"Drip a bead of blood on it and you'll see," Su Jiu'er said.
"All right."
Luo Fanchen held out a finger.
Su Jiu'er stared. "Well, DRIP. What's the pause for?"
"Bite it for me."
"Shoo, shoo." Her red lips curled in distaste. "Filthy. Absolutely not."
Luo Fanchen deployed the provocation. "Honestly I'm not thrilled about your saliva either — but fox teeth are sharp, and I can't quite bring myself to bite my own finger."
"WHO are you mocking?!" Furious, she snatched his finger, opened that sandalwood mouth, and bit down.
Warm dampness closed around it.
"HISSS—"
"It's off! It's coming off!"
He grimaced through the pain. This woman had planned it all along — this time she genuinely hadn't held back.
"Thought you'd sneak a free advantage? Not a chance!"
Su Jiu'er smirked in cold triumph and wiped the trace of blood from the corner of her mouth — which only made those already-red lips look more wickedly bewitching.
Luo Fanchen let the blood fall onto the white-fox jade pendant.
The drop soaked in and vanished. The whole pendant began to glow faintly, and he felt it — a singular connection forming between himself and the jade.
He drove soul power into it.
Whoosh!
Luo Fanchen's perception fell into a hidden space inside the pendant — the size of a small warehouse at the very least.
The space held exactly one thing: a bronze chest, contents unknown.
He flexed the thought.
"THUD!"
The bronze chest dropped out of nowhere onto the bedroom floor.
"This..."
He stared. Wasn't this the legendary storage space?
Su Jiu'er laughed. "Quick on the uptake, aren't you — mastering it already."
"It's a treasure of my Qingqiu fox clan. There's a pocket of space folded inside for storing things."
"The kind of treasure even Seventh Order Soul Sages would crack each other's skulls to seize — all of them handed down from high antiquity. Almost no one alive can make them anymore. So be very careful how openly you use it."
"It's a genuinely fine thing," Luo Fanchen agreed, nodding.
He liked the pendant enormously — and held it back out to her anyway. "A gentleman doesn't take what another loves. A treasure like this — I'd wager you only have the one. I can't accept it."
Su Jiu'er blinked, honestly surprised. Most people, on hearing the word 'treasure', would have clamped it to their chest — return it to you?
Her lips curved up; her mood bloomed. She shook her head.
"You're my little lover. It pleases this young lady to give you things. I know you're poor right now — so pay me back with some wonderful treasure once you've made something of yourself."
"Besides..."
She pursed her lips toward the bronze chest on the floor. "Without a storage space, you can't exactly carry THAT out of here."
"What is it?" he asked.
Su Jiu'er explained:
"Two soul rings and soul bones, sealed by my own methods. Their level is far too high — you can't absorb them yet. Use them whenever you're strong enough to break the chest's seal."
It clicked instantly: the three-headed demon dragon and the fox beauty his golden-lightning arrival had smashed to ash — this would be those two suckers' 'inheritance'.
"Come. I'll put it on you."
She plucked several long strands of her own hair, twisted them into a cord, threaded it through the pendant's eye, and hung it around Luo Fanchen's neck with her own hands.
"Auntie..." he said softly. Sixteen years in a strange world — and every one of those days, it had been Su Jiu'er at his side.
Now came the parting, and his chest was tight with it.
"How many times must I SAY it — 'Auntie' is for outside; at home you call me WIFE!!" she corrected ferociously — then bit her lip and said nothing more.
Luo Fanchen opened his mouth—
"It's time. You should go."
Su Jiu'er shot to her feet, face gone cold, and shoved him pitilessly out the door, the bronze chest tossed out after him.
"BANG!"
The door slammed shut.
Outside it, Luo Fanchen stood in silence, gaze somewhere far away.
A long while later —
He bent, collected the bronze chest, and tucked the pendant at his throat carefully — treasuring it — inside his robes.
Turned. Left.
And stepped, formally, into the cruel outer world where the strong stood thick as forests — each stride planted firm, as if it carried some quiet resolve to climb all the way to the top.
He had said nothing at all. And somehow it felt like he'd said everything.
Inside the door, Su Jiu'er's white hand covered her face, her beautiful eyes rimmed red.
She watched the man's back vanish at the end of the path — then opened the door and whispered after him.
