Perhaps it was the last rain of summer.
Sometimes it poured with pounding rain and rumbling thunder; other times it drizzled with gusts of cool wind.
It had dragged on for many days, never ending.
Without the sun to dry things, and afraid of catching a chill, Wang Sandong simply lay in bed all day wrapped in a blanket, staring blankly.
Anyone who didn’t know might think she was terminally ill and couldn’t even get out of bed.
A stack of books sat on the bedside table.
In recent days, Wang Sandong had been passing the time with these books.
Yuan Di walked over, glanced at the top book, Equipment Compendium, and asked, “What? Thinking of learning Artifact Forging?”
“Just browsing.”
“You won’t succeed at it.”
Yuan Di said, picking up Equipment Compendium and seeing the Pill Material Compendium beneath it.
She couldn’t help laughing.
“Alchemy is also a lost cause. For low-grade pills, as long as you can make fire, you can refine them. But once they reach a certain grade, if you can’t purify the ingredients, you can’t refine them.”
Wang Sandong, wrapped in the blanket, only her head poking out, stared at Yuan Di’s profile.
Ignoring her words, she said, “Didn’t I give you two Sky Silk Skirts? Why aren’t you wearing them?”
“I don’t like them.”
“Tsk, your taste is off.”
Wang Sandong said.
“They’re so pretty.”
“Pretty? You wear them yourself.”
“I’m a man.”
“So am I.”
Yuan Di put down the book, looked at the drizzling rain outside the window, and frowned. “Have you been slacking off on your training recently?”
“Just resting for a few days.”
Wang Sandong said.
“I feel the previous progress was too fast, and my foundation is poor, causing the Demonic Qi in my body to be unstable. I plan to sort it out before training again.”
Yuan Di turned around, looked at Wang Sandong, and said, “You don’t have a Spiritual Root, so your Demonic Qi is already unstable. How can you sort it? How can it become stable?”
“I don’t have a Spiritual Root, but it’s not like I don’t have a Physical Body.”
Wang Sandong explained.
“Even without the constraint of a Spiritual Root, there are still the limitations of the Physical Body. Like rivers compared to lakes and seas, as long as the pace of training is slower and I try not to stir up waves, it should be fine.”
Yuan Di’s pupils contracted.
With a Spiritual Root, it’s like a river; without, it’s like a lake or sea.
When a river raises waves, it can flow downstream to relieve pressure on the banks.
When a lake or sea stirs up waves, they crash directly against the shore.
If the movements are smaller and slower, so that the lake or sea remains waveless, then naturally it will be calm.
This analogy was perfectly fitting.
How had she not thought of it before?
“Hmph.”
Yuan Di snorted lightly.
“You are a little clever.”
Wang Sandong laughed.
“Of course.”
With that, she moved her body toward the inside of the bed.
“Standing is so tiring. Come, take a rest.”
Yuan Di turned with an icy glare and walked straight away.
“Don’t go! It’s so cold, and I’ve already warmed the bed!”
Wang Sandong called out.
Only when Yuan Di slammed the door shut with a bang did she shut her mouth.
The corner of her mouth lifted, then she closed her eyes and silently circulated her Qi.
Wang Sandong believed that her body was different from ordinary people.
Those with Spiritual Roots, when circulating Qi, paid attention to the up-and-down difference of Spiritual Qi flow to correspond to the acupoints along the Spiritual Root.
But she was different.
Because she had no Spiritual Root, Spiritual Qi would flow arbitrarily.
Without the constraint of a Spiritual Root, there was no such thing as up or down.
And for this reason, there was essentially no difference between circulating Qi while sitting and while lying down.
If you could lie down, of course you wouldn’t sit.
After all, circulating Qi for training was also a very arduous task.
Wang Sandong was naturally frail; sitting for too long would also tire her.
Even lying down for too long would tire her just as much.
If you want to live, you’ll always be a bit tired.
Dying wouldn’t be tiring, but how many people are willing to die?
At least Wang Sandong wasn’t willing.
She would rather live with hardship.
Hardship eventually yielded rewards.
Although the progress of her training was slow, it was not without effect.
Wang Sandong could clearly feel a slight swelling in her chest.
If she examined carefully while bathing, she could even detect some slight protrusions.
This was not a good thing.
If Yuan Di discovered it, there would definitely be trouble.
