Chapter 226: Robbery Behavior

"Did you and Xizui say anything while inside the Spirit-Tunneling Bead?" Ruan Xing asked Xie Feng on purpose.

Xie Feng shrugged, "I told him you are that Ruan Xing who wants to cooperate with Xie Yao, that you are very bold, entering the enemy camp alone, and repeatedly refusing to give Xie Yao face; she will definitely kill you."

Ruan Xing laughed in spite of herself: "If you really said that, Xizui's attitude toward me wouldn't have changed at all. He knows I am Ruan Xing and wouldn't be able to hide it that well."

"Tch, you don't believe me when I tell you, so why are you asking me?" Xie Feng said, speechless.

Ruan Xing ignored him, took out the mass of Hongmeng Purple Qi in her hand, and called out the little seed, "Is this the luck you need? Is this enough?"

The little seed was somewhat listless; the nutrients left for it by the Xian Tai Tree had already been absorbed, and now, due to the transplanting, it had been placed into a Storage Bag by Ruan Xing, so it was currently in a state of halted growth.

The leaves that had finally sprouted had also become limp.

Upon seeing the Hongmeng Purple Qi, its spirit recovered slightly, "It is this... that's right, but there is too little of this. I'm afraid it's not enough for me to grow the Path to Heaven. At the very least, I need more than half of this amount again."

"I understand." Ruan Xing nodded and put the Hongmeng Purple Qi away, "Once I gather enough, I will send you to Tianxin Island."

The little seed gave a weak response and returned to the Storage Bag.

Pondering the points in her possession, Ruan Xing and Xie Feng left the Underground Palace, and she finally ended this Real-scene Simulation. (The simulation began in Chapter 220.)

The points in her character panel instantly decreased by 300,000.

Blinking, Ruan Xing saw Shui Linglong in front of her conveying that Xie Yao had already found several Secret Realms that met the criteria.

She took Xie Feng with her, had Shen Lingyun enter the Storage Bag, and followed Shui Linglong to the Underground Palace.

This time, she did not lift the curtain to deliberately provoke Xie Yao.

The two discussed the issue of the Secret Realm in a serious manner, and Ruan Xing agreed without any objections.

This actually made Xie Yao look a bit surprised.

Because the round of arguing with Xie Yao was skipped this time, the speed was much faster. When Ruan Xing turned around to find Xizui, Xie Yao had just passed a message to Xizui via vines and learned his location.

Shui Linglong then took her on a different path.

The moment before stepping out from behind the beaded curtain, Ruan Xing paused and suddenly said: "Didn't the Saint Demon Lord say there are still four places that haven't been explored yet?"

"Yes, but I cannot exhaust all my manpower on this. Finding one Secret Realm that might contain Hongmeng Purple Qi is already not easy. After you come out, we can discuss whether to go to the remaining four," Xie Yao said.

If the Hongmeng Purple Qi could be obtained from this one Secret Realm, wouldn't everyone be happy? Then there would be no need to go to the rest; that was what Xie Yao thought.

Ruan Xing smiled: "The Hongmeng Purple Qi of a Small World is not enough. You should still explore the rest. Don't let the Xian Tai Tree sapling become malnourished, or that would be a huge loss. You practice the Devouring Dao, so you should understand the misery of not being full."

It must be said, Xie Yao had indeed experienced days of not being full.

But that was a very long time ago.

Xie Yao was silent for a moment, "You go first; this seat has its own arrangements."

Ruan Xing had only brought it up; it didn't matter if she didn't adopt the suggestion. In any case, she would be out of the Small World in two or three days, so it wasn't worth delaying anything.

But with only a few months left until the final auction held by the mysterious Building Master of Wanbao Tower, she still felt an inexplicable anxiety in her heart.

Shui Linglong led them along, and halfway there, they happened to run into Xizui and Xie Huai.

Xie Huai stood beside Xizui; he was slightly startled upon seeing them and lowered his eyes.

Shui Linglong introduced: "This is Elder Xizui of our Northern Territory Underground Palace, and this is..." she said vaguely, "this is our Palace Prince."

Xie Huai nodded slightly in acknowledgment, appearing as if they were strangers.

Xizui said politely: "Envoy, please wait a moment; I am going to retrieve something with the Palace Prince."

After speaking, he and Xie Huai went into Xie Huai's residence and brought out the Sui Spirit Pearl.

The group's actions had no concealment.

Ruan Xing naturally noticed it immediately.

She asked curiously: "I wonder who this Palace Prince is? The Saint Demon Lord actually entrusted such a precious Spirit Tool to his care."

Her tone carried a hint of disbelief.

After all, Xie Huai's cultivation was only at the Early Nascent Soul Stage; on the surface, it was truly not worth mentioning.

