Chapter 116| Chapter 117| Chapter 118
Chapter 116: Forgiveness
Qiu Yan watched the two figures talking a short distance away.
They were an strikingly attractive pair—the man was undeniably handsome, and the woman was a classic beauty. Even though the girl only showed half of her profile in the dim lighting, her fair, flawless skin and long, smooth black hair made her elegance obvious. Because her back was mostly turned, Qiu Yan could only catch a glimpse of her delicate features and slender silhouette.
She pursed her lips, a sudden wave of sharp displeasure flashing through her eyes.
Who is this woman? Why is she hovering around Fu Lao San? Is she the one he’s actually interested in?
If that was the case, could she even still pursue the third son of the Fu family? She was desperate to secure a high-tier marriage alliance to save her biological family, but she refused to compromise her dignity and become a homewrecker.
Seeing the third son of the Fu family step back into his room and close the door, Qiu Yan abandoned her hiding spot and rushed forward, eager to get a proper look at the mysterious girl’s face.
Unfortunately, the sheer volume of alcohol she had consumed earlier finally hit her system all at once. Her legs buckled, her balance vanished completely, and she crashed heavily onto the floorboards.
Ow!
Groaning in pain, she scrambled to push herself back up, desperate to interrogate the woman about her relationship with Fu Lao San. But her hands slipped against the wood, and she collapsed right back down halfway up.
Dammit! Back in the real world, she was a seasoned drinker with a legendary tolerance. How on earth was her avatar completely unable to stand after just a few casual drinks?
As she wallowed in her frustration, a soft, heavenly voice drifted down over her. “Are you okay?”
The voice felt like a gentle breeze brushing past her ears, accompanied by a subtle, soothing fragrance that instantly set her at ease.
Qiu Yan lifted her heavy head, only to find that the beautiful girl who had just been speaking with the third son of the Fu family had walked over to her side.
The girl wore a flowing silk dress that accentuated the delicate, porcelain whiteness of her skin. In the dim light of the corridor lanterns, her flawless face seemed to emit a soft, ethereal glow. She possessed perfectly sculpted brows, a small nose, and rosy, petal-like lips. No matter the angle, she was breathtakingly beautiful.
“You… you’re so gorgeous!” Qiu Yan stammered blankly, her jaw dropping slightly in sheer awe.
“Let me help you inside,” the girl offered gently. To Qiu Yan, the beauty felt entirely weightless and soft, her skin like cream, radiating that intoxicating, faint aroma.
Qiu Yan felt as though she were trapped in a lucid dream, floating weightlessly through the air. By the time her mind finally managed to clear a fraction, she had already been carefully laid across the mattress, the edges of her blanket tucked neatly around her shoulders.
Seeing the girl turn to take her leave, Qiu Yan panicked, breaking out of her stupor to frantically snag her by the sleeve. “Miss, please wait! Who are you? What is your actual relationship with the third son of the Fu family? If the two of you are a couple, I swear I won’t pursue him!”
“The third son of the Fu family? Are you referring to the young man I was just speaking with? He’s my apprentice,” the girl explained, a gentle, amused smile playing on her lips. “Do you have feelings for my disciple…?”
“Yes, yes…” Qiu Yan nodded rapidly, completely entranced. She is just so breathtakingly beautiful…
A few moments earlier, Lu Yunxi had heard a sharp disturbance down the hall and discovered a young woman sprawled across the floorboards. It appeared the poor girl had lost her footing the moment she opened her door.
Lu Yunxi hurried over to assist the fallen guest. However, the exact second she breached the girl’s perimeter, an overwhelming, suffocating odor of alcohol assaulted her senses.
Possessing the hyper-acute senses of a master-tier cultivator, Lu Yunxi instinctively clamped her breath shut to survive the blast.
Merciful heavens! Just how much liquor did this girl consume?!
After a quick visual scan to ensure the guest hadn’t broken any bones in the tumble, Lu Yunxi carefully scooped up the limp, uncoordinated woman and carried her back into the open room.
“So beautiful…” the drunk girl mumbled, her glassy eyes locked onto Lu Yunxi’s face without blinking. Suddenly, a silly smile spread across her lips, and she began aggressively nuzzling her face against Lu Yunxi’s shoulder like an overaffectionate puppy.
For a horrifying second, Lu Yunxi felt as though she were being accosted by a sleazy rogue in a tavern. She came incredibly close to opening her arms and dropping the girl flat onto the floorboards.
Calm down. It’s just a drunk girl acting out. It’s an illusion, she told herself.
Forcing her composure back into alignment, she carefully arranged the intoxicated guest onto the mattress and draped a heavy blanket over her. But just as she pulled away, her wrist was violently snatched in a tight grip.
