Chapter 208: So I’m the Protagonist After All (4)
Yan Miaomiao was naturally startled by the commotion outside. But after taking a look, she felt that the red-clothed young lady wouldn’t lose, so she buried her head in her food again, not forgetting to scoop a spoonful for Su Mingxiu—
The future Venerable Zhaolin, who would be renowned throughout the nine continents, lowered her eyes and saw that it was just an ordinary spoonful of stuffed tofu.
It was just that the filling in the middle was changed to a type of spirit beast meat. And there was a faint smell of wine in the rich sauce.
Just a simple tofu dish, from the presentation to the seasoning, took a lot of thought. Su Mingxiu picked it up and took a bite, saying to the little junior sister opposite her, “It tastes good.”
Despite saying this, Su Mingxiu got up from the table, causing the round-cheeked little girl to look up at her in confusion, asking with her eyes where she was going.
The Heavenly Dao, on the other hand, warned her in a preemptive manner, “You promised me you wouldn’t actively approach her!”
Su Mingxiu didn’t respond to either of them. She found a waiter and asked about the situation outside, confirming that the rogue cultivator was just bluffing. Then she asked where the back kitchen was, and finally asked, “How many spirit stones do I need to pay to be an apprentice here?”
The waiter looked at her immortal-like face and stammered, “Huh?”
Su Mingxiu, who had been patiently waiting for an answer, had to ask again, “Then are the recipes for sale?”
If it weren’t for the Hundred Flower Sect emblem on her clothes, and the fact that the Hundred Flavors Restaurant’s business was largely supported by the Hundred Flower Sect, Su Mingxiu would have been politely escorted out for asking these two questions.
In the end, the manager came to talk to her. After learning that she just wanted to make a family meal, had no intention of opening a competing restaurant nearby, and didn’t intend to take the recipes back to the sect, they agreed on a very reasonable price for the recipes.
By the time she returned to her seat, Yan Miaomiao had already eaten her fill, her stomach round. She was reluctant to go back but was still pouring tea into her stomach. Su Mingxiu saw that she had indeed eaten a lot and couldn’t help but advise, “Weren’t you full? Why are you still drinking?”
“I’m full of the main course, but I can still drink more tea. If there were a fresh fruit platter or some dried fruit and candied fruit, I could also try harder,” Yan Miaomiao said.
Su Mingxiu understood—
This was probably the legendary foodie’s stomach, divided into many parts, with main courses, snacks, and drinks each occupying a part. Being full in one part doesn’t affect the intake of others.
But she did have other things she wanted to verify. So after Yan Miaomiao finished eating, she coaxed the child back to the mountain gate early with a takeaway box of pastries, promising to bring her out again next time.
That night.
Su Mingxiu concealed her presence and headed towards the back mountain of the Hundred Flower Sect. This was the place where the successive generations of the Hundred Flower Sect’s ancestors had returned to their souls.
Even if some had successfully ascended, they symbolically left behind some items as a cenotaph. In the previous life, the demon race had invaded the Hundred Flower Sect on a large scale, specifically for something in this back mountain.
But Su Mingxiu couldn’t quite remember what it was, just that she wanted to take precautions and also probe the depths of her current master, Ye Qingbai.
She was originally born into an ordinary family in the mortal world, but her family was poor and planned to sell her to a wealthy family as a child bride.
However, she was coincidentally met by the traveling Hundred Flower Sect Leader, who took pity on her and bought her back as a disciple.
Now that she thought about it…
It should have been not long after that when Ye Qingbai’s core was replaced by someone else.
Who could have thought that the Heavenly Demon, which had caused panic throughout the nine continents and was rarely seen in ten thousand years, had actually already infiltrated the Hundred Flower Sect. That power could not be completely hidden within a cultivator’s body, which was why Ye Qingbai had such an abrupt blood-red mark on her forehead.
“Who is it?”
Su Mingxiu had just approached the back mountain formation when she heard Ye Qingbai’s voice. At first, Su Mingxiu thought it was her own lack of cultivation that had led to her being discovered.
But thinking about it, she felt it was wrong. Cultivation was about the state of mind, and she had a natural Daoist constitution. Her path in cultivation should be smooth.
Now that she could raise her cultivation to the level of her previous life in an instant, even if the Heavenly Demon in Ye Qingbai’s body had a higher realm, it shouldn’t be able to detect her at this time.
Until two thin leaves came towards Su Mingxiu with the wind, but they were nowhere near her hiding place. Su Mingxiu’s hair was swept up by the wind, and she smelled a strong medicinal fragrance—
She belatedly remembered.
Ye Qingbai had a particularly sensitive sense of smell, and because she was immersed in the Dao of medicine all year round, perhaps because she usually stayed in that little garden, or because she had gone down the mountain to the mortal world today, her scent was carried over by the wind, arousing suspicion.
Seeing that her plan to explore the back mountain at night had failed, she could only stop there. The Heavenly Dao, which was watching her at all times, leisurely said at this moment, “The Heavenly Demon has appeared, and the nine continents are in trouble. If you want to stop her, you can bring Xiao Xingwei here tomorrow.”
【I was originally wondering why you entrusted the task of saving the world to me. Now I have a clue… You want to transfer all my luck to Xiao Xingwei?】
Su Mingxiu stood in front of the formation, in this dark night with its eerie winds, slowly passing the time with the Heavenly Dao.
