Murim's Weakest Princess-Chapter 249: Backstabbing

Life of the Whimsical Sage was harder to understand than Anji thought. Although she started to put aside her judgment, she was still rather confused. Ever since leaving the only place the Whimsical Sage had ever known, she kept true to her three rules and never slept in the same place twice.

Sometimes, she would sleep under a tree beneath the stars in an open meadow. Other times, she slept in the mountains in a small cave. The whimsical sage had even slept in a lotus pond on a lotus pad instead of a boat. She was a lawless lady and would often steal horses and boats to travel. Yet, Anji would see that the Whimsical Sage never bargained or shortchanged for the food she bought. She often bought from stores of the elderly with hardly any business. The food was never that great, but she did not mind.

Yet, despite the chaos, the Whimsical Sage never stopped her cultivation training. She would spend many weeks stopping by places with high energy density to cultivate, regardless of the nature of the energy. Once, Anji shuddered at the extreme nature of negative yin energy in a cemetery that the Whimsical Sage chose to cultivate for three weeks.

Just like that, ten years passed. The Whimsical Sage had a golden core full of messy accumulated energy types. However, she had also finally attained the peak of the Solid Core foundation. All that was left was another tribulation to enter the Enlightened Core stage.

Here, the Whimsical Sage did something Anji could never predict. She cleaned up after herself and waited until both her old dogs passed from old age. Then, she polished her martial arts and wrote to various known orthodox sects at the time, requesting a friendly duel to challenge the sect’s best disciple in exchange for a chaos pill.

The chaos pill was something Anji recognised as the prototype of the present-day energy supplement elixir used to help stabilise chaotic energy. Using a medium of mixed grains and oil, the pill was imbued with the many different types of unrefined energy in the Whimsical Sage’s golden core that had now become naturalised in her body.

If the Gu poison was the ultimate poison, then the chaos pill was the ultimate index for all energy types known to mankind at the time. The Whimsical Sage was a walking dictionary and an important figure who took alchemy to the next level. Any decent sect that understood the value of apothecary and spiritual alchemy jumped at the opportunity to welcome her. After all, nobody else was crazy enough to subject themselves to becoming a vessel for chaotic energy. A saner man would have died from energy clashing inside him. Yet, the Whimsical Sage somehow found the perfect balance to keep everything in check without the golden core exploding.

For the next five years, Anji followed the Whimsical Sage, who had become a fine young lady. Although she was short and did not have a weapon speciality, she was very well known in the murim world for her wits and weightless footwork. She leaves no trace of her presence if she does not want to be found and can easily mimic energy signatures to blend in with her environment so well that nobody can recognise her, even if they are looking right at her. They would only think of her as a rock on the mountain.

One after another, the Whimsical Sage exchanged pointers with different orthodox sects as an esteemed guest. However, she never overstayed her welcome. The moment she slept once at their sect, she would leave the next day. Her chaos pill became a highly sought-after gift, and everyone tried their best to locate her if they had not received her letter of request to invite her to stay. Needless to say, the Whimsical Sage did not reply to any requests. She would rather teach a fisherman martial arts than accept duel requests from sects she did not approach.

Again, Anji could not understand why. It was simply too bizarre. It was only after Anji overheard from the Whimsical Sage’s stay at a random inn near an orthodox sect’s base about the scuffle over her chaos pills that Anji understood why. Unable to replicate the chaos pills, many sects turned to buying, snatching and fighting over them behind the Whimsical Sage’s back. The constant backstabbing did not surprise the Whimsical Sage. After all, nobody else was more familiar with backstabbing than her.

The sects that the Whimsical Sage visited were not overly famous. They also paled in martial arts when compared to the skill level of more renowned sects of the time. Yet, they were always able to provide lavishly for her arrival. It took Anji a while to understand the Whimsical Sage’s intention beyond her actions.

