Darkness.
Darkness.
Still darkness.
Ding Nan felt as though he had been trapped in an endless dream.
He dreamed of sinking continuously toward a black lake, his self-awareness slowly fading away.
He also dreamed of wandering through boundless darkness, unable to see the path ahead.
He didn’t know how long he walked, but suddenly, he saw a holy radiance ahead. He dashed after it with all his might.
His hand reached out, and he heard birds chirping. Then, he felt something warm and soft against his palm, with a slightly hard top.
That sensation was familiar… but in his memory, shouldn’t it be a big meat bun? Why did it feel like a cornbread that cost four for a coin?
He snapped his eyes open. A gentle light fell into them, but he still found it dazzling.
“What the hell… Where is this place?”
Gripping the edge of the blanket with both hands, he blinked as he stared at the ceiling.
The blanket was warm. It smelled faintly of fragrance. He couldn’t help reaching out to touch the empty bedsheet beside him and called out tentatively, “Yao’er?”
“Cough, cough…” A stranger’s voice responded instead.
Ding Nan turned toward the sound and saw a woman sitting gracefully in the guest room, sipping tea from a cup.
The first thing that caught his attention was her dark brown, shoulder-length hair.
In this society, her hairstyle was particularly unconventional.
Conventionally, only three types of people let their hair go unkempt: savages, barbarians, and bald men with shiny scalps.
Yet she kept her hair at shoulder length. Wasn’t she afraid of gossip?
“Oh, you’re awake.” She set down her teacup. Her pale, almost sickly cheeks held a faint, barely noticeable blush.
This woman was very beautiful—rounded eyes, a sweet little mouth—but her gaze and brows gave Ding Nan a rather sharp impression.
‘She doesn’t seem easy to deal with,’ Ding Nan thought, his expression shifting slightly.
“Miss, who might you be…” Ding Nan looked around and found himself in a private guest room.
“You… called me ‘Miss’?” Her beautiful eyes flickered as she stared at him.
“Uh…” Ding Nan paused and looked the beauty up and down. “Or should I be calling you… sir?”
This time, it was Xian Yuyan’s turn to be stunned.
How did his thought process jump to something so absurd? And did she really look like a man?
Yet, as she watched the bewildered Ding Nan, his clear eyes held none of the cold, dismissive look that Xian Xinghuan used to wear all the time.
He seemed like a truly pure and innocent young man.
Still, she was inclined to believe he was.
When she had entered Ding Nan’s Spiritual Sea, she saw two completely different scenes, representing two distinct spiritual seas.
Having two spiritual seas meant one of two things: either he had amnesia, causing a memory split, or he had a split personality, with different personalities governing different spiritual seas.
For now, she wasn’t sure which case applied to Ding Nan, so she decided to observe him for a while longer.
“My name is Xian Yuyan, from Hujiao City in Dongzhou.” Xian Yuyan spoke briefly. “Who are you?”
“Ding Nan, from the Ding Clan in Qingquan City, Tianfeng Empire.” Ding Nan got out of bed and cupped his hands in salute. “Why am I here?”
“That day, I was out on a spring outing near Qingquan City in the Tianfeng Empire. I found you collapsed by the river, so I saved you.” Xian Yuyan said.
“Huh?” Ding Nan was confused.
How did he end up by the river?
Under Luo Yao’s tyranny, he couldn’t even leave the cave.
And he had no memory of leaving the cavern.
His last memory was of Luo Yao, tears streaming down her face, kneeling before him and crying, while he was tied to an X-shaped torture rack.
“I don’t know the specifics, but there was a battle between powerful cultivators nearby. Seeing as you were also a human life, I fished you out.” Xian Yuyan said.
‘A battle? No wonder that yandere who was imprisoning and ‘training’ me had no time to watch over me… I must have escaped from the cave then.’
‘Wait, could it be that Ji Lanruo came knocking on Luo Yao’s door?’
Ding Nan had no personal enemies. Since his clan was under Luo Yao’s control, the only person he could think of who might have a grudge was that distant Sect Leader of the Xishan Sect.
‘Ji Lanruo is at the Tribulation Transcendence Stage. Is Luo Yao okay?’
“That battle…”
“Yeah, four Tribulation Transcendence Stage cultivators were fighting.” She deliberately gave him wrong information.
However, a Xuanbing capable of acting on its own, without a puppeteer, could count as a Tribulation Transcendence Stage combatant. So it wasn’t technically a lie.
“Four?” Ding Nan couldn’t help but gasp. Even the supreme ruler of the Tianfeng Dynasty was only at the Nascent Soul Great Perfection stage.
Then Ding Nan breathed a sigh of relief.
Since Tribulation Transcendence Stage experts were involved, Luo Yao was probably fine—poor Ding Nan never once considered that his childhood friend was a Tribulation Transcendence Stage powerhouse.
Not that it was his fault. After all, such a level was far beyond his reach.
He couldn’t imagine what drug a Tribulation Transcendence Stage expert would have taken to pin him down and willingly become his servant.
Ji Lanruo was one thing, but a man must know his limits—Ding Nan believed this wholeheartedly.
Having one Tribulation Transcendence Stage expert possibly seeing him as a substitute for her beloved was already pushing it. Could there really be another one who liked him?
