Saving the White Moonlight Chapter 24

“What do we do? What do we do, Host?”
The system was very nervous now. After hearing Yan Zhuguang’s analysis, it also knew that He Sheng’s death might be a plot aimed at Yun Mixue.
But those people had come too fast. This should have been the busiest time for the whole sect, yet these Fenghua Immortal Sect disciples still had time to run into the little woods and find the scene of a murder?
It was impossible to say no one was pushing this from behind.
But Yan Zhuguang had only just arrived. She had not even had time to do anything, and those people were already here. If they saw the host standing beside He Sheng’s corpse, and the host was not even a disciple of Fenghua Immortal Sect yet, then there would be no clearing her name.
Forget Senior Sister’s reputation being hurt. Even the host would be dragged down with it.
“Host, do not worry about the corpse first. You should leave. If those people see you, you will be suspected.”
Yan Zhuguang frowned. She suddenly asked the system, “Can He Sheng’s corpse be put into the inventory?”
“Uh.” The system froze for a moment, then quickly said, “Yes. In theory, it can.”
It was just that putting He Sheng’s corpse inside felt very uncomfortable. It really did not want to.
Yan Zhuguang also did not want to put the corpse of someone she hated into her own inventory, but this was an emergency. Having a method was already good enough. Who cared whether she liked it?
Yan Zhuguang touched He Sheng’s clothes. The corpse, still giving off an icy aura, vanished. Where she had lain, there was still a clear mark. The plants beneath her had been crushed flat, and some icy aura remained in the area.
“Hurry, Host, hurry! They are almost here.”
Yan Zhuguang pressed her palm to the place where He Sheng had lain and poured wood spiritual energy into it. The plants that had clearly been pressed down began to stretch upright again. Slowly, the earlier marks became hard to see.
The system saw that Yan Zhuguang was still cleaning up the scene while the people over there were getting closer and closer. If it had a heart, it would have jumped into its throat by now.
It could even hear the voices of the people coming.
“Is there really something strange here? We have walked so far, and it keeps getting more remote, but we still have not seen anything. Were we tricked?”
“No way. I heard that person say a precious spiritual herb grew here. It should be an ice-type spiritual herb. Even the temperature around it changed.”
“Then you were definitely tricked. Ice-type spiritual herbs grow on Ancestor Lianji’s Zhouxue Peak. How could one be here?”
“And if there really was some good treasure, why did the person who told you not pick it themselves? Would it still be your turn?”
“Exactly.”
“Hey, let us look a little more. I heard that person say the ice-type spiritual herb might have grown from a seed that drifted down from Zhouxue Peak and happened to take root here. That person wanted to pick it, but they did not want to damage the herb’s quality, so they needed some tool to help. They went back to get it.”
“I thought, for a spiritual herb with a special attribute like this, we should pick it before that person comes back. Who cares whether the quality is damaged? Once it is in our hands, it is ours.”
“That does make some sense.”
“Wait! Look, there seems to be someone up ahead!”
Someone pointed into the dark shadows under the trees. A human-shaped outline could faintly be seen there.
“Who would still be in the little woods at a time like this?”
The group exchanged glances. Because they were preparing for the sect master’s succession ceremony, everyone in Fenghua Immortal Sect was very busy. They themselves had come to the little woods in secret. They had not expected anyone else to be inside.
Could there really be some precious spiritual herb here, and had the person ahead gotten there first?
Someone at the front shouted, “Who is there?”
They had thought the other person would be frightened by them and flee in a panic. Unexpectedly, that person was very calm and stood there without moving at all.
“Come on, let us catch up!”
The group sped up. Someone shouted, “Which division are you from? Why have I never seen you before? Speak! Are you a spy from another sect who snuck into our immortal sect?”
Afraid that person would pick their spiritual herb, the group walked very quickly and soon drew close. But when they saw the person clearly, they froze, and their faces became very strange.
“This…”
The cultivator who had pointed over here and said there was someone gave two dry laughs. “Uh, how could it be a tree? When I looked just now, it was clearly a person. Haha, sorry. I saw wrong.”
