Fu Tingyun naturally would not save her.
It wasn't because her words or actions had offended him.
He had never understood what shame was since childhood, so naturally, he wouldn't feel offended either.
But that didn't mean she didn't deserve to die.
When a person does something deserving of death, they die.
Strangely, a faint trace of barely perceptible pleasure seeped from the depths of his heart.
This was an unfamiliar feeling. He didn't particularly enjoy killing.
To him, killing humans, demons, or devils was no different from any other matter in the world—all done out of necessity, not out of preference.
But at this moment, watching her flail her thin, weak limbs, desperately trying to keep her head above the water, yet gradually losing strength and sinking lower and lower, he felt a faint but distinct pleasure.
He pondered for a moment—perhaps it was a side effect of the Soul Transfer going wrong.
Through her tear-blurred eyes, Su Xiaoyuan looked at the Puppet Human standing motionless on the shore and felt a sense of being looked down upon.
That must be an illusion. Puppet Humans had no intelligence or emotions—they were basically like AI. How could they have such a function?
The Puppet Human was clearly not someone she could rely on. Fortunately, her best friend was right next door.
She struggled to call out toward the partition: "Kai Shan—"
But she only managed to utter one word before, as luck would have it, a loud "splash splash" of water sounded from the other side, instantly drowning out her weak cry for help.
Su Xiaoyuan swallowed a few more mouthfuls of water with a "gurgle" as her body sank straight down.
White light was already flashing before her eyes. Was this a sign of mission failure? Was she going to drown in a hot spring? Even for the Hehuan Sect, this was too absurd—how mortifying! At least she hadn't taken off all her clothes…
What was she even thinking "at least" about…
Su Xiaoyuan wanted to cry but had no tears.
She knew that Dual Cultivation Harvesting from Immortal Venerable Lingyue was a long and arduous task, but she never imagined she'd drown in a hot spring before even catching a glimpse of him.
Thinking of Immortal Venerable Lingyue, something suddenly flashed through her mind.
Immortal Venerable Lingyue, Fu Tingyun, Puppet Human, names…
In a flash of inspiration, she remembered the Puppet Human's instruction manual—she had skimmed through it hastily on the way back. What did it say? Right, when giving commands, it seemed you had to include the name!
Was it because she hadn't included the name when giving the command earlier that the Puppet Human hadn't responded?
Her toes had already touched the bottom of the pool. She pushed off with all her might, barely managing to get her head above the water.
Seizing this precious moment, Su Xiaoyuan called out to the blurry figure on the shore: "Fu Tingyun… save, save me!"
The last word sank beneath the water along with her head.
She didn't know if the Puppet Human had heard her, she thought in despair.
Fu Tingyun heard every word clearly. Not only was he the strongest combatant in the Three Realms, but he also possessed the sharpest hearing in the Three Realms.
He doubted what he had heard.
Ever since his master, Daoist Master Xuji, had fallen, he was the only one in the Three Realms who knew his mortal name.
Anyone else might have suspected this was some kind of conspiracy.
But Fu Tingyun didn't need to. In the face of absolute disparity in power, any scheme or trick was futile.
Besides, who would send a mortal girl with negligible Spiritual Power to scheme against him?
So there were only two possibilities: one, this strange girl had learned his mortal name through some method even he couldn't fathom; two, it was pure coincidence.
Either way, Fu Tingyun didn't need to pay it any mind.
She was going to die regardless—from the outcome's perspective, there was no difference.
But here was the problem: a cultivator's first name contained a mysterious and unfathomable power.
The addition of the name to the Blood Contract produced a consequence that even he had not anticipated.
Now, within his Spirit Manor, a line of dazzling, multicolored text cycled and rolled: Fu Tingyun, save me! Fu Tingyun, save me! Fu Tingyun, save me!…
Accompanied by a voice repeating endlessly by his ear: "Fu Tingyun, save me!"
Fu Tingyun: …
He did not know whether, once she died, the text and voice would disappear, or persist for three months until he freed himself.
Fu Tingyun could take the gamble, but he considered it for half a breath—the consequences of losing were not something he could bear.
Without hesitation, he walked to the edge of the pool and descended the steps into the water.
He had not yet adapted to this body and walked very slowly. By the time he lifted the young woman out of the water with one hand, she had already lost consciousness.
The text in his Spirit Manor was still flashing and scrolling.
Fu Tingyun frowned slightly. It seemed that merely rescuing her was not enough—he had to bring her back to life as well.
He sat by the pool and laid her across his knees. The young woman was unconscious, lying limply on her back across his lap.
Fu Tingyun released a thread of Spiritual Breath into her body to probe. She had inhaled a considerable amount of water into her lungs and airways.
