Chapter 48: My Knife and Shield?

“Guest, your roast duck and tea.”

Outside the door, the speaker was not the previous attendant, but a girl’s voice.

“Come in.”

Xian Yuyan, with her hands folded on the round table in the guest room, looked at the supine Ding Nan and spoke with a distracted mind.

The young girl, no older than fourteen, carried the tray and skillfully placed it on the table in the guest room.

“Please enjoy your meal.”

With that, the little girl closed the door.

She had originally been thinking about how to punish Ding Nan, but many images flashed through her mind, constantly surfacing that silent, poker-faced man.

A stern man with an unsmiling face, he didn’t look like a good person at all, but she knew this man was only cold on the outside.

So she always ended up thinking about this man.

‘No, wait, wasn’t I supposed to punish him?’

Xian Yuyan shook her head and murmured, “Xian Yuyan, don’t be that kind of brainless woman. He toyed with you. If you forgive him so easily, wouldn’t you become one of those ‘easy women’?”

She clenched her small fists lightly.

‘I have to make him know who’s in charge!’

The aroma of roast duck wafted into her nostrils.

She lowered her head to look at the reddish-brown duck.

This roast duck was made with quite cheap ingredients, using ducks with almost no Spiritual Qi.

Apart from satisfying a craving, it served no other purpose.

After all, this was an inn, and it was complimentary food.

Xian Yuyan had seen this kind of arrangement countless times.

But such things were indeed fragrant, especially for cultivators who had not completely shed the shackles of the flesh.

They needed to eat to satisfy their bodily needs.

Given Ding Nan’s current physical condition, he probably couldn’t endure hunger.

Xian Yuyan curled the corner of her lips.

She took out the Dragon-Binding Rope from her Spatial Ring, tied Ding Nan up securely, and then calmly took out a Spirit Stone, placed it on the table, and began cultivating, waiting for Ding Nan to wake up.

A short while later, there was a rustling sound from the guest room bed.

She immediately put away her Spirit Stone and used her Soulfire to gently warm the roast duck, tea, and rice on the table.

Ding Nan’s eyelashes fluttered, and he slowly opened his eyes.

“Well, well, Xian Xinghuan, you old rascal are finally awake,” Xian Yuyan greeted.

She took out a folding fan and fanned it towards Ding Nan.

The enticing fragrance of roast duck filled the air.

“This is your favorite roast duck,” Xian Yuyan said.

Ding Nan slowly lowered his head, looked at the rope binding him, then turned his head to look at the woman with the clean, propped-up face, wearing a mischievous smile.

Ding Nan’s face remained expressionless.

Xian Yuyan watched Ding Nan with great patience.

Once upon a time, that little thief was just like this, always wearing a stern face, making it impossible to tell what he was really thinking.

This man before her was definitely Xian Xinghuan!

Ding Nan rolled over, tumbled off the bed, and very skillfully wriggled his body forward.

“Hey…”

Xian Yuyan was astonished.

In her memory, Xian Xinghuan wasn’t interested in many things—not money, power, women, or men—which made him aloof and noble.

When had the proud him ever acted like this?

But as she watched the scene before her, an inexplicable feeling of pleasure, something called “conquest,” welled up in her heart.

“How about it? It’s been two hundred years. How do you like the power of a late-stage Tribulation Transcendence expert!”

Xian Yuyan said, patting her somewhat developed chest.

Ding Nan didn’t speak.

He looked at her and nodded repeatedly.

Hehe, so he’s submitting. It seems he knows what’s good for him, Xian Yuyan thought.

“Then come here,” Xian Yuyan said, lifting a finger and beckoning.

Ding Nan continued to wriggle forward.

Xian Yuyan watched such a Ding Nan with great delight.

He was very young now, completely lacking the weathered appearance from two hundred years ago, though his eyes were still as deep as before.

Ding Nan gradually approached her, arriving at her legs.

“Wow, you really came over…”

Xian Yuyan was shocked.

But soon, something even more shocking happened.

So shocking that she was somewhat frightened.

“…”

Xian Yuyan’s bare calves were flawless.

Originally, she had been wearing white tights, but now she could only put them away.

“How did it suddenly turn out like this?”

Xian Yuyan used a handkerchief to wipe the remaining stain from her ankle, looking at Ding Nan, who was now restrained on the bed.

She had thrown Ding Nan onto the bed, rolled him up in the quilt like sushi, leaving only his head exposed.

She hung her head low, her earlobes so red they seemed to drip blood, and white mist slowly rose from the top of her head.

Just now, she had experienced the terror of a certain deranged porridge forum member.

“You! What exactly were you doing!”

Xian Yuyan scolded, her cheeks flushed red.

Ding Nan didn’t move, didn’t struggle, didn’t make a single sound.

Several minutes passed like this.

As the warmth on Xian Yuyan’s legs turned to coolness, her heart calmed down along with it.

