Miss Fairy, Please Hear Me Out

The stream murmured on. Birds sang, flowers bloomed, and the cicadas kept crying as ever. A pleasant murmur sounded in the clearing ringed by woods.

“Soul Stabilization.” The moment she was released, Tian Yan immediately closed her eyes. With one hand, she circulated her qi for several seconds, then cast a Heaven mantra to stabilize her soul, which had just been stirred by the poison of the Beguiling Sakura Flower and the Heavenly Desire Bewitching Soul Poison.

The young woman slowly opened her eyes. Her golden pupils were filled with the disgust of someone looking at a pervert. “You really are shameless to the extreme.”

Xu Yuan smiled faintly. “Thanks for the praise.”

“No need to thank me. If you want to hear more, I can keep going.” Tian Yan narrowed her beautiful eyes, and a flash of killing intent flickered through them.

Xu Yuan shrugged, indicating that she was welcome to continue. He had seen the killing intent in her eyes. He had no doubt that Tian Yan wanted to break free of his restraint, and he had even less doubt that she wanted to tear him into pieces. But an enemy’s insults were the finest compliments, so he had always been happy to accept them all.

Naturally, he understood that Tian Yan wanted to escape his control. Once someone had enough information to support their own survival, no one would be willing to remain under another person’s thumb forever, let alone an arrogant genius like Tian Yan.

Fortunately, this washboard of a Saintess seemed to place great importance on her chastity. The Beguiling Sakura Flower had failed to completely control Tian Yan’s mind, but it had kept her balanced on a hair-trigger edge, ready to ignite at the slightest spark.

For the month before the effects of the Beguiling Sakura Flower wore off, Tian Yan should be relatively obedient.

With that threat temporarily neutralized, Xu Yuan turned his thoughts to tonight’s gathering. An elegant gathering, and one held by the Splendorbloom Sect no less.

He was still rather curious about it. But if they walked in and faced that many acquaintances right away, the risk of exposing themselves while having no memories was far too high.

His understanding of Jing He stopped at that one line of flavor text from Azure Point. He knew very little else. He did not even know what cultivation art the man practiced.

Xu Yuan fell silent for a moment, then brought the topic back on track. “We should cancel tonight’s gathering.”

Tian Yan could still tell what mattered and what did not. After she had completely calmed down, she replied in a low voice, “We need to gather information about this world from 10,000 years ago. Tonight’s gathering of sect and clan disciples is a very good opportunity.”

“But the risk is just as great,” Xu Yuan said, disagreeing.

Tian Yan answered without hesitation, “We’re already trapped inside this bizarre illusion. Tell me, what exactly can we do that isn’t risky?.”

“We don’t have our memories right now. At the very least, we can learn some basic information through ordinary disciples.”

Earlier, when Xu Yuan had eavesdropped on the conversations of those ordinary disciples, he had discovered that he and Tian Yan held very high positions among the second-generation disciples of the Splendorbloom Sect. If they made use of that status, they could learn a great deal.

“Basic information?” Tian Yan sighed. “What do you think those bottom-rung disciples could possibly know? Only these sect geniuses and the children of high-ranking figures would know the things we want to know. You heard what those people said earlier too. This Jing He was clearly not much of a talker to begin with, so at the gathering, you simply need to speak less.”

Xu Yuan fell silent for several breaths, then said with a slight hesitation, “Mhm. And what exactly are the things we want to know right now?”

The air suddenly went quiet.

Tian Yan was silent for two seconds, then stared at Xu Yuan as if she were looking at an idiot. “Naturally, we need to find the source of this illusion.”

Xu Yuan did not mind her gaze in the slightest. He only asked in return, “And where is this so-called source of yours? The Sect Master’s sleeping quarters? Or the back mountain of the sect?”

In Azure Point, the deepest areas of the Dome Palace map were those two places, but the source of the illusion clearly could not be either of them.

Hearing this, Tian Yan sighed softly and said in a low voice, “This is an illusion created by the spirit of the Beguiling Divine Sakura. Most likely, the source is naturally connected to the Beguiling Divine Sakura.”

Xu Yuan’s eyes turned odd. After a brief pause, he said, “You want to find the Beguiling Divine Sakura?”

Tian Yan nodded, pointed in a certain direction, and said quietly, “Naturally. But at this point in time, the Beguiling Divine Sakura has not appeared yet.”

Xu Yuan also glanced in that direction. Not bad sense of direction. Much better than that iceberg of a woman. That way was indeed Sakura Leech Lake. But after hearing her words, his expression became even stranger.

Tian Yan, however, continued analyzing on her own. “That is exactly why I want to make contact with those people. Before a divine tree like the Beguiling Divine Sakura, which serves as the foundation of a sect, fully matures, the sect will certainly keep it under secret protection. Low-level disciples would have no chance to come into contact with it. Only core disciples...”

“Enough.” Xu Yuan still could not hold back and cut off her analysis.

Tian Yan stopped and stared at him.

Xu Yuan also pointed in the direction of Sakura Leech Lake and asked, “You’re sure the source of this illusion is that Beguiling Divine Sakura?”

“Most likely.”

Xu Yuan let out a long breath, then simply leaned against the stone railing of the pavilion. Tilting his head back, he looked up at the clear blue sky. “Then there’s no need to look. For the time being, we probably aren’t getting out.”

Tian Yan stared at Xu Yuan without speaking, sitting quietly as she waited for him to explain.

Xu Yuan was silent for a long while, then pointed at Tian Yan’s body.

Confusion appeared in Tian Yan’s eyes.

Then Xu Yuan suddenly said, “You are the Beguiling Divine Sakura.”

“What?”

“That identity of Wang Yuchu you destroyed earlier was the Beguiling Divine Sakura’s tree spirit.”

The pavilion fell silent. Cicadas chirped and birds called all around them, while a clear breeze brushed through the treetops with a soft rustle.

Tian Yan’s little mouth opened slightly, forming a small O.

Xu Yuan raised his hand and waved it in front of her eyes, then sighed. “Are you sure this illusion definitely has a source?”

Tian Yan snapped back to herself and nodded. Her clear voice carried a solemn edge. “Both of us are here now, which means this illusion involves a technique that links intent and soul. The caster must have left a source inside the illusion to maintain the connection between us.”

After listening, Xu Yuan asked with some hesitation, “This is an illusion created by the Beguiling Divine Sakura spirit. Could it be different from ordinary illusions? Could the method to break it also be different?”

Tian Yan frowned, stared at Xu Yuan, and said one word at a time, “What I just said is the fundamental principle behind the circulation of soul power.”

“Hmm...” Xu Yuan fell silent.

The two of them said nothing for a long time. They were stuck.

The progress of breaking out of the illusion had jammed completely.

ᯓ➤

In the end, Xu Yuan and Tian Yan still came to attend this elegant gathering of the Splendorbloom Sect’s core disciples.

If they were going to be stuck in this illusion for a long time, they really did need to understand many things. That included the cultivation art Jing He practiced, the relationship between the two of them, their exact identities within the sect. And they absolutely had to figure out whether the Splendorbloom Sect currently had a Beguiling Divine Sakura, even if it was only a sapling.

Including Xu Yuan and Tian Yan, there were eleven people at this gathering. Six men and five women. They had directly reserved an entire floor of private rooms at Ocean Air Tavern.

Everyone who came was at least fourth rank. They were the core among the core of the Splendorbloom Sect.

Senior Brother Li did not look like a cultivator. He looked more like a refined scholar, but he was very strong. The strongest person present was most likely him.

Even Xu Yuan’s current cultivation could not compare.