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She put the goose in the alchemy furnace and used her spiritual energy to control the flames. While waiting for the meat to cook, Ning Ning came up with a very dry joke:

She was the seventh person to get goose meat from the kitchen, so by order of arrival, she was definitely "Goose Taster No. 7." Wow, that felt pretty good.

"Goose-Tasting Fairy" wasn't bad, either.

The only thing she couldn't figure out was... what exactly had that female cultivator meant?

She hadn't had time to figure out the answer.

What came before the answer was a deafening explosion, so close it seemed right beside her.

A blazing heat wave slammed into her. Fortunately, the instinct to protect herself still lingered in Ning Ning, and she immediately formed a hand seal to shield herself. Though the heat wave forced her back several steps, she wasn't seriously injured.

Dust and ashes drifted before her eyes. Through her blurred vision, she could just make out the room.

Two legs had been blown off the desk, which lay to one side, crippled but unbowed. The pristine white walls looked as if they'd taken a vacation to Africa, every inch blackened. As for the furnace she'd used to roast the goose—

The alchemy furnace had been unable to bear the humiliation and sacrificed itself. To defend its dignity as a furnace, it had gone out in a blaze of glory.

All she'd asked was for it to roast a goose. Was that really too much?

Hunger kept gnawing at her nerves. Ning Ning couldn't worry about anything else and held her breath as she took a few steps forward.

The alchemy furnace had become a heap of shattered fragments. Wisps of smoke mingled with black fumes around her, and her roast goose lay quietly on the floor.

Its skin was as black as the flowers blooming in Ethiopia. Ning Ning would call it Bao Zheng the Second.

At last, she understood.

She couldn't become the Goose-Tasting Fairy. At best, she'd become the Goose-less Fairy.

The smoke and chaos hadn't even settled. Just as Ning Ning picked up her Ethiopian flower and held it in her hand, she heard a gentle knock at the door. "Little Senior Sister?"

[Ding! Quest issued!]

[The person outside is Lin Xun, Tian Xianzi's newly accepted personal disciple. As his senior sister, you've always envied him for stealing your master's affection, and you're eager to take revenge.]

[Open the door and follow the original plot by seducing him!]

Ning Ning: ?

With her hair all over the place and her face covered in soot, how was she supposed to seduce anyone? She looked more like a female ghost in a horror movie.

The system's ding echoed in her ears. She remembered Lin Xun.

The little prince of the East Sea Dragon Palace, a Sword Cultivator prodigy who had drawn everyone's attention. Since he'd grown up in a palace and rarely interacted with outsiders, he'd gradually become shy and introverted, blushing at the sight of any woman.

In short, he was socially anxious.

After he joined Tian Xianzi's sect, he took the place of the original's youngest disciple. On top of that, his Sword Intent was fearsome and his cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds, making her even more jealous.

Lin Xun was born into a noble family, so the original naturally wouldn't bully him openly. Instead, she'd resorted to a more subtle approach—seduction.

She'd meant to win Lin Xun's trust, then slowly squeeze every bit of value out of him and turn him into a tool she could use. She hadn't expected the young master to be afraid of women by nature. The closer the original got, the more he resisted.

Tonight was the first time the two of them would face off.

Ning Ning put the matter out of her mind for now and replied softly, "Come in."

So when Lin Xun pushed the door open, this was the scene he saw—

The whole room looked as though someone had broken in, ransacked the place, and set it on fire. To be safe, they'd also set off a world-shaking explosion. Through the rising smoke, he saw his little senior sister with a faint smear of gray-black on the tip of her nose and a pitch-black, unidentifiable object in her hand that gleamed eerily.

Lin Xun was thoroughly startled. "Little Senior Sister, are you all right?"

"I'm fine." Ning Ning gave him a reassuring smile and waved the black, unidentifiable object in her hand. "I'm roasting a goose."

Lin Xun froze again, his expression complicated as he examined the thing.

If he took that thing grave-robbing, even the zombies would think it was a black donkey's hoof.

But that wasn't the most important thing.

The handsome young man, as elegant as an orchid and a jade tree, furrowed his brows slightly. His gaze fell on the shattered remains of the furnace, and his voice unwittingly grew hoarse. "Little Senior Sister, is this your alchemy furnace?"

"Mm." Ning Ning didn't understand why he was reacting so strongly. She lifted a hand and touched the tip of her nose. "Do you know where I can buy another one?"

An awkward silence hung between them for a long while.

When her junior brother's clear, youthful voice sounded again, it was like a death knell tolling from hell.

"But... Little Senior Sister, don't you still owe a lot of money?"

Ning Ning: eyes trembling in shock.

Seeing her look utterly disbelieving, Lin Xun lowered his head to avoid her gaze and continued in a quiet voice, "Master told me you borrowed quite a bit to forge Star Trace, and you still haven't paid it all back. This furnace costs ten thousand Spirit Stones, and the compensation for damaging the residence is five thousand. And that sandalwood table of yours costs—"

"Wait!"

Ning Ning couldn't take in so much information all at once. "Aren't these furnishings cheap, mass-produced goods provided by the sect?"

A little afraid of her, Lin Xun clutched his sleeve. "Little Senior Sister said you liked sandalwood fragrance, and that you wanted only the best for alchemy."

"Th-then what about my Household? Isn't my Household rich?"

"Master forbids his disciples from squandering their family wealth."

Ning Ning was stunned. Resisting the urge to spit blood, she asked one last question. "Shouldn't the sect pay for our training?"

"Little Senior Sister, get a grip."

Lin Xun was starting to panic. "We're Sword Cultivators. We're broke!"

His words jolted her awake.

Ning Ning saw the light.

Right.

She was a Sword Cultivator.

What did Sword Cultivators look like in the eyes of the masses? Aloof and cold, decisive in killing, able to split the sky with a single sword.

What were Sword Cultivators really like? Blunt, stubborn, violent madmen.

Most importantly, they were poor.

Of all the sects, Sword Cultivators always had the best, most impressive swords and used the fiercest sword techniques, yet their clothes were always the cheapest.

There was only one reason: they spent all their money on their wives.