Chapter 9 Useless Things Why does she look so beautiful when she smiles? ...
It's hard to imagine what turned that sweet little boy into this stubborn and unyielding person he is now.
She stared at Shen Zhou's cold and stern face, hesitated, then raised her hand and tapped his left cheek from a distance.
"Do you... have a dimple here?"
Almost instantly, Shen Zhou understood what she had seen.
“No,” he said coldly.
Hua Deng was initially skeptical, but his attitude immediately made it clear.
"Don't deny it, I saw it all! You even had a little wooden sword, practicing swordsmanship by yourself in front of the mirror. You were so naive when you were little... Hey, don't go, you haven't picked out a weapon yet!"
Shen Zhou sneered, leaving her with his back turned, and then swayed as he flew out the door on his sword.
Hua Deng chased after him and was stunned when he saw what was happening.
"Wait for me, come back and take me with you, I don't want to go on anymore!"
"—No." Shen Zhou looked down at her from mid-air, his expression infuriating.
Hua Deng Erkang said, "I was wrong. I've forgotten what you looked like when you were little. I don't even remember your mother calling you 'good boy'... Hey, why did you really leave?!"
Hua Deng stomped his feet, watching the aftershocks of the flying sword.
As she climbed down the ladder, another question came to mind.
"System, since he could fly from the beginning, was he deliberately walking up the stairs with me to see me make a fool of myself?"
"Yes, host," the mechanical voice replied.
Damn.
Hua Deng wiped the sweat from his brow, his already shortness of breath now accompanied by a sharp pain in his ribs.
On payday, she was determined to make Shen Zhou understand the price of offending the boss!
...
An hour and a half later, the lanterns rolled to the foot of the mountain, taking half an hour less than the climb.
The foot of the mountain was rich in spiritual energy. She took out the Qi-boosting pill, looked at it, gritted her teeth and stuffed it back in. She sat alone on Chongyun Peak for half an hour to recover her strength before heading back.
Outside the Begonia Garden, a few disciples occasionally pass by, nodding and greeting the lanterns when they see them.
Previously, Hua Deng ignored them, but later, because of Duan Yi's incident, everyone saw that their senior brother had his hands and feet broken and was hung outside Yaoqing Hall as a warning to others. They immediately became much more respectful and dared not say or look at Hua Deng.
Gradually, the streetlights no longer need to be so tense, and they will exchange brief greetings with them.
However, today, Hua Deng passed by everyone with a dark face, looking aggressive as if she wanted to collect a debt from Shen Zhou.
Just as she reached the outside of the courtyard, she encountered Chen Zhou's figure, and Hua Deng's steps suddenly stopped.
Because standing opposite him was an unfamiliar female cultivator, with fair skin, delicate features, and wearing the blue robe of an inner disciple, who should be a senior sister of the Medicine Purification Sect.
She held the delicate and elegant sword tassel in her hands, her eyes filled with a hint of anticipation, like the girls in TV dramas who used to deliver love letters, their faces practically glowing with pink bubbles.
No, that's impossible.
No one could possibly be interested in Shen Zhou.
"Junior Brother Shen, this is a sword tassel I made myself." The woman's voice came clearly, gentle with a hint of shyness. "I specially chose silver, it suits your sword very well, please accept it."
Hua Deng stumbled.
I've never seen anything like it before. Someone actually took a liking to Shen Zhou?
After hesitating for only a second, she decisively turned around, hid behind a banyan tree not far away, and quietly peeked out to check the situation.
The senior sister gazed at him tenderly and affectionately, while Chen Zhou...
"Well."
Well, as soon as you see those world-weary, dead fish eyes, even the most ambiguous atmosphere will vanish.
He didn't look at the sword tassel, and said emotionlessly like a puppet, "I have a Daoist partner."
"Isn't that fake?" Senior sister looked at him innocently. "They all say you're a thug hired by Junior Sister Hua, and she could never possibly be interested in you."
The streetlights almost choked on their own saliva.
Senior sister, is it really okay for you to be so blunt?
Shen Zhou replied without any change in expression, "It's true, she said I'm good-looking."
Senior Sister: "Haha, Hua's aesthetic sense is a bit peculiar."
Are you really here to confess your feelings?!
What made Hua Deng even more furious was that Shen Zhou actually pondered for a moment, then nodded thoughtfully, as if he believed her words.
