Chapter 62: Is there a cure for regret?
In his room, Zhao Ling was washing up, getting ready for bed.
Unlike Blue Star, the Douluo World had no computers or phones, much less karaoke bars or dance halls. Nightlife was quite monotonous.
For the past fifteen years, Zhao Ling had spent almost every evening cultivating until around eleven, then hurried to bed so he could get up at six sharp the next morning and continue cultivating.
Now Zhao Ling had reached the strength of a Titled Douluo and awakened a system. Even if he could not quite swagger unchallenged across the Douluo Continent, protecting himself was certainly no problem.
He therefore no longer worked as hard as he had over the past fifteen years. In his eyes, getting an early night was what mattered most.
Just then, someone suddenly knocked on his door. Zhao Ling raised his eyebrows, quickly finished brushing his teeth, splashed clean water over his face, then left the bathroom and opened the door.
Seeing Ah Yin standing prettily in the doorway, Zhao Ling was full of questions. "What is it, Ah Yin? Aren't you going to bed early?"
At his puzzled words, Ah Yin puffed out her cheeks in displeasure. "You were the one who told me to come to your room tonight. What, are you going back on your word?"
"Uh..." Zhao Ling smiled awkwardly. Earlier, during dinner, Bibi Dong had suddenly thrown herself into his arms and kissed him passionately.
Once she finished, Ah Yin, who always insisted on competing with Bibi Dong, had wanted to throw herself into his arms too.
To soothe the girl, Zhao Ling had been left with no choice but to tell her to come to his room that night.
He had not expected her to actually come. Looking at Ah Yin's graceful figure, Zhao Ling swallowed despite himself and said with an awkward smile,
"Ah Yin, th-this probably isn't a good idea..."
"Hmph, why all the nonsense?" Ah Yin slipped straight into the room, shut the door, and locked it. Only her disgruntled words carried outside.
"What, when Sister Dong'er kisses you, you're so happy your soul practically flies away, but when I want to kiss you, you make every excuse? Let me tell you, I'm kissing you tonight, no matter what."
"No, that's not-Ah Yin, listen to... mmph, mmph, mmph..."
The following afternoon, already dressed and washed, Zhao Ling came to the bedside. Looking at Ah Yin playing ostrich with her head buried beneath a pillow, he smiled gently.
"You little lazy pig, time to get up. After lunch, we still have to go watch the matches at the Great Soul Arena. Otherwise, those people from Spirit Hall will probably give us no end of grief. Be good and get up."
Ah Yin moved the pillow off her head, rolled her eyes at Zhao Ling in displeasure, and retorted bashfully,
"I didn't sleep all night. Don't you know perfectly well whether I can get up now? Honestly, didn't we agree we'd only kiss?"
Faced with Ah Yin's accusations, Zhao Ling could only say with a wry smile,
"How is that my fault? I told you to stop stoking the fire. I'm no upright gentleman. With you fanning the flames for all you were worth, it would've been a miracle if I could hold back..."
"Hmph, spare me. You're an animal..." Ah Yin gave a disgruntled snort and turned her head away from him.
"All right, all right, it's all my fault, okay? Get some more sleep here. I'll bring you back some lunch so you don't go hungry."
With that, Zhao Ling reached out and gently rubbed Ah Yin's head, his gaze so tender that she closed her eyes in enjoyment like a cat.
Only after hearing Zhao Ling leave the room and close the door did her disgruntled expression give way to a gentle smile. Soon, however, a mask of pain settled over her face again.
"Waaah, Auntie Shen is such a liar... All that talk about there only being bulls worked to death~! Damn it..."
Having just left the room and not yet gone far, Zhao Ling heard her voice from inside. The corners of his mouth curled up. He summoned the Diary Panel and began smugly venting on it.
[Does that girl Ah Yin really believe only the bull gets worked to death~? What a joke! I'm a level 92 Titled Douluo, after all. My constitution was already far stronger than an ordinary person's.]
[After binding to the system, I received the primary barbarian battle body's threefold constitution bonus, as well as successive bonuses totaling 20% to my overall constitution. Even I don't know how strong my constitution is now.]
[I originally intended to take things slowly, but whether Bibi Dong provoked her or what, this girl came running to my room herself.]
[Coming to my room was one thing, but the girl even foolishly dared to stoke the fire. I'm no Liu Xiahui, able to remain unmoved with a woman in my lap. It would've been a miracle if I could hold back.]
[I really never expected to stop being single so quickly. When Bibi Dong kissed me in public yesterday, I thought my single days were almost over, but I never imagined they'd end that very night.]
[Life really is full of unpredictable things. Thinking about it feels like a dream.]
[Huh, they say you become as saintly as a Buddha afterward, but why do I feel like I can barely control myself whenever I think of Ah Yin's graceful figure?]
