Chapter 126 Dislike? Exceptionally... enthusiastic

A group of young people laughed and joked on the spirit boat until dawn the next day, when they left one by one under the guidance of their elders.

Many of the still-drunk cultivators were simply carried away in bags.

Bai Ye had been forced to drink a lot of alcohol last night and was still fast asleep in the cabin. Bai Shu sat by her bedside, looking at her carefree little brat, and remembering the promise she had made to her, got up and left the cabin to find Zhong Jiuli.

"Sect Leader Zhong." Bai Shu greeted him upon seeing him, then fell silent.

Zhong Jiuli roughly guessed her purpose and asked with a smile, "Does Chief Bai have something to say to me?"

"Hmm." Bai Shu hesitated before speaking, "What do you think of A Ye?"

"Very good."

"Then I will return to the Bai family now and send someone to prepare the necessary items for the marriage proposal. I wonder what your opinion is?"

“There’s no rush,” Zhong Jiuli replied with a light smile. “Aye is about to enter Tianjing Lake for seclusion to hone her foundation in the Great Dao. It could take several years or even decades, no one can say for sure. We can discuss the marriage after she comes out of seclusion.”

Bai Shu nodded: "Alright, then the bell..."

She was momentarily at a loss for how to address her child's future Daoist partner; calling him Sect Master Zhong or Senior Zhong again would seem a bit too formal.

“Chief Bai, you can just call me by my name,” Zhong Jiuli replied understandingly.

“Alright, Jiu Li, then I’ll take my people back to Gu Zhou first,” Bai Shu said.

Zhong Jiuli got up to see them off, and only after seeing the Bai family out of the Sanqing Sect did she return to the spirit boat and find Bai Ye, who was still fast asleep.

She walked to the bedside and sat down, looking down at the sleeping person.

The air was filled with the aroma of alcohol; no one knew how much this guy had drunk last night, he was still drunk. Zhong Jiuli sighed softly and gently stroked Bai Ye's slightly flushed cheeks.

"Hmm?" Bai Ye groggily opened his eyes and looked at her sleepily. "Zhong Jiuli, what brings you here?"

"Little lazy tiger~" Zhong Jiuli smiled and pinched her soft, warm cheek. "I've come to wake you up. Your friends are all waiting on the deck to say goodbye."

Bai sat up abruptly, rubbed his eyes, and asked, "Are they going back?"

"Okay." Zhong Jiuli bent down to pick up the scattered boots from the ground. "Put them on quickly, don't keep people waiting."

"Okay, let's go quickly." Bai quickly put on his boots, got out of bed, took Zhong Jiuli's hand, and walked outside.

Zhong Jiuli withdrew her hand and said softly, "Go and say goodbye to them properly. If I go, they will feel awkward."

"Alright, then wait for me, I'll be back soon." Bai didn't think much of it and quickly left the cabin so that everyone wouldn't have to wait.

When the people from the desolate state on the deck saw Bai come out, they all came up to greet him and asked him about his condition.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with everyone, Bai came to A Yu and the others and instructed them, "A Yu, Dayue, A Hua, when you return to the Wilderness State, you must cultivate diligently. I will come back to find you after I leave Tianjing Lake, and then I will take you to explore the secret realm."

"Okay," they all replied in unison.

"With the number one genius in Kyushu leading the way, we'll be able to walk sideways, won't we?" Li Chengfeng joked with a smile.

"Stop talking nonsense. Go back and cultivate properly, or my cultivation will surpass yours soon," Bai said, rolling his eyes.

"Yes, yes, yes, the number one genius in Kyushu, your official prestige is truly great." Li Shoumo also teased her.

"Okay, I admit it, I am the number one genius in Kyushu. From now on, when you see me, please call me Boss Bai, thank you!" Bai Ye shrugged, looking like he was asking for a beating.

As soon as she finished speaking, the group of men chuckled and rubbed their hands together, scrambling around her as if to teach her a lesson.

"Hey, I advise you to show some respect to the boss. You'll have to call me if you fight in the future," Bai warned them loudly, his smile barely concealed.

Seeing that the group of young people were about to cause trouble again, Yun Shu stepped forward to smooth things over, saying, "It's getting late, we should set off."

When Senior Yun Shu spoke, everyone immediately became more respectful.

After boarding the spirit boat, Li Chengfeng stood by the ship's side and waved vigorously: "Little Tiger, when we meet again next time, we will definitely become as strong as you."

“Me too! Ah-ye, I’ll get stronger too!” Ah-yu shouted immediately afterward.

Dayue chimed in, "Young clan leader, once I successfully form my Nascent Soul, let's go back to the tribe and get married!"

"Alright, alright." Bai waved his hand dismissively. "It's not like we'll never see each other again. Don't get so sentimental. Next time we meet, I'll treat you to some spirit wine."

"Goodbye, Boss Bai! Thank you, Boss Bai!"

The cultivators from the entire desolate state on the spirit ship shouted in unison, their voices piercing the sky.

"Goodbye!" Bai also shouted back.

Seeing that the young people had finally finished saying goodbye, Yun Shu gently flicked her wide sleeves, and the spirit boat took off, carrying the young geniuses of the Wilderness State towards the outside of the Three Pure Ones Sect.

Only after the spirit boat disappeared from sight did Bai Ye turn her gaze away. She looked around and found that the deck, which had been bustling with activity the day before, was now empty, with only a few disciples from the Sanqing Sect and the Wanxiang Pavilion on duty.

She didn't see her mother either, and a bad feeling crept into her heart. Could it be that her mother had already left?

Bai hurriedly returned to the cabin, found Zhong Jiuli, and asked, "Zhong Jiuli, where is my mother?"

