Chapter 101 The Flowers Have Bloomed, Xiao Jiu Will Help You

Beside the pond under the pear tree, a thin figure was bowing his head, clutching a strange, menacing flower in his hand.

The flower looked like an orange plate, and as the hand turned it over, its center swayed like the tentacles of a sea anemone.

"Rustling, rustling..."

A strange noise came from the flower, and the wriggling of its core was rather disgusting.

But no matter how disgusting it is, it's still just a flower.

"sand."

Upon hearing the noise, Xiao Jiu turned around instantly, and because he moved so fast, he even cracked his neck.

He looked at the scene before him, blinked, and tilted his head in confusion.

"Who are you?"

Under Xiao Jiu's gaze, the ragged, hunched old woman shakily raised her head.

Her cloudy eyes were filled with fear: "Where...where am I...?"

Xiao Jiu looked at the mutated sunflower in her hand, then turned to the old woman and said, "This is home."

That was a reply that left no room for further response.

But Xiao Jiu asked again, "Who are you?"

The old woman clutched her chest, as if she couldn't breathe. Her face contorted in pain, she said, "I...I was suddenly brought here. I was just about to dig some wild vegetables when a gust of wind blew...cough cough—"

The old woman coughed so hard it was almost unbearable, and with her back bent so deeply, it looked as if her lungs were about to burst out at any moment.

Xiao Jiu paused for a moment, then grabbed the flower, got up, and walked over.

When he stood in front of the old woman, she seemed startled by his sudden approach and took a small step back.

The area was lush with vegetation, and there was a sea of ​​flowers underfoot. The old woman was standing right in a patch of net-like spirit flowers, so when she stepped back, her heel was tripped by a flower vine, and she fell backward.

In general, when people see such a situation, they will instinctively reach out to help the other person.

However, even after the old woman had fallen, Xiao Jiu remained standing in the same spot, watching her expressionlessly.

The old woman clutched her waist, groaning in pain, "Oh dear, little one, can you help me up?"

Xiao Jiu walked over without any suspicion.

A smile gradually appeared on the old woman's face: "Oh, oh, what a good child."

Xiao Jiu didn't answer her, but grabbed the old woman's arm and pulled her up.

The moment the old woman approached, a strange smell wafted out from her.

The smell was neither pleasant nor unpleasant; it vanished in an instant, and when one tried to recall how to describe it, they couldn't remember it no matter how hard they tried.

A hint of doubt appeared on Xiao Jiu's face. At this moment, the old woman seemed to lose her balance and pressed down on Xiao Jiu's hand, immediately drawing Xiao Jiu's attention back.

"You're such a kind-hearted little kid, good, good."

Xiao Jiu remained silent.

Now that the person had been helped up, Xiao Jiu was about to let go.

However, at this moment, the old woman surprisingly put her arm around Xiao Jiu's hand for support.

"Oh dear, these old bones of mine, if only I could sit down and rest for a while..."

She slowed her speech, speaking in a slightly strange tone: "Please help me, please help me..."

Xiao Jiu was stunned for two seconds.

Then he looked around and actually did as she asked, helping her up to the pear tree.

There's a raised mound of earth under the pear tree, just the right size for a person to sit on.

The old woman walked very slowly and with a limp, clearly having twisted her ankle.

As she hissed and gasped for breath, she asked, "Child, where are your family?"

Xiao Jiu: "Busy."

Xiao Jiu's response sounded too perfunctory, and the flower he was holding in his hand was still twisting and rustling strangely in the sunlight.

The old woman suddenly asked, somewhat urgently, even with a hint of annoyance, "What are you busy with?"

Xiao Jiu didn't react to her tone, only replying, "They didn't tell me."

The old woman seemed to have confirmed something, and only said "Oh" before making no further attempts to speak.

In the blink of an eye, they had arrived under the pear tree.

Just as Xiao Jiu was helping the old woman onto the mound of earth under the tree and was about to let go, the old woman suddenly trembled.

Her hand, which looked like a chicken claw, actually flipped over and gripped Xiao Jiu's wrist tightly in a position that a normal person could not possibly do.

She looked up and smiled at Xiao Jiu: "If something happened to you, they would definitely be worried, right?"

