It was a bright and cheerful morning. Cui Yu pushed open her window to breathe in the fresh air. She had just put on a smile, ready to greet a beautiful new day—
“Li Jiangying!”
An angry roar completely shattered her peace.
Cui Yu rushed to look outside and saw Miss Jiangying clenching her fists, desperately stifling her laughter as she fled into the distance. But she didn’t get far before a phantom shadow forcibly dragged her back into a room.
Cui Yu froze, watching the door slam shut with a bang. Immediately after, a chaotic racket of clattering and banging erupted from within.
Cui Yu thought for a moment, then silently closed her window.
Inside the room, Li Jiangying held up a chair between the two of them, using it as a shield. “I think I can explain this!”
Li Yueying glared at her coldly. “What sophistry are you going to spout now?”
“Do you remember what happened after you got drunk?”
At these words, Li Yueying raised a hand and pressed it to her temple. She had drunk far too much yesterday; her mind had been like sludge afterwards, and upon waking, she could barely remember anything that had happened.
A glint of amusement flashed in Li Jiangying’s eyes. She put on a righteous and confident front, yelling, “You told me to step on you!”
Li Yueying: “…”
Li Jiangying held the chair and gestured wildly with it in her excitement. “Do you have any idea how much you drank yesterday? You even forcibly ruined their courtesan! Do you know how much money you spent?!”
She grew more and more agitated as she spoke. She slammed the chair down on the floor, swung a leg up, and stood on it. Clenching her fists, Li Jiangying looked down at Li Yueying and declared, “All the money we worked so hard to save—you drank it all! That includes my blood money! My blood money!”
Li Yueying frowned, a trace of hesitation in her voice. “Is… is that so?”
Li Jiangying snorted heavily. “You felt so guilty after you sobered up, you insisted I beat you up to vent your anger. You were sprawled on the floor, crying pitifully with tears streaming down your face, saying if I didn’t step on you, you would never forgive yourself for the rest of your life. Alas, I’m too soft-hearted. I couldn’t resist your pleas, so I just… stepped on you lightly.”
The more she spoke, the darker Li Yueying’s face became, with blatant disbelief in her eyes.
Li Jiangying turned her head away with a huff. “Believe it or not, do whatever you want. Anyway, I haven’t remembered anything yet.”
After a moment of silence, Li Yueying flicked her sleeve and tossed Li Jiangying out of the door. “Tell Cui Yu to come see me.”
Li Jiangying scrambled up nimbly from the floor and cheerfully knocked on Cui Yu’s door. “Cui Yu, your Highness wants to see you.”
Having handed this huge trouble off to Cui Yu, Li Jiangying leisurely strolled off to eat breakfast. And when Cui Yu nervously walked into the room, the first thing she heard was:
“How are the finances of Moon Shadow Devil Palace?”
Cui Yu froze, then raised a hand to wipe the cold sweat from her forehead. Awkwardly, she replied, “To be frank, Honored Highness, the financial situation is not very optimistic.”
“How ‘not optimistic’? Speak plainly, it doesn’t matter.”
Cui Yu then showed Li Yueying the empty storage bag.
After looking at it, Li Yueying drew in a deep breath and pressed a hand over her eyes. “Forget it. You may leave.”
Before leaving, Cui Yu added one more sentence: “Your Highness need not worry. This subordinate will find ways to earn money.”
“I am not so incompetent that I need to be supported by you all.” Leaving those words behind, Li Yueying strode out the door.
Li Jiangying, who was strolling around gnawing on a steamed bun, saw her distant figure and her heart skipped a beat. She hurried over to ask Cui Yu where she’d gone, but Cui Yu didn’t know either. Left with no choice, Li Jiangying could only pray that this Devil Venerable wouldn’t go to another money-burning den; otherwise, she really would have to sell her blood for cash.
Li Yueying was gone for seven days without returning. Although Li Jiangying knew that with her strength, nothing was likely to go wrong, she still couldn’t help worrying.
She could only keep herself busy so as not to be distracted by thoughts of that madwoman. Aside from dispelling the Fire Affliction for Elder Tao every day, she spent all her time studying Body Refining Methods. She discovered that each of these methods had its own merits, but the most suitable cultivation conditions for them didn’t quite match her own situation.
So Li Jiangying once again utilized her extraordinary memory and comprehension. After several trials, she cobbled together a new Body Tempering Technique best suited for herself.
This technique was not purely Body Refining; Li Jiangying had made adjustments so that while tempering her body, she could still absorb large amounts of Devil Qi and funnel it into her dantian without wasting any.
Compared to traditional Body Refining Methods, this new technique also carried elements of a Magic Cultivator’s practice. From that point on, Li Jiangying’s path of cultivation began to smooth out. She clearly felt as if her Ren and Du meridians had been unblocked, and her cultivation results became increasingly gratifying.
Aside from the helpless and unavoidable hidden danger in her dantian, Li Jiangying even started learning minor spells. What was gratifying was that in the aspect of casting spells, Li Jiangying’s talent remained astonishing.
Even Li Xiangshui, who always liked to throw in a sarcastic remark now and then, was shocked by her progress.
“Have you cultivated before?” Li Xiangshui asked, her face full of suspicion. “Although a Pure Fire Body is powerful, you seem far too proficient.”
Li Jiangying chuckled dryly. “Heh heh… This is just natural talent. Oh, right, Xiangshui, what technique have you been cultivating lately?”
