At that moment, Yuan Shu was suddenly stopped on her way back to Medicine Cloud Peak.
Helan Zhao narrowed his eyes slightly and leaned in to sniff Yuan Shu all over like a dog.
Finally, he fixed his gaze on her and questioned her, “Who were you with just now?”
Helan Zhao had only spent a little extra time teasing the brown ape in Su Lingxi’s courtyard. But the moment he left, he realized that Yuan Shu had disappeared.
He searched high and low, but couldn’t find her anywhere.
It was only just now, on this secluded path, that he finally spotted her.
Yet the instant he saw her, Helan Zhao noticed that something was off. There was a new scent on Yuan Shu.
A scent that shouldn’t belong to her. It was somewhat like… the passionate scent they had detected in Su Lingxi’s courtyard after emerging from the underground passage.
Helan Zhao’s expression darkened.
He had been anxiously searching for her, while Yuan Shu had apparently been with another man. The thought irritated him!
Yuan Shu was bewildered. Was this kid sick in the head?
How dare he question her?
She folded her arms and looked Helan Zhao up and down before letting out an unabashed scoff. “What does that have to do with you?”
“Are we even close? Do I need to report to you who I spend time with?”
“You!” Helan Zhao’s expression turned furious, and his chest heaved with anger. “How can you talk to me like that?”
“Why can’t I?” Yuan Shu shot back. “We only met today. We’re complete strangers. I’ve already done you a great favor by not reporting that you sneaked into the Fallen Immortal Sect.”
“If you know what’s good for you, leave now. Otherwise, I’ll report you to the sect’s steward!”
With that, Yuan Shu turned and walked away, clearly unwilling to waste another word on Helan Zhao.
Helan Zhao was dumbfounded.
Yuan Shu had actually just left him behind?
How—how could she be so heartless?
“W-Wait!”
Helan Zhao panicked. His expression changed, and he hurried after her.
“Hmm?”
Yuan Shu raised a brow and looked at him indifferently. Her expression clearly said, “Say one more useless word and I’ll lose my temper.” The pressure she gave off was immense.
Helan Zhao felt uncomfortable under her gaze. He scratched his head, but still forced himself to speak.
“...Could you take me in?”
When Yuan Shu’s gaze grew even colder, he hastily explained, “If you take me in, I—I can give you plenty of benefits!”
Benefits?
Yuan Shu’s lips curved into a smile. She tilted her chin, suddenly interested. “Let’s hear them.”
Helan Zhao breathed a sigh of relief, and a faint smile appeared on his face as well. He quickly took a large pile of things out of his Qiankun Pouch and pushed them in front of Yuan Shu.
“I-I have lots and lots of high-grade spirit artifacts. If you take me in, I’ll give you all of these!”
Yuan Shu casually swept her gaze over them, her brows lifting slightly.
More than a dozen spirit artifacts of various kinds lay piled on the ground. There were offensive weapons such as blades, forks, swords, and halberds, as well as defensive artifacts like shields, plates, umbrellas, and boards. All of them were actually mid-grade spirit artifacts.
Among them were even several unusual high-grade spirit artifacts.
If she sold them, they would fetch a decent price.
Yuan Shu smiled. Sure enough, she hadn’t misjudged him.
From the very first time she saw Helan Zhao, she had felt that this boy was rich.
After all, the spiritual jade set into the golden crown on his head was an extremely rare supreme-grade spiritual jade, worth as much as a supreme-grade spirit stone.
What was more, he wore a distinctive dragon-shaped jade pendant at his waist.
Yuan Shu remembered that only the Central Continent Dynasty used the dragon as a symbol of status.
“W-Will these be enough? If they aren’t, I have more.” Seeing Yuan Shu smile, Helan Zhao hurried forward with a grin of his own.
Yuan Shu casually waved her hand, and the spirit artifacts on the ground were collected one by one into the Acacia Divine Tree.
Then she stepped forward, pinched his baby-fat cheek, and smiled brightly. “Since you want to stay, then go ahead. One mid-grade spirit artifact buys you one day. Stay as long as you like!”
