Shen Weilan stopped two paces away from him, lowering her voice until it was as light as a feather teasing the very core of his heart.
“Little Junior Brother, with your qi and blood so vigorous, how boring it must be to engage in arduous cultivation in the rear mountains every day.”
She tilted her head. A damp strand of hair fell against the cold, pale side of her neck, while her gorgeous eyes were filled with undisguised interest.
“Your Senior Sister is simply greedy for that pure Yang qi of yours. If other people have it, then you should have it too.”
“You wicked woman—!”
The young man’s pitiful pride and self-respect were crushed to pieces at that moment.
His gaze was nailed to the ambiguous bite mark on Shen Weilan’s collarbone, and his eyes instantly reddened.
Because she had infuriated him.
He wanted to spit out a few harsh words, but it felt as though a wad of cotton had lodged in his throat, and he could not force out a single one.
In the end, he was like a cat whose tail had been singed. He spun around and fled without looking back.
Ji Mingyu sprinted all the way to his own courtyard.
His mind was filled with Shen Weilan’s vivid, alluring appearance just now, along with that airy remark: “Your Senior Sister is simply greedy for you.”
The faster he ran, the heavier his heartbeat became. His blood surged through every inch of his body as though it were about to boil. The love gu that had been forcibly fed into his stomach was giving off a sweet, cloying milky fragrance. That scent seemed to have grown hands, groping wildly all over his body.
He, Ji Mingyu, would absolutely never do such a filthy thing! Absolutely never!
Yet the unfamiliar heat and longing within his body clung to him like a maggot in his bones, impossible to shake off.
Ji Mingyu poured a ladle of cold water over his head, trying to suppress that evil fire.
“Senior Brother Ji? Are you inside?”
Lu Yao stood where the wind blew strongest, tightly twisting a square of snowy-white silk. Today, she had deliberately changed into a plain gauze dress; when the wind blew, it made her appear even more delicate and pitiful.
Her voice was timid, her tone brimming with concern.
Hearing that familiar voice, he jerked in surprise and shot to his feet, clumsily tugging at the lapels of his robe, which had been soaked through and clung tightly to his body.
In the past, hearing that voice had been what he looked forward to most.
But now, his first reaction was actually agitation, along with a measure of helpless embarrassment and guilt.
He had always felt his protective instincts explode the moment he saw her like this.
But at that moment, Shen Weilan’s amused voice leaped uncontrollably into his mind—
“Little Junior Brother, your qi and blood are so vigorous. Instead of going to find your Yao’er, you actually have time to come here and demand justice from your Senior Sister?”
“I went.” Ji Mingyu answered vaguely, while his body remained firmly planted in the doorway, showing no intention of letting her in.
Lu Yao’s heart sank. She stepped closer, her tone growing even more aggrieved. “Then what did Senior Sister say? Did she bully you again today somehow? Yao’er saw that your clothes are completely soaked, and your complexion doesn’t look right either…”
“No.” Ji Mingyu interrupted her almost without thinking.
Lu Yao’s words caught in her throat, and the expression on her face stiffened for an instant.
Ji Mingyu seemed startled by his own reaction. He hurriedly turned his head away and stiffly tried to explain, “She didn’t bully me. Outside her cave abode… I accidentally triggered the formation and was struck by its backlash. I poured some water over myself to calm my mind.”
“But Senior Brother said this morning that you were going to seek justice for me…” Lu Yao was unwilling to let it go and continued questioning him. “If she didn’t do anything, then how could you have been struck by the formation for no reason?”
“I was the one who insisted on forcing my way in! It had nothing to do with her!” Ji Mingyu’s voice grew increasingly muffled. His mind was filled with the humiliating scene of drawing his sword against that wicked woman, only to be forced into a corner by her, unable even to keep hold of his sword.
“Junior Sister,” he said with difficulty. “Let this matter end here today. In the future… try not to provoke her either.”
The handkerchief in Lu Yao’s grasp was almost torn through by her fingernails.
Try not to provoke her?
In the past, Ji Mingyu had called her a “wicked woman” at every turn and a “poisonous woman” at the next. What had happened to him today? Had he gone to Cold Spring and come back with his soul bewitched?
“Senior Brother…” Lu Yao still wanted to say something, tears swirling in her eyes. “Do you have some hidden difficulty? Tell me. Yao’er can help you.”
“I said it’s nothing!”
Ji Mingyu suddenly raised his voice. It carried an agitation and panic of which even he himself was unaware.
Lu Yao was utterly stunned. She had never seen Ji Mingyu speak to her in such a tone.
