She suddenly seemed to lose her breath, exerting great effort to squeeze her voice from the bottom of her throat.

“It looks good,” he said with rare seriousness on his face. “Consider it a gift from me.”

Feng Miaojun was slightly startled, then burst into laughter.

The liquid metal had also acknowledged her as its master, so in a sense, it already belonged to her. How stingy and shameless must this man be to give her something that was already hers? Although its actual value indeed far exceeded ordinary jewelry.

This was probably the most expensive pair of earrings in the world.

She was already exceptionally beautiful, and this smile was like a hundred flowers blooming at once, filling the small carriage with a spring-like charm that made Yun Ya’s Adam’s apple move slightly.

Feng Miaojun also knew this was inappropriate and quickly leaned back against the carriage wall, straightening her back and saying in a clear voice, “Thank you for your gift, Young Master!”

The distance between them widened rapidly.

Whatever expression had been on Yun Ya’s face, he now concealed it, giving a low “Mm” without saying anything further.

The carriage suddenly fell silent.

The liquid metal monster that had transformed into earrings slowly turned its head, looking at one and then the other, feeling that there was something strange about the atmosphere.

At Cao Family Village.

Liu Uncle watched Yun Ya’s large carriage leave, then slowly walked back into the village. First, he checked that the young master was sleeping soundly, then went to sweep the ancestral hall.

While wiping the offering table, he also had to clean the divination container and each stick one by one—this was his daily required task.

However, when returning the sticks to the container, he exclaimed in surprise and pulled one out to examine it repeatedly.

“Oh no, I seem to have given them the wrong one.” He stood dumbfounded for quite a while, then suddenly stamped his foot. “Master Cao clearly instructed that this stick was the one corresponding to the letter in the wall brick. How could I have… gotten confused?”

What was to be done now? Those two hadn’t left their names or whereabouts, and once they left, there would be no trace of them. Where could he go to find them?

“Ah, I’ve become muddled. Old age makes one useless!”

Liu Uncle paced around the room for a long time, finally coming up with only one solution:

Well, what’s done is done, let it be!

The old man scratched his head, feeling somewhat uneasy. He quickly lit an incense stick for Master Cao and muttered a few words of confession, and his heart felt a bit better.

Then, he picked up the oil lamp and went home to eat.

Just before the wooden door of the ancestral hall closed, a ray of the setting sun shone through, landing precisely on the offering table.

The stick he had misinterpreted lay quietly in the divination container, with a few small characters written on it:

“When wind and cloud-first meet, waves shall rise from within.”

A few days later, someone came to the village seeking divination and took it away.

Upon returning to the main camp outside Ji Yuan City, Yun Ya’s toes had barely touched the ground when he was summoned by the Prince of Wei for a council meeting.

Feng Miaojun returned to her tent with her new trophy. She had just lit a small stove to boil water when she heard the liquid metal monster whispering in her ear: “Master, I have something to report!”

Her hand paused: “Oh?” Why didn’t you say anything earlier?

“During the battle at the Frozen River, I was severely injured, and just now the State Preceptor burned me with true fire. I am… I am having difficulty sustaining myself. Without some repairs, I fear I will fall into a dormant state and temporarily be unable to serve you.”

“Is that so?” She knew this creature had been seriously wounded by Yun Ya, greatly reducing its strength; otherwise, it wouldn’t have surrendered so obediently this time. “How long will you sleep?”

“At least three years.”

She didn’t know if it was telling the truth. “Then what use are you to me? I might as well melt you down and reforge you into a magical tool.”

“Ah, no!” The liquid metal quickly said, “Coincidentally, you possess something that would be perfect for me. If I consume it, I could greatly shorten my dormant period…”

Feng Miaojun didn’t even think: “Out of the question!” This thing had acknowledged her as its master less than half a day ago and was already coveting her possessions. Although it was currently just an earring weighing less than two taels, Feng Miaojun hadn’t forgotten that this creature was originally the River God of Ji Yuan City—a monster capable of stopping an army of fifty thousand at the banks of the great river!

Its intelligence even surpassed that of ordinary humans. How could she be careless with such a being?

The liquid metal monster’s voice was full of pleading: “This item is a broken fragment, completely useless to you. You might as well let me have it, and in the future, I will serve you wholeheartedly.” After a pause, it added, “I owed Cao Budao a favor and guarded Ji Yuan City for fifty years, protecting his grandson. Aren’t you reassured by such credibility? If you give me this object, I will look to you for guidance above all else.” At this point, its voice suddenly dropped. “Even… even before the State Preceptor.”

She smiled without mirth: “Already trying to curry favor with both sides?”

The liquid metal monster lightly coughed: “The State Preceptor gave me to you, meaning he wants me to truly acknowledge you as my master.”

Is that so? Feng Miaojun slowly retracted the smile from her face.

The liquid metal monster, seeing her deep in thought, grew a bit anxious: “So what do you think?”

“What have you set your eyes on?”

“A piece of metal, probably just a fragment now, and quite small.” It said softly, “I can sense its aura, but it’s very faint.”

A small metal fragment—did she have such a thing? Despite Feng Miaojun’s good memory, she pondered for a long time. The liquid metal monster impatiently jumped from her earlobe to her waist, nudging the pouch hidden there. “It’s in here.”

She took out the pouch and looked inside, extracting several small items from a compartment. Among them was a metal fragment about the size of a copper coin, pitch-black in color, irregular in shape with an uneven cross-section. She had no idea what object it had been broken from.

“You want this?” She remembered now—wasn’t this what she had brought back from the heart of the fiery sea beneath Cliff Mountain? At the time, she had been busy digging up the fire tree, and her shovel had struck this piece of metal. She had initially intended to throw it away, but seeing how tightly the tree roots embraced it, she thought it might be some treasure and kept it.

Afterward, she had examined it several times but couldn’t determine what it was. It was, after all, just a fragment, and she soon forgot about it.

Unexpectedly, someone now wanted it.

The liquid metal monster bounced back and forth on her leg. If it had a face, it would likely be showing unbearable eagerness: “Yes, yes, that’s it!”

She held the object between her fingers, moving it back and forth but not giving it to the creature: “What is this?”

“I don’t know either!” The liquid metal monster replied without thinking. “But I know it’s extremely nourishing for me like thousand-year-old ginseng would be for humans! If I consume it, I’ll transform again!”

Fortunately, she was well-read and knew that liquid metal monsters advanced differently from ordinary cultivators. Besides refining themselves, they also needed to consume various rare and precious metals.

The precious metals mentioned here were not common materials like gold and silver, and even fine gold and black iron couldn’t catch its eye. The extraordinary nature of this metal fragment that could directly transform a liquid metal monster was thus imaginable.

Such a small piece—even if she kept it, she couldn’t forge more than two silver needles from it. It would be better to let the liquid metal monster put it to good use. However, although she had this thought, she still said: “As the saying goes, ‘No reward without merit.’ What makes you deserving of this treasure?”