She couldn't directly ask for benefits; that would damage her lofty... lofty snake image. So next, it would depend on whether this Prince could grasp the spirit of her spoken instructions. Surely a noble who spent all day scheming understood that much.
"That, um... Hmm."
Bai Yujun lifted her teacup and took a sip.
The Prince almost immediately understood what he was supposed to do.
With a wave of his hand, two attendants carried over a wooden chest. It was heavy. They set it on the ground and opened it, revealing gold, silver, and jewels inside, along with an old mountain ginseng root. Golden light glittered and nearly blinded the snake's eyes. Even after living two lifetimes, this was Bai Yujun's first time seeing so much gold and treasure. She nearly revealed her true form.
Then Bai Yujun discovered she had gained another characteristic: love of money...
For one fleeting moment, she truly wanted to roll around atop the gold and jewels, then lie sprawled over the silver and sleep. She wanted to take it all back at once to decorate her shabby little home. Her love of money took root in the depths of her soul like a seed, sprouting and flourishing into a towering tree, then blooming and bearing fruit, its seeds falling to the ground and growing anew. What was a little headache? Gold was what truly mattered.
"Please accept this humble gift, Immortal Maiden."
In truth, gold and treasure were of limited use to cultivators. What was truly valuable were spiritual medicines and rare metals. As a pigheaded Prince who ate, drank, and waited for death, he might lack everything else, but he had treasure in abundance.
He had previously worried that the Immortal Maiden would disdain such mundane things. Now, though, it seemed this Immortal