"I added a Fire Talisman and an Earth-Digging Talisman to the formation. In an emergency, activate them, and your enemies will be trapped in a sea of fire while you seize the chance to escape underground."
Ning Xiang sounded a little regretful. "Only cultivators with an earth spiritual root can learn the Earth Escape Technique in the first place. This Earth-Digging Technique can only help you escape ten li away. After that, you'll have to rely on yourself."
Yu Tingchao's eyes lit up. "Senior Sister, how many more surprises do you have that I don't know about?"
Hmm? Ning Xiang felt something was a little odd about that, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
After seeing Yu Tingchao off, Ning Xiang flopped onto her bed like a salted fish.
With absolutely no sense of timing, the system reminded her:
[Dear host, you have only five days left.]
Ning Xiang covered her ears. Not listening, not listening! I'm giving up!
Two days passed just like that, and Ning Xiang still hadn't done a thing.
The system panicked.
In all its years on the job, this was the laziest host it had ever encountered. If she kept slacking off like this, wouldn't it end up dead last when the Heavenly Dao evaluated every system's performance at the end of the year?
At the thought of its colleagues mocking it at the annual gathering, the system gave a violent shudder.
No, no! My host can shirk her duties, but a diligent, ambitious system like me cannot! I have to outwork the competition!
And so...
Early on the fifth day, Ning Xiang had brought "The Passionate Innocent Master" up to a hundred thousand words and was polishing its sentences when a white light flashed. A neatly folded, pale off-white men's robe appeared before her.
Ning Xiang was baffled.
The system's exhausted voice rang out:
[This is the Robe of Law I spent two whole days embroidering. Take it and give it to your master.]
"But the workmanship is so rough. Isn't this too shabby to give someone?" Ning Xiang said disdainfully. "Besides, all the clothes people wear in the cultivation world these days are seamless. Yours..."
[Shut up! Do you think pouring all this time and effort into it was easy for me?]
The system was furious. It felt as though someone had trampled all over its painstaking work!
"Fine, you stingy thing," Ning Xiang muttered. "As it happens, Uncle-Master Chang of Stillness Peak invited Iceberg Lu to give a lecture there today. There's bound to be a crowd. I'll head to Stillness Peak now."
Ning Xiang summoned the Azure Sea Sword and flew toward Stillness Peak.
Once she arrived, she didn't even need to grab anyone to ask directions. The moment she saw that dense sea of heads, she knew Lu Qingchen had to be there!
She landed behind the crowd and sat on the ground like the other cultivators.
A baby-faced male cultivator beside Ning Xiang gave her a displeased look. "A lecture from Uncle-Master Lu is such a rare opportunity. Why are you only arriving now?"
Ning Xiang really wanted to tell him, Sorry, but I'm Lu Qingchen's personal disciple. What everyone else sees as a rare opportunity is utterly commonplace for me.
Of course, if she actually said that, the Lu Qingchen fanboys and fangirls around her would surely gang up and beat her.
She quietly glanced around. Good grief, every cultivator was gazing toward Lu Qingchen with admiration and reverence written all over their faces.
Seriously, from this far away, you can't even tell whether Lu Qingchen is tall or short, fat or thin. How can you still look so utterly entranced?
Ning Xiang couldn't understand it.
But that didn't stop her from slacking off.
Ning Xiang took out the Eight-Layer Rubik's Cube and fiddled with it.
A little while later...
Ning Xiang switched to a Four-Layer Rubik's Cube.
Another little while later...
Ning Xiang thought, Damn! This is so hard to solve! Is Yu Tingchao a devil or what?
Helpless, Ning Xiang could only take out the Heaven-Question Stone and open her bookmarks.
The thread "Let Me Tell You About My Romance with True Lord Qingchen," which she had only read halfway through last time, was finally complete. Ning Xiang scrolled through it with relish.
The thread's author wrote terribly and had mangled his characterization beyond recognition. But! Ning Xiang simply loved plots that dragged Lu Qingchen's name through the mud!
