When Golden Finger Meets Salted Fish

Jiang Mo had always been an impoverished white tiger.

Suddenly brought to this world by the system, she started with nothing, not even a bowl, only a debt-ridden system weighing her down. Though she later secured Xuanqing Sect as a long-term meal ticket, she had done nothing for the sect and, despite her thick skin, couldn't bring herself to make excessive demands. Thus, she had long remained in a state of semi-poverty—while not lacking basic cultivation resources, she certainly had nothing extra.

Once, Jiang Mo had asked Divine Lord Zhiming how he had amassed his considerable wealth. His orthodox answer left her despairing—it all came from his adventures after reaching adulthood, collected from various secret realms and dangerous places.

As the saying goes, divine beasts possess innate treasure-seeking abilities; as long as they're willing to move about, they need never be poor.

But Jiang Mo was different—a white tiger cub barely past her first birthday who had hardly left the sect, let alone ventured out treasure hunting. Her only outings were being carried by her Senior Sister to Xuanqing City for strolls. Hoping to find treasures was pure fantasy. Thus, after much deliberation, she concluded her impoverished state would likely persist until adulthood.

Divine Lord Zhiming saw nothing wrong with this. Having slept away three thousand years, supported by the sect in early adulthood, and immediately becoming wealthy upon his first venture out, he naturally didn't see poverty as problematic.

Initially, the little white tiger felt the same—not lacking food or drink at the sect, until entering the secret realm where her Senior Sister was injured, and she discovered she didn't even have a single medicinal pill for healing! Although this wasn't the sect's fault—had she asked, they certainly wouldn't have refused her such basic medicine—the little white tiger nonetheless felt the acute discomfort of being stretched thin.

And now, before her eyes, a box of premium spirit stones gleamed brilliantly, waiting for her to claim...

The little white tiger's eyes reflected the precious light of the premium spirit stones as she walked forward irresistibly, approaching the table holding the spirit stone box. With a nimble jump, she landed on the table, facing the box of spirit stones directly.

The premium spirit stones contained abundant spiritual energy, at least a hundredfold more than high-grade spirit stones. As soon as the little white tiger approached, she felt a wave of familiar metal-attribute spiritual energy. However, what attracted her most wasn't the metal-attribute spirit stones suited to her, but the ice-attribute premium spirit stones occupying the other half of the box—these contained such rich spiritual energy that, if placed beside her Senior Sister, would surely accelerate her recovery.

Thinking this, the little white tiger instinctively reached out to touch the ice spirit stones. Only when her paw tip was chilled by the cold energy emanating from the stones did her excited mind partially regain its rationality, with a strange feeling suddenly rising in her heart.

Her tender tiger paw hovered just above the ice spirit stones, a hair's breadth from contact.

Jiang Mo couldn't immediately identify the source of this strange feeling, but this was a secret realm, an unknown palace within it—opportunities always seemed accompanied by dangers. Even with her impoverished eyes dazzled by treasure, Jiang Mo had never completely abandoned her vigilance. So after hesitation, she withdrew her paw, her tiger face suddenly growing serious.

The system, which had been observing, though secretly disdaining its host's money-grubbing nature, couldn't help asking: "Host, what's wrong?"

The little white tiger withdrew her paw and circled the box twice before suddenly asking the system: "System, have you scanned this box of spirit stones? Is there anything unusual about them?"

The system had indeed scanned them. The cultivation world's treasures held no value for it, so it remained completely clear-headed, untempted. Moreover, in a dangerous place like a secret realm, it maintained extreme caution to prevent its host from accidentally losing her life. If that happened, it lacked the energy for another transmigration with its host and might face task failure and recall.

Hearing its host's question, the system immediately pulled up its previous scan results, carefully reviewing them before answering: "Host, the system has scanned them. These spirit stones appear normal, with regular energy patterns."

The system's energy structure differed from the cultivation world's, so it couldn't comprehend or calculate things like talismans or formations. However, when typical talismans or formations activated, they disturbed surrounding energy fields, allowing the system to make basic judgments. Since these judgments weren't particularly accurate, after being misled previously, Jiang Mo now treated the system's assessments merely as reference.

So now, the more the system insisted nothing was wrong, the more suspicious Jiang Mo became.

The little white tiger silently circled the spirit stone box twice more, observing the clearly divided attributes, when suddenly enlightenment struck—even if the secret realm offered rewards, shouldn't they all be metal-attribute spirit stones?

Before entering this palace, she had already moved her Senior Sister into her innate space. A divine beast's innate space was completely isolated from the outside world; even an immortal present couldn't perceive its contents. Since her Senior Sister hadn't appeared, why would there be ice-attribute premium spirit stones here?