Do your best.
Little man.
If not for the wounds that needed mending and the tribulation to prepare for, she truly would not have left. And as for whether she could survive a five-hundred-thousand-year fierce-beast tribulation —
She gave herself even odds at best. Which only made the parting harder to bear.
She dared not tell Luo Fanchen that. Telling him would only pile worry on him — there was nothing he could do to help.
The sky lightened; the sun climbed out of the east.
A thread of dawn fell across the exiled-immortal youth as he walked toward the village square.
"HUMMM!"
Soul-light surged — and the six-petaled azure lotus martial soul surfaced entirely on its own.
Luo Fanchen stopped, startled.
The lotus spun in place, trailing clean fragrance, and from its petals a thread of azure light flew out and settled on his fingertip.
He looked down. The finger she'd bitten open was healing at a speed the naked eye could follow.
In moments the skin lay whole again — not a mark to be found.
"Now THAT is a healing ability."
Even as he marveled, he noticed the cost: his soul power had visibly dipped. So the healing light wasn't limitless — it drew on his own reserves.
He withdrew the soul and had nearly reached the village entrance when he stopped short.
Ahead, banked along both sides of the dirt road, stood the people of Cloud Village — face after familiar, weathered face.
Not the whole village, perhaps, but seven or eight in every ten of them, plainly waiting there since early morning.
"Chief — everyone — what's all this?"
He spotted old Chief Lu Ren standing bent-backed in the middle of the road, two bundles clutched tight in cracked, furrowed hands.
"Good child. Truly grown now."
The old man's storm-worn face folded into a kind, gratified smile. "Everyone knew you were leaving. They came to see you off."
Luo Fanchen looked around at them all, cupped his fists, and bowed. "Fanchen thanks you all — for years of your care."
Chief Lu Ren shook his head.
"Good child. All these years, you have owed this village nothing. It's we who owe you — always sharing out your hunts to carry us along."
"This is a small token from everyone. Take it." The chief pressed both bundles into Luo Fanchen's hands.
The instant his right hand closed on one of them, the azure lotus inside him SHUDDERED — and through the bond came a pulse of raw craving.
"Chief, what's... in these?"
"The left one is a bit of money everyone scraped together. 'Poor at home, rich on the road' — our own boy can't go out into the world looking too threadbare."
"The right one is a black stone this old man picked up thirty years ago. Blade and axe can't leave a scratch on it. I thought — maybe you'll find a use for it. So I brought it."
"Chief..."
The old man was immovable. "You WILL take them, or you'll break everyone's hearts. How many times did we accept your game without a word?"
Luo Fanchen stood holding the two bundles, something shifting deep in his chest.
In his last life he'd been an orphan, raised alone in a welfare home. Perhaps it was growing up starved of love that had made him chase so much of it from so many girls.
And now, in another world entirely — this. The care of elders.
The chief patted his shoulder. "Work hard out there. An eagle that's left the nest should fly as high as it can — and never once look back at this barren dirt, if you can help it."
"Make something of yourself. Cloud Village will be proud of you."
"Off you go! Shabby folk like us won't follow you to the square — wouldn't want the great personages finding us an eyesore."
"You are NOT an eyesore," Luo Fanchen said — dead serious — and pressed every one of those plain, sun-blackened faces into his memory.
The chief and villagers held firm and would not follow, watching him out of the village.
Luo Fanchen reached the square.
"RIIIP!"
Space tore open, black and bottomless.
The august Pontiff in her golden palace gown stepped through, the fresh-faced Holy Maiden at her side — long fair legs in black boots, violet ponytail swaying.
Bai Yingyue waved a little hello, lashes fluttering.
"Good morning, handsome little Senior Brother~ Quite the beloved figure, aren't you — all those villagers out there seeing you off."
"SO much charisma."
Even the never-smiling Pontiff inclined her head a fraction:
"Gifted, yet not arrogant. Respectful to the weak — you hold the people's hearts. That is good."
Luo Fanchen muttered inwardly: the two of them had only just arrived, yet spoke as if they'd personally watched the whole scene at the village gate.
"Let us go." Di Weiyang said it evenly.
But as her gaze settled on Luo Fanchen — and she actually LOOKED at him — an involuntary sound of surprise escaped her.
The evenness of a moment ago was gone.