Chapter 17

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“I already told you not to call me that. It sounds awful.” Xu Ziche flew into a rage, though he still took the opportunity to tease He Xiting. “I can smell it, I can smell it. Everyone within ten miles can smell it.”

Ye Xiyin had no idea whether He Xiting had been successfully teased.

He was the one who became embarrassed first.

Yet telling Xu Ziche to stop would have sounded strange too, as though he had been letting his imagination run wild.

Ye Xiyin could only press his lips together and pretend he had heard nothing.

Meanwhile, He Xiting had already taken out a pill furnace and placed it on the small table before Ye Xiyin.

The pill furnace was exquisite and compact, decorated with images of birds, beasts, insects, and fish. Its overall color was a deep blue, and it looked extraordinarily expensive.

Ye Xiyin secretly appraised it. To his surprise, the pill furnace was a divine-grade item. Using it to refine medicine increased the chance of successfully producing pills by fifteen percent, and there was even a considerable chance of improving their quality.

Luck-based matters like this worked differently for everyone else. For Ye Xiyin, however, it amounted to a hundred-percent bonus.

He had to admit that he was tempted.

This pill furnace held an exceptional attraction for him.

He said nothing, but there was no concealing the delight in his eyes.

“Keep it in the carriage. You can use it whenever you like,” He Xiting said.

“Don’t be shy. My brother has piles of good things. Feel free to keep taking advantage of him,” Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon said with a grin. “I’ll just give you a red packet directly. As for the other things, there are plenty of people eager to buy them, so I won’t do the work for you.”

He Xiting did not deny it. Ye Xiyin had no idea how to respond, so he could only pretend not to understand and continue studying the pill furnace in front of him.

It was a pity that he could not refine medicine inside the carriage. Otherwise, he would have loved to see what medicines he could make.

Red and blue potions were indispensable. He also needed to prepare some antidote pills, as well as a few Heavenly Origin Pills like the one Xu Ziche had given him last time.

Ye Xiyin mentally listed everything he needed, then began considering the medicinal ingredients he would have to gather.

“There’s no rush. You can study it slowly when we’re resting,” He Xiting reminded him.

Ye Xiyin obediently nodded, but once he started thinking about something he wanted to do, he could never stop.

Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon therefore continued pushing boxes toward him, diverting his attention.

“Forget about that for now. Let’s keep opening boxes. I still don’t know what else might be inside.”

The person who had suggested this then proceeded to suffer an overwhelming defeat at the hands of a walking luck god.

Her expression changed from shock to delight, then gradually became numb.

“So orange boxes can actually contain components with divine-grade attributes?”

Even though the quality of the item was not particularly high, it was enough to make Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon look like someone who had never seen the world before.

Could it be that this batch of boxes was simply of exceptionally high quality?

Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon cautiously reached for a purple box and opened it.

[System] Congratulations, Hero Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon... You have obtained the Phoenix Ruler [Purple], the Jade Eternity Pill [Purple]...

A long string of items followed. They looked rather impressive, but in reality not one of them was useful. They were the sort of things that hardly anyone would even want if listed on the auction house.

Xu Ziche burst out laughing. “I told you not to tempt fate.”

“I’ve learned my lesson. Completely.” Apparently, being a luck god had merely been her imagination.

Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon stopped struggling and pushed all the remaining boxes toward Ye Xiyin.

“They’re all purple-grade now. You can open them and keep whatever comes out.” The carriage was spacious enough for Ye Xiyin to store plenty of little trinkets anyway.

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That was not all. There were not many boxes left from the recent bandit-suppression mission, so Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon gave Ye Xiyin all the orange-grade loot boxes she had accumulated in the past.

This reminded Xu Ziche and He Xiting that they, too, had amassed a large number of useless loot boxes. They had originally intended to list them for sale or throw them into the guild warehouse, but now they handed them all to Ye Xiyin as well.

He Xiting had not only purple-grade boxes, but orange-grade and divine-grade ones too.

Piled together, they glittered with golden light, practically burying Ye Xiyin beneath them.

“That’s too many. There are far too many.” Ye Xiyin tried to stop them.

“It’s fine. You can open them whenever you’re bored. Giving them to someone else would only be a waste,” Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon said.

Ye Xiyin was both amused and helpless. Unable to refuse, he began opening the boxes at a furious pace.

There was no need to mention the excellent loot of the same grades. There were weapons, pills, and even martial techniques. Ye Xiyin selected several medicinal formulas that interested him and gave the many things he had no use for to He Xiting and the others to deal with themselves.

Besides those, he also obtained a great many beautiful little trinkets.

For example, there were the gorgeous outfits that every appearance enthusiast dreamed of owning.

Most of them were complete sets or beautiful accessories, and quite a few were the sort of pieces that made collector-type players cry out that they had found the item of their dreams.

“I know this umbrella. It’s only purple-grade, but the craftsmanship is exquisite, and the drop rate is pitifully low. Just its selling price is already two thousand gold.” Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon took it and examined it carefully. She had to admit that the umbrella really was beautiful.

