Seraphine burst into laughter, her long hair cascading as she flopped onto the bed with all the grace of a satisfied cat. She pulled out a novel from her storage ring like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Come here,” she said, patting the bed beside her.

I drifted over, watching as she arranged snacks and a wine flask on the bedside table. She propped herself up against a stack of pillows and shot me a very pointed look.

Well. Okay then.

Without a single complaint, I floated behind the book she held up. Soon, the room filled with the sound of me reading aloud from whatever trashy novel she’d picked up this time. Outside the window, the Fire Rock Dragon had somehow managed to drape its massive head over the windowsill, looking surprisingly comfortable as it closed its eyes and settled in to digest the beast cores in its belly.

The whole scene was weirdly peaceful.

We spent the entire night like this—one human, one system, just burning through terrible literature. When dawn broke and golden light streamed through the windows, Seraphine stretched and got up, looking surprisingly refreshed.

“You know what?” she said, glancing at me with genuine surprise. “I’ve discovered another incredibly useful feature of yours.” She paused, considering. “At least humans couldn’t read novels all night without getting tired. Even cultivators would get bored after a while.”

“Being a system isn’t so bad,” she added with a grin.

As she spoke, she pulled out a small box of spirit pearls from her storage ring and, right in front of me, transferred them to the storage ring she’d given me.

It was literally just moving stuff from her right hand to her left hand, but I still felt grateful enough to bow repeatedly in thanks.

“Being a system is great,” I said calmly, “but I suspect you’re complimenting me because you want me to keep reading novels to you.”

“What are you talking about?” Seraphine shot me a mock-offended look and laughed. “Even if I don’t compliment you, as long as I want to listen, you’ll read to me anyway. You know that, right?”

I never refused any request within my capabilities. “Understood,” I replied with my usual composure.

Seraphine reached out and patted my head—or tried to, since her hand just passed through me. But hey, it’s the thought that counts.

After this friendly negotiation about novel reading services, we walked out of the jade house together. With a casual gesture, Seraphine stored the entire building in her storage ring. The Fire Rock Dragon, which had been coiled around the roof with its head resting on top, suddenly crashed to the ground with a massive thud, startling Qiu Shuangshuang awake.

“You scared me to death!” Qiu Shuangshuang yelped, scrambling to her feet. She’d spent the night sleeping on a makeshift bed of large leaves, using her cloak as a blanket. Next to Seraphine’s bright, luxurious robes and jewelry, she looked like she’d been living rough for weeks.

Which, to be fair, she had.

At least she was pretty enough that no one would mistake her for an actual vagrant.

Seraphine stood rather disgustedly at a distance from her, her dangling hand reaching forward, and The Fire Rock Dragon slithered over and nuzzled against her palm affectionately.

“So, how exactly did the young lady of Autumn Water Pavilion end up in this state? And where are the other disciples?” Seraphine asked, her tone did not carry much concern.

Qiu Shuangshuang’s face flushed red. She cleared her throat and pulled her cloak tighter, trying to project an air of ‘everything’s totally fine’ that fooled absolutely no one.

“I entered the secret realm separately from the other disciples,” she said. “We haven’t crossed paths since.”

“If you could help me find the other Autumn Water Pavilion disciples, it would be like saving my life. The sect would owe you a favor.”

If not for that potential favor, Seraphine clearly wouldn’t want to drag along this low-level burden. But she’d been in the secret realm for half a month without seeing any other cultivators, so she had no idea where the Autumn Water disciples might be.

“Do you have any communication talismans to contact your sect members?” Seraphine asked. The sooner she could dump this responsibility, the better.

Qiu Shuangshuang bit her lip and mumbled, “I left in kind of a hurry… didn’t bring any.”

Seraphine’s expression turned confused. What did she mean, she didn’t bring any?

“Ooh,” I said, perched on her shoulder. “She snuck out, didn’t she?”

Looking at Qiu Shuangshuang’s age—this was textbook rebellious teenager behavior. Parents say no, so naturally she had to do the exact opposite. She probably heard about the Chongshan Secret Realm, got told she couldn’t go, and decided to sneak out anyway with some half-baked disguise plan.

