Jade Pass was on the border of the Imperial Sect, and it was a land of lawlessness. Most of the people who came here, to avoid trouble, basically wore ordinary clothes, pretending to be small rogue cultivators with no money.
As the saying goes, wealth should not be exposed.
In a place like this, there were only two kinds of people who dared to show their wealth or strut down the road in beautiful clothes.
It was either a powerful cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage or above or a fool who had just entered the Immortal Path and was still naive and overconfident.
The fox-masked woman felt that these two should belong to the latter category.
From the moment they stepped through the Jade Pass City 's gates, she had already set her eyes on these two cultivators, one in the late stage and the other in the early stage of Foundation Building . Their clothes were so eye-catching, and the shorter one even had a valuable anklet on her foot.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk..."
The fox-masked woman walked quietly to the bedside. She moved her fingers to the storage bag on Xiao Yunluo's waist, hooked her index finger, and an identity tag flew out of it right into her hand.
"Just take it as a lesson for you. You are lucky to have met me. At least I only seek wealth and will not harm your life. Let me see... Black Star Sect..."
She murmured in a low voice as if she was not worried that her soliloquy would wake the two people.
?!
The Young Lady of the Black Star Sect?
Seeing the information on the ID tag, a look of surprise appeared on the fox-masked woman's face, and she looked in disbelief at Xiao Yunluo, who was sleeping like a pig on the bed.
"She is the daughter of that old woman from the Black Star Sect?"
The fox-masked woman muttered to herself, feeling as if she had stumbled upon a big fat fish, but now, she was somewhat hesitant to take her storage bag.
"If I steal her bag, won't the old hag come after me in person? They say she is quite petty... Tsk, but this fish is too big. If I steal it, at least I won't have to work this year, hmmm..."
She held her chin and talked to herself as if she were really worried, and then glanced at Si Xuanji, who had her face covered with the quilt. "Then, this little girl is that old woman's second daughter? She's so old, how can she still give birth? Who did she conceive her with... Actually, she was quite old when she gave birth to the first one, right? Who has such a weird fetish?"
--- "I'm impressed!! I'm impressed!!"
Suddenly, there was a drake-like voice outside the window, which startled the woman for a moment. But when she turned her head to look and saw it was just a golden-crowned parrot, she simply ignored it.
Xiao Yunluo also woke up in a daze at this time.
"Parrot..."
She squinted at the window, but just as she said this word, she saw the fox-masked woman standing by her bed. After a moment, her eyes slowly widened.
The woman watched Xiao Yunluo sit up and took the initiative to greet her. "You're awake, eh?"
Xiao Yunluo froze for a split second, then immediately made a sword finger, pulling her sword out of her storage bag. She moved over her mother, who was lying beside her still motionless, and waved the sword.
Whoosh---
Halfway through her sword swing, the fox-masked woman slightly raised her hand.
The next moment, the sword in Xiao Yunluo's hand evaporated out of thin air and appeared in her hand.
?
After Xiao Yunluo finished the swinging move, she realized that the sword in her hand was gone.
Panic surfaced in her eyes, and her mind replayed the scene from the day of the entrance exam when she was robbed of her thousand-year-old black sword by that petty thief who had infiltrated the Black Star Sect's back mountain.
However, at that time, it was because she was overly nervous and didn't hold the sword firmly that it was snatched from her. But this time, she was pretty sure she had held it steady.
"How did you..."
"Secret~" The woman put her index finger in front of her mouth hidden under the fox mask, and then smiled. "This sword is good, sister, I accept it with pleasure, hum~ Is there anything else you want to give me?"
Xiao Yunluo was puzzled. She couldn't figure out how the sword that she was holding tightly was snatched from her hand, and she hastily drew out two talismans from her storage bag. Holding them between her middle and forefinger, she threw them toward the fox-masked woman.
However, just like before, the fox-masked woman slightly raised her hand, and those talismans instantly vanished before they appeared between her fingers.
The woman looked at the talismans with a smile. "Two seventh-grade fire talismans. Young Lady Xiao, this is very impressive. Do you have more?"
How in the hell...
Xiao Yunluo was already skeptical by nature, and she had never heard of this method of taking things from a distance. Even if her mother wanted to take things from other people's hands, she was unlikely to do it like that.
This person... was no small fry!
Seeing Xiao Yunluo stunned, the fox-masked woman shrugged slightly and then looked at the little girl who had not reacted yet with some confusion.