A coincidence? But how many coincidences could exist in this world, especially in a secret realm where "coincidences" couldn't be trusted... Had this mysterious palace perceived her thoughts, or was this simply a trap?

The little white tiger suddenly backed away, then leapt down and ran out of the chamber without looking back.

Nothing happened...

No danger, no obstruction—even as the little white tiger ran out the chamber door, looking back, she could still see the premium spirit stones gleaming on the table. Yet somehow she felt relieved, as if having escaped danger.

The system remained puzzled and asked again: "Host, what's wrong?"

The little white tiger didn't respond, but inwardly trusted her intuition more. She resolutely withdrew her gaze and walked toward the second chamber without a trace of attachment, once again facing tightly closed doors.

The procedure remained the same—forcefully kick the door, cautiously leap back, then nothing happens.

The contents of the second chamber were similar to the first—an empty room with a long table in the center. But this time, instead of a box of premium spirit stones, a small jade bottle sat on the table.

Such jade bottles were typically used for storing medicinal pills. This one was somewhat different, emanating a precious glow, suggesting its material far surpassed ordinary jade. And pills stored in such a bottle must certainly be exceptional—the little white tiger immediately thought of her unconscious Senior Sister in her innate space, her mind stirring with guesses about the pills' purpose.

Sure enough, the little white tiger cautiously jumped onto the long table and carefully opened the jade bottle. A rush of pure spiritual energy filled with vibrant vitality immediately surged forth. Even though the white tiger knew nothing about pill refining, this illiterate tiger could recognize medicinal herbs, and just from this aura alone, she knew these pills must be extraordinary.

It seemed even more like a trap—what should she do? But she desperately wanted these pills...

The little white tiger's face wrinkled with conflict. Her main purpose in entering this palace was to find medicine for her Senior Sister, and now excellent pills lay before her, yet her concerns prevented her from reaching out.

But what if the trap was merely her groundless intuition? What if there was truly nothing wrong, and she was simply overthinking?

The little white tiger hesitated, and amid the rich medicinal fragrance, the scales in her heart gradually tipped—even if, even if it really was a trap, would that matter? The Canglán Secret Realm had so far only served as a test, never deliberately causing deaths. She would thoroughly examine these pills before giving them to her Senior Sister. As for other unexpected developments, after careful consideration, she felt she could handle them.

At worst, she had her innate space where she could always hide to preserve her life!

The little white tiger gradually wavered, her paw slowly rising toward the jade bottle. Just as her paw tip touched the bottle, about to pick it up, the system suddenly exclaimed in her consciousness: "Huh?"

Perhaps because her nerves were already taut, this sudden sound made the little white tiger immediately withdraw her paw as if burned.

Startled, her heart pounding wildly for several beats, she finally asked with some irritation: "System, what are you 'huh'-ing about for no reason?"

The system's voice sounded innocent: "Host, it's not for no reason. Look at your mission status—you've entered two chambers but haven't completed a single exploration task. Maybe you haven't explored thoroughly enough, or perhaps there are hidden mechanisms or secret rooms you haven't discovered, which is why the tasks remain incomplete?" It added: "A 5,000 experience point reward is quite substantial."

Hearing this, the little white tiger was momentarily stunned and quickly opened her system panel to check. Sure enough, the exploration task completion remained at 0, with no rewards whatsoever.

She then looked around the chamber again—the empty room was visible at a glance, offering no scope for exploration.

And certainly no value in exploring!

The little white tiger suddenly understood something, her golden tiger eyes widening slightly before she turned and fled without another word. This time, not only did she feel no attachment to the medicinal pills on the table, but after leaving the second chamber, she didn't even check the third. Instead, she ran back along the corridor as soon as she exited, appearing determined to escape this place.

The two imposing palace doors with their nouveau riche quality remained open, the gems inlaid on them gleaming as brilliantly as before. But this time, the little white tiger didn't disdain them; her eyes shone with extraordinary brightness as she gazed at the doors.

The little white tiger ran at top speed, watching as the distance to the palace doors shortened, when suddenly thick white mist began to spread.

Jiang Mo instinctively sensed danger, her feet moving like the wind, not daring to pause for an instant. However, the gem-illuminated palace doors were quickly swallowed by the white mist. Though she continued running toward them without stopping, her visible range diminished rapidly until she could barely see the path beneath her feet.

Finally, she plunged into the vast white mist, looking around to find nothing but whiteness in all directions, everything else vanished. Lost in this white mist without direction, she could no longer locate the palace doors.

Unease quickly enveloped her heart. The little white tiger immediately decided to retreat into her innate space to wait and reassess the situation later.

However, just as this thought arose, she found herself unable to enter her innate space. Instead, an irresistible drowsiness invaded her consciousness. Her thoughts became hazy, and despite biting her tongue in a desperate effort to stay awake, she quickly lost consciousness entirely...