Killing one’s spirit…
So, so vicious!
Zi Menghan grew more frightened the more she thought, but she didn’t dare stop smiling.
She knew that if she showed any sign of wavering, she would fall into He Qiu’s trap and be completely caught in his grasp.
Looking at the bag full of demon-slaying techniques, the girl couldn’t help but swallow in fear, covered in sweat, biting her lower lip, and trembling with her head down like a child who had done wrong and didn’t dare admit it.
However, He Qiu didn’t notice Zi Menghan’s abnormal state.
He still sat quietly by the window, patiently reading by candlelight.
He was at ease, while she was tense.
This period was truly agonizing for Zi Menghan!
She was attracted by the young man’s handsome side profile.
Although she felt a bit moved, her chest was still filled with fear and unease.
Her life might be at stake; how could she have the leisure to covet Young Master He’s face?
The deeper she delved into the details, the more terrifying it became.
Zi Menghan suddenly realized again that so many third-tier and fifth-tier techniques—when He Qiu returned, he actually carried them on his shoulder in a large cloth bag, bringing them home in bags, like he was buying wholesale at a market!
What kind of powerful background did Young Master He have?
Were all these techniques free like toilet paper?
Thinking of this, and connecting it to the seventh-tier sword manual she had found by He Qiu’s bed head earlier that day, Zi Menghan was suddenly not so surprised.
It seemed normal for He Qiu to bring back so many techniques at once; there was no need to make a fuss.
After all, he casually left a seventh-tier sword manual by his bedside; how could he value these low and mid-tier techniques…
After a long period of calming down, Zi Menghan finally regained her composure.
She felt she could no longer be led by the nose by He Qiu.
Not knowing anything made her feel too insecure.
She had to do something—at least find out what He Qiu had actually meant by those words just now!
So the girl stepped forward to pour He Qiu a large cup of hot tea, then, suppressing her inner unease, she pulled a chair to sit next to He Qiu and forced a calm demeanor to chat:
“Emmm… Young Master He, are all the books in this bag techniques?”
“Yes, I borrowed some codes regarding spirit cultivation from the All-Books Pavilion to study…”
“Spirit cultivation?”
Zi Menghan was inwardly surprised again, but she found He Qiu’s tone very gentle and not as flustered as before.
If it weren’t for Young Master He always scaring and teasing her, just hearing the young man’s gentle voice and tone would not have made Zi Menghan so paranoid.
She actually liked his voice, appearance, and figure.
Of course, except for his personality, which Zi Menghan hated.
She always felt that He Qiu was a white-cut-black type, a torturer who liked to mess with her with some dark tricks for no reason!
And it wasn’t just Zi Menghan; Luo Qianning, who came to visit this morning, wasn’t she also mercilessly made to cry by He Qiu?
Adding the incident a few days ago when Saintess An Lingran fainted from anger after being publicly rejected…
All these facts showed that He Qiu was very much a scumbag, likely having a fetish for training beautiful girls!
‘Sure enough, this Young Master He is so bad! I… wait, no, I hate him!’
After a brief internal struggle, Zi Menghan calmed down again, remembered her mission, and pretended to be ignorant of the spirit cultivation system, testing curiously:
“But Meng’er distinctly remembers that Young Master He used a sword that night~”
“I was a beginner and learned swordsmanship from Senior Sister, but occasionally I want to try other paths, like… spirit cultivation.”
“Can you train in two paths at the same time? Young Master He is really amazing…”
This time, Zi Menghan’s surprise was fake.
As a sixth-tier Spirit Realm demon cultivator, how could she not know this common cultivation knowledge?
Normal people simply could not choose to cultivate two paths simultaneously, because the two different systems within the spirit vein would contradict each other, causing cultivation conflicts.
It was easy to fail to master either path and end up mediocre, all effort for nothing.
In this world, there were fewer than a thousand experts who truly mastered dual cultivation paths; three-path cultivators, fewer than a hundred; four-path venerables, fewer than ten…
Although Zi Menghan had good talent, she was still young.
It was already hard enough to specialize in one path of sword cultivation, and she had no time to develop other paths.
But she had tried when she was young; besides swordsmanship, she also had talent in formations and physical techniques.
So strictly speaking, Zi Menghan at least had the rare talent to be compatible with two cultivation paths; three paths would depend on fate.
Could it be that Young Master He also had powerful talent compatible with multiple paths?
Regarding Zi Menghan’s doubt, He Qiu took a sip of hot tea to moisten his throat, then spoke leisurely with an air of mystery:
“Yes, there is a senior who masters five cultivation paths simultaneously. She wants me to be like her and try other paths more.”
“Five… five paths…”
Zi Menghan was speechless and stunned, her eyes widening slightly, her heart shocked.
A senior who masters five cultivation paths—nearly invincible with no weakness at the same realm. Who could that be?
Was there any need to guess?
Everyone in the Spirit Cultivation Realm knew: the Empress of the Kyushu Heavenly Dynasty, Nangong Qiongxiao, the half-immortal realm celestial maiden proficient in all five major cultivation paths. She alone could contend with all the deities in the world.
The title of “Number One Empress Under Heaven” came from this.
With her in charge, even if all the demonic sects in the world attacked Kyushu together, the Empress alone could handle them with ease!
The so-called power ceiling of the Spirit Cultivation Realm was exactly such existence.
Back then, when Zi Menghan fled in the dead of night, it was because she had carelessly crossed a line and angered the Empress’s taboo.
She was pursued for seven days and seven nights, barely escaping by fleeing overnight.
Unfortunately, in the end, she didn’t escape.
Instead, she was brought back to Longyin Sect by He Qiu and shamefully made to serve as a maid to a righteous cultivator.
Now her life was utterly lowly.
In short, the Empress was not to be trifled with.
Those who provoked her had no good end, and Zi Menghan herself was a lesson of blood and tears.
Although the Empress herself was as mysterious and unreachable as legend, her influence was far from distant.
Her eyes were almost everywhere.
If you went to any righteous sect to ask an elder or sect leader, nine out of ten would be loyal to the Kyushu Heavenly Dynasty.
But these were not the most shocking to Zi Menghan.
The most shocking thing was that He Qiu, Young Master He, had just claimed to have guidance from a senior who also mastered the five cultivation paths just like Empress Nangong…
Could Young Master He be a private student of the Empress?
There were rumors that the Empress’s palace secretly housed a mysterious beloved disciple.
There were even rumors that although the current Empress had not taken concubines or opened a harem for many years, she had a pampered child, and that mysterious beloved disciple in the palace might be her illegitimate child…
‘No way, could that illegitimate child be Young Master He!’
This bold guess surfaced, and Zi Menghan was directly stunned, scaring herself.
She found that whenever she got close to He Qiu, every detail was terrifyingly profound; reality felt like a dream.
He Qiu: Huh?
“What’s wrong with you now?”
…
…
Just to let you know, the male lead is not the Empress’s son.
The Empress is still single and has never given birth.
All rumors are false.
As for who the mysterious beloved disciple is?
Harem +1.
Those who know, know.
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