Raising Your Cultivation Is Your Lie, Enjoyment Is Your Goal

"You..."

Yun Yao glared at him, silent and wordless, but inwardly she was secretly amazed.

Was Dual Cultivation really that powerful?

When it came to matters between men and women, to Dual Cultivation, she was still a complete novice, so she could only half believe and half doubt Lin Heng's words.

Apart from pain, she truly had not felt the slightest bit of help to her cultivation.

"Dual Cultivation is the kind of thing with a hundred benefits and not a single harm. It can delight the mind, deepen the feelings between Dao companions, and also raise both people's cultivation. Why not do it?"

"Right now, Senior Sister, you're at the early Golden Core stage. When you run into obstacles breaking through realms later, you'll know just how powerful Dual Cultivation is."

"It's comparable to miraculous pills and wondrous medicine. As long as you don't drain the pond to catch the fish, it can continuously benefit both you and me."

Under Lin Heng's vigorous blowing of trumpets, Yun Yao was actually drawn in by this idea for one brief instant.

But after she saw the lust that was hard to conceal appear in his eyes, she immediately sobered up.

"Pah! Dream on. I nearly fell into your trap!"

"Raising cultivation is your lie, enjoyment is your goal!"

Yun Yao's face turned cold, and she subconsciously wanted to reach out and slap him flying.

"Wait! Senior Sister, I don't agree with what you just said. Dual Cultivation is something Dao companions should do in the first place. It's also a kind of duty."

"Also, we agreed that from now on, when you hit me, you can't hit my face. I'm your Dao companion, so you have to consider my dignity!"

"Heh! Dignity is earned by your own ability. Of course... Senior Sister isn't someone so unreasonable. If you don't stir up wicked thoughts, why would I bully you?"

"As for the duty you mentioned..." Yun Yao narrowed her eyes, the corner of her mouth carrying a faint, almost-there smile. "If I don't fulfill it, what can you do?"

When a cat living in the Gobi Desert ate its first fish in life, then... it would urgently devour a second, until it became addicted.

Yun Yao naturally would not let him get an easy bargain.

The pride in her bones made her incomparably confident. With her talent, she could become stronger and stronger entirely through her own efforts.

Besides, she had not yet encountered an especially difficult bottleneck, so she did not need Dual Cultivation as a shortcut.

Lin Heng helplessly shrugged, expressing his powerlessness.

In this world where a hard fist stood higher than the heavens, the rules were all set by the strong.

But could some things not be treated a little more openly? Dual Cultivation was comfortable and could bring benefits too, so why be so serious about it?

But it was fine. Once his fists became hard enough, on the day the right to choose changed hands, forget Dual Cultivation.

Even what posture they cultivated in would not be something she could refuse.

The two walked side by side at an unhurried pace. Lin Heng was rather bold. Even a proud fairy was still a woman, and she could not withstand endless pestering either.

After his attempts to hold her hand were swatted away twice along the way, he still got what he wanted and held it.

Her jade hand was warm, while Lin Heng's hand was the opposite, carrying threads of coolness.

Lin Heng carefully glanced at her. He did not know whether it was because the sunlight was dazzling, but her cheeks seemed much rosier than before.

White robes on the left, red skirt on the right; together with the bronze-hued ancient streets on both sides and the bustling marketplace full of carriages and crowds, they formed a warm picture scroll of wandering through the clouds.

Occasional birdsong and insect calls rang out from the treetops, adding a touch of liveliness to this already tinted scene and even more interest.

Gradually, the distance between the two opened up by one body's length, and they looked at each other with tacit understanding.

"Then Senior Sister, I'll head up first. After the Auction ends, I'll come find you."

"No need. I still have to help Second Senior Sister with some things. Don't come bother me."

"All right, then that's perfect. Tonight I'll go to Lady Zhao's place to cadge another meal. That two-person lunch today made it so I didn't even eat properly." Lin Heng teased, deliberately or otherwise.

"Lin Heng! What do you mean!" Yun Yao clenched her fist. If not for there being so many people, she would have given him two solid thumps no matter what.

Time to slip away, slip away~

The second half of the Auction soon began.

When Yun Yao returned to Room No. 10, she saw that Mu Liuxi was already waiting there early.

"Eh? Lin Heng didn't come with you?"

Yun Yao pointed toward the opposite side. "There, isn't he across from us... he likes sharing a room with that Little Healer Immortal from the Zhao Family, and isn't willing to stay in the same room as us two senior sisters."

Mu Liuxi glanced in the direction she pointed and could not help laughing. "The Zhao Family young lady has a gentle, dignified temperament, delicate and charming. Naturally, she's more attractive than people like you and me, whose personalities are rather extreme. From your tone, I can hear quite a bit of resentment."

