Jiang Huai’s ear rang with another ding.
“Because I waited for you in the snow and danced for you, Ning Yuzhu’s tender and slender jade feet are cold now. It’s time for you to atone. Pick up Ning Yuzhu’s white and tender little feet, massage and warm them, that’s what you should be doing.”
“Mission target: Desecrate Ning Yuzhu’s white and tender little feet.”
“Mission reward: Ice and Snow Rune.”
Jiang Huai still ignored the System. The smell of conspiracy he detected was growing stronger. Little Huai was self-aware. Although he had the potential to be a kept man, he didn’t believe Ning Yuzhu would be inexplicably so close to him after only a few days together, to the point of putting her white and tender little feet into his arms for him to desecrate at will.
When something goes against the norm, there’s usually a reason. What does she want from me?
But by the time he came to his senses, Ning Yuzhu was just by the stove, warming herself. The firelight illuminated her cheeks, her eyelashes drooping, casting shadows that revealed a hint of her melancholy.
Hiss, why did he suddenly feel like an even bigger bastard for not warming up his Senior Disciple Sister?
But the fire crackled and popped, and it was too late for Little Huai to regret it. He could only sit by the stove, pour himself another cup of wine, and begin to praise softly, “Sister’s dance was truly beautiful. It’s my fortune to witness it tonight, but I caused Sister to freeze. If you ever need me in the future, please don’t hesitate to ask, give me a chance to compensate.”
Ning Yuzhu slowly looked up, gazing into his eyes, her delicate pink lips moving slightly, “Do you speak the truth?”
“Naturally,” Jiang Huai replied honestly.
Her eyes became a little unfocused. After a long while, she finally replied softly, “Thank you.”
She picked up the crystal cup in her hand and drank the wine in one gulp, her cheeks slowly flushing.
Outside, the wind and snow raged, but inside, the stove was just the right amount of warm. With a glass of warming winter wine and a beautiful immortal by his side, Jiang Huai was momentarily dazed. Others entered the Upper Realm to fight and kill, spending great effort to finally find a place to settle down. How could he feel like he was on vacation?
Jiang Huai began to chat casually with Ning Yuzhu. The Upper Realm was vast, and there were many things he didn’t know. Ning Yuzhu patiently answered all his questions. At the end of the month, there would be the grand Lantern Festival in the Ancestral Dao Origin Realm, where Ning Yuzhu would take Jiang Huai and Jiang Zhi to attend.
The two talked for quite some time until the remaining wine in the pot was finished. Jiang Huai snapped back to reality from his daze. Just as he was about to say he should go back, he realized Ning Yuzhu had already slumped onto the table, asleep without him realizing it.
Ning Yuzhu seemed to be unable to handle her alcohol. Jiang Huai remembered that when the wine in the pot was half-empty, she had already collapsed on the table, her eyelashes trembling. Jiang Huai had even taken half a cup of wine from her. Now that she was asleep, Jiang Huai tried to call out to Ning Yuzhu softly. Ning Yuzhu slowly opened her eyes, her irises no longer cold but instead seemingly a little hazy.
“Sister, I’ll be going back first. Sister should go back to bed and sleep too?”
Ning Yuzhu responded with a very soft hum and stood up, but her body swayed a little.
The rules of this world were truly interesting. Cultivators would feel cold, hungry, and get drunk. Jiang Huai discovered that he couldn’t even use Spiritual Qi to dissolve the slightest bit of the alcohol’s effects. The Divine Emperor who implemented such a cultivation path was truly a unique individual.
Ning Yuzhu began to grope around hazily, heading towards her bed. But as she reached the bedside, she stumbled and fell directly onto the bed. Her white and tender little feet dangled in the air, her slender calves suspended. Her snow-white soles faced Jiang Huai. Jiang Huai felt that this was somehow inappropriate. He came to her side, hesitated for a moment, and softly called out, “Sister?”
“Mmm…” Ning Yuzhu let out a soft mumble.
“Cover yourself with the quilt, don’t catch a cold.”
Ning Yuzhu turned over groggily but seemed to still be in a drunken daze. She had taken off her outer coat earlier because it was too hot by the stove. Now, she was wearing a dance dress, light and slightly transparent. In her current defenseless state, Jiang Huai heard the System dinging in his ear again. But he was too lazy to look. After another moment of hesitation, he leaned closer, picked up Ning Yuzhu properly, laid her flat on the bed, put a pillow under her head, covered her with the quilt, and tucked her snow-white little feet in securely together.
Well, that way she wouldn’t catch a cold.
Having done all that, Jiang Huai turned to leave, satisfied. He extinguished the Firefly Stone lamp and quietly closed the door. Outside, the wind and snow still raged. Jiang Huai continued to walk hazily in the snow.
A pot of wine had made his head spin. He returned to his courtyard, where Jiang Zhi was still awake, clutching her quilt. Seeing him return, her face lit up with a smile, “What’s wrong? Didn’t you go to see your Senior Disciple Sister dance? Why do you smell of alcohol?”
“Senior Disciple Sister brought out a pot of wine and said it was to warm herself up.”
“Then did you have a heart-to-heart talk over wine, then accidentally reveal her loneliness, make you pity her, and then you took the opportunity to hug her to warm her up and take some advantage? Then you told her a story to lull her to sleep? When Senior Disciple Sister comes tomorrow, she’ll glance at you again and blush quietly, and then over time…”
“Stop, I told you to read fewer scripts.” Jiang Huai burrowed into the quilt and hugged Jiang Zhi resentfully. “Nothing happened! At most, I helped a Senior Disciple Sister who wasn’t drunk to bed and tucked her in. I didn’t touch anything I shouldn’t have, so help me God.”
