Chapter 41: Gazing at Shen Yanting’s Porcelain Doll Body Part 2

He had not expected them to escape the array. Bo Xuenong had not expected his lust to be so bold.

To still think of dual cultivation at a time like this.

He truly deserved death.

Bo Xuenong still drew the Suspended Ink Sword. From Shen Yanting’s warning, this sword did have issues.

But the Suspended Ink Sword was her lifebound sword; they coordinated even better. Moreover, the Suspended Ink Sword brimmed with spiritual qi—it was a top-grade spirit tool, said to rival a divine artifact. She was facing a divine transformation realm cultivator now; no ordinary sword could take down Hua Fangqi. She still had to use the Suspended Ink Sword.

Shen Yanting had said to use it less, not that she could not use it.

Bo Xuenong had no intention of blaming Shen Yanting for choosing such a sword for her.

Shen Yanting clearly had not meant to give her a problematic sword. Besides, setting aside how the Suspended Ink Sword absorbed corpse qi, it was indeed a rare treasure sword.

Gripping the Suspended Ink Sword once more, Bo Xuenong’s aura grew even sharper.

Bo Xuenong tightly gripped the long sword in her right hand, held it vertically against her chest, and spun it forcefully. The Suspended Ink Sword detached from her palm and spun rapidly at her chest, sending beams of cold light from its blade toward Hua Fangqi. Her hands quickly formed seals as azure mist drifted toward the Suspended Ink Sword. “Gather Gold, Seal Soul!”

The Suspended Ink Sword let out a clear ring. The ink-black long sword suddenly crawled with a layer of gold scales.

The gold scales clung tightly to the Suspended Ink Sword, then instantly split it apart, turning the Suspended Ink Sword into thousands of golden scales.

The gold scales surrounded Hua Fangqi, spinning around him nonstop.

Hua Fangqi snorted coldly. “Mere parlor tricks.”

Bo Xuenong ignored his mockery and slapped a palm toward the gold scales. The thousands of scales instantly transformed into hook-thorn chains. The hooks shattered his protective array before it could fully gather spiritual qi, piercing into Hua Fangqi’s flesh. As he struggled, the hooks tore chunks of fresh red flesh from his body.

Hua Fangqi let out cries of agony and hastily gathered spiritual qi to shake off the hook-thorn chains, lunging toward Bo Xuenong.

The moment he drew near, Bo Xuenong swiftly tucked Shen Yanting away and retreated backward, shielding Shen Yanting’s exposed head with one hand while tossing a handful of gold scales at Hua Fangqi with the other.

That was what she had palmed when the Suspended Ink Sword split apart.

Hua Fangqi chased closely. Bo Xuenong’s sudden ambush struck his face.

The moment it touched his skin, it turned into hook-thorn chains. Hua Fangqi could not dodge in time as the chains shredded his face, leaving it unrecognizable in an instant—one eye blinded, even his nose torn off.

Hua Fangqi’s resentment nearly overflowed.

He chased after Bo Xuenong like a mad dog, on the verge of reaching her.

Spiritual mist gathered in Hua Fangqi’s palm, growing denser as he prepared a fatal strike against Bo Xuenong. Unexpectedly, Bo Xuenong did not dodge.

She shielded Shen Yanting and met Hua Fangqi head-on. In the instant before contact, she clenched her palm.

The hook-thorn chains followed her guidance and wrapped around Hua Fangqi’s spiritual mist-gathering right hand, layer upon layer encasing his hand and arm together, growing thicker. Bo Xuenong slapped the chains and quickly retreated. Thin mist seeped from the chains, followed by a massive bang. Hua Fangqi’s entire right arm exploded from his own spiritual power.

Bo Xuenong seized the moment of his agonized howl and closed in again.

The gold scales automatically adhered to her palm and reformed into the Suspended Ink Sword the moment she neared Hua Fangqi. The long sword pierced straight through his heart.

With a hard twist, Hua Fangqi’s heart was pulverized.

Bo Xuenong then revealed a faint smile. She withdrew the Suspended Ink Sword and allowed Hua Fangqi’s body to fall. Hua Fangqi tugged at the corner of his mouth, and a sinister smile spilled out. “I won’t die. You can’t kill me. Even if you destroy this fleshly body, my soul will remain undying.”

His greatest reliance was not this fleshly body, but the soul from the Otherworld.

Bo Xuenong knew this full well. She thrust the Suspended Ink Sword through Hua Fangqi’s neck, nailing him to the ground.

The Soul Searching Technique was a special forbidden technique. With so many eyes watching now, she absolutely could not use it.

But… Hua Fangqi’s soul absolutely could not be left alive.

Bo Xuenong called up the System Panel again and silently chanted: Give me a way to destroy souls, not a forbidden technique.

