What Was the Purpose?

"You!"

The youth's originally somewhat gloomy face flushed red at this sudden action. He hurriedly stepped back, lost his footing, and fell onto the lawn.

He instinctively braced himself with his injured palm. A moment later, the pain he had expected did not come. Realizing this, Xiao Yan spread open his hand—

"The wound... disappeared?"

Looking at his fair palm, now tinged with a faint flush, Xiao Yan was deeply shaken. Once again, his understanding of this mysterious Girl had been overturned.

Satisfied by Xiao Yan's dazed expression, the Girl raised her thumb and forefinger and gently waved them before him. An ancient-looking black ring appeared at her fingertips.

She pinched the ring between her fingers and flicked it. The ring spun through the air, tracing a graceful arc.

"That's... my ring? Miss, it was left behind by my mother. It isn't worth much, so please don't take it from me!"

"How could Third Young Master think of me as some robber? I'm only borrowing it for a while. I'll return it tonight, all right?"

"This..." Xiao Yan's face twitched as he reluctantly said, "But I don't even know your name."

"Ruoruo," the Girl said softly, her expression bashful.

"Miss Ruoruo."

"Ruoruo."

"Uh... Ruoruo?"

At those words, a blush abruptly spread across Hun Ruoruo's face. She said shyly, "Third Young Master, calling me Ruoruo after knowing me for only one day... how bold of you."

Xiao Yan's face darkened. "Didn't you tell me to call you that?"

With a soft giggle, Hun Ruoruo cut him off, her expression turning serious. "See you tonight, Third Young Master. I hope you won't be missing any arms or legs the next time I see you. I'd be heartbroken."

With that, Hun Ruoruo flashed away and vanished from where she stood. Only a faint fragrant breeze lingered around the youth's robes, refusing to disperse for a long while.

"Missing arms or legs? What nonsense was that?"

After pondering the meaning behind her words again, Xiao Yan helplessly shook his head.

"That woman really is a..."

The words on his lips abruptly stopped. His entire face stiffened as he turned to look behind him. Not far away, a purple, graceful figure was drifting over like an elf.

Subconsciously sniffing the lingering fragrance on his body, Xiao Yan cursed viciously:

"Enchantress!!!"

Meanwhile, after leaving the Xiao Family, Hun Ruoruo walked briskly down the bustling streets, idly playing with the ring she had swiped from Xiao Yan.

Strangely, no matter what she did, the people around her seemed to be looking at empty air, completely unaware of her presence.

After wandering around for a while, she seemed to grow bored. She tapped the ring in her hand and drawled listlessly, "Old Man in the ring, isn't it about time you came out?"

After waiting for quite some time, Hun Ruoruo puffed out her cheeks. With a flash, she arrived in a relatively secluded forest. Dou Qi surged as she spun the Storage Ring in her hand at high speed like a top.

"Little Girl, stop spinning it."

A steady yet helpless voice suddenly came from the ring. Immediately afterward, a cloud of white mist slowly rose from the ancient ring, transforming in the blink of an eye into a handsome Old Man dressed in blue-and-white robes.

After appearing, the Old Man exuded a faint aura. He watched Hun Ruoruo warily and said, "You really are no ordinary Little Girl. You actually noticed my concealment method. If I'm not mistaken, you should be from the Central Continent, shouldn't you?"

Hun Ruoruo blinked and looked the handsome Old Man up and down, unable to stop a strange thought from arising in her heart—

This appearance seems rather different from how he was described in the book. Shouldn't he be a decrepit Old Man?

The Old Man's appearance was exceedingly unusual. His skin was as lustrous as Jade Stone, and his blue-and-white robes extended past half his body, turning at the sides of his knees into wisps of smoke-like condensed matter that slowly drifted about.

If not for his grizzled beard and hair, as well as those incomparably deep pale-gold eyes filled with age and wisdom, it would have been difficult for anyone to believe that he was an elderly man.

Feeling somewhat uncomfortable under her gaze, the Old Man lightly coughed twice before continuing, "Little Girl, is there a flower on this old man's face?"

Coming back to her senses, Hun Ruoruo revealed a cheerful smile. "Senior, how should I address you?"

"Hehe, I'm merely a lone wandering soul. What use do I have for a name?" The Old Man stroked his beard. "Little Girl, you should tell me your purpose instead. With your cultivation talent, not to mention the Central Continent, even among those incomparably mysterious ancient clans, you would likely be one of a kind. Why did you come to a barren place like the Northwest Region?"

"And that little Xiao Yan—his talent is indeed excellent, and his Soul Force is outstanding as well. But compared to you, I'm afraid he still falls far short, doesn't he?"

Hun Ruoruo tilted her head. "Xiao Yan is much more than merely talented. If Ruoruo guessed correctly, you'll also teach him everything you know, won't you?"

"This old man does indeed intend to take him as a disciple, but how did you see through that, Little Girl?" the Old Man asked curiously.

"With Xiao Yan's meager Dou Qi, waking your Soul Body should already have been his limit. As for the Dou Qi you absorbed afterward, I'm afraid it was more because you wanted to temper and observe his character, wasn't it?"

"You truly are clever, Little Girl..." The Old Man sighed softly, but his gaze became incomparably cold. "However, you understand Soul Bodies so deeply despite not being an Alchemist. Little Girl, you remind this old man of some unpleasant memories."

Soul Bodies had always been synonymous with mystery on the Dou Qi Continent. Even ordinary Dou Zong experts could only be considered to know a little about them. Only a handful of high-level Alchemists, along with the Soul Hall that hunted Soul Bodies as prey, understood them in great detail.

The understanding of Soul Bodies the Girl had displayed just now had clearly far exceeded what she should have possessed.

As the Old Man's aura gradually spread, Hun Ruoruo's thoughts stirred. She swiftly activated the barrier she had prepared in advance, completely shielding both their auras.

Sure enough, as long as Soul Force is involved, I was bound to be exposed sooner or later. Good thing I never intended to hide it from him in the first place. Hun Ruoruo muttered inwardly, then waved her hand to indicate that she bore no ill intent.

Noticing the Shielding Barrier, Old Man Yao slightly restrained his aura, though the wariness on his face only grew stronger, as though he regarded the breathtakingly beautiful Girl before him as a venomous serpent.

"Sure enough, you are from the Soul Hall."

"Soul Hall? I'm not one of those pieces of trash wrapped in Black Robes without even a human shape. If I truly were from the Soul Hall, there would definitely be more than one junior like me here. Countless Protectors and even Venerable Elders covet the Soul Body of the Continent's Number One Alchemist. Why would they negotiate peacefully with you like this?"

After saying that, Hun Ruoruo gave a disdainful snort. Her expression suddenly filled with disgust. "Though if we're being precise, I do indeed have the surname Hun."

"Sir—no, Senior Yao Chen, didn't you want to know my purpose? It's simple. I only want to seek assistance in killing one person. Nothing more."

Yao Chen's expression changed repeatedly after his identity was exposed. In the end, he temporarily suppressed the layers of doubt in his heart and asked probing, "Who?"

The Girl's face was expressionless. "Hun Tiandi."

At those words, even Yao Chen's Soul Body seemed to grow fainter. The Dou Qi fluctuations gathering in his palm flickered before vanishing into the air like a candle extinguished by the wind.

"Who?!"