Chapter 45: “Don’t You Feel Sorry For Me?”

“My silly daughter, come have a drink with me?”

Yan Yuanqing’s smile was warm, her posture elegant and unrestrained. She put on what she thought was her gentlest expression as she spoke to Yan Zhao.

Yan Zhao stood stiffly in the pavilion, tilting her head up to meet Yan Yuanqing’s gaze.

Expressionless, Yan Zhao said nothing. The atmosphere began to grow a little cold.

Another cool breeze swept through, lifting the hem of Yan Yuanqing’s robes and freezing her smile on her face.

“Hey.” Yan Yuanqing felt awkward and pulled the wine flask back. “Why aren’t you reacting at all? We met here before, don’t you remember?”

Yan Zhao still didn’t make a sound. She stood there like a wooden post.

Yan Yuanqing rose. Her palm pressed lightly against the roof ridge, and she drifted down gracefully, arriving before Yan Zhao in an instant.

She took one of Yan Zhao’s hands and said softly, “Little Zhaozhao, I’m your mother.”

I’m your mother.

The words thundered in her ears. Yan Zhao suddenly snapped back to her senses.

Then, with a whoosh, she vanished right before Yan Yuanqing’s eyes.

Yan Yuanqing: “…”

Tsk.

Plan A had failed.

No matter. She still had Plans C, D, E… probably about a hundred or so.

There was bound to be a way to get closer to her daughter.

·

Yan Zhao’s body trembled, and her eyes opened.

Her vision was still dark. The sky hadn’t brightened yet. She was holding the fox, sitting in a tree, a small, dark golden bead clutched in her hand.

Yan Zhao looked around, then down at the golden bead in her hand, puzzled.

The little fox was startled awake by her movement. It proactively pressed its head against her arm, almost as if it were acting coy.

Yan Zhao let go of the golden bead, hugged the little fox, and leaned back against the tree trunk, intending to close her eyes and go back to sleep.

Just as she was drifting off, she heard a familiar voice call softly, “Little Zhaozhao, don’t sleep anymore. Come keep your mother company!”

“Your mother is so lonely all by herself. Don’t you feel sorry for me?”

“Hey, your mother only saw you once in three hundred years, and you still refuse to talk to her. So cold.”

Yan Zhao: “…”

A vein throbbed violently at her temple. She woke up.

Yan Yuanqing’s voice had echoed in her head all night long. It was worse than a nightmare.

Yan Zhao woke up fully, sat blankly on the tree branch, her mind empty, thinking of nothing.

As long as she didn’t sleep, the voice lingering in her ears would disappear.

The little fox woke up several times, discovering that Yan Zhao had, unusually, not only kept her eyes open but also seemed deeply troubled.

It nudged Yan Zhao’s chin with its nose. Yan Zhao didn’t even acknowledge it.

The little fox tilted its head: “?”

It straightened up in Yan Zhao’s arms and forcefully pushed its little head into Yan Zhao’s line of sight.

Yan Zhao saw it, and, afraid it would fall, instinctively reached out to hold it.

The eastern sky was just beginning to show the faint white of dawn. Bi Lan finished her qi absorption and opened her eyes.

Hearing the movement in the tree branches, she was surprised. She looked up and smiled. “Junior Sister Yan, you’re awake?”

“Yeah,” Yan Zhao replied, her voice very dull.

But since she never spoke much anyway, Bi Lan didn’t notice anything unusual.

Yan Zhao jumped down from the tree, yawning tiredly.

The little fox looked up at her, its eyes filled with deep confusion.

She was clearly still sleepy, so why wasn’t she sleeping?

Had she been plagued by nightmares all night?

Yan Zhao’s mental state was poor, but she unexpectedly took the initiative to ask Bi Lan about the day’s itinerary. “Where are we going now?”

Bi Lan was first startled, then a smile blossomed on her face. She eagerly shared her plan with Yan Zhao. “Four hundred li west of here, there’s a Minor Immortal Sect. I want to go there and spar with their sect disciples.”

