Shen Mansion, main courtyard.
The moon hung high overhead.
Madam Shen wore a water-green dress, her hair coiled into a moon-gazing bun. She held her hands lightly before her waist and gazed at the moon, growing ever fuller in the sky.
"How did he get here?"
The Man in Black beneath the distant eaves said:
"He did promise me yesterday... But, Madam, that young woman is incredibly strong. She seems no weaker than that Demon Sealer... Your Shen Mansion doesn't really need to rely so much on another Demon Sealer, does it?"
As he spoke, the Man in Black glanced toward a certain room.
Madam Shen smiled without answering.
"By the way, that Mu Huangtu from the Divine Fist Martial Hall—is he really his sworn brother?"
"I made inquiries yesterday. Word is, they swore brotherhood." The Man in Black continued, "Also, Mu Huangtu has extraordinary talent. They say he mastered the Divine Fist Martial Hall's secret art to the fifth level in just a month, then defeated Tie Wuhua, who'd studied for years, with a single punch. If that's true, then he's a genuine Martial Arts Genius."
"The kind who appears only once in several hundred years."
"He's always been an upright man, with a chivalrous spirit. It wouldn't be impossible for him to become sworn brothers with a Demon Sealer."
Madam Shen looked thoughtful.
At the same time, the cold moon hung in the sky like a round jade plate.
"It's midnight." Madam Shen looked at the Man in Black.
As soon as she finished speaking, a figure in black drifted down from the rooftop and landed in the courtyard.
"What is it?" The Demon Sealer landed beneath a pear tree and looked at Madam Shen, who stood not far away.
Madam Shen rose, her eyes turning slightly. An elegant, composed smile appeared on her face, making those who saw it feel as if they basked in a spring breeze.
"Mu Fengmo, you certainly are punctual." Madam Shen smiled warmly. "Since you've come, and it's already midnight, I've prepared a late-night meal. Why don't we eat as we talk?"
Mu Ye didn't answer.
Madam Shen clapped her hands softly.
One maid after another brought out the delicious dishes they'd spent a long time preparing and laid them on the stone table.
The Man in Black beneath the eaves watched with his mouth watering. He didn't even have the standing to eat such fine food.
Some of the dishes were beneficial to martial artists; they weren't merely ordinary delicacies. No one could say how much this feast was worth. It was the very picture of extravagant wealth.
[1. Walk over in silence, without a care, and eat your fill first.]
[2. Ask aloud: "Madam, did you put poison in it?"]
[3. I'm not hungry.]
[4. Enough talk. Why don't you feed me yourself, Madam?]
[5. ...]
It wasn't True Mode anyway, and Mu Ye didn't plan to finish the Shen Mansion Side Quest in one go.
Since it was just a game, he might as well be bold and try option 4 first.
After he chose it, Madam Shen's expression didn't change in the slightest. Instead, she was very accommodating and really did feed him herself, giving him whatever he wanted to eat.
It was certainly an enjoyable experience. Unfortunately, as soon as he finished eating, Madam Shen started ushering him out. Then the prompt appeared: Madam Shen's Favorability had decreased by 5 points.
"..." Mu Ye.
He'd obviously failed the quest. Nothing had triggered, either.
Mu Ye tried the other options, too. Option 2 lowered Favorability by a point, while option 3 made no difference.
"Option 3 seems most in keeping with the Demon Sealer's character."
"But if I want to leave an impression on her, option 1 is clearly more suitable."
Mu Ye chose option 1 and controlled his character to walk over to the spread of delicacies, thinking, It's about time I enjoyed myself for once...
With that, he began eating in great big mouthfuls.
Madam Shen paused, looking at him with some curiosity. Then she suddenly asked:
"Aren't you afraid I put poison in these dishes?"
[Madam Shen's Favorability increased to 12/100]
It had gone up by 2 points.
So the option had been right after all.
I came here in person to check. If you'd put poison in it, I'd have known already, Mu Ye thought.
Of course, he couldn't say that.
"Did you?" Mu Ye asked.
Madam Shen paused again, surprised that he'd asked her so directly. Then she smiled brightly without answering. Instead, she came over herself and poured tea from a pot.