Unable to bear it any longer, she stepped forward and said, "I do think he's handsome, and it was I who took the initiative to ask him to be my Daoist partner."
Absolutely no one can insult her aesthetic sense!
She smiled sweetly at her senior sister: "However, that's also because he was so persistent and relentless in pursuing me."
As she spoke, she deliberately tugged at Chen Zhou's sleeve and shook it coquettishly: "Right, my Daoist partner?"
Shen Zhou coldly tried to pull his arm away, but she quietly pinched it, and the girl's low voice whispered in his ear: "One hundred spirit stones."
When he looked down, Hua Deng smiled sweetly again and asked softly, "Right?"
He withdrew his gaze and said calmly, "Yes. Two hundred."
...Two hundred? The senior sister looked at them hesitantly. Did she mean that they had known each other for two hundred days?
"I'm sorry, I disturbed you." She had already convinced herself, "It's all those people's fault for spreading rumors. I'll explain things clearly when I get back."
"Then I'll have to trouble you, Senior Sister."
After her senior sister left, Hua Deng's smile vanished instantly, and she shook her head as she dragged Chen Zhou away.
"I don't understand, what does she like about you? She can't even see your face."
"With a personality as awful as yours, how could any woman like you?"
"And remember this: you are absolutely forbidden from having affairs behind my back, understand?"
Shen Zhou: "Hmm."
Hua Deng puffed out his cheeks: "You're not allowed to say 'um'!"
Shen Zhou: "."
Hua Deng: "Your dad... never mind, judging from your appearance, you're destined to be single forever."
It's normal that he had never dated a girl before and didn't understand girls. Hua Deng generously forgave him and went back to the training room to meditate in seclusion.
Although it's called a practice room, it's actually fully equipped with tea, snacks, and refreshments. The bed is spacious with soft pillows, making it convenient for her to fall asleep whenever she gets tired from practicing.
There are two full shelves of books against the wall, of all kinds, mostly bedtime reading materials.
Hua Deng sat on the bed, assumed a proper posture, and began to circulate her spiritual energy according to her master's instructions.
Shen Zhou pulled up a chair and sat down, also entering a meditative state.
This time, however, he had only just begun his cultivation when he unusually drifted off into thought, remembering what the female cultivator had said.
She said the streetlights had a unique aesthetic.
And what about him?
Unable to figure it out, Shen Zhou simply opened his eyes and glanced at the bookshelf beside him.
He used to look down on these things, but now, he can only find answers here.
He randomly picked up a book and asked, "Have you read all of these?"
"More or less." Hua Deng was secretly eating a snack when he was caught red-handed. When he saw the book in Hua Deng's hand, he was speechless.
"Did you take the wrong one? This is my storybook, not a cultivation manual. The contents might be a bit... indecent."
Shen Zhou didn't answer, but his hands were already flipping through the pages at lightning speed.
Hua Deng was intrigued: "Aren't you worried about wasting your time? There are no sword techniques or manuals here..."
"I've finished reading it," Shen Zhou said.
"You've finished reading this?" Hua Deng was taken aback. He'd finished a book that was only two fingers thick so quickly?
Shen Zhou put the book back in its original place and said calmly, "I've read all three hundred and fifteen books."
Hua Deng stared wide-eyed for a long time before finally saying, "Is it the kind described in books, where scanning with divine sense is equivalent to reading the whole thing?"
"Um..." He paused, then changed his words: "Yes."
The streetlights exclaimed "Wow!" with obvious envy.
Shen Zhou didn't mention it, but with the strength of his divine sense, he could automatically extract and integrate the information the moment he finished reading it.
For example, right now, his mind is full of excerpts from the book—
"She is a saintess from a prestigious family, possessing immense magical power, cold yet gentle, forthright yet elegant, composed yet passionate..."
[Note by Hua Deng: This is me.]
"He, the leader of the Demonic Sect, possessed unparalleled beauty, captivating all beings, and for her he was willing to go to heaven and earth, burning his life and blood..."
[Note by Hua Deng: My ideal type. I hope to meet him soon. I'm willing to pay 100,000 (crossed out) 50,000 spirit stones as a "sugar daddy/sugar baby" fee.]
"Only 50,000, cheaper than him," Shen Zhou nodded slightly.
When he finished reviewing the contents of the book and found that he had gained nothing, Hua Deng had already calmed his mind and entered a meditative state, silently performing hand seals and breathing exercises.
