After greeting them, Zhou Xiaohe turned around with two meditation cushions in her arms and sat down with Li Erzhu in another corner of the ruined house.
Li Erzhu began cultivating without a word. Zhou Xiaohe took a bound novel from her travel bag and started reading.
For a while, the wind and snow still raged outside, yet the only sound left in the world seemed to be the mountain wind whimpering through the cracks.
To be honest, Xu Yuan did not like ghost stories. He especially did not like hearing them in a place like this. The weather was freezing. The stove was warm. But he felt his heart go cold, icy cold.
After a moment of silence, he cautiously turned sideways and glanced behind him. There was nothing else there. Only a pair of delicate, fair, bare feet. They were not Ran Qingmo’s, and they were far too small.
Seeing this, Xu Yuan did not keep turning around. He silently turned his head back. He was not scared. He just really wanted to curse someone out. Wasn’t transmigrating, fighting monsters, and leveling up supposed to get harder step by step? Why was every enemy he ran into a super boss he had absolutely no business fighting at his current level?
First the Flame Spirit Python, then Ji Qingyue, then the story’s protagonist and his old grandpa, and now this little girl. So the stronger his background got, the stronger the bosses got too, huh? Couldn’t they let him have at least a little sense of participation?
In the silence, thin wisps of meaty fragrance began drifting out of the black pot.
The white fierce bird meat was done marinating.
Xu Yuan took a deep breath, wrapped his hand in cloth, lifted the black pot off the fire, and let it cool for a while. Then he took out a handful of bamboo skewers made from purple gold bamboo and personally threaded the marinated white fierce bird meat piece by piece.
Three pieces of meat per skewer. Ten skewers in all. He took out a grill rack and placed half the skewers on it to smoke and roast, occasionally sprinkling on cumin and pepper powder.
Before long, the rich aroma of meat filled the entire ruined house.
Xu Yuan picked up a skewer that had just finished roasting and turned his head for the first time.
Just as Zhou Xiaohe had said, there really was a very cute little girl behind him. She wore a pale red palace dress, her arms wrapped around her legs, her cheeks buried between her knees. Only a pair of beautiful pale golden eyes showed.
And those beautiful eyes were silently staring straight at him without blinking.
Their gazes met for several seconds.
The girl’s golden eyes made Xu Yuan feel faintly uncomfortable. It was somewhat like what he had felt back on Heaven’s Gate when he had tried to comprehend that sword intent, but after sensing it carefully, he realized it was also very different. It felt as though some information had been forcibly stuffed into his mind.
After a brief silence, Xu Yuan held out the skewer in his hand. Under the flickering glow of the fire, the meat on the skewer was charred on the outside and tender within, its rendered fat still sizzling softly.
The little girl glanced at Xu Yuan, then at the skewer in his hand. She did not move. She kept crouching there with her legs hugged to her chest, showing no intention of taking it at all.
For some reason, Xu Yuan suddenly felt like some creepy uncle trying to lure a little girl with food.
After a pause, he said softly, “Eat first. We can talk after... Tian Yan.”
He guessed this woman was the same girl Ran Qingmo had mentioned earlier. Those golden eyes were far too obvious a clue.
At his words, light shimmered through the little girl’s golden pupils, and she slowly lifted her face from between her knees. Her features were young and tender, but with that flowing light in her golden eyes, her tiny body seemed faintly wrapped in a kind of divinity.
Xu Yuan’s heart sank a little. So it really was Tian Yan.. Looking at that trace of divine presence around her, he even felt like this woman might be the GM of this world.
Of course, that was just him complaining in his head. If she really was the GM, why had she not appeared in front of Xu Changge? Did even GMs fear cheaters?
At this thought, Xu Yuan shook his head slightly. Old habit. Whenever things got tense, as long as the situation allowed it, his mind would start wandering into nonsense to ease the pressure.
Tian Yan stared at Xu Yuan for several breaths, then gave a small nod. Without saying anything, she reached out her little hand and took the skewer.
Under Xu Yuan’s gaze, she began eating it in small bites.
After watching Tian Yan for two seconds, Xu Yuan slowly turned back around. When he glanced sideways, he saw Zhou Xiaohe staring at him with a pitiful, eager look. Or more accurately, she was staring at the skewers on the grill in front of him.
Xu Yuan found it a little funny. Human joys and sorrows truly were not the same. Here he was worrying about how to survive, and this woman was still thinking about grilled meat. If she knew that the little girl behind him might be a second rank, or even a first rank, he wondered whether she would still have the heart to eat his skewers.
“Come, let’s eat together,” Xu Yuan said, letting out a slow steady breath. Then, he used his source qi to send two skewers over to Zhou Xiaohe and Li Erzhu.
Li Erzhu stopped circulating his cultivation art, thanked him, but did not eat. He gave his skewer straight to Zhou Xiaohe.
Zhou Xiaohe held one skewer in each hand and ate with great relish. Taking the chance, she smiled brightly and started chatting with Xu Yuan.
Xu Yuan was not in the mood. He only answered her flatly, one sentence here and there. But this did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of this big-breasted legal loli. In fact, his aloofness only seemed to make her even more enthusiastic.
From the very beginning, Xu Yuan had already noticed the way Zhou Xiaohe looked at him. Human icebergs like Ran Qingmo, who had absolutely no romantic awareness, were always the minority. Men loved beauty, and women loved handsome men just the same. If a woman did not, then most likely, the man simply was not handsome enough.
His mind had started wandering off into nonsense again.
Suddenly, a middle-aged man’s voice, one that came with its own built-in subwoofer, sounded from the bottom of his heart.
