“Get ready — activate the Illusion Formation at the entrance of Lingxi Valley!”
As soon as these words left her mouth, the disciples of Lingxi Valley froze.
If this grand formation was activated, wouldn’t those two disciples from the Sword Pavilion be trapped inside it indefinitely once they arrived?
“Young Master?”
The disciple didn’t understand why their usually gentle, polite young master would give such an order.
“When I tell you to do something, just do it. Why are you asking so many questions?”
Yun Suxin’s voice turned colder.
The disciples of Lingxi Valley no longer dared to speak, and quickly bowed their heads and retreated.
“Hmph… If you can break through the illusion, then I’ll let you enter the valley to buy your herbs — so what? But if you can’t, then you can go ahead and enjoy yourself in there for a few days~”
Yun Suxin murmured to herself, before sitting down cross-legged again, gathering her focus and closing her eyes to continue her cultivation.
The Zhongzhou Secret Realm was about to open. She had to raise her strength as quickly as possible.
It would be ideal if she could reach Golden Core Great Perfection before then.
This time, she absolutely had to locate the ancient ruins of Yaowang Valley inside the secret realm.
Her mother’s condition was deteriorating rapidly — she couldn’t afford to delay any longer.
This was her one and only chance.
“Senior Sister, how long until we reach Lingxi Valley?”
“Probably by tomorrow afternoon.”
That evening, Li Qingran and Yue Qianchi arrived at a small town and found an inn to stay the night. After flying with their swords all afternoon, their spiritual energy was nearly exhausted, so they needed to rest.
Yue Qianchi took a sip of wine from the table and immediately frowned.
“Oh, come on — what is this stuff?”
“Hehe, this is fruit wine~”
Li Qingran stuck out her tongue and smiled.
“The Sect Master forbade you from drinking too much, worried your sword would crash into a cliff. But since you still wanted to drink, this is the compromise — it’s light fruit wine, not very intoxicating. And it’s even more expensive than the strong stuff!”
Yue Qianchi glanced at the adorable Li Qingran, her eager little face beaming with anticipation. In the end, she sighed in defeat.
“Tsk, fine — not like this little backwater county has anything better anyway…”
If it had been one of her junior brothers saying this, she would’ve bonked them on the head with her sword hilt.
But Li Qingran was different.
Li Qingran was so pretty that just looking at her made people feel better.
Yes… beautiful things really could soothe the heart.
“Senior Sister, you seem troubled.”
Li Qingran noticed that Yue Qianchi was only drinking and not eating. Her sword-like brows furrowed faintly with a trace of concern.
“It’s no big deal.” Yue Qianchi raised her gaze and smiled bitterly.
“Junior Sister… you know how our Jiange sect crashed that disciple recruitment event and poached a bunch of talents, right?”
“Ah…?”
Li Qingran froze, her face showing worry.
“Well, Lingxi Valley was there too. The young master of Lingxi Valley was present that day. That woman’s sly as a fox — I searched her personally.”
Yue Qianchi snorted.
“I bet she already suspects it was us Sword Pavilion folks who took them. So this trip to Lingxi Valley to buy herbs might not go very smoothly…”
“A-Are they… going to refuse to sell to us…?”
Li Qingran’s eyes widened anxiously.
Yue Qianchi drained the last of her fruit wine and sneered.
“Hmph — what are you afraid of? If she won’t sell, we’ll make her sell. It’s not like we won’t pay!”
Li Qingran forced a laugh.
Technically speaking… that wasn’t wrong.
If they truly had no other choice, they’d use barter instead of money — Jiange was dirt poor these days.
Those spiritual herbs were worth a fortune. The Sect Master had only given them ten low-grade spirit stones each. Even if she pooled together everything her master had given her before, it wouldn’t be enough.
So this time they’d come prepared to trade some Jiange-made goods — like flying swords and Hidden Sword Pills.
They might look shabby, but they were rare, high-quality self-defense weapons.
Rumor had it, even cultivators from the Seven Sects admired the flying swords forged by Jiange.
The cultivators of Lingxi Valley weren’t very good at combat. They relied heavily on defensive items.
