The three of them steadied their minds and began to simulate a childlike state of mind.
Gu Qianli tried his best to recall Ye Shuyao’s previous innocent and romantic demeanor. He forcibly suppressed the flirtatious air around him, replacing it with a deliberate, forced childishness.
He looked left and right, using spiritual energy to condense a sugar man to hold in his mouth, though his posture was incredibly awkward.
Xie Wulei, however, found it even more difficult.
To ask him to simulate a sense of childhood fun was no different from asking a snowy mountain to bloom.
Frowning slightly, he attempted to inject a bit of playfulness into his gaze. But as his eyes swept over the upside-down Rainbow Ghost Faces and the bouncing dolls, it looked more like he was scrutinizing unreasonable clues at a crime scene. Far from possessing any childlike innocence, his cold and detached gaze carried a heavy sense of judgmental pressure.
Seeing one person awkwardly pretending to be young and the other acting as if he were investigating a case, Yu Huan felt a secret wave of helplessness.
Cultivators had a long lifespan; that bit of childhood innocence had likely been worn away long ago.
She had no choice but to bite the bullet and demonstrate it herself.
Taking a deep breath, Yu Huan's gaze instantly became as clear as a stream, reflecting a brightness untouched by the world.
Extending a slender finger, she cautiously picked up a strangely shaped pebble. She immediately let out a soft "Eh?"—the sound of a child discovering something novel—and her eyes crinkled with pure surprise. Then, with childish whimsy, she skipped it across the black water, sending ripples outward.
"There, like this."
Yu Huan withdrew her hand, and the innocent expression faded significantly as she regained the dignity of the Saintess.
"Do not deliberately imitate anyone. The essence of simulating a childlike mind lies in triggering your most primal curiosity and desire to explore."
She sighed softly, trying to provide more specific guidance:
"Think about it—is there anything that makes your heart itch with curiosity, something you just have to investigate? An unsolved mystery, a rare treasure, or… a certain person?"
As she spoke, a natural sense of inquiry appeared in her eyes, as if she were truly pondering something interesting. Unconsciously, she nibbled on her fingertip.
Gu Qianli seemed to have an epiphany. "Curiosity? An itching heart? Then it must be Yaoyao… Hm, I’m curious what candy she’s eating right now, and if she’s thought of me…"
The flirtatiousness in his peach blossom eyes instantly melted into the fervor of a youth. He stopped sucking on the sugar man and crouched by the water, poking at the black liquid. As he thought of Ye Shuyao, the corners of his mouth curled high.
That sense of longing truly brought out a bit of childish persistence.
Xie Wulei’s gaze swept over Yu Huan.
Her seamless transition—from dignified Saintess to innocent child and then back to normal—was as smooth and natural as switching masks.
He stared at her as she bit her finger and spoke slowly:
"Your Highness's mind state evolution technique is indeed perfected and effortless."
These words sounded like praise, yet every syllable struck Yu Huan’s guilty conscience, making her heart tighten.
He was clearly implying that she was a seasoned actress, full of lies; even if she were truly guilty of a crime, she could likely play the part of the innocent so flawlessly that her deceptive skills were ingrained in her very bones.
Yu Huan looked down at the tips of her shoes and replied coldly:
"Lord Xie overpraises me. As you know, my law divine ability is Heavenly Physician, which focuses on healing. In my daily study of pharmacology, I often need to simulate different living states. Using that to simulate a state of mind is not particularly difficult."
Xie Wulei watched her lowered profile, speaking as if making idle conversation. "I find that Your Highness's Heavenly Physician ability is quite different from the divine abilities other physicians use to perceive medicinal properties."
Yu Huan remained unfazed. "Although the rank of a Heavenly Physician is not as high as your Trace Fate, it is still an Earth-rank ability. It is indeed different from ordinary medical path divine abilities. However, there are ten thousand kinds of medical paths; though their appearances differ, their essence remains the same…"
She looked up and met his gaze, her eyes holding a hint of sharpness.
"If you are merely using this line of questioning to trigger your curiosity… I shall naturally cooperate."
Xie Wulei raised an eyebrow slightly. "Your Highness is clever. Since you are cooperating…"
His gaze did not waver, staring fixedly at her as he asked directly, "What is Your Highness most curious about?"
The focus in his gaze was too intense, almost a blunt interrogation, causing Yu Huan’s heart to skip a beat.
She couldn't exactly say she was curious about whether she would survive, could she?
Seeing her fall silent, he asked again:
"And what do you think I should be curious about?"
Yu Huan’s heart thumped. "…"
But before she could answer, she saw a flicker of genuine curiosity slowly rise in those eyes that were usually full of scrutiny.
It wasn't a feigned childishness, but rather the instinctive urge of a child seeing something they had never seen before and wanting to investigate it.
And the object of his scrutiny was clearly her.
Yu Huan felt increasingly uncomfortable under his gaze.
As a Judge of the Jiangyaosi, he treated her like a case under investigation, wanting to dig up evidence of her crimes—was that not his instinctive curiosity?
Yet, this obsession with "solving the puzzle" happened to strike the essence of a childlike mind—pure curiosity.
Looking at his burning gaze, the kind he reserved for criminals, Yu Huan felt both annoyed and amused.
By some strange stroke of luck, this smiling tiger had actually entered the required state of mind through his "investigative curiosity" toward her.
At that moment, the mind states of the three synchronized in a strange harmony.
