Keeping Their Mouths Shut

Jade Purity Peak's senior brother, Xiao Tianqi, was one of the female lead's foremost harem members—a hopelessly single-minded little-sister fanatic. There was no need to take him seriously.

Bai Lan looked at Bai Ling and spoke gravely. "One hundred Spirit Stones. Otherwise, tomorrow I'll make your secret known to everyone. You know perfectly well what that thing is worth. When the time comes, I'd like to see whether your master can protect you."

A Space Jade Bracelet left behind from ancient times, a rare treasure that had opened up a world of its own—even great powers at the Nascent Soul and Spirit Transformation stages would be intensely interested in it.

True Person Qing Xuan was currently only at the mid-Core Formation stage. In the cultivation world, his strength was merely above average.

Once those thousand-year-old monsters made a move, a mere Core Formation cultivator like him would be finished in a single exchange.

Bai Ling clearly understood this as well. Gritting her teeth, she said, "You did this on purpose! You're trying to extort me!"

"I did it on purpose. What, do you have a problem with that?" Bai Lan chuckled.

Xiao Tianqi could unleash his pressure at the slightest disagreement to intimidate others, so why couldn't she extort Bai Ling at the slightest disagreement?

It was nothing more than answering one move with another.

Beside them, Xiao Tianqi frowned and angrily said, "You think Little Junior Sister would agree to your—"

"I agree."

Before Xiao Tianqi could finish, Bai Ling took a deep breath and nodded.

"...?" Xiao Tianqi slowly produced a question mark.

Bai Ling said solemnly, "I'll give you one hundred Spirit Stones, but you must also keep our agreement."

"Little Junior Sister! Have you gone mad? This woman is obviously threatening you." Xiao Tianqi reached back to grip Bai Ling's shoulders and said in a deep voice, "What secret is it? Tell Senior Brother. I'm a Foundation Establishment cultivator—there's nothing Senior Brother can't settle."

Bai Lan smiled as she watched the female lead and her male supporting character before her.

Tsk, what a coincidence. This was precisely the sort of trouble he couldn't settle.

It was trouble that even his master, True Person Qing Xuan, couldn't settle.

Tears welled in Bai Ling's eyes. She lowered her head, looking like a rain-drenched pear blossom on the verge of weeping, and kept her lips sealed.

Bai Lan had truly witnessed her ability to burst into tears at a moment's notice.

Even when Bai Lan had been shaken into coughing blood by a Foundation Establishment cultivator's pressure, she had not looked like this.

"Tell Senior Brother. Senior Brother will help you. What exactly does that woman know?" Xiao Tianqi's voice softened as he coaxed her patiently.

Bai Ling still shook her head. "Senior Brother, don't force me. I can't tell you about this."

"Why? Why can't you say it? Do you not trust Senior Brother?"

Bai Lan was almost laughing.

The Destined Female Lead's personality might not have been clear to her number one harem member, but Bai Lan had figured it out thoroughly.

Her defining trait was keeping her mouth shut.

Something happened? Keep silent and wait for the problem to ferment.

Someone misunderstood her? Keep silent, just cry, then wait for the problem to ferment.

Her master expelled her from the sect? Keep silent—the whole point was misunderstandings piled atop misunderstandings.

She fell into demonic cultivation? The Demon Venerable locked her in a dark room and tore out her heart and liver? Keep keeping silent.

Only after the female lead and the Demon Venerable had gone through a round of misunderstandings so agonizing they wished for death yet clung to life could the matter finally be explained through someone else's mouth.

Then the Demon Venerable would suddenly awaken to his mistakes, slit his own throat in apology, and the female lead would live happily ever after with her master.

So...

Did they dream of the female lead opening her mouth at a crucial moment and revealing the entire secret?

Dream on!

Impossible. Absolutely impossible.

"Fine. If Little Junior Sister won't say it, then she won't." Seeing that he could not pry the secret out of Bai Ling, Xiao Tianqi turned to Bai Lan instead. "You say it! If you can't explain it clearly, then I'll—"

Bai Lan's expression remained calm. "I simply won't say it. What can you do? Would Martial Uncle kill me?"

