Perhaps due to exhaustion, by the time Su Xuan woke up, the sun had already begun to sink, approaching the hour of dusk.
This sleep had been extremely restless, filled with recurring dreams of hunting. However, the creatures within them were bizarre and strange, each possessing an extraordinary aura he had never seen before.
‘Is this a dream? Or something else?’
Su Xuan rolled over and sat up. He remembered the System notification mentioning that the Leopard Demon possessed a sliver of an ancient bloodline, though this blurry memory didn’t clarify exactly what it was.
Furthermore, within his body, besides the peaceful and colorless Spiritual Power of the Evergreen Art, a small corner had been dyed an Eerie Blue Spiritual Power.
He tried to circulate it, only to find that this mass of energy completely refused to follow his commands. It even gave off a faint, primal ferocity. However, the concentration of Spiritual Power within it was terrifying; that single small corner was equivalent to half of the rest of his total Spiritual Power combined.
‘Could this be the aptitude improvement the System mentioned?’
Su Xuan pondered for a while, deciding to keep a close watch on the connection between those strange dreams and the Eerie Blue Spiritual Power.
“Master, your clothes.”
Lu Zhiyi was carrying the freshly washed laundry, stepping lightly as she prepared to bring them over. Seeing him awake, she spoke in a soft voice.
She kept her small head lowered, her eyes still red and slightly puffy. Her mood was clearly downcast.
“What is it, Zhiyi?” he asked, puzzled.
Aside from the last time he had returned from a trip, it had been a long time since he had seen this girl so upset.
“Master, it’s nothing…”
Lu Zhiyi struggled for a moment before eventually shaking her head.
She was in a difficult position. On one hand, her disagreement with her Senior Sister made it feel like they weren’t as close as before; on the other hand, she didn’t know how to tell her Master.
If Master knew how Senior Sister was acting, how cold would his heart feel? Would he be heartbroken?
“I’m fine… I’m going to go prepare the New Year’s goods, Master.”
Lu Zhiyi suppressed the conflict in her heart, turned around, and left the room.
‘What’s wrong with this girl?’
Su Xuan watched her back, feeling somewhat stunned.
‘Did I do something to hurt her?’
He mentally reviewed his recent interactions with Lu Zhiyi but found nothing out of the ordinary.
‘Could it be that the two sisters are having a falling out?’
As soon as this thought surfaced, Su Xuan immediately dismissed it.
Those two had relied on each other for so many years. If a rift could actually form between them, he would do a handstand and eat the very clothes in his hands!
Shaking his head with a smile, he began to pick through the clothes for something to wear today.
He was going to see Su Yunjin later; it was never wrong to look a bit more handsome.
He picked and chose until he was finally satisfied. By then, the sun was nearing the horizon. He hurriedly pushed open the door and headed out.
“Master, will tonight be the same as yesterday?”
Lu Zhiyi was sitting blankly at the stone table. The copy of the Heaven-Mending Art lay before her, but she clearly wasn’t reading it. Seeing him preparing to leave, she quickly called out to ask.
“Hard to say. You don’t need to wait up for me tonight. Get some good rest,” Su Xuan said, waving at her with a gentle tone.
He really couldn’t say for sure how long it would take to leave Su Yunjin’s house this time. After all, this kind of thing depended on a person’s state. Sometimes you come out right after going in. Other times, you go in for half the day and simply can’t get out.
But regardless, you could never tell how it would go before you actually went in.
Thinking about how she had pretended to wait for him until the middle of the night yesterday just to cover for Lin Zhiwei, and how he had to return and play along with them, he figured he might as well let both sisters stop the act in advance.
“Then, will you still come back to eat…”
Lu Zhiyi pursed her lips, wanting to ask more, but her words were cut short by the sound of the door closing. She stared blankly at the entrance.
Master was dressed very nicely again today.
He said she didn’t need to wait—did that mean he wasn’t coming back? Which female cultivator was it? Could Master really…
Her eyes were already red, and at this moment, she looked somewhat fierce. She fiddled with the Spiritual Stone in her arms, muttering quietly under her breath.
A surge of baseless anger drove her to squeeze the Spiritual Stone tightly. As it rubbed against her grip, it let out an ear-piercing screech.
***
Inside Su Yunjin’s bedroom.
“Huan’er, are you saying a man carried me down?”
Su Yunjin grabbed her maid, Huan’er, disregarding her image as she asked in disbelief.
She was wearing a vibrant red gauze dress. The thin layer clung to her body, yet it lacked even a hint of vulgarity. Her snow-white, silky chest was partially visible, and occasionally, one or two small points could be seen pressing against the fabric.
“Ow, ow, ow… Miss, it really was a man. Even though he was strange and lacked any grace… he was quite handsome,” Huan’er complained. Her wrist was being squeezed painfully, and she only managed to answer reluctantly after breaking free and recalling Su Xuan’s appearance.
“Then… I…” Su Yunjin pointed at the gauze dress she was wearing.
“I changed you into this, of course!” Huan’er said crossly, her face flushing slightly.
Even though she was the one who changed her mistress’s clothes, considering their posture yesterday, she guessed that man had probably gotten a good look at more than a few things.
‘Hmph, pretty boy,’ she cursed inwardly.
“Oh…”
Su Yunjin instinctively let out a sigh of relief.
In all these years, this was the first time she had been so drunk that she had seemingly lost all consciousness. Fortunately, nothing major had happened.
“Sigh… why isn’t it night yet?”
She looked out the window with sleepy eyes. Seeing that the sun had not yet set, she sighed and spoke with melancholy.
Nighttime was always the hardest period for her to endure.
Her entire body would suffer through waves of searing, burning pain that brought her to the brink of collapse. Usually, she would remain in a daze until the early morning hours. How had she failed to even make it to nightfall today?
“Huan’er, bring me a few more pots of wine,” she said, rubbing her messy long hair.
“No, Miss! You haven’t refined today’s Elixir yet!”
Huan’er looked at her mistress with heartache, hurriedly reminding her.
Miss’s body required the daily consumption of an Elixir to suppress her condition, and it had to be refined on the same day. It could not be interrupted for even a single day.
“Didn’t I just take…”
Su Yunjin stopped mid-sentence as she finally fully woke up from her hangover. Her blurry memories gradually became clear.
The Pagoda Tower… the Immortal’s Drunk… the strange young man…
And the nursery rhyme her mother used to hum to her when she was a child…
As she reminisced, her face suddenly grew hot and her eyes became misty.
She remembered that for some reason, she had thought of the past, which had then triggered the intense pain in her body. After that, she seemed to have proactively huddled into that person’s arms.
Not only did she let him carry her, but she had also actively wrapped her arms around his neck… she seemed to have acted spoiled, and they had walked all the way from the street to the house?
More importantly, that person seemed to be more than 10 years younger than her?
Su Yunjin’s heart rate suddenly accelerated as an indescribable sense of shame surged forth.
What made her even more mortified was that her waist and chest felt a faint, lingering tingling sensation. The feeling of reliability and warmth from yesterday actually made her want to relive it.
“Miss, Miss, you’ve slept for so long. How does your body feel?”
Huan’er’s concerned voice interrupted her memories.
Su Yunjin suddenly realized that what she was remembering was from yesterday.
For the first time in so many years, she hadn’t been woken up by the pain. She had slept solidly for an entire day!
And the words that boy said yesterday—how were they exactly the same as her mother’s?
Was it a coincidence, or?
‘Just who are you?’
As she recalled Su Xuan’s face, her heart thudded wildly.
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