What even was a Tribulation Transcendence Stage expert? Not only did they deal massive damage, but they were also ancient beings who had crawled through the Cultivation World for countless years.
Their average age was twelve hundred years old. They were thousand-year-old foxes who played the game of deception like pros.
And the most brilliant current Tribulation Transcendence Stage expert, Ji Lanruo herself, took four hundred years to reach that level—rumor had it there was a monster who achieved it in two hundred years, but Ding Nan had only heard the legend, never seen proof.
Probably fake; otherwise, why wouldn’t he have a name?
Old and cunning. These ancient monsters’ experience, wisdom, knowledge, methods, and schemes were all impossible for a young man like Ding Nan to challenge.
At thirty, one stands firm; at forty, one has no doubts; at fifty, one knows the will of heaven… Never mind twelve hundred years—just how shrewd was a four-hundred-year-old hegemon? How cut off from emotions and desires?
Moreover, they weren’t just experts; they were often leaders of some faction, at the top of the pyramid, the embodiment of power and authority.
Would people like that easily trust anyone, let alone fall in love?
If someone told Ding Nan that two Tribulation Transcendence Stage women had taken a fancy to him, he’d just think they were messing with him.
The probability of one Tribulation Transcendence Stage expert liking you was already lower than winning the lottery.
Two such experts? That probability multiplied.
How many decimal places would that even go to?
Although he had once misjudged Luo Yao’s strength and been beaten down by her, Ding Nan still believed her strength wouldn’t exceed the Golden Core Stage.
A nineteen-year-old at the Tribulation Transcendence Stage? That was no different from Daylight Ascension.
There was no way a nineteen-year-old Tribulation Transcendence Stage existed.
“Many thanks to Miss Xian for this.” Ding Nan cupped his hands.
“Don’t rush to thank me.” Xian Yuyan raised her hand. “I didn’t save you for free.”
Ding Nan paused.
“Uh…” He looked around, empty-handed, and said helplessly, “Miss, I’m completely broke right now. I can’t repay you. I’ll have to return your kindness another day.”
“No need. I happen to be short a servant. You can be my manservant.” Xian Yuyan said.
“Well, that…”
“What, you don’t want to repay the debt?” As she spoke, Xian Yuyan clenched her hand on the table. In an instant, the pressure of a Golden Core mid-stage cultivator fell upon Ding Nan.
Unable to bear it, Ding Nan dropped to one knee.
“F-Fellow Cultivator…”
“Don’t call me that. I’m still young.”
“Miss Xian, please, how much do I owe you?” Ding Nan forced himself against the pressure, gritting his teeth.
“Hmm… about three hundred Middle-grade Spirit Stones.”
“Ah!” Ding Nan shrieked. “Three hundred! Middle-grade Spirit Stones?”
“That’s right. That’s not too much, is it?” Xian Yuyan said.
She wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t too much—about thirty thousand standard stones, equivalent to a year’s wages for a weaver or a carpenter’s apprentice. Heh.
If Ding Nan went home and told Ding Wen or Luo Yao, they could afford it easily.
But right now, Ding Nan dared not go back. Going back meant being beaten and ‘trained.’ He had already been beaten to the point of amnesia by Luo Yao.
And now that he thought about it, hadn’t he developed a bit of Stockholm Syndrome?
How terrifying!
“Why is it so much money?” Ding Nan couldn’t help asking.
“Accommodation fees, medical and medicine fees, food expenses, and travel costs.”
“Medical fees?”
“You were mentally unstable these past days. I had no choice but to take you to a doctor.” Xian Yuyan spread her hands.
“Mentally unstable!” Ding Nan’s eyes widened. ‘I was mentally unstable?’
“That’s right, mentally unstable.”
“And what about those travel costs you mentioned… Miss, where am I now?” Ding Nan asked.
If he was near the Ding Clan, he could use his Hiding Talisman to sneak back home and steal some money.
“We’re in Wancheng. Even the fastest Flying Boat would take a full day and night to reach Qingzhou City. By the way, the cheapest Flying Boat fare is nearly ten Middle-grade Spirit Stones.”
Ding Nan slumped onto the bed weakly.
What choice did he have?
Penniless, in unfamiliar territory, unable to even afford a meal.
“Fine, I accept.” Ding Nan had no other option.
“Good.” Xian Yuyan tossed him a money pouch.
Ding Nan caught it with both hands.
“There’s some money inside. Go buy two sets of clothes and other daily necessities.” Xian Yuyan said.
Ding Nan nodded.
“Don’t waste it. I’m very poor, so I count every penny. This will all be added to your debt.”
“Uh… I understand.” Seeing Xian Yuyan’s completely unashamed expression, Ding Nan reluctantly agreed.
How could someone so poor afford a private room?
Private rooms in inns were the best accommodations. Most people slept in common rooms, or worse, in cattle sheds or stables.
‘She’s not trying to scam me, is she…’
Ding Nan grumbled as he cursed under his breath and left the room.
The moment the door closed, she clutched her chest, her expression tense and embarrassed.
These past few days, she had slept with Ding Nan in the same bed. Nothing had happened—they had only slept together.
But using Ding Nan as a body pillow and him making a move on her were two very different things.
“Xian Xinghuan, don’t let me find out you’re faking it, or you’ll be sorry!” she muttered under her breath.