There weren’t many people in the tavern, and there were only a few tables. Yan Xuehen had been listening in on their conversations, but she hadn’t obtained any useful information. All she had learned was that this world was really chaotic.

After listening for a while, she decided to just walk up to those other tables and ask the people there if they had met Zu An and the others. She also described Yun Jianyue and the others’ appearances to them. Whether it was Zu An’s handsome and confident appearance or Yun Jianyue’s glamorous yet domineering looks, they were clearly distinctive features. There was no way anyone would forget them after meeting them even just once.

The people at those tables were all stunned. They had never expected this goddess-level woman to actually strike up a conversation with them!

Someone was about to respond when another person’s eyes moved quickly. He seized the chance to say, “I’ve seen them before!”

The others seemed to have thought of something and quickly nodded, saying, “That’s right, we did see them before.”

Yan Xuehen was a bit surprised. She had just been randomly trying her luck and hadn’t expected there to actually be results. She asked, “May I ask where you’ve seen them before?”

“I think it was yesterday? It was over in the next town…” The gathered people began to talk all at once in a lively manner.

Seeing her bewildered expression, one of them suggested, “How about we take the lady there?”

“That’s a bit…” Yan Xuehen said, seeing that they hadn’t even finished their meals. She felt a bit embarrassed.

“It’s not a problem at all! Everyone is a friend around these parts,” the others replied, laughing heartily. They seemed to have something of an outspoken air and a straightforward nature.

“Then I’ll have to trouble you gentlemen,” Yan Xuehen said, then called out to the boss to settle the bill for the meal.

She was the sect leader of the White Jade Sect. She didn’t necessarily have enough wealth to single-handedly dictate the prosperity of a sect, but she definitely had no problem at all supporting herself.

“I’ll be right over!” the boss replied and went to check on the bill. He then said, “I’ll just take off the change and charge you two silvers.” He secretly gave Yan Xuehen a gesture behind the other people’s backs.

Yan Xuehen was quite surprised. She calmly handed the silvers over, and the other people quickly escorted her out. Along the way, they were extremely friendly and asked her all sorts of questions about where she was from and what she was doing in the village. They didn’t forget to constantly praise her beauty.

Yan Xuehen was generally quite cold in nature and responded to them with very few words, but they didn’t seem to feel that she was being rude, and only seemed to get even more excited. After all, such a beautiful goddess would be treated with unlimited patience by all the men in the world.

Just like that, their group left the small town. When she saw the surroundings becoming more and more remote, Yan Xuehen frowned and asked, “Could it be that we went the wrong way? This doesn’t seem similar to the place you described earlier.”

The group looked around and saw that there was no one else around them. Then, they laughed confidently and asked, “Miss, is the one you’re looking for your man?”

When she sensed the frivolousness in their expressions, Yan Xuehen said coldly, “That has nothing to do with you.”

“How does it not? You’re so pretty, so why are you looking all over for someone? We brothers just happen to be available to service your needs. We promise you’ll forget about that man as long as you give us a try.” The group catcalled her a few times as they surrounded her. They greedily eyed her body with incredibly excited expressions. In all these years, this was the first time they had met someone so beautiful. If they could spend the night with her, they wouldn’t mind even if they had to give up a decade of their lifespan for it!

Yan Xuehen replied indifferently, “Which means you all deceived me earlier and that you haven’t seen them?”

“Of course,” the men said with mocking sneers. “Who would have thought that there would be such a gullible and innocent woman? Don’t tell us you’re still inexperienced?” When they saw her cold and aloof nature, they felt more and more convinced that that was the case. As such, they began to discuss who would go first, starting to get all worked up.

As she listened to their filthy discussion, Yan Xuehen’s expression remained completely cold.

“Hm? Why would it snow in this season?” someone wondered as he suddenly noticed something strange, and reached out to touch the falling snow. As soon as his hand made contact, however, a layer of frost covered it. Then, he completely turned into an ice sculpture.

The others’ expressions changed greatly when they saw that. They were about to run, but they were quickly covered under ice and snow. From then on, they breathed no more.

Yan Xuehen didn’t even want to give them a second look and drifted into the distance. Shortly after, she returned to the restaurant from before, but there were no guests left. There was only the boss and the waiter, cleaning up the tables. They were stunned and surprised to see her return.

“Thank you for earlier,” Yan Xuehen said to the boss. It was this man who had secretly warned her to be careful previously.

The boss said with a simple and honest smile, “You’re being too courteous. It’s only right to do such a thing. But since we still have to do business here and are scared of revenge, we can’t make it too apparent. Fortunately, the lady was smart.”

