When Lou Yue returned, Liufeng Xin was still fast asleep, so she settled down beside her again.
The jade carving in her hand gleamed with a cold, silvery light beneath the moon. Its calming effect seeped into her body in wisps.
She scoffed inwardly.
Xiao Rangchen had probably planned to leave last night, which was why he had spent all day carving that thing.
He had not even said a word to her. He had Qinglin deliver a gift for him—did he not have feet or a mouth of his own?
Did he think that if he told her to her face that he was leaving, she would try to make him stay?
Hah. As if she would.
Did he think carving himself with his back bearing thorn branches and kneeling in apology would make her soften?
Dream on.
There was clearly a ball of anger lodged in her chest, yet the Wugou Jade in her palm continued to soothe her emotions without end.
Xiao Rangchen had absolutely used the Wugou Jade on purpose!
As she stared at the kneeling figure carved on her right, she wished she could punch it and smash it hard against the ground. Maybe then she would feel better.
But this was priceless Wugou Jade…
Lou Yue snorted, but in the end she put the jade carving into her storage ring. Out of sight, out of mind.
Early the next morning, when Fat Second saw that Xiao Rangchen had not caught up with them, he suggested, “Should we wait for him?”
“No need.”
The others looked over.
Lou Yue’s tone was calm, her expression completely unruffled. “He isn’t coming.”
Fat Second froze. “Does ‘isn’t coming’ mean Brother Chen won’t be traveling with us anymore?”
“Xiao Chen probably has plans of his own. Since Miss Yue put it that way, I imagine Xiao Chen has already spoken to her. If fate allows, you’ll meet again someday,” Big Brother Wei said thoughtfully.
In his view, Xiao Rangchen and Lou Yue clearly shared an extraordinary relationship. Since she was the one saying this, there could naturally be no mistake.
But Big Brother Wei was wrong. Xiao Rangchen had told her nothing at all, and his words made her grind her back teeth once again.
Liufeng Xin suddenly remembered something. She hurriedly asked Big Brother Wei and the others to wait, then pulled Lou Yue aside.
“There’s something I forgot to tell you,” Liufeng Xin said anxiously. “On the day you underwent your tribulation, some people from the Cangya clan approached us. He was the one who stopped them.”
“I was too emotional that day, and then I drank afterward, so I completely forgot about it.”
Lou Yue’s brows drew tight. “The Cangya clan? How many?”
The members of the Cangya clan who had come to the Savage Wastes should all have been inside the ruins.
“Five. The leader was someone close to the clan head, Cangya Lan. His cultivation should be at the Void Refinement stage.”
Lou Yue fell silent at once.
Seeing that something was wrong with her expression, Liufeng Xin lowered her voice. “It’s my fault for forgetting to tell you. Is Xiao Rangchen’s departure because of this?”
Those five men had most likely come because of Cangya Xun’s death. They had arrived much faster than she had expected.
If this was enough to make Xiao Rangchen leave in such a hurry, then the only explanation was that he had been exposed.
Her lips pressed into a thin line. Before she could speak, a terrifying pressure suddenly descended upon the Savage Wastes.
Everyone, including Lou Yue, turned grim.
If Lou Yue had not been supporting her, Liufeng Xin would have fallen to her knees on the spot. The others were not so fortunate. Their faces turned deathly pale as they collapsed one after another, nearly being crushed into the earth by that overwhelming force.
“Who was it—who killed my son, Cangya Xun?!”
The furious roar shook heaven and earth, its booming echoes reverberating again and again.
Lou Yue raised her eyes toward the distant horizon. A towering figure stood atop the back of a flying beast, his robes billowing in the wind, his imposing presence as immense as a mountain.
It was the clan head of the Cangya clan, Cangya Lan.
“Who was it?!”
With his second roar, the vast pressure of a late-stage Deity Transformation cultivator bore down upon them, making even breathing painfully difficult.
