Chapter 62

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Chapter 62

Because she had experienced flying on a phoenix in the sky, Yun Chuyou returned an hour later than expected. She only got back to Cloud Boat with Xie Fuzhi, who had changed into his human form, after the fireworks ended.

Meng He couldn’t help but say, "Big senior martial sister, why did you two sneak away without saying goodbye to me… We promised to say something."

This time, he also learned to bring others along, making it feel a bit more important.

Actually, after they parted ways, he was only a little angry at first. After that, he focused all his attention on the game.

To be honest, he had a lot of fun today. The food from the Five Palates Sect was delicious, so while browsing the stalls, he didn’t buy any snacks, just played at the game booths.

He wore a temporary bracelet to test spiritual power, and without relying on it, he simply focused on accuracy, playing ring toss, archery, and throwing pots, winning many little prizes.

At a special booth where he performed remarkably well, the vendor looked pale and would rather give Meng He some spirit stones than let this guy keep playing.

But now, seeing Yun Chuyou and Xie Fuzhi, he remembered that Yun Chuyou had let him down. Sneaking away was one thing, but she promised to be back in two hours, and now, almost two hours later, she said she needed another hour.

Although life always has surprises, it doesn’t change the fact that Yun Chuyou let us down twice.

"I have prepared little gifts for you," Yun Chuyou said, raising her hand with small bags of different colors. "I left for a moment, so I am late by an hour today. Please forgive me; I won’t do this again next time."

She and Xie Fuzhi surely need some time alone; otherwise, it wouldn’t be right to always go out with a bunch of extra people.

So, there will definitely be another time, but they will let her know in advance and won’t sneak away.

Meng He crossed his arms and huffed; he usually doesn’t calm down that quickly and needs to be soothed a bit more.

"As long as the senior martial sister is having fun, there’s no need to apologize."

This was Yu Jiu speaking; he didn’t scold like Meng He, but instead remained gentle and caring.

Meng He always knew how to be aggressive and ruin the senior martial sister’s mood, unlike him, who only cared for the senior martial sister.

Yun Chuyou’s expression softened slightly; she was just an ordinary person and not a saint who always reflects on herself. Even though she knew she had made a mistake, she still liked hearing Yu Jiu’s kind and caring words.

Zhong Wei was good at learning from the strengths of her two senior brothers. Seeing Yun Chuyou’s change in expression, she immediately said, "Senior martial sister, you’ve worked hard these past few days. If you want to go out alone, it’s perfectly fine; just let me know, and I won’t worry so much."

The redness on Xie Fuzhi’s cheeks had faded; he was in a good mood today and found his disciples quite pleasing to look at. However, upon hearing this, he shot a glance at Zhong Wei and said, "With me here, there’s no need for you to worry about your senior martial sister’s safety."

He laughed mockingly, "Besides, Chuyou is at the Nascent Soul Stage. You all are far behind in your cultivation. If danger really comes, it will be Chuyou protecting you, not you protecting her."

Hearing this, Meng He felt a bit more relaxed. He did not think his cultivation could help Yun Chuyou. He might not be able to beat this senior martial sister at Nascent Soul Stage, but he could certainly handle other Nascent Soul Stage cultivators.

He couldn’t stand Yu Jiu and Zhong Wei, those two cunning ones. They were just using him to show how understanding they were, which was really shameless, and they deserved to be scolded by the master.

Seeing the young girl’s eyes slightly red, Yun Chuyou quickly spoke up for Zhong Wei, "Alright, the younger martial sister is concerned about me, so we shouldn’t say that. We should help each other and protect our home base. If everything is based on cultivation, then I wouldn’t deserve to be with you."

Xie Fuzhi fell silent, and the originally good atmosphere became a bit colder.

The mascot Hu Xiao Bai stepped in; he raised a tall paper bag and said, "Master, this roast chicken is super delicious! I happened to find a few when I went, and this is for you. Are you hungry? If you are, I can heat it up for you with fox fire right now."

Yun Chuyou gave Hu Xiao Bai an approving glance, "Good Little Bai, you clever and smart fox."

Hu Xiao Bai’s tail wagged happily; helping his master and warming up the atmosphere was what he should do. After these days as a mascot, he had gotten quite good at cheering people up.

The other spirit pet was a merperson, whose personality was much more reserved compared to Hu Xiao Bai. However, everyone was trying to make their presence known, so he felt it was also necessary for him to do so.

