Just as Zhong Yi was wondering why Zuo Yi was acting so strangely toward him, an eerie wolf howl suddenly rang out.
“Awooooo—!”
The frenzied Direhowl, which had been getting thoroughly crushed by the Sparkit, suddenly threw back its head and howled at the sky.
A moment later, pair after pair of scarlet eyes lit up in the boundless darkness.
“A pack of… frenzied Direhowls!?”
Zhong Yi’s expression immediately darkened.
One frenzied Direhowl would have been easy enough to deal with. After all, the Pals in this area weren’t very high-level.
But if an entire pack attacked at once, the situation would be completely different.
“Miss Zuo, this place is dangerous.”
Zhong Yi took a deep breath and stepped in front of Zuo Yi.
“Hm? …Mm.”
For some reason, the sight of Zhong Yi’s tall figure suddenly made Zuo Yi feel safe. She lowered her head in panic.
Just then, Zhong Yi rummaged around at his chest and pulled out two rings.
Under Zuo Yi’s incredulous gaze, he handed them to her.
“Eh?”
Zuo Yi’s cheeks instantly turned as red as ripe apples.
“Here. You take them.”
Zhong Yi spoke with an extremely serious expression.
“M-Me?”
Zuo Yi’s heart began to race as she stared helplessly at the two rings he was offering her.
“F-First of all! Let me make this clear! It’s not like I’m going to… just because you gave me rings or anything…”
The girl bit her lip and stole glances at Zhong Yi from the corner of her eye. Her throat felt as though it were filled with smoke, and she couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence.
“And another thing! You… you really know what these rings do, right…?”
Her voice grew softer and softer, but both hands obediently accepted the rings from Zhong Yi.
“Of course I do.”
Zhong Yi turned around and walked step by step toward the encircling pack of frenzied Direhowls, his back radiating grim resolve.
“The Isis Ring increases the damage dealt by Water-type Pals, while the Mercy Ring is used to capture Pals.”
“I don’t have a Water-type Pal, and I can’t capture frenzied Pals anyway. Neither of these rings is useful to me.”
“We left in such a hurry that I forgot to clear out my bag… Hold on to the rings for me. Otherwise, I won’t have room to pick up the Predator Cores later.”
“Huh!? Why are you giving me your rings!?”
…
…
Although there were a great many frenzied Direhowls, the forest was still part of one of the starting areas.
The frenzied Pals, which were only level 35, were quickly wiped out by Frostallion.
“Phew… It’s finally over. But why hasn’t the quest been completed?”
Zhong Yi wiped the sweat from his brow, troubled as he stared at the still-incomplete Bond Quest.
That didn’t make sense.
Zuo Yi had clearly been found, and her wish had been fulfilled.
Wasn’t her wish simply to be with the Sparkit forever?
“This stupid quest gives far too few hints…”
Zhong Yi couldn’t help muttering under his breath.
“Miss Zuo, why did you suddenly run off without saying a word earlier?”
Zhong Yi asked, puzzled.
“Hmph!”
Zuo Yi snorted unhappily. After a long while, she finally muttered in a small voice,
“Y-You were going to team up with another Tower Master anyway… Other Tower Masters are stronger and more capable. What am I supposed to count for…?”
“Ohhh! So Miss Zuo was worried that if Tower Master Li Wei joined us, then she wouldn’t be able to…”
“I—I never said that!! Don’t you dare…”
“…fight powerful Pals anymore, right? Hahaha! Miss Zuo really does love fighting from the bottom of her heart. Come to think of it, wouldn’t Junior Brother Mu or Lao Zhou be more suitable for her?”
“Oh.”
“If that’s what you’re worried about, Miss Zuo, then there’s no need to be concerned.”
Zhong Yi shook his head with a smile.
“I have a close friend who has never had a Tower Master’s assistance. Since there’s now a Tower Master who doesn’t care much about luck, naturally, I’ll leave her to him.”
Letting Li Wei go to Zhou Yue to capture her had been part of Zhong Yi’s plan from the start.
