"If I really can't suppress it..."
"I'll come find you again."
Disappointment appeared on Lu Ning's face.
Sure enough, women were fierce tigers on the path of cultivation. Was I being overcome by lust!?
I was clearly just preparing to cultivate!
Half a level a day!
"All right."
"Come find me if you can't hold out."
Lu Ning spread his hands.
Seeing the disappointment on Lu Ning's face, Zhu Zhuqing felt a little guilty, but she was also embarrassed, even though they had already seen each other naked several times.
"Mm!"
"You should keep a closer eye on Rongrong tonight."
"I think... she might very well make the same mistake I did."
Zhu Zhuqing stopped dwelling on it.
"Ning Rongrong..."
Lu Ning glanced toward Ning Rongrong, who was pitching her tent.
"She's different."
"I doubt she'd come ask me for help even if she felt something."
"She'd probably take care of it herself."
Lu Ning still remembered the filthy things Ning Rongrong had said when she first enrolled.
If she didn't even know how to do that...
Lu Ning really would find it hard to believe.
That little princess...
She knew much more than Zhu Zhuqing did.
"Then go tell her about the side effects."
Zhu Zhuqing spoke earnestly, but Lu Ning shook his head again.
It would be fine if Zhu Zhuqing mentioned that sort of side effect.
But if Lu Ning emphasized it...
Ning Rongrong would definitely suspect him of having designs on her again.
Yet Zhu Zhuqing couldn't possibly go over and emphasize it herself.
Otherwise...
Wouldn't she be confessing without being asked?
With Ning Rongrong's personality, she would definitely dig down to the roots and ask her outright how she had dealt with it.
Zhu Zhuqing had never personally used her hands for that.
Trying to bluff her way through with a made-up story...
That really wasn't very likely to work.
"Then... she'll just have to pray for her own good fortune."
Night fell.
Ning Rongrong carried back water from the stream and gave herself a quick wash inside her tent before setting the piece of whale rubber over the fire to melt.
She tossed all the good things she had on her into the flames.
Lu Ning had said that the hotter the flames, the faster the whale rubber would melt.
She couldn't release high-temperature flames with her own Martial Soul.
She could only rely on this method.
She raised the temperature of the flames as much as possible.
"This should do, right?"
"I forgot to ask how soft it had to get before it counted as properly softened."
"Surely I'm not supposed to liquefy it and drink it?"
Ning Rongrong poked her head outside. Lu Ning had long since returned to his tent to rest, and only Zhu Zhuqing was sitting in the darkness on night watch. The faint light spilling from the tent allowed Ning Rongrong to spot her.
She waved repeatedly.
"Zhuqing!"
"Come help me check how this piece of whale rubber is coming along."
"Can I take it yet or not?"
Zhu Zhuqing's entire body stiffened at the call. She turned her head stiffly and glanced at Ning Rongrong, who was cooking whale rubber inside her tent.
Both of them had watched Flender prepare whale rubber for Lu Ning.
But as for its softness...
Neither of them was quite sure.
At the time, their attention had been focused on that Profound Sword Demon Turtle and Lu Ning.
Who had been paying attention to the whale rubber?
Now, the two of them looked at the whale rubber before them.
One was curious, the other embarrassed.
"I don't quite remember."
"I think the piece Lu Ning took was almost as clear as crystal, and as soft and springy as jelly. Yours..."
Zhu Zhuqing poked the whale rubber in the pot with a chopstick and spoke very cautiously.
Ning Rongrong raised her eyebrows. "What about the piece you took?"
"Was it as soft as mine?"
"Don't tell me it still needs cooking? I've been at this for almost two hours."
"If whale rubber is this hard to prepare, what do members of the Star Luo Imperial Family do when they suddenly want some? Surely they can't just sit there waiting for two whole hours?"
Ning Rongrong used the Star Luo Imperial Family as an example without the slightest reservation.
Zhu Zhuqing's face flushed scarlet.
It was precisely because she hadn't known how they took it that she had made that mistake!
"I... don't know."
"If you think it's ready, go ahead and take it. Yours really is much softer than mine was."
"The piece I ate was even a little hard on the outside."
"The outside of yours has basically softened completely. It's just still as hard as ice inside. I think it probably shouldn't be much of a problem."
Ning Rongrong nodded in firm agreement.
"If you could eat yours..."
"Then I can definitely eat mine."
"As long as it doesn't poison me to death. Of course, it'd be best if there weren't any side effects either."
Ning Rongrong stood and pushed Zhu Zhuqing outside, calling, "All right, all right, hurry outside, Zhuqing. I'm going to start taking this heavenly treasure."
Zhu Zhuqing wanted to say something more.
But Ning Rongrong had already pushed her out of the tent and shut even the entrance completely.
Only the faint light inside the tent remained.
It kept the night from feeling quite so lonely.
Shrek Academy.
Flender beat his wings as he returned to the academy.
He glanced at the powerfully built figure concealed in the grass outside, then swiftly descended toward his office.
Zhao Wuji was still awake.
He was going over Shrek Academy's accounts with several teachers.
When he saw Flender land...
Zhao Wuji made no attempt to hide his grim expression.
"Boss."
"Take a look at Grandmaster's expenses lately."
"From when he arrived until now-you were away for a little over a week during that time-let's call it thirteen days at the very most."
"If you hadn't come back, the whole academy could have gone out begging together."
"The academy's accounts have been completely drained."
"There are only two Gold Soul Coins left on the books. Honestly, those two Gold Soul Coins aren't even enough to cover the Little Monsters' medicinal baths the day after tomorrow."
"And Lu Ning, Ning Rongrong, and Zhu Zhuqing haven't used any of the academy's money."
"If those three really had studied under Grandmaster, the academy would've gone bankrupt and taken to begging long ago."
Hearing that the academy had only those two Gold Soul Coins left, Flender, a profiteer by nature, immediately looked pained.
"How is that possible?"
"I checked the accounts when he first arrived, and I saw his training methods too."
"With those methods, the academy should've been able to hold out for at least a month!"
Zhao Wuji clicked his tongue.
"Like you said, that was when he first arrived."
"Now he's multiplied the amount of medicine several times over. Tang San and Xiao Wu soak almost three times a day, and each time they use more medicine than everyone else. If the money Dai Mubai gave us this year hadn't arrived before enrollment..."
"We would've been living on the northwest wind long ago."
Flender tapped his fingers lightly on the desk, looking toward the figure who had just appeared outside the door.
"Xiaogang."
"The academy is completely out of money."
"Do you think we ought to come up with a solution?"
Before you continue