She truly believed those TV dramas were realistic when they showed someone using a bathroom break as an excuse to escape.
Seeing that the two Senior Brothers treated her fairly well, she pretended she needed to relieve herself and shyly ran into a small grove.
And then, she ran straight into a banyan tree spirit. At that moment, he was in the middle of transforming into a sentient spirit.
Yao Ranran, sharp-eyed as ever, saw it happen.
From the trunk of the tree, a little green man was emerging.
So—
She stole the tree that gave birth to him.
Stuffed his transforming body into a cloth sack and took off.
Just like that, her escape plan failed.
Along the way, she shamelessly acted cute. The two Senior Brothers never even thought to check what she had inside that sack.
Yao Ranran managed to bring him here without incident.
However, before she could make use of the little tree spirit, he collapsed on his own from poison.
Yao Ranran stared at his body for a moment. "Go to sleep. Rest well tonight, and tomorrow you'll have the energy to work!"
She turned, carried the banyan tree spirit back to the dilapidated Taoist temple, placed him alone in a separate room, and went to the outer hall to deal with the pile of small bats that had been knocked unconscious.
Yao Bat — master of noise, capable of killing with sound waves without leaving a trace.
That was the introduction she had once seen while playing a game. Now that the plot had reached the point where the white lotus imposter had been exposed, she was unusually excited as a reader, and she happened to remember this particular Daoist temple on Guling Mountain.
That was why, along the way, she had begged the two Senior Brothers to help her gather the stench of several thousand spirit weasels.
All for the sake of survival — not stingy at all!
As for the gas mask she was wearing, that was something she had casually made from the banyan tree spirit's own bark.
A Yao Bat landed on her hand. With a flicker of thought, it vanished.
She quickly finished collecting all the Yao Bat corpses in the temple, then walked into the room opposite the banyan tree spirit's.
The door creaked on its unstable hinges, complaining from years of neglect.
No matter. Other than herself and the banyan tree spirit, there was nothing living here.
Yao Ranran waved her hand. The little room shifted in an instant, transforming into a blacksmith's workshop. "This is the blacksmith shop I bought in the game! A shop that hasn't been upgraded with in-game purchases… Sure enough, it's basic."
There was only a forge, a hammer, a bellows, an anvil, a water trough, and a lump of dirt she wasn't even sure where she had picked up in the game world.
On the far left stood the banyan tree she had stolen, and beneath it lay the Yao Bat corpses she had just gathered.
Yao Ranran summoned the shop interface, and all the blacksmith shop's details appeared before her.
[Blacksmith Shop]
Level: 1
Upgrade requirement: 0 / 1000 spirit stones
Proficiency: 0 / 1000 (Max proficiency gives a chance to forge a higher-tier magic artifact)
Bound owner: Yao Ranran
New forging blueprints: Gas Mask, Skunk Pouch.
"One thousand spirit stones. I happen to have…"
Yao Ranran paused. These spirit stones couldn't be spent all at once.
Money makes money. And more money.
She would use them as capital, earn her first bucket of gold, and then upgrade the shop. With that thought, she dismissed the interface, scattered her only lump of dirt at the banyan tree's roots, and poured water from the trough over it.
The tree, lazy and sluggish at night, instantly revived, tender shoots peeking out from its branches.
In the other room, the banyan tree spirit's greenish face twitched. He smacked his lips in his sleep, turned over, and fell into a deep, blissful slumber.
Yao Ranran noticed none of this.
The banyan tree was tall and full of leaves; she couldn't see such small changes from where she was.
"Alright, bedtime!"
She lay down where she stood, hands folded over her chest, gazing up at the green canopy above her before closing her eyes in contentment. Next time, she told herself, she was going to sleep on a bed.
Dawn broke.
Yao Ranran opened her eyes. After a stretch and a quick tidy-up, she splashed water on her face from the trough and stepped out of the room.
A radish-sized green man blocked her path. The banyan tree spirit stood with his hands on his hips, baring his teeth. "I swear I will never be anyone's slave!"
Yao Ranran's expression didn't change. She squatted down and pinched his cheek. "I'm an artifact refiner. I have a fire spiritual root."
The banyan tree spirit slowly lowered his arms, legs going weak as he hugged her thigh. "Don't kill me! I only became sentient yesterday. I'm still young. I don't know anything! Waaaah…"
"Relax. I know you're new here, just like me. I won't kill you. In fact, I can even give you your freedom." Yao Ranran patted his head, speaking in the gentlest tone.
The banyan tree spirit blinked at her, dazed, and believed her. "You're such a good person!" he exclaimed.
"However…" Yao Ranran's brow creased slightly.
The banyan tree spirit's heart tightened. "However what?"
She tapped his nose with a smile. "Your body is in my possession. If you want it back, you'll have to pay spirit stones to ransom yourself. That's how it works in this business."
The banyan tree spirit's face scrunched up. He had never heard of such a rule before. Still, his body was in this woman's hands. If she wanted some spirit stones, that was normal. Humans… they were greedy.
"How many spirit stones for my ransom?" He clenched his little fists and looked up at her earnestly.
Yao Ranran smiled and slowly held up a single finger.
The banyan tree spirit's eyes widened. He took a step back. "O-one million spirit stones?"
Yao Ranran blinked. This little tree spirit was surprisingly confident. With a million spirit stones, she could buy over two hundred of him. Banyans were common, easy to nurture, and there were plenty of tree spirits out there.
In the game market, even a ten-thousand-year-old banyan went for only seven thousand spirit stones. Judging by this one's appearance, he wasn't even ten thousand years old. She would be lucky to get seven thousand for him, if anyone even wanted to buy.
Seeing that she didn't immediately deny it, the banyan tree spirit squatted in a corner and began drawing in the dirt with a twig.
"Since I gained awareness, I've stored up three hundred spirit stones. That's one hundred every thousand years. So in ten thousand years, I'll have… one million! And in a hundred thousand years, I'll—"
"Hold on." Yao Ranran frowned. "Something's not right about that math."
A hundred every thousand years meant only one thousand every ten thousand years. Where exactly was he getting a million from?
Besides, would she even live to see a hundred thousand years later? She wasn't a tree!
"Ahem. Xiao Shu, how about this. Give me the three hundred spirit stones you have now, and I'll use them to make money outside. We split the profits nine to one. As long as I keep making money, you'll keep getting spirit stones. You'll reach one million in no time, without waiting a hundred thousand years."
She was dangling a big, juicy carrot to lure in this tree spirit.
Sure enough, her words had an immediate effect.
The banyan tree spirit's eyes sparkled with hope. "Really? If I give you these three hundred spirit stones, I can get my freedom early?"
Yao Ranran nodded firmly. "That's right. I swear to the heavens, if you hand over those three hundred spirit stones, you won't need a hundred thousand years — not even ten thousand — to gather one million spirit stones and earn your freedom."
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Yao Ranran call the tree sprit as 小树精 (Xiǎo shù jīng). I decide to call it with Xiao Shu.