Cangya Lan raised a hand and waved it. A golden phantom of a giant sword, dozens of meters long, descended from the heavens and hacked viciously toward the ruins!
Boom!
The giant sword slammed into the pale-white barrier surrounding the ruins. A violent gale and shockwave swept across the surroundings. Even from far away, the impact left everyone’s blood and qi roiling.
Lou Yue’s divine sense was connected to the ruins, allowing her to clearly sense that the strike had not shaken the barrier in the slightest.
Then came a second strike, followed by a third.
The barrier remained utterly unmoved.
Cangya Lan’s plan to smash open the ruins and search for clues had completely failed.
He let out a heavy snort. Spiritual energy surged around him as his boundless fury poured directly onto every cultivator and demonic beast in the Savage Wastes.
“If no one can tell me, then every one of you will die today!”
Another familiar voice suddenly rang out across the heavens and earth. It was Lou Weixiao.
“Clan Head Cangya, please calm your anger. We, too, are devastated by Brother Xun’s death, but there may be more to this matter than meets the eye. The four great clans stand together as one. It is impossible that anyone would attack Brother Xun, the young master of the Cangya clan.”
“The only ones with a motive would be rogue cultivators.”
“There is also one person who is highly suspicious. Before Brother Xun entered the core region, he had already clashed with that man. At the time, that person was only at the mid-stage Void Refinement realm, yet he fought Brother Xun, who was at the mid-stage Deity Transformation realm, to a standstill. We all witnessed it. That man was Xiao Rangchen.”
Cangya Lan snorted coldly.
He had already learned everything Lou Weixiao had said from his disciples, including the fact that the five experts he had sent ahead had all died beneath Xiao Rangchen’s spear.
However, Xiao Rangchen’s movements were elusive. The people he had sent to track him had yet to find even a trace.
He had personally come to the Savage Wastes intending to enter the ruins and investigate for clues, but he had not expected the barrier to be so sturdy that even his full-powered attack could not break it.
“I did not see him leave the ruins, but someone may know,” Lou Weixiao said gently.
A bad feeling flashed across Lou Yue’s heart.
Sure enough, in the next moment, Lou Weixiao pointed toward them.
“Xiao Rangchen was with that group of people earlier.”
The flying beast beneath Cangya Lan’s feet beat its wings and flew toward them, while Lou Weixiao followed close behind.
The moment he saw Lou Yue, Lou Weixiao froze.
“Brother Yue, what are you doing here?”
He examined her suspiciously before asking, “When did you come to the Savage Wastes? Did you just arrive?”
Lou Yue did not answer him. She merely lifted her eyes to meet Cangya Lan’s gaze.
Cangya Lan’s eyes swept over her before moving away. He remembered Lou Yue, who had defeated the Cangya clan at Lou Moshu’s birthday banquet two years ago. Seeing that she was only at the mid-stage Grand Ascension realm, he immediately ruled out the possibility that she had attacked Cangya Xun.
“Where is Xiao Rangchen?”
By this point, Big Brother Wei and the others had also realized that Xiao Chen was actually Xiao Rangchen.
“He parted ways with us yesterday. We haven’t seen him for an entire day either.” Big Brother Wei’s muscles trembled beneath the terrifying pressure as he forced the words out.
Cangya Lan gave a cold snort, and the pressure increased once more. Big Brother Wei and the others instantly collapsed flat on the ground.
“Where is he? If you can’t tell me, you die!”
Lou Yue spoke up. “Even if you kill them, they still won’t be able to answer you. Yesterday evening, people from the Liufeng and Yue clans saw us. If you don’t believe me, ask them whether Xiao Rangchen was among us.”
Cangya Lan did not even need to issue an order. A moment later, someone swiftly returned with a report, confirming that Xiao Rangchen had not been among their group the previous day.
“Where did Xiao Rangchen go?”
Big Brother Wei struggled to raise his head. Sweat rolled down his temples and dripped onto the ground.
