In Azure Point, if players wanted to get their hands on a Sumeru Ring, they usually had to break their backs gathering rare materials and then find someone to forge one for them. But Xu Yuan knew of one other place where you could get a Sumeru Ring.
The method was simple. Early in the game, one of the quest lines would take players through a map called Sky Origin Ridge. All they had to do was head to the deepest part of the map, where, in a bamboo grove, they would run into a white-haired old man with three blood-red question marks floating over his head.
He would offer the player a quest, but if you wanted the Sumeru Ring, you absolutely could not talk to him.
The moment you saw him, you pulled out your weapon and went straight for the kill. After all, fortune favored the bold. As long as you managed to kill the old man, he would one hundred percent drop a Sumeru Ring, along with a whole ringful of precious heavenly treasures.
The memory flashed through his mind, and Xu Yuan gave a faint, amused shake of the head before looking toward Ran Qingmo across from him.
Her master did own a Sumeru Ring, but clearly Ran Qingmo herself had never really handled one before. Her beautiful eyes stayed fixed on the ring as she fiddled with it for quite a while before finally managing to pull a few things out. Three bottles of pills, two ancient-looking books, and a luxurious red robe. Other than that, there were also more than a dozen empty jade bottles and jade boxes.
After taking everything out, Ran Qingmo lifted her eyes to Xu Yuan and blinked. “That’s all.”
“I know.” Xu Yuan gave a slight nod and looked over the books, bottles, and jars laid out neatly on the ground.
Compared to the game, this storage ring had a few extra empty jade bottles and boxes inside, but aside from that, nothing was different. One cultivation manual, one secret art, one Blood Jade Glazed Robe, and three bottles of pills with completely different effects.
The first bottle contained a Nine Reversion Pill, a holy medicine for healing.
The second contained a Blood Spirit Body-Melding Pill, used to steady the soul and fuse body and spirit.
The third bottle contained a Soul Scattering Calamity Pill, an absolute necessity for cultivating the Blood Origin Heartfall Art.
Out in the outside world, any one of these items would count as a first-rate treasure.
In the end, Xu Yuan’s gaze settled on the three bottles of pills. Reality was not a game. Their names were not conveniently written on them. He knew what was in the set of third-grade pills, but he had no way to tell which bottle was which. That was fine, though. Right now, he had an old grandpa at his side to guide him.
With that thought, Xu Yuan turned to the woman beside him. “Miss Ran, I’m missing some of my memories when it comes to these pills, so I’ll have to trouble you to help me identify them.”
Ran Qingmo glanced at Xu Yuan when she heard that, her gaze turning a little strange and suspicious. She found this selective amnesia of his deeply odd, but she could not quite put her finger on what, exactly, was so odd about it. After thinking it over for a moment and getting nowhere, she simply nodded in agreement.
“Mhm. This bottle has a Nine Reversion Pill. This one has a Blood Spirit Body-Melding Pill. This bottle...this bottle...”
When she got to the last bottle, Ran Qingmo’s delicate brows drew together slightly. She stared at the little vial for a long while without blinking, but in the end still could not make sense of it.
“This one… I don’t know.”
“That’s fine too,” Xu Yuan replied softly.
It was only normal that Ran Qingmo did not recognize the Soul Scattering Calamity Pill. It had been specially formulated to match the cultivation of the Blood Origin Heartfall Art, and that art, ever since its creation, had remained buried in this cave abode the whole time.
In other words, aside from Xu Yuan, who had once been a player, there was probably no second person in this world who even knew that this technique existed.
He stepped forward and picked up two of the bottles. Then he glanced at the remaining one, paused for a moment, and said quietly to Ran Qingmo, “You should keep the Nine Reversion Pill for treating your injuries.”
Ran Qingmo immediately lifted her eyes to look at him, her clear, secluded gaze flickering slightly. She knew the value of the Nine Reversion Pill. Lightly pressing her red lips together, she looked at Xu Yuan and suddenly asked, “Um... can you give me a jade box?”
“A jade box?” Xu Yuan glanced at the jade bottles and boxes, then smiled casually. “Just take one.”
“Oh.” Ran Qingmo nodded, picked up a jade box, opened it, and then, right in front of Xu Yuan, raised one slender hand and reached into her clothes, feeling around inside.
Xu Yuan fell silent. After reorganizing his thoughts, he asked softly, “What are you doing?”
Ran Qingmo said nothing. She simply pulled out the Snakeheart Lotus from inside her robes and placed it into the jade box.
Xu Yuan looked on, a little surprised. He clearly remembered stuffing that thing into his own clothes before they jumped off the cliff. Most likely while he had been unconscious, this iceberg of a woman had quietly fished her own spoils back out. The thought made him smile.
After closing the lid, Ran Qingmo straightened her collar, stood up, and handed the jade box to Xu Yuan.
Softly, she said, “I... I’ll trade this to you.”
Xu Yuan looked at her serious expression and fell silent for a moment. Then he smiled and accepted it without refusing. “Alright, I’ll take it. Put it in the Sumeru Ring for me.”
“Oh.” Ran Qingmo nodded, and with a thought, the jade box in her hand vanished.
After that, neither of them had anything else to say for a while.
Ran Qingmo did not find the silence awkward at all. She glanced at Xu Yuan, then carried the Nine Reversion Pill she had just traded for over to a corner of the cave abode and sat down to heal herself.
Xu Yuan, meanwhile, leisurely picked up the Blood Jade Glazed Robe and the two ancient books from the ground, then sat down on the jade bed inside the cave dwelling.
This was his cave abode. He slept on the bed, Ran Qingmo slept on the floor. The arrangement was perfectly reasonable.