It turned out the figure they had seen earlier was only a thick patch of shrubs. Because the little woods were dim and because they had already expected to see a person, they had mistaken it for a human figure.
The cultivator who had seen the shrub as a person also felt a little awkward. He could not help kicking the shrubs, making the leaves rustle loudly. Still unconvinced, he looked all around, but he never found any trace of another person.
The others could not help saying, “You are a Foundation Establishment cultivator, after all. Your spiritual sense range may be small, but if you had checked with spiritual sense, you would not have mistaken it.”
That person smiled and secretly curled his lip. None of you used spiritual sense either. A Foundation Establishment cultivator’s spiritual sense was still fragile, and might not reach farther than eyesight. Who would have nothing better to do than spread their spiritual sense out to search the area? Were they not afraid of exhausting their mind to death?
“There does not seem to be anything strange here. Let us go farther in and look.”
A large group of people had shouted at a human-shaped shrub for half a day, only to find they had mistaken it. It was far too embarrassing to talk about. They could not stay in this place any longer. When they came back later, they did not want to pass this spot again either. They should take another route.
The group pretended to be calm, but in truth they left as fast as if their backsides were on fire. Very soon, their figures could no longer be seen.
“Host, they are gone.”
Ripples spread across the trunk of a tree as thick as a water bucket beside the human-shaped shrub. A white figure jumped out of the trunk. She leaned lightly against it, breathing a little fast.
The Wood Escape Technique used up too much energy. For someone like her, who was only at Qi Refining, it was truly difficult. One small mistake, and she might have been trapped inside those plants forever, either turning into a plant herself or becoming nutrients for them.
If she did not have a single wood spiritual root, and if she did not have the Wood Spirit Body, she would never have dared to try it so rashly.
Yan Zhuguang rested for a while. The system was still thinking about those people from before. “They really did see wrong. I thought Host was joking.”
That human-shaped shrub had actually been grown on purpose by Yan Zhuguang in the last bit of time. Otherwise, where would she have found a shrub that looked so much like a person?
The system had nearly died of worry at the time. Those people were about to arrive, yet the host did not hurry and run. She still had time to do gardening? The person involved was calm, while the bystander was frantic. The system had been very depressed.
Luckily, the host’s speed was reliable. Before those people arrived, she had used the Wood Escape Technique and hidden inside the tree.
At first, the system had been a little confused. Why did the host make a human-shaped shrub? It had thought the host was just playing around because she was nervous.
But when it saw that group rush over, barely stay at all, and then leave just as quickly, the system understood. The host was still the host. Even making a shrub had deep meaning.
Yan Zhuguang said very openly, “I did not know it would go this smoothly either. Perhaps their own hearts were guilty.”
She had not held much hope at first.
Although Yan Zhuguang could use the Wood Escape Technique to hide herself, she could not keep it up for long. Otherwise, once her spiritual energy and strength were drained, she would be in danger.
So she had to make sure those people would not stay here too long. It just so happened that the strongest among them was only at early Foundation Establishment, so they were easy to fool. That was how she had come up with this odd idea.
If they mistook the shrub for a person, perhaps they would be scared away at once, or perhaps they would come over to check. Being scared away would be best. If they came to check and found they were wrong, then to cover up the awkwardness in their hearts, they would not stay here for long either.
The method was strange, but as long as it worked, that was enough.
Yan Zhuguang still believed the same thing: planning was up to people, success was up to heaven. Though heaven always tricked her when it came to people treating her with malice, most of the time, it stood on her side.
Yan Zhuguang took out two low-grade spirit stones and began to recover her spiritual energy. In a while, she still needed to use the Wood Escape Technique to return to Ice-Snow Cottage.
The system said, “Host, do you have any clues about He Sheng’s matter?”
It had also heard those people’s conversation just now. Someone had clearly guided those people into the little woods on purpose. The system had repeated all of their conversation to the host. Even it could think of that much, so with the host’s intelligence, she could surely think of it too.
Under the system’s hopeful gaze, Yan Zhuguang said, “No.”
