Chu Feng slept exceptionally well. Although he hadn’t actually gotten to enjoy the full “rice bowl”, just getting a taste of it left him with an endless afterglow.
The next morning, Chu Feng’s restless little hands woke Liu Shijing. She quietly opened her eyes, and after seeing that Xueyao was sleeping soundly, her thoughts drifted back to the previous night. Right in front of Xueyao, she had held…
And Xueyao had actually been the one guiding her through it, leaving her, as the aunt, utterly stunned. If Xueyao had not still possessed her primordial yin, she would have thought that Xueyao and that brat had already consummated their marriage long ago.
In the end, Liu Shijing carefully pushed the still-restless young man, who couldn’t behave even in his sleep, into Xueyao’s embrace before quickly slipping out of the room.
She really must have lost her senses last night. It was as if she had been bewitched, allowing Xueyao and that brat to do as they pleased.
After Liu Shijing closed the door behind her, Liu Xueyao opened her eyes.
That’s right. The first person to wake up had actually been her. Lowering her gaze to look at her husband’s sleeping face, a faint smile curved her lips. Hugging the young man in her arms a little tighter, she closed her beautiful eyes once more.
***
Today was the day the Liu family would take over the Jia family’s assets.
Within the Jia family estate, whose scale was no less impressive than the Liu family’s manor, the acting family head and the few remaining elders faced the imposing Liu family delegation. No matter how unwilling they were, they could only accept their fate.
Moreover, the Jia family’s ancestor had not returned. It seemed he had followed the others and joined the Myriad Saints Palace.
That was only natural. Compared to a colossal force like the Myriad Saints Palace, a mere Jia family was insignificant. If it was gone, then it was gone. As for descendants, most powerful cultivators had long since lost any meaningful attachment to blood ties.
Meanwhile, Chu Feng followed Liu Shijing and Liu Xueyao through the underground passages beneath the Jia family estate.
Earlier, the Palace Master of the Myriad Saints Palace had mentioned that the Jia family had given the palace something it desired. Whatever that item was, the fact that it had attracted the attention of the Palace Master himself made it well worth investigating.
Venerable Huahai was also accompanying Chu Feng. After all, her true duty was to protect him.
Leading the way at the front was a survivor of the Jia family’s previous purge of the miners.
“The destruction of the Jia family has truly helped this old man vent a lifetime of resentment.”
The old man’s name was Li Shi. His entire family had been lured by the Jia family’s promise of high wages for mining work. Who would have thought that, in the end, the Jia family would slaughter all the miners?
When he was younger, he had made a living hunting low-rank demonic beasts. To avoid alerting his prey, he had specifically trained in the Turtle Breathing Art. Thanks to his ability to feign death, he had managed to survive the massacre.
Walking slowly, Venerable Huahai held a luminous pearl in her palm to light the way.
“Do you know what kind of spirit ore the Jia family was mining back then?”
“This old man has no idea,” Li Shi replied. “The ore near the surface was a brilliant purple color, but the deeper we dug, the darker the purple became. Eventually, it even turned pitch black. It was incredibly hard. In the end, even the mining tools had to be replaced with magical artifacts.”
Li Shi was only a third-rank cultivator. With his limited knowledge, he had never even seen a high-grade medicinal pill, let alone possessed the ability to identify a spirit ore.
“And when mining it, you couldn’t use true qi. Otherwise, the ore would drain every last bit of qi from your body. Even fifth-rank or sixth-rank experts would be completely emptied.”
Purple, then black, and capable of absorbing true qi.
That string of clues immediately reminded Liu Shijing of the frigid yin qi that had once existed inside that brat’s body.
It was almost identical to the ore from this spirit mine.
It seemed that the connection between this mine and the Myriad Saints Palace was far deeper than they had imagined.
Liu Shijing and Venerable Huahai exchanged a glance, each seeing the same speculation reflected in the other’s eyes.
As for Chu Feng, he was somewhat distracted, still unable to fully recover from the previous night.
Looking at Liu Shijing walking ahead of him, her shapely hips swayed with each step, bringing back vivid memories of last night.
The rhythm had been just like this.
Back and forth, left and right, ba-ba.
Aunt Jing had covered her own mouth, seemingly afraid of embarrassing herself in front of Sister Saintess. She had held it tightly shut, only muffled whimpers escaping.
