Chapter 25: Comparison is the thief of joy

“Let’s stop here for today. The first time you soak, dilute the beast blood one-to-one with water. Once your body gradually adapts, you can soak in pure beast blood.”

Ye Feng gave a few more instructions.

Zhu Lan stared at him, caught off guard by his meticulous attention to detail.

“Ye Feng,” Zhu Lan asked on a whim, “why are you suddenly being so good to me?”

Ye Feng turned his gaze, meeting Zhu Lan’s eyes directly.

“Did you forget? Form your Golden Core as soon as possible so I can take your Primordial Yin, and then I will protect you for the rest of your life.”

Zhu Lan: …

‘She shouldn’t have asked.’

….

Back in her own cultivation room, Zhu Lan felt uneasy looking at the empty space where her front door used to be.

‘I’ll find another day to install a door.’

Zhu Lan rummaged through her storage ring, pulling out some random items and piling them at the entrance as a sort of mental comfort.

‘I’m going to soak in beast blood.’

She had read novels of this genre before.

Body tempering was a staple.

The male leads in those stories always had powerful bodies, powerful techniques, powerful cultivation, powerful divine sense, and powerful skills.

If they were missing even one of those, they would be too embarrassed to call themselves a protagonist.

Since she was benefiting from the male lead’s presence, even a little cannon fodder like herself could experience this body tempering.

However, the moment she opened the bottle containing the beast blood, Zhu Lan’s eyes narrowed.

‘Wait, something’s wrong.’

A dense, fishy stench instantly filled the entire cultivation room.

Zhu Lan realized that if she soaked in beast blood here, she wouldn’t be able to stay in this room for quite some time.

‘It’s not so easy being a male lead after all.’

‘To become stronger!’

‘Soak!’

After setting up the wooden tub and mixing the water and beast blood in the correct ratio, Zhu Lan stripped naked, looking like a smooth, peeled egg.

The egg entered the water.

Hiss!

Zhu Lan’s first reaction was that it was incredibly hot.

She clearly hadn’t used hot water.

Yet the beast blood seemed to be boiling, trying to invade her body through her pores.

‘Damn it!’

‘So painful!’

‘Help, the beast blood is biting me!!!’

The beast blood was clearly extraordinary; it still contained the domineering, wild, and chaotic spiritual energy of the spirit beasts.

After soaking for just a moment, Zhu Lan felt pain in all seven of her apertures.

The beast blood began its work of body tempering.

Zhu Lan could clearly feel the impurities in her body being expelled.

‘But no one told me body tempering would be this painful!’

Zhu Lan grimaced in agony.

Her entire body was completely submerged in the beast blood, and every inch of her skin throbbed with intermittent bursts of pain.

The male leads in stories usually just gritted their teeth and pulled through, unlike her, whose face was contorted in a hideous mask of pain.

‘People really are incomparable; it’s enough to make one die of anger.’

However, having recently experienced the bone-deep agony of the Bone-Erosion Insects, this body tempering pain didn’t even compare to a fraction of that.

Zhu Lan gritted her teeth and endured.

She soaked until the middle of the night before her body finally stopped reacting to the blood in the tub.

“Whew!”

Zhu Lan let out a long sigh of relief.

Although the process was unpleasant, she could feel that her physical strength had clearly reached a new level.

She felt light, as if she could fly like a swallow.

She wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt as though her skin had become even better after the tempering.

She wasn’t tired at all, so she climbed onto the roof of the cultivation room to practice the Nine Yin Profound Nether Scripture.

She drew the spiritual energy into her body, guiding it through her meridians over and over again to increase their toughness.

On an inconspicuous rocky outcrop on the back mountain, a figure watched the girl on the roof as she breathed in the spiritual energy.

The moon was very round tonight.

Its silvery light fell upon the stray hairs on her forehead, looking like spiritual silk dropped from the fingers of a goddess.

Ye Feng’s pupils reflected the image of Zhu Lan cultivating under the moon—beautiful and sacred.

….

“Junior Sister, Junior Sister! I’ve come to play with you!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming. Why are you so early today, Senior Sister?”

