Chapter 93 : Back From a Date?
In the game, after clearing this dungeon, players could open a treasure chest to obtain the weapon [Moon-Pounding Jade Pestle].
This was a top-tier weapon that players could get in the early game.
It could be called a god-tier item for early progression.
But all gifts bestowed by fate have their prices secretly marked.
The [Moon-Pounding Jade Pestle] was powerful, yes. Did players want it? Of course. But they had to accept the debuff that came with the item. If they dared to accept it, they could use the weapon; if not, they got nothing.
Mu Qinglan looked at the details in the status bar.
[The Moon Lady's Lingering Thoughts: The Moon Lady's remnant soul is attached to you. Mental attributes decreased by 20%]
"Heh!"
She gave a cold laugh.
The dog company's treachery was waiting for her right here!
Why was this dungeon opened to players so quickly? Because this weapon, in essence, wasn't an early progression weapon at all! It was a key given to players by the dog company to unlock subsequent hidden storylines.
Although the game would ask players in advance whether they wanted this weapon.
But what kind of temperament did players have?
A new quest? Charge forward!
For dedicated players, any yellow exclamation mark on the map was a sign of disrespect!
In the game, there were two ways to solve the negative status [The Moon Lady's Lingering Thoughts], both with benefits—one favored the early game, the other the late game.
The late-game solution was to leave it alone.
After a few months, when the Moon Lady's remnant soul awakened, a series of quests would naturally trigger.
The quest rewards were quite generous, but Mu Qinglan thought, doing quests?
Completely unnecessary.
Setting aside whether she had the ability to complete every single side quest given her current development speed and time constraints.
The question was, without that annoying, chatty old witch, couldn't she trigger the quests herself?
She remembered the quest procedures!
If she wanted to do them, she could do them herself! Why did she need the Moon Lady?
The second solution was to directly remove this status, kill off the Moon Lady's remnant soul in one go, and gain some experience and rewards.
Obviously, Mu Qinglan preferred the second method.
This was also related to the Moon Lady's personality.
Despite using the same template as the grandfather in the ring, she couldn't provide advice or help to players like the grandfather did. Instead, she talked too much and was particularly unlikable.
Most importantly, she was average-looking.
A sharp-tongued beautiful girl, though not everyone's cup of tea, could still find admirers due to the diversity of people's preferences.
But a sharp-tongued old witch?
Are you serious?
Might as well get your head examined, dear! Even controlling giant mushrooms made more sense than controlling a sharp-tongued old witch.
Mu Qinglan laughed coldly in her heart. After planning how to deal with this unexpected gain, she withdrew her hand and gestured for Bai Yuyu to pull out the staff.
"Then watch me, Mu Mu." Bai Yuyu said confidently.
She gripped the handle with both hands, planted her feet firmly as if rooted to the ground, took a deep breath, and pulled hard.
Screech!
The jade pestle, stuck in the altar, wobbled twice before being forcefully pulled out, producing an intense friction sound.
Boom!!
Bai Yuyu held the jade pestle, her face slightly flushed from the effort. She was about to say something when suddenly the altar began to shake violently.
No, not just the altar.
Mu Qinglan looked into the distance. The clouds were dispersing, birds were startled into flight—like a high-rise building whose load-bearing pillars had been broken by an unqualified construction team, the entire secret realm suddenly seemed on the verge of collapse.
Hmm?
Leaning in her wheelchair, Mu Qinglan inclined slightly forward, her expression shifting subtly.
Was the secret realm about to collapse? Then, according to the game's settings, all people should be teleported out at the moment of collapse.
"Mama..."
A soft, sleepy-sounding exhale resonated near Mu Qinglan's ear.
It was Ah Qi.
The dark shadow beneath the white-haired girl's feet trembled imperceptibly, then, in a place Bai Yuyu couldn't see, several elongated blood-colored eyes opened, quietly staring at the wheelchair-bound girl.
The shadows moved like weaving threads, like water, like an endearing cat, slowly writhing under Mu Qinglan's hand.
The voice continued:
"Mama... there's a strange feeling on your body."
"It's nothing, just being haunted by an annoying old witch." Mu Qinglan lowered her eyes and said calmly.
She had considered letting Ah Qi try to eliminate the Moon Lady's remnant soul, but after some thought, she decided that Ah Qi's current strength wasn't sufficient, and it was better not to startle the snake in the grass.
Divine beasts truly lived up to their name.
Under Mu Qinglan's persistent feeding, Ah Qi's strength had already reached the sixth rank.
And not just any sixth rank—an exceptionally powerful one.
Logically, with her inherent mystical nature, even at the sixth rank, she should pose a significant threat to the Moon Lady. But Mu Qinglan felt that Ah Qi was somewhat simple-minded, her eyes often revealing a kind of clear foolishness.
For such delicate work, there might be problems.
Therefore, Mu Qinglan had someone else in mind to help.
—If it were her, it would definitely work.
"Mama... do you want me to..." Ah Qi's voice seemed both near and far, and as she finished, her tone became ghostly and filled with killing intent.
"No need. Ah Qi isn't that useful yet."
Mu Qinglan was unsparing in her criticism, like an unscrupulous boss frantically picking at subordinates' flaws near the year's end, trying to exploit their annual bonuses.
Except Ah Qi had no bonus.
Seen this way, Mu Qinglan seemed more like an unscrupulous capitalist, only making empty promises to subordinates, or even worse, using her beauty to sway beautiful female subordinates to work diligently for her.
