Cooperation

When the words fell,

Ran Qingmo looked at the handsome, earnest face before her. There was no way to tell from her eyes what she was thinking.

Xu Yuan didn't press her, quietly waiting for her answer.

No one wanted to die, and he was no exception.

The Third Young Master's family wielded power across all of Great Yan, but distant waters could not put out a nearby fire.

In his current, utterly helpless predicament, the only person Xu Yuan could rely on was the very woman who had tied him up and brought him here.

Everyone else wanted him dead. She had only taken him hostage.

After the Flame Spirit Python died, blood gushed from its body, hot as magma. In the cold winter rain, it raised clouds of steam, shutting out the desolation beyond the cave.

After a moment of silence,

"All right. Go on."

Ran Qingmo's calm voice drifted through the quiet cave.

Xu Yuan relaxed a little.

He'd genuinely been afraid she might hit him with her staff again.

Choosing his words carefully, Xu Yuan looked at her and said softly,

"Mr. Ran, what I want to say is simple. For the sake of both our lives, we should work together."

Ran Qingmo watched him silently, waiting for him to continue.

Seeing that, Xu Yuan went on in a gentle voice,

"I know it may be presumptuous for a prisoner like me to say this, but you saw what happened just now. If you hadn't stepped in, I'd be dead."

He paused, and a self-mocking smile tugged at Xu Yuan's lips.

"I know that because of my father, plenty of people in this world want me dead. But I doubt a demon beast living in the Wanxing Mountain Range would be under his influence."

As he spoke, Xu Yuan looked into Ran Qingmo's eyes.

"Yet that python wanted to kill me. The Flame Spirit Python was terrified of death, but even with you piercing its vital point, it still fought to the death to kill me."

"Mr. Ran, don't you find that strange?"

The endless patter of rain drifted softly into the cave, where silence had settled.

A faint flicker passed through Ran Qingmo's clear, tranquil eyes. She gave a slight nod.

Xu Yuan took a deep breath.

"Someone wants me dead on the way to wherever you're taking me."

"If I die here, my father will assume you killed me."

He paused.

Xu Yuan enunciated each word.

"You'll die too."

The woman before him, always dressed in black and as calm as still water, was truly powerful.

But she wasn't the only powerful person in this world. If she had abducted Xu Changtian and caused his death, that would be the beginning of her own end.

In Cangyuan, Xu Yuan had actually quite liked Ran Qingmo as a character.

She was almost a heroine. Almost, because she always died before she and the player could fall for each other. She would die in a hurry without ever taking off her veil.

Of Cangyuan's twenty-five endings, Ran Qingmo had only one official bonus ending in which she escaped overseas. But the prerequisite for achieving it was that the player had to cheat.

Only by raising their attributes to the limit and forcibly defeating a boss that players were absolutely incapable of beating at the time could they save her.

Xu Yuan had once thought that bonus ending was amusing.

A character's fate could change based on the player's choices, but the impact of that change was limited—unless you cheated.

But now he suddenly felt that Ran Qingmo and his original self were a pair of kindred spirits, in a way. They died in all twenty-five of the world's timelines.

Ran Qingmo didn't speak. Her visible eyes showed no emotion at all.

Xu Yuan's threat of death hadn't shaken her in the slightest.

Realizing that this approach probably wouldn't work on a woman like Ran Qingmo, Xu Yuan took a deep breath and changed tack.

"Mr. Ran, you kidnapped me for the forty thousand disciples of the Sword Sect, right?"

Ran Qingmo's gaze shifted, and the warm air in the cave seemed to cool slightly with it.

Seeing her reaction, Xu Yuan understood. He continued in a low voice,

"You don't need to look at me like that. I won't ask where you got your information, and you don't need to wonder how a good-for-nothing like me found out. We're in the same boat now. There's no point in digging into it."

The look in Ran Qingmo's eyes softened for a moment.

Xu Yuan glanced at the giant python's corpse outside and spoke slowly.

"Although I still don't agree with your judgment that kidnapping me will let you threaten my father, I don't think you can threaten him with a corpse, at the very least."