Even if Xie Yao ate all the Demon Lords in the Northern Territory, it wouldn't be Xie Huai's turn to stand out with that level of cultivation.

"It is not 'entrusted'; that is a Spirit Tool the Saint Demon Lord gave him. This time, we are just borrowing it for use." The corners of Xizui's mouth had a rare arc, but it quickly faded away.

He did not say more, only asking Ruan Xing if she wanted to go back and prepare.

Ruan Xing perfunctorily chatted with Xizui according to the process in the simulation.

Internally, however, she was thinking: when Xie Huai changed the entrance and exit channels of the Golden Terrace Secret Realm, was he relying on the Sui Spirit Pearl? But there was no answer to this question yet.

Xizui used the Sui Spirit Pearl to take Ruan Xing and the other person into the Small World.

Ruan Xing used the excuse of first using her Divine Sense to investigate, and after waiting for a moment, she said she had found the unusual aspects of the Secret Realm Space.

Xizui was slightly surprised, "So fast?"

"Yes, it's in a temple in the town. We'll know once we go over and take a look," Ruan Xing said.

She didn't even give Xizui a chance to be affected by the Secret Realm.

She also didn't intend to let Xizui and Xie Feng enter the Sui Spirit Pearl this time.

Although there was nothing wrong with what they said last time.

But what if Xie Yao and Xie Feng had some unusual tacit understanding and secret codes?

Not giving them a chance to meet at all was the best way to solve the root cause.

The three arrived at the Xianzi Temple, and Ruan Xing found an opportunity to touch the stone statue, but she did not enter the lair of the World Consciousness.

She pondered for a moment; it seemed this Light Gate was still controlled autonomously by the World Consciousness.

They hadn't caused it any trouble for the time being, nor had they done any damage, so the World Consciousness didn't perceive them as dangerous at all and naturally wouldn't focus its attention on these few people.

What it cared about most right now was why there were still no pregnant women giving birth to living children.

Ruan Xing thought for a moment and said: "Elder Xizui, help me smash this stone statue."

"That might not be appropriate. We just arrived and haven't understood what this Secret Realm is really like; if we start destroying things inside directly, I'm afraid it will invite danger..." Xizui hesitated.

Ruan Xing glanced at him, "Didn't you say that you don't understand the Secret Realm and would listen entirely to me for this operation?"

Xizui was silent for a moment, then said nothing more, channeling his magic power to strike the stone statue.

The stone statue's eyeballs rolled, and dozens of stone dolls beside it rushed forward to block the attack; the stone dolls shattered into pieces, and the damaged stone statue fell to the ground.

They remained motionless.

"Again," Ruan Xing said in a low voice. "This World Consciousness is hiding within it, but I cannot find it for the moment. You must attract its attention and provoke it so I can locate its position."

Xizui nodded with a solemn expression, "Alright."

Soon, the Small World consciousness stirred.

A resentful, sobbing cry drifted over.

It was the voices of a woman and a child, one soft and gentle, the other shrill, echoing together inside the Xianzi Temple.

Ruan Xing covered her ears in irritation and kicked Xie Feng, "Hurry up, you go too."

She did not want to make a move, because according to the logic of the Small World consciousness, it would take away the person it deemed the strongest for one-on-one brainwashing and contamination, while the remaining people would be locked away temporarily.

Xie Feng stumbled, then helplessly lunged forward.

However, at that very moment, the stone statue moved, facing Xie Feng directly without dodging or evading.

"What the hell?!" Ruan Xing hurriedly reached out to grab Xie Feng, pulling him back, and charged in herself.

She had finally squeezed into this portal.

Ruan Xing breathed a sigh of relief.

The Hongmeng Purple Qi was right in front of her, very conspicuous.

The crying grew more intense.

"What are you crying for!?" Ruan Xing asked irritably.

"I don't know..." the Small World consciousness answered in the midst of its sobbing, then continued to wail: "I clearly gave you so many thoughts, why won't you listen and refuse to have children..."

Ruan Xing was stunned, feeling a trace of chilling cold sweat break out on her back. She hesitated and said, "Do, do you know me?"

"I don't know you," the Small World consciousness said, "but when I see you, I want to cry."

Although the Small World consciousness did not know her, this inexplicable change made Ruan Xing begin to suspect whether the Small World consciousness retained memories from the previous Simulation.

Or rather, left behind a subconscious impression.

Why was this? Was it because the Small World had gradually begun to detach from the world of Cultivation and was no longer a species belonging to the world of Cultivation, while her Simulator could only be used within the world of Cultivation?

Then, after she ascended to the Spirit Realm, would the Simulator disappear?

Although she hardly relied on the Simulator anymore, even when using Real-scene Simulation to avoid risks, everything she encountered in the Real-scene Simulation was something she could handle normally.

