506: Chapter 506 Xuan Yuan Continent? Better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free!

"If you two sisters don't mind, why don't we sit down for a cup of tea together? It would allow me to show some hospitality for our chance encounter."

Lin Wan issued the invitation with a smile, her tone as natural as if she had bumped into a neighbor at the entrance of her hometown village and casually called out, "Come in for a bowl of water."

Her clear eyes curved into crescents, brimming with sincerity.

Hua Nongying was naturally someone who enjoyed lively company, and since Lin Wan had just helped Hua Yingxue, she naturally wouldn't refuse.

As for Hua Yingxue, her favorable impression of this good-looking and gentle-natured "younger sister" was instantly maxed out.

"Okay, okay!"

She agreed immediately, taking Lin Wan's hand and leading her toward an empty table nearby.

"Shopkeeper, serve us your finest Immortal Tea!"

Hua Nongying shook her head helplessly.

This disciple of hers was still too naive.

However, she didn't think too much of it.

In Peng City, they were strangers in a strange land. Getting to know a Cultivator who seemed like a "local" couldn't hurt.

The five of them took their seats.

Zhang Ningshuang and Zhao Qingyi sat on the outer side, one with a stiff face and the other with tense nerves, looking like two door gods.

Lin Wan sat intimately with Hua Nongying and her disciple.

Soon, the Waiter brought over the fragrant Immortal Tea.

"Sister Lin Wan, listening to your accent, you don't seem like a local of Peng City?"

Hua Nongying took a sip of tea and asked as if casually.

Although she seemed carefree, as a Sect Master, she still maintained the necessary alertness.

Hearing this, the smile on Lin Wan's face slowly faded.

She sighed softly, her eyelashes trembling, and a thin layer of red appeared around her eyes.

"To be honest with Sister Hua, we three sisters also just recently ascended from the Lower Realm."

She lowered her head, her fingers unconsciously stroking the rim of her teacup, her voice carrying a hint of confusion.

"We still know nothing about everything in this Immortal Domain."

This pitiful appearance instantly struck a chord in Hua Yingxue's sympathy.

"Ah? Sister, you just ascended as well?"

Hua Yingxue covered her mouth in surprise.

"What a coincidence! So did we!"

As soon as these words left her mouth, Hua Nongying's brow furrowed beside her. Did this girl have no filter on her mouth?

She gave her disciple a sharp glare.

But Lin Wan's eyes lit up as if she had found a kindred spirit.

"Really? You too, sisters?"

She looked at Hua Yingxue with a face full of surprise, her expression so sincere it was impossible to doubt.

"Then we truly share a fated connection!"

She held her teacup with both hands, her body leaning forward unconsciously like a young girl who had heard good news.

"I wonder which Lower Realm you sisters ascended from? Our place is called the Heavenly Wind Continent; it's a very, very small world."

Unobtrusively, she steered the topic in the direction she most wanted to know.

At the same time, she threw out a fictional place name.

This tactic was simple: show your hand first, then fish for information.

Give the other party a piece of inconsequential information in exchange for the truth after they let down their guard.

Hua Yingxue's social defenses were already weak.

Influenced by Lin Wan's gentle and considerate aura, and finding the common topic of being "fellow ascenders," her sense of closeness instantly exploded.

Without thinking, she blurted it out.

"We came up from a place called the Xuanyuan Continent! That place is so dilapidated, the Spiritual Qi is pitifully scarce, we..."

"Ahem!"

Hua Nongying coughed heavily.

That cough was sharp and deep, like a knife cutting directly into the end of Hua Yingxue's sentence.

Hua Yingxue jolted, realizing too late what she had done.

Oops.

Said too much again.

She stuck out her tongue and obediently shut her mouth.

But it was already too late.

"Xuanyuan Continent."

Those four words fell into Lin Wan's ears.

Like a silent thunderclap exploding in the depths of her mind, shattering everything.

Although it was only for an instant, Hua Nongying, sitting opposite her, still keenly captured something.

The pupils of Lin Wan's eyes, which had been smiling, suddenly constricted!

That moment they shrank to pinpoints...

...was not surprise.

It was not curiosity.

It was the kind of extreme excitement and extreme coldness a hunter feels on the wasteland after searching for seven days and nights, finally locking onto the prey's heart through a scope.

But in just a hundredth of a second, the expression on Lin Wan's face returned to normal.

Innocent, romantic, and surprised, as if nothing had happened.

"Xuanyuan Continent? What a unique name!"

She clapped her hands, laughing like a child.

"That must be a very interesting place, right? Sister, quickly tell me, what interesting things did you experience in the Lower Realm?"

Her tone was full of curiosity.

As if she were just a worldly-ignorant young girl full of yearning for the outside world.

