Murim's Weakest Princess-Chapter 274: Growing Taller

The carriage ride was long, and Anji did not feel like talking much, even if she had many things to say to Gu Ying and her third brother. Perhaps it was the mental age of several centuries that was catching up to her. However, the girl remained as silent as Gu Ying and observed the scenery outside.

Much had transformed in the few years. Management of the territory around the Mystical Qilin Sect’s barriers was well organised. Farmlands with new crops for the season covered the once barren land as far as the eye could see. The villagers in this area were mostly relocated refugees, and according to Mingshen, the food produced by farmers here was traded with the people living in the Eternal Night Valley. Thanks to Anji’s artificial sun idea, they were able to farm a variety of things that enriched the livelihood of common folks.

While Anji became lost in her thoughts, Gu Ying observed her charge. Although all the children of the Celestial Dragon Sect had grown taller, Anji had grown the quickest. Previously, she was a mature child. Now, she was an adult in a child’s body. There was a different air around the youngest princess of the Celestial Dragon Sect. Nobody truly knew what happened during the successor trials or secret special successor training. However, it was clear that something had changed within Anji. She resembles Yan Ping, yet not at all.

While Gu Ying and his younger sister sat in the carriage, Zhao Yihao wondered how he should act around his family. Ever since Bai Dajin taught him inner martial arts to contain his extreme Yang body, he worked hard to become someone more mature. Yet, everyone else seemed ahead of him in spades, even their youngest. Anji used to be a weakling in need of protection. However, she now had an entire sect that was not theirs behind her back. With someone like Yan Ping behind his little sister, Zhao Yihao felt as if his role in her life was inferior. After all, he could only do minor things like driving the horse carriage so that she could rest inside.

In just a few years, Anji had grown to the same height Yihao had been before he decided to enter isolated training. He never slacked off during his training. Bai Dajin was not the gentlest teacher, and Yihao did not mind. He was equally brutish. They would lock heads daily and fight until Yihao could not move a muscle. There was not a single day he did not wake up hurting somewhere. Part of controlling the nature of a Yang Extreme Body was to break down every fibre of muscle and bone to rebuild it completely. According to the White Tiger Sect leader, Zhao Yihao was lucky to have found him before puberty. The restructuring of his vessel would be even more painful after puberty years because he would have to forcefully amplify cell regenerative abilities that were dormant.

Even so, when Yihao looked at Anji’s eyes, he was frightened. Those were not the eyes of his younger sister. If anything, they were like the abyss that had no end. They reminded him of Yan Ping, even if the blind prophet’s eyes saw nothing physically. Truthfully, Zhao Yihao hesitated when they first reunited. He did not reach out to Anji immediately and froze on the ground. His feet wanted to run, but his heart stopped them.

Like him, Anji must have gone through hellish training to become stronger. Even if Zhao Yihao was terrible at studying, he understood that a powerful sect like the Mystical Qilin cannot accept just anyone as the next successor just because the Sect Leader declared it. His younger sister must have worked very hard to become the youngest successor ever known to the ancient sect.

Despite being granted freedom to leave the Mystical Qilin Sect, Anji found herself uncharacteristically calm. She thought she would be more excited and thrilled at reuniting with her family. It was true that she missed her parents and siblings. When she heard how Lizi was accompanying her second brother and Gu Ying was coming to escort her with her third brother, she almost cried at the news. The successor trials ended not too long ago, but already, it seemed like years ago since that happened.

Time was a strange thing. The peaceful scenery before her eyes would also only be temporary, like a fleeting moment. Seasons would come and pass like people in her life. The family that was once her entire world was now just a drop in the ocean in Anji’s heart. Mourning the loss of her attachment, Anji wondered how she should act around her older brothers.

With one eye enjoying the peaceful view, the other looked at the number of lost souls in the other realm. On the surface, life was blossoming. Yet on the other side, the land was still stifled with the aura of death. Zhao Mingshen might have done a great job cleaning up the outlaw areas in the wilderness to provide a clean slate for farmers to cultivate their crops. However, the soil was only fertile from the blood that had seeped into it during its lawless days.

Likewise, Anji wondered if her family would still treat her like the child they once knew. Unlike before, Anji was no longer a mere ten-year-old. She was the next prophet to inherit the Mystical Qilin Sect with a sacred duty to end the murim war. Judging from her third brother’s reaction, he must have sensed the otherworldly abilities Anji possessed after inheriting Bi Yao’s will. Not to mention, Anji was now at least the same age as her shifu mentally. She might not have viewed countless memory crystals. However, she had inherited at least a millennium’s worth of time condensed into knowledge, comparable to Yan Ping’s knowledge. The only thing Anji truly lacked was experience and a Golden Core that matched her soul’s cultivation level.

Before she knew it, the sun had already set and Zhao Yihao slowed the carriage.

"It will take a while to climb the mountain to get to Eternal Night Valley," Zhao Yihao explained. "The horses need to rest, shall we camp here?"

Gu Ying stepped out of the carriage first, followed by Anji. It was a nice creek at the base of the mountain, even if it was far from the village. From the corner of her eye, she spotted some small animals to hunt and fish she could spear. It was a great camping spot in a terrain that does not allow for ambushes.

"Yes. I shall hunt and prepare dinner. Would you like to spend the night sleeping outside or inside the carriage?"

"Outside," Anji replied at once before her older brother could recommend otherwise. "The stars are pretty. Let’s all sleep outside tonight! There will be plenty of chances to sleep indoors with Brother Mingshen accompanying us."

It was true. Back at the Mystical Qilin Sect, Anji enjoyed studying the stars from her teacher’s hut and back in the Gingko Forest. The towns were too bright to admire the stars, and there was something Anji wanted to find tonight.

Not arguing against what Anji wanted, Yihao grinned and offered to find firewood while Gu Ying fished nearby. Anji offered to help but was quickly told to stay near the carriage and watch the horses graze instead. Zhao Yihao must still think Anji was the same sickly, feeble child she had been years ago. However, she did not correct him. There would be plenty of time to catch up later.