowly, but just a moment later, a ship artifact flew over and came into her sight. The ship was moving in the direction she was standing.

Seeing that, the Proprietress clenched her fists as her knuckles cracked.

When the ship was close enough, she suddenly pushed out a fist, whereupon a dazzling light expanded and made the world turn pale.

Following her attack, the ship, which was still several dozen kilometres away from her, cracked and exploded.

Three battered figures emerged from the broken ship and an old voice was heard bellowing, "Who dares!"

When the middle-aged and elderly man made out who had destroyed their ship, their pupils contracted. On the other hand, the young man had no idea what was going on, so he started throwing a tantrum again, "It hurts! What's wrong with you two? Wastes! How can you let this Young Master suffer such injustice!"

Yang Kai had received two whips from the Dragon Fang Whip in front of the Governor's Mansion for simply being a victim, so as the ones who had stirred up trouble, the punishment for these three was much more severe. Each of them had to get five lashes. Young Master Hai was weak, so he only received one whip while the remaining four he was due were evenly shared by his bodyguards. Despite that, just one stroke had caused him to be seriously injured.

For the past few days, he had been hiding in an inn to recuperate. After consuming many elixirs, he finally managed to escape from death's door. Not daring to keep staying in the Star City, he was eager to leave; however, as soon as he left the port, his flight-type artifact was attacked and blown apart. The impact irritated his wounds and caused him to feel excruciating pain.

After he was done with the cursing though, he realised that there was a horrified look on the faces of his subordinates as they stared fixedly at the front. He followed their gaze, whereupon his eyes brightened and he shouted, "Where is this woman from? She's so beautiful!"

When the middle-aged and elderly man heard that, their expressions changed drastically as they secretly cursed at this fool for landing them in trouble. Although they had no idea who this charming woman was, her aura was so deep that they couldn't even understand its true depth. In short, they were absolutely no match for her.

She was undoubtedly a Mid-Rank Open Heaven Realm Master, or possibly even stronger. How could their foolish Young Master not understand something so simple and dare to profane a top cultivator like her in such a way?

Nevertheless, Young Master Hai wasn't aware that he was in a perilous situation, and as he grew fonder of her, he ignored the pain on his back and put on a grin, "Quick! Capture her for this Young Master. Tonight, I shall have her serve me in bed!"

With a dark expression, the middle-aged man bellowed, "Young Master, hold your tongue!"

The elderly man then hurriedly stood in front of the young man and cupped his fists at the alluring woman, "Greetings, Madam. May this old man know why your honourable self has blocked our way and destroyed our ship?"

There was a faint smile on the Proprietress' face as she retorted, "When you were oppressing this Queen's shop hand, did you not find out who his backer was?"

"Your shop hand?" The elderly man furrowed his brows, but as he recalled something, his expression was filled with terror as he stuttered, "F-First Inn's… Madam Lan?"

The Proprietress snorted, "Old thing, at least you're not senile yet."

The elderly man couldn't help but gulp as there was a bitter taste in his mouth. After looking around, he realised that this place was already quite far into the void, so it wouldn't be easy for them to flee. Being blocked in this place, their fate would probably be terrible. With his forehead drenched in sweat, he cupped his fists and bowed deeply, "Madam Lan, forgive this old man for failing to recognise your esteemed self!" He paused for a moment before hesitantly continuing, "We are from Clear Mind Heaven, and our Young Master is the Grandson of Elder Hai."

The Proprietress replied impassively, "I know."

"You know?" The elderly man appeared even more horrified now. Since she was aware of their identity, how dare she still block their way and even destroy their ship? Was she insane?

"This Queen has been waiting for you here for some time now," The Proprietress snorted and raised her slender hand. It was blemish-free, as if carved from the finest piece of white jade, but when she lifted it, the elderly man felt a sense of crisis descend upon him, as though the entire world was being turned upside down around him.

"Take Young Master back to the Star City!" He roared.

Hearing that, the middle-aged man immediately sprayed out a mouthful of Blood Essence and grabbed Young Master Hai before retreating with all haste.

"You think you can flee?" The Proprietress scoffed, "Only this Queen may lay a hand on the shop hands of First Inn. Anyone else who dares must die!"

After finishing her words, she pushed out her palm. In an instant, space really did flip and collapse.

When she retracted her hand, the void became serene again, while Young Master Hai, the elderly man, and the middle-aged man were nowhere to be seen.

