“Why did you take off your Spiritual Garment?”
Watching as Hua Jian carefully folded her black Spiritual Garment and put it into her Storage Pouch, Linglong asked in confusion.
Although this Spiritual Garment was indeed not very useful, it was still a Spiritual Garment after all, and could at least slightly enhance one’s strength.
What Hua Jian was doing now was like a two-person team swapping out their best gear for worse equipment right before entering a dungeon.
If it were a more hot-tempered cultivator here, they’d probably already start scolding.
Fortunately, while Linglong was powerful, she had a good temper and still thought to ask Hua Jian for her reason.
And her calm inquiry was met with Hua Jian’s look as if she was staring at an idiot.
“There’s a group of people in this Secret Realm hunting for me. The image they have of me is someone in black clothes with a whip, so of course I can’t keep using this look.”
Since she already knew someone was watching her, Hua Jian naturally had to choose an appearance that few had seen before.
At the very least, she couldn’t use her Spiritual Garment and weapon, which were considered trophies.
To deal with this situation, Hua Jian had prepared well. She had a set of clothes in her Storage Pouch that was completely different from her usual style, meant for moments just like this.
“So this is what you call ‘completely different’?”
Seeing that Hua Jian had only changed her outfit from dark to light colors, Linglong felt that her definition of ‘completely different’ might not be quite the same as her own.
The style of the clothes was exactly the same— one black, one white. Wasn’t that basically identical!
“How can black and white be the same? You only think there’s not much difference because you’re used to seeing me. If I do this as well, absolutely no one will recognize me.” As she spoke, Hua Jian pulled a semi-transparent light veil over her face.
Honestly, these two small changes really did give Hua Jian a new vibe. She went from a quirky, mischievous girl to a mysterious young lady with a somewhat calm air.
Taking a deep breath, Hua Jian straightened her face, doing her best to put on a serious expression.
Her reference was none other than the Saintess before her, though it was a case of ‘drawing a tiger but ending up with a dog’. She looked more like a maid following behind a noble lady.
“I see…” Linglong nodded slightly. She hadn’t thought of this before.
She really could learn a thing or two from staying with Hua Jian—her choice was indeed the right one.
“By the way, you go looking for that Spirit Beast every day to make trouble, hasn’t anyone noticed you?”
After they walked out of the cave, Hua Jian asked curiously.
Linglong’s battles were always loud, and a Spirit King-level Spirit Beast could shake half the Secret Realm with its movements.
The two of them had been at odds for several days— there was no way no one noticed.
“I’m not sure.” Linglong shook her head.
When she was fighting the Spirit Beast, she didn’t have the attention to spare for her surroundings.
Once the Spirit Beast left, she would use Thunder Escape to immediately leave the Lake and return to the cave, so she didn’t know if anyone had noticed her.
But this sounded different to Hua Jian’s ears. If she wasn’t sure, then it was best to assume someone had.
With such a commotion, unless everyone was deaf, how could they not notice?
Even people in games know that the sound of gunfire draws everyone’s attention. How could cultivators in this world not know?
What if some treasure really did appear here?
“I think we need to make a plan— should we go for a quick battle, or first distract those who’ve been drawn by your noise?” Hua Jian said to Linglong.
“Since you’ve already made such a ruckus, a quick battle definitely won’t work. If you want to be safer and lure the Spirit Beast away to enter its lair, you’d better use my method.”
If there’s a disturbance in one place, a lot of people will come to check it out.
But if there’s been noise in the same place for two whole months without stopping, most people will probably think whoever’s causing it is just crazy, spending a hundred spirit stones to enter the Secret Realm just to spar with a Spirit Beast.
Once people got used to it, Hua Jian and Linglong could join forces and finally investigate the Spirit Beast Lair.
“Keep picking fights with that Spirit Beast— make it as lively and noisy as possible.” Hua Jian instructed Linglong, “If you keep doing this, everyone will just think you’re a battle maniac with no sense, and no one will guess your real goal is to lure the Spirit Beast away and sneak into its lair.”
The Secret Realm was a bit different from a game. In games, you could just kick out anyone causing trouble.
But in this Secret Realm, no one dared to interfere with Linglong.
She fought with the Spirit Beast every day, and the ordinary cultivators could only endure the racket she made.
What? You’re not happy about it? Sorry, the thunder is too loud to hear you— go complain to my Canglei Orthodoxy!
“This is called Desensitization Therapy. If you suddenly do something strange, people will be sensitive to it. But if you keep doing it every day for a while, they’ll get used to it.”
After hearing Hua Jian’s plan, Linglong looked at her with a hint of surprise in her eyes.
She hadn’t expected Hua Jian to be so articulate.
The plan sounded simple, as if anyone could have thought of it, but in reality, only someone with a very quick mind could come up with it in such a short time.
Linglong herself hadn’t thought of it.
“You’re really smart.” She admitted her own shortcoming without hesitation.
“Did you need to say that?” Hua Jian crossed her arms and huffed. Wasn’t her intelligence obvious?
Saintess Daren, surely you didn’t just now realize that I, Hua Jian, am a clever and resourceful girl.
“Too bad it’s not put to a righteous use.”
Seeing Hua Jian so smug, Linglong calmly delivered the rest of her evaluation.
“How is me making money not righteous? I’ll beat you up, you high-and-mighty snob!”
Hua Jian swung her fist at Linglong, only to have Linglong easily hold her head in place with one hand.
In a head-on fight, even ten Hua Jians together probably couldn’t beat Linglong.
“Stop messing around.” Linglong commented on Hua Jian’s attempt at revenge. “Should we disguise our identities?”
“I’m already disguised, but you…” Forced to calm down by Linglong’s strength, Hua Jian looked at the Saintess walking ahead, her brows furrowing slightly.
Honestly, Linglong’s reputation in the Central Continent was not small, but it wasn’t to the extent that everyone would recognize her on sight.
Hua Jian had recognized Linglong earlier because she’d seen a booklet called the ‘Saint Sect Fairy Ranking’, which had Linglong’s portrait.
Though the portrait wasn’t very lifelike, in this Secret Realm, if you ran into someone whose age, gender, appearance, and cultivation were all similar to the Saintess, it was only natural Hua Jian would blurt out Linglong’s name at first glance.
And since Linglong hadn’t denied it, Hua Jian knew she’d met the real deal. She didn’t know whether to call herself lucky or unlucky.
Unlucky, because she’d run into the Saintess of the Saint Sect in such a small Secret Realm.
Lucky, because she got caught stealing by the Saintess herself.
All you could say was— this was the ever-changing stage of fate…