After the two finished speaking, Xiao Simeng stored one of the blue garments back into her storage ring and said to Shucao.
“Refining these two pieces of clothing consumed quite a bit of this young lady’s spiritual power. I’ll head back to my room to recover for a bit now. See you later.”
“Mm, see you later.”
After Xiao Simeng left, Shucao also lay down on the bed.
Guarding her for a full day and night had left her with quite a bit of accumulated fatigue.
After undoing her transformation, he fell into a deep sleep.
When he opened his eyes, a void dotted with starlight filled his vision. Mo Yao immediately realized he had arrived in his Heart Realm.
Mo Yao wondered why his consciousness had suddenly come to the Heart Realm, so he decided to ask An Qianhua first.
He looked around but could not see An Qianhua’s figure in her pure white dress at all.
Just as he opened his mouth to call for An Qianhua, a cool, smooth sensation suddenly crawled up the back of his neck.
“Whoa!”
The sudden strange touch startled Mo Yao greatly.
He quickly turned around and saw An Qianhua standing there with her hands behind her back, smiling mischievously at him.
Seeing him turn, An Qianhua spoke while smiling.
“Aiya, what an interesting reaction. Not paying attention to your back can be very deadly, you know, little Yao.”
“Sister Qianhua, don’t scare me like that.”
“Hehe, it’s been so long since you’ve come to the Heart Realm like this. I just couldn’t resist teasing you a little.”
Mo Yao looked around once more and said.
“What happened? Why did I suddenly enter?”
“Generally speaking, besides the times when you actively want to enter the Heart Realm, there’s another situation that will passively bring you in, and that is when the Heart Seed undergoes a change. Right now, it’s because of the latter.”
Hearing An Qianhua’s words, Mo Yao said.
“Is there a problem with my Heart Seed?”
“It’s not a problem. Come take a look and you’ll know.”
As she spoke, An Qianhua took Mo Yao’s hand and led him to the Heart Seed at the core of the Heart Realm.
Looking at the Heart Seed floating in the void and continuously emitting a faint glow, Mo Yao said with some confusion.
“Is there something wrong with it? It feels no different from what I saw before.”
“Touch the Heart Seed with your hand.”
An Qianhua gave Mo Yao a push, bringing him in front of the Heart Seed. He extended his palm and slowly approached the seed floating in mid-air.
The moment Mo Yao’s fingertip touched the seed, several tiny light spots suddenly flew out from the glow surrounding the Heart Seed and slowly gathered in his palm, forming a faint pink fruit.
“It’s… fruited? But why did the seed directly bear fruit?”
“Aiya, don’t worry about such details. This is called the ‘Wish Fruit.’ Didn’t I tell you before that magical girls can respond to others’ wishes? When you successfully respond to someone’s wish, those beautiful wishes gather in the Heart Realm. The power is then drawn to the Heart Seed and turns into a fruit like this. Once you eat it, the power inside will bring growth to your Heart Seed.”
After hearing An Qianhua’s explanation, Mo Yao showed an expression of sudden realization and said.
“I see. So should I eat it now?”
“That’s right. You have to fully immerse yourself in feeling the emotions within it.”
Mo Yao looked at the pink fruit in his hand again, brought it to his mouth, opened up, and took a bite.
Crunch, crunch.
“Mm, this fruit is pretty sweet.”
Bite after bite, after swallowing the entire fruit, Mo Yao felt a warm current flow from his dantian throughout his body.
Then, with a flash of pink light, he instantly transformed into Shucao’s form.
After the transformation, the Heart Seed floating in mid-air drifted to Shucao’s chest.
Shucao opened her hand and grasped the Heart Seed in her palm.
A beam of light emanated from the Heart Seed in her palm.
Shucao suddenly felt something pulsing in her palm.
She spread open her palm and discovered that the originally small Heart Seed seemed to have grown a bit larger, and the light it emitted had become even more dazzling.
Then, Shucao suddenly felt waves of emotions in her heart.
These were the emotions contained in the Wish Fruit from Xiao Simeng.
Within them, Shucao felt Xiao Simeng’s determination when she set her dream, her willpower in constantly working hard for that dream, and the joy she felt when she finished refining the clothes.
So this is how Simeng felt at that time. It seems like quite beautiful emotions.
Moments later, those emotions turned into brilliant light spots, scattered throughout the Heart Realm, and flew upward continuously, embedding themselves into the dark dome of the Heart Realm and becoming streaks of stars.
“Is it over now?”
After watching those emotions become part of the Heart Realm, Shucao turned her head and asked An Qianhua.
“Mm, how does it feel? Your first Wish Fruit.”
Shucao closed her eyes, savoring the feeling from earlier once more, then said.