Blue Smoke was different from Meng He. He stayed at the goldfish booth, playing small games with the children. This time he brought back a big fish tank filled with little fish, all colorful and of many kinds.

When he saw Yun Chuyou, the merperson raised a fish tank three times the size of his head, filled with a group of little fish swimming around some water plants and pebbles. "Master, today I won the grand prize fish!"

Staying with just one fish in the pond is boring, so he wanted to keep more fish to swim with. If he raises these little fish, he could even have them as snacks.

Hu Xiao Bai immediately said, "How can you say that? Your fishing game made that vendor cry, and you even added a rule that the sea demon cultivators had to pay three times the spirit stones to play."

Some sects are mainly demon cultivators; they are serious sects and do not eat human cultivators, so the vendor could not refuse the demon cultivators. But these sea demon races playing the goldfish game could cause him big losses, so he had to charge more for admission to make up for it.

The merperson pouted, "That vendor is just foolish; he can’t handle the game. He doesn’t know how to change the rules and ends up upsetting people."

Yun Chuyou looked at the fish tank, her lips twitching, but she had indeed put in a lot of effort during this time. "You did well."

"However, I won’t cover the cost of raising the fish; I’ll deduct it from your pay."

Yun Chuyou would pay for the care of the spirit pet herself. Even though she was the leader, she always kept her public and private matters separate and was very clear about it.

She can raise spirit pets, but she does not plan to cover the costs of raising them for free.

The merperson immediately asked, "How much does it cost to raise these fish?"

"There are ways to raise them for the poor and for the rich; the cheapest way costs an extra hundred lower spirit stones a month."

The main reason is that there are a lot of fish, so the expenses are high. Some of the fish fry eat quite a bit, and we also need to consider the cost of buying supplies. After all, she doesn’t have time to help shop; she needs someone to buy and deliver them.

The first one asked again, "What about the way for the rich?"

Yun Chuyou smiled, "If you are rich, there is no limit."

"Then I will raise them using the cheapest method." After all, they are her spoils; even if she loses money, she can afford to take care of them.

The merperson calculated the hard-earned spirit stones he had saved during this time, and soon the big competition would begin, "Can I use the spirit stones I saved to place a bet?"

Unlike Hu Xiao Bai, Blue Smoke, although a merperson from the West Sea, had lived in the ocean for thousands of years. During that time, he even experienced several great competitions. Before Xie Fuzhi caught him, he was already an Astral Projection Stage demon cultivator.

Such skills are enough for Blue Smoke to blend in among human cultivators.

Unfortunately, once a contract is made with a spirit pet, regardless of how strong their previous skills were, their abilities will be automatically suppressed to match their owner’s level. Right now, Blue Smoke is not as strong as before; they are only at the primordial stage of the Nascent Soul.

However, as long as Yun Chuyou breaks through, his skills will follow and restore without having to train hard himself.

Of course, someone like Hu Xiao Bai, whose level is a bit lower than Yun Chuyou’s, will not suddenly grow to match his owner’s level after the contract; they will just train a little faster than before.

Yun Chuyou repeated, "A bet?"

"Yes, every year there are bets placed before the big competitions, and if you pick an underdog, you can win a lot of spirit stones."

Blue Smoke said, "But if one person puts in too many spirit stones, it will affect the odds."

Even so, if you bet a lot and get it right, you will definitely earn a lot.

He said with a smile, "I believe my master will do even better, and I want to use the spirit stones I’ve earned to bet on you, master."

Hu Xiao Bai also raised the fox paw and followed Yun Chuyou. He collected many spirit stones and wanted to go see Blue Mountain someday.

Unlike the merperson, who always wanted to escape and return to the West Sea, Hu Xiao Bai did not plan to break his contract with Yun Chuyou. But who wouldn’t want to go home in glory?

Yun Chuyou took care of his food and shelter, and his master provided resources for his training. He wanted to give some of the saved spirit stones to Blue Mountain.

Thinking of something, Hu Xiao Bai got excited and said, "Master, master, will there be any fox demons from Blue Mountain at the Grand Gathering of the Hundred Schools?"

Before this, he was just a mascot on the spirit boat and didn’t dare to sneak off, afraid of being caught. Today, as he walked around the street, he hid his ears and tail nervously but saw many cultivators with ears and tails, clearly from the demon race.