The excuse of visiting these sects was a ruse. Her rules might be true, but her reason for staying ran many levels deeper. At first glance, the Whimsical Sage picked on sects that were proficient in unique family arts to understand the nature of chaotic energy. However, Anji soon drew parallels about these martial sects and their connection to their mid-level prestige in the murim world.

Not one of the sects the Whimsical Sage paid a visit to was clean. Even without looking at their ledgers, Anji understood just how corrupt the practitioners were. A common man would never be able to afford such expensive tonics to boost one’s cultivation method. Yet, every sect that the Whimsical Sage visited warmly welcomed her with open arms and gifts in exchange for her chaos pill. By giving a chaos pill, the Whimsical Sage was showered with expensive silk, fine jewels, great food and a free VIP stay with them for a few days to a few weeks. Although the Whimsical Sage never demanded anything material, she never rejected any of the well-meaning gifts, even if they were obvious bribes to have her extend her stay.

If there was one thing Anji found strange, it was the Whimsical Sage’s hobby of visiting the brothels with her received gifts during her stay. Although she would sometimes use those gifts, she often visited brothels and used her wealth to redeem women working in the red light district. Over time, Anji learned to discern her redemption criteria. She noticed how the Whimsical Sage picked the most foul-mouthed and ill-tempered girl from the brothel to redeem. Many people think she was crazy for spending money like that. However, Anji knew better. These girls had a will stronger than anyone else working in the brothel. They would be the only ones who could live without relying on a man like other women.

As for the martial exchange, the Whimsical Sage merely exchanged moves half-heartedly. Truthfully, combat was not her strength. If the Whimsical Sage truly desired victory, all she needed to do was alter her opponent’s sense of perception. There was no need for her to lift even a finger for victory. Yet, she put on a show for everyone.

It took Anji several months to realise the martial exchange was a way for the Whimsical Sage to plant a dormant seed of chaotic energy into the most talented heir or disciple’s body that would mature as soon as she left the sect, so that the sect would be forced to use the chaos pill instead of exchanging it with others. In a way, it was a form of scam. However, Anji did not feel bad for the people who were victims of this scam. After all, their gains were not earned but stolen. In a way, the Whimsical Sage had her twisted sense of justice that nobody else understood. Anji was only beginning to see slices of it from time to time.

Just like this, years passed. The Whimsical Sage visited all hundred sects as promised, and those who chose to sacrifice their heirs to save the chaos pill she gifted met their end. The ones who chose to save their heirs with the chaos pill soon became public enemies of the murim world for being ’self-centred’.

In the end, the only person to benefit from the chaos pill was the Whimsical Sage herself, who had successfully purged all the chaotic energy in her golden core and further enhanced her refinement into a different nature. With the new energy synthesised in her spiritual circuits, the Whimsical Sage skipped right past the Enlightened Core into the Radiant Core, nearing the Transcendent Core stage.

From here, Anji saw how the Whimsical Sage left the mortal realm and murim world for isolation. She set up her base in a snowy mountain near a lake and, for the next fifty years, worked her way into sagehood. Yet, stories about the Whimsical Sage, her anecdotes and her deeds continued to circulate for centuries long after her disappearance, as if she had never once left.

Anji spent the next fifty years of isolation with the Whimsical Sage and saw how she descended into madness several times, recovered and gained new enlightenment. Each time Anji thought the Whimsical Sage had lost herself by talking to trees constantly and cutting one half of a butterfly’s wings whenever she saw one, Anji was proven wrong. Through incomprehensible actions, somehow, the crazy genius would understand something new and improve by leaps and bounds. There was never a boring day with the Whimsical Sage, not even in isolation.

Reflecting on her life, Anji wondered what it would be like to become the Whimsical Sage. In summary, she thought it would be exhausting. After all, nobody else could understand the Whimsical Sage.

The way she ascended to sagehood was also the most anticlimactic thing Anji had ever seen. For decades, the Whimsical Sage did not sleep. However, the moment she decided to take a nap, she ascended.

Truly whimsical.