Chapter 7
Yu Tai had nearly been scared to death. She had poured several bottles of supreme-grade jade dew down Shu Li’s throat, only for them to vanish without a trace. His fever had not fallen in the slightest.
In the end, Shu Li was barely breathing. He looked ready to die at any moment.
Yu Tai had been forced to ask, [What happens if the male lead dies?]
The System had answered with complete honesty and in painstaking detail. The world would fall apart piece by piece, and every soul within it would be annihilated little by little.
[What you gave him is working. He simply does not want to live. You need to awaken his desire to survive.]
And so, the scene just now had occurred.
While Yu Tai was still lost in despair over the male lead becoming an idiot, Shu Li’s smile faded. He was so weak that lifting a finger would have been an effort, yet the lowered cast of his eyes seemed almost cold.
“Leave the medicine. I won’t die.”
Yu Tai returned to her senses.
Language truly was an art. Wasn’t the subtext of those two sentences simply, *Hurry up and get lost. I’ll recover once you’re gone*?
As expected of the saintly male lead. Even when telling someone to leave, he was impeccably polite.
Yu Tai left Xia Mo behind. Before departing, she did not forget to issue a vicious threat and salvage her image as the evil supporting character.
“If you die, I’ll stew your demon beast and serve it as the offering at your funeral.”
Xia Mo raised a paw and chirped several times in protest.
Shu Li did not answer. He seemed to have truly exhausted his strength. He lay with his eyes half closed, his thoughts impossible to discern.
Xia Mo climbed onto the bed and curled up beside him. It watched him worriedly and nuzzled his face.
—
Fortunately, by the day the Bishui Secret Realm opened, Shu Li had more or less recovered.
Yu Tai exhaled the last breath of her meditation and rose from the cushion, her eyes bright and clear.
After stretching her limbs, she was certain she had reached her best condition since arriving in this world.
Yu Tai made a few simple preparations and walked out of her room. The instant she stepped outside, the distinctive fragrance of millet porridge drifted beneath her nose.
She passed a cluster of bamboo that someone had planted at some unknown point and entered the small courtyard where Shu Li lived.
At the sight of the fence before it, Yu Tai stopped.
She could tell that while she had been concentrating on cultivation, this man had made himself exceedingly comfortable on her property.
Still shackled at the ankle, Shu Li sat at a small wooden table in light, comfortable robes. He held a little bowl and patiently spooned millet porridge into the mouth of the panda sprawled in his arms. His own bowl sat untouched before him.
Clothes fluttered in the wind from a bamboo drying pole in the courtyard. Among them was a red bellyband so familiar that the corner of Yu Tai’s eye twitched.
Shu Li had sensed her arrival long ago. Following her gaze, he glanced placidly at the garment, then smiled with gentle courtesy.
“It was no trouble. There’s no need to thank me, Junior Sister.”
Xia Mo chirped at her in displeasure, clearly unhappy that the joy of eating had been interrupted.
Yu Tai drew a deep breath. Embarrassment was one thing, but alarm was another. Had this man explored her entire cave dwelling while she was cultivating?
The chain she had put on Shu Li could extend and retract freely. Its range was confined to her cave dwelling, but he was the male lead. Yu Tai absolutely could not lower her guard simply because he appeared harmless.
Quickly regaining her composure, Yu Tai sat across from him. Without asking, she took Shu Li’s bowl, scooped up a spoonful, blew on it, and put it into her mouth.
The millet porridge was mild, soft, and creamy. Yu Tai could not help narrowing her eyes in pleasure.
It was the first time she had tasted it since transmigrating into this world.
Shu Li watched her in silence. Her reflection filled his clear eyes, as pristine as water after rain.
“What is it, Senior Brother?” Yu Tai set down the bowl. Porcelain struck the wooden table with a dull knock. “Can’t bear to share?”
Shu Li shook his head and looked away.
Everyone in the Qingshan Sword Sect knew that Junior Sister despised mortal food more than anything.
“You made all of this?” Yu Tai lifted her pointed chin and gestured casually around them.
A faint smile touched Shu Li’s lips. “Of course not. Junior Sister thinks too highly of me.”
Yu Tai suddenly realized something and hurried toward the entrance.
Sure enough, a collection of daily necessities had been arranged neatly outside. A note was attached, listing the number of spirit stones owed.
Inner disciples with private cave dwellings enjoyed the privilege of having servant disciples deliver things directly to them.
The two sides communicated through the summoning box outside, which both the original owner and Yu Tai herself had treated as a decoration.
As the former First Senior Brother of the Qingshan Sword Sect, Shu Li knew every rule for living here.
Yu Tai had almost forgotten about that.
He really had… made himself at home, hadn’t he?
After putting Xia Mo into the demon-beast pouch, Yu Tai stared at the unruffled Shu Li, who was still tidying the bowls and chopsticks, and ran into a problem.
A demon beast could naturally be taken along. Shu Li, however, was a living human. Even if she shrank him and stuffed him into her sleeve, the elder in charge would discover him.
Could she put him inside her ring?
No. Wouldn’t that expose all her wealth?
At the Qingshan Sword Sect’s gathering place-
The aloof Junior Sister adored by all stood with one arm around someone a head taller than she was. A veiled hat concealed the person’s sex and face.
“This is my demon beast. It just managed to take human form,” she told everyone.
The crowd fell silent.
At last, one disciple spoke. “Junior Sister, are you joking? I remember Senior Brother Jiang saying that demon beast of yours hadn’t even been tamed.”
It had taken human form in just a few days?
Jiang Yibai studied the “demon beast.” For some reason, it seemed rather familiar.
“It is indeed a demon beast,” Jiang Yibai said.
He had the highest cultivation of anyone present, was the most talented disciple in the Qingshan Sword Sect, and was also the sect leader’s son. Once he spoke, no one doubted him.
“So that’s how it is. As expected of Senior Brother Jiang-he saw through it at a glance.”
“Senior Brother Jiang is incredible. Once you return from the Bishui Secret Realm, you’ll probably be ready to break through to Golden Core, won’t you?”
Praise poured over Jiang Yibai. Everyone seemed to have forgotten that when Shu Li had been Jiang Yibai’s age, he had already stood at the peak of Golden Core.
Hearing the commotion, the elder approached. He glanced several times at the figure beside Yu Tai and swept him with his spiritual sense.
“It truly is a demon beast that has taken human form. Not bad.”
The disciples greeted the elder.
The aura of a demon beast could be detected around the figure beside Yu Tai from far away. The elder leading the group also possessed a demon beast that had taken human form, so he suspected nothing.
“Junior Sister, why is your demon beast covering its face? Let everyone have a look.”
Yu Tai shook her head. “He is hideously ugly. I’m afraid the sight would frighten my Senior Sisters, so it’s better to keep him covered.”
If even Junior Sister said so, then how ugly did he have to be?
Their anticipation for the Bishui Secret Realm soon displaced their curiosity, and no one paid further attention to Junior Sister’s “transformed demon beast.”
The hideously ugly demon beast-otherwise known as Shu Li-watched these old “friends” in silence from behind the hanging veil.
Everyone boarded the cloudship and eagerly discussed the opportunities they might encounter inside the Bishui Secret Realm.
Yu Tai and Shu Li stood at the edge of the cloudship. Shadows from the clouds above formed a dividing line that separated them from everyone else.
Yu Tai’s soft, bewitching voice suddenly sounded.
“Do you want to kill them?”