Chapter 160: Giving You a Mountain of Gold

Ning Xianyu stared at the golden ring, looking at it back and forth, which left Xuanyuan Tunhan quite puzzled.

"You are now a cultivator. Such objects are nothing more than mortal trinkets to you, completely worthless."

In a single day, she had acquired hundreds of thousands of top-grade spiritual stones. Why would she still be interested in such trifles?

Ning Xianyu turned her head and asked, "Ancestor, why do you keep such a huge golden ring in your storage bag?"

Since he claimed it was worthless, why bother carrying it around? Besides, it was so large and took up a lot of space.

Xuanyuan Tunhan's face chilled at the question: "Because this lord pleases."

Fine. You are the highest, you call the shots.

Actually, Ning Xianyu did not particularly care about his golden ring; she merely had a habitual obsession with gold. After all, in modern society, gold was a good thing.

She found a spot to sit down and quietly felt the sea breeze, but Xuanyuan Tunhan found this unaccustomed. After a moment, he suddenly spoke: "If you handle this matter to my satisfaction, once it is done, I will gift you a mountain of gold."

Ning Xianyu's eyes instantly lit up.

"Really?"

Xuanyuan Tunhan said impatiently, "Merely some mortal trinkets. This lord wouldn't stoop to deceiving you."

Ning Xianyu asked again, "Just how big is this mountain of gold? Don't go handing me a scale model to fool me."

The Great Devil was so cunning; who knew if he might try to trick her?

Xuanyuan Tunhan thought for a moment: "About the size of a peak of the Ten Directions Mountain."

Suddenly being mentioned, Nian Laisheng chimed in with a disgruntled tone: "The peaks of the Ten Directions Mountain aren't even that particularly large."

Ancestor Xuanyuan was so old, yet he loved to amuse himself by teasing his disciple's descendant, who was pitifully a bit foolish and easily manipulated by others.

However, Ning Xianyu was thoroughly satisfied: "Alright, a mountain of gold it is."

Mount Qingxu had looked far away, but flying toward it made it feel even more distant. They flew until daytime gave way to a vast nothingness, yet it still seemed miles away.

Ning Xianyu felt lost without a sense of direction and didn't know what to do, but Xuanyuan Tunhan stated that he had already figured out the approximate coordinates based on the arrangement of the stars and the Eight Trigrams of heaven and earth, and they just needed to keep moving.

She was filled with utmost admiration; she never imagined things could be done this way. She had stared at the circular ring yesterday and hadn't seen a thing.

The system despised her: [He has lived for tens of thousands of years, after all, so he naturally possesses some skills. Unlike you, who have been a cultivator for so long and learned nothing.]

Ning Xianyu retorted grumpily: [He has tens of thousands of years, while I've only had a year. Do the math on that time difference—what could I possibly have learned?]

The system paused to think, and that made sense—there was a gap of tens of thousands of times.

However, the system asked again: [Do you just want to lie flat for the rest of your life, never thinking of learning something or doing what you actually like?]

Ning Xianyu thought for a moment: [I actually have thought about it. When I was a child, I learned pottery. Back then, I desperately wanted to keep studying it. I always felt that shaping mud into various forms and coloring them with paints made them seem as if they possessed a life of their own.]

When she was young, her parents had sent her to talent classes. She had learned music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, but performed poorly in all of them. She had only taken two pottery classes, yet she loved them the most.

The system fell silent for a moment: [Could it be that you and the Breath-Soil share a bond from a past life?]

One was Breath-Soil that could transform into anything at will, and the other simply loved pottery. Wasn't that a coincidence?

Ning Xianyu thought with a bitter expression: [What a damned bond.]

The system offered a terrible suggestion: [Why don't you hack off a piece of yourself, turn it back into Breath-Soil, and see what you can shape it into?]

[Goodbye!]

She wasn't crazy; why would she hack off a piece of her own body to play with and sculpt?

The system laughed quietly, reminding her that the five-hour time limit had arrived, so she could check whether her wish had come true.

Remembering this, Ning Xianyu stared directly at Xuanyuan Tunhan, ready to test it out.

Before she could try, however, he suddenly turned his head: "Has the time come?"

Ning Xianyu was startled. At that exact moment, a flash of mutual understanding struck her, and she realized he was referring to turning into a cat.

"Yes, it has."

The Great Devil said, "Then let's try it."

Ning Xianyu concentrated hard, thinking *turn into a cat, turn into a cat*.

Then, she felt as though the Great Devil had suddenly grown much taller.

"Meow?"

Ancestor, why did you grow taller?

Immediately afterward, she realized something was wrong. The Great Devil hadn't grown taller—she had turned into a cat herself.

No way?

[Damn system, didn't you say there wouldn't be any mistakes this time? What is going on?]

Why had she turned into a cat?

Xuanyuan Tunhan looked at the scene in astonishment as well, then walked over and scooped the tiny her into his arms.

The cat he had transformed into was pitch black, whereas she had turned into a tender yellow kitten with white fur only around her mouth and chest.

All of her fur seemed fluffed up, catching the light so that individual strands were visible—soft and extremely cute.

He stroked her along her spine, and the texture was indeed quite nice.

This woman hadn't lied; it felt very good to touch.

Ning Xianyu was still crying to the system: [What should I do? I've turned into a cat, and he picked me up.]

The system hurriedly comforted her: [That's not right. This shouldn't be my fault. Could it be a transformation you brought about yourself through your own practice?]

Yesterday, when she wanted to turn into a handsome guy, she changed almost instantly. Perhaps thinking about turning into a cat made it happen just as quickly this time.

Thinking this was entirely possible, Ning Xianyu tried with all her might to *change back, change back*.

Yet, after trying for a long time, there was still not the slightest reaction.

[What do I do? I can't change back.]

She truly wanted to cry right now. What should she do if she couldn't revert to her human form?

The system was clueless as well and could only tell her not to panic, suggesting she might change back on her own in a little while.

Ning Xianyu was left on the verge of tears, obediently lying flat in the Great Devil's arms, her fur losing its luster.

Xuanyuan Tunhan stroked her a couple of times and tried guiding her with his spiritual energy. In the blink of an eye, she reverted to human form.

Ning Xianyu rolled over against his arm, accidentally landing in a princess carry position.

She looked at the Great Devil, the Great Devil looked down at her, and then he let out a mocking laugh.

"I've truly never seen anyone so clumsy. You know how to transform, yet you don't know how to change back."

It was the first time he had ever seen someone master a transformation technique so quickly, only to find themselves completely unable to undo it.

Ning Xianyu stiffened, then hopped down from his arms: "I'm never transforming again."

The Great Devil continued to laugh mockingly, convinced she would undoubtedly make the exact same mistake in the future.

"Open the cultivation manual Xiahou Fang gave you. Inside are the insights on transformation he studied throughout his entire life. It should be of some help to you."

He had demanded those items specifically to lay the groundwork for her to learn transformation.

Ning Xianyu promptly thanked him, feeling that the Great Devil was quite thoughtful after all—something she hadn't even considered herself.

What Xiahou Fang had provided was a jade slip. According to the Great Devil's instructions, one had to project their divine consciousness into it to view the contents.

This belonged to an advanced method of recording confidential information, something only higher-level cultivators were capable of.

Once her divine consciousness entered, what she saw was not text, but Xiahou Fang himself giving a lecture.

This truly was an advanced holographic projection teaching method, complete with demonstrations—exceptionally vivid and concrete.

Because of this, Ning Xianyu caught a glimpse of Xiahou Fang's true appearance.

It was simply, utterly terrifying.