Getting caught while sneaking away was supposed to be a tense and thrilling moment, but instead, he couldn’t help but burst into laughter, leaning back and falling right onto his senior brother. Even after landing on him, he was still chuckling away.

He looked completely unbothered about the possibility of falling, while Wen Baizhou could only shift from fixing his clothes to supporting him, making sure he didn’t laugh himself off.

Lin Zhusheng laughed so hard he choked a bit, and after he finished laughing, he started coughing vigorously. His senior brother, noticing this, gave him a gentle pat on the back.

Finally, he managed to stop laughing. Once he caught his breath, he straightened up and thanked him.

In terms of results, he hadn’t really helped much, and his senior brother waved it off, retracting his hand from Lin Zhusheng’s back.

Pretending like nothing had happened, he strolled forward, asking, “What are you doing here, senior brother?”

Wen Baizhou replied honestly, “I noticed you were missing and figured you might be here.”

“…”

Lin Zhusheng had originally planned to brush off the sneaking incident, but as soon as he spoke, the topic came back around. He felt he shouldn’t have opened his mouth.

With a forced chuckle, he scratched his head and said, “I just wanted to find some fruit for everyone, didn’t expect to wander so far…”

His voice was filled with guilt from start to finish, but his eyes were genuinely sincere. His senior brother chuckled, “And then you unknowingly ended up here?”

Lin Zhusheng nodded, “Yeah, I just ended up here without realizing it.”

Then, without realizing it and quite casually, he went down a steep slope to take a look. His leisurely pace slowed down as he tested the height of the slope with the corner of his eye, quietly bending his legs to jump.

Having already been caught sneaking away, he felt he had to at least take a look to make it worth getting caught.

Soaring through the air, he was caught by his senior brother again. Perhaps due to the experience from last time, this time his senior brother didn’t grab him by the collar but instead caught him by the shoulder.

In the silence, he met his senior brother’s gaze, who was looking down. Between admitting his mistake and keeping quiet, he chose to take the initiative and said loudly, “You’re wary of me!”

This was a sign of distrust between people, revealing the coldness of society and making one feel disheartened about the future of the world!

Thinking that he might jump again, his senior brother didn’t let go this time and asked, “Do you really want to go?”

Lin Zhusheng nodded vigorously.

The only fun he had in this secret realm was exploring these unseen places. If he had to stick with the main group fighting small monsters the whole time, he felt he would be in tears.

He thought he heard a sigh.

A very light one, but it could also be an illusion. He turned his head and saw his senior brother, who had been standing next to him, suddenly jump onto the sunken ground, looking up and extending his hand, saying, “Come down.”

This was an invitation to play. With a “thud,” Lin Zhusheng jumped down.

His senior brother, who was steady and reassuring, caught him and said, “We need to head back in fifteen minutes.”

Lin Zhusheng hugged his senior brother tightly with all his strength, then took a step back, quickly getting off him and turning to run towards the purple cave.

Wen Baizhou stood still, glanced at his hand, then stepped forward, following him into the cave.

The cave wasn’t big, filled with purple crystals. The glowing light came from these crystals, arranged like fish scales, casting a purplish hue on people’s eyes and skin.

Lin Zhusheng knew that this kind of place was a rare natural wonder, known as the Zijing Cave. Despite its name, it had nothing to do with gold.

He had come to the right place this time.

Following the smaller end of the crystals with his gaze, he traced his fingers over the patterns, eventually landing in a pile of crystals. Not rushing to dig through, he turned his head to look around and said, “Why haven’t I seen any accompanying spirit beasts?”

As far as he knew, Zijing Caves usually had a spirit beast that would use the light emitted by the crystals as bait, waiting for other people or monsters to be attracted by the light before launching a surprise attack.

Wen Baizhou, upon hearing this, slightly turned his head to look in the direction they came from and simply said, “The one you knocked out over there is it.”

“…”

Lin Zhusheng remembered that he had indeed knocked something out of the way.

Deciding to skip over that topic, he thought that since there was no potential danger, he pulled out his little wooden sword and pried open the tightly embedded crystals.

After prying through several layers, he finally poked something soft among the hard crystals.

Putting away the wooden sword, he directly used his hands to dig out a round, purple little object.

It looked like a soft rubber ball, with a transparent purple outer layer and a small black dot inside.

Although its appearance was a bit abstract, this was the only valuable thing in the Zijing Cave, a Zijing fruit sapling. If he took it back and planted it, it would thrive as long as there was soil, temperature, and humidity. The Zijing fruit that would grow later was indeed related to gold.

The Zijing fruit couldn’t be eaten; it was a material for refining swords, useful and rare, even more precious than gold.

Wen Baizhou half-squatted down and asked, “You know a lot about these?”

Lin Zhusheng humbly scratched his head, “Not really.”

Previously, due to the outer sect’s servant disciple test and the vegetable planting, he had read a bunch of books. When he hurriedly saved the Lan Jun grass, he realized the huge limitations of being illiterate and had made up his mind to read more, so he had a rough understanding of these common knowledge things.

Only when he heard his senior brother speak did he realize he was still there. Adhering to the principle of sharing with those who see, and out of gratitude for his senior brother’s leniency, he generously said, “When I grow the fruits, I’ll give you half, senior brother.”

