Interrupting the Spell

Xiao Family, Xiao Manor

As dusk faded, the once boisterous and clamorous Xiao Manor gradually fell quiet, blending into the placid night.

Silver Moon rose as usual, yet thick clouds obscured most of the stars. Only where the clouds met did a sparse handful of starlight flicker, tiny yet bright.

Inside the room

"That enchantress... honestly!"

For Hun Ruoruo to make even Xiao Yan—a youth with a maturity beyond his years—grit his teeth and curse inwardly, she truly was the first.

The youth still recalled his earlier encounter with Xun'er with lingering fear. The fragrance on his body clung to him like Bone-Attaching Gangrene, impossible to shake off. Beneath Xun'er's puzzled yet resentful gaze, he had felt as though he were sitting on pins and needles, utterly unable to explain himself.

For Xiao Yan to use Bone-Attaching Gangrene to describe a young girl's fragrance, one could imagine just how unbearably awkward the situation had been—

After all, he had just drawn his sword in the main hall, shed blood, and issued a divorce letter. Yet not long after leaving, he had somehow acquired a woman's scent. How was he supposed to explain that?

Shaking his head helplessly, Xiao Yan suppressed his distracting thoughts and began pondering Hun Ruoruo's second riddle. "At night... It's been so long already. She should return the ring by now."

Hun Ruoruo's strange act of secretly taking the Storage Ring from his hand left Xiao Yan utterly baffled.

In his view, while Storage Rings were rare treasures in Wutan City, one should not have been valuable enough for that girl who called herself Ruoruo to specifically "borrow" from him.

"She said she'd help me become stronger, but all she did was take my Storage Ring. What a strange person."

After grumbling inwardly some more, Xiao Yan lay quietly on the bed, clasping his hands behind his head as he recalled his impulsive actions from earlier that day.

He did not regret accepting the Three-Year Pact in the slightest. Even if he remained this useless three years from now, he would still go to the Misty Cloud Sect and risk his life to tear a piece of flesh from Nalan Yanran.

Whether people mocked him for overestimating himself or he ended up severely wounded and near death, it was not about him. He had to win back that pride for his father.

Of course, it would be best if he did not have to do that. Though winning might have been wishful thinking, that was still what he was aiming for.

With a self-deprecating chuckle, Xiao Yan closed his eyes to rest, though his heart remained anxious and tense.

Knock, knock!

After an unknown amount of time, just as Xiao Yan had begun to feel drowsy, a crisp knock finally sounded at the door.

Upon closer listening, it sounded more like a hard object striking the door.

But the excited youth clearly had no mind to dwell on that. The drowsiness on his face vanished at once. He sprang out of bed in a Carp Leap and rushed toward the door.

"Yao Ruoruo!"

The moment he opened the door, Xiao Yan blurted it out—then froze, his face filled with shock and disbelief—

Where was the smiling Blue-haired Girl? Standing outside was clearly a bizarre, translucent old man!

His build, appearance, and even age were worlds apart.

Perhaps the only thing they had in common was that they were both smiling.

Xiao Yan's slightly childish face twitched. He instinctively rubbed his eyes, then stared again—

Still an old man. And he only had half a body!

Seeing the youth's horrified expression, Old Man Yao stroked his beard and said, "Hehe, little one, it seems you're a little—"

Bang!

Before he could finish, Xiao Yan slammed the open door shut with all his strength, sealing it tight.

One breath, two breaths.

No sound came from inside the room.

"Er..."

Seeing that there was still no response, Old Man Yao had no choice but to swallow his prepared speech. For a moment, he felt exceedingly awkward.

"...This brat truly has no manners at all. He just left me outside without a care."

Shaking his head helplessly, Old Man Yao's illusory body flickered, and he passed directly through the door to appear before Xiao Yan.

"How did you get in? You... who exactly are you?!" Xiao Yan had never seen anything like this before. A wall-piercing technique? No, this was clearly a ghost! What kind of wall-piercing technique turned someone's body into that?

"You little one, weren't you waiting for me to return?"

"Waiting for you?"

After a brief silence, Xiao Yan took a breath and forcibly calmed the panic in his heart. "Y-you're that Storage Ring?"

"More precisely, I live inside the Storage Ring." Old Man Yao gave a strange chuckle. "But those are unimportant matters. Though this is our first meeting, I should first thank you, little one, for supporting me for three years. Otherwise, I likely would have remained asleep."

"Supporting you?" Xiao Yan blanked for a moment, then the panic on his face abruptly darkened. Icy words emerged from between his teeth, one by one. "The Dou Qi that mysteriously disappeared from my body... was that your doing?"

"..."

Old Man Yao's illusory body immediately flickered twice with a crackle, like a lightbulb whose filament had burned out.

If a Soul Body could blush, this was probably what it would look like.

Seeing him tacitly admit it, Xiao Yan could not help but curse, "I'll fuck your—"

"Hey, hey, stop right there. Little one, there's no need to get so furious, is there? I only absorbed your Dou Qi for three years." Old Man Yao raised a brow and hurriedly cut off the youth's curse before it left his mouth—

After all, Xiao Yan was the future disciple he had chosen. He could not let the boy finish that family-related insult.

"Old man, since you were hiding in the ring, you should know better than anyone how much ridicule and abuse I've suffered because of this, shouldn't you?!" Xiao Yan practically roared the words.

"But these three years of experiences have helped you grow, haven't they? Could the you from three years ago have kept your wits and endured through one incident after another like this?"

"But the me from three years ago wouldn't have had to suffer these insults in the first place! Forget it."

After venting his furious emotions, Xiao Yan gradually calmed down. Frowning, he said, "The ring was originally in that enchantress's hands. So she was the one who dragged you out?"

Still unable to recover from his earlier emotions, Xiao Yan instinctively referred to Hun Ruoruo as an "enchantress."

"Enchantress?" Old Man Yao's pale golden eyes spun as he cackled strangely. "That girl has worried herself sick over you, yet you little brat don't appreciate it at all."

"But then again, she never told you any of this. Since that's the case, I'll overstep my bounds for once and say it plainly. After negotiating with her, this old man is willing to take you as my disciple and teach you everything I know. What do you say?"

"Though this old man had intended to take you as my disciple anyway, that Girl was the one who secured the benefit of having me teach you everything I know." After saying this, Old Man Yao looked rather smugly at the boy before him, wearing an air of serene confidence.

"Oh." Xiao Yan's face remained expressionless.

If he had to describe it, this man seemed more like a scammer from some criminal ring in his previous life, while he himself was the fool who had been lured aboard the pirate ship without realizing it.

Having come to his senses, he—who had been swindled down to his last pair of underwear—only wanted to send this great Buddha who devoured Dou Qi away as quickly as possible. He would not believe another word.