Looking at her again from such close range, Mu Ye found Madam Shen even more beautiful than last time. After all, she'd been in poor condition when the demons attacked her.
Now her clothes, complexion, and makeup were all flawless.
Especially when she turned slightly to the side, the taut fabric outlined her chest and gave him an inexplicable sense of pressure.
"Please." Madam Shen spoke softly.
Mu Ye drained the cup in one go. The tea's layered fragrance rushed across his taste buds. Its mysterious, delicate aroma unexpectedly brought back memories of his childhood.
Then it flowed down his throat and into his stomach, mixing with the many ingredients. It quickly transformed into surging currents of warmth that coursed through his body, reaching the Divine Apertures in his arms.
Each time the warmth passed through one, the Divine Aperture grew slightly hot. It was a sign that his cultivation was improving.
"How is it?"
Mu Ye said:
"Rushang Mingyu Tea. They say it must be picked by a Virgin Who Opened Divine Aperture. After the first picking, the leaves must be steeped for a quarter of an hour before drinking. Then the leaves are filtered out and applied to the body. The heat produced within the body by the tea combines with them, steaming them through. This produces Innate Heavenly Essence, which is then fused with the tea... It lets the drinker experience the Innate Intent from their mother's womb... allowing their Body to be Like Jade and their Divine Apertures to be Wide Open..."
He'd seen and heard all of that in the room.
"You're a Demon Sealer... and you know all this?" Madam Shen was astonished.
[Madam Shen's Favorability increased to 15/100]
I didn't know. I just heard it.
He was going for knowledgeable, plain and simple.
"Am I not allowed to know?"
Madam Shen fell silent, her eyes flashing with strange emotions.
Mu Ye was actually rather shocked, too. He wondered who had invented this tea.
Madam Shen picked up a bite of food and placed it in his bowl.
"Then try this. Does it suit your taste?"
Mu Ye tasted it. Among all the delicacies, this dish seemed rather ordinary—almost... unpleasant.
The cooking was on a completely different level.
"I think I heard Madam Shen cooking in the kitchen earlier..."
"Could this be the dish she made herself?"
Mu Ye was a little surprised. It seemed Madam Shen wasn't much of a cook.
[1. It can't compare with these delicacies, but it's still pretty good.]
[2. It's awful. It fails on every count—color, aroma, and taste.]
[3. An unparalleled delicacy.]
This option was interesting.
There was a 99 percent chance Madam Shen had cooked this dish herself.
"Options 1 or 3 should raise Favorability, right?"
Mu Ye chose option 1 first.
Madam Shen merely smiled and shook her head, and the prompt said his Favorability had decreased.
So Mu Ye chose option 3. This time, his Favorability dropped even more.
"Do all three options lower Favorability?" Mu Ye wondered. In the end, he chose option 2.
After he chose it, Madam Shen smiled warmly and gave a small nod.
"Indeed."
[Madam Shen's Favorability increased to 20/100]
"..." Mu Ye.
A rich woman's heart was impossible to read. Mu Ye didn't understand.
Without the Favorability prompt, he felt that even a straight man like him couldn't handle these women, cheats or no cheats.
Looking at the results, Mu Ye worked backward to figure it out. Perhaps Madam Shen had heard too many words of flattery. Now that she'd heard something rebellious for a change, it had stirred up some of her hidden quirks?
The meal was soon over.
"Let's rest for a bit. I'll call some maids over to massage your legs and shoulders," Madam Shen said with a smile.
[1. Let's talk business.]
[2. Why don't you do it yourself, Madam?]
[3. Let's all do it together.]
"..." Mu Ye.
What kind of options were these? The second was already shameless enough. The third was something only a pervert would choose.
Mu Ye chose option 3.
Madam Shen froze for a moment, but still silently called over several maids. She even massaged his legs and shoulders herself... Then he was escorted out of Shen Mansion. His Favorability dropped to zero, and the Side Quest failed.
"Tsk..."
Mu Ye shrugged. In a game, he might as well indulge himself.
