Fine Clothes and Spirited Horses

The next day.

Cicadas~ Cicadas...

On a quiet summer day, the chirping of cicadas drifted in from outside the window.

Ye Xingge leaned against the pillow, his drunkenness completely gone, but the warmth in his heart still lingered, and he still held the Yellow Strip in his hand.

Last night, he used the Filth-Severing Whip for the first time and gained a deeper understanding of the Blissful Illusory Body.

The enhancement effect of the Blissful Illusory Body mainly comes from the favorability reward, which, like the Fate-Robbing Saber, can be quantified.

The specific effect is that after the training is completed, both parties will receive feedback on their power based on the other's goodwill.

A single session is equivalent to three days of intensive training based on one's current physical constitution and skill level, with both effects being bidirectional.

Although it may not sound as powerful as the Fate-Robbing Saber, this thing doesn't cripple you and can be accumulated over time.

Theoretically speaking, as long as you satisfy your partner ten times a day, you can gain a month's worth of power.

However, without the Blissful Illusory Body, a Daoist partner would find it difficult to even get up after just one cultivation session, and would definitely be destined for immortality after ten.

Therefore, a high-quality Daoist partner is needed for longer training sessions; and a large number of partners are needed to save time through shift work.

A single boost to one's skill level over a few days isn't noticeable physically. Ye Xingge and Great Beauty circulated their energy three Greater Celestial Circuit, and while it's unclear how much they improved, it should have taken at least seven or eight days.

As for why he didn't grow any further, it's naturally because Great Beauty, with his mortal body, single-handedly defended against the Blissful Illusory Body and was defeated, thus earning a place in the battle record...

As Ye Xingge was deep in thought, a noise came from beside him:

"Phew~"

Hongyu lay on her side on the inside. It was quite hot in the summer, and the thin blanket was only draped around her waist. Ravine-Leaping Tiger was slightly flushed. After being in a daze for a long time, he finally opened his eyes, which were a little blurry.

I slept so well...

What did I do last night...?

Before she could fully regain her senses, she found a handsome face standing just inches away, his eyes fixed on her with concern.

"Awake?"

"?"

Hongyu was stunned for a moment before recalling the details of last night. She wanted to quickly get up, but she couldn't. Her face turned red as she turned over, leaving Ye Xingge with the back of her head in front of her.

"Snort!"

Ye Xingge tilted his head to look, but Great Beauty immediately pulled the blanket over him and leaned closer to say softly:

"Aren't you practicing your martial arts? I'll cook you something delicious."

Hongyu knew it was martial arts practice!

But let her practice if she wants. What's with making her, the dignified leader of the Mountains and Rivers Association, whine and call him "good brother"?

Moreover, faced with the terrifying suppressive power of the 'Blissful Illusory Body,' she actually screamed...

Hongyu, now fully awake, grew increasingly ashamed and angry. Unable to defeat him, she could only close her eyes and softly groan:

"I won't eat it!"

Ye Xingge slightly helpless, then lay down on his side behind him, preparing to coax him.

But Hongyu sensed something was wrong and quickly came over, her eyes becoming clearer, and said in a gentle tone:

"I mean I'm not hungry. You should go to the yamen now. If you behave well from now on, I can still reluctantly continue to accompany you in your martial arts practice."

Ye Xingge thought Great Beauty was scared, so he opened his arms:

"Uh-huh?"

"..."

Hongyu gritted her teeth secretly, but adhering to the principle that discretion is the better part of valor, she remained very obedient, leaning in to give him a hug and a kiss, as if comforting a baby.

"Alright, alright, let's hurry to the yamen. I need to go back to the inn to be with my master."

Ye Xingge thought this was what a good wife should be like, so she lowered her head and gave her a quick kiss. She then got up, dressed, made breakfast for Great Beauty, and headed outside...

Stone Bridge Alley.

The two-courtyard house was bathed in sunlight, and a large black cat with the word "Catch" hanging around its neck was scratching at the door outside.