Seraphine looked at the deliberately plain gray robes, remembering how the girl had been covered in mud yesterday to hide her appearance. Her lips twitched slightly.

“Stupid,” she said flatly.

Qiu Shuangshuang’s face went bright red and her eyes started watering, but she managed to hold back the tears. She hurried after Seraphine, protesting, “I was afraid people would recognize me! They definitely wouldn’t have let me enter, but that’s not fair! I reached Foundation Establishment at fifteen, but Mother and Father keep locking me up in the sect telling me to ‘consolidate my foundation.’ They never let me go out for real experience! At this rate, when will I ever learn anything?”

I floated on Seraphine’s shoulder, black circles focused on the girl trailing behind us like an indignant duckling. “You consolidate your foundation, then you get to go out,” I pointed out reasonably.

Seraphine’s lips curved upward slightly. Without turning around, she asked, “Are you learning things now?”

And after learning things, she’d started calling for help.

Qiu Shuangshuang fell silent.

She wiped her eyes and muttered, “I didn’t think the Chongshan Secret Realm would be this dangerous. Before I even got in, someone tried to rob me of my jade token. If I hadn’t been clever enough to disguise myself as a Golden Core cultivator and scare them off, who knows what would have happened…”

But she hadn’t expected the inside of the secret realm to be even worse! Every spirit beast she encountered was Golden Core level, and even the spiritual plants growing fruit were Golden Core level. She’d just wanted to pick one jade spirit fruit and nearly got beaten to death. All the protective artifacts her sect elders had given her over the years had been used up just trying to escape, and she had nothing to show for it except humiliation!

Qiu Shuangshuang angrily kicked a stone out of her path, her expression thoroughly dejected.

I turned around and opened my data panel.

The light blue interface floated in the air, and Seraphine could see everything on it—I wasn’t hiding anything from her. She watched with interest as I updated Qiu Shuangshuang’s profile, replacing the mud-covered image with the current pouty-faced version, complete with a tangle of messy scribbles over her head.

I carefully noted in the silver system records:

Qiu Shuangshuang: Daughter of the Autumn Water Pavilion Master. Young lady.

System Note: Still growing. Wait and see.

“Hah.” Seraphine chuckled softly and looked away, raising her hand to release a burst of flame that sliced through the dense vines blocking their path. Green sap spurted from the cut stems, evaporating in the fire and filling the air with a fresh, woody fragrance.

The vines hanging from the massive tree branches withered away, revealing an enormous tree nearly a hundred meters tall. Its branches were covered with palm-sized white flowers, each one hanging over a fist-sized, round fruit.

The fruits were translucent with a jade-like quality, colored somewhere between white and pale green, and they glowed with a soft inner light.

Everything with spiritual energy in the cultivation world seemed to come with built-in lighting effects. I ran a quick scan of the tree—just the visible fruits numbered in the thousands.

“J-jade spirit fruit!” Qiu Shuangshuang craned her neck back, staring up at the massive tree in awe. “So huge! Much bigger than the one I saw before!”

A tree this size could probably kill her with a single swipe.

She shivered and quietly shuffled closer to Seraphine’s position.

Seraphine, meanwhile, was giving me a lecture on jade spirit fruit properties.

“Jade spirit fruit isn’t particularly rare—you can find them almost anywhere. It’s just unusual to see a tree this old. The fruit is sweet and juicy, full of spiritual energy. Good for snacking or making spirit restoration pills.”

I dutifully took notes, updating both my database and map with her information.

“When we get back, if you’re free, we can visit the Luanyang Palace’s library. I’ll show you the catalogs of rare treasures,” Seraphine said, clearly in a good mood.

“Do you want me to read them?” I asked.

Seraphine raised an eyebrow.

I didn’t ask again.

Of course she wanted me to read them.