"We've set off back to Guzhou."

"Huh? She just left like that?" Bai Ye's face immediately fell, and the corners of his mouth, which had been turned up, began to turn down. His face was full of "I've been abandoned by my mother again, and I'm so wronged."

Zhong Jiuli chuckled at her expression, stood up, rubbed her head, and comforted her, "She has to send her clansmen back to Guzhou first. Once everything is settled, she will come to Zhongzhou to find you. Besides, Bai Qingji is still in the Sanqing Sect. How could she really abandon you two sisters?"

"That's true." Bai nodded, then, as if she had thought of something, she asked somewhat awkwardly, "Did my mother say anything to you before she passed away?"

“I have already said so. But there’s no rush. You should go into seclusion at Tianjing Lake tomorrow, and we can discuss it again after you come out.”

"Do we have to go tomorrow? Why the rush?" Bai protested somewhat discontentedly. "Everyone is leaving in such a hurry, and the seclusion is also in such a rush. We just fought for so long, why can't we let everyone play for a few more days before continuing their cultivation?"

“The Heavenly Mirror Lake opens only once every hundred years, and the opening time is fixed each time, so it cannot be delayed,” Zhong Jiuli explained softly.

Bai asked hopefully, "Will you come in with me?"

"I have important business to attend to outside." After Zhong Jiuli finished speaking, seeing a hint of disappointment on her face, she had no choice but to add, "However, you can bring Jiaojiao with you."

"Okay." Bai also drooped his head, looking rather listless.

It wasn't that she resisted cultivation, she just hadn't expected to have to go into seclusion so soon. It felt like she had just taken the college entrance exam, only to have the results come out the next day, and school started on the third day. She hadn't even had a chance to catch her breath before having to rush back to studying.

Zhong Jiuli pinched the soft flesh of her cheek, lifting the corners of her drooping mouth slightly. "Don't be unhappy. Shall we go back to Cloud Mist Peak?"

Upon hearing this, Bai immediately perked up, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!!!"

She took Zhong Jiuli's hand, opened a void passage, and stepped out to arrive at Cloud Mist Peak.

The summit of Cloud Mist Peak was quiet. It seemed that Liu Xianyue and the others were not there. Bai was secretly pleased. Perfect, no one would disturb them.

Back in the room, without a word, the two naturally kissed.

Bai also put his arm around Zhong Jiuli's slender waist and led her step by step toward the bed. After the kiss ended, the two separated slightly and fell onto the bed.

She braced herself against Zhong Jiuli's side with one hand, and stroked his moist, red lips with the other, whispering, "You're... a little different today."

Zhong Jiuli looked up to meet her gaze, her eyes like ink-black jade soaked in spring water, their alluring gaze captivating. "What's different?"

"Extra...enthusiastic." Bai leaned closer, the last syllable of his voice lost in their entangled lips.

Zhong Jiuli asked, slightly out of breath, "Don't you like this?"

"As long as it's you, anything is fine," Bai murmured vaguely.

The curtains hung low, and the candlelight flickered, casting the intertwined shadows of the people on the bed onto the wall.

Bai Ye's gaze was drawn to the swaying shadow. She looked up from her busy work, sat up, and with nimble fingers, cast a small bird with outstretched wings onto the wall.

She looked down at the woman lying on the tatami mat and asked, "Did you play with this when you were a child?"

Although Zhong Jiuli was somewhat unsure of what she was planning to do, she suppressed the surging emotions within her, gathered her loose inner garment, and covered up a large expanse of her exposed skin.

After doing all this, she sat up and sat down next to Bai Ye, looking at the wall together, and answered her earlier question: "Never."

"When I was little, I liked to play these silly little games against the wall when I was home alone," she said, gesturing as she spoke.

"Look, this is an eagle, this is a rabbit, and this is a puppy."

Zhong Jiuli's gaze fell on the wall, where the lifelike little animals kept changing with Bai Ye's words. She couldn't tell for a moment whether Bai Ye's skill was due to countless times of self-entertainment in his childhood or whether he was born with a pair of skillful hands.

Thinking of this, her gaze fell on a pair of skillful hands, with long, slender fingers and distinct knuckles.

She sighed inwardly, "It seems that dexterity plays a bigger role."

"Would you like to try?" Bai turned around, his neat little white teeth sparkling in the candlelight, his eyes reflecting the flickering candlelight. "I'll teach you."

Unable to resist the expectation in her eyes, Zhong Jiuli had no choice but to raise her hand. The two hands overlapped in the light and shadow, and suddenly a somewhat silly-looking little dog appeared on the wall.

Another agile puppy pounced over, pinning the little dazed dog down and biting it. The little dazed dog was only stunned for a moment before it became nimble again.

Two puppies were chasing each other on the wall, rubbing against each other, looking adorable and quite amusing.

After playing around for a while, Zhong Jiuli suddenly asked softly, "In the past, if you had the chance, you would always pester me to fool around on the bed. Why aren't you in a hurry tonight?"

Bai Ye's hand suddenly stopped moving.

She turned her head, her gaze fixed intently on Zhong Jiuli's eyes. "I feel like you're not very happy tonight. You might have something on your mind, but I guess you don't want to tell me."

“Zhong Jiuli, dating isn’t just about sex. There are so many other things we can do. Look, isn’t it fun to gesture with little animals by candlelight?”

"We can hold each other and watch the boring moon all night, and count the endless stars while feeling the evening breeze. I want to do all the things you've never done with you."

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Author's Note: [Hugs] Tomorrow is a long chapter; this is all the stuff I've been saving up these past two days. My darlings, you can read it early.