Lu Yunxi blinked in surprise as the girl began rambling about her intense affection for Shen San. She couldn’t help but marvel at the revelation. Given her apprentice’s dense, rigid personality… she had honestly assumed the boy was mechanically locked into a bachelor life cycle until the end of time! How had he managed to attract such a stunning young woman?
As his master, she knew she had a duty not to sabotage her apprentice’s romantic prospects. She quickly clarified the situation. “Shen San is strictly my disciple. If you have feelings for him, you are entirely free to pursue him. I won’t interfere in your affairs in the slightest…”
Before she could finish her reassurance, the drunk girl squeezed her hand with immense gravity, staring up at her with a look of absolute, unadulterated devotion.
“I swear it! I will definitely fulfill my filial duties to you, just like the third son of the Fu family!”
Lu Yunxi: “…”
There is absolutely no need for that! She was simply Shen San’s martial arts instructor, not his future mother-in-law! The girl was truly out of her mind with alcohol.
Glancing at the staggering mountain of empty wine jars littered across the table, Lu Yunxi attempted to gently pry her wrist from the vice-like grip. However, the beautiful girl seemed to harbor a deep, underlying sense of anxiety. The moment Lu Yunxi’s tension slackened, a look of profound panic would wash over the girl’s features.
Sighing helplessly, Lu Yunxi resigned herself to her fate. She pulled up a chair, sitting beside the bed and rhythmically patting the girl’s back to soothe her tremors. She remained anchoring the bedside until the guest finally drifted into a deep, peaceful slumber before quietly slipping back to her own room.
“Master, I purposefully withheld the truth regarding the sect campaign from you in the past. The fault lies entirely with me,” Shen San read aloud, his eyes tracking the script he had meticulously saved in his system interface word for word. “To formally express the depth of my contrition, I would be deeply honored to treat you to a grand feast. Please, grant me this favor.”
Her apprentice stood before her with an incredibly rigid, somber expression as he delivered the invitation. Lu Yunxi arched an eyebrow in amusement.
In reality, after torturing the poor boy with menial labor and cold stares for the past week, her anger had evaporated long ago. The sole reason she had maintained her icy, unreadable facade was out of a calculated fear of forgiving him too quickly. If a master yielded too easily, what was to stop an apprentice from genuinely crossing the line and committing actual treason down the road?
If he assumed his redemption was cheap, he would treat her boundaries with flippancy. That was a psychological loophole she refused to permit.
She had sustained the silent treatment purely to imprint a permanent, necessary lesson into his brain. But given the amount of time that had passed, she figured the sentence had been fully served.
Lu Yunxi calculated her move. She would accept the invitation, enjoy the meal, lay all her cards on the table to clear the air, and then promptly dismiss him so she could return to her solo retirement. Having him hover around her perimeter twenty-four hours a day was beginning to test her sanity.
With that plan in mind, she offered a curt nod, accepting the invitation.
The following evening, twilight bled into the sky, and the world outside the inn faded into deep darkness.
Inside Shen San’s private quarters, he had meticulously transformed the standard room. He had draped the crude wooden table with a custom, lace-embroidered beige tablecloth, positioning a polished vase filled with highly fragrant blossoms directly in the center. The place settings consisted of immaculate, blue-patterned white porcelain. At a casual glance, the arrangement strongly resembled a high-end French afternoon tea service.
However, he had also lit two stark, white wax candles by the edge of the table. In the pitch-black, unlit room, the flickering flames cast long, dancing shadows, giving the entire atmosphere an intensely ghostly vibe.
Even with her master-level martial arts fortitude, Lu Yunxi felt a cold shiver slide down her spine the moment she crossed the threshold into this underworld aesthetic.
“Master, you’ve arrived. Please, be seated,” Shen San greeted her solemnly, stepping forward to personally pull out her chair.
Humph! He internally celebrated. This was his legendary, foolproof survival technique! Back in the real world, whenever he managed to thoroughly enrage his mother, he would deploy a high-end dining arrangement, and her fury would instantly dissolve. He had reconstructed this layout to mirror the absolute most popular luxury establishments on the Capital Planet.
What his player brain had failed to account for, however, was that those real-world restaurants were flooded with bright, ambient architectural lighting. His current setup was trapped in near-total darkness. If the master and apprentice hadn’t possessed advanced perception statistics, they likely would have tripped over the furniture. Furthermore, while a luxury restaurant’s decor was cohesive and pleasing to the eye, his mismatched historical props produced a drastically different effect.
Lu Yunxi took her seat with absolute deliberation, her face a mask of total neutrality while her mind screamed in bewilderment. Lighting white funeral candles against ancient, dark wood furniture while the flames flicker violently… this feels exactly like a haunted house attraction.