According to the author, she had met Lu Qingchen in early spring, when lush grass carpeted the earth. Lu Qingchen had fallen in love with her at first sight and pursued her ardently, showering her with jewelry and magical treasures in displays of extravagant romance. Several times, when the author found herself in danger, Lu Qingchen had stepped forward to save her, gradually winning her maiden heart.
After becoming a couple, they spent some time wrapped up in sweet, passionate affection. But good times never lasted: war suddenly erupted between the cultivation world and the Demon Realm. Lu Qingchen was an Immortal Venerable of the cultivation world whose heart belonged to all living beings, while she was the holy maiden of the Demon Realm, whose charms bewitched all who beheld her!
Though they truly loved each other, an unbridgeable chasm divided their identities.
He had the people he wished to protect, and she, too, was bound by circumstances beyond her control. In the end, a happy ending was impossible for them.
Waaah! What a breathtaking love!
The baby-faced male cultivator beside Ning Xiang was clearly a devoted Lu Qingchen fanboy. Unable to tolerate anyone letting their attention wander during Master Lu's lecture, he spoke up. "Senior Sister, please take your studies seriously."
Oh, right. Being reminded by a junior brother at the early stage of Foundation Establishment left Ning Xiang feeling deeply ashamed.
To show her gratitude to the baby-faced cultivator, Ning Xiang decided to return the favor with a friendly academic exchange so they could improve together.
"Junior Brother, there are mistakes in your lecture notes. Check the third line again. And there's a wrong character in the seventh line."
The male cultivator said, "..."
Ning Xiang kindly reminded him, "Are you sitting too far back to hear True Lord Qingchen? Next time, I'll put in a word with him and have him seat you in the front row."
To the male cultivator's ears, however, the red-robed female cultivator before him was mocking him for being deaf.
The male cultivator was furious. His rage shot up and up.
"Actually, you don't need to take notes. Just listen carefully while recording everything on a Jade Slip, then organize your notes when you get back." Ning Xiang patted his shoulder and said in the tone of a seasoned elder, "Young man, your burden is heavy, and the road ahead is long."
Where did this ignorant, uneducated woman come from? How dare she mock me?
The male cultivator's gaze accidentally landed on Ning Xiang's Heaven-Question Stone, where he saw several lines of text-
Lu Qingchen, the man I loved most in this life, was lying across my lap, drenched in blood. He weakly raised his hand, trying to wipe the glistening tears from my face, his eyes filled with longing and reluctance to part. I held his gradually cooling corpse and sobbed my heart out.
Rain poured down like a waterfall, soaking my breathtakingly beautiful face. But what did that matter? With my beloved gone, would I still care whether my makeup had run? Everyone but Lu Qingchen loved only this face of mine, beautiful enough to sink fish and bring geese down from the sky. Only he loved my soul.
Farewell, my love. I would carry your love with me and keep living. Even if tomorrow I was to marry the Demon Venerable with our child in my belly, you would forever be the greatest love of my life.
The male cultivator's fury reached its peak.
Wonderful. What suicidal fool dares to slander True Lord Qingchen like this? And with such exaggerated, ungrounded prose, she actually has the nerve to write fiction?
He would tell the teaching uncle-master in a moment and have him step in to teach this red-robed female cultivator a lesson!
Lu Qingchen finally finished his lecture, and Ning Xiang let out a long sigh of relief. Heaven knew that listening to Lu Qingchen lecture made every second feel like a year!
Yet the cultivators still wanted more, discussing it with considerable disappointment. "Uncle-Master Lu rarely appears in public. Who knows when we'll get to hear another lecture from him?"
Ning Xiang thought, ...Do you really want to hear Lu Qingchen lecture? You clearly just want to look at his handsome face!
Don't think I don't know! Half the female cultivators were secretly drawing portraits of Lu Qingchen in their notebooks! The other half were secretly writing fanfiction about themselves and Lu Qingchen!
Business came first. Ning Xiang rose and walked elegantly toward Lu Qingchen.
Before you continue