Xiaochongshan closed as scheduled, and many disciples reaped abundant rewards in the secret realm, returning with smiles on their faces.

Ning Ning can be said to have experienced the ups and downs of life. She successively found two sacred-level spiritual plants and graciously gave them away like a scattering wealth child.

Fortunately, she didn’t have a strong desire for treasure. Even if her hands were empty, she wouldn’t feel too lost.

After leaving the secret realm, Liuming Mountain would hold a grand banquet to declare the end of this experience. It wasn’t until leaving Xiaochongshan that Ning Ning finally saw her other junior brother, Lin Xun.

The little white dragon looked quite miserable, with his white robe stained a light brown by dust. Even the white, jade-like dragon horns were covered in dust.

When asked what happened, he said he accidentally entered a cave, got lost, and spent a whole day wandering with another lost cultivator until the secret realm closed, forcing them to leave that creepy place.

Ning Ning knew he had severe social anxiety and lightly teased, “Did you become friends with that cultivator, whether it’s a he or she?”

Lin Xun immediately blushed and waved his hands repeatedly, saying, “Senior Sister Yun, Senior Yun never spoke to me from start to finish. We communicated solely through writing, but we exchanged a few notes.”

The silent senior sister Yun—

Yun Duanyue?

Since gifting her two pieces of Sky Heart herb leaves, Ning Ning has bid farewell to Yun Danyue. The girl’s social anxiety was even more severe than Lin Xun’s. Faced with unfamiliar strangers, she dared not speak in most cases.

These two meeting…

Ning Ning could roughly imagine how awkward the situation must have been, probably like two robots performing a silent film.

Before the grand banquet started, disciples went back to their rooms to change and bathe, washing away the dust and mud from their adventures in the wilderness. Those with severe injuries needed to be taken to the Baicao pavillion in Liuming Mountain for medical treatment by the medical cultivators.

Pei Ji was one of them.

He forcibly broke through his sea of consciousness, and his internal organs suffered heavy damage due to the immense pressure. Fortunately, the demonic energy was mostly suppressed, and with the nourishment of the Silver silk herb, his cultivation also improved.

Ning Ning remembered something and curiously asked Tian Xianzi, “Master, in the battle in the ancient forest, Pei Ji’s demonic energy overflowed. Will the elders of other sects have any objections?”

In the God-Demon War, countless casualties occurred, and many orthodox cultivators harbored deep hatred for the demon race. Now that Pei Ji has exposed his demonic lineage in front of so many people…

“Don’t worry, those people won’t become clueless old fossils.”

The handsome young man curled his lips, his tone casual. “Even if someone is dissatisfied, the disciples of Tian Xianzi are not to be criticized by outsiders. Anyone who dares to say more, Master, will personally shut their mouths with a sword.”

Ning Ning blinked.

So, Master could be so reliable when not discussing money!

“Oh, speaking of which, let’s not talk about this for now.”

Tian Xianzi said with a smirk, small stars shining in his narrow eyes, “Thanks to you getting the silver silk herb, Master can make a big profit through gambling. When we return, Master will treat you all to a big meal!”

A feast!

Ningning’s pitch-black pupils brightened, and she felt that she should retract her previous statement.

—So, it turns out that the master can be so reliable when it comes to discussing money!

=====

Originally just hoping for a free meal, Ning Ning unexpectedly became the focus of continuous attention, which she had never expected.

Although she obtained the Sky Heart herb from Shi Zhongling, it was ultimately won through cleverness. Her couplets were worse than doggerel.

As for stealing the Silver Silk herb from the mysterious bird’s nest, it was purely a matter of luck. If she didn’t have the Sky Heart herb with her, she would have long become a pile of bones in the wilderness.

It was Pei Ji who truly dealt the fatal blow to the Dragon Blood Tree! Clearly, in the original work—

Speaking of which,

In the original work… how was the plot?

As the male protagonist, Pei Ji found many spirit plants in the ancient wood, smoothly overcame various formidable demon beasts, and gained the admiration of the elders.