Xiao Tianqi paused.

That would be going too far.

"Senior Brother, no... you don't need to stand up for me. Junior Niece Bai already dislikes me. It's only one hundred Spirit Stones, not much at all... Let's go." Bai Ling tugged at the young man's sleeve and spoke softly, unwilling to keep tangling with Bai Lan.

She truly feared that Bai Lan would reveal the secret of her Space Jade Bracelet.

"Little Junior Sister, you're just too kind. Someone so incapable of appreciating kindness deserves to be taught a proper lesson." Xiao Tianqi's tone was icy.

Bai Ling pulled Xiao Tianqi away.

Bai Lan took a deep breath.

Forget it. Though she had been injured, she had earned one hundred Spirit Stones. It was not a loss.

What a pair of lunatic senior brother and junior sister. They had better cross paths with her less in the future; every time she saw them, she ended up unlucky.

After spending four Spirit Stones to obtain the Spatial Black Stone, Bai Lan headed straight for the stall selling blind boxes.

Her wounded heart desperately needed an all-in gamble to save it.

The stall was still packed shoulder to shoulder. Bai Lan swept her gaze over the Storage Bags before her.

More than fifty of them. Good heavens...?

This stall owner was no simple character either. What normal cultivator had more than fifty Storage Bags in hand?

Had he perhaps gotten them through robbery?

After all, even the lowest-grade Storage Bag started at one hundred Spirit Stones. More than fifty Storage Bags meant over five thousand Spirit Stones.

Bai Lan refused to believe that no Evil Cultivators in this Marketplace had set their sights on the stall owner, yet he had remained safe and sound while setting up his stall until today.

He definitely had some hidden strength.

"Fellow Daoist, we don't know what's inside these Storage Bags. What if one is empty when opened? Wouldn't you be making a Spirit Stone for nothing?" Someone pointed and commented.

"Exactly. You say there are high-grade Spirit Artifacts, but I've been watching this stall for three days and haven't seen anyone pull one out."

"Yeah, could this be a scam?"

The people around them chatted idly.

The stall owner, seated at his stall, remained as composed as an old god. Smiling, he said, "Whether you believe it or not is entirely up to you, fellow Daoists. For a mere Spirit Stone, you have a chance to obtain a High-grade Spirit Artifact. Opportunities like this do not come often."

"What if your luck explodes? You could make a huge profit." The stall owner smiled.

"You make it sound easy, fellow Daoist. One Spirit Stone may not seem like much, but if three hundred people came to gamble once at your stall and all picked empty Storage Bags, wouldn't you effortlessly earn three hundred Spirit Stones?" someone said provocatively.

The stall owner gave a snort. "Get lost. Don't make trouble. My business hasn't been as good as you make it sound lately."

"Fellow Daoist, I'll gamble one round." Bai Lan stepped out from the crowd, handed over a Spirit Stone, and spoke with a smile.

The stall owner jolted alertly and immediately flipped out of his rocking chair. "Fellow Daoist is generous. Come, roll dice with me."

Seeing someone step forward, the surrounding crowd quickly made a path.

The little girl wore the outer-sect servant robes of the Azure Origin Sect. Her features were handsome and delicate, her hair tied in a Daoist bun, yet her cultivation was only at Qi Refining level one.

"Big or small?" The stall owner shook the dice and asked Bai Lan with a smile.

"Big."

Bai Lan threw herself into a blazing-hot game of big-or-small with the stall owner.

Through saving and loading, Bai Lan also got a rough grasp of all fifty Storage Bags.

He truly was a conniving merchant.

Out of those fifty Storage Bags, a full twenty were empty. The rest contained things like worthless healing pills, Qi Nourishing Pills, spirit herbs, and low-grade Spirit Artifacts.

But the stall owner had not lied. There really was one High-grade Spirit Artifact among those Storage Bags.