Douluo: Butterfly Treasure Crown

The Exit

Ning Yuexi stood alone in the middle of the lake.

She had no idea what the moon goddess meant by the destined lotus. But was she back in the ruin? Or was it another illusion?

"Xixi!"

Ning Yuexi turned around quickly. Xu Shaoyan stood there near the lakeside. Ning Yuexi couldn’t see his face clearly, it was quite far. Only his vague silhouette could be seen.

"Shaoyan?"

"Xixi!" This time his voice came out urgent and with a mix of worry. Somehow Ning Yuexi knew she was back.

"Yes. Wait, don't move! I am coming." Ning Yuexi jumped from one lotus to another as lightly as possible. But she didn’t have to worry as the lotuses under her were as stable as the ground. Just as she reached the ground, she was pulled into a warm embrace.

Ning Yuexi was stunned.

This was the first time in her life someone of the opposite gender ever hugged her like this. Even her father would not do that. Her hands were hanging and didn’t know where to put them.

In the end, she gently patted the shoulder of the boy. Xu Shaoyan seemed to have returned to his senses and pulled away.

"Where did you go? I was so worried. Even The Moon Heart stopped giving me direction. I thought something bad happened. Thank god, you are alright."  Xu Shaoyan's voice was sincere. Ning Yuexi felt her heart beating.

Xu Shaoyan looked at the golden half-moon pattern on Ning Yuexi's forehead and pursed his lips. In the end, he chose to ignore it.

Ning Yuexi said, "I lost my way." She didn’t want to say more and Xu Shaoyan didn’t ask more.

"Then let's go. We have to find others and leave this ruin quickly." Xu Shaoyan pulled Ning Yuexi's hand and turned to leave towards the forest where they came.

"Wait— I, I need to find a lotus."

Xu Shaoyan stopped his steps and turned to look at the uneasy look on Ning Yuexi's face. "No need. I have one for you."

Xu Shaoyan stood there with a lotus in his right hand while the left hand pulled Ning Yuexi. He shoved the flower in her arms and turned to leave again.

Ning Yuexi looked at the lotus in her hand in a daze. While a voice rang in her ears.

"First test:Find the golden lotus.
Test progress: completed"

"Congratulations on finding your destined lotus. Affinity with The Moon Lotus: 20%. Affinity with the Moon: 5%"

"Moonlight God's successor's second test: Reach Soul Emperor.
Reward: One god-given soul ring.
Time Limit: Seven years."

Ning Yuexi looked at Xu Shaoyan's firm back and lost in thoughts. Only her heart was thumping too loudly.

Two months later.

"It should appear here soon." Hu Leina looked at the map in her hand and stopped in front of a cave. The cave was closed with a huge rock, covered in algae, in the middle. It was hidden with many trees. One could easily ignore its existence if one didn’t look carefully.

"Fortunately, we had the map. Or else we would have been lost and had to wander around like headless flies." Yan on the side commented with a voice filled with grievance. He almost got beaten by an earthy silkworm that was not afraid of fire or earth. He lost all his dignity in front of his sweetheart. How could his young heart tolerate such a disgrace?

Xie Yue laughed and patted his shoulder as a sign of comfort. "Oh, please save yourself some face."

Yan humped at him and rudely threw away his hand. He turned to Xu Shaoyan, who had just sat down on a rock and was drawing stick figures on the ground with a tree branch picked up from who knows where.

"Hey, where did you pick up the map?"

Xu Shaoyan was concentrating on drawing his stick figures on the ground and replied nonchalantly, "Oh, I just happened to pass by and pick it up from the ground."

It was clearly a lie. Even a three-year-old wouldn’t believe it.

Ning Yuexi looked at the messy stick figures on the ground and remained silent. Was it true that one cannot be perfect? Though Ning Yuexi didn’t want to admit it, Xu Shaoyan really had all the qualifications to be a perfect man. Well if you ignore his yin-yang personality and this newly found drawing skill.

What is he drawing? Is it a snake? A bread? Dog head? What is this?

Ning Yuexi felt her eyes burn just looking at his doggy drawings on the ground.

"Xixi, look. This is you, and this is me?" Xu Shaoyan eagerly tried to show off his masterpiece.

Ning Yuexi: "..."

Where is it? Why can't she see it? And how dare he compare her graceful image to these unknown lines on the ground.

"Umm. I can't see any human figure here." Hey, he should be grateful that I didn’t say what I wanted to say. Ning Yuexi thought.

"Here, that's you." Xu Shaoyan pointed at the curvy lines, one couldn’t even imagine it as a person even if they burned all of their brain cells.

Ning Yuexi: "..."

"And this is me!" Xu Shaoyan then pointed at the triangle thing on the ground with dog ears or something and a tail. Or? "That's my sword!"

Ning Yuexi: "..."

Hu Leina came forward to see what her senior brother drew only to get traumatised for life.

Hu Leina: "..."

I thought my senior brother was awesome. So shortcoming was lying here.

Xie Yue and Yan had already laughed till they rolled on the ground. One was slapping the others out of excitement.

Xu Shaoyan drew out his sword, "Believe it or not, I will beat you until you cry your eyes out!"

Xie Yue and Yan: "We are not laughing. We didn’t laugh. Don’t accuse people wrongly!"

Ning Yuexi almost face-palmed. Brothers, where are your faces?

"Hey! It's opening! It's opening! The exit has appeared!" Hu Leina's excited voice came from ahead.

Ning Yuexi and the others looked at where she pointed and saw the space fluctuate and a purple-gold space crack appeared. It was the exit marked on the map. While searching for treasures she and Shaoyan happened to pick it up from a tree hollow.

"Let's go. I am about to grow mushrooms. We were wandering around in this ruin for two months. Oh, I miss the canteen food! Aunty cooks too deliciously!" Yan jumped excitedly.

"Ah? I thought you were just tired of eating fish grills." Xie Yue refuted this. "Don't be duplicitous."

"What? When did I become duplicitous?—"

"Hey, stop you two. Prepare for our departure." Xu Shaoyan made them stop fussing around.

Ning Yuexi checked her space ring which was filled with treasures and filled her heart at ease. Oh, the seven treasure glazed tile pagoda martial soul's indirect skill to pick up treasure was such a delightful thing!