Before long, amid the fragrance of brush and ink in the quiet room, Li Zijun and Yun Che discussed the unusual “Shoujin script” a little more deeply.
She asked in great detail, from the force behind the brush tip to the momentum of the structure, trying to understand the “principles” behind its inner quality, while Yun Che patiently replied using what he knew from his previous life.
The atmosphere had unexpectedly grown rather peaceful, even carrying a touch of scholarly focus, as if they had temporarily forgotten the awkwardness of the possession and the hostility from the start.
Just then, Yun Che suddenly felt an irresistible, faint sensation of being pulled away from the depths of his soul.
『Warning: Less than 3 minutes remain in this binding session. Consciousness extraction is about to begin. Please prepare, host.』
The cold system prompt pulled him back to reality.
Yun Che said, “Miss Li, my time is almost up.”
Li Zijun’s consciousness seemed to ripple, and a hesitant question instinctively came through: “Are you leaving?”
After a pause, she asked again, “Will you come back?”
Yun Che keenly caught a faint, subtle emotion in her tone that was completely different from before, and he suddenly had a mischievous thought, replying in her voice with a smile: “From your tone, young lady, it seems like you’re a little sorry to see me go?”
“You were practically dying for me to ‘get lost’ just now.”
As soon as those words were spoken, it was like a stone had been thrown into a calm lake!
“You…!” Li Zijun’s voice instantly changed, and embarrassment and annoyance flared up like flames.
Yun Che could clearly feel the cheeks of this body blush uncontrollably, the redness spreading all the way to the ears.
It was a physical reaction caused by extreme shame and indignation, completely beyond conscious control.
“Get lost! Who… who cares about you! Leave! Right now! Immediately!” Her voice rang out in the sea of consciousness, frantic and furious, even carrying a hint of gritted-teeth anger, as she tried to cover up the emotion that had just slipped out with harsh words.
What regret? What reluctance? I, Li Zijun, don’t have any of that, hmph, absolutely not!
Seeing that enough was enough, Yun Che knew he could not keep provoking this thin-skinned, tsundere young lady. If he truly angered her, who knew what the consequences would be? He immediately suppressed his smile and adopted a sincere tone:
“Miss Li, thank you for teaching me so patiently.”
That thanks was sincere; although the possession had been full of awkwardness and probing, the gains had indeed been enormous.
On Li Zijun’s side, only silent embarrassment and indignation remained, and she seemed unwilling to talk to him anymore.
In the final moment before his consciousness was pulled away, Yun Che’s “gaze” unconsciously swept over Li Zijun’s peerless face through the mirror once more, and he truly felt reluctant to part.
“Miss Li, goodbye.”
“…Mm.” This time, the only reply was a barely audible monosyllable, with her emotions tightly suppressed.
As soon as the words fell, Li Zijun’s seated body trembled lightly.
The unfamiliar man’s soul dissipated from her body like a receding tide, vanishing without a trace.
It was as if an invisible restraint had been lifted, or as if some long-lasting… “presence” had suddenly been drawn away.
She slowly raised her hands in front of her. Her slender, pale fingertips curled slightly as she once again felt 100% control belonging solely to herself.
The quiet room was silent, and the candle flame swayed gently.
After a long while, Li Zijun finally let out a soft breath and murmured to herself:
“He really left.”
“Xiao Che…”
For some reason, after regaining control of her body, a faint emptiness quietly spread through some corner of Li Zijun’s heart.
Had that annoying, mysterious “Xiao Che,” who could write strange typefaces, really disappeared?
It felt like an absurd yet real dream.
Would he come back?
She lifted her eyes to the deep night outside the window. Her delicate face was half-lit and half-shadowed by candlelight, and her gaze went blank as she remained motionless for a long time.
…
Shenxiao Palace
The back mountain of Great Bamboo Peak.
Yun Che suddenly opened his eyes. The instant his consciousness fully returned to his original body, a strong sense of disparity surged up like a tide.
What flowed through his body was no longer that warm, mellow, ocean-deep righteous qi, but his own meager and somewhat sluggish Qi Refining-stage spiritual power.
What lingered in his nose was the chilly scent of the mountains and wilderness, not the refined fragrance of ink in the quiet room.
It felt dull and uninteresting.
He even subconsciously moved his wrist, missing the overwhelming strength and graceful bearing contained in that body’s every gesture. It was easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go from luxury back to frugality; the difference really was enormous.
The feeling of controlling a Nascent Soul-level body, experiencing the mysteries of the Confucian school, and even speaking with such a beauty had been so wonderful that, upon returning to this loser-like body of his, he felt a bizarre sense of unreality, as if he had lived through another lifetime.
