Lin Xinyi heard Yun Yiyi’s question and immediately felt a black line forming on her face.
For a moment, she actually didn’t know how to explain it to Yun Yiyi.
Lin Xinyi just opened her mouth to try and explain, but the words reached her lips only to be swallowed back down.
“Uh… Tsk, you really don’t know what ‘chong shi’ means?”
“Mhm, mhm.”
“Um… It’s, I… I was…”
“You were?”
“……”
Facing the other’s curious gaze, Lin Xinyi instantly felt that saying those words out of her own mouth was utterly humiliating.
She had come to find Yun Yiyi precisely because she was sure Yun Yiyi wouldn’t gossip, but she never expected she’d have to explain it in detail.
Just thinking about having to explain it verbally made Lin Xinyi’s cheeks flush red like apples.
But the words stuck in her throat, and she didn’t know how to explain it to the other person, leaving her speechless.
Lin Xinyi clenched her teeth, trying to force it out in one breath.
“I… I was wanted on the bed… and then…”
Yun Yiyi tilted her head slightly, clearly waiting for further explanation.
Lin Xinyi never managed to say the rest.
Describing the process of her own humiliation in front of someone else was more unbearable than being killed on the spot.
“Ah!! Damn it! I… I came to the wrong place, okay?!”
“You’re leaving already?”
Blushing furiously, Lin Xinyi turned to leave.
Seeing the other’s retreating figure, Yun Yiyi looked slightly puzzled, but then seemed to remember something.
She reached out and gently tugged at the hem of Lin Xinyi’s clothes from behind.
….
Yun Yiyi clearly had something she wanted to tell Lin Xinyi, but she momentarily failed to control her strength.
What was meant to be just a gentle pull caused Lin Xinyi to lose her balance and fall to the ground uncontrollably.
“Li-Little Xinyi!”
“Ouch! You! What are you doing now?!”
Lin Xinyi had no guard up at all.
A slight pull from the other sent her tumbling to the ground.
Facing Lin Xinyi’s accusation, Yun Yiyi clearly hadn’t expected her to fall either.
She was sure she had used very little force.
“I’m really sorry, Little Xinyi. I tried very hard to control myself, but for some reason, just now you felt as light as paper…”
Yun Yiyi voiced her confusion with some doubt.
However, as soon as these words were spoken, Lin Xinyi instantly felt a sense of crisis and immediately pretended nothing was wrong.
“Ah? That’s because I trust you, so I didn’t resist, that’s all!”
Faced with the other’s confusion, she hastily covered it up with panic.
If it were exposed that her current cultivation was less than one-tenth of what it should be, who knew if she would be discovered and taken advantage of?
The rule Lin Xinyi had learned in the Cultivation World was to never let anyone see you’ve lost the ability to resist.
“Is that so? It seems Little Xinyi’s injuries from last time haven’t fully recovered yet?”
“Just a minor injury…”
Lin Xinyi didn’t want to linger here any longer.
After all, she couldn’t think of any more topics to fool Yun Yiyi with.
Now she just wanted to leave quickly, because the more she spoke, the more likely she was to slip up and expose her weakened cultivation.
Yun Yiyi came and went alone every day, her speech and actions like a naive, innocent girl.
But precisely this kind of situation was the most terrifying.
When it came down to it, Lin Xinyi only saw the other as a useful pawn, not some naive fool.
“Little Xinyi, leaving so soon? I thought you came specifically to see me.”
“I did come specifically to see you just now, but not anymore…”
Lin Xinyi’s mood was somewhat irritable, even her words were a bit rushed.
She reached out to open the grotto-heaven’s restriction in front of her.
….
However, the moment her finger touched it, a surge of spiritual power instantly invaded her body directly from the door, as if probing for something.
Lin Xinyi reacted first, immediately withdrawing her hand, a trace of panic flashing across her face.
In the blink of an eye, she entered a defensive stance.
When she turned around warily, she saw Yun Yiyi still standing in place, having made no unusual movements.
“You… what did you just do?”
“An anti-theft restriction. Hasn’t Little Xinyi ever set one up in her own grotto-heaven?”
“Anti-theft? That was clearly…”
Lin Xinyi was about to expose her, but forcefully swallowed her words again.
After all, if the other insisted it was anti-theft, what could she prove even if she argued?
Thinking of this, Lin Xinyi could only grit her teeth and bury her suspicion in her heart.
Yun Yiyi was now lowering her head, rummaging for something on her person, her facial expression completely unreadable.
Hearing this, Lin Xinyi grew even more panicked, not understanding why the other had suddenly activated the grotto-heaven’s restrictions.
“After just this short while, you’ve already turned on the anti-theft mechanism. It seems you’re quite wary of me too.”
“No, no, if Little Xinyi fancies anything here, feel free to take it. I absolutely won’t stop you…”
Yun Yiyi slowly exhaled a breath of spiritual energy.
When she looked up, Lin Xinyi, for some reason, saw a trace of indifference in the other’s eyes, completely devoid of the earlier cheerful expression.
It could even be said she was looking at Lin Xinyi like an object.
‘This… why is she making that expression? Could she have discovered something…’
The other’s sudden change gave Lin Xinyi a feeling of a lamb walking into a tiger’s den, even causing her to instinctively take a fearful step back.