Hua Nongying stared at her for two seconds.

A trace of hesitation flashed through those peach-blossom eyes.

That moment just now... was it a trick of her eyes?

She looked at Lin Wan again.

A sweet smile, shallow dimples.

Eyes as clean as freshly washed jade.

...She was probably just being too sensitive.

What bad intentions could a Quasi-Emperor level Loose Cultivator have?

Hua Nongying suppressed that shred of doubt.

For the rest of the time, Lin Wan kept pulling Hua Yingxue along, enthusiastically chatting about various topics regarding the Lower Realm.

She never mentioned any sensitive topics like cultivation, Sects, or treasures.

She just gossiped like an ordinary girl about the customs, food, and scenery of the Lower Realm.

"Can you buy Tanghulu on the streets there? We have them on the Heavenly Wind Continent! They're so sweet!"

"Do you build snowmen when it snows? I loved building them when I was little!"

Every question was harmless to the extreme.

Every topic was light, like dandelion seeds blown by the wind landing on one's heart—itchy and very comfortable.

No one would stay on guard against a girl talking about snowmen and Tanghulu.

Under her deliberate guidance and Hua Yingxue's "sincere cooperation," the atmosphere became increasingly harmonious.

Hua Yingxue even started sharing embarrassing stories about stealing her Master's Spirit Pills in the Lower Realm, and the two laughed together.

Even Zhao Qingyi, who was full of wariness at the start, felt a moment of daze looking at Lin Wan's meltingly sweet smile.

Could it be... she really was overthinking it?

Junior Sister Lin had suffered such a blow in the Sect; coming to this strange place, did she just want someone to talk to and relax with?

---

The tea session ended amidst laughter and cheerful conversation.

Lin Wan took her leave from Hua Nongying and her disciple, citing "fatigue from the journey since arriving at Peng City."

Taking Zhang Ningshuang and Zhao Qingyi with her, she returned to the room they had just opened.

The door closed with a "click."

Isolating all the noise and laughter from the outside world.

Zhang Ningshuang let out a long breath and slumped into a chair like a deflated ball.

"Finally back! Talking to those two seductive women is truly exhausting! My face is almost frozen from smiling."

Zhao Qingyi also relaxed, leaning against the wall, preparing to meditate to recover her immortal essence.

However, as her gaze swept across the room, her movements suddenly froze.

Lin Wan hadn't sat down; she stood behind the door with her back to them.

That gentle and lovely smile on her face had not disappeared.

She still looked like that sweet, harmless person.

But her hand slowly rose, picking up an Immortal Jade teacup from the table.

Before Zhang Ningshuang could react to what was happening—

"Crack."

The sound was very light, like treading on a fallen autumn leaf.

That hard teacup made of Immortal Jade was bit by bit crushed into powder by Lin Wan's fingertips.

The powder fell from between her fingers in a rustle.

Like a silent, fine snow.

Zhang Ningshuang's smile froze on her face.

The hairs on the back of Zhao Qingyi's neck all stood on end.

Lin Wan turned around; she was smiling, her dimples sweet, exactly the same as the smile at the tea table just now.

Not a hair's breadth of difference.

But her eyes were empty—not with sadness, not with anger.

It was the kind of thing that emerges from under the ashes after all human emotions have been burned away.

Pure.

Cold.

Mad.

Zhang Ningshuang and Zhao Qingyi simultaneously felt the temperature in the entire room plummeting.

It wasn't because of immortal essence.

It was because of fear.

The instinctive fear from the deepest part of the Soul toward a top-tier predator.

Lin Wan whispered to herself in a voice only she could hear.

"Xuanyuan Continent..."

"So they ascended from that place."

She looked down at the remaining Immortal Jade powder on her fingertips and blew gently.

The powder dispersed.

"This Xuanyuan Continent... seems to be a Lower Realm plane owned by our Xuantian Immortal Sect."

"Yu'er's soul tablet shattered."

"Brother's soul tablet was erased."

"The time node—"

She paused.

The dimples were still there.

The smile was still there.

"Was exactly before the Xuanyuan Continent passage was sealed."

She slowly turned and walked to the window.

Outside, the Heaven-grade private room of the Yingxian Restaurant was brightly lit.

Inside lived a group of people who had just ascended from the Lower Realm.

Seven or eight people.

Led by a Youth in White Robes.

Lin Wan gazed in that direction.

Smiling radiantly.

Dimples deep.

Gentle enough to melt someone.

"That is... truly wonderful."

She said softly.

Her voice was as soft as if she were coaxing a baby to sleep.

"Then let's get a little closer and see."

"To see if on your bodies—"

Her nails silently embedded themselves into the wood of the window frame.

"—there is actually—"

"—the scent of my son's blood."