Yan Zhao tilted her head, not understanding.

Seeing her confused expression, Bi Lan explained, “The main goal of our training journey down the mountain is to challenge the dueling platforms established by the various Immortal Sects throughout the Three Realms and earn a Passage Token for the Immortal Sect Disciple Assembly as soon as possible.”

“Junior Sister Yan, if you aren’t planning to participate in the Immortal Sect Disciple Assembly, why not travel around with me? The Three Thousand Worlds hold countless wonders. Perhaps one day you’ll find something that interests you.”

Yan Zhao didn’t have any particular thoughts. She just didn’t want to hear that noise in her head anymore. So she casually replied, “Alright.”

Her junior sister was much more agreeable than usual. Bi Lan felt inexplicably happy about it.

To reach the small sect marked on the map as quickly as possible, Bi Lan resorted to Sword Riding and had Yan Zhao ride with her.

Yan Zhao didn’t refuse.

Once on the Flying Sword, she took the Demon Core out of her pocket and asked the little fox, “You haven’t eaten all day, are you hungry?”

The little fox glanced at the core in her hand: “…”

It was the same one it had given Yan Zhao.

So it shook its head, signaling it didn’t need it.

Although Bi Lan was piloting the Flying Sword in front, she kept a sliver of her focus on Yan Zhao. Seeing this, an idea struck her, and she spoke up. “Junior Sister Yan, why don’t you try feeding it a water-attributed Demon Core?”

Water-attributed?

Yan Zhao was puzzled, but as it happened, she did have a few blue Demon Cores in her pocket, of varying quality.

Skeptically, she picked out the one with the poorest quality and held it up to the little fox. “What about this one? Will you eat it?”

The little fox gobbled it down with a yelp, confirming Yan Zhao’s choice.

Yan Zhao’s brow smoothed out, but she muttered under her breath, “Picky about what Demon Cores you eat. What a fussy little fox.”

The little fox was speechless, and Bi Lan couldn’t help but laugh.

Both the human and the fox mentally complained at the same time: You’re the only one who doesn’t discriminate by attribute!

Yan Zhao lowered her head and counted the remaining Demon Cores. She didn’t have many blue ones at all. They wouldn’t be enough.

Bi Lan offered Yan Zhao another piece of advice. “Immortal Markets have specific exchange points where you can trade Demon Cores, swapping the ones you don’t need for the ones you do.”

Yan Zhao looked up at this. “Where?”

“I remember there’s an Immortal Market near that small sect.” Bi Lan found a place to temporarily land and took out her map to confirm the location.

Yan Zhao grabbed a Demon Core the little fox wouldn’t eat and started playing a game of fetch with it.

She lightly tossed the core and shouted, “Snowball, catch! Go get it!”

“…” Ren Qingyue shot Yan Zhao a glare.

Did they think a fox who wouldn’t show its might was a little dog?

Yan Zhao felt the little fox’s coldness. Her brows drooped. She got up to go pick up the Demon Core herself.

That desolate back view made her look like an unloved puppy.

Tsk.

The little fox’s eyelids twitched.

Yan Zhao walked towards the Demon Core and was just about to bend down.

Suddenly, a white shadow darted out from behind her, overtaking her and snatching the Demon Core before she could.

The little fox held the core in its mouth, lifting its head and puffing out its chest, its big tail swaying from side to side.

Yan Zhao’s cloudy expression instantly cleared.

She plucked the Demon Core from the little fox’s mouth and promptly hurled it even farther. “Snowball, go get it!”

The little fox: “…”

Bi Lan looked up from the map to witness this scene.

“…”

She almost thought she saw a look that said, “I have no choice but to indulge you,” in the fox’s eyes.

All in all, it was a picture of peaceful tranquility.

