507: Chapter 507 I saw the jade pendant at her waist...

The next morning, at dawn.

Sunlight streamed through the window lattices, spilling onto the floor of the Heaven-grade private room in the Yingxian Restaurant, feeling warm and cozy.

Su Chen lay unshakeably on that Ten-Thousand-Year Warm Jade reclining chair, holding his precious diary in his hand, flipping through it absentmindedly.

He flipped three pages and let out two yawns.

Wang Baobao squatted in the corner, clutching a huge Top-Grade Spirit Stone she had "borrowed" from Qian Duoduo yesterday, munching on it with a crisp crunch.

Her cheeks were puffed out, looking like a little hamster hoarding food.

From time to time, she narrowed her eyes in satisfaction and let out a hum of "Mmm~ so tasty~".

Jian Buping sat in the corner wiping his sword.

With every wipe, he would scrutinize the blade for three seconds, looking as if he were combing his own daughter's hair.

Monk Jiese sat cross-legged in another corner, eyes closed as he chanted sutras.

His lips moved rapidly up and down, like a sewing machine.

Hua Nongying reclined halfway on the soft couch, flipping through her book, "Three Hundred Chapters of the Enchantment Heart Sutra."

Every so often, she would use her fingernail to fold a small triangle at the corner of a page, muttering to herself, "This move is good, better note it down."

Everything was so peaceful and quiet.

"Knock, knock, knock."

A gentle knocking at the door broke the silence.

"Who is it?"

Qian Duoduo poked his head out from behind a pile of account books, his voice tinged with obvious impatience.

He was counting on his fingers how many days were left until the auction and how many zeros his current funds were lacking; he was already on his third calculation, and each time he got a different result.

Every result made him want to cry.

From outside the door came a female voice as melodious as a warbling oriole.

It carried just the right amount of shyness.

"Excuse me... is Young Master Su here?"

"This humble girl is Lin Wan, a friend of Sister Hua whom I just met yesterday. I've specially made some spirit fruit pastries to thank Sister Hua for her care yesterday."

As soon as Qian Duoduo heard the word "pastries," his eyes lit up.

He pushed the account books aside, and his two-hundred-plus-pound body lunged toward the door in a single bound. The speed left even Jian Buping stunned; this fat guy usually panted after taking two steps, but now he was like he'd swallowed an acceleration pill.

"Creak—"

The door swung open.

Standing outside was a woman dressed in a pale green cloth dress.

She had a slender figure and a gentle countenance.

Holding a delicate woven bamboo food box in her hand, she faced Qian Duoduo and gave a smile that was sweet to the bone.

Her dimples were shallow, and her eyes curved into crescents.

That smile was as clean as freshly melted snow in the mountains, without a hint of Impurities.

Looking at that face, Qian Duoduo's brain short-circuited for a split second.

So... so beautiful.

And no matter how he looked at her, she was unbelievably gentle.

He had never seen such a girl in the Lower Realm before!

"You're looking for Sect Master Hua! She's here, she's here!"

Qian Duoduo was overly enthusiastic, reaching out his hand to help her take the food box.

However, before his hand could touch the bamboo lid.

From deep within the private room, Su Chen's lazy voice drifted over, carrying a lethargy that no one could wake him from.

"Let her in."

"Oh! Right away, Boss!"

Qian Duoduo quickly stepped aside, his face wrinkling with a broad grin.

Lin Wan nodded slightly to him, returning an extremely gentle smile.

Then, with small steps, she walked into the private room.

Her gaze immediately fell upon the Youth in White Robes lying by the window with his legs crossed, every pore on his body screaming "don't bother me."

Su Chen.

She silently recited the name in her heart.

This person was the core of this group of Ascenders from the Lower Realm.

The sucker who spent three hundred thousand low-grade immortal stones on a single meal without even blinking.

He was also her most important prey on this trip.

She gently placed the food box on the table.

Her movements were extremely light.

Then she turned around, faced Su Chen, and bowed gracefully.

A textbook-perfect Wanfu salute.

Her waist bent just the right amount, neither humble nor arrogant.

Her voice was so soft it could practically melt.

"This humble girl, Lin Wan, greets the Young Master."

Su Chen didn't even bother to lift his eyelids.

He just leaned on the reclining chair and glanced at her from the corner of his eye.

Hmm.

She looked decent.

The pure and innocent type.

She had two dimples when she smiled, which was indeed quite likable.

Back in the Lower Realm, she could have easily ranked in the top three school beauties.

However, Su Chen's gaze idly drifted downward.

It was the kind of casualness that said "just a routine glance and I'm done."

Then his gaze froze!!!

At her slender waist.

A white jade pendant was half-hidden, mostly covered by her sash.

Only a corner was visible.

The jade was warm and lustrous, emitting a faint immortal light.

If he had only seen this much, Su Chen wouldn't have had any reaction.

Which Cultivator in the Immortal Realm didn't have a jade pendant or two hanging from their waist? It was as normal as could be.

But on that jade pendant, there were patterns.

A type of extremely fine and dense hidden pattern.

Composed of countless tiny runes.

Pieced together, they formed a design: a sharp sword soaring into the sky.

Su Chen's pupils suddenly constricted to the size of pinpoints.

It was only for an instant.

So fast that even he almost lost control.

His expression didn't change, remaining in that eternal salted fish slump.

