“Feeling good now, Yan Zhen?”
Mentor Yu Xuan’s gentle voice sounded right by his ear, her warm, moist breath tickling his earlobe and making it itch a little.
Yan Zhen lazily hummed an acknowledgment.
“Then we’ll stop here for the time being.”
Mentor Yu Xuan withdrew her hand and pulled out the handkerchief she always carried with her. She wiped him down tenderly, speaking in the same soothing tone one might use with a child.
“If you can claim first place in the Monthly Assessment, your mentor will reward you next time—and it’ll be even better than this one. So make sure you cultivate diligently and don’t let your mind wander into the wrong places, all right?”
—There was going to be a next time?!
At those words, Yan Zhen immediately snapped out of his euphoric haze. His eyes went wide as saucers.
No way, absolutely not! Surviving this once had been trial enough. Another round and who knew if he could even stand it!
“Mentor, there’s no need. You actually hate doing this, don’t you? I don’t want you forcing yourself!”
Mentor Yu Xuan finished tidying her hands and shifted her position slightly, allowing Yan Zhen to slide off her lap. Now the two of them were squeezed together intimately on a single chair.
“I don’t hate it at all—because it’s you.”
Having gone through even more intimate moments, Mentor Yu Xuan didn’t put on her usual airs of coyness this time. There was a note of sincere affection in her words.
She felt that Yan Zhen harbored good feelings for her as well. By expressing her own fondness a little, she could give him the courage to confess.
As a woman, she naturally wanted to hear words of love and admiration from the man she cared for—not just throw herself at him without reciprocity.
That was why she had held back from kissing Yan Zhen’s lips just now. She hoped her first kiss would come from him pinning her against the wall in a moment of passion.
The thought made Mentor Yu Xuan’s heart heat up even more. One of her slender arms remained wrapped firmly around Yan Zhen’s waist, refusing to let go.
Yan Zhen, however, felt a chill of fear run down his spine.
What was going on here? Why was Mentor Yu Xuan saying such ambiguous things? She couldn’t actually like him… could she?
In the real world, that kind of possibility would be remote. But right now, he was playing the protagonist—with all the halo that came with it. Accidentally stirring the heart of his own mentor wasn’t out of the question, even if Yan Zhen couldn’t think of anything he’d done to make a stunning beauty like her lose her composure.
Either way, this was turning into a serious problem.
The System had said that anything outside the script depended on his improvisation skills. He had to find some way to dissuade Mentor Yu Xuan from pursuing more “Secret Teaching” sessions. Otherwise, Yan Zhen worried he wouldn’t be able to hold out, and his persona would collapse entirely.
Mentor Yu Xuan’s allure was the real deal, after all—especially that serene, gentle temperament of hers, like calm waters. It was devastating to a novice like him. Wait… he wasn’t exactly a novice anymore.
“…”
Ahem. In any case, the impact was devastating!
If he didn’t have this protagonist role to play, he would have pinned her against the wall by now without a second thought. As it was, he was suffering through it.
But there were no “ifs” here.
He had to embody a ruthless cultivation machine, follow the script to the end, and ascend to the peak. That was his only path.
There were no other options.
Because if he didn’t, the world itself would crumble—and everything, including them, would vanish.
The office fell silent for a moment until Mi Xue’er’s voice rang out from beyond the door.
“Mentor Yu Xuan, are you in there?”
Both Yan Zhen and Mentor Yu Xuan jolted in surprise!
…
“Xue’er, where are you headed?”
“Didn’t I tell you? I’m going to find Little Brother Yan Zhen!”
“What for?”
“Little Brother Yan Zhen’s first time going off alone? That’s suspicious as hell. This miss suspects he’s off meeting some other girl.”
Mi Xue’er’s eyes gleamed with the sharpness of a pint-sized detective in glasses.
Hearing this, Yan Ruyu felt her heart start to pound.
“N-Not necessarily, right?”
