Wang Li directly held out his hand to her.
Money in the bag meant peace of mind—this was the rule he and Lü Shenliang followed whenever they traveled outside.
Otherwise, no matter how floridly one spoke, if the money did not make it into the bag, it was no different from farting—utterly useless.
He Lingxiu did not waste words either. With a flick of her hand, a spirit stone pouch flew from her sleeve straight into Wang Li's hand.
Wang Li caught the pouch and opened it. Inside were seven round crystals the size of pigeon eggs. Each crystal looked like a thin crystalline shell wrapped around a mass of true liquid.
The spiritual energy within had condensed into liquid form, rolling through the crystals like tides.
"These are actually Baoji Sect's Baoji Spirit Sources. These seven spirit sources didn't come by improper means, did they?" Wang Li asked suspiciously.
He Lingxiu immediately gave a little laugh. "When it comes to things from Scorched Wood Market, what does proper or improper even mean?"
"That's true." Wang Li nodded. He had begun to view He Lingxiu in a new light.
Setting aside her nerve in casually throwing out seven Baoji Spirit Sources worth three and a half million spirit sand, her calm bearing before him and Lü Shenliang alone showed that she was definitely not some obedient girl whose cultivation had been piled up through the careful protection of her sect elders.
"Then why not come sit at our lone peak and discuss the specifics?" Wang Li continued.
The scenes from earlier immediately surfaced in He Lingxiu's mind, and the smile on her face stiffened slightly. "No need. We can discuss it here."
Wang Li felt that her expression was somewhat strange. "When do we need to set out?"
"The sooner, the better." He Lingxiu glanced at Lü Shenliang and said, "But your senior sister cannot travel with us. You should know what sort of business goes on in Scorched Wood Market. Your senior sister's characteristics are far too obvious, and the Seven Treasures Ancient Domain is not suitable for a high-level cultivator like her to enter."
Lü Shenliang neither agreed nor disagreed with the first part, but she clearly objected to the last sentence. "I count as a high-level cultivator too?"
He Lingxiu smiled faintly. "You should know better than I do that neither of you is an ordinary cultivator."
"Could this Huayang Sect female cultivator possess some special method of observing spiritual energy?" Lü Shenliang's eyes immediately lit up, and her expression turned eager with interest.
A complete plan immediately formed in her mind: interrogate and coerce this Huayang Sect female cultivator, then have her examine exactly what was strange about Wang Li.
The instant Wang Li saw her expression, he understood what she was plotting. His face immediately fell. "Senior Sister, we're discussing business with her."
"Oh."
On second thought, Lü Shenliang felt that was indeed true. Besides, even after exhausting all her methods, she had been unable to find anything unusual about Wang Li. No matter how special this Huayang Sect female cultivator was, she could not possibly discover the reason behind the mutation caused by Wang Li's cultivation of the Profound Heaven Dao Arts.
He Lingxiu's expression changed slightly. By instinct, she felt as though she had already taken a turn through some unpredictable danger.
"If there is nothing else, leave with me immediately," she said to Wang Li at once.
Even she could not help feeling an inexplicable lack of confidence before Lü Shenliang. A female cultivator like this simply could not be judged by ordinary logic.
Wang Li glanced at Lü Shenliang.
Lü Shenliang had long understood what he meant. She waved her hand and said, "Go. I guarantee I won't self-detonate my Golden Core."
Wang Li smiled awkwardly, but he was still somewhat conflicted. According to the habits he and Lü Shenliang had developed, whenever he was not at the lone peak, Lü Shenliang would generally enter secluded cultivation. That way, they could avoid her acting on impulse when her mind became muddled. Yet this time was different. Because he had benefited from Old Ancestor Tong Hui's tribulation, the Thirty-One Peaks of the Profound Heaven Sect greatly wanted a share of the spoils. After he had flatly refused them, he feared that those people might come looking for trouble during this very period. Besides, after he and Lü Shenliang had returned from their last trip out, they had not yet had time to visit the back mountain. The Gold-Devouring Beast there also needed tending.
"Don't worry. It will still take him some time to bring his Azure Profound Sword Qi to completion." Lü Shenliang was utterly disdainful. "Before his Azure Profound Sword Qi reaches completion, how would he dare come trouble me? Unless you never return, how could anything happen before you get back?"
