To win a person's heart, you must first win their stomach—in the real world, this saying is the ultimate cheat code for romance.
Recalling how delicious the pastries were that Eldest Senior Sister had given her, Luoyun Huan figured she should send some pastries back in return. By reciprocating politely like this, wouldn't they gradually grow closer?
At this thought, Luoyun Huan couldn't help praising herself in her heart: she truly was an absolute genius!
She was the type to act on her ideas immediately without dragging her feet, and besides, she probably didn't have much time to drag her feet anyway, because if she failed to take initiatives for a prolonged period, the System would issue punitive tasks.
"Um... System bro, do we happen to have any gourmet recipe books?"
Luoyun Huan asked with a touch of embarrassment. Although she knew how to cook, frankly speaking, anything she whipped up casually could never compare to dishes made following a recipe.
The System remained silent for a moment, presumably pondering what Luoyun Huan needed a gourmet recipe book for.
It quickly finished pondering.
[Host, do you need gourmet recipe books to pursue Qin Yiqiu?]
[This System makes the special declaration here that you can check the target's detailed profile to see what she likes. If you meticulously prepare a dish she dislikes, that would be terrible.]
Luoyun Huan slapped her forehead. Ah, right! Why hadn't she thought of that?
It seemed the System wasn't completely useless after all; it could still provide helpful information, making it much better than those obnoxious systems in some novels that only knew how to hound people into pursuing targets.
Luoyun Huan opened Qin Yiqiu's detailed profile.
Her gaze swept over the "Likes" column.
Likes: Green tea.
Sure enough, someone at the Golden Core Stage had already learned to practice penance by abstaining from grains, no longer needing to eat, and her appetite would naturally diminish over time.
Especially Eldest Senior Sister, who practiced the Heartless Dao—she probably had no favorite foods at all.
Luoyun Huan felt a wave of gratitude in her heart for checking the attribute panel in advance; otherwise, she would have completely wasted her effort preparing food.
She liked tea leaves, eh? It seemed she would have to find a way to prepare a proper gift.
Hand-rubbing the tea leaves herself might be a bit troublesome, but if she didn't make them herself, she probably wouldn't be able to show her sincerity.
Luoyun Huan looked at her own fingers and fell into internal hesitation. If she were to go rub tea leaves, how would that be any different from a monkey doing it? She would just ruin those fine tea leaves.
Instead, she should go pick them herself and then spend a bit of money to have someone else process them.
Fortunately, when she opened the beginner's gift pack, she received five hundred Spirit Stones, which would come in just handy.
Luoyun Huan finalized the plan in her mind and asked the System for a map to check the locations where top-quality wild tea leaves grew.
She hadn't expected the System to have this kind of feature; it was genuinely useful.
Looking at the locations marked by the System, she saw they were all in the mountain ranges within the sect's jurisdiction, which were relatively safe and free of high-tier demonic beasts.
All she needed was to bring a beast-repelling sachet, or prepare a few talismans to use for a direct escape if she encountered danger.
Luoyun Huan went to the sect's market to purchase a few Earth Escape Talismans, conveniently picked up a set of new clothes, and then set off toward the mountain ranges.
The sect raised many spiritual cranes; one only needed to buy a few pills for feeding cranes to be able to ride them.
Thus, for the greater part of the journey, Luoyun Huan sat on the back of a crane. Looking down, mountains, rivers, and seas all shrank into tiny patches.
Breezes brushed past her ears and clouds felt within arm's reach; while it lacked the thrill of flying on a spiritual sword, riding a crane was definitely an experience well worth having.
Yet these damn fat cranes—their feathers were already slick and glossy, yet they refused to fly after going just two miles.
Luoyun Huan had no choice but to buy some more crane-feeding pills to continue urging them forward.
As a result, two large bags of crane feed were completely exhausted, but she finally arrived at her desired destination.
Luoyun Huan's feet touched the ground. To say she wasn't afraid of heights would be a lie; her calves were still somewhat weak, and she had to steady herself against a pine tree trunk to catch her breath.
Only then was she able to breathe normally.
The peeling, raised bark of the pine tree scratched against her palm, constantly reminding Luoyun Huan that she had truly arrived in a genuine immortal-cultivation world.
The wild tea bushes were thriving, their trunks crawling with moss and mushrooms.
"Could there be tea-tree mushrooms?"
Luoyun Huan parted the weeds and took out the bamboo basket she had prepared. She spent the entire morning picking leaves, and looking at the full bamboo basket, she let out a sigh of relief—this should be enough.
Yet after harvesting so many tea plants, she hadn't seen a single tea-tree mushroom.
Having finished her work, Luoyun Huan prepared to head down the mountain.
Off in the distance on the horizon, however, two figures vaguely came into view. Perhaps they were also people who had come to the mountain ranges to hunt demonic beasts or gather spiritual herbs; Luoyun Huan didn't pay them much mind.
She merely felt a bit envious that they could own their own flying swords. When the day came that she cultivated to Foundation Establishment, she would definitely rush straight to the shop selling flying swords and buy a glittering one.
Yet she hadn't expected these two people to head straight toward her. Before Luoyun Huan had taken two steps, two figures flashed before her eyes.
Su Jue leaped down from his flying sword, staring fixedly at Luoyun Huan with piercing eyes. He looked her up and down, unable to keep himself from marveling inwardly.
This woman truly possessed a certain charm.
From her brows to her figure, one could detect a hint of allure and coquettishness, but if she thought she could seduce Eldest Senior Sister with just that, she was far too pathetic.
Years ago, in order to eradicate evil and heterodox ways, Qin Yiqiu had disguised herself alone as a male cultivator and entered a pleasure den run by spider demons.
Even those spider demons who practiced demonic and seductive arts hadn't been able to completely beguile Qin Yiqiu—how could she possibly be seduced by someone like this?
"Greetings, Senior Brother... Senior Sister."
Luoyun Huan didn't understand why these two were staring so hard at her, but out of respect for sect rules, she still bent over and bowed.
[This is bad, Host! These two people—one is the male protagonist, and the other is a female supporting character. They're hard to deal with.]
The System's voice rang in her ear. If they were ordinary passersby, it wouldn't have bothered saying much, but with the male protagonist appearing, things became a bit tricky to handle.
After all, pursuing a villainess meant, in a sense, going up against the male and female protagonists.
Sooner or later, she would inevitably find herself standing in a hostile position.
What! The male protagonist?
Luoyun Huan's pupils dilated. In the original novel, the male protagonist was no good sort; rather, he was insidious and cunning, and from the very beginning, he had relied on deceit to win the female protagonist over.
Although this type of person was utterly terrible in the real world, reading novels was all about seeking novelty, so many readers had cheered, calling it thrilling and exciting.
Luoyun Huan stumbled backward a few steps. This feeling was no different from encountering a giant tiger while climbing a mountain.
"So it turns out to be you—the one who bewitched our Eldest Senior Sister."
Su Jue curved the corners of his lips in a smile—he was a smiling tiger cut from the exact same cloth as his master.
His long sword slipped from its scabbard, pressing directly against Luoyun Huan's throat.
Veins bulged on the back of Su Jue's hand as fresh blood trickled down the blade.
"What a pity. Such petty tricks of yours won't fool us."
"No matter who it is, anyone who disturbs Eldest Senior Sister's Dao Heart..."
Su Jue's tone was breezy, yet it carried absolute threat, like a venomous scorpion whose poison seeped into the heart and caused even the heartbeat to slow down.
"...dies!"