***
Faced with the Blood Demon Ancestor's instigation, Master Chongxu maintained an awkward yet polite smile.
But when he looked at Wu Guanyue, who was bustling around merrily, Master Chongxu felt an overwhelming urge to heave a deep sigh.
Peach blossom debt... There was no doubt this was a peach blossom debt, the kind that was the most tangled and impossible to sort out.
Master Chongxu knew very well what kind of person Wenren Ying was.
After all, when someone is lurking around every corner waiting to take your life, you tend to learn everything there is to know about them.
Wenren Ying was a kind-hearted man. When dealing with ordinary people who did not cultivate the Dao, he was endlessly patient, and would even think nothing of getting tricked or suffering a small loss... His temper was, in truth, exceptionally good.
It was only when he faced other Dao cultivators that his attitude would turn sharply stern.
Dao cultivators drew spiritual energy from heaven and earth to nourish their bodies and extend their lifespans, and that power was never meant to be used to bully the weak.
It hardly seemed far-fetched that a man like that would end up tangled in a peach blossom debt.
Though, this Little Shopkeeper Wu really was... well... a little far from what most would call normal...
Master Chongxu let out a long, heavy sigh, and spoke in his softest tone. "Little Shopkeeper Wu, you've cooked far too many dishes. By the time Brother Wenren gets back, all of them will be cold."
Wu Guanyue, who was halfway through frying her eighth dish, froze in place at once.
That does make sense!
The real reason was that the moment she stepped in front of the stove, her game's cooking system had automatically activated — that system where you tossed in various ingredients to mix and match them. She just so happened to have a whole host of ingredients on her, and... well, she'd gotten a little curious.
All those fancy vigorous stir-fry movements? They were just the default actions the system ran on its own.
Wu Guanyue set down her wok, stood upright in a demure, well-behaved manner, and nodded. "You're right, Master Chongxu."
Master Chongxu kept his tone gentle as he continued. "Little Shopkeeper Wu, is breaking into houses the only way you enter Brother Wenren's home, or do you do that to everyone else too?"
He was, of course, referring to the fact that she had picked the lock to get in.
Wu Guanyue: "…………"
Wu Guanyue sank into deep thought.
Lock-picking was her innate skill. As long as a character's favorability towards her hit two hearts, she could walk in and out of their house as she pleased... That was a perfectly common, normal setting in games, but...
But this wasn't a game, was it?
Even though this world wasn't a game, she could still log in and out of it whenever she wanted. Even though this world wasn't a game, she still had a skill bar, and when she looked at other people, their names would pop up right above their heads, and she could even view their personal stats.
That was why she had always felt pretty relaxed when coming and going in this otherworld. But now that she thought about it carefully, her current behavior was... well... a little weird? Almost creepy?
Wu Guanyue was instantly horrified.
Just then, Wenren Ying's voice, carrying a faint chill, rang out from the doorway. "What are you doing here?"
Wu Guanyue: "!!"
Her eyes went wide as saucers.
In a split second, she seemed to realize a whole bunch of things she had overlooked before — the very first time she had picked the lock to sneak into Brother Ying's house, he had already gently hinted that it was not a good thing to do... that it really wasn't right...
Wu Guanyue: O-O
Wu Guanyue: Q-Q
She stared blankly at Wenren Ying, and the corners of her eyes slowly, slowly grew damp. Overwhelmed by guilt, she covered her face and began to weep.
Wenren Ying's brows furrowed instantly. He strode through his own doorway, and the next second, Wu Guanyue's entire field of view was filled by his broad, solid back.
He stood right in front of her, blocking her from sight, and asked coldly, "Master Chongxu, what did you say to her?"
Master Chongxu: "…………"
Master Chongxu: "………………?"
A question mark slowly seemed to float above Master Chongxu's head.
Before he could even process what was happening, Wenren Ying's icy tone was already driving him away without a second thought. "We have nothing more to talk about. Leave now."
Wu Guanyue's small, soft voice drifted out from behind him. "Aren't you mad at me, Brother Ying? I was just about to say... I'll never pick the lock to get in again."
Wenren Ying's voice softened immediately. "This has nothing to do with you, Little Yue... But that lock-picking thing, don't do it again, okay?"
Wu Guanyue: "Mmm~ I'm sorry, Brother Ying. You left in such a hurry yesterday that you even forgot to take the reed that fell off your bamboo hat. I came here to give it back to you!"
As she spoke, she pulled a reed she had picked up somewhere out of her sleeve.
Wenren Ying went clearly silent for a moment.
But after that brief pause, his voice was still gentle and patient. "I'm sorry, something urgent came up yesterday all of a sudden... What are you still doing here?"
That last line was directed at Master Chongxu, his tone turning harsh and cold in the blink of an eye.
Master Chongxu: "…………"
Master Chongxu: "………………"
Master Chongxu couldn't help but feel like he had just been used as a plaything by the two of them.
By the time he walked out of the alley, his mind was still reeling.
Apart from the buzzing din in his ears, the nonstop chatter of the Blood Demon Ancestor was still going on.
"I told you the two of them had something going on, but you wouldn't believe me. Look at that, you missed the perfect chance."
"With a man like Wenren Ying, if he didn't want a random girl with no spiritual root to get close to him, how could she possibly even step within arm's reach?"