Her silence was a rare moment of quietude; her mouth, which was always busy talking and eating, was tightly shut, her lips unusually red, with a natural smile.
Perhaps it was because the atmosphere was too quiet, or the sunlight was too bright, but he suddenly had an absurd question—was the person in front of him good-looking?
Judging from their reactions, they should be quite a sight, Shen Zhou thought casually.
He shouldn't care about these things. For a long time, appearance has been useless to him, both to himself and to others.
So he suppressed his thoughts and subtly averted his gaze.
Just then, as if sensing his scrutiny, Hua Deng opened his eyes.
Her long eyelashes parted, revealing a pair of bright and beautiful peach blossom eyes, clear as autumn water, still carrying a hint of naivety, probably not expecting to meet his gaze.
But soon, those eyes curved into a familiar arc, the pupils flowing with a pale gold, reminding him of the mountain spring in front of his childhood home, shimmering in the sunlight and bamboo shadows.
She has a beautiful smile, and that's the only thing Shen Zhou can be sure of.
Hua Deng: "..."
Hua Deng: "...?"
"Why are you looking at me like that!" Hua Deng exclaimed in horror, her eyes widening as she touched her face with both hands. "Did I suffer a qi deviation during my martial arts practice and become disfigured?"
"Probably not," Shen Zhou said calmly and composedly. "Your face is almost the same as before, just a bit plumper than it was ten days ago—"
Hua Deng screamed: "Don't you dare mention that word in front of me!"
Shen Zhou said, "It's a little wider."
"...You're not allowed to mention that word either!" Hua Deng exclaimed angrily, holding her face in her hands, utterly dejected. "I've already reached the Foundation Establishment stage, how could I possibly get fatter?"
"Only after the Golden Core stage will one's appearance be fully formed; Foundation Establishment only slows down aging."
Shen Zhou paused for a moment: "Why should we care about this?"
A cultivator's physique does not affect their strength. In order to disguise himself, Shen Zhou has changed his appearance many times, transforming into an obese man nearing fifty and a skinny ten-year-old boy.
But looking at the pitiful state of the streetlights, he recalled the words of comfort from the male protagonist in the storybook and said, "It's okay, you're no different from before even if you've gained weight."
"I haven't gained weight! I haven't gained weight!" But instead of being comforted, Hua Deng acted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, yelling, "Try saying that word again!"
Shen Zhou remained silent, reaffirming the fact that those storybooks were useless rubbish.
"Hey, your communication talisman is lit up." Hua Deng pointed to the lit talisman on his waist and blinked curiously. "Someone is actually contacting you? I thought you didn't have any friends."
"Not friends."
Shen Zhou reached out and tore off the talisman, looking annoyed. Without even glancing at it, he lit the flame.
The talisman burned out in his hand, but stubbornly left behind two words: "Return quickly."
His brow twitched slightly, he grasped the golden light in his palm, and stood up: "I'm going out for a bit, I'll be back tomorrow night."
"That counts as absenteeism, and your entire salary will be deducted tomorrow!" Hua Deng shouted.
Shen Zhou's figure, which was originally half transparent, suddenly solidified again.
He looked at the streetlights: "I'll be back tomorrow morning."
Hua Deng didn't even look up: "Oh, then deduct half for today."
Shen Zhou glanced at the sky; the sun was setting in the west, and the day was drawing to a close.
He said casually, "Won't your Huafu go bankrupt if you calculate things like this?"
Hua Deng grinned at him, revealing her teeth: "If the company goes bankrupt, you'll be out of a job. You'd better work hard, okay?"
Just as Shen Zhou was about to say something, another communication talisman flew out from his waist, this time with a stronger tone: Return immediately!!!
He remained silent for a moment, then his figure completely disappeared from the spot.
...
The Demonic Cult, Ziyang Palace.
Inside the majestic and imposing palace, on the blood-stained bluestone slabs, a tall figure in a black robe appeared out of thin air, lifted his foot and walked forward, seemingly oblivious to everything around him.
On both sides of the road, demonic cultivators of varying cultivation levels knelt on the ground, respectfully bowing their heads in worship.
Without stopping, he reached the end of the road in the blink of an eye.
Not far away, the setting sun cast long, menacing shadows on the eaves and walls of houses.
From the depths of the shadows, the young man, standing on a human staircase and wielding a blood-stained sword, turned around and gave him a sinister smile across the human flesh staircase.
"You've finally arrived! I thought you'd died out there."
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