The demon race did not exist as a whole, but some part of the demon race could reach agreements with human cultivators. They did not eat people and were not interested in humans, and some flower-loving demon cultivators didn’t often kill.

However, the demon race was different. Most of the time, the demon race and human race had a relationship of complete opposition.

Whenever something shocking happened in the spiritual world, even if it wasn’t caused by a demon cultivator, the blame would surely fall on them.

Most demon cultivators were very arrogant and rarely defended themselves, making the relationship between the spiritual world cultivators and the Demon Realm even worse.

Although Meng He is a young demon, he has a special jewel inside him that perfectly hides his demonic energy, keeping his true nature a secret from those who don’t know he is a demon.

Xie Fuzhi knows this because he is a phoenix and can see Meng He’s true identity. Plus, as a reincarnated prophet, he knows that Meng He is a demon.

As for Yu Jiu, he has the body of a ghost child and is the heir of the Ghost Realm. As the future ghost king, even if he knows Meng He is a demon, he does not plan to reveal it.

For Yun Chuyou, who has entered the story, she knows her junior brother is a demon, but since Meng He does not look bad, she also chooses to keep it a secret.

Thinking about the plot of the Grand Competition, Yun Chuyou quickly recalled that in the original story, Meng He did not reveal his demon identity in front of all the spiritual world cultivators; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to be the main character’s devoted friend and would have been killed by powerful beings from other sects on the very day he exposed himself.

Although the plot has changed a lot, it has mostly moved in a good direction, so Meng He shouldn’t face any unexpected troubles. Yun Chuyou felt relieved and said, "I’m not sure either. This is my first time participating in the Grand Competition. Master, do you know?"

The Blue Mountain Fox tribe has gradually declined and has very little role in the original story; they only showed up at the end when the entire spiritual world fell into chaos and the demon race appeared. That’s why Yun Chuyou does not know if the Blue Mountain Fox tribe will come this time.

In front of Hu Xiao Bai and her fellow disciples, Yun Chuyou sometimes still calls him Master. She got used to it in the past, so it’s a bit hard to change.

Xie Fuzhi doesn’t like to deal with these matters, but since Yun Chuyou asked, he would definitely reply, "They will come. When the Chuyou competition is over, I will ask the Blue Mountain Fox leader to meet you."

Since the position of the ancient great demon is there, naturally, it should be the Blue Mountain Fox tribe that comes to see him.

Actually, he could still call someone over now, but thinking about so many fox spirits, Xie Fuzhi felt a bit unwilling. What if it disturbed Yun Chuyou’s mind? So he decided to wait until after the competition.

Hu Xiao Bai did not know that Xie Fuzhi had such complicated thoughts. To a little fox spirit lost in the world, being able to meet the Fox Lord was like a surprise from the heavens.

"Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!"

If it weren’t for so many outsiders, Hu Xiao Bai would definitely bow to the Phoenix Lord.

Meng He always felt something was a bit strange, "The senior martial sister is really your master, right? It feels wrong for you to call out like that." It seemed like Xie Fuzhi was the master instead.

Hu Xiao Bai gave Meng He a complex look. What did this guy understand? He was, of course, just following what his family master said.

The Phoenix Lord is both the partner and the teacher of the master, so it makes sense to call him ‘Lord.’ What a nice title!

Hu Xiao Bai is a fox who can keep secrets. His master does not allow him to reveal Xie Fuzhi’s true identity in front of others, so he will not casually call Xie Fuzhi the Phoenix Lord.

"Alright, everyone is tired. Let’s go back and rest. Yu Jiu, you and I will study how to place bets together, and then perform well tomorrow."

Just like Blue Smoke said, there are many betting agencies for such grand events. After all, by betting spirit stones, the house can collect a fee, and even a tiny fee of five thousandths can add up to a significant amount with many bets.

When they look for bets, they definitely won’t find any untrustworthy private individuals, to avoid hidden tricks or not being able to pay out at all.

The arrangements Yu Jiu made while out in the world have clearly taken shape over the years. After some research, he quickly provided Yun Chuyou with the related information. When he sent it to her through the Spirit Connecting Jade, he also asked, "Big senior martial sister, should we pretend to lose?"

After several years of improvements, the Spirit King has also added a document transfer function, but it requires more Spirit Qi to use.

