Soulmate

The wind blew fiercely, and the setting sun looked like blood.

Peering out and confirming once more that the Sword-Wielding Elder was not on the mountain, a petite figure moved and landed gracefully before Xiao Ran.

Xiao Ran remained calm and collected, only then clearly taking in the young girl's appearance.

A tiny frame and a round face were his initial impressions.

Her facial features were small and delicate, carrying a slightly soft baby fat.

It was not an ordinary cute face; one could not detect any pride, childishness, or coldness. Her soft eyes contained the brilliance of spring, giving off a romantic and pure feeling reminiscent of a first love.

She was very short, visually estimated to be around one meter five-something, yet her figure was exceptionally well-proportioned.

Her chest rose and fell visibly—while far from as boundless as Master's, it possessed just the right amount of youthful curves, revealing tender beauty amidst her pureness.

In particular, a pair of slender, straight legs clad in thin gauze like bamboo membrane highlighted her poised, graceful, and self-possessed temperament.

Petite delicacy and romantic purity were perfectly fused in one body, causing any man to involuntarily take a second look.

Xiao Ran had heard Lin Yunzi introduce Jiang Chuyan as youthful and beautiful, but he had not expected her to be of this type.

She was the type Xiao Ran had liked in his past life, provided the girl did not speak.

The girl's expression was aggrieved and slightly cold, her petite body shrinking back as though she had been violated by Xiao Ran.

"I'm warning you first, if you don't have this skill and yet touch my body, I'll castrate you on the spot and then leave the mountain."

Did massaging shoulders even count as touching your body?

Then wouldn't I have touched Master?

Xiao Ran was speechless.

"What if I do have this skill?"

The girl's clear eyes rolled.

"If you have this skill, the matter of Xiao Hong will be written off, but since you've touched my purity, you must make the elder take me as a disciple."

Princess disease... needed to be cured! Unfortunately, he couldn't beat her in a fight, so Xiao Ran could only take things one step at a time.

"What should I call you?"

Chuyan thought to herself, didn't I already reveal my background? Only then did she realize Xiao Ran was referring to status and address.

With the outcome undecided, she neither wanted to call him martial uncle nor wanted to be called martial niece.

"Just call me Jiang Chuyan."

Xiao Ran shook his head and said, "Ginger is spicier the older it gets, but you're too young—I'll call you Chuyan."

The girl opened her eyes wide, staring straight at Xiao Ran, her entire body trembling uncontrollably.

I'll endure this!

Just wait a moment and I'll show you! Actually, Jiang Chuyan herself did not even like the imperial surname of Jiang.

Before leaving the palace, her imperial brother had died young, and her imperial sister had been married off to another country. As for her, she was a woman destined to inherit the rivers and mountains of the Blazing Fire Kingdom and become a generation of female empress.

Carrying too much on her shoulders at a young age, she had resolutely run to Zongzhi Mountain in search of immortality after catching sight of the Sword-Wielding Elder's majestic countenance. Having once wanted to cast aside the Jiang surname, upon realizing the decline of the Jiang family, she had no choice but to continue retaining it to maintain imperial might.

The afterglow of the setting sun spilled out wantonly.

The two came to the edge of the East Cliff and lightly leaped onto the coiled, ancient roots of a lone pine.

"Sit."

Considering the girl's height, Xiao Ran regretted speaking the moment the words left his mouth.

Her petite body trembling slightly, Chuyan lowered her soft and husky voice.

"I'll just stand. What's it to you?"

Xiao Ran shook his head and sighed.

"I'm afraid you won't be able to stand in a moment."

Chuyan thought to herself that this was merely acupoint massage theory; no matter how heaven-defying a mere mortal's technique might be, the disparity in power was simply too vast. The Sword-Wielding Elder must have been drunk or suffered a deviation in her cultivation to burst forth with Qi.

Even if an accidental Qi burst occurred, could a cultivator possibly fail to stand? "You can press with all your might. Even if my Dantian explodes, I will stand firm!"

Not daring to be negligent, Xiao Ran treated her with the same serious attitude he had used for Chen Gongxing.

Closing his eyes, he listened to all things.

He located her Qi Sea resonance point...

At his fingertips, he slowly stirred the maximum-strength resonance primeval force, pressed it down from the girl's soft, white back of the neck, and accurately drove it into the Dantian Acupoint.

This single finger reached maximum level due to lateral resonance vibrations. At first glance, the power was extremely weak, even smaller than the force of the finger he had used on Master.

The finger force traveled slowly, completing the first resonance within the spine.

Snap! Huh? Chuyan was slightly startled.

The finger force suddenly vibrated, ripples instantly arising and stirring up raging waves that washed over the girl's limbs and bones, completing the second resonance within the meridians of her entire body.

Bang! The girl panicked slightly and hurriedly exerted her strength to resist.