The system: “…”
Host, why are you failing at the key moment? “I am not a god. How could I lock onto the other person’s identity from a few stray words? That person acted crudely, but they were also very careful. Even if they lured those people into the woods, they would not reveal their real information.”
The system thought about it and agreed. When those people talked about the one who had lured them into the little woods, they had only used “that person.” They probably did not even know who the other party was.
“Then what do we do? This main quest has no time limit, but the longer it drags on, the fewer clues there will be. It will also become harder to finish.”
Yan Zhuguang said, “I only gave He Sheng’s corpse a rough look. I have not examined it fully. We will only know how she died after I check.”
That was true. The system thought for a moment. “Then, Host, how will you deal with this corpse?”
“Take it back and use it as flower fertilizer.”
The system: “Pfft.”
There probably were no clues left in the woods, and Yan Zhuguang could not be bothered to look. She adjusted the human-shaped shrub so it looked a little more natural. After she made sure there were no man-made traces, she found a suitable green plant and used the same trick again, spending ten spirit stones to return to Ice-Snow Cottage.
The number of spirit stones had been carefully calculated by Yan Zhuguang. Once she returned to Ice-Snow Cottage, those spirit stones would be drained of energy and turn to ash. When the wind blew, no trace of her formation would remain.
Yan Zhuguang had told the system to keep some attention on Yun Mixue’s situation. Her luck was also good. During the trip from Zhouxue Peak to the little woods and back, Yun Mixue never had a free moment to come look for her.
Yan Zhuguang returned to her side room, shut the door, and threw out He Sheng’s corpse from the system inventory.
The system saw the little slot labeled “one strange corpse” empty out, and it let out a breath of relief.
Although nothing would be left behind in an inventory slot after something had been placed there, it still decided to find a way to clean that slot, or maybe reset it by itself. The system felt this was a very good idea.
Yan Zhuguang did not know what the system was thinking. She was focused on studying the corpse.
Because she had been killed by an ice spell, the entire corpse was frozen stiff.
Yan Zhuguang sent her spiritual energy into the corpse and let it move through the body once. The place where the poison spiritual energy had last disappeared was He Sheng’s heart. Because He Sheng was already dead, the poison spiritual energy wrapped around He Sheng’s spiritual energy had scattered.
He Sheng’s body had been instantly frozen by an ice spell. The Thousand-Cut Bone Water, now without the poison spiritual energy around it, had not yet had time to merge into the blood and move through the whole body before it froze too. Because of that, it had not activated.
Aside from the Thousand-Cut Bone Water, there was nothing else unusual on He Sheng’s body. It looked like she had indeed been killed by an ice spell.
However, this point was enough.
Yan Zhuguang made a rough estimate. He Sheng’s strength had been at early Foundation Establishment. From her surprised expression, the other party should have given her some time to react, instead of killing her before she noticed anything.
Then the person who could kill her head-on in one strike had to be stronger than her. In other words, they had to be above Foundation Establishment.
Of course, this did not shrink the range of suspects by much, because Fenghua Immortal Sect truly had many people above Foundation Establishment. But if that person could instantly freeze Thousand-Cut Bone Water, that was not simple.
Thousand-Cut Bone Water was a Foundation Establishment-level poison. Ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators could not resist it at all. A spell that could freeze Thousand-Cut Bone Water and stop it from activating should at least be a Core Formation-level spell.
Also, there was no personal aura from anyone else left on He Sheng. The killer should have used a one-use tool like a spiritual talisman. This kind of tool did not easily leave behind the caster’s aura, and its traces scattered quickly.
For a spiritual talisman that stored a Core Formation-level spell, the user’s strength could not be below late Foundation Establishment. But for someone at late Foundation Establishment, using a Core Formation-level spell would be very difficult. When they activated the talisman, He Sheng could not have had no time to react.
Yet there were no signs of resistance on her body. In other words, the person who used the talisman had to be at least at Core Formation or above.
The range shrank by more than half at once.
If Yan Zhuguang had not happened to leave a drop of the Foundation Establishment-level poison Thousand-Cut Bone Water inside He Sheng, then aside from the remaining ice spiritual energy, nothing else would have been left on the corpse.
