Chapter 39: Equivalent Exchange

“Oh, so you finally decided to show yourself?”

Bai Yue sneered.

“Hiding in that ring for so long—playing dead when her spiritual roots were destroyed, playing dead when she was trampled on.

Now that you’ve had your fill of primordial qi, you’re finally willing to come out?”

The woman’s phantom faltered, her expression turning somewhat embarrassed.

“Er…

I was in a critical period of restorative slumber!

I couldn’t perceive the outside world!”

The woman forced out an explanation, then her tone deepened, trying to regain her authority.

“But you, little girl—quite resourceful.

Where did you find these water spirits?”

“None of your damn business.”

Bai Yue shot back without mercy.

“If I hadn’t found these water spirits and used the purest primordial qi to restore her spiritual roots, would you, a pathetic wisp of a remnant soul, have been able to absorb enough energy to manifest without paying any price at all?”

The room fell into a brief silence.

The air was thick with the water spirits’ peculiar fishy scent and a strange fluctuation of spiritual energy.

Su Qingyan stood to the side, listening to the rapid back-and-forth between the two.

Her mind raced.

A remnant soul in the ring?

Something so fantastical—only found in cheap street-corner storybooks—was actually happening to Yueluo?

A once-brilliant genius, fallen to rock bottom, who by chance awakens an ancient great being from an artifact and turns their fate around.

That cliché story was literally unfolding before her eyes.

Su Qingyan felt a pang of incomprehension about this world.

But following that was an indescribable bitterness.

Why hadn’t Yueluo told her about this?

Did she not trust her?

Or did she think Su Qingyan couldn’t be of any help even if she knew?

Su Qingyan lowered her gaze.

After a long moment, she took a deep breath.

She forcibly suppressed the surge of disappointment in her chest.

Now was not the time to dwell on such things.

Yueluo was in the critical stage of restoring her spiritual roots.

Regardless of her reasons for keeping secrets, the most important thing was that she was safe.

Su Qingyan looked up again, quickly regaining her composure.

“Senior…”

Su Qingyan offered a slight bow in the phantom’s direction.

The woman’s phantom nodded slightly, clasping her hands behind her back, trying to maintain an air of profound mystery: “Mm, this little girl has some manners.

I am—”

“Enough.”

Bai Yue’s cool voice cut her off without warning.

Sitting in her chair, Bai Yue tapped her fingers idly on the table.

“Spare me your useless titles.

I don’t care how mighty you were before.

Right now, you’re nothing but a remnant soul without a physical body, only able to survive by leeching off others.”

The phantom stiffened at the interruption, about to flare up.

Bai Yue stopped her tapping, looked up, and pinned her with a sharp gaze.

“If you’re going to live under someone else’s roof, you pay rent.

Now, pay up.

You should have plenty of good things on you, right?”

The phantom let out a derisive laugh.

“You girl… are you extorting me?”

“This is equivalent exchange.”

Bai Yue stood and walked to the bedside, fixing her gaze on the floating black iron ring without flinching.

“There’s no such thing as a free meal.

You inhabit Xiao Yueluo’s artifact and absorbed her cultivation to sustain your soul.

If you can’t provide value—”

Bai Yue paused, the corner of her mouth curling into a cold smile.

“—then you’re useless.

I don’t mind ripping that pathetic ring off her right now and tossing it into a latrine to be sealed for a few hundred years.”

“You dare!”

The phantom’s eyes widened, her usually dead gaze now filled with shock and indignation.

“Try me.”

Bai Yue stared back, expressionless.

Having played the game, she knew exactly what state this remnant soul was in.

Even if she had been a peerless powerhouse in life, right now she was nothing more than a newly awakened, weak consciousness.

Su Qingyan stood to the side, watching Bai Yue threaten what seemed to be an unfathomably powerful remnant soul.

The corner of her eye twitched violently.

Just based on that invisible spiritual pressure the phantom had released earlier, she was definitely a great being of renown in her prime.

And Bai Yue was threatening to throw an ancient great one into a latrine.

But Bai Yue had precisely grasped the phantom’s vulnerability—that ring was the only vessel for this remnant soul.

The atmosphere in the room reached a stalemate.

Finally, the phantom let out a resigned sigh.

This woman really was a genuine madwoman.

She had come out to establish some authority, and instead, she ran into this…

“Fine.”

The phantom seemed to accept her current predicament.

“Since I am residing here, I will naturally lend her aid.

Once her spiritual roots are fully restored, their quality will far exceed before.

Not only will she have a pure Water-type single spiritual root, but it will also carry the innate properties of the water spirits.

And I do have a cultivation art that is extremely well-suited for her.”

“Hand it over.”

Bai Yue extended her hand.

“Not now.”

The phantom shook her head.

“The art can only be transmitted directly into her sea of consciousness after she awakens.

What’s your hurry?”

Bai Yue stared at the phantom for a long moment.

Then she withdrew her hand and brushed off the wrinkles on her clothes.

“You’d better not try any tricks.”

The phantom let out a cold snort, apparently unwilling to face Bai Yue’s infuriating face any longer.

She transformed into a streak of pale blue light and vanished back into the black iron ring.

The light completely faded, and the ring fell with a soft clink onto Xiao Yueluo’s collarbone, once again looking like nothing more than a piece of worthless scrap metal.

The room fell quiet once more.

Only the faint, occasional sound of bubbles popping from the wooden tub at the foot of the bed remained.

Time trickled by.

The sounds from the tub grew fainter and fainter.

The once-active translucent slime gradually turned murky and shrank significantly in volume.

The primordial qi within the water spirits was being thoroughly drained.

On the bed, Xiao Yueluo finally stopped her unconscious twitching.

Her tightly clenched lower lip slowly relaxed.

Her furrowed brow smoothed out.

The unnatural flush on her face began to recede, replaced by a healthy, radiant glow.

And most importantly—

Su Qingyan abruptly held her breath, staring intently at Xiao Yueluo.

Within her body, a faint fluctuation of spiritual energy circulation could be sensed.

It was extremely weak, but it was undeniably a genuine cycle of spiritual power!

The spiritual energy no longer dissipated immediately upon entering her body—it was now stably settling in her dantian and meridians.

It was actually working!

Su Qingyan clenched her fists tightly, a flicker of barely restrained excitement in her eyes.

“The stuff in the tub is spent.”

Bai Yue glanced at the wooden tub at the foot of the bed.

The water spirits had completely lost their vitality, reduced to a pool of foul-smelling stagnant water.

“Don’t get too excited just yet.

This is only the first session.”

Her voice cut through Su Qingyan’s excitement.

“Restoring spiritual roots is equivalent to defying fate—it’s not that easy.

This process needs to continue for over half a month, once a day.”

“Go get a basin of clean water, wash her feet, and carry her back to her bed to rest.

I’ll go get rid of this tub of waste.”

With that, Bai Yue hoisted the heavy wooden tub and pushed open the door, her movements crisp and efficient.

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