Who would complain about having too much money?
Helan Zhao’s eyes lit up. He rubbed his sore cheek and chirped, “You got it!”
...
Yuan Shu’s guest courtyard was enormous. It could easily accommodate several people.
She led Helan Zhao into the courtyard and pointed toward her own main room and the side room belonging to Yun Sheng.
“Other than those two rooms, you can choose any of the others. Oh, and staying here means you have to work. You’re in charge of dinner tonight.”
“What?” Helan Zhao froze. “Dinner?”
“I need three meals a day. Is there a problem?” Yuan Shu raised a brow.
With Yun Sheng away, she hadn’t had a proper meal in several days.
Under the scrutiny of her beautiful phoenix eyes, Helan Zhao instinctively shook his head. “N-No problem.”
Yuan Shu assumed that when Helan Zhao said there was no problem, he meant there really was no problem.
She never expected the truth to be quite so different!
As evening fell, Yuan Shu was jolted out of her cultivation by a wave of thick smoke that made her choke.
When she stepped outside, she saw smoke billowing from the small kitchen, where flames were raging.
At the same time, someone came running out through the wooden door.
Helan Zhao had a head of hair that looked like it had exploded. His baby-fat face and exquisite golden crown were both covered in a layer of black soot.
Even his expensive clothes had been burned into tatters.
“...What are you doing? Are you starting a fire, or burning down the house?” As she spoke, Yuan Shu hurriedly summoned her Red Lotus Purifying Flame.
The instant the spiritual fire appeared, the ordinary flames blazing through the kitchen shrank back as though they had seen a cat.
In the blink of an eye, the flames were extinguished. All that remained was the wreckage of the kitchen: half-burned, its roof completely gone, and its walls charred black.
Helan Zhao stood to one side, brushing the soot from his face. Like a child who had done something wrong, he hung his head and didn’t dare say a word.
Yuan Shu took several deep breaths, forcibly suppressing her anger. “Did you do this on purpose?”
“No, I didn’t! I really was trying to cook for you...” Helan Zhao hurriedly looked up to explain, but under Yuan Shu’s increasingly icy gaze, his head gradually drooped again.
Yuan Shu was so furious that she began to laugh.
She had only wanted a meal. She hadn’t wanted to destroy her own house.
Now that the guest courtyard on Medicine Cloud Peak had been ruined, she would probably have to pay compensation, wouldn’t she?
“Your pile of spirit artifacts will go toward the damages. If you want to keep staying here, you’ll have to pay more.”
At her words, Helan Zhao let out a sigh of relief and quickly nodded. “I’ll pay, I’ll pay. Just don’t kick me out.”
Spirit artifacts were nothing to him. He had plenty of them!
Yuan Shu rolled her eyes and pointed casually at the mess in the courtyard. “Clean everything up before I get back. Otherwise...”
“I know, I know! I’ll definitely clean it all up!” Helan Zhao hurriedly raised a hand, looking as though he were swearing an oath.
Yuan Shu snorted and turned to leave the courtyard.
...
“Miss Yuan, you don’t mind if I sit across from you, do you?”
At the Fallen Immortal Sect’s dining hall, Yuan Shu had only just set down her dishes and taken her seat when a light chuckle suddenly came from beside her.
She looked up and met a familiar face.
“Your name is...” Yuan Shu couldn’t quite remember his name.
“Xiao Li. My name is Xiao Li.” Xiao Li smiled, showing no resentment at all that Yuan Shu had forgotten his name.
The corners of Yuan Shu’s lips lifted slightly. The man before her was tall and slender, with handsome features.
The resentful, downtrodden figure in coarse clothes who had once been bullied was long gone.
The last time they had met had also been in the dining hall. Xiao Li had directly killed a fellow disciple who had bullied him.
Back then, she had even given him a bottle of Bone-Melting Water.
Now that he thought about it, perhaps they really were fated to meet.
“Sit down. There’s no need to be so formal.”