What went wrong that made him completely deviate from the original plot, entangled by that insane Dragon Blood Tree?

“As for the matter of the Dragon Blood Tree in the secret realm, I deeply apologize.”

He Xiaochen summarized his speech with a dignified leader’s demeanor: “Xiao Zhongshan has been in this world for many years, and besides the nurturing of spiritual energy, demonic energy has also been silently spreading. Unexpectedly, the Dragon Blood Tree was affected by demonic energy and almost harmed the innocent—thanks to the Xuanxu Sword Sect disciple Pei Ji for drawing his sword to eliminate the evil, averting a crisis.”

A murmur arose in the crowd. Ning Ning took a bite of apricot blossom cake and heard someone say, “But Pei Ji also has demonic energy! I heard that the Dragon Blood Tree acted strangely only when he approached. Could he be the mastermind behind the anomaly, secretly planning everything?”

Sure enough, someone would say that.

Ning Ning’s face darkened as she looked toward the source of the voice, forcefully smashing the unfinished apricot blossom cake on the back of his head.

A painful cry immediately followed.

“How could a junior friend harbor such thoughts?” He Xiaochen smiled bitterly. “Pei Ji risked his life to save the disciples trapped in the ancient wood forest. If it weren’t for fellow sect members finding the Silver Silk herb for him, he might not have survived.”

The person persisted, “But he’s still alive, isn’t he? We all know the nature of the demon race. If Pei Ji anticipated the subsequent developments and intentionally set up this situation to become a widely known hero—”

“Causing the Dragon Blood Tree to go mad and making fellow sect members easily snatch sacred-level spiritual plants. Could it be that someone thinks this secret realm is Pei Ji’s family business?”

A young man’s voice, tinged with a sneer, ruthlessly interrupted him. Tian Xianzi, dressed in a light green robe, stole bites of dessert without wiping his mouth, and there were even some crumbs on the corner of his half-smirked mouth.

With the most casual posture and the most sarcastic words, the rising intonation sounded like an elusive tail, swaggering and domineering. “Moreover, with golden core cultivation, controlling a ten thousand-year-old ancient tree? Since the junior friend is so good at dreaming, why not go back to your room and dream a little more instead of standing here doing nothing.”

“You!”

The elders present all exuded an air of immortality and Daoism. Unexpectedly, this person openly confronted a junior in front of everyone. Unfortunately, the junior was left speechless in the retort, only able to blush and glare at him.

“In this secret realm, many juniors have displayed rare courage and strategy.”

He Xiaochen calmly ignored the dispute, maintaining a refined demeanor: “Liuming Mountain’s Bai Ye dealt a heavy blow to the Taixuan Bird; the Beast Taming Sect’s Song Youran found a giant lion and tiger beast. As for the legendary Sky Heart herb and Silver Silk herb… this time they were both obtained by Xuanxu Sword Sect’s Ning Ning. Congratulations are in order.”

Not everyone knew about Ning Ning’s achievements. As this statement came out, exclamations of surprise filled the air.

“No way! Two sacred-level spirit plants—even seeing one is difficult for ordinary people. Did she take them both directly?”

“Ning Ning? I heard she was also involved in subduing the Dragon Blood Tree. Managing so many things in just two days, she’s a master of time management!”

“That’s not the most impressive part. Do you know about Niguang Island and the Haoran Sect? She manipulated those two troublemakers inside the secret realm.”

Ning Ning felt uncomfortable all over, lowered her head, and kept eating, trying to numb her attention with food. Suddenly, she heard someone say, “I heard many people on Niguang Island are looking for her, saying they want to—”

Immediately, someone interrupted, “Dog’s life?”

Ning Ning choked on her food.

“No, not that! Marry! There are many strange cultivators on Niguang Island, and after being played around with, they actually took a liking to her! Isn’t that strange?”

Ning Ning: …

This is even more terrifying! She doesn’t want to make headlines as a teenage girl mysteriously turned into jerky!

Feeling like she’s on a roller coaster, she turned her head only to find that Tian Xianzi had somehow stood behind her.

