A strange tingling sensation spread from his fingertip. Fu Tingyun felt as though a tiny Lightning Tribulation had exploded inside his body—unbeknownst to anyone else, attacking his heart specifically.
His entire arm seemed to have gone numb, immobile for quite a while. It was only when Su Xiaoyuan pushed his finger out with her tongue, her lips making a soft "pop" sound, that he finally came back to his senses and curled his burning fingertip.
Fu Tingyun stared at the culprit, experiencing for the first time an emotion called anger.
But Su Xiaoyuan did not even open her eyes. She licked her lips, seemingly still wanting more: "I want more…"
She hadn't used his name, so Fu Tingyun would not indulge her. Doing such a thing—surviving it was already her good fortune.
He turned to leave, but before he could reach the door, a muffled, sticky voice came from behind him again: "I'm thirsty, I want water… Please pour me a cup of water, Fu Tingyun…"
Fu Tingyun knew rationally that he should kill her, but after cooking a pot of perfectly fragrant and flavorful stir-fried pork, killing her over a cup of water seemed somewhat excessive.
And if he killed her now, wouldn't that pot of meat have been cooked for nothing?
Expressionlessly, he picked up the round-bellied white porcelain cup painted with pink cat paws from the shelf.
The cup was very clean, but he still cast a Purification Art, then condensed his Spiritual Power into Sweet Spring Water and poured it into the cup.
When he carried the water to the bedside, the girl had already closed her eyes.
"Water," Fu Tingyun said coldly.
Su Xiaoyuan gave a faint hum through her nose to show she had heard, but she was far too sleepy and had no strength to sit up.
Fu Tingyun could only lift the back of her head and press the rim of the cup hard against her lips: "Drink."
Su Xiaoyuan felt a bit of pain from the pressure and furrowed her brows, parting her lips.
Fu Tingyun poured the water down without hesitation.
Su Xiaoyuan, half-asleep and with dulled senses, could not swallow in time and choked, coughing.
Even so, she still did not wake. Once she recovered a little, she grabbed his sleeve to wipe away the tears from coughing and the water she had choked on, then collapsed back onto the pillow and continued sleeping soundly.
Fu Tingyun set down the cup and once again headed for the door.
But the moment his hand touched the door, the girl's dreamlike voice rang out again: "I ate something, but I haven't brushed my teeth yet… Fu Tingyun, I want to brush my teeth…"
Fu Tingyun walked over, pinched her chin, forced her mouth open, and tossed a Purification Art into her mouth: "Clean."
Su Xiaoyuan shook her head and insisted firmly: "After eating, I absolutely must brush my teeth… Please get me my toothbrush, Fu Tingyun, thank you, thank you, thank you…"
Fu Tingyun, with the last shred of his patience, attended to her teeth-brushing, and was absolutely certain that if she issued one more command, he would strangle her without hesitation.
The girl seemed to know when to stop. After brushing her teeth, she rinsed her mouth using his hand, wiped her mouth on his sleeve again, and obediently lay back on the pillow and fell asleep.
Fu Tingyun stood in place and watched her coldly for a while, then picked up the blanket he had thrown aside earlier and tossed it over her, covering her completely—her Cultivation Base was so low she was practically no different from a mortal. If she caught a cold and got sick, she would certainly come to torment him.
The moment he stepped over the threshold, a familiar murmur came from behind him: "Fu Tingyun… Please wake me at dawn tomorrow…"
Fu Tingyun rubbed his temples and quickly walked to the courtyard, found a clean stone slab, sat down cross-legged, and began to regulate his breathing.
After a whole night, not only had the tight constriction of the Puppet Body not eased, it seemed to have gotten worse.
The discomfort was secondary; if his state of mind were affected, the thing sealed within his dantian would seize the opportunity to stir up trouble.
Fu Tingyun had a secret—one that only his master and he had known. After his master's fall, he became the only person in the world who knew of it—
After the Immortal Sects joined forces to annihilate the Demon Lord, banish the Demonic Cultivators, and seal the Chaos Realm, the Abyss of Desire, the source of all demons, had not vanished into thin air. Instead, it had transferred into his body.
The Abyss of Desire was the origin of all desires of living beings in the Three Realms, and the root of chaos.
Demons were born from desire. As long as the Abyss of Desire existed, there would always be another Demon Lord born from it, bringing a new wave of chaos and turmoil.
Like weeds that could never be fully eradicated—troublesome.
So Fu Tingyun had settled the matter once and for all by sealing the Abyss of Desire within his own body—he was naturally devoid of emotions and desires, making him the most suitable vessel for suppression.
For the past five years, whenever his body was injured or his Divine Soul damaged, that filthy thing would stir restlessly, attempting to drag his Divine Soul into the abyss.
Of course, it was futile.
