In Cangyuan, players who wanted a Sumeru Ring could either go to great lengths to gather all kinds of rare materials and find someone to make one for them, or they could visit a place Xu Yuan knew about where they could obtain one.
The method was simple.
Early on, players would pass through a map called Heaven Origin Mountain while doing quests.
They only needed to reach the deepest part of the map, where they would encounter a white-haired old man in a bamboo grove with three blood-red question marks hovering above his head.
He would give players a quest, but if they wanted the Sumeru Ring, they couldn't talk to him. The moment they saw him, they had to whip out their weapons and take him down.
Fortune favored the bold.
As long as they killed the old man, he would drop a Sumeru Ring without fail, along with a ringful of rare treasures.
"."
Memories of the past flashed through his mind. Xu Yuan gave a faint smile and shook his head, then turned his gaze toward the black-clad woman across from him.
Her master had a Sumeru Ring, but Ran Qingmo had clearly never used one before. She stared at the ring with her beautiful eyes and fiddled with it for ages before finally retrieving a few items.
Three bottles of pills, two ancient-looking books, and a red brocade robe.
Aside from those, there were a dozen or so empty jade bottles and boxes.
After taking everything out, Ran Qingmo looked up at Xu Yuan and blinked.
"That's all."
"I know."
Xu Yuan nodded slightly and glanced at the books and bottles laid out on the ground.
Compared to the game, the storage ring contained a few extra empty jade bottles and boxes, but everything else was exactly the same.
One cultivation manual, one secret art, a Blood Jade Glazed Robe, and three bottles of pills with different effects.
The Nine Return Pill, a sacred healing medicine.
The Blood Spirit Body-Fusion Pill, used to calm the soul and fuse the body.
The Calamity Meteor Pill, essential for cultivating the Blood Origin Heart-Meteor Art.
Any one of these would be a first-rate treasure in the outside world.
Xu Yuan's gaze finally settled on the three bottles of pills.
This was reality, not a game. The items didn't come with their names displayed.
Although Xu Yuan knew what the three pills were, he couldn't identify them by sight.
But that was fine. He had a "wise old master" here to guide him.
With that in mind, Xu Yuan looked toward the woman beside him.
"Sir Ran, my memories of these pills are a little hazy. Sorry for the trouble, but could you help me identify them?"
"."
Ran Qingmo looked at Xu Yuan, her expression a little strange and suspicious.
She found his selective amnesia very peculiar, though she couldn't quite put her finger on why.
After thinking it over for a while without coming up with an answer, Ran Qingmo nodded.
"Mm, this bottle is the Nine Return Pill, this one is the Blood Spirit Body-Fusion Pill, and this one... this one..."
As she reached the last bottle, Ran Qingmo's brows furrowed slightly. She stared at it without blinking for a long while, but in the end, she still couldn't explain what it was.
"This one... I don't know."
"That's fine," Xu Yuan replied softly.
It was normal for Ran Qingmo not to know about the Calamity Meteor Pill.
The Calamity Meteor Pill had been specially formulated to complement the Blood Origin Heart-Meteor Art, while the Blood Origin Heart-Meteor Art had been sitting in this cave ever since it was created.
In other words, aside from Xu Yuan, who had once been a player, no one in this world knew the cultivation art even existed.
Walking over, Xu Yuan picked up two of the bottles. He glanced at the one remaining, paused, then said softly to Ran Qingmo, "Mm, you can keep the Nine Return Pill to treat your injuries."
"."
Ran Qingmo immediately looked up at him, her clear, tranquil eyes flickering.
She knew the value of the Nine Return Pill.
She pressed her red lips together gently, then suddenly asked Xu Yuan, "Um, could you give me a jade box?"
"A jade box?"
Xu Yuan glanced at the jade bottles and boxes and smiled casually. "Just take one."
"Oh."
Ran Qingmo nodded, picked up a jade box, and opened it. Right in front of Xu Yuan, she raised one slender hand and reached into her robes, feeling around.
"."
After gathering his thoughts, Xu Yuan asked softly, "What are you doing?"
Ran Qingmo didn't answer. She silently took out the Snake Heart Lotus from her robes and placed it in the jade box.
Xu Yuan was surprised.
He remembered putting it in his own robes before they jumped off the cliff.
Most likely, while he'd been unconscious, this Big Ice Block had quietly retrieved her own spoils.
He couldn't help smiling.
After closing the box and straightening her collar, Ran Qingmo stood and handed it to Xu Yuan.
"I... I'll trade this for it."
"."
Looking into her earnest eyes, Xu Yuan fell silent for a moment, then smiled. He didn't refuse. "All right, I'll take it. Put it in the Sumeru Ring for me."
"Oh." Ran Qingmo nodded, and with a single thought, the jade box in her hand vanished.
After that, neither of them had anything to say.
Ran Qingmo didn't find the silence awkward. She glanced at Xu Yuan, then took the Nine Return Pill she'd just traded for and went to sit in a corner of the cave to tend to her injuries.
Xu Yuan, meanwhile, leisurely picked up the Blood Jade Glazed Robe and the two ancient books from the ground, then sat down on the jade bed in the cave.
This was his cave. He slept on the bed, and Ran Qingmo slept on the floor. Perfectly reasonable.
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