Ning Rongrong: Jiang Taichu, I'm going to follow you from now on!

"It's not that I'm too strong. He's too weak."

"If he were a true genius, that fight wouldn't have ended so easily."

Jiang Taichu spoke calmly.

Yu Tianheng was indeed a decent genius in this era.

But he was only a decent genius.

At the same cultivation level, there were Qian Renxue and Tang San of this era, Tang Hao and Bibi Dong of the previous era, and the three Peerless Douluo of the era before that.

Which of them couldn't beat Yu Tianheng like a dog?

At this stage, Jiang Taichu had always measured himself against those people.

After he finished speaking, Dugu Yan gave him a somewhat resentful look.

"If even Yu Tianheng is so weak in your eyes, wouldn't I, Dugu Yan, be no better than some nobody on the street? That really hurts."

She had come to congratulate Jiang Taichu, but now she seemed to have made a clown of herself.

"Sister Yanzi, you're different."

"Your Martial Soul's ability is poison-based. How could you compare it with a Power Attack System Soul Master?"

Jiang Taichu spun his nonsense with a perfectly straight face.

"Forget it. I'm not talking to you about this painful subject anymore."

"Lingling and I heard that you're looking for a Soul Beast called the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear?"

Dugu Yan asked.

Jiang Taichu nodded.

"The Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear would be very useful to me."

Jiang Taichu said nothing more, and Dugu Yan and Ye Lingling tactfully refrained from pressing him.

"I just wrote to my grandfather. If he comes across the Soul Beast you mentioned while traveling the continent, he'll capture it and bring it back for you," Dugu Yan said out of the blue.

Ye Lingling continued:

"I told my mother about it. She's already instructed our Ye Family's Soul Master team to keep an extra eye out for the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear you mentioned if they enter the Star Dou Great Forest."

Sensing their goodwill, Jiang Taichu smiled happily.

"Thanks."

The next day.

A lovely young girl appeared outside Jiang Taichu's little shop in Heaven Dou City.

"This looks like Jiang Taichu's little shop."

"But why is it still closed?"

The lovely girl was Ning Rongrong, who had come to Heaven Dou City in search of Jiang Taichu.

Ning Rongrong's eyes darted about, and she quickly came up with a good idea.

She found the manager of a shop near Jiang Taichu's in the market and placed a Gold Soul Coin right in front of him.

"Excuse me, mister, do you know why Jiang Taichu's shop isn't open?"

Seeing Ning Rongrong's fine clothes, the shopkeeper didn't dare entertain any clever schemes and answered honestly:

"Little miss, don't you know?"

"The little genius usually opens his shop only once a month, and that's to sell Life Essence. The rest of the time, his shop stays closed."

"The little genius just sold Life Essence yesterday. If you want to see him, you'll have to wait another month."

"A month?!"

Hearing that, Ning Rongrong froze.

She was playful by nature and had no patience to wait a month.

But...

The corners of Ning Rongrong's mouth curled up in a wickedly charming smile.

"Money can make even ghosts turn a millstone."

She turned and headed for the department in Heaven Dou City that handled property resales.

After producing the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's token and bombarding them with a tiny fortune in Gold Soul Coins, Ning Rongrong successfully learned where Jiang Taichu lived.

"Jiang Taichu, here I come, Ning Rongrong!"

Shouting at the top of her lungs, Ning Rongrong made her way happily toward Jiang Taichu's courtyard.

At that moment, Jiang Taichu was meditating and cultivating on the Blue Silver Grass-covered hill outside Heaven Dou City, unaware that someone had come looking for him at home.

It wasn't until evening, when Jiang Taichu finished meditating and cultivating and walked back to his front door,

that he discovered a lovely young girl asleep against the gate to his courtyard.

"Where did this little girl come from? How did she end up sleeping at my door?"

"But her face... she looks strangely familiar."

Unable to remember for the moment, Jiang Taichu decided to wake the little girl.

He stepped forward and patted Ning Rongrong on her little head.

"Hey, wake up. You're sleeping at my door."

Ning Rongrong opened her eyes blearily.

The moment she opened them, she saw the exceptionally handsome Jiang Taichu, who looked like a young immortal descended to the mortal world.

"Wow, what a handsome big brother!"

Ning Rongrong's infatuated side erupted, and she was instantly captivated by Jiang Taichu's looks.

After a while,

Ning Rongrong recovered her senses and finally realized what was going on.

She looked at Jiang Taichu and asked eagerly:

"Handsome big brother, are you Jiang Taichu?"

Though puzzled, Jiang Taichu nodded honestly.

"That's me. What's the matter?"

No sooner had he spoken than Ning Rongrong cried out happily:

"Starting today, I'm going to follow you! We'll get married when we grow up. How about it?"

The corners of Jiang Taichu's mouth twitched wildly.

Hold on, little girl, we've only just met, and you're already latching on to me. Isn't that a little much?

Jiang Taichu assumed Ning Rongrong had merely been momentarily dazzled by his looks.

As for what she had said about "getting married when we grow up," Jiang Taichu didn't take it seriously either.

After all, in his previous life, he had been a boy who played house with the little girl next door.

Kids didn't know anything. They just opened their mouths and spouted nonsense, without any sense of propriety.

"Little girl, hurry home, or your mom and dad will think you've gone missing."

"Oh, right, what's your name? Where do you live? Do you want me to take you home?"

Jiang Taichu just wanted to send Ning Rongrong away as quickly as possible.

"Brother Jiang Taichu, I came looking for you on my own. I don't need to go home. I want to stay here with you."

"Also, my name is Ning Rongrong. I'm from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect."

Ning Rongrong spoke with a pout.

"Ning Rongrong?!"

Jiang Taichu took a few more careful looks at Ning Rongrong and finally realized why she had seemed so familiar.

"Even so, no. I'm not taking anyone in."

Jiang Taichu refused.

If he let Ning Rongrong follow him, given her temperament, wouldn't she annoy him to no end every day?

Seeing Jiang Taichu refuse, Ning Rongrong slowly held up five fingers.

"Little Sister Rongrong, what do you mean by that?"

Jiang Taichu had an ominous feeling. Was the Seven Treasure little princess about to throw money at him?

Things were just as Jiang Taichu had thought.

The next moment, Ning Rongrong said:

"Just let me follow you, and I'll give you fifty thousand Gold Soul Coins a month. How about it?"

Jiang Taichu's pupils contracted slightly. Was this the little princess's world? She really did spend gold like dirt.

He would have to sell a thousand drops of Life Essence to earn fifty thousand Gold Soul Coins.

From the time he arrived in Heaven Dou City until now, Jiang Taichu had barely earned a little over ten thousand Gold Soul Coins.

Now, all at once, he was being offered fifty thousand Gold Soul Coins. Jiang Taichu truly found himself hesitating.

Maybe I should agree. It's just one more pair of chopsticks, anyway.

While Jiang Taichu was hesitating,

Ning Rongrong thought he considered it too little, so she immediately raised the price.

"A hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins. A hundred thousand a month. I want to follow you."

Jiang Taichu's eyes lit up, and he gave a couple of perfunctory coughs.

"Since you want to follow me so badly, I suppose I'll reluctantly take you in."

"But I have rules here. You can't disturb my cultivation whenever you please, and you can't go causing trouble for me."

"Uh... those are the only two I've thought of for now. I'll add more when I think of them. If you agree, I'll let you follow me."

Without a second thought, Ning Rongrong bobbed her little head like a chick pecking at grain.

Looking at Ning Rongrong's obedient expression, Jiang Taichu thought to himself:

This Ning Rongrong seems pretty obedient as a child.