Chapter Seventeen: Preparations Before the Theft

Release me. Xiaoying’s face was burning hot as she lifted her chin and spoke in a low voice.

He gave a soft chuckle and gently blew a breath against her lips. “I remember back at the Redrock Plateau, someone was beating her own chest and saying, ‘Isn’t it just a body? Take it if you want it.’”

“You shameless wretch!” Xiaoying’s eyes were sultry, yet she ground out the words through clenched teeth.

“You snatched so much merit from me on the Redrock Plateau. However you look at it, I ought to collect a little interest, shouldn’t I?” The big boss thickened his face, slipped his free arm around her waist, and drew her gently closer before slowly lowering his head.

At last Xiaoying panicked. It had been one thing to say such words, but now that the day had truly come, she found herself frightened.

Sensing the violent surging of her spiritual pressure, the big boss stopped at just the right point and let go with a pout. “With our Linglong waiting at home, I wouldn’t even look at a little girl like you.”

Even as he said it, he felt a little like he was deceiving himself, and his old face reddened faintly. He could only force himself to look at the bustle of the street to divert his attention.

Xiaoying ground her teeth and stamped hard. “If you dare be unfaithful to Sister, I’ll castrate you myself.”

“Could you bear to do it?” Li Chengzhu raised his brows.

Xiaoying finally felt that this man’s shamelessness had reached heights beyond her imagination, and quickly changed the subject. “How bad are Sister’s injuries, exactly? Why has her spiritual energy vanished?”

At the mention of Gu Linglong, Li Chengzhu’s expression grew serious. He sighed softly. “Her immortal infant has been damaged too severely. I can only use medicine to seal the immortal spiritual energy throughout her body so her immortal infant won’t fall into chaos and explode her from within.”

“How long can it be sealed?” Xiaoying asked anxiously.

Li Chengzhu held up four fingers. “By my estimate, at most forty days.”

“And after that?”

“And after that? If we can’t find a solution, Linglong will still...” Li Chengzhu lowered his head and stole a glance at Xiaoying.

“What do we do?” Xiaoying seized his arm in alarm, her brows knotting together. After a moment’s thought, she suddenly said, “That’s right, we can ask Master Ancestor. With her Great Golden Immortal level, she’ll surely have a way.” As she spoke, she reached for a jade slip to send a message to Qiao Yanmoluo.

“Don’t...” Li Chengzhu hurriedly stopped her. Oh, dear lady, if you call your Master Ancestor here, won’t my plan go up in smoke?

“Why?” Xiaoying looked at him in confusion.

“Well, because... because I’ve already found a solution.” Li Chengzhu was bragging without so much as drafting a script, and his old face did not redden in the slightest.

“Really?” Xiaoying, tearful and pitiful, clutched his big hand tightly. “What solution?”

“Ahem.” Li Chengzhu put on the air of a charlatan. “I still need your help with this.” Seeing that no one was nearby, he leaned close to Xiaoying’s ear and whispered to her.

Long afterward, Xiaoying’s face grew redder and redder. At last she could not help but step hard on Li Chengzhu’s foot, her face full of frustration. “Sister is already yours. Do you have to be so despicable? Why not just tell her directly?”

Li Chengzhu spread his hands innocently. “You don’t understand. The customs of the Immortal Realm are different from those of my homeland. Especially in Linglong’s era, marriages were arranged by one’s parents, and before the wedding, one could not do... that sort of thing.”

Xiaoying gave him a cold smile. “Then there’s no need for any licentious powder, is there? Why not just get married at once?”

Seeing the teasing look on her face, Li Chengzhu felt a pang of panic, but he still forced his old face to hold steady. “The sooner the better. If we delay and miss the right moment, Linglong will truly be in danger. Besides, a marriage isn’t something you can just decide and do at once. At least... at least give me some time to prepare, all right?”

“Hmph. Do you know? In our sect, the thing we hate most is a man who toys with women and abandons them afterward. Before every disciple graduates, he must kill one man who has cast a woman aside before he can be considered qualified.” Xiaoying’s eyes held unmistakable contempt.

“Is that true?” Li Chengzhu’s mouth fell open.

“Of course it’s true. It was a rule established by the Master Ancestor.”

“Well, then I suppose the women of your sect must all be unwanted,” Li Chengzhu muttered under his breath.

Though she said all that, Xiaoying ultimately yielded. With a turn of her hand, the patterned porcelain bottle she had shown before appeared in her palm, and she tossed it over.

“Remember, Sister has no spiritual power now. You can only use a tiny drop, or else... or else...” Xiaoying trailed off, blushing as she hurried away.

“Heh-heh.” Li Chengzhu caught it with a grin from ear to ear and called after her retreating figure, “Got it. It’s just that using too much makes it last longer, right? I’m plenty vigorous.”

Only after Xiaoying disappeared from view did the shameless grin vanish from Li Chengzhu’s face.

What he had told Xiaoying was only that he intended to use dual cultivation to soothe Gu Linglong’s immortal infant. But her immortal infant, on the verge of collapse, needed more than soothing. The greatest problem was still repair.

He did not know whether the method he had thought of would succeed. If it failed, Li Chengzhu dared not continue the thought.

And there were still many other matters he had to consider.

Strolling down the main street, paying no heed to the people gathered around him and pointing in his direction, Li Chengzhu recalled the events of the past few days.

First was the second form of the Divine-Slaying Bow being unleashed.

That white staff could not only absorb an enemy’s spiritual energy when it came into contact with the foe or their weapon, it could also continuously replenish the energy it had lost. Even more monstrous was its ability to swallow an enemy’s weapon into itself, draining every trace of energy within, even including the soul energy.

That immortal had suffered from a damaged soul, which was why he had been destroyed by Li Chengzhu.

If not for that white staff, perhaps everyone would already have vanished from the Immortal Realm.

The second matter was the hidden hand behind this ambush.

Li Chengzhu simply could not understand why that person would go so far as to send out three immortals in order to kill them all.

Was it merely because they had safely escaped from the angelic camp and returned last time?

Or had they discovered some unspeakable secret and therefore needed to be silenced?

Thinking of the war’s strangeness and its eerie ending, and of the evaporation of the divine crystal, he could not see any obvious connection among these things, yet he faintly felt that this ambush must also be related.

It seemed he had stumbled onto something extraordinary.

The big boss lifted his head to the sky, raised his middle finger in a gesture he had not made in a very long time, and smiled with contempt.

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