“Master, every single dish here was prepared according to your verified preferences. Please, sample them before the temperature drops,” Shen San urged, desperate for her to begin.
Lu Yunxi quietly took a sip of water to steady her rattled nerves.
The moment she lifted her chopsticks and took a bite, her eyes widened slightly. The culinary spread was executed to absolute perfection. The color, the aroma, and the depth of flavor represented the absolute pinnacle of his progression bar. Forcing herself to block out the terrifying, gothic atmosphere of the room, she methodically savored a meal that felt entirely surreal.
Once the dinner concluded, Shen San’s expression grew intensely severe. Reaching into his spatial inventory, he produced a heavy, thick wooden cane. The raw vines were dense, lined with sharp, jagged thorns that caught the flickering candlelight, casting grotesque silhouettes against the walls.
Lu Yunxi was undeniably one of the strongest entities on the continent. But ever since she had transmigrated into this hyper-realistic holographic world, her subconscious had become increasingly susceptible to superstitions regarding ghosts and dark magic. Staring at the scene, she was nearly frightened out of her wits.
Her low-light vision was exceptionally sharp. In her line of sight, the unlit corners of the room seemed to pulse with a faint, phantom green tint, and the shadows warped violently with every shift of the candle flames. Seeing him hoist the thorny cane in the dim light, Lu Yunxi’s combat reflexes instantly locked onto high alert.
Did this brat actually poison the food to assassinate me?!
“Master, I am deeply sorry,” Shen San intoned, presenting the thorny vine to her with both hands as he dropped his head. “I should have given you an immediate heads-up the moment I discovered the player vanguard was targeting your sect, instead of pretending to be an innocent bystander… I fully submit to my punishment. If your anger remains unappeased, please, beat me until you are satisfied!”
Lu Yunxi’s eyelid twitched violently. Her heart, which had been violently hammering against her throat a second prior, finally dropped back into her chest.
This absolute idiot!
She had been on the verge of a literal heart attack!
Surging with pure, unadulterated aggravation from the jump-scare, she snatched the cane from his hands and aggressively whipped it across his shoulders twice. She hadn’t harbored any structural intention of physical discipline tonight, but after he engineered this literal house of horrors… didn’t he just thoroughly deserve a beating?
After delivering the two heavy strikes, a light sweat broke out across her brow, and her blocked channels felt thoroughly cleared and relaxed.
Tossing the thorny vine onto the lace tablecloth, she planted her hands firmly on her hips, letting out a sharp breath. “Very well. I shall grant you my forgiveness this time.”
“Make absolutely sure there isn’t a second.”
Chapter 117: Run Fast
After bidding farewell to Shen San, Lu Yunxi embarked on her solo training journey.
She called it training, but in truth, she had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to be doing. Her master had simply ordered her to go out and gain experience, strictly forbidding her from returning to the sect to practice her martial arts.
Lu Yunxi couldn’t help but recall their final conversation…
Before she left, her master had asked, “At your current level, you are technically qualified to accept disciples of your own. Do you know why I won’t allow you to do so yet?”
How could she possibly know? She hadn’t even realized she had met the requirements to take on an apprentice.
Her master had sighed and said, “You are lacking something crucial. You need to immerse yourself in the mortal world and observe the mundane lives of ordinary people.”
Lu Yunxi: “???”
She was a master chef and a high-level cultivator; what was the point of making her experience the “mortal world”? Could her master have lost his mind? Had she not seen enough of the world’s hustle and bustle already? Did he truly believe someone could maintain master-tier culinary skills without constant practice?
Her master had continued, “In short, this is the era of martial arts. Cultivating immortality is no longer the trend. You cannot succeed by being ruthless and detached. Go out and absorb the lively atmosphere of the world! Once you’ve truly integrated with the populace, it will be time for you to accept disciples!”
Lu Yunxi had muttered to herself, ‘Integrated with the populace?’ If she was a living, breathing human being, how could she not be integrated? Did he think she was some kind of wandering ghost?
Ultimately, unable to win the argument against her master, she had been systematically booted out of the sect gates.
…The flashback ended.
Lu Yunxi pondered the memory for a long time, but she still couldn’t fathom what her master was trying to get at. Did he honestly think she was some cold, detached immortal practicing the Way of Mercy?
What a joke.
She shook her head, tossing the useless thoughts aside, and continued walking forward with a lazy, relaxed stride. Since she lacked a concrete objective, she simply drifted aimlessly, letting her feet carry her wherever they pleased.
However, for some bizarre reason, while the road had been perfectly peaceful during the first few hours of her journey, a sudden influx of highly eccentric men began to crowd the path.