With such a massive jade spirit fruit tree bearing countless fruits, Palace Lord Velka obviously wasn’t going to harvest them herself. She used her spiritual energy to weave several vines into a swing, settled down comfortably, and pulled out her novel.

I drifted over to continue reading with her. We still hadn’t finished the last one.

One by one, fruits began falling from the branches. Soon they formed a small mountain in front of the swing, their combined glow rippling like water. Qiu Shuangshuang stood to the side, hands clasped nervously, watching the Fire Rock Dragon coil around the tree trunk and use its tail to knock down fruit.

“Um,” she said quietly, “I think the tree is shaking?”

The dragon’s entire body radiated fire-element energy, with flames constantly burning along its horns. It looked like it might set the entire forest ablaze at any moment.

Ever since it had started climbing the tree to harvest fruit, the branches had been swaying constantly, as if caught in a violent windstorm. The trembling was actually making quite a few jade spirit fruits fall on their own.

Seraphine was engrossed in her novel and took a moment to process the comment. When she did, she replied irritably, “If you’re so worried about the tree, tell it to come down and you can climb up instead.”

Qiu Shuangshuang immediately clamped her mouth shut, puffing out her cheeks. She was just making conversation! This Luanyang Palace Lord was really difficult to talk to—every comment came with barbs. Back at Autumn Water Pavilion, who would dare speak to her like this?

But beggars couldn’t be choosers. Qiu Shuangshuang hung her head low and plopped down on the ground with a huff, unhappily plucking grass while fantasizing about reuniting with her sect members.

The jade spirit fruits were juicy, so it would take the Fire Rock Dragon a while to finish. Seraphine continued reading while snacking.

I pulled out my small ice pop—somehow I still had about half of it left.

How had Echo not finished this thing yet?

Seraphine looked at me with exasperation and made a disgusted sound. “Have some self-respect.”

I very respectfully shoved the entire remaining ice pop in my mouth at once, shuddering as the cold sensation made my data clusters tremble.

“So cold,” I said in my characteristically flat voice.

Seraphine lazily hummed in response. “So stupid.”

“Enough!” Qiu Shuangshuang suddenly jumped up, clearly upset. “I was just looking at the jade spirit fruit for a few minutes! Why are you calling me worthless and stupid? I wasn’t even taking your fruit!”

Both human and system stared at her in surprise as her eyes reddened and tears started flowing.

“I just reached Foundation Establishment! I don’t like eating fasting pills, so the servants always prepare food for me. I just forgot to bring supplies because I left in such a hurry! Everyone makes mistakes when they’re inexperienced! You’re Golden Core level and you still like to eat—why can’t I look when I’m hungry?” Qiu Shuangshuang broke down sobbing.

Seraphine: “……”

I’d gotten too comfortable hanging out with Echo. I’d definitely have to remember to use mental transmission in the future.

But seeing me silently drift behind her with the ice pop still in my mouth, Seraphine remained speechless.

Why are you hiding? Isn’t this the young lady you wanted to ‘wait and see’ about?

“You… fine.” Seraphine rubbed her forehead and sighed. She really did have a talent for collecting trouble. She raised her novel to hide her face and waved dismissively. “Eat as much jade spirit fruit as you want. I’m not so petty as to begrudge you that much.”

Out of sight, out of mind. To avoid any rumors about her being too stingy to feed someone, Seraphine also pulled out two paper-wrapped snacks from her storage ring and tossed them on the ground.

Qiu Shuangshuang stared in disbelief. “Really? You’re really letting me eat?”

“Mm.”

“The jade spirit fruit too?”

The novel-wielding Seraphine nodded.

Qiu Shuangshuang’s eyes darted around before she lowered her voice. “Could you maybe give me a new set of clothes? I’ve been wearing this one for half a month…”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she saw Seraphine lower her book and look at her with pure disgust. Qiu Shuangshuang covered her face bashfully and stamped her foot. “I told you I left in a hurry!”

“……”

Seraphine stood up and moved to a much more distant location, weaving herself a new vine swing. She left behind a set of clothes on the original swing and held up one finger.

“Three rules.”