Logically speaking, with such commotion, the girl should have woken up by now.
Pretending to sleep?
"Little Miss, why don't you get up and give me something as well? You see, your sister has given me so many things."
The fox-masked woman narrowed her eyes slightly as she stared at Si Xuanji, who was lying on the bed covered with the quilt, curious as to what tricks she had up her sleeve. However, in the next moment, there was a blowing sound in her ears.
"Hoo~~"
?!!
The woman was startled and immediately turned to look, only to find that the little girl was now clinging to her back.
"Huh?!"
"You must be the ' Immortal Thief ', eh? Turns out you are a girl."
She looked at the little girl behind her, then glanced at the bed out of the corner of her eye, only to find that in an instant, the little girl who had been under the quilt had disappeared from the bed.
The word "danger" flashed straight above her head.
The fox-masked woman sensed something was wrong and quickly waved her hand to drive the girl away. Then, she raised her sword finger and her figure turned into a white light and flew out the slightly open window.
Si Xuanji, who was floating in the air, slowly landed on the floor with her bare feet, walked to the window, and looked up at the stars in the sky, seeing a meteor streaking past.
"Running so fast, heh."
Finally coming to her senses, Xiao Yunluo tremblingly got out of bed and came behind Si Xuanji. "Mother..."
"Hmm?"
"... Sister Xuanji, aren't you going to chase her?"
"She's a good girl, why would I chase her?" Si Xuanji turned her head and squinted her eyes, then raised her hand and grabbed Xiao Yunluo's face. "She taught you a lesson for sleeping so soundly outside. You got off easy this time. You only lost your sword and two seventh-grade talismans."
"Ah... yeah... sorry."
Si Xuanji yawned, drifted back to the bed, and lay down.
"Let's go back to sleep. We have to be on the road tomorrowyawn Good night."
Seeing her mother like this, Xiao Yunluo pursed her lips and glanced outside the room. Although she was still frightened, since her mother had spoken, she said nothing more, went back to the bed and lay down.
... ...
Meanwhile, in the desert outside the Jade Pass .
The moon was dark and the wind was high, and vultures circled above.
The fox-masked woman poked her head out of the sand, looked around with a tense face, and only after carefully checking her surroundings to make sure no one was there did she crawl out from the sand. She found a rock to shelter her from the wind and sat down against it.
"What's the deal with that little ninny? How did she sneak up behind me like that?"
She recalled the slightly creepy scene just now. Obviously, she had been paying attention to that little missy lying on the bed, but she thought that an early-stage Foundation Building cultivator couldn't do much against her. She had never expected that she would actually be able to sneak up behind her unnoticed.
"Never mind. I got away anyway, and it's not like there's no gain."
Since she couldn't figure this out, the fox-masked woman stopped thinking about it and took Xiao Yunluo's sword and two talismans from her storage bag.
"Hehehe, this should be worth tens of thousands of spirit stones, right? I made a lot of money, hehe..."
Jingle jingle~~
Just when she was laughing happily, a crisp bell ring suddenly interrupted her excitement.
The fox-faced woman thought that the girl had caught up with her, and looked toward the bell sound with a look of horror, only to find that fifteen feet away from her, there was a jade bell engraved with the words ' All Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix '.
However, when she escaped just now, she didn't notice the jade bell there at all.
"..."
After staring at the jade bell for a while, the woman felt something was wrong. Although the bell seemed to be very valuable, there was something evil about it.
It was completely abnormal to have such a clean jade bell in the middle of the desert.
After a moment of silence, the fox-masked woman once again used her escaping technique, and in the blink of an eye, she had vanished nearly a mile away.
However, after her footsteps slowed down...
Jingle jingle~~
An eerie bell ring sounded behind her.
!!
The woman turned around and saw the jade bell placed nearby again.
"What the hell?!"
In disbelief, she simply escaped ten miles away, but...
Jingle jingle~~
Bang---
This time, the jade bell landed directly on her forehead. It hit her so hard that she bent forward and fell to the ground helplessly.
"Ouch... what the hell is this?!"
This time, she simply walked over, picked up the jade bell, and threw it away over her shoulder.
"Go away!!!"
Watching the jade bell draw an arc in the sky and fall into an oasis lake a hundred feet away, she exhaled. "Now, you're done for..."
Jingle jingle~~
Before she finished speaking, the crisp bell ring came from behind her again.
The fox-masked woman pursed her lips. She didn't need to look back to know what was behind her.
"Ouch!! What are you doing~~"