Chapter 217: Withdrawing Money

"But you haven't given me the sincerity to trust you," Ruan Xing sighed.

Just then, Shen Lingyun and Hu San also arrived.

"You've come at the right time," Ruan Xing asked Shen Lingyun, "Do you think I should kill him?"

"Hey, didn't you agree to keep me alive to torture me? How can you go back on your word!" Xie Feng widened his eyes in surprise.

Shen Lingyun turned her head away and closed her eyes, unable to bear it, "Whatever the Sect Master decides is fine; I have no right to interfere."

Shaking her head, Ruan Xing temporarily set aside the disposal of Xie Feng and turned to Cui Yurong, "You were originally from a merchant background; you should have long been accustomed to deceit and treachery. This time, you were just confused by your concern. I won't say anything more, but after this, you must take this as a lesson."

"Yes, Yurong will remember it. From now on, I will never believe another word from a man's mouth!" Cui Yurong said with regret.

Ruan Xing was speechless.

Her original intention was to say, don't trust others so easily...

How did a perfectly good female-lead from a romance novel turn into a man-hater now?

She couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

Is it her problem? No wonder the Heavenly Dao couldn't wait to step in personally to kill her...

That's not right either; it's because the men Cui Yurong encountered were problematic themselves and not good people.

The Heavenly Dao is taking its anger out on her! She wonders when she will be able to play with the salamander incarnation of the Heavenly Dao in the palm of her hand, just like the Dharma Image of the woman in black that appeared on the day of her tribulation.

"What about you? Do you have something to say?" Ruan Xing asked Hu San.

She knew that Hu San would not come to disturb her casually unless there was something important.

In the entire Fengling Yueying Sect, no one was more respectful to her than Hu San.

Only then did Hu San bow his head to report, "Sect Master, yesterday we received an invitation from Wanbao Tower."

Ruan Xing realized, so it had already reached this point in time.

She reached out her hand, "Bring it here."

After Hu San presented it, she opened it and glanced at it; sure enough, it was about the final auction of Wanbao Tower.

The time she received the invitation was indeed much later than those sects in the Central Province.

"I know about this matter. You all go back and get busy with your own affairs."

After Ruan Xing finished speaking, Hu San and Cui Yurong bowed and withdrew, while Shen Lingyun turned back with a hesitant look.

"Do you want to plead for him? He is not worth your sympathy," Ruan Xing said.

"It's not that," Shen Lingyun shook her head, "I don't know how to say it."

Her mood was very contradictory; she both wanted Xie Feng to die and didn't want him to die, just like herself, sometimes wanting to die and sometimes wanting to live.

Are thoughts always this complex and changeable after falling into the demonic path?

Then this demonic path is truly too torturous.

If only she could go back to the past; back then, right and wrong were as clear as black and white, and she didn't need to think for herself—everything was just following the instructions of her master.

"Then what do you want to say by staying behind?" Ruan Xing asked curiously.

Shen Lingyun thought for a moment and finally made up her mind, "I once vowed to follow the demon for the rest of my life to stop him from doing bad things. This time it was my dereliction of duty; if there is punishment, I should bear it with him."

"The fairy is truly kind-hearted, making Xie feel inferior," Xie Feng sneered.

Ruan Xing said, "I have never heard of such a request, but it's not impossible if you really want to."

She smiled and continued, "It just so happens that I had thought about using you two before."

The little seed said that those Small Worlds where Hongmeng Purple Qi might exist are extremely dangerous, and they need some cannon fodder with decent cultivation to scout the path.

However, she didn't intend to tell them yet.

After staying for another three days, Ruan Xing said goodbye to Ruan Tao and the others, and left the Fengling Yueying Sect with Shen Lingyun and Xie Feng.

There was also the little seed, which she took away as well. After this, the barrier between the Fengling Yueying Sect and the Xumi Realm would cease to exist. During the three days she stayed behind, she worked with Ruan Tao and Cai Wen to repair and reinforce the array; it is feared that the days ahead in the coming months will not be easy.

The Monster Beast snake that had been enslaved by Xie Feng was also made to sign a Master-Servant Contract with Ruan Tao; the snake looked at Ruan Tao with teary eyes as if looking at a benefactor.

Over ninety percent of wild Monster Beasts have a wild nature that is difficult to tame, and even regular feeding of Qingshui Pill is hard to correct, but the snake was unexpectedly docile.

Wuwu, finally able to be liberated from the hands of the demon.

Xie Feng is a person who cannot stay idle; in the boring days, he plays with the snake every day.

It is true, literal "playing with the snake."

Although it sounds pitiful... but the snake has the strength of the Golden Core Stage after all. Ruan Tao fights everywhere, and having the snake is like adding wings to a tiger, putting the snake's combat power to good use.

In the years since coming out of the Golden Terrace Secret Realm, Shen Lingyun had almost never left the Xumi Realm, unlike Xie Feng, who would sometimes sneak out, otherwise he wouldn't be so familiar with the surrounding terrain.