He gave her a look that said, “It’s okay; the master understands.”

“No problem, we can return to Xuanxu tomorrow.”

He thought of something, grinned, and said, “Your senior sister has returned from her training at the foot of the mountain. It’s a good time to catch up after we go back.”

Senior sister?

Ningning made an effort to recall, revealing a somewhat complicated expression.

Under Tian Xianzi’s sect, there were five direct disciples. The senior sister was named Zheng Weiqi, and she was one of the victims Ning Ning would inevitably offend in the future.

Speaking of this senior sister, she was truly an extraordinary person.

In the Xuanxu Sword Sect, disciples were required to attend school upon entering, studying both sword theory and cultural knowledge. This was to prevent future swordsmen from becoming illiterate. However, Zheng Weiqi was the biggest loophole in this system.

Normally, disciples started attending the school during the Foundation Establishment stage, and as long as they passed the assessments, they could smoothly graduate. However, Zheng Weiqi, from Foundation Establishment to Core Formation, from Core Formation to Nascent Soul, three years after three years, had gone from a bride to a mother-in-law. Despite this, she still participated in the annual assessments, never passing once.

To put it bluntly, it was like someone starting the college entrance exam at eighteen and still taking it at eighty but never reaching the undergraduate admission score. It was something that would make men silent and women shed tears, leaving all 1.3 billion Chinese people in tears after watching.

It was said that the senior sister particularly despised reading and writing. There was a widely circulated exam paper:

When asked about the swordsmanship style of the Zhenxiao Sword Master, the answer was “potato style.”

In the subsequent makeup exam, realizing the gravity of the situation, she changed it to the “Idol style.”

When asked to explain the term “entering into meditation,” she honestly replied, “It’s pretty much the same as when I daydream in class.”

There was also a childish arithmetic question. It stated that a farmer demanded a certain condition when working for a landlord, claiming that on the first day of work, he should be given one grain of rice, and on the second day, two grains, doubling each subsequent day. Analyze the farmer’s intention.

She earnestly answered: “The farmer insisted for five days, ate dozens of grains of rice, and finally starved to death.”

Such thought processes were clearly not those of an ordinary person. However, her swordsmanship was exceptionally excellent, ranking among the top in the Xuanxu Sword Sect.

Constantly seeking death in front of such people, Ning Ning just hoped not to be hit in the head with a sword.

“By the way, why didn’t we see Xu Ye today?”

Beside her, He Zhizhou looked around, scratching his head in confusion. “Senior Uncle Tian Xianzi, why do the people from the Wanjian Sect look at us so strangely?”

Tian Xianzi smiled faintly.

Tian Xanzi responded with a non-sequitur: “I heard that you did well in entangling the Black Bird in the Changyue peak to buy time for Ning Ning.”

He Zhizhou received praise and tried to suppress the rising corners of his mouth. “Senior Uncle, you exaggerate. It’s just average compared to Senior Uncle.”

Tian Xianzi laughed heartily. “No, no, no! You are undoubtedly a worthy little Tian Xianzi. Young man, have some confidence in yourself.”

The poor He Zhizhou thought it was praise and couldn’t stop smiling. “Thank you, Senior Uncle. Thank you, Senior Uncle. If I become famous in the future, I’ll use the Taoist name Baby Tian Xian.”

Baby Tian Xian

Ning Ning glanced at him hesitantly and finally took a step forward, leaning close to his ear and whispering, “Don’t you know? The secret realm has real-time monitoring. What you did was live-streamed under the watchful eyes of dozens of elders.”

He Zhizhou’s smile froze on his face.

His master spent 350 days wandering outside each year, and his disciples were mostly left to their own devices. Naturally, his master couldn’t explain the specific rules of the secret realm in detail.

So, there’s surveillance.

At this moment, the curve of Tian Xianzi’s mouth seemed to ooze venom, a mix of three parts devilish charm, three parts annoyance, 21.5% mockery, and 19% laughter. He almost uttered that classic line from a CEO novel: “Little demon, do you know you’re playing with fire?”

