He didn’t dare to let go at all. Lin Zhusheng tightly gripped the person’s neck with his other hand, afraid that he would be thrown off into the air.

He wasn’t thrown off, nor did he fall to the ground as he had imagined; instead, he landed safely. To be precise, it was his senior brother who landed safely, while he was still hanging in the air, his feet not touching the ground.

Relying on his strong survival instinct, at the moment of falling, he had already wrapped his hands and feet around his senior brother like a tree branch, tightly closing the window of his mind, commonly known as his eyes.

A person had grown out of him, but he wasn’t heavy; it was just that the space was tightly compressed. Wen Baizhou gently patted the person on him and said, “You can open your eyes now.”

So Lin Zhusheng opened his eyes.

After opening his eyes, his vision was still a pitch-black void, and he was shocked: “Am I blind?”

As soon as he moved his head, light appeared, and he then realized he was pressed tightly against the person’s clothes. No wonder it was completely dark in front of him. The height had returned to normal, and he quickly jumped down, his feet finally landing on solid ground, making a sound that signified he had survived, giving a solid salute to the helpful senior brother who had arrived just in time.

Just when there was a chance to express gratitude, the little cat that had been covering its ears and pretending it didn’t exist appeared again, stepping on his foot with a paw, clearly indicating that it also needed to be thanked.

Lin Zhusheng responded by scooping up the little cat and tucking it into his clothes. When he looked up, he noticed that the person’s collar was a bit more disheveled than usual. Feeling a bit guilty, he reached out to straighten it a little, but after the person said it was fine, he retracted his hand lightly and apologized.

The slightly messy collar wasn’t a big deal; Wen Baizhou didn’t mind too much. He casually tidied it up a bit and finally had time to ask about what had happened.

Lin Zhusheng picked up the little broken wooden sword from the ground, chuckled awkwardly, and briefly explained the whole story.

His senior brother had a remarkable summarizing ability. After listening for a while, he finally concluded, “Afraid of heights?”

It was indeed a fear of heights. Being accurately poked at his sore spot, the person with acrophobia squatted down, hugging his wooden sword and curling up into a ball, choosing to change the subject by asking, “Why did you come here today, senior brother?”

Although his brain hadn’t been working well earlier, he still remembered that the little cat had said something about looking for Zhang Jing.

“I happened to get something.”

Squatting down to match the curled-up person, Wen Baizhou extended his hand to offer something, saying, “You might find this useful.”

It was a small silver-white clip, with light blue patterns spreading out along the edges, resembling a butterfly but also a bit different—anyway, it looked very delicate.

Lin Zhusheng looked up, “What is this?”

His senior brother had borrowed a hairband from him.

Since their last meeting, the hairband had been tied into a shape resembling a duck’s intestines, all twisted and turned. Two hairbands were mixed and threaded through the clip’s gap, then securely tied.

Once the clip with the hairbands was on his head, it perfectly held back the hair that often obstructed his view.

Wen Baizhou retracted his hand and said, “It’s quite convenient; you should be able to use it.”

The implication was that even someone clumsy could use it, as long as they had hands. Before Lin Zhusheng could fully process it, it was already over. He raised his hand and, somewhat dazed, touched the thing on the back of his head.

【You have obtained: Azure Hair Clip (Orange) x1】

It was actually an orange item!

As expected of his senior brother… wait.

After the surprise, Lin Zhusheng quickly calmed down. He remembered that gifts were usually triggered when the favorability reached a certain level, but he hadn’t given this senior brother, who only liked Lan Jun flowers, any gifts at all, so the favorability should be quite low.

Scratching his head, he cautiously asked, “Is this for me?”

There were only him and the cat here. The little cat was small, with short fur, so it clearly wouldn’t need this thing. The answer to the question was obviously just one.

Feeling a bit puzzled, he couldn’t help but scratch his head again, and then he realized he hadn’t thanked him yet, so he quickly added a thank you.

It was just a small thing, and his senior brother said not to mention it, adding, “If you’re afraid of heights but still want to practice swordsmanship, you can check out the trading post; you might find something useful.”

After saying that, he stood up, his long sword at his waist gleaming coldly, his posture still straight as a pine tree, clearly intending to leave.

Lin Zhusheng also stood up and asked, “Are you leaving, senior brother?”

Wen Baizhou nodded, saying, “I have some matters to attend to.”

With matters to attend to, he couldn’t stay. Lin Zhusheng watched him leave.

As the blue and white figure disappeared, the sound of a sword echoed through the air, vanishing in an instant.

After watching for a while, he slowly withdrew his gaze and finally began to realize, looking down to poke the little cat in his clothes, and asked in confusion, “So did senior brother come here today specifically to deliver something?”

It seemed so unlikely that he would just happen to pass by.

The little cat didn’t know, only moving slightly to indicate that he shouldn’t poke its head for no reason.

