Chapter 185 : The Petty Tiger
"I wonder where Senior Brother You and Junior Sister Ruan went earlier? How did you end up in such a disheveled state?"
When Bei Luo asked this question, there wasn't much curiosity in his tone, but rather a hint of sympathy—apparently these two's misfortune had become deeply ingrained in everyone's minds. Looking at the dust covering their robes, he even suspected they could trip and fall just by taking a casual stroll.
Perhaps Bei Luo's sympathy was too obvious, as You Yi noticed it at a glance, and the response that had reached his lips was immediately stifled. Ruan Le, however, seemed rather guileless. Upon hearing the question, she looked down at her disheveled appearance and answered without much thought: "Oh, this? It's nothing really. It's just that Senior Brother's injuries have completely healed recently, and since none of you had returned yet, Senior Brother and I decided to take a look around nearby."
Everyone understood what this "taking a look around" meant—they had gone searching for spirit plants. This was, after all, a secret realm that had remained unexplored for many years, so spirit plants were quite abundant. The ice plain naturally had spirit plants suited to its cold environment, and the same applied to the volcano. Encountering and being attacked by spirit beasts while gathering plants was also a common occurrence, which had nothing to do with being unlucky.
Naturally, whatever plants others gathered were their own harvest, and no one intended to comment or inquire about what the two had found. However, before they could change the subject, they saw Ruan Le suddenly approach Yun Qingyue with sparkling eyes.
Since both were female cultivators, no one thought there was anything unusual about this, except for the little white tiger who instinctively became alert.
Yun Qingyue didn't sense any malice from Ruan Le, so she reassuringly stroked the little white tiger's head, then kept her hand there to hold her still before asking: "Does Junior Sister Ruan have something to discuss?"
Ruan Le approached Yun Qingyue with a smile, hesitating slightly, then suddenly adopted a solemn expression: "Senior Sister Yun, counting this time, you've saved me three times now. Previously, because I was worried about Senior Brother's injuries, I never properly thanked you." At this point, she suddenly bowed deeply to Yun Qingyue, her gratitude completely genuine.
Yun Qingyue hadn't expected her to suddenly come over to express thanks, and seeing this, she reached out to help her up: "We follow the same path, and Xuanqing Sect and Tiandao Sect have always maintained good relations. Seeing you and Senior Brother You in danger, offering help was only natural."
Ruan Le stood up with Yun Qingyue's assistance, holding onto her hand: "That may be so, but while Senior Sister can think nothing of it, my Senior Brother and I cannot shamelessly pretend nothing happened." As she spoke, a jade box suddenly appeared in her hand: "I have few possessions, but Senior Brother and I happened to find some spirit plants nearby these past few days. I'd like to present this to Senior Sister as a small token of my gratitude. After we leave the secret realm and return to our sect, I'll prepare a more substantial gift to thank you."
Yun Qingyue didn't accept it, shaking her head: "Junior Sister, there's no need for this..."
Halfway through her sentence, she suddenly felt unusual movement in her arms. Looking down, she saw the little white tiger baring its teeth at Ruan Le. Following the tiger cub's gaze, she realized that Ruan Le was still holding her hand, and the milk tiger was jealous.
Yun Qingyue couldn't help but smile, surprised by the little white tiger's strong possessiveness. Nevertheless, she discreetly withdrew her hand and continued: "Junior Sister, there's no need for this. You and Senior Brother You are currently in difficult circumstances. Having found useful spirit plants, you should keep them for yourselves."
Ruan Le still pushed the jade box into her hands, looking somewhat embarrassed: "It's fine, neither Senior Brother nor I can use it right now."
Before Yun Qingyue could return the box, Ruan Le suddenly opened it. Inside the smooth jade container, a crystal-like flower was in full bloom, as clear as ice yet as splendid as fire—what else could it be but the Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower?
Yun Qingyue was stunned, not expecting that the Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower that Jianbing had traveled so far to find had been discovered by Ruan Le. She instinctively looked down at the little white tiger—since Ruan Le and You Yi truly had no use for this Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower, if Jianbing needed it, accepting it wouldn't be unreasonable... But when she looked down, she found the little white tiger showing its teeth, not even sparing a glance at the Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower.
What was wrong now? Did Jianbing simply dislike Ruan Le that much?
Yun Qingyue rarely failed to follow the little white tiger's train of thought. Just as she was about to send a voice transmission to ask the little white tiger's opinion, she saw the tiger cub, with a disdainful expression, push away both the jade box and the flower with its paw. From its demeanor, it clearly didn't want to accept Ruan Le's goodwill.
Suddenly remembering that the little white tiger wanted ten Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flowers, Yun Qingyue thought she understood and declined: "This Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower must have been difficult to gather, and I cannot accept it so easily." Before Ruan Le could say anything else, she added: "Why don't Junior Sister tell me where you found this Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower, and I'll go look for myself. If there are others, I'll gather them on my own."
Cultivators have keen ears and eyes, and as soon as Yun Qingyue mentioned the Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower, everyone nearby turned their attention toward them.
Seeing his Junior Sister offering the Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower to Yun Qingyue, You Yi had no objections—after all, he had no use for it, and it was essentially just worth some spirit stones. If Yun Qingyue accepted it, it would repay some karmic debt, which was all for the better.
