Generally speaking, when a villain who has been imprisoned for many years finally regains their freedom, the first thing they do is seek revenge on their enemies.
That was perfectly normal. If it were her, she would definitely do the same—get revenge and make a fortune while she was at it.
However, there were still two days before the Bixi Secret Realm reopened. After thinking about it, Tian Luo asked, “Could it be that you can sense a spirit stone mine or something inside the Bixi Secret Realm? Are we going mining right now?”
Every time she spoke, Lu Qizhi looked especially speechless.
Tian Luo knew he couldn’t be bothered explaining things to her, but she still wanted confirmation.
“So, are there spirit stone mines in the Bixi Secret Realm or not?”
A vein seemed to twitch on Lu Qizhi’s forehead. He restrained himself from throwing the little ginseng off his shoulder.
Expressionless, he answered, “Yes.”
“That’s great! Let’s hurry and mine it! The secret realm closes in two days!”
Tian Luo was so excited her face turned red.
A spirit stone mine!!!
This was basically like discovering a gold mine in modern times.
Who wouldn’t become filthy rich from that?!
Or like winning a hundred million on the lottery overnight—who wouldn’t want that kind of sudden wealth?!
Lu Qizhi realized his temper had improved significantly compared to before. He actually wasn’t that angry.
“I can enter this secret realm whenever I want.”
“Wow, you’re that amazing? But since we’re already here, we should definitely mine it today. Think about it—next time, you might not have time to bring me here!”
Tian Luo was only shocked for a second that the great villain could freely enter a secret realm that only opened once every fifty years. Then she calmly began reasoning with him.
After all, there was a saying from her hometown:
Since you’re already here, you might as well accomplish something.
Lu Qizhi frowned.
Why would I need to bring you if I wanted to come here?
But almost immediately, he seemed to think of something. The irritation on his face nearly surfaced before he forcibly changed direction.
Seeing that their course had shifted, Tian Luo finally relaxed.
Then she looked around.
The scenery was wonderful.
Summoning her courage, she adjusted herself on Lu Qizhi’s shoulder into a slightly more comfortable position.
She didn’t dare move too much, only scooted her butt a tiny bit.
The villain didn’t react.
Encouraged, Tian Luo pressed a hand against his head and adjusted herself again.
After all, she wasn’t straddling his neck. She was only sitting on one shoulder.
Although the villain had a broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted figure, her own beautiful ginseng body wasn’t bad either. Just now, more than half of her butt hadn’t been properly supported.
The head-patted Lu Qizhi: “…Tian Luo.”
“Huh?”
This was the first time the villain had called her by name.
Tian Luo immediately became nervous.
“What’s wrong?”
Listening to the anxious, frightened voice above him, Lu Qizhi frowned again.
His expression was terrible.
Absolutely terrible.
The irritation and restlessness inside him were on the verge of exploding.
Tian Luo noticed that she’d accidentally messed up his hair while pressing on his head.
She immediately raised a hand and carefully smoothed it back into place.
“I have to say, your hair is really silky. I’m honestly jealous.”
Lu Qizhi felt her hand moving through his hair.
Soft and boneless.
Stroke after stroke.
Like a cat’s paw scratching lightly.
Miraculously, his mood gradually settled.
His temper really had improved a lot.
If this had been before, he would have killed her long ago.
Tian Luo sensed the murderous aura around him dissipating and secretly let out a breath.
She had genuinely been scared just now.
Better to admire the scenery.
No more reckless attempts to test the villain’s limits.
She’d already experimented once.
Doing it again so soon might truly get her killed.
Tian Luo turned her head and looked around.
Lu Qizhi had already flown past the “Winter” region.
Glancing downward, she spotted Nan Rong and the others below.
At the moment, Nan Rong seemed to be talking to the male lead.
Tian Yue was frowning and speaking coldly, while Nan Rong’s gentle face looked slightly hurt.
Damn it, what did that blockheaded straight man do this time?!
Tian Luo wanted to watch a little longer, but Lu Qizhi had already carried her farther away, and soon she could no longer see Nan Rong or Tian Yue.
They had reached the very edge of the Bixi Secret Realm.
Tian Luo frowned.
According to the original novel…
Actually, the novel had never described what existed beyond the boundaries of the four great regions—Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.
But she quickly let it go.
After all, the original novel had never mentioned the cave imprisoning Lu Qizhi either.
Lu Qizhi landed with her on a pitch-black mountain and pulled her down from his shoulder.
The mountain was completely black.
Not a single spirit herb grew there…
Well, that wasn’t entirely true.
Looking carefully, the ground was covered by a layer of black moss.
The moss emitted dense spiritual energy.
“Dig,” Lu Qizhi said succinctly.
Tian Luo looked up at him.