Ji Mingyu also realized that he had lost control. He gripped the doorframe beside him and left behind a stiff sentence: “Tomorrow, Master is going to lecture at the Scripture Lecture Hall. I… I still need to regulate my breathing and prepare. Junior Sister, please return for now.”
“Bang!”
The courtyard door slammed shut in front of him.
The sound of the bolt dropping was crisp and decisive.
Lu Yao stared at the tightly closed wooden door. The weakness and grievance on her face faded completely, leaving behind only a cold, sinister chill.
First Yan Qingxiao had shut his door and refused to see her. Now even Ji Mingyu had begun covering for Shen Weilan.
These two men, whom she had firmly held in the palm of her hand, had both become strange after coming into contact with Shen Weilan.
Shen Weilan, what exactly have you done behind my back?
At the same time, inside Shen Weilan’s cave abode.
【Ding-dong—】
【Detected one of the destined male protagonists: Ji Mingyu (Pure Yang Sword Body) has undergone an intense emotional fluctuation!】
【Credited: 20 points!】
Shen Weilan changed into a clean blue inner robe and sat cross-legged on the stone bed, casually drying her half-dried long hair with a cloth. Looking at the tiny “20” in the upper-right corner of her sea of consciousness, she pursed her lips in dissatisfaction.
“A love gu made from a single chocolate bean scared the dignified Pure Yang Sword Body into that state, and it only earned twenty points?”
She swiped at the deep-blue-colored screen before her, feeling that the return on this investment was rather low.
“How many chocolate beans would I have to sell before I could make a fortune?”
The system’s electronic voice immediately reverberated through her sea of consciousness, its undisguised sycophancy unmistakable.
【Great Host! You need to broaden your horizons! The number of points depends on the intensity of the male protagonist’s emotional fluctuations and his own cultivation level!】
【Just now, you only frightened him a little with your bewitching constitution and your words. His mind is currently filled with terror, shame, and rage; he hasn’t reached the agonizing stage of love and hatred intertwined, yearning for something unattainable!】
【Once you trick this proud male protagonist into bed and truly get down to business, making him cry and beg you to do it again, those points will absolutely start in the four digits! You’ll become rich on the spot!】
The system’s suggestive words amused Shen Weilan, and she stopped drying her hair.
This approach was wild enough. She liked it.
“All right, stop painting me a pretty picture.” She tossed the cloth aside. “Help me filter through the cultivation techniques. I want something in the dual-cultivation category, the highest-grade available.”
The image on the screen flashed, and an ancient scroll radiating a dark golden glow leaped into view.
【Supreme Yin-Yang Bliss Ode (Incomplete Scroll): 999 points.】
【The supreme secret manual left behind by the founding ancestor of the Acacia Sect before ascension. No painstaking cultivation required, and no bottlenecks. As long as the dual-cultivation partner’s constitution is strong enough and their cultivation is high enough, absorbing their cultivation through a single night of dual cultivation is more powerful than ten years of secluded cultivation for anyone else! One hundred percent conversion, with absolutely no danger of cultivation deviation. The more you absorb, the stronger you become!】
【The host currently has 15 points (5 points deducted for credit). Please hunt down more top-grade male protagonists and work hard to earn points!】
Shen Weilan stared at those tantalizing lines of introduction.
No bottlenecks, and she could become stronger by sleeping with men?
This was practically the blissful path of a romantic master tailor-made for her.
“Too expensive.” She leaned back, her posture languid. “You’re setting a KPI of over nine hundred points right after opening for business. This system of yours wasn’t some defective product salvaged from a dump, was it?”
System: 【…】
“You and I are one. If that counterfeit Lu Yao drains my destiny and kills me, won’t you have to be sent back to the furnace for reconstruction too?” Shen Weilan slowly tapped her knee. “With the risk this high, you won’t even give me a trial version. How am I supposed to trust the strength of your product?”
“What if I go to sleep with that iceberg Yan Qingxiao again after all that effort, only to find that the cultivation converted isn’t even enough to fill the gaps between my teeth? What would I be doing it for? Providing charitable companionship?”
A series of ear-piercing alarms immediately rang out in her sea of consciousness.
The system panicked.
【No, no, no! My lady! I’ll apply for it for you! I don’t have sufficient authority, but I’ll risk my life to get you a trial privilege for the basic version! Limited to the first layer of the cultivation formula!】
“Deal.”
Only then did Shen Weilan contentedly brush the panel aside.
A meal had to be eaten one bite at a time, and fish had to be hooked one at a time. That fake medicine just now, combined with the first trial of her naturally bewitching constitution, would be enough to let that brainless little puppy work himself up for a while.