Chapter 44
“What?! You are sixty-five years old?!” Lu Yunxi gasped, staring at Yasi in absolute disbelief.
Zhou Xiaoyu looked just as stunned.
Yasi crossed her legs, looking back at the two of them with an exasperated sigh. “What are you two staring at?! Is being sixty-five that weird? The real point here should be the curse I slapped on that bastard Luo Qi!”
She sneered, a mocking smirk curling the corner of her lips. “I’m telling you, from this day forward, Luo Qi has to remain completely faithful to his woman. If he takes a concubine or goes out trying to seduce anyone else, he’ll become stupider by the day—so idiotic that his superiors will throw him out on his face! There’s going to be a spectacular show to watch.”
“You’ve already told us that part!” Lu Yunxi waved her hands dismissively, not caring about the curse at all. “It’s your age that’s throwing me off! Back in our village…”
Back in Mushroom Village, sixty-five-year-olds were covered in wrinkles and their grandchildren were already running off to school! They didn’t look like Yasi, whom anyone would easily mistake for a girl of seventeen or eighteen.
Then, a sudden realization struck her. No wonder the elders always said the rule about leaving the village if you couldn’t kill a field mouse had been going on for generations. In Mushroom Village, the chief was replaced every few years. If each chief’s term counted as a generation to them, then a few decades really did span several generations!
After a moment of thought, she turned to look at Zhou Xiaoyu. “Xiaoyu, what about you? Are you in your fifties or sixties too?!”
Zhou Xiaoyu blinked, replying softly, “No, I’m actually only twenty this year.”
“You two are so provincial!” Yasi snorted softly, leaning back against her cushion. The movement made her look even more graceful and alluring. “People out in the countryside get married early. But in the cities, we only start venturing out to explore the world around nineteen or twenty, and most people don’t get married until after fifty! My family just happened to arrange things early. They set a wedding date when I was eighteen, and I was formally betrothed to Luo Qi at twenty-two.”
“I am still in my youth! If you want to talk about someone being old, Luo Qi is the real relic here, alright?! He’s already a hundred and twenty years old!” Yasi said with deep disdain. “As long as you practice martial arts—even the most basic, white-grade skills—your lifespan extends. You can easily live to be three hundred!”
Lu Yunxi was floored. This was the first time she had ever heard of such a thing. Back in her village, anyone who reached fifty or sixty was considered blessed with long life, let alone two or three centuries!
Zhou Xiaoyu was equally stunned. “Luo Qi is a hundred and twenty? Doesn’t that make him older than my grandfather? When my grandfather saved his father’s life, why didn’t his family mention that? They even claimed they wanted to marry me into their house to repay the favor! He must have already been engaged to you back then, right? Yet they kept completely silent about it!”
The realization that she had almost married such an ancient man made her pat her chest in lingering terror. “Thank goodness the marriage fell through. If I had actually married him… then…” She couldn’t even finish the sentence before her eyes welled with tears.
Lu Yunxi felt a headache coming on. This timeline was so twisted it was making her dizzy.
She shot a meaningful look at Yasi. Yasi had been the one to actively pursue Luo Qi back then, despite him being so much older than her. She really had a taste for older men.
Yasi’s face turned an awkward shade of red and purple. She clearly felt like she must have suffered a total lapse in judgment back then.
To smooth over the tension, Lu Yunxi quickly changed the subject. “By the way, about the martial arts that extend your lifespan… Do you think I could pass the academy’s skills down to my fellow villagers? If they can learn them, their lives would be extended too!”
The villagers of Mushroom Village had helped her immensely, and she wanted to give back. If they could master martial arts, they would be much safer. They wouldn’t have to live in constant fear of some rogue player dropping in to cause chaos.
“Hmph! Don’t be an idiot!” Yasi frowned, glaring at her sharply. “The academy has never explicitly forbidden people from sharing their skills. But look at the commoners outside—how many of them actually know martial arts? Have you ever wondered why?”
Lu Yunxi blinked. “Why?”
“If you hand a secret manual over to someone else, your destiny becomes tied to theirs. If that person uses your teachings to commit evil, the heavenly ledger counts it against you. When you try to break through to higher realms, you’ll be struck down by tribulation lightning!” Yasi sat up straight, her expression deadly serious. “Years ago, an esteemed senior chose to spread his secret manuals far and wide. As a result, a few vicious characters learned his styles and spent their days murdering and plundering. Later, when that senior attempted a breakthrough, a barrage of heavenly thunderbolts rained down from the sky and blasted him to ashes!”
