Chapter 5: The Inn by the Road

After returning home, Qin Yue-ran had originally planned to take a bath and rest, but on second thought, the place still was not fully cleaned, so she spent the whole afternoon doing housework.

Well then. She was completely flattened with fatigue.

"Hu... hu... I... want... dinner..." Qin Yue-ran said weakly, slumped in a chair.

"Right away, Xiaoran. You've worked hard," Hu Hu replied.

With a nimble hop, Hu Hu floated behind Qin Yue-ran, its little paws pressing against her shoulders to massage her while a transparent panel appeared before her.

As usual, she chose the dishes she liked and began to eat. Her hands were trembling even more than they had at noon. After finishing dinner in shaky bites, Qin Yue-ran finally recovered.

She said thoughtfully, "Hu Hu, something's off about this food."

"Huh? What's wrong?" Hu Hu was baffled. "Besides having spiritual energy, is there another problem?"

"Oh, I know what's going on." Qin Yue-ran finally understood why she had recovered so quickly.

"Early to bed and early to rise. We open for business tomorrow!" Qin Yue-ran cheered herself on.

"Open for business, open for business!" Hu Hu shouted along.

...

"By the way, will anyone actually come?" Qin Yue-ran asked. "I've been sitting here for five hours already."

"There should be, right? Otherwise, why would the Heavenly Way send you to this island?"

"Then it won't be a problem for me to communicate with guests, right?"

"That part is fine. There is automatic translation. Once someone enters the island's range, guests from different places can communicate with one another, let alone you, the owner."

After Hu Hu answered, the two of them fell silent together.

Ever since she had cheered herself up last night, she had finished bathing early and come to the dwelling on the fairy island.

There was abundant spiritual energy here, which was good for the body, so choosing to sleep here was perfectly normal.

As it turned out, sleeping here really was better. She had slept until she woke naturally, and when she did, it was already ten in the morning, bright-eyed and full of vigor.

However, she had chosen to start business right after lunch, and had even taken time to check the inn's current state.

The first floor was the reception hall and restaurant. The second floor had four single rooms and two double rooms, but only two single rooms had been unlocked so far. The third floor had the same layout as the second.

The reception hall could hold automatic vending machines, but unfortunately she had not unlocked them. There was no helping it; she simply did not have enough points.

At four-thirty in the afternoon, Qin Yue-ran idly tapped through the panel and spotted the task to unlock food sales in the restaurant, as well as the task to name the inn and put up its signboard.

Qin Yue-ran's pupils shook violently. "!!" Put up what? A signboard? Name it? My heavens! It hasn't even been named yet?!

Could tasks really not pop up automatically?! She opened the task details.

Congratulations, the owner now has an inn of her own. Please give your inn a name.

Reward: 2 signboards, 10 points.

Qin Yue-ran accepted the task, but she had no clue what to call it, so she asked Hu Hu for its opinion.

"Hu Hu, what do you think it should be called?"

"I don't know either. Whatever Xiaoran thinks of is fine," Hu Hu said, equally troubled. It had never named anything before, after all.

The two of them sprawled listlessly over the table together, their gazes unfocused.

After racking her brains for a while, Qin Yue-ran asked, "How about One Room Inn?"

"I support it!" Hu Hu chimed in.

"I support it too!" Qin Yue-ran said happily as she filled in the name and clicked confirm.

Congratulations, naming successful! Reward: 2 signboards for One Room Inn, 10 points.

The signboards were a wooden plaque meant to hang horizontally and another wooden plaque meant to stand upright on the ground.

Qin Yue-ran dragged the signboards into their proper places, then added decorative colored lights to them and clicked save.

"I knew it—this morning it looked like something was missing. So it was the signboard!" Qin Yue-ran clicked her tongue.

After solving that task, she opened the next one.

Unlock task: The inn is finally open for business! A proper inn should be able to provide guests with daily meals. Please go to the kitchen to learn how to make soy milk, steamed buns, and tea eggs!

Reward: 30 points.

Qin Yue-ran accepted the task, and the method for making them immediately entered her mind. She hurried to her feet and headed for the kitchen, with Hu Hu climbing onto her shoulder to go with her.

Upon arriving in the kitchen, Qin Yue-ran was silent once again at the sight of the empty room.

Thinking that this was all just game mode anyway, she opened the game panel and found the restaurant section.