[I have to say, the primary barbarian battle body's threefold constitution bonus is a little terrifying.]
[I wonder how frightening the intermediate barbarian battle body and advanced barbarian battle body will be. But that's not my concern. That girl Ah Yin is the one who should have a headache.]
[Hehe, she was the one recklessly stoking the fire. She ought to take full responsibility...]
After venting, Zhao Ling successfully uploaded the diary, and his second martial soul received a fifty thousand year soul ring.
Zhao Ling was used to the system's stinginess by now. Since it refused to give him a hundred thousand year soul ring outright, he could only silently give it the middle finger.
His second martial soul had now absorbed two soul rings, yet Zhao Ling found that his soul power level still had not broken through to level 93.
His soul power had merely grown much more substantial. This disappointed him greatly. Why was leveling up so difficult?
The instant Zhao Ling clicked to upload the diary, Ah Yin saw the illusory "Zhao Ling's Diary Copy" appear before her in the room. Its golden exclamation mark notified her that another diary entry had been successfully uploaded.
Ah Yin raised her slender eyebrows. She had never expected Zhao Ling to have a good rant in his diary even on his way to the restaurant. She opened "Zhao Ling's Diary Copy" with a thought, and Zhao Ling's smug words sounded in her ears in sync.
Reading the contents of the Diary Copy, Ah Yin's expression darkened. That bastard Brother Ling-why did he put absolutely everything in his diary?
Zhao Ling had clearly been the one to tell her to come to his room yesterday. Why did his account make it sound as though she had taken all the initiative?
He even claimed she had stoked the fire. If he had not kept showing interest in her in his diary, how could she possibly have delivered herself to his door?
Now he was smugly showing off in his diary. Did she not have any dignity to preserve?
If Bibi Dong and that woman named Liu Erlong saw the diary, who knew how they would mock her? Damn it.
Wait... What was this primary barbarian battle body and threefold constitution bonus? And what was that 20% bonus to his overall constitution? Why should she be the one with a headache?
Suddenly, Ah Yin felt as though disaster were looming over her. Especially when she read, "She was the one recklessly stoking the fire. She ought to take full responsibility," all she wanted to ask was whether this world had a cure for regret.
Chapter 63: Your big brother offered too much
Inside the Great Soul Arena, Bibi Dong sat in the VIP seats with the Spirit Hall group, her beautiful eyes constantly scanning her surroundings.
It was already afternoon, yet Zhao Ling and Ah Yin still had not come to the Great Soul Arena, which puzzled her greatly.
Compared with before, far fewer spectators had come to watch the matches today, leaving the arena looking somewhat empty.
After all, quite a few people coveted the hundred-gold-soul-coin bounty and had voluntarily begun searching the entire city for Yu Xiaogang.
But Zhao Ling and Ah Yin now had nearly three hundred thousand gold soul coins. There was no way they would search for Yu Xiaogang for a mere hundred gold soul coins.
That was why their continued absence from the Great Soul Arena left Bibi Dong so perplexed.
Liu Erlong, who occasionally glanced over from a distance, was equally bewildered. She could not understand it either.
Why had Zhao Ling and that woman named Ah Yin not come to the Great Soul Arena? Could they have left? Surely she was not that unlucky?
While the two women were puzzling over this, they simultaneously saw an illusory Diary Copy appear before them. Its golden exclamation mark indicated that the latest diary entry had been updated.
Almost in unison, the two women opened their Diary Copies with a thought and began reading.
As she read the diary's contents, Bibi Dong grabbed the table holding the tea before her and flipped it over with a heave. The tea set and cups all crashed to the floor.
Damn it! How could Ah Yin be so shameless? Had she not only taken the initiative to kiss Zhao Ling yesterday afternoon because Ah Yin had provoked her?
She had finally managed to win a round, only for Ah Yin to go to Zhao Ling's room that very night and become intimate with him. Could she stop playing like this?
Ah Yin clearly knew she could not go too far, yet she had actually used such shameless means to provoke her.
Bibi Dong now felt the urge to stab someone. A murderous aura spread around her, frightening all her companions into shrinking their necks.
Chrysanthemum Douluo had no idea why the young lady had flipped another table when she had been perfectly fine, and why she looked ready to stab someone. Had something provoked her again today?
Chrysanthemum Douluo exchanged a look with Qian Hu and another man, signaling them to set the table upright, before asking Bibi Dong,
"What is it, young lady? Why are you suddenly so angry?"
"Nothing. An inexplicable anger just suddenly welled up inside me." Bibi Dong clenched her delicate fists in a huff and instructed Chrysanthemum Douluo,
"Elder Ju, sorry for the trouble, but please arrange another five arena matches for me. I need to vent."
