“How do you know I have a solution?”
Qin Wanwan blurted out, and Jian Xingzhi was surprised: “You really do have one?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Jian Xingzhi immediately realized something was wrong with what he’d said. He quickly pressed further: “What are you thinking?”
Qin Wanwan didn’t speak. She hesitated, glancing at Jian Xingzhi’s face, wanting to finish saying the word ‘breakup’ from earlier, but somehow couldn’t get it out. After holding it in for a long time, she only managed to squeeze out: “I have my own methods, don’t worry about it. I’ll give you the contract of sale and silver, and you can just leave through the tunnel…”
“You want to dump me?” Jian Xingzhi understood, raising an eyebrow. Qin Wanwan instinctively shook her head: “No!”
“Then why do you want me to leave?”
“I…” Having her intentions seen through, Qin Wanwan was so frightened she stammered, “I want you to go somewhere safe.”
Finding a reason, Qin Wanwan quickly elaborated: “This mountain is so dangerous, you’re just a mortal—it’s not safe for you to stay by my side.”
“I’m not afraid of danger!” Jian Xingzhi declared righteously, “I have to stay with you.”
How touching.
Faced with such deep loyalty and affection, Qin Wanwan felt incredibly moved.
But the more moved she felt, the more guilty she became.
Her face showed her inner struggle. Jian Xingzhi covered his mouth while observing Qin Wanwan across from him, who kept refusing to let him stay. He put himself in her shoes for a moment and roughly understood what Qin Wanwan meant: “You think I’m useless?”
“No…”
“I’m very useful,” Jian Xingzhi felt he’d found the key point. He recommended himself: “Since you’re planning to go down the mountain, you must have some kind of plan, right? You’re definitely being watched now and can’t get out, but you need to do something. Look at me—I’m in good health, I’m strong, I can move freely throughout Wenxin Sect. Wherever you want to go, just tell me and I’ll dig there right away. If you keep me, I definitely won’t be a burden.”
Qin Wanwan was stunned by Jian Xingzhi’s speech.
She thought for a moment and suddenly felt that what he said actually made sense.
Although Jian Xingzhi was a male companion, judging from the imposing manner with which he wielded his sword at their first meeting, and his current ability to dig tunnels throughout Wenxin Sect, he was indeed somewhat useful.
She was someone who believed in living as comfortably as possible. After realizing Jian Xingzhi’s usefulness, she thought for a moment, then reached out to grasp Jian Xingzhi’s elbow and told him solemnly: “In the future, I’ll definitely give you more money.”
“Sounds good.”
Jian Xingzhi’s attention was drawn to where she was holding him.
This was the first time he’d had physical contact with a girl outside of fighting. He didn’t know why, but he just felt it was somewhat strange.
He wanted to pull Qin Wanwan’s hand away, but felt that doing so would seem petty. He could only look away and pretend to be calm as he drank his water.
“What’s your plan now?”
She couldn’t possibly have no plan at all.
“This is what I’m thinking,” Qin Wanwan considered, “The reason they won’t release me is because they want me to awaken Su Yueli. So why don’t we go take a look? If we can really awaken Su Yueli, we can use this method as a bargaining chip to have them let us down the mountain. Wouldn’t that be better?”
“You’re right,” Jian Xingzhi nodded, “If you go down the mountain now, you’ll still be carrying the reputation of harming a fellow disciple. It would be better to solve the problem directly before leaving.”
“Exactly my thought.”
Qin Wanwan was quite pleased to see this ‘Jian Zhiyan’ was on the same page. It seemed this male companion wasn’t just a pretty face after all.
She turned to look at the sky outside and saw it was already late. Just as she was about to suggest he sleep, she saw him clap his hands, stand up, and say: “Then let’s go.”
“Huh?”
Qin Wanwan was a bit confused. Jian Xingzhi swept Wenxin Sect with his divine sense, then turned to look at Qin Wanwan: “Do you know where that Su Yueli is?”
Qin Wanwan paused, then realized: “Go now?”
“Otherwise?” Jian Xingzhi asked righteously, “Are you waiting for New Year’s?”
As he spoke, Jian Xingzhi didn’t give her time to hesitate. He dragged her toward the window, and the two climbed through it together. Jian Xingzhi pulled her into the tunnel, then turned back to conceal the tunnel entrance. He turned to see Qin Wanwan still in a daze and urged her: “Which room? Let’s go!”
Qin Wanwan finally came back to her senses. She gave a soft “oh,” recalled what she’d observed of Wenxin Sect with her divine sense over the past two days, and confirmed the location: “It should be Linglong Pavilion.”
Having gotten the direction, Jian Xingzhi said nothing more and simply started digging.
