"Can Human Hearts Stand the Test?" I Lie in Ya Fei's Arms: Visually Speaking, Human Hearts Are Quite Large!

Ya Fei chuckled at that, put down her writing brush, reached out with slender fingers, and mercilessly pinched An Yi's fair, tender cheek, pulling it to both sides.

"Wait on you? How do you want Big Sister to wait on you? Could it be that our little An has grown up and, just like those stinky men outside, started taking an interest in Big Sister's body?"

Forced into a pout, An Yi's gaze didn't yield an inch as he righteousness asked, "Can't I?"

Gazing into those clear yet slightly teasing sky-blue eyes, Ya Fei froze for a fraction of a second. Then, she suddenly leaned in, and soft red lips carrying a faint fragrance gently brushed against An Yi's forehead.

"You can~" Ripples danced in Ya Fei's eyes as she chuckled in a bewitching, alluring manner. "However, you're still much too young, not even showing your full growth yet. We'll talk again in a few years."

After the joke, Ya Fei stood up and walked into the inner room.

Before long, she brought out a heavy little cloth bag and handed it to An Yi.

An Yi took it and opened it to look inside, discovering five second-tier metal-attribute magic cores quietly resting there, radiating a sharp aura.

Furthermore, judging by their color and energy fluctuations, the quality of every single one was top-notch.

"So many?" An Yi asked, somewhat surprised. "I thought I'd only be able to trade for three at most."

"The market demand for metal-attribute magic cores wasn't high to begin with, but it just so happened that when I was contacting channels, someone had a batch of ready stock they were eager to unload. Consider it my treat."

Ya Fei sat back down, propping her chin in both hands as she looked at him with a trace of curiosity. "I really am curious, though. You've been swapping for metal-attribute magic cores every few days for the past few years. What on earth are you using so many for?"

Putting the bag away into his storage ring, An Yi answered casually, "Cultivating, of course. I practice metal-attribute Dou Qi."

On the Battle Qi Continent, metal-attribute Dou Qi was exceptionally rare, and over in the Gama Empire side of things, it was practically extinct.

The characteristics of this type of Dou Qi were extremely extreme; its offensive and defensive power were terrifying to the point of being a bulldozer among peers.

Yet its flaw was equally fatal: the circulation of the Dou Qi was exceptionally ponderous, making it easy for agile opponents to kite him.

Naturally, An Yi's Geng Metal Qi was an enhanced mutated version spawned by his White Tiger Bloodline, perfectly bypassing the cumbersome flaw to belong to the category of a berserker with offense, defense, and agility all maxed out!

Ya Fei was taken aback. "Metal-attribute Dou Qi? Hold on... You can only display attributes once you've condensed a Dou Qi Vortex. Have you broken through to a Dou Practitioner?!"

An Yi raised a finger to his lips, making a shushing gesture. "Shh—this is a secret, you absolutely cannot breathe a word of it."

Ya Fei's pretty eyebrows stood on end as she glared at him with a mixed expression of annoyance and playfulness. "Didn't you swear up and down to me just last year that you were only at the Sixth-Stage Qi Disciple?"

"That's right!" An Yi nodded righteously. "I raised my strength by four stages of Qi Disciple in a single year, and conveniently broke through to a Dou Practitioner along the way. Well? Don't you think I'm very handsome? Aren't you especially filled with admiration for me?"

Watching An Yi's cocky appearance, Ya Fei shook her head helplessly and smiled. "Yes, yes, yes, you're the most handsome, and Big Sister admires you the most, alright?"

After the laughter subsided, a hint of worry surfaced in Ya Fei's eyes.

"However, metal-attribute Dou Qi is far too rare in the Gama Empire, and matching metal-attribute cultivation methods are even scarcer than phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. I'm afraid the Xiao Household simply can't produce a decent metal-attribute cultivation method, right? With a terrifying talent like yours, you mustn't be delayed by a lower-grade cultivation method. How about this, I'll use my family connections to help you look and see if there's a suitable one..."

"No need to worry, I already have a cultivation method," An Yi interrupted her.

"You have a cultivation method? The Xiao Household actually has one? Don't tell me it's some Yellow-Tier Lower Grade thing?" Ya Fei grew anxious.

The talent to break through to a Dou Practitioner at age fifteen existed at the very top tier even across the entire Gama Empire. If he practiced a Yellow-Tier Lower Grade cultivation method, wouldn't that simply be a pure waste of heavenly treasures!

An Yi waved a hand. "It's not from the Xiao Household; I picked it up myself outside. And it's not Yellow-Tier. I reckon... at the very least, it's an Earth-Tier one."

"..."

