Miss Fairy, Please Hear Me Out

Ran Qingmo had arrived. Her clothes were a little torn. At her shoulder and waist, a few patches of fair skin showed through, but her breathing was steady. She did not seem injured.

Xu Yuan looked at the woman in black standing on the teleportation platform, her eyes clear as autumn water, and froze for a moment.

Tian Yan got into a fight with that crazy woman... So she went to the sect master’s bedchamber in the Dome Palace? No, wait. Why can she use the teleportation array too?

As that thought struck him, Xu Yuan instinctively glanced at the graceful puppet woman beside him.

But the woman showed no intention of attacking Ran Qingmo. Instead, she calmly bowed to her. “Grand Elder, you have arrived.”

Grand Elder. What Grand Elder? Xu Yuan fell silent for a moment. According to what he knew, there were only two ways to use the teleportation array.

The first was to receive the gift of the Beguiling Divine Sakura. The second was to kill that crazy woman and loot the token on her. Other than that, there should have been no other method.

Xu Yuan looked at Ran Qingmo with a strange expression and asked softly, “Ran Qingmo, where did you come from?”

Ran Qingmo slowly stepped down from the teleportation platform. After thinking for a moment, she said, “Mhm... I think it was some kind of hidden pill chamber.”

“A hidden pill chamber?” Xu Yuan’s expression grew even stranger. There had never been a map like that in Azure Point.

Ran Qingmo nodded, then casually rummaged through her Sumeru Ring and took out a jade bottle, handing it to Xu Yuan. “Do you recognize these pills?”

Xu Yuan took it without thinking and lowered his eyes to look. There were only five white pills in the little jade bottle. Faint pill patterns circled their surfaces, making it obvious at a glance that they were no common goods.

Before he could speak, the Sage’s remnant soul let out an admiring click of the tongue. “Tsk, tsk. Seven Treasures Foundation-Stabilizing Pills. This little girl really does have good luck.”

Xu Yuan heard the name and immediately felt the familiar sensation of not understanding a word but being deeply impressed. Are these pills very precious?

The Sage’s remnant soul answered casually, “Heh... Not especially precious. It is just that the materials needed to refine them are rather rare.”

Xu Yuan was a little surprised and asked in his mind, What do they do?

The Sage’s remnant soul chuckled. “They extend lifespan and preserve youth.”

That’s all? Xu Yuan asked.

“A pill researched by the Joyous Union Sect would naturally not stop at that. If a woman takes it, it nourishes her Yin. If a man takes it...”

At this point, the Sage’s remnant soul paused. “If a man takes it, it strengthens his Yang.”

Xu Yuan’s eyelid twitched. He gave a light cough, then handed the jade bottle back to Ran Qingmo. “These are Seven Treasures Foundation-Stabilizing Pills.”

Ran Qingmo’s eyes flickered, as if she had thought of what the pills did. A faint look of realization crossed her face. “Oh. Okay.”

With that, she opened the bottle, took out one pill for herself, then handed the remaining four to Xu Yuan.

“These are for you.”

“Pfft.” Before Xu Yuan could say anything, the Sage’s remnant soul burst out laughing first. “Four pills... Xu boy, your little sweetheart is really afraid you won’t be able to keep up. Though now that I think about it, that makes sense. You seem to have another sweetheart with a Bewitching Soul Devil Body too. Your days from now on...”

The Sage’s remnant soul had started rambling again, so Xu Yuan simply cut off the soul link. Unlike the protagonist in the original plot, who could only passively endure Luo Daofan’s endless chatter, he could actively sever the connection.

This was a restriction his eldest brother had placed on the Sage’s remnant soul. If necessary, Xu Yuan could even seal all five of the old man’s senses inside the soul ring and keep him from coming out.

With his ears finally peaceful again, Xu Yuan did not refuse Ran Qingmo’s kindness.

After taking the jade bottle, he handed her the Meteoric Ice Pearl that the Leech King had given him before killing itself.

Ran Qingmo seemed to practice an ice-attributed sword art, and the Meteoric Ice Pearl just happened to be an ice-type rare treasure. It might be useful to her.

The moment Ran Qingmo saw the pearl, her quiet eyes widened slightly. But she did not take it. Instead, she looked a little downcast and said in a low voice, “I don’t have anything else to trade with you.”

The Meteoric Ice Pearl was worth no less than the Seven Treasures Foundation-Stabilizing Pills. To her, it was worth even more.

Xu Yuan said nothing. He grabbed her pale wrist and prepared to force the pearl into her hand.

Ran Qingmo’s eyes were as clear as autumn water, but she remained stubborn and refused to accept it.

Xu Yuan frowned and spoke one word at a time. “Be good.”

After a moment of silence, Ran Qingmo lightly pressed her lips together and nodded. “Okay.”

Xu Yuan slowly sat down on the steps, then patted the spot beside him, signaling for Ran Qingmo to sit too.

Tian Yan and that crazy woman had started fighting, so Xu Yuan was in no hurry. After all, that crazy woman was the only Level 90 boss in the entire Dome Palace.

Ran Qingmo obediently gathered the torn edges of her black robe and sat down beside him.

Xu Yuan glanced at the damaged parts of her clothing. They had not seen each other for a week. Judging by the look of her, this iceberg of a woman had not had an easy time inside the Dome Palace.

As he looked her over, he asked, “Did you run into the sect-guarding spirit puppets in the Dome Palace earlier?”

“Mhm.” Ran Qingmo nodded.

“Where? In that pill repository you mentioned earlier?”

“No. After I came in, I was teleported to an underground palace.”

“An underground palace?” Xu Yuan was surprised. There was no map like that in Azure Point, just like there was no pill repository.

Ran Qingmo thought for a moment, then said softly, “That underground palace was very large. I ran into five third rank spirit puppets inside, but they were all pretty stupid. I ambushed them a few times, and they broke.”

Xu Yuan understood. He smiled and asked, “So you’ve spent these past few days exploring that underground palace?”

Ran Qingmo shook her head, then said very seriously, “I’ve been cultivating these past few days.”

That unexpected answer made Xu Yuan frown. “Cultivating?”

A trace of regret flashed through Ran Qingmo’s dark eyes. “After I entered the underground palace, I found the pill repository that same day. But most of the pills inside had already gone bad. Only a small portion could still be used.”

Xu Yuan fell silent. He did not understand. He truly, deeply did not understand. A place like the pill repository should be just as important to a sect as its library. The Deep Archive had so many sect-guarding spirit puppets, but the pill repository had none?

With a strange expression, Xu Yuan asked, “There weren’t any spirit puppets in that pill repository?”

“There were, but most of them were broken.” Ran Qingmo answered in all seriousness, “Only one spirit puppet, probably with the power of a second rank cultivator, was still operating. But halfway through the fight, it broke too.”

Xu Yuan said nothing.

Ran Qingmo seemed to remember something. She took a token out from her Sumeru Ring and said, “Oh, right. I also found this token in the innermost part of the pill repository. It seems like I can use it to control the arrays inside the sect grounds.”

Xu Yuan was even more speechless. So this is what having a Luck stat of 93 feels like? He let out a breath and laughed softly. “I think I roughly understand. But what did you mean when you said Tian Yan got into a fight with a crazy woman?”

Ran Qingmo hesitated for a moment, then explained everything honestly. “I was cultivating at the time when the array outside fluctuated. So I used the token to look at what was happening inside the sect grounds through the observation array, and I saw the two of them fighting.”

“In the sect master’s bedchamber?” Xu Yuan asked.

Ran Qingmo shook her head. “Beside a withered sakura tree. And... Tian Yan doesn’t seem to be a match for that woman.”