He dug very quickly, at about the same speed as Qin Wanwan could walk. Qin Wanwan retrieved a luminous pearl from her universe pouch, tied it to her forehead with a cloth band, and with her hands now free, grabbed a handful of melon seeds from her universe pouch. She followed behind Jian Xingzhi at a moderate distance, leisurely cracking melon seeds while watching this originally elegant and refined gentleman skillfully dig earth with a hoe.
This scene—strangely enough, neither of them felt there was anything wrong with it.
They dug all the way to Linglong Pavilion. Jian Xingzhi habitually turned back to call to Qin Wanwan: “I’ll go up first to check. If there’s no problem, I’ll call you.”
Qin Wanwan nodded: “Alright, I’ll wait for you.”
After they finished speaking, both fell silent for a moment. The two systems sighed simultaneously.
666: “Boss, I’m tired of saying this.”
38: “Host, I don’t need to tell you what you should be doing, right?”
“How about… I go up first instead?”
Qin Wanwan was the first to suggest it. Jian Xingzhi nodded and stepped aside with his hoe to make way.
Qin Wanwan walked to the tunnel opening. This opening went straight up vertically. Qin Wanwan looked at it for a moment, then began climbing up using both hands and feet.
Jian Xingzhi held his hoe, watching Qin Wanwan climb up step by step, his face showing some worry.
“How long do you think it’ll take her to climb up like this?”
“Boss,” 666 couldn’t help but remind him, “this is a normal person’s regular speed. You don’t need to worry, it’ll be quick.”
For someone at the Foundation Establishment stage, climbing through a tunnel wasn’t difficult.
Even for Qin Wanwan.
She successfully climbed to the opening and peered around for a moment. After using her divine sense to confirm there were no other guards, she fully emerged from the tunnel, then found some grass to cover it and hurried toward Linglong Pavilion.
As soon as Qin Wanwan left, Jian Xingzhi immediately confirmed with 666: “As long as I don’t change the major plot and don’t let her realize my abilities exceed the scope of ‘Jian Zhiyan,’ there’s no problem, right?”
“Right,” 666 quickly responded, “You just need to act more delicate!”
Jian Xingzhi didn’t reply. With a light tap of his toe, he leaped straight out of the tunnel opening and chased after Qin Wanwan.
Qin Wanwan cautiously walked to the doorway. Just as she reached the entrance, she clearly saw the barrier at the door with her divine sense.
She wasn’t flustered. She recalled the formations her mother had taught her, drew a formation in her palm, then raised her hand and pressed it against the barrier.
A moment later, the barrier silently disappeared. Jian Xingzhi watched from a distance, raising an eyebrow.
Qin Wanwan entered Linglong Pavilion. Upon entering, she immediately saw an ice coffin placed in the center of the hexagonal great hall. Around the ice coffin stood six sword intent formations from Shen Zhiming, with Jun Shu’s formations coiled beneath, and Song Xinian’s barrier covering the outermost layer—truly a display of utmost care and multiple layers of protection.
Qin Wanwan clearly saw these protections with her divine sense and stopped steadily outside Song Xinian’s formation. Jian Xingzhi quietly climbed onto the crossbeam, peering down from above to survey the entire Linglong Pavilion.
From about half a zhang’s distance away, Qin Wanwan could see Su Yueli inside the ice coffin.
Her eyes were closed, her hands folded over her abdomen. She looked as if she were merely sleeping, her breathing even, her face like a peach blossom.
Qin Wanwan observed her from afar.
She looked completely different from Qin Wan. Qin Wan had phoenix eyes and thin lips, plain features, appearing proud and coldly beautiful, not easy to provoke. But Su Yueli had that lively appearance that ordinary people loved most—big eyes, an oval face, thick lashes, and vivid, full lips. At first glance, she was the girl-next-door type that men found hard to resist.
“She doesn’t seem injured at all.”
Qin Wanwan swept Su Yueli’s entire body with her divine sense and couldn’t help but feel somewhat puzzled. Apart from what seemed to be some fluctuation in her spiritual sea, Su Yueli showed no abnormalities whatsoever.
She carefully recalled the plot.
Because the plot consisted of Qin Wan’s memories from her previous life, many details were actually incomplete. For instance, regarding Su Yueli’s coma, in Qin Wan’s memory, Su Yueli innocently fell unconscious, she herself was put on trial, then she confessed to killing Azure Dragon and having a dragon core in her body. Shen Zhiming, knowing she was innocent, still extracted the dragon core to use for Su Yueli. After receiving the dragon core, Su Yueli woke up not long after, her cultivation greatly increased, advancing directly from Foundation Establishment to Nascent Soul stage.
But as for why Su Yueli fell into a coma—until the very end, Qin Wan never knew. Later, many people asked Su Yueli about it, but she could never explain it clearly. Over time, this matter was also pinned on Qin Wan.