“We truly don’t know. He has always been elusive. While he was with us, he used an alias as well. We only learned his real name just now. He… he never told us where he was going…”
Cangya Lan was about to lose his temper when a Cangya disciple suddenly came running over. Under the crushing pressure, he stumbled and fell to the ground.
“Speak!” Cangya Lan shouted furiously.
The disciple’s voice trembled. “We found… we found traces of Xiao Rangchen! He went south… he went south!”
The flying beast beneath Cangya Lan suddenly beat its wings, carrying him away in an instant.
The oppressive aura vanished along with him.
Everyone—and every demon beast—in the Wasteland finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Lou Weixiao looked at Lou Yue and at the unfamiliar-looking Liufeng Xin whom she was supporting. “Brother Yue, it seems you’ve been doing quite well these past two years.”
Lou Yue’s expression remained cold.
Lou Weixiao smiled warmly. “Brother Yue, did you know that your escape with the Liufeng clan’s saintess caused no small amount of trouble for Xuandu? The Liufeng clan master came to demand her return several times. In the end, it was only after the family head offered two priceless treasures that the matter was finally settled.”
Lou Yue merely raised an eyebrow at him without replying.
Having received no response, Lou Weixiao temporarily put aside his desire to investigate when exactly she had arrived in the Wasteland and when she had joined this group.
He put on a magnanimous air. “Very well. I won’t say anything more. When you have the time, go back to Xuandu and visit the family head. After all, he is your biological grandfather.”
After Lou Weixiao left as well, Big Brother Wei and the others all turned their eyes toward Lou Yue.
After a long while, Fat Second finally spoke hesitantly. “I feel like… there’s a little too much information to process today.”
He muttered to himself, “Brother Chen is very likely the person who killed that mid-stage Divine Transformation cultivator, Young Master Cangya.”
“And Miss Yue is actually the… granddaughter of the Lou family head, one of the Four Great Clans?”
“But why did Lou Weixiao call Miss Yue ‘Brother Yue’?”
Fat Second looked at Lou Yue, who was dressed as a man, utterly baffled. “Miss Yue, are you actually a man or a woman?”
Lou Yue gave him a ‘kind’ smile. “Why don’t you guess?”
The moment Fat Second saw that smile, he hurriedly shook his head like a rattle. “No, no, I’m not guessing. I value my life! I don’t want to know even a little bit about the secrets of important people like you!”
Clearly, the other three felt the same way. Not one of them tried to pry.
Still, after this incident, Big Brother Wei worried that the Cangya clan might return for revenge. He decided to take Fat Second, Skinny Three, and Qiao Qiniang away from the Wasteland and lie low for a while.
Lou Yue remained silent for a moment before waving her hand and setting up a soundproof barrier.
“Do you want to enter the ruins and undergo trials while cultivating?”
Big Brother Wei froze. “But haven’t the ruins been closed?”
“Tell me first. Do you want to or not?”
“Of course we do!” Fat Second grinned foolishly. “I’d love to stay in there every day. I don’t even know what the core area looks like, but there’s no way in now.”
Big Brother Wei and Skinny Three clearly felt the same.
“I certainly do.” Qiao Qiniang gazed at Lou Yue, her voice gentle. Her child was inside the ruins; being in the same place would be the best possible outcome.
Lou Yue uttered a single word. “Good.”
The others stared at her in confusion.
Lou Yue casually plucked four leaves from a tree. She slowly brushed her palm over them, and in the next instant, the emerald-green leaves turned pale gold.
“Take these leaves. They’ll allow you to enter the ruins. If you make it to the core area, you’ll still be able to enter. Each leaf bears a mark of my divine sense. If you encounter danger you can’t withstand, throw the leaf over. It will ensure your safety.”
The four of them took the leaves, still completely bewildered.
Liufeng Xin covered her mouth and laughed from the side. “Yueyue, why don’t you just tell them? Look at them—they’re practically thinking their brains to death.”
