Jiu Baiyun hadn’t answered yet, but Su Zhiyun, who had been crouching in the shade of a tree, suddenly shot to her feet and dashed over to them in a few steps.
“Going to town? Shopping?” Her tone rose with obvious excitement.
“Sister A Ran! Leave this to me! I know the place! I promise I’ll get you the best incense!”
As she spoke, she patted her chest, looking completely confident, completely ignoring Jiu Baiyun beside her.
A Ran was taken aback, a troubled expression appearing on her small face.
“Miss Su… this…”
“Oh, don’t be polite!”
Su Zhiyun grabbed A Ran’s arm and shook it affectionately.
“Look, Brother Jiu is a man—what does he know about incense? What if he buys the wrong kind or gets cheated?”
As she spoke, she shot a meaningful glance at Jiu Baiyun, her eyes clearly saying “unreliable.”
Watching Su Zhiyun act so “blinded by beauty she forgot loyalty” and trying so hard to exclude him, Jiu Baiyun couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his mouth.
He helplessly raised a hand to rub his forehead, then said to A Ran, “Alright, I understand. Leave this to me.”
“Wait, I’ll go too, so Brother Jiu doesn’t buy the wrong thing.”
Seeing Jiu Baiyun agree, Su Zhiyun immediately grew anxious and spoke up.
Jiu Baiyun watched Su Zhiyun’s expression—she seemed afraid he would “take all the credit” and steal her chance to show off in front of A Ran—and found it amusing.
“Fine.”
Jiu Baiyun shrugged, his tone a bit helpless.
Since they had to go to town early to buy incense, and they didn’t really need to prepare anything, Jiu Baiyun and Su Zhiyun quickly said goodbye to A Ran.
The mountain path wound downward.
Su Zhiyun and Jiu Baiyun hurried one after the other toward the nearest town at the foot of the mountain.
Watching Su Zhiyun walk ahead, seemingly knowing exactly where the town was, Jiu Baiyun couldn’t help but stroke his chin in thought.
‘This girl had been skeptical before, but now she suddenly wants to worship the Fox Immortal—what is she thinking?’
Thinking this, Jiu Baiyun spoke casually, a hint of curiosity in his tone.
“Hey, Su Zhiyun, you don’t actually believe there’s a Fox Immortal because of what A Ran said, do you?”
Mainly, Jiu Baiyun recalled the scene of Su Zhiyun burning the shrine and worried she might just be looking for another chance to burn it down.
“Not at all. Didn’t you say the Fox Immortal Shrine was fabricated because someone helped? That a Fox Immortal exists?”
“Then why are you still thinking about worshiping the Fox Immortal?”
Even though he said that, Jiu Baiyun was still a bit uneasy.
“What else? I just want to see if praying to this person who’s being worshipped as a Fox Immortal can grant my wish…”
Su Zhiyun blinked, then pouted, her tone matter-of-fact but with a hint of dissatisfaction.
Su Zhiyun’s words left Jiu Baiyun speechless.
He opened his mouth, but in the end only let out a helpless sigh.
‘I can’t read minds—how could I possibly know what you were wishing for when you prayed!’
After hesitating for a moment, Jiu Baiyun finally spoke.
“You know, I’ve trained in cultivation…”
“Huh? What about it?”
Perhaps because Jiu Baiyun’s words were too abrupt, Su Zhiyun’s small eyes were now filled with confusion, clearly baffled by this out-of-the-blue statement.
Jiu Baiyun saw her completely confused expression and felt a headache coming on.
Then he took a deep breath and decided to be more direct.
“What I mean is,” Jiu Baiyun tried to keep his tone calm, “is there a possibility that the person the villagers worship as the Fox Immortal, who saved them several times… well, that’s me.”
As soon as Jiu Baiyun finished, Su Zhiyun’s delicate brows furrowed.
“You?”
Su Zhiyun obviously didn’t believe Jiu Baiyun was the worshipped Fox Immortal.
“Hah, not to mention anything else, you couldn’t possibly have transmigrated into a fox, could you?”
She looked Jiu Baiyun up and down, her eyes full of suspicion, then let out a snort, hands on her hips, her tone dripping with undisguised sarcasm.
“You don’t have a fox tail or fox ears—who could you possibly fool?”
Su Zhiyun’s words made Jiu Baiyun want to flick her forehead, but he held back and changed his words.
“Tch, why couldn’t it be me? I’ve trained in cultivation, after all. Dealing with ordinary eerie creatures is very easy for me. Isn’t it natural that I saved them?”
“Besides, it’s perfectly normal for the villagers to mistake me for a Fox Immortal. In the dark or when they’re panicking, who can see the details clearly? A white figure flashes by, saves someone—it’s too easy to mistake it for a Fox Immortal.”
In response to Jiu Baiyun’s words, Su Zhiyun naturally rolled her eyes in disbelief, her expression clearly saying, “Yeah, right.”
“I don’t believe you’d bother to save people out of boredom. You’ve been in this world longer than I have—you should know better what this world is like.”
Hearing Su Zhiyun’s explanation, Jiu Baiyun felt a mix of amusement and exasperation, but he didn’t intend to explain further.
Instead, he put on an impatient expression and urged, “Alright, alright, I’m not going to argue with you about this. We need to get back before sunset—we have to speed up.”
Su Zhiyun steadied herself.
Although she sneered at Jiu Baiyun’s claim of being the Fox Immortal, she couldn’t be bothered to argue anymore.
As Jiu Baiyun said, they really did need to speed up.
Because this world was infected by eerie creatures, at sunset almost every village had its doors and windows tightly shut, and towns would seal their gates, not allowing anyone in or out.
If they didn’t hurry, it would be bad to get locked inside the town.
Even if they weren’t locked in, the danger level would increase exponentially after sunset.
So Su Zhiyun completely gave up the idea of arguing with Jiu Baiyun and focused on the journey.
She calculated in her mind: Qingshi Town was the nearest town.
However, the mountain path was winding and twisting.
At first it was fairly gentle, but the further down the mountain they went, the more undulating the terrain became.
The road to Qingshi Town wound through the ridges.
Jiu Baiyun, on the other hand, was at ease.
His cultivation at the Third Profound Realm made this journey feel like a leisurely stroll.
He deliberately slowed down to accommodate Su Zhiyun, but even so, for her, whose physique was no different from an ordinary girl’s, the distance was far beyond what she expected.
Although Su Zhiyun was very familiar with the route, as the sun grew hotter and the gravel mountain path became more difficult, her breathing inevitably grew heavier.
Jiu Baiyun noticed the beads of sweat constantly forming on Su Zhiyun’s forehead and couldn’t help but remark.
“If you had rested well last night, or successfully achieved Qi Induction, you wouldn’t be like this.”
“Do you want me to transfer some Spiritual Energy to you?”
Spiritual Energy can nourish the body and is very effective at replenishing stamina.
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