The more he thought about it, the more the primal force within him threatened to break free again. He quickly shook his head to banish the improper thoughts.
Begone, lewd thoughts!
Turning to Liu Xueyao beside him, Chu Feng asked,
“Sister Saintess, do you know what this spirit ore is?”
“Demon Stone.”
“Demon Stone?”
This time, even Venerable Huahai and Liu Shijing, who were walking ahead, turned around to look at Liu Xueyao.
Liu Xueyao replied calmly,
“The demon race has its Demon Ancestor, humanity has its Great Emperors. If a Demon Emperor dies and his remains return to the world, the demonic qi surrounding the area may linger for ages. If it merges with a spirit vein, it can corrupt spirit stones, turning them into Demon Stones.”
Demon Stones…
If what Liu Xueyao said was true. If these were the products of a Demon Emperor’s remains fusing with a spirit vein, then why would the Myriad Saints Palace want them? Logically speaking, shouldn’t such things be sought after by demonic cultivators instead?
Then there was the Myriad Saints Palace’s strange true qi, which had never resembled the cultivation methods of a righteous sect.
There was only one reasonable explanation:
The Myriad Saints Palace was a demonic sect disguised as a righteous one!
The moment that conclusion surfaced, everyone was shaken.
If it were true, then the real story behind Daoxuan Sect’s destruction at the hands of countless allied forces all those years ago was probably far more complicated than it appeared.
When they arrived at the mine, they discovered that nearly the entire underground beneath the Jia family estate had been hollowed out.
Or rather, the estate itself had likely been built solely to conceal this spirit mine.
The Jia family had spent a fortune constructing the manor as a cover, using it to divert attention.
Every trace of the ore had been mined away. Nothing remained.
After conducting a thorough investigation, Liu Shijing and Venerable Huahai failed to uncover any useful clues.
The evidence had been erased completely. Not by the Jia family, but by the Myriad Saints Palace.
“It seems we’ll be leaving empty-handed.”
Venerable Huahai let out a sigh.
Just as everyone was preparing to leave, the final trace of frigid yin power inside Chu Feng suddenly reacted!
“!?”
Feeling the disturbance within his body, Chu Feng immediately turned around and headed back.
“That brat…?”
Liu Shijing looked at him in confusion.
She watched as Chu Feng walked into a corner of the mine, pulled out a golden sword, and started digging.
After digging down about a meter, Chu Feng unearthed a pitch-black ore about half the size of a fist.
“Is this it?”
He examined the ore in his hand as he spoke.
“Yes! That’s it!” Li Shi exclaimed excitedly. He carefully inspected the ore in Chu Feng’s hand. “This piece is purer than any ore this old man has ever seen!”
“Brat, how did you find it?”
Liu Shijing asked. Earlier, even after repeatedly sweeping the area with her divine sense, she had failed to detect anything.
“As for that, I have the last stubborn trace of frigid yin power inside my body to thank.”
If that final strand of yin power had not suddenly reacted, he would never have found it.
Venerable Huahai took the ore from Chu Feng and examined it closely. After scanning it with her divine sense, she said,
“As expected. This ore can absorb the power of divine sense. No wonder we couldn’t find it.”
“Truly, Young Master Chu, thank you. If not for you, we would have returned empty-handed this time.”
“Hehe, it was just luck.”
Chu Feng scratched his head. If even two eighth-rank cultivators had failed to find it, there was no way he could have discovered it without the yin power in his body.
Suddenly—
Mwah~
Liu Xueyao directly kissed his right cheek.
“S-Sister Saintess!?”
Chu Feng was once again caught completely off guard.
“This is a reward for my husband.”
Liu Xueyao recalled something she had read in one of the books her master had given her: good children who received praise should be rewarded with a kiss.
“Aunt Jing.”
Liu Xueyao turned her gaze toward Liu Shijing.
“!!!”
Liu Shijing’s pretty face instantly flushed red.
Last night had been one thing. The three of them would eventually become family anyway.
But there were still other people present right now!
Stare—
Liu Xueyao simply looked at her aunt.
In the end, Liu Shijing surrendered under her niece’s unwavering gaze. Leaning forward, she quickly planted a kiss on Chu Feng’s left cheek.
…
One on each side.
Perfectly fair.
“??!!”
Chu Feng suddenly felt that compared to Sister Saintess, he was the truly old-fashioned one.
She was just far too good at this.
Leave a Reply