“During my escort mission, no crying, no unreasonable demands, and bathe regularly.”

“I’m usually very clean!” Qiu Shuangshuang protested.

But half a month without bathing plus the mud-face disguise made her claim somewhat unconvincing.

Seraphine’s expression remained cold. “If you follow the rules, I’ll guarantee not just your safety, but your quality of life. But if you act like a buzzing fly again, crying and wailing…”

She smiled coldly and released a small flame, instantly vaporizing the jade spirit fruit closest to Qiu Shuangshuang.

The girl’s body stiffened and she nodded instinctively. “Yes.”

Satisfied with securing her own quality of life for the remainder of the secret realm, Seraphine returned to her novel. But after just two lines, something felt off. She looked up to find that I hadn’t come over.

The silver system was still hovering by the original swing, watching Qiu Shuangshuang collect the clothes and head to a nearby stream to bathe and change. I was still holding my ice pop and shaking my head thoughtfully.

“Free food, free housing, and a work uniform. What’s not to love?” I said.

Suddenly feeling very optimistic about my mission, I turned back to Seraphine and asked, “Host, have you ever heard of ‘domineering CEO falls in love with me’? I think you’ve got some domineering qualities. You’re like a domineering palace lord.”

“You’re a silver-headed fly,” Seraphine replied coldly.

I drifted over to her with the air of someone who’d seen it all, my tone full of worldly wisdom.

“Feelings develop gradually through long-term interaction.”

Seraphine closed her eyes and pulled out two boxes of spirit pearls from her left ring finger, setting them on her lap. Her expression was perfectly neutral as she asked, “Whose feelings?”

I sprouted a thought bubble with a tiny version of myself inside, eyes wide with excitement and a big exclamation mark over my head. The system quickly clarified: “Ours.”

“Mine and the host’s.”

The bubble version made a heart shape with tiny matchstick arms.

Seraphine snorted softly, put the spirit pearls back in her storage ring, and pointed at me. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

Both I and the bubble version raised our matchstick arms to wipe away cold sweat, though the bubble version actually produced a bead of sweat that fell with a little “whoosh” sound.

The tiny me raised its matchstick arms in a gesture of appeasement.

“Tch.” Seraphine couldn’t help but smile.

Ever since I’d developed this expression system, she found me increasingly endearing, even when I was trying to set her up with people. At least I wasn’t human, which made me much more tolerable to look at.

Maybe because I wasn’t human.

Seraphine mused, her smile growing wider. At least having this little thing around meant she was never lonely.

“I hereby grant you one day of vacation to go buy snacks,” she announced magnanimously.

But I refused.

“The Chongshan Secret Realm is dangerous. I’d rather wait until you’re back at Luanyang Palace and in closed-door cultivation before I restock,” I said. “Or I could just go without.”

I wasn’t that attached to my little treats. I hadn’t fallen into the main system’s consumer trap yet.

Seraphine’s tone softened. She reached out to touch my incorporeal form and said, “I didn’t expect you to be so concerned about me. Thank you.”

“It’s what I should do,” I replied, telling her not to be so formal. “Though it would be even better if you were more cooperative with mission objectives.”

Mission cooperation = matchmaking cooperation.

Seraphine’s smile vanished instantly. She deliberately swished her wide sleeve, the fabric passing right through me.

Swish away, whatever makes you happy.

I skillfully raised my matchstick arms.

Peace out, peace out.

^^

By the time Qiu Shuangshuang returned from her bath, Seraphine was still giving me the cold shoulder.

At least Qiu Shuangshuang called out her thanks from a distance. I looked at the clothes that were clearly too long for her, bunched up at the waist and secured with a belt, and observed, “She really is just a kid.”

You don’t say.

Seraphine shot me an annoyed look.

Qiu Shuangshuang, now clean and fed, seemed to have calmed down considerably after her two weeks of constant anxiety. She couldn’t help but say, “Palace Lord Velka, you’re the second person to be kind to me since I left Autumn Water Pavilion!”

Seraphine didn’t respond.

