Outside the secret realm, a crescent moon hung in the night sky, and the stars of late spring wove the South Sea’s brilliant Milky Way.
At this moment, in a bedroom of the Ji family’s small courtyard, the furnishings were elegant.
On the desk were a few plush rabbit decorations, and by the bedside lay half an embroidered handkerchief with spring grass designs, everywhere exuding warmth and cuteness.
“Wow! Little Pomegranate, your pajamas are so cute! Did Elder Ji pick them out for you?”
Hua Xiangrong, wearing pink gauze pajamas and hugging her embroidered pillow, looked at Ning Shiliu, who had changed into her pajamas, and exclaimed with bright eyes.
Ning Shiliu was in a light yellow thin pajama set embroidered with a jade rabbit holding flowers. Her pale golden hair fell to her shoulders, her rabbit ears drooped slightly, and her features carried a hint of shyness.
“It… it was Elder Ji who picked it out for me…”
Praised by Hua Xiangrong, Ning Shiliu’s cheeks instantly reddened as she whispered in reply.
‘Rongrong, Rongrong… she’s praising me for being cute again…’
Behind the girl, a short fluffy rabbit tail peeked out from the gap in her pajamas, wagging happily.
“Hmm… Elder Ji has pretty good taste, actually. Even though he wears black all day himself, he always dresses Little Pomegranate cutely?”
Hua Xiangrong randomly thought about Ning Shiliu’s usual cute outfits, then imagined Elder Ji’s gloomy appearance wrapped in a black robe, putting together that outfit with a sour face… then quickly dismissed that messy image from her mind.
“Then, Little Pomegranate, let’s go to sleep quickly!”
Saying that, she hugged her pillow, took Ning Shiliu’s hand, and they both burrowed under the covers.
Her familiar manner, contrasted with Ning Shiliu’s shyness, made her seem like the owner of this bedroom.
The lamp was extinguished, and the bedroom fell into darkness.
Ning Shiliu felt the soft, warm little body next to her, smelled the faint sweet floral fragrance, and her heartbeat involuntarily quickened in the silent darkness.
Listening to the girl’s light breathing beside her, she mustered her courage and spoke softly:
“Um… Rongrong, I… I’m actually sleeping with a friend for the first time…”
“First time? Yeah, before me, Little Pomegranate didn’t seem to have many friends.”
Hua Xiangrong blinked in the darkness, turned her head, looked at the girl’s faintly glowing red eyes, and smiled:
“That’s really great! Actually, I’m sleeping with a friend for the first time too! So we’re both each other’s first! Yay!”
She was telling the truth. In her past life, she had no same-age friends, and her adoptive parents would never let her stay over at a friend’s house.
As for this life, she had only transmigrated here less than a year ago.
“Re…really? Rongrong is also a first-timer?!”
Hua Xiangrong’s answer made Ning Shiliu’s heart leap with joy.
She couldn’t explain why, but thinking that both of them were first-timers, she couldn’t stop the happiness in her heart.
‘Rongrong is so cute and has such a good personality. Before being brought back to the Xiaoyao Sword Sect by Aunt Hua and Aunt Yun, she must have had many friends, unlike me… But Rongrong hasn’t slept with them… And there are other bedrooms in the courtyard, yet she chose to sleep with me…’
‘Does… does this mean that in Rongrong’s heart, I’m a bit different from her ordinary friends?’
Thinking this, the girl’s cheeks quietly flushed in the darkness.
“Th…thank you, Rongrong…”
She murmured softly.
‘Thank you for being willing to be friends with me… Starting from that academy incident, you’ve been actively approaching me… Approaching me, who had no friends…’
“Oh, what’s there to thank? We’re best girlfriends!”
Hua Xiangrong smiled and shook her head, feeling that her little best friend was endearingly naive:
“Besides, I’m a guest at your house. If anyone should thank, it should be me thanking you and Elder Ji.”
“Mm… mm…”
Ning Shiliu replied softly.