“Hey there, pretty lady, where are you headed?” a rogue suddenly shouted, letting out a sharp whistle as he stepped into her path. “The road ahead is incredibly treacherous. Why don’t you let this big brother accompany you?”
“Good heavens, what a beautiful girl!” another burly man yelled, his eyes lighting up as he aggressively flexed his biceps to show off his muscles. “Are you frightened to be walking this mountain pass all by yourself? Don’t be scared! Come walk with me—I can take down a tiger with my bare hands!”
“Little sister, why don’t you give us a smile…”
In the span of a mere fifteen minutes, Lu Yunxi’s expression shifted from a mild frown to absolute indifference, before she casually began fracturing their skulls with her fists.
She seriously began to wonder if she had accidentally wandered into a localized spawning ground for neighborhood hooligans. The encounters were far too frequent. Practically every three to five steps she took, another sleazy creep would jump out from the bushes to take underhanded advantages of her.
She roamed the area for a bit longer, but her system interface failed to trigger any alerts regarding a hidden dungeon or an event instance.
After marching for another half an hour and encountering nearly twenty separate men attempting to harass her, Lu Yunxi finally reached her absolute limit.
Invoking her system menu, she activated the one-click dress-up feature, swapping her female attire to disguise herself as a young noble master. She couldn’t remember exactly when this aesthetic feature had unlocked, but it was proving to be immensely practical.
Sure enough, the moment the male coordinates took effect, the catcalls ceased entirely.
Humming a cheerful little melody, she internally praised her own brilliant adaptability.
After peacefully navigating the remainder of the dense forest, the tree line abruptly broke, revealing a bustling, highly populated… small town?
Surveying the lively market square, Lu Yunxi secretly let out a sigh of relief. What truly set her mind at ease was the high concentration of young women and elderly matriarchs browsing the stalls. It appeared this town possessed a civil structure, meaning there were local guards protecting the boundary lines.
Just as a relieved smile touched her lips, several young women in the immediate vicinity abruptly spun around. Their gazes locked onto her profile, an intensely predatory, wolf-like gleam igniting within their eyes.
Lu Yunxi: “???”
What on earth are they staring at?
She turned around, scanning the perimeter in deep confusion, but failed to spot any anomalous entities behind her.
Before she could even process the stares, a massive crowd of elderly town matriarchs suddenly materialized, stampeding directly toward her position.
Lu Yunxi blinked in sheer bewilderment. Before she could utter a single question, the group of matriarchs physically hoisted her into the air, carrying her off her feet.
Listening to the wind whistling past her ears as she was aggressively paraded down the street, her brain completely short-circuited. Why am I suddenly being carried away?!
The aggressive matriarchs marched Lu Yunxi straight into a large compound, dropping her into a heavy wooden chair and swiftly binding her wrists with thick rope.
“What is your name? Which territory do you hail from? What is your purpose for passing through our gates? Do you intend to settle down within our jurisdiction? Have you ever encountered…” The lead matriarch standing across from her rattled off a relentless barrage of inquiries like a fully automatic machine gun.
The older woman talked at such a furious pace that the more Lu Yunxi listened, the more confused she became.
She shifted her head, critically evaluating her surroundings. The room was clearly a basic woodshed, with massive bundles of chopped firewood stacked against the far wall. The floorboards were uneven and poorly maintained. Glancing out the narrow window, her field of vision was entirely blocked by a high stone courtyard wall.
When the interrogating matriarch finally paused to catch her breath, Lu Yunxi seized the opening. “Greetings, elders. I am merely a wandering traveler passing through your beautiful town… Might I ask what this territory is called?”
As for why she hadn’t violently broken her restraints?
It was because her high-tier perception verified that despite their aggressive capture, these matriarchs harbored absolutely zero malicious intent. Their auras were saturated with deep vigilance and… a bizarre wave of intense excitement?
The matriarchs huddled together, exchanging a series of knowing glances before stepping into the far corner of the woodshed to hold a hushed consultation.
Lu Yunxi let out a silent, internal smirk.
Hmph. Talk about underestimating the enemy. Did these women truly believe a distance of a few meters could block her? With her master-tier statistics, she could pick up a whisper from hundreds of meters away with absolute clarity.
However, the confident smile quickly froze on her face.
The conversation passing between the matriarchs was laced with a highly restrictive, convoluted local dialect. The phrases acted like an encrypted secret code, so thoroughly evasive that even her advanced cognitive processing failed to decipher the true meaning.
“Well? What do you think?”
“His background parameters don’t seem like a fabricated cover.”
“What is our deployment strategy?”
“Let my household claim him!”
“Absolutely not! Your family has already taken the vanguard slots during the previous rotations. It is strictly my household’s turn to host.”
The elders bickered for a moment before arriving at a consensus.
