The wind billowed, and the sun dipping in the horizon was as red as blood.
After looking around and making sure that the Sword-Wielding Elder was not on the mountain, the small figure had moved and slowly landed in front of Xiao Ran.
Without even a twitching muscle, Xiao Ran took a good look at the girl.
He first noticed her petite frame and round face. Her features were small but delicate, with a little baby fat.
She did not have a usual cute face. Her petulance, naivety, and impassiveness were unnoticeable. Her soft eyes were doe-like, giving off the vibe of a first love’s romance and purity.
She was short, around 1.5 meters more or less, but her proportions were great.
There was an obvious slope under her collar. Although her bosom was not as big as his master’s, the curve befitted a young lady and was sweet and demure.
Her straight long legs under the thin chiffon were particularly highlighting her tall and straight posture and natural grace.
She was a perfect combination of petite and delicate, romantic and pure. Any man would take a second look at her unconsciously.
Xiao Ran had heard from Lin Yunzi that Jiang Chuyan was youthful and pretty, but he had not expected her to have this style.
She would have been Xiao Ran’s type in his past life—if the girl did not speak.
The young girl looked resentful and a little icy. As she curled in her small body, it seemed like she had been assaulted by Xiao Ran.
“I’m warning you. If you touch me and you lack the ability you claim to have, I’ll castrate you on the spot and leave.”
A shoulder massage meant that he would be touching her body, right?
That meant that he had touched his master, no?
Xiao Ran was speechless.
“And if I have such an ability?”
The girl rolled her bright eyes.
“If you do, Xiao Hong’s case will be put behind us. You tainted my innocence, though, so you’ll have to ask the Elder to take me in as a disciple.”
She had a princess syndrome—she had to get treated!
Too bad Xiao Ran could not fight her and could only act depending on the situation.
“How do I address you?”
Chuyan thought that she had made herself and where she came from clear, only to figure out that Xiao Ran had meant how he should call her.
Before a conclusion was reached, she did not want to call him Junior Uncle, nor did she want to be called Junior Nephew.
“Just call me Jiang Chuyan.”
Xiao Ran shook his head and said, “Older gingers are spicier[1]. You’re too young. I’ll call you Chuyan.”
The girl’s eyes widened as she stared straight at Xiao Ran, shaking from rage.
‘I’ll take it!’
‘You’ll have a taste of your own medicine later!’
In reality, Jiang Chuyan did not like her royal family name, Jiang, either.
Before she’d left the palace, her elder brother had passed away young and her elder sister had been married off to another country. She was supposed to take over the Blazing Nation. She was a woman who was going to become an empress regnant.
At a young age, with too much to shoulder, she had come to Zongzhi Mountain to cultivate after catching a glimpse of the Sword-Wielding Elder’s beauty in a crowd. She’d almost wanted to get rid of her surname but could only retain the family name Jiang in order to maintain the royal dignity when she’d acknowledged the decline of her family.
The setting rays of the sun were splayed all across the sky.
Chuyan and Xiao Ran walked to the eastern cliff and hopped onto the coiling root of the pine tree.
“Have a seat.”
Considering the girl’s height, Xiao Ran regretted it as soon as he said that.
The smaller girl shook her head, lowering her soft grainy voice as she replied, “I’ll stay standing. So what?”
Xiao Ran shook his head with a sigh. “I’m afraid that you won’t be able to stand later.”
Chuyan thought that this was just about massaging one’s pressure points. No matter how divine a mortal’s skill was, their strength was going to be a huge contrast. The Sword-Wielding Elder had probably been drunk or had made a mistake while circulating Qi and her spiritual energy had erupted.
Even in that case, would a cultivator fail to stand?
“You can go hard on me. Even if I cause my dantian to erupt, I’ll stand tall and still!”
Not daring to take it lightly, Xiao Ran responded with seriousness, just like he had treated Chen Gongxing.
He closed his eyes and listened to the world, spotting the resonating point of her Qi reservoir accurately…
Using his fingertips, he slowly circulated the strongest of the initial strength of resonance and pressed down on the back of the girl’s soft and fair neck, massaging her Dazhui Point precisely.
Since he was pressing down with the max level of horizontal resonance, the strength felt weak in the beginning, lighter than when he had pressed his master back then even, but the force traveled and completed the first resonance in the spine.
Crack!
Hmm? Chuyan was slightly astonished.
The force tremored abruptly and made a small ripple that pulled up a huge wave. The wave swept through the girl’s bones and limbs, completing the second resonance in her muscles and meridians.
Pang!
Chuyan panicked a little and cultivated to resist it.
