Once the Blood Contract was formed, the deal was sealed.
Afterward, Li Qingyuan and the Jade-Faced Fairy put on a performance-pretending they had just met, with the man falling in love at first sight and the woman feeling quite favorably toward him, with no dislike.
Li Qingyuan was a seasoned actor. Since beginning his cultivation as a mortal, he had weathered countless dangers and seen every kind of deceit. His mastery of disguise and concealment had long reached perfection.
He coached her step by step.
"Jade-Faced Fairy, you're overdoing it here. You shouldn't blush. You should be slightly awkward, three parts embarrassed, and preferably one part faintly resistant."
"Your father has lived for over nine hundred thousand years. He's crossed more bridges than you've walked roads. If you act in front of him, the slightest slip will give you away."
"We need to be natural and let our feelings deepen naturally."
"Listen to me. Do it like this..."
As Li Qingyuan spoke, he demonstrated, portraying to the marrow the demeanor of a Rogue Cultivator marrying into the family, meeting his father-in-law and fiancée for the first time.
A few traces of delight amid restraint, a few traces of unease amid delight, and admiration for the beauty mingled with that unease-distinct layers, each perfectly measured.
The more the Jade-Faced Fairy listened, the more astonished she became. "Senior Zhen, you truly are an extraordinary man. How do you know everything?"
Li Qingyuan coughed, then chuckled. "Merely a Rogue Cultivator's way of surviving."
Over the following months, Li Qingyuan, under the alias Zhen Youde, became familiar with Jade Dragon Mountain's fox clan, and its cultivators came to know him as well.
From time to time, he displayed his formation skills. With the Ten Ultimate Array Codex in hand, he possessed the foundations of