He could not yet use too much Spiritual Power, so he could only manually expel the water first.
He untied the sash of her soaked gauze garment. Through the remaining underlayer alone, he extended two fingers and hovered them above the young woman's Tanzhong acupoint, then moved them slowly upward, left first then right, drawing the water out of her lungs.
The young woman spat out a few mouthfuls of water, but still did not wake.
She lay on her back across his lap, her head lolling, her pale, slender neck fully exposed before him.
Fu Tingyun lowered his gaze to that slender neck. It seemed like a pale, faded flower stem trembling in the wind, inexplicably making one want to snap it.
He was momentarily stunned. A real flower had never made him entertain the thought of breaking it.
He had also never killed anyone with his bare hands. After he cultivated to the realm of Unity of Man and Sword at fourteen, even his sword rarely left its sheath.
Killing with such cruel methods was something only lowly Demonic Cultivators who could not control their desires would do—and Fu Tingyun was born without the seven emotions and six desires.
But now, looking at the young woman's neck, for the first time in his life, he was curious what that feeling would be like.
Of course, he would not be controlled by this unfamiliar desire.
His fingers hovered at the center of her collarbone, then slowly pushed upward, drawing the remaining water out of her airway.
The young woman coughed, choking out a few more mouthfuls of water.
The text and voice tormenting him finally disappeared.
Fu Tingyun was about to withdraw his hand when his fingertip brushed across her throat. His fingers paused, then finally came to rest on her neck.
The texture was incredibly soft and smooth, and a faint trembling came through his fingertip.
He opened his palm and slowly pressed it against her. Beneath the warm skin, blood vessels pulsed gently against his palm, like the heart of a fledgling.
He gradually tightened his fingers. The sensation grew more vivid, and his throat tightened in response.
It was then that the young woman opened her eyes, looking at him blankly, her lips opening and closing like a fish out of water.
She made no sound, but in Fu Tingyun's Spirit Manor, a command had already begun to scroll and play: "Fu Tingyun, let go! Fu Tingyun, let go! Fu Tingyun…"
Fu Tingyun released his fingers.
He had not intended to kill her and had used no real force at all, yet obvious red marks had already been left on the young woman's porcelain-white skin.
His Adam's apple bobbed.
…
Su Xiaoyuan's consciousness gradually returned. The suffocating feeling had just eased somewhat when suddenly she could not breathe again, as though someone were gripping her by the throat.
She opened her eyes to a blurry world. It took her a great effort to focus her vision, and then she was struck by how handsome he was.
On that peerlessly handsome face were a pair of beautiful eyes that looked as if everyone owed him eight million Spirit Stones.
Su Xiaoyuan was dazed for a few seconds before she remembered this was her Puppet Human.
Then she realized with horror that the Puppet Human seemed to be strangling her neck.
But they had formed a Blood Contract. The manual had said that a contracted Puppet Human was absolutely safe and would never harm its master.
As a clear-headed university freshman, Su Xiaoyuan trusted everything written down in black and white.
Right! She suddenly understood—the Puppet Human must be trying to perform first aid on her, but not understanding human anatomy, it thought squeezing her neck would expel the water.
After all, he was drawn with twenty Spirit Stones—what level of intelligence could she expect from him?
She quickly issued a command: "Fu Tingyun, let go!"
The Puppet Human reacted a bit slowly, but eventually obediently released his hand.
Su Xiaoyuan's head was heavy and muddled, her limbs as weak as noodles. The memory of nearly drowning still left her with lingering fear.
After a moment, she noticed that the sash of her gauze garment had come loose and her collar had fallen open—most likely from struggling in the water.
Her cheeks burned crimson. She hurriedly fumbled to close her collar, but the soaked thin fabric only made things more obvious.
She had no choice but to shield herself with her arms.
Thankfully, the one before her was a Puppet Human, who was indifferent to such things. If it had been a real person, she would have wanted to die on the spot.
"Was it you who saved me just now?" she asked.
The Puppet Human looked at her expressionlessly, giving no response at all.
Su Xiaoyuan tried a different approach: "Fu Tingyun, was it you who saved me just now? Please answer."
"Yes." The Puppet Human replied in a mechanical, flat voice.
"Eh!" Su Xiaoyuan's eyes widened in surprise. "So you can talk!" She had thought he was the mute model! And his voice was so pleasant.
Her ear inexplicably tickled. She raised a hand to rub it.
"By the way, thank you for just now, Fu Tingyun." Su Xiaoyuan said politely.
She was a polite university student who even added "hello, thank you, goodbye" when talking to AI.
The Puppet Human glanced at her, then shifted his gaze away: "No need."
Su Xiaoyuan couldn't help but feel as if she had just been looked down upon by this twenty-Spirit-Stone Puppet Human.
