Chapter 97 : Another Chance Encounter at the Market

Chapter 97: Another Chance Encounter at the Market

“Senior Brother Long!”

A familiar voice came from behind.

Long Tao initially thought he had misheard and subconsciously turned his head, only to be surprised to find that the person calling him was actually Nan Yuchen.

And the female cultivator walking beside him—who else could it be but Zhu Huaisu?

“Why did you come here?” Long Tao and Luo Yusi stepped forward quickly, lowering their voices as they asked.

He noticed that Nan Yuchen was dressed today in nothing more than ordinary coarse cloth, not even wearing sect disciple robes, looking just like an average, unremarkable youth.

Long Tao immediately realized that this trip required discretion, and thus did not call him by name.

“Master was afraid I’d get too stifled staying on the peak, so she allowed me to come out and relax a bit,” Nan Yuchen explained softly.

He did not come too close, stopping several steps away from Long Tao and Luo Yusi.

As he spoke, his face was slightly turned aside, his gaze drifting, clearly not daring to look directly at Luo Yusi’s conspicuous spider body.

Only then did Long Tao recall that this kid seemed to be afraid of spiders.

“I see. True Person Mingzhu is more understanding than I imagined,” Long Tao chuckled.

“By all logic, you should’ve been ordered to stay on the peak right now, properly attending to that… uh, bird.”

“Yeah,” Nan Yuchen said with a helpless, bitter smile.

“That little one won’t leave me for even a single step. This time, Master had to use a calming artifact to make it sleep for a while before I could come out with Senior Fifth Sister.”

Just thinking about that green fledgling that clung to him day and night—doing nothing but eating and sleeping—gave him a headache.

The pet-owning life he had once imagined involved a cat or dog that could play with him, keep him company during tedious cultivation, and curl up with him for warmth at night.

Instead, reality had turned him into a full-time wet nurse serving a “little ancestor” around the clock.

Seeing Nan Yuchen’s resigned yet helpless expression, Long Tao couldn’t help but smile.

Just as he was about to tease him, he caught, out of the corner of his eye, Zhu Huaisu’s sharp gaze sweeping over him and Luo Yusi.

The next moment, the personally transmitted disciple of Moon-Washing Peak darted forward, grabbed Luo Yusi’s arm without explanation, and pulled her several steps aside, her tone unmistakably urgent.

“Yusi? Why are you shopping with this man in broad daylight?” Zhu Huaisu lowered her voice.

“Didn’t I tell you before? This guy is full of schemes and bad ideas.

If you get too close to him, you’ll end up being tricked!”

Luo Yusi was momentarily stunned by the sudden move, then laughed softly.

“Huaisu, it’s not what you think.

We agreed earlier to come to the Spirit Pet Market together today.

He wants to buy a spirit pet as a gift.” She deliberately left out who the gift was for and instead asked, “By the way, why isn’t Little Mi with you?”

“I brought it,” Zhu Huaisu sighed, her tone easing somewhat.

“But that little thing complained that the market was full of mixed spirit beast smells, insisted on taking a bath, and even wanted fur grooming. So I left it at a familiar shop for now. I’ll pick it up later.”

After fighting side by side and sharing life-and-death moments in the secret realm, the two girls had long since become close enough to address each other by name.

But Zhu Huaisu truly felt anxious right now.

This Long Tao—why did he always look so “honest and reliable” in the eyes of others? Yet she couldn’t expose the old incident of him peeping outside the bathhouse.

Doing so would certainly ruin Long Tao’s reputation, but it would also implicate all of Moon-Washing Peak and damage her master’s prestige.

More importantly, what bothered her was encountering this man yet again in a completely unexpected place.

If previous meetings could still be brushed off as coincidences, then now, Zhu Huaisu was almost certain that some inexplicable “fate” had entangled her with Long Tao, causing them to run into each other again and again for no clear reason.

