In This Anxious World, There Is Only You and Me (I)

The goods piled high as mountains made the light in the central courtyard dim. After watching the middle-aged man in the green robe leave, Qin Yi led Ruan Su and Nie Junyue through several more rounds of inspection in the rear courtyard before finally stopping.

They could not find a single clue, not even after entering the Spirit Realm vision.

What exactly was this so-called ritual?

And who was that middle-aged man in green?

Qin Yi pondered for a moment, then turned and said:

"Boss, Ruan Su and I will head back first. If even that middle-aged man could find nothing, then staying any longer will most likely get us nowhere."

Nie Junyue did not object. When it came to matters beyond a martial artist's internal energy, he knew he could not be of much help. Yet after hesitating for a moment, he still suggested quietly:

"Do you need me to send a few experts with you?"

Cultivators were still human. An attack on a vital point would still kill them. Immortal Guest House also had martial artists stronger than Ruan Su, but when it came to Meng Peijiu and her daughter...

Qin Yi shook his head and said:

"Boss, I said it before. If that mother and daughter of the Meng Family want to kill me, no matter how many people there are, they will only be decorations."

"..."

Nie Junyue fell silent for several breaths. He raised a hand and rubbed his brow, drew a deep breath, then sighed out the thoughts in his heart with a trace of helplessness:

"That's true... First there's this middle-aged cultivator of unknown origin, then you, a young master from some great clan, and now that mother and daughter of the Meng Family whose origins are also unknown. My Immortal Guest House has truly stumbled into a heavenly game this time."

Qin Yi studied his expression for a moment, then said with a smile:

"Boss, this world does not offer many chances for you to plan everything out before acting. Where Immortal Guest House goes from here depends entirely on your choice. At the very least, you have already touched what you have long dreamed of, haven't you?"

Nie Junyue froze, then resolve returned to his eyes. He cupped his hands in salute.

"Young Master speaks wisely."

Qin Yi nodded and returned the salute.

"Farewell."

"When members of your clan arrive in Yellow Bamboo Town, I will bring them to see you."

"Mm."

After leaving Yellow Bamboo Town, the siblings walked side by side along that familiar hardened dirt road. They walked in silence for a long while before Ruan Su finally could not resist asking:

"Aren't you going to get in touch with that uncle from before?"

Qin Yi temporarily set aside the thoughts in his mind and glanced back.

"Why do you ask?"

Ruan Su pursed her lips and thought for a moment.

"You definitely would have done that before."

Qin Yi did not answer. Instead, he asked a completely unrelated question.

"Sis, where are the candied fruits Sister Meng gave you this morning?"

At once, Ruan Su reached into her clothes, took out a paper packet wrapped in oil paper, and handed it to him.

Though she had been a little tempted herself, she had only secretly eaten one.

Qin Yi took it, peeled back the oil paper, and put one into his mouth. It was so sweet that it carried a faint sourness. He then brought another to Ruan Su's lips. He remembered that she rather liked sweet things.

Ruan Su opened her little mouth. The boy's fingertips lightly brushed against her red lips, and a wave of sweetness and sourness spread through her mouth, making her eyes narrow unconsciously.

The two continued onward for some distance.

Ruan Su suddenly seemed to realize something and asked again:

"So, Xiao Yi, why aren't you going to get in touch with that uncle?"

Qin Yi shot this older sister of his a look and simply said:

"When did Meng Peijiu give you those candied fruits? And how many days did that uncle say he had spent at Meng's Cloth Workshop?"

Ruan Su thought about it. Her beautiful eyes instantly widened as realization dawned on her.

"Oh! I knew something felt strange!"

"..."

Qin Yi fell silent.

Their time together since he had fully awakened had made him deeply realize that the Older Sister Correction Plan 2.0 had basically been declared a failure.

With a soft sigh, Qin Yi voiced his guess to Ruan Su.

"That uncle in green should already have been drawn into the ritual. Even his cognition has been rewritten."

Ruan Su blinked and said seriously:

"But, Xiao Yi... I feel that uncle is very dangerous."

Qin Yi sighed, then asked again:

"Then what do you think of Meng Peijiu?"

Ruan Su thought it over, understood what Qin Yi meant, and gave an embarrassed laugh.

"...Not dangerous at all."

Though his older sister's intelligence had been suppressed, her enemy-detection radar remained remarkably accurate. Whenever she encountered someone, she could usually tell at a glance whether they bore hostility and whether she could defeat them. But clearly, that mother and daughter of the Meng Family were already so strong that even her radar had failed.

At that thought, Qin Yi suddenly raised a hand and pointed at himself.

"Then what about me?"

"..."

Ruan Su tilted her head and looked Qin Yi up and down. Then her eyes suddenly flew wide open.

"!"

"What is it?"

"Xiao Yi, you're very dangerous."

"Huh?"

"Extremely dangerous. I don't even want to get close to you anymore."

"..." Qin Yi glanced at the little hand with which the girl was holding his.

After a moment of silence, he asked:

"What about compared to that uncle?"

She did not hesitate in the slightest.

"You."

Qin Yi's thoughts stalled slightly. Ruan Su could not possibly be counting Tuanzi inside his skull too, could she? But then he felt that idea was far too unreliable.

"Was I really that dangerous before?"

"I don't know."

Ruan Su held his hand, tilted her head, and smiled brightly. Sunlight spilled over his hanging long hair, leaving only those crystalline black eyes in view.

