"Let me see the stone tablet one more time before we leave this place," Yuan said to Lan Yingying when they returned to the temple.
Lan Yingying nodded her head, and they climbed the staircase, entering the temple a moment later.
Yuan approached the stone tablet. Once he was directly in front of it, he clasped his hands together and bowed to the stone tablet.
"I don't know why you called me here, and I might never find out, but thank you for showing me this place, allowing me to learn Sword Aura." Yuan paid his respect to the stone tablet.
After Yuan lifted his head, he continued, "Maybe I'll even see you in the upper heavens when I decide to ascend this world. At that time, I'll thank you properly."
Sometime later, Lan Yingying led Yuan away from the temple.
As they walked, Lan Yingying suddenly asked him, "Hey… What's the outside world like?"
"Eh? The outside world? It hasn't been long since I came to this place so I can't really tell you what's different... sorry," he said.
"Don't mind it," she shook her head with a somewhat gloomy feeling in her eyes.
After a moment of silence, Yuan asked her, "Do you want to go outside?"
A profound glint appeared in Lan Yingying's eyes, and she nodded her head, "I'd be lying if I say I am not curious about the outside world."
"I think it's unfair…" Yuan suddenly said.
And he continued, "How your ancestors' decision to stay in this world also affected their children and so on. If someone wants to leave this place, they should have the choice to do so— at least that's what I believe."
A small smile appeared on Lan Yingying's pretty face after hearing Yuan's words.
"Then why don't you try to become the Master of this place and set us all free?" Lan Yingying suddenly said.
"But nobody knows how the Lord became the Master, right? Even if I want to help you, I don't know what I should be doing."
"The Mystic Pagoda. Perhaps you'll find some clues there."
"Where is the Mystic Pagoda?" Yuan then asked.
Lan Yingying lifted her hand and pointed to a certain direction in the sky.
"Do you see that blue star? If you follow it, it'll lead you to the Mystic Pagoda."
Following her fingers, Yuan's eyes widened with surprise when he realized what she was talking about.
"What! How could there be stars in the sky already? The sun hasn't even begun to set yet!" Yuan exclaimed in a shocked voice.
"That star is a special star. You can see it throughout the day no matter if it's day or night."
"I see… Thank you…"
Yuan turned to look at Lan Yingying, and he continued in a somewhat awkward voice, "By the way, are you sure you want to continue walking around in that appearance? What if someone sees you?"
Lan Yingying looked down at her own clothes that were still torn, and she said, "Oh, right. I nearly forgot."
Lan Yingying suddenly stopped walking and proceeded to remove her clothes on the spot, taking Yuan by surprise.
"You could've at least warned me..." Yuan instinctively turned around to give her some privacy.
"Okay, I am done." Lan Yingying said a moment later, sounding very calm despite just changing her clothes in front of a man, and they continued walking shortly after, acting like nothing just happened.
"How far away is the nearest city?" Yuan asked her after walking for an hour without seeing anything civilization in sight.
"About seven days, give or take," she responded in a calm manner.
"Seven days?! That's an entire week!" Yuan's eyes widened with shock. Just where the heck did the Mystic Realm take him?
At this rate, he won't regroup with the others until there are only a few days left in the Mystic Realm.
"We're in the most isolated area in this world so there's nothing we can do about it." Lan Yingying said.
"I see… I'm sorry for making you go through the trouble, and thank you…" Yuan said to her.
"It's okay. I have nothing better to do, anyway." Lan Yingying said.
"What do you normally do besides cleaning the stone tablet?" Yuan decided to ask her.
"Cultivate… and hunting ignorant magical beasts that dare to enter our area without permission, just like that Onyx Crow." Lan Yingying said.
Yuan swallowed nervously after hearing her words. After all, he also entered their place without any permission.
Lan Yingying noticed his weird behavior and said, "Don't worry, we are forbidden from harming humans unless they threaten us or show aggression first. This is a rule set by the Lord."
"I see…"
Yuan nodded, and they continued to walk in silence for a couple of hours until Yuan suddenly realized something.
"Oh no! I completely forgot about Meixiu!" Yuan stopped walking and exclaimed.
"Meixiu?" Lan Yingying raised her eyebrows.
"Give me a moment! I'll be back in a bit!" Yuan said to her before logging off the game.
"Meixiu?! Are you here?" Yuan called out for her when he logged off.
"I'm here, Yuan," she quickly responded.
"I'm sorry! I was too absorbed in the game and completely forgot to log off again!" He said to her.
"Don't worry about it," she said to him.
"Let me go warm up your breakfast."
After warming up the soup, she fed it to Yuan.
"Once again, I'm really sorry."
"It's okay, really. There's nothing else for me to do, anyway."
Yuan then said, "If you want, you can play the game with Feng Feng and the others. You don't have to wait for me to finish the Mystic Realm since that's going to take a while."
"Even though I am doing nothing but watching the participants, I enjoy it. It feels like I am watching a movie or something, and the others are always engaged in something." Meixiu said.
"W-Wait a moment… You can watch us from the outside?" Yuan was surprised when he heard this.
"Yes, we can see everything the participants are doing using this treasure. However, for some reason, you're not shown, so we cannot see where you are or what you're doing." Meixiu said to him.