He was too flustered, completely unaware that adding those percentages didn’t total a hundred.

Playing with fire in the secret realm during the day and getting played by his senior uncle at night.

He Zhizhou was willing to call his own smile a wild chrysanthemum blooming in despair: “Senior Uncle, can we go a bit easy on the beating?”

=====

People in the cultivation world generally admire strength. As soon as Ning Ning was named by He Xiaochen, challengers flocked to her like sardines in a can.

As for the people from Niguang Island, they were even more terrifying, occasionally approaching her and asking if she wanted to cultivate together or coming in groups to make the same request.

Come on, you guys were played! In such a situation, shouldn’t you hate her to the bone, wishing to tear her apart?

She couldn’t understand these enchanting cultivators.

Feeling annoyed, she found an excuse and slipped away early. When she returned to her room, she noticed that Pei Ji’s room had the lights on.

He must have finished healing and been brought back.

This poor kid had it really tough. Apart from the sword in the ancient wood forest, he had no luck typical of a male protagonist. While everyone else was lively elsewhere, he was left alone in his room.

Ning Ning felt he was a bit too pitiful. After hesitating for a moment, she took a few steps forward, intending to knock on the door and check on him.

However, before her knuckles could land on the door, her wrist was unexpectedly grabbed. At the same time, a sweet but not overly sweet murmur sounded in her ear, accompanied by a light, faint smile: “I remember… this isn’t the room you stay in.”

The voice almost whispered directly into her ear, and the warmth of the words felt like the soft fluff of a dandelion brushing against her eardrums.

Ning Ning’s head exploded with a deafening roar, feeling as if an electric current surged up her spine. Subconsciously holding her breath, she instinctively moved to the other side to avoid it.

The person on the other side casually released her wrist, and the bright moonlight revealed the crimson attire of the young man.

Rong Ci’s eyes, from Niguang Island, were smiling. The deliberately feigned vulnerability and timidity from the cave had completely dissipated, replaced by a rather assertive aggressiveness.

He was handsome, and now he stared at Ning Ning with unwavering eyes, evoking the image of scorching flames.

This was the person she had deceived with her misinformation.

Ning Ning squeezed out an awkward yet polite smile, taking a step back. “What a coincidence. How come you’re here?”

“It’s not a coincidence at all.”

Rong Ci squinted his eyes like a fox waiting for its prey to take the bait, leisurely bending down to meet her gaze. “I came specifically to find you.”

He paused, smiling and elongating the tone. “I don’t know if the young lady remembers the last time I didn’t finish what I was saying. About the ‘double’…”

When they first met at the banquet, he couldn’t finish saying those two words.

And this time was no exception.

Just as Rong Ci’s ‘double’ was about to leave his throat, Ning Ning heard another unexpected sound—

The door beside her was suddenly pushed open, and the light from the room poured out, making it difficult for her to open her eyes.

Pei Ji must have heard the conversation outside the door.

Unusually, he was wearing a white robe, and his face, already pale without a trace of blood, appeared even more frail. The fabric of his clothes was extremely thin, and as Ning Ning turned her head, she saw the butterfly-shaped collarbone of the young man.

He was holding a book in his hands.

Ning Ning thought it might be a sword manual, but upon closer inspection, she found it was actually a recipe book. On the opened page, it read, “Ninety-Nine Ways to Cook Mushrooms: Your Husband Will Cry After Eating Them All.”

No way.

She had casually mentioned before that Pei Ji should cook for everyone when he returned to the Xuanxu Sect. However, he actually… bought a cookbook even though he was still recovering from a serious illness?

Pei Ji’s eyes darkened, and a layer of obscure shadow appeared between his brows. When he saw Rong Ci, he raised an eyebrow, sneering with a mocking undertone, “She goes into whoever’s room she wants to enter. In this regard, others really shouldn’t interfere, right?”

Rong Ci also chuckled, “Perhaps not long from now, I won’t be ‘others’ anymore?”

Ningning: Danger!.

