Feeling perplexed at the High Elder's words, Lin Mu felt confused before he left the Victor's pavilion.
He made his way back to the Spring Valley Restaurant when he encountered a certain person.
Her pale skin and pink lips were striking while her white robes only accentuated her appearance. An icicle like ornament held her hair in place, while two inch tall heels clacked across the flagstones.
The woman came to a stop in front of Lin Mu and stared at him with her deep brown eyes.
Lin Mu was surprised by this, as it was quite clear the woman had sought him out.
"Daoist Mei Nienzhen… Do you need something?" Lin Mu asked.
"Here," Mei Nienzhen extended her hand, seemingly holding something in her closed fist.
It prompted Lin Mu to extend his hand too on which the white robed woman dropped a few cold items.
"Huh? Frozen Berries?" Lin Mu looked at the four items in his hand.
They looked like white berries that had been encased in ice.
"Rimed Pearl Berries." Mei Nienzhen spoke.
"For me?" Lin Mu still didn't understand the woman.
"Eat it." She stated.
"Uh… now?" Lin Mu started to feel strange.
"Yes, now." Mei Nienzhen insisted.
Lin Mu felt a mix of suspicion and amusement, but the expressionless face of Mei Nienzhen only made him switch to confusion. He secretly scanned the berries with his immortal sense, finding them to be fine.
'I can't feel any energy from them, because of the ice encasing them though.' Lin Mu noticed.
"Eat." Mei Nienzhen spoke again, seeing that Lin Mu hadn't moved.
Feeling compelled, Lin Mu put a berry in his mouth feeling the chill spread from it.
It was the same as eating an ice cube. But if it were a mortal eating this, their skull would probably be frozen solid from the chill. Lin Mu was sure that the berries were an immortal fruit.
The ice encasing the berries melted away in his mouth in a few seconds, and the white berries within them were finally released.
Surprisingly though, the berries themselves had retained their soft and bouncy texture. The ice that was encasing them hadn't actually frozen them solidly into a hard piece.
Biting into it, Lin Mu could feel the sweet flavor that was similar to that of ripe apple juice mixed with a bit of lemon.
~gulp~
He ate the rest as well and swallowed them down, feeling the immortal Qi spreading from his stomach. There was also Ice Elemental Immortal Qi mixed in with normal Immortal Qi, but it didn't harm him in any way.
Done with eating the berries, Lin Mu looks at the white robed woman, who was still staring at him.
"So… what did you—" before Lin Mu could say anything though, the woman suddenly spoke.
"Now you feed me."
…
At the Spring Vally Restaurant, Lin Mu's companions were rather surprised to see another person accompanying him.
"Brother Mu Lin, this…" Luo Liqin was surprised at the unexpected visitor.
"Daoist Mei Nienzhen…" Ming Aolian recognized the woman.
"Why… is she with you here?" Ming Dandan asked.
Lu Xu on the other hand, just had a smirk on his face.
"Uh, I met her on the way here." Lin Mu replied. "And she came here with me." He didn't know exactly how to explain the situation.
After the interaction with High Elder Juxue, Lin Mu had an even stranger interaction with one of his former opponents leaving him, hard to understand it all.
He hadn't exactly seen or interacted with her since fighting her and wondered how had she even found him.
'Did she follow me from the Tournament grounds?' Lin Mu wondered as that seemed to be the most likely option.
He was suspicious of her at first, but her expressionless face combined with her non-threatening aura made it hard to think that for long.
Mei Nienzhen kept her expression the same and looked at the others in the room.
"Greetings." She said before quickly taking a seat at the table.
Next, she started eating the snacks that were kept on the table.
With how long Lin Mu and his companions stayed in the Spring Valley Restaurant, the waiters knew well enough to keep snacks and drinks ready for them. As soon as the food ran out in the room, a servant would appear with more.
On some level, it was also helping them restore their energy stores as well as improve them.
To Lin Mu, it might not affect much but to others who had lower stores of Immortal Qi, it was a great help.
And Mei Nienzhen seemed to be taking full advantage of that.
Her hands moved nonstop as she stuffed food into her mouth. Though she was also eating it fast enough that she didn't need to slow down the pace.
Qian Wen who saw it, couldn't help but compare it to Lin Mu's own way of 'eating'.
'Though I guess this is better than that.' Qian Wen thought.
The woman ended up finishing all the things on the table before standing up.
"Thank you." Mei Nienzhen said and gave a little bow before leaving.
Lin Mu and the rest could only watch in an awkward state of shock, as the woman hurriedly walked away.
"What… just happened?" Luo Liqin felt confused.
Even Lu Xu who had a smirk on his face, felt baffled at this.
Ming Aolian looked at the vanishing figure of the white robed woman and then back at the empty table.
"Did she… Dine and dash?" Ming Aolian muttered.
"She did…" Ming Dandan muttered.
'But we aren't paying for this either,' Qian Wen said in his mind.
"Hmm… Strange woman." was all Lin Mu could say at Mei Nienzhen's sudden departure. "She really just wanted to eat."
"Did she ask you that brother Mu Lin." Luo Liqin questioned.
"She gave me some berries to eat, then said I should give her food too." Lin Mu answered directly.
"What berries did she give you?" Lu Xu asked in doubt.
"She called them Rimed Pearl Berries." Lin Mu answered.
"AHAHAHA!" in the next moment, Lu Xu burst out in laughter.
