"Junior Brother Lin, you really have a sharp eye. How did you see that I was especially interested in Ling Shengjie?"
Inside the soundproof secret room, Lin Haoming stood obediently before Xie Ruolan. She sat with her legs crossed—an image that possessed the face of a celestial fairy but lacked even a shred of a fairy's refined posture.
Hearing her soft, almost silky voice, Lin Haoming felt the hair on his arms stand up.
"This... it's all that bastard Zhou Zhiye. I don't know how, but he found out about our connection and told Ling Shengjie. You know what kind of brain Ling has; he charged in here yesterday ready for blood. If I hadn't pacified him, I might have been slaughtered!" Lin Haoming sighed, wearing a long, miserable face.
"Oh? You were afraid of being slaughtered, so you sold me out instead? Do you have any idea how disgusting Ling Shengjie was when he came back yesterday? I wanted to roll him into a ball and kick him into the horizon!"
Remembering how Ling Shengjie had been ten times more attentive and greasy than usual, and how she had to find ways to humor him without actually letting him touch her, Xie Ruolan felt a strong urge to simply erase Lin Haoming from existence.
"Senior Sister, please don't be angry. This is the revenue from the last half-month. Take a look!" To avoid a beating, Lin Haoming quickly produced over a thousand spirit stones.
"Hmm? Not even half a month and you have this much?" Xie Ruolan was surprised.
Lin Haoming smiled. "It was lucky. Someone came by a couple of days ago and bought up all the Xingqi and Heqi pills you gave me."
"Oh? Someone with such a big hand to eat all those pills at once? Well, I'll give you this: you might be mediocre at selling other goods, but you have a knack for selling cultivation pills," she said, her anger finally subsiding.
Lin Haoming winced internally. Most of those pills went into my own stomach. I even had to go to other shops in disguise a few times to buy more for my own use.
"Since you've done a decent job lately, I'll let this incident slide. But I'm warning you: if there's a next time, I'll bloat your stomach until it bursts using my own foot-soaking water!" Xie Ruolan snarled.
Lin Haoming marveled at her venom. She had been quite sweet as a child; he hadn't expected her to grow up into... this. They say a girl changes eighteen times as she grows up, and it wasn't just her looks—her personality was a rollercoaster.
Gently elegant and reasonable in front of Ling Shengjie, savage and vulgar in front of him, and cold as ice to strangers. Lin Haoming was convinced she had a multiple personality disorder.
---
The Underground World
Xie Ruolan pocketed the stones but didn't bring out more pills. Instead, she looked him over. "A shop without pills won't work. Yesterday's mess... though I've spared you from death, you still owe me. Follow me!"
Lin Haoming didn't know what she had in mind, but he had no choice but to follow.
They emerged from the market and took flight. Lin Haoming released his Sub-Mother Sword and followed her through the air. Soon, they reached an entrance to the Second Level of the sect. Xie Ruolan produced a token, and the guards let them pass.
The First Level was all caves and tunnels, but the Second Level was an entirely different world. It was a vast natural underground realm with the ceiling hundreds of feet above the floor. At its widest, it spanned three thousand miles. It was filled with subterranean vegetation and even entire underground forests.
After flying for an hour, they reached a grand hall. Lin Haoming remembered this place from his childhood—the Teleportation Hall. From here, one could teleport directly to locations outside the sect.
"Senior Sister Xie!" The disciples guarding the hall bowed and scraped, showing her high status. She gave them a cold nod, ignoring their curious looks at the outer disciple trailing behind her.
Inside a teleportation room, two disciples were swapping out spirit stones for the array. Three other inner disciples were waiting. When they saw her, they smiled. "Senior Sister Xie, are you going to Red Leaf Mountain again?"
"Mm," she replied shortly, maintaining her Ice Beauty persona.
Soon, the array was ready. The three disciples vanished in a flash of white light. Xie Ruolan tossed ten spirit stones to the attendants, and moments later, she and Lin Haoming were whisked away.
---
Red Leaf Mountain
When the light faded, Lin Haoming felt a wave of nausea. He hadn't used a teleportation array since his Ancestor protected him years ago. Xie Ruolan, however, was perfectly fine.
"Senior Sister Xie, you're back to show off your skills again!" the guarding disciples at the destination greeted her. She nodded and flew out of the underground stone room.
Lin Haoming followed her out. Above him, he saw a vast starry sky and a curved, blood-red moon—three times larger than the moon of Earth—hanging in the sky.
This was Red Leaf Mountain. True to its name, ninety-nine percent of the leaves were red, and even the soil was crimson. Under the blood-red moonlight, the landscape looked hauntingly beautiful.
"Senior Sister, why did you bring me here?" Lin asked as they flew toward a distant mountain range.
"Red Leaf Mountain is the junction between our Blood Refining Sect, the Buddhist Vajra Temple, and the self-righteous Heavenly Sword Mountain," she explained. "This place produces spiritual herbs beneficial to Qi Refining cultivators, so disciples from the three sects often come here to harvest. Naturally, this leads to fighting. Over time, it's become a training ground where the sects let their disciples test their mettle."
"What?" Lin Haoming realized the living debt she mentioned was not going to be fun.
Seeing his darkening face, Xie Ruolan's flawless features broke into a brilliant, predatory smile.