Xiao Rangchen’s gaze was far too intent, and the two of them were only a few steps apart.
Lou Yue instinctively turned slightly away and changed the subject. “How did you figure it out?”
Xiao Rangchen immediately understood what she was referring to.
“The inheritance fruit is gone, yet the trial is still continuing. Add to that this meadow you like so much, and it’s enough to show that you’ve become the new master of the ruins.”
He paused before asking, “What are you planning to do?”
Lou Yue shot him an unhappy glance. She felt extremely uncomfortable being so easily seen through.
“Why was Cangya Xun chasing you earlier?”
Because he had discovered that she was a cauldron—most likely the most powerful one among the Lou clan’s cauldrons. Xuanba had said that the higher a cauldron’s cultivation, the stronger its power.
Cangya Xun had pursued her relentlessly. There could only be one reason: he coveted the power of a cauldron.
Given Cangya Xun’s arrogance, selfishness, and domineering nature, he would never reveal the matter now. What he wanted was to keep it for himself.
If she let him leave the ruins alive, her secret would become a time bomb, liable to explode at any moment. When that happened, it would not be only she who suffered. Xuanba, Lou Chengfeng, and everyone accompanying her would all be dragged into it.
Besides, she had always felt that Lou Chengfeng and Xuanba were concealing something else. She did not want to kill anyone, but Cangya Xun had to die.
There was no way she could tell any of this to Xiao Rangchen.
“He was taken by my beauty,” Lou Yue replied half-jokingly.
Xiao Rangchen frowned.
“So I plan to kick him while he’s down.” Lou Yue looked at him. “Want to work together?”
Xiao Rangchen was silent for a moment before speaking. “Back in Xuandu, they called me a traitor. Why didn’t you believe them? You seemed to know the truth.”
Lou Yue raised her brows, a hint of uninhibited confidence in her eyes. “I have a pair of eyes that can see through the truth.”
“……”
“You don’t believe me?”
“…I do.”
Lou Yue nodded in satisfaction. “Then, are you going to cooperate with me? You won’t get another chance like this. You’d better seize it.”
“…All right.”
Lou Yue simply sat down cross-legged on the grass, then patted the ground beside her. “Sit down. Let’s discuss the plan. Cangya Xun has been in the Deity Transformation Realm for several years. I’m currently at the peak of the Void Refinement Realm, while you’re only at the mid-stage. Even if I can control this entire world, killing him still won’t be easy.”
Xiao Rangchen paused. “You want to kill him?”
He had assumed she merely wanted to cause Cangya Xun some trouble.
Realizing that she had let the truth slip, Lou Yue found that killing Cangya Xun merely because he had taken an interest in her beauty sounded rather unconvincing. Yet she could not come up with a more suitable explanation for the moment. She could only stiffen her expression and put on a domineering front.
“He chased me all over the place and even forced me to use a supreme treasure in the end. Can’t I kill him for that?!”
Someone else might have done exactly that, but Xiao Rangchen knew that Lou Yue was not the sort of person who took lives at the slightest provocation.
He did not press her further. Instead, he sat down across from her and copied her cross-legged posture before saying in a low voice, “Cangya Xun is at the mid-stage of the Deity Transformation Realm and is exceptionally skilled at offense. With our current strength, killing him will be difficult.”
“What if I can keep him from displaying his full strength?” Lou Yue curved her lips, her tone brimming with confidence. “Don’t forget—the ground he’s standing on now belongs to me.”
Xiao Rangchen’s gaze skimmed over her radiant, flamboyant features, and a soft laugh escaped his throat. “Mm. Then I’ll have to trouble the Landlady to take good care of me.”
Lou Yue was just about to answer when she noticed something off. She looked up. “I’m fighting alongside you.”
Xiao Rangchen’s lips pressed into a thin line. The words at the tip of his tongue were swallowed back, and in the end he said quietly, “I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Lou Yue lowered her brows and said nothing.
Xiao Rangchen reached out and grasped her arm, his voice slow and measured. “I trust you. I just don’t want to see you get hurt. Lou Yue, I’ll worry.”
“You’ve never fought Cangya Xun before, so you don’t know his methods. He’s suspicious by nature and may not walk into a trap easily. There are always unforeseen circumstances. I… can’t accept that possibility.”
