"What? System, what kind of mission is this? What does this have to do with being invincible?"
"Ding! Host, being invincible doesn't just mean unmatched combat strength. If you have no beauties by your side on the road to invincibility, what's the point?"
"So go and strive, Host! For invincibility! For beauties! For the Mind's Eye of the Kagura! Go and strive!"
"All right, all right! System, you really do understand me! But Qian Renxue is in the Worship Hall. She usually never comes out!"
"Host, leave it to me! Blah, blah, blah!"
After listening to the system babble on at length, Su Yu immediately had an idea.
"System, you're amazing! I'll go get ready right now!"
Three days later, in the afternoon, sunlight filtered through gaps in the leaves, scattering dappled spots of light across the path on Spirit Hall's back mountain.
Following the information the system had given him, Su Yu came alone to this seldom-visited place.
The mountain path was rugged, with thick vegetation all around. Occasionally, insects chirped or birds called, breaking the silence.
"Who would've thought Qian Renxue would hide out here alone?"
Looking at the narrow trail worn into the ground ahead, Su Yu murmured to himself.
"This place is so remote. Who would come here for no reason?"
He hadn't gone far along the trail when a young girl's voice, tinged with hurt, reached his ears.
"Little Gray! Tell me, why does that woman just refuse to like me?"
Qian Renxue's voice was filled with bewilderment and dejection.
"I work so hard. I'm better than all of them..."
A few bright barks followed, sounding like a puppy's response.
"Hmm? You think she's in the wrong too, don't you, Little Gray?"
The girl's voice grew a little more cheerful, then sank again.
"But... she's my mother, after all."
"Little Gray, Little Gray, if only you could talk."
She sighed softly, her tone full of childish melancholy.
"Then you could listen to me talk some more, and tell me what exactly I have to do to make her spare me another glance..."
Su Yu slowed his steps and peered ahead through the dense bushes.
A small figure sat on a blue-gray rock not far away-it was Qian Renxue.
She held a fluffy gray puppy in her arms, gently combing through the puppy's fur with her fingers.
At that moment, she had less of her usual haughtiness and more of a vulnerability that stirred pity.
The puppy called Little Gray seemed to sense Qian Renxue's mood.
Lowering its head, it nuzzled her palm and let out a few gentle whimpers.
Su Yu stood where he was rather than immediately approaching.
He could feel that, at this moment, Qian Renxue had shed all her sharp edges and disguises.
What she revealed was the truest side of a child who longed for her mother's love but couldn't have it.
"Who's there?!"
Qian Renxue whipped her head around, her sharp gaze shooting like an arrow toward the bushes where Su Yu was hiding.
Her earlier vulnerability was instantly replaced by wariness. Her voice carried the anger of being disturbed, along with a barely perceptible trace of panic.
When the bushes remained still, her brows knitted even tighter, and she snorted.
"Hmph. Playing tricks, are you? You think hiding there will get you off the hook?"
Seeing that he had been discovered, Su Yu simply parted the bushes and stepped out. "It's me."
When Qian Renxue saw him, her tense shoulders relaxed slightly, then stiffened again.
A flicker of embarrassment and annoyance at having her private feelings exposed crossed her pale purple eyes. Little Gray, in her arms, also gave Su Yu a wary bark.
"Were you following me?" She raised an eyebrow, trying to conceal her panic behind her usual sharpness, though her hands unconsciously tightened around Little Gray.
"Is this somewhere you should be?"
"I was just passing by," Su Yu said calmly. "I heard something and came to have a look."
His gaze swept over the slightly reddened corners of her eyes, but he said nothing more about what he had just overheard.
"This place is remote. If you came here alone and something happened, what would you do?"
Qian Renxue stiffened her neck. "What's it to you? I'm not like you lot, kept under that woman's watch in the Pope Hall!"
"What does my coming here have to do with you? You're the one skulking in the bushes. What are you up to?"
Little Gray shifted uneasily in her arms. She lowered her head and stroked the dog's fur, her voice unconsciously softening a little, though her words remained stubborn.
"If you've had your fill of laughing at me, hurry up and leave. Don't stay here being an eyesore."
"I didn't come here to laugh at you, and I wasn't deliberately eavesdropping on what you said!"
"Hmph. You're just like that woman, full of dirty tricks! Who knows what you're plotting?"
She paused, then spoke even more forcefully, her dismissal brooking no argument.
"This is my own territory. You have no right to disturb me! Leave!"
"Why does a girl have to speak so harshly all the time? Careful, or no one will want you."
Watching her bristle, Su Yu spoke with a barely perceptible hint of teasing.
Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Qian Renxue's eyes widened. Even Little Gray trembled in her arms, startled by her movement.
"Pah, pah, pah! You're the one nobody will want! I'm a natural beauty with exceptional talent. The people who like me could line up from here to outside Martial Soul Holy City!"
As she spoke, she unconsciously puffed out her chest, as if emphasizing her own excellence.
Little Gray bobbed its head in her arms and stuck out its tongue to lick her fingers, as though soothing her.
Seeing her say one thing while meaning another, Su Yu laughed inwardly, but his expression remained unchanged.
"Oh? That's quite impressive. But talk alone is useless. If you were really that capable, you wouldn't be hiding here pouring your troubles out to a puppy."
"You!" Stung where it hurt, Qian Renxue was momentarily speechless before stiffening her neck again.
"What-what do you know? I was... I was bonding with Little Gray!!!"
Ignoring her resistance, Su Yu walked straight over to the blue-gray rock and sat down, leaving half an arm's length between them.
"Qian Renxue, if you're too proud to be honest with people, it's easy to end up without friends." His tone was calm, as though he were stating something perfectly ordinary.
Qian Renxue stiffened and instinctively wanted to retort, but his next words cut her off.
"If something's weighing on your mind, you can tell me. Don't worry. My lips are sealed. I absolutely won't tell anyone else."
"We can be like a cat and a hollow tree."
"A cat and a hollow tree?" Qian Renxue frowned, clearly unfamiliar with the saying. A trace of confusion appeared in her pale purple eyes.
"What's that?"
"What I mean is..." Su Yu smiled and explained.
"When a cat has something on its mind, it'll chatter away to a hollow tree for ages."
"The hollow tree can't talk, but it'll keep everything the cat says hidden away and won't tell another soul."
Feeling a little embarrassed under Su Yu's gaze, Qian Renxue turned her head aside and said stubbornly,
"Who wants to tell you any of that? I don't have anything on my mind."
Despite her words, her hold on Little Gray loosened a little, and the air that kept everyone a thousand miles away quietly softened somewhat.
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