Chapter 67 Sixty-Seven Cuts "Come on, I'll teach you how to swim..."
Luo Mingshu, who left with Xie Changming, had no idea what Fan Qing had said to the system.
She nudged Xie Changming with her elbow: "Is the area around Yingtian Palace now part of the Demon Realm?"
Xie Changming's deep voice came from above her head: "No, only the half that belongs to me belongs to the Demon Realm. As for yours, it has not yet been chosen to belong to anyone."
"Where...where should I be classified?" Luo Mingshu's voice drifted on the wind.
"The final abode of the demon gods is the Misty Star Sea. When they are tired and weary of living in this world, they will escape into the Misty Star Sea," Xie Changming said to Luo Mingshu.
“Take it first.” Luo Mingshu made a decision. “As for the area it belongs to, it will not be merged with any existing area. Then it will be a place that belongs only to me.”
Luo Mingshu did not believe that she belonged to the human race or the demon race, let alone the demon race. She had always wondered why she felt insecure about the human or demon races, but now she knew the answer: she herself did not belong to either of those races.
This feeling is rather lonely.
"You once asked me a question. You asked me if I also had a mother?" Luo Mingshu looked at the distant scenery and said softly, "I've also been thinking that if I were born, I should have had a mother, right?"
“You…” Xie Changming certainly remembered what Luo Mingshu looked like at the beginning. Back then, she was still an egg, yes, a small, pale purple egg.
At that time, apart from Luo Mingshu, there were no more demon gods in the celestial realm.
Xie Changming didn't say anything more, because he felt that telling Luo Mingshu this was not good news.
“Even if she were here, I wouldn’t want to look for her,” Luo Mingshu said. “I still want to go find my master.”
As they talked, they soon arrived near the Star Shore. Luo Mingshu was driving the tortoise at an extremely fast speed, much faster than the cloud boat.
When they arrived at Star Shore, Lu Yaoyao had not yet arrived. Luo Mingshu and Xie Changming went to collect the land plots first. Xie Changming walked side by side with her, and the two attracted the attention of many cultivators along the way.
Some curious cultivators even secretly filmed the two walking side by side and uploaded the footage to the Four Directions Water Mirror.
This was Luo Mingshu's first time venturing into the land she had explored. Upon entering, the cultivator responsible for connecting to the Misty Star Sea asked her, "Do you need to restore the original settings of the Misty Star Sea?"
"Can it be restored?" Luo Mingshu asked.
"Yes, but it can only restore the original architectural scene settings of the Misty Star Sea. The characters created by the Misty Star Sea are just projections of the explorers' inner thoughts, so they will not appear in the scene," the cultivator from Star Shore explained.
"Animal reproduction?" Luo Mingshu still remembered the little fish that Consort Gao had been longing to keep.
“Nothing that has life is acceptable,” the monk replied.
"Okay, then I'll open it and go take a look." Luo Mingshu agreed; she really wanted to go back to Yingtian Palace to take a look.
"Alright, since the land you acquired was decided to be managed together from the beginning, the Misty Star Sea did not divide this land. It is still connected now, located on the edge of the Demon Realm, bordering both the Demon Realm and the Human Realm. It is not far from the Star Shore." The cultivator handed Luo Mingshu a map.
The mechanism by which this Misty Star Sea generates land is quite strange. A cultivator's attribute tendencies also affect the location of the generated land; it's even possible for a new area to suddenly appear in a certain place in the central human realm. Many sects use this method to expand their sect's territory. Small. Piano. Organize.
The piece belonging to Xie Changming is on the edge of the Demon Realm, because it is right next to Luo Mingshu's, while the piece belonging to Luo Mingshu is located at the intersection of the three major regions.
Xie Changming unfolded his map and drew a teleportation array at his feet: "Let's go."
"This teleportation array... ordinary cultivators in the lower realms can't master it." Luo Mingshu only asked about Xie Changming's cultivation level now.
"Hmm," Xie Changming replied, "It's just a simple little spell."
"You're so amazing, how did I end up in the queue with you?" Luo Mingshu wondered.
Before Xie Changming could praise her, Luo Mingshu clapped her hands and suddenly realized, "It seems I'm quite amazing too. No wonder I am."
Xie Changming: "?" You've already said it yourself, what else can I say?
Luo Mingshu followed Xie Changming into the teleportation array, stepped into darkness, and when she came out, the familiar vermilion palace gates appeared before her.
Because the area outside Yingtian Palace is all desolate land explored by other cultivators, there is not a single human being within this radius of ten thousand miles.