Qiu Shuangshuang didn’t seem to mind whether she got a response, continuing on her own. “Everyone always told me that people outside are wicked and scheming. I didn’t understand why—I thought as long as you stayed alert, how could anyone really deceive you? But after leaving, I learned it’s impossible to guard against everything.”

“Palace Lord Velka, you don’t know this, but before entering the secret realm, I was tricked by a woman who seemed very kind. She pretended to befriend me, but really wanted the second jade token I had for entering the Chongshan Secret Realm. Later, when the token prices went up, she decided to just kill me and take both tokens. If it weren’t for a Golden Core stage old man who saved me, I would have died in the Eastern Continent!” Qiu Shuangshuang sighed and bit viciously into her fruit.

I perked up like I’d heard a keyword. “Old man.”

Seraphine just wanted to read her novel and had no interest in hearing about the young lady’s adventure stories, but Qiu Shuangshuang seemed to have been bottling this up for ages.

“They say you can’t judge people by appearances,” she chattered on. “A kind-faced woman can have evil intentions, while an ugly, hunched old man might have a good heart. If I ever see that old man again, I’ll definitely thank him properly!”

“…”

Something clicked in Seraphine’s mind. She suddenly looked up at Qiu Shuangshuang.

Seeing Seraphine’s expression, the girl quickly added, “Of course, I’m just as grateful to you, Palace Lord! I always keep my word—I’ll definitely thank you properly too!”

You’d better!

Seraphine narrowed her eyes and put away her novel. “This old man you mentioned—did he have dark spots on his face, a revolting appearance, and Golden Core cultivation?”

Qiu Shuangshuang’s face lit up. “You’ve seen him too?”

“Yes, that’s right! Though he was ugly, his heart was—” She didn’t finish before Seraphine cut her off.

“You had two jade tokens for the Chongshan Secret Realm, and you gave him one as thanks?”

“How did you know?” Qiu Shuangshuang asked in surprise.

“Did he demonstrate his abilities in front of you?”

Qiu Shuangshuang suddenly looked hesitant. Seraphine raised an eyebrow. “You discovered his Golden Core cultivation was fake?”

“No! He told me himself!” Qiu Shuangshuang said, then clapped her hands over her mouth regretfully. “I promised my benefactor I wouldn’t tell anyone!”

Mentioning this seemed to deflate her. She hung her head. “If he hadn’t pretended to be a Golden Core cultivator to scare off that woman who wanted to harm me, I might not have made it out of the Eastern Continent alive. I was grateful for his life-saving grace, even though his real cultivation was lower than mine.”

“He not only saved me but gave me a disguise talisman so I could enter the secret realm safely…” Qiu Shuangshuang sighed and scratched her head. “Though once I got inside, I found it wasn’t as easy as I’d imagined.”

Seraphine: “……”

A thought struck her, and she turned to look at me.

I gazed back silently.

“Echo, open the map.”

The detailed map immediately appeared in the air.

Seraphine studied the terrain they’d covered, her brow furrowing gradually.

“Xue Bufan appeared in the same area as me after using his disguise, and Qiu Shuangshuang used the same method to encounter me. Echo, I’m starting to think your earlier guess was correct.” Seraphine paused. “The upgraded Chongshan Secret Realm separates cultivators into different zones based on their cultivation levels. But I don’t understand why this would happen. Has the secret realm itself gained consciousness?”

The thought made her shudder. If the Chongshan Secret Realm had developed a spirit, it would be a guardian of this entire realm. What good could come to cultivators who entered seeking treasures?

She pulled out a spiritual compass from her storage ring and slowly channeled spiritual energy into it, closing her eyes.

After a hundred breaths, she opened her eyes and relaxed.

“All the soul lamps of Luanyang Palace members are still burning. No one has died yet.” She spoke quietly. “Perhaps things aren’t as bad as I feared.”

Seraphine flew up to the top of the jade spirit tree, gazing toward the distant celestial palace. Since there were palace buildings, this realm must have once been home to people for a long time. Maybe everything happening now was deliberately arranged by whoever came before.

