Chu Mengyou stood at the doorway, bathed in the glow of the setting sun, as if draped in a golden veil.
Li Chuan gazed at her enchanting figure when a sudden thought crossed his mind—how much more captivating would she look if she wore nothing at all, or perhaps just a sheer gossamer robe?
Chu Mengyou stepped into the room and closed the door behind her.
"Junior Brother, I wonder how long you plan to seek a celestial bond with your senior sister this time?" Her tone carried a teasing lilt.
After all, Li Chuan never played by the rules.
Without warning, Li Chuan pulled Chu Mengyou into his embrace, his rough fingers tracing the delicate curves of her face as he tilted her chin, studying her intently.
After a long pause, he sighed in admiration, "Senior Sister, you are truly exquisite."
Chu Mengyou smirked. "Then does Junior Brother feel he’s getting his money’s worth?"
Of course, Li Chuan thought it was more than worth it—but admitting that outright would be unwise. What if she raised her price?
Though he had Spirit Stones to spare, wasting them carelessly wasn’t his style.
With a meaningful smile, he replied, "Whether it’s worth the cost… well, that depends on Senior Sister’s performance."
Earlier, while caressing her face, he had secretly compared her to Mo Xiangling.
In the end, he concluded that both women were breathtakingly beautiful, their faces nearly flawless, with no imperfections to be found.
He pulled out the 30 Spirit Stones he had just acquired and placed them in Chu Mengyou’s palm.
Her eyes widened in surprise. "Junior Brother, why 30 this time?"
Previously, Li Chuan would either pay 50 or 21—amounts that made calculating their time together straightforward, with the option to extend afterward.
But 30? How was she supposed to measure that?
Li Chuan chuckled. "Senior Brother Zhao Bingqian gave them to me."
"Senior Brother Zhao gave them to you?" Her delicate brows arched in disbelief. "Why would he give you Spirit Stones?"
Li Chuan grinned. "Seeing that I lack a Dao companion, Senior Brother Zhao said he’d sponsor me so I could seek a bond with a junior sister. He didn’t want the sect’s cultivation techniques to ruin my health."
"And my first thought was to bring them to you. Aren’t I good to you, Senior Sister?"
Chu Mengyou didn’t believe a single word of it. There was no way Zhao Bingqian would be so generous.
Yet, the thought that Li Chuan’s Spirit Stones had come from Zhao left her feeling strangely unsettled.
Instead of calling him out, she played along. "In that case, I’ll have to thank Senior Brother Zhao properly later. Thanks to him, I’ve earned an extra 30 Spirit Stones today."
Li Chuan’s blood heated at her words. Damn, she’s bold.
Chu Mengyou must be the reserved type—outwardly pure, elegant, and untouchable, but in reality…
……
Before they knew it, night had fallen. Unsurprisingly, Li Chuan extended their time with another 20 Spirit Stones.
Chu Mengyou had intended to leave, but Li Chuan asked her to return at midnight.
Hearing that, she decided to stay. Going back and forth would be too much trouble.
She settled in at Li Chuan’s place, ready whenever he desired her company.
After all, she had only one goal in mind recently—breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage.
If she could earn at least 50 Spirit Stones a day from Li Chuan, she’d reach her goal in just over a month—far faster than she’d originally anticipated.
As for Zhao Bingqian's side, even though they were cultivation partners, he wasn't providing her with Spirit Stones. Naturally, she prioritized Li Chuan, who did.
On the path of immortal cultivation, emotional attachments were the greatest taboo. For both her and Zhao Bingqian, this was nothing short of a trial of their resolve.
One must learn to hold on—and also to let go. Otherwise, they would forever remain low-level cultivators.
By noon the next day, Li Chuan, feeling refreshed in both body and mind, made his way to the Seventh Elder’s peak.
It had to be said, Zhao Bingqian’s cultivation insights and the assistance of his cultivation partner had been invaluable. In just one night, Li Chuan had advanced the "Primordial Yin-Yang Awakening Art" from the second to the third layer, matching his current realm.
With this progress, once he mastered the fourth layer of the technique, his cultivation would undoubtedly break through to the fourth level of Qi Refinement.
He was confident he could achieve this breakthrough within a month.
For now, he had no plans to gather spirit herbs.
First, he had enough Spirit Stones for his needs. Second, the No. 1 Minor Realm was clearly off-limits for the time being. He would have to wait until Mo Xiangling settled the assessment matter and obtained his certification as a Spirit Plant Master before venturing into other minor realms.
