Yan Ruyan entered first, with Mo Caihuan following behind. Tea and pastries were served.
Mo Caihuan said apprehensively, "Young madam, I'll pack up this year's spirit stones and account books right away and send them over as soon as possible."
"I'm not here to collect the tribute. There's something I hope Your Majesty can help me with," Yan Ruyan said calmly.
"You're too kind, young madam. It's my honor to be of use to you. As long as it's within my power, I'll spare no effort." Mo Caihuan asked, "What would you have me do?"
Yan Ruyan said nothing. She simply took out a special black storage bag and released a girl of seven or eight from it, her eyes closed in unconsciousness.
When the girl appeared, Yan Ruyan gave her a pitying look and said, "My request is that Your Majesty take good care of this child."
"Taking care of a child is certainly no problem, but if she has a talent for cultivation, wouldn't leaving her with me be a waste?" Mo Caihuan asked, puzzled.
"She'd be better off as a mortal." Yan Ruyan had no intention of explaining. She merely said, "If Your Majesty agrees, you needn't send me an annual tribute anymore. Keep it to raise the child."
"Those are two separate matters. Raising a child is just a matter of adding another pair of chopsticks at the table. It won't cost much." Mo Caihuan insisted on sending gifts because she wanted Yan Ruyan to remember the Mo Kingdom's kindness and continue looking after it once she reached the nascent soul stage.
"I knew Your Majesty was sincere. I chose the right person. Sorry for the trouble, then," Yan Ruyan said.
"May I ask her name and age, young madam?"
"Her original name is Yan Shuangshuang, and she's seven this year. Give her a different name," Yan Ruyan said. "Let her have a fresh start."
"Of course," Mo Caihuan said.
"Then I'll leave her with you." Yan Ruyan crouched down and stroked the child's cheek. "Shuangshuang, live well."
She channeled spiritual energy through her palm and woke the child.
The girl stared blankly at her surroundings, then began to smile foolishly.
"What's wrong with her?" Seeing the child drooling, Mo Caihuan hurriedly asked.
"Her soul was injured. From now on, she can only live in this witless state," Yan Ruyan said heavily. "Please don't consider her a burden, Your Majesty."
"Not at all, not at all. I don't discriminate against children with intellectual disabilities. I'll find the best nurse to care for her. If one isn't enough, I'll hire three. I'll make sure she grows up plump and healthy," Mo Caihuan said solemnly.
"Shuangshuang, did you hear that? Listen to this auntie from now on."
The girl showed no response and merely kept smiling foolishly.
A trace of hatred flashed deep in Yan Ruyan's eyes, but she suppressed it and only said, "Your Majesty, I'm entrusting her to you."
"Please rest assured, young madam."
Once Mo Caihuan agreed, the young madam left without touching either the tea or the pastries, apparently trusting Mo Caihuan completely.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk..." As soon as Yan Ruyan left, Food Immortal spoke. "What a formidable heavenly spiritual root. She was only at middle foundation establishment when we last met, and now she's already at late foundation establishment. Core formation won't be far off."
"You mean the young madam?"
"Who else? Surely not this living corpse with restrictions placed on her?" he said casually.
"Living corpse?" Mo Caihuan didn't understand. "What do you mean?"
"Although the Yan Family joined the Ghost Spirit Sect, they certainly aren't trusted. It looks as though someone wants to suppress the Yan Family by placing restrictions on the younger generation, forcing them to obey orders for the rest of their lives. The restrictions in this girl's body were a little too severe. She's still alive, but she's become an idiot, without any awareness. She's hardly different from a dead person," Food Immortal said mockingly, a mere spectator.
"Since she's been entrusted to me, I have to care for her even if she is an idiot," Mo Caihuan said.
"In the cultivation world, you'd just burn a useless person like this to ashes. Keeping her alive is a waste of food," Food Immortal said. "Only you would enshrine her like your own father because you want to curry favor with cultivators."
Mo Caihuan couldn't be bothered to answer.
Food Immortal suddenly said, "Leave this child to me."
"What do you mean?"
"Possession, of course. This girl has decent talent. I sensed her just now, and she actually has a rare dark attribute spiritual root. Whoever placed the restrictions on her clearly didn't want the Yan Family producing another genius and deliberately used a heavy hand." Food Immortal chuckled. "But now that she's met me, I can undo the restrictions and use this body to start over."
Mo Caihuan fell silent.
