Meanwhile, the Wanhua Valley Master approached the fruit and began chanting a spell softly.
The curse words fell, and the violent energy within the fruit quickly calmed.
Not only that, but the originally closed seed slowly split open, spitting out a crystal-clear fruit core from within.
Hua Jian was curled up inside this fruit core, which was about the size of a person, hugging her knees, her eyes tightly shut as if she were sleeping.
“Hua Jian…”
Linglong called out softly.
As if she had heard her call, the girl with tightly shut eyes twitched her brows slightly and slowly opened her eyes.
Attempting to move her body, she found that she seemed to be frozen in something very viscous.
Every movement was extremely difficult.
When she tried to speak, her mouth felt stuffed, and she could only make muffled sounds.
Fortunately, she could still move her eyeballs, and the wall of the fruit core was transparent, allowing her to see the situation outside.
“The fruit is yours, consider it compensation for this time.”
The Valley Master of Wanhua received the fruit core to her side and nodded slightly to the Yaochi Sect Leader.
“As for other matters, let’s talk elsewhere.”
The Yaochi Sect Leader did not object.
Since she appeared here together with the Valley Master of Wanhua, it showed they had already reached a consensus.
What followed was merely discussion of details.
The Sect Leader crooked her finger at Linglong in the distance, and a surge of spiritual energy brought Linglong to her side.
“Yaoyue, you’d better explain this thoroughly to me later.”
The White Dragon glared at the Yaochi Sect Leader, twisted her body, and turned back into scales that returned to Linglong’s body.
Since the Yaochi Sect Leader had arrived, there was no point in staying here.
She couldn’t very well ask her daughter in front of so many people why she had taken a liking to a girl from Wanhuagu, could she?
“I’ll explain it to you.”
The Yaochi Sect Leader smiled bitterly and nodded, then disappeared from everyone’s sight along with Linglong and the Valley Master of Wanhua.
…
When Linglong came to her senses, she had already followed her master to a small tea house.
Judging by the still-warm tea, the two saints had been observing this big show from here.
“Master, is Hua Jian really…?”
Linglong didn’t dwell on it.
Now she only wanted to know what was going on with Hua Jian.
Why did her master seem to be giving Hua Jian to Wanhuagu?
“It’s just to let her stay in our Wanhuagu for a few days, to recuperate, learn some skills, and let her mother see what she looks like now.”
The Valley Master of Wanhua laughed twice, still maintaining the form of an old lady, looking very kind.
But Linglong knew that this was only a facade.
The saint of Wanhuagu was definitely not a good person.
And… Hua Jian’s mother?
Wasn’t Hua Jian an orphan?
Where did she get a mother?
It wasn’t just her who was surprised.
Hua Jian, trapped inside the fruit core, also widened her eyes.
No one had told her that she had a mother!
And why was her mother in Wanhuagu?
Could it be that she really was from Wanhuagu?
“Her origins are exceptional. To tell the truth, you, this little dragon girl, might not even be worthy of her.”
The Valley Master of Wanhua continued.
“But she does seem to like you quite a bit. We elders don’t want to interfere with your feelings.”
‘What do you mean I like her? Old lady, are your eyes okay?’
Hua Jian tried to open her mouth to retort, but she couldn’t say a single word.
This was really a case of a mute eating bitter herbs—unable to express her bitterness.
As if sensing Hua Jian’s emotions, the old woman who had appeared many times in Hua Jian’s life looked over at her.
“Little one, you should still recognize me, right?”
‘How could I forget you, old lady? I still remember those spirit stones you tricked me with,’ Hua Jian muttered in her heart.
Now she understood how that old woman had been able to pull out so many strange things.
It turned out that she was the real master of playing the fool.
She, a sixteen-year-old girl, had been completely fooled!
Thinking back on what the Valley Master of Wanhua had just said, Hua Jian felt that her entire life seemed to have been completely controlled by Wanhuagu, and she hadn’t even noticed.
Even now, she had no power to choose.
She was merely the spoils of the Valley Master of Wanhua’s plan.
This made her feel very dejected, with a sense of “I’m nothing special after all.”
“She has made a contract with me. Hua Jian will reside temporarily in Wanhuagu for five years. After five years, she can decide her own fate.”
The Yaochi Sect Leader added calmly.
“The contract is witnessed by the ancestors of both Yaochi and Wanhuagu. No one can violate it.”
“Don’t act like you righteous path are the ones at a loss. The things you wanted, I haven’t given you any less.”
The Valley Master of Wanhua snorted coldly.
In this deal, no one got a huge advantage.
If anything, the Saint Sect was the one that profited more.
Although that saint-level fruit had lost its most important core, the residual energy was still considerable.
Adding more materials, it could still be used to refine a sacred pill.
Apart from that, the Valley Master of Wanhua would also reveal a large amount of information that the Saint Sect urgently needed, such as the hiding place of a certain Black Dragon Venerable who was about to break through.
This information had to be witnessed by the contract, and the Valley Master of Wanhua could not conceal or mislead at all.
To be honest, exchanging these things for Hua Jian to stay in Wanhuagu for five years—any saint would accept this deal.
The only one who would refuse should be the Lingcaifeng Master, who was determined to have Hua Jian.