But this time, the Soul Transfer had gone unexpectedly wrong—for the first time in his life, something had slipped beyond his control. Just to be safe, he should still check.
Fu Tingyun condensed a wisp of Divine Sense, like a firefly descending into the dantian of his Divine Soul.
That vast, filthy swamp appeared before him.
In the sticky, foul, reeking black sludge, white limbs kept surging up, twisting into distorted and obscene forms—these were the living beings the Abyss of Desire had devoured over countless millennia, among them great cultivators of past generations who had left glorious records in the history books.
They reached out vine-like arms toward him, trying to drag him in as well.
Fu Tingyun coldly regarded these mindless, inhuman things, his heart utterly undisturbed.
The Abyss of Desire was within him, yet he was also the person in the Three Realms farthest from it.
He would never be manipulated by desire, never become one of those half-human, half-beast, filthy and degenerate creatures.
The seal remained as steadfast as a mountain, unbreakable.
Fu Tingyun withdrew his Divine Sense, closed off his five senses, and continued meditating until dawn.
…
Su Xiaoyuan was awakened by the Puppet Human choking her.
Being suddenly strangled by someone in the middle of a dream—there was no describing how terrifying that felt.
Su Xiaoyuan nearly had a heart attack from fright: "Fu Tingyun, what are you doing?!"
The Puppet Human released his grip unhurriedly, speaking in a flat, emotionless voice: "It's dawn. Calling you to get up."
What kind of hellish wake-up service was this? Was it waking her up or sending her straight to the afterlife?
"You could have just called my name," Su Xiaoyuan said helplessly.
"I did. You didn't wake."
Su Xiaoyuan had no energy to argue with him. She clutched her chest and gasped for a long while, her heart still pounding wildly.
She was naturally good-tempered, and once she recovered a bit, her anger faded.
A scrapped, recycled secondhand Puppet Human—its intelligence probably wasn't much higher than a robot vacuum's. What could she do? Make do with it, teach it slowly.
She rubbed her neck and educated him patiently but seriously: "Fu Tingyun, you can't suddenly grab someone by the neck, understand?"
"Understood." Can't do it suddenly—so doing it not suddenly was fine.
Su Xiaoyuan added: "And you can't do other things that hurt people or cause them pain, Fu Tingyun."
She thought for a moment, then added another line: "Unless the other person is a bad guy, or it's to protect yourself."
"Okay." The Puppet Human lowered his long lashes.
"That's a good boy." Su Xiaoyuan encouraged him. That was enough teaching for today; no point overloading him with more than he could digest.
Just then, she suddenly caught the aroma of stir-fried pork.
She remembered that last night she had been thinking about it and had dreamed about it—she seemed to have dreamed of eating stir-fried pork.
Following the source of the aroma, she looked over and saw a large iron wok sitting on the small table by the bed.
Why was there a wok that had flown out of nowhere in her room?!
Vague, fragmented memories surfaced. She jumped off the bed and ran over to look—sure enough, it was a wok full of stir-fried pork.
So last night hadn't been a dream? She really had eaten stir-fried pork?
Wait…
"Where did this stir-fried pork come from? Fu Tingyun?" Su Xiaoyuan stared at the Puppet Human in shock. "Did you get it?"
"Yes." Fu Tingyun lifted his chin slightly.
"Where did you get it? You didn't steal it, did you, Fu Tingyun?" Su Xiaoyuan covered her mouth in horror. If a puppet human stole something, would the master go to jail?
Fu Tingyun answered truthfully: "I found it."
"Huh?"
"It fell on the ground. I picked it up."
Had someone bought Lili Meat and accidentally dropped it? But Lili Meat was very expensive—and such beautiful streaky pork at that. Who could be so careless? Could the meat be poisoned or cursed?
But she had eaten it last night, and nothing had happened to her…
She suspected she hadn't woken up yet, or that water had gotten into her head: "And what about this wok? Fu Tingyun?"
"Someone gave it to me."
Su Xiaoyuan could see the wok was brand new.
Could it be that someone saw how handsome he was and gave him a wok?
"Then who cooked the meat?" she asked again.
"Me."
"Why did you cook this…"
"You said you wanted to eat Lili stir-fried pork."
Su Xiaoyuan froze: "When did I say that?"
"Before bed." Fu Tingyun spat out two words, staring at her face as if trying to bore two holes through it with his gaze.
Su Xiaoyuan really couldn't remember what nonsense she'd said before bed, but a puppet human shouldn't make things up, and besides, she really had been craving stir-fried pork.
Just then, Ruan Mianmian's loud voice sounded from outside the door: "Spring nights are short, the sun rises high—has Little Yuanzi gotten up yet?"
Before Su Xiaoyuan could answer, her best friend had already pushed the door open without standing on ceremony.