The matriarch who had claimed it was her household’s turn stepped forward with a radiant, maternal smile, swiftly unraveling the ropes binding Lu Yunxi’s wrists.
“Young Master, you shall reside within my estate for the duration of your stay,” she announced warmly, guiding her out of the shed by the elbow. “You may address me as Aunt Zhou.”
Young Master?
Lu Yunxi froze for a fraction of a second before the realization hit her. Right! I’m currently utilizing the male avatar skin!
She offered a polite nod, deciding it was far less troublesome to simply maintain the deception. Traveling the continent disguised as a young master was infinitely more convenient than traversing the roads as a solo female cultivator; at the very least, it eliminated the endless horde of harbor creeps attempting to take underhanded advantages of her.
“Aunt Zhou, what is the official name of this district?” Lu Yunxi inquired as they navigated the busy marketplace. She could feel a heavy, suffocating wave of intense focus tracking her every movement. “I feel as though… every single resident is staring directly at me. Is there something anomalous about my appearance?”
She subtly rubbed her cheek, wondering if her disguise had somehow glitched.
Aunt Zhou let out a jolly laugh. “There’s no need to be so defensive, child. The populace is merely staring because you possess such an exceptionally handsome countenance. As for the name of our town… you will discover the truth soon enough.”
Seeing that Aunt Zhou was deliberately keeping the regional lore under wraps, Lu Yunxi shrugged and let the matter drop. With her current master-tier combat statistics, she was entirely safe regardless of whatever trap this town was planning to spring.
Aunt Zhou proved to be an incredibly hospitable host. She ushered Lu Yunxi into a pristine guest room, provided fresh bed linens, and personally delivered a massive tray of premium food. Only after verifying her guest had eaten her fill did she step out, urging her to get some well-deserved rest.
Lu Yunxi voiced her gratitude, waited for the heavy wooden door to click shut, and took a seat at the central table.
“You can come down now,” she commanded, her tone entirely light and unbothered.
The moment she had crossed the town’s perimeter, while the general populace had stared openly, a highly specific, intense pair of eyes had locked onto her coordinates, tracking her all the way to Aunt Zhou’s front door.
The moment the command left her lips, a figure fluidly dropped from the ceiling beams, landing soundlessly on the floorboards.
A striking, vibrant young woman stepped into the ambient lantern light, critically inspecting Lu Yunxi’s features multiple times. Once she verified her target’s true identity, a brilliant, knowing smile erupted across her face.
“Sister, it has been far too long! Do you still recognize me?”
Lu Yunxi blinked in surprise. After a brief mental search, she mapped the face to the highly intoxicated guest she had salvaged from the corridor of the coastal inn weeks ago. Back then, under the influence of alcohol, the girl had seemed like a fragile, overaffectionate little sister. But standing here entirely sober, she exuded the fierce, commanding aura of an interstellar queen.
“It’s you,” Lu Yunxi smiled, relaxing her posture. “My surname is Lu. Might I ask yours?”
“I am Qiu Yan. Miss Lu, please, just address me by my name! Good heavens, your male disguise is absolutely flawless. If I hadn’t personally witnessed your true form back at the inn, I would have never suspected a thing!” Qiu Yan pouted, offering a brief, playful complaint.
She scanned the spartan guest room, pulled up a wooden stool, and sat down. A trace of profound confusion flashed across her features before she leaned in. “But seriously, Miss Lu… why on earth did you dress up as a young master and willingly allow yourself to be dragged back into a local household?”
Detecting a heavy layer of grim, hidden context behind the question, Lu Yunxi paused.
“What do you mean by that? Is there a mechanical hazard attached to this household? I only arrived within the city limits today and possess zero regional lore data. Could you please enlighten me?” She looked up, her gaze colliding with Qiu Yan’s serious eyes.
“What?! You genuinely don’t know?!” Qiu Yan’s expression turned incredibly tense. She cast a paranoid glance toward the window, lowering her voice to a sharp whisper as she breached Lu Yunxi’s personal space. “Miss Lu… you need to activate your movement skills and flee this town immediately! Otherwise, before the week is out, you are going to be violently forced into a shotgun wedding!”
Chapter 118: Run Away
Lu Yunxi blinked, thoroughly bewildered. “Flee? Forced to get married?”
Qiu Yan nodded solemnly, a flash of genuine sympathy in her eyes. “This region is actually a matriarchal territory—a land of women. You probably don’t know the local customs, but that aunt outside definitely mistook you for a young man. By dragging you back to her estate, her true intention is almost certainly to force you into a shotgun wedding with her daughter or niece!”
“What?!”
