Chapter 18

"Junior Brother Lin, you really have a good eye. How did you figure out that I have a special interest in Ling Shengjie?" Inside the soundproof room, Lin Haoming stood obediently in front of Xie Ruolan, who was sitting with her legs crossed, having only the appearance of a fairy but lacking the demeanor.

Hearing Xie Ruolan's seemingly soft voice, Lin Haoming felt his body hair stand on end.

"This... This isn't because of that scoundrel Zhou Zhiye, who somehow found out about the relationship between you and me and then told Ling Shengjie. You know what kind of mind Ling Shengjie has. He stormed over yesterday in a fit of rage. If I hadn't calmed him down, he might have killed me!" Lin Haoming sighed with a bitter expression.

"Wow! You were afraid of being killed, so you sold me out. Do you know how disgusting Ling Shengjie was when he came back yesterday? I wanted to crush him into a meatball and kick him away!" Thinking about how Ling Shengjie had been ten times more disgusting than before, Xie Ruolan really wanted to get rid of Lin Haoming.

"Senior Sister, don't be angry. Here's the income from the past half month. Please take a look!" To avoid trouble, Lin Haoming immediately took out over a thousand spirit stones.

"Hmm? It's been less than half a month, how did you get so many spirit stones?" Xie Ruolan was somewhat surprised.

Lin Haoming smiled and said, "It was just a stroke of luck. A few days ago, someone came to the shop and bought all the Qi Gathering Pills and Qi Harmonizing Pills you gave me!"

"Hmm? What kind of person would spend so much on these pills? But to be honest, you're not good at selling other items, but you're quite skilled at selling cultivation-enhancing pills!" Xie Ruolan's anger subsided a bit.

Lin Haoming, however, smiled bitterly inside. "Most of those pills were actually consumed by me, and to cultivate, I even disguised myself and bought from other shops a few times."

"Considering your good performance these past few days, I'll let this slide this time. But I warn you, if it happens again, I'll use my foot washing water to burst your stomach!" Xie Ruolan said viciously.

Lin Haoming didn't expect her to be so ruthless. She seemed quite well-behaved when he was young, but now she had changed so much. As they say, a girl changes a lot when she grows up, and it's not just her appearance; her personality has become even more exaggerated.

Thinking about how she was gentle and well-mannered in front of Ling Shengjie but revealed her wild and fierce nature in front of him, Lin Haoming felt they were naturally incompatible.

After taking Lin Haoming's spirit stones, Xie Ruolan didn't take out any more pills. Instead, she looked at Lin Haoming a few times and said, "It's not a good situation that the shop has no pills. You're off the hook for this time, but you still have to pay a penalty. Follow me!"

Lin Haoming didn't know what she was going to do or what kind of penalty it would be, but he had no choice but to follow her.

The Blood Refinement Sect had only a few places where flying was restricted, and most of these were in the lower levels. So, as soon as they came out, Xie Ruolan flew away, and Lin Haoming immediately threw out his mother and son swords to follow her.

After a while, Lin Haoming realized that Xie Ruolan was taking him to an entrance to the second level.

Xie Ruolan took out a token, and the disciple guarding the second level immediately let them pass. Once they reached the second level, they continued flying.

The first level of the Blood Refinement Sect was all caves, but the second level was a completely different world.

The second level was a natural underground world, with a height difference of several hundred feet between the ground and the ceiling. The widest part was three thousand miles, and the narrowest part was eight hundred miles. There were many underground plants, even an underground forest.

Following Xie Ruolan for a full hour, they finally arrived at a palace.

Lin Haoming had been to this palace when he was young. It was the second level's teleportation hall, where one could directly teleport to places outside the sect.

"Senior Sister Xie!" Seeing Xie Ruolan appear, the disciples guarding the place immediately bowed and greeted her, showing her status.

Xie Ruolan only nodded at them, not caring about their curiosity about why she was bringing an outer sect disciple. It wasn't necessary to explain.

Lin Haoming saw that Xie Ruolan was familiar with the place and soon followed her into a room with a teleportation array.

Inside the room, two disciples were replacing the spirit stones in the teleportation array. There were also three other people waiting, all inner sect disciples. When they saw Xie Ruolan, they immediately smiled and greeted her, "Senior Sister Xie, are you going to Red Leaf Mountain again?"

"Um!" Xie Ruolan only responded with a single word, giving off an icy beauty vibe.

The three of them were also surprised to see Xie Ruolan bringing an eighth-stage Qi Cultivation outer sect disciple, but they didn't say much.

Lin Haoming thought Xie Ruolan was truly remarkable. She was charming and gentle in front of Ling Shengjie, fierce and wild in front of him, and cold and distant in front of others. He suspected she might have multiple personalities.

Soon, the teleportation array was set up, and the three people stepped onto it, disappearing in a flash of white light.

Next, Xie Ruolan directly threw ten spirit stones to the disciple in charge of the teleportation. After they reloaded the spirit stones, the two of them also disappeared in the white light of the teleportation array.

Lin Haoming had used the teleportation array before, but he was always protected by the old ancestor. This time, using it alone, he felt dizzy after the teleportation and took a while to recover. Xie Ruolan, on the other hand, was completely fine, showing her much higher cultivation.

After the dizziness passed, Lin Haoming found himself in an underground stone room. The disciples guarding the place bowed to Xie Ruolan, saying, "Senior Sister Xie, you're here to show your skills again!"

Xie Ruolan only nodded and flew away.

Lin Haoming immediately followed her. When they flew out of the underground, he saw a sky full of stars and a crescent blood-red moon, three times larger than the moon on Earth, hanging in the sky.

The surroundings were covered with trees. As the name Red Leaf Mountain suggested, almost all the leaves here were red, and even the soil was red. Under the light of the blood moon, everything looked eerily beautiful.

"Senior Sister, why did you bring me here?" Lin Haoming asked curiously as they continued flying.

Xie Ruolan pointed to the distant mountains and said, "Red Leaf Mountain is the intersection of the Blood Refinement Sect, the Buddhist Golden Temple, and the so-called righteous Heavenly Sword Mountain. Because it produces many beneficial herbs for Qi Cultivation practitioners, the three sects often send disciples here to gather them. If they meet, there's bound to be a fight. Over time, this place has become a training ground for the Qi Cultivation disciples of the three sects, and the sects allow their disciples to come here for training."

"What?" Hearing this, Lin Haoming realized that this damn woman had ulterior motives!

Seeing Lin Haoming's dark expression, Xie Ruolan's flawless face broke into a radiant smile.