She placed one or two small, broken spirit stones inside.
“Zhu San, oh Zhu San, you’re a beautiful human spider. I’ve heard some of your kind can cultivate.”
“Once you reach Qi Layer 1, you can show me what my favorite type of person looks like!!”
“I haven’t even liked anyone yet. I’m so curious!!”
A young woman who had just reached adulthood was always full of romantic fantasies.
Ruan Mo babbled nonsense to the beautiful human spider, smiling as she reached out to gently stroke it.
She didn’t mind that the spider was chewing on the crushed spirit stones, its five eyes staring intently at her, as if it were truly listening to her words.
Ruan Mo eventually moved up in her studies.
This didn’t mean she had to part with her beloved pets.
Because Ruan Mo was wealthy, she bought a house near the school and brought her pets along for the transition.
However, Ruan Mo had significantly less time to spend with them afterward.
Her brilliance allowed her to shine at school, and she was soon scouted by a professor. Ruan Mo began spending more of her time on learning and research.
Still, she didn’t neglect her pets. Her daily feeding and care routine remained unchanged.
***
In the evenings, when she returned home to ponder her projects or write papers, she would occasionally bring her pets along to study with her.
Most of the pets didn’t appreciate it, though.
When she grabbed them for company, most would silently wander off. Only Zhu San remained obediently by her side.
“Zhu San, Zhu San, you really are such a good baby. Mommy loves you the most!!” Ruan Mo happily snuggled with Zhu San for a moment before noticing something was off.
Ruan Mo’s face immediately filled with surprise as she looked at Zhu San. “Baby, you actually reached Qi Refining Entry Level just by eating spirit stones!!”
Ruan Mo’s innate talent for cultivation was quite mediocre. At 20 years old, she was only at Qi Layer 1.
It was only because she was snuggling with Zhu San that she noticed it had successfully entered the path of cultivation.
To Ruan Mo, however, this wasn’t that significant. Among the pets she kept, more than one or two had already reached the entry level.
These small, exotic pets had almost no offensive capabilities before reaching Qi Refining Layer 3.
Moreover, most exotic pets only had a lifespan of a few years. Reaching Qi Refining Layer 1 or 2 was already considered exceptional talent.
Ruan Mo had no sense of worry at all.
She continued to snuggle with Zhu San.
“Are you a spirit beast or a beast? Let Mommy see~”
“Oh, my. You just started, so I can’t tell yet~”
“You really are a smart baby who knows how to cultivate!”
“Do you want to read my thesis with Mommy, good baby?”
“This word is ‘weird,’ and this one is ‘formation.’ This is ‘Study on the Formation of the Weird’… Did you learn it, baby?”
“Come on, nod your head.”
“Excellent, you’ve learned it! You’re so smart, baby!” Ruan Mo prattled on happily, playing with Zhu San.
Zhu San kept its five eyes open, listening quietly, obediently, and seriously to every word Ruan Mo said.
Li Yunxian’s gaze passed through Ruan Mo’s figure, looking at the thesis she was writing.
It was a naive and unrefined topic, and the written content appeared somewhat vacuous.
However, that was only from the perspective of a transcendence stage cultivator like Li Yunxian, who possessed an extensive understanding of other races. Ruan Mo was only 20 years old at the time.
Li Yunxian thought back to the town-sealing city, as well as Duan Huacai and the others in the time crevice space.
She finally knew who the owner of this research was.
Ruan Mo—a genius whose name had long been forgotten.
And her reasons for studying how the weird were born and whether they could be artificially created were very simple.
The former was to suppress the birth of the weird among the masses, reducing the probability of harm to unprepared, innocent people.
The latter… had even more diverse applications.
‘By creating small-scale weird entities, novice cultivators who have never encountered them can gain experience.’
‘We can also drive down the prices of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures related to the weird that were originally difficult to obtain.’
‘This is a project for the people’s livelihood!’
Ruan Mo clenched her fist!
Li Yunxian watched as Ruan Mo’s research in this field grew deeper, even taking over her professor’s research project.
She gradually began to make a name for herself in the research community and met many new people. One of them was…
With a flushed face, Ruan Mo rolled around wildly on her bed. “Oh my god, Master Feng Ji is even more handsome in person than on TV.
“And he’s so approachable!”
“He even praised me, saying my research results are incredible!! He’s looking forward to my progress!”
“He’s so wonderful!”
Ruan Mo poked Zhu San and giggled. “Zhu San, Zhu San, you’re failing as a beautiful human spider. I feel like he’s even better than the images you manifest!”
At this time, Ruan Mo was 28 years old and at Qi Refining Layer 2.
Zhu San was already an elderly spider, also at Qi Refining Layer 2.
A beautiful human spider at Qi Refining Layer 2 had long since fulfilled Ruan Mo’s fantasies, occasionally projecting images of handsome men she liked according to her preferences.
Every male image had been different before, but after this, things changed.
Every projection Zhu San showed Ruan Mo from then on was the image of Feng Ji.
Ruan Mo truly fell in love with someone.
Feng Ji.
Her luck had always been good, and she always seemed to be favored by fate.
Cheerful and passionate, she made no effort to hide her affection for Feng Ji.
In less than one year, they were together.
Li Yunxian had never heard of Ruan Mo’s name, but she knew Feng Ji.
He was one of the five great interstellar founders, the man who brought out the prototype of the town-sealing city and handed it to Duan Huacai for research.
This romance was not one-sided; Feng Ji also cared for Ruan Mo deeply.
Their relationship progressed rapidly.
Lying on the sofa and texting Feng Ji sweetly, Ruan Mo’s eyes suddenly widened.
“Ahhh! Brother Jifei is coming here tomorrow!! What do I do, what do I do?!” Ruan Mo jumped up from the sofa.
Ruan Mo was startled by the news. Looking around her room, she sucked in a cold breath.
It wasn’t that her room was too messy to be seen, but rather that it was filled with her wide variety of exotic pets.
‘He can’t see them.’
This was Ruan Mo’s instinctive reaction.
She knew that in most people’s eyes, this hobby of hers was extremely strange.
‘I have to send them away.’
Ruan Mo made an immediate judgment.
“Sending them away” didn’t mean abandonment or anything of the sort.
Ruan Mo came from a wealthy family, and with her current status as a genius, she wasn’t short on money herself.