Over the years, the methods cultivators have used to explore land in the Misty Star Sea have been largely the same: first, to collect the treasures, magical artifacts, and elixirs produced in the Misty Star Sea for their own use or to sell; second, to mine the mineral deposits in the land, and then discuss other uses after the land is depleted; and third, to use the land to build buildings for cultivators to live in, although only land with abundant spiritual energy will attract cultivators to move there.
Land that loses its value is left vacant, since there are only so many cultivators in the cultivation world, but this world is vast. Over time, some mortals will move their dwellings to these barren plots, and the cultivators will not mind their arrival.
After Xie Changming acquired the land, he did not use the resources on it. Because the Demon Realm was in a very good situation and was not particularly short of spirit stones, the entire Yingtian Palace remained unchanged.
Luo Mingshu pushed open the palace gate and looked around at the exquisite decorations.
She had never explored the Misty Star Sea before, but she found the scenery there to be incredibly beautiful. It was all a projection of their imaginations as cultivators, with every detail so exquisite. Just look at these floor tiles; even a little dirt scattered on them could turn them into priceless artifacts.
Luo Mingshu didn't quite understand why the cultivators who had acquired the land had demolished the original buildings in the Misty Star Sea and taken away the valuable treasures. She felt that the buildings themselves were a resource.
"How beautiful it is!" Luo Mingshu sat in the small pavilion beside the white jade fishpond, looking at the shimmering water around her.
Looking at the fishpond now, Xie Changming could only recall the time when Luo Mingshu fell into the water with him, and the tail that Luo Mingshu accidentally revealed. Even though that tail had grown bigger, it was still as crystal clear and lovely as before.
So he nodded and casually replied, "Yes, it looks very good."
Luo Mingshu stroked her chin, pondering ways to make money: "I don't want to demolish Yingtian Palace."
“Then we won’t demolish it. If you want to come and live here, then come.” Xie Changming said, looking into her eyes.
Luo Mingshu tugged at his sleeve and said, "I don't mean to stay here on my own. I won't be leaving my sect for the time being."
After all, Liu Hongying's physical body is still kept in the Water Stream of the Yuling Sect.
"The place I'm going to live in from now on will be much bigger than this place," Luo Mingshu gestured.
"The Demon Realm is vast," Xie Changming said.
Sometimes, he lived alone in the palace and even felt a little lonely and desolate. The area of the Demon Realm was no smaller than that of the Human Realm or the Demon Realm, but the number of demons was quite small.
"I know the Demon Realm is vast, so don't brag." Luo Mingshu clearly didn't catch Xie Changming's direct approach.
Xie Changming: "?" I wanted to ask you to live with me, what did you think I meant?
Luo Mingshu leaned against a pillar and continued to think: "I think our exploration mission in the Misty Star Sea is quite fun."
Xie Changming: "..." You think it's fun, but I don't think it's that fun for others.
He pursed his lips and just looked at Luo Mingshu without saying a word, looking like a perfect listener.
"Look what I brought!" Luo Mingshu pulled a book out of her pocket.
Xie Changming saw the bright, large characters on the cover: "How Deep Are the Palace Walls?"
Luo Mingshu excitedly introduced: "This is the most popular palace intrigue novel in the cultivation world. It is said to be based on a true story that happened in the deep palace of a mortal. Later, the empress who was persecuted and thrown into a well in the harem awakened her talent for cultivation and went to a sect to cultivate. After that, she wrote this novel based on her own true experience."
"Meng Weifang told me all of this. He also said that later the empress went back to see the emperor she once deeply loved. But the emperor had grown old, while she, having achieved great success in her cultivation, still had a beautiful face. When she saw the old man, all her former love vanished. After that, she picked up her pen and wrote this story." Luo Mingshu recounted this special plot in great detail.
“That’s interesting.” Xie Changming was referring to the dramatic and unpredictable story outside the storybook.
"This storybook is incredibly popular in the human realm. Even my junior sister, Afa, cried for days after reading it." Luo Mingshu clapped her hands. "There must be many cultivators who want to experience the story in this book firsthand."
“Isn’t this the perfect setting? If we need more people, we can hire some people, like demons or monsters, to act as emperors or maids. Then we can set up an array outside to control the flow of time, and we can entertain many groups of cultivators in a day.”
"The rules for the experience are similar to those in the Misty Star Sea. The winning cultivator is given a reward like a banner, and the experience costs tens or hundreds of thousands of spirit stones. It's take it or leave it." Luo Mingshu is indeed a genius at making money. In just a few words, he even created many jobs.
“That’s acceptable.” Xie Changming actually had little interest in this kind of entertainment, so he didn’t quite understand why any cultivator would be so keen on reading storybooks or experiencing such games.
