Miss Fairy, Please Hear Me Out

The autumn mountain forest lacked the tireless cicada song and lush greenery of summer, but it had its own quiet beauty in the falling leaves.

Suddenly, a slender, graceful figure dropped down from between the treetops. Bare pink feet touched the ground as she walked toward the man in the woods.

Xu Yuan, seated cross-legged in a clearing, slowly raised his eyes. “Shen Weixiu is dealt with?”

“Mhm. Where’s Tian Rui?” Her voice was crisp and clear. As she spoke, her golden eyes swept over the surroundings.

Xu Yuan’s answer was very brief. “Dead.”

Tian Yan subconsciously stopped in her tracks, surprise filling her beautiful eyes. “You killed him?”

The corner of Xu Yuan’s eye twitched. “If not me, then you?”

A smile entered Tian Yan’s eyes. She gave a soft little hum, walked up to Xu Yuan, half crouched in front of him, leaned forward, and patted his shoulder. “You’ve improved. You didn’t even get hurt. Not bad, not bad.”

Xu Yuan watched the girl’s movements in silence for two seconds, then suddenly let out a quiet laugh. He tilted his head back to look at her and said casually, “I knew his Heaven Deriving Art, but he didn’t know my sword art. And he got distracted in battle, so he died.”

Tian Yan gathered her skirt and sat down beside him, her voice bright and pleasant. “He was distracted because of Shen Weixiu’s voice transmission?”

Catching the faint fragrance drifting from the girl beside him, Xu Yuan nodded. “More or less.”

At that, Tian Yan leaned back slightly, propping herself up with both small hands behind her. She looked through the tree canopy at the sky and said with a beaming smile, “Then you really ought to thank me. I was the one who leaked the moves of the Heaven Deriving Art to you, and I was also the one who created the chance for your sneak attack.”

Xu Yuan gave her a strange look. “Tian Yan, since when did you become this shameless?”

“Learned it from you, obviously.” Tian Yan glanced at him, the corner of her lips curving faintly. “Where’s Tian Rui’s Sumeru Ring?”

Xu Yuan immediately grew wary and shot her a look. “Couldn’t find it.”

“Mhm.” Tian Yan narrowed her eyes, her voice slow and unhurried. “As thanks, I think you can consider handing Tian Rui’s Sumeru Ring over to me.”

Hearing this, Xu Yuan turned his eyes toward Tian Yan, his gaze carrying a hint of appraisal.

Tian Yan’s beautiful eyes curved into two bright crescent moons, her tone unchanged. “I can trade you Shen Weixiu’s Sumeru Ring for it.”

Xu Yuan grinned. As the Saint of the Heavenwatch Pavilion, Tian Rui’s Sumeru Ring did not only contain a great many precious cultivation resources. It also held plenty of information and secrets related to the Heavenwatch Pavilion.

Compared to the former, resources that could not be taken out of the illusion anyway, the value of the latter went without saying.

But because of time, Xu Yuan had only managed to skim through that information.

And as the Saintess of the Heavenwatch Pavilion, Tian Yan would never allow that information to leak. Adults talked in terms of benefits. Where would there be so many lovesick idiots?

Xu Yuan shook his head and refused. “What if I say no?”

Tian Yan glanced at him and laughed softly. “You taught me what to do in this kind of situation before.”

“You want to fight?” Xu Yuan smiled.

“If you refuse to hand it over,” Tian Yan said, smiling as well.

Xu Yuan shook his head with a smile. “Neither of us is badly injured right now. If we fight, one of us might actually get hurt.”

Tian Yan stared at him. “Doesn’t matter. We already got the Beguiling Divine Sakura tree sapling anyway.”

“You learned that from Shen Weixiu?”

“Mhm. His Dao Charm was very suited for running away, so killing him took some effort. But I did manage to get some information out of him. The Beguiling Divine Sakura should be with you.”

Xu Yuan stared at Tian Yan for several breaths, then took the Beguiling Divine Sakura tree sapling out of the Sumeru Ring and said with refreshing bluntness, “This is the Beguiling Divine Sakura. You can take a look, then decide whether you still want to fight me.”