And so, the two little girls huddled together in the darkness, chattering away.
Most of it was Hua Xiangrong talking, with Ning Shiliu chiming in or occasionally responding softly.
They chatted about trivial things—how Elder Ji’s cooking was particularly delicious, how the plush rabbit on Ning Shiliu’s desk was so cute, which fairy maidens among the various sect prodigies seemed like a good match… things like that.
When the girls’ chatting gradually quietened, and Ning Shiliu’s breathing had become slow and steady, Hua Xiangrong called out to 099 in her heart:
“099, what’s the situation in the secret realm now?”
It wasn’t that she was too relaxed; it was just that earlier while washing up, most battles still had the sect prodigies at an advantage, so she felt it would be a while before the outcome was decided.
Thus, she stopped watching constantly and only asked 099 to keep an eye on things inside the secret realm.
“Report to host, the vast majority of battles have ended. Just as you predicted, the sect prodigies have indeed won! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧”
099’s voice sounded excitedly in her mind, then hesitated a bit as it reported:
“However… most people, like Li Chengfeng, even though they won, have significant losses, and some are even severely injured. They don’t have much combat strength for now… Most have chosen to rest on the spot.”
“Among the prodigies who won with a great advantage, Qu Linglong and Lan Cangyue are up against the evil cultivator pair ‘Twin Bandits of Qinglan’ who didn’t appear in the original novel. They’re fighting fiercely now. Lu Wenyuan from Haoran Academy is up against Xiao Wang and Xiao Qing, the siblings who were supposed to ambush Yun Xuechang. That battle is also intense. Only Su Feiliu is on her way to the central palace area.”
“If we sort by the system’s estimated arrival times, Yun Xuechang’s sword kinesis is very fast, so she has overtaken Lin Qianqian and Yin Jiuli. She is closest and should arrive first.”
“As for Su Feiliu, although she was already relatively close, even after defeating Xue Yue before setting off, she’s now quite close. She might arrive at the same time as Lin Qianqian and Yin Jiuli.”
“Finally, there’s Hua Yan. She has been chasing behind Yun Xuechang and should be the last to arrive. That’s the full situation in the secret realm.”
“Mm…”
Hua Xiangrong looked at the ceiling thoughtfully.
She wasn’t particularly worried about the safety of Qu Linglong and the others.
After all, the evil cultivators they faced were at a similar cultivation level to theirs, and they had defeated Guishou Tongzi more by trickery, without spending much spiritual power.
With Qu Linglong’s firepower reserves and Lan Cangyue’s fully cursed disposable magic tools, defeating the Twin Bandits of Qinglan shouldn’t be too difficult.
As for Lu Wenyuan, he might be in some danger, but Hua Xiangrong wasn’t too worried.
First, because she wasn’t actually familiar with this prodigy.
Second, if one were to follow the original novel’s story where Yun Xuechang fought her way through, in the eyes of Hua Xiangrong who had read the original novel, Lu Wenyuan should have been the number one of the younger generation of the righteous path.
With his strength, he shouldn’t easily lose to Xiao Wang and Xiao Qing.
No longer thinking about those three, Hua Xiangrong began to consider what might happen in the central palace area:
“According to the original plot, after Mother defeats the Xiao siblings, her injuries worsen, and she arrives at the central area even later, together with other prodigies who narrowly escaped, to face the enemy. Although she eventually detonates the bell to kill most of the enemies, the evil cultivators still manage to steal the immortal artifact and escape.”
“On the evil cultivators’ side, only Hui Yan, who was supposed to deal with Lu Wenyuan but couldn’t find his target due to the identity swap, remains unseen; plus Hui Guan, who escaped from Lu Wenyuan; and Hui Ji, who in the original novel headed to the center first. That’s only three early Deity Transformation Stage cultivators in total.”
“Mother alone can take down two, maybe even more, plus Mother and the others…”
“If nothing unexpected happens, this South Sea Secret Realm exploration should be a resounding victory for us.”