No sooner had she finished speaking than something suddenly sprang out of her stomach and stabbed directly into Xiao Jiu's chest.

A muffled thud.

Xiao Jiu slowly arched her body.

Upon seeing this, the old woman's smile immediately widened.

She straightened her back, grabbed Xiao Jiu's neck tightly, and tried to lift him up.

"How should I deal with you...? Turn you into a human puppet? Crack your head open and use it as a poison jar? Or, how about I break your arms and legs and refine you into a servant for me for a few days?"

She seemed to remember something, and just giggled, revealing a set of black and yellow teeth.

"Perfect, perfect! Although your skin is a bit grimy, you're still adorable. And the little toy boy by my bed is rotten, so you can switch with him..."

Just as the old woman's smile became even more exaggerated, until her face was squeezed like a dried orange peel, her eyes suddenly widened.

Her hands were trembling so badly they were shaking like leaves, but she still couldn't move the thin boy in her arms an inch.

The old woman suddenly lowered her head.

A dark, lumpy object stuck in her abdomen was also trembling.

She quickly took two steps back, her movements so swift and decisive that she seemed like a completely different person from before.

The wind lifted the hem of her clothes, and you could see a black, withered hand emerging from her stomach from the center of her tattered clothes.

The hand was wide and long, with six fingers of the same length. It looked more like the mouth of some monster than a hand.

However, right now, those six fingers are bent in a strange position, three to the left and three to the right, which looks rather comical.

The old woman's face changed drastically, her eyes, squinted into triangles by her eyelids, fixed intently on Xiao Jiu: "What did you do?"

Xiao Jiu stood there, puzzled, and said, "I didn't do anything."

Old woman: "Impossible!"

"You have no spiritual power at all! I understand, I understand!"

Amidst the rustling sounds, her expression became frenzied, and even her voice cracked: "You must have some treasure protecting you, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to dodge my Heavenly Demon Sound, let alone destroy my Yama Hand!"

Xiao Jiu was even more confused. He tilted his head and asked, "Grinding...hands?"

He looked at the other person's belly, and his eyes lit up: "Ah, Meow Meow told me that there is something that can move on its own and grind things!"

He looked at the old woman in front of him curiously: "Can you use your hands like that?"

This is completely irrelevant.

Even a fool could tell something was wrong. The old woman's expression changed, and she quickly pulled a bottle from her sleeve and put it under her nose.

She struggled to suppress the rising urge within her, gritted her teeth, and turned to run.

She didn't dare to breathe normally until she had run a certain distance.

"Damn it, damn it!" she cursed, frowning.

She was quite fast compared to ordinary humans, and moved through the forest as nimbly as a monkey.

However, a voice suddenly appeared beside her.

Where are you going?

Although the voice had the clear, youthful quality characteristic of young people, it only sent chills down the old woman's spine.

Without thinking, she flicked her fingers, and the almost invisible threads between them twitched, causing the strange hand attached to her abdomen to suddenly swing to the side.

"Snap!"

Her eyes widened in horror.

Her Yama Hand, which was as hard as black iron and had even caused many cultivators to stumble, was actually broken!

This isn't over yet.

She was fast, but her opponent was even faster.

She could only watch as the strange boy beside her grabbed the thread tied to her fingertip, while his other hand darted out like a snake and gripped her neck in an instant.

"Heh...heh..."

She frantically scratched at the hand that was stuck on her neck, kicking her legs wildly, but no matter how hard she tried, she could only get those cloudy eyes to move twice.

The hand she had placed in her abdomen began to move wildly as she struggled, but each time it slashed or stabbed at the boy in front of her, it only made the hand more and more broken.

On the other hand, Xiao Jiu didn't have a single scratch on her body.

Amidst the headache and dizziness caused by oxygen deprivation, the old woman looked at the boy in front of her and finally realized something.

That's so weird.

That's so strange.

According to the plan, she was supposed to wait for the cultivators' support, but for some reason, after seeing the boy and the strange flower, she suddenly lost her patience.

The rustling sound emitted by the strange flower still lingers in her ears and mind, like a haunting ghost.

rustling, rustling...

The old woman was being driven mad by the sound.

She asked with difficulty, "What exactly are you...? Dong..."

Before she could finish speaking, she collapsed completely in an instant.

