“Uh… no,” Mr. Gu said, frowning. “My mother is whose na I’d threaten you with. But if you could literally slap my guards to death, I wouldn’t dare bring her na up.”
“Oh? Your mother?” Jin Shu asked, genuinely curious.
“She’s the city lord,” Ji Li whispered.
“I see.” Jin Shu nodded thoughtfully. “I’d feel bad slapping a woman, so that won’t work… guess I’d have to shoot her instead.”
“I’m not sure what ‘shoot her’ ans,” Mr. Gu said carefully, “but… please don’t?”
“That depends,” Jin Shu replied. “Are you going to cause any problems?”
Mr. Gu shook his head so fast he nearly toppled over, his guards hurriedly steadying him.
“My mother’s backer is my grandmother,” he blurted. “She’s a Spirit Realm rogue cultivator. No connection to the Demon Cult.” He hesitated. “I assu… that doesn’t scare you?”
“No connection?” Jin Shu asked.
Mr. Gu nodded frantically. “None.”
“Oh.” Jin Shu waved a hand dismissively. “Then yeah—not scared in the slightest. Go on. Roll out, and I won’t slap anyone to death.”
“Yes sir! Thank you, sir!” Mr. Gu spun on his heel and fled the shop with his guards in tow.
As they exited, his voice echoed faintly down the street. “Why didn’t either of you tell he was a Spirit Realm cultivator?!”
Jin Shu glanced at Ji Li suspiciously. He’d deliberately restrained his aura—there was no way a mortal like Mr. Gu should’ve known his cultivation.
Ji Li smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. I told him while you were monologuing.”
He sighed, shook his head, and sat back down, lifting the still-warm tea to his lips.
Ji Li laughed softly and took the seat opposite him, pouring herself a cup.
“What was it you asked earlier?” she said.
“Did my mother leave any special requests with her order?”
“Your mother?”
“Short. Very pretty. Red eyes. Hyper.”
“Hmm… Oh, yes. I rember her.” Ji Li nodded. “She did place the order. And yes, she left a request.”
She took a slow sip of tea.
Jin Shu waited.
And waited.
“…What was it?” he prompted.
“If you can successfully seduce my son, you can have the most handso man in the world,” Ji Li said, perfectly mimicking Sun i’er’s tone. “She also threw in a bag of spirit stones. Those are yours.”
She slid a pouch across the table. Jin Shu raised a brow.
“Is this… you still seducing ?”
Ji Li chuckled. “No. I’m afraid I failed before I even began.”
She sighed lightly. “You didn’t even flinch when I practically threw myself at you. I must be losing my edge.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s not that you’re unattractive. But… if you’d seen the won who usually keep company… well…”
The words hung there.
“I understand,” Ji Li said softly, though her smile was faint. “That said… could I ask a favor in return for your honesty?”
“I didn’t—never mind,” he sighed. “What’s the favor?”
“If you ever find yourself at our headquarters in the northern region… would you give my little sister a chance?”
“A chance?”
“To marry you.”
He nearly spat out his tea. “I—uh—”
“You don’t have to answer now,” she said smoothly. “But if you ever et her, I’m sure she’d suit your preferences far better than I do.”
“Uh… sure,” he said, though he had no intention of ever heading north.
His plans were simple: find the Azure Dragon clan, marry the three won he loved, and settle down to cultivate peacefully—until immortality, or death claid him.
An awkward silence settled between them.
Thankfully, it didn’t last long.
The younger shop attendant returned, holding a red cushion with a storage ring resting atop it.
Jin Shu frowned slightly. That can’t be it.
He already possessed a storage artifact with effectively limitless space—he hadn’t even found its upper bound yet. And he couldn’t think of anyone else who needed one.
What in the world did my mother order this ti?
“Is… that it?” he asked.
“Hm? No,” Ji Li replied. “That is simply holding your order. There were too many to carry individually, you see.”
She gestured to the attendant. The girl sent a strand of qi into the ring.
A mont later, hundreds of… more rings poured out.
They weren’t storage rings.
They were diamond rings—engagent rings, in a dizzying array of designs.
Jin Shu blinked.
Engagent rings didn’t exist in this world. They were a tradition from Gold’s. However, he vaguely rembered ntioning them to his mother once—though for what reason, he couldn’t recall.
When did she even have the ti to do this? he wondered.
Then again… she didn’t need ti. Teleportation made distance aningless.