Su Hao and the others, however, perked up when they heard this—truly, what they sought had appeared without effort. Although the foot of the volcano had areas where ice and fire met, creating a suitable environment for the Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower to grow, whether any actually existed there was uncertain. Now, before they had even begun searching, the information had presented itself—their luck couldn't be better.
Only the little white tiger continued to bare its teeth, looking quite unhappy—it had also wanted to give flowers to Senior Sister, but before it could even find a single petal, Senior Sister had already received flowers from someone else.
What was this if not stealing its thunder?!
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The supposedly not-petty petty tiger was indeed angry. Even though Ruan Le cooperated fully by revealing the location of the Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower, saving them considerable trouble searching, the tiger still found Ruan Le irritating.
Privately, the little white tiger muttered to the system: "Once I find the Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flowers, I'll give Senior Sister ten of them!"
The system, while reviewing subsequent tasks, responded with perfunctory "oh's" and "ah's," though it truly had nothing meaningful to say to its host—the host was too perceptive, or perhaps had seen too many patterns. Since learning about the appearance and effects of the Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower, she had guessed that the subsequent task would be to present the flowers to Senior Sister. With her being so proactive, what more could the system say?
Fortunately, the little white tiger had no time to dwell on the system; she needed to keep an eye on Ruan Le. Whether because Senior Sister had saved her too many times, or because among so many people present only she and Senior Sister were female cultivators, Ruan Le kept lingering around Senior Sister, which was quite annoying.
And besides being annoying, she also made irritating comments: "Senior Sister, why does Jianbing keep baring her teeth at me? Does she dislike me?"
Yun Qingyue's hand paused while stroking the tiger, and just as she was about to offer some diplomatic response, her hand was seized by the little white tiger's two paws. Not stopping there, the little white tiger openly bared its teeth at Ruan Le: "If you know that, why don't you keep your distance?"
The cub's bared teeth and fiercely possessive grip on Yun Qingyue's hand only made it look adorably fierce, causing the onlookers to find it amusing. Only Ruan Le, fixed by the tiger's gaze, felt a chill down her spine and a sense of grievance—she had faced danger multiple times, and each time it was Senior Sister Yun who saved her. Besides her Senior Brother who shared her fate, Yun Qingyue was the person who gave her the greatest sense of security.
Miss Ruan, who had experienced too much misfortune, instinctively sought that security by staying close to Senior Sister Yun. However, a petty tiger observed all this and found everything about Ruan Le irritating.
Thus, amid this bickering, the group arrived at the place where Ruan Le had previously collected the Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower.
It was a deep crevice, precisely at the intersection of the volcano and the ice plain, like an artificial dividing line. On the left side of the crevice was the lush green of warm spring, on the right side the pure white of harsh winter, clearly demarcated.
The little white tiger finally jumped down from Senior Sister's arms and walked to the edge of the crevice to look down. Below was pitch-black darkness of unknown depth, with the bottom invisible, and a cool breeze seemed to blow upward from the depths... If not for being carried in flight by Senior Sister many times since her transmigration, and later learning to fly herself, the little white tiger—who had acrophobia in her previous life—would likely have collapsed on the spot from weak legs.
The others also approached the crevice and looked down, similarly seeing nothing. Then they heard Ruan Le pointing to a spot below: "I picked that Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower right here. I don't know if there are any more down there, and I didn't dare go down to check."
Flying was forbidden on the ice plain, and the depth of this crevice was unknown—falling down was no joking matter.
Su Hao and the others exchanged glances, and then Bai Xu said: "We still need to go down and look. Since one Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower was able to grow here, the environment is clearly suitable, and there might be others."
You Yi, who had been curious all along, finally couldn't help asking: "Everyone, is your purpose for coming to the ice plain really just this Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower?"
He found it somewhat incredible, for although the Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower was precious, it wasn't exclusive to this location. To be blunt, with enough spirit stones, obtaining an Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower outside the secret realm wasn't particularly difficult. In that case, traveling so far to search seemed very inefficient—gathering other spirit plants would clearly offer better value... unless there was something special about the Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flowers here!
Thinking of this, You Yi discreetly glanced in Ruan Le's direction—the Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flower previously offered to Yun Qingyue as a gift hadn't been accepted and was still with his Junior Sister. Perhaps he should ask to examine it?
Su Hao and the others, however, smiled bitterly at his question and only vaguely replied: "We're merely fulfilling a request, doing our duty."
You Yi didn't show whether he believed them or not. No one dwelled on the matter, and they quickly settled on plans to descend into the crevice to search for the flowers. During this discussion, the little white tiger had already had the system scan the conditions below the crevice.
The results brought one piece of good news, one piece of bad news, and one piece of news that was neither good nor bad...
The good news was that there were indeed more Ice Realm Dragon Flame Flowers down in the crevice, enough for her to complete the collection task if gathered. The bad news was that the crevice was over ten thousand feet deep, essentially bottomless—falling down would make it extremely difficult to return. And the neither-good-nor-bad news was that the temperature at the bottom of the crevice was extremely high, possibly due to magma, or perhaps some unusual fire was being nurtured there.