Dressed in flowing white robes, he stood with his arms crossed, watching her.
“?”
Wasn’t a normal person supposed to help a beautiful girl work?
Then again, after thinking it over, he wasn’t normal.
He was a villain.
Villains didn’t help people work.
If she hired him to help dig, she’d probably have to pay him.
It wasn’t that she was stingy, but…
She should first confirm whether there really were spirit stones beneath the mountain.
If there were, then she could hire him afterward.
Tian Luo rummaged through her mustard seed pouch and found a hoe.
She’d picked it up on the road before entering the Zixu Sword Sect.
People from her homeland possessed a racial talent for farming.
If you knew how to grow vegetables, you wouldn’t starve.
And the supreme divine artifact of farming was none other than a hoe.
Any soil could be reclaimed beneath its blade.
Tian Luo began digging.
One swing.
It wouldn’t budge.
The hoe had struck something hard.
She even suspected it had gotten stuck in stone.
Frowning, Tian Luo crouched down and carefully brushed away the black moss.
The moment she did, excitement nearly launched her bangs into the air.
Feeling the little ginseng sprout atop her head pop up from excitement, she hurriedly pressed it back down.
Then she turned around to look at Lu Qizhi.
He was standing there, watching her with a half-smile.
As though observing an idiot.
Tian Luo thought for two seconds.
Then she realized hiring him with spirit stones to help mine was incredibly stupid.
After all, he’d discovered the mine.
He was using the mine to repay his debt.
From another perspective…
The mine belonged to him.
If he truly didn’t care about money, she could still pick up the leftovers.
In any case, Tian Luo pulled another clay jar from her pouch.
The jar contained a full batch of her foot-soaking water.
She glanced at Lu Qizhi’s exposed chest.
The bruising there was still faintly visible.
That injury really seemed difficult to heal.
“I’ll trade you a jar of spirit brew in exchange for helping me mine. What do you think?”
She hesitated before adding,
“Of course, that would also cancel out the ten thousand high-grade spirit stone debt.”
She was still considering how to shamelessly argue that the remaining spirit stones should belong to her when Lu Qizhi suddenly spoke.
“I found this spirit stone mine.”
Tch. I thought villains treated money like dirt. Turns out he’s greedy too!
“If I mine it, then all of it belongs to me.”
The look he gave her seemed to ask:
And what exactly have you contributed?
That wasn’t fair.
Her spirit brew…
Right.
Her spirit brew.
Tian Luo instantly straightened with confidence.
“Let’s break this down logically. You pay one thousand high-grade spirit stones per cup for my spirit brew, right? So here’s the deal: the entire mine belongs to me. Whenever you want to drink in the future, I’ll provide it. It’s basically prepayment. Every jar you drink, I’ll deduct it from your account. Doesn’t that save you a lot of trouble?”
She was a genius.
Lu Qizhi’s eyes had already seen through the essence of the matter.
He stared at her for a while without speaking.
Under his monster-inspecting gaze, Tian Luo managed to hold out at first.
But after a while, even she couldn’t keep up the act.
Just as she was about to surrender, he finally said flatly,
“At your digging speed, who knows when you’ll finish.”
“?”
So?
Lu Qizhi grabbed Tian Luo and hoisted her back onto his shoulder.
He rose into the air.
Then he raised a hand slightly and struck downward.
Tian Luo watched as the black moss covering the entire mountain peeled away like an eggshell before shattering.
And beneath it—
The whole mountain was revealed to be a massive crystal-clear deposit of glowing blue high-grade spirit stones.
“All at once?” Lu Qizhi asked.
“Breaking it into pieces works too!”
As she spoke, Tian Luo hurriedly opened her mustard seed pouch.
Though she wasn’t sure it could hold everything.
Lu Qizhi glanced at her low-grade storage pouch and frowned.
He took it from her.
Turning it over repeatedly in his hands, he did something unknown to it.
Spiritual energy surged continuously.
Then he handed it back.
In the end, he broke the spirit stone mine into several enormous chunks and stored them inside Tian Luo’s pouch.
Tian Luo watched endless spirit stones flow into her pouch.
The pouch resembled a gluttonous Taotie beast with its mouth wide open, never knowing fullness.
Finally, the entire spirit stone mine had been collected.
Lu Qizhi glanced at her.
Her face was practically glowing.
She was that excited.
Unable to help himself, he looked a few more times.
The more he looked, the better his own mood became.
Tian Luo secured her storage pouch.
She was now a rich woman carrying an entire spirit stone mine on her back!
An entire!
Spirit stone mine!
Attentively, she handed the foot-soaking water to the villain.
Her voice was incredibly sweet.
“You’ve worked hard. Quickly, have some of my spirit brew to quench your thirst and heal your injuries!”
