Ye Qiao lazily flipped through her book and asked Xue Yu, who was currently refining pills nearby, “The first secret realm was the Magical Beast Forest, and the second was the Ancient Battlefield. What is the third secret realm?”
Xue Yu thought for a moment, stroking his chin. “I think the third one is the Flame Mountain.”
“I heard it's quite hot there, so I need to refine more Heart Clearing Pills.”
Ye Qiao pondered and murmured, “Flame Mountain... Isn't that the place from Journey to the West where they had to borrow the Plantain Fan three times?”
“Come to think of it, that place really is a bit hot.”
Hearing this, Mu Zhongxi immediately grew interested and asked, “Junior Sister, have you been to the Flame Mountain?”
Luo Qingyu, who was slacking off nearby, also turned her head to look over, her gaze seemingly able to see through everything.
Ye Qiao waved her hand. “I haven't been there. I just read a bit about it in a book in the Library Pavilion.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Mu Zhongxi's face filled with disappointment. He slumped onto the ground, muttering, “Oh, alright then.”
Luo Qingyu stared intently at Ye Qiao. She knew exactly what Journey to the West and borrowing the Plantain Fan three times meant, but she lowered her head, pretending to be completely clueless.
Now is not the time. I'll tell her once things stabilize.
On the side, Ye Qiao had been secretly observing. Lately, she had noticed that whenever Fourth Senior Brother heard those strange terms, her expression clearly suggested she recognized them.
She recalled that there was no such character as Fourth Senior Brother in the original novel. She had assumed it was a butterfly effect caused by her own arrival.
The more Ye Qiao thought about it, the more she felt something was off.
No, once the tournament is over, I must ask and get a clear answer.
Luo Qingyu had also noticed that Ye Qiao was constantly staring at her in secret lately. Guessing the general nature of her doubts, she quickly changed the subject and asked, “Want to eat something?”
At the mention of food, Ye Qiao instantly threw her doubts to the wind. She immediately raised her hand and said, “I want to eat!”
Lying on the ground, Mu Zhongxi also did a kip-up, bouncing to his feet, and shouted loudly, “Me too!”
Ming Xuan, Xue Yu, and Zhou Xingyun also looked over, chiming in, “Same!”
Luo Qingyu helplessly pressed her forehead and pulled a large bag of pastries from her storage ring, tossing it over. “Eat up. This is the last of my stash.”
Mu Zhongxi took a bite, and his eyes lit up instantly. “Mmh! This is the glutinous rice cake from that famous old shop in Cloud City!”
“Fourth Senior Brother, how did you get this? I heard the queue is always incredibly long if you want to eat from that shop.”
Ye Qiao also nodded curiously.
Luo Qingyu adopted a profound look and calmly uttered three words: “Money-power.”
Hearing this, Ming Xuan spat out his food with a pfft, looking completely blank. “What on earth is that?”
Ye Qiao quickly explained, “What Fourth Senior Brother means is the power of money.”
By now, she was practically certain that Fourth Senior Brother was absolutely not an ordinary person. Otherwise, how could such a term appear in the cultivation world?
Munching on the glutinous rice cake, Mu Zhongxi said, “I didn't quite get the first part of what Junior Sister said about 'money-power,' but I definitely understand the 'money' part. It's just spirit stones, isn't it?”
Ming Xuan understood instantly upon hearing this. He couldn't help but give a thumbs-up and praise, “Awesome.”
“Money-power” sounded rather sophisticated. He had no idea how Fourth Junior Brother had come up with such a word.
Zhou Xingyun, who had been silently focusing on eating, also evaluated, “Delicious.”
His mouth stuffed full, Xue Yu called out indistinctly, “Hey, Ming Xuan! If you don't eat now, Junior Brother and Junior Sister are going to snatch them all!”
Hearing this, Ming Xuan's eyes went wide. He looked into the paper wrapper, only to find there were only two glutinous rice cakes left.
He asked in shock, “How did you guys eat so fast?”
He turned to look at Ye Qiao, only to see her cheeks puffed out like a squirrel, with two more cakes still clutched in her hands.
Seeing Mu Zhongxi reaching out to snatch the remaining pastries, Ming Xuan smacked his hand with his fan with a smack, grabbing the last two cakes in one swift motion. “These are mine.”
Mu Zhongxi clutched his smacked hand, looking aggrieved. “Why? That's not fair!”
Ming Xuan replied righteously, “Because you've already eaten so much, while I've only had one!”
