Senior? Looking for her?

It was as if the voice was unfamiliar, and when I turned around and saw the person, I truly didn't recognize them at all.

Furthermore, the other party herself is a Golden Core cultivator, and Zhen Ru is also a Golden Core cultivator as he is currently showing to the outside world. Why does the other party call her senior?

Either this person can see through her disguise, or although she doesn't know this person, this person knows her.

If one could see through her disguise, one obviously wouldn't call her "senior." The person in front of her is clearly the latter.

When he first arrived in the Hidden Wood Realm, he didn't know anyone.

"You were looking for me?"

When Mu Qiao saw Zhen Ru, she was about to leave, so he called out to her in a hurry.

Seeing the thoughtful look between Zhenru's brows and the scrutinizing gaze directed at him, he realized his abruptness.

"Please forgive my rudeness, fellow Daoist. I have been searching for you for many days, so I was a little flustered when I saw you."

Zhenru didn't say anything like "We don't know each other" or "Are you sure you haven't mistaken me for someone else?" She looked Mu Qiao up and down and said directly:

Let's find a place to sit down and talk.

Mu Qiao was prepared to be questioned, but he was surprised that Zhenru didn't ask him anything. However, his movements were not affected by the surprise at all.

...

Zhenru, who left decisively, had no idea that her casual and unintentional action had inadvertently saved her from trouble.

Instead of going to an eye-catching tavern, the two casually chose a small teahouse to sit down and ordered a pot of spiritual tea that had no spiritual energy.

"Speak, what do you want with me?"

When the tea was served, regardless of whether they wanted to drink it or not, Zhenru poured a cup for each of them before asking them what was wrong.

Mu Qiao didn't know what he was looking for Zhenru for.

He probably didn't have much hope of finding it, and he felt that even if he did find it, Zhenru probably wouldn't care about him, so he just kept searching.

But not only did he find her, she didn't ask him anything, only what she wanted from him.

Mu Qiao didn't dare keep Zhen Ru waiting. Before she could even process what she was thinking, she had already spoken:

“I already know about what happened at the entry registration hall that day.”

Zhenru paused in pouring tea, looked at Mu Qiao and said:

"So? Are you a member of the Mu family? Or are you here to threaten me?"

Mu Qiao quickly waved her hand and said seriously:

"No, no, no, senior, don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

Seeing that Zhenru remained noncommittal and showed no emotion on her face, Mu Qiao pursed her lips and said:

"Actually, I came to thank my senior."

"That person... has a grudge against me. Although you didn't mean it, you've helped me vent my anger over the years."

Zhenru lost all interest in it.

He placed two spirit stones on the table, stood up, and said:

"There's really no need to look for me. If you want to achieve something through this, then go ahead. Goodbye."

Mu Qiao was startled and was about to speak to stop him when he found that the figure in front of him had become an afterimage, and then the wind that came with his raised hand completely disappeared.

Mu Qiao broke out in a cold sweat, but secretly rejoiced. This senior was really good-tempered. If it were anyone else, after listening to all sorts of nonsense, he would probably have destroyed their foundation or killed them to silence them.

Mu Qiao felt somewhat frustrated, but she was unwilling to give up.

He had a premonition that if he didn't seize this opportunity, his life would never turn around.

...

After leaving the tea stall, Zhenru did not linger and went straight out of the city, intending to find the places marked on the map one by one.

She had the patience to sit with the healer for a while because when she saw him, she felt a faint, unseen connection, though the connection was extremely weak and could be severed at any moment.

Zhenru knew that as a cultivator's cultivation deepened, they could vaguely sense some faint entanglements in their destiny, so she acted according to her heart.

Unfortunately, whether the person hadn't thought it through or was simply insincere, they didn't intend to speak to her properly, so she didn't press the matter.

Anyway, she gave us a chance, so we just went with our gut feeling.

Once Zhenru opened the map, she put everything else aside and focused intently on sensing the possible locations where the Golden Crow's essence blood might exist.

A territory may look the same on a map, but it is actually not as small as you might imagine.

The essence of the Golden Crow may or may not exist, but there are no shortcuts; we can only search one possible place after another.

As expected of the Hidden Wood Realm, this realm is almost entirely surrounded by greenery.

The locations marked on the map that have fire attributes might not be discovered even if you pass by them, unless you specifically look for them with the marks on.

It's not that other spiritual energies are weak in this realm, it's just that wood spiritual energy is dominant.

Moreover, Zhenru always felt that the wood spiritual energy in the Hidden Wood Realm was somewhat different from that in other realms.

The wood elemental energy in other realms is mostly neutral, but the wood elemental energy in the Hidden Wood Realm is softer yet possesses a sharper power, carrying a degree of aggression that should not be underestimated.

"If one person can change the fate of a family and bring prosperity to a realm, surely they can't also change the attributes of spiritual energy?"

The absurd thought flashed through his mind. Zhenru shook his head, swept away the natural green barrier in front of him with a flick of his sleeve, and looked at the scorching land hidden inside, where even a breath could not escape.

The bluish flames clearly indicated that this was a place where fire was generated from wood.

The fire was good, but it didn't contain what I was looking for.

Zhenru devoted herself entirely to the search for the Golden Crow's essence and blood, no longer paying attention to the outside world.

She estimated that by the time the Needle Fighting Festival began, she would have found most of the places in the Hidden Wood Realm that she needed to search.

Zhenru, isolated from the disturbances of the outside world, was unaware that someone was following her closely, and each time they almost managed to catch her.

Until Zhenru's journey ended with only one last stop.

As soon as Zhenru entered that underground fire vein, she sensed that something was wrong.

There's someone inside the fire vein!

Just as Zhenru's figure disappeared, when she reappeared, there was indeed someone standing where she had been.

"Huh? It's you?"

The newcomer saw Zhenru clearly, and Zhenru saw the newcomer clearly as well; it turned out to be an acquaintance.

Calling them acquaintances isn't quite right; we only met once in the Solid Spirit Realm, and the situation wasn't exactly friendly.

Indeed, the person who blocked Zhenru was the one from the upper realm who used the disciples of the Qingxuan Dao Sect to threaten Zhenru.

How did he manage to track me all the way here?

Surely it's not that they're starting to doubt themselves again, is it?

Zhenru was trying to figure out where she had slipped up, but she remained calm and stared at the other person without saying a word.

Seeing that Zhenru's expression was unfriendly, the other party didn't pursue the matter further and waved his hand, saying:

"I followed the aura of the items from the outer realms, how come it's you?"

After the man finished speaking, he carefully examined Zhenru. His eyes, which had previously held no doubt, now showed it.

"How do you have things from outside the realm?"

If Zhenru knew, the other party was most likely asking about the items from the Sun Realm that she was selling at the Wood Spirit Pavilion.

Thinking to myself that I had been careless, but after noticing the probing look in the other person's eyes, Zhenru's cold and heroic face became a good cover.

"Is it strange that there are things from the outer realms? Which Nascent Soul cultivator doesn't have a couple of such items?"