Cut It as You Will, It Remains Tangled

Lu Ping stared at A for two breaths.

If Jiang Mutian believed he was immune to all poisons, perhaps he could negotiate a real deal.

But the problem was, why would she believe him?

An Outer Sect Disciple of the Greenwood Sect claimed he could withstand a high-grade aphrodisiac poison.

To any cultivator, those words would be an obvious conspiracy.

Lu Ping chose B.

[You chose B.]

[Jiang Mutian moved half a step closer to you. You felt the temperature in the cave rise.]

[Although you arrived here earlier than last time, events had sped up.]

[Jiang Mutian spoke again.]

["I've been poisoned with Severed-Fate Hehuan Powder. Ordinary Detoxification Pills are useless."]

["If this poison can't be suppressed, I'll lose all my cultivation at best. At worst, I'll die and my Dao will vanish."]

[You looked up, pretending it was your first time hearing of it, and asked:]

["Senior, is there another way?"]

[Jiang Mutian looked at you.]

[This time, she paused for a long while.]

["There is. There's only one way."]

["Transfer the poison from my body into yours."]

["The result is that the man will certainly die."]

[As soon as she finished speaking, the drug's effects finally erupted in full.]

[Her lips pressed against yours.]

[Once again, the system glossed over what followed in a single line.]

[Your dignity was once again shoved into a corner.]

[The Lying-Flat Trait deftly took over your state of mind.]

[The Severed-Fate Hehuan Powder began to transfer.]

[A tremendous flood of poison surged into your meridians.]

[The Heavy Tomato User Trait activated.]

[Yin and Yang spiritual power also sank into your meridians, forcibly widening them.]

[Your spiritual power began to soar.]

[The bottleneck at the ninth layer of Qi Refining began to loosen.]

[The pain nearly made you black out, but your cultivation at the ninth layer of Qi Refining let you hold on longer and stay more conscious than last time.]

[Your bones shook, joint by joint, as spiritual power crashed wildly through your body.]

[You felt as though you would burst and die in the next instant.]

[You noticed Jiang Mutian's spiritual power entering your meridians.]

[She was helping you bring your rampaging spiritual power under control.]

[She had lost most of her reason, yet she was still forcing herself to protect your heart meridian.]

[She had said, "The man will certainly die."]

[Yet her hands were still working to save your life.]

Lu Ping felt a tightness in his chest as he read those lines.

Last time, he had thought the Storage Ring she left behind was merely a burial offering for his corpse.

Now, it seemed that might not have been the whole story.

The woman was as cold as a blade, but she hadn't treated him entirely like refuse.

That realization didn't put Lu Ping at ease. Instead, it made things more troublesome.

[Your bottleneck finally shattered.]

[Great Perfection of Qi Refining.]

[In the next instant, the Foundation Establishment barrier appeared.]

[Spiritual power crashed against it again and again.]

[Jiang Mutian raised a hand and pressed it against the center of your back.]

[A surge of purer spiritual power pushed into your body.]

[The Foundation Establishment barrier cracked.]

[Your Dantian expanded, transforming into a spiritual lake Dantian. Spiritual power filled it, showing faint signs of liquefying.]

[A Divine Sense Embryo was born.]

[Foundation Establishment Realm Early Stage. Breakthrough successful.]

[Host's breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment Realm detected.]

[Three Trait equipment slots added.]

[Current number of equippable Traits: nine.]

[Current Trait equipment slots: 6/9. Equip new Traits? (Trait slots are not full. You must equip Traits.)]

Advancing from the Body Tempering Realm to the Qi Refining Stage added two Trait slots.

Advancing from the Qi Refining Stage to the Foundation Establishment Realm added three.

What about the Golden Core Stage, then?

Lu Ping silently wondered, then selected three Traits and replaced another.

Friend of Women added one uncontrollable risk.

[You equipped the Trait: Bully at Home.]

[You equipped the Trait: Flattery.]

[You equipped the Trait: Workplace People-Pleaser.]

[You replaced Friend of Women with Passing the Buck.]

[Currently equipped Traits: 9/9]

[Heavy Tomato User (S-rank)/Salty Fish (S-rank)/Artisan Spirit (A-rank)/Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement (A-rank)/Bully at Home (A-rank)/Workwear Thug (B-rank)/Passing the Buck (B-rank)/Flattery (B-rank)/Workplace People-Pleaser (C-rank)]

[You finally couldn't hold on any longer and blacked out.]

