Wang Yanran stayed for only an hour before leaving. After all, she was well aware that she had been coming over to absorb spiritual energy far too often and didn’t want Ye Chuan to grow annoyed with her. So, she always maintained a careful balance of distance and propriety.
Her next task was to handle matters related to the pharmaceutical company for Ye Chuan—since their preliminary agreement still required many details to be ironed out. Wang Yanran didn’t want to trouble or burden Ye Chuan with these, choosing instead to take care of them quietly herself.
If not for her status as the eldest daughter of the Wang family, people might have mistaken her for Ye Chuan’s personal secretary or assistant.
She was practically his most capable right-hand woman.
"Chuan, I should head back soon too. I still need to buy groceries later," Luo Xi said. After all, she couldn’t just stay cooped up at Ye Chuan’s place every day. As much as she wanted to cling to him, she still had to go home occasionally to help her mother with chores.
"I don’t want to leave," Luo Xi pouted.
"It’s just a short walk," Ye Chuan chuckled.
His home wasn’t far from Luo Xi’s—in a way, they were practically neighbors within the same residential complex.
"Such a straight man."
"My heart is always with you."
"Player."
"Get lost." Ye Chuan lifted his foot and gave Luo Xi’s backside a light kick. She stuck out her tongue playfully, let out a small huff, and then scampered off.
"I’m telling Mom you hit me!"
"Go ahead, see if I care." Watching her ponytail bounce as she ran, Ye Chuan couldn’t help but shake his head.
After Luo Xi left, the room grew quieter, with only the sound from the TV filling the space.
Ye Chuan glanced over and noticed Bai Qianshuang still sitting on the sofa, hugging a pillow to her chest and resting her chin on top of it.
Sensing his gaze, Bai Qianshuang’s aura shifted slightly, though her eyes remained fixed on the television.
Ye Chuan sat down beside her. "Is this show good?"
"Mhm."
"That’s the male lead?"
"Mhm."
"Should we practice some Daoist techniques together?"
"Mhm."
Bai Qianshuang froze for a few seconds, as if snapping out of a daze, and tightened her grip on the pillow. "Daoist techniques… what kind?"
"Dual cultivation."
Bai Qianshuang fell silent, burying half of her delicate face into the pillow. Ye Chuan could see her ears turning pink, though he had no idea what was going through her mind.
After a long pause, she finally let out a soft, "Mhm."
"So… how do we do it?" Seeing her actually agree, Ye Chuan couldn’t resist teasing her further.
"The method of harmonizing yin and yang," Bai Qianshuang explained. "We must press our palms together and remove our clothing to avoid obstructing the flow of spiritual energy."
"Once our energies merge, our cultivation speed will increase significantly."
Now it was Ye Chuan’s turn to be stunned. "That’s… it?"
"Mhm." Bai Qianshuang nodded lightly.
"Then why are you blushing? Because of the clothes?"
Bai Qianshuang averted her eyes—clearly, that was the answer.
"I think your sect’s version of dual cultivation is a bit off," Ye Chuan declared.
Bai Qianshuang’s beautiful eyes flickered with confusion. She tilted her head slightly, causing her straight bangs to shift.
Off?
How so?
Though she had never formally studied dual cultivation, Bai Qianshuang had heard her senior sisters explain it before, and the general idea matched what she had just described.
Now that she was a Nascent Soul-stage cultivator with exceptional comprehension, she saw no issue with it.
"Ye Chuan, there is no mistake," she said.
"Wrong! Dead wrong!" Ye Chuan immediately countered. "Qianshuang, have you seen the yin-yang fish? The black and white ones in the Taiji symbol?"
"Naturally…" Bai Qianshuang nodded.
"What are they doing?"
"This…" Bai Qianshuang pondered before answering, "The white yang fish represents yang energy, embodying ascent, warmth, and upward motion. The black yin fish represents yin energy, embodying descent, coolness, and downward motion. This illustrates how all things in the world contain opposing yet complementary forces—such as heaven and earth, day and night, male and female."
"Blah blah blah, I’m asking what the two fish are doing."
Bai Qianshuang hesitated for a few seconds. "Symbolizing the endless cycle of the universe?"
"Wrong! Dead wrong!" Ye Chuan pulled out his phone and pointed at the Taiji diagram. "Look at their shapes—aren’t they pressed together?"
"Yes, they are interdependent," Bai Qianshuang conceded.
"If the yin-yang fish are pressed together, shouldn’t we be too?" Ye Chuan delivered this "lesson" with utmost seriousness.
Bai Qianshuang fell into deep thought.
Though something felt off about his logic, she couldn’t deny that his reasoning made sense.
Yin and yang were inherently interdependent. If they were truly practicing dual cultivation, merely pressing their palms together might not be enough.
"What should I do?" Bai Qianshuang asked Ye Chuan.
She had nearly forgotten that he was the novice in cultivation.
"We should be pressed together." Ye Chuan patted his thigh. "Come, sit in my lap."
Bai Qianshuang’s fingers trembled slightly as she glanced around. "Here?"
"Is there a problem?"
"For cultivation, a private room would be more appropriate."
"We’re not starting yet—just getting familiar with the process."
Bai Qianshuang slowly stood up and then settled onto Ye Chuan’s lap.
Her body was rigid, and she couldn’t bring herself to look at him.
"Relax." Ye Chuan gave her thigh a light pat.
The touch made her flinch, only making her tenser.
Ye Chuan wrapped an arm around Bai Qianshuang’s slender waist but didn’t push further, simply holding her while they watched TV.
Gradually, Bai Qianshuang relaxed, though confusion flickered in her eyes.
What… was he doing?
Was he not going to do anything?
Why was he just holding her?
Yet the warmth of his hand through her clothes stirred an indescribable feeling in her.
"Alright."
Suddenly, Ye Chuan released her. Bai Qianshuang turned to him. "That’s it?"
"You were too tense. Cultivation requires a calm and balanced mind. If you’re stiff as a board, how can we make progress?"
This…
After a moment’s reflection, Bai Qianshuang realized he was right.
Ye Chuan truly intended to cultivate.
Once she understood, Bai Qianshuang steadied her emotions. Her expression returned to its usual impassive state as she adjusted her position to face Ye Chuan directly.
Ye Chuan closed his eyes.
Bai Qianshuang blinked, her gaze unconsciously drifting to his lips.
What was he… expecting?
Did he want her to kiss him?
Memories of their last kiss surfaced in her mind. After a few seconds of hesitation, she slowly leaned in, lowering her head bit by bit.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
