Xu Yan found it hard to believe. He sat down in a chair beside them and scooped Su Jiuer up from the table into his arms.
Then his inner gossip hound came to life. "Don't tell me you two have some unfinished, ill-fated romance, and that's why you've ended up together again?"
"No. There's nothing between me and that green-haired tortoise but enmity. We've fought before, more than once," the Golden Emperor Ant said coolly.
He had long since stopped caring about what happened back then. After all, he had already sealed himself away.
The green-haired tortoise merely watched the Golden Emperor Ant in silence, with no desire to speak at all.
In fact, he had noticed the Golden Emperor Ant ages ago.
"An ant and a tortoise fighting? I've never heard of such a thing," Xu Yan said with a laugh.
He couldn't imagine an ant fighting a tortoise. With a body that size, there was no way an ant could get through its defenses.
Besides, tortoises and ants lived in different places. This green-haired tortoise had been sitting in a water tank the whole time. Had the ant gone underwater to battle him back then?
Watching the green-haired tortoise sit there without a word, the Golden Emperor Ant said, "Master, you don't know this, but back then, this green-haired tortoise offended plenty of people. Countless people chased him down and beat him. If his shell hadn't been hard, he'd have been beaten to death long ago."
What he didn't say was that the green-haired tortoise of those days hadn't been as lazy as he was now. He'd been fiercely ambitious and had launched a truly vast war.
In that battle, he and the green-haired tortoise had been on opposing sides. They'd fought until the heavens collapsed and the earth split.
Even the so-called Saints had been nothing but cannon fodder in that battle.
"That's all in the past. You're partners now, so you can't fight," Xu Yan said.
He wasn't particularly worried that the Golden Emperor Ant would actually fight the green-haired tortoise. Judging by their current state, there was no way they could get into a fight.
The Golden Emperor Ant said wistfully, "Now... we wouldn't even be able to fight if we wanted to."
The green-haired tortoise clearly wasn't the domineering figure who'd once swallowed mountains and rivers, and he was no longer who he'd been back then, either.
Perhaps they hadn't cultivated enough in those days, and that was why they'd fought to prove who was stronger.
A graceful figure quietly appeared at the shop entrance. Looking at Xu Yan inside, she smiled and said, "Senior Xu, it's been a long time. Do you still remember me?"
The woman was exceptionally beautiful, her looks no less striking than Qin Yudie's. She could be called a beauty capable of toppling kingdoms.
But Xu Yan had no particular fondness for her. He said coldly, "I don't remember. Who are you, and do you need to buy anything?"
Of course he remembered her. She'd brought several people with her last time, trying to take Little Fox away. Then, for some reason, they'd suddenly left.
Now she'd come back again. He couldn't help but hug Su Jiuer a little tighter.
He'd shared a bed with Su Jiuer every night for the past few days, and had long since come to think of the little fox as family.
Of course, the green-haired tortoise and the Golden Emperor Ant were family to him, too.
Since he had no other family, his pets weren't merely pets. They were family.
A wry smile appeared on Murong Yue's face. She knew Xu Yan was displeased because she'd brought people along last time to take Su Jiuer away.
But back then, how could she have known Xu Yan was a reclusive expert? After learning the truth, she'd returned to the Murong Family and explained the situation. Only then had the Murong Family rejected the Demon Tiger Clan's commission.
Afterward, the Murong Family had carefully pieced together Xu Yan's connection to the Tianren Sect and confirmed that the painting Qin Tian had merely glanced at before breaking through had been Xu Yan's work.
Xu Yan was the reclusive expert standing behind the Tianren Sect!
It was precisely because they'd gained the support of someone as powerful as Xu Yan that the Tianren Sect had risen to become a true top-tier force in the Southern Domain.
After much deliberation, the Murong Family had decided to send Murong Yue to build a relationship with him. After all, they'd learned that Qin Yudie of the Tianren Sect was close to Xu Yan.
Murong Yue was no less beautiful than Qin Yudie. Perhaps the Murong Family could follow the Tianren Sect's example and forge a connection with Xu Yan, the reclusive expert.
Xu Yan looked at Murong Yue as if she owed him five million, his expression cold. "Miss, if you don't need anything, please don't disturb me while I'm doing business."
He didn't want to see Murong Yue, this woman who'd set her sights on Little Fox. He was certain she'd noticed that Su Jiuer's fur was more beautiful than an ordinary fox's and wanted to skin her to make a fur coat.
It was downright cruel. What a poisonous-hearted woman—a real viper. He couldn't afford to get too involved with her.
Murong Yue had no idea she'd already made such a terrible impression on Xu Yan without doing anything. She steeled herself and said, "Senior Xu, I heard you're very good at chess. Murong Yue would like to play a game with you."
She'd gone to great lengths to get this precious information about Xu Yan from Mu'er, Qin Yudie's junior fellow disciple. She planned to use it as her opening move.
Mu'er knew Xu Yan was good at chess because every time Qin Yudie returned after playing with him, she'd tell Mu'er all about how amazing Senior Xu was. Mu'er had nearly grown calluses on her ears from hearing it so often.
As the young lady of the Murong Family, Murong Yue naturally knew the talented young disciples of the Tianren Sect. She also got along fairly well with Mu'er, which was how she'd obtained this information—though not without paying a steep price.
Xu Yan raised an eyebrow. Chess again?
First Qin Yudie, then Qin Tian—they often came to play chess with him and get crushed. Now there was another one?
Fine. He couldn't hit her, but he could knock down her pride on the chessboard.
Thinking this, Xu Yan smiled. "All right. But I won't go easy on you just because you're a woman."
When he played chess with Qin Yudie, he'd held back because she was a woman and had a sweet little mouth that kept calling him Senior.
But with someone like Murong Yue, who'd set her sights on Su Jiuer, he certainly wouldn't hold back. He had to show her just how cruel a chess game could be.
A quarter of an hour later, Murong Yue's face was pale, and she was caught between agony and delight.
She'd never imagined that Xu Yan's chess games were actually clashes of the Great Dao. She lost miserably every time, barely getting a chance to make a move.
But she'd gained immensely, too. Experiencing the impact of Dao intent like this had helped her comprehend a great deal.
Boom!
As Xu Yan ruthlessly defeated Murong Yue yet again, her cultivation broke through. She became an early-stage cultivator of the Spiritual Roaming Realm.
She'd been stuck at the peak of the Spiritual Consciousness Realm for ages. She'd never expected that a visit to Xu Yan and a quarter-hour of chess would be enough to break through.
Senior Xu truly was a reclusive expert. Each time he placed a piece, it washed over her Great Dao.
How could the Tianren Sect fail to rise after gaining the support of such a reclusive expert?
And if the Murong Family seized this opportunity, they could rise as well!
Xu Yan looked at Murong Yue, her face a mix of pallor and flush, and asked smugly, "Well, Miss Murong, did you enjoy those few games?"
In just a quarter of an hour, he'd played several games with Murong Yue and crushed her in every one.
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