But the possibility that the Simulator might disappear still caused her great panic.

No, that's not right...

Her Simulator was effective against the Heavenly Dao of the world of Cultivation.

Aside from knowing she was a transmigrator, the Heavenly Dao knew nothing else.

The Small World consciousness had not officially broken away to become an independent world and still had to rely on the world of Cultivation; since the Heavenly Dao of the world of Cultivation was much stronger than the Small World consciousness, it made no sense for the Heavenly Dao not to sense it while the Small World consciousness did.

The reason lay elsewhere.

Was it because in the Small World, there was no Element Law of 'time', and it lacked the passage of time?

Ruan Xing suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

The Simulator charged fees according to the time in the world of Cultivation; three days had passed in the world of Cultivation, and it had charged three hundred thousand points.

If it were charged according to the Small World, the Small World had no changes in time at all—the so-called day and night were just changed by the Small World consciousness itself according to its own ignorant whims—so it should have only charged for one day.

It was related to time...

She racked her brains, but could not grasp the thread.

"Why aren't you taking it?"

A voice interrupted her thoughts. Xie Feng looked at her strangely and reached out to touch the Hongmeng Purple Qi.

He gathered it into a ball in his palm.

The Small World consciousness shrieked: "That's mine! Put it down! You bunch of robbers!"

It turned out that Xie Feng and Xizui had followed them over after seeing Ruan Xing suddenly disappear upon touching the stone statue.

Xizui wiped the blood from his face, silently urging Ruan Xing.

"Forget it, let's go." Ruan Xing stopped thinking and had Xizui open the passage for the Sui Spirit Pearl, and the group hurried away.

Leaving behind only the Small World consciousness, which had been harmed once again but whose life was not in danger.

This time they had only spent one day.

The sky in the Northern Territory had already turned dark.

It was unclear if it was early morning or just the beginning of night.

Xizui excused himself, saying he had to report the results of this trip to Xie Yao. He looked at Xie Feng with a complex expression, then said to Ruan Xing, "Envoy, you have worked hard today as well. Would you like to stay and rest for the night?"

"No, I am going back. Help me tell the Saint Demon Lord that this bit of Hongmeng Purple Qi is not enough; find the next Secret Realm Space as soon as possible," Ruan Xing said.

"Alright." Xizui nodded and hurried away.

Xie Yao was also very surprised upon learning the news, "So fast?"

"Yes, that Envoy from the Fengling Yueying Sect seems extremely skilled in exploring Secret Realms. Not even an hour after entering, they had already found the general direction," Xizui replied.

Xie Yao chuckled with an ambiguous meaning, "Indeed, Immortal Cultivators have always been like this, stepping on the bones of their predecessors to climb higher, calling it the Guixuzhidi, the laws of Heavenly Dao, and Immortal Legacy, generation after generation..."

Xizui kept his head lowered, offering no evaluation of this matter, and merely recounted the entire day's process objectively and in great detail.

After a long while, Xie Yao waved her hand, "You may go, I am weary."

She wrapped herself in a fur blanket and turned over.

Xizui retreated, and as he walked out of the beaded curtain door, he saw a corner of white clothing hurriedly disappear around the corner.

He paused for a moment, then acted as if he had seen nothing and left with his expression unchanged.

Xie Huai leaned his back against the ice-cold wall and irritably pushed aside the vines nearby.

His mind recalled the words he had just overheard.

"He wants me to kill Ruan Xing," Xie Yao said, puzzled. "It's just that I don't understand the other sentence."

Xie Huai's heart pounded.

He understood.

A kite is held in someone's hand; how high it can fly and how far it can go is decided by the person holding the string.

They all assumed that the Envoy sent by the Fengling Yueying Sect was merely a subordinate of Ruan Xing.

But she is a kite without a string; she is not controlled by anyone; she is Ruan Xing herself.

If Xie Huai hadn't already known that the person who came was Ruan Xing, he probably wouldn't have been able to guess such an obscure riddle.

"Right," Xie Yao continued to ask, "You only went for one day, and the time was so tight. I remember you have the most inflexible personality, so how did you find the opportunity to make contact with him?"

Xizui replied respectfully, "Originally, I also thought there would be no chance, but that person took the initiative to speak to me.

In that temple with the stone statues, the Envoy rushed toward a stone statue and then vanished. I was bewildered by this sudden change when that person suddenly spoke, telling me to relay these two sentences to you, and afterward, they also rushed into the stone statue."

"So that's how it is," Xie Yao murmured in a low voice, "I need to consider this carefully."

……

Ruan Xing patted Xie Feng on the shoulder, "Let's go."

Xie Feng was in a daze, but he gave a start and came back to his senses, obediently following Ruan Xing as they left the Underground Palace.