A Wonderful Exchange with Shen

For Li Ke, his immediate priority was to hunt down the spirit beast required for his sect mission, then head to the local village to source, purchase, and hunt for money.

After that, he would rely on the power of his life simulations and his own training to ascend to the heavens!

To achieve this, he needed a path that wouldn't be too dangerous.

Things like becoming a gigolo in a new world or tricking Irelia into marrying him through mythological tall tales.

Or getting tangled up with Vastayan cat-girls and triggering a harem-style bloodbath—all of that was secondary.

Not to mention how powerful his future self might be, right now, he was still just a weak, helpless, and incredibly gluttonous swordsman!

Therefore, he had to use simulations to step on every single landmine before he actually set out.

However, the arrival of Shen added a new variable to his plans.

"What variable? Did you actually take the wrong medicine?"

The more Shen watched him, the more worried he became. Li Ke looked exactly like someone who had run into serious trouble; if he didn't have a guilty conscience or something to hide, why would he be making that face?

"I just want to thank your ancestors for the past eight generations."

Li Ke smiled as he spoke these words.

Shen paused for a moment, scratched his head shyly, and gave an honest, simple smile.

"No need to thank my ancestors, just thanking me and my father is enough. After all, he's the one who raised me so well."

Are you fucking stupid?!

Li Ke felt like vomiting blood. How could Shen be this dense?

But seeing Li Ke's constipated expression, Shen smiled darkly to himself. Every time someone cursed him like this, he would put on an innocent face, and in doing so, it was the other person who ended up feeling miserable.

"It's nothing... you're just overthinking it. These medicinal pills are perfectly normal, there's absolutely no problem!"

Li Ke was full of confidence. He had followed the steps strictly! How could there be any problems?

But Shen just smiled faintly.

"I don't believe you."

Are you trying to be a comedian?

Li Ke didn't indulge him at all. He rolled his eyes at the man and proudly placed the medicine bottle in his hand in front of Shen.

"See for yourself!"

Shen took it and examined it. In truth, the moment Li Ke had calmly handed the pills over for inspection, he already knew Li Ke hadn't used their sect's pills for anything strange, but...

Li Ke was interesting, so he decided to tease him.

He picked up a pill, inspected it, then took out one of his own and placed both in front of Li Ke.

"This one has about thirty percent less Horse Leaf Herb, which will cause the user to feel dizzy. It's quite obvious you didn't stir it evenly."

Li Ke smiled faintly. Dizziness? He could handle that.

Then Shen took out another one.

"This one, the Phantom Phosphorus Powder didn't permeate enough. If you take it rashly, you'll get diarrhea."

Li Ke smiled faintly again.

Diarrhea? A minor issue; he had plenty of leaf reserves!

Shen raised an eyebrow. He hadn't expected Li Ke to remain so composed, and while he found him even more interesting, he also hatched a more wicked plan.

"Whoa, this one is a disaster. The root fibers of the Qian Spirit Root are still this large. If you mix it and eat it, you'll be consumed by burning lust. If you can't get medical treatment in time, you'll die from a full-body hemorrhage!"

As Shen spoke, he tucked the pill into his own robe, but just as he waited for Li Ke to grab his hand, he saw Li Ke sneering at him.

"Hey? You don't want it?"

Shen felt a bit annoyed. He had followed Li Ke the whole way and was certain Li Ke was a lecher—he didn't even forget to stare at people's backsides while walking, and after taking the medicine earlier, he kept talking about butts and such.

With a guy like that, who would believe he wasn't a pervert?

"It's fine, you have better ones here anyway."

Li Ke sneered and tucked all the good pills Shen had placed on the table into his own robe. Shen pursed his lips, too lazy to bicker with Li Ke over it.

Although Li Ke's pills were crudely made and had various side effects, their essence remained unchanged. Furthermore, those side effects weren't as exaggerated as claimed; the dizzy one only caused mild lightheadedness, which wouldn't affect much, and the others were just slightly weaker in potency without any serious issues.

Except for the one that caused diarrhea—that one would definitely cause diarrhea.

Once Li Ke took the dizzy one, he would inevitably think the side effects were negligible, and then...

Shen wore a wicked grin in his heart.

This was his little prank.

In any case, he was still going to follow Li Ke for the rest of the journey; if Li Ke ran into danger because of these pills, he would just step in to help. Nothing would go wrong.

As for why he was teasing Li Ke?

He was a bit unconvinced by his father's assessment of Li Ke, and on top of that, he wanted to make friends with him. Harmless pranks like this were just the thing to foster their relationship.

And most importantly...

"Come to think of it, why are you following me?"

Li Ke asked Shen while packing his things. He had always felt the urge to roast the man's hairstyle; the chonmage was something ancient Japanese samurai wore so that... no, that wasn't it. It was so they wouldn't get heat rash while wearing helmets. But for Li Ke, every time he saw that topknot, he subconsciously associated it with samurai. And once he thought of samurai, he thought of ritual suicide. So, looking at Shen, he couldn't help but feel like the man was about to disembowel himself. Besides, the topknot was just plain ugly!

"My father said you might run into trouble. After all, look at how many times you've encountered demons already. He told me to protect you for a while... What is that look on your face?"

The more Shen looked at Li Ke's expression, the more annoyed he became. He always felt like he was a dead man in the other's eyes, which was exactly why he enjoyed teasing Li Ke.

"It's nothing. I just think your hairstyle is... well, very unique."

Li Ke struggled to tear his gaze away from the topknot on Shen's head.

"It's because I have to wear a helmet and a hood! You know what the weather is like in Ionia. If I wear a helmet for a while, I get heat rash, and if I wear it for too long, it's a nightmare to maintain!"

Shen spoke up, clearly disgruntled. If he could, he would love to have long, flowing hair like everyone else, but as a disciple, he had many duties to attend to, and it would be far too troublesome to go without his helmet and hood.

Li Ke muttered under his breath.

"But I heard that Kusho's other disciple, Zed..."

Shen immediately cut him off, as if trying to justify something.

"Zed has thin hair! He's going to go bald sooner or later, so he doesn't have to worry about it! Besides, the topknot is cool, isn't it? It's the very essence of a warrior!"

Watching Shen get so worked up over his appearance, Li Ke let out a soft sigh. In the future, Shen would become incredibly stoic, turning into the man full of rigid dogmas seen in the game. The incident where Zed killed his father had clearly dealt a massive blow to Shen. Li Ke could understand that; the friendship between Shen and Zed was legendary in Ionia, especially after Shen's engagement, where Zed's role as a matchmaker had become a celebrated tale.

However...

He still had to take a jab at him.

"But I never said the topknot was ugly, why are you getting so worked up..."

Shen stood there, face flushed red and unable to speak, even reaching for his sword.