"However, the array controlling the entire Yingtian Palace will be very complex. We can't let the cultivators who come to experience it attack our characters, and the damaged buildings must be restored immediately." Luo Mingshu muttered to himself. These details were originally automatically corrected by the Misty Star Sea. Now, if their Yingtian Palace, located in the real world, wants to achieve this, they have to rely on the array covering the entire area.
She made it sound simple, but in reality, this formation was hundreds of times more difficult than the defensive formation that Shui Heng had set up outside Fengshadu back then. Every detail of the formation, large and small, had to be designed separately.
Fortunately, Xie Changming was sitting next to Luo Mingshu. He was able to listen patiently to what Luo Mingshu had to say without mocking her for her naive ideas.
“Sure, I’ll design the formation.” Xie Changming looked at Luo Mingshu and chuckled, “Have you forgotten that I’m half here?”
"The profits generated will naturally be split 50/50." Luo Mingshu wouldn't try to take advantage of such a situation.
Xie Changming hummed in agreement, and he had a vague feeling that the Demon Realm might make a fortune through Luo Mingshu.
Luo Mingshu acted immediately, burying herself in the pavilion and writing a proposal.
Xie Changming glanced at the details she had written and asked, "Why not add fish head and tofu stew to the imperial cuisine?"
Without this dish, the little pavilion above the fishpond seems to have lost its charm.
Upon hearing this, Luo Mingshu put down her calligraphy brush: "You... why is all you can think about is eating fish?"
Xie Changming said to him seriously, "Of course I don't eat fish."
"Fish head tofu stew is no good." Luo Mingshu added the dish to her blacklist. "Look at you, playing a Supreme Immortal Lord, and you acted so badly. Wagging your tail and saying you love fish head tofu stew the most, how am I supposed not to recognize you?"
Xie Changming turned to the side and quietly looked at Luo Mingshu, his fingers curled up, his chin slightly propped up. He was quite good-natured: "So, why didn't you want to kill me later?"
"I...I..." Luo Mingshu's cheeks flushed slightly, and she couldn't find the words for a moment. She didn't even have an answer to the question of why she didn't want to kill Xie Changming.
Her reasons for killing the Supreme Immortal Lord were actually quite valid. She needed to explore the game world, and even if the Supreme Immortal Lord was Xie Changming in disguise, Xie Changming had abandoned her, so she naturally had a good reason to take action against him, since Xie Changming wouldn't actually die anyway.
Luo Mingshu didn't know why she couldn't bring herself to do it at the last moment. In the end, Xie Changming bumped into her, and the exploration scene finally came to an end.
She stammered for a long time before finally saying with a stern face, "Do you think I can't bring myself to do it? It's all because you're too heavy and you bumped into me. Otherwise, I would have stabbed you too."
"Really?" Xie Changming asked, looking into her eyes. Luo Mingshu's phoenix eyes were extremely beautiful, with graceful, upturned lines, but sometimes they had a proud and sharp quality.
Xie Changming naturally ignored this sharp sense of distance and kept his gaze fixed on Luo Mingshu.
"Why...why are you looking at me like that?" Luo Mingshu asked. "It's definitely true, would I lie to you?"
As she spoke these words, night had fallen, the surrounding light had dimmed, and the once beautiful sunset had sunk below the horizon.
The lamp in front of Luo Mingshu was dark. Xie Changming tapped it with his fingertip and the lamp lit up. This action was somewhat similar to what he had done in the Demon Realm.
At that time, a ray of light appeared at his fingertips.
Luo Mingshu had written down a rough outline of her plan, and seeing the weather, she figured she probably wouldn't be able to return to the Yuling Sect today.
The Yuling Sect rarely interferes with its disciples' outings, unless they are missing for many days due to loss of consciousness, like Wei Qing, in which case they will send people to search for them.
"I can only rest here today." Luo Mingshu was immersed in the joy of making money from her first piece of land. She tidied up the thick business plan on the table in front of her and made a copy for Xie Changming.
“Okay.” Xie Changming walked forward naturally and took her hand.
Luo Mingshu didn't dodge, because she didn't dislike Xie Changming's touch; she leaned closer to him.
As the two left, the lights on both sides of the water corridor gradually lit up, and for the first time, this huge, deserted building came to life.
Luo Mingshu was escorted back to her residence by Xie Changming. The palace that had previously belonged to Consort Mei was still there as usual. Luo Mingshu said goodbye to Xie Changming and went inside by herself.
As soon as she had a short rest, Luo Mingshu began to feel bored. She hadn't been in the water all day, and she had been eyeing it from above the pond, but she was too embarrassed to jump in because Xie Changming was with her.
Now that Xie Changming has left, she's itching to go again and is planning to relax in the pond; she really loves water.