“As the protagonist, you should respect fate and complete your predetermined mission. Since you are so resistant to the fate I arranged for you, then give up your identity. You should be happy that you no longer have to be forced by me.”
Perhaps because it was at its wit’s end, the Heavenly Dao didn’t hide as much from Su Mingxiu now.
Su Mingxiu just smiled faintly, “Indeed.”
She didn’t want to be the Heavenly Dao’s puppet, but… that was different from giving her own things to others to pave their way. Su Mingxiu didn’t think that giving Xiao Xingwei her luck would be a good thing for her.
But these thoughts were just a flash in her mind. On the surface, she yawned lightly, preparing to go to her dwelling. Halfway there, she remembered that her residence was on Ye Qingbai’s peak—
She made a sharp turn and changed direction to her little garden, which gathered all the spring of the mortal world. She cast a spell to enlarge a sleeping lotus, lightly tapped her toes, and lay down in the soft stamen of the lotus, smelling the intoxicating fragrance as she took a nap.
The petals of the sleeping lotus gently closed, its head lowered, watching the silvery moonlight flowing like water in the river.
Su Mingxiu slept straight through to the day of the Cultivation Conference. Sects from all over the nine continents were making their way to the Hundred Flower Sect, each using their own methods. Because the registration process would take two or three days and was a waste of time, and she also needed to deal with the elders and leaders of the various sects, she simply created an avatar to handle these trivial matters.
It wasn’t until the warning from the little garden’s barrier awakened her sleeping true body.
Not bothering to perceive her avatar’s experiences, Su Mingxiu pushed aside the lotus petals blocking her eyes, cast a spell to dispel the pollen that had fallen on her, and casually opened the barrier. Her voice carried straight out, “Who dares to trespass in the spiritual garden without a token?”
As a result, a person being chased by a carnivorous plant rushed in through the opening in the barrier, looking somewhat disheveled. She quickly stepped over countless flowers, and the originally beautiful rose bushes were knocked down and flattened by her movements. Only when she realized that the flower was no longer chasing her did she stop, still in shock.
Until she met the gaze of the person in the huge purple sleeping lotus in the river, with her right leg bent and one hand propping up her chin. Sui Yihuan was startled, “You… are you a disciple of the Hundred Flower Sect?”
The word “disciple” was really euphemistic.
No wonder she looked like a disciple of the Joyful Union Sect last time. It turned out… she was actually a flower spirit.
What cultivator would be so pretentious as to sleep in a pile of flowers? Sui Yihuan felt that her guess was eighty to ninety percent correct.
Su Mingxiu saw the mess she had made of the disciples’ spiritual gardens outside the barrier. If it were the original her, she would only find it troublesome. But knowing that there were many entanglements and past events between her and this person, Su Mingxiu smiled with interest.
“You are not allowed to approach her!” The Heavenly Dao, sensing the danger in her thoughts, frantically warned.
“Is this me approaching her? This is clearly her attracting my attention.” Su Mingxiu’s tone was very innocent, gesturing for the Heavenly Dao to look at the things she had damaged. “Do you think it’s more dangerous for me to demand compensation from her now, or for me to pretend that none of this happened, go to the sect to receive punishment, and let everyone know that our relationship is so close that we can take punishment for each other?”
Heavenly Dao: “…”
It didn’t want to choose either.
It could only angrily scold Su Mingxiu, “Why aren’t you at the gate welcoming the new disciples! Do you want to arbitrarily change the plot so that you can secretly collude with her?”
Su Mingxiu: ?
She was too lazy to argue with the system that this was because she didn’t want to work for Ye Qingbai. She only belatedly remembered that in the previous life, she had indeed heard that a new disciple had caused trouble when they first arrived at the sect and was punished to help in the kitchen for three months, making the already unappetizing food even worse. In those few months, the number of disciples from various sects who sneaked down the mountain to eat was more than the Hundred Flower Sect had seen in the past ten years.
So the culprit was her.
Which elder brought the “spy” into the kitchen?
Thinking of this person’s culinary skills that she couldn’t seem to learn no matter how many worlds she went through, Su Mingxiu was both nostalgic and glared at the woman’s feet, where the thorny roses had already fallen, “You trampled my flowers.”
“I’m sorry…”
Sui Yihuan said hesitantly not even daring to show her weapon, knowing that she had caused trouble on someone else’s territory. “I am a disciple of the Qiangshan Sect, here to participate in the Cultivation Conference. I received a pre-arrival task from your sect, saying that I should prepare ingredients for the kitchen. But the guiding token went out halfway, and I saw that there were all vegetables here, so I trespassed…”
She explained for a long time, and finally lowered her head, “How can I compensate you?”
Compared to yesterday on the street, when she was about to teach the fake medicine seller a lesson, she didn’t have that proud look now. She was more like a bird that had fallen into the water, limp and bedraggled.
“You trampled my roses.”
Su Mingxiu still had no intention of getting out of the sleeping lotus. She just smiled, in this spring garden full of blooming flowers, listening to Sui Yihuan’s proposed solutions of helping to replant and compensating with spirit stones. She chose neither, “Then you will be my rose.”
Sui Yihuan heard her say this.
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