Chapter 46: You Are Quite Soft-Hearted

Xue Chen, who was meditating in the courtyard, suddenly opened his eyes.

Which nerve in his head had short-circuited?

To actually ask that guy to act with him.

Was it too late to regret it now?

…

The bright moon hung high, and the night mist filled the air.

Just past midnight, the courtyard door was pushed open with a creak.

Seeing that Ning Shengsheng wasn’t wearing that incredibly ugly “night-prowling outfit,” Xue Chen’s heart, which had been in his throat, slowly settled back down.

“If you don’t let me wear the night outfit, won’t we be too obvious going to steal things dressed like this?” Ning Shengsheng questioned.

Xue Chen gave her a deep look, went back into the room, and brought out two sets of Qingling Sect disciple uniforms.

“Put this on.”

“You kid, quite experienced, huh!”

Ning Shengsheng praised him unreservedly, but to Xue Chen’s ears, it didn’t sound like a compliment.

Knowing that her brain circuitry was different from ordinary people, he couldn’t be bothered to respond and went back to his room to change.

When he came out, Ning Shengsheng had also changed.

“Wow, dressed like this, we look like a carefree senior sister and junior brother of the Qingling Sect.”

Hearing this, Xue Chen’s heart stirred slightly, and he snorted coldly, “It’s senior brother and junior sister.”

“Fine, fine, then you are the senior brother and I am the junior sister. I’ll trouble Senior Brother to protect me later then!” Ning Shengsheng’s personality had always been flexible; she could bend and stretch as needed.

The two of them quietly sneaked down the mountain.

Pretending to be Qingling Sect disciples, they walked towards Herb Peak.

As they neared the foot of Herb Peak, they ran into a couple out on a midnight date.

The two of them had no choice but to hide behind a tree trunk.

Ning Shengsheng got bitten by mosquitoes several times.

Finally, the couple parted reluctantly.

Ning Shengsheng and Xue Chen looked at each other, simultaneously and tacitly rubbed their noses, and said nothing.

They groped their way into Herb Peak.

The ordinary spiritual fields were not guarded by disciples. There were just a few simple defensive arrays set up around them.

Xue Chen found the eye of the array with extreme speed and broke it silently. Passing through the low-level spiritual fields in the middle, the high-level spiritual fields halfway up the mountain were their target.

The two of them cat-walked their way up the mountain sneakily.

They didn’t alert anyone.

At this moment, they were hiding outside the fence of the target spiritual field.

Xue Chen turned his head to look at Ning Shengsheng.

He was used to doing this kind of thing, so it was normal not to show any flaws. But how was Ning Shengsheng even better at hiding than he was?

Could it be that she often did sneaky things like pilfering chickens and dogs?

Ning Shengsheng keenly sensed someone looking at her. She immediately looked up, saw Xue Chen staring at her, blinked, and asked him what he was doing with her eyes.

Xue Chen used sound transmission to speak directly into her mind, “Her Highness the Princess seems very skilled at sneaky business.”

Ning Shengsheng hadn’t learned spiritual sound transmission yet. She grabbed Xue Chen’s hand. When the kid tried to struggle, she pressed him down firmly, turned his palm over, and wrote on it.

Realizing what she was writing, the roots of Xue Chen’s ears turned red.

The other party wrote six words.

[Senior Brother Xue taught well]

The place where her fingertips had traced felt slightly hot.

It wasn’t until voices came from ahead that Xue Chen’s attention returned from his burning palm.

“Senior Sister Jiang, I’m going to rest. I’ll leave the guarding of the spiritual fields to you for the second half of the night.”

“En, go back quickly.”

Two Qingling Sect disciples exchanged shifts.

The Jiang Qian they had met today dragged out a lounge chair and rested right in the middle of the spiritual field.

So hardcore!

Ning Shengsheng’s gaze slowly drifted to Jiang Qian, then to the spiritual field, and finally, she shrugged and spread both arms.

Xue Chen instantly understood her meaning.

He transmitted his voice to her again.

“I’ll find a way to put her to sleep. You go and pick the crystal-like spiritual plants on the left side of the field.”

Ning Shengsheng made an “OK” hand gesture, then suddenly remembered he wouldn’t understand it and tried to grab his hand again. Xue Chen dodged back and immediately transmitted, “I know what you mean, no need to write.”

She nodded.

She watched as Xue Chen opened his storage pouch.

A bug with a big head and small body slowly crawled out.

She didn’t know what Xue Chen said, but the bug seemed to understand. It crawled slowly towards Jiang Qian.

Then it crawled up Jiang Qian’s skirt to her cuff and took a bite on her wrist.

Before long, the sound of Jiang Qian snoring could be heard.

Ning Shengsheng thought: So effective? In the future, when I have insomnia, I’ll find Xue Chen and let this bug bite me. Wouldn’t that be delightful?