Yun Chuyou sent a shocked expression, "???!!!"

Yu Jiu added, "That’s not what I meant. I meant that acting a bit tougher could raise the odds."

If they appear too strong from the beginning, the audience will overestimate their abilities. But if they show weakness at first and pretend to have only won by luck, the audience will think they are weak and cannot defeat the strong. This will raise the odds, and by playing it safe, they will surely earn more.

Yu Jiu said, "You can bet on yourself to win in all competitions, but you cannot bet on yourself to lose."

This rule is made to stop someone from losing on purpose to earn spirit stones. Although it is hard to completely prevent this, for example, he may not bet but let a friend bet. However, in the early matches, the money involved is usually not very large.

In the later stages, such as the top eight or even the championship match, the betting will be higher, and those who can reach this level would not intentionally lose for a small amount of spirit stones.

Yun Chuyou thought for a moment; Yu Jiu is the kind of person who is good at hiding and often wins using weakness against strength, "If you want to do that, it’s okay. Follow your own wishes."

She reminded Yu Jiu, "The sect is not lacking spirit stones, so don’t go against your feelings just to earn more spirit stones."

Hiding one’s strength appropriately can be a tactic, but Yun Chuyou does not plan to do it on purpose.

As for Meng He, his path of training is somewhat like the invincible path, the kind that believes in being the best in the world. Forcing him to hide would instead affect his mindset.

Yu Jiu replied, "Got it. Thank you, senior martial sister. I wish you good luck tomorrow."

Yun Chuyou looked out at the sky, "Let’s encourage each other. Good night."

Even if they do not sleep, everyone should meditate and rest to gather their energy to better face the upcoming matches.

She finished her conversation with Yu Jiu and looked at the Spirit Connecting Jade page. The Spirit Connecting Jade has not yet made a feature to pin messages, but if a friend sends a message, the newest one will float to the top.

Yun Chuyou clicked on Xie Fuzhi’s profile below and said, "Fuzhi, I’m very happy today. I’m going to sleep now. Good night."

Xie Fuzhi was very excited today, tossing and turning in bed unable to sleep, resting his chin on his hand and gazing dreamily at the candle, with the Spirit Connecting Jade placed right in front of him.

He bought two pieces in total, one added other people, and the other one only added Yun Chuyou. As soon as he heard the message sound, his gaze immediately turned to the Spirit Connecting Jade, "Chuyou! Good night! Kisses!"

Besides texts, the spirit communication king can send simple expressions, but not those kinds with pictures; these are emoticons designed using text by cultivators.

This kiss is an emoticon, especially cute.

After sending the message, he didn’t wait for a reply, clearly Yun Chuyou had already gone to sleep, but Xie Fuzhi was not disappointed.

Because today, when he flew in the clouds with Yun Chuyou, they had already kissed.

Among the sky full of fireworks, Chuyou kissed him!

It was not the light kiss from before, but rather a kiss filled with desire, impulse, and even longing that made him feel drawn in and even a little bit in love.

Most of the demon race, when they become emotional, unconsciously entice others. The phoenix is also a magical creature, and as a male phoenix, it is his nature to charm his beloved when he feels emotions.

It was a close call, Chuyou managed to hold back, and nothing more extreme happened. But thinking back to that kiss, Xie Fuzhi felt his whole body burning. He recited the calming spell many times; otherwise, the Phoenix True Fire in him would start to sizzle and melt the spirit boat.

He had to be reserved, being reserved was very important in the Grand Competition; he must not disturb Chuyou’s mind at this time.

However, his true essence should be very enriching; if Chuyou reached the finals, it wouldn’t be impossible to consider…

He still had to be cautious; if he accidentally overdid it and Chuyou went from Nascent Soul directly to Astral Projection, he would be disqualified from the competition.

Besides, it is said that things that come too easily are not appreciated. Xie Fuzhi slapped his face hard to wake up from that thought. He murmured the code of conduct for men: purity is the best dowry for a phoenix, and he absolutely must not do such things before the wedding ceremony.

After the Grand Competition ends! After the finals, they should get engaged first and then quickly get married!

Thinking about his wedding, Xie Fuzhi was so excited that he couldn’t sleep all night.

Before they knew it, it was morning.

The dawn light was faint, and the stalls started to bustle again, but today, the livelier place was the venue for the Hundred Sects Conference.