The umbrella was called the Azure Spirit Umbrella. It was white and violet all over, with the luster of fine jade.

Ye Xiyin felt little about appearance items, but Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon’s eyes lit up.

She remembered Xu Ziche saying that Ye Xiyin was actually a girl who was merely disguised in men’s clothing.

Someone as beautiful as him would surely look just as good in pretty clothes.

Having the chance to dress up such a beautiful NPC was far more interesting than the dress-up games she usually played.

“Little Xiyin, when you change back into women’s clothes someday, you have to try all of these.” Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon selected several extremely popular outfits and pushed them all toward Ye Xiyin. “You’d definitely look wonderful in them.”

To make money, Trial of the Sword did not limit its appearance designs to traditional ancient clothing. There were all kinds of styles from all sorts of eras.

The Bunny set was adorable, the Moon Goddess set was beautiful, and the Little Witch outfit was charming too. Somehow, every style seemed to suit him. Hee hee.

“Th-thank you,” Ye Xiyin said hesitantly.

If they were not women’s clothes, that would have been even better. He truly did not think he possessed that particular interest—at least not for the time being.

“Brother, do you want to see him in them?” Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon nudged her brother’s arm. She refused to believe that He Xiting was not tempted.

“Don’t say things like that.” He Xiting frowned.

There was naturally no other meaning behind Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon’s words. She simply wanted to admire someone beautiful.

But from the perspective of the person involved, it was difficult not to feel as though someone else’s wishes were being imposed upon him.

“It depends mainly on what you want,” he said, looking at Ye Xiyin.

“All right.” Ye Xiyin answered, unable to stop the corners of his lips from curving upward.

Watching their exchange, Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon felt as though she had been crushed by an entirely higher dimension of existence.

Was this really her brother? The emotionless, cold-faced He Xiting who had always seemed as dense as a block of wood?

How had he suddenly become so good with words?

So he simply had not met the right person before. Once he encountered someone for whom he was willing to show patience, he understood everything.

Just as Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon was racking her brains over how strange this man had become, He Xiting suddenly asked, “Do you feel that your constitution has improved a little?”

Huh? Was he asking Ye Xiyin?

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Ye Xiyin raised his head in confusion and discovered that He Xiting was indeed looking at him.

But why would he ask that?

It was not only Ye Xiyin who found it strange. Xu Ziche and Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon were puzzled as well.

“Your level,” He Xiting explained.

The two of them suddenly understood and immediately checked.

They would never have known if they had not looked, but upon checking, they discovered that Ye Xiyin’s level had risen from the first to the fifth. His health bar had also increased visibly.

“When did that happen?” Both of them were astonished.

This was the first time they had ever seen an NPC whose level could increase.

But why had it happened? What had taken place over the last two days that they did not know about?

Whenever the conversation turned to matters related to the game, Ye Xiyin knew he had to act like a machine.

He pretended not to hear anything and earnestly continued opening the boxes.

“Experience from killing monsters.” He Xiting had already identified the crucial point.

The two of them suddenly understood.

Right. If there was anything unusual, it was that Ye Xiyin, as a special NPC, had accompanied them in completing the mission. In a sense, that meant they had formed a party.

In Trial of the Sword, the experience gained by players in a party was divided according to their levels. Ye Xiyin’s level was low, so he received only a small share. But with small gains accumulating over time, he had actually reached level five.

This was excellent news. With Ye Xiyin’s level increased, his ability to protect himself would improve considerably.

“In other words, if we continue taking Little Ye along while clearing out monsters, we can help raise his level to a certain extent. That should also make escorting him less difficult.” Xu Ziche suddenly understood. “Could this be part of the system’s design? A hidden method of indirectly reducing the mission’s difficulty? I never would have guessed the system could think of something so elaborate.”

Thanks to his rich imagination, the system inexplicably found itself wearing a very tall hat.

Ye Xiyin pretended not to hear anything, though he silently objected in his heart: No. It is only because the person beside you is not a pure NPC.

“We’ll clear out the monsters along the way from now on,” He Xiting declared, settling the matter with finality.

Ye Xiyin, who had listened to the entire exchange, secretly made a victory sign in his heart.

Wonderful. He would be able to leech experience again from now on.

The big shot was truly considerate. He would have to do another mission with him next time.

Too preoccupied with his happiness to notice, Ye Xiyin’s body temperature gradually began to drop. It was only when the other three turned worried eyes upon him that he asked in confusion, “What is it?”

“Little Xiyin, your cold poison is acting up again,” Sunny Cloud Autumn Moon said anxiously.

In their eyes, the blood drained from the young man’s body in an instant, leaving him looking like a translucent doll nestled in snow.

Beautiful and fragile.

Reminded by her words, Ye Xiyin immediately lowered his head and looked. She was right.

At some point, his fingertips had already become icy cold. Along with that sensation came the strange yet familiar chill he had felt when he had lost consciousness that day.

A body radiating heat drew close. Warm fingers closed around his wrist and gently pulled him nearer. The hand’s owner wore unmistakable concern in his eyes and asked, with a hint of awkwardness, “Do you want a hug?”