Chapter 30 030 "Weren't you going to feed me?"...
Lu Yuanyuan gave a soft "oh," reached out and brushed her hair aside, thought for a moment, and then walked towards Duan Lansheng.
Outside the white wall, in front of the steps, a large patch of autumn ivy was planted, its dark red flower balls bright and dazzling. Boots crunched crisply as they rubbed against the fallen leaves on the stone bricks.
Upon realizing she was heading straight for him, the boy's jaw tightened, and he stood still.
Lu Yuanyuan stopped an arm's length away from him, tilted her head back, blinked her bright eyes, and asked curiously, "By the way, Duan Lansheng, I heard that when I fainted that night, you were haunted by a lustful ghost. How was it? Was it as difficult to deal with as the books say?"
To the future Duan Lansheng, this kind of minor boss is nothing more than an insignificant henchman. When the sword roars and its power sweeps across the eight directions, evil spirits will crumble without a trace. But he is still far from being a true sword immortal.
The other disciples who accompanied them were the same; to put it nicely, they lacked practical experience; to put it bluntly, they were all rather naive. It was their first time encountering an enemy like the Lustful Demon, and although they didn't say it, they were all incredibly curious.
She had previously seemed very eager to befriend Duan Lansheng, so it would be unusual for her to avoid the topic altogether.
Hearing her direct question, Duan Lansheng was taken aback, and a faint shadow quickly flashed across his eyes.
That was a sorry state.
Lu Yuanyuan's almond-shaped eyes remained fixed on him without flinching. The bright autumn sun shone on her hair, and her fair face glowed with a healthy rosy hue.
She knows nothing.
She waited patiently for his answer.
Duan Lansheng curled his knuckles beneath his sleeve, suppressing the ripples in his heart. His brows remained cold and solemn, revealing no emotion, and he said lightly, "It's alright."
"Just 'okay'? You're amazing! I've read in books that lustful demons are very difficult to deal with; they like to attack the most vulnerable parts of a person's heart. Even cultivators in the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm can sometimes fall victim to them." Lu Yuanyuan's eyes sparkled with admiration: "You took it down in less than a night! You're truly a role model for us all, so amazing!"
Her repeated phrases, "difficult to deal with" and "amazing," were simply meant to remind Duan Lansheng that she played a part in his ability to leave his sea of consciousness so quickly.
Duan Lansheng: "..."
No one in this world dislikes being praised, but he was used to being alone, and since entering Mount Shu, he had never heard such direct and enthusiastic praise. It was as if a person with frozen hands didn't know how to receive warmth and intimacy from the outside world. In the end, he turned his head away and uttered only a cold sentence: "I'm not as amazing as you think."
As the two were talking, three disciples of Mount Shu huddled together under a tree not far away, whispering among themselves, their eyes constantly glancing at Duan Lansheng, looking eager yet hesitant.
They had heard rumors within the sect that Duan Lansheng had deserted his post during the previous mission, causing the death of his comrade. As humans, they harbored a certain sense of superiority over half-demons. Therefore, they treated Duan Lansheng with utter hostility on their way here.
Lu Yuanyuan, who foolishly followed Duan Lansheng, was naturally marginalized by them.
When the teams were divided, everyone was mentally prepared for the two to come running back crying for help. Unexpectedly, the two, working together, not only successfully rescued the missing young master of the Guan family, but Duan Lansheng also so quickly broke through the mind-controlling spell of the lustful ghost.
Over the next few days, the matter became the subject of much private discussion. Some disciples were sour, insisting that Duan Lansheng had simply gotten lucky. Others were already secretly regretting their earlier rudeness; now, they couldn't even bring themselves to ask for advice on how to fight the lustful demon.
In short, Duan Lansheng's reputation is improving.
After discussing for a while, the three finally settled on their words and approached Duan Lansheng. The sarcasm on their faces had disappeared, and they were much warmer than when they set off. They invited him, "Junior Brother Duan, it's rare for us to come down Mount Shu together. We haven't had time to chat. Fortunately, we have some empty seats in our carriage on the way back. Why don't you ride with us?"
"Yes, that spot is quite spacious, more comfortable than the cargo area."
Lu Yuanyuan was ignored, but she wasn't surprised. After all, these people would never guess that she had a system, so they naturally assumed that she was carried by Duan Lansheng and had no value in befriending her.
Duan Lansheng, however, seemed unwilling to accept the offer. He lowered his eyes and coldly refused, saying, "No need. I'm already used to this place."
The three men, not expecting to be turned away, stiffened slightly. Having already broken their precedent by condescending to invite Duan Lansheng, they cursed him inwardly for being ungrateful and left without further ado.