Her legs hung limply, and because she wasn't wearing shoes, it was obvious at a glance that they weren't legs at all.

What emerged from under her tattered skirt were two thick arms with strange patterns drawn on them!

Xiao Jiu stared at the two "legs," one long and one short, for a while, blinked curiously, and then let go without hesitation, causing the old woman to fall to the ground with a thud.

He said, "Grain blocks are synthesized."

A semi-transparent panel, visible only to him and the system, appeared out of thin air.

Xiao Jiu searched on the panel, and then skillfully placed the mutated sunflower she had been holding into the corresponding pattern.

The pattern lights up.

[Materials collected: 100%, production has begun]

The rustling sound disappeared.

Xiao Jiu looked around, then bent down and picked up the six-fingered black severed hand that had fallen to the ground.

He thought for a moment, then, holding the severed limb in one hand and grabbing the old woman's "ankle" with the other, he dragged her like a sack towards the nearby pool.

In the pool, the little snail had just poked its head out to look this way, but when it noticed Xiao Jiu approaching, it immediately darted back into the water.

Xiao Jiu dragged the old woman to the edge of the pond, squatted down and looked into the water: "Little baby, have you seen this person before?"

There was no movement in the water.

Xiao Jiu wasn't in a hurry; she just waited patiently.

A few seconds later, a small bubble rose from the bottom of the water, followed by a slippery little fish head.

The little snail looked at Xiao Jiu, then slowly turned to look at the old woman being held by Xiao Jiu.

Upon seeing the other's withered and ugly face, its wings, which had been pressed tightly against its sides, instantly burst open.

It broke through the water and flew up, angrily striking the black severed limb with its tail.

"Neigh, neigh!"

Seeing that the little snail was about to bleed from its tail, Xiao Jiu quickly stopped it.

He released the little snail that was struggling and writhing in his palm back into the pond, then lay down by the water's edge and said earnestly, "Xiao Jiu will help you."

After saying that, he dragged the old woman and ran straight down the mountain.

The place he ran towards was the planting area between the two mountains.

There, countless level 9 flowers are thriving.

As she was being dragged along, the old woman, who was being pulled backward by her ankles, murmured. When the back of her head hit a tree root with a thud, she hissed in pain and gradually woke up.

Once she finally saw the posture clearly, she immediately pulled out a hidden weapon from her waist and shot it straight at Xiao Jiu's nape.

"clang--"

The metal-like object struck Xiao Jiu's skin with a crisp sound.

The old woman was taken aback.

That's something that can break through a cultivator's spiritual energy shield!

How come you can't even break through a layer of skin!

She panicked.

The old woman immediately struggled, attacking Xiao Jiu with daggers, thorns, and all sorts of strange and even terrifying objects, but no matter what she did, she couldn't hurt her in the slightest.

Looking at the unresponsive back in front of her, a nameless panic suddenly gripped her heart.

The old woman screamed.

"Let go! Let go of me!!"

Her voice changed from a hoarse female voice at first, to a sharp tone, and then to a muffled sound like an old man coughing.

The tone was terrifying and eerie, but Xiao Jiu seemed not to hear it and just kept running forward.

The old woman went berserk, scratching and tearing at the other person's hands.

Xiao Jiu's hands were a strange bluish-gray, while the "leg" of the old woman he was holding was actually a thick, dark arm.

When she frantically tried to break Xiao Jiu's wrist, it turned into four hands of different colors and sizes squeezed together, and the twitching fingers looked like a bunch of wriggling worms.

But no matter how much she struggled, it had no effect other than lifting her fingernails off.

Finally, Xiao Jiu stopped walking.

As if sensing something, the old woman stopped moving her bloodied and mangled hand.

Xiao Jiu turned her head to look at her waist.

He squatted down, reached out and ripped out a huge piece of fish skin.

The scales on its skin were a beautiful blue-green color. In the sunlight, golden shimmering light slowly rose from the surface of the scales, which were larger than the palm of a hand, making it look as dreamy as fireflies flying up from the water in summer.

Xiao Jiu's dark eyes immediately dimmed.

He looked at the old woman expressionlessly: "Where did you come from?"

The old woman's lips trembled, and she said in a trembling voice, "Those...those immortals gave it to me, they gave it to me!"

Xiao Jiu's voice remained completely still.