"All right..." Chrysanthemum Douluo could only nod and go speak with the Great Soul Arena's staff.
Inwardly, he observed a moment of silence for the opponents Bibi Dong would face that afternoon...
As for the rest of Zhao Ling's ramblings, Bibi Dong was in no mood to keep reading.
After Liu Erlong finished the latest diary entry, however, her attention fell on something different from Bibi Dong's.
After all, she had not even formally met Zhao Ling yet. She would not get angry simply because he and Ah Yin had become intimate.
What caught her attention was that thing called the system. It could actually triple a Titled Douluo's constitution and even increase his overall constitution by another 20%.
She could not help wondering whether this thing called the system was the mysterious entity that had delivered "Zhao Ling's Diary Copy" to her, extended her lifespan by thirty years, and slowed her aging by 10%.
She thought it very likely-probably more than 80% likely-and this thing seemed to have bound itself specifically to Zhao Ling.
In other words, if she wanted to continue receiving further rewards, she could only rely on him.
Although Liu Erlong had long since prepared herself for this, it still felt a little strange.
After all, Zhao Ling had now become intimate with that woman named Ah Yin, and he also had an ambiguous relationship with that woman named Bibi Dong.
Would it be somewhat inappropriate for her to get involved too? If her father found out, he would probably think she had become some third or fourth woman. That would be awkward.
Naturally, Zhao Ling knew nothing of Bibi Dong's and Liu Erlong's thoughts. After eating lunch at the second-floor restaurant, he brought a meal back for Ah Yin.
As soon as he entered, Zhao Ling smiled gently at Ah Yin. "I'm back. Come on, let me help you up for lunch. Don't go hungry. It would break my heart."
Zhao Ling set the food on the dressing table beside the bed, then moved to help Ah Yin up.
But looking at Ah Yin's stunning face and sizzling figure, he swallowed despite himself.
Feeling Zhao Ling's heated gaze, Ah Yin hurriedly wrapped herself in the quilt. She understood that his cultivation talent was not the only terrifying thing about him and quickly chided him,
"Turn around already! How much longer do you plan to stare?"
Zhao Ling turned around sheepishly, obediently watching Ah Yin.
Only then did Ah Yin rustle into her dress, before regaining her usual gentleness. "All right, you can turn around now."
With that, Ah Yin tried to go to the bathroom to relieve herself and wash up.
But a mask of pain soon settled over her face. She sucked in cold breaths and looked pitifully at Zhao Ling.
Zhao Ling knew how difficult things were for her, so he walked over, lifted her into a princess carry, carried her into the bathroom, and then left it.
Although he and Ah Yin had now become intimate, there were still certain things he ought to avoid.
After waiting five or six minutes, Zhao Ling finally heard Ah Yin say, "You can come in." Only then did he enter, carry her back to sit at the bedside, and say with a gentle smile,
"Ah Yin, since it's inconvenient for you, let's not go out. I'll stay here in the room with you."
"Mm..." Ah Yin nodded slightly and pressed her red lips to Zhao Ling's cheek. "Thank you for being willing to stay with me."
She knew Zhao Ling loved her kisses. More precisely, he loved being kissed by a beauty like her, so she did not stint on her passionate kisses.
After kissing Zhao Ling, Ah Yin opened the lunch box he had brought back. The plentiful dishes inside immediately whetted her appetite...
Meanwhile, in room 313 of a lower-end hotel next door, Yu Xiaogang's eyes were filled with doubt about life and utter fury.
At that moment, his eldest brother and six members of the collateral branches had found his room under the guidance of a carriage driver.
This driver was the very man who had agreed yesterday to come to the hotel after nightfall, take him out of Suotuo City, and bring him to a nearby village to recuperate.
Yu Xiaogang was utterly devastated. The driver had clearly accepted his two gold soul coins, and they had already reached an agreement.
Yet he had ended up waiting the entire night without the driver coming to take him away.
Yu Xiaogang had originally planned to wait another day. If the driver still did not come, he would find someone else.
What he had not expected was that the driver would indeed come-but bringing his eldest brother and six collateral descendants with him.
The sense of betrayal set his fury ablaze, and he roared hysterically at the driver,
"You already took my money! Why did you still betray me?"
Holding a bag of gold soul coins, the driver scratched his head with a guileless look.
"I didn't want to either, but your big brother offered too much. I have to listen to my wife..."
Chapter 64: Agree to one request
Yu Xiaogang opened his mouth, suddenly at a loss for words.
His eldest brother had actually promised a bounty of a hundred gold soul coins to find him. No wonder the driver had betrayed him.
The difference in earnings was simply too great-a fiftyfold gap. Unless someone was especially devoted to keeping promises, almost anyone would choose the hundred gold soul coins.
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