“It’s a widespread tradition across these matriarchal border towns. The moment the local women spot a handsome bachelor on the streets, they simply round up a crowd, snatch him, and march him straight home,” Qiu Yan explained, patting Lu Yunxi’s shoulder with deep, dramatic pity. “You need to slip away immediately. And don’t even think about coming clean to that aunt; if she finds out you’re actually a woman, she’ll probably explode with fury and beat you black and blue!”
Lu Yunxi’s eyelid twitched violently as she pictured the overly affectionate, beaming smile Aunt Zhou had given her all morning.
“I see. Thank you for the warning,” Lu Yunxi replied, a soft smile breaking across her lips. “But I think it’s still better to explain the situation to Aunt Zhou directly.”
Qiu Yan stared at her, completely flabbergasted. She hadn’t expected this seemingly fragile girl to remain so incredibly stubborn instead of immediately panicking and fleeing.
In truth, Qiu Yan had fought her way across the continent just to reach the borders of this Women’s Kingdom. When she first arrived, she had been covered in travel dust and grime. Because she was exceptionally tall and broad-shouldered for a female avatar, the local matriarchs had immediately misidentified her as a man and violently abducted her off the streets.
And once they finally discovered she was actually a woman…
Cough, cough!
Qiu Yan forced the painful, humiliating memory from her mind. She opened her mouth, fully intending to dissuade Miss Lu from making the same mistake, but catching the calm, unwavering determination in the girl’s eyes, she let out a helpless sigh.
Fine! If Miss Lu was dead-set on a confrontation, she would tag along to back her up! If that old aunt lost her temper and tried to get physical, she would use her own body to shield the delicate Miss Lu from the blows. After all, her mechanical combat skills were highly polished; protecting a weak lifestyle-class player would be child’s play.
Having made up her mind, Lu Yunxi knew she couldn’t continue staying in the guest quarters under false pretenses, especially since Aunt Zhou had treated her with such premium hospitality under the assumption that she was a future son-in-law.
Invoking her system menu, she toggled her avatar back to her default female skin, smoothed down her goose-yellow robes, and marched across the courtyard to knock on Aunt Zhou’s door.
“Oh, Young Master, what do you need—” Aunt Zhou opened the heavy wooden door with a warm, maternal smile, but the words died in her throat. She stared blankly at the gorgeous young woman standing before her until a highly familiar voice broke the silence.
“Aunt Zhou, my companion has finally tracked me down,” Lu Yunxi explained with a warm, apologetic smile. “I’ve been traveling disguised as a young master purely to safeguard my perimeter along the road. Now that my friend has arrived, I no longer require the deception; she is more than capable of protecting me.” Reaching into her sleeve, she produced a heavy, silk-embroidered coin pouch and placed it gently into the older woman’s palm. “Thank you so much for the magnificent dinner.”
Aunt Zhou accepted the purse in a complete daze, watching in absolute silence as the two young women spun around and began walking toward the estate gates.
Wait a minute! The matriarch’s brain slowly began to trace back through the morning’s interactions. That “young master” had possessed an exceptionally soft, melodic voice and remarkably delicate features. Why on earth hadn’t she suspected a thing?!
Feeling the sheer weight of the coin pouch, Aunt Zhou peeked inside, only to spot several large, immaculate silver ingots. She slapped her thigh in a panic and bolted down the steps, chasing after them as she shouted, “Girl! Wait! Come back! You’ve given me far too much silver!”
Lu Yunxi simply turned her head, waving a cheerful farewell as she called back, “Please, keep the change, Auntie! Consider it a token of my immense gratitude!”
The feast Aunt Zhou had personally delivered that morning had been exceptionally lavish, packed with rare ingredients. The silver Lu Yunxi left behind was more than enough to fund an ordinary household’s groceries for several months.
Standing on the cobblestone street, Qiu Yan looked entirely stunned. She had been fully prepared to intercept a violent, chair-swinging brawl. Back when her own identity was exposed, she had been thoroughly thrashed by the matriarchs and forced to pay a massive property damage fee… Dammit! Why is the system treatment so drastically unfair?!
“Yunxi, just sit back and relax. Let me handle the rowing,” Qiu Yan insisted, physically blocking Lu Yunxi from reaching for the wooden oars. She shook her head aggressively, refusing to yield the helm.
Yunxi is so visibly delicate and soft, Qiu Yan thought protectively. How could I possibly let her endure such grueling, physical labor? That’s what I’m here for.
Lu Yunxi paused, a soft, amused chuckle escaping her lips. She wasn’t entirely sure how it had happened, but over the course of a few brief days traveling together, her formal title of “Miss Lu” had seamlessly transformed into the intimate nickname of “Yunxi.”