These things were exactly what Lingxi Valley needed — so, it counted as matching supply with demand.
The two of them chatted for a while. As the night deepened and with no suitable place for cultivation, they decided to sleep.
Li Qingran had just drawn the gauze curtains when she turned to see Yue Qianchi had already stripped off her outer robe, leaving only a bellyband.
The upper part was tightly filled by her generous chest, while the lower part hung loose like a curtain.
“Ahhh! Senior Sister, what are you doing!?”
Li Qingran instantly flushed, covering her face with both hands. The blush spread all the way to her ears.
“What’s wrong?”
Yue Qianchi lazily stretched, tugging at the shoulder straps, ready to remove the bellyband too.
“Sleeping in clothes is uncomfortable. Been stuffy in these all day — time to relax a little. We’re both girls, what are you shy about?”
“B-but… but…”
Li Qingran stammered.
Suddenly, a serious, terrifying thought struck her.
Master… always knows what she’s doing… which means Master can see what’s happening right now!
That means… Senior Sister Yue Qianchi is also visible to him!!
“Senior Sister, stop—!!”
Too late.
Yue Qianchi had already taken off all her clothes and walked over to the bed with a suspicious look in her eyes.
Seeing Li Qingran’s flushed face, she couldn’t resist teasing her a little. With one hand, she tugged off Li Qingran’s long gown, while the other arm wrapped around her slender waist, pulling her onto the bed.
The gauze curtain was pulled aside, the quilt tumbled down — and two soft, beautiful bodies landed tangled under the covers.
Li Qingran was utterly stunned, her mind going completely blank. She only felt a warm, soft body pressing against her back, and a rush of heat laced with the scent of wine brushing past her ear as Yue Qianchi whispered:
“Hehe~ What’s with you? So shy? Come, let me see how my little junior sister’s grown~”
“N-no, Senior Sister… I’m not shy…”
“Then what’s with you? You’ve been acting strange this whole time!”
Li Qingran buried her face deep into the covers, her voice trembling and high-pitched.
“S-senior sister… m-my master… h-he has incredible magic powers… he can see me anytime… and just now, you… you…”
The warm body behind her froze, then immediately heated up like fire.
“W-what did you say?”
“My master… he can really see…”
Yue Qianchi’s mind went blank for a moment.
“No way… no… impossible…”
Her face burned so hot it felt like she could fry an egg on it.
“Your master can’t possibly be staring at you all the time, right? Doesn’t he have other things to do? If he really could see… he should’ve at least avoided it or said something just now!”
Li Qingran shrank down, biting her lower lip, her face buried so deep in the quilt it nearly disappeared.
Could she not know whether her master would avoid it or not?
After all — even when she was bathing, she could feel that subtle gaze lingering vaguely around her…
Just as the two lay there, flustered and unsure what to do —
A medium-sized spirit gathering array suddenly appeared out of thin air in the little room.
[Even when traveling away from home, you mustn’t slack off in your cultivation!]
A calm, serious voice echoed in the void.
As soon as the words fell, the spirit gathering array lit up and activated.
Under the covers, Li Qingran whimpered in a barely audible voice like a mosquito’s buzz.
Yue Qianchi’s scalp prickled with numbness. She stared despairingly at the spirit gathering array circling around the bed.
Her heart completely gave up.
“Huh, they’re already in bed? That early?”
In a taxi, Chen Huaian glanced at his phone.
When he opened the game, Li Qingran and Yue Qianchi had already gone to bed.
“The spiritual energy in the mortal world is thin — let’s set up a medium-sized spirit gathering array for them so they can cultivate while they rest.”
Thinking this, Chen Huaian spent some spirit stones and activated a medium-sized spirit gathering array with a 6-hour duration.
Right now, Li Qingran’s cultivation had already reached the peak of Qi Refining, but her survival rate was still just 5%. He needed to push her to cultivate faster — she couldn’t slack off just because she left Jiange and went to Lingxi Valley.
“Man, I’m such a good master!”
Chen Huaian praised himself proudly.
When he saw that the taxi had arrived at the entrance of Longteng Internet Cafe, he logged out of the game.