Lu Qizhi accepted it without hesitation.
It was something he deserved.
Holding her breath, Tian Luo watched the villain elegantly drink an entire jar of foot-soaking water.
“How’s the taste?”
“Acceptable.”
The same answer as always.
Tian Luo looked at the wound on his chest.
The bruising seemed a little lighter.
Only a tiny bit.
You wouldn’t notice without looking carefully.
Then Lu Qizhi took off into the air with Tian Luo once more.
After hesitating, she said,
“How about taking me back to my Senior Sister and the others? You’re going to get revenge, right? I think it’s better if I’m not there. Given our relationship, it wouldn’t really be appropriate for me to go.”
Seriously.
Who wanted to witness a villain’s revenge scene?
Things like that often involved secrets.
Life as a ginseng was already difficult enough.
She didn’t want trouble finding her.
Lu Qizhi’s brows immediately knitted together.
He turned to look at Tian Luo.
According to Tian Luo’s interpretation, his eyes clearly said:
I helped you find the Nine-Qilin Armor. I mined the spirit stones for you. And now that it’s finally my turn to handle my own business, you’re refusing to come?
Terrifying.
Tian Luo tried to explain.
“Mainly because I’m useless. Bringing me along would just make me a burden. I have plenty of spiritual energy, but I can’t fight. I only transformed half a month ago, and I’ve only been in the outer sect of the Zixu Sword Sect for a few days. I don’t know how to do anything.”
After a pause, she added,
“I only know how to make spirit brew.”
“No.”
Lu Qizhi’s answer was firm.
“You must come with me.”
Tian Luo couldn’t understand villain logic.
She’d already clearly explained that she was a useless waste.
Why insist on dragging her along?
Could he have fallen in love with her?
Impossible.
Looking at his expressionless face and those dark, unfathomable eyes, she knew.
The villain had no heart.
The villain didn’t understand feelings.
She didn’t even know what direction to worry in anymore.
Feeling melancholy, Tian Luo made one final request.
“Then after we’re done, can you take me back to the Zixu Sword Sect?”
Lu Qizhi neither agreed nor refused.
This villain really understood the art of leaving himself room to maneuver.
Sighing, Tian Luo sat on his shoulder and opened her storage pouch.
She looked at the spirit stone mine inside.
Then looked again.
And again.
All right.
That did wonders for her mood.
If she had to go, she’d go.
Besides, she hadn’t seen much of the outside world anyway.
Oh, right!
One more thing!
“By the way, we’re basically comrades now. You’ll protect me, right?”
Her voice was quiet.
Honestly, he wasn’t obligated to.
She’d already decided that if danger appeared, she’d run.
Lu Qizhi still didn’t answer.
They arrived at a location and stopped.
After looking around, Tian Luo realized this seemed to be the central point of the Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter regions.
She watched as Lu Qizhi’s fingers moved through the air.
It looked as though he were plucking a zither string.
Or perhaps stirring water.
In any case, with that simple motion, a barrier entrance appeared ahead.
The villain was absurdly powerful.
His expression was vicious.
The black aura and killing intent surrounding him seemed ready to explode at any moment.
Passing through this barrier wasn’t exactly leaving the Bixi Secret Realm.
It felt more like entering another place entirely.
Tian Luo peeked inside.
She saw a magnificent palace.
Golden and resplendent.
Built upon a mountain.
An immortal palace wrapped around the mountainside, surrounded by drifting clouds, radiant glow, green mountains, clear waters, and circling cranes.
It looked exactly like one of those famous cultivation sects from television dramas.
Or perhaps a hidden cultivation world.
Or even the Heavenly Palace itself.
The villain’s enemies belonging to a proper cultivation sect wasn’t an unusual setting.
Ten out of ten stories were like that.
Judging by the demonic aura surrounding him, he was obviously destined to oppose immortal energy.
As long as the sect wasn’t the Zixu Sword Sect, she was happy.
She quite liked the Zixu Sword Sect.
In the future, she wanted to become a hardworking, diligent ginseng there.
Holding her breath, Tian Luo felt a little nervous.
Soon, there would probably be flashing blades, corpses everywhere, rivers of blood, and a sect-annihilating massacre.
That was usually how novels went.
After all, the villain had been imprisoned in that tiny cave.
Bound by countless chains.
He had to be terrifyingly powerful.
When the time came, she’d simply claim to be an innocent passerby who’d been kidnapped.
That way she wouldn’t become their enemy.
She really was a clever little ginseng.
Then, in the very next moment—
Just as the villain’s hand passed through the barrier, his entire body suddenly froze.
His eyes closed.
And he, along with Tian Luo, plummeted straight downward.
Tian Luo: !!!!!!!!
Can you be a little more reliable?!?!?!