This Is My Planet - Chapter 17

This sort of thing falls under experiencing different paths due to different circumstances.

At their level, who doesn’t have extremely firm ideas about the Dao? Understanding each other is not easy; not engaging in debates and quarrels over their path is already considered open-mindedness or perhaps just having grown tired of arguing.

Being easily influenced by others is nearly impossible.

For someone like Xia Guixuan, who has witnessed countless separations and reunions, seen the rise and fall of numerous dynasties, witnessed the ascent and decline of civilizations, what attachments could linger?

Mortal dynasties have vanished from history, many cultivator friends have met their ends; If emotions were so valued, why bother cultivating immortality?

Isn’t this making things difficult for me, fat tiger?

But it must be said, seeing someone else walk the path you oppose, yet reach the desired end that you’ve sought but never attained, no matter how firm you are in your own path, you have to admit that their path isn’t wrong either.

It’s just impossible to change course, that’s all. Grass without conviction surely wouldn’t have grown to this day.

If others walk faster, it’s their business; they surely have some specific reasons. Regardless, I’ll stay firm in my path and reach the end.

That’s how it is.

But in the end… it’s a bit awkward.

Of course, in reality, Xia Guixuan’s relationship with Yin Xiaoru wasn’t nearly at this level. After sitting for a while, he felt he had overreacted… mainly because the feeling of “working outside and coming home for dinner” reminded him of many things…

A pair of bright yet melancholic eyes kept echoing in his mind, making him feel a bit restless.

The aroma of the food wafted from the kitchen, robots came and went, carrying dishes. Yin Xiaoru emerged with a scowl, plopped down and started eating without bothering to acknowledge this stuffy man.

But after a couple of bites, it felt strange. Turning to see Xia Guixuan sitting on the sofa lost in thought, she couldn’t help but say, “Come eat.”

Xia Guixuan knew that outright refusal would look too bad, so he reluctantly sat down and said, “Thank you…”

Originally, he wanted to say he didn’t need to eat, but he held back and silently served himself some rice.

As he lifted the bowl and glanced at the table, he was stunned.

There was an array of dishes on the table—chicken, duck, fish, meat, and vegetables—over a dozen varieties were laid out across the table. Yin Xiaoru’s own bowl was practically a basin, filled to the brim with meat and rice.

Yin Xiaoru was devouring her food like a whirlwind, and in the blink of an eye, her bowl had emptied a large portion.

“What are you staring at!” Yin Xiaoru swallowed, her cheeks still puffed up, “I recently broke through to a new realm, and I need a lot of energy intake. Artificial high-energy food tastes terrible…”

Oh right, she had just recently entered a new realm…

Xia Guixuan hesitated for a moment before asking, “Do you know about dining on wind and drinking dew?”

Yin Xiaoru lazily replied, “The poetic term for starving?”

“…But you’re a divine descendant after all… This is the poetic way of saying absorbing spiritual energy to replenish the body.”

“Nope, not interested. I don’t cultivate.” Yin Xiaoru lowered her head to eat. “Even artificial high-energy food tastes bad to me. You want me to absorb spiritual energy? What if someone farts!”

Xia Guixuan was both exasperated and amused.

Never mind, in fact, he found her stuffing herself quite cute now. It’s more entertaining than that fat tiger over there.

He also filled a bowl of rice, sat across from Yin Xiaoru, and tried some dishes. They were indeed quite delicious… Yin Xiaoru appeared to be a female executive but had quite a high skill set for living alone…

“Tell me, what’s the principle behind your formula?” Yin Xiaoru mumbled, “Those two kinds of herbs, we’ve tested their ingredients repeatedly and done countless simulations, but they couldn’t produce such changes. Especially the inexplicable transformation into a pill-like form. We deliberately extracted various components separately and tested them, but nothing changed.”

“The components you see and the components I see are poles apart, not the same system. Moonlight Grass is the Wood of Yin; Clear Pond Flower is the Wood of Water. You don’t need to seal it. Heat it steadily to stabilize the fire, transforming the Qi in the air. Wood and Water blend, with Yin as the foundation, and the Qi…”

“Wait, wait…” Yin Xiaoru struggled to chew the food and almost choked.

After a while, she managed to swallow and said, “Okay, let me interpret it like traditional medicine. So, it’s just not suitable to be produced using our methods?”

“Probably.”