“Xu boy, that little girl behind you is not simple.”
Xu Yuan was speechless. Had the old man become a Slowpoke? She’d been here the whole time, and he’d just noticed now?
Gathering his thoughts, Xu Yuan answered inwardly, I know. You didn’t sense her just now?
Luo Daofan chuckled. “Wasn’t paying attention. I was studying that heart-devil knot the little brat planted in me. Tsk, tsk. Putting a restriction on me was one thing, but adding this thing too? Did he not consider what would happen to you, kid, if I managed to undo this heart-devil knot?”
His voice was crisp and blunt, without the slightest attempt to hide his meaning. His skill had fallen short, so he had been slapped with a golden headband. Fine. He accepted that loss. But if he ever broke free of that mental knot and restriction, then naturally, this brat named Xu Changtian could forget about living.
Xu Yuan did not mind the Sage’s honesty in the slightest. He only asked quietly in his heart, What rank is she? Can you tell?
Luo Daofan replied with another chuckle, “I already told you, this girl is strange. Maybe second rank. Maybe first rank. Hmm... maybe even a Sage, for all I know.”
Xu Yuan fell silent for a moment. “Can we escape?”
Tian Yan’s reason for coming to find him was almost too easy to guess. As someone who could foresee the future, if the future suddenly changed for no apparent reason, Xu Yuan would have gone to investigate in person too. But whether she would remove him, the variable, from the equation... he had no confidence at all.
“You want to run?” Luo Daofan asked.
If we don’t, can you and Ran Qingmo beat her?
“Maybe we can. Maybe we can’t.”
Are you seriously saying nothing while pretending to say something?
“Can young people these days show a little respect? First that Qin kid, now you...”
Fine, fine, fine. Esteemed old sir, can you take me and escape?
“Hmm... maybe we can escape. Maybe we can’t.”
Xu Yuan fell silent again.
Luo Daofan sighed. “She has not shown any intention of attacking you. Why are you so nervous?”
Xu Yuan took a deep breath and said inwardly, Old Luo, have you heard of the Heaven Deriving Art?
Luo Daofan’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Kid, are you saying this little girl cultivates it?”
Her name is Tian Yan, you know, Heaven Deriver... And she can derive the future. What do you think she cultivates?
As soon as Xu Yuan said this, Luo Daofan suddenly cut off the conversation.
A long while passed. Only then did he let out a faint, drawn-out sigh. “So the Heavenwatch Pavilion... still exists after all.”
Xu Yuan immediately asked, Heavenwatch Pavilion? You mean the Heavenwatch Pavilion is connected to the Heaven Deriving Art?
Luo Daofan spoke with a faint, unreadable smile in his voice. “Of course they’re connected. Heh. The Heaven Deriving Art is not something just anyone can cultivate. Back then, only the master of the Heavenwatch Pavilion and the saintess or saint chosen to inherit the pavilion could cultivate the Heaven Deriving Art. Even the other Sage Venerables were forbidden from reading it.”
That one revelation carried far too much information. Countless thoughts instantly flashed through Xu Yuan’s mind, but for now, he forcibly pressed them all down.
After Luo Daofan finished speaking, he fell silent for a moment, then asked, “Mhm... Kid, did you jump out of the future this girl derived?”
Xu Yuan froze when he heard that, but quickly replied in a low voice, I’m not sure. But probably.
“I see. No wonder she came looking for you.” Luo Daofan’s voice carried a trace of gloating.
Xu Yuan frowned and asked, What do you mean?
“It’s very simple. The reason she came to find you is naturally...”
Halfway through, Luo Daofan suddenly stopped. Then, with a teasing note in his voice, he changed course. “Heh. What do I mean? I mean exactly what I mean. Figure it out yourself, Xu boy. We are enemies right now. Are you seriously expecting your enemy to answer your questions? This old man is going back to studying that heart-devil knot. You handle the rest yourself.”
With that, the Sage’s remnant soul gave Xu Yuan no chance to speak and simply left the chat room on his own.
The corner of Xu Yuan’s eye twitched. Riddlers deserved to die horrible deaths. Still, although the key information had been hidden behind riddles, what Luo Daofan had said earlier had already given him plenty of useful clues.
Even though the Heavenwatch Pavilion had been destroyed ten thousand years ago, its name had still been passed down to the present day. The fact that it had once standardized the cultivation realms of the entire world was enough to show how glorious it had been back then.
And the Heaven Deriving Art was almost inseparably tied to the Heavenwatch Pavilion.
A centipede dies, but never falls stiff. If a bug-level cultivation art like the Heaven Deriving Art was connected to them, then did Tian Yan’s appearance mean that remnants of the Heavenwatch Pavilion, destroyed ten thousand years ago, still existed in this world?
At this thought, Xu Yuan suddenly paused. He remembered a possibility that had once flashed through his mind. Would this world fill in the blanks by creating a massive hidden force lurking in the dark?
The Heavenwatch Pavilion had never appeared in Azure Point. And judging from the information he had now, this Heavenwatch Pavilion had not been completely wiped out either.
In that case... in Azure Point’s plot, could the story branches where the Chancellor was killed by the story have happened because of this mysterious Heavenwatch Pavilion?
Xu Yuan did not keep thinking any deeper. There was no point. If the Chancellor were beside him right now, he could think as much as he wanted, then dump the whole mess on him afterward.
“Oh, right, kid.” Luo Daofan, who had already exited the chat room, seemed to remember something and suddenly spoke again.
What? Xu Yuan frowned.
Luo Daofan chuckled and reminded him, “If it really is the Heaven Deriving Art, then everything we just said should have been heard by that little girl.”
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