Did the Top-Ranked Girl Get Exposed Today? [HoloVerse] - Chapter 16

[System Notification] [Shengjing Flower Sea Demon King] has issued you a commission, “Flower Delivery.” Upon completion, you will receive a large amount of experience points and the special atmosphere item “Flower Mist.” Do you accept?

Feng Xiaoxiao glanced up and calculated that the experience offered by the Demon King was just enough for her to reach level 35. She happily clicked “Accept.”

[System Notification] You have accepted the commission “Flower Delivery.” Failure carries no penalties, Please deliver the flowers to the Demon King’s beloved before they wither!

Feng Xiaoxiao took the bouquet of peach-pink, apricot-red, and bright canola-yellow flowers from the Demon King. Petals from the canola blossoms were still fluttering down softly.

Curious, she asked the human-headed, snake-bodied Demon King, “Who is your beloved?”

At the mention of this topic, the face hidden among the overhead blossoms flushed crimson. She gave Feng Xiaoxiao a shy smile, clearly a little embarrassed.

“Snowstorm Valley, Night Wanderer.”

Before Feng Xiaoxiao could ask more, the Demon King covered her mouth and shook her head. “I can only hint this much. I can’t say anything more.”

She pointed toward the sky, her expression inscrutable.

Feng Xiaoxiao understood, the Demon King was referring to the main system that kept the entire world running smoothly.

In “Tianxia,” many high-level or highly intelligent bosses and NPCs were, to some extent, aware of their place in the grand scheme of things.

However, from the players’ perspective, this was all part of the system’s design. To the NPCs, they simply encountered strange groups of people known as “players.”

These players couldn’t be killed permanently, they would revive immediately after death. Their purpose in “Tianxia” was to accept all sorts of bizarre tasks from the NPCs, gaining rewards and experience.

Then, they used these to “level up” and become even harder to kill and quicker to revive.

The Demon King could actively issue commissions to players within the system’s allowed limits, but she couldn’t directly tell them how to complete the tasks or hand over the rewards herself.

Now, she had done her best to hint to Feng Xiaoxiao, hoping to give these two troublemakers something to do and get them out of her territory as soon as possible.

“Master,” Feng Xiaoxiao waved to Di Xiang, who was not far away. The latter obediently sheathed her sword and strode through the flower sea toward her.

When Di Xiang was close enough, Feng Xiaoxiao showed her the task details.

“Let’s go do this task. That way, you won’t have to keep grinding monsters so hard.”

Feng Xiaoxiao spoke in a flat, monotonous tone, glancing briefly at Di Xiang, who nodded reservedly and summoned her Shuang Yuehu Fox mount.

“Let’s go.”

Feng Xiaoxiao nimbly leaped onto the fox’s back and roughly rubbed its fluffy ears a couple of times, provoking a few protesting cries. The fox, however, dared not show its displeasure with its master present.

Still, it was the same combination, Di Xiang riding her sword and Feng Xiaoxiao on the fox. Watching the two depart, the Flower Sea Demon King finally breathed a sigh of relief.

In high spirits, she twisted her tail and returned to her underground abode, a light hum escaping her lips as she smiled.

Did they really think her task would be so easy?

The Demon King thought viciously, If I can’t handle these two, someone else certainly will!

Drifting clouds passed by, and scattered snowflakes filled the sky.

The further they went, the colder the air around them became. Snowflakes as large as fists flew past the two, only to be swatted into fluttering wisps by Feng Xiaoxiao.

She blew the snow fragments off her hand and looked down. They were almost at the ground.

As the half-sky mist cleared, Feng Xiaoxiao landed on the snow, leaving several footprints behind. Behind her, Shuang Yuehu shook off the snowflakes clinging to its fur, deliberately rubbing them all over her.

Just as she was about to grab a snowball in annoyance to retaliate, a sudden warmth enveloped Feng Xiaoxiao’s shoulders, a heavy fox-fur cloak had been draped over her.