"You're lying."

The old woman's voice was instantly silenced.

A demonic beast protects its offspring.

Back then, the female fish was willing to give up her chance to escape in order to protect her offspring. Later, the baby snail was gutted dozens of times and had its flesh cut off and eyes gouged out hundreds of times. How could she not come to save it?

This time, however, no priestess came to her aid.

In the farmland, flowers that are about to bloom sway gently.

Xiao Jiu stood among the flowers for a long time, clutching the blood-stained fish skin.

A gust of wind blew by, carrying with it the stench of blood, slowly drifting towards the elven tree at the highest point.

In the distance, two figures, one in red and one in black, flew almost skimming the ground in the wind.

A yellow shadow swept past them, moving as fast as lightning. Just as they looked up, another white image drifted by like a cloud.

Qianchuan: "It's Chenghuang and Xiaoxue!"

Riding a yellow divine steed, its speed was far beyond that of cultivators and demon cultivators; it had probably already arrived at its destination.

So Qianchuan quickly listened carefully to the sounds around him.

He breathed a sigh of relief: "Nothing's happening, so everything should be fine."

Fu Yu responded, but his brows remained tightly furrowed.

Just a few minutes ago, Xie Chuanfeng suddenly "saw" another memory of those people from the earring-like prop.

In this memory, those so-called immortal sects, behind the backs of the evil Buddhist cultivators, sought out other collaborators.

It must be said that these humans were truly meticulous in their thinking. They even considered that there might be formations or restrictions in this secret realm that cultivators could not enter, and they also found some mortals with extraordinary abilities.

The physical condition of ordinary people is no match for that of cultivators. They have paid a heavy price to get here, and countless so-called extraordinary individuals have died.

Fuyu and the others didn't care about these things at all.

What they were concerned about was that, in that vague memory, Xie Chuanfeng saw one of the cultivators giving instructions to the mortal who had survived to this place.

There is only one instruction.

—Follow the magic weapon to find a place that cultivators cannot enter.

The formation was set up by Suanni and Xie Chuanfeng together.

At the time, the two only thought that whoever could break in must be no ordinary person, and never imagined that the cultivators of that world would actually have a way to bring mortals in.

In this way, the barrier set up by Suanni Xie Chuanfeng and the others to guard against these cultivators was as if it did not exist for that human who had no spiritual power at all.

The thought of Xiao Jiu getting hurt made Fu Yu clench his fists.

This was his mistake.

He was wearing the memory-reading device the whole time, but he didn't see the end.

It's all his fault! It's all his fault!

Fu Yu squeezed so hard that his hands were shaking, almost breaking his palms.

Qianchuan saw Fuyu's actions.

He wanted to reassure the other party that "Xiao Jiu is also very capable and nothing will happen to her," but he swallowed the words back down.

They all knew that Xiao Jiu was not weak at all.

Even though I know it, I still worry.

That human was able to survive and enter this place with just a physical body; he was definitely no ordinary person.

Although Qian Chuan didn't show it, he actually wished he could fly over instantly like Cheng Huang.

Soon, another figure flew overhead.

It was Xie Chuanfeng, who rode a sword.

"I'll go first!"

Before the last syllable of the telepathic message had even faded, Xie Chuanfeng had already disappeared from their sight.

A dozen seconds later, a tremendous commotion, like an earthquake, came from behind Fuyu and Qianchuan.

The two turned around and saw that it was Taotie and Suanni, who had returned to their original forms.

A golden head emerged from the mouth on the Taotie's chest: "What's going on! What do you mean I and the host might be in trouble!?"

With a flick of its tail, Fu Yu and Qian Chuan jumped in unison, landing directly on the snow-white back of the Suanni.

The system was rolled up by the Taotie's tongue and arrived at the side of Fuyu Qianchuan.

Fu Yu briefly recounted what had happened, and after calculating the distance, he quickly and carefully recounted the entire process again so that everyone could be prepared.

The Suanni and Taotie are large in size, and even though they are not fast, they can run across half a mountain in the blink of an eye.

System: "Faster! Faster!"

The Suanni shouted, "That's already the fastest! Do you want me to burn all these mountains down?!"

The Suanni was running without any spiritual power at the moment. If it used spiritual power, it could run even faster by using that white smoke-like substance.