She felt a bit unaccustomed and wanted to put on a veil, but was stopped by Ruan Xing.

"If you don't like it this way, I can change it for you," Ruan Xing snapped her fingers beside her cheek.

The originally pale skin instantly began to surge subtly, as if the tissue cells under the skin were decomposing and reorganizing, and soon the complexion became rosy.

Xie Feng, who was nearby, immediately had a look of amazement flash in his eyes.

Shen Lingyun sluggishly stretched out her finger to draw a water mirror in front of her, looking at the familiar appearance in the mirror that she had faced for thousands of years, and was moved for a moment.

"It shouldn't be too different; my memory of you is quite deep," Ruan Xing said calmly.

How could it not be deep? She died there several times in the Simulation.

Her hand couldn't help but stroke her own face, and Shen Lingyun said in a trance, "Yes, exactly the same, but I am no longer worthy of using this appearance..."

"What is there to be worthy or unworthy of your own face? Use it if you want to, it's so beautiful," Ruan Xing said.

She lowered her eyes in sorrow, "In my current state, I will only tarnish my master's reputation..."

"That's you overthinking it. No one recognizes you now, and your master might not even have a reputation," Xie Feng interjected, "It's been five or six thousand years; even your own great-great-great-grandchild wouldn't remember your appearance. Don't think of yourself as too important."

Then he chuckled and said to Ruan Xing, "Change one for me too; I looked much better before than this body."

Ruan Xing then used the Illusion Technique to change him as well; Xie Feng happily pulled over Shen Lingyun's water mirror to look left and right.

"I never left any offspring," Shen Lingyun said, looking at Xie Feng, "I really don't understand why you can still be so happy."

"Tsk, living one day at a time; life is meant for enjoying the moment. What's meant to come will come, so what's the use of worrying?" Xie Feng laughed. He didn't know why Ruan Xing had brought the two of them out.

But it certainly wasn't anything good.

Since they both knew it wasn't anything good, why not be happy before it happened? Demon Cultivators were always like this, never knowing which day they would die; he understood this saying very thoroughly.

The three of them walked on the streets of Yunyang City, and the children playing by the roadside were loudly singing nursery rhymes about the Three Lives Fairy, not much different from the mortal children in the Xumi Realm.

Shen Lingyun's tense body relaxed quite a bit.

She asked, "Where are we going next?"

"You two will get used to it. As long as you don't fight and expose your Yin energy, my Illusion Technique is almost flawless. Just boldly treat yourselves as normal Cultivators," Ruan Xing said. "As for what's next, we're going to collect money."

"Collect money?" Shen Lingyun was puzzled.

Because life and death in the world of Cultivation are impermanent, and everyone has things like Storage Bags, businesses like banks and money shops are hard to establish on the Xianyuan Continent, so there is no real concept of "collecting money."

"You'll know when we get there," Ruan Xing said concisely, offering no explanation.

After leaving Yunyang City, the three headed toward the direction of the Xuanbing Sect in Nanzhou.

Xie Feng felt something was off. "You don't intend to lock me up under the Sui-ice Valley, do you? That's a bit too childish. I'm not afraid of that; I've been locked in a Cave Abode for thousands of years."

"Too much talk. Can you collect money by locking you up?" Ruan Xing flicked her finger, and a Space Cutting Technique stole the distance between them, landing a crisp *thwack* on Xie Feng's head from afar.

"Ouch!" Xie Feng's head tilted to the side, stunned. "What the hell was that?"

"Shut up," Ruan Xing shot him a glare.

Finally arriving at the Xuanbing Sect, Ruan Xing, familiar with the route, first entered the Mine. After checking the mining records from the past few years, she entered the mountain gate.

Successfully finding the only Golden Core Stage Guan in the sect, Mu Shi, Ruan Xing changed her appearance and appeared before him in a swaggering manner.

Mu Shi was startled, but seeing the vast disparity in strength between them, he lowered his head and said, "May I ask which senior this is?"

"Didn't Xu Shengping tell you?" Ruan Xing said in a gruff voice. "Hmph, I've come to collect Spirit Stones. Surely he didn't fail to give you instructions?"

She wasn't close with Mu Shi. Although his Golden Core Stage cultivation was no different from an ant in her eyes now, Mu Shi was just a compliant tool chosen by Elder Xu and hadn't done any substantial harm to Ruan Xing. There was no need to kill him if the problem could be solved peacefully.

Fortunately, Xu Shengping did seem to have told Mu Shi some things.

His brain didn't seem very sharp; Ruan Xing appearing before him without resorting to robbery was already giving him enough face. He actually cautiously confirmed with Ruan Xing, "Senior, please don't take offense. My foster father passed away years ago and no one has come to collect, so this junior is very anxious. May I ask, Senior, are you here to collect..."

"Thirty thousand Spirit Stones," Ruan Xing said impatiently.

Mu Shi breathed a sigh of relief. This did indeed match the amount his foster father had mentioned. Although it was a few years late, it didn't seem to be a problem.