But she must be overthinking it. This model of Puppet Human was clearly not very intelligent—every sentence required a name command before it would answer, and it could only handle the simplest human-machine dialogue, far inferior to the AI she had used before.
Ruan Mianmian's model seemed slightly more advanced—at least it could say "At your command, Master," providing some emotional value.
But imagining "Fu Tingyun" calling her Master with a cold face made Su Xiaoyuan's scalp tingle. She shuddered.
Never mind, how terrifying!
She rested for a while until her dizziness subsided somewhat. Just as she was about to ask the Puppet Human to help her stand up, she suddenly heard Ruan Mianmian's scream from next door: "Ahhhhh—"
Su Xiaoyuan grabbed the Puppet Human's collar and sat up abruptly like someone rising from the dead: "Kaishan, what happened?"
Ruan Mianmian's scream turned into an angry roar: "That swindler! I got ripped off by that swindler!"
"What's wrong?"
"Little Head! Song Jinshu's Little Head melted!"
Su Xiaoyuan: "Huh? How could that be? How could it melt—can that kind of thing even melt?"
She looked helplessly at her own Puppet Human, her gaze drifting downward: "Fu Tingyun, does your… um… organ… melt?"
The Puppet Human straightened the clothes that had been crumpled by her grip, its eyes looking as if it wanted to kill: "No."
"It's fake!" Ruan Mianmian cried out. "That swindler installed a fake one—it dissolves after being soaked in water for too long, wu wu wu wu…"
"Baby, don't cry yet, I'm coming over right now!"
By the time Su Xiaoyuan arrived at the neighboring bathhouse, Ruan Mianmian had already put her clothes back on and dried her tears. She sat squarely on the stone bench by the water's edge, her sleeves rolled up to her shoulders, her two wildly tattooed arms braced on her knees, her face a mask of murderous fury.
Song Jinshu's Puppet Human was squatting in the farthest corner, hugging its head, not daring to make a sound.
Something conspicuous was floating in the bath pool, bubbling with a sizzling sound as it grew smaller and smaller.
Su Xiaoyuan: !!
It really was dissolving.
She was at a loss: "Then what do we do? Can it still be repaired?"
No one knew Ruan Mianmian's financial situation better than she did. When Ruan Mianmian had run away from home, she hadn't dared bring much money for fear of alerting her family. Shortly after entering the sect, she had accidentally collapsed a room and, after paying compensation, had almost nothing left. Those twenty Spirit Stones were her entire savings.
If it couldn't be repaired, where would she get the money to buy a new Puppet Human?
Ruan Mianmian's face was dark: "No way. That swindler dared to pull one over on me—I can't just let it go. I'm going to settle accounts with that swindler!"
In principle, you could get anything from a blind box, but Su Xiaoyuan had always stood by her best friend without principle. Though a little scared, she still said, "There's no class tomorrow morning. Let's apply for an exit permit and go talk to the shopkeeper, see if we can exchange it for another one."
Ruan Mianmian nodded, then suddenly fixed her eyes on Su Xiaoyuan's neck: "Huh, what happened to your neck?"
Su Xiaoyuan guiltily covered her neck: "Nothing…"
Ruan Mianmian pulled her hand away and frowned: "You call that nothing? It's red and swollen—who choked you?"
Su Xiaoyuan had no choice but to admit: "It was the Puppet Human… but it wasn't on purpose. I choked on water, and it was trying to save me…"
Fu Tingyun: …
"Wait," Ruan Mianmian said alertly, "how did you end up choking on water for no reason?"
Seeing she couldn't hide it, Su Xiaoyuan briefly explained what had happened.
"What a swindler!" Ruan Mianmian glared viciously at Fu Tingyun's Puppet Human.
Su Xiaoyuan hurriedly blocked its front, pulled her best friend back, and anxiously tried to make excuses for it: "It really wasn't its fault. It wasn't even its idea to wear those pants—it's all because its previous owner was inhuman… This Puppet Human is really quite good…" Just a bit brain-dead.
Ruan Mianmian was a Golden Core Stage Body Cultivator. One punch from her and this Puppet Human would definitely be scrapped.
Su Xiaoyuan couldn't bear to let that happen.
Sure, the quality was bad, but the face was good! Sure, it wasn't very smart, but the face was good! A good face makes everything forgivable!
Ruan Mianmian slammed her fist into a pillar: "Tomorrow I'm going to tear down that shady shop!"
"Don't worry, Xiaoyuanzi," she patted her best friend's hand and promised solemnly, "Tomorrow your big sister will definitely snatch you a new custom-made inner sect Puppet Human—the kind that costs twelve hundred Spirit Stones!"