But if he did that, he wouldn't have the energy to deal with the white smoke, and he might just burn the whole world down.

The system shouted even louder: "Burn it! I don't care, I just want my host! I don't care!"

The system had never called him that before. With the addition of the body's materials, his voice suddenly became a buzzing sound, making people's heads spin.

Just as the Suanni was about to retaliate, an annoyed voice suddenly drifted over from afar.

"Dinner's ready!"

Everyone was stunned.

Taotie exclaimed excitedly, "It's Xiao Jiu! It's Xiao Jiu!"

The Taotie and Suanni slowly stopped walking.

The Suanni let out a deep breath, its heavy breathing causing flames to rise from the surrounding air: "That scared me to death..."

Fu Yu also seemed to have lost all strength and fell backward, sitting limply on the back of the Suanni.

The system wailed, "I'll never run that far again! Even if the sky falls, I'll stay with my host!"

Surprisingly, Suanni didn't complain, and Fuyu Qianchuan simply patted the system's golden head in comfort.

After catching its breath, Suanni transformed into a kitten with a bang, while Taotie, understanding the situation, coiled everyone onto its back and began carrying them towards Xiao Jiu.

Although the fur of the Taotie looks like it's smeared with blood, it actually feels very soft to the touch.

However, due to the inherent racial characteristics of the Taotie, apart from the system, Fu Yuqianchuan and the others felt a bit uncomfortable on his back.

Qian Chuan crossed one arm over his chest and rested his chin on the other, trying to describe it: "It's like... standing on the edge of a cliff, feeling like you could fall off at any moment."

It's not exactly fear, but I can't help feeling anxious.

The Suanni lay sprawled out, lazily flicking its tail: "You'll get used to it."

Taotie added, "Yeah, you'll get used to it."

Qianchuan chuckled and said, "Okay."

Fu Yu: "......"

Taotie's voice was deep and a little hoarse. It was pleasant to hear, but it was quite different from his previous voice.

Moreover, not only its voice, but the appearance of the Taotie at this moment is completely different from its fat, furry appearance of the past few decades.

Looking at the two backward-curving black horns on Taotie's head that were gleaming with a cold light, Fu Yu instantly recalled Taotie's words about "eating fish" from back then.

He managed to say with difficulty, "...Okay."

After all, they had already run for so long, and the Taotie was now enormous, so after about ten minutes, they saw the little elf tree that was planted the farthest away.

The little fairy tree looked like it was carved from white jade, lustrous and beautiful, under the sunlight.

Taotie immediately stopped in its tracks, and then shrank in a flash.

Before anyone could react, they all fell off him with a few thuds.

The Suanni climbed out of the spirit-transformed rose bushes and said angrily, "What are you doing?"

Taotie ignored him and in a few breaths transformed into a large fur ball more than a meter tall.

His head popped out from in front of the ball of fur as if it were spring-loaded, and then he immediately started running forward on his four short legs.

The mountains in this world stretch endlessly, one after another. Once you get around this mountain, there's a flat area, and further ahead is that mountain covered in pear blossoms.

Everyone immediately realized what was going on.

— This is because Taotie doesn't want Xiao Jiu to see his true form.

Although the Taotie had shrunk in size, it was still quite fast, quickly shrinking into a tiny black dot in everyone's sight.

The Suanni was stunned for a moment, then immediately started running: "You cheated! Didn't we agree to count to three before running?!"

After running a few steps, his body grew several times larger, and he used his spiritual power to accelerate as he ran, just like a small rocket flying close to the ground.

"Stop right there! You stop right there!"

"I don't want to."

The noisy sounds gradually faded into the distance. Looking in the direction the two big furballs had left, Qianchuan and Fuyu exchanged a glance, smiled, and sighed, "Let's go, let's go back."

They walked at a decent pace and soon emerged from behind the mountain.

At this moment, Qianchuan suddenly said, "Wait a minute."

Fu Yu thought something had happened and immediately became nervous.

However, before he could even ask, Qian Chuan bent down and picked up the system that was walking next to them.

system:?

Fuyu: ?

Qianchuan weighed it twice, then spread his legs, squatted down, and then moved the system to one hand to hold it.

system:!

