Six hundred li was not a considerable distance for cultivators.
The two did not head directly to Anyang City.
Instead, they descended in a small town called Wang'an, dozens of li away from Anyang.
By the time they arrived, night had already fallen.
Wang'an Town, nestled against a canal, was brightly lit and bustling with noise and activity.
Su Jiu chose a rather grand-looking inn and stepped inside.
The sharp-eyed attendant, noticing their extraordinary attire and ethereal bearing, immediately greeted them with a beaming smile.
"Honored guests, will you be dining or staying the night?"
Su Jiu walked ahead, her aloof demeanor keeping the attendant from getting too close.
"Staying. Two upper-class rooms."
"Right away! Two upper-class rooms!"
The innkeeper behind the counter, hearing this, promptly echoed the order and reached for the ledger to record it.
However, his peripheral gaze inadvertently caught the seemingly carefree young man behind Su Jiu.
The young man was facing him, wearing a meaningful smile.
With his left hand, he raised a single finger and gave it a slight shake.
Meanwhile, his right hand casually tossed a half-piece of low-grade spirit stone, making it flicker in and out of sight.
The innkeeper's movements abruptly halted.
His shrewd eyes, honed from years of dealing with countless guests, instantly gleamed with greed.
If he couldn't understand this hint, decades of business would have been wasted!
Clearly, this young rogue wanted to share a room with the fairy-like maiden!
The innkeeper's mind raced as he fidgeted with the ledger in his hands.
When he looked up again, his face bore an exaggerated expression of distress, as if facing an insurmountable dilemma.
"Honored guests..."
He dragged out his words, oozing apology.
"Unfortunately, you've arrived a bit late today."
Su Jiu frowned slightly at his words.
"What do you mean?"
The innkeeper sighed, his wrinkles bunching up.
"You see, for some reason, several merchant caravans from the south arrived today and booked all our upper-class rooms."
As he spoke, he pointed conspicuously at the burly men drinking and rowdily playing finger-guessing games in a corner of the hall.
"Now, we only have one celestial-class room left."
Su Jiu followed his gesture and saw the men indeed wore matching attire, clearly part of the same group.
She glanced back at Su Ji, her eyes questioning.
Su Ji shrugged innocently. "I'm fine with anything. Should we try another inn?"
This statement sent the innkeeper into a panic.
Not only might he lose the half-piece of spirit stone, but even the payment for two rooms could slip away!
This brat wasn’t playing along!
Here he was, trying to help the guy out, and he wasn’t even cooperating!
"Wait, wait!"
"Honored guest, you might not know this."
"For some reason, merchant caravans have been flooding in these past few days. At this hour, other inns will be fully booked too."
"Only my place is lucky enough to have one room left."
"If you leave now and can’t find lodging elsewhere, even this last room might be gone by the time you return."
Su Jiu felt an inexplicable irritation but kept her composure.
"Fine. One upper-class room, and one ordinary room."
To her surprise, the innkeeper’s face twisted further in distress.
He shook his head mournfully.
"Honored guest, you really don’t understand."
"Those merchants were extremely generous—they not only took the upper-class rooms but also all the ordinary ones for their guards and servants."
"Right now, our inn truly has only one room left."
Su Jiu was at a loss for words.
She instinctively looked at Su Ji again.
Seizing the moment, Su Ji leaned in as if to whisper in her ear, but she dodged and shot him a glare.
Her expression clearly said, "There are people watching. What are you trying to pull?"
Su Ji had half a mind to say "Exactly what you think," but feared retaliation.
Instead, he lowered his voice and offered a plausible explanation:
"Junior Sister, do you think these merchants might have been heading to Anyang City, only to find it a dead town, and are now stuck here trying to offload their goods?"
"Let’s stay here."
"We might even gather some useful information from them."
Su Jiu listened to his seemingly logical reasoning and reluctantly suppressed her discomfort.
After all, gathering intelligence was their top priority.
With a cold hum, she gave a barely perceptible nod—her silent consent.
The innkeeper, sensing victory, broke into a grin so wide his wrinkles resembled a blooming chrysanthemum.
The next second, his expression turned stern as he barked at the attendant:
"What are you standing around for, useless fool? Where are your manners? Escort our honored guests to the celestial-class room at once!"
"Right away!"
The attendant scurried to lead the way, bowing obsequiously.
Su Jiu strode forward without sparing Su Ji another glance.
Su Ji, unhurried, lagged half a step behind.
The innkeeper, quick on the uptake, sidled up to him with an ingratiating smile.
"Honored guest, how did I do? Was my performance satisfactory?"
He whispered, clearly fishing for praise.
Su Ji glanced at him and nodded.
"Very."
Then, without another word, he moved to follow Su Jiu.
The innkeeper froze, then hurried after him, his voice dropping to a hiss:
"And... the half-piece of spirit stone?"
Su Ji paused and turned, his face the picture of innocent confusion.
"I was just tossing it around for fun. Why?"
The innkeeper: "..."
His smile stiffened, then his face flushed a deep, mottled red.
It felt like a punch to the gut—his chest tightened with frustration.
After decades of outsmarting others, today he’d been outsmarted by this brat!
Rage surged to the top of his skull—
But then his eyes landed on the black cloth-wrapped spear strapped to Su Ji’s back and the two conspicuously valuable swords at his waist.
The fury evaporated like a bucket of ice water dumped over his head.
Forcing a smile even uglier than a grimace, the innkeeper resigned himself to the loss.
Just as he was about to slink away—
A half-piece of low-grade spirit stone, glinting faintly, landed softly in his palm.
Su Ji’s voice followed:
"Prepare a good meal later."
"Keep the rest as a tip. Enough?"
The innkeeper clutched the spirit stone, utterly dumbfounded.
What... what kind of game was this?
He stammered, "Enough! More than enough, young master!"
This was an unexpected windfall indeed!
iaobai: "Councilor Dad, front me some funds. I want to hire ten thousand professional miners for a project!" [Five-Star Mission Issued: Capture the leader of the Blood Heaven Pirate Gang, who is on the run in the Radiant Star Sector. It is said the gang has over a hundred members. Proceed with caution.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, lend me the family's hundred-thousand-strong Lu Army!" [Seven-Star Mission Issued: Subdue a juvenile Void Dragon Beast.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, I'm taking your tamed Void Dragon Beast King out for a family reunion!" I said, System, don't you have any slightly more challenging missions? You're just not up to par! [Nine-Star Mission Issued: Become the Human Councilor.] Lu Xiaobai: "Dad, there's a small matter I'd like to discuss with you..."
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
n Our Village Many years later, Xiushui Village had transformed from a remote, impoverished hamlet into the renowned and flourishing Xiushui City of the Shifang Continent. All of this, solely because it was the birthplace of the Shifang Continent's number one sect—the Lingxian Sect. This is the story of a group of village youths, family, and friends, building a sect and growing together. Lin Xiao: As the sect master, my days are filled with countless tasks. Cultivating really gets in the way of building the sect. System: Received. Understood. Arranging it immediately. [Ding—Congratulations, Host, on successfully activating the Auto-Cultivation Function] Lin Xiao: Oh no, we're out of spirit stones. System: Received. Understood. Arranging it immediately. [Ding—Sect Mission issued. Mission Reward: Spirit Stones xN] No one loves their host more profoundly than this System!
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