In fact, she had privately consulted an elder skilled in destiny calculation about this before.

The answer had been surprisingly straightforward, without any deliberate mystification.

The elder proposed a rather practical possibility: it was very likely that their two families’ ancestors had once made some kind of unfinished agreement or contract.

That elder speculated that because the two ancestors who made the agreement had possessed extremely high cultivation, the contract might have formed a powerful, hidden Heavenly Dao oath, its effects invisibly extending and acting upon their bloodline descendants.

Zhu Huaisu had found the explanation rather absurd at the time, but upon reflection, it didn’t seem entirely impossible.

The Zhu family was now the nominal imperial clan of this region, and at its peak in ancient times, it had been one of the most powerful dynasties in this realm.

The territory it truly controlled had even surpassed the current sphere of influence of the Nine-Xia Heavenly Sect, and back then, even the Wuyi Sect had been required to pay nominal allegiance.

Who knew what sort of agreement her long-dead ancestors might have made with Long Tao’s forebears in some forgotten corner of the world? If it had been recorded in texts, it would at least be traceable.

But if it had merely been a drunken verbal agreement between two old men, then it would truly be like searching for a needle in the sea.

“Sigh…” Zhu Huaisu sighed inwardly.

Looking on the bright side, this “ill-fated bond” didn’t seem to have any substantial negative impact for now.

At worst, it was just annoying—forcing her to frequently see this man who unsettled her.

Moreover, judging from hints in True Person Mingzhu’s recent words, Long Tao seemed to be entangled with some special fortuitous opportunities.

Given how “fated” she was with him, perhaps… she might even indirectly reap some benefits in the future?

Thinking this way, Zhu Huaisu’s conflicted mood eased slightly.

She released Luo Yusi’s arm.

When she looked back at Long Tao, her gaze still carried scrutiny, but the intense hostility had clearly diminished, leaving behind only a complicated, resigned sort of helplessness.

“Fine. Since we’ve run into each other, it must be fate. Let’s stroll around together,” Zhu Huaisu said, taking a deep breath as if making a compromise.

Then she abruptly changed the subject and laid out a condition.

“However… it’s better if men and women walk separately. You two men go in front, Yusi and I will follow behind. Just don’t get too far apart.”

In truth, she would have preferred to pull Luo Yusi along on their own—not only to keep distance from Long Tao, but also due to a subtle desire to show off.

Walking around with a friend as strikingly alluring as Luo Yusi, who had recently gained fame within the sect, would certainly be very “face-saving” if they ran into acquaintances.

Still, she knew her primary task on this outing was to look after her junior brother Nan Yuchen, so she obediently stayed behind and kept her distance.

“Sounds good, sounds good!” Nan Yuchen was quite happy with the arrangement, a relaxed smile spreading across his face.

“It’s rare to run into Senior Brother Long outside.

It’ll be livelier to stroll together!” To him, having Long Tao around was far more comfortable than staying by Senior Fifth Sister’s side.

And it was also a perfect opportunity to ask Long Tao about those lingering questions from the secret realm—especially the claim made by that itinerant merchant senior regarding the so-called Child of Destiny.

“There is indeed a target,” Long Tao picked up the thread and answered Nan Yuchen’s question.

“I’m looking for a spirit pet that might be able to sense, or be related to, time-based abilities.”

“Time-based abilities?” Nan Yuchen blinked, clearly surprised.

“Spirit pets with that attribute are extremely rare! And they must be very expensive, right?”

Long Tao was well aware that such spirit pets wouldn’t be cheap.

But if they were truly too expensive to afford, then at worst he could just switch to a cheaper one.

After all, a spirit pet didn’t necessarily have to be a bonded life companion—plenty of people bought them simply to raise as ordinary pets.

Nan Yuchen’s eyes suddenly lit up.

“When Senior Fifth Sister and I were browsing that area earlier, I actually heard someone mention something related to time. Want to go take a look?”