“Uh… well…”
“Heroine… I didn’t say anything to offend you…”
As the crowd parted to make way, the girl slowly approached Shen Mu, her golden eyes, shimmering with a strange charm, sizing him up…
Whoosh!
Suddenly, she grabbed his collar, forcing him to bend down, and leaned in to sniff near his neck.
“Do you have a spiritual pet that can search for spiritual items?” she whispered in his ear, her eyes narrowing.
“!”
Shen Mu’s eyes trembled, an unprecedented sense of unknown danger surging within him.
[One hour from now, meet me twenty miles east of the city. If you’re late or bring anyone else, I’ll come and make you my human pet, got it?]
Faced with the girl’s forceful divine sense transmission, Shen Mu could only show a bitter expression and nod helplessly. “Yes… understood.”
“Obedient. Not bad.”
The girl smirked with satisfaction, released him, turned to the middle-aged man, tossed a heavy bag of spirit stones onto his face, and flew off instantly.
At that moment, Lin Yuhe approached Shen Mu, asking with concern, “Senior Brother, you okay?”
Shen Mu didn’t respond much, just absentmindedly hurried away from the crowd.
“…”
Seeing this, worry flickered in Lin Yuhe’s eyes as she quickly followed. “What did she say to you?”
“Don’t ask. I’m probably in big trouble now…”
“Master, that person might be a dragon. You’d better be careful,” the Golden Toad said, poking its head out from his robe.
A dragon?
Shen Mu rubbed his chin, thinking.
As far as I remember, dragons don’t appear in Chiyou Continent’s map…
In his memory, the dragon race, an extremely powerful species, only appeared in the later stages of the main storyline in Zhongtian Continent and Dongsheng Continent.
To encounter one here, targeting him…
This wasn’t just bad luck—it was like the heavens were deliberately screwing him over.
“Senior Brother, if you don’t tell me what’s going on, I can’t help you.” Lin Yuhe spoke solemnly beside him.
Though facing a potential dragon left her without a solid plan, two heads were better than one, right?
“…”
Shen Mu pondered for a moment, deciding it was better to let her know.
“Let’s find a quieter place to talk.”
“What?! A human pet?”
In a secluded, empty spot outside the city, Lin Yuhe’s face lit up with astonishment, barely suppressing a laugh.
“She really said that to you?”
“Yes.”
Seeing her gloating expression, Shen Mu rolled his eyes, confirming with exasperation.
“Do you think she took a liking to your looks and is using this as an excuse to claim you?”
“Get lost!” Shen Mu smacked the back of her head. “Forget that I don’t have any special physique—would another race’s aesthetic even match a human’s?”
Not to mention, dragons had an innate pride in their bloodline. Would they really fancy an ordinary cultivator like him, who only had his looks going for him?
“That’s not necessarily true. What if she did take a liking to you?” Lin Yuhe raised an eyebrow, fully in mischief mode.
“Scram! If you’re not going to help, stop bothering me!”
“All you do is spout unlucky nonsense…”
Shen Mu waved her off, leaning against a tree and rubbing his temples, visibly frustrated.
His worst fear was exactly this possibility.
If that girl really took him as a human pet, he’d be done for early.
With his frail body, how could he withstand a dragon’s ferocious “impact”?
Forget an adult dragon—even a juvenile one in its early growth phase might be too much for him.
And…
Based on what he knew about dragon race traits, their mating sessions were measured in days, and when they got excited, the duration was impossible to predict.
Truly fitting the ancient saying.
“Master, since she mentioned me, she’s probably after you because of me, right?” the Golden Toad poked its head out again.
“Probably, but we can’t rule out her having other intentions…”
People’s hearts were like walls, impossible for outsiders to see through or guess accurately.
Shen Mu shook his head slightly, standing up, deciding not to overthink.
“Whatever. At this point, I can only take it one step at a time.”
Getting targeted by a dragon just passing by—his luck was truly abysmal.
“Oh, if something happens to me on this trip, go back and tell Master I met an accident in a randomly opened secret realm.”
“As for the details of the accident, with your brain, I’m sure you can come up with something.”
“…”
Hearing his “last words” before departure, Lin Yuhe’s expression faded, and she simply nodded. “Got it.”
“Now I’m the one with a doomed fate…”
With a self-deprecating remark, Shen Mu leaped away, heading to the location the girl specified…
“…”
After his figure vanished, Lin Yuhe’s lips pressed together slightly, as if she’d already prepared for the worst-case scenario.
“Hm hm hm~♪”
By the edge of a crystal-clear lake, the girl sat on a smooth pebble, humming a tune. Her smooth, fair feet gently splashed the water, creating ripples of glistening droplets…
“You’re pretty sensible~”
As the lake’s ripples spread outward, her pink lips curved slightly, and she spoke softly.
At the same time, the black-clad figure arrived right on time behind her.
“I don’t know you, Senior, nor have I ever said or done anything to offend you. Please tell me, why have you summoned me here?”
“Hm…”
The girl mused for a moment, her feet still splashing the water.
“That spiritual pet of yours—it’s a Crimson Gold Treasure Toad, right?”
“Yes,” Shen Mu answered honestly.
“I need you to use it to find a special heavenly treasure. You can manage that, right?”
Hearing this, Shen Mu let out a sigh of relief.
Good, it’s just about finding a treasure.
“It’s possible, but whether I can find it depends on how much you know about the treasure.”
“If you can give me a rough range of where it might be, it’ll make the search much faster.”
“Hm…” The girl tapped her chin, thinking for a moment.
“I’m not too sure about that.”
“What about the environmental conditions it grows in?”
“Not entirely sure either… Probably in a place rich with fire spiritual energy?”
Shen Mu’s lips twitched slightly, and he asked one final key question. “Then, the name of this treasure?”
“I heard some human cultivators in the restaurant mention… it’s called something like a Fire Infant Fruit.”
“…”