Wallet Crisis

A strange wooden ceiling came into view, exuding the distinct aroma of dry pine.

Lu Qiancha rubbed her temples, which felt as if they had been pounded by a heavy hammer, and groggily sat up from the hard bed.

The lingering aftershock of that terrifying immortal’s pressure still rocked her sea of consciousness like a raging storm.

She took out a Mind-Condensing Pill and swallowed it. As the cool medicinal power spread through her limbs, she finally caught her breath.

Looking around, the wooden hut contained only two benches, a wooden table, and the bed she was on. It looked rather shabby.

“Awake?”

With a creak, the wooden door was pushed open, and a wolf-clan woman dressed in a gray animal-hide cloak, her aura as deep as an abyss, walked in. Her silver-gray pupils swept over Lu Qiancha, her voice as flat and emotionless as if she were just passing by.

“Who are you? Why did you capture me? Where is the person who was with me?”

Lu Qiancha practically sprang upright, every nerve in her body tensed. Her wary gaze, sharp as a physical object, shot towards the other woman as she fired off a barrage of questions.

The wolf-clan woman’s brow furrowed slightly. She raised a hand impatiently to stop the incessant questioning. “Before you ask for someone else’s name, shouldn’t you first state your own name and origin? You ill-mannered little thing.”

“…!” Lu Qiancha’s breath caught. She forcefully suppressed the anxiety in her heart and tried to make her voice sound steady and carry an invisible weight. “My apologies. My name is Lu Qiancha, a disciple of the Tianyuan Sect. I am here on a training mission with a sect elder. If I have caused any offense… I beg your forgiveness.”

She deliberately emphasized the words “sect elder,” the implication clear—I have a powerful backer, don’t mess with me!

“Lu Qiancha, is it? A fresh and elegant name.”

Wan Shuang’s lips curved into a faint smile. “My name is Wan Shuang, the leader of the White Wolf Clan.”

“Let’s get back to the point. What is your purpose in capturing us Tianyuan Sect disciples?”

Lu Qiancha stared fixedly at the pair of silver-gray eyes, her words filled with accusation.

“Purpose in capturing you?”

The playful look on Wan Shuang’s face instantly vanished, replaced by a coldness that could freeze the tundra. She crossed her arms, and her powerful aura suddenly unfurled, an invisible pressure enveloping the small hut. “Speaking of which, I was just about to ask you, little one—colluding with the human race to steal the treasured herb that my clan has painstakingly cultivated. What crime does that warrant?!”

“Stealing a treasured herb?!” Lu Qiancha’s body stiffened, and the image of several blood-red fruits flashed in her mind. “Could it be… the Origin Returning Fruit?!”

At the mention of this name, the aggressive posture Lu Qiancha had forcefully put on instantly deflated like a punctured ball. Her eyes darted about, not even daring to meet Wan Shuang’s silver-gray eyes, which seemed to see through everything.

‘It’s over. I’ve been caught red-handed by the rightful owner!’

“What else could it be?!”

Wan Shuang snorted coldly, her gaze like an invisible chain, tightly coiling around the evasive Lu Qiancha as she pressed on, step by step. “Stealing the treasured herb, that is the first crime! Colluding with the human race, that is the second crime! The two crimes will be punished together! Considering you haven’t caused any serious consequences… hand over the Origin Returning Fruit and accept a punishment of eight hundred strokes, and we’ll consider this matter settled!”

“Wait! Wait!”

Lu Qiancha quickly looked up, her paws waving frantically, her speech quickening. “Eight hundred strokes is fine! I accept! But… can you not take the Origin Returning Fruit? I’ll buy it with spirit stones! I can also trade other magical treasures for it!”

‘It was just a few hundred strokes anyway. For someone at her Spirit Transformation stage, it was less of a big deal than taking a couple of lightning strikes from Thunder-Summoning Cliff.’

But the Origin Returning Fruit… now that she had found it, she would absolutely not let it go so easily.

“Trade for it with spirit stones?” Wan Shuang looked at her anxious little face and found it inexplicably amusing. Did this little one think she could produce that many spirit stones? She deliberately put on a straight face and casually quoted an exorbitant, robbery-like price, “One thousand high-grade spirit stones! If you can produce them, those fruits are yours.”

The market price for five thousand-year-old Origin Returning Fruits was actually only around three hundred high-grade spirit stones. Wan Shuang’s offer was a blatant rip-off.

“One thousand high-grade spirit stones?!”

