Yao Ranran's gaze shifted back and forth between Tang Xiangyin and Xiao Rong, her expression flickering with hesitation.
As for the Zhou father and daughter… there was nothing to consider.
As the leaders of their sect, the life-preserving methods in their hands would certainly outnumber whatever Xiao Rong and Tang Xiangyin carried.
An Xiaolin's gentle eyes swept across the crowd, his gaze lingering briefly on Yao Ranran before sliding toward the faint corner of goose-yellow fabric stepping quietly through the doorway.
His voice was soft, carrying across the square. "Each gate admits only one."
Yao Ranran paused, lifting her eyes to glance around. It was true, one gate for one person.
"Boss/Fairy Ranran!"
Xiao Rong and the others no longer hesitated. They stepped into their chosen door of shifting light.
Yao Ranran made her decision as well, picking the nearest gate and striding through without looking back.
The square fell utterly silent.
Every cultivator, regardless of when they had arrived, had vanished into the shimmering gates.
An Xiaolin raised his hand, and with a single gesture all of the glowing doors shrank to pinpoints at his fingertips. He spread his palm, and they stretched outward, unfolding into a vast wall of light and shadow. Countless specks of human silhouettes flickered across its surface.
"The first life begins."
At his words, the wall rippled. The order of silhouettes collapsed into chaos, scattering into a storm before realigning, forming a new wall of identical size.
But none of the tiny figures remained where they had been before.
The images on the wall shifted, growing strange, unfamiliar.
"Ranran, girl, off to pick mushrooms in the mountains again today?"
The five-year-old Yao Ranran clutched her basketed treasures tightly, puffed her cheeks, and blew the stray grass from her lips. Her eyes, round and innocent, still carried a stubborn gleam. "That's right. I found a whole lot more today. Do you want to trade me for some silver coins?"
The yellow-faced uncle's expression darkened, and he quickly waved his hands. "No, no, I don't want them. Keep your mushrooms to yourself. Don't go throwing them in the stew again. Last time your parents nearly ended up in the grave!"
"The grave?" Yao Ranran tilted her head, freeing a small hand to rub at her backside. "Alright then. I won't put mushrooms in the soup this time. The red handprints my mother left still haven't faded."
The uncle nodded in relief. "Yes, yes. Best you just play with them on your own."
But Yao Ranran lowered her head, eyes fixed on the colorful mushrooms tucked inside her pouch. Her little chin jutted out in determination. "It must be because I didn't cook them long enough. That's why my parents got sick. This time, I'll add garlic and bring them to Bing Tuanzi's house to stew properly."
The uncle frowned uneasily at the sight of her bobbing little head. "What is this girl muttering about again?"
"Goodbye, Uncle!" Yao Ranran waved with her chubby hand before trotting home with her prize.
The uncle muttered under his breath. "Always doing strange things… where does she even learn it from?"
"Bing Tuanzi… sickly boy, what are you doing out here?"
Yao Ranran scowled, blocking the pale-faced child in her path.
The boy's skin was bloodless, his eyes dull with illness. When he heard her call out his nickname again, he tried to resist in a voice as thin as a mosquito's hum. "I'm not sickly boy. My parents call me Haihai…"
"Pfft—" Yao Ranran covered her mouth, nearly spilling the vivid mushrooms from her pouch. Her brows drew together, her face suddenly serious. "Haihai, do you want to buy these mushrooms?"
Pu Yehai shook his head weakly. "Those mushrooms are poisonous…"
"They were only undercooked last time! I was careless. If you don't cook wild mushrooms long enough, of course you can't eat them." Yao Ranran tapped her chin, her tone solemn. "No wonder my whole family saw little fairies floating around last time."
Pu Yehai: "…Maybe it's poisoned."
The door creaked open.
Yao Ranran's eyes lit up. "Bing Tuanzi, do you want to buy these mushrooms?"
Another boy stepped out. His eyes were cold, his expression wooden. "Pointless. I hate mushrooms."
"Perfect!" Yao Ranran skipped over to him. "Let me borrow your family's pot then. Mother says people should repay kindness with kindness. Last time Sickly Boy lent us his doctor, so I'll return something in thanks."
Pu Yehai's weak voice trembled. "You're going to… cook those mushrooms for me?"
The icy boy shot her a look. "Do you want to send your benefactor straight to reincarnation?"
"Reincarnation?" Something flickered in Yao Ranran's mind. She froze, then asked, "Fu, what's reincarnation?"
Shen Yuefu opened his mouth to explain, but his thoughts went blank. His face reddened.
Yao Ranran's eyes widened in mock realization. "Ohhh, so you don't know either. You're just making things up."
Shen Yuefu's ears flushed red. "I never make things up!"
"I think I've heard of reincarnation too…" Pu Yehai frowned. "But what exactly is it?"
While the two boys struggled to think, Yao Ranran had already marched into the kitchen with her colorful mushrooms.
Shen Yuefu's icy mask cracked for the first time. "You're not putting those in my family's pot!"
"Don't be stingy. I'll even share some with you. Today I'm guarding these mushrooms the whole day!" Yao Ranran stirred the pot cheerfully.
A quarter-hour later.
Yao Ranran was tossed out by the scruff of her clothes, her pot of mushroom soup dumped beside her.
"Ranran girl, you can't eat those. Your parents surviving last time was already a miracle. Don't drag us into your trouble!"
Bang—
The Shen family's doors slammed shut.
Shen Yuefu stood beside her, voice cold. "Eat those and you'll die. That's reincarnation."
"You came all the way here just to tell me that?" Yao Ranran glanced sideways at him. "Showing off that you know what reincarnation means?"
Shen Yuefu's face heated, and he turned away. "I wasn't showing off. It's easy to understand."
Pu Yehai frowned in thought. "If you die, you can't ever live again?"
Yao Ranran stood, dusted off her clothes, and looked toward the back mountain. "Let's go pick more mushrooms. Are you coming?"
The two boys: "…"
The next morning.
In the back mountain, Yao Ranran stared blankly at the mushrooms growing beneath a young banyan sapling.
"What kind of mushrooms are these?"
Something stirred in her heart, a whisper of inevitability, as though there was something she had to do.
"Lingzhi! It's lingzhi!" Yao Ranran's cheeks flushed with joy.
"Lingzhi… the herb of immortality. Reincarnation… cultivation!
I'm going to cultivate immortality!"
She threw aside the colorful mushrooms in her pouch, dug up the lingzhi and the banyan sapling, and ran down the mountain with shining eyes.
Pu Yehai and Shen Yuefu seemed to hear her shout echoing from below. Both boys trembled, as though something cracked in the depths of their minds.
Shen Yuefu's pupils contracted, his cold gaze straining forward. The little girl's figure drew closer, yet the face in his memory blurred into obscurity.
Who was she?
Why did it feel like he knew her?
"Not bad. These three have steady hearts, fine seedlings for cultivation." An Xiaolin pointed again, and the images shifted once more. "But the trial won't be so simple. The world is full of so-called geniuses. Only those who endure to the end will have truly passed the first test."