What rewards are we talking about? At the stir of Luo Fanchen's thought, a translucent panel appeared before his eyes.
[Reward One: Supreme Comprehension! Apologies — photographic memory? That's just the baseline.]
[Reward Two: Innate Fortune! Tell me, have you ever tumbled off a cliff straight into a hidden treasure, or tossed a coin to a beggar who turned out to be a peerless hidden master?]
[Reward Three: Maxed-Out Charm!! Ever seen a walking screaming-chicken? The calm one is you. The ones screaming are, forever, everyone else.]
[Reward Four: Immortal Grace, Heaven-Defying Beauty!!! Your face is pure poison — it fells the masses, and vixens and demonesses alike will sink into it before they know what hit them.]
Hisss—
As he finished reading through the rewards, Luo Fanchen's eyes shone. Vicious. Absolutely vicious.
Hold on — what exactly was the System implying? That he should fire up a fancy carriage and live the scoundrel life?
Pah. Was he the kind of man to run wild just because he had a bit of luck, a bit of a face, and... a bit more luck?
Wicked System, don't you dare corrupt your kind-hearted master.
Luo Fanchen could see the panel — but Su Jiu'er across the dinner table could not. Her heart fluttered in alarm. What was with this little man's burning, feverish stare, fixed right on her?
She'd heard that human men, once they came of age, started getting those kinds of thoughts...
Wanting a woman.
Beneath the table, Su Jiu'er's jade legs pressed together of their own accord. She tucked in her pert bottom and sat up straight, summoning the full dignity of an aunt.
"Fanchen, listen to your auntie. You're still young, your body isn't fully grown. It's too early for certain things."
"Huh?"
Luo Fanchen had been so absorbed in the System that he'd nearly forgotten the ravishing beauty sitting across from him.
Su Jiu'er's beautiful eyes glared, taking on an elder's stern authority.
"Don't play dumb with me. Auntie saw that look just now — like a wolf cub spotting fresh meat. Your body is still too weak. You couldn't handle it."
Uh...
Luo Fanchen was speechless. She'd gotten the wrong idea, and he could hardly explain the System, so all he could say was:
"I can wrestle down a wild boar one-handed. You call that weak?"
Su Jiu'er's cheeks flushed. Was that his way of hinting he was strong enough for physical labor now?
"You little rascal," she scolded. "Can't you just say things plainly instead of talking in circles? If you want it, would Auntie ever refuse you?"
"But not now. You'll understand when you're older. A woman is far more fearsome than any wild boar — especially when your auntie is the Empress of the fox clan."
Thirty like a wolf, forty like a tiger, fifty strong enough to suck up the very earth?
The old saying from his past life surfaced unbidden. Luo Fanchen shook his head. What was he even thinking — that vixen had thoroughly corrupted him.
He couldn't explain; explaining would only make it worse. Luo Fanchen shoveled down two quick mouthfuls of rice, announced he was full, and fled to his room.
Su Jiu'er was left sitting there, stunned.
"Is the little man angry that I saw through him?"
"Fair enough. Look but don't touch really is too cruel. Seems I'll need to sweeten the deal and coax him a little."
The bewitching beauty remembered the special little items she'd bought in the city a few days ago, and a blush swept across her exquisite, frosty face. She bit down on a pearly tooth. Fine — those, then.
She gazed toward his room and murmured, half-scolding, "Count yourself lucky, you wretched man. Who told you to be my husband-in-training?"
In the quiet wooden room, Luo Fanchen sat at the head of his bed.
He and Su Jiu'er had always slept in separate rooms. She was afraid he wouldn't be able to restrain himself.
After all, that calamity-grade face, that scorching figure, and the staggering allure innate to a heavenly fox — even deliberately veiled, no able-bodied man alive could withstand it.
No — correction. Neither man nor beast could withstand it.
Luo Fanchen sighed. A pity his strength fell short. The feast sat right before his eyes, and he was in no position to partake — one taste, and the flood of yin energy might well blast him to pieces.
Thankfully, the martial soul awakening was tomorrow. His chance to skyrocket in strength had finally come.
"System — claim the reward!"
Out in the courtyard earlier, he'd held off, afraid the commotion would be too loud.
"ROOOAR!"
White clouds drifted lazily beneath a brilliant sun.