Confusion appeared in Tian Yan’s beautiful eyes. She sensed it briefly.

The next moment, the smile vanished from her face, and her voice rose slightly.

“This... this is the Beguiling Divine Sakura?”

Meeting her gaze, Xu Yuan nodded very seriously. “I’m absolutely sure. It is the Beguiling Divine Sakura.”

Sunset had arrived. The slanting light filtered through the canopy, staining everything in the forest red, including the girl’s golden eyes.

She stared fixedly at the sapling before her, which was not even ten feet tall. “Why... why isn’t there any soul intent fluctuation?”

Xu Yuan smiled and said quietly, “There is. Sense it carefully. It’s just very weak. Heh.”

When Tian Yan heard that, she immediately turned back and glared at him. “How could such a tiny soul intent fluctuation possibly be the source? You’re still in the mood to joke right now?”

“Force of habit.” Xu Yuan smiled and waved a hand. “Life has to go on somehow. There really are a lot of accidents in this illusion.”

Tian Yan took two sharp breaths, then suddenly turned her eyes sideways. “Xu Changtian, don’t tell me you...”

“I’m warning you, don’t start being unreasonable.” Xu Yuan gave her a cool glance.

Tian Yan lifted a slender index finger to her teeth and bit it lightly, her gaze a little muddled. “Right... you shouldn’t have had time to hide it. But if the source isn’t the Beguiling Divine Sakura, then what is it? That’s impossible... As long as it’s an illusion, it must have a source.”

At this point, Tian Yan’s pupils suddenly shrank. “Xu Changtian, when you killed Tian Rui, did you sense...”

“I sensed it.” Xu Yuan cut Tian Yan off directly.

Talking to smart people really did save effort.

A brief silence fell.

Hesitation appeared in Tian Yan’s eyes. “You’re certain you sensed it too?”

Xu Yuan sighed, then simply leaned back and sprawled across the fallen leaves and dry branches. “Yeah. This Beguiling Divine Sakura’s illusion really is bizarre. Heh. It can actually scatter the source onto every person inside the illusion. No wonder the people in this illusion can react to our actions.”

At that point, Xu Yuan, lying on the ground, glanced at Tian Yan. “So my suggestion is that we put our little internal conflict on hold and solve the problem in front of us first. What do you think?”

“What problem in front of us?” Tian Yan asked.

Xu Yuan suddenly rolled over and sat up, enunciating each word. “Tian Yan, we have to escape the Splendorbloom Realm.”

Tian Yan fell silent.

After a long while, she raised her eyes and said, “Although Tian Rui and Shen Weixiu were killed by us, they were the ones who launched the attack this time.”

Xu Yuan sighed. Through the tree canopy, he looked at the sky gradually darkening overhead. His answer was short. “Useless.”

Tian Yan frowned and looked at the man lying on the ground. “You’re that certain the Splendorbloom Sect will hand us over?”

Xu Yuan shook his head and said quietly, “It shouldn’t go that far. The Splendorbloom Sect is still a major sect, after all. They probably won’t do something that humiliating and self-destructive. At least not openly.”

The two of them had practically killed the Grand Purity Dao Palace’s chief disciple and the Heavenwatch Pavilion’s Saint without suffering any injuries. With that kind of combat talent, they would be treasures among treasures in any sect. Not to mention that when Shen Weixiu was running wild, the two of them had stepped forward and killed him. No matter how you looked at it, they counted as heroes of the Splendorbloom Sect.

But at this point, Xu Yuan paused for a moment, then grinned again. “With your intelligence, it shouldn’t be hard to guess that there’s a traitor among the Splendorbloom Sect’s higher-ups, right?”

“Mhm.” Tian Yan nodded. There was some confusion in her eyes as she asked with slight hesitation, “What are you trying to say?”

“Looks like you still aren’t smart enough.” Xu Yuan curled his lip.

Tian Yan’s pure and adorable face twitched, and her fists clenched.

Xu Yuan clicked his tongue. “Tsk. You really aren’t cute at all.”

“If you want to die, just say so.” Tian Yan kicked him.