Yun Yiyi didn’t react much, just snapped her fingers.
The restriction on the door thickened by another layer.
“What do you mean by this? Yun Yiyi! Do you intend to take advantage of my weakness and kill me here…”
….
“I have never had any excessive thoughts towards Little Xinyi. Right now, I just… just want to give Little Xinyi something…”
A glint of wariness appeared in Lin Xinyi’s eyes, while a sharp blade was hidden in her sleeve, ready for a desperate fight at any moment.
Yun Yiyi, expressionless, slowly reached into her own sleeve, clearly about to pull something out.
‘Damn it. If I fight Yun Yinyi now, my chance of survival is only one in ten. This woman could kill me nine times in one second.’
……….
Just thinking about this, Lin Xinyi couldn’t help but grow worried.
With Yun Yiyi’s Primordial Martial Realm cultivation, even at her peak, Lin Xinyi wouldn’t dare stand this close.
Perhaps the other was about to lay all her cards on the table.
She could even imagine in her mind the other suddenly pulling out some dangerous magical treasure from her clothes, pointing it at her vital points, then using that smug expression to utter threatening words.
‘Little Xinyi actually came to find me. That must mean Little Xinyi no longer has the strength to handle things on her own~’
……….
Just imagining it made Lin Xinyi’s heart flutter with panic.
As Yun Yiyi slowly pulled out the object in her hand, Lin Xinyi, at the same time, drew the blade from her sleeve and stabbed it into the other’s chest.
“I knew you wanted to ambush…!”
Before Lin Xinyi could finish her sentence, the sound of a ceramic jade bottle shattering on the ground reached her ears.
Lin Xinyi froze for a moment, looking down to find a pill shimmering with golden pill light slowly rolling to a stop by her feet.
“This… this is…”
[Taiqing Pill]
[Spirit-Grade Pill]
[Second-Tier Pill]
[User can clear the mind of desires, strengthen the physique, and improve spiritual power absorption efficiency.]
Yun Yiyi looked at the short blade stabbed into her chest, a flicker of disbelief also appearing in her eyes.
The entire atmosphere fell into a terrifying silence.
“Little Xinyi… you… what are you doing…”
Seeing the pill on the ground, Lin Xinyi’s brain short-circuited.
This didn’t look like an attempt to attack her at all.
On the contrary, she was the one who had stabbed Yun Yiyi.
“Li-Little Xinyi…”
Now it seemed she was the one who had launched a sneak attack.
Lin Xinyi’s expression turned flustered as she looked up in panic.
She was shocked to discover that her sharp blade hadn’t pierced the other’s body at all, not even scratching the surface of her clothes.
“Yun Yiyi, you… listen to my explanation…”
“Little Xinyi, you’re really something. You clearly know a treasure of this level can’t break my defense, yet you still use it to scare me~”
“Ah… ah, yes… it was just a joke!”
“Hehe, it seems we’re the kind of good friends who can joke with each other too~”
Seeing the out the other gave her, Lin Xinyi immediately took it.
Both of them burst into hearty laughter, as if everything that had just happened was merely a joke.
“This pill is a token of my regard. You must take good care of it~”
Yun Yiyi gently placed the pill back into the jade box.
Facing the offered pill, Lin Xinyi subconsciously accepted it.
Even though she knew the other didn’t take it to heart, she still instinctively took two steps back.
….
Watching Lin Xinyi put distance between them, Yun Yiyi didn’t say anything more, but a barely perceptible ripple flashed in her eyes.
“I really never expected you to give me a pill…”
“Last time, I saw Little Xinyi was weak. This Taiqing Pill is just a show of concern between friends~”
Looking at Lin Xinyi before her, Yun Yiyi still used the same intimate address as always, having also regained her earlier naive appearance, as if everything that had just happened was merely an illusion.
“Concern between friends, huh…”
“Although I’d really like to chat with Little Xinyi more today, I probably have to go attend the ceremony soon. Elders’ matters keep one quite busy, after all~”
“Oh, right, of course. Then I won’t disturb you any further…”
Lin Xinyi had clearly held the initiative at the beginning.
But at a certain moment, she felt the Yun Yiyi before her was very dangerous.
The moment she saw the grotto-heaven’s restrictions activate, Lin Xinyi had never felt herself run so fast in her life.
Yun Yiyi waved her hand, and the other had already disappeared without a trace.
Watching the figure running further and further away, the innocent expression on Yun Yiyi’s face slowly faded.
“Little Xinyi left so decisively. That’s rather saddening…”
Yun Yiyi slowly turned around.
Behind her, the grotto-heaven sealed itself layer by layer.
Yun Yiyi bent down and picked up the dagger that had fallen to the ground, which still retained the warmth from the other’s palm.
Yun Yiyi hefted it in her hand. With just a slight exertion of her fingers, the Spirit-Grade magical treasure crumpled like a fragile paper box into a ball.
Yun Yiyi coldly looked at the lump of scrap metal in her hand.
‘Did Little Xinyi want to kill me? But then we couldn’t be friends anymore. And…’
Yun Yiyi’s words paused slightly.
At the same time, the remaining jade fragments on the ground were crushed under her foot, the sharp pieces turning to powder.
‘Little Xinyi didn’t explain to me what “chong shi” means. Is it because she’s already lost patience with a friend like me?’