Yao Ranran looked at the round pill that had fallen into her palm and suddenly felt it scorching hot to the touch.
"I…"
"Fairy, there is no need to refuse. This is what you deserve. Without your timely aid, this old man would not have been able to escape so easily!"
Elder Shang instinctively lifted his hand to stroke his beard, only to grasp empty air. Awkwardly, he rubbed his bare chin and forced a thoughtful expression.
"But Fairy, your cultivation is only at the first layer of Qi Refinement. How did you come to this place?"
"I entered through there." Yao Ranran did not conceal the truth and pointed toward the pitch-black passage.
Elder Shang followed her gaze. Within the darkness, faint black light flickered. He drifted forward and seized upon the glow. At once, a narrow corridor revealed itself.
"There truly is a path!" Elder Shang's face lit with surprise and delight.
Yao Ranran lowered her eyes to the pill in her hand, a guilty look flashing as her gaze shifted to Elder Shang's half-missing body.
In an instant, Elder Shang appeared directly before her. "Girl, you are clever. You did not lie to me. But you know too much. My existence must remain a secret. Aside from Xiao Pei, anyone who learns of me must die."
Yao Ranran's pupils contracted sharply. The words she had been about to speak froze in her throat.
"Still… I will not kill you. I will only draw out your memory, leaving you no recollection of today."
With a harsh voice, Elder Shang thrust his hand forward. His five fingers stopped just an inch from her face. Spiritual power surged, threads of force tugging at her memory.
Yao Ranran's eyes widened.
Should she resist?
But perhaps today's memories were not that important…
"Do not worry, Fairy. I have a split soul that will bear the damage for you!" Tang Xiangyin's crisp, youthful voice echoed in her sea of consciousness. Yao Ranran's tense expression softened, her long lashes trembling as they sank shut.
Unseen, a fragment of soul attached itself to her body. As Elder Shang pulled away her memories, Yao Ranran collapsed to the ground.
Elder Shang's gaze turned cold. "You may carry some fortune, but compared with Xiao Pei, you are still far too lacking. Like heaven and earth apart."
He lowered his sleeve, turned his palm downward, and transformed into a streak of light that vanished into the black passage.
A quarter of an hour later.
Yao Ranran's eyes opened once more. She stared at the pill still clasped tightly in her hand.
"After all, it was me who tossed him into the pill furnace. Letting him take this bit of memory counts as fair trade." She muttered under her breath.
Now she could keep the pill without guilt.
That man was none other than Elder Shang, a cultivator from the Spirit Realm. Even if he had stolen today's memory, Yao Ranran's heart still held the truth clearly.
"Xiang Yin, how are you?"
From her sleeve, Tang Xiangyin crawled out. Her chubby little body was glowing with vitality, eyes bright. "Fairy, I'm fine. My split soul is an independent existence. Losing that sliver of memory means nothing."
"That's good." Yao Ranran rubbed the round head affectionately, though her gaze lingered on the pill.
Tang Xiangyin shifted awkwardly as she looked at the soul-nurturing pill. She tilted her head and spoke timidly. "Fairy…"
"Hmm? What is it?" Yao Ranran's eyes did not leave the pill.
Gathering her courage, Tang Xiangyin said, "Fairy, could the memory I sacrificed be worth, say… one hundred spirit stones?"
Yao Ranran finally looked at her and sighed. "Xiang Yin, at such a dangerous moment, is that what you're thinking about? Spirit stones? You weren't like this before."
Back in the Eastern Wilderness Secret Realm, Tang Xiangyin had been a gentle, elegant young lady. How could she now be so fixated on mundane wealth?
Tang Xiangyin pouted miserably. "Isn't it all because of you?"
She was already drowning in debt, unsure when she could ever repay it. If Gu Ling Mountain could no longer afford food, the Fairy might even consider slicing off pieces of her flesh to sell! She hugged her plump body protectively, feeling as though she had already lost ten pounds of flesh.
"Fairy, did you not notice? After losing memory, I look a little slimmer."
Yao Ranran cast her a glance, eyes sweeping her up and down with careful seriousness. "If there were a scale here, you'd see that you are fatter now than when you came in."
Tang Xiangyin: "…"
"But about the one hundred spirit stones, that's fine." Yao Ranran added.