Yet the finger force suddenly rose like towering waves, rolling spiritual explosions pushing all the way into her blood vessels and spiritual meridians, producing a third resonance.

Boom! Before she had even time to react, this berserk power gathered downwards along her spiritual meridians and impacted the outer wall of her Dantian.

This force was not worth mentioning before the Dantian wall of the Golden Core Realm, but that incessantly shifting vibration frequency instantly resonated with the Dantian wall! Extremely weak, yet incomparably precise.

It was like a single spark that could start a prairie fire.

A trace of imperceptible power actually caused the Dantian wall to resonate, emitting a slight tremor that whipped up a ripple within the boundless Qi Sea...

The girl's clear pupils instantly froze in shock! Having experienced Dantian co-vibration for the first time, how could she have ever endured such stimulation? Her entire body's joints shook uncontrollably, and she instinctively concentrated all her strength onto a single point to counter Xiao Ran's finger force.

As a result, her spiritual energy loosened and violently burst forth.

Yet her internal Qi was far smaller than Lingzhou Yue's, leaving Xiao Ran completely unshaken and causing only the hems of his garments to rustle.

Her slender legs, trembling to the point where her joints clicked, lost the support of spiritual energy and instantly grew weak, causing her to collapse onto the ground.

Like a spring, she recovered her strength the moment she collapsed onto the ground, and her buttocks hit the earth as she leaped straight up.

Stiffening her petite body, her pure, cute face flushed red to the point of dripping, and her clear eyes stared at Xiao Ran with a mix of shock and grievance.

"You're a mere mortal, how can you have this kind of power!"

Drooping his eyelids as he watched the girl's spring-like, agile posture springing from the ground, Xiao Ran wanted to say something, but ultimately decided to give up.

One thing could be confirmed: the girl's physical condition was still very good! Having weathered the girl's wave of attacks, he shifted into a strategic offensive.

He needed a tool person—a tool person who could become the plow in his hands, helping him rapidly plow fields and mechanically earn Filial Piety Points. This girl infatuated with Master was the best candidate.

Although she kept shouting about castrating him, if she truly had that intention, with her Golden Core cultivation, she could have castrated him in a second instead of waiting until now. When all was said and done, she was merely a mouth-strong king.

"This is the cultivation method Master taught me. Do you want to learn it?"

The girl instantly regained her spirit and leaped to sit on a tree branch.

"It's not a question of whether I want to learn it or not. You touched my body, and I ought to have castrated you to prove my innocence. I can also choose not to castrate you, but you must make the elder take me as a disciple and teach me this kind of cultivation method."

Xiao Ran looked up, and because the angle was too tricky, it seemed he saw something incredible.

"That will depend on your performance."

Remaining calm and collected, he did not rush to discuss the matter of the Red Spotted Tiger, lest the girl become overly resistant.

Sitting on the pine branch, Chuyan dangled her two little slender legs, fiddled with her sideburns, and gazed at herself with self-pity as she said,

"My body is weak, and I don't know how to massage shoulders. How should I perform?"

Xiao Ran did not fall for her routine.

"Shoulder massage isn't urgent. First, we need to learn more basic farming."

Farming?

The Sword-Wielding Elder was hardly lacking in spiritual pills and herbs; what would she need to farm for? The girl suddenly grew alert.

"Don't swindle me. If I do as you say and the elder still doesn't want me, don't blame me for castrating you by night and fleeing back to the palace."

Xiao Ran was slightly taken aback.

"You're someone from the palace?"

"I am a princess!"

"Then farming is even more essential. In the future, when you become the ruler of a nation, you can lead the Blazing Fire Kingdom in taking rapid strides toward a moderately prosperous society."

"No."

The girl curled her lips in a pout, her interest waning.

"Whether it's the Blazing Fire Kingdom or Zongzhi Mountain, sooner or later they will be devoured by the Wraith. This world is beyond saving, and weak little me only wants to fall in love."

"..."

This fellow was beyond saving!

Xiao Ran steadied his mind.

"Falling in love also requires farming. You can view Master as the field; you must work hard to plow the field, irrigate it, and apply fertilizer until it blossoms and bears fruit. Understand?"

You, you, you... you really do have something going on with the elder! Chuyan opened her eyes wide and glared at Xiao Ran as if she could eat him.

A thousand cursing words on the tip of her tongue unexpectedly turned into a soft murmur:

"Can girls do it too?"

"Of course they can."

Xiao Ran wore a righteous expression.

"Love is pure, free, and free of utilitarianism; naturally, it won't be restricted by gender or even race!"

The girl was dumbfounded.

Staring straight at Xiao Ran, she lost her focus, her gentle eyes welling up with tears.

A kindred spirit!

For so many years, she had been misunderstood, disliked, annoyed, and even maligned behind her back...

This was the first time she had encountered a kindred spirit.

And he turned out to be a man! "Give me the hoe."