The next day.
The sky had just begun to show the faint white of dawn when the tiny hut, which had been in turmoil all night, finally fell quiet.
Lu Mingyue, with her eyes tightly shut, rested her head on Lin An’s shoulder, breathing softly.
Her purple dress was in disarray but, surprisingly, not torn.
It seemed the material and craftsmanship were indeed exceptional.
Lin An, on the other hand, looked far worse off.
On his other shoulder, a small, neat bite mark was still oozing blood.
His chest was mottled with bruises, but the most eye-catching mark was a clear purple-red ligature mark on his neck.
“Oh? Young Master Lin sure has a unique talent~ Getting more excited when you can’t breathe, huh? Haha~”
Deep exhaustion was etched in Lin An’s eyes.
The crazy scenes from the previous night kept flashing through his mind.
It turned out that eating soft rice came with risks, and one had to be careful.
He turned his head to glance at Lu Mingyue’s calm face.
He now fully understood why this woman wanted to Slay the Demon Seed.
That Inner Demon was nothing but a sadist, a lunatic.
And it said it would let him be on top…
Bullshit!
This slight movement might have startled Lu Mingyue awake.
She slowly opened her eyes, her face devoid of that eerie, pseudo-human smile.
She just quietly stared at Lin An.
Her gaze swept over the wounds on his body, finally settling on his neck.
She raised her hand and gently moved it there, causing Lin An to flinch reflexively.
Lu Mingyue’s hand paused, then slowly moved down to rest on his chest.
A warm, healing energy seeped through his skin, flowing bit by bit through his entire body.
“Apologies. This Seat should have informed you beforehand. After using your Transparent Sword Body to Slay the Demon Seed, the Inner Demon will appear periodically, usually once a month.”
Lin An stared blankly at the hand pressed against his chest.
Lu Mingyue’s meaning was that after half a month’s cultivation, the Inner Demon would reappear during the next session, just like…
“Just like Mingyue?”
Lin An looked into Lu Mingyue’s eyes.
At that moment, those eyes were empty.
They held neither the apology she verbally expressed nor the seductiveness of the Inner Demon from the previous night.
There was nothing at all.
Lu Mingyue met his gaze, her red lips parting slightly as she spoke in a flat tone, “Yes, just like Mingyue.”
A strange feeling welled up in Lin An’s heart, but he quickly suppressed it.
Tsk…
It was so boring.
Did he have a reason to be angry?
Of course.
Should he be angry?
Maybe…
“Pavilion Master Lu, tell me about my body. Besides ‘Observe Like and Dislike’ and ‘Slaying Demon Seed’, what else is there?”
The sun was rising, and life went on.
Instead of dwelling on this, it was better to focus on something more practical.
Lin An turned his head.
Lu Mingyue looked at his profile, channeling her spiritual energy to heal him as she spoke:
“There is also ‘Heart Like Still Water’ and ‘Ten Thousand Swords Singing’.”
“What do they mean?”
“‘Heart Like Still Water’ means you can always maintain your state of mind, achieving a state of absolute tranquility. This is the most perfect state for cultivation.”
“‘Ten Thousand Swords Singing’ means you can obtain the cultivation insights of a sword’s previous owner from various different swords, which will also accelerate your cultivation progress.”
Lin An pondered this inwardly.
Wasn’t this the perfect Cultivation Saint Body?
But why couldn’t he cultivate?
Lu Mingyue voiced his thoughts the next second.
“As for why your cultivation is so low, this Seat does not know. Your body is fine, but your soul seems to have something I cannot understand. Whether it’s good or bad… it’s hard to say. Perhaps Sect Master Ling of the Yuming Sect could see it.”
“Then…”
Before Lin An could finish, Lu Mingyue spoke first.
“The Demon Extermination Assembly is imminent, and she will be attending. This Seat will bring you along then. But whether she will examine you or not is not for me to decide. She is… a very strange person.”
Lin An glanced at her, his look implying, ‘Can there be someone stranger than you? Now that would be truly strange.’
Soon enough, once she had healed the wounds on his body, Lu Mingyue put on her dress and left.
Her gait was a little odd, enough to show how intense the night had been!
And the Spiritual Stones he was left with this time had increased to one hundred.
Sigh…
Screw emotions and such.
As long as the sugar mommy was happy!
Lin An adjusted his mindset very quickly, throwing himself into his day’s work with a cheerful heart…
—
—
Li Guanshi was problematic.
That was Lin An’s conclusion.
Why?
“Lin An, if you have any difficulties, just tell me. Don’t keep it bottled up.”
“Lin An, you must be carrying something on you, right? Keep it hidden well. Don’t let anyone find it.”
“Lin An, who’s in your family? Do you need to write a letter home to contact them?”
Things like this.
Today, he would ‘accidentally run into’ this steward everywhere.
If it were an ordinary person, they would genuinely be scared by his almost sycophantic attitude.
But Lin An was different.
He could intuitively see the other person’s favorability level.
It hadn’t dropped a single point; in fact, there was even a rising trend.
He felt that if he just admitted to being a spy, Li Guanshi’s favorability would definitely turn blue instantly.
The problem was, he couldn’t admit it.
It wasn’t like he could just go up and ask which sect or faction the guy belonged to, right?
Besides, he didn’t know the ins and outs and would definitely get exposed.
The Demon Soul Sect was highly probable, but he really didn’t know their spies’ code words or habits.
He guessed that, right now, the other party still thought of him as a greenhorn, in a stage where he trusted no one.
Could it be that the Demon Soul Sect spies didn’t know each other?
Each one lurked independently?
He wasn’t sure, but judging by Li Guanshi’s attitude, it probably wasn’t that.
The reason the other party was buttering him up like this was probably because he was scared.
Lin An’s strength wasn’t even at the First Mortal Martial Realm, yet he had managed to kill Sun Yao, who was at the third.
This showed he was carrying some priceless treasure and definitely had backing within the sect.
Perhaps he was here just to get some credentials?
Returning to his residence at night, Lin An carefully thought the matter over.
His own ‘lady’ was definitely unreliable.
So, how about… relying on someone else’s?
But how was he supposed to make contact with them?
—
—
Late into the night.
Lin An went out to tell Gu Yingge a story.
Not long after he left, a figure appeared in his room.
“Oh? Not here?”
A soft, feminine voice sounded.
The woman checked the room, then took out a magic tool—a palm-sized wheel dial.
She then found a strand of hair from Lin An’s bed and placed it on the dial.
As she chanted an incantation, a wisp of azure flame appeared on the dial, starting to burn the hair.
But the next second, the flame was scattered by something.
The woman suffered a severe backlash and spat out a mouthful of blood, “Pfft.”
Her face instantly turned pale, and her body swayed as if about to fall.
She only steadied herself by grabbing the nearby table.
“Can’t even track his traces? With such a powerful protective magic artifact, it seems it’s definitely the Holy Son and no one else.”
Her voice had completely lost its earlier composure, but it was laced with excitement.
“This immense fortune has finally come to me! Excellent! It seems I must diligently assist the Holy Son, wishing him smooth operations here, so he can return to the Demon Sect and ascend to the throne soon.”
The woman cleaned up all the blood on the floor, then vanished from the room with a flicker of her figure.
What she didn’t know was that Lin An hadn’t made his bed before leaving that morning.
So that strand of hair on it might not have been his…