His posture didn't shift; his legs remained crossed, and he even flipped another page of his diary.

But his inner world had already exploded.

[Holy crap—!!!]

[Holy! Crap! Holy! Crap!]

[This jade pendant! This hidden pattern!]

[I've seen this before!!]

In Su Chen's mind, "Dominating the Immortal Path" flashed by at the speed of light.

Chapter 365, paragraph 4, line 6.

Plain as day in black and white.

There was even an illustration.

It depicted this very sword.

[Isn't this the damn token of an Inner Sect Disciple of the Xuantian Immortal Sect?! That thing called the "Xuantian Blood Seal"!!]

[The original novel wrote it clearly—"The sect seal takes the form of a sword-shaped hidden pattern embedded in white jade; only Inner Sect Disciples may possess it, and Outer Sect Disciples must not overstep"!]

[Someone from the Xuantian Immortal Sect?!!]

Su Chen felt his scalp go numb.

Numb from the top of his head all the way down to his heels.

[Xuantian Immortal Sect!!]

[This woman is one of theirs?!]

[An Inner Sect Disciple of the Xuantian Immortal Sect, disguised as a Loose Cultivator, coming to give me pastries?!]

A layer of cold sweat broke out on Su Chen's back.

His brain worked at a speed it never had before, more intense than the last ten minutes of the college entrance exam.

[What is she here for?!]

[Scouting the place? Sizing us up? Or does she think we freshly ascended rookies are easy targets and is preparing to make a move?!]

[Damn it! I almost got screwed over by them in the Lower Realm, and now that I've finally ascended, they're still haunting me in the Immortal Realm?!]

[Are these people like sticky candy?! I can't shake them off?!]

A chilling sense of dread crawled up his spine.

He knew all too well.

Here, he, Su Chen, was just a small fry at the Great Saint First Heaven.

The original novel stated that Inner Sect Disciples of the Xuantian Immortal Sect were at least Heavenly Immortals.

And she could disguise her cultivation as the Quasi-Emperor Realm without any flaws.

With such methods and skill, she must be at least a Heavenly Immortal or higher.

Su Chen felt like a little white rabbit being blocked at its burrow's entrance by a fierce tiger pretending to be a rabbit, smiling all the while.

And she even handed over a pastry.

Saying, "Come, have a bite."

[Calm down.]

Su Chen gritted his teeth in his heart, forcefully suppressing the urge to turn tail and run.

[Su Chen, you better calm the hell down!!]

[What's there to panic about? Panicking now is what will truly get you killed!]

He took a deep breath.

Then exhaled.

He quickly reviewed the information in his head.

[She's disguised as a Loose Cultivator in the Quasi-Emperor Realm.]

[Acting like a harmless, newly ascended person.]

[She even went out of her way to get close to Hua Nongying, using the excuse of "delivering pastries" to contact me.]

[What does this mean?]

[It means she's conducting a secret investigation.]

[She doesn't want to reveal her identity.]

[Which means she doesn't know I've already recognized her!]

Once this deduction came out, Su Chen's heart, which had been in his throat, finally began to settle slowly.

It didn't settle completely.

But at least it wasn't about to jump out of his throat like before.

[That's right... the dirty deeds the Xuantian Immortal Sect does can't see the light of day to begin with.]

[If she dared to investigate by openly revealing her identity, wouldn't that be like announcing herself and confessing without being asked?]

[So—]

[She's acting.]

[And I am her audience.]

[She needs an unsuspecting, oblivious, and "cluelessly cute" Ascender from the Lower Realm.]

[Then I'll play the part for her.]

Having figured this out.

Su Chen's tensed shoulders gradually relaxed.

His decade-plus career as a salted fish had granted him a supreme talent—faking it.

Faking stupidity, faking death, faking ignorance, faking that nothing mattered.

When it came to the art of "faking it," Su Chen bowed to no one.

He continued to maintain his half-dead posture, slowly lifting his eyelids to re-examine the gentle and lovely "little white flower" before him.

This time, what he saw was completely different from his first glance.

That extremely gentle face—it was a mask.

Those eyes, clear as a stream—they were a trap.

Those sweet dimples—they were sugar-coated poison.

Good grief.

The original novel had mentioned it in passing.

Hundred Flowers Peak of the Xuantian Immortal Sect's Inner Sect.

The Peak Master was named Lin Wan, nicknamed the "Fairy of Hundred Flowers."

Sounds pretty, doesn't it?

But in reality?

A dagger hidden behind a smile, ruthless and cruel.

She could smile sweetly at you while refining you into flower fertilizer to water the ten-thousand-year spirit flowers at the base of her Hundred Flowers Peak.

How did the book put it? "Beneath the hundred flowers lie heaps of white bones."

No way.

Su Chen looked at the weak woman before him, whose smile was as sweet as an August peach and who looked like she would cry if anyone bullied her.

It couldn't be her, could it?

He let out a "heh" in his heart.

So this is the legendary boss personally coming down for an incognito visit?

And with explosive acting skills to boot.

Su Chen gently flipped a page of his diary, his expression as calm as a light breeze and floating clouds.

But deep in his eyes, a chill had already set in.

Fine.

Since you want to act.

Then I'll act along with you.

Let's see whose acting is better: you, the Master of Hundred Flowers Peak, or me, Su, and my profound skill in faking death.