Proposal

Proposal Feng Wutong was powerless to resist. After Dai Yao let go, she collapsed limply to the ground.

Her clothes were torn and tattered, revealing fair skin. During the clash just now, the line of fire she had spat from her mouth had been bounced back by Dai Yao and burned parts of her clothing.

She looked dusty and disheveled.

She braced both hands against the ground and slowly lifted herself up, looking at Dai Yao in despair. In a hoarse voice, she said, "You win. From now on, this Cultivation Ground belongs to you."

Looking at Feng Wutong's miserable state, Dai Yao did not feel good either.

Feng Wutong lived a difficult life because of the side effects of her mutated martial soul. Because of his family's fate, wasn't he the same?

In his previous life, he had worked hard for a meager salary and could only barely survive. How similar was that to Feng Wutong's situation?

Compassion stirred in him, and he said to Feng Wutong, "This is one hundred Gold Coins. Consider it the money to buy this plot of land. The market price of this Simulated Environment is about the same. From now on, this place belongs to me."

Feng Wutong accepted the Gold Coins with a miserable smile. She hated how weak she was, hated that she could not protect what belonged to her. After losing this cultivation environment, the Heart Fire inside her would torment her constantly. Perhaps in just a few years, it would burn her away completely.

The only way to survive was to find another Hot Spring to suppress the Heart Fire. But for the sake of pleasure, the nobles had long since monopolized the Hot Springs.

If she wanted to live, she had to sell herself to those nobles.

"I'd rather be burned to death by the Heart Fire! I will never compromise with those nobles!"

Feng Wutong had her own principles.

Of those Commoner Soul Masters who sold themselves to nobles, how many could live with dignity? Unless they were Soul Masters with extremely powerful talent, ordinary Commoner Soul Masters could only end up as noble household slaves.

Between death and dignity, she would rather choose death.

Dai Yao then said, "This Hot Spring is useful to you, but it isn't of much use to me. If you don't mind, you can stay and continue cultivating here."

Hearing Dai Yao's kind words, Feng Wutong felt as if she had grasped the final straw of hope. A sliver of light shone into her despairing heart.

"Why is he helping me? What does he want from me? For him, isn't it only my beauty?"

As someone from the lowest class, she knew there was no such thing as a free lunch. If Dai Yao allowed her to cultivate for free, he definitely had some scheme. She now had nothing at all left, only a fairly pretty shell.

But when she turned and saw the tall, graceful Zhu Zhuqing, she became even more confused. She knew her looks could not compare to Zhu Zhuqing's, so what did Dai Yao want from her?

So she said, "As long as you don't force me to do anything I don't like, I'll stay here."

Dai Yao could not be bothered to indulge her faults. "Stay if you want, leave if you want. I'm not the one being tortured by the side effects of a martial soul."

He only pitied Feng Wutong's circumstances and gave her a choice. It was not as if he had to beg her to stay.

Hearing those words, Feng Wutong actually relaxed.

Dai Yao turned and looked out. The forest was shrouded in darkness. A white cascade cut across the black sky and fell into the pool below, letting out a rumbling roar.

Thinking that this place now belonged to him, his emotions surged, and he could not help starting to imagine the future.

It was like buying a house and, while looking at the empty unfinished shell, beginning to picture how to decorate this room and that one.

Dai Yao was the same, beginning to plan out the place he had obtained.

It was completely empty here, without even a single house.

He walked up to Zhang Xiaofan, who was still in shock, and instructed, "Tomorrow, send people here to build a few rooms. As long as they're livable, that's fine. I'll pay you the wages."

After Zhang Xiaofan left, only three people remained here.

Feng Wutong put away the Gold Coins and quietly walked over to Dai Yao and the other two, inviting them, "You don't have anywhere to stay right now. Why don't you make do in my Thatched Hut for a few days? It won't be too late to move over after the rooms are finished."

"Thank you," Dai Yao replied.

"After all, you're letting me cultivate here for free. What's the harm in you staying in my thatched hut for a few days? Just don't mind that the rooms are shabby," Feng Wutong said with a carefree air.

She had always had a frank and fiery personality. She just had not shown it in front of strangers.

When they arrived at the Thatched Hut, it really was extremely simple.

There were only simple beds and a bamboo chair. The beds were covered with plenty of dried straw as mattresses.

Dai Yao and Zhu Zhuqing looked at each other. Neither of them had expected this to be the place a Soul Master lived.

"Your conditions are really too harsh."

Dai Yao sighed.

Feng Wutong did not feel inferior because of her poverty. Open and composed, she introduced it to Dai Yao. "It's all right. I built all of this myself. The cost of living at the Royal Academy is too high. Spirit Hall gives me one Gold Coin every month. I originally thought that was quite a lot, but if I want to live at the academy, one Gold Coin can only barely cover my expenses."

"But now that I have one hundred Gold Coins, the pressure on me is much less." She smiled happily and said to Dai Yao gratefully:

"Thank you, Your Highness, for letting me cultivate here for free."

Dai Yao waved his hand and said, "This place was originally yours. It's just that I have a reason I absolutely must cultivate here, so I had no choice but to use this underhanded method and threaten you with your parents. I hope you won't blame me."

Feng Wutong stared blankly at Dai Yao. She had never imagined that a noble, and one who was a supreme prince at that, would apologize to her. In her impression, nobles were either arrogant and overbearing, throwing their weight around, or they pretended to be gentlemen while secretly being filthy hypocrites.

Dai Yao expressed his apology sincerely, and Feng Wutong instead began to stammer, her gaze drifting. "It's... fine... It's just that I'm biased against nobles, so when I heard you were one, my attitude was very bad."

Hearing this, Dai Yao laughed, and Feng Wutong laughed too.

After talking through what had happened, the knots in their hearts were instead released, and the relationship among the three gradually became harmonious.

"It's getting late. Wutong, you should rest first," Dai Yao said after looking at the sky.

Yes, by this point, they had already begun to address each other intimately. None of the three cared about the difference in status. Feng Wutong had originally wanted Dai Yao to call her Older Sister, but for some reason, Dai Yao had refused no matter what.

Helpless, she could only let Dai Yao call her Wutong.

In Dai Yao's heart, he grumbled endlessly. Counting his previous life, he was almost thirty now. Calling a teenager Older Sister was truly something he could not say.

Seeing Dai Yao and Zhu Zhuqing gradually enter a meditative cultivation state, Feng Wutong was astonished. She had not expected two nobles to actually cultivate so diligently, even far more diligently than commoners like them.

At night, Feng Wutong and the others would all rest. But to her surprise, Dai Yao and Zhu Zhuqing actually used cultivation in place of sleep. It could truly be called diligence to the extreme! Would everyone think this chapter is awkward?