As for whether letting Hua Jian go to Wanhuagu was like raising a tiger to cause trouble… Ha, even if the deal wasn’t accepted, wouldn’t Hua Jian still go to Wanhuagu?
The Yaochi Sect Leader only agreed to this transaction at the last moment when the fruit was about to self-destruct to send Hua Jian away.
It was a last resort.
“There’s still a little time. You two have a good talk.”
The Valley Master of Wanhua stood up and left the room together with the Yaochi Sect Leader.
They were going to complete the latter half of the transaction.
And the reason the Yaochi Sect Leader had brought Linglong here was precisely this: she wanted Linglong to leave a deeper impression on Hua Jian, so that Hua Jian wouldn’t be completely led astray by Wanhuagu after five years.
Having something to hold onto in her heart was better than nothing, right?
But this so-called “good talk” could only be Linglong speaking to Hua Jian.
“Hua Jian, I’m sorry. It seems I couldn’t help at all.”
Throughout this whole incident, Linglong was like a headless fly, running around everywhere, but in the end, she accomplished nothing.
She could only watch helplessly as Hua Jian was taken away by Wanhuagu.
She wanted so badly to become incredibly strong and beat away all the bad guys who coveted Hua Jian, but reality was cruel—she couldn’t do anything.
She had thought that at the moment of parting, she could hold back her emotions, but when the day actually came, she realized she wasn’t as strong as she had imagined.
Even though she had only been with Hua Jian for less than a year, she felt that she couldn’t get used to life without Hua Jian by her side.
Whenever she thought that in the future she might never see Hua Jian again, her heart ached.
What exactly were her feelings for Hua Jian?
Linglong didn’t know, but she did know that Hua Jian was the person she liked the most, the person she didn’t want to lose.
She had once said that this was the proper care a Shijie should have for her Shimei, but now she felt that she might have been mistaken.
“Hua Jian, what you said might be right.”
Reaching out to touch the warm, transparent fruit core, Linglong said softly under Hua Jian’s complex gaze.
What did Linglong’s words mean?
At this moment, Hua Jian no longer had her usual quick tongue.
This straight ball had hit the bullseye.
She clearly understood the meaning of Linglong’s words.
As Linglong truly spoke these words, the feelings she had for Linglong, like grass meeting spring rain, wildly grew in her heart.
Did she also like Linglong?
This was a question Hua Jian had always been avoiding.
Whenever she thought about it, she used every method to dodge answering.
Whether it was acting mischievously to make Linglong hit her, or deliberately playing dumb to ignore the question, it was all her escape.
And now, she could no longer escape.
Five years.
Five years could change too many things.
Perhaps for a true cultivator, five years was merely the time for a closed-door training session or an exploration trip, but for the sixteen-year-old Hua Jian, this period would soon take up a small half of her life.
Even if she added her previous life, it was the same.
She herself didn’t know what she would be like five years later.
Moreover, she was going to Wanhuagu, a place she knew nothing about.
“After five years, will you forget me?”
Hua Jian shook her head with all her might.
Of course she would not forget Linglong.
She would hold Linglong tightly in her heart.
After all, she was the first person she had ever liked, and also the first person who liked her.
For others, Hua Jian never had that feeling of a racing heart.
She could sense that her feelings for those friends were not “like.”
But it was different with Linglong.
With Linglong, she truly felt her heart race.
Call her a face-con, call her a dragon nature lover—whatever.
She just liked the little dragon girl.
There was no reason for liking.
Perhaps from the day she was chased all over the secret realm by Linglong, she had already fallen into the trap and couldn’t extricate herself.
When exactly did her feelings for Linglong begin to change?
Hua Jian didn’t know either.
It just happened as they spent time together.
What? A year was not short.
People who really clicked didn’t need a year; they confessed in a few days.
She and Linglong were more like a long, steady stream.
With effort, she reached out her hand, aligning it with Linglong’s hand pressed against the wall of the fruit core.
Hua Jian blinked hard at Linglong.
“Don’t you forget me either.”
She didn’t know if Linglong could understand her meaning, but seeing Linglong’s gradually moistening eyes, she felt that Linglong must have understood.
“In five years, I will definitely come to take you away. When that time comes, I won’t be like today, only able to watch as someone else takes you away, unable to do anything!”
The hand pressed against the fruit core clenched tightly into a fist.
Linglong’s eyes shimmered with tears, but her gaze was as steadfast as iron.
Those golden vertical pupils shone as brightly as the sun.
Hua Jian heard the determination in Linglong’s words.
She nodded at Linglong and tried hard to respond to Linglong’s determination with her mouth movements.
Her movements were strenuous and slow.
It was just a few words, but it took her ten times longer than usual to say them.
‘I will wait for you.’
Wait for you to come and take me.
…
“It seems you’ll be drawing water with a bamboo basket this time—all for nothing.”
Standing in the corridor, only a door away, the Yaochi Sect Leader glanced at the Valley Master of Wanhua.
Were these two saints eavesdropping like this a bit damaging to their characters?
“Oh? How do you know it won’t be Hua Jian who steals your Linglong away?”
“Heh, let’s wait and see.”