Yan Zhao played fetch with the little fox, and before she knew it, she had run farther and farther away. By the time Bi Lan finished plotting their route and looked up to call her, Yan Zhao was nowhere to be seen.

“Junior Sister Yan?!” Bi Lan shouted loudly, but there was no response. She frowned, puzzled. “Where did she run off to?”

With the fox following her, Yan Zhao shouldn’t get lost.

Bi Lan picked up her Compass to perform Divination. Shortly after, she pinpointed the direction Yan Zhao had gone and summoned her Flying Sword to catch up.

Yan Zhao ran into the forest, not noticing several Black Shadows darting through the underbrush behind her.

The little fox’s ears pricked up. It looked around cautiously.

In the trees, in the bushes—several locations concealed people.

Their auras weren’t strong, but their intentions were clearly hostile.

Yan Zhao threw the Demon Core again, but this time the fox didn’t run. Instead, it stopped, tugged at her pant leg, and tried to pull her back.

“What’s wrong?” Yan Zhao didn’t understand.

The little fox clamped onto her pant leg and wouldn’t let go.

Yan Zhao couldn’t move her foot and complained helplessly, “If you don’t let me go, how am I supposed to pick up the Demon Core?”

The little fox was so angry its eyes and mouth nearly went crooked. Yan Zhao truly had no ability to read the atmosphere.

It finally released Yan Zhao and jumped onto her shoulder. If any sudden change occurred, it would just have to act.

In the forest, several figures were crouched low, moving through the underbrush in staggered formation.

Two of them were whispering to each other. “Are you sure it’s her?”

“Definitely couldn’t be wrong!” the other replied with absolute certainty. “That woman not only stole our stuff, but I heard she also got a huge opportunity at the Immortal’s Cave Abode!”

“Hmph, blind cat running into a dead mouse. She’s all alone now, serves her right!”

The Demon Core she’d thrown earlier had landed right in the center of their encirclement. They watched Yan Zhao getting closer and closer, each gripping their weapon, ready to spring their ambush.

At that moment, the sound of something tearing through the air suddenly rang out.

Pfft, pfft, pfft. Invisible Arrow Qi shot through the backs of their heads.

Yan Zhao found the Demon Core and bent down to pick it up. At the same time, she heard a strange noise. Perplexed, she asked, “What’s that sound?”

She parted the waist-high grass and stepped into the bushes.

There, several human figures appeared before her eyes, sprawled haphazardly on the ground.

Beneath each of their necks was a pool of blood, staining the yellow dirt red.

Seeing this, the little fox’s pupils constricted.

“Junior Sister Yan!” Bi Lan arrived just in time. She hopped off her Flying Sword and strode quickly to Yan Zhao’s side. “You two ran way too fast. You really made me search.”

After saying this, she turned her head and saw the scene. Shocked, she said, “What happened here? Junior Sister Yan, did you kill them?”

Yan Zhao shook her head. They had already been like this when she arrived.

Several dead people suddenly appearing was obviously not a good thing.

Bi Lan walked to the nearest corpse and flipped the body over. She saw a face frozen in terror.

Looking closer, it even seemed familiar. It was a disciple from the Great Saber Sect they’d encountered not long ago.

Looking at the others, they were all wearing Great Saber Sect clothing.

Bi Lan was shocked. “It’s them! What are Great Saber Sect disciples doing here?”

And they were mysteriously dead.

The little fox recognized the wounds on the backs of their heads and sneered inwardly.

Bi Lan felt more and more that something was wrong. She frowned and said grimly to Yan Zhao, “Junior Sister Yan, this whole situation is strange. It’s not safe to stay here. We should…”

Before she could finish, she turned her head and saw Yan Zhao pulling a Universe Pouch off one of the bodies.

Yan Zhao realized Bi Lan was looking and met her eyes for a second before speeding up her movements, searching every single corpse.

Finally, she came back to Bi Lan. “We can go now.”

Bi Lan and the little fox: “…”