At that point, they might not even have been able to guess the strength of the person who attacked He Sheng. It would have been even easier to throw this dirty water onto Yun Mixue.
Luckily, this coincidence had let Yan Zhuguang rule out the large group of cultivators below Core Formation.
Aside from the ice aura, there were no traces of metal, wood, water, fire, or other spiritual energy on He Sheng. The other party had to use their own spiritual energy to activate the ice-snow talisman. In other words, their own spiritual energy should also be related to ice or snow.
The caster’s spiritual energy had to be ice-type or water-type spiritual energy, and their spiritual root must include an ice spiritual root or water spiritual root.
With the spiritual root limited to those two types, and the strength limited to Core Formation or above, such a person should be very easy to find. As long as she asked Yun Mixue, they could basically guess the candidates.
The system watched the host’s reasoning the whole time and also felt that Yan Zhuguang’s conclusion made sense. In that case, this main quest should be finished soon, right?
It thought for a bit, then asked Yan Zhuguang, “Host, what reward do you want this time?”
Yan Zhuguang asked, “What is the reward this time?”
Yan Zhuguang never asked about rewards before accepting quests, because she would definitely accept them. If the reward was not satisfying, it could be changed.
The system looked. “It is wood spirit stones, which will help Host cultivate.”
Most spirit stones in the cultivation world had no specific attribute. They could also be said to have all attributes, so every cultivator could use them. Spirit stones with special attributes were quite rare. They could only form under special conditions.
Of course, those spirit stones were also more suitable for certain cultivators.
Yan Zhuguang frowned. “I almost forgot about that.”
The system was a little confused. “Huh?”
Yan Zhuguang said, “The person who killed He Sheng may not need an ice spiritual root or water spiritual root. As long as they had an ice spirit stone, they could directly use the spiritual energy in the stone to activate the talisman and achieve the same effect.”
The system was very tangled. “But then the range is very wide.”
If they used an ice spirit stone, did that not mean anyone could use it?
Yan Zhuguang thought for a moment. “Yun Mixue driving He Sheng out of Fenghua Immortal Sect was something that happened by chance half a day ago. The other party killing He Sheng may have been a sudden idea. They may not have prepared an ice spirit stone ahead of time.”
The system let out a breath of relief. “That is good. That is good.”
“But we also cannot rule out the chance that the other party happened to have an ice spirit stone. After all, since they could prepare an ice-type talisman, they may also have been waiting for this chance long ago.”
The system’s thoughts tied themselves into knots.
“So, Host, what is the situation now?” Host, are you playing with me?
Yan Zhuguang said, “We just cannot rule out that possibility. To avoid finding the wrong person, every side must be considered.”
“Then is this quest not very hard to finish?” The system was a little gloomy. Earlier, it had thought the host would certainly be able to find the killer. Look, it had even started caring about the reward.
Yan Zhuguang shook her head. “There is no hurry. When she returns, I will ask her first, then decide.”
Even if she could not lock onto the killer completely, she should at least circle a few people to investigate closely. They could not search without any direction. The woman and the system stared at the corpse in the room.
“Host, how will you deal with this corpse?”
Yan Zhuguang asked, “Right. Has He Sheng’s soul lamp been erased?”
The system said, “The little jade arrow Senior Sister sent earlier was to notify the elder in charge of the soul lamps to erase He Sheng’s soul lamp. Once the soul lamp connected to the disciple token is erased, that person is no longer a disciple of Fenghua Immortal Sect.”
Indeed, if the soul lamp had not been erased, the person who killed He Sheng would not have dared to act so openly. A soul lamp could send a short image from after its owner’s death back into the lamp. It was also a form of protection for sect disciples. As long as no special method was used to block the soul lamp’s record, the sect would not have no trail to follow if it wanted revenge.
Yan Zhuguang’s thoughts moved. “In that case, the killer may be among the titled disciples or elders.”
“Eh?”
The system was puzzled. “How so?”
“She did not loudly announce that He Sheng had been driven out of Fenghua Immortal Sect. How many people in Fenghua Immortal Sect could learn right away that a registered disciple’s soul lamp had been erased?”