The task his foster father gave him was to come to Nanzhou to take over Elder Xu's position and work hard to rake in money. At the time, his foster father said it was thirty thousand Spirit Stones a year. If it really wasn't enough, he would make up the difference. But the Nanzhou Xuanbing Sect had lost two Secret Realms and only had the Mine, and the number of disciples in the sect was dwindling, so the income was far worse than before. He couldn't scrape it together at all. Fortunately, after his foster father died, no one came for the first few years, and he finally managed to scrape together thirty thousand this year, and sure enough, someone came.

It seemed his foster father was truly formidable; even after death, he was still calculating everything, able to predict exactly when he would have saved up thirty thousand Spirit Stones!

He was also lucky. For various reasons, Central Province didn't value Nanzhou much. After the previous sect leader died, no Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator was willing to come and be this Nanzhou sect leader, so it had remained vacant. Otherwise, with his ability, he probably wouldn't have been able to save up thirty thousand Spirit Stones even if given a few more years.

Mu Shi took out the Spirit Stones from his Storage Bag and respectfully handed them over. After Ruan Xing accepted them, she let out a cold snort and left.

Shen Lingyun, who had been standing by without saying a word, was incredulous. "This is 'collecting money'?"

She didn't know how to describe it, but she instinctively felt it was wrong.

If she had lived in the modern era, she would have understood that this behavior is called a scam.

"Why do you care? Isn't it fine as long as the money is in hand?" Xie Feng said with interest. "It's not often you see someone so easy to scam. But his luck is good; his gullibility saved his life."

"Let's go, next one," Ruan Xing touched the thirty thousand Spirit Stones she had just obtained and immediately topped them up into the Simulator.

The Simulation Points required for the Return to Ruins Stage: one million for Text Simulation, one hundred thousand for Real-scene Simulation.

These thirty thousand Spirit Stones didn't even make a splash when topped up.

However, she had already finished refining all the Grade 5 pills at Wanbao Tower last year, and this year Wanbao Tower was on the verge of bankruptcy again, so there was likely no more wool left for her to shear.

After tossing and turning for over two months.

Ruan Xing finally visited everyone who had killed her in the simulations or had a grudge against her to collect debts, and finally raised over three hundred thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones.

Her points also reached 3.7 million.

From now on, she unilaterally declared that all past grievances between these people and her were wiped clean!

She would no longer hold a grudge! Shen Lingyun, on the other hand, was already numb from watching. She looked suspicious of life, "What exactly... are we doing... How can such rude behavior be worthy of the teachings my Master gave me..."

"Stop, it was all me. You didn't do anything, okay?" Ruan Xing hurriedly stopped Shen Lingyun's internal conflict.

"Hurry up to the next one," Xie Feng said, bored, arms crossed as he looked at the sky.

Sometimes, the guillotine hanging over one's head not falling is indeed quite torturous.

He had gone from indifference to being absent-minded.

It had been two months already; what exactly did Ruan Xing want to punish him with! Could she just hurry up! Give him a quick end!

"There is no next one," Ruan Xing said. "We are going to the Northern Territory."

She had been shearing Spirit Stones everywhere for the past two months to replenish her points specifically for the sake of going to the Northern Territory.

After all, there was an unstable factor named Xie Yao.

If she didn't simulate it a few times with the Simulator, she really wouldn't feel at ease.

Hearing this, the two of them were shocked in unison.

"What!?"

Shen Lingyun looked like she would rather die than submit. She bit her lip and said, "Even if I am a Puppet now and my Divine Soul has turned demonic, I will not go to the Northern Territory to live in peace with those people."

Xie Feng was full of worry and advised, "There are many great Demon Lords in the Northern Territory. Even if you are already at the Return to Ruins Stage and don't fear them, there are too many ants; they might not bite, but they are disgusting. Why don't you reconsider?"

"Rest assured, there aren't many great Demon Lords left in the Northern Territory now; they're all dead," Ruan Xing said. "I won't do things I'm not sure about. Let's go to Wuxu City first to take a look. If it doesn't work out, I won't take you in."

Three chances for Text Simulation, or thirty-seven days of Real-scene Simulation; if it doesn't work, she won't go in.

Xie Feng, however, lowered his head in thought, secretly thinking: If Immortal Cultivators had killed all the Demon Cultivators and Demon Cultivators were driven to the point of being unable to survive on the Xianyuan Continent, Ruan Xing wouldn't allow the disciples in her own sect to practice demonic arts on a large scale, nor would she build Righteousness Manors and cemeteries for disciples to practice, because there is no benefit in that. She must be willing to do this because Demon Cultivators are not that weak.

But she also said there are no great Demon Lords in the Northern Territory. Could it be... that a Demon Cultivator who practices the Devouring Dao has become the Saint Demon Lord of this generation? Anyone who can become the Saint Demon Lord must be at the Return to Ruins Stage. He wondered if he knew them.

Thanks to Yang Hua Luo Jin Zi Gui Ti for the tip~