Chu Xuan even subconsciously glanced down at her attire: "I'm dressed so modestly—how is this 'seductive'?"
She felt indignant.
"Senior Sister Chu, isn’t her outfit... quite normal?"
"Don’t be fooled by how covered up she is. Every curve is tightly outlined, as if she’s afraid people won’t notice what’s beneath. Isn’t that seductive by definition?"
"Junior Brother, it sounds like you’re just bitter because you’ll never have a chance with Senior Sister Chu Xuan..."
"I’m speaking the truth. Ask any male disciple, and they’ll agree with me."
"Hmph, the other disciples clearly have better mental discipline than you..."
Then, Chu Xuan overheard Li Chuan comparing her to Chu Mengyou and even their master, weaving all sorts of wild fantasies.
She was both furious and amused.
"Today, I’ll teach you a lesson—show you what it means to respect your senior sister!"
Chu Xuan flew toward Li Chuan’s direction but stopped after a short distance.
"...Never mind. That old man looks like he’s on death’s doorstep. I’d hate to scare him to death. I’ll deal with him after his breakthrough. Plenty of time for that later."
Still watching the scene in her bronze mirror, she flew back to the Seventh Elder’s Peak.
Once home, she set the mirror aside, alternating between glancing at it and meditating—using Li Chuan and Chu Mengyou as tools to temper her mental fortitude.
To say she was unaffected would be a lie. She was simply restraining herself with all her might.
She knew the day she remained utterly unmoved by such scenes would mark the perfection of her mental discipline.
Before she realized it, dawn had broken.
"Junior Brother, I should go now." Chu Mengyou stood to leave, but Li Chuan pulled her back.
Under her puzzled gaze, he produced another handful of spirit stones.
Chu Mengyou flushed with frustration. "Why must you do this every time?"
Li Chuan grinned. "Because I love seeing that reluctant-yet-obliging look on your face..."
Watching Chu Mengyou accept the stones, Chu Xuan finally pieced it together: "So they charge by the hour? Half an hour for 21 spirit stones? That’s 500 a day—nearly 180,000 a year!"
"Good heavens, is Mengyou really that expensive?!"
"Wait, maybe the math doesn’t hold..."
"Still, earning 71 stones in just over an hour isn’t bad at all."
To her own surprise, Chu Xuan found herself calculating Chu Mengyou’s income.
She saw nothing wrong with Chu Mengyou’s actions.
This was the Yin-Yang Sect, after all—a place of extreme tolerance, even encouragement, toward matters of intimacy.
Anywhere else, Li Chuan and Chu Mengyou would’ve been branded the sect’s shame.
......
At the entrance of the Yin-Yang Sect’s Minor Realm No. 1, Li Chuan stretched luxuriously under the warm sun.
"Bliss," he sighed, loosening his limbs.
Yesterday’s earnings were already spent. Time to work again.
Inside the minor realm, he resumed his busy foraging.
His Level 8 Plant Identification skill had not only flooded his mind with new botanical knowledge but also sharpened his discernment.
This time, he stayed until nightfall. His haul was both plentiful and... not.
The contradiction lay in the numbers: over 20 spirit herbs, plus spirit flowers, vines, trees, and fruits—nearly 40 specimens in total.
Yet their value had plummeted.
Most were freshly sprouted, their prices halved. Several plants combined barely fetched 1 spirit stone.
In the end, the entire batch traded for just 219 stones and contribution points.
Dissatisfied, he missed the covetous stares from Zhou Hanhe and Zhao Mingxuan.
"Are there still that many treasures in Minor Realm No. 1? How does this old bastard keep getting lucky?" Zhou Hanhe’s eyes burned with envy.
Zhao Mingxuan shook his head. "Look at those herbs—many were sprouts. We’d have missed them entirely. Junior Brother Li’s vision is simply unmatched."
Though equally awed, he lacked Zhou Hanhe’s bitterness.
Zhou Hanhe smirked. "He’s definitely got tricks. Once Senior Sister Hu Min returns, we’ll have her tail him—see what’s really going on."
Hu Min, his Dao Companion, often stalked high-yielding disciples under his tip-offs. When they located premium herbs, she’d swoop in, claiming prior discovery to seize the prize.
Most botany-focused disciples were talentless cultivators who’d turned to herbology after abandoning breakthrough hopes. Weak and unresisting, they yielded to Hu Min’s bullying.
This scam had fed Zhou Hanhe’s coffers well—Hu Min handed him 30% of every haul. Easy profit.
Now, he plotted to ensnare Li Chuan the same way.
Unaware that meager earnings had painted a target on his back, Li Chuan was en route to visit a certain senior sister—the one who’d sneered at his audacity for proposing dual cultivation despite being only at Qi Refinement Tier 3 while she was Tier 4.
If Chu Mengyou could be won with stones, he’d test whether this haughty, one-tier-higher sister remained impervious to wealth.
Her name? Unknown. Back then, struck by her beauty, he’d trailed her home. Finding her alone, he’d boldly asked to become Dao Companions.
After all, he considered himself formidable—a seasoned explorer of minor realms and immortal ruins, a quasi-elite cultivator.
Her scathing rejection taught him how vast the gap was between his self-image and others’ perception.
Knocking on her door now, he flashed his most disarming smile (though to her, it still reeked of creepiness) as a white-robed beauty appeared.
"Senior Sister, long time no see."
"You again?" She crossed her arms, looking down her nose.
"I need a favor," Li Chuan said, producing 100 spirit stones.
The faint blue glow softened her expression.
"What favor?"
"I wish to... share a moment of celestial affinity with you."