System: "Wait—"

Qian Chuan's shoulder, back, and arm muscles tensed and bulged as he shouted, "Hey ha!"

The next second, the system was thrown out by Qian Chuan like a shot put.

Qian Chuan was very strong. The system, which was so heavy it could crush a person, was like a golden streak of light when he threw it, making a whooshing sound as it went through the air.

System: "Aaaaaahh ...

Qian Chuan stood with his hands on his hips, looking in the direction where the system disappeared, and said with satisfaction, "This time the shot was very accurate."

Fu Yu: "......"

Fuyu was already numb.

The mountain is covered with interwoven flowers and grasses, resembling a giant plush blanket.

The air is filled with the fragrance of pear blossoms, and snow-white petals float in the stream flowing down from the mountaintop.

By the pool, Xiao Jiu seemed to have sensed something.

He put down the bag of special food he had just made, turned around and opened his arms in a certain direction.

The two animals, Xiaoxue and Chenghuang, perched on his shoulders, looked like two little fluffy balls, making "meow" sounds as Xiao Jiu turned around.

The next moment, two tiny furballs, each the size of a palm, darted out from behind the pear tree and bumped into Xiao Jiu's arms.

The black fluffy ball wagged its tiny tail, no bigger than a fingernail, and cried out, "Little Jiu, Little Jiu, hug me!"

Suanni squatted on Xiao Jiu's lap, giving Taotie a disdainful look: "Weren't you already holding him?"

The Taotie stuck its tongue out at him.

The Suanni said speechlessly, "Childish."

However, Taotie ignored him.

Suanni looked up in surprise, only to see Xiao Jiu skillfully petting Taotie. He stroked Taotie's head and belly, making Taotie so comfortable that its four little legs curled up.

Hearing the Taotie's grumbling, the Suanni flicked its tail and turned its head.

"snort."

A few seconds later, he would glance at Xiao Jiu, then quickly look away when she looked over, but after a short while, he would secretly look over again.

After repeating it several times, Suanni cleared his throat: "Little...Little Nine."

Xiao Jiu just looked at him and asked, "What's wrong?"

Suanni turned his head away again, wagging his tail uncomfortably: "I...I'm tired from running, I also want Xiao Jiu to pat my head...pat my head."

His voice grew softer and softer, and Taotie just chuckled foolishly.

Upon hearing the laughter, the Suanni instantly turned its head, its tail puffing up into a ball: "What!"

At this moment, a bluish-gray hand reached out and gently touched the head of the Suanni.

The Suanni was baring its teeth at the Taotie, but after being stroked on the head and scratched on the chin, it soon squinted its eyes and started making gurgling noises.

Sudden--

"Thump!!"

With a loud bang, Xiao Jiu, Suanni, and Taotie all trembled in fright.

Meanwhile, Xiao Xue and Cheng Huang, who were on either side of Xiao Jiu's shoulders, suddenly flew up.

The lion's fur stood on end, making it look like a mango pit that had been sucked: "What are you doing!"

The system crawled out of a large pit, its resentment almost materializing.

The little snail in the pond finally mustered up the courage to fly a short distance towards Xiao Jiu. Upon seeing this, it immediately shook its wings and jumped back into the water with a splash.

Just then, Qian Chuan's voice came from not far away. He said happily, "System, look, didn't I throw it well this time?"

It's really good.

They threw it right into the pit they had dug earlier.

Originally, this pit was intended to be reserved for transplanting level 9 spirit flowers, but now the system is getting a taste of it first.

The system crashed and crawled out. He looked at Fuyu and said, "Fuyu, you must keep this up!"

It thought Qianchuan was the most reliable one back then, but it never expected that in the end, Fuyu would be the only reliable one among this group of non-humans!

The system felt like crying when it thought of Fuyu's timid and hesitant manner, not daring to even speak loudly: "Fuyu—"

Fu Yu: "......"

Fu Yu: "Okay."

Xie Chuanfeng arrived here before Taotie and the others.

However, he still had to teach those little monsters today, so he left after carefully checking that Xiao Jiu was alright.

The pear blossoms were scattered all over the pond, as if a snow had fallen.

Xiao Jiu distributed the food blocks to everyone, and then took out a general-purpose food block, broke it into pieces, and fed it to the little Yingyu.