"Don't indulge in a woman's softheartedness. Don't you want to absorb stellar power? I do have a way. Just help me recover my late golden core cultivation, and I'll take you to Great Jin. Great Jin is much stronger than the Heavenly South. It's bound to have cultivation methods for absorbing stellar power. What do you say?" Food Immortal asked.
"Go to Great Jin? How do you intend to get there, senior? Even nascent soul cultivators would have a layer of skin stripped off them on that journey."
"Through a teleportation gate, of course. Did you think we'd cross the Mulan grassland and the Heavenly Lan Grassland? You really have no common sense."
"Heh, I thought you'd suggest going by sea, senior," Mo Caihuan retorted.
"By sea? Are you mad? Do you know how many demon beasts there are in the ocean? Seventh- and eighth-grade demon beasts are beyond counting, and the currents are unstable too. Heading out to sea means nine chances of death and one of survival."
"From what you're saying, senior, you've looked into sea travel?"
Food Immortal said calmly, "Visiting Great Jin to sample its delicacies is my obsession. Naturally, I've investigated ways to get there. In ancient times, ships did sail to Great Jin, but demon beasts later caused trouble, and the route was cut off. Crossing the Mulan grassland and the Heavenly Lan Grassland is too dangerous. Their spell warriors are extremely hostile to outsiders and start shouting for blood whenever they see someone from another people. The best method is a teleportation gate, but the demonic path blew it up to prevent the righteous path from bringing reinforcements from Great Jin."
"If it was destroyed, how can we use it?"
"Repair it, of course. Haven't you been studying formations all this time? You've even trained a formation team of seventy or eighty scholars proficient in formations. They can try repairing the magic array. Great Jin is no ordinary place. It has far more cultivation resources, and you might find the cultivation method you need that bypasses spiritual energy. It has far more ancient cultivation methods than the Heavenly South. Compared with Great Jin, the Heavenly South is practically an uncivilized backwater. Body tempering, which is rarely seen in the Heavenly South, is bound to be much more common in Great Jin. Think it over."
Looking at Yan Shuangshuang's vacant, foolish expression, Mo Caihuan said heavily, "She's still a child. If you want to possess someone, senior, I'll find you a person with spiritual roots in a vegetative state later."
"A woman's softheartedness, a woman's softheartedness." Though Food Immortal was angry, he didn't take matters into his own hands.
"If you can cure her, I can also try repairing the teleportation array to Great Jin."
"Cure her? It's possible, but the cost would be enormous."
"You really can cure her?"
"I took a look. Whoever placed the restrictions on her should be at late golden core, while I'm at early nascent soul. Though we're only one stage apart, the difference is as vast as heaven and earth," Food Immortal said proudly. "If you want to save her, prepare a hundred thousand spirit stones. There's a lot we'll need to buy."
A hundred thousand? Mo Caihuan couldn't help closing her eyes. That was nearly three years of spirit stone income, but in the end, she gritted her teeth and said, "Save her."
Mo Caihuan had decided to nurture cultivators for the Mo Kingdom. With this girl's immense potential, investing a hundred thousand was worthwhile.
As for Food Immortal, Mo Caihuan's thinking was simple: if they saved Yan Shuangshuang, they would have two cultivators. If he possessed her, the two would become one, leaving only a single cultivator. Two against one-possession wasn't worth it.
The more experts they had, the better.
Having decided to save her, Mo Caihuan could only grit her teeth and purchase all kinds of medicinal ingredients. Expensive, terribly expensive. Not only were they expensive, some weren't even available in the Heavenly South.
"Girl, we still have to go to Great Jin. Only Great Jin has the ingredients needed to save her."
Mo Caihuan suspected Food Immortal was doing this deliberately, choosing ingredients found only in Great Jin just so he could go there.
"All right, we'll study the teleportation array now. But you can't expect me to study it empty-handed, senior. I need something to use as a reference. Even a ruined teleportation gate will do."
"Heh, I knew you'd say that. There really is a ruined teleportation array, right on an ancient battlefield. I'll take you there." Food Immortal had Mo Caihuan neatly under his thumb.
He had deliberately slipped ingredients available only in Great Jin into the prescription. He refused to believe he couldn't fool a mortal girl.
He resorted to deception because Mo Caihuan truly had a talent for formations. The formation team she had trained could work together in seamless coordination, developing formations at a remarkable pace. He believed that, with the entire country's strength behind them and five or six years to work, the research team would surely make headway.