The Senior Sister from yesterday, Song Qingyi, had come to find Zhu Lan again.

Zhu Lan was quite surprised.

This sister had actually remembered the way to Beast Taming Peak and found her cultivation room.

“Oh, don’t even mention it. Junior Sister, it only occurred to me after I went back yesterday that I forgot to ask your name.”

The Senior Sister scratched her head and laughed sheepishly.

“Memorizing all those books has turned my brain to mush.”

“My name is Zhu Lan. What about you, Senior Sister?”

“My name is Song Qingyi. You can just call me Senior Sister Qingyi.”

“Qingyi? Your name is very beautiful, Senior Sister.”

“It’s nice, right? Hehe, my master chose it for me. Junior Sister Zhu Lan, your name is very pretty too.”

After chatting for a while, Song Qingyi wanted to drag Zhu Lan out to play again.

Zhu Lan looked a bit hesitant.

“Senior Sister Qingyi, I’ve been a bit lazy with my cultivation these past few days…”

“We’re going to the mortal world! Junior Sister, our monthly allowance is in spirit stones. A single spirit stone can buy so many things in the mortal world! Last time, I bought a lot of novels and snacks…”

“Fine, I’ll go. Let me change my clothes.”

‘Well, work hard, play hard!’

Once inside the cultivation room, Zhu Lan sniffed her clothes.

There was still a faint, unpleasant scent of blood.

However, Senior Sister Qingyi seemed a bit airheaded, so she probably wouldn’t say anything.

After a quick change, Zhu Lan caught up with Song Qingyi.

“Let’s go!”

Half a day later, Zhu Lan arrived at Liangzhou City.

“Senior Sister, why are we in Liangzhou City?”

Song Qingyi had brought out a wind-riding flying treasure that looked like a large leaf.

After flying for half a day, they had reached Liangzhou.

Song Qingyi let out a couple of “hehes.”

“Junior Sister, I basically finished buying all the novels in Liangchuan City last time. I haven’t read the ones in Liangzhou City yet. We’ll buy some here first, and when we get back, I’ll let you read the ones I bought in Liangchuan.”

Zhu Lan found it amusing.

Senior Sister Qingyi seemed quite adorably dim-witted, but she was very comfortable to be around.

Strictly speaking, Zhu Lan didn’t know more than five people in the Tianyan Sect, including the male lead.

It was good to socialize and make more friends.

As soon as they entered Liangzhou City, Zhu Lan keenly noticed that the atmosphere was tense.

There were almost no street vendors to be seen in the streets and alleys, and the common folk were keeping their doors tightly shut.

She was about to suggest to Senior Sister Qingyi that they should go to Liangchuan City instead, but Song Qingyi was already pulling her toward the northern part of the city.

“I came to Liangzhou City once for a mission, but I didn’t have time to buy any novels then.”

Song Qingyi was in high spirits, so Zhu Lan decided not to dampen her mood.

However, after crossing half of Liangzhou City, they still didn’t see a single street vendor.

By now, even Song Qingyi realized something was wrong.

“Eh? Why is no one selling novels?”

Just then, a squad of armored soldiers appeared around the corner at the end of the street.

“Who goes there!”

The lead soldier spotted Zhu Lan and Song Qingyi immediately.

He shouted from a distance, and the squad quickly surrounded them.

“Who are you? Don’t you know these are extraordinary times? How dare you wander the city so recklessly?”

The lead soldier had a booming voice, which left Song Qingyi a little dazed.

Zhu Lan calmly produced her Tianyan Sect disciple token and explained, “We are disciples of the Tianyan Sect. We came to Liangzhou City to purchase supplies. May I ask what has happened in the city?”

Upon seeing the disciple token, the soldiers visibly relaxed.

The lead soldier cupped his hands in a respectful salute.

“So it is the Immortals of the Tianyan Sect. Please forgive our rudeness. It is just that Liangzhou City has been very unstable lately, plagued by bandits. The new City Lord has issued an order that citizens are not to leave their homes unless it is an emergency.”