“He’ll take the bait,” Lou Yue said with certainty. “Even if he knows it’s a trap, he’ll still step into it. Besides, I have a way to let us communicate heart-to-heart during the battle.”
Xiao Rangchen was startled. “Communicate heart-to-heart?”
Lou Yue did not notice anything unusual. “Mm. The inheritance fruit recorded a technique called the Heartlink Seal. It allows the caster and the recipient to instantly know what the other is thinking at any given moment.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s more or less the idea. With the Heartlink Seal, whenever I control the changes around us, you’ll understand my intentions immediately, and our coordination will naturally be much better.” Lou Yue looked at him, her tone edged with impatience as she urged him on. “Is that good enough now?”
Xiao Rangchen lowered his lashes as if deep in thought. After a moment, he raised his eyes and said seriously, “Let’s test it first.”
Lou Yue gave a derisive snort. Why was he being so fussy? Did he really think she would trick him?
She closed her eyes and sensed the incantation required to cast the Heartlink Seal. When she opened them again, she said briskly, “Give me your hand.”
Xiao Rangchen extended his left hand.
Lou Yue raised her right hand, palm up, and placed it beside his. With the tip of her left finger, she drew across both their palms, and blood immediately welled up.
She turned her hand over, threaded her five fingers between his, and raised his hand with hers until their palms faced each other. Then she closed her eyes and focused on forming the seal.
Xiao Rangchen’s gaze fell upon their interlocked hands. His fingers slowly curled, gradually closing around hers in return.
In her female form, her hand seemed to be a little smaller than before. He could easily enclose the back of it within his palm.
Lou Yue’s skin was very fair, her fingers slender and fine, her nails carrying a faint blush of pink. Held between his fingers, her hand possessed a gorgeous, bewitching beauty.
Lou Yue finished forming the seal and sensed that it had taken shape in her palm. When she opened her eyes, she saw the person opposite her gazing without blinking at their joined hands, his lashes lowered slightly.
She was just about to say that it was done when the thoughts in Xiao Rangchen’s mind suddenly and unexpectedly flooded into hers.
Lou Yue froze. The next moment, she yanked her hand back and swiftly hid it behind her, as if afraid that hesitating even a moment longer would lead to something terrible.
“Xiao—Rang—chen!”
She gritted her teeth and called his name one syllable at a time, her tone vicious.
Seeing the flush spread across Lou Yue’s ears, Xiao Rangchen let out a low chuckle, his voice husky with amusement. “Mm. It seems to be working quite well.”
Lou Yue shot to her feet. Before the Yanxiang Fang at her wrist could transform into a dog-beating staff, Xiao Rangchen had already understood what she intended. His figure flashed, and he retreated six meters, putting distance between them.
“……”
Lou Yue’s eyes nearly blazed with fury. “Clear out all the filthy thoughts in your head. Right now! Immediately!”
Xiao Rangchen remained several feet away and did not approach, but his thoughts continued streaming through the Heartlink Seal.
The Yanxiang Fang instantly transformed into a massive dog-beating staff.
Xiao Rangchen spoke. “I can’t control it.”
Lou Yue nodded coldly. “That’s fine. I’ll beat you up, and then you’ll be able to control it.”
Xiao Rangchen laughed helplessly and conceded. “Give me some time.”
With that, he turned around, presenting his back to her.
Nearly a quarter of an hour passed before the thoughts reaching her finally became clean and normal again.
During that quarter of an hour, Lou Yue had wanted countless times to smash him mercilessly with the dog-beating staff. It was only thanks to her considerable self-restraint that she managed to hold herself back.
After more than an hour of discussion, they finally devised a thorough plan. The only point on which they argued was who would lure Cangya Xun over.
However, after Lou Yue presented her case and added a few threats, she was still assigned the task.
“At most, I’ll wait two quarters of an hour. If you haven’t returned by then, I won’t wait any longer.” Xiao Rangchen’s tone was firm, leaving no room for argument.
Lou Yue nodded perfunctorily. Two quarters of an hour? She could make the round in one.
“Let Qinglin go with you. Cangya Xun has never seen it before, and it’s fast.”
Xiao Rangchen called back Qinglin, who had somehow run off to who-knows-where.