Ripples appeared in the surrounding space, and as light and shadow shifted, their figures vanished.
…
In the Candy World, Ye Shuyao was lying on a giant rainbow marshmallow. A massive fondant book was spread out before her, and she was using honey to draw two small figures on the pages.
The two honey candy figures were in an intimate pose, forcibly tied together by a red candy thread.
As she molded them, she muttered under her breath, "Hmph, Senior Brother is watching so closely, yet he's still pretending! Tie them up! They’re only a match if they're tied together!"
But the peace of this sweet world was merely an illusion.
In the distance, the movements of the bouncing dolls were stiff and eerie, their smiles splitting all the way to their ears. The upside-down Rainbow Ghost Faces screamed incessantly. The cotton-like ground beneath her feet seemed soft, yet a hidden suction surged within, threatening to trap anyone forever in this sweet trap.
Ye Shuyao was not entirely unaware; she was just exceptionally calm, or rather… exceptionally invested in her creation.
Whenever a doll with a split mouth lunged at her, she would agilely roll away, grabbing a handful of preserved fruit to stuff into her mouth to calm her nerves.
When the Rainbow Ghost Faces made ear-piercing noises, she would frown and cover her ears, biting viciously into a marshmallow to vent her frustration.
When the suction beneath her feet grew stronger, she simply sat down, chewing vigorously with teary eyes as she grumbled:
"So annoying! Can't a person just do some handicrafts in peace? Fine, since it's come to this, I might as well eat more…"
Her eyes were brimming with tears, but her mouth never stopped moving, and her fingers stubbornly tried to reinforce the red thread between the two honey candy figures.
Strangely, these things, which emitted terrifying fluctuations capable of obliterating a Refining Void cultivator, did not harm her in the slightest.
It wasn't until the spatial ripples exposed her to the sight of the three newcomers that she seemed to be hit by a freezing spell, her puffed-out cheeks forgetting to chew.
Xie Wulei’s gaze toward her was dark, carrying a faint, imperceptible coldness. "Junior Sister."
"Se… Senior Brother?!"
"Gu Shaoqing… Sister Yu, why are you here?"
Ye Shuyao sprang off the rainbow marshmallow, hiding the two figures behind her back.
She wiped the candy crumbs from the corner of her mouth as if nothing had happened, straightened her back, and said with a slightly grim, haughty expression:
"You've come at the right time! Although this place is fraught with danger, great truths of heaven and earth are hidden within that danger. This princess is currently… searching for an opportunity here to break through to Transcending Divinity!"
Xie Wulei: "…"
Yu Huan: "…"
Gu Qianli: "Hahahahahahaha!"
Ye Shuyao glared at Gu Qianli, composed herself, walked up to Xie Wulei, and whispered, "Senior Brother, I…"
Xie Wulei: "Copy the 'Ice Heart Mantra' three hundred times."
Ye Shuyao: "…"
Looking at her senior brother’s bloodless yet indifferent face, her heart was filled with a complex mix of emotions.
She opened her mouth, but in the end, it only turned into a low: "…Yes, Senior Brother."
From childhood to adulthood, her senior brother could not be said to be anything but responsible toward her.
He had taught her all his techniques and never withheld resources.
But… that was all.
Scenes from her childhood involuntarily surfaced in her mind:
Before the sun had fully risen, the wind on the snowy peak of the Ninth Peak was bone-chilling. Small as she was, she held a sword longer than her arm, repeating dull sword forms over and over, her fingers turning red from the cold.
Her senior brother stood to the side, his white robes as pristine as snow, his gaze indifferent, offering only cold corrections:
"Drop your wrist by three inches."
"Your follow-through is weak."
"Practice this form another hundred times."
When she fell from exhaustion, tears welling in her eyes, she would look up only to see the back of her senior brother as he turned to leave, leaving behind only one sentence:
"I will check your progress at the hour of the Dog."
He never seemed to treat her as a little sister who needed protection, but rather as the heir of the Ninth Peak who had to be strictly trained—a genderless cultivator of the Path of Heartlessness.
…
Yu Huan looked at the elegant yet clearly disappointed young girl and understood.
Xie Wulei's indifference toward Ye Shuyao was real, yet it was also a distorted form of responsibility—forcing her to become strong so she could survive in the dog-eat-dog cultivation world.
This was perhaps his way of expressing what he believed to be kindness, a coldness built on absolute rationality and "doing what's best for her."
In contrast, the warmth he showed her was the true danger signal.
Those smiles, the days and nights he spent taking her to see sights, those polite requests for guidance…
They were all carefully designed sugar-coated bullets, traps used to confuse her, aimed at making her lower her guard and reveal a weakness for a one-hit kill.
Xie Wulei seemed not to notice Ye Shuyao’s internal turmoil, or perhaps he noticed and simply didn't care.
He asked flatly, "No one can set foot here without a token. How did you get in?"
Yu Huan’s heart tightened.
This was also her biggest question.
Startled from her memories, Ye Shuyao said blankly:
"Token? What token? I just walked here and came straight in."
Feeling a bit guilty, she didn't dare look Xie Wulei in the eye.
"It was like walking through a water curtain, no resistance at all."
Yu Huan: "?"
Gu Qianli: "?"
Xie Wulei turned his gaze to Yu Huan, the corners of his mouth curling.
"Your Highness, how do you explain this?"
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