Ordinary disciples would not have that chance.
The system struck its little fist into its palm. “As long as we find out who went to the registered disciples’ soul lamp hall in the past half day, or who has ties to the elder guarding that hall, the killer will be revealed.”
Yan Zhuguang nodded.
She got up and walked toward the corpse.
“What is Host going to do?”
Yan Zhuguang said, “Deal with the corpse.”
Since He Sheng’s soul lamp had been erased, no one would come looking for her. As long as this corpse was handled casually and the traces were destroyed, the problem would be settled once and for all.
The killer would not be stupid enough to notice that He Sheng’s death had caused no waves, then take the initiative to suggest searching for a disciple who had already been expelled from Fenghua Immortal Sect. That would only show their own strangeness.
Yan Zhuguang put He Sheng’s corpse back into the system inventory, then opened the door and walked out.
The system looked at the slot labeled “one strange corpse” and felt especially conflicted. It should not have reset that slot so quickly. Now it would have to reset it again. What a waste.
The system remembered that the host had said she would turn the corpse into flower fertilizer. It had thought the host would bury the corpse in the garden outside the side room. It had not expected the host to walk out of Ice-Snow Cottage.
“Where is Host going?”
“The garden is hers. How could I let this woman’s corpse dirty the flowers and plants inside?”
“Oh.”
Host, what happened to your suspicion of Senior Sister? It has only been a few days. How are you already protecting her this quickly?
The host was the host. The system could never understand her.
Forget it. In any case, it was a good thing that the host stood on Senior Sister’s side. It was the system for saving the white moonlight. If it did not stand on Senior Sister’s side, whose side would it stand on?
Yan Zhuguang walked through the wind and snow covering Zhouxue Peak and found an area where the plants grew fairly well. She buried the corpse there.
After that, Yan Zhuguang poured the last bit of wood spiritual energy in her body into those plants.
The system watched with its own eyes as that area went from a small mound that stuck up slightly after the corpse was buried to flat ground with no sign of anything unusual. Then it looked at the plants that had become even more lively and full of spirit, and silently shivered.
Now it really had become flower fertilizer.
“Host, is it all right to leave that drop of Thousand-Cut Bone Water inside?”
Yan Zhuguang pointed to one of the plants, whose leaves had turned from bright green to black. “This one already absorbed the Thousand-Cut Bone Water.”
“Huh?” The system was a little surprised. “It actually did not get poisoned to death? Host, this spiritual plant should have mutated already. Are you going to pick it?”
Yan Zhuguang’s face filled with disgust. “I am not that desperate.”
True. It had grown from a corpse. “Then we just leave it here?”
Yan Zhuguang said, “Do not look at how healthy it seems now. It will not live for long.”
After saying that, Yan Zhuguang turned and went back to Ice-Snow Cottage.
The spiritual energy inside her body was already used up. Without spiritual energy protecting her, the fact that she was not trembling from the cold was only because her self-control was strong. If she stayed even one moment longer, she would be torturing herself.
Her earlier actions had gone very smoothly, but what came next did not go smoothly at all, because Yan Zhuguang was caught by Yun Mixue.
The system hid guiltily in a corner of its little world, not daring to face the host. Heaven knew that when it heard the call of “Zhuguang” after the host approached Ice-Snow Cottage, it had nearly been scared senseless too.
Before, the host had asked it to pay attention to Senior Sister’s movements, and the system really had done so. But later, they had already returned to Ice-Snow Cottage. There was no need to keep watching, so it had pulled back its senses.
Also, it had been tangled up by the host’s chain of reasoning later. After the host left Ice-Snow Cottage, it had not remembered for a moment.
Who knew Senior Sister, who had been so busy that her feet barely touched the ground, would come back so quickly?
Yun Mixue sensed that the mark she had left at the entrance of Ice-Snow Cottage had been touched. She immediately knew that the little girl Yan Zhuguang had disobeyed again and secretly run out.
Ice-Snow Cottage had originally been one of Yun Mixue’s magic artifacts. She could sense everything that happened inside it. But to avoid touching other people’s privacy, Yun Mixue always cut off that sense.
