My best friend asked me if I was still doing system tasks.

Having escaped unscathed, Ruan Chayan and Luo Hanying collapsed to the ground, panting. Their lungs burned with pain, but their violently pounding hearts were finally relieved.

Xiange sat on the ground, hugging a bamboo shoot, and said, "Hey you two, I haven't even said I'm tired of controlling your bodies yet, what's with this behavior?"

Ruan Chayan lay down on her back on the ground: "When you put that talisman down, the spiritual energy in my dantian was almost completely drained. Then I had to fly on a sword. My dantian hurts now."

Luo Hanying's face turned pale: "A bunch of mad dogs, they bite anything they smell, no matter what it is. What kind of nonsense is this Lingxi Dew? They deserve to die, they look like they're going to eat us alive."

I've already said I don't know, I don't know, but you still won't believe me.

Ruan Chayan mustered her strength and said, "Who says otherwise? I don't remember the original owner ever meeting Qiao Hezhi. We didn't even exchange a glance during those two weeks."

The original owner of this body was so poor that she had never even passed by the main gate of Taibai Pavilion.

"That's how it is!" Luo Hanying was furious. "He spoke with absolute certainty, but there's no record of this person in the original owner's memories! How could he be so sure that we're cultivators from the Opening Heaven Gate?"

"Don't think about that for now. Anyway, neither of you can come up with anything right now. I have another matter to settle with you."

Xian Ge cleared his throat, and a light screen popped up in front of each of them, thoughtfully designed to fit their posture for easy viewing. The content on the screens was identical.

The light screen was divided into two parts.

Luo Hanying wondered if there was something wrong with her eyes. She couldn't understand it at all: "What is this? What's 1500, 2000, 3000?"

"This is the system shop. Normally, you need 1000 points to view it, but you have too many debts, so I'm opening it up for you to see early."

"As you can see, even the cheapest pills here cost 1000 points," said Xiange.

This partition features an all-purpose shielding device with 3200 points, now on sale for 3000.

This talisman, the Xuanwu Lotus Talisman, is a fourth-grade Earth-level talisman with 2350 points. Since you two are new hosts, I'll reluctantly round it down to 2300.

Here's the big prize: Soul-Controlling Spell, 8500 points, I'll control your escape from here. This is the highest price I'm asking.

This teleportation scroll is a gift from me, so I won't charge you any points.

Your combined spending was 13,800. After deducting 500 points, you now owe me 13,300.

Ruan Chayan took out a Spirit Gathering Pill from her storage ring and swallowed it, then took out a spirit stone and held it in her hand—

If she doesn't give herself some first aid soon, she might faint from the shock.

Luo Hanying's eyes widened in disbelief: "What? What? Ten thousand? My god! A main quest only gives 500 points! How much work am I supposed to do for you...?"

With a smile, Xiange said, "Don't be so pessimistic. This task isn't too much, but it's not too little either. We'll pay it off slowly."

If you can't pay it back in this lifetime, then you can bind your future relationship with your past life and pay it back then.

"No, you're going to reserve my next life?!" Luo Hanying couldn't even imagine what kind of tragic death she would suffer in her next life, and then encounter this heartless system again.

After complaining for a while and resting, the two asked Xiange where she had sent them.

"I took it upon myself to send you into the secret realm."

"You have a hundred years to complete the mission, so spend a year adapting to this world first," said Xiange.

Luo Hanying and Ruan Chayan exchanged glances: "What do you mean by that?"

While chewing on bamboo leaves, Xiange explained, "After all, you two are mission takers, so I can give you a back door."

This secret realm, named Yaoxiang Secret Realm, is located at the junction of Yue Shen Mountain Range and Nan Yue Shenzhou, and is open once every ten years.

I'm making an exception and letting the two of you come in early to familiarize yourselves with your bodies, practice magic, and improve your cultivation to save your lives.

"The Incense-Inviting Secret Realm will reopen in about a year and two months. At that time, cultivators will flood in, and the two of you can take advantage of the chaos to escape and continue your mission."

Luo Hanying hissed: "So that means we won't see anyone for a year, we'll wear three sets of clothes, and we'll eat, drink, relieve ourselves, and live in the wild?"

The secret realm in the novel is also filled with all sorts of monsters; do we also have to guard against jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards?

Xian Ge nodded: "That's right, is that acceptable?"

If not, I estimate that it will be very difficult for the two of you to complete this task.

Putting aside the perils of the main quest, just stopping the war between good and evil requires sufficient cultivation as a foundation, and the fact that the two of you can't calm down and cultivate is also a problem.”

Since Xian Ge had already put it this way, Ruan Chayan and Luo Hanying naturally couldn't say they couldn't accept it.

Moreover, the two of them genuinely wanted to try to integrate the knowledge they had learned from this body, otherwise what would they do if they encountered such danger again?

We can't rely on Xiange forever; even if they were willing, Xiange couldn't agree.

Having this understanding is one thing, but Luo Hanying still had to complain: "Tell me, why couldn't you have given us both a body of a high-level cultivator in the first place?"

"Give us another year to get used to our bodies, and the difficulty of the mission will drop instantly, right?"

Enraged, Xian Ge snapped the bamboo stick she was holding, which was constructed from code, in two: "Say that again?!"

Are those bodies so easy to find?!

"It's already quite an achievement to find such a high-match, clean-background, fresh corpse for you two!"

Luo Hanying looked at Xiange's ferocious beast face and timidly fell silent.

Eight months later, the secret realm of invitation—

"Cha Cha! Look, I caught two rabbits today!"

Luo Hanying dragged a lion-sized, rabbit-shaped monster in one hand and ran excitedly toward Ruan Chayan, who was chopping wood in the yard.

Ruan Chayan smiled, her eyes crinkling: "Great! We can have braised rabbit today!"

Luo Hanying abandoned the demon beast and snuggled up to Ruan Chayan, pleading, "Chayan-mama~ can you make another spicy one? I want it extra spicy~"

Ruan Chayan pretended to be disgusted and pushed Luo Hanying's forehead, then smiled helplessly and said, "Okay, okay, don't do this stupid thing, you're a grown man."

Luo Hanying laughed shamelessly, "With my best friend spoiling me, I'll be fine even when I'm seventy or eighty!"

Ruan Chayan and Luo Hanying have been in the Yaoxiang Secret Realm for eight or nine months. Xiange chose a relatively flat, sparse forest for the two to cultivate.

At first, for safety reasons, the two of them slept in the tree. After falling flat on their faces repeatedly, they decided to build a wooden house.

I have to thank String Song for the inspiration for this idea.

In order to help Ruan Chayan and Luo Hanying refine their bodies and become proficient in using spiritual energy, Xiange had them run with weights during the day, chop wood and fetch water with spiritual energy, and meditate at night.

The two were obedient during the day, doing their best to complete the tasks assigned by Xiange, but when it came to meditation, they would always fall asleep while sitting, which made Xiange furious.