My Damn Charm

"Free Butterfly?"

Die froze, as though a few images had flashed through her mind.

"It's called Sha Ying, but I call it Free Butterfly. From the moment it was born, it could fly freely, just like you, breaking free from the fate of being captured. From now on, you can live freely too."

Chen Mo smiled. Those had originally been Die's lines from the anime; he was merely repeating them.

Die's heart skipped a beat. The words felt strangely familiar, as though they had stirred something within her. She softly thanked him again.

Chen Mo smiled faintly. "Rest for a while first. We still need to keep moving later and look for water and food."

Chen Mo's mouth had long since gone dry.

"Mm." Die smiled at Chen Mo and nodded.

Taking advantage of the break, Chen Mo began studying the system. First, he checked his attribute panel.

Name: Chen Mo

Race: Human

Cultivation: One-Star Dou Master

Host Level: lv1 (20/100)

Bound Goddess: Die, Favorability (20). Once Favorability reaches 100, you may become cultivation partners, and the rewards will be even more abundant.

Cultivation Method: Supreme Primordial Chaos Art

Skills: None

Bloodline: Ordinary

Favorability Coin: 7

Simple and clear, easy to understand.

But cultivation partners?

System, something's wrong with you.

Ding. Regarding this point, the system manifests according to the host's inner thoughts.

Chen Mo: "..."

Fine, I'm the one who's messed up.

Chen Mo mentally tapped on Favorability Coin, wanting to know what it was.

The system quickly explained: Favorability Coins can be used in the System Shop to exchange for all kinds of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, Cultivation Methods and Dou Skills, Divine Weapons and Sharp Swords.

Chen Mo opened the shop and took a look.

He discovered that even the lowest-level Yellow-Rank Initial Stage Dou Skills cost five Favorability Coins, making him want to cough up blood.

Mysterious-Rank Initial Stage Dou Skills cost thirty Favorability Coins—six times as much.

Chen Mo merely glanced at the long string of zeros on the later items and stopped looking.

In one word: poor.

He had originally wanted to see whether water or food could be exchanged, but discovered there was nothing of the sort.

Chen Mo also found that the system actually sold Cultivation Packs.

For example, at the Dou Zhe level, it cost one Favorability Coin to rise one star.

But to go from One-Star Dou Zhe to Two-Star Dou Zhe required two Favorability Coins.

Going from Two-Star to Three-Star required three, increasing in sequence.

However, things changed at the Dou Master level.

The price multiplied several times over. A Cultivation Pack for advancing from One-Star Dou Master to Two-Star Dou Master already cost thirty-one Favorability Coins, with an additional two Favorability Coins for every star afterward.

At the Da Dou Shi level, the price doubled again from the Dou Master level.

And so on from there.

Chen Mo could only cry out in his heart, Damn, that's brutal.

Looks like I'll have to do everything I can to suck up—ptui, please Die.

Die had no idea Chen Mo was thinking of ways to flatter her. She kept her head lowered, secretly glancing at him.

Perhaps because Chen Mo had saved her, he was unable to show his most handsome side right now.

Yet in Die's eyes, his eyes were as clear as crystals submerged in water. His pure pupils and wickedly alluring eye shape blended into an incredibly beautiful sight, while his thin lips were pale as water.

Die thought to herself that the reason she had trusted him so easily might also have something to do with his looks.

As she thought this, the corners of her lips curled upward slightly.

Ding. Favorability +1. Obtained one Favorability Coin.

"Hm?"

Chen Mo had been studying the Supreme Primordial Chaos Art when the system notification suddenly rang out. He found that her Favorability had increased by another point.

Chen Mo looked at Die in surprise.

When Die saw Chen Mo looking over, she seemed like she had been caught doing something wrong. Her face instantly flushed red, and she lowered her head even further.

Then she picked up a small stone and knocked over an ant passing by.

Chen Mo: My damn charm!

Chen Mo realized that Die's Favorability was easier to gain than he had imagined.

That made sense. In the anime, Die had only spent a short time with Hai Bo Dong before falling in love with him.

Looks like not only can I rely on her to grow stronger, I might even win the beauty's heart.

With a woman this stunning, what man wouldn't be tempted?

Ptui, shameless.

After indulging in his fantasies for a while, Chen Mo continued studying the Supreme Primordial Chaos Art.

Heaven, Earth, Profound, Yellow—these were the ranks assigned to cultivation methods and Dou Skills on the Dou Qi Continent.

But according to the system, the Supreme Primordial Chaos Art was ranked Divine, far above those four levels.

Moreover, according to its description, Chen Mo could cultivate Dou Skills of any attribute.

Compared to Xiao Yan in the original story, although he could cultivate the lightning-attribute Three Thousand Lightning Movement, his lightning-attribute cultivation was much slower than his fire-attribute cultivation.

The Supreme Primordial Chaos Art had no such problem.

Besides that, the Supreme Primordial Chaos Art could also cultivate spiritual power and was highly effective at suppressing souls.

"System, you're awesome!"

Chen Mo had not expected this beginner gift pack to be so generous.

After studying it for a while, Chen Mo's thoughts returned to reality.

"We've rested enough. We should get moving," Chen Mo said to Die.

Though this patch of shade could reduce the loss of moisture from their bodies, it was far too unsafe. After all, there were several groups trying to capture Die. They had to find somewhere safe to hide first.

Of course, that was contingent on finding enough water and food.

"But your injuries?" Die worried about Chen Mo's wounds.

"It's fine. Let's go!"

Chen Mo reached out and pulled Die to her feet.

Fortunately, before Chen Mo had transmigrated, he had watched quite a bit of Beiye.

He knew that to find water in the desert, the first method was to look for traces of wild animals.

The second was to look for vegetation. Thick vegetation and most trees could not survive without water.

The third was to search canyons, looking for places that were dark, cooler, and lower in elevation.

Then there was searching for flowing or dried-up riverbeds.

In short, there were many methods, but actually finding water was not as easy as he had imagined.

It was nearly dark before Chen Mo finally found a water source.

Inside a deep canyon was a flowing underground river.

Chen Mo had only discovered it after hearing the sound of water and breaking open the rock wall below.

"You drink first." Chen Mo cupped a handful of water in both hands and brought it to Die's lips.

The place where they stood was somewhat high above the underground river, and its waters were swift and turbulent. For Die in her current state, it was inevitably a little dangerous.

Thus, Chen Mo could only climb down along the rock wall, scoop up some water, and then leap back up.

"Thank you!"

Seeing that Chen Mo was injured yet still thinking of her, Die could not help but feel moved.

And when he had gone down, he had even deliberately washed his hands. Seeing Chen Mo's clean palms, a warm current flowed through Die's heart.

Still, drinking water from his palms made her blush despite herself.

Ding. Favorability +1. Obtained one Favorability Coin.

Ding. Favorability +1. Obtained one Favorability Coin.

Ding. Favorability +1. Obtained one Favorability Coin.

Ding. Obtained special bonus: Incense Stick's Worth of Enlightenment Time.

The system notifications rang out one after another in his mind. Feeling Die's red lips touch his palm, ripples inexplicably rose in Chen Mo's heart.

"Are you still thirsty?" Chen Mo asked after Die had finished drinking.

This story is relatively slow-burn. It is currently going through the contract-signing process; once it is signed, there will be two updates a day.