But what if Su Yueli knew?
Qin Wanwan pondered. According to the usual conventions of this kind of Mary Sue novel, it was impossible for Su Yueli to have fallen down the mountain cliff and become unconscious without encountering anything. If Su Yueli was lying—if she had encountered something but refused to speak of it—what could it be?
This matter must be something Su Yueli felt unwilling to let others know about. And in Su Yueli’s life, over ninety percent of the plot was related to men. The man she seemed most unwilling to mention was…
Ning Buxiu, Young Master of Desolate City.
In Qin Wan’s memories, this man had publicly announced to the world his engagement to Su Yueli, saying that Su Yueli had long since worshipped heaven and earth with him, received the true teachings of the Ning family, and their divine senses had merged.
But at that time, Su Yueli’s suitors were as numerous as fish crossing a river. How could she possibly become some man’s wife? So she consistently denied it. It wasn’t until later when Ning Buxiu died for her sake, and after his death his treasures fell into Su Yueli’s hands and she could open them with her divine sense, that everyone confirmed Su Yueli and Ning Buxiu had indeed merged their divine senses.
But when did Su Yueli meet Ning Buxiu?
Moreover, the Ning family’s cultivation method was peculiar. It was said that merging divine senses with someone from the Ning family would grant half of that Ning family member’s cultivation. The process took at minimum ten days to half a month, or at most several years. When did Su Yueli have such a long period of time to do this with Ning Buxiu?
Qin Wanwan considered this, her gaze unconsciously falling on Su Yueli’s head.
The spiritual sea was a person’s most hidden place. In the cultivation world, unless one used the cruel method of Soul Searching, it was impossible for anyone else to enter another person’s spiritual sea.
And the reason the Soul Searching technique was so cruel was fundamentally because after its use, the person whose soul was searched would mostly suffer damage to their spiritual sea and become deranged.
Neither Shen Zhiming nor Jun Shu were willing to use Soul Searching on Su Yueli.
But what if the reason Su Yueli wouldn’t wake was because her divine soul was trapped in her spiritual sea, unwilling to awaken?
If that were truly the case, then not only did Su Yueli clearly know everything happening around her—she knew that Shen Zhiming, Jun Shu, Song Xinian and others were going mad for her sake, knew they wanted to extract Qin Wan’s dragon core, knew they were worried sick—but she might also be lovingly enjoying herself with Ning Buxiu in her spiritual sea while observing all of this…
Thinking of this, Qin Wanwan unconsciously felt somewhat nauseated.
She didn’t want to speculate further. She hesitated for a moment, then raised her hand to set up a sound-blocking barrier.
Jian Xingzhi was somewhat puzzled by what she was doing. He watched as Qin Wanwan, after setting up the barrier, took out a flute from her universe pouch.
Directly invading another person’s spiritual sea was very difficult.
But if one used a medium—such as incense or music—with divine sense strength far exceeding the other person’s, it was indeed possible to take a tour of their spiritual sea.
However, this was a method that only existed in the immortal realm. How could there be such a technique in this small world?
Jian Xingzhi couldn’t help but sit up straighter, watching as Qin Wanwan began to play the flute.
The moment the flute’s sound rang out, Qin Wanwan closed her eyes and felt as if she were standing before a great gate. The gate was heavy, as if weighing a thousand pounds. Qin Wanwan pushed forward with all her strength, and simultaneously, her flute playing grew more and more urgent.
Jian Xingzhi had been listening to the flute, trying to discern which school or sect it came from, but before he could carefully determine its origin, he heard the sound of a xiao piercing sharply into Linglong Pavilion from outside, carrying surging spiritual power rushing toward Qin Wanwan!
Jian Xingzhi leaped down from the crossbeam. One hand formed a seal to gather spiritual energy while his other hand swept Qin Wanwan into his embrace, pressing a dharma seal against her back.
Spiritual power poured into Qin Wanwan’s body. After being refined through Qin Wanwan’s golden core and transformed into her own spiritual power, it surged into the flute.
Inside the spiritual sea, the great gate before Qin Wanwan’s eyes instantly shattered with a thunderous crash.
Outside the spiritual sea, the flute’s sound, carrying abundant spiritual power, fiercely collided with the spiritual power carried by the xiao’s sound. With a tremendous “boom,” everything around them was destroyed as if swept by a violent wind.
The xiao’s sound came to an abrupt halt.
During this entire process, the scene before Qin Wanwan’s eyes rapidly receded, growing smaller and smaller. She seemed to be looking at a canvas shrinking away, and on that canvas was a city of ice and snow. A young woman in pink clothing lifted her skirts and ran past. She turned back, as if speaking to someone.
“Buxiu,” she called out happily, “come catch me! If you catch me, I’ll be yours.”