Inside the room, in the quilt where Luo Xuanqing was, it was probably the first time in years that he had overslept.

Even when the sun Three Feet One in the sky, she was still squinting, her cheeks flushed with a hint of shyness, until a knock came at the door, which brought her back to her senses.

Knock knock~

Luo Xuanqing opened his eyes, still somewhat dazed from the hangover. After a moment of stunned silence, he suddenly sat up!

Seeing that it was already bright outside, Luo Xuanqing, still not fully awake, hurriedly found clothes to put on. He then noticed the knocking at the door again, and once more adopted the imposing demeanor of Flower Judge.

"Is something the matter?"

A familiar, clear voice came from outside the door:

"Uh... it's nothing serious. It's just that Duke Wu is having a meeting in the council hall, and the three commanders are all waiting. Sister Luo, just take your time..."

"Ah?"

Luo Xuanqing was stunned for a moment when he heard Ye Xingge's voice, but he didn't have time to think about it. He quickly got up, dressed, washed up, and went outside.

Squeak~

The door opened, and the young man, dressed in a gray-white robe, stood elegantly in the alley, his gentle features carrying a hint of a smile.

Seeing this, Luo Xuanqing couldn't help but recall the details of her drunkenly beating her subordinates. Now that she was sober, she felt a little embarrassed and adopted the demeanor of an aloof female boss:

"Why are you laughing?"

Ye Xingge glanced at the fairy in green robes wearing a flower hairpin, then took her small hand:

"Nothing, I'm just happy."

"Hmph~"

Luo Xuanqing felt that this kid was getting a little carried away, so he pulled his hand back and put on a serious face:

"Have you forgotten what I said yesterday? You're only my elder at night, and my superior during the day. If you don't follow the rules, I'll beat you up."

Ye Xingge felt a little regretful. Seeing that there was no one around in the alley, he moved closer to the Great Beauty Luo:

"Let me change it. Publicly, she's my boss; privately, she's Aunt Luo."

Luo Xuanqing pondered for a moment and felt that this distribution was indeed more reasonable. Seeing that the boy insisted on having it, he still gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Alright! If you push your luck any further, I'll beat you up."

She said this while quickly jogging, whether out of shyness or fear of having her wages docked and being in a hurry to get to work, it was hard to tell.

Ye Xingge quickly followed behind, and after thinking for a moment, said:

"I just heard from Duke Wu that there's a case outside, and he needs to go out as soon as possible."

"Oh? What case?"

"He's just a petty thief, not very capable. Sister Luo, would you like to join us?"

"I just had an assassination attempt yesterday, so I'm afraid I won't be able to get away for the next couple of days... We'll see how things go later."

"Alright..."

Time flew by, and it was already afternoon.

"Drive--"

Hoofbeats, hoofbeats...

The express horse, carrying the Living Taisui that would devour anyone it chose, sped out of the gates of Yong Capital.

On horseback, Ye Xingge, dressed as a wandering swordsman, held the Mountains and Rivers Pouch in his hand and examined it.

Yesterday, Chen Xiaobao gave him fifty pieces of material, and he definitely accepted them in the end. With his own one hundred and fifty pieces of material, he has now expanded the Mountains and Rivers Pouch to four feet six inches, which is enough to hold most of the weapons.

Besides the weapons he had seized in the past, he also brought a box of smoke bombs and "Heavenly Maiden Scatters Flowers" (a type of firework), as well as some small items he had bought for Great Beauty and Three Feet One on Changle Street.

Bringing all their gear out of the city meant they were definitely on business.

After Ye Xingge went to the yamen with the Great Beauty Luo in the morning, Duke Wu delivered the Qilin robe and the official document of investiture to him.

Although he was granted the title of Viscount of Qingxi County, the Great Yan was very strict about granting real titles due to the chaos of the Eight Pillars of the State Rebellion. Almost all of them were nominal titles, meaning they had honors and benefits but no actual fiefdom. Moreover, the titles were inherited at a lower level and were gone after two generations.