Mu Zhongxi: “But I'm your junior brother!”
Ming Xuan retorted, “Still no. Even if Master himself came, I wouldn't give these two glutinous rice cakes to you.”
Watching these two clowns, Luo Qingyu couldn't help but cover her face and complain, “And they're at it again.”
KFC, who had been nesting on top of Ye Qiao's head, caught a whiff of the sweet aroma. Seeing the osmanthus cakes in Ming Xuan's hands, it immediately swooped over.
While the two were bickering, Ming Xuan had finally won the argument. Just as he was about to eat the pastry in his hand, he looked down and saw KFC patting its bloated belly, hiccuping repeatedly.
He instantly blew his top and shouted at Ye Qiao, “Junior Sister! Look at this fat chicken of yours! It ate my glutinous rice cake!”
Ye Qiao shrugged helplessly. “Sorry, Second Senior Brother. It flew over on its own; there was nothing I could do.”
Ming Xuan felt incredibly wronged. He had finally won the pastry after arguing with his junior brother, only for his junior sister's contracted beast to steal and eat it right after. Talk about terrible luck.
Seeing how pitiful he looked, Xue Yu couldn't help but break his own osmanthus cake in half and hand it over, comforting him, “Alright, alright, don't be sad. I'll share half of mine with you.”
Ming Xuan was instantly mollified. Munching on the cake, he said, “Third Junior Brother, you really are the best to me.”
“What about me?” Luo Qingyu asked.
Ming Xuan quickly corrected himself, “Of course, Fourth Junior Brother too!”
Xue Yu looked at KFC, who was lying inside the paper wrapper completely stuffed, his heart filled with curiosity. He turned and asked, “Junior Sister, what kind of demon beast is this contracted beast of yours anyway?”
Ye Qiao shook her head slightly. “I don't know either.”
She turned to look at Zhou Xingyun. “Senior Brother, do you know?”
Hearing this, Zhou Xingyun also shook his head.
Having just finished his glutinous rice cake, Ming Xuan clapped his hands. “A single tiny breath of fire from it could melt the Chaos Bead. That proves this demon beast is definitely out of the ordinary.”
Mu Zhongxi also chimed in, “Since none of you know, why don't we ask Fourth Senior Brother? She is well-traveled and knowledgeable; maybe she can recognize it.”
Upon hearing this, everyone's gaze instantly locked onto Luo Qingyu. Ye Qiao's eyes sparkled with anticipation as she stared at her.
The corners of Luo Qingyu's mouth curled up slightly. She raised her hand to set up a soundproofing barrier and said softly, “It's not a demon beast. It's a phoenix.”
“What did you say?”
Hearing this, the teacup in Xue Yu's hand fell to the ground with a loud clatter.
Ming Xuan's eyes widened instantly. He shook Luo Qingyu's shoulders in disbelief, asking urgently, “Fourth Junior Brother, you're not pulling my leg, are you?”
Ye Qiao cradled KFC in her arms and examined it closely, her face filled with disbelief. “Fourth Senior Brother, could you have made a mistake? How is this a phoenix? It looks just like a fat chicken to me.”
Stars danced before Luo Qingyu's eyes, and she nearly threw up her dinner from yesterday. “Let go... I'm going to pass out.”
Hearing this and seeing Luo Qingyu on the verge of foaming at the mouth, Ming Xuan quickly let go in a panic. “Fourth Junior Brother, are you alright?”
Luo Qingyu raised a hand to make a “stop” gesture and said slowly, “Hold on. Didn't you guys say you didn't believe me?”
With that, she retrieved an ancient copy of 《Record of Divine Beasts》 from her storage ring and threw it directly to Ye Qiao. “See for yourselves. Once you read it, you'll know if I'm lying.”
Hearing this, Ming Xuan immediately let go of Luo Qingyu and hurried over to Ye Qiao's side, leaning in to flip through the book with her.
Left without support, Luo Qingyu swayed and lost her balance, hitting the ground with a heavy thud. She gritted her teeth, her face turning incredibly sour.
Zhou Xingyun, who had been silently observing the entire scene, felt his eyelids twitch. He quickly stepped forward to help her up, asking softly, “Are you alright?”
Luo Qingyu shook her head to indicate she was fine and said, “Senior Brother, help me up.”
Watching the show with his arms crossed, Xue Yu looked at his fourth junior sibling, whose aura had suddenly turned ice-cold. He couldn't help but silently pray for Ming Xuan: Ming Xuan, you... may the heavens have mercy on you.
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