Lai Li’an woke up in a surge of sharp pain.
“Hiss~”
He grimaced in agony, his entire face scrunching up. Instinctively, he reached up to touch the top of his head, his fingertips brushing against a large, swollen lump. The lightest touch sent a piercing ache through him.
He slowly opened his eyes, and what greeted him was a dim, shadowy ceiling, wooden beams draped with cobwebs.
Lai Li’an blinked, realizing he was lying on a pile of dry hay, a few tattered clothes spread beneath him. It was crude, but far warmer than lying directly on the snow.
He pushed himself up into a sitting position and looked around.
The abandoned temple was small, with a statue standing at the very center.
The statue depicted a man, robes fluttering, his posture transcendent. Though countless years had worn away the details of his face, his upright stance still radiated an unassailable sense of solemnity.
A few characters were carved into the statue’s base, but they were too badly worn, and only a stroke or two of one or two radicals could be faintly discerned.
But he didn’t dwell on it. Right now, only one question occupied his mind—where was he?
Memories came flooding back like a tide.
The last image was frozen on a little girl holding up a wooden stick.
The little girl tilted her head, smiling at him, and then that wooden stick grew larger and larger in his vision, closer and closer.
THUD. The picture went black.
Lai Li’an reached up and rubbed the lump that still throbbed on his head, the corner of his mouth twitching.
She knocked me out, and then what?
Did he have anything valuable on him?
Oh, no. He didn’t.
That little girl really did knock him out.
Lai Li’an let out a wry chuckle and struggled to his feet from the pile of hay.
Just then, a crisp voice came from the corner of the abandoned temple.
“Hey, you’re awake?”
Lai Li’an whipped his head around.
In the corner of the temple, a campfire crackled and popped.
A petite figure crouched by the fire, poking at the flames with a branch.
The firelight danced across her face, making her fair, tender cheeks glow rosy red, like a porcelain doll that had just stepped out of a New Year’s painting.
She had taken off her rabbit fur hat, revealing a head of slightly tousled short hair.
Ye Xiaotang turned around, a faint, ambiguous smile playing at the corners of her lips. Seeing Lai Li’an glaring at her, she showed no sign of panic. She simply tilted her head and spoke with a grin.
“Good that you’re awake. I was worried I hit too hard and scrambled your brains.”
Lai Li’an stared at her for a few seconds without responding.
He spotted a small iron pot set over the fire, its rim blackened by smoke. The water inside bubbled and churned, a few withered vegetable leaves of unknown origin tumbling in the boiling liquid.
Ye Xiaotang followed his gaze to the pot of soup, then looked back at Lai Li’an’s pale, cold-chapped face. The smile on her lips immediately fell.
“What are you staring at?” She huffed, tapping the rim of the pot with her branch, producing a sharp clang. “This is my own rations, and you’re not getting any.”
With that, she pulled a dry, hard steamed bun from her robes, tore it in half, tossed one half into the pot, and held the other in her hand. She chewed it twice, utterly nonchalant, and swallowed.
She took a bite.
CRUNCH.
The sound was as brittle as if she’d bitten into a rock, but Ye Xiaotang’s expression didn’t change in the slightest.
Lai Li’an watched her guarding her food like that, and the corner of his mouth twitched again.
He opened his mouth, about to say something.
“Grrrgle~”
Ye Xiaotang’s chewing paused for a moment. She glanced at Lai Li’an.
His face was a portrait of embarrassment, the tips of his ears burning hot, wishing he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
Ye Xiaotang stared at him for two seconds, then let out a sudden burst of laughter.
She tore off a small piece from the half-bun in her hand and tossed it in Lai Li’an’s direction.
The piece of bun traced an arc through the air and landed squarely in his arms.
“Eat up, eat up.” Ye Xiaotang turned away, poking at the fire again, her tone utterly indifferent. “Don’t starve to death. If you die, I’d have to dig a hole to bury you, and that’s a real hassle.”
Lai Li’an looked down at the piece of bun in his arms.
It had gone cold, stiff and hard, with a few fingernail marks pressed into its surface. But at this moment, inside this crumbling temple, a piece of bun so cold and hard made his nose sting slightly.
He sniffled, picked up the bun, and took a bite.
It tasted terrible, but it filled the belly.