She turned around to see Di Xiang leisurely unfolding an oil-paper umbrella. Her slender, pale hand gripped the yellowed handle, the delicate wrist contrasting elegantly with the red tassel dangling from it.

Paired with Di Xiang’s ethereal, aloof face, she stood tall and graceful in the snow, a breathtaking sight.

Feng Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but sigh in admiration, her eyes brimming with awe and appreciation.

Truth be told, she had a soft spot for Di Xiang’s type of beauty, though in the game, nine out of ten beauties were “photo-fakes.”

Someone as stunning as Di Xiang made Feng Xiaoxiao reasonably suspect that she had maxed out her in-game appearance settings and further enhanced it with the celestial aura filter inherent to the Celestial Feather class.

That was how she achieved her current look, like a painting of an immortal.

Noticing Feng Xiaoxiao’s intense gaze, Di Xiang glanced at her briefly, her expression unreadable, and spoke sparingly.

“Follow me.”

The gentle, caring demeanor Di Xiang had shown that day seemed like a fleeting illusion, as if Feng Xiaoxiao had only imagined it in a hazy midnight dream.

Shaking her head to dismiss the unrealistic fantasy, she quietly tightened the fox-fur cloak to shield herself from the cold wind and walked alongside Di Xiang through the vast expanse of white snow.

After about half an hour, their path was blocked by a fissure that looked strikingly similar to a meteor crater Feng Xiaoxiao had seen in real life.

Di Xiang halted and said calmly, “Snowstorm Valley is down below.”

Feng Xiaoxiao peered over the edge but couldn’t see the bottom. Everything above and below was a blanket of white, with no trace of human activity in sight.

Puzzled, Feng Xiaoxiao asked, “Then how do we get down?”

Among the hundreds of maps in the game, Feng Xiaoxiao had never explored most of them, so she had no idea how to enter Snowstorm Valley, a place she’d never visited before.

Jumping straight down would mean certain death, no matter how high her health bar was. But if it relied on the player’s innate lightness skill…

Feng Xiaoxiao stroked her chin, contemplating the feasibility of that idea.

It was Di Xiang who shattered her fantasy of gracefully descending with lightness skill. “There’s a staircase here to go down.”

Under Feng Xiaoxiao’s skeptical gaze, Di Xiang took a few steps forward to the edge of the snowfield, where one more step would send her plummeting into the valley.

Unexpectedly, as she took another step, her foot landed steadily on a transparent stair. The step rippled like raindrops hitting a pond, instantly stirring a series of undulations.

In the ripples, the stairs below began to materialize. However, with the fierce wind and heavy snow obscuring vision, and the stairs being as colorless as water, a single misstep could lead to a fatal fall.

But this was a game, even if she fell to her death, it wouldn’t matter. A single click would resurrect her.

The real annoyance lay in having to start all over again from the valley entrance.

Di Xiang, having considered this as well, took out a red string from her backpack and walked toward Feng Xiaoxiao.

Feng Xiaoxiao: ???
“You, what are you trying to do?!”

Startled, she jumped back two steps, her usually half-lidded eyes widening in an instant. “I’ll have you know I’m a decent person! Even if you’re as beautiful as a flower, I-”

A light tap landed on her head. “What are you thinking?” Di Xiang said, slightly exasperated.

She tied one end of the red string around her own wrist and the other around Feng Xiaoxiao’s little finger, explaining, “This is the Red Thread Immortal tool, used to track and locate each other.”

“We can’t open the map or check the party in Blizzard Valley. If we fall and respawn down there, we’ll need this to regroup.”

Feng Xiaoxiao let out a soft “oh,” realizing she had misunderstood Di Xiang, and felt a little embarrassed.

“I thought you…”

“Thought I what?”

Staring at that pure, ethereal face, Feng Xiaoxiao felt that any thought crossing her mind at that moment would be a desecration of Di Xiang.