However, he is still a viscount, and his status is ultimately different from that of a commoner. Now, even the Great Beauty Luo calls him Little Yezi...

In addition, Duke Wu also set up a case for him, targeting -- Yellow Beard Pan Zhuo.

This person ranks Third Rank 281, and is the head of Yellow Dragon Stronghold in Qizhou.

It is said that he started out as a bandit in the Western Regions, later cleaned up his ways, went ashore and established a stronghold. He was backed by Lance Wind City, one of the Eight Pillars Hall Twelve Gates, and also had dealings with Bazhutang. His main business was to resell goods from the Western Regions.

According to Ruan Jinyu's intelligence, Yellow Beard recently sailed south, seemingly heading towards Han River Bay. His destination is still unknown, but it may be related to the case of human trafficking in the Western Regions.

Ruan Jinyu suspected that this was a major case behind it, and upon receiving the intelligence, he originally intended to send someone to handle it himself.

But perhaps feeling ashamed for misleading his students, Duke Wu insisted on taking over the case and assigning it to Ruan Jinyu, which infuriated Ruan Jinyu.

Ye Xingge is currently ranked 269th. Killing this person will at most increase his cultivation level by half a year.

But he was happy to steal credit from Ruan Jinyu, even if it meant working for nothing.

At this moment, Ye Xingge galloped away on horseback, and seeing that he was far away from the city, he picked up the Yellow Strip:

"Yu'er?"

Shasha~

Before he finished speaking, the Yellow Strip in his hand flipped and transformed, spreading and swirling forward, and in an instant, it outlined a red-clad figure in front of him.

However, to avoid attracting too much attention while riding a horse on the official road, Hongyu did not arrive in her original form this time, but instead transformed into a little girl who was 1.4 meters tall.

The little girl in red had porcelain-white cheeks, revealing a touch of childishness, but still possessed peach blossom eyes and willow-leaf eyebrows, looking quite Spiritual Qi. And the moment she appeared, she made a disgusted face, making her look like... well...

A rebellious daughter who dislikes her father?

"Hey?"

Ye Xingge suddenly noticed the little girl in red in his arms, and was clearly taken aback. He forcefully pulled back the hand that was grabbing Guagua's, and instead wrapped the girl in his cloak.

"That's quite an interesting look."

Hongyu appeared in a phantom form, unafraid of being chiseled; her gaze was quite domineering at this moment.

"Why are you calling me 'sister'?"

Looking at the pretty little girl in red in his arms, Ye Xingge felt a bit unsure how to approach her.

When are you coming?

"We'll set off shortly; we'll meet at Han River Bay."

"OK."

Ye Xingge held back for a long time, then hugged the pretty girl and looked her over.

Although Hongyu looked like a great sect leader, she couldn't help feeling a little shy after suddenly transforming from a female knight into a woman. At this moment, she simply leaned against someone's chest and looked at the scenery.

After discovering she had become a young girl, the lecherous man behind her was quite well-behaved and secretly pondered:

If that's the case, then once her powers are restored, whenever she's bullied or can't stand it, she can transform into Little Pretty, and that lecherous bastard will immediately behave himself...

No, I've regained my powers, why would I be afraid of him being unruly?

Ye Xingge clearly had no idea what the pretty girl was thinking about. After walking for a while, she took out the United Hearts Pendant again and poked it out:

I've already left the city.

A reply came from the other side:

[Be careful, I'll be there after I finish my business.]

Hongyu leaned against her chest, examining the plaque, and frowned, saying:

"Is that slut coming too?"

"I need to go to Temple of Vast Compassion on business, and Perfected Jiuhua also needs to be there. Great Beauty Luo doesn't go, how can I ask the elders to give me special treatment?"

Hongyu nodded slightly, but quickly realized something was wrong:

"If she comes, how can I practice with you?"

Ye Xingge shrugged slightly. "It's alright. You can hide outside, and I'll come find you when I have the chance. I'll leave after we finish practicing..."

"?"