Ya Fei was completely stunned. "You, you picked it up?! An Earth-Tier Cultivation Method?!"

"That's right, you know how I am—I can't stay idle, and I run off into the mountains outside the city every single day."

Without turning red or skipping a beat, An Yi began spinning a yarn. "I got lucky a while back and picked it up in a hidden cave behind that large waterfall outside the city. If you're interested, I'll take you to check out that cave some other day."

It took a good long while of being dazed for Ya Fei to snap back to her senses. Drawing in a deep breath, her expression turned unprecedentedly solemn.

"Your luck... is truly terrifyingly good. But little An, an Earth-Tier Cultivation Method is a matter of paramount importance! Just how many years has it been since the shadow of an Earth-Tier Cultivation Method appeared in this Northwest Continent? For a child like you to suddenly produce such a priceless treasure—even if it's an unorthodox metal-attribute one, once word leaks out, it will inevitably draw down a fatal calamity!"

An Yi shrugged unconcernedly. "Rest assured, I'm extremely cautious. In the eyes of the Xiao Household people, I'm still just a Sixth-Stage Qi Disciple trash who only knows how to play in the mud."

Ya Fei arched a brow, a smile playing on her lips that was not quite a smile. "Hiding it so deeply, yet you dared to tell me without any defense?"

"You're my good big sister, if I can't trust you, who else can I trust?" An Yi said with a cheeky grin.

"That's hard to say." Ya Fei deliberately put on a straight face, leaned in a few inches closer, her breath warm as orchids. "An Earth-Tier Cultivation Method, even if it's just a fragment, is worth over a million gold coins. Profit stirs the heart, and Big Sister here is a through-and-through merchant who is awfully short on money."

Faced with Ya Fei's "intimidation," An Yi let his body lean sideways, directly dropping into a side-lying position and comfortably resting his head upon Ya Fei's full, slender thighs, then rubbed his fluffy, white-furred head against her chest.

"Then finish me off right now. Finish me off, take the cultivation method to auction, and you won't have to worry about food or clothing for the rest of your life. Tomorrow you can rise in rank, make a fortune, and become a wealthy woman."

Feeling the warmth radiating from her lap and against her chest, Ya Fei helplessly yet amusedly patted his back.

"Alright, stop messing around. Big Sister is giving you a serious warning: bury this kind of matter deep in your stomach from now on and tell no one. Human hearts are unfathomable, let alone when tempted by such massive profit. Even I can't guarantee that I'll hold out forever. You mustn't ever think of using treasures of this magnitude to test human hearts; human hearts are often unable to withstand the test."

An Yi lay in her lap, narrowing his eyes comfortably. Hearing this, he tilted his head slightly, and from an inferior, bottom-up perspective, he seriously studied her for a moment before speaking in dead earnest:

"Human hearts are unfathomable? Really? But visually speaking... they're quite large, aren't they?"

Ya Fei froze slightly. Following his line of sight to look down, she instantly realized what this little brat was looking at, and her normally alluring, poised pretty face instantly flushed red to the roots.

"You little scoundrel!" Ya Fei reached out to pinch his cheek in embarrassed exasperation. "Every day and all night without a shred of proper form! Hurry up and get up for me, I still have a pile of account books to finish reading!"

Far from dodging, An Yi instead shifted into an even more comfortable posture and closed his eyes.

"Me lying here like this doesn't affect you writing at all. I've been in closed-door cultivation for several days and I'm exhausted to death. Just treat me like a flesh pillow and let me rest for a bit."

"If you want to rest, go back to your room in the Xiao Household to rest." Ya Fei pushed at him helplessly.

"The Xiao Household has guests today, and they're making a racket loud enough to wake the dead. I'm not going back to court bad luck, I'm just gonna sleep right here for a while..." An Yi's voice grew increasingly vague.

Ya Fei sighed, her voice softening. "Then go sleep on the bed in the inner room. If you lie like this you'll get a stiff neck, and besides, I—"

Before she could finish her sentence, a light, even sound of breathing drifted up from her lap.

Ya Fei looked down, only to see that this little bastard had actually fallen asleep in seconds!

Looking at the faint exhaustion under his eyes, it seemed he truly was not a little tired from pushing for his breakthrough these past few days.

Watching An Yi's posture—as usual, acting like a rascal, yet radiating an utter lack of defensive guard—Ya Fei's overflowing helplessness ultimately transformed into a smile of ultimate gentleness.

She shook her head softly, no longer urging him to get up, but instead cautiously pulling over the ledger beside her, slowing the pace of her page-turning as she let this mysterious, adorable little white-furred ball sleep securely in her lap.