Lou Yue chuckled. Looking at them, she spoke slowly. “I was the one who closed the ruins. I obtained the inheritance.”
“—!!!”
…
A month later, Lou Yue, Liufeng Xin, and Hong Chou arrived in Heyi City, several hundred li from the Wasteland.
Heyi City was located in the southeast, on the eastern side of Qingzhou, but it was not under the jurisdiction of the Yue clan of Qingzhou.
The moment they entered the city, Liufeng Xin and Hong Chou began arguing yet again over who would share a room with Lou Yue that night.
“I want a room to myself.” Lou Yue rubbed her temples. She genuinely wanted to be alone, far away from these two sworn enemies.
“No!”
The two of them shouted in unison. Before their voices had even faded, they immediately turned to glare at each other and began quarreling even more fiercely.
Liufeng Xin’s willow brows rose sharply. “You should be burning incense in gratitude that we’re willing to let you travel with us, yet you still have one demand after another. I’ve been putting up with you for a long time!”
Hong Chou planted a hand on her hip seductively. “Oh? Was it you who brought me along? It was clearly Yueyue.”
“Ahhh! I told you not to call her Yueyue! That’s my exclusive pet name for her!”
Hong Chou leisurely blew on the bright-red polish on her fingernails. “Did Yueyue agree to that? Exclusive, huh? Tsk, tsk.”
“When you were a disheveled, down-and-out mess, who was it that saved you? What an ingrate!”
At the mention of that, Hong Chou exploded. “Who was disheveled? I was just having one unlucky run after another! I fell into demon beast nests and repeatedly found myself in peril. If it had been you, you wouldn’t have survived!”
Liufeng Xin angrily retorted, “It was precisely because you’re plagued by bad luck that we kept taking wrong turns! We were supposed to go somewhere else, but somehow we ended up here!”
Hong Chou shot back, “Bullshit! I’ve calculated it. When I’m with Yueyue, my bad luck stays away!”
Lou Yue placed the spirit stones on the counter and calmly said to the stupefied innkeeper and waiter nearby, “Three superior rooms.”
With that, she followed the slow-to-react waiter upstairs.
Hong Chou and Liufeng Xin hurried after her. The staircase was narrow, and the two of them traded more barbs as they climbed.
Taking advantage of their distraction, Lou Yue hurried into her room and set up a restriction on the door behind her.
She collapsed onto the bed. Xuanba jumped down from her shoulder, then climbed onto the windowsill with the air of an old sage and began absorbing the moonlight.
People were always saying that the white moonlight and the red rose were destined to fight. Now she finally understood what that meant. Those two were practically fire and water.
Clearly, the two of them hadn’t argued this much in the novel. At the very least, they had been fairly peaceful in front of the male lead, Xiao Rangchen.
At the thought of Xiao Rangchen, a derisive sound escaped Lou Yue’s throat.
She rolled over onto her stomach and took out the Wujade, holding it in front of her eyes.
The carvings on the jade were lifelike, with every detail of the figures’ features clearly visible.
She poked the face of the figure on the right with one finger, then, still annoyed, jabbed it harder. The jade carving toppled over. She propped it back up and continued poking it.
After a while, she felt childish and rolled over onto her back.
Then she took out a letter.
There was no name on the envelope. On the paper inside were two lines of characters, written with strokes that seemed to pierce through the page:
“Circumstances arose suddenly; I had no time to tell you in person. Once I reach the mid-stage of Divine Transformation, I will return without fail.”
It had been placed on the table at the place where she had stopped to rest ten days earlier.
She had seen Xiao Rangchen’s handwriting at Xiao Aiai’s place before. Besides, from the contents of the letter alone, she knew it was from him.
Return without fail.
Return where? Who had given him permission to call her place his “home”? What shameless self-importance.
“The one you’ve been thinking about day and night is here,” Xuanba suddenly said.
Lou Yue’s heart jolted, and she sat straight up.
The next moment, Qinglin leaped into the room through the window.
