Chapter 5: You and I Are Fated with Yaochi

Crackle!

A fire sprang up in the dim cave.

Hua Jian placed her wet clothes by the fire to dry, then took out some dry rations from her Storage Pouch and began nibbling on them in small bites.

Of course, the dry rations she bought were the cheapest and most practical kind, chosen for their ultimate cost-effectiveness.

She absolutely refused to spend even a single extra Spirit Stone.

Watching Hua Jian gnaw on the tough, dry flatbread like a giant hamster, Linglong touched her own stomach.

Unafraid of strangers, she sat directly across from Hua Jian and took out her own dinner from her Storage Pouch.

It was a simple meal sealed with a Sealing Secret Art.

As Linglong broke the seal, the aroma of rice and roasted meat instantly filled the cave.

Ding~

Silvery-white tableware appeared in Linglong’s hand.

Hua Jian looked at Linglong’s dinner, then at her own flatbread, which was so tough it could double as a shield. She couldn’t help but feel a pang in her nose.

This damned Saintess, is she showing off on purpose!

Crunch! Hua Jian forcefully bit off a piece of the hard flatbread, chewing her flavorless, rock-hard, ice-cold dinner as if she were gnawing on Linglong’s bones.

Just as Linglong was about to start eating, she noticed the envy, jealousy, and resentment swirling in Hua Jian’s colorful eyes. After a brief thought, she acted on instinct.

She handed her untouched meal box to Hua Jian.

“For you.”

Hua Jian’s chewing stopped mid-bite.

“This… for me?”

“I still have plenty in my Storage Pouch,” Linglong nodded.

The Saintess was a good person in the conventional sense. Even when faced with someone like Hua Jian, who made no effort to hide her ill intentions, she still showed kindness.

Two people sat facing each other— one enjoying a delicious feast, the other gnawing on dry, hard bread. This was not something Linglong wanted to see.

“That’s too much trouble for you.” Though she said this, Hua Jian’s actions were anything but slow. She quickly took the dinner Linglong handed over.

As if afraid Linglong might change her mind, she started wolfing down the food in big mouthfuls, like a starving ghost.

Linglong, meanwhile, took out another dinner and ate slowly and elegantly, forming a stark contrast with Hua Jian.

One was crude beyond compare, the other as graceful as a celestial maiden—so much so that even Hua Jian felt rare embarrassment.

“What are you looking for in this Secret Realm? Maybe I know something,” Hua Jian took the initiative to start a conversation to ease her own awkwardness.

After all, when you’ve eaten someone’s food, you can’t keep your mouth shut.

Although Hua Jian didn’t do decent things in the Secret Realm, she was actually a good girl and understood the principle of repaying kindness.

“The True Dragon Scale. I saw it mentioned in the brochure.”

“…Saintess, you really know how to pick.” Hua Jian was left speechless by Linglong’s answer. As expected of a grand sect’s Saintess— she immediately asked for such a rare treasure.

In the Linglong Pavilion’s brochure about this Secret Realm, the True Dragon Scale was listed as the top treasure, a whole level rarer than the Jinfenghua Hua Jian had used earlier to provoke conflict among Cultivators.

As for whether such a thing actually existed in the Secret Realm, Hua Jian wasn’t even sure herself, let alone able to point Linglong in the right direction.

“Is it hard to find?”

“It’s hard to find something you’re not even sure exists,” Hua Jian finished the last bite of her food and placed the empty meal box beside her. “If something like that really exists, then Linglong Pavilion would only hide it in one place.”

Hua Jian pointed in the direction where they had encountered the Spirit Beast that morning.

A treasure guarded by a boss makes perfect sense, right?

“If Saintess, you’re confident you can defeat that Spirit Beast, go ahead and try. After all, a hundred Spirit Stones is just pocket change for someone as important as you.”

As for Hua Jian herself, she certainly wouldn’t offer anything beyond moral support. One meal was enough to get one piece of information out of her— that was her limit.

She was a very calculating person and would never do a losing deal. If she followed this Saintess into danger, would the Saintess compensate her if she died?

She’d rather steadily set traps to snatch treasures.

If luck was good and she managed to rob a rich Cultivator with a Spiritual Garment and Ling Sword, she’d hit the jackpot.

Linglong could hear the faint mockery in Hua Jian’s tone and knew this suggestion was almost nonsense.

“I can explore the Secret Realm for three months. This is just the beginning of the first month, so there’s no rush.”

“Then, Saintess, when are you planning to leave? I’m not used to sleeping with strangers.” Seeing Linglong completely unfazed, Hua Jian felt a bit regretful.

Still, the most important thing now was to get rid of this Saintess as soon as possible.

She’d come to the Secret Realm to make money, not to play house with the Saintess.

“I don’t need to sleep. Don’t you cultivate at night?” The Saintess took out a radiant meditation cushion from her Storage Pouch and sat cross-legged on it.

Any Cultivator who had set foot on the path of cultivation didn’t need to sleep. Both of them, already beyond the entry-level stage as Spirit Masters, were no exception.

After saying this, the Saintess closed her eyes. A web-like layer of electric light flickered over her body, expanding and contracting as if breathing.

Hua Jian looked closely and saw blue-white Spirit Energy forming a vortex around Linglong, making her click her tongue in envy.

As expected of the Saintess, the momentum of her cultivation was enormous.

Thinking this, Hua Jian resignedly sighed, brushed the ground with her hand, and green vines wove themselves into a soft mat beneath her. She sat down and closed her eyes to begin cultivating.

Though they sat quite close, their cultivation didn’t interfere with each other.

Linglong absorbed Lightning Spirit Energy, while Hua Jian absorbed Wood Spirit Energy— the two were completely independent.

However…

Linglong’s eyes opened slightly and she looked at Hua Jian, who was sitting more than ten meters away.

Petals fell around the girl like rain, Wood Spirit Energy transforming into colorful falling blossoms that sprinkled over her, merging bit by bit.

“Cultivation Vision?”

Linglong’s golden eyes narrowed slightly. As far as she knew, only one in ten thousand Cultivators could manifest a vision during cultivation— each one a genius fiercely sought after by major sects.

Yet here in this Secret Realm, a strange girl who made a living robbing Storage Pouches could actually trigger a Cultivation Vision. It was simply unbelievable.

How could such a genius have been left behind here?

Linglong subconsciously stopped cultivating, walked over to Hua Jian, and reached out to catch a falling petal.

The petal shattered at her fingertips, turning into a strand of pure Wood Spirit Energy that swirled in her palm.

The vision was not false— this girl named Hua Jian… was truly a hidden gem.

Linglong silently watched the meditating Hua Jian, and a thought arose in her mind— one that anyone would have:

This fellow Daoist is fated with my Yaoci Sect. I must bring her back.