I flew to Seraphine’s side. “With the protagonist entering the same storyline, you need to be extra careful.”

Seraphine nodded and smiled. “I’ve suppressed him once, twice—I can suppress him ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times. I’ve already given Old Lady Xue enough face! As long as he behaves himself from now on, we’ll coexist peacefully. Otherwise—hmph!”

I stretched out two matchstick arms and patted her shoulder encouragingly. “I’ll cheer you on.”

“There’s one more thing,” I continued. “Before entering the secret realm, the protagonist hadn’t used the disguise talisman Qiu Shuangshuang mentioned, which is why he was attacked by someone trying to steal his jade token. He gave her one talisman, leaving him with one less. He’s calculating and practical—the protagonist probably doesn’t have many disguise talismans.”

Seraphine nodded approvingly and waited for me to continue.

I kept patting her shoulder as I spoke. “The protagonist is a talented young hero, and Qiu Shuangshuang is young and beautiful, plus she’s the young lady of Autumn Water Pavilion. They’ve already met, and there will definitely be more entanglements in the future.”

The dutiful system raised a panel covered with beautiful names and poetry, speaking with serious professionalism: “Unless something unexpected happens, Qiu Shuangshuang will eventually become part of the protagonist’s harem. We are that unexpected something, just like with Xue Mengtao. The system recommends that after finishing the Chongshan Secret Realm, you bring Qiu Shuangshuang back to Luanyang Palace. You can go into closed-door cultivation together for two years, absolutely not stepping foot outside your cultivation chambers.”

Seraphine’s tolerance for me really was growing by the day—she was actually patient enough to ask, “Why two years of cultivation?”

I flipped to a new page on my panel, showing the equation: 16 + 2 = 18.

My voice was calm and wise as I explained gently, “Most system worlds are based on the scientific world, where humans come of age at eighteen. After Qiu Shuangshuang becomes an adult, you two can start your romantic relationship.”

“It would be even better if you could have a wedding ceremony on her eighteenth birthday.”

The panel immediately displayed a large double-happiness character surrounded by red silk, with confetti cannons in the corners shooting out flower petals and streamers.

Seraphine smiled.

The bubble version of me had starry eyes full of hope.

Seraphine continued smiling as she moved everything from her left ring finger storage ring to her main storage ring, and spoke in a gentle tone I’d never heard before.

“As far as I know, ordinary people often marry at sixteen in the mortal world. Though if we have feelings for each other, waiting two years wouldn’t matter.”

I looked at her hand confiscating my belongings and kept my mouth tightly shut.

“But not only do I have no feelings for her, I find her annoying. So how about this instead?” Seraphine’s voice became even more gentle, and she smiled sweetly as she pointed at what should have been my nose area.

She spoke softly: “I’ll kill Qiu Shuangshuang first, then kill Xue Bufan, and see if this world actually gets destroyed. If it doesn’t, you can join me in cultivating the ghost path. If it does get destroyed—”

Her eyes turned cold, and she curved her red lips in a soft smile. “Before I die, I’ll drag you down with me.”

“How does that sound?”

Me: “……”

Me: “…………”

I dropped my panel, and the cheerful double-happiness character vanished instantly. I flipped back to the beauty catalog.

Right in front of Seraphine, I drew a bright red lines on Qiu Shuangshuang’s line.

After completing this task, I rolled up my panel and stuffed it back inside my body, then extended a matchstick arm toward Seraphine and spoke in my most neutral tone: “Hello, dear host. I am Gold Finger System Echo, here to serve you.”

“I will do everything in my power to fulfill your wishes, whatever they may be. Echo will make it happen!”

“…Hah.” Seraphine lowered her hand and put one hand on her hip, tilting her head with eyes like water, full of mockery and amusement. “Are you a good child, or just a little fool?”

I paused, then pushed my extended matchstick arm forward until it touched her cooperatively outstretched hand, and we shook.

I said obediently, “Even though I’m not human, you’re absolutely right.”

Let’s continue our friendly partnership!