Xue Chen nudged her because she wasn’t moving. He gestured towards the Ice Soul Lotus with his chin.

Ning Shengsheng crept over light-footedly. Just as she picked one, she heard Xue Chen transmit, “Put it in a cold jade box, otherwise it will be damaged.”

As he spoke, a petal fell from the picked Ice Soul Lotus.

She hurriedly took out cold jade boxes from her storage pouch and harvested them with agile movements.

Xue Chen controlled the sleepy bug to return. When he looked up again, he found that Ning Shengsheng was about to bald the patch of Ice Soul Lotuses.

His heart skipped a beat!

“Come back, that’s enough!”

This was enough for Snowball to eat until its next advancement.

Ning Shengsheng pursed her lips in embarrassment, came back holding the Ice Soul Lotuses, and stuffed the cold jade boxes into Xue Chen’s hands.

The two looked at each other and slipped away in tacit understanding.

Xue Chen walked a distance.

He didn’t hear Ning Shengsheng moving.

He looked back and saw the girl bending over and throwing a storage pouch into the spiritual field.

When the two of them walked out of Herb Peak.

Xue Chen asked, “What did you throw?”

“A storage pouch. There are ten thousand top-grade spirit stones inside, enough to buy those Ice Soul Lotuses.”

Ning Shengsheng bent down to rub her calves. After squatting and walking all the way, her legs were numb.

“Didn’t we say we’d get it by our own ability?”

“That’s true, but leaving spirit stones can compensate for the loss of the spiritual herbs. On the other hand, the people of the Qingling Sect will also know that someone took them deliberately. It would have been the same no matter who was on duty. Senior Sister Jiang was enthusiastic and friendly to us; I don’t want to implicate someone who treated us with sincerity.”

She said it all in one breath. After a long while, she didn’t hear the other party speak.

She looked up again.

The young man walked away holding the storage pouch in one hand.

He left behind a teasing sentence.

“You are quite soft-hearted. I will return the spirit stones to you later.”

Under the moonlight.

The tips of the young man’s hair swung with his steps.

He didn’t show any displeasure at her act of leaving the spirit stones.

Ning Shengsheng chased after him, smiling and teasing, “Xue Wuyin, you sure are stubborn!”

“How about instead of calling you Xue Wuyin, I call you Xue Stiff-Mouth, okay?”

“Hehe…”

He responded with a cold laugh.

After returning.

Ning Shengsheng slept soundly hugging the Huan Li egg all night.

Next door, Snowball ate two Ice Soul Lotuses, its belly round and full, and also slept very well.

Only Xue Chen.

After finishing his work, he sat on Ning Shengsheng’s roof.

The night scenery was beautiful.

But he couldn’t fall asleep.

***

The next day.

Ning Shengsheng was woken up by Ning Xuan. Under the pretext of “experiencing life,” he insisted on dragging her to eat at the Qingling Sect’s canteen.

For such a “good thing,” naturally, Ning Shengsheng had to drag Xue Chen along.

Ning Xuan’s attitude towards Xue Chen had softened considerably, and the three of them arrived at the canteen chatting and laughing.

Hearing that Ning Xuan was coming, Ling Hegui personally received them.

“Father ordered me to entertain Your Majesty and the Princess well.”

“Thank you for your trouble, Hegui.”

The four of them walked to the second floor.

They chose a seat by the window. Just as they sat down, a female disciple hurried up.

It was Jiang Qian.

“Senior Brother Ling, spiritual plants were stolen last night…”

“Talk later.” Ling Hegui cupped his hands. “I’ll handle sect affairs first. You all take a look at what you want to eat.”

Ning Xuan: “Mm, you go ahead.”

Ning Shengsheng pricked up her ears.

She vaguely heard words like “Ice Soul Lotus” and “ten thousand spirit stones.”

Finally, Ling Hegui let Jiang Qian leave.

When he returned, Ning Shengsheng feigned curiosity and asked, “Senior Brother Ling, what happened?”

Xue Chen sat opposite, feeling that Ning Shengsheng’s acting skills were quite good.

Was she really the person who acted with him last night?

“It’s nothing major, just lost a few spiritual herbs.” Ling Hegui instructed the kitchen to prepare a few signature dishes.

“Lost spiritual herbs? Will that Senior Sister be punished?”

“The other party came prepared and left compensation. I estimate it was premeditated for a long time. It would have been the same no matter who was on duty.”

The implication was that Jiang Qian would not be punished.

“Is that so…” She finally relaxed.

Ning Xuan, who had been silent all along, gave Ning Shengsheng a meaningful look. The storage pouch that female disciple was holding…

It was clearly the one he had given to An’an.

What trouble has this little girl caused behind his back again?