She could already smell the not-so-right gunpowder in the air.

The two people beside her exchanged sarcastic remarks, and Ning Ning listened with confusion. Her thoughts were scattered, and she had two main reflections.

Firstly, it seemed that the group from Niguang Island wasn’t as strict about exclusivity in dual cultivation as she thought.

Secondly, without the influence of domestic soap operas and the extensive land of Zaun, their argument’s content seemed quite juvenile.

(T/N: Zaun, a region in the universe of the famous MOBA game ” League of Legends “, was once a united entity with Piltover. It is famous for its chemical industry and alchemy on the Valoran continent. Zaun is also the center of the Chinese server “Telecom II”. area” name. )

Especially Pei Ji, who looked like the type to settle disputes with actions rather than words. He was inconsistent and seemed to be speaking gibberish during the argument, with his hair standing on end and a strand forming a little messy bun.

Just as she was getting tired of listening and was about to intervene, she unexpectedly noticed another figure not far away.

—Yun Duanyue stood in front of the courtyard door, staring blankly in their direction without moving. Under the moonlight, her ethereal beauty resembled Chang’e in the moon.

(T/N: Chang’e is the moon goddess.)

Ning Ning didn’t know how long she had been standing there. When Ning Ning spotted her, her face suddenly turned red.

This was the guest room of the Xuanxu Sword Sect. Yun Duanyue was not very familiar with the other sect members, and the only person she might come to find was Ning Ning.

So, she left the two people next to her and hurriedly walked to the girl’s side. In order not to startle her, she deliberately slowed down her pace and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Yun Duanyue bit her lip, lowered her head, and handed her a small embroidered sachet.

The sachet was exquisitely crafted, embroidered with the quiet night scene under the moon. After thanking her, Ning Ning took it and, upon opening it, discovered a leaf of the Sky Heart herb.

“I heard… you gave the Sky Heart herb to the Black Bird.”

Her voice was very soft because there were others present. She didn’t raise her head throughout the entire process, and her pair of fair hands clenched the edge of her dress. “I asked the doctor; saving a life is more than enough. You can have this back.”

After a momentary pause, she suddenly lifted her small, deer-like, dark eyes and then quickly lowered them again, saying, “Thank you… I’m sorry, I came at the wrong time.”

Unexpectedly, Ning Ning chuckled softly, “No, you came at just the right time.”

That night was destined to be firmly engraved in Pei Ji and Rong Ci’s memories.

Ning Ning didn’t know what script she had picked up, but it definitely wasn’t the protagonist of a love triangle seeking revenge. Before the two of them could finish arguing, she proposed teaching everyone a new form of entertainment.

Playing mahjong.

Later, it was realized that this wasn’t really playing mahjong; it was clearly a thorough beating of their wallets.

The two originally confrontational men were defeated by Ning Ning, and in the middle of the night, they finally understood what it meant to see true feelings in adversity, to share in misfortune but not in blessings.

Poor as they were, they had argued for her earlier. Now, they could only watch as that guy sat beside them, using their money to amuse another girl, and, oh, she even misappropriated their lines.

Yun Duanyue: “No need, I still have savings. Miss Ning Ning doesn’t need to give so many spirit stones to me, an outsider.”

Ningning smiled. “How can you be considered an outsider?”

Was this something a human would do? Huh? Really?

So, in the latter half of the night, Pei Ji and Rong Ci not only reconciled but also became comrades-in-arms.

Never had they expected that they, who had originally planned to gang up on Ning Ning, would end up like the Calabash baby saving grandpa, saving each other one by one.

(T/N: The calabash boy saves Grandpa; deliver them one by one. This is a catchphrase that originated in the Internet era. It comes from the plot of the Chinese cartoon “Calabash Brothers” . Specifically refers to the behavior of not concentrating combat power in games or other team battles but fighting the enemy’s main force one by one and eventually being defeated by the enemy one by one.)

The two were defeated, forming a united front in the face of hardship and humiliation. After one night, they smoothly became playing partners, agreeing to continue the battle until dawn the next time they met.