Only, after the matter with He Sheng, she had not felt at ease leaving Yan Zhuguang alone. So she had set a mark at the door. Once someone entered or left, she would sense it. Just after Yan Zhuguang left Ice-Snow Cottage, Yun Mixue had already noticed.
Afraid that something would happen to Yan Zhuguang, Yun Mixue hurried to finish the work in her hands and made time to return to Ice-Snow Cottage.
Her spiritual sense found that Yan Zhuguang was on her way back. Yun Mixue did not go out to search. She stayed in Ice-Snow Cottage and waited, and sure enough, she caught the little runaway who had snuck out. Yun Mixue had wanted to scold Yan Zhuguang properly. Had they not agreed that she would cherish herself and would not secretly run out? But when she saw the little girl shivering slightly in the wind and snow, her lips turning dark, Yun Mixue softened again.
Then she saw the girl looking at her with a pitiful and helpless expression. What else could Yun Mixue say? She could only quickly pull her into her arms, send spiritual energy into her, and warm her body.
“You, ah, you.” Yun Mixue held the little girl, who did not even reach her shoulder, in her arms. She circulated spiritual energy to make her embrace warm, then could not help poking Yan Zhuguang’s forehead. “Did you not promise Senior Sister that you would not leave Ice-Snow Cottage? Why did you secretly run out again?”
“Honored Senior Sister.” Yan Zhuguang’s whole body was ice-cold, and her lips trembled. She had wanted to say something, but stopped. She lowered her head and said softly, “I am sorry.”
“How is this being sorry to me? You are making a joke of your own body.”
“Raise your head and look at me.” Yun Mixue’s voice was heavy.
Yan Zhuguang obediently raised her head, revealing eyes reddened by the wind and snow.
Yun Mixue paused when she saw them. She took a deep breath and said very “sternly,” “If you disobey again and do not cherish yourself, just see how Senior Sister punishes you!”
Yan Zhuguang pressed her wind-cracked lips together and answered in a small voice, “Oh.”
“What do you mean, oh?” Yun Mixue lightly tapped her forehead. “You have to say, ‘I understand.’ Do you understand? Say it.”
Yan Zhuguang opened her mouth. With a gurgle, her stomach cried out at the wrong time. Yan Zhuguang’s face flushed red. Embarrassed, she lowered her head and reached out to cover her stomach.
However, the more she covered it, the more her stomach rebelled. Not only did it not stop, it cried even louder. Yan Zhuguang buried her head lower, almost wishing she could drill into the ground and never come out.
Now Yun Mixue could no longer care whether Yan Zhuguang agreed or not. “Hungry?”
Yan Zhuguang nodded a little. “Mm…”
“Why did you not pick the fruit in the garden to eat?” Yan Zhuguang’s body was gradually warming up. Yun Mixue did not keep standing at the door. She brought Yan Zhuguang back toward the garden. “Could you not find it? There is one tree in the big garden.”
Yan Zhuguang said softly, “I looked. I found it.”
After she finished speaking, she stood in place and did not move. Yun Mixue was a little confused. “What is wrong?”
Yan Zhuguang touched her somewhat hot cheek and said quietly, “Can I not eat those fruits?”
She peeked at Yun Mixue, then took her gaze back and looked left and right. Then she lowered her head and looked at her fingers. “Those fruits are so beautiful. They must be very precious. Would it not be too wasteful to eat them?”
After saying that, she even hid her slightly dirty skirt hem behind her.
Yun Mixue frowned. “You ran out again because of this?”
Yan Zhuguang pressed her lips together and did not answer.
Seeing this, Yun Mixue sighed softly. “Silly girl. Fruit grows back after it is eaten. If a person ruins their body from hunger, how can that be made up for?”
“You went out into the wind and snow. If something happened to you, could one or two fruits pay for it?”
Yan Zhuguang closed her mouth. Her expression seemed a little unconvinced.
“Do you have some opinion?”
Yan Zhuguang said, “The steward from Yimiao Sect told me that our lives are cheap and are not even as important as spiritual grain. We cannot think too highly of ourselves. If something happens to the spiritual grain, ten lives would not be enough to pay for it.”