“Too bad,” Yin Xiaoru fell silent for a moment, sighing, “I was about to say, if you could write a paper on this, maybe… forget it. With this Tai Yin wood and water thing, the paper won’t be comprehensible. Let’s just publish it on the divine descendants’ side.”

“Why would I publish a paper here?” Xia Guixuan chuckled. “Are you really expecting me to become a researcher?”

Yin Xiaoru with a serious face said, “Do you really not care about work and income? You’re in human society now!”

Xia Guixuan laughed, “I really don’t need it.”

“You’re really just looking to be kept?” Yin Xiaoru curled her lips. “Asking not to be too nice to you, are you expecting me to scrub you with steel wool?”

Xia Guixuan: “???”

After quickly finishing her meal, Yin Xiaoru put down her chopsticks. “I know you’re very capable. At least just with this formula, you could easily get a few million from me. Do I owe you money now?”

Xia Guixuan smiled and replied, “You don’t owe me anything. Let it go.”

Unmoved, Yin Xiaoru said, “What’s yours is yours, do I really care for a few millions? But Xia Guixuan, let me tell you, just because you’re talented doesn’t mean you can be indifferent to everything. If you exhibit these skills elsewhere in a random way, you might not make money but stir up trouble.”

Xia Guixuan kept smiling, but his eyes softened even more.

This little fox really cares about him.

As Yin Xiaoru spoke, she suddenly remembered something. “There are now associations of cultivators in various places. Due to being constantly questioned for being divine descendants, they have to hide deeply, almost like a shady organization. Actually, I know some descendants secretly joined this organization because it provides some cover… if your abilities are exposed, you’ll likely be persuaded to join. Personally, I think this organization’s intentions are hard to fathom. You better stay vigilant.”

Xia Guixuan found it quite interesting and smiled, saying, “Understood.”

The conversation quieted down, and Yin Xiaoru resumed eating with her mouth full of grease, looking somewhat unhappy.

She felt awkward because the conversation felt like parting words. Xia Guixuan’s response seemed that way too.

She knew he couldn’t stay for long; once his ID card was sorted by Yan Wuyue, he’d probably leave. Moreover, it wasn’t suitable for a woman to cohabit with a man, especially considering the misunderstanding about her having a boyfriend, which would naturally fade away once he left—a direction she hoped for.

But it still felt uncomfortable.

Suddenly, her watch beeped, and Yin Xiaoru reluctantly tapped the screen. Xia Guixuan glanced at it and saw it was a group chat she had been added to.

[ Special Operations Division – Team Seeking Relic in Sangyu.]

Great, as Yan Wuyue mentioned before, her subordinates were coming to Sangyu City to look for relics emitting demonic energy, and she was asked to assist as a local expert. Xia Guixuan gave Yin Xiaoru a glance, and indeed, her expression didn’t look too good.

The relics Yan Wuyue was looking for were beneath her ecological garden.

If she really told them, who knows if the military would requisition the ecological garden or just deal with what’s underground… Even if they only dealt with what’s underground, it would still deplete the “spiritual energy” of the garden.

He wondered how she would handle it.

In the group chat, a line quickly appeared:

Number 9527: [ Ah! Fox-chan is here? ] Followed by a heart-eyed, drooling emoji.

Number 1024: [ Long time no see, Fox-chan! Team Leader Yan is really not considerate, hiding such a beautiful girlfriend. Don’t they know the brothers are all single? ]

Number 1024 was muted for ten minutes by [YanYan]

YanYan: [ Scram, she is here to help because I invited her! You LSPs, quiet down and talk about business! ]

Xia Guixuan was quite surprised.

He had never seen such instant messaging among so many people in the world of cultivation. It was fascinating.

He asked softly, “What does LSP mean?”

Yin Xiaoru, preoccupied with her thoughts, casually replied, “Figure it out from the initials.”

Xia Guixuan quickly checked the pinyin and asked, “Little Silly Person?”

“Hehe…” Yin Xiaoru chuckled. “You’re quite right. Don’t say that directly to people, or you might get hit.”

Xia Guixuan was quite satisfied with his insight and asked again, “They call you Fox-chan directly? Do they know your identity?”

“No, my ID is just ‘Fox-chan.’ It’s a screen name; nobody guesses randomly.”

“Ah, I see… then what does adding ‘chan’ mean?”

“No matter the word, adding ‘chan’ makes it seem cuter.”

Xia Guixuan accessed his system, pondered for a moment, and changed the initial ID of “User XXXX” to “MincedMeat-chan.”