She put away the now-soiled handkerchief and noticed Ding Nan, motionless as a corpse.

Ding Nan, bound in the quilt, lifted his head and stared blankly at the headboard.

Only then did she notice that Ding Nan’s eyes weren’t calm.

His black eyes, though reflecting light, lacked spirit.

His gaze was unfocused.

It seemed he wasn’t looking at Xian Yuyan but at something else, even though his eyes were directed at her.

“You…”

Xian Yuyan’s beautiful brows furrowed tightly.

She had unfortunately seen that kind of look a few times before.

It usually appeared on people who had broken down.

What on earth did that woman do to him?

Xian Yuyan wondered.

“Lie flat on the bed properly,” Xian Yuyan instructed.

Ding Nan rolled over and obediently lay flat on the bed.

She retrieved the rope from Ding Nan’s body.

Then she took Ding Nan’s wrist.

Checking his pulse, diagnosing his condition.

“Qi Stagnation…”

Xian Yuyan was stunned.

“And a bit of Kidney Yin Deficiency…”

Xian Yuyan quickly reached a conclusion.

Simply put, Ding Nan’s body didn’t have many problems now.

It was just his mental state that wasn’t good; he was in a state of mental derangement.

“Did she torture him? But then how did the rouge scent on him before come about…”

Xian Yuyan muttered to herself.

She looked at Ding Nan again.

Ding Nan was very obedient, lying motionless and looking at the ceiling like a doll.

“In this situation, it’s better to treat him with medicine first…”

Buying medicine, decocting medicine, feeding medicine—she did it all.

In the evening, she saw Ding Nan waiting for her to feed him.

She sighed, looked at Ding Nan helplessly, and still picked up the spoon to feed him.

What kind of problem does that woman have, turning a grown man into this state?

She thought powerlessly in her heart.

When everything was done, she casually cast a Dust Removal Technique on Ding Nan and let him get into bed.

Under the oil lamp, Xian Yuyan leaned over the desk to write a letter.

She wanted to know about Ding Nan’s current situation and what kind of relationship he had with Ji Lanruo and the master of the Xuanbing.

She knew a bit about Ji Lanruo’s situation.

As for the master of the Xuanbing (Luo Yao), she was completely in the dark, having no idea who she was.

After all, she was only a little over two hundred years old—too young.

Additionally, she needed to confirm one more thing.

Previously, she had heard that Fairy Jade Frost had come here and was defeated nearby, the location seeming to be near Qingquan City.

She didn’t know if she had any connection to Ding Nan.

There were many things from the past she didn’t know and needed to investigate.

These three women were all Tribulation Transcendence Stage experts, posing a threat to her.

Collect information on the three, search through past history.

A cultivator’s lifespan was at least two hundred years.

In the long river of time, events came and went in a rush, including many important ones.

Many cultivators had developed the habit of recording history.

And the older the cultivator, the more likely they were to record history.

This history could be used to trace a cultivator’s past.

Whether it was Luo Yao, Ji Lanruo, Lin Yue’er, or Xian Xinghuan.

Xian Xinghuan walked the Heavenly Immortal Path, so he must have left traces in history.

The brushstrokes fell.

This letter was to be sent to Nanyang Academy.

Gathering information was troublesome, and finding the desired information from within it was even more time-consuming and laborious.

So, she planned to entrust it to her connections at the school.

“Be careful not to be noticed by Ji Lanruo…”

“Be wary of Lin Yue’er…”—

Even though she didn’t know yet if Lin Yue’er had any connection to Ding Nan, the fact that she had traveled a thousand miles to deliver herself felt more like there was something fishy going on.

The commission letter was almost finished.

After a final check of the letter’s contents, she suddenly remembered that the professor she knew at her academy had a group of students under him.

“I can entrust this matter to a trustworthy student. If they do well, I’ll give them twenty credits.”

She added this note at the end of the letter.

Finally, when the ink dried, she folded the letter, temporarily put it away, planning to go to the courier station tomorrow to have it sent.

The night was deep.

She stood up.

Hearing the sound of her rising, Ding Nan immediately moved his body inward on the bed, making an empty space and not taking the quilt with him.

Clearly, this action of his was preparing to share the bed.

Understanding Ding Nan’s intention, Xian Yuyan looked at him with a mix of shock and shyness.

The dim candlelight illuminated her face, casting a muted blush upon it.

“You… you… I would never sleep with you!”

Xian Yuyan exclaimed coyly.

Ding Nan’s expression didn’t change.

He just stared at her blankly, still waiting for her to get into bed.

The two looked at each other for a while.

“Mmm…”

Xian Yuyan slowly inched forward and finally slipped under the covers.

She was extremely embarrassed.

However, her shyness vanished extremely quickly.

“I love Luo Yao the most!”

Ding Nan muttered such words in his sleep.

Xian Yuyan’s eyes bulged like a goldfish’s, wide and round.