That was also why he had delayed setting out to search for her location.
Especially after learning that Li Wei’s Partner Skill enhanced the cultivator’s own combat ability, Zhong Yi’s resolve had only grown firmer.
“R-Really?”
Zuo Yi looked up, her eyes shining like they held tiny stars. She made no attempt to conceal her joy.
“Of course. Why would I lie to you?”
Zhong Yi scratched his head, somewhat baffled.
From beginning to end, he still couldn’t understand why she was reacting so strongly.
Just then, a system notification rang out:
[Quest complete! You successfully found Zuo Yi and untangled the knot in the girl’s heart.]
[Your Bond Level with Zuo Yi has increased to Level 10.]
[The Tower Master Zuo Yi’s permanent function has been unlocked.]
“Hm???”
Zhong Yi’s face filled with question marks.
The quest had been inexplicable, and its completion was just as inexplicable.
As someone who had always prided himself on being a master strategist when it came to relationships, Zhong Yi couldn’t help questioning his professional abilities.
How had it suddenly been completed!?
Zhong Yi looked at Zuo Yi in front of him, still completely bewildered.
The girl’s cheeks were flushed, and her lips were slightly pursed.
If one listened carefully, one could even hear her heartbeat pounding rapidly.
Zhong Yi raised an eyebrow and suddenly reached out, grabbing Zuo Yi by the wrist.
“Y-You—what are you doing!?”
Like a startled fawn, Zuo Yi immediately became incoherent.
“D-Don’t think that just because you said a few nice things, this lady is going to… going to…”
“Shh!”
Zhong Yi made a stern silencing gesture.
The girl obediently lowered her head and, unusually, stopped struggling.
“As I thought.”
Zhong Yi released her wrist and spoke in an even tone.
“Miss Zuo’s pulse is far too rapid—nearly six beats in a single breath.”
“You’ve been flushed and short of breath since earlier. Your pulse is now superficial and rapid, yet weak under pressure… You likely suffer from deficiency of the heart and spleen, with the blood failing to nourish the heart. You’ll need to build up your health in the future.”
“??? Why are you shocking me again!?”
…
The livestream chat had lost it for what felt like the umpteenth time.
[Hahahaha, as expected of you, Zhong!]
[I finally understand what it means to be single through sheer skill…]
[What exactly were you all expecting!?]
[Miss Zuo says the opposite of what she means, while Zhong keeps putting his foot in his mouth… They really do seem like a perfect match?]
…
…
After unlocking the permanent function, a Tower Master could fight alongside a Pal.
However, while in the permanent state, the Tower Master’s combat ability would be drastically reduced. Their primary role was to provide emotional support.
Naturally, when no Pal was deployed, the Tower Master would enter their normal combat state. Overall, it was a fairly decent support position.
After all, Lu Ze had deliberately designed every Tower Master’s Partner Skill to be a powerful support-type ability.
At that moment, Zhong Yi and Zuo Yi were sitting together atop the Sparkit’s head as it made its way back to the base.
“Hey!”
Zuo Yi fidgeted for quite some time before finally seeming to make up her mind and calling out.
“I’m not ‘hey.’ My name is Zhong Yi…”
Zhong Yi smiled helplessly.
Compared with being called “Scrub,” not being called anything at all seemed like a major improvement.
“Um…”
Zuo Yi quickly turned her face away, her voice soft as a mosquito’s buzz.
“Thank you.”
“Huh?”
Zhong Yi was slightly taken aback.
This was the first time he had ever heard such blunt words from Zuo Yi.
Just then.
He suddenly saw, with startling clarity, countless strands of Dao intent drifting through the air around Zuo Yi before converging before his eyes.
The techniques of the Ten-Cross True Art reflected themselves before him, scene after scene…
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
nto another world, I bought a slave for the first time, never expecting the silver wolf girl to be so cute... Lin Feng: I know it's cold, but you don't have to sneak into my bed! Yuna: Just sharing body warmth, if you dare do anything naughty, I'll definitely...
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