After checking the items needed for the journey, the group formally bid farewell to the Guan family and boarded the carriage.
The wheels rumbled, and the carriage was piled with boxes of miscellaneous items. Lu Yuanyuan climbed out of the window and looked back. They had all gone quite a distance, but the Guan family, along with their servants, were still there to see them off.
Only when they had all become tiny, indistinct dots did Lu Yuanyuan retreat back into the car. Duan Lansheng sat quietly in the same spot where he had come in, reading a book.
Lu Yuanyuan smiled and said, "Duan Lansheng, why didn't you agree to let them go to the carriage over there? Didn't you realize they wanted to be your friend?"
Duan Lansheng shook his head: "It's noisy."
"You mean their talking bothers you?" Lu Yuanyuan pointed to her nose: "Then I'll talk to you too."
Duan Lansheng said in a low voice, "One mouth is quieter than five mouths."
Lu Yuanyuan: "..."
She let out a breath, crossed her arms, and decided to push their relationship in the direction she wanted: "Okay, okay, enough joking. You don't need to feel embarrassed. We've been through thick and thin together, after all. I know you already consider me a friend. And I feel the same way."
friend?
The unfamiliar phrase touched Duan Lansheng's heartstrings. And the profoundly meaningful phrase "to live and die together" made his fingers pause as he turned the pages of his book.
But Lu Yuanyuan stopped her story here.
Silence enveloped the carriage, and the noisy sound of wheels rolling on the ground faded away.
Lu Yuanyuan smiled faintly, looked at him for a while, and then continued, playing with the tassels on the curtain with her fingers, "You see, back in the mortal realm, we survived the crisis of the demons together. In this mission, we cooperated again and fought a brilliant battle. Doesn't that count as sharing life and death?"
Duan Lansheng: "..."
So that's what she meant.
Lu Yuanyuan crawled two steps closer on her knees, her dark eyes fixed on him, and repeated, word by word, "So, from now on, we're friends, right?"
Duan Lansheng looked at her and met her eyes.
Even though they had lived together in that world, he still felt he couldn't understand this person.
At their first meeting, and in their subsequent encounters, he found her behavior frivolous and strange, and thus disliked her. But after spending time together in the sea of consciousness, he discovered... perhaps he was prejudiced; she wasn't as bad as he had imagined.
Thinking of this, Duan Lansheng lowered his eyes and said, "...Hmm."
Lu Yuanyuan's smile grew even brighter, and she said softly in a sweet voice, "That's wonderful, I'm so glad to have made you my friend."
At first, she thought the lustful ghost had set a trap for her. Now she realizes that the greater the difficulty, the greater the reward.
Before this unexpected turn of events, she could sense that Duan Lansheng didn't like her. Now, however, he would tell her about the disciples' noise, inadvertently revealing a bit of his true thoughts at his age.
How ironic, in her past life she tried her best to be a sycophant, but her efforts were in vain.
Perhaps, if she continues down this path, in this life, she can truly become Duan Lansheng's best friend and achieve a peaceful new ending.
However, being friends was not the ending she wanted.
How could you walk towards the end so peacefully?
She couldn't accept the idea of remaining Duan Lansheng's friend and watching him ascend to become a sword immortal, enjoying a smooth and successful life. She couldn't forgive and forget.
Because she truly loved him, and because her resentment was ultimately hard to quell.
.
The return journey was leisurely, and Lu Yuanyuan used the time to close her eyes and rest to mentally peruse the book "Three Techniques of Seduction" that the lustful ghost had left her.
E-books have the advantage of being able to read whenever you want.
Having learned from her past life, the obscure words in the books were no challenge for her. By the time she returned to the Shu Mountain Sword Sect, she had already mastered the breathing technique used for cultivation. Because she was worried that Duan Lansheng would discover that this breathing technique didn't belong to the Shu Mountain Sword Sect, she practiced it secretly, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was extremely beneficial to her health.
Despite its unconventional name, it's a truly excellent product.
As for the second half of the book, she skimmed through it. The book was quite straightforward: the minimum intimate act required to absorb spiritual energy was a kiss. Of course, a kiss could only absorb a tiny fraction of the spiritual energy. The most effective method was the union of Yin and Yang energies. In other words, sex.
After all, she didn't yet possess the Golden Core, nor did she have a suitable candidate for practice; it was too early to discuss such matters. Lu Yuanyuan treated it as a book of curiosity, skimming through it before giving up.
Three days later, the group returned to Mount Shu and handed over their mission.
Lu Yuanyuan saw the cultivator who assigned the task take her jade token, pour a beam of light into it, and then return the token to her. She knew that the rating points for this task had already been transferred to it.
Whether you can be upgraded to a personal disciple by the end of the year depends on how many points you accumulate.