“You’ve already forgotten how his performance in Qi Condensation Class the other day turned him into prime bait? All those slutty girls in the class swarmed him like flies to honey—they practically wanted to smother his face with their chests.”
“You’re exaggerating way too much.”
“Hmph. I’ll bet someone’s already slipped him a love letter, asking to meet in some secluded corner so she can become his girlfriend.”
“That’s…”
“Sure, Little Brother Yan Zhen’s mind seems fixed on cultivation, but he’s still so innocent. What if he can’t resist those vixens’ shameless seduction tactics and accidentally agrees? That would be a disaster.”
“It’s not that big a deal. If he likes whoever it is, good for him. What does it have to do with us?”
Mi Xue’er rolled her eyes in exasperation at Yan Ruyu’s obvious insincerity. She thought to herself that her best friend was beyond hope. How had she been so blindly loyal in her past life, playing wingwoman for someone like this? At this rate, even the ironclad red strings of the Matchmaker God would snap.
“Ruyu, how do you still not get it? This is about our dignity!”
“Our dignity?”
“Think about it. We’ve got four absolute stunners right here in our circle—each one a knockout with irresistible charm. Little Sister Meng’er has that baby face with enormous breasts, delicate and dependent like a little bird clinging to a branch. You, Ruyu—not to mention the rest, that full-moon-round perfect ass of yours is enough to steal any man’s soul. I’ve got the killer figure and the looks to match. And then there’s Mentor Yu Xuan, with her flawless, dewy skin, that gentle, watery temperament, and all the mature allure you could want. Forget men—even women would fall for her. If none of us can hold on to Little Brother Yan Zhen’s heart and some outsider snatches him away, where does that leave our pride? We’d never live it down—we’d be ridiculed by those little bitches forever.”
“What nonsense is that, Xue’er? There’s no logic like that.”
“Whatever. We didn’t find him with Meng’er, so now we’ll check with Mentor Yu Xuan. If he’s not here either, that proves I was right. We’ll have to take action and stop Little Brother Yan Zhen from getting lured away by some scheming woman!”
Mi Xue’er was fired up with determination, and Yan Ruyu found herself starting to worry too.
“Yan Zhen isn’t as easy to fool as you think. He’s pretty sharp.”
“Better safe than sorry. Come on already, you heartless ditz!”
“You’re the ditz—watch it, or I’ll smack you!”
Giggling and play-fighting, the two girls arrived at Mentor Yu Xuan’s private office. To their surprise, they spotted a bottle of pills right by the door. They picked it up and examined it, discovering it was a high-quality Qi Circulation Pill.
Qi Circulation Pill: accelerates the flow of qi, aiding in cultivation.
“Did Mentor Yu Xuan drop this?”
“Looks more like she left it here on purpose.”
The pair knocked on the door. After quite a long wait, Mentor Yu Xuan finally opened it.
Her cheeks were noticeably flushed—perhaps from the heat—with a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead. A damp, fragrant scent wafted from her body, as if she had just stepped out of a bath.
—Mentor really is so juicy and tender. Men go crazy for that kind of thing. If only I had a physique like hers…
Mi Xue’er felt genuine envy.
They called her one of Mystic Academy’s Four Golden Flowers, but Mi Xue’er always felt like she didn’t have any standout qualities compared to the other three. Her feet were pretty, but they were usually tucked away in shoes where no one could appreciate them.
Aside from her edge as a reincarnator, she had zero competitive advantage.
Mentor Yu Xuan looked puzzled as she asked, “What brings you two here as well?”
As well? Peering past her, they caught sight of Yan Zhen seated in the consultation chair, his back turned to them.
“Ah, there he is.”
The words slipped out of Yan Ruyu’s mouth, and the knot of tension in her chest finally eased. Mi Xue’er patted her own chest with a small hand and sighed in relief.
“Oh, so Little Brother Yan Zhen is with the mentor. Thank goodness, thank goodness.”