"Go back to sleep. I'm waiting for the day when Ah Qi becomes very powerful."
Mu Qinglan said casually.
Hearing this, the shadow gently brushed against her finger, gradually disappearing.
"Understood..."
After comforting Ah Qi, Bai Yuyu finally snapped back from observing the distant tremors, looking at her somewhat uneasily.
Before she could speak, Mu Qinglan explained first: "The secret realm is about to collapse. After it ends, we'll all be randomly teleported out. Hold my hand so we don't get separated."
Bai Yuyu was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly attached her new weapon to her back and held Mu Qinglan's hand.
"When we go back, how will little Bai explain this to her family?" Mu Qinglan's lips curled up slightly.
"Of course I'll show it to them!" Bai Yuyu said cheerfully: "I guess even the adults in my family haven't seen many weapons of this grade! I'll definitely have to show it off properly!"
She added, "And I won't forget to mention Mu Mu!"
"Hehe!"
Little Bai giggled foolishly, like a husky that had just been well-fed, bending down and enthusiastically rubbing her little cheeks against Mu Qinglan's face twice.
Mu Qinglan was a bit disgusted because the action looked somewhat stupid.
If someone saw it, they might think she was some husky-type girl too.
That would be truly terrible.
○
At the far edge of the secret realm.
A black figure sped through the forest, startling flocks of birds.
At one point, the black figure suddenly paused, looking into the distance, revealing a face filled with uncertainty.
"Is the secret realm about to collapse?"
Shadow One's face was gloomy as she muttered to herself.
From the beginning of collapse to complete dissipation, a secret realm only had a few minutes. During this time, trying to find Mu Qinglan in the vast secret realm would be like finding a needle in a haystack—simply impossible.
So it was better to wait and find the young miss after they got out.
She had already failed her duty enough.
"I hope the young miss is alright..." Shadow One sighed. "When we return, I'll have to ask Steward Yuan for guidance on advancing to the fifth rank."
○
Swoosh!
In the forest, under the tree shade.
A pale bone hand instantly pierced through the chest of a black-robed Strange Art Practitioner, lifting her up and flinging her away, crashing her into a tree trunk to the right.
Bang!
The tree trunk shook violently, dropping countless yellow leaves.
"Sister!"
The owner of the bone hand silently surveyed the surroundings, its hollow eye sockets wobbling, but suddenly it turned its head, staring fixedly at a certain dark corner.
Swoosh—
The specter quickly drifted in that direction.
"Damn it!!" Yun Juan suppressed the grief in her heart and turned to leave.
In the earlier pursuit, she and her sister had barely managed to escape the tracking specters, but unexpectedly, they ran straight into another specter that was hunting.
In just an instant, her sister died tragically.
Only she managed to escape using her movement technique.
"Cursed secret realm... and those people..."
Yun Juan didn't dare look back, fearing that her speed might drop even slightly. She could only hate—hate how treacherous this secret realm was, and hate how that group of people had escaped the specters' pursuit.
She hated it all...
○
The shaking of the secret realm lasted about a quarter of an hour.
After that time.
With a flash of white light across the sky, Mu Qinglan shook her head and found herself back in the red leaf forest of Fragrant Mountain, with the sky suddenly turning gloomy.
"I almost forgot, it's about to rain outside."
Mu Qinglan sighed, then waited outside with Bai Yuyu, waiting for Shadow One to find her.
Inside the secret realm, she hadn't wanted to bring this bodyguard along, lest she steal the spotlight in front of Bai Yuyu, but outside, Mu Qinglan had no intention of leaving her behind.
She was quite skilled at using people as tools.
Soon, Shadow One found her and apologized. Mu Qinglan gave her a mild reprimand, once again earning Shadow One's grateful gaze.
During this secret realm excursion, she hadn't fulfilled any of her protective duties.
Not only did the young miss not blame her too much, but she even comforted her. What extraordinary tolerance!
Shadow One withdrew with loyalty, clearly having been completely fooled.
"Shall I push you back?" Bai Yuyu said, not waiting for a response before huffing and puffing as she ran behind to push her wheelchair.
As she pushed, she hummed a tune.
"La, la la~"
"Does little Bai like to sing?"
"Not really," Bai Yuyu shook her head, her light green eyes almost curved with happiness: "I only sing a little when I'm very happy."
"Then... has Shen Yao heard you sing?" Mu Qinglan deliberately asked.
"Guess."
"Then I guess..." Mu Qinglan intentionally dragged out the sound, and under the curious gaze of Little Bai, said: "She has."
"Hmph," Bai Yuyu clicked her tongue, lightly tapping her right toe on the ground and turned her head:
"Only you have heard it."
"Only me?" Mu Qinglan pretended to be flattered, though she already knew this.
She had given a wrong answer just to make Bai Yuyu say it herself.
And Little Bai fell for it.
"Only you. Not everyone is as good as you..." Bai Yuyu muttered, then fell silent, a bit embarrassed.
Mu Qinglan just smiled.
As soon as they arrived at the inn and went downstairs after resting, they heard the teasing voice of the coachwoman:
"Young miss, Miss Bai, back from your date?"
"Wh-what date?! Don't say such things!" Bai Yuyu's face turned bright red as she flailed her arms and legs, not knowing how to explain their pure friendship.
"Yes, we're back."
Mu Qinglan didn't explain, just nodded.
"Eh?!!!"
Bai Yuyu instantly turned her head.