However, the strength picked up speed and rolled into her bloodline and spiritual veins like a tide, completing the third resonance.
Boom!
Before she could react, the rampant energy gushed down by following her spiritual veins into the outer wall of her dantian.
This strength was insignificant to the outer wall of a Golden Core dantian, but the rapidly-changing vibrating frequency immediately resonated with the wall!
It was incredibly weak but utterly accurate, like a small spark of fire that could burn down a meadow.
The almost unnoticeable strength resonated with the outer wall of the dantian, resulting in a slight quake. It then created a ripple in the rich Qi reservoir…
Chuyan’s bright eyes froze in shock!
This was the first time she was feeling a resonating tremor in her dantian. She had never gone through something so exhilarating. Her joints shook continuously as she instinctively focused all her energy on a point to resist Xiao Ran’s force.
Ultimately, her spiritual energy got out and suddenly erupted.
Her inner energy was much weaker than Lingzhou Yue’s energy, however, so it did not move Xiao Ran away, merely blowing his clothes with fluttering noises as a result.
The tremor went from her joints to her legs. Upon losing the support of her spiritual energy, they gave out and she plopped onto the ground.
Like a spring, the young girl recovered her strength the moment she sat on the ground and sprang up again once her buttocks touched the surface of the ground.
Her petite frame remained tense, and her innocent little face flushed in shock as her bright eyes stared at Xiao Ran in both surprise and grievance.
“How could a mortal like you possess such strength!”
Xiao Ran looked down, wanting to say something when he saw the girl springing up from the ground agilely. However, he ultimately gave up and did not comment.
One thing was certain—the girl was physically robust!
Upon withstanding the girl’s attack, Xiao Ran switched to winning her over.
He needed a handyman, someone who could become his plow to help him plough the farm speedily and earn him DP mechanically. This young girl, who was infatuated with his master, was his best bet.
Although she kept saying she was going to castrate him, she would have done so in a split second with her Golden Core cultivation base if she had that intention. She would not have waited until this point in time. All in all, she was just sharp-tongued.
“This is the cultivation method Master taught me. Do you want to learn it?”
The girl became lively again at once and hopped up to sit on a branch.
“This is not about whether I want to learn or not. You lay a finger on my body, and I should’ve castrated you to prove my innocence. I cannot do it, but you have to ask the Elder to take me in as a disciple and teach me the cultivation method.”
Xiao Ran looked up, but the odd angle seemed to make him see something he shouldn’t have.
“It’ll depend on your performance then.”
Not wanting to hurry things, he did not speak about the tiger lest the girl was repelled.
Chuyan sat on the branch, swinging her legs and twirling her hair as she said in self-pity, “I’m weak and I don’t know how to give a massage. What should I do?”
Xiao Ran did not fall for it.
“Massaging is not a priority. One should learn something more basic, such as farming.”
Farming?
The Sword-Wielding Elder did not lack medicinal pills and elixirs, so why would there be a need to farm?
The girl raised her guard instantly.
“Don’t try to trick me. If I do what you say and the Elder still doesn’t want me, don’t blame me for snipping your genitals off at night and running back to the palace.”
Xiao Ran was taken aback.
“You’re from the palace?”
“I’m the princess!”
“All the more reason you need to farm. When you become the ruler of the empire in the future, you will be able to lead the Blazing Nation into becoming a prosperous society sooner.”
“I don’t want to.”
The girl pursed her lips with waning interest.
“Both the Blazing Nation and the Zongzhi Mountain will be devoured by the Wraiths sooner or later. There’s no hope for this world. Weak ol’ little me just wants to fall in love.”
“…”
There was no hope for this girl!
Xiao Ran cleared his thoughts.
“You need to farm for that too. You can see Master as a farm. You have to farm, water, and fertilize it with hard work until it’s fruitful, understand?”
‘You—you—you… You really have something going on with the Elder!’ Chuyan thought as her eyes bulged while she looked at Xiao Ran as though she could eat him.
Curses rolled to the tip of her tongue, but she eventually said softly, “Girls can do it too?”
“Of course.”
Xiao Ran looked as righteous and proper as he could.
“Love is pure and free and has no motive. Of course it’s not restricted by gender or race!”
The girl was stunned and dazed while looking at Xiao Ran. A glimmer of tears sparkled in her tender eyes.
Someone finally understood her!
For years, she had not been understood by anyone and had been despised. People had gotten fed up with her and had even torn her down behind her back…
This was the first time she’d met someone who understood her, and it was a man to boot!
“Give me the shovel.”
[1] Jiang Chuyan’s surname Jiang is also the word for ginger. There is a Chinese proverb that says older gingers are spicier, which means the older, the wiser.