“No technique.” Just mentioning this made Li Xiangshui angry. “What use have I for a technique, hmph?” She simply absorbed Devil Qi into her body in the most basic way, then ran it through simple condensation and refinement, and that was it.
Li Jiangying rubbed her chin. “Oh? I was originally thinking maybe I could help you improve your technique.”
Li Xiangshui sneered. “What do you think a cultivation technique is, something you can just change on a whim? Every technique that allows a person to cultivate stably is the crystallization of predecessors’ painstaking effort and wisdom, then passed down to later generations, refined and optimized step by step over time.”
Li Xiangshui’s own technique was also already different from the one she had first practiced. But that was the result of her slowly figuring it out over a thousand years of cultivation. How could it be as easy as Li Jiangying made it sound?
“If you don’t believe me, forget it.” Li Jiangying didn’t press the issue. “However, I am curious about what the highest-grade Magic Cultivator technique looks like now. Maybe I could use it for reference.”
“Those are the foundations of their sects and powers. How could they easily show them to outsiders?”
Li Jiangying hesitated, then asked, “The foundation of Chasing Moon City should be acceptable, right?”
Li Xiangshui: “…”
The poor little slave, under her master’s oppression, began to recall the techniques she had memorized, then lit a lamp and stayed up late into the night, copying them down and offering them up.
Li Yueying’s departure had been sudden, and her return was equally abrupt. She appeared directly in front of Li Jiangying, covered in blood, which nearly scared Li Jiangying to death.
The woman was drenched in blood from head to toe. She stared at Li Jiangying without blinking, then raised her hand and handed her a storage bag.
“Jiang… Jiangying…” she said, her speech somewhat sluggish, “for you.”
Li Jiangying could tell at a glance that something was not right with her. What had she been doing to get herself into such a wretched state?
Li Jiangying carefully took the storage bag and secretly peeked inside, discovering it contained a large amount of Devil Stones!
Oh no, Li Yueying… she couldn’t have gone robbing, could she?!
Greatly alarmed, Li Jiangying looked up, wanting to ask what she had done. But then she was startled by the face leaning extremely close to hers. She clutched her chest and gasped for breath. “You—!”
“Jiangying, are you happy?” Li Yueying tilted her head, the corners of her mouth curving up stiffly, staring intently at Li Jiangying, waiting for an answer.
Left with no choice, Li Jiangying had to flash her a grin. “Happy, very happy.”
Upon hearing this, Li Yueying raised her blood-stained hand and gently stroked Li Jiangying’s cheek. The freshly washed face was smeared with blood, a messy sight, but the madwoman seemed not to notice at all, lost in her own world with an infatuated smile.
Honestly, Li Yueying’s current appearance inexplicably reminded Li Jiangying of their first encounter. Clutching the storage bag, Li Jiangying cleared her throat lightly and probed, “A Yue, how did you get this money?”
Li Yueying paused for a moment before answering, as if she were an unresponsive puppet. “I… caught Demonic Beasts. Sold them for money. All for Jiangying. Jiangying won’t go hungry, won’t have to work so hard.”
So she had gone out hunting. Fine, as long as she hadn’t done something like bullying the weak and robbing people.
Li Jiangying put the storage bag away, carefully took hold of Li Yueying’s hand, and pulled her towards the house. “Good A Yue, come, be good. Let me help you bathe.”
Li Yueying blinked slowly and obediently let herself be pulled into the room.
As it happened, Li Jiangying had recently had some success learning minor spells. Her current amount of Devil Qi usable for spellcasting wasn’t enough to support powerful techniques, but some minor spells were manageable.
Li Jiangying dragged out a large bathtub and had Li Yueying take off her dirty outer clothes, leaving only her inner garment, and sit in the tub. Li Jiangying planted herself in a horse stance, stretched both hands out above the tub in front of Li Yueying, then closed her eyes and began to cast the Water Condensation Spell.
A quarter of an hour passed. A layer of water mist appeared around the bathtub.
Li Yueying stared blankly at Li Jiangying. At this moment, it seemed as if she wasn’t the crazy one—Li Jiangying was.
Li Jiangying’s face was flushed red from the effort. She took a deep breath and started mentally enslaving Li Xiangshui: “Emergency! Quick, quick, quick! Send me some Water Element Devil Qi.”
There was no helping it; the Fire Element Devil Qi within her body was too pure, resulting in Li Jiangying being worst at water-related minor spells.
Li Xiangshui rolled her eyes from afar, then sat down cross-legged and began to circulate her power, extracting Water Element Devil Qi and transmitting it to Li Jiangying.
As soon as Li Jiangying received it, she immediately cast the Water Condensation Spell. This time the condensation speed was much faster. Soon the water in the tub had risen to Li Yueying’s shoulders.
Only then did Li Jiangying signal Li Xiangshui to stop. At the same time, a sudden inspiration struck her—she had discovered a brilliant use for Li Xiangshui. It seemed she could not only supply Devil Qi normally to accelerate her cultivation, but also remotely cheat during spellcasting!
But that was for later. Now, the person in front of her was the priority. Li Jiangying reached into the water and felt it—it was cold and chilly. And without a doubt, Li Yueying, being a Snake Demon, was a cold-blooded creature.
Li Jiangying touched her hand and, sure enough, it was extremely icy. “A Yue, are you cold?”
