Bai Qianshuang watched the entire process and noticed that Ye Chuan's alchemy technique was highly unusual. The medicinal herbs were tossed into the small alchemy cauldron, and with the churning black spiritual flames, they quickly condensed into pills.
To think that other alchemists might take months or even half a year to refine a single pill—yet here was Ye Chuan, effortlessly releasing that faint black energy to refine the herbs, the same energy that had once drained her own spiritual power.
"Hmm?" Ye Chuan set down his phone but caught Bai Qianshuang giving him a strange look. "What's wrong? Why are you staring at me like that?"
"The pill you just refined..."
"Huh?" Hearing Bai Qianshuang's hesitant response, Ye Chuan froze for a moment, his mind racing.
What was going on?
Could Bai Qianshuang see what was happening on his phone?
He was certain that no one else could see the app interface on his phone—he used it often enough to know. Yet Bai Qianshuang had apparently witnessed him refining a pill for Lan Xiaoke?
"You... saw me refining pills just now?" Ye Chuan asked.
Bai Qianshuang, noticing his confusion, only grew more puzzled herself. "Wasn’t that what you were doing? You summoned a small alchemy cauldron and used spiritual flames to refine those immortal herbs."
Me? Summon a cauldron?
Wasn’t that just the image on my phone?
There was nothing like that in reality.
Ye Chuan pondered—could it be that they were seeing different things?
"But why..." Though he found it strange, since his "system" hadn’t actually been exposed, he relaxed a little.
"Yeah, I just refined a pill for Xiaoke," Ye Chuan said to Bai Qianshuang.
Though she found his reaction odd—jumpy, even—Bai Qianshuang didn’t suspect anything. Or rather, she hadn’t been suspicious in the first place; she was just surprised by how fast his alchemy was.
"Xiaoke absorbs spiritual energy incredibly quickly," Bai Qianshuang remarked, shifting her focus to Lan Xiaoke. The girl had been silent the whole time, but Bai Qianshuang could sense the rapid rate at which she was drawing in energy.
Not only that—the faint glow around her body indicated that she wasn’t just absorbing it quickly, but refining it just as fast.
She really was talented.
Just... incredibly lazy.
After about two hours of absorbing energy, Lan Xiaoke opened her eyes and realized she had already broken through to the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage.
"Whew~"
Stretching lazily, she flopped onto the sofa. "So tired..."
Glancing up, she noticed Ye Chuan sitting nearby, arms crossed, legs propped up, watching her with an unreadable expression.
"I did cultivate!" Lan Xiaoke blurted, as if expecting him to scold her.
"Here, refine this Crystal Pill," Ye Chuan said, tossing her a small jade vial. "Once you absorb it, you’ll break through to the Crystal Core stage."
"Huh?" Lan Xiaoke stared at the pill in her hand. "I’m not hungry."
"Is this about hunger?" Ye Chuan deadpanned.
Lan Xiaoke crawled over like a kitten, resting her chubby, baby-faced cheeks on his thigh.
"Ye Chuan, let me rest a bit~ Wanna go play games? Cards? I’ll do all the work~?"
"Break through to Crystal Core first, then you can rest." Ye Chuan patted her cheek, and she let out a soft, whining sound.
Just then, his phone rang.
He picked it up—Luo Xi was calling.
"Hey, my beautiful wife?" Ye Chuan answered.
"Ugh, why’d you call me that all of a sudden?" Luo Xi’s voice carried a hint of surprise, but she quickly continued, "Chuan, my mom made some slow-cooked soup. Can you go pick it up for everyone? I’m still out and won’t be back for a while."
"What are you up to?"
"Volunteering at the orphanage today. You know, after that monster attack last time, there are so many more kids there now... It’s heartbreaking."
"Send me a selfie."
"A selfie?" Luo Xi sounded confused but complied.
Image.jpg
"What’s this for?"
"Nothing. Just wanted to see you," Ye Chuan said. "Alright, I’ll go get it soon."
"Okay~ Bye, Chuan... husband~"
Before he could respond, she hung up with a shy giggle.
Ye Chuan glanced at his phone, then turned to find the white-haired girl pressed right up against him.
"What’s up?"
"Are you going out? Can I come?" Lan Xiaoke asked.
"Let me guess—anything to avoid cultivating, right?"
"It’s exhausting. Worse than all those positions you make me do," Lan Xiaoke nodded vigorously before clinging to his arm. "Please, Ye Chuan? Let me take a break. I’ll do anything!"
Ye Chuan flicked her forehead.
"Fine, let’s go for a walk." He still needed her to break through to Crystal Core tonight so he could check the refreshed items in the points store.
"Yay!" Lan Xiaoke bounced up and scampered off to change.
Bai Qianshuang was busy cultivating, so Ye Chuan didn’t disturb her, simply leading Lan Xiaoke out the door.
He rarely took her out alone. As they walked toward Luo Xi’s place, the white-haired girl seemed in high spirits, swaying playfully with each step.
"Luo Xi’s mom is amazing. She’s always making such delicious soups," Lan Xiaoke mused. Since her revival, she’d been enjoying every meal.
"She used to have health issues," Ye Chuan said casually. "What about you? How’s your family doing?"
"Ah..." Lan Xiaoke rarely—if ever—brought up her family, as if it were some kind of secret. At his question, she turned away before looking up again.
"Ahaha, the weather’s nice today, huh?"
Ye Chuan glanced at the overcast sky but didn’t press. "You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. That includes the thing with your heterochromatic eyes."
Lan Xiaoke’s long bangs usually covered one eye, but whenever she moved energetically, Ye Chuan would catch glimpses of it.
White hair, mismatched eyes.
And under his spiritual sense, nothing about her could stay hidden.
"Mmm, it’s not that I’m hiding it on purpose," Lan Xiaoke mumbled, tugging at his sleeve. "It’s just... kind of embarrassing."
"My family isn’t something worth talking about."
Her expression dimmed, as if recalling something unpleasant.
Just as she hesitated over whether to explain, she felt a hand gently pat her head.
"You don’t have to say anything. Everyone’s got a rough past."
She looked up, meeting Ye Chuan’s faintly amused gaze.
"Right?"
"Mm!"
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
u serious?" Chen Feng watched helplessly as his painstakingly trained disciple, fresh off a championship victory, publicly abandoned him. "You had your chance, but you didn’t appreciate it. Now, face the consequences of your choice!" Chen Feng possessed the "Master System," a treasure trove of supreme martial arts techniques, capable of molding ordinary individuals into peerless prodigies. "Legs like yours? A shame not to train in the Crippling Kick." "Ever heard of a palm strike that descends from the heavens?" "Auntie! I see extraordinary bone structure in you—a martial arts prodigy, one in ten thousand." The once-defiant senior disciple, now watching her juniors rise to fame one after another, dominating the internet, was consumed by endless regret.
【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
