Chapter 019: Poke Where You Don’t Understand

Seeing the mixture of shame, reluctance, and forced sacrifice on her face, Xiao Jihan lowered his gaze. “Thank you, Master,” he said softly.

With those words, he picked up the empty bowl along with the untouched side dishes and turned to leave.

Favorability: -49 (Dislike)

Phew.

Yan Shu let out a sigh of relief. Well, exchanging a bit of food for five points of favorability wasn’t such a loss.

Still, it was so strange that he truly didn’t eat anything.

But now, his favorability toward her was at -49 (dislike). That wasn’t quite hatred anymore, was it? Did that mean he no longer wanted to kill her?

A surge of joy rose in Yan Shu’s heart, but she quickly calmed herself.

No, she couldn’t grow complacent. Xiao Jihan could lose favorability just by glancing at her, and his mind worked in such unpredictable ways—who knew when she would drop back into hatred again? Her head was still precariously attached to her neck; she needed to keep working on raising his favorability.

It would be best if she could get it into positive numbers. That way, even if it dropped, it wouldn’t fall all the way into hatred.

Wait—

Something didn’t add up.

He came in with -49, and he left with -49. Did that mean he ate her porridge for nothing?!

Yan Shu: (▼ヘ▼#)

Without that bowl of porridge in the morning, Yan Shu suddenly realized she had no other connection to Xiao Jihan.

For several days, she didn’t catch sight of him at all.

Without seeing him, there was no way to improve his favorability, or even to know if it had dropped. Yan Shu grew anxious, worried that Xiao Jihan might secretly be lowering his favorability somewhere out of sight—just as before, when he’d gone to receive some new clothes and returned with his sword drawn, ready to kill her.

She contacted Third Senior Brother Liu Zhiqing through the Mystic Spirit Mirror, inquiring how he usually taught his disciples.

Liu Zhiqing glanced at Yan Shu’s reflection in the mirror, raised an eyebrow, and said, “What you really want to know is how to cultivate feelings between master and disciple, isn’t it?”

Did he have to be so blunt?

Yan Shu cleared her throat, about to respond, when Liu Zhiqing lifted his chin and snorted, “A master for a day is a father for life. Such bonds are ordained by the heavens—why bother to cultivate them?”

The corner of Yan Shu’s mouth twitched. “Senior Brother, you’re quite proud of yourself, aren’t you?”

Liu Zhiqing nodded without hesitation. “I have taken on five personal disciples. Each of them respects their master and reveres me greatly. Compare that to Little Junior Sister, who’s only taken one disciple and not only receives no respect but must curry favor and attempt to mend the relationship at every turn. In that regard, yes, I am proud.”

Yan Shu felt as if she’d been stabbed in the lungs and promptly shut off the Mystic Spirit Mirror, tossing it aside in frustration.

What was she thinking, going to the most mischievous of her senior brothers for advice?

After a while, the mirror buzzed again—it was a message from Liu Zhiqing.

Yan Shu hesitated for a moment but answered in the end.

This time, Liu Zhiqing refrained from poking at her sore spots and spoke seriously. “Junior Sister, you could use academic matters as a pretext to check on him. After returning from Supreme Peak that night, I made some inquiries about Xiao Jihan’s past.”

“That child has had a hard life. Other than his birth mother, he’s never known anyone’s care. Even after joining the Xuantian Sect, he suffered daily humiliation. When he finally ascended to Supreme Peak, hoping his hardships were over, he instead encountered someone like you…”

He stopped halfway through and glanced at her.

Yan Shu understood his meaning well enough: he was implying she was cold-blooded, ruthless, heartless, cruel—a devil who only took him as a disciple to harvest his heart’s blood.

She kept a straight face and said nothing.

Liu Zhiqing cleared his throat. “In short, the child is starved for affection. If you truly wish to make amends and repair your relationship, you should let him feel your care.”

“A master for a day is a father for life—but in your case, more like a mother. You should care for him in every detail, as a mother would. With time, he’ll surely change his view of you.”

Yan Shu thought Liu Zhiqing made sense. If she treated Xiao Jihan as a rebellious son, she couldn’t go wrong.

Never mind that, in truth, her soul was that of an eighteen-year-old college freshman.

After putting away the mirror, Yan Shu set out to find Xiao Jihan.

Not wanting to appear too eager, she pretended to be taking a stroll around Supreme Peak, hoping for a chance encounter.

She wandered for half a day but didn’t see so much as a shadow of Xiao Jihan. After some thought, she decided to take the initiative and headed for his courtyard.

As she neared the house, she realized a barrier had been set around Xiao Jihan’s courtyard.

The original host had always been a poor student, and with Yan Shu now in control, she was equally clueless. When she saw the barrier, all she could think was: Damn! That’s impressive!

Truly, he was worthy of being the protagonist—his master couldn’t do this, but he could.

And, come to think of it, she’d never really taught him anything. From the beginning to the end, the protagonist had relied on his own extraordinary talent and luck to ascend to immortality.

Like a country bumpkin, Yan Shu circled Xiao Jihan’s house once and finally understood why he’d set up the barrier.

In the original story, the protagonist had broken through to Nascent Soul stage a few days before killing the original host. Since her arrival, she hadn’t tormented him and had even given him pills, spiritual herbs, and spirit rice—it made sense he was about to break through and had gone into seclusion.

Realizing this, Yan Shu let out a breath of relief.

If he was busy cultivating, he wouldn’t have time to think about her. That meant his favorability wouldn’t fall into hatred, and if there was no hatred, he wouldn’t try to kill her. She was safe.

Feeling at ease, Yan Shu turned away so as not to disturb him.

The past few days, she’d been so preoccupied with favorability that she hadn’t fully integrated the original host’s memories or the techniques she’d mastered—or failed to master, such as alchemy and artifact forging.

Now, with time on her hands, Yan Shu meticulously went over the original host’s techniques and memories until she’d mastered them.

As for alchemy and artifact forging, Yan Shu discovered with dismay that, even with a new mind, she remained hopeless at learning. It seemed her only option was to focus on martial skills.

Though she couldn’t break through due to the seal inside her, it didn’t prevent her from cultivating. She also discovered that the Sect Master of Xuantian Sect had left a trace of his consciousness in the seal, which she could call upon as a teacher at any time.

Whenever she had a question, she could use her spiritual power to probe the seal and awaken the Sect Master’s consciousness.

With this, within just over ten days, Yan Shu had fully mastered the original host’s techniques.

One day, after perfectly executing a set of Ninefold Thunder Shadow Lash, the Sect Master of Xuantian Sect looked at her as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

Seeing his expression, Yan Shu had a bad feeling. She quickly asked, “Master, is something wrong?”

The Sect Master regarded her with a complex expression. “From now on, I can no longer be at your beck and call.”

He’d chosen his words well. Yan Shu had become addicted to cultivation—every time she didn’t understand something, she poked at the seal; if a technique didn’t flow smoothly, she poked at the seal; if she was confused about something in the world of cultivation, she poked at the seal whenever the thought occurred to her.

In short: poke, poke, poke—wherever she didn’t understand, she poked.