Wang Sandong believed that, despite Yuan Di’s daily appearance of cold aloofness, she probably had a fire burning in her heart.
If she found out that Wang Sandong had already transformed, she would most likely rush over and fight for three days and three nights.
With her own small frame, wouldn’t she be tormented to death by her?
But she couldn’t give up training because of the chest issue.
If she wanted to live well, she had to train hard.
Otherwise, Yuan Di was tolerable, at least she was somewhat refined.
The Demon Sovereign, that mentally unstable scumbag, was much harder to deal with than Yuan Di.
She also didn’t know if the ‘Ten-Year Pact’ made between Yuan Di and the Demon Sovereign would change because of A Yong’s death.
The Demon Sovereign was a madman; it was hard to guess his thoughts.
What if he recklessly charged over and snatched her away from Yuan Di?
At the thought of the Demon Sovereign’s madness, Wang Sandong couldn’t help but feel her scalp go numb and her anal sphincter tighten.
Perhaps she was overthinking.
After all, A-Gui and A Yong, among the Demon Sovereign’s many ‘Demon Disciples’, held low status.
The Demon Sovereign probably wouldn’t go mad over their deaths.
Regardless, only by becoming stronger could she live better.
Wang Sandong, who appeared to just lie in bed every day, was actually diligently training, not daring to slack off for a single day.
The overcast and rainy days that had lasted over half a month finally passed.
A rare good day came, and Wang Sandong could finally sunbathe again.
Unfortunately, the sun was far less scorching than before, so the feeling of sunbathing was much worse.
Madam Wang came, bringing some berries.
She ordered Hongxiu to wash the berries, then peeled them herself and fed them to Wang Sandong.
Wang Sandong felt a mix of amusement and exasperation, wanting to do it herself.
“Mother, I can do it myself.”
“Rest, dear.”
Madam Wang looked at Wang Sandong’s pale, bloodless face, and almost cried from heartache. She took a deep breath and pretended to joke.
“Look at this child, so enviable. Even though you sunbathe all day, you never get tan.”
“Not getting tan is actually bad.”
Wang Sandong laughed.
“This is a sickly pallor. Unlike you, Mother, a rosy white is a healthy complexion.”
Madam Wang felt bitter in her heart, but forced a smile.
“Rosy white? I’m old.”
Although she still looked young and beautiful due to her skill in Preserving Appearance, her tone was full of vicissitudes and disappointment.
She reached out and took Wang Sandong’s hand, feeling its softness and coldness.
Madam Wang’s lips moved as if to speak, but she hesitated.
She still remembered that not long ago, Wang Sandong’s hands still had some warmth.
Lifting her head, looking at Wang Sandong’s peerless beauty, Madam Wang inexplicably thought of a saying:
Beautiful women often have ill-fated lives.
Though not a beauty, surpassing a beauty.
Originally not ill-fated, but destined to be ill-fated.
“Dong’er.”
Madam Wang gently stroked Wang Sandong’s face and sighed.
“Mother has wronged you.”
If back then she hadn’t agreed to forcefully take Dong’er’s Spiritual Root…
Such a hypothesis, Madam Wang had often thought about over the past sixteen years.
In the past year, watching Wang Sandong’s vitality dwindle, she thought about it even more.
Wang Sandong played dumb, asking with a smile, “What are you saying, Mother? How have you wronged me?”
“Alas…”
Madam Wang sighed, not explaining.
She only replied, “Maybe Mother was wrong.”
Maybe.
Maybe if she hadn’t done that, when her eldest son Jinghong died because of her soft-heartedness, she would also regret it, right?
Whether such a ‘maybe’ existed or not was unimportant, because ultimately, she couldn’t make the decisions.
“Mother, you jest.”
Wang Sandong took Madam Wang’s hand in return and said softly, “Parents can do no wrong. Mother cannot be wrong.”
As she spoke, images from sixteen years ago immediately surfaced in her mind, and the smile on her face became even more fresh and pure.
Faced with such a blindly filial youngest son, Madam Wang felt even more self-blame.
Her already broken heart became even more riddled with holes.
She chatted with Wang Sandong about family matters for a long time, until Wang Sandong showed signs of fatigue, then Madam Wang reluctantly left.
She inexplicably felt a sense of dread, afraid that parting today would be a final farewell.