Speaking of which, Madam Shen clearly valued the debt she owed him for saving her life. She'd even agreed to such humiliating requests. In the end, she'd only had him escorted out of Shen Mansion, without calling on the Third Grade experts in the estate.
He reloaded and started over, choosing option 1.
"Then I'll speak plainly."
Madam Shen sat down nearby, her gaze calm. "Since Shen Tianxing passed away, Shen Mansion has had no one to carry it on. Taiping City is surrounded by wolves and tigers, and it's no easy task for a woman like me to support such a vast estate. But I built up this family fortune with my own hands. Naturally, I won't simply give it away..."
Hm? You built it up with your own hands?
Hadn't Hero Shen founded Shen Mansion himself?
Mu Ye found it strange, but didn't ask.
"The demon appeared in Shen Mansion because someone arranged it." Madam Shen's gaze turned cold.
That matched Mu Ye's own suspicions.
"I invited you here because I know that Demon Sealers are only interested in demons. You wouldn't be willing to get involved in a struggle between Aristocratic Clans. So I only want you to investigate where these two demons came from."
"Otherwise, there will be another attack."
With that, Madam Shen clapped her hands.
Two servants carried in the Man-Eating Demon Fox's corpse.
The demon's corpse had already been treated. It looked fresh, with only a faint stench.
Mu Ye glanced at it and his heart stirred. He let out a silent gasp.
Why does the flesh and blood of this Man-Eating Demon Fox look familiar?
"Wait, isn't this the meat from the chest in the Iron Leg Sect?" Mu Ye realized.
Combined with what he'd heard at the Iron Leg Sect, he had a general idea.
"Fine." Mu Ye nodded slightly.
[Shen Mansion Side Quest "At the Foot of the Bed" completed.]
[Reward: 100 Paradise Coins]
[Shen Mansion Side Quest unlocked: At the Foot of the Bed (II)]
[Side Quest requirement: Find the origin of the Man-Eating Demon Fox]
[Yes/No]
The quest had been completed quickly. Mu Ye felt it had gone pretty well.
He'd already earned 300 Paradise Coins from this and the Martial Hall quest he'd completed earlier.
The Shen Mansion quest was also part of a series of Side Quests.
"Excellent!" Madam Shen rose to her feet. "Mu Fengmo, you may visit Shen Mansion whenever you like from now on. If there's anything you need that Shen Mansion can provide, we'll do so."
Mu Ye's thoughts stirred. He recalled what his senior brother at the martial hall had said: Shen Mansion possessed a True Martial art called the Sea-Covering Supreme Art, a rare True Martial art that cultivated the Divine Apertures in the torso.
"I've heard Hero Shen practiced the Sea-Covering Supreme Art..." Mu Ye began slowly.
Madam Shen didn't seem surprised. She only smiled slightly and was about to speak.
Suddenly, a crisp voice rang out, as if its owner could no longer hold back:
"So you were after my father's Sea-Covering Supreme Art? My father was killed by people like you Demon Sealers!"
"Die!"
As the voice fell, a Sword Weapon flashed with dazzling light in the distance and hurtled toward Mu Ye.
Since this was Normal Mode, and it wasn't synced with the player, the sudden sword strike came too quickly. Without his own spells, the character couldn't stop an attack from a Third Grade expert.
"Die."
"So, you're a swordswoman."
He already knew more or less how the Shen Mansion storyline went. Now Mu Ye had no qualms.
He switched straight into True Mode and played through to the end.
This time, when he saw the Sword Light coming at him,
Mu Ye drew his own long sword and imbued it with the Golden Blade Art. He didn't even use the power of the Divine Aperture in his arm. He gripped the Geng Metal Grass-Cutting Sword and casually swung it.
The Golden Blade Art and the Geng Metal Grass-Cutting Sword were both Gold Element Spells, so they enhanced each other.
And so, a "Sword Qi" more than ten meters long slashed toward his opponent from far away.
In an instant, it knocked away the long sword, which had been spitting sword rays. The figure holding it was sent staggering back several meters. A crisp, icy voice, tinged with disbelief, rang out:
"Y-you... Innate Sword Qi Projection... You... are you a Fourth Grade Minor Grandmaster?"
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