Furthermore, Qiu Yan seemed to view her through an incredibly distorted, protective lens. Ever since they had partnered up to explore the lake district, the vibrant girl had gone out of her way to prevent her from performing even the most basic physical tasks, treating her like a porcelain doll who was meant to do nothing but lounge on the deck, enjoying the refreshing breeze and the scenic views.
Qiu Yan was exceptionally stubborn about the dynamic. No matter how many times Lu Yunxi casually mentioned that she possessed immense, master-tier physical strength, Qiu Yan would simply offer a dismissive, patronizing smile and reply, “Yes, yes, of course. Miss Lu is the absolute strongest powerhouse on the server.”
Resigned to her role as a pampered passenger, Lu Yunxi leaned back against the hull, letting her gaze drift across the vast field of wild lotus blossoms floating atop the crystal lake. Their small wooden skiff sliced smoothly through the dense green lotus leaves, gliding deeper toward the center of the waters.
“Yunxi, the topographical layout of this lake is genuinely spectacular. Do you see that narrow bottleneck over there?” Qiu Yan asked, pointing toward a restrictive, rocky opening a short distance away as she eagerly highlighted the regional sights.
The lake was naturally shaped like a massive gourd. They were currently navigating the broad, enclosed basin at the base of the gourd structure. Curiously, a massive, roaring waterfall formed right at the narrow mouth of the bottleneck, causing the water currents to churn violently beyond the threshold. Because of the hazard, the local fishermen strictly anchored their skiffs within the safety of the lower basin, never venturing anywhere near the dangerous mouth.
Lu Yunxi stared at the formation, her eyes narrowing slightly.
From a purely logical standpoint, a waterfall of that scale required an immense, continuous physical momentum to sustain its drop. Yet, the waters along the perimeter of this gourd basin were entirely tranquil and stagnant. To have a violent torrent materialize exclusively at the narrow exit… This really is a programmed game world after all, she mused. No matter how flawlessly the developers replicated real-world physics, certain magical anomalies always betrayed the digital nature of the environment.
“Once we clear this section, we can dock the boat along the lower banks and enjoy our lunch while admiring the waterfall view,” Qiu Yan suggested with a bright smile. “The local forums highly recommend that spot; they say the ambient scenery makes for a spectacular dining experience.”
Lu Yunxi offered an indifferent nod of agreement.
But right at that moment, a highly specific, microscopic scent molecule drifted through the air, permeating her nostrils.
Her eyebrows twitched almost imperceptibly, a sharp, calculating light flashing across her pupils.
Muscle Softening Powder.
Someone had dumped a massive, clinical dose of the paralyzing agent directly into the lake’s water currents. Although the chemical odor was heavily masked by the natural fragrance of the surrounding lotus blossoms and the damp lake air, she was a certified Master Pharmacist. Failing to detect a high-tier poison under her nose would be an absolute insult to her progression bar.
Reaching into her spatial inventory, she casually pulled out a leather canteen of fresh water. Slipping a potent antidote pill into the liquid, she watched it dissolve instantly before taking a deep draught herself. She then poured a fresh portion into a porcelain cup, handing it across the deck.
“Qiu Yan, take a break and have some water,” she urged softly.
Qiu Yan was indeed beginning to tire from the continuous exertion of rowing the heavy skiff. Wiping the beads of sweat from her brow, she caught sight of Lu Yunxi’s thoughtful gesture, and her heart instantly melted into a puddle of pure affection.
Yunxi is truly the most beautiful, kind-hearted, and angelic girl in the entire universe!
“Thank you so much—”
But before her fingers could even wrap around the handle of the porcelain cup, the calm water surface erupted into violent ripples, and their small skiff rocked precariously from a massive, concussive impact.
Qiu Yan gasped in shock.
Terrified that the delicate Lu Yunxi would lose her balance and be thrown into the churning waters, Qiu Yan abandoned all thought of the water cup. Dropping into a low crouch, she lunged forward, throwing a protective arm firmly around Lu Yunxi’s waist while using her other hand to grip the wooden gunwale, anchoring their bodies against the violent motion.
Lu Yunxi snapped her head up, her gaze cutting through the dense lotus stalks. In the distance, a massive, uncoordinated horde of players had materialized along the shorelines, unleashing a continuous barrage of ranged attacks toward their coordinates.
The sheer volume of the strike force was staggering. The banks of the lake were practically carpeted with dense crowds of players, and dozens of armed skiffs were already launching from the docks, rowing at top speed to cut off all exit routes.
Lu Yunxi arched an eyebrow, methodically analyzing the deployment. Are these raiders tracking my specific coordinates? Or are they targeting Qiu Yan?
Within seconds, she noted that the players’ aggressive focus wasn’t locked onto their vessel at all; instead, their projectiles were zeroing in on a completely separate, nondescript fishing boat navigating the channel directly adjacent to theirs.