Thus, his breakthrough took top priority.
The reason he wasn’t cultivating today but instead visiting the Seventh Elder’s peak was to check whether He Fenglin had awakened.
Past brushes with death had taught him that He Fenglin’s injuries were anything but ordinary. While he couldn’t interfere in other matters, if someone truly intended to move against the Yin-Yang Sect, he needed to prepare early.
At the very least, he ought to scout out escape routes and pick a few senior sisters to keep him company during the flight—lest the journey grow too lonely.
He Fenglin hadn’t yet awakened, but Li Chuan received shocking news from Chu Xuan: a top-grade Spirit Stone had been discovered in He Fenglin’s Qiankun pouch.
Top-grade Spirit Stones were the purest of their kind, containing no impurities—only the most refined spiritual energy.
Li Chuan and the others currently used low-grade Spirit Stones, yet even these were sufficient for their Qi Refinement stage cultivation.
One mid-grade Spirit Stone could be exchanged for ten low-grade ones, and one high-grade Spirit Stone was worth a hundred low-grade.
But a single top-grade Spirit Stone? That could be traded for a hundred high-grade Spirit Stones—ten thousand low-grade ones.
The reason top-grade Spirit Stones were so precious wasn’t just their purity but also one unique property: "reproduction."
No, you didn’t misread. Even these inanimate objects could "reproduce."
When a cluster of top-grade Spirit Stones was left together for millennia, even tens of thousands of years, new Spirit Stones would gradually form around them.
Given enough time—say, tens of thousands of years—a large collection of top-grade Spirit Stones could give rise to an entire Spirit Stone mine, or even a spiritual vein.
Powerful factions always reserved special locations to store top-grade Spirit Stones, securing a lifeline for their future.
Though Chu Xuan didn’t elaborate, Li Chuan understood: He Fenglin had discovered a Spirit Stone mine—or perhaps a spiritual vein.
His injuries weren’t the result of someone targeting the Yin-Yang Sect’s Min Mountain branch. Instead, someone was trying to silence him before the news could spread.
Hearing this, Li Chuan felt both relieved and invigorated.
The Min Mountain branch had been established here precisely because of its spiritual vein. Now, the branch housed over ten thousand cultivators, with the number exceeding fifty thousand if servants and attendants were included.
If it were just a Spirit Stone mine, the extra benefits wouldn’t mean much to him at this stage. But if it was a spiritual vein? That could be an opportunity.
If it truly was a spirit vein, the Yin-Yang Sect would undoubtedly establish a branch sect there. In that case, manpower would surely be recruited locally. If he could seize this opportunity to rise, he could secure an important position in the branch sect.
His ambition wasn’t merely for the privileges that came with power, but rather for long-term planning.
Since the Black Tome only enhanced auxiliary professions, he needed to make the most of it.
Especially in the field of spirit farming—simply cultivating a few dozen acres of spirit fields would yield limited profits.
To farm on a larger scale, he would need authority. Otherwise, his efforts would only benefit others. The ideal scenario would be to lease an entire minor realm for cultivation.
But without influence, who in the Yin-Yang Sect would entrust an entire minor realm to a single person for farming?

ng to die together with you." Lin Xuan is dead, his body thrown into the river by his scumbag lover and her accomplice. She, the president of the Su Group, is decisive, ruthless, and ice-cold. For three days and three nights, she had his body fished out of the river, and without hesitation, she kissed the bloated corpse of Lin Xuan. She laid down beside him in a cold coffin, their fingers intertwined, a smile lingering on her lips as she closed her eyes. The noble and cold-hearted woman, only bending for one man—Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan, with his golden finger, is reborn and returns to the day of his wedding to the treacherous woman. Su Qiang comes to steal the bride. Lin Xuan's eyes light up, eager to pledge his loyalty on the spot, but instead, her kiss transfers a glass of drugged wine into his mouth, causing him to pass out... 【Male Protagonist with Single Female Lead】【Yandere Tycoon】【Action-Packed】【True vs. Fake Heir】

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!

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?!

] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"