Feeling that something was off, Lin Zhusheng put away his little broken wooden sword and thought back a bit, saying, “By the way, it seems like senior brother has never actively given me anything before.”

In the past, he had always been the one sending gifts to increase favorability, and he hadn’t received a single return gift. Even after becoming partners, it was still him who couldn’t stand it anymore, seeing other players having their partners help with tasks and give gifts, and he had to spam a bunch of crying emojis in the input box to inexplicably receive a gift from his partner.

Now it was so easy, and he hadn’t even had time to start increasing favorability.

… Favorability.

Favorability!

He finally realized what was most strange! Shaking the little cat in his arms, he said, “By the way, why can’t I see senior brother’s favorability?”

Theoretically, he should be able to check the basic attribute panel of all characters, including levels and favorability, and he had increased favorability with many people, but it seemed he had never seen this senior brother’s favorability towards him even once.

Concerned that there might be a bug, the little cat finally struggled to get up and stopped his hand from shaking, starting to check the system backend.

The system data was vast and complicated, and the search took a minute and a half, during which the person beside him was surprisingly quiet for a minute and a half. After closing his eyes and opening them again, the little cat jumped out of his clothes and provided its search results: “No bugs found; everything is normal.”

This certainly didn’t look like there were no bugs. Lin Zhusheng’s eyes widened, bending down to catch the cat, but the little cat had anticipated this and jumped far away, advising, “What does it matter? Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist; it doesn’t hinder you from increasing favorability.”

Being very practical in this regard, Farmer Lin refused to compromise: “I can only feel at ease if I see the progress bar; this absolutely won’t do.”

Little Cat: “System compensation: 1000 silver.”

Farmer Lin looked up, bargaining: “2000.”

Little Cat: “……”

The issue with senior brother’s favorability display was ultimately resolved with two thousand silver. The little cat didn’t comment on it for now, and Farmer Lin was very satisfied, putting away his sword and setting off towards the trading post that his senior brother had mentioned.

The outer sect’s miscellaneous workers had a commercial street, and the inner and outer sect disciples had a trading post. In simple terms, these were places for trading and completing tasks. Since he had previously bought too many seeds at once and still hadn’t used them all, he had no desire to buy anything, so he had never gone to check it out. Today, it was clear that he couldn’t continue practicing with this sword, so wandering around was just the right way to pass the time.

Setting aside the time-passing for now, he had definitely had enough exercise for today.

From where he lived to the trading post, by the time he finally saw the lights shining, the sky had already darkened, and the last bit of twilight had disappeared behind the distant mountains.

Compared to the commercial street where he could set up a stall and sell, the trading post seemed more formal. On both sides of the road were wooden houses with large windows facing the street, serving as trading windows.

Even at night, there were still quite a few people here. Judging by their clothing, there were both inner and outer sect disciples, but there were fewer inner sect disciples, making them seem more scarce.

Having never browsed before, his curiosity was piqued as Lin Zhusheng walked down the street with the little cat, looking left and right.

Indeed, a place where even inner sect disciples were browsing was different; the quality of the items for trade had significantly improved compared to the previous street, and he could occasionally see items with attribute bonuses.

However, none of these items attracted him. In the end, he bought a few essentials for making snacks, pulling out a fruit to nibble on while browsing.

Inside the trading post, there was also a task center, which had significantly more people than the street outside.

The task center was run by the sect and usually released some daily tasks or more challenging tasks that required certain abilities. Completing them would yield rewards. Additionally, other disciples and elders could also post tasks here, and as long as the rewards were appropriate and passed the review, someone would take them.

It was well-known that most sword cultivators spent their money on the blade itself, the physical blade, and the money they could manage was quite limited. Doing tasks was a great way to earn some money to maintain their swords.

High-reward tasks would generally be snatched up as soon as they appeared, and now, most of the remaining tasks at night were those released by the sect, which didn’t pay much but had many requirements, such as tasks to eliminate harmful beasts in certain mountains.

The little cat was also looking, raising its head to say, “Why don’t you take one? It would be a good way to gain some experience.”

Although Lin Zhusheng ran around the mountains every day, he had no intention of actually going into the mountains to eliminate harmful beasts, so he politely declined: “I’m not in a hurry to level up right now.”

The next level-up would require reaching level ten to expand his backpack, which felt too far away; he wasn’t in a rush at the moment.

After looking around and not finding anything appealing, before he became a stationary obstacle in the crowd, he stepped out of the task center.

The area behind the task center was different from the places he had passed before. In terms of what was sold, it was more practical, all related to swords, including but not limited to swords and materials for forging swords.

Each item had a price tag that was more astonishing than the item itself, with several zeros if converted to numbers.

Feeling that this wasn’t a place he should be at his current stage, he only took a small turn and was about to leave when, as if by some telepathic connection, or perhaps just being sensitive to low prices, Lin Zhusheng spotted a very friendly price among the outrageous prices, causing him to pause in his steps.

A small sword hung in the corner of the window, as inconspicuous as its price.