So, Luo Mingshu walked out of the palace gate, looked around, and confirmed that Xie Changming was not there. Then she sneaked towards the pond.
In fact, after Xie Changming left, he didn't go back to his residence. He planned to go back to the pond and reminisce about the days when he raised fish there. Although he was doing all sorts of frivolous things in Yingtian Palace at that time, the only thing he did seriously was raising fish.
As Xie Changming was standing in the shadows pondering a hundred ways to raise fish, a "plop" was heard not far from him, as if someone had jumped into the water.
Xie Changming: "!!!"
Just as he was about to go forward to check, the sound of splashing water came from the pond. Luo Mingshu stretched out her body in the water. She had just taken off her embroidered shoes on the shore and jumped into the water. Her legs also transformed into a long dragon tail.
She loved water. Yinglong was a being who could summon wind and rain in ancient times. The water quality in the palace pond was excellent. Although it was not as good as the mountain streams in the ravines, it was enough to satisfy her.
Luo Mingshu circled the pond twice, her tail poking out of the water, shimmering with a dreamlike luster under the moonlight. Her loose, curly hair was also wet, falling on both sides of her cheeks and outlining her face in an extremely charming way.
Xie Changming stood in the shadows, and unless one looked closely, no one would notice his presence, let alone Luo Mingshu, who was oblivious to everything.
However, Luo Mingshu, who had been ignoring Xie Changming for a long time, heard the familiar sound of... wagging tails again.
She looked warily towards the shore, and the first thing she saw was Xie Changming's familiar tail, which was wagging rapidly at her, looking somewhat excited.
Moving the gaze upwards, one sees Xie Changming's long legs and narrow waist, as well as the hand resting beside him, with beautiful knuckles and prominent wrist bones that gleam like jade in the moonlight.
"You—" Luo Mingshu exclaimed in shock, retracting her tail completely beneath the water's surface. "Why were you secretly following me?"
"I came back to the pond to take a look. I arrived just now. What are you doing back here?" Xie Changming didn't want to go into the water, so he sat on the bank, put his legs down, and sat there, in the way that was closest to Luo Mingshu.
"I...I like water, so I came back." Luo Mingshu swam over, and Xie Changming saw a beautiful purple light flashing in the shimmering moonlight, which was the color of her scales.
"Hmm," Xie Changming said to her, "Why didn't you go down just now?"
"How could I have been so embarrassed with you here just now?" Luo Mingshu straightened up slightly, placed her elbows on the bluestone on the shore, and turned her head to look at Xie Changming.
"I'm here now too." Xie Changming reached out and tucked the strands of hair that were wet from the pool and stuck to the corners of her eyes behind her ear.
Luo Mingshu narrowed her eyes, her eyeliner drawing a beautiful arc.
She reached out and gently splashed water on Xie Changming's palm: "Are you afraid of water?"
Xie Changming dodged the water by stepping aside: "I already said that my original form is a wolf, so naturally I'm afraid of water."
Of course, it's not that water is his fatal weakness, but rather that he instinctively dislikes water and is unwilling to get close to it.
"Even a little wolf wags its tail?" Luo Mingshu winked at him. She had secretly come to soak in the water, but Xie Changming had discovered her. Now she had to say something to tease Xie Changming.
"I started shaking when I saw you." Perhaps because of the cover of night, Xie Changming's words were particularly candid.
He had originally tried to hide it, but he found that he couldn't hide it at all; he was just that enthusiastic towards Luo Mingshu.
“You…” Luo Mingshu pointed at him, her face turning red again.
She thought, "That damned Xie Changming is at it again, he's just after her fish tail."
Moreover, he actually dared to complain about water, even though water is clearly one of the most wonderful properties in the world.
"Xie Changming." Luo Mingshu straightened up to attract his attention. She used her elbows to prop herself up and sat down on the bluestone.
After she returned to the shore, she did not revert to her human form. Her lower body remained in the shape of a long dragon tail, which was now slightly curved, reflecting a jewel-like light.
Xie Changming turned his head to look at her tail and thought, "It really is her."
He looked up and met her gaze, his eyes landing on the small dragon horns on her forehead.
Without realizing it, he moved a little closer, his tall body tilting slightly.
This was exactly the effect Luo Mingshu wanted. She raised her hand, wrapped it around his neck, and with a burst of strength, pulled him into the pond behind them.
"Come on, I'll teach you how to swim." Luo Mingshu hugged him and whispered in his ear, her moist, cool breath brushing against his ear.
She thought that today she would make Xie Changming realize how terrifying a mermaid-tailed beauty was, and make him covet her tail all day long.
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