“How many?” he asked, already bracing himself.
“One thousand, one hundred, and eleven,” Ji Li said calmly. “It was ant to be more, but the designer ran out of ideas. They are all unique.”
“I see…” Jin Shu pinched the bridge of his nose as a familiar headache began to form. “That’s probably for the best.”
The attendant carefully returned the rings to the storage device and presented it on the cushion.
“Thank you,” Jin Shu sighed. He transferred the contents into his own storage artifact, then tried to hand the ring back.
“Keep it,” the attendant said.
He didn’t need it—but free was free.
“You don’t look very happy,” Ji Li observed. “Is there sothing wrong with the order? I hope it wasn’t who spoiled your mood.”
“No, you’re fine,” he waved her off. “There’s nothing wrong with the order itself. It’s the aning behind the rings that’s exhausting.”
“Oh?” Ji Li leaned forward slightly. “I’ve been curious why one person would need so many uniquely designed rings.”
“There’s a tradition,” Jin Shu explained. “When you want to marry soone, you give them a ring—an engagent ring. During the proposal, you offer it to her. If she accepts, she wears it to show she’s engaged.”
Ji Li’s eyes widened. “And those are engagent rings?”
“Yes.”
“But… there are over a thousand,” she said slowly. “Surely you aren’t planning to—”
“No. No, I’m not,” he cut in quickly. “I plan to use three. Maybe four.”
She raised a brow. “My sister wouldn’t happen to be number four, would she?”
He glanced away. “…No.”
She smiled knowingly. “I see.”
Jin Shu cleared his throat and stood. “Alright. Ti for to leave.”
He had barely taken a step toward the door when Ji Li called out behind him.
“Are you certain?” She gestured aningfully toward the back. “There’s a bed in the rear room. And another cute attendant. Surely you could spare three more of those rings.”
Jin Shu nearly tripped, barely stopping himself from face-planting into a glass display case.
“I thought you said you were done trying to seduce ?”
“Can’t bla a woman for trying,” she shrugged. “Especially when the prize is this tempting.”
He felt like a piece of at on a chopping block as her eyes traveled slowly up and down his body.
“Here.” He tossed her one of the rings. “Your prize.”
“Is this the proposal you were talking about?”
“No. Think of it as compensation for breaking my promise in advance.”
“You know I work in a jewelry store.” She gestured lazily around the room, filled with ornate displays and glittering gems.
“If you don’t want it, I’ll take it back…”
He reached for the ring in her hand, but she pulled away.
“No. I never said I didn’t want it.” She smirked, eyes gleaming with mischief. “I’ll keep it for my sister.”
“I…” He sighed. “Do whatever you want.”
Turning away, he waved a hand over his shoulder. “I’m out of here. For real this ti.”
“Goodbye, handso~ I’ll miss you!” Ji Li called as he stepped out of the shop.
A few pedestrians glanced his way. Most nodded to themselves, as if they understood exactly why a woman might miss soone like him.
Shaking his head, he ignored their looks and walked until he found a well-kept hotel. He checked in and paid for a single night.
He didn’t feel like continuing toward the next destination on his mother’s map. Not yet. Right now, he needed rest—ti to recalibrate.
The thousand-plus rings felt as though they weighed a pound each. Not physically—the storage earring removed all weight—but emotionally. Each one carried the burden of the ssage she was sending.
He knew what she was trying to tell him.
He just refused to listen.
Once, it had been about the technique she’d gone to such painstaking lengths to acquire for him. But even after learning he’d thrown it away, she never stopped. Her words. Her actions. Always the sa quiet insistence.
Let go, she was telling him. Let go of your turmoil. Be free.
He wanted to listen. He wanted to release everything weighing him down.
But he couldn’t.
Not yet.
Sighing, he let the thoughts drift away.
“Whatever. Let’s see if anyone’s around.”
Focusing his mind, he drew on his elental affinities and ford a gateway to the unnad hidden realm.
While he’d been at the Immortal Phoenix Sect, opening a gateway had been easy. Effortless, even. But the farther he traveled, the harder it beca. The realm occupied a fixed position in space—one that lay deep within the sect’s territory.
Still, with the talismans the others carried, it would only take a simple activation on their end. In theory, they could et—as long as he could still summon the gateway himself.
If they were inside.
It was entirely possible they hadn’t found the ti while traversing the Southern Region’s forbidden desert.
After all, it was forbidden for a reason.
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