Although Lou Yue had already “seen” it earlier through her divine sense, she was still speechless when she saw the azure qilin in person. It had grown to be taller than her waist. After a long pause, she finally asked, “What has it been eating to grow like that?”
Two years ago, it had been no bigger than a ball. Even in the book, it did not grow to its current size until much later in the story.
“Wuwuwu!” [I’m a qilin! I can grow even bigger!]
“Tsk. Why can’t it talk yet?”
“Wuwuwu, wuwuwuwuwuwu!!” [Our qilin clan is shackled by the laws of Heaven. We can only speak human language once we reach maturity, understand?!]
“I can’t understand you.” Lou Yue reluctantly accepted this explanation. “Fine. Just remember to listen to me. If I tell you to go east, you go east. If I tell you to go west, you go west. Got it?”
“Wuwuwu, wuwuwuwu!! Wuwuwuwuwu!” [Why are you looking at me like I’m such a disappointment? I’m a qilin, a qilin, a qilin!! Big Brother, I don’t want to go with her!]
“Good. I’m glad you understand.”
“…”
Xiao Rangchen watched the person and beast converse, a flicker of amusement passing through his eyes.
After taking a brief rest and adjusting themselves to peak condition, they descended into the third level—the Boundless Snow Realm.
Lou Yue first went with Xiao Rangchen to the location she had chosen. After setting up a few things, she left Xiao Rangchen behind and departed with Qinglin.
“Right here. We’ll wait here. The moment he sees us, you immediately run for your life, understand? The more frantic and panicked you look, the better. He’ll follow us.”
Qinglin had no idea where she got her confidence, but it silently tried to figure out what she meant by “the more frantic and panicked, the better.”
Lou Yue casually sprawled across Qinglin’s back. When she sensed that Cangya Xun was about to break through the trapping formation and emerge, she sat upright and patted Qinglin. “Get ready.”
The instant Cangya Xun stepped out of the formation, he spotted Lou Yue in the distance.
The moment she saw him, an expression of surprise flashed across her face. She immediately turned around and fled on Qinglin’s back.
Cangya Xun followed without the slightest hesitation.
To him, a Deity Transformation cultivator, Lou Yue was far more important than obtaining the inheritance. Besides, there was no harm in continuing the trial after he had captured her.
The azure qilin was incredibly fast. Every time Cangya Xun was about to catch up, it suddenly accelerated again.
However, seeing it stumble and skid every now and then, nearly crashing into the ice walls in its panic as though it had been scared witless, he knew that catching up was only a matter of time.
Lou Yue cast a sidelong glance at Cangya Xun, who was pursuing them relentlessly with an expression that said everything was under control. She bent down and whispered praise into Qinglin’s ear. “You may not be very clever, but your acting is quite good. Heaven may have closed one door for you, but it still opened another.”
“…”
It endured.
Just as Cangya Xun saw the azure figure ahead flee in blind panic and plunge headfirst into an underground ice valley, a triumphant smile spread across his face.
Foolish.
You walked right into the trap.
He gathered spiritual power around himself and leaped into the seemingly ordinary ice valley without hesitation.
The instant he entered, Cangya Xun’s expression changed slightly.
The layer of ice beneath his feet was different from the ice outside. He lightly tapped his toe against it, expecting to spring gracefully into the air, but instead felt an invisible force dragging him downward, slowing his movements.
He lifted his eyes toward the figure ahead, which was on the verge of disappearing. His brows drew together, yet he continued the pursuit.
Only after he had gone deeper into the valley did he see that the person and beast who had been fleeing in panic earlier were now standing safely atop the ice cliffs.
Lou Yue stood with her arms folded, lazily leaning against Qinglin. A bold smile curved her lips.
“Cangya Xun, I did the math for you. Today is an auspicious day for your burial.”
“You actually obtained a fortuitous opportunity and reached the grand completion of the Void Refinement stage.” After seeing through Lou Yue’s cultivation, Cangya Xun showed no caution. Instead, a trace of excitement surged across his face.
His tone was filled with absolute confidence. “Lou Yue, I will have you. You are destined to become my woman!”
Lou Yue let out a scornful laugh and was just about to mock him.
A resounding spear cry suddenly rang through the entire ice valley.
The smile on her face instantly froze.
That bastard Xiao Rangchen had broken out ahead of the agreed time.
And he had done it in the most brazen, provocative way possible!
