Hehe

After his treasured books on explosive Soul Tools were confiscated, Bao Liang felt that life had lost all meaning... or did he?

Of course not~

The really good stuff was all safely tucked away in his Storage Soul Tool.

Everything they had taken was stuff he had already read and memorized-even if they took every last book, who cared?

Still, he had to put on a show.

After all, seeking amusement was like dressing as a girl: you either did it zero times or countless times.

So, early the next morning, Bao Liang appeared at the breakfast table looking as haggard as if he had a hangover.

Faced with a table laden with breakfast, he neither picked up any food nor drank any soup. He merely sighed and stirred the congee in his bowl, counting the grains of rice one by one, looking for all the world as if he had suffered a terrible injustice.

Anyone who saw him like that would feel at least a little sorry for him.

In truth, the congee in his bowl had long since gone cold, but he had turned counting into a discipline of its own: first the grains of rice, then the sesame seeds on the osmanthus cakes, and finally even the patterns on the pork hock on the plate, which he studied from every angle.

If he was going to put on a show, he had to see it through.

"Little Baozi, what's wrong?" Meng Hongchen put down her bowl and asked with concern.

"I could let it go when Grandpa Jing and Xiao did it..." Bao Liang let out a mournful sigh, casting a resentful glance at the osmanthus cakes on the table. "But how could you do it too, Sister Meng... My heart's gone ice-cold..."

Meng Hongchen immediately felt guilty.

After all, she had personally held Bao Liang in his room to listen to a book of fairy tales last night, and had even taken the lead in confiscating his "dangerous items."

She opened her mouth, wanting to explain, but didn't know what to say. She lowered her head guiltily, her voice growing quieter and quieter. "I-I didn't mean to... Little Baozi, don't be sad..."

"Then, Sister Meng, will you still take my books away from now on?" Bao Liang looked up pitifully, even squeezing a few glistening tears from the corners of his eyes.

"No more!" Meng Hongchen nodded emphatically, her face earnest. "I'll never take them away again! I'll even buy you new ones!"

"Really?"

"Really!" Meng Hongchen thought for a moment, then added, "Pinky swear! Whoever goes back on their word is a puppy!"

"Pinky swear it is." Bao Liang held out his little finger and hooked it around hers, only withdrawing his hand once he was satisfied. "Sister Meng is the best!"

Just as Bao Liang was happily thinking he had fooled her, Xiao Hongchen walked past with his bowl, glanced at him, and spoke in a knowing tone. "Meng, don't listen to his nonsense.

"Believe it or not, there are more dangerous items in his Storage Soul Tool than we found last night."

Meng Hongchen froze and looked at Bao Liang suspiciously.

Bao Liang: "...Tch, you found me out?"

"Little Baozi!" Meng Hongchen bristled, snatching up her chopsticks to hit him. "Were you lying to me just now?!"

"Hehe, I have to stay alive, gwa-" Bao Liang grabbed his bowl and ran, darting out of the dining hall in a flash.

"Stop right there!" Meng Hongchen chased after him, chopsticks in hand.

Behind them, Xiao Hongchen leisurely took a sip of congee, watching the two of them horsing around as they ran off. A rare hint of a smile curved his lips.

Of course he knew Bao Liang was playing pitiful-the books they had taken were all ones Bao Liang had long since read and learned by heart.

But since Bao Liang wanted to perform, he was happy to watch the show.

It was good for her to be fooled by Bao Liang now, too, so she wouldn't be fooled by other good-looking people later.

As for Bao Liang, after Meng Hongchen chased him three laps around the courtyard, she finally caught him. He obediently took two whacks from her chopsticks, then crouched in the corner with his hands over his head, feeling delighted all the while.

Playing pitiful was a deal with huge profits and no losses-not only had he gotten Meng Hongchen to promise she would "never take his books again," he had also gotten some amusement out of it for free. A huge profit.

"I say," Xiao Hongchen said, having wandered over at some point. He looked down at Bao Liang crouching in the corner. "With acting skills that good, it's a shame you don't perform onstage."

"Thank you for the compliment." Bao Liang patted his backside and stood up, his face unflushed and his heart steady. "It's called enjoying life. You wouldn't understand."

"Enjoying life?" Xiao Hongchen snorted. "All I see is a drama queen tricking my sister."

"Your sister enjoys it too," Bao Liang said without a trace of shame. "Besides, wasn't I giving her a chance to show what a good big sister she is?"

"..." Xiao Hongchen was left speechless. He gave up and walked away with his bowl.