“Honored Senior Sister’s fruits look a thousand times more powerful than spiritual grain. Even if I had ten thousand lives, I could not pay for them. Being hungry for a while will not use up one life, so how could I eat fruits worth ten thousand lives?”
Yun Mixue laughed from anger. “Your math is quite good. What crooked logic is this?”
“In your eyes, is Senior Sister worse than a steward from Yimiao Sect? You remember and obey everything he says, but when Senior Sister asks you to eat a piece of fruit, you are unwilling?”
Yun Mixue was also angered by Yan Zhuguang’s crooked logic. Otherwise, her mind would not have gone blank, and she would not have said something comparing herself with someone else.
Only, Yun Mixue also understood that Yan Zhuguang’s experiences as a servant disciple in Yimiao Sect had taught her the wrong things. These ideas could not be corrected in a day or two. She could only teach her slowly.
As soon as Yun Mixue said this, Yan Zhuguang shook her head hard. “No, no.”
She was anxious and wanted to explain, but she was short on words and did not know what to say. She was so flustered that she could not squeeze out a single sentence.
Seeing her pitiful look, Yun Mixue said, “Since you say no, then Senior Sister will take you to eat fruit. This time, you cannot refuse.”
“I will not go.” Yan Zhuguang still shook her head. “I will not eat them. Those fruits look so nice on the tree. Even leaving them there is good. Why do we have to eat them?”
“Fruit is planted for people to eat. If you do not eat it, it can only fall to the ground and rot.”
Yan Zhuguang said in surprise, “So even such beautiful and precious fruit can rot?”
“Of course. When a melon is ripe, it falls. No matter how precious a fruit is, it cannot escape this rule.”
Yan Zhuguang still shook her head. “Then I would rather let the fruits rot and become fertilizer than let me eat them and waste them.”
Yun Mixue was simply defeated by her stubbornness. “So you will go hungry if you do not eat them?”
Yan Zhuguang held her stomach. “It is nothing to miss one or two meals. I can go outside to find food.”
“Then did you find food when you went out just now?”
Since she had come back hungry, of course she had not found any. Yan Zhuguang said nothing, but her expression still showed her refusal to eat the fruit.
“You are not even willing to listen to Senior Sister now?”
“Honored Senior Sister…” Yan Zhuguang’s voice trembled. She showed a pitiful look, and in her anxiety, she boldly reached out and grabbed Yun Mixue’s sleeve, gently shaking it.
Yun Mixue was truly weak to this. Seeing that Yan Zhuguang really did not want to eat those fruits, Yun Mixue could only compromise. She poked Yan Zhuguang’s forehead. “I really cannot do anything with you. How can you act spoiled over this sort of thing?”
Yan Zhuguang quickly pulled back the hand holding Yun Mixue’s sleeve, hid it behind her back, and looked upward as if nothing had happened just now. “I was not acting spoiled.”
Yun Mixue shook her head. From her storage ring, she took out another storage ring and handed it to Yan Zhuguang. “Inside are fasting pills I asked the elder of the young disciples’ area for. They should be enough to keep you full for a month.”
“Have you eaten fasting pills before?”
Yan Zhuguang accepted the ring, nodded, and turned it in her hand. “Honored Senior Sister, how are the fasting pills put into the ring?”
Yimiao Sect did not have things like storage rings. With Yan Zhuguang’s previous status, even whether she could use a storage pouch had been uncertain.
Yun Mixue explained in detail how to use a storage ring. “After you make it recognize you as its owner, put it on and try.”
Yan Zhuguang did everything one by one. Only after Yun Mixue saw that she could take a fasting pill from the storage ring did she say, “All right. The fasting pills are in your hands now. You have no reason to run out again, do you?”
“Senior Sister still has matters to handle and cannot watch you at every moment. If I find out you secretly ran out again, Senior Sister truly will not hold back.”
Yan Zhuguang answered obediently, “Oh.”
Yun Mixue patted her head. After sending her back to the side room, she hurried away again.