[The next day, you woke up.]

[The cave's restriction was still in place, but you were alone, and a Storage Ring had appeared on the ground.]

[Everything seemed the same as last time.]

[But you knew it was different.]

[You had reached Foundation Establishment.]

[You had seen her save your life.]

[You sat up, spiritual power circulating slowly within you.]

[After Foundation Establishment, the world changed.]

[You could sense the formation patterns lingering within the stone walls, the faint signs of life in the vines, and the moisture on the blades of grass outside the cave.]

[For the first time, you released your Divine Sense.]

[Your Divine Sense swept past the cave entrance.]

[Three zhang, five zhang, ten zhang.]

[A poisonous insect lay in a crack in the rock, its six legs trembling.]

[You could even make out the faint trace of poison in its body.]

[You picked up the Storage Ring Jiang Mutian had left behind. It was still icy cold.]

[This time, you didn't bite it.]

[You cut your fingertip, and Essence Blood flowed onto the face of the ring.]

[After the ring absorbed the Essence Blood, a layer of white spiritual light shone.]

[Your Divine Sense probed inside.]

[The Storage Ring contained no cultivation methods, no Law Artifacts, and no inheritance Jade Slips. Still less did it contain any High Antiquity fragments that could send you soaring to the heavens in a single step.]

[There were only Spirit Stones and pills.]

[There were two piles of Spirit Stones.]

[Three thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones.]

[One hundred mid-grade Spirit Stones.]

[Three bottles of pills.]

[But all the pills were high-grade or above, their grades too high for you to use.]

[Compared with the pills, the Spirit Stones were the cheapest things there.]

[This was a price enough to buy your life.]

Lu Ping's throat felt a little dry as he read the information.

A First-Rank Alchemist of the Greenwood Sect might not save even a few hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones after a year of hard work, once costs and shares were deducted.

The "compensation" Jiang Mutian had casually left behind was already enough to buy all the cave abodes in the Ding district.

It was also meant to buy out this stretch of karma.

[You took the bottles of pills out of the Storage Ring one by one.]

[You checked the seals.]

[There were no hidden marks and no tracking spiritual patterns.]

[You also checked the Spirit Stones. All were standard Spirit Stones.]

[After confirming there were no problems, you put the Spirit Stones and pills back into the Storage Ring.]

[The Jade Slip Shopkeeper Zhou gave you had already marked the western side of the Greenwood Mountain Range as a place where Black-Feather Fire Crows appeared.]

[You had originally planned to go after reaching perfection in Qi Refining.]

[Now, you had reached Foundation Establishment.]

[Some things could be done ahead of time.]

[You put away the Storage Ring and erased the traces you had left in the cave.]

[Then you left the cave without returning to the Greenwood Sect.]

[You changed course and headed toward the western side of the Greenwood Mountain Range.]

[You changed out of your Greenwood Sect Outer Sect Disciple robes and put on a drab gray Rogue Cultivator's short robe instead.]

[Workwear Thug stopped working.]

[The pleasing presence about you quickly faded.]

[Now, you looked like a poor Rogue Cultivator who had just crawled out of a market.]

[After reaching Red-Silk Mountain, you first kept watch for three days.]

[On the first day, nothing happened.]

[On the second day, two Qi Refining Rogue Cultivators made a circuit around the foot of the mountain, then left cursing.]

[On the third day, a three-person team appeared.]

[None of the three concealed their presence. All were at Foundation Establishment Early Stage.]

[One carried a staff, another had a sword on his back, and their leader was a young monk.]

[The monk wore white monastic robes and had a string of wooden beads around his neck.]

[They went straight into the deepest part of Red Refining Mountain.]

[Options appeared.]

[A: Go forward and make their acquaintance at once. You need to build connections in Foundation Establishment circles early.]

[B: Follow them quietly and first observe why they came to Red Refining Mountain.]

[C: Pull on a red vest, grab a megaphone, and slide-tackle your way into the middle of the road: "Stop! I have developed Red Refining Mountain into the Qingling Border Region's AAAAA-rated Fire Crow Hot Spring Scenic Area! We're currently seeking angel-round development funds. If the three of you are willing to crowdfund an equity stake for a hundred thousand Spirit Stones, not only will you get free admission for life, the handsome monk can be the scenic area's merit ambassador, the one with the sword can pedal a spin bike to generate electricity, and the one with the staff can work security at Monkey Mountain. We'll all be partners, go public in three years, and ascend in five!"]