Thinking Too Much

Xu Yan looked at Qin Yudie, who had followed him all the way to the What Are You Looking At Small Shop, and asked, "Miss Yudie, don't you need to go home?"

He set Su Jiuer and the Golden Emperor Ant on the table, poured himself a cup of tea, and watched Qin Yudie as he drank.

Qin Yudie stammered, "Senior Xu... could I leave the Heaven and Earth Chessboard here with you?"

She couldn't put the Heaven and Earth Chessboard into her sea of consciousness yet. She didn't feel safe leaving it anywhere else, and after considering it from every angle, she could only think of Senior Xu's place as the safest.

Not even the most brazen thief would dare steal the Heaven and Earth Chessboard from Senior Xu's shop.

Xu Yan raised an eyebrow. "Why leave it with me? You could take it home and play chess with Old Mr. Qin. I have a chessboard of my own, so if you come here to play with me, we can use that."

He didn't know that the Heaven and Earth Chessboard was a Quasi-God artifact, so he had no idea how tempting it was to cultivators.

Even if outsiders wouldn't dare steal the Heaven and Earth Chessboard from the Tianren Sect, someone within the sect might. Before a Quasi-God artifact, even the strongest bonds of friendship could prove fragile.

Qin Yudie replied quietly, "It wouldn't be convenient to take it home. I'm worried someone might steal it... If I leave it here with you, that definitely won't happen."

She could now feel just how weak she was. Senior Xu had already given her the Heaven and Earth Chessboard, and yet she still had to trouble him.

Still, she had recently broken through to the middle stage of the Spiritual Roaming Realm. And since she would be able to come here and sense the Dao in the future, she was confident she could open her sea of consciousness within a few years.

Before, she hadn't even been confident she could open her sea of consciousness within decades. After meeting Senior Xu, the impossible had become possible.

"All right. Nothing has ever been stolen from my shop." Xu Yan thought it over and agreed.

He hadn't paid it much attention before, but Qin Yudie's words made him suddenly realize that his shop had never been robbed. That was true even when he went out and sometimes forgot to lock the door.

He'd always assumed that people in Tianren City were well-behaved and that there simply weren't any thieves. But hearing Qin Yudie say this, he wondered if that wasn't the case at all. If even cultivators were afraid of having things stolen, then there must be plenty of thieves around.

"Thank you, Senior Xu!"

Qin Yudie was overjoyed that Xu Yan had agreed.

With the Heaven and Earth Chessboard left at Senior Xu's place, nothing could go wrong. Once her cultivation improved and she opened her sea of consciousness, she could take it with her by storing it there. Then she could use it to fight if she ever encountered danger.

"Don't mention it. I'm just looking after something for you. It's no big deal." Xu Yan finished his tea.

The tea tasted excellent. He drank it every day, supposedly because it was good for his health and longevity.

As an ordinary person, he had to take especially good care of his body. He already couldn't live as long as those cultivators, and if he didn't make an effort to extend his life, the gap between him and other people would only grow wider.

Xu Yan suddenly remembered what he'd said about Jiang Li outside the Chess Saint's cave dwelling. "Senior Xu, the Tianren Sect will be recruiting disciples in three days. Will you go?"

She still wasn't sure whether Xu Yan knew she was a cultivator from the Tianren Sect, and she didn't dare tell him. If he disliked dealing with people from the Tianren Sect, she'd be in a terrible bind.

"I'll see how things go. If nothing comes up, I'll go watch Jiang Li take the test that day," Xu Yan said. "That fellow is good at enduring hardship. If he becomes a cultivator, he'll certainly work even harder."

He really hoped Jiang Li could become a cultivator. That way, Jiang Li's mother could finally see her struggles pay off.

"I'll speak to the cultivator in charge of recruiting disciples for the Tianren Sect. I'll make sure Jiang Li gets in," Qin Yudie vowed, seeing how much Xu Yan cared about him.

She was the daughter of the Tianren Sect's Sect Master, as well as the sect's greatest genius. Using her authority to get someone into the Tianren Sect would be incredibly easy.

She'd never done such a thing before, and she despised people who relied on connections and pulled strings. But if it was a request from Senior Xu, that was a different matter.

Hypocrisy? Who hadn't been a little hypocritical?

Xu Yan shook his head. "There's no need. If Jiang Li doesn't have the talent to cultivate, don't let him into the Tianren Sect. You'd only be hurting him."

"I just hope that if he really does have the talent to become a cultivator, it won't go to waste."

If Jiang Li couldn't cultivate but entered the Tianren Sect anyway, his life might be worse than it was in Tianren City. He wouldn't even be able to stay by his mother's side. It would hardly be worth it.

"I'll remember what you said, Senior Xu." Qin Yudie gazed at Xu Yan with her beautiful eyes.

She was finding Xu Yan more and more fascinating. He was clearly a hidden expert, yet sometimes he acted as if he knew nothing at all. His acting was terrible.

But in some ways, Xu Yan really was just like an ordinary person, leaving her less and less able to figure out what was going through his mind.

Xu Yan felt a little uncomfortable with Qin Yudie staring at him like that. "Miss Yudie, don't keep looking at me like that. I might get the wrong idea."

A wry smile appeared on his face. The way Qin Yudie was looking at him was just like a lovestruck girl's. Her beauty made him entertain all sorts of unrealistic thoughts.

"What sort of wrong idea might you get, Senior Xu?" Qin Yudie asked with interest. She continued staring straight at him, wearing an utterly alluring smile.

She was already exceptionally beautiful and elegant. Now that she was deliberately letting a hint of flirtation show, she was incredibly seductive. An ordinary man would have found it hard to resist.

Even Xu Yan couldn't help swallowing. This damned woman was trying to tempt him into sin.

But he couldn't actually do anything. She was a cultivator, after all. If he made even the slightest improper move, she might slap him dead.

He stamped out the faint spark of desire in his heart. "Why are you teasing me, Miss Yudie?"

Qin Yudie's bright eyes studied Xu Yan. Gathering her courage, she said, "Actually... I don't mind how old you are, Senior Xu."

As soon as she'd said it, her cheeks burned. She immediately lowered her head.

She'd startled even herself. She hadn't expected to say something like that.

How could a hidden expert like Senior Xu be as shameless as she was? He might even look down on her.

At the thought, Qin Yudie hurriedly set the Heaven and Earth Chessboard on the table and bowed her head to Xu Yan. "Senior Xu, I'm sorry!"

Then she fled the shop, leaving Xu Yan standing there in bewilderment.

A few minutes later, Xu Yan muttered to himself, "Did I just get an apology card before getting friend-zoned? But I didn't even say anything."

He wondered if Qin Yudie had been overthinking things. He hadn't said anything, so why had she apologized?

Besides, after apologizing, wasn't she supposed to call him a good person and then run off?