## 02 Isn’t It Normal to Want to Be Stepped On by Fairy Master?
Jiang Huai’s cough echoed in the room.
Chu Xianning’s beautiful eyebrows furrowed slightly, and she was about to lean closer, but Jiang Huai waved his hand and said softly, “It’s nothing.”
His face was still devoid of color. Chu Xianning, practicing her sword in the courtyard late at night, could faintly hear his stifled groans of unbearable pain from his broken meridians, yet his face wore a calm expression at this moment.
“Why do you have no regrets?” Chu Xianning asked softly.
Jiang Huai picked up a handkerchief and gently wiped his lips. He looked at the trace of blood on the pure white handkerchief, then tilted his head, his gaze falling upon Chu Xianning’s beautiful eyes.
“Master took me to Tian Xuan Sect back then out of kindness. She taught me from a young age to have a benevolent heart, to wield my sword against evil, and to care for all living beings. Now, those bloodthirsty demons are before me, and I have a sword in hand. Naturally, I must strike.”
Chu Xianning’s shoulders trembled slightly, and her throat felt tight. “And did I not teach you to be adaptable?”
Jiang Huai replied calmly, “The situation was urgent that day. If I had been any later, those evil cultivators would have performed their rituals that very night, and the people wouldn’t have been saved. Oh, right, I heard the Sect Master has already arranged for those children?”
Hearing his question, Chu Xianning knew she couldn’t reason with her foolish disciple, so she replied coldly, “They are all arranged. You don’t need to worry about it.”
“That’s good,” Jiang Huai smiled.
“Then do you know that a cripple with no cultivation has no right to remain in Tian Xuan Sect?” Chu Xianning’s voice grew increasingly cold.
Jiang Huai paused slightly before smiling, “Didn’t Granny Jiu You say there’s still a way to heal?”
The mere thought of this made Chu Xianning even more frustrated.
Granny Jiu You was the foremost healer in the entire Eastern Region. Chu Xianning had used a century’s worth of Spirit Stones to invite her. However, in the end, Granny Jiu You only sighed and shook her head, producing a medicinal prescription. She cautioned that this prescription was legendary, and no one had ever succeeded in rebuilding the Qi Sea with it. It could only serve as a sliver of hope.
The prescription listed three ingredients, each worth tens of millions of Spirit Stones, and all were rare spirit medicines. Not to mention the two medicinal catalysts: dual cultivation with women possessing the Flower Spirit Physique and the Ice Soul Profound Body for three days would be required to fully refine the medicinal ingredients. Furthermore, these two women must still possess their Yuan Yin and have a cultivation level above the Seventh Realm.
Chu Xianning looked at the prescription and was so angered that she didn’t sleep all night.
“Do you think Master would go to the ends of the earth searching for medicine to cure a cripple who is about to be expelled from the sect?” Chu Xianning sneered.
Jiang Huai had been accustomed to Chu Xianning’s sharp tongue since childhood, so this bit of harm didn’t mean much. However, at this moment, his eyes showed a pitiful expression. “Is Master going to send me down the mountain?”
Chu Xianning couldn’t answer immediately.
Seeing her silence, Jiang Huai continued, “I can still wash and cook for Master, and tend to the flowers and plants in the courtyard. Can Master please not send me away?”
The wronged and pitiable look in his eyes was truly excessive.
Chu Xianning couldn’t help but recall when he was six years old. She had descended the mountain to eliminate evil and rescued a group of children. All the children were crying and making noise, which was annoying. Only this little fellow had pitifully come closer, hugged her thigh, and asked her, “Fairy Sister, where did my parents go?”
His parents had died at the hands of evil cultivators. Of course, Chu Xianning couldn’t answer. She merely saw the panicked, deer-like look in his eyes was too endearing, and she couldn’t help but pinch his cheek. He then refused to let go of her leg.
Only when she discovered his extraordinarily pure spiritual roots, that he was a natural cultivation talent, did a flicker of compassion arise within her, and she brought him up the mountain. In his early childhood, Jiang Huai obediently called her “Mother.” However, when he grew a bit older and his facial features began to mature, revealing the dashing demeanor of a young swordsman, he suddenly changed his address to “Sister.”
His reason was that calling Chu Xianning “Mother” made her sound old, and “Sister” sounded better.
Chu Xianning vaguely sensed that the puppy she had adopted seemed to have quietly revealed its foxy tail. With an icy expression, she swept him a glance. From then on, she decreed that he was only allowed to call her “Master,” and even a single mistake would result in a beating. After more than ten instances, the child finally toughened up.
The boy who looked quite cute in her memory had suddenly become a dashing young man with amorous eyes. Chu Xianning often felt a sense of awkwardness.
“You’re not allowed to look at me with that expression,” Chu Xianning turned her face away, unwilling to meet those aggrieved eyes. She had only said those words to scare him; now it seemed as if she were a great villain.
“Oh, I knew Master wouldn’t send me away.” Jiang Huai carefully folded the handkerchief in his hand and put it aside, then said, “Master, you seem to be in a bad mood lately?”
Chu Xianning took a deep breath. “Do you think I should be in a good mood?”
“Having your cultivation crippled isn’t a big deal,” Jiang Huai said earnestly.
“Then what is a big deal?”
“Master being unhappy is a big deal.”