In the end, Meng Hongchen's heart softened. She hauled Bao Liang back to the table by his ear and served him another bowl of hot congee.

"Little Baozi, eat! And you're not allowed to lie to me again!"

"Okay, okay!" Bao Liang immediately put on an obedient face and bent over his bowl, slurping his congee loudly.

Bao Liang later summed up his "insights on playing pitiful": first, go slow; second, look miserable; third, quit while you're ahead.

Go too far and the act could backfire; don't go far enough and it wouldn't have the desired effect.

He had practiced on Meng Hongchen eight times over the past half month, with a success rate as high as seventy-five percent. The remaining twenty-five percent were all times Xiao Hongchen had exposed him on the spot.

The days slipped quietly by amid such antics.

Half a month was neither long nor short.

Bao Liang cultivated during the day, then buried himself in the Immortal Herb Catalogue in the study at night.

The Immortal Herbs recorded in it made his eyes swim: octagonal mysterious ice grass, infernal delicate apricot, Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew, singular velvet sky chrysanthemum... Each was more outrageous and precious than the last.

He read and memorized as he went, carving all the key points into his mind before going to bed satisfied.

The entries on the octagonal mysterious ice grass and infernal delicate apricot in particular were astonishingly detailed: their growing conditions, physical characteristics, medicinal properties, restrictions on taking them, and even what to watch out for when picking them were all spelled out clearly.

He read every page on those two Immortal Herbs no fewer than ten times, refusing to stop until he knew them backward and forward.

But for all his reading, he knew perfectly well that with his current strength, never mind picking Immortal Herbs at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well-he probably couldn't even find his way to its doorstep.

Immortal Herbs weren't something he could rush.

Bao Liang didn't sit idle during the day, either.

He tempered his meridians with Ultimate Flame again and again. The pain made him bare his teeth, but he gritted them and persevered.

Meng Hongchen and Xiao Hongchen cultivated beside him: one ice, one fire, and one metal, working together in surprising harmony.

Whenever they grew tired of cultivating, the three would gather to study the introductory Soul Tool books Jing Hongchen had left behind-though it was mostly Xiao Hongchen explaining while Bao Liang and Meng Hongchen listened.

As for Meng Hongchen, with the help of Bao Liang's ultimate talent, her cultivation speed was astonishing.

Her already solid foundation grew even more robust and condensed under the repeated tempering of Ultimate Flame, and her Soul Power advanced a thousand miles a day.

Half a month later, Meng Hongchen successfully broke through to level twenty at the age of seven.

She had taken even less time than Xiao Hongchen had back then.

The day the news spread, the entire Hongchen residence came alive.

The kitchen specially prepared several extra main dishes, the steward cheerfully handed out rewards to the servants, and even the koi in the garden were fed until they grew rounder.

Meng Hongchen herself was so happy that she ran several laps around the courtyard, until Xiao Hongchen finally grabbed her by the back of her collar and pulled her back.

"It's only level twenty. Is all this necessary?" Xiao Hongchen said, though he couldn't hide the smile in his eyes.

"It absolutely is!" Meng Hongchen planted her hands on her hips, her little face flushed red. "I got there earlier than you did!"

"That's because you had Bao Liang helping you."

"That's my ability too!"

The siblings bickered for a while, until Bao Liang finally stuffed an osmanthus cake into each of their hands and brought the quarrel to an end.

The three sat beneath the covered walkway, watching the sunset clouds on the horizon. None of them spoke again, but all three wore smiles.

"Sister Meng," Bao Liang suddenly said, "how about trying to get an area attack for your Second Soul Ring?"

"An area attack?" Meng Hongchen tilted her head.

"Yeah!" Bao Liang gestured as he spoke. "Think about it. Your Vermilion Clear Ice Toad is a poison Martial Soul. Its poison damage is powerful against a single target, but if you could hit a whole crowd at once, now that would be great."

"Great, great!" Meng Hongchen clapped happily. "Little Baozi understands me best!"

"Grandpa, I want a reward!" After dinner, Meng Hongchen went to pester Jing Hongchen. "I've reached level twenty, so I should get a reward, right?"

"All right, all right." Jing Hongchen couldn't do anything with her. "I'll have the kitchen make you some sugar figures tomorrow, all right?"

"I want three!"

"Fine, three it is."

That night, Jing Hongchen, uncharacteristically, didn't go to Mingde Hall. He personally went into the kitchen and made a tableful of dishes for the three children.

Although his cooking was hardly exceptional, the three children ate every last bite of the meal he had put his heart into.