No wonder no one passes down their techniques, Lu Yunxi thought. The restriction made things tricky. She could only hope she would stumble across a unique manual in the future that inherently forced its users to remain righteous.
“Can I learn martial arts too?” Zhou Xiaoyu asked eagerly, her interest piqued by their conversation.
“Not yet,” Yasi replied, reaching out to feel the girl’s pulse. Her brow furrowed slightly. “To learn cultivation techniques, you must at least be able to see. Otherwise, you won’t even be able to locate your own acupuncture meridians! In your condition, we must first find an expert with master-level recovery skills to restore your sight. Unfortunately, master-level healers are incredibly rare.”
“Oh? Would the technique you taught me work, Yasi?” Lu Yunxi asked as a sudden thought struck her.
“The core technique is capable of it, yes, but executing it is a different story. The manual I gave you is Purple-grade. Upgrading it to the advanced level only requires steady, continuous practice. But breaking through from advanced to the master level is brutally difficult.”
Yasi gestured with her hands to emphasize her point. “Cultivation techniques are strictly divided into six tiers: White, Green, Blue, Purple, Orange, and Gold. These match the six mastery levels: Apprentice, Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced, Master, and Grandmaster. If you have a Green-grade technique, mastering the elementary forms is simple, but breaking past that threshold is nearly impossible. That’s why Gold-grade techniques are the stuff of legends! Who wouldn’t want a god-tier manual that guarantees a path to Grandmaster?”
Lu Yunxi listened silently, mentally comparing this to the makeshift fire-poker style she had created back in the woods. That skill had indeed been completely stuck at the Apprentice level. Her proficiency bar was entirely maxed out, yet the system gave her no way to advance it further.
Sensing the heavy atmosphere, Zhou Xiaoyu offered a gentle smile to comfort them. “Don’t worry, everyone. I’m sure everything will work out in the end.”
The following afternoon, inside the academy library.
“So it was you?! How dare you hire thugs to ambush me!” Luo Qi hissed, his face dark with murderous intent as he cornered her at the front desk. “Just you wait! By tomorrow, I’ll have you kicked out of these gates. You can forget about ever setting foot in this academy again!”
Lu Yunxi remained entirely composed, a faint, placid smile resting on her lips as if his threats were nothing but white noise. “Good day, sir. Are you here to borrow or return a book?”
She had already copied every single manual stored in these archives and was already planning her departure. It was almost comical; a pillow had arrived just as she was getting sleepy. If Luo Qi actually used his influence to get her fired, she wouldn’t even have to waste time waiting for a replacement to take over her shift!
Luo Qi’s face flushed a deep, furious crimson. “You’re finished! You ungrateful little peasant—”
Before he could finish his tirade, soft footsteps echoed from the threshold.
It was Miss Gu.
“Good morning, Miss Gu. Are you looking to browse the archives today?” Lu Yunxi smoothly bypassed Luo Qi, stepping forward to greet the noblewoman with a bright smile.
Luo Qi’s entire body stiffened. The ferocious, predatory scowl on his face instantly melted away, replaced by his usual, pristine scholar’s smile.
“Good morning, Miss Lu,” Miss Gu greeted her warmly. Then, her eyes drifted over to the side. “Oh, Brother Luo! You’re here as well?” Noting how abruptly pale his complexion had turned, she asked with immediate concern, “Brother Luo, are you feeling unwell?”
“I…” Luo Qi lowered his gaze, desperately hiding the panicked gleam in his eyes. He snuck a hesitant, fearful glance at Lu Yunxi, stammering, “It’s nothing! I… um… Miss Gu, would you mind helping me handle my book loans from now on? I’ve just been feeling a bit too weak to walk around these halls lately.”
Following his shifty gaze, Miss Gu cast a highly suspicious look between the two of them.
Lu Yunxi simply stood there, entirely amused. Wow, Luo Qi, you really are a spectacular actor. If she didn’t know any better, the performance would make anyone think she was the tyrannical bully terrorizing him into staying away!