Wang Li thought that made sense, but Lü Shenliang's words also reminded him of something. He immediately turned to He Lingxiu and asked, "Your name is He Lingxiu? Other than He Lingxiu, do you have another name?"
He Lingxiu frowned slightly.
Normally, she was the one who left others unable to read her, but before Wang Li and Lü Shenliang, she could not read either of them at all.
"Within the Huayang Sect, I naturally use my real name. Outside... I generally call myself He He."
"He He... hehe? That doesn't seem especially inauspicious." Wang Li thought for a moment, then looked at her very seriously. "Once we leave the Profound Heaven Sect's territory, don't call me Wang Li either. You can call me Wang Bihui, or Wang Anquan."
He Lingxiu's brows furrowed even tighter.
When cultivators traveled outside, especially through the Chaos Domains where there were no restraints to speak of, concealing their true identities was indeed necessary. But what was this nonsense about being inauspicious?
"I'm telling you, names really are important." Wang Li once again warned her seriously.
"Fine," He Lingxiu said. "If there is truly a need to address each other by name, I shall call you Fellow Daoist Wang Bihui."
"Senior Sister, how about you send us out? That'll save time, and I can go and return quickly." Only then did Wang Li set his mind at ease. He said this to Lü Shenliang, then directly placed the spirit stone pouch in her hand.
Lü Shenliang was extremely decisive. A jet-black sword light appeared directly beneath the three of them, skimming close to the ground before accelerating wildly and shooting away.
He Lingxiu's tightly furrowed brows never relaxed.
She had ridden quite a few flight treasures, but it was truly her first time encountering a cultivator like Lü Shenliang, who controlled a flight treasure in such a hair-raising fashion—so violently, as though she did not care in the slightest whether anyone else aboard lived or died.
As she watched enormous gusts of astral wind crash toward them like mountains, often missing their bodies by a hair's breadth, she struggled to steady herself while unable to stop thinking that a cultivator like Lü Shenliang must also be thoroughly at home amid the chaos of a great battle, able to handle everything with ease.
No wonder these two cultivators had entered and exited the Chaos Domains so many times and still returned alive.
"And the cultivator traveling with you?" After Lü Shenliang sent Wang Li and He Lingxiu beyond the Profound Heaven Sect's territory on her sword, she spotted a streak of azure light hovering silently amid the high clouds.
"I arranged for it to wait here and pick us up." He Lingxiu nodded.
"Then be careful."
Lü Shenliang glanced at Wang Li, then withdrew the sword light and let Wang Li and He Lingxiu land.
She turned to leave, but then remembered something important and said to Wang Li, "Since you're going to the Seven Treasures Ancient Domain, take a look at Old Ancestor Tong Hui's artifact-refining method as well, and bring back some artifact-refining spirit materials while you're at it."
"Alright, Senior Sister. Go back and cultivate in peace. I, Wang Bihui, will be back as soon as I go," Wang Li called out in farewell.
Just as Lü Shenliang departed atop her sword light, the azure radiance in the sky descended. It was not a cultivator's flying treasure at all, but an enormous azure bird.
The feathers covering this azure bird's body gleamed like green jade, and spiritual energy rippled around it. It did not feel like an exotic beast, but rather like a cultivator practicing some orthodox immortal sect technique.
Wang Li had also thought that someone was piloting a flight artifact in the air. When he realized that this strange azure bird seemed even to have deceived Lü Shenliang's perception, he was even more astonished. Yet in the next instant, he saw the bird's pupils constantly shifting between bright yellow and fiery red, with a marvelous halo that seemed to have naturally formed around its dual eyes. He immediately reacted. "This is a Jizhi Azure Bird?"
"As long as you have enough spirit sand at Scorched Wood Market, not only Jizhi Azure Birds—even Chi Star Beasts can be bought. What is there to be surprised about?" He Lingxiu moved her feet and swept onto the azure bird's back, but her gaze fell once more on Wang Li's bare feet. "And you? Are you really going to the Seven Treasures Ancient Domain barefoot like this?"
Wang Li hesitated slightly. "That's fine. My feet don't stink, anyway."
Before you continue