Watching Madam Wang, who looked back every few steps, finally disappear from sight, the smile on Wang Sandong’s face gradually faded.
Taking the tea Wang Tong handed over, she took a sip and sighed softly.
“Young Master, what troubles you?”
Wang Tong asked with concern.
Wang Sandong gave a wry laugh.
“I was wondering, did my mother shed a tear the moment she turned her back?”
Wang Tong didn’t understand why Wang Sandong laughed when saying this.
After thinking, he said, “The lady cares very much for the Young Master.”
Wang Sandong replied softly, “Some love is only out of indebtedness.”
Her expression was cold, almost callous.
After a moment, she sighed again, her expression softening a little.
She said, “If I think carefully, if I were her… what would I do?”
With that, she looked up at the sky.
The sky after the rain was a clear, transparent blue without a trace of impurity, clean and spotless.
Feeling the sky’s clarity and vastness, Wang Sandong greedily took a deep breath and said, “Wang Tong, train hard.
In a few years, when your cultivation is higher, take the Young Master on a journey across the world, okay?”
Wang Tong looked at Wang Sandong’s upturned face and replied solemnly, like making an oath, “Okay.”
“Heh… we’ll see. Plans always change.”
Wang Sandong closed her eyes lazily and instructed, “Boil water, I want to bathe.”
Wang Sandong was afraid of the cold, so recently she started bathing at noon when it was warm.
After bathing, she would come out to sunbathe.
When Yuan Di returned from outside, she happened to see Wang Tong clipping Wang Sandong’s toenails.
Wang Sandong’s body was sunk into a soft chair, her eyes closed, unknown if she was asleep.
Yuan Di walked over, first glanced at the fair, tender little foot being held in Wang Tong’s hands, then looked at Wang Tong’s dirty hands. Her eyebrows lifted unintentionally, and she let out a cold snort.
“If you have something to say, just say it. What’s with the snorting?”
Wang Sandong opened her eyes, saw it was Yuan Di, then closed them again.
Yuan Di inexplicably felt a bit embarrassed and cleared her throat.
“Now what’s with the coughing?”
Yuan Di’s face flushed slightly.
“Don’t leave the mansion recently.”
“Danger?”
“Yes.”
Yuan Di said.
Wang Sandong didn’t respond.
She speculated that there were probably more Demon Disciples coming.
The Demon Sovereign wasn’t stupid; he shouldn’t send disciples one by one to their deaths — at least, he wouldn’t make the same mistake three times in a row.
Therefore, whether or not the Demon Sovereign was angered by A Yong’s death, the Demon Disciples coming this time would definitely not be just one.
“Then I won’t go out.”
Wang Sandong stretched.
“Wang Tong, massage the Young Master’s feet. Ahh… so comfortable…”
Her face full of contentment, she seemed unconcerned about the so-called ‘danger’.
“If there are new servants in the mansion or something…”
Yuan Di said with a stern face, staring at Wang Sandong.
“Be careful.”
Yuan Di’s breathing became heavier, her hands clenched inside her sleeves, and she walked away quickly.
She was afraid that if she looked at Wang Sandong’s punchable face any longer, she wouldn’t be able to resist hitting her.
This little bastard’s Primordial Spirit was getting stronger, but her body was also getting weaker.
What if she accidentally killed her? Wouldn’t all the previous effort be wasted?
She’d just have to endure it.
When she turned into a woman, she would make her pay for today’s arrogance!
Returning to her own room, closing the door, Yuan Di took out a new pair of underpants from her bosom and threw them onto the bed.
Although her cultivation was extremely high, some normal physiological phenomena were still unavoidable.
In the Wang Mansion, there were maids specifically for washing clothes.
Yuan Di was worried that the maids would discover she was biologically male, so she directly threw away the soiled underpants.
She had thrown away quite a lot recently.
Sigh…
Hopefully tonight she wouldn’t have dreams that only young people have.
In her mind, Wang Sandong’s fair little foot appeared again…
And Wang Tong’s dirty hands…
Yuan Di felt that it was time to kill Wang Tong.
Of course, it wasn’t jealousy!
How could she possibly be jealous!
It was simply a rational decision.
Killing Wang Tong would be like cutting off one of Wang Sandong’s arms!
Wang Sandong, who gasped after just two steps, shouldn’t have loyal servants around.
Especially since this loyal servant had also started training.
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