“Come on… man…”
“This…”
Shen Mu was utterly speechless, too drained to even complain about his cursed fate.
“Senior, are you urgently in need of the Fire Infant Fruit?”
“Not exactly urgent, but it’d be best to find it quickly.”
“Good. As long as Senior gives me enough time, once I find the Fire Infant Fruit, I’ll personally deliver it to you.”
“Who said you’re going alone?”
Whoosh!
The girl’s figure instantly appeared in front of Shen Mu, droplets of water still trailing from her fair ankles.
“Since it’s the spiritual item I want, naturally, I’ll retrieve it myself.”
“Besides, with your measly Qi Refining skills, you probably couldn’t even defeat the demonic beast guarding it. Even if you found it, you’d likely fail to get it.”
Seeing her lack of trust in him acting alone, Shen Mu put on an innocent, naive facade. “Senior is right. I was careless.”
The girl rubbed her chin, sizing Shen Mu up again, her gaze lingering on his strikingly handsome face as she smiled faintly.
“Let’s make this clear: if you can’t find a single clue within a month, I’ll still take you as my human pet.”
At that moment, Shen Mu’s heart was a stampede of emotions, but he kept his expression neutral, asking calmly, “Why is Senior so fixated on making me your human pet?”
“Probably because you’re good-looking. You’re much easier on the eyes than those other guys.”
“And your voice is pleasant and soothing—pretty nice.”
The girl gave him a satisfied look.
However, the firmer her resolve, the more mixed Shen Mu’s feelings became, an indescribable emotion swirling within.
“…But my aptitude and strength don’t even qualify as a low-tier cultivator.”
“So what? I’m taking a human pet for my own pleasure, not to fight others. What do I need strength for?”
Her words left Shen Mu completely speechless.
He never would’ve imagined that in this world, where strength reigned supreme, a dragon—one of the most prideful races—could produce a one-in-a-million face-connoisseur.
And even worse, he’d run into her.
Was this luck… or the ultimate misfortune?
“Besides, since you managed to tame a Crimson Gold Treasure Toad as your spiritual pet, that proves you’ve got something special about you.”
The girl wasn’t naive. Someone with a sixth-grade demonic beast as a pet couldn’t be a simple low-tier cultivator.
“…”
Shen Mu had no words left.
In front of someone with keen perception, he couldn’t hide certain things about himself.
“By the way, what’s your name?”
“Chu Yunfei,” Shen Mu answered immediately.
He’d already prepared this alias on his way here.
“I’m Chi Ying. From now on, call me Sister Chi Ying. Stop with the ‘Senior’ stuff—it makes me sound old.”
Though she’d lived for three hundred years, by dragon age calculations—where a century equals one year—she was only three years old.
In the prime of her youth.
Despite his reluctance, Shen Mu had no choice but to comply with this shorter, flat-chested girl before him.
“Alright… Sister Chi Ying…”
“…”
Lin Yuhe stared at the red-dressed girl, about her height but completely flat-chested, unsure of what to say.
“She’s your junior sister?” Chi Ying turned to ask.
“Yes,” Shen Mu nodded.
Chi Ying stepped closer to Lin Yuhe, her eyes narrowing as she sized her up and sniffed her aura, asking calmly, “True Phoenix Immortal Body… you carry the True Phoenix inheritance?”
“!”
Lin Yuhe’s eyebrows jumped, astonishment flashing in her eyes.
She hadn’t expected the girl to identify her physique’s inheritance with just a glance and a sniff.
“Too bad you’re too weak right now—not qualified to fight me.”
“But you’re barely passable as someone with potential.”
Lin Yuhe didn’t react to Chi Ying’s provocative words, merely tilting her head to ask Shen Mu, “Senior Brother, are you really going to bring her along to that place?”
“Yes.”
Shen Mu nodded helplessly.
Seeing the resignation in his eyes, Lin Yuhe understood that this trio’s journey was unavoidable.
“Destiny is hard to defy… fate is unpredictable~”
“Fortune is fraught with trials… the path ahead unclear~”
At a fortune-teller’s stall by the city street, a yellow-robed fortune-teller studied the divination before him, stroking his goatee and reciting two cryptic lines.
At that moment, Shen Mu, Chi Ying, and Lin Yuhe happened to pass by, exiting a chamber of commerce, hearing the words.
But they seemed to treat it as mere street hawking, paying it little mind.
Until they were farther away, the fortune-teller’s next words drifted over faintly…
“Young friend, since you carry the chess piece within you, you’ve become a variable in the game. The world’s fate rests on your single thought—tread carefully and cherish it~”
“Hm?”
Shen Mu turned, puzzled, looking back at the fortune-teller’s stall with a hint of confusion.
Was that directed at me?
“Senior Brother, what are you looking at?”
Lin Yuhe followed his gaze, seeing the fortune-teller, and asked, “You want your fortune told?”
“Did you hear what he just said?”
“Huh? Did that fortune-teller say something?” Lin Yuhe looked confused.
Even Chi Ying, puzzled, asked, “Did you mishear? Besides his hawking, I didn’t hear him say anything to us.”
“…”
Shen Mu lowered his gaze, silent.
Those words were so clear—I couldn’t have misheard.
But both of them…
After a brief moment of thought, Shen Mu decided not to question the fortune-teller, shaking his head. “Maybe I heard wrong.”
“You’re such a time-waster…”
“Let’s keep moving. I want to get the Fire Infant Fruit soon,” Chi Ying urged.
“…”
As the crowd moved around them, their figures gradually faded into the street.
The fortune-teller’s lips curved slightly, continuing his hawking as if nothing happened.
Strangely, the passing crowd seemed oblivious to his existence…
A few days later.
The trio reached the peak of a high mountain, arriving at the outskirts of their destination.
Before them stretched a barren, towering mountain range, like an insurmountable crimson rock chasm.
Even from over ten miles away, they could feel the scorching heat waves radiating from the crimson peaks.
The surrounding void seemed to ripple and distort faintly, inspiring awe and trepidation.
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