A colossal, phantasmal golden dragon came soaring down from beyond the ninth heaven, diving toward the earth. It passed straight through the roof and sank into the crown of Luo Fanchen's head.
"BOOM—"
The golden dragon of fortune flooded his body. Precious light wreathed Luo Fanchen from head to toe, his bones crackling, his height climbing several notches on the spot. His mind rang crystal-clear, and his already devastating features now looked like an exiled immortal descended to the mortal dust, radiating an unearthly, breathtaking allure.
Fuck!
The one thing he'd feared, and it happened anyway.
No mortal could perceive the golden fortune-dragon's cry — but every powerful soul master within a thousand li sensed it clearly.
In a dense forest a hundred li from Cloud Village, a noblewoman in palace dress, graceful beyond compare, was overseeing a young girl's field training when her heart suddenly stirred. Her phoenix eyes turned toward the distance.
"What is it, Teacher Pontiff?" the young girl asked.
The palace-clad noblewoman's elegant brows knit tight. "I sensed a peculiar power. But it vanished almost at once."
"Shall we go take a look?" Excitement and curiosity bloomed across the girl's pretty face. Her teacher was the Female Pontiff herself, mighty and exalted — any power that caught her attention had to be interesting.
"You are the Holy Maiden, and all you think about is play," the noblewoman rebuked icily.
"Fine..." The girl pouted, wronged, and shrank her slender neck.
The noblewoman strode ahead, leaving the girl behind. Her willowy figure swayed; between the sweeps of her golden skirt flashed glimpses of snow-white legs, her feet clad in tall golden boots.
Her cold voice drifted back from ahead.
"Keep up. Once we've found your fourth soul ring, we can go have a look."
"Yay! Teacher Pontiff is the best!" The girl broke into a sugar-sweet smile and skipped after her.
Supreme comprehension. Innate fortune. Maxed-out charm!
Glorious!
The rewards claimed, Luo Fanchen's cultivation hadn't risen at all — yet he felt like a dragon and tiger rolled into one.
"BANG!"
His door burst open, and a graceful figure came rushing in.
"Little man, are you all right?!!"
"Uh... I was fine a moment ago... now I'm about to expire."
Luo Fanchen took in the scene before him — beautiful, scorching, lethal — and very nearly erupted in a geyser of nosebleed.
The peerless beauty wore only a camisole. One jade leg was sheathed in flesh-toned silk stockings thin as cicada wings; the other clearly hadn't been dressed yet, its stocking trailing rumpled on the floor. Her toes, white as mutton-fat jade and painted with red polish, were perched on black high heels.
Hisss — this vixen would be the death of him!
Ever since transmigrating, Luo Fanchen had been convinced this world must be crawling with degenerates. In every other respect it leaned ancient and underdeveloped — so why in blazes were short skirts, black silk stockings, high heels, and hotels developed to such a terrifying degree?
Su Jiu'er, apparently oblivious to her own state of exposure, pressed on:
"What was that commotion in your room just now?!!"
"Are you truly all right?"
Luo Fanchen shook his head. "Auntie Su, you must have sensed wrong. See? Everything in this room is perfectly fine, isn't it?"
Su Jiu'er swept her gaze around the room. Nothing did seem out of place.
Had it really been her imagination?
She eyed Luo Fanchen with suspicion — and found the man before her seemed to radiate some special magnetism, drawing her beautiful eyes in deep and deeper. Her sandalwood lips parted, her breath quickening.
"You... you..."
"What about me?" Luo Fanchen asked, baffled.
Why did the little man suddenly look even more handsome? Su Jiu'er's heart inexplicably raced, color rising in her cheeks.
In the end she swallowed the words, too embarrassed to say them aloud.
How could my little man be this good-looking?
For a moment Su Jiu'er genuinely couldn't tell which of them was the fox spirit — her, or him.
"Auntie, you might want to finish putting on your stocking first." Luo Fanchen pointed.
"Ah!"
"Pervert!"
Su Jiu'er looked down, let out a mortified shriek, and fled on tiptoe — tap-tap-tap — out of the room.
"You're already here — don't leave!"
Heart aflame, Luo Fanchen immediately gave chase...
TL Notes:
TL Note: Li — A traditional Chinese unit of distance, roughly half a kilometer (about a third of a mile).