A drop of clear water slowly dripped down from a stalactite at the ceiling of the cavern.
*Drip.*
The droplet fell into the pool, sending gentle ripples spreading across the water's surface. In the prevailing silence, even the falling of a single drop sounded remarkably distinct.
He did not know how long he had been unconscious in this darkness, but consciousness gradually flowed back into his body like clear water pouring into a ditch.
Xu Yuan's eyes twitched slightly. A moment later, he leisurely opened them.
His vision was temporarily unfocused, likely from having been knocked out for so long, leaving him unable to clearly make out his dim surroundings.
Amidst the quiet, a calm, soft woman's voice came from beside him:
"You're awake."
"Yeah..."
Xu Yuan answered subconsciously in a low voice. His vision gradually focused, allowing him to see the speaker clearly.
Ran Qingmo sat quietly on her side, legs crossed beside him.
The two of them were sitting very close. Through their clothes, he could faintly feel the warmth radiating from her slender, jade-like leg.
It felt somewhat strange; he couldn't understand why Ran Qingmo would sit so close to him.
As his stiff thoughts slowly began to churn, Xu Yuan pushed himself up from the ground bit by bit.
Then,
he suddenly realized why she was sitting so close—he was still gripping her slender wrist.
His grasp was tight, even leaving faint red marks across her fair, porcelain skin.
As earlier memories flooded his mind, Xu Yuan recalled that this had been his fixation before passing out.
With his original body's Luck stat sitting at a whopping three points, he hadn't dared let go of Ran Qingmo even while losing consciousness.
Now that they had successfully landed right inside the cavern, Xu Yuan released her, rubbed the space between his brows, and softly explained:
"Sorry, I had no choice."
Ran Qingmo shook her head, her clear, beautiful eyes meeting Xu Yuan's gaze.
"Thank you."
Her thanks was earnest and sincere.
Yet Xu Yuan froze, taken aback by her sudden expression of gratitude.
He couldn't quite fathom why she was thanking him.
After a moment's thought, however, it made sense.
This big block of ice beside him had no idea that entering this cave estate required an intangible, elusive thing like Luck.
In her eyes, it was probably his refusal to let go of her even as he lost consciousness that had allowed her to enter this cave estate safely with him.
With this thought, Xu Yuan had no intention of correcting her.
A wonderful misunderstanding like this—might as well let it continue. Heh...
Smiling faintly, Xu Yuan looked up at her.
"Mr. Ran..."
Yet the moment his eyes fell upon her, his mind went blank.
"..."
She wasn't wearing her veil.
The black veil that had concealed her face the entire way had quietly drifted off when they fell from the cliff.
This was the first time Xu Yuan had ever seen her without the black veil.
When words shifted into a first-person perspective, even the most exhaustive vocabulary describing beauty seemed pale and shallow before the countenance revealed to him now.
Xu Yuan reined in his thoughts and chuckled, shaking his head slightly.
No wonder those novels always described their heroines as having celestial, otherworldly beauty. Only now did he truly understand.
His gaze returned to calm. Looking into her pair of lovely eyes, Xu Yuan said in a gentle voice:
"Mr. Ran, the words 'thank you' are the most worthless things in the world."
With that,
Xu Yuan braced his hands on his knees and stood up from the ground, looking down at her with a smile:
"We survived, so I won the wager. You owe me a favor now."
Ran Qingmo tilted her head slightly, pausing in brief silence.
"Alright."
After a beat, she asked softly:
"What do you want me to do?"
Hearing her question, Xu Yuan gave a faint smile.
"Save it for later. I don't need you to do anything for me just yet."
With that, Xu Yuan withdrew his gaze and began surveying his surroundings.
This appeared to be a cavern. White beads embedded into the inner rocky walls gave off a faint illumination, resembling the legendary night-luminescent pearls. By their light, Xu Yuan was able to take in roughly seventy to eighty percent of the cave's layout.
This cave estate could not be considered large. In terms of the measurements from his previous life, it was probably only around twenty square meters.
A clear pool of water and a circular jade bed about one zhang in diameter were all that occupied the space.
Seeing this, Xu Yuan's brow furrowed bit by bit.
The size of the cave estate, as well as the presence of the jade bed and the pool, were completely within his expectations.
However...
Where had the massive golden treasure chest beside the head of the bed gone?
All the fortuitous encounters within this cave estate were supposed to be kept inside that chest!
"What's wrong?"
Ran Qingmo seemed to notice the shift in his breathing, her crisp voice chiming in softly.
Xu Yuan composed himself, evening out his breath, and casually replied:
"Nothing. Just realized my memory might have a few issues."
"Oh." Hearing this, Ran Qingmo said nothing more, closing her eyes once again to meditate and regulate her breathing.
Xu Yuan walked toward the jade bed situated in the deepest part of the cavern.
Once he calmed down, he reasoned that the chest's disappearance was likely the result of the world's automatic self-completion.
Having a glittering golden treasure chest sitting inside such a mysterious cave estate would have looked utterly out of place.
Since it was already proven that this cave estate drew people inside based on their Luck stat, there was no way the items placed here in *Cangyuan* would have simply vanished.
Arriving before the jade bed, Xu Yuan looked down to inspect the large, round structure.
The bed was stark white throughout, resembling pure white jade, and faintly radiated a soft glow.
There were no quilts or bedding of any sort upon it, but there were two rectangular pillows. The only place on this bed capable of hiding anything was beneath those pillows.
After a brief hesitation, Xu Yuan slowly reached out and grabbed one of the pillows.
It felt slightly cold to the touch, like profound ice.
After setting the pillow aside, sure enough, Xu Yuan saw an exceedingly ancient black ring lying beneath it.
The moment he laid eyes on the thing, Xu Yuan recognized what it was.
A spatial ring, a Sumeru ring, or simply a storage ring.
Xu Yuan had never expected to find such an item here. He suddenly felt that this world's automatic self-completion was remarkably beneficial at times.
Unlike certain other cultivation worlds where everyone had a storage ring,
in this world, a Sumeru ring was an apex treasure.
One could easily infer as much from the fact that a top-tier expert like Ran Qingmo still had to dutifully carry her belongings in a travel sack.
The official game guide had actually offered an explanation for this.
It was a very simple concept:
Sumeru rings involved the slicing of space itself.
If Sumeru rings were ubiquitous on the streets, wouldn't that imply any random blacksmith was a master of spatial manipulation?
Regardless, replacing the "golden treasure chest" with a Sumeru ring under the world's self-completion was truly an unexpected and pleasant surprise.
Xu Yuan reached out, grasping the ancient black Sumeru ring in his palm, and grinned.
Yet that smile vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.
A treasure was fine and all, but he couldn't use it.
A Sumeru ring required Source Qi to activate, and he was currently nothing more than an ordinary mortal.
Taking a deep breath, Xu Yuan casually tossed the Sumeru ring over to Ran Qingmo, who was sitting across the cave.
Ran Qingmo caught it and looked down. Having seen something similar in her master's possession, she recognized what the ring was at a glance.
Yet even with such a top-tier treasure in her hands, not the slightest flicker of greed appeared in her eyes. Instead, she merely looked at Xu Yuan with slight confusion.
She didn't understand why Xu Yuan had thrown this Sumeru ring to her.
Meeting her gaze, Xu Yuan smiled faintly and said in a soft voice:
"Inside, there's medicine to treat your wounds, along with a few things from when I was alive. I can't take them out right now, so I'll have to ask for your help."
Chapter 16