His senior brother didn’t need that half of the fruit, but with a thoughtful look, he lowered his eyes and said, “You really like planting things.”

It wasn’t a question; it was a statement.

Lin Zhusheng nodded. After all, it was quite profitable, and he also had a dream of being a cyber farmer.

While nodding, he suddenly remembered something. He secretly glanced at the person next to him and then quickly withdrew his gaze, hiding the guilt in his eyes.

In the game, after becoming partners, they could choose to live together. Since this senior brother’s place had a larger area for farming, he chose to live with him after they became partners.

This senior brother’s entire mountain had turned into his vegetable garden, with the only untouched land being where they lived and the remaining training ground. When he finished handling sect affairs and flew back home, he had to be careful not to step into his vegetable garden.

Perhaps the game settings had changed; after the vegetable garden took over the entire mountain, this senior brother encountered people flying around every day, all starting their walk up the mountain from the foot.

It was a situation that even he found pitiful.

Glancing again at his senior brother, who had a calm expression without a hint of resentment, he secretly sighed in relief and put the pried-open crystals back in place.

Fortunately, this was a senior brother who hadn’t suffered from his antics. If it were the senior brother he had become partners with, he probably wouldn’t be able to live as leisurely and plan his vegetable garden like he was now.

In just a few minutes, they wrapped things up without needing the full fifteen, and Lin Zhusheng was happy, his steps noticeably lighter.

The seemingly unaffected senior brother followed him up the steep slope again.

Walking back through the woods, he saw the tree from which he had picked fruit earlier and remembered something. Lin Zhusheng, the AAA professional fruit wholesaler, reached into his pocket and called out to his senior brother, wanting to give him some of the delicious fruits he had just picked today as a token of gratitude.

His senior brother turned back, “Hmm?”

Suddenly remembering that this senior brother only liked the Lan Jun flower, Lin Zhusheng’s hand stopped digging in his pocket. He shook his head and said, “Never mind, I just wanted to say that you look really handsome, senior brother.”

By the time they returned, someone had already noticed they were missing, but not too many.

Earlier, Wen Baizhou had already informed them to pay more attention to that seemingly quiet and harmless disciple. The leader hadn’t expected that the moment they left their sight, the person would disappear. When they saw him return, they finally breathed a sigh of relief.

No wonder they needed to keep a close watch; there was indeed a reason for it.

Zhang Jing had also noticed that Lin had quietly slipped away early in the morning and guessed where he had gone to play. The smile on the face of the person who emerged from the bushes confirmed his suspicion.

The person who had been yawning on the way suddenly appeared in front of him, looking very serious yet joyful, saying, “The secret realm is really fun.”

His entire face was filled with the joy of harvest, making it hard to tell whether it was the secret realm that was fun or if it was just profitable.

Zhang Jing decided not to agree with him and chose to find a place to continue practicing his talismans.

A heartless friend, he sadly handed over a fruit, and Lin Zhusheng ran off to find Song Ming to play.

The identity gap between inner sect disciples and outer sect disciples was vast, making it impossible for them to sit together naturally. The leader disciple sat on the side, just watching the outer sect disciples chatter away.

“Your little friend has quite a few people around him.”

Wen Baizhou sat quietly in a corner, polishing his sword sheath. The boss sat down next to him, also pulling out his beloved sword to clean, glancing at the center of the crowd and exclaiming, “I wanted to ask him how it feels to use that big sword of his.”

The truth was, the area around him was already filled with people, leaving no chance for him to approach and strike up a conversation.

Wen Baizhou said, “He gets along well with a lot of people.”

After looking a bit longer, the boss nodded and said, “Your little friend is indeed likable.”

After a moment of reflection, he added, “The snacks you gave before were also really delicious.”

He didn’t usually eat sweets and rarely finished sweet snacks, but the last time he got snacks was one of the few exceptions.

His ability to chat was second only to Lin Shifu. Regardless of whether Wen Baizhou responded, once he opened his mouth, he couldn’t stop, continuing, “The fruits you brought today are also quite good. Do you think they taste good?”

Unfortunately, there were only two, and he had finished them, feeling too embarrassed to ask anyone for more.

In the end, he finally revealed his true intention, reaching out, “If you’re not going to eat it, can you give it to me?”

Wen Baizhou, who had been silent, finally reacted, glancing at him slightly.

Not at all deterred by that look, the boss continued to reach out, saying, “He gave that little Song Ming several, you must have a bunch, right? What’s wrong with sharing two?”

Wen Baizhou withdrew his gaze and continued polishing his sword.

“…?”

Noticing something was off from his silent attitude, the boss’s mind started working, and he tentatively asked, “Could it be that you don’t have any?”

Wen Baizhou’s hand paused in polishing the sword.

It was a very easy-to-guess attitude.

As if it were a prophecy, it turned out to be true. The boss raised his eyebrows in surprise, not expecting this person to be in such a situation. He tried to suppress the curve of his lips while comforting him with a pat on the shoulder, “It’s okay, don’t take it to heart—though that fruit is really delicious, and you might be the only one who doesn’t have any.”

Wen Baizhou: “……”