Chapter 7: Not Wanting to Live That Long

"You finally opened the door." Seeing Mu Tong open the door, Yun Feng grinned and squeezed inside.

"This is all you're getting this time." Mu Tong retorted crossly, handing over a storage bag filled to the brim with steamed buns, dumplings, and various other flour-based dishes, along with some pre-made meals.

Yun Feng took it and beamed instantly, "These are all my favorites! Darling, you're the best!"

Mu Tong rolled her eyes. *What do you mean "all your favorites"? As if they were made specifically for you! These are my rations, alright?*

"Cut that out. Pay up!" Mu Tong held out a hand, demanding the equivalent payment for the food.

"I wouldn't dream of short-changing you." Yun Feng handed her another storage bag. Inside were carefully curated items that Mu Tong needed, along with many interesting gadgets he had recently found.

Mu Tong scanned the contents with her divine sense: Jade Silkworm Silk, the primary material for high-grade storage bags; Geng Silver Essence, the key ingredient for storage rings and bracelets; and Gold-Silver Alloy Essence. This last one was commonly used for defensive gear, but Mu Tong had recently discovered a unique property: when added in precise amounts to storage equipment, it rendered the items free of spiritual fluctuations, making them appear entirely mundane.

For instance, the six silver studs she wore in her ears were actually storage devices, each with a capacity of one thousand cubic meters. To any observer, they looked like ordinary, finely crafted silver earrings.

In contrast, the silver ring on her finger was made without the alloy. It emitted a distinct spiritual aura, making it obvious to anyone that it was a storage ring.

In Mu Tong's view, the Gold-Silver Alloy Essence was a treasure. Aside from the legendary "Universe within a Sleeve" technique used by immortals, every storage device she had ever seen possessed a spiritual signature—even those crafted by the immortals themselves. The only difference was the quality of the craftsmanship and the size of the storage capacity.

She quite liked the alloy, but it was hard to come by and expensive in town, so she didn't have much of it. Currently, only those six earrings had been crafted with it.

Beyond these materials, there were also herbs for alchemy and base materials for talisman making—exactly what she needed.

With this bag of supplies, she wouldn't have to head to the market tomorrow. She could start refining pills and forging equipment immediately. As for food, she could prepare more once she was finished; she still had some stockpiled in her storage space to keep hunger at bay.

At the very least, there was always the Bigu Pill. One pill could sustain her for a day.

Given her current cultivation level, she could only refine pills that lasted for a single day. She had heard that the immortals and deities could craft pills that lasted an entire year.

Mu Tong couldn't imagine it—for a foodie like her, not eating for a year and just swallowing a single pill felt like murder. Cough, and could she admit that she actually possessed one of those year-long Bigu Pills? A deity had once traded ten of them for a single meal she had prepared. Perhaps to the gods, making such pills was trivial, so ten of them were worth no more than one of her meals.

Mu Tong tucked the storage bag away and began shooing Yun Feng out. "You've got your things, now go. I need to meditate."

Yun Feng put his bag away, but with a flick of his wrist, something else appeared in his hand. Before Mu Tong could react, he shoved it into her mouth.

It melted on contact, and the medicinal power surged through her entire body instantly.

"What did you feed me?" Mu Tong was both shocked and furious. This Yun Feng always loved to find bizarre things and force-feed them to her when she wasn't paying attention. Not that she could avoid it even if she were on guard; the gap between a Spirit Severing cultivator and a Foundation Establishment cultivator was simply too vast.

"Little darling, this is a Cinnabar Longevity Fruit I went to great lengths to get from my mother. It extends one's lifespan by a hundred years. Hehe, she doesn't even know I swiped it." Yun Feng said triumphantly.

"Don't look at me with such gratitude. Giving my wife good things is my duty as a husband."

*What kind of look is that? Gratitude? This is clearly a look of murderous intent!*

Mu Tong tried to spit the fruit out, but it was impossible; the medicinal essence had already permeated her system.

This Yun Feng—he was always bringing back all sorts of things and forcing them on her. She still remembered the first time, back before she had even reached Foundation Establishment, when he was just one year old and had force-fed her some kind of "strengthening nutrient solution" from a high-tech civilization.

It had left her in agonizing pain for seven days and nights. When she confronted him afterward, he simply claimed it would improve her constitution and grant her an extra fifty years of life.

The second time, when she was fifteen and he was five, he brought back a vine fruit from some magical realm. After eating it, she had suffered from an unbearable, bone-deep itch for nine days and nights, scratching herself until she was covered in blood. Even now, the memory made her shudder.

Yet, how did Yun Feng put it? "Little darling, eating that fruit adds sixty years to your life."

The third, fourth, fifth time...

Mu Tong couldn't even remember how many strange things he had forced upon her. Every time, it resulted in a severe illness, followed by his innocent expression: "I did it for your own good."

For her own good? Because of all these things, her abilities were far stronger than those of her peers, and her lifespan far exceeded theirs.

A Foundation Establishment cultivator typically lived for about two hundred years. Mu Tong, however, now had a lifespan of eight hundred years. This meant that regardless of whether she reached the Golden Core stage, her life would be longer than that of a typical Golden Core cultivator, who lived for about five hundred years, or even a Nascent Soul cultivator, whose life spanned around a thousand years.

In essence, she had gained six hundred years more than her peers.

But who told Yun Feng she wanted to live that long? Who gave him the right to alter her destiny?

To be the only one left after all her loved ones had passed? Mu Tong didn't know if she could bear that pain. It was precisely because she knew she would live so long that she was afraid to love. She feared that when her beloved grew old and withered, she would still look young and sweet; she feared that when they eventually passed away, she would be left alone to endure the unbearable agony of helplessness.