Once she left, the two of them returned to the surface.
Xue Mingzhao bypassed the hole from earlier and found another patch of ordinary dirt.
She pulled out a new iron shovel.
The relaxed look on Su Ye's face vanished instantly.
“Junior Sister, we're still digging?”
“Of course.”
“We almost lost our lives just now.”
“Which is exactly why we can't leave empty-handed.”
Xue Mingzhao shoved the shovel into the dirt.
“This grave must appear today, no matter what.”
Su Ye looked at her resolute back, a wave of sorrow washing over his heart.
To bury Master, even the Demon Race couldn't stop his junior sister.
After confirming there were no rocks underground, Xue Mingzhao quickly dug a shallow pit and piled the dirt into a grave mound.
She moved the bluestone she had found earlier to the front of the grave.
“Senior Brother, let's go over what we're going to say tomorrow first—”
Halfway through her sentence, Xue Mingzhao suddenly sensed a breeze behind her.
She whipped her head around.
Su Ye was standing right behind her, one hand raised high, aimed at the back of her neck.
Their eyes met.
Su Ye's hand froze in midair.
Xue Mingzhao slowly narrowed her eyes.
“Senior Brother?”
Su Ye froze in place and silently retracted his hand.
“Junior Sister, let me explain.”
“Explain.”
Su Ye had been holding it in the entire way, and he finally blurted it all out.
“I really can't bring myself to make a move on Master!”
“Master is so good to us. He gave us pills, talismans, and even personally escorted us to Nanli City.”
“We can knock him out or drug him with anesthetic to take the opportunity to run away.”
“But killing him and burying the body is absolutely out of the question!”
“I just can't do it!”
Xue Mingzhao was stunned by his shouting for a long moment.
“When did I ever say I wanted to kill Master?”
Su Ye pointed at the new grave in front of them.
“Isn't this grave prepared for Master?”
“Of course not!”
“Then why did you keep winking at Master on the spirit boat?”
“I was using Master's surname to remind you!”
Xue Mingzhao gestured in exasperation.
“Nan Mingzi, Nanli City.”
“With such a massive 'Nan' right in front of you, how on earth did you blurt out Dongcang Heavenly Capital?”
Su Ye was dumbfounded.
“Then your kneeling and bowing gestures earlier...”
“Don't we have to kneel and pay our respects in front of a grave?”
“You even drew a grave!”
“If we don't dig a fake grave, who are we going to pay respects to?”
The two stood in front of the grave, staring at each other in silence.
“Senior Brother.”
“Yeah?”
“Get over there and straighten the tombstone.”
“On it.”
With the misunderstanding resolved, Su Ye felt entirely relieved.
He quickly straightened the bluestone and cleared away the dirt on its surface.
As long as Nan Mingzi wasn't buried in this grave, he wouldn't mind building three more right on the spot.
Xue Mingzhao held her sword, preparing to carve the words.
“Let's make things clear this time so we don't mess up our stories again tomorrow.”
“What is our mother's name?”
“Anything works.”
“Li Cuihua.”
“And our father?”
“Lin Tieniu.”
The tombstone was erected, and the grave mound was patted into a neat, round shape.
Thus, a Li Cuihua who had never existed now possessed her very own grave in Nanli City.
After tidying up the fake grave, the two walked around the cemetery.
The Sky-Blasting Talismans from earlier had been too powerful. Even though she had circulated her spiritual energy to minimize the blast radius, a few nearby old graves were still affected.
Tombstones lay scattered and askew on the ground, dirt and debris from the grave mounds had been blasted everywhere, and the wild grass was a complete mess. Anyone who didn't know better would think a massive battle had just taken place here.
Xue Mingzhao felt guilty looking at the scene.
“Since we're already here, let's fix them up while we're at it.”
The two of them straightened the tombstones and refilled the grave dirt.
They busied themselves until the horizon turned pale, and the cemetery finally looked a little less desolate.
Before leaving, Xue Mingzhao bowed to the surroundings.
“Seniors, sorry for the disturbance. I've repaired all your graves, and I'll burn some paper money for you later. The newcomer next to you, Li Cuihua, is my mother. Please look after her in the future.”
Su Ye's lips twitched as he listened.
Even in death, they have to look after a fake neighbor for someone.
The two rushed back to the inn before dawn, slipping into their respective rooms to create the illusion of a peaceful night's sleep.
The next day, Nan Mingzi accompanied them to pay their respects.
The three of them burned incense and paid their respects in front of the “Grave of Beloved Mother, Li Cuihua.”
Xue Mingzhao wept with genuine-looking grief, Su Ye knelt perfectly straight, and Nan Mingzi stood to the side, his face filled with pity.
Only the nearby newly repaired graves knew that among this family of three, not a single one was real.
In the end, Xue Mingzhao pulled out more paper money and burned some for each of the surrounding abandoned graves.
Watching this, Nan Mingzi became even more convinced that these two children were deeply loyal and affectionate.
Once the respects were paid, the three immediately set off for the Eastern Territory.
As the familiar mountains and rivers came into view, Xue Mingzhao finally regained a sense of grounded reality.
When they neared the Grand Primordium Sect, she coaxed Nan Mingzi into an inn as usual, telling him not to follow on the pretext of wanting some quiet time alone.
Nan Mingzi was very understanding of his disciples.
The moment the door closed, the two filial children, supposedly “steeped in the grief of losing a parent,” climbed out the window and ran off.
They quietly made their way back to the main hall of the Grand Primordium Sect.
When Su Mingyuan saw them, he was clearly taken aback.
“If I remember correctly, you two just said a few days ago that you were going into secluded cultivation.”
Xue Mingzhao nodded. “That's right.”
“Master, we came back this time because of a major matter.”
With a mysterious expression, Xue Mingzhao fished out over a dozen storage rings from her robes and lined them up on the table.
An Shihuai, who was sitting nearby holding an account book, immediately leaned in upon hearing this.
“What's so special about these storage rings?”
Xue Mingzhao lifted her chin. “See for yourself.”
An Shihuai picked one up and swept his divine sense inside.
Empty.
He switched to another.
Still empty.
“Junior Sister, there's nothing in these storage rings.”
“How is that possible?”
Xue Mingzhao snatched the rings back. “They were clearly stuffed to the brim with supreme-grade spirit stones! They were so full they could barely close!”
She swept her divine sense into them one by one.
The first one, empty.
The second one, empty.
The third one, still empty!
After checking over a dozen rings, only the very last one had about a dozen supreme-grade spirit stones lying in a corner.
They were perfectly neat, almost exactly the same size.
Holding the storage ring, Xue Mingzhao was completely dumbfounded.
This wasn't right.
She remembered clearly that every single one had been packed to the brim.
To pack in as many as possible, she had even personally filled the gaps between the spirit stones over and over again, wishing she could stomp on them a few times to pack them tight.
Where did such a massive pile of supreme-grade spirit stones go?
Did they all grow legs and run away together?
Su Mingyuan picked up the surviving spirit stones, examined them carefully for a moment, and suddenly looked up.
“Mingzhao.”
“Yes?”
“Were you two really in secluded cultivation these past few days?”
“...”
“Haha,” Xue Mingzhao let out a dry laugh. “It's a long story.”
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