After retrieving her belongings, Lu Yuanyuan returned to Danqing Peak without stopping. Thanks to her sea of consciousness, she felt as if several months had passed since she left the sect, when in reality she had only been away from Mount Shu for less than ten days.
Ten days, which was exactly the interval she and her senior sister had agreed upon, the interval during which the other party would give her the detoxification.
Danqing Peak remained as beautiful as when she left it. She ran back to Yin Xiaozhu's cave. It was noon, and the other party seemed to be about to have a meal. Unexpectedly, there was a young female cultivator who looked like a servant in the room, taking food out of a food basket and placing it on the table.
Didn't they say that Yin Xiaozhu never had any servants around her?
Lu Yuanyuan had some doubts, but she didn't show them. Standing at the door, she said, "Yuanjun, I'm back."
Yin Xiaozhu held a book in one hand, leaning lazily against the recliner by the window, her posture relaxed, her clothes trailing on the ground.
Having already known about Lu Yuanyuan's return, Yin Xiaozhu glanced at her upon hearing the voice, unsurprised. He nodded, put down his book, and stood up.
At this moment, the female cultivator beside her bowed, her cheeks flushed pink, and said with a slight shyness, "My Lady, lunch is ready. Let me serve you your meal."
Lu Yuanyuan: "..."
The man surnamed Yin truly deserves his title as the most charming man in Shushan; his charm captivates both men and women.
Yin Xiaozhu said casually, "No need, you can go now."
The young female cultivator looked somewhat unwilling, glancing at Lu Yuanyuan with an unfriendly expression. However, she dared not disobey Yin Xiaozhu's wishes, so she bowed and left.
Lu Yuanyuan: "?"
As she brushed past him, Lu Yuanyuan took a step forward, sniffed, and suddenly smelled an unusual medicinal scent. Looking in that direction, she noticed that Yin Xiaozhu's right hand was wrapped in gauze. She was stunned: "Yuanjun, did you hurt your hand?"
"Yes, I accidentally injured myself while refining pills." Yin Xiaozhu pressed her left hand against her right wrist and gently moved her fingers.
Lu Yuanyuan immediately understood what the young female cultivator had come to do. It must be that Yin Xiaozhu was unable to move around easily, so she had temporarily called someone to help her.
Although her public identity is that of the other party's servant, in reality, she is just Yin Xiaozhu's patient and will be returning to the outer disciples' dormitory in six months.
However, after interacting with Yin Xiaozhu, Lu Yuanyuan had secretly considered more than once confirming her status as a servant—of course, servants have so many benefits, and Yin Xiaozhu isn't a harsh person. More importantly, staying by her side might give her the advantage of proximity and allow her to sow discord between Lu Yuanyuan and Duan Lansheng.
Therefore, she had previously tried her best to show her weakness and dependence on Yin Xiaozhu in order to win his pity.
Unexpectedly, during her first mission away from the sect, Yin Xiaozhu injured her hand, making her life inconvenient.
This is a perfect opportunity to gain favor under the guise of "repaying a debt of gratitude."
Thinking of the young female cultivator from earlier, Lu Yuanyuan felt a sense of crisis.
Yin Xiaozhu didn't have any servants and wasn't extravagant. In other words, even if she wanted someone, she would probably only need one.
If Yin Xiaozhu decides that the young female cultivator is more to her liking because of this unexpected incident, then even if there's a place available, she can't stay.
She has to try.
Lu Yuanyuan had a sudden thought. She quickly went to meet him, hugged his arm, and said in an apologetic tone, "Yuanjun, I'm sorry."
Yin Xiaozhu met her gaze and raised an eyebrow: "What have you done to wrong me?"
"Yuanjun cured my poison and even bought me menstrual pads. She's been so good to me. But when Yuanjun needed help, I wasn't there for her. I want to do something for Yuanjun to make you feel better." Lu Yuanyuan hugged her arm, her face earnest. "Since Yuanjun's hand is inconvenient, let me feed you?"
She remembered that Yin Xiaozhu fell for her act of playing the innocent little rabbit.
Whether it was a misperception or not, a hint of mockery flashed across Yin Xiaozhu's eyes, but it was only for a moment before she returned to normal. She gently withdrew her arm from Lu Yuanyuan's embrace, walked into the inner room, and returned to the recliner she had been sitting on.
Lu Yuanyuan was taken aback and hesitated for a moment.
Does this mean rejection?
Before she could figure out what to do next, the other person had already sat down.
Seeing that she was still standing there dumbfounded, Yin Xiaozhu beckoned to her with her uninjured hand, as if beckoning a puppy to her side, and smiled gently: "Weren't you going to feed me? Come here."
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