【Ding, one-time Soul-Devouring Gu exchange successful】

Bo Xuenong had learned her lesson this time. She immediately asked about the usage of the Soul-Devouring Gu. After reading the system’s introduction, she finally felt a bit reassured.

【The Soul-Devouring Gu is an extremely rare gu cultivator method in the Cultivation World. It can devour souls to enhance power. The one-time Soul-Devouring Gu lacks growth potential and can only be used when the target’s body is on the verge of death. After devouring the soul, the Soul-Devouring Gu immediately disappears, ensuring soul destruction without a trace. Only one thousand points per use. Welcome to exchange next time.】

Only one thousand points!

What did “only” mean!

A one-time item costing over a thousand points—Bo Xuenong suddenly remembered she had not checked how many points the Substitute Doll had cost.

Bo Xuenong hurriedly checked. This time, she discovered the Substitute Doll had actually cost two thousand points. Her three thousand five hundred points had dwindled in an instant to… Wait, her point total did not seem right. Bo Xuenong quickly checked the two panels again.

【Assistant Bo Xuenong successfully achieved intimate contact with top strategy target Shen Yanting. +100 points】

【Assistant Bo Xuenong successfully achieved intimate contact with top strategy target Shen Yanting. +90 points】

【…】

The Love Firmer Than Gold Panel surprisingly had over twenty new message prompts. Each one was from her successful intimate contact with Shen Yanting, with points dropping by ten each time until stabilizing at twenty points, no longer decreasing. Subsequent ones added twenty.

She now had one thousand six hundred points left.

The new points came from what had just happened.

Had she just been in intimate contact with Shen Yanting?

How had she not felt it at all?

Bo Xuenong was a bit dazed but suddenly realized. While she had been fighting Hua Fangqi earlier, Shen Yanting’s porcelain doll body had frequently bumped against her chest.

Was that the so-called intimate contact?

Bo Xuenong felt she had somewhat figured out the system’s scoring rules.

It was an emotional strategy conquest system. This emotion was not limited to romance, familial bonds, or friendship—as long as there was affectionate touch with a strategy target, points would be added. That was why she had gained five points when she stroked Feng Jin’s head back then.

For the same intimate contact action, the first time yielded higher value. Repeating the action reduced the points, until it reached the minimum line. Further repeats only added the minimum.

When the strategy target had emotional fluctuations toward her—regardless of the type of emotion—close contact added points, though the amount varied. As touches increased, the points slowly decreased. For the action of chest contact through clothing, the first time gave one hundred points, then it dropped all the way to twenty.

Once it reached twenty points, it stopped dropping. That proved the minimum for repeating this action with a top-level strategy target was twenty.

The reason Shen Yanting stroking her head did not increase points was probably because it did not meet the growth threshold.

Such ordinary contact yielded low points to begin with. Plus, as an assistant, her points were only half of Feng Jin’s. All her point earnings so far started at five, without the one- or two-point fragments Feng Jin got. That meant Feng Jin could get tasks worth over ten points for her to receive any.

Feng Jin could earn points from fragment tasks, but she could not.

If Feng Jin had completed these tasks today, her points would be close to ten thousand.

Bo Xuenong had known from the start that Feng Jin earned more from tasks, but she had not expected the gap to be this big. Fragment tasks seemed small, but their completion rate was higher.

Shen Yanting stroking her head did not even give her points.

Then, ordinary contact with silver-grade or black-grade strategy targets was even less likely to yield points.

She was a silver-grade strategy target, yet even her first head stroke from Feng Jin as the assistant earned five points. Though later judged by the system as having too heavy intentions for points, it still increased one by one. So, if gold-level Shen Yanting stroked Feng Jin’s head, could it yield dozens of points?

No.

Bo Xuenong looked down at Shen Yanting, who was nestled against her chest, craning her neck to look out. Her heart softened like water.

She very much enjoyed being relied on by Shen Yanting and even more enjoyed being favored.

Since Shen Yanting had touched her, she could not touch Feng Jin.

Could she see Yu Cenwan now?

Not for any other reason.

Mainly, she felt seeing Yu Cenwan would let her get rich off Feng Jin.

Motherly love was also genuine emotion.

Now, her points rose too slowly and were spent too quickly.

Bo Xuenong even wanted to pin Feng Jin down to do tasks. No wonder Feng Jin cursed the system—it was truly both deceptive and expensive.

Resolving Hua Fangqi’s soul was also helping the system clean up its mess. She did not ask for a free soul-destruction method, but did it have to be this pricey?

Bo Xuenong sighed deeply. With one hand, she covered Shen Yanting’s eyes, and with the other, she pinched Hua Fangqi’s wrist. A black Soul-Devouring Gu crawled from her palm into Hua Fangqi’s body. The smile on Hua Fangqi’s face instantly froze, his earlier arrogance turning to fear. “You… you know…”