Caidie's Lesson

"Ah, all right."

Hearing Caidie's answer, Cao Ying helplessly lowered her head. Her little head drooped like a kitten soaked by the rain, but a sly glint flashed through her lively eyes as she secretly thought, Master, you have to work harder! Hurry up and find me a junior brother or sister younger than me! Then... hehehe!

She could already imagine the triumphant feeling of patting someone else on the head.

"All right, stop looking so dejected." Seeing that she had started drifting off again, Caidie could not help reminding her, "You're already at Eight-Duan Dou Qi. This is a critical time, so you can't slack off. Hurry up and make the most of your time cultivating."

She paused, her tone carrying a hint of urging. "You have the Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid that Young Master specially prepared for you. Who knew how many people would envy such conditions? You need to cultivate quickly and break through to Nine-Duan Dou Qi—that's what matters!"

"Once you reach Nine-Duan Dou Qi, condense a Qi vortex, and successfully break through to Dou Zhe, you'll truly have stepped through the gates of cultivation. Your strength will undergo a qualitative leap." As Caidie spoke, she could not help recalling the time she had broken through to Dou Zhe herself, and her tone became more serious.

This was one of the tasks Su Baichen had given her—to supervise Cao Ying's cultivation when necessary and not let her become complacent just because she was talented.

"Um, Sister Caidie..." The moment Cao Ying heard that she had to cultivate again, her little face fell. Drawing out her voice, she coquettishly said, "I've really been cultivating seriously and working hard every day lately! Look, I've gotten thinner!"

She solemnly pinched her cheeks, which still retained a bit of baby fat.

"Master isn't here right now, so please be flexible and play with me for a little while, okay? Just a little while!"

Cao Ying pressed her palms together, blinking her big eyes as she tried to get through on sheer cuteness. "Anyway, Master is in the secret chamber. He won't know if we secretly take a tiny break."

In the end, Cao Ying was still a child at heart. She had just been talking about her master, but upon discovering that her "supervisor" was temporarily absent, her little thoughts of slacking off immediately became active.

Meanwhile, a certain someone hidden within a spatial rift in the room heard everything clearly. Hearing his little disciple righteously plotting to slack off while he was away and even trying to "bribe" the supervisor, the corners of his mouth curled upward slightly. He was both annoyed and amused as he inwardly cursed, You rebellious disciple!

At the same time, seeing Cao Ying's mischievous appearance, the fingers hidden in his sleeve unconsciously rubbed together. His palm felt a little itchy—well, it had been a long time since he had "guided" this girl in her cultivation.

At the same time, Cao Ying, who was pestering Caidie with soft pleas and stubborn insistence, suddenly shivered for no reason. A chilly sensation shot up her spine.

"Ah-choo!" She rubbed her nose and looked around in confusion, muttering softly, "Strange... Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling? It feels so chilly. Sister Caidie, did you leave the door open? Why does it feel like cold wind is blowing in?"

However, there was an even more specific feeling that she was too embarrassed to say aloud: her backside had begun to ache faintly, as if it had already foreseen some ominous disaster about to descend.

(Cao Ying's backside: "Warning! Warning! A high-intensity 'master's authority' energy field detected approaching! Danger level: blossoming backside! Host, please correct your attitude immediately and cease courting death!")

Caidie was equally baffled by Cao Ying's words. She looked at the tightly shut door, then felt the dry, warm air in the room, and said strangely, "Little Cao Ying, are you hallucinating because you're tired from cultivating? We're deep in the Tagor Desert, and it's daytime. The blazing sun is scorching outside, and this room is plenty warm. Where would cold wind come from?"

Hearing Caidie's reasonable analysis, Cao Ying also felt that it might have been an illusion caused by her guilty conscience. She forcibly suppressed the unease in her heart and nodded. "Oh... maybe, maybe I felt it wrong."

Seeing Cao Ying's obvious guilty look as she tried to act calm, Caidie helplessly shook her head.

A thought vaguely flashed through her mind, but seeing Cao Ying's pitiful expression, she felt it was unlikely and attributed it to a lousy excuse the little girl had come up with to avoid cultivating.

Thus, Caidie put on a stern face and deliberately assumed an expression of "I've already seen through everything." In a solemn tone, she said, "Hmph, if you ask me, you just don't want to cultivate, so you made up such an untenable excuse. What chilly feeling? That excuse has no credibility at all."

With her thoughts exposed in a single sentence, two red blushes instantly rose on Cao Ying's face. Her gaze darted about as she stubbornly replied, "How could that be! Absolutely impossible! Sister Caidie, you're overthinking it. Am I that kind of person?"

Yet her unconvincing tone and wandering gaze had already completely betrayed her, because she really had been thinking exactly that.

Seeing Cao Ying looking so guilty that she might as well have written the words "I'm lying" across her face, Caidie was both annoyed and amused.

She decided to change tactics. Planting her hands on her hips, she tried hard to put on an expression of reminiscing about her glorious past. Then, very "honestly," she touched her own "conscience" and said:

"Little Cao Ying, let me tell you, when I was your age, I was incredibly conscientious about cultivating! I never needed anyone to urge me!"

She raised her head slightly, as though lost in beautiful memories—making things up as she went. "I cultivated so much every day that even I found it a little boring!"

"My sister, Queen Medusa, and the elders of the tribe were all so happy to see me working that hard. Every day, they found new ways to encourage me, praising me as the future hope of the Snake-People Tribe!"

As Caidie spoke, she frantically hypnotized herself in her heart to make it sound more convincing. Yes, that's right, they really did "chase" me and "rush" me into cultivating... Their methods might have been a little intense, but the result was good. Rounding it off, that counts as encouragement... right?

However, what Caidie did not know was that just as she was forcibly giving herself the image of a "diligent young girl" in order to "admonish" Cao Ying—

Far away in the royal city of the Snake-People Tribe, Queen Medusa and several elderly elders almost simultaneously sneezed loudly. They all raised their heads toward the sky in confusion, vaguely feeling as though someone somewhere was making up stories about their past "hardships of raising children."

"Um, really?" Though Cao Ying was young, she was naturally clever and not so easily fooled. Tilting her head, she caught the logical flaw in Caidie's words and asked a question that struck straight at the soul. "But... Sister Caidie, if you were really that diligent as a child, and cultivated so much that you got bored... then why are you only a Dou Wang now? If I remember correctly, your sister—um, that cool Queen Medusa—seems to already be a Nine-Star Dou Emperor, right?"

"..."

The air suddenly fell silent.

Cao Ying's sudden question, which struck directly at the heart of the matter, made Caidie freeze instantly. The expression of "reminiscing over hardship and sweetness" on her face stiffened. She had never expected this little girl's thinking to be so clear or her angle so tricky!

Questioned to her face by Cao Ying—though it was the truth—Caidie's brain began spinning madly at an unprecedented speed. Her CPU was practically about to burn out! In a flash of inspiration, she thought of a "reason" that she felt was extremely fitting and could perfectly explain the gap between "cultivating diligently" and her current cultivation level!

Of course, before voicing this reason, Caidie offered her sister the most sincere and overwhelming apology in her heart:

Sis, I'm sorry! Sis, I'm sorry! Please forgive me, Your Majesty!

Your little sister is forced by circumstances. To educate—fool—Little Cao Ying, I can only wrong you for now and make you take the blame! I'll definitely apologize to you afterward!