"Great Elder? Great Elder?"
Qian Zhi patted his face.
Wan Huaiyuan slowly opened his eyes in a daze. The moment he saw the enlarged old face with white eyebrows before him, he jolted in shock and kicked him away.
"Where's Yao Ranran? How could you fail to stop a little girl like her?!"
Wan Huaiyuan roared in fury.
Qian Zhi thought back to the scene before he blacked out, then muttered under his breath, unwilling to accept the scolding. "Even you couldn't stop her…"
"I held back because I wanted to leave her with a good impression. That's why I didn't go all out. Where is the Yuwei Incense? Where is it?" Wan Huaiyuan's voice dripped with regret.
If he had known the girl possessed such strange weapons, he would never have hesitated to strike!
Qian Zhi hesitantly pulled out the empty vial of Yuwei Incense, his expression dark. "Great Elder… the Yuwei Incense is gone…"
"…Who used it?" Wan Huaiyuan asked with great difficulty, clinging to his last shred of hope.
Qian Zhi's lips trembled. "It should have been… us…"
Wan Huaiyuan staggered against the bedpost, utterly despondent. "To think that one day we would fall at the hands of a mere little girl!"
Qian Zhi's body quivered. "Maybe… she isn't a little girl, but an old monster in disguise…"
-
Quan Chicheng.
At the Xianlai Inn, Tang Xiangyin propped her chin on her hand, staring out the window in boredom. "Fairy has been so busy lately. She doesn't even take us with her anymore."
"Yeah. I wanted to follow Master and learn a few techniques, but I was rejected every time…" Nie Rong sighed helplessly.
Zhou Lili, deftly brewing spirit tea, said with a smile, "Tell me, have you ever seen a great cultivator dragging around two burdens every day?"
Nie Rong and Tang Xiangyin glanced at each other, silently choosing not to answer.
-
Quan Chicheng.
Dongze Forest.
"Did you send the letter?"
Dressed in pure white robes, Bai Qingwu walked out of a wooden cabin within the forest.
Her smile was gentle. If not for the obsessive look she cast toward Yao Ranran, everything about her seemed perfectly normal.
"…The letter was sent long ago, but I never received a reply. I don't know if he will actually come."
Meeting her gaze, Yao Ranran instantly understood why Wan Huaiyuan and the others had been able to tell something was wrong with this 'Holy Maiden' so quickly.
She really didn't know how to hide it!
Reluctantly looking away, Bai Qingwu laughed heartily. "Trust me, he will definitely come!"
"And why are you so sure?" Yao Ranran asked, puzzled.
Bai Qingwu spoke mysteriously. "Actually, it was foreshadowed in the book. But I stopped updating it! So of course you wouldn't know the inside story."
Seeing his self-righteous expression, Yao Ranran finally realized. "So… you're a eunuch?"
"Ahem, how can you call it that? I transmigrated! I couldn't keep writing, that's all!"
Bai Qingwu flushed slightly and covered it with a few dry coughs.
"Then what was the part you didn't write? Could it be that Shen Yuefu still carries guilt toward Yao Ranran?" Yao Ranran guessed wildly.
Bai Qingwu's eyes brightened. "Your guess is close, but the truth is… heh, if I succeed today, I'll tell you the whole secret!"
"Why are you so fixated on Shen Yuefu? Your role in the story wasn't bad at all."
Other than a few tragic turns, this so-called Holy Maiden hadn't suffered much hardship.
Yao Ranran couldn't understand why Bai Qingwu was so determined to win Shen Yuefu over.
Bai Qingwu shook his head with false profundity. "Not enough. Ranran Daoyou, you must remember, this is the cruel world of cultivation!"
"Yes, of course I know it's cruel…"
Yao Ranran's eyes drifted to her right hand, already restored to perfection. In a world this ruthless, could such a pampered young master really understand cruelty?
Bai Qingwu looked up at the sky, where the sun was already rising. His eyes shone with expectation. "It's almost time. Shen Yuefu will be here soon!"
"All I need to do is meet him face to face? That will count as fulfilling your request?"
Bai Qingwu smiled. "Exactly. Here are two hundred thousand spirit stones. You've helped me so much, I can't underpay you."
To her, the spirit stones of the Holy Palace were endless, always within reach. She didn't care in the slightest. With her status, she never needed to live like a bitter loose cultivator.
Yao Ranran accepted the spirit stones and swept her gaze over them. The reward had doubled, yet she felt little joy.
As a fellow native, she decided to at least warn this new 'friend.'
"Bai Daoyou, have you considered that the elders of the Holy Palace may have already seen through your disguise?"
Bai Qingwu froze. "Ranran Daoyou, is this some kind of new joke? Hahaha! Those senile fools, how could they know the real Holy Maiden is dead, and that the one standing here is someone else?
Ranran Daoyou, don't worry. When I left, those old fools were still sitting inside the Holy Palace, lost in their meditation like idiots.
They're nothing but a bunch of blockheads!"
Bai Qingwu sneered with disdain, clearly dismissing her concern.
Yao Ranran fell silent for a long while.
Maybe it wasn't a group of fools. Maybe there was only one…
"He's coming. I need to get ready!" Bai Qingwu flashed back into the wooden hut.
Yao Ranran watched his fading figure and thought to herself that there would be time enough to explain everything after this was over.
The cold forest wind swept through, rattling branches and shaking down white snowflakes.
Under a tree, Yao Ranran built a snowman. Hearing light footsteps behind her, she slowly turned.
"Elder Shen, I didn't expect you to actually come."
Shen Yuefu, tall and dressed in a dark robe embroidered with gold, walked past her with an indifferent air. His eyes went to the snowman she had just made.
"You want to go to the Eastern Wilderness, only to find Che Lingzhi?"
Following his gaze, Yao Ranran glanced at the snowman. Plump and round, it was clearly shaped in Tang Xiangyin's likeness.
"To obtain Che Lingzhi is to hold endless treasure. Who wouldn't want it?"
"Forget that idea. Even if you managed to seize it, you could never keep it. Without strength, no cultivator can survive in the Eastern Wilderness."
Shen Yuefu's cold stare cut into her.
Yao Ranran smiled. She had not only seen him face to face, she had even exchanged a few words. That should be worth Bai Qingwu's two hundred thousand spirit stones.
"Why are you smiling?" Shen Yuefu couldn't understand her expression.
Yao Ranran shifted her gaze to the tea table in front of the cabin and said lightly, "Just in a good mood. Elder Shen, shall we sit over there and talk?"
Without waiting for his answer, she walked over and sat down on her own.
Shen Yuefu remained standing for a while before finally stepping forward, his manner still icy.
"You don't need to say anything to me. From the beginning until now, I have never felt even a trace of affection for you."
Yao Ranran didn't lift her head. "Mm-hmm. Elder Shen, would you like some tea?"
Shen Yuefu: "…"
Was she even listening?
Inside the cabin, an irregular piece of jade reflected everything outside.
Bai Qingwu gazed at the two faces captured within the stone, her lips curving into a smile.
"My male lead, you've finally taken the bait."