“Mm, it was really nice.”
After she finished speaking, An Qianhua stepped forward, patted Shucao on the shoulder, and said.
“You did very well. But you could use a few more adjectives, you know.”
***
In the following days, Shucao went to the gathering every day to accept tasks for collecting resources or hunting demonic beasts.
While earning some spirit stones, she also continuously searched for traces of the Blood Fiend Sect.
As for the fifty spirit stones she owed Bai Yumo, after Xiao Simeng asked about the origin of the pill, she paid them back in full.
After living like this for a week, one day the Spirit Purity Token that Hong Wenqing had given Shucao as a reward suddenly reacted.
Shucao had just finished her newspaper-selling job.
Upon returning to the inn, she noticed the pure white jade token she had casually placed beside the bed was now glowing faintly.
When she brought it in front of her eyes, she saw that the light it emitted formed the shape of a compass, with a darker-colored light point inside pointing toward the Qingling Mountains.
“Is this… the so-called secret realm about to open? I’d better go ask Yu Qing first.”
After observing the change, Shucao immediately recalled what Yu Qing had told her at the time.
She quickly grabbed the token and left the inn, running toward the Illusory Light Pavilion.
Upon arriving at the pavilion, Shucao made her way to the underground space with familiarity.
After looking around for a bit, she spotted Yu Qing dozing off at a stall in the corner.
She walked over to Yu Qing’s side, patted her shoulder, and whispered softly into her ear.
“Fellow Daoist Yu, Fellow Daoist Yu, wake up!”
Hearing Shucao’s call, Yu Qing slowly opened her sleepy eyes and mumbled unclearly.
“Eh, Shu…cao, have you come to take care of this one’s business? Hehe, this one has refined quite a few good items recently. Feel free to take a look. The price is still the same, of course.”
“It’s not that.”
Seeing Yu Qing with drool at the corner of her mouth and a silly smile, Shucao shook her shoulder and brought the Spirit Purity Token close to her, saying hurriedly.
“Fellow Daoist Yu, take a look at this. Is the so-called secret realm of the Taiqing Sect about to open?”
“Mm, oh oh, let this one see.”
After being shaken for a moment and finally waking up a bit, Yu Qing looked at the jade token and said to Shucao.
“The direction of this light point now points to the secret realm. When you get closer to the secret realm, the light point will move toward the center. When it moves to the very center, the place you’re at will be the entrance to the secret realm. And when the secret realm opens, this light point will become very bright. So you can head to the Qingling Mountains side now and make some preparations first.”
“So that’s how it is. Then without further delay, I’ll set off now.”
“Eh eh, wait wait wait.”
Seeing Shucao turn around to leave immediately, Yu Qing stood up, patted the dust off her daoist robe, and said hurriedly.
“Fellow Daoist Shucao, since this trip is also to help this one refine spiritual items, this one naturally has to contribute as well.”
As she spoke, she took out a small set of array flags from her storage pouch.
“This array doesn’t require spiritual energy injection. You only need to activate it and throw it out. It will automatically unfold and form an array that lasts for two hours. Although this array has no offensive power, it excels in being extremely sturdy. It’s an excellent trapping array. If you encounter attacks from cultivators of the other three sects inside the secret realm, use this array to protect your life. Of course, this is free. But if you get the chance later, do come take care of my business, okay?”
After taking the array flags, Shucao said again.
“Thank you, Fellow Daoist Yu Qing. But will the cultivators from the other three sects attack us loose cultivators inside that secret realm?”
“They might.”
Seeing the somewhat puzzled Shucao, Yu Qing said slowly.
“The three sects naturally know about the existence of the Spirit Purity Tokens and that some loose cultivators who obtain them will go to the secret realm to compete with their disciples for resources. The reason they don’t interfere with the Spirit Purity Tokens is because of an unwritten rule: ‘When loose cultivators are encountered inside the secret realm, their collected resources can be directly seized.’”
“Either we loose cultivators drop our treasures and leave, or we get beaten badly and injured before leaving the treasures behind. If the other party slips up, they might even end up leaving their lives there.”
“Ah, after all, that secret realm is under their management. We loose cultivators have no other choice. If we run into disciples from the three sects inside, we can only consider ourselves unlucky. Of course we can resist, but facing mostly group-minded sect disciples, loose cultivators find it hard to compete. Naturally, the people from the three sects might fight among themselves over resources too, so you can take advantage of that, Shucao.”
Hearing this, Shucao cupped her hands and said.
“I see. Thank you for the reminder, Fellow Daoist. Then I’ll set off like this.”
“Mm, this one wishes you martial fortune and prosperity. And please be extremely careful.”