Lou Yue: “…”
“I never said it was a person. Why are you so excited?” Xuanba glanced at her indifferently.
Lou Yue gritted her teeth. “…What makes you think I’m excited?!”
Xuanba turned its head away and continued absorbing the moonlight.
Lou Yue: “…”
“Whine!” Qinglin tried to make its presence known.
Lou Yue snapped at it, “What are you whining about? If you’re capable, speak human language!”
Qinglin: “…”
It looked at Lou Yue pitifully, then gestured toward its back.
Lou Yue pressed her lips together. In the end, she still got off the bed and walked over, removing the one-zhang-long wooden box from its back. It was surprisingly heavy.
The moment the box was taken off, Qinglin hopped up and down several times on the spot.
Lou Yue placed the wooden box on the table. A protective barrier covered it. She dissolved the barrier with her spiritual power, and the wooden panels of the box detached on their own, revealing what lay inside.
It was a transparent piece of glazed crystal, half a person’s height, clear as water, with flowers blooming inside.
At the top, several slender cloudheart grasses unfurled their pale-green leaves, droplets of dew hanging from their tips, ready to fall. The bottom was covered in a scattering of tiny red flowers.
In the middle clustered more than a dozen kinds of spirit flowers she couldn’t name. Some resembled blue roses, others sunflowers. Their colors were vibrant and varied, yet not the least bit chaotic.
And at the very heart of the flowers stood a lotus with one pink blossom and one white, their stems joined together, blooming side by side.
The instant Lou Yue’s fingertips touched the crystal wall, all the flowers inside trembled in unison. Flecks of starlight drifted slowly down from the top, dreamy and ethereal.
The corners of Lou Yue’s lips began to lift despite herself.
Realizing she was smiling, she hurriedly pressed them back down.
Lou Yue turned to Qinglin and said coldly, “He seemed to be having quite a pleasant time running for his life. Did he really have the leisure to make this?”
“Whimper! Whimper-whimper-whimper-whimper-whimper-whimper-whimper-whimper-whimper-whimper-whimper!” [Exactly! I think so too. He’d already been run through with a sword, but instead of making his escape, he insisted on picking that lotus—and ended up with another wound.]
Lou Yue frowned. “Can’t you learn to speak like a human? Even if you learned one word a day, you should know at least a few by now.”
“Whimper-whimper-whimper-whimper-whimper-whimper-whimper-whimper!” [I ran at full speed for two days and nearly dropped from exhaustion, and you’re still blaming me!]
“Stop whining. You’re giving me a headache.”
“……”
Lou Yue looked Qinglin over. A small piece had been sliced off its horn, and there were two sword wounds above its right leg that had yet to fully heal.
If Qinglin was this badly injured, its master was probably in even worse shape.
After some thought, she took out a storage collar and placed several pills inside it before fastening it around Qinglin’s neck.
The collar was blue-green. It did not stand out around Qinglin’s neck, yet it possessed a quiet, understated elegance.
“Here. It’s yours.”
Qinglin happily kicked its legs.
Then it heard Lou Yue add, “Don’t come again next time. You’d be better off resting when you have the time.”
Qinglin immediately drooped.
“Go on, leave.”
Qinglin did not move.
“Whimper-whimper-whimper-whimper-whimper.” [Why don’t you give Big Brother something too? He’d be so happy to see it.]
“If you don’t leave, I’m going to kick you.”
When Qinglin saw Lou Yue truly raise her foot, it had no choice but to leap out the window, unwillingly.
Lou Yue stood by the window. Only after watching it disappear swiftly to the south in two leaps did she turn and walk back to the table.
The starlight inside the crystal had already fallen silent. She raised a hand and lightly touched the crystal, and the skyful of starlight drifted down once more.
It was very much like the crystal snow globe she had adored as a child.
The starlight reflected in her eyes, and the smile in them slowly spread.
“Xiao Rangchen, you really are so tacky.”