Lu Qiancha’s little face instantly scrunched up, her large, blue eyes filled with pain. She gritted her teeth and counted all the spirit stones in her storage pouch.

Finally, with a mournful expression, she took out a bulging storage ring and tossed it to Wan Shuang. “…Here… take it!” Her voice trembled slightly, and she turned her head away, unable to look.

Wan Shuang caught the ring steadily with her hand and, with a hint of curiosity, sent a wisp of her immortal sense into it.

Five hundred and sixteen lustrous high-grade spirit stones, over three thousand mid-grade spirit stones of slightly lesser quality, and a small mountain of low-grade spirit stones. There were also quite a few good-quality spirit herbs and several gleaming magical artifacts…

‘This little one, by scraping together everything she had, actually managed to produce a fortune equivalent to nearly a thousand high-grade spirit stones?’

An imperceptible trace of surprise flashed in her eyes. This little thing was so wealthy? Could she have stolen from a royal treasury?

‘But I haven’t heard of any royal treasuries being robbed recently, have I?’

“Little Qiancha—”

Wan Shuang suddenly drew out her words.

“What?!” Lu Qiancha whipped her head back, her furry ears shooting straight up, her blue eyes wide and round, instantly on high alert. “…You-you’re not going to go back on your word, are you?!”

A bad feeling enveloped Lu Qiancha’s heart!

Seeing her reaction, like a cat with its fur on end, Wan Shuang finally couldn’t help it and let out a “pfft” of laughter. The smile spread across her usually cold face, making it seem somewhat warm.

She suddenly wanted to tease Lu Qiancha, so she said, “I am indeed going back on my word.”

“—!!!” Lu Qiancha’s fur instantly stood on end, her little face flushed with anger, and she practically jumped to her feet. “You have no integrity! You break your promises! I’ll fight you!!!”

Grievance, anger, and despair instantly ignited Lu Qiancha’s heart. She unhesitatingly summoned the cube, and amidst a brilliant flash of light, a menacing long spear was in her grasp.

‘Who cares if I can win or not, I have to take a bite out of this old fox today!’

However, the next second—

Hum…

A terrifying aura, as vast as the firmament and as majestic as a sea of stars, like an invisible deep sea, instantly submerged the erupting little wolf cub!

It was this familiar and despairing immortal pressure again. Lu Qiancha was instantly frozen on the spot, like a kitten being held by the scruff of its neck. Let alone fighting back, she couldn’t even move a single fingertip. The anger that had just been ignited was completely extinguished with a ‘hiss’, as if doused with snowmelt.

‘Resist? Resist my foot!’

‘It’s more practical to think about where to reincarnate in eighteen years…’

The light in the little wolf cub’s eyes instantly vanished. Her whole being turned gray. Her paw went limp, and the long spear transformed back into a cube and fell into her palm. Her ears drooped, and her tail hung listlessly behind her, a picture of utter despair.

‘I’m shutting down. Destroy me. Hurry up.’

“Pfft…” Wan Shuang, seeing her switch from baring her fangs to complete despair in an instant, really couldn’t hold back her laughter.

She retracted her pressure and, looking at the dejected little thing, said gently, “Alright, alright, I was just teasing you. Take this spirit stone ring back. And you can have the Origin Returning Fruit as well.”

With that, she flicked her finger, and the ring flew steadily back into Lu Qiancha’s hand.

“Eh?!” The huge turnaround caught Lu Qiancha completely off guard. Her dull eyes instantly lit up again, and her paws quickly scooped the recovered treasure back into her embrace. She looked at Wan Shuang, completely unable to understand this twist of events. “But… but… why?”

Wan Shuang looked at this small, innocent face full of confusion, and her smile deepened. “Are there so many ‘whys’ in the world? If you must have a reason…” She tilted her head slightly, her silver-gray eyes filled with mischief. “It’s probably… hmm, the way you look when you’re all flustered is too cute to refuse?”

‘Cu… cute?!’

Lu Qiancha’s body stiffened, and the corner of her mouth twitched imperceptibly. The word circled around her sensitive nerves like a curse. She immediately and crudely replaced “cute” with “handsome” in her mind.

At the same time, she couldn’t help but sigh.

Being good-looking really could be a meal ticket in this damn face-valuing world.

However, Wan Shuang’s next words, like a silent clap of thunder, exploded unexpectedly in her ear, “By the way, Little Qiancha…”

“Your mother… her name… is it… Xun Xue?”