Tang Xiangyin's eyes widened. Was this real? The iron rooster had plucked a feather? The iron tree had bloomed?
A hundred spirit stones worth of debt had just been erased!
"Fairy, Fairy, I'll follow you all my life!" Tang Xiangyin's stubby legs rushed forward as she clung tightly to Yao Ranran, tears streaming with joy.
"Since losing memory is worth one hundred spirit stones, then saving you from the pill furnace should be worth several tens of thousands, don't you think?" Yao Ranran gently stroked her round head, speaking in a soft, deliberate voice.
The dumpling in her arms froze, then burrowed into her sleeve like an ostrich, silent and motionless. No matter how Yao Ranran called, there was no answer.
Yao Ranran: "…"
"So it was true. Talking about money always hurt feelings."
…
Elder Shang delved deeper into the black passage, circling round and round until he realized…
He was lost.
The narrow tunnels crisscrossed endlessly. Darkness swallowed all light, leaving not even a trace of his presence. No matter how he walked, he always returned to where he had started.
He tried to draw on Yao Ranran's memories, hoping to uncover her method of traveling the path. Yet all he found was emptiness. She had no recollection of walking the tunnels at all.
When he attempted to retrace his steps to the pill chamber, the place he returned to was never the same. Every "original path" was only a similar corridor leading somewhere else.
The farther he went, the further he drifted from Pei Xianqiao. Their bond felt close, yet he could not reach her. His divine sense could not penetrate the passages even by a hair.
Frustration overcame him. Elder Shang pressed both palms against the walls, striking furiously…
The Divine Tree Jianmu quivered, its branches shaking as golden leaves drifted down. A single leaf landed upon Yu Zhenyan's shoulder.
"Fózǐ, what is happening to the Divine Tree?" Yu Zhenyan quickly pinched the leaf between her fingers, her gaze lifting to the Buddhist radiance above while the corner of her eyes swept toward Mu Jialing, who lay gravely wounded beside her.
Mu Jialing pressed one hand to the ground, wiping blood from her lips. She stared at Master Mingzhi's shifting pupils, suspicion stirring in her heart. "That Divine Tree Jianmu seems to be crucial to him."
"It is useless. I tampered with that tree long ago. He cannot harm it in the slightest!" He Huatao pushed through the scattering crowd, voice heavy with strain.
"He is gone!" Yu Zhenyan cried out.
The solemn Buddha's visage towering in the sky dissolved like mist. Countless motes of light scattered like a flock of birds, plunging into the crown of the Divine Tree Jianmu.
Mu Jialing's eyes sharpened. Realization dawned at once. "We cannot harm Jianmu with our strength. But if one were to enter its body, there might be another way!"
"You speak reason, Fózǐ. But how can we enter the body of Jianmu? Its trunk is as hard as the flesh of a Divine Transformation expert who has tempered their body!" Yu Zhenyan's voice trembled with urgency. She longed to seize merit, yet the difficulty was greater than she imagined. Survival itself was uncertain.
He Huatao kicked off the ground, transforming into a streak of light as he shot toward the tree. "No matter! Fózǐ is too heavily injured to fight. I cannot stand idle. I will try it myself!"
Yu Zhenyan watched in astonishment as he rushed ahead, a glint of strange intent flickering in her eyes.
If that loose cultivator died, she could still learn Jianmu's secrets from the outcome.
===
Because my babies have been clamoring for me to pick up another yuri novel, I decided to do it right now (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡ Since I already finished translating "The Invincible Money-Grubbing Fairy," that freed up one slot. This new project will be a modern setting yuri, and just like "My Cold-Hearted Boss Wants to Marry Me," it's another short novel.
That said, I should be honest with you: yuri isn't my main focus. I'll still translate yuri, but the frequency won't be that high. If you'd like me to add more yuri projects, I'll definitely consider it—but only if the requests reach my "minimum slot." How many requests do I need? That's a secret of course (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧
On another note, I'm also starting a new apocalypse-themed project, since "Mom's Apocalypse Survival Log" is almost fully translated. The difference this time is that the new novel is one of my personal favorites. I've literally reread it 5–6 times already, and it has over 1000 chapters serialized!
Both of these newly picked projects are still going through the book vetting process. I'll update you all once they're approved and available on my profile. Please look forward to it~ (ﾉ≧∀≦)ﾉ