Oh, You Still Say You Don't Like Me

Soon, the steward teleported the items Qin Hao had requested over to him.

Leaping down lightly from the tree, Qin Hao walked over to Su Qingyue, who was cultivating cross-legged. "Here. Your cultivation technique is too weak; I have a better one for you."

At the sound of Qin Hao's voice, Su Qingyue's eyelashes fluttered, but she stubbornly kept her eyes shut. I don't need his charity! I already owe him too much; I can't afford to owe him any more.

Seeing that Su Qingyue was ignoring him, Qin Hao shook his head helplessly and sighed to himself, Alas, a woman's heart is truly like a needle at the bottom of the ocean. Everything was perfectly fine, so why is she suddenly giving me the cold shoulder?

Curling his lip, Qin Hao casually tossed the cultivation manual at Su Qingyue's feet and then asked with feigned surprise, "Huh? How did a cultivation manual end up on the ground here? How strange."

Su Qingyue was so amused by his terrible acting that she finally couldn't help but open her eyes.

Her gaze briefly swept over Qin Hao before landing on the manual he had tossed beside her. With just one glance, an indescribable thirst and resonance surged from the very depths of her soul.

"What is this?" Su Qingyue's voice was hoarse, her eyes glued to the jade slip, completely unable to look away.

Qin Hao replied in a casual tone, "The True Explanation of the Grand Dao's Origin. It's a technique suited for building your foundation, and it's a bit better than that garbage you were practicing before. Have a look."

Driven by that voice deep within her soul, Su Qingyue instinctively opened the manual. The moment she did, the text inside surged into her mind as if it had a life of its own.

Su Qingyue's mind buzzed and went completely blank. The True Explanation of the Grand Dao's Origin was one of the supreme dharmic formulations that pointed directly to the very essence of the Grand Dao. This technique contained a crystal-clear analysis of the most fundamental nature of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Its profundity was simply staggering.

Compared to this, the cultivation technique she had been practicing before was like a toddler scribbling in the dirt with a stick. No, her previous technique wasn't even worthy of being compared to this supreme method.

Receiving such a technique initially brought Su Qingyue a surge of joy, but this was quickly followed by a deep sense of shock and powerlessness that completely enveloped her.

The value of such a manual was so unfathomable that one probably couldn't trade the entire Southern Region for a single phrase of it. This was a technique profound enough to establish a Holy Land, serving as the eternal foundation for a top-tier orthodox lineage!

And yet, Qin Hao had just casually tossed such a priceless technique to her?

Seeing that Su Qingyue had accepted the manual, Qin Hao immediately tossed a storage bag in front of her.

"W-what else is in here?" Su Qingyue's voice trembled. She didn't even dare reach out to touch the storage bag. She was afraid that every single item inside would serve as a stark reminder that she and Qin Hao were from two completely different worlds.

Qin Hao simply shrugged, completely unbothered. "Nothing much. Just some Star Source Liquid, Chaos Primordial Stones, and a few Nine-Orifice Exquisite Pills. Oh, right, there's also a piece of Immortal Soul-Nourishing Wood."

With every name Qin Hao casually dropped, Su Qingyue's face grew a fraction paler. By the end, her complexion was no longer just pale, but completely drained of color in near-transparent shock.

Star Source Liquid? The supreme treasure rumored to only form deep within the core of a star, taking tens of thousands of years just to condense a single drop? And Qin Hao was handing over an entire bottle?

Chaos Primordial Stones? The foundational relics left over from the very dawn of creation, before the clear and turbid energies of the universe had even separated? Hadn't such treasures gone extinct eons ago?

Nine-Orifice Exquisite Pills? The sacred pills that countless immortals would fight tooth and nail for? And Qin Hao just pulled out three of them at once?

And then there was the Immortal Soul-Nourishing Wood. Su Qingyue knew of standard Soul-Nourishing Wood, as even a mundane sliver of it was enough to serve as the ultimate trump card for an ordinary sect. Just how exorbitantly precious was an Immortal grade one?

Su Qingyue felt as though her entire worldview, built over eighteen years of life, had been utterly crushed and forcibly reconstructed in this single moment.

Looking at Qin Hao's perpetually calm and handsome face, she realized clearly for the first time that the gap between them wasn't just a matter of cultivation strength. It was an insurmountable chasm of background and heritage.

The trifling items Qin Hao gave away on a whim represented a zenith she might never touch, even if she spent her entire life trying.

The moment this thought surfaced, a heavy gloom settled over Su Qingyue's heart. It made her feel even worse than when Qin Hao had outright rejected her earlier.

Biting her lower lip, Su Qingyue returned the storage bag Qin Hao had tossed to her.

"The cultivation technique flooded into my mind on its own, so I have no choice but to accept it. But I cannot take these heavenly treasures. They are far too precious..."

They were simply too valuable. She was terrified she would never be able to repay him, and she didn't want to owe him anything else.

Qin Hao leaned in slightly, bringing his eyes level with hers. Then, to Su Qingyue's utter astonishment, he planted a loud kiss right on her soft, flawless cheek.

"You..." Su Qingyue covered her cheek, staring at him with a mix of shock and, more overwhelmingly, secret delight.

Qin Hao shrugged. "Consider that kiss as your payment."

With that said, Qin Hao straightened up, gave a light leap, and hopped right back up into the tree.

Su Qingyue's face flushed crimson. Still clutching her cheek, a profound sweetness bloomed in her heart.

Hmph, and you claim you don't have feelings for me. If you really didn't care at all, why would you kiss me?

He definitely likes me too. It's just that I'm too weak right now and I don't have a powerful background. But that's okay. None of that matters. As long as I have a place in his heart, that's more than enough for me!!!

Qin Hao probably never expected that a casual kiss would give Su Qingyue such an unprecedented surge of motivation.

Her resolve was now firmer than ever. She didn't care if Qin Hao was just a passing traveler in her life, nor did she care about the massive chasm in status between them. Right now, she only had one thought.

She was going to climb to the very top! She would climb high enough so that one day, she would no longer have to stare up at his back. One day, she would stand proudly shoulder-to-shoulder with Qin Hao!

Meanwhile, lying up on the tree branch, Qin Hao was filled with regret. He lightly slapped his own mouth.

"Damn it, why couldn't I keep this mouth in check? I promised myself I'd wipe my hands clean and walk away without getting tangled in any karma. Why did I lose control and kiss her?"

Qin Hao pursed his lips, relishing the lingering sensation.

"But honestly, I have to admit, girls in the cultivation world are incredibly soft. And they smell amazing."

Just as he was reminiscing, Qin Hao's expression suddenly changed. He realized that his cultivation base was slowly and uncontrollably rising. It had already skyrocketed once before when he integrated the Innate Dao Body and the Dual Pupils.

At that time, worried that advancing too quickly would cause the Heavenly Dao to reject him, he had forcefully suppressed it. But what was happening now? He wasn't even cultivating, so why on earth was his cultivation base growing all on its own?

Ding! When a rental target's affection for the host reaches ninety-five percent or higher, the host will receive a portion of their cultivation base in return.

The system's prompt chimed in right on time to resolve his confusion. You could get cultivation base returns just by raising affection past ninety-five percent? How interesting! That meant he could just lie back and slack off!

With a feature this good, who would ever bother doing the hard work of cultivating? All he had to do was flirt with girls!