Hongyu blinked, sat up a little straighter, and her eyes seemed to say—sneaking out to seek pleasure, arriving, doing it, and leaving—isn't that finding a mistress?

Who exactly is the first wife?

But she had no other choice but to let out a soft hum.

Ye Xingge and smiled, then glanced around the vast wilderness of Yongzhou before lightly spurring his horse forward.

"Drive--"

Tap tap tap, tap tap tap...

The Pegasus kicked up a cloud of dust, and the swordsman in the straw hat, carrying a little girl in red, galloped away, disappearing into the distance at the edge of the plain in the blink of an eye...

Volume One: The Chapter of Greed - Greed breeds calamity, and with the fall of the blade, fate ends (The End)

Volume Two: The Chapter of Foolishness - A Staff Leads to Delusion, Death Without Knowing One's Own (Stay Tuned...)

Author's Note at the End!

Volume One is finally finished.

I actually started writing this book a week after finishing "The Roaring Dragon". My mind wasn't completely clear, or rather, I hadn't gotten out of that mindset, which made the preparation process a bit bumpy.

In short, it means that after the previous book ended, it was mentioned that a character wasn't well-developed and needed to be remedied.

Then A-Guan used this anchor point as the core to make settings and various configurations for the world view framework.

But in reality, the new book is about letting go of everything and treating everything as a completely new beginning. Sticking to the old settings would limit the scope of the story. For example, the idea that "The Fairy is Fierce" was to rewrite the map of Kyushu from the old book resulted in the plot not being able to develop properly.

But Guan finally finished the setting. The first few hundred thousand words were revised dozens of times to make the plot more reasonable. He was really dizzy from all the revisions. The beginning was written in June, but it wasn't released until September.

Also, let me mention the origin of the character Hongyu.

The earliest setting before the novel "Minglong" was set was that the Crown Princess Zhao Ling was pretending to be kidnapped to escape an arranged marriage, but was discovered and rescued by the protagonist on the road, and then the two of them traveled the world together.

The story revolves around the various amusing incidents between a powerful but unpredictable young lady and a wild, untamed young man from the martial arts world.

However, the beginning of Minglong was revised dozens of times, and finally, the Crown Princess Zhao Ling was split into two characters: Landlady Zhao Ling and Ye Hongshang.

Later, Ye Hongshang took over all the slots for the "Master of the Portable" series, but he barely appeared throughout the entire series, mostly watching from backstage, and didn't have much of a role to play in the later parts.

As for Princess Changning, who was on stage, she had no plot support and was just a background character from beginning to end.

Those who have read the drafts should know something about this; it's been mentioned before.

Hongyu's character design is a new character that combines the initial settings of a crown princess, being led by the protagonist to travel the world, possessing extraordinary strength, and having a special background. It is also the original idea.

However, the characters are not connected in any way, and this book has nothing to do with the previous one.

The original name was Ye Hongling, simply to commemorate the path I came from. It was originally called that when I started the book, but because the names were too similar, I changed it to Hongyu to prevent readers from misunderstanding that there was a connection.

Furthermore, many readers felt that Guan was trying to change the game by creating the Twelve Divine Weapons and even the Famous Weapons framework. However, in reality, Guan was quantifying the data so that every growth and attribute could be accurately calculated and understood, instead of being unclear to himself and having its effectiveness adjusted on the spot as needed by the plot.

Of course, this is just an attempt and exploration, and it may not be correct. The road ahead is long, and we can only know the advantages and disadvantages after writing about them. Each book is also a way of accumulating knowledge for the next book.

Finally, thank you all for your support along the way, I am very grateful!

Many thanks to [Qing Shan Liu Shui] [Why is it so troublesome to name a name] [Ji Cha] [Dragon Sui Fei Sword] [Harumie7] and other big boss leaders for the reward!

Thank you [Xiaoyu Bagagajiang] [Lu Lu Xiaoxin] [] [] [Sikong Linghuan] [ztlovedq] [One Shot Mushroom Egg] [Xiaojia is very nice] [Harumie7] and other bosses for their great rewards!

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