"But I know that Xiao Yi is the most amazing~"

Fine.

It was probably the lingering might he had built up over the years that had led her to this judgment.

After the mysterious disappearance of the mother and daughter of the Meng Family, Qin Yi shamelessly tried asking Tuanzi several times about the ritual. Without exception, every inquiry vanished like a stone sinking into the sea.

Those who used cold violence would eventually suffer cold violence themselves.

Unable to analyze it, Qin Yi simply continued living as he normally did.

Though the blade might already have been at his throat, Qin Yi still calmly set the "ritual" aside and focused on tinkering with the Violent Soul Secret Art.

Some things would not stop coming merely because he worried or grew anxious. Before danger arrived, becoming even a little stronger was the proper path.

And after so many days of refinement, Qin Yi had already greatly improved the Violent Soul Secret Art.

He had more or less sorted out the relationship between the parameters of Resonance Thread quality and speed, pulse amplitude, and the extent of backlash suffered by his own body.

However...

Qin Yi lowered his black eyes and glanced at the bone of his middle finger, where a contemplative Spirit Resonance swirled.

Using the flesh to interfere with the "Violent Soul" produced within the Soul Realm was still somewhat too uncontrollable.

Drawing in his thoughts, Qin Yi opened his eyes, rose from bed, and swept an indifferent gaze around him.

The little house had already changed drastically.

While he had been cultivating, Ruan Su had constantly busied herself with the move. To pack their luggage, she had even gone all the way to town and spent a "huge sum" ordering several fine sandalwood chests.

Ruan Su seemed to think that this would make her appear more respectable before his clansmen and keep them from looking down on her.

Qin Yi did not understand. He only felt it was meaningless.

Once they reached the clan, there would inevitably be better things. Throwing away these old belongings directly would be the easiest option.

A great aristocratic clan would not think more highly of her because of them, either.

But Qin Yi did not interfere and let her do as she pleased.

Because it seemed to let her experience that emotion called happiness.

Qin Yi walked into the small courtyard. A cold wind met him head-on, and the tip of Ruan Su's pert nose was faintly red from the chill. She was chopping at a doorframe in the yard with an axe.

She had taken it down with much clanging and banging that morning, and before removing it, she had specifically made him measure his height against it.

He had grown another three inches.

The circulation of Spirit Resonance seemed capable of promoting physical development.

However...

Qin Yi's gaze paused on the wooden strip for a moment.

Was she planning to bring this thing along too?

...Should he try to persuade her?

Better not.

Ruan Su would be hurt by it, and then she would feel that emotion called sadness.

Walking up to the girl, Qin Yi looked at the fine beads of sweat on her forehead. He handed her a cup of hot water, tugged at his facial muscles, and smiled with curved eyes.

"Sis, take a break. You've been busy all morning."

Ruan Su looked up and accepted the water. The corners of her eyes instinctively dipped into a happy curve. She raised a hand, intending to wipe the sweat from her temple with her sleeve, but then realized this seemed to be a new outfit. She could only roughly wipe it away twice with the back of her hand, take two small sips, and say:

"This is the last thing. Mm... We should come back often when we have the chance. We lived here for such a long time!"

Qin Yi nodded.

"We can ask the old landlord to keep an eye on it."

Her eyes gleamed like crescent moons. As though recalling something, Ruan Su took an embroidered box from her waist pouch and said quietly:

"Oh, right, Xiao Yi. Your jade pendant. I'm giving it back to you."

Since his mental condition had improved, Ruan Su had continued keeping the jade pendant that symbolized his origins.

Qin Yi accepted the exquisitely adorned embroidered box. The moment he opened it, his brows habitually drew together.

Before his eyes, the Phoenix-Bearing-Moon Jade Pendant, once entirely jade-green, had now been wholly eroded by blood threads that seemed alive. It had almost completely become a blood jade pendant.

Tuanzi.

Qin Yi sensed an almost imperceptible pulse within his skull. Tuanzi seemed to recognize this jade pendant.

After a moment's thought, Qin Yi immediately asked inwardly through a Spirit Resonance Pulse.

Tuanzi, do you recognize this thing?

Silence.

After that brief fluctuation, Tuanzi sank silent once more. It would not tell this human who dared humiliate it any information.

Seeing Qin Yi stare at the jade pendant that had completely changed appearance, Ruan Su's expression gradually grew tense. She hurriedly explained in a pleasant voice:

"Xiao Yi, I... I don't know why the jade pendant turned out like this. I didn't do it, really!"

Qin Yi came back to himself, took the jade pendant directly from the embroidered box, tucked it into the lining of his clothes, and tossed the empty box back to her.

"I know."

Ruan Su hurriedly caught it. Her heart settled slightly, but as she looked at the box, she inwardly complained with some distress:

"Xiao Yi, this embroidered box was very expensive..."

Qin Yi shrugged and smiled.

"I have nowhere to put the box on me. The jade won't break, and keeping it close is safer. Remember not to spend money carelessly in the future."

Ruan Su was a little disappointed. Her shoulders drooped, and she looked utterly aggrieved.

"Okay... I thought it would look better this way..."

Before she could finish, Ruan Su's ears suddenly twitched.

She seemed to hear something. Abruptly, she looked toward the courtyard gate, her expression becoming extremely constrained. Qin Yi could even sense her delicate body beneath her clothes tense slightly.