Lai Li’an swallowed the piece in two or three bites. He licked the crumbs from the corners of his mouth, then raised his head and re-evaluated the little girl before him.
What is this girl really thinking?
Lai Li’an sank his awareness into the system panel and glanced at that familiar number.
[Current Fantasy Value: 0/100]
“Useless.”
Not a single point of fantasy value. This wouldn’t do. Absolutely not.
This little girl at the early Foundation Establishment stage held not a shred of fantasy toward him, a useless nobody at the early Qi Refining stage.
He had nothing left now. The only thing he could rely on was his silver tongue.
Lai Li’an took a deep breath and put on a profoundly inscrutable expression.
“Little girl.”
Ye Xiaotang was poking at the fire when she heard those three words. Her hands paused for a moment, and she looked up at him.
“What did you call me?”
“Little girl.” Lai Li’an repeated. “Venerable Self has lived for many years, and you are the first junior to dare lay a hand on me.”
Ye Xiaotang blinked, her eyes glimmering in the firelight. She crossed her arms and tilted her head, looking at him.
“Venerable Self?” She pointed at Lai Li’an with her branch. “You? At the Qi Refining stage?”
“The depth of Venerable Self’s cultivation is hardly something you can see through.”
Lai Li’an stood with his hands behind his back, his spine ramrod straight, his gaze deep and distant, as if he could see through every illusion in this world.
“What you see is merely what Venerable Self wishes you to see.”
Ye Xiaotang stared at him for a few seconds, then burst out laughing.
Her laughter was as crisp as silver bells, echoing through the abandoned temple.
“Hahaha! A Qi Refining nobody gets knocked out and dragged here, and the first thing he does when he wakes up is try to play the great master? Hahaha, I’m dying of laughter!”
Lai Li’an’s expression froze for a split second, but he quickly steadied himself.
“You don’t believe me?”
“Only a ghost would believe you.”
Ye Xiaotang wiped the tears of laughter from the corners of her eyes.
“I’ve been scraping by on this snowfield for a long time. What kind of monsters and demons haven’t I seen? Scammers like you pretending to be great masters—I run into seven or eight a year. Some are even better actors than you. And in the end? Still knocked out with a single swing of my stick, and not a few spirit stones to be found on them.”
She paused, her eyes narrowing slightly.
“But now that I mention it, a low-level Qi Refining nobody like you, dressed all proper and fancy. Tell me, which sect are you from? Did you sneak out?”
Lai Li’an’s mind raced.
“Venerable Self belongs to no sect, just a rogue cultivator.”
Lai Li’an carried an air of transcendence, as if nothing in this world could possibly matter to him.
“As for you, little girl—a Foundation Establishment cultivator, living alone on this snowfield, you must have your own story.”
The corner of Ye Xiaotang’s mouth twitched slightly.
“What story could I have? I’m just an ordinary rogue cultivator, hunting and gathering herbs on this snowfield, living a carefree life.”
“Hunting?” Lai Li’an’s gaze landed on the wooden stick at her side. “Hunting with a wooden stick?”
“This is a magic artifact!”
Ye Xiaotang picked up the wooden stick and twirled it in her hand.
“Don’t go talking nonsense if you can’t recognize it.”
Lai Li’an took a closer look. It really was just an ordinary wooden stick.
He didn’t call her out on it. He simply gave a slight nod.
“I see.”
Ye Xiaotang found his gaze unsettling. Something about this useless Qi Refining nobody’s eyes made her deeply uncomfortable.
She set the stick down and changed the subject.
“You still haven’t answered my question. Where are you really from? Dressed like that, you couldn’t have crawled out of a rock, could you?”
“Venerable Self wanders the four seas with no fixed abode. As for where I come from…”
Lai Li’an paused, his gaze growing distant, as if recalling some memory too old and faded to be clear.
“It’s a long story.”
“Then make it short.”
“…Not convenient to say.”
“Are you messing with me?”
“Venerable Self never messes with anyone.”
“So everything you said just now was a bunch of hot air?”
Lai Li’an took a deep breath.
“Believe and it exists. Doubt and it vanishes.”
Ye Xiaotang had seen shameless people before, but never this shameless.
A Qi Refining nobody, knocked out and dragged here, wakes up and instead of being scared or begging for mercy, has the nerve to play the great master, and acts like he actually believes it.
The two stared at each other, neither speaking another word.