“Then guess why Master is unhappy?” Chu Xianning finally turned her head and stared into his eyes, only to suddenly realize that the aggrieved expression on his face had completely vanished. Seeing that she had said this, his eyes instead revealed a hint of a successful plot.
“I understand. So Master does care about me.”
In the past, Chu Xianning also cared about Jiang Huai, but she was naturally cold and aloof and never willing to show it actively.
Chu Xianning suppressed the urge to reach out and pat his head.
His cultivation was now crippled; a single slap would probably turn him into mush. Endure, Chu Xianning, endure.
“Give me half a year,” Jiang Huai’s eyes seriously gazed at Chu Xianning, seeing the anger in her eyes, and he softly reassured her, “I will cultivate it back.”
“How can you cultivate with your Qi Sea destroyed?”
“There will be a way.” Jiang Huai was about to elaborate on his summit plan for the next six months, but Chu Xianning had already stood up and walked straight out the door.
“Where is Master going?”
“Before Granny Jiu You gets too far, I’ll have her take a look at your brain again.”
………………………………
Jiang Huai shouted several times but couldn’t get Chu Xianning to return.
He could only helplessly gaze at the ceiling, contemplating how to find a reasonable excuse to appease his Master and prevent her from worrying about his injuries, but his System could not be revealed to others.
Yes. As a transmigrator, possessing a System was quite reasonable.
However, his System was not very conventional.
His System was called the [Vile Sin System], which would issue tasks based on the subconscious evil thoughts in his heart. Upon completing a task, he would receive Points and item rewards, which could be exchanged for various items in the System Mall.
But the tasks issued by the System were never proper. For example, the most recently issued task was: [Throughout your years of interaction with Master Chu Xianning, she has long considered you part of her family. Now, because you have upheld the cultivation path she taught you and crippled your cultivation by slaying evil cultivators, destroying your promising future, you will be mocked and scorned like a dog from now on. Master Chu Xianning feels guilty, and Granny Jiu You’s prescription coincidentally requires Master’s Yuan Yin body. This is a great opportunity to conquer Master, leveraging her guilt and taking advantage of Master’s personality change after drinking to get her drunk and then push her down.]
[To learn, first sleep with Master.]
[Reward: High-level Experience Scroll x10, Ice Element Sword Quenching Stone x1, Points x10,000,000]
Yes, this damned System was utterly improper.
Since childhood, Jiang Huai had received countless tasks from this damned System. The System had no ability to communicate with him; it was purely a heartless task-issuing tool. The System’s manual stated that all issued tasks were automatically generated based on the desires in his heart. Hmph, I, Jiang Xiaohuai, am a righteous person! Tasks like [Peeking at Master bathing when young won’t result in punishment], [Giving Master a massage when she is tired from practicing her sword], [Bathing Master’s feet to show filial piety] were not what I wanted!
The damn System only fabricated things! It tarnished the image of me, Jiang Xiaohuai, the gentleman!
However, the rewards were indeed enticing.
Jiang Huai began to browse his System Backpack. Looking at the depleted Experience Scrolls, he actually felt a little troubled. On the day he went to the evil cultivators’ altar, his worst-case scenario was two late-stage Nascent Soul evil cultivators, who he could barely fight. Unexpectedly, there was a Spirit Transformation tenth layer cultivator there. Coincidentally, because he was mentoring his son, who was at the late-stage Nascent Soul, he was personally teaching him formations while guarding the area.
Jiang Huai spent all the low-level Experience Scrolls he had accumulated from his Master over the years to kill that Spirit Transformation cultivator, finally reducing him to nothing but ashes with a single burst of Li Fire.
But now, he was indeed crippled.
The System Mall did have pills specifically for his condition. A single pill could completely repair his damaged Qi Sea and even grant him a new Primordial Ancient Sacred Body, but it required fifty million Points.
The item description praised the Primordial Ancient Sacred Body endlessly, but Jiang Huai only wanted the Qi Sea repair effect. Unfortunately, it wasn’t sold separately; it was purely a unscrupulous merchant.
Jiang Huai sighed faintly.
With the System in possession, he wasn’t worried about being crippled. Fifty million Points, if he insisted on accumulating them and showed more filial piety to his Master, he could save them in over a decade, as long as he wasn’t beaten to death by his Master in the process. However, seeing the recent coldness in his Master’s eyes, Jiang Huai felt a pang of guilt.
He knew his Master felt guilty. She surely thought that because she had taught him so in the past, he had made the choice he did, and now his current predicament was partly her responsibility.
But even without his Master’s teachings, Jiang Huai would have done the same.
As a righteous transmigrator, a good youth brainwashed by superhero movies from a young age, indoctrinated with the concept that with great power comes great responsibility, and holding a sword in hand, how could he ignore the cries he heard?
Master had been in a bad mood lately, so he couldn’t casually fleece her. He was about to be de-engaged, and the System would likely issue new prank tasks.
Jiang Huai’s mind was already prepared with the lines, “Thirty years east, thirty years west, don’t bully the poor young man!” Having transmigrated for so long, he had maintained the image of a refined and amiable Senior Brother all these years, never having the chance to play the fool and show off.
He remembered how his blood had boiled when he read about Xiao Huohuo shouting those words while huddled in bed. Now, the opportunity was before him. Jiang Xiaohuai must seize it tightly!