"..."

Ran Qingmo was silent for two seconds. Her clear voice came from beneath the black veil covering her face.

"But you have no qi."

Xu Yuan was taken aback. After thinking for a moment, he understood what she meant.

In this extraordinary world, having no qi was the same as being an ordinary person.

And in the eyes of a cultivator at Ran Qingmo's level, an ordinary person was no different from an ant.

If a third party really dared to attack Xu Yuan in front of her, they certainly wouldn't be weak.

Once she started fighting them, the shockwaves alone would be enough to kill Xu Yuan a hundred times over.

She already had to protect him. Whether they cooperated or not made no difference.

Xu Yuan had never intended to get involved in a fight. He smiled and asked directly,

"Do you have a map of the Wanxing Mountain Range?"

Ran Qingmo blinked, then turned and rummaged through the pack at the very back of the cave. She found a rolled-up piece of sheepskin and brought it over to Xu Yuan.

Xu Yuan sat cross-legged, unrolled the sheepskin beside the campfire, and scanned the map by its wavering light.

The moment he saw it, Xu Yuan relaxed a little.

There were some discrepancies in the details, but overall, the map matched the one of the Wanxing Mountain Range in the game Cangyuan.

After a moment,

Xu Yuan beckoned Ran Qingmo over, indicating that she should sit too.

"As long as you can confirm where we are, I can give you a place to hide."

Ran Qingmo slowly lifted the hem of her black robe and sat down beside Xu Yuan, though her gaze held a trace of wariness.

Xu Yuan realized that what he'd said hadn't come out quite right.

Ran Qingmo might have been a little slow to catch on, but she wasn't stupid.

Lowering his eyes to the map, Xu Yuan thought it over, then said casually,

"I know my father's people must be searching for me in the Wanxing Mountain Range, but you don't need to worry too much about that.

"I can't contact them, and in front of a cultivator like you, everything I do is out in the open. You don't need to worry about me leaving any marks.

"On the contrary, if you keep dragging me around the Wanxing Mountain Range, we're much more likely to be found."

As he spoke,

Xu Yuan turned his eyes to her tranquil gaze. His voice was still a little hoarse.

"You can conceal your presence, but I can't."

As in many extraordinary worlds, cultivators here could use qi to track people.

Ran Qingmo's eyes showed deep contemplation for a long while. In the end, she gave a slight nod and said very seriously,

"I'll keep an eye on you."

Xu Yuan smiled faintly.

"Suit yourself."

With that,

Xu Yuan looked back at the map spread before him and said quietly,

"When I was a child, my father brought my two older brothers and me to the Wanxing Mountain Range. He has a cave abode here, with plenty of cultivation resources inside. The two of us could live there for quite a long time."

Xu Yuan had made that up. His cheap old man didn't know about this hidden treasure, but that didn't stop Xu Yuan from pinning it on him.

It wasn't as though Ran Qingmo could go ask him to his face.

Ran Qingmo's brows knitted slightly. Her voice was cool. "Your father knows about it too?"

Xu Yuan had already prepared an answer. He replied without a care,

"My father has to stay in the Imperial Capital now. He can't come looking for me in person, and his subordinates couldn't know about that place. Besides, even if they did know about the cave abode, what do you think the chances are that they'd search for me there?"

"..." Ran Qingmo fell silent.

Xu Yuan tapped the sheepskin lightly.

"All right. Point out where we are, and then let's get moving as soon as possible."

Ran Qingmo nodded gently, her beautiful eyes lowering slightly.

But she stared at the map for quite a while before hesitantly extending a slender finger and pointing somewhere.

Xu Yuan saw that and narrowed his long eyes slightly.

It was pretty close.

Before he had time to feel glad,

the next moment,

he saw her slender, delicate finger move and point to another place.

Then a third, and a fourth.

"..."

Xu Yuan fell silent and looked up, wanting to say something but stopping himself.

The firelight flickered. They stared at each other in silence.

Ran Qingmo looked away and said softly,

"I-I don't know."