"Though that girl is so young and already so virtuous... Settle down and live a nice, peaceful life, a warm home and a loving wife..."
"Blood Demon Ancestor," Master Chongxu cut him off gently, "has no one in this world ever cooked even a single meal for you?"
Blood Demon Ancestor: "…………"
The Blood Demon Ancestor huffed angrily. "You ungrateful brat! I've been thinking everything through for you, and all you do is lash out at me with hurtful words!"
Master Chongxu let out a soft sigh. "So that's a no, then. You poor thing."
Blood Demon Ancestor: "…………"
The Blood Demon Ancestor stiffly changed the subject. "Anyway, you saw it for yourself. Wenren Ying clearly has feelings for her. If you want to get rid of the blood poison in your body, you know exactly what you need to do, don't you?"
After that, he fell silent, and his nascent spirit settled down quietly in Master Chongxu's sea of consciousness.
That was right — the Blood Demon Ancestor was nothing more than a wisp of a nascent spirit.
Years ago, the reason Master Chongxu had fallen victim to the Blood Demon Ancestor was that this old devil had seized a newly initiated Dao cultivator's body to take over his flesh.
Back then, Master Chongxu was still young. He had seen a loose cultivator collapse all of a sudden in a secret realm, and rushed over to check on him. But the moment he got close, that cultivator's body had suddenly exploded.
Master Chongxu's reaction had been immediate and violent. He felt every single drop of blood in his body begin to boil, and the urge to kill surged through him so strongly he was on the verge of turning into a wild beast. But right at that moment —
Right at that moment, someone had appeared.
A hoarse old voice spoke, "Seal!"
Thin, silken threads wrapped around him, holding him completely immobile. Thunder spiritual energy traveled down those threads and struck his body, stopping him from losing his mind in that first instant. He slowly regained his senses, and forcibly suppressed the blood poison raging within him.
When his consciousness returned, the old man had already vanished without a trace, leaving only Master Chongxu alone between heaven and earth.
The second time his blood poison flared up, the Blood Demon Ancestor spoke up. He guided Master Chongxu to channel his cultivation to suppress the poison, and even tried to teach him how to turn around and wield the power of the blood poison for his own use.
It was then that Master Chongxu realized a monstrous being had been living parasitically in his sea of consciousness this entire time.
The Blood Demon Ancestor claimed he was the old man who had saved Master Chongxu.
But Master Chongxu knew that was not the truth... because the Blood Demon Ancestor did not have the slightest clue how to manipulate thunder qi.
The threads that had bound him back then were incredibly tough, so tough they could nearly cut through human skin... Since Master Chongxu had lost his sight, he later gathered countless thin filaments to touch and feel their texture carefully. And finally, he figured out exactly what those things were!
They were fishing lines!
Which meant the object his savior had used to rescue him back then was — a lightning-struck wood fishing rod!
Master Chongxu: "…………"
It did feel rather odd.
But such a bizarre, unorthodox weapon, he thought, could not possibly belong to a second person under the heavens.
All these years, Master Chongxu had been searching for his savior. Even if he was fated to die an unclear death, he wanted to resolve this last matter at the very least — to say a proper word of thanks to the person who had spared his life.
When the Blood Demon Ancestor realized Master Chongxu did not buy his lies, he gradually dropped the pretense entirely.
Now... Wenren Ying truly had someone he loved deeply, and though this strange romance made Master Chongxu view Wenren Ying in a very peculiar light, a question began to weigh on him. Was he really going to go through with such a despicable act?
Master Chongxu stood stock still, rooted to the spot, his entire figure looking as if it had turned into a statue.
Just then, he heard Wu Guanyue's footsteps — she had just come out from seeing Wenren Ying.
Brother Ying did not think highly of Master Chongxu. When the man was brought up, he furrowed his brows, then said indifferently, "He is a coward who never wants to lose anything."
Wu Guanyue tilted her head and asked, "Then is he a bad person?"
Wenren Ying replied, "If he were a bad person, he would not have lived this long."
Wu Guanyue pressed on sharply, "But if he is not a bad person, then what were you so nervous about just now, Brother Ying?"
Wenren Ying: "…………"
Of course he was nervous that Master Chongxu would spill his past... He did not want Wu Guanyue to know who he really was.
In truth, he had never planned to get involved with this bright, innocent young girl. The night before, he had sat in his courtyard thinking long into the night, and finally came to a conclusion — Little Yue was just like a cute little sister to him, and as her older brother, it was only natural that he look after her.
Wenren Ying fell into a rare, long silence, and after a while, he said he was free now and could walk her back to the inn.
But Wu Guanyue turned him down cold!
Wenren Ying had clearly not expected that rejection, and he froze for a moment, which made him look just a little... soft and vulnerable.
But Wu Guanyue had other plans running through her head — Master Chongxu!
Brother Ying himself had certified that Master Chongxu was a coward. That meant he was the sort of person who got scared easily. On top of that, he was She Wenjie's biological older brother and a personal disciple of the Emerald Cloud Cave, so his status and standing were more than high enough —
Wasn't he the perfect, heaven-sent guest for her shady inn?
She had been wondering where to harvest more intimidation points, and now her target had practically walked right to her.
Oh, and one more thing. I will be taking a day off tomorrow, since I have to go out and run errands that will take the whole day.