“Alas, if you had no impure thoughts, you wouldn’t bother to explain to me. Now you’re so eager to prove your innocence. Hmph, the innocent will remain innocent…”
So if I don’t explain, you’ll say I have something to hide and am afraid to speak? Hmph, women.” Jiang Huai suddenly reached under her lower abdomen. Jiang Zhi struggled indignantly. “Your hands are so cold!”
“So let me warm them up!”
“No warmth, no warmth, you bastard!”
“Just for a little warmth… let me find where it’s warmer…” Jiang Huai leaned into her ear and began to tease her unreservedly. Soon, Jiang Zhi’s cheeks were flushed. Jiang Huai teased her to an unbearable degree, but then he felt like sleeping. Angered, Jiang Zhi flipped over and pressed down on his chest. If he didn’t drain her three times tonight, he wouldn’t be able to close his eyes.
Perhaps due to the many nights of pleasure in recent days, Jiang Zhi’s hip movements had become increasingly skilled.
The weather was too cold, so Jiang Zhi just wanted to lie on him and wrap herself tightly in the quilt, feeling the slow, light movements in the warmth of the bed.
……
The next day, early morning.
Ning Yuzhu brought breakfast again.
Today’s breakfast consisted of steamed flower rolls, a bowl of cooked millet porridge, and a small plate of assorted pickled vegetables. It was light yet flavorful. Today, Senior Disciple Sister Ning was wearing a maid dress again, but the skirt hem was longer, dragging to her ankles. However, the slender black high heels beneath her ankles revealed her smooth, snow-white insteps. Her posture as she walked on the snow in high heels was light and elegant, and Jiang Huai found he could no longer look directly at her.
“Where did Senior Disciple Sister buy this dress?” Jiang Huai asked curiously. Jiang Zhi smiled playfully from the side, only to hear Jiang Huai shamelessly adding, “I want to buy one for Jiang Zhi too.”
“Master bestowed it upon me,” Ning Yuzhu replied softly.
“Oh…” Jiang Huai understood.
Ning Yuzhu was here today to help the two break through their cultivation levels. The Spiritual Qi on White Dew Mountain was already terrifyingly abundant. Furthermore, Jiang Huai and Jiang Zhi had been cultivating together for these past few days, and both their cultivation levels had reached the perfected tenth realm, but they didn’t know how to break through.
Ning Yuzhu then explained to them.
“There are three methods to break through the tenth realm. Ordinary cultivators use breakthrough pills, but breakthrough pills also have distinctions in quality. They are particularly important. The vast majority of young disciples from aristocratic families use high-grade breakthrough pills.”
“The second method involves the Star Soul Domain and the Moon Soul Domain. They possess their own exclusive Star Soul and Moon Soul inheritances. Even the lowest-tier inheritance is more than five times greater than a high-grade breakthrough pill. Over the years, many cultivators from the Lower Realm have entered the Upper Realm, either joining families and sects to seek breakthrough pills or attempting to join the Star Soul Domain or Moon Soul Domain. However, joining these two domains is equivalent to becoming their slaves. One must serve for a thousand years before repaying the kindness of receiving such a low-tier inheritance.”
“What about the third method?” Jiang Zhi asked curiously from the side.
“The third method is a secret technique from the Corrupted Domain. The Corrupted Domain is where the most cultivators from the Lower Realm gather because it is not interfered with by the power of the Star Soul Domain and the Moon Soul Domain. In the eyes of the Upper Realm, these cultivators who came from the Lower Realm are all outsiders. They do not consider them part of their own race. According to the laws of the Upper Realm, perhaps you will be punished if you kill your own kin. But if you kill someone from the Lower Realm, you will not be punished unless they have already joined a certain force and obtained theirProtection.”
“Therefore, over the years, many cultivators from the Lower Realm have arrived in the Upper Realm, only to be captured and enslaved. Perhaps they were once respected by thousands in the Lower Realm, but once they arrived in the Upper Realm, their lives were as cheap as ants and weeds.”
“Senior Disciple Sister also came from the Lower Realm. Therefore, after she betrayed her Master, she went to the Corrupted Domain, became its Domain Lord, and was willing to take in many cultivators from the Lower Realm.”
“So that’s how it is…”
Jiang Huai then asked, “Then what method will we two use to break through?”
Ning Yuzhu said faintly, “Master has already prepared the method for you two to break through.”
As she flipped her hand, three drops of blood appeared in her hand. Two of them were resplendent golden-yellow, and the other was a brilliant star-blue. These two drops of blood exuded an ancient pressure, causing Jiang Huai and Jiang Zhi to hold their breath for an instant.
“Is this…?”
“This is the blood of the long-deceased Star God and Moon God. This is the inheritance that only the most outstanding lineage of patriarchs in the Star Soul Domain and Moon Soul Domain have the right to receive over a thousand years.”
“This drop of blood is for Jiang Zhi.” Ning Yuzhu transferred a drop of golden blood in front of Jiang Zhi. “This is the Moon God’s blood, and I will assist you in refining it later.”
“After Jiang Zhi finishes refining, I will assist you in refining the remaining two drops,” Ning Yuzhu said softly.
Jiang Zhi did not blame her Master for favoritism. Instead, she asked with more curiosity, “Didn’t you say this is the blood of inheritance from the patriarchs of the Star Soul Domain and Moon Soul Domain? How did Senior Disciple Sister get it?”
Ning Yuzhu shook her head and calmly replied.
“Master went and snatched it back with a sword.”