She averted her gaze, not daring to look at the other’s expression, and muttered guiltily, “It’s nothing…”

Fortunately, Di Xiang didn’t press further. She closed her umbrella and took the lead, walking ahead. Without the umbrella to shield her, snowflakes instantly settled on her hair and lashes, falling one by one as she descended step by step.

Di Xiang’s eyes held another snowstorm within them. Feng Xiaoxiao followed closely behind, the red thread securely tied to their fingertips.

Amid the vast expanse of white, the crimson thread stood out even more vividly.

Though the two grew more cautious with each step downward, the blizzard blurred their vision. Unlike Di Xiang, Feng Xiaoxiao lacked the agility and visual enhancements, and in an instant, her footing gave way, sending her plummeting through the air.

There was no cold moon tonight.

Her vision faded like a distant butterfly. Feng Xiaoxiao’s dress billowed, her long hair scattering. For a moment, or perhaps an eternity, she gazed into Di Xiang’s eyes as the woman turned to look at her.

Aloof and detached, just as she had mercilessly struck her down from the Star-Gazing Platform in the past.

Only this time, without a second thought, Di Xiang leaped after her without hesitation, reaching for Feng Xiaoxiao’s falling sleeve.

Her hand grasped at empty air. The two fell one after the other from the mid-air staircase. Though the red thread was right before their eyes, they could neither grasp nor hold onto it.

Then a fierce gust of wind tore them apart. Di Xiang barely had time to call out to Feng Xiaoxiao, her voice swallowed by the snowstorm, scattering into the vast expanse.

“Wait for me… Xiaoxiao…”

“Wait for me!”

The red thread stretched taut. Feng Xiaoxiao drifted aimlessly with the wind, momentarily forgetting even to activate the system’s novice protection, which would have saved her from respawning after death here.

All she could do was replay Di Xiang’s words in her mind, as though she had heard them countless times before.

Xiaoxiao, wait for me.

This person… sometimes gave her an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

Feng Xiaoxiao closed her eyes, allowing the wind and snow to carry her to some unknown destination.

But that familiarity, before it could even take root, was frozen solid in the icy chill of the blizzard.

She had no idea how long she had been falling weightlessly. When Feng Xiaoxiao opened her eyes again, she found herself safely cradled in a frosty lotus flower in a pond. The impact of her fall sent splashes of water everywhere, eliciting gasps of surprise from a group not far away.

“Master, master, you’re awake!”

Bingbing Lan, who had been absent for some time, circled excitedly around Feng Xiaoxiao. “I detected you were in mortal danger, so I automatically activated the novice protection for you!”

Feng Xiaoxiao let it perch on her fingertip. “Well done.”

At least she was spared the hassle of respawning.

Only then did she have a chance to take in her surroundings.

Beneath her was an ice-blue lotus of unknown material, incredibly sturdy, it had withstood the force of her fall from a great height without shattering.

A single touch sent a biting chill through her, making her shiver and withdraw her hand.

She lifted her gaze forward and saw a group of NPCs with expressions mingling awe and fear, kneeling and bowing in her direction.

Feng Xiaoxiao shifted slightly to the left, trying to avoid their reverent gestures, but the NPCs quickly adjusted their positions and bowed to her again, with utmost solemnity.

Feng Xiaoxiao tried shifting slightly to the right again. Those people kowtowed with several loud thuds, their panic replaced by overwhelming joy as they shouted toward her, “The Mountain God has manifested! The Mountain God has manifested!”

The cry surged like a tidal wave, echoing through the entire area as voices passed the words from one to another.

Feng Xiaoxiao watched as more and more people gathered before her, each with tears in their eyes. The moment they saw her, they dropped to their knees, half-crying and half-shouting, their behavior frenzied.

A woman dressed most respectably, seemingly the leader of the group, crawled forward on her knees and gently grasped the loose silk ribbon near Feng Xiaoxiao’s hand. Her eyes brimmed with tears, and her voice trembled with emotion.

“Three hundred years, the Mountain God has finally appeared again!”