“Sigh…” Yun Che could not help but sigh.
However, that feeling of loss did not last long. Clear lines of information began to appear before his eyes:
『This immortal maiden possession experience has ended. Possession rewards are being settled.』
『Bound target: Li Zijun (background: confidential)』
『Duration of this possession: 2 hours.』
『Inherited possession gains: righteous qi seed (stabilized, already taking shape), basic comprehension of the “Qi-Nurturing Chapter” (proficient), basic theory of “scholarly qi manifestation” (understood), and Shoujin script brush intent at great perfection.』
『Cultivation level increased: Qi Refining → early Foundation Establishment (the bottleneck was broken through by the activation of righteous qi, with significant cross-system gains).』
『Intimacy settlement: 10 starting intimacy awarded, -5 for improper words at the beginning, +20 for the intense curiosity aroused by displaying foreign culture (calligraphy), +20 for teasing words at parting. Final intimacy: 45/100.』
Yun Che asked curiously, “Damn, my last teasing line actually raised intimacy?”
『Friendly reminder: when the bound target’s intimacy toward the host falls below 10, strong resistance may be triggered, increasing the risk of unstable binding; when intimacy is 0, the host will be unable to enter the bound target’s body.』
“That bit of nonsense doesn’t need to be mentioned,” Yun Che said, feeling rather pleased with himself in his good mood. “I’m practically a master of romance…”
“Miss Li is still too curious about me; how could there ever be a time when her favorability drops to 0?”
Immediately after, a warm yet abundant strength surged out from his Tanzhong acupoint (the location of the heart chamber) and quickly spread to his limbs!
That was righteous qi perfectly copied and inherited by the system! Although it was nowhere near as vast as when he had been inside Li Zijun’s body, it ran without conflict alongside the Daoist spiritual energy in his dantian, and the two even seemed to complement each other.
At the same time, the bottleneck of Qi Refining was easily pierced like thin paper under the stimulus of this cross-system advanced energy!
Boom!
The surrounding heaven and earth energy was drawn in and frantically surged into Yun Che’s body.
His aura climbed step by step. Nurtured by righteous qi, his meridians widened and grew tougher, his dantian qi sea expanded, his spiritual power quickly liquefied and settled, and a strength far more stable and weighty than that of the Qi Refining stage filled his entire body.
Foundation Establishment, achieved!
The entire process had been smooth and natural, and he encountered almost no obstacles.
“I reached Foundation Establishment?” Yun Che’s eyes lit up.
Hahahaha!!!
That efficiency was far faster than grinding away at cultivation himself!
“This cultivation feels amazing!” Yun Che could not help but punch the air, feeling the strength in his body surge by more than severalfold and the clarity of mind brought by that warm thread of righteous qi, and he felt indescribably pleased.
The feeling of leveling up while lying down… no, while being “possessed” was just too addictive.
More, more, still more.
Yun Che said excitedly, “Tomorrow I’m going to possess Miss Li, the immortal maiden, again. I love this cultivation method so much!”
However, the system’s response poured a bucket of cold water over him:
『Warning: The first possession has ended. Core rule of the ‘immortal maiden possession system’: after each possession ends, at least 5 days must pass before the same bound target can be possessed again.』
『Next available possession time: … system cooling down』
“5 days?! There’s even a cooldown period?!” The excitement on Yun Che’s face instantly froze, as if he had been struck over the head. “There’s actually such a restriction!”
He irritably scratched his head.
He had just experienced rocket-like leveling speed and was burning with excitement, ready to press the advantage and ideally run Li Zijun big-shot’s “experience dungeon” a few more times, only to be told that it would be “under maintenance” for 5 days!
5 days! For Yun Che, who had just tasted the benefits and could not wait to get stronger, it felt as long as a century.
“Sigh…” he sighed again. It seemed this cheat could not be used indefinitely.
However, annoyed as he was, Yun Che quickly adjusted his mindset.
Then 5 days it was; he might as well use this time to properly digest the enormous gains from this “immortal maiden possession cultivation.”
The Foundation Establishment stage needed to be stabilized, and the newly obtained righteous qi needed to be familiarized with.
Thinking of this, Yun Che perked up again. He sat cross-legged and began actively guiding the two new and old strands of strength within him for his first circulation after Foundation Establishment.
Beneath the starlight, his aura gradually became deep and heavy, and faintly, righteous qi and a pure, upright aura seemed to linger around him, forming a subtle distinction from the pure natural spiritual energy around him.
It was only 5 days; he could wait.