Ah, I see. Talk about an absolute friendly-fire disaster! They had merely been caught in the crossfire of a completely unrelated server gank.
Qiu Yan, however, was thoroughly infuriated. Her perfectly planned, romantic afternoon excursion had been completely ruined by a bunch of uncultured rioters!
The invading factions on the opposite side didn’t care about the collateral damage in the slightest. The ranged DPS classes relentlessly showered the zone with a hail of arrows and spells, while the melee vanguards brandished their weapons, preparing to leap across the gap the moment their vessels closed the distance.
Qiu Yan immediately shifted her body, firmly stepping in front of Lu Yunxi to intercept any stray projectiles. She let out a cold, venomous sneer at the approaching ships. “They’re nothing more than a disorganized mob of low-level minions. Yunxi, hold onto me and don’t be afraid! I’ll dismantle this entire vanguard in a flash.”
However, the exact second she reached down to unfasten her heavy greatsword from her back, her facial expression shattered.
She couldn’t lift her weapon. In fact, her fingers refused to even close around the hilt!
Having spent months grinding her combat stats, her muscle memory regarding weapon deployment was entirely flawless. It was mechanically impossible for her to fail a basic draw command!
Yet, her avatar remained completely paralyzed.
Qiu Yan’s countenance turned incredibly grim, a wave of profound betrayal washing over her features. “Underhanded bastards… they actually managed to spike the lake with a paralyzing agent! How utterly despicable!”
As the realization hit her, an intense wave of panic finally breached her composure.
Lu Yunxi, entirely unbothered, offered a calm, reassuring smile. “Qiu Yan, look closer. Their vanguard is ignoring our coordinates entirely; they’re deploying a full encirclement against the vessel directly next to us.”
Sure enough, as the player fleet advanced halfway across the basin, they maintained their heading, swarming past their skiff to tightly blockade the neighboring fishing boat.
Wishing to completely detach themselves from the chaotic PvP dispute, Lu Yunxi smoothly reached down, grasped the discarded wooden oars, and began rowing them away from the combat zone with effortless, fluid strokes. “By the way, Qiu Yan, that cup of water I just offered you contains a high-tier antidote for the Muscle Softening Powder. Drink it immediately.”
But the moment the instructions left her lips, the individual trapped within the player blockade suddenly unleashed a powerful movement skill, violently breaching the defensive line and sprinting directly toward their skiff’s position.
Worse still, the player commanders coordinating the raid immediately reacted to the escape attempt. Pulling out several heavy, volatile explosive canisters from their inventory screens, they hurled the ordnance directly toward the moving targets.
Lu Yunxi’s brow furrowed slightly. Infusing her strokes with a burst of internal energy, she drastically accelerated their skiff’s velocity.
Yet, the fleeing player refused to break aggro, seemingly resolved to utilize their innocent vessel as a meat shield to split the incoming damage, trailing their stern with desperate tenacity.
“Get the hell away from our ship, you leech!” Qiu Yan roared. She had quickly downed the antidote water, but the system required a brief window for the medicinal properties to clear the paralysis debuff. Trapped in her immobilized state, she could do nothing but scream down the encroaching player.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A succession of massive, deafening detonations ripped through the water surface, throwing up colossal geysers that rained down over their deck.
The raiding guilds commanding the banks remained entirely cold and indifferent, entirely unbothered by the lives of the innocent bypassers trapped in the blast radius. They continuously spammed their gunpowder reserves, completely plastering the zone.
Even Lu Yunxi was left thoroughly speechless by the reckless display. While the baseline explosive damage couldn’t even scratch her hidden, master-tier defensive metrics, the raw, concussive force of the gunpowder was far too high for a standard wooden skiff to endure. The hull had already cracked beneath her feet, and lake water was rapidly bubbling up through the floorboards.
“Good heavens… I wonder how much gold I’ll have to shell out for the property damage,” she muttered to herself, thoroughly annoyed. This vessel wasn’t her personal property; she had rented it from a local elderly fisherman for the afternoon.
As she maintained her steady rowing rhythm, she began mentally calculating whether she should simply harvest some premium timber and craft a brand-new vessel from scratch to compensate the vendor. After all, the fisherman had only agreed to rent out his livelihood today because he was taking his family out for a festival; he would absolutely require the boat to resume his trade tomorrow morning.
Catching the profound, dark frown shifting across her features, Qiu Yan misread her annoyance as sheer terror. Her heart aching with protective panic, she desperately yelled out, “Yunxi! Forget about the boat! Use your evasion skills and swim for the banks immediately! Don’t worry about my coordinates—I can override the debuff and survive a respawn loop!”