Yan Xuehen nodded. She took the chance to ask where the local official manor was. Even though she hadn’t spent too much time here yet, she had passed through some areas in search of Zu An. Despite that, she hadn’t seen any sign of an official’s manor. She figured that going through the officials would make things go much faster if she was trying to find someone.

“Official manor?” the boss asked with a strange expression. “There are many officials in the world, but no one recognizes them outside their respective territories.”

“Why is that?” Yan Xuehen asked in surprise.

Then, as the boss explained things, Yan Xuehen learned a bit more about this world. The whole place was filled with chaos from end to end. There wasn’t a single powerful unified country, and instead, it was ruled by countless small countries. The smaller ones among them were only about the size of one or two cities. Although many of them called themselves countries, they were more like feudal fiefdoms. In order to fight for resources and wealth, there were wars year-round. It was difficult for the common people to scrape by.

“Those officials only have authority over an acre and a half of land or so. No one outside of their territories recognizes them,” the boss said after thinking about some things. He continued, “If the lady is looking for someone, you can look into the Adventurer's Guild.”

“The Adventurer's Guild?” Yan Xuehen asked, stunned. The name sounded really strange and quite different from the way things were named in her previous world.

“That’s right. The different forces all have their own domains and don’t interact much with each other, but the Adventurer's Guild can be found in many of their territories. They have good access to information as well,” the boss said. He paused for a moment before continuing, “But they won’t easily give out their information to outsiders, and will only provide it to their adventurers. The higher your rank, the more information you’ll have access to. If the lady is interested, you can join the guild and become an adventurer yourself.”

Yan Xuehen frowned and asked, “Is it that easy to join?”

After all, sects typically picked their disciples really carefully.

The boss said with a smile, “I guess it isn’t that hard, but it ain’t that easy either. As long as you can complete the mission they give you, you can become an adventurer. The more missions you complete, the higher your rank will climb.” He paused for a moment, then said with a sigh, “This world is quite chaotic. All sorts of monsters are roaming about and there are dangers everywhere. That’s why the guild has many dangerous missions too.”

“Monsters?” Yan Xuehen repeated, her expression changing a bit. Judging from his tone, the word didn’t seem like an adjective, but rather a noun.

“That’s right. There are all sorts of demons and ghosts…” the boss said, giving her a rough explanation.

As she listened, Yan Xuehen was inwardly shocked. She came from a daoist sect, so she had some exorcism methods, but those were usually only used to deal with non-sentient deathly spirits. She hadn’t met any ghosts who weren’t all that different from real people. She asked the boss a few more questions, which he answered patiently one after another.

The boss looked out the window and warned her, “Miss, it’s already dark out. Why not just spend the night in this small store? Roaming outside at night without proper shelter is extremely dangerous.”

Yan Xuehen recalled the demons and ghosts he had talked about earlier and thought to herself that it would be best if she found Zu An and the others as soon as possible. As such, there was no reason to create more unnecessary issues. She nodded and said, “Then I’ll be troubling you.”

“It isn’t any trouble at all, not at all. I’m trying to make a living here, and you’re only helping me out,” the boss said as he scratched the back of his head, his expression looking simple and honest.

…

At midnight, several figures walked quietly on tiptoes toward Yan Xuehen’s door. They carefully cut through the bolt with blades and pushed open the door to see the sleeping beauty within.

One of them released a sigh of relief. He laughed and said, “Boss, the Horizontal Alliance’s Five Hegemons were all done in by this woman, so she’s definitely quite something! I was worried that we might have been in over our heads ourselves.”

The one in the lead was none other than the boss of the tavern. There was a treacherous smile on his face, and his previous honest and sincere look was nowhere to be found.

“Those Five Hegemons only know how to use brute force; how can they compare to me? After being afflicted by my Happy Bliss, she has no choice but to let me ravage her no matter how high her cultivation is,” the boss replied. When he looked at Yan Xuehen’s stunning face and body, even his breath quickened. His luck with women was absolutely incredible today!

One of his underlings said in confusion, “This woman’s cultivation is definitely incredible. After what the Five Hegemons went through, she’d definitely be more careful. Boss, just how did you drug her?”

“I added the poison into both the tea and the candles. A single one wouldn’t do anything, but it’s impossible not to be poisoned when both are used together. No matter how careful she was, she wouldn’t have been able to avoid the trap,” the boss said, laughing complacently.

“So that was what happened…” a voice said with a soft sigh. 

The boss felt all of his fine hairs standing on end. When he turned around, he saw that Yan Xuehen was already standing up.

“You… You weren’t poisoned?” the boss muttered, feeling his very soul tremble.