Behind Xiao Jiu, Suanni Qianchuan and the other three exchanged glances, but in the end, the system couldn't stand it anymore.

It ran over to Xiao Jiu in a few steps and asked casually, "Host, was it a bit noisy here just now?"

Xiao Jiu blinked and shook her head: "No."

Fu Yu continued to blink frantically at the system, which then made an "understood" gesture with its tail before asking Xiao Jiu, "So... has anyone been here before?"

Xiao Jiu continued to shake her head: "No."

The system was watching Xiao Jiu.

Xiao Jiu looked back calmly.

A few seconds later, something like a blue stream of light slid across the system. It immediately relaxed and hopped around, saying, "Okay, okay, would you like some grapes, host? I just saw that they looked really good~"

Xiao Jiu immediately exclaimed, "I want to eat!"

The system cheered and then spat out a bunch of obsidian-like grapes.

Suanni: "......"

Suanni: "I'm not eating anymore."

The system scoffed, "They weren't meant for you to pick anyway."

The Suanni also sneered: "Oh my, do you believe I can turn you into an ugly monster?"

Come on!

"Come on, come on!"

The two started fighting again, and Qianchuan tried to break them up once more.

Xiao Jiu peeled the grapes, fed one to Fu Yu, then fed a bunch to Taotie, and then popped one into her own mouth.

As for the little Yingyu, its body was still too weak to eat spirit fruits, so it could only slowly suck on grain porridge.

After Huang and Xiaoxue finished eating, they continued to fly into the sky and chase each other. The high-speed airflow they created when they took off swirled into a whirlwind, carrying the flower petals on the ground into the air.

The wind blows, and the petals drift.

The thunderclouds had long since dispersed, and the sun was about to set.

The golden sunlight shone on the petals, turning the snow-white pear blossoms crimson. As a result, among the petals that fluttered down like snowflakes, a tiny bloodstain on one particular petal was completely concealed.

As the sun set, the whole world fell silent.

Another quiet night.

Under the bright sunshine, beneath the fairy tree.

Xiao Jiu, holding the little snail, jumped up.

"Yay! Yay!"

Fu Yu also touched his chest and sighed, "Phew, that's great."

Grandma Taili wrapped a large fish, more than ten meters long, around her tail and laughed, saying, "I fell asleep and forgot to tell you."

Suanni hurriedly asked, "So, if she put her leather back in, will everything be alright?"

Grandma Tai Li: "Well, actually, even if it were like before, it wouldn't be a big deal. I'm here, but..."

Grandma Tai lowered her head and carefully examined the female fish's condition: "Now it can recover faster."

Qianchuan asked, "Can't we use a system-synthesized drug?"

Grandma Tai Li shook her head: "The Yingyu clan has a rather special body, so it cannot be used."

In an instant, everyone remembered the story of the witch. She and her people saved the snail, but in the end, they couldn't save themselves.

For a moment, no one spoke.

Grandma Tai Li seemed to know exactly what they were thinking.

She smiled and said, "Don't worry, the physical body is just a vessel. The souls of those children will either enter the cycle of reincarnation or remain in the present world. They will become part of the mountains and rivers. Everything will be alright."

Xiao Jiu didn't quite understand.

He looked at everyone, and they all just laughed it off: "These...the flowers are nice..."

"Mmm, it drives really well, hahaha..."

Xiao Jiu puffed out her cheeks.

However, when he looked up, he saw Granny Tai Li, who had a human head and a snake body, holding her thin snake tail upright in front of her lips.

——Shhh.

Xiao Jiu's eyes immediately lit up.

Everyone has secrets they're keeping from him, and now he has secrets too.

Xiao Jiu and Xiao Yingyu exchanged a glance. When he saw Xiao Yingyu fold his wings and make a "shh" gesture, a smile immediately appeared on his face, and he continued to hug Xiao Yingyu and jump around.

"hey-hey!"

"Neigh, neigh!"

Fu Yu curiously approached the system and whispered, "What's Xiao Jiu laughing about?"

The system was equally baffled: "I don't know..."

At that moment, a voice they knew all too well rang out throughout the world.

The crops are nearing maturity; please proceed to prepare for harvesting.

The level 9 flowers they planted have bloomed.

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Author's Note: The story will end in the next chapter!