Selecting ingredients took her to the shop. Looking through it, she saw that ingredients had to be purchased—but she had no points. The 10 points she had just received were nothing at all; she had already mentally set her points to zero.

Qin Yue-ran: "..."

Something was definitely wrong somewhere.

Hu Hu was puzzled. Hu Hu asked, "If Xiaoran wants to buy ingredients, have you not opened the beginner management gift pack yet? It provides a month's worth of inn supplies... unlimited use for one month."

Qin Yue-ran was shocked. "!!"

Qin Yue-ran slid to her knees. "It's my fault. I didn't open the pack in time."

She called up the package and clicked use on the beginner management gift pack in one smooth motion.

Congratulations on obtaining one month of unlimited inn supplies, plus one Chef's Experience. Please manage the inn even better, Boss.

Chef's Experience?

Qin Yue-ran opened it and found that it could be used, so she used it directly.

Then her cooking skill was instantly maxed out.

"Ah..." Qin Yue-ran stared blankly. "So it was a level-up pack."

She opened the kitchen interface again, and sure enough, this time ingredients could be added directly.

So she began unlocking the foods according to the tutorial she had been given.

At the same time, someone was slowly approaching from beyond the central fairy island's perimeter.

Gu Yuanyuan looked toward the distant, faintly visible light, shock filling his heart, and whispered, "Senior Sister Cheng, look! Is there light up ahead?"

Cheng Shuangshuang was helping Senior Sister Shi Qingyu tend to her wounds and, at the sound of this, was about to instinctively object that there could not be any light here.

Black mist drifted all around, and beyond a range of only a couple of steps, one could not see a thing. Only within that narrow area could they barely make anything out.

Otherwise, they would not have been ambushed by monsters, and Senior Sister Qingyu would not have exhausted her last trace of spiritual power while saving them, only to be injured in the process.

Just thinking that they had entered this place only seven days ago and already fallen into such a predicament made Cheng Shuangshuang begin to doubt the future, and her dao heart wavered for a moment as well.

But only for a moment. How could those of them who cultivate immortality let a little setback shake their dao hearts? After catching Senior Sister Shi Qingyu, Cheng Shuangshuang immediately told Gu Yuanyuan to leave at once.

Once a monster appeared in an area, more would inevitably be drawn to it.

So Gu Yuanyuan had paddled the raft—though in truth, the raft had only barely been able to hold two people. It was only after tying several rafts together that Gu Yuanyuan could paddle while Cheng Shuangshuang administered emergency treatment to Senior Sister Shi Qingyu. After they escaped, she no longer knew where they had drifted to.

Now that Gu Yuanyuan said there was light, Cheng Shuangshuang had wanted to dismiss it, but on second thought, Junior Brother Gu was not the sort to speak carelessly unless he was seeing things, so she looked over after all.

With a single glance, Cheng Shuangshuang's eyes lit up in delight. "It really is light! We can see it from so far away—could it be the exit?"

"No..." Cheng Shuangshuang quickly calmed herself. "It could also be a trap."

Gu Yuanyuan also came to his senses. "Senior Sister Cheng is right. It might be a trap. Let's head away in the opposite direction."

Though he longed for light, Gu Yuanyuan still resisted the urge to paddle forward.

Something that could lure people from such a distance was likely to ensnare them completely once they drew near, muddling their minds and killing them without their even realizing it.

"No," Cheng Shuangshuang rejected Gu Yuanyuan's suggestion and instead said, "We have to go there."

"Why?" Gu Yuanyuan was stunned.

"Things are already bad enough. With no medicine, Senior Sister Qingyu won't last much longer." Cheng Shuangshuang's gaze was resolute. "We might as well gamble on a sliver of survival. My instincts tell me we should go."

Gu Yuanyuan hesitated.

Cheng Shuangshuang saw his hesitation and did not blame him, saying only coolly, "Even in the cultivation world, entering a secret realm carries the risk of death, yet people still go in one after another without fear. This is only a special secret realm, nothing more. If you're afraid, you can stay here. I'll take Senior Sister Qingyu over there myself."

Gu Yuanyuan pressed his lips together, clenched his fists, and made up his mind as well. "I'll go too. Senior Sister Cheng is right. The path of cultivation is dangerous at every turn. I can't be afraid!"