The moment one foot stepped into the room, her eyes lit up and quickly locked onto the big wok by the window: "Stir-fried pork! How do you have stir-fried pork in your room?"
Su Xiaoyuan briefly explained what had happened, and Ruan Mianmian, while eagerly reciting the Spirit Fire Incantation to reheat the stir-fried pork, clicked her tongue in amazement.
She slurped up a slice of meat—crispy on the outside, tender on the inside—and nearly burst into tears: "Little Yuanzi, you really struck gold. Whatever you want, he gets it for you. He's more responsive than a bodhisattva. Why don't you ask him if he can get us a hundred thousand Spirit Stones so we can get rich overnight."
Su Xiaoyuan knew she was joking: "How could that be possible? He himself…"
In front of the Puppet Human, Su Xiaoyuan didn't say the twenty Spirit Stones out loud—it would be too humiliating for him.
She still felt a bit uneasy: "We don't know where this meat came from. Isn't it a bit wrong to just eat it like this?"
Ruan Mianmian had always been carefree, and she picked up another piece and popped it into her mouth: "If someone comes looking for it, worst case we apologize, pay them back for the meat, and return the wok."
She paused: "We've already eaten it anyway. It's not like anyone can eat our leftovers."
Su Xiaoyuan nodded, went to brush her teeth and wash her face, then took out two sets of bowls and chopsticks. She suddenly glanced at the Puppet Human beside her and took out a set for him too.
"You cooked the meat yourself—have you tasted it? Fu Tingyun?"
"No."
Su Xiaoyuan handed him the bowl and chopsticks. "You should try some too."
The Puppet Human didn't take them, just stared at her hand.
"Can't use chopsticks? But you can stir-fry meat…" Su Xiaoyuan muttered.
Still, she picked up a piece of stir-fried meat with her chopsticks and held it to the Puppet Human's lips. "Ah—"
Fu Tingyun had no interest in food, nor had he received any orders, but for some inexplicable reason, he opened his mouth and swallowed the thin slice of meat.
"Want more?" Su Xiaoyuan asked. "Do you like this, or the candy from yesterday? Candy is sweet; this is salty."
Fu Tingyun glanced at a spot just below her eyes, his Adam's apple shifting slightly.
Both sweet and salty.
Ruan Mianmian could hardly bear to watch. "You're spoiling him too much. Eat your own food quickly—after we finish, we're going to find that swindler!"
An hour later, Su Xiaoyuan and Ruan Mianmian returned to the market street. Afraid the Puppet Humans might turn on them, they deliberately left them behind.
But that was entirely unnecessary worry.
Because when they arrived at the Puppet Human specialty shop, the entire store was gone—truly gone, not even the foundation remained. In the row of storefronts, there was a patch of bare ground, like a missing tooth in a neat row of teeth, conspicuously out of place.
Ruan Mianmian was dumbfounded too. She asked the shop assistant next door, "What happened to this shop? Where's the owner?"
The assistant poked his head out for a look. "Oh, you mean Huang He? He packed up and fled with his staff and shop overnight."
"Why did he flee?"
"Probably offended some big shot."
The two couldn't get any more answers, so they returned empty-handed.
By the time they got back to the sect, it was nearly noon. Just as they reached the main gate, the senior sister on guard duty called out to her, "Su Xiaoyuan, someone from outside is looking for you."
Su Xiaoyuan and Ruan Mianmian exchanged a glance, utterly confused.
In the cultivation world, her identity was that of an orphan. Everyone she knew was in the Yunyu Sect—how could an outsider be looking for her?
"She's at the Affairs Hall. Go take a look and you'll find out."
The two arrived at the Affairs Hall, where a middle-aged man stood up, performed the Immortal Sect greeting, and then looked at Su Xiaoyuan. "Would this be Su Xiaoyuan, the esteemed Su?"
Su Xiaoyuan had never seen him before. She nodded, puzzled.
The man presented an intricately carved wooden box. "Zhao here was entrusted by someone to deliver something to the esteemed Su."
The box was sealed tightly shut, yet spiritual light still seeped out from within, crackling faintly.
Su Xiaoyuan didn't dare accept it. "May I ask what's inside?"
The man said, "Please take a look, esteemed Su."
As he spoke, he slid the lid open.
Dazzling spiritual light burst forth from the box, illuminating the entire room.
Su Xiaoyuan looked closely and saw three long, slender jade slips laid side by side inside the box.
She had never seen such things before, but Ruan Mianmian drew in a sharp breath and whispered in her ear, "These are jade slips worth a hundred thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones each—three of them is three hundred thousand… Who sent this?"
The man smiled enigmatically. "The one who entrusted me said that the esteemed Su would naturally know upon seeing the items."
Su Xiaoyuan: ??
She had no idea at all!