She had killed three people from Clear Mind Heaven, but acted as if nothing had happened. Flicking her sleeve, she looked towards a particular spot in the void and asked coldly, "Was the show interesting?"

Just then, a ripple spread across the void, whereupon a Golden Armour General appeared. He was clad in a helmet and had a long sword strapped to his waist.

If Yang Kai were here, he would've recognised that this Golden Armour General was the one who had been guarding the Star City's dock. He was a Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, just one Order below the Governor of the Star City, Ye Tian Xiong.

The Golden Armour General frowned, "Why did you do this? You could've just taught them a lesson. Killing them won't bring you any benefits."

The Proprietress shot him a glance, "So what if this Queen kills them? Not just them, this Queen will also settle the score with that bastard Ye Tian Xiong in time."

At that, the Golden Armour General was rendered speechless, "For a mere shop hand…" Although he had been guarding the dock all this time, it didn't mean he wasn't aware of what had been going on in the Star City. Two days ago, the Proprietress left the dock with a gaze filled with murderous intent. He just had to ask around to find out what had happened.

"Not just a shop hand, a shop hand from my First Inn!" The Proprietress snorted.

The Golden Armour General nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, yes. He's a shop hand from First Inn, and he's more precious than the other shop hands in the city." He sighed, "But, they're from Clear Mind Heaven…"

His words suggested that she should have only lectured them instead of killing them.

"Why don't you tell Hai Ping Le about it now and see whether he dares to retaliate against me?"

The Golden Armour General stared fixedly at her and let out a sigh, "You've been living in seclusion for nearly 1,200 years now. Are you going to make a fuss again? You won't always be so fortunate."

After glowering at him for a moment, the Proprietress swung her sleeve widely, "If others don't provoke me, I won't provoke them!"

Upon finishing her words, she shot towards the dock. The Golden Armour General gazed at her figure and shook his head. A woman like her was more hard-edged than most men, but it wasn't certain whether she could avoid ending up in a miserable state.

…..

The Proprietress' return didn't cause a commotion. Yang Kai didn't even know when she had come back. He just saw her appearing in the lobby one day and hospitably greeting the customers in the inn.

As time passed, all of them lived a peaceful life. Besides helping out in the inn, Yang Kai spent most of his time refining his new Territory Shuttle.

From time to time, he would also try to find out any information regarding the World Tree and Earth Element materials, but there hadn't been any gains so far.

He had also visited Wind and Cloud Auction House several times. The Proprietress had made a fuss in the auction house to save Bai Qi and him, but he had Seven Faces, which was how he could enter the building without anyone recognizing him.

No one in the auction house seemed to have any idea about the World Tree, unfortunately. There were some Earth Element materials, but they were all below the Fifth Order, which were useless to him.

The Wood Element he had condensed from the Immortal Tree and the Fire Element he had condensed from the Golden Crow's True Fire were all High-Rank materials. Yang Kai couldn't stand the thought of squandering an impeccable foundation, so he was extremely picky when looking for an Earth Element material. At the very least, it had to be Seventh-Order; otherwise, it would be impossible for him to achieve greater heights in his power.

Nevertheless, it wasn't easy to look for a High-Rank Earth Element material. It was just a coincidence that he had acquired the Golden Crow's True Fire, so it was unrealistic to think that such an opportunity would simply fall into his lap again.

That was the reason Yang Kai had been a bit anxious of late.

If he couldn't ascend to the Open Heaven Realm, he would remain weak in the Outer Universe. Even the two Third-Order Masters, who worked for Young Master Hai, were enough to oppress him to death.

However, Yang Kai was too embarrassed to ask the Proprietress about it. Moreover, if he really did that, he would expose his secret. Although the Proprietress had been treating him well, they were not close enough to share such secrets; therefore, he had been suffering from a headache recently.

One day, Yang Kai was busy serving customers when the Proprietress called out to him via Divine Sense. After telling Luo Hai Yi to be more attentive to the customers, he shuffled towards the rear court.

After knocking on the door and opening it, he was surprised to see Bai Qi inside the room as well.

Presently, Bai Qi appeared excited as a glow radiated from his eyes. He had also clenched his fists tightly.

Yang Kai cupped his fists to the Proprietress before turning his head, "You look radiant and thrilled. Is there any good news?"

Bai Qi grinned meaningfully at him, "That's right. There's some good news."

A puzzled Yang Kai batted his eyes, "What is it?"