Mu Liuxi's evaluation of herself and Yun Yao was quite fair.

One was overly aloof and coldly proud by nature, while the other was overly hard and stubborn. Lin Heng had complained about them plenty in his heart.

Seeing his senior sisters was like seeing ravenous wolves. If he could stay far away, he would. How could he possibly take the initiative to stick close?

Lin Heng's original thought had been to stay far, far away from them. In the end, either he was grabbed by Meng Yutong and taken to the Kingdom-Destroying Secret Realm, or he was forcibly brought by Yun Yao to carry out sect missions.

He could not run even if he wanted to, so he simply accepted it.

Yun Yao smacked her lips and muttered silently in her heart, Hmph, he personally said he liked this kind of personality of mine. I'm not extreme...

Along with the end of the auctioneer's speech for the second half, everyone's gazes focused on the next item being presented.

The fifty-fifth auction item, Seventh-Order Armor.

"Allow me to state in advance that this suit of armor is an auction item the Treasure Pavilion temporarily added to its collection."

"As the first item of the second half, the starting price is set at one thousand Spirit Stones. Each bid increase must be no less than one hundred Spirit Stones."

As the auctioneer confirmed the starting price, the auction officially began.

Almost at the same time, Lin Heng and Sun Hao's father, Sun Daoya, who had been staying on the second floor the entire time, stood up almost simultaneously.

Lin Heng had not expected that the armor he had sold a few days ago would actually be inserted into the auction by Moonview Tower during Treasure Pavilion's noon break.

"Father, what is it?" Sun Hao stood up with him and asked.

Sun Daoya's gaze narrowed slightly. "This is the suit of armor. That beast actually sold it to Treasure Pavilion..."

"What?" Sun Hao looked toward the display platform, staring fixedly at that touch of bronze. "This is the thing we went to such painstaking effort to find?"

"Bid it down first... as for the Green Pavilion Sect disciple you told me about, with the City Lord's Mansion stuck in the middle, we can't touch him for now. We can only settle accounts with him later."

"Yes, Father!"

After a round of fierce bidding, Sun Daoya ultimately bought back the armor that had originally belonged to them at the price of fifteen thousand Spirit Stones.

Time slowly flowed by.

They made it all the way to the eightieth auction item. When the red curtain was lifted, what entered their eyes was a sheet of dark gray rice paper.

From far away, they could only make out that the outermost layer seemed to be shrouded in a faint halo.

"What is this thing? It looks like a scroll. Could it be a cultivation method?"

"Everyone, quiet down and please listen to me. This item is only an incomplete scroll, not a cultivation method or classic text. As for why it has been placed in this position, it is because it comes from the 'Black Wasteland,' one of the Four Deadly Secrets of the Immortal Realm."

"There is no need for me to introduce the Black Wasteland in detail. If someone can comprehend the mysteries within it, it will surely be a great fortune."

"Starting price, two thousand gold!"

As soon as these words came out, they immediately drew many people into jeering.

The Deadly Secret Lands were also known as lands of fortune. Compared to secret realms, they were more than a hundred times more dangerous. Those who entered had nine deaths and barely one chance at life. Across the Immortal Realm's ten thousand years, only three people had ever walked out of them.

The people who came to participate in the Auction were not fools. If there really were a great fortune, would Treasure Pavilion take it out and show it to others?

It was nothing more than that after every kind of research produced no results, they planned to borrow the name of the Black Wasteland and sell it for another sum.

"The words Black Wasteland sound pretty frightening. These days, whenever anything strange or peculiar appears on the market, people have to drag it into some connection with the Deadly Secret Lands... and in the end, it's all a trick to fool people."

"Fellow Daoist's words are true indeed. My ears are almost sick of hearing the words Black Wasteland. With these two thousand Spirit Stones, this old man might as well go be carefree in the Flower Pavilion for a few days."

"I'll collect it for two thousand gold. If any of you want it, add one hundred and take it directly. I won't fight for it." A bald man who called himself a collector symbolically took the lead.

As expected, after the auctioneer asked twice from the stage, not a single bid increase came.

Clearly, among the several thousand people present, not one had taken a liking to it.

However, at this very moment, from Room No. 3 on the fifth floor of the pavilion came a flat voice. "Three thousand Spirit Stones!"

After hearing this voice, Lin Heng, who had already been on the verge of dozing off, shot to his feet as if injected with chicken blood, startling Zhao Wanqing beside him.

"Young Master Lin, what's wrong?"

"The treasure is here!"

"Treasure?"