Volume 1 Chapter 47: A Private Meeting
On the way to the Profound Star Sect's marketplace with Bai Yuelin, Feng Yudie's head was full of questions.
Why had she never heard Ye Anping mention that he had an older sister?
And why did Ye Anping know that she liked roasted chicken?
However, after following Bai Yuelin to the front of Ye Anping's shop, Feng Yudie became even more confused.
"Ye Therapy Pavilion…"
『Ye Therapy Pavilion…』
Feng Yudie and Xiaotian stood at the entrance of Ye Anping's shop, craning their necks to stare at the signboard above the door, stunned for quite a while.
Seeing Feng Yudie's ignorant expression, Bai Yuelin puffed out her chest proudly and borrowed someone else's glory to boast, "Never heard of it, have you? Therapeutic treatment is a kind of technique for unblocking the meridians—"
Feng Yudie hurriedly replied, "—My master mentioned it to me before. It seems to be a kind of mortal medical art. It's very common beyond the Myriad Mountains, but it doesn't really work on cultivators, so you don't see it around here."
"Beyond the Myriad Mountains?"
Bai Yuelin froze for a moment. Wasn't that the Desolate Spirit Lands?
But she didn't dwell on it and simply explained, "How is it useless? My little brother's techniques are amazing. Just a few presses and your meridians are unblocked—works even better than pills. Everyone who's tried it sings his praises."
"Better than pills?" Feng Yudie exclaimed in surprise. "Really?"
"Of course it's real. Why would I lie to you? My little brother is incredible."
Feng Yudie went blank for a moment, then inexplicably felt the urge to try it herself. Her eyes darted around as she quickly stepped into the hall, calling out cheerfully, "Boss!"
Hearing Feng Yudie's voice, Ye Anping immediately put on a welcoming smile and came out from the inner room.
"Welcome~"
But the moment he stepped out from behind the screen and saw that it was Feng Yudie, the smile on his face vanished instantly.
Although Feng Yudie was the person he had asked Bai Yuelin to bring over—twice, even—she wasn't an actual customer, and he still couldn't help feeling a wave of disappointment.
Then, in the very next moment, Ye Anping's attention was captured by Feng Yudie's third breast.
What was going on here?
Yesterday, Feng Yudie really had had a hole punched through her shoulder by "Fifth Brother."
He could understand some swelling—but swelling into something that looked like a breast was beyond him.
Ye Anping stared blankly for a long while. Then he quickly walked over to Bai Yuelin, pulled a few spirit stones out of his storage bag, and handed them to her, planning to send her away first—it would be awkward to talk otherwise.
"Senior Bai, could you help me buy two roasted chickens?"
"Huh…" Bai Yuelin puffed up her cheeks in displeasure, but after thinking it over—since she was the elder and should be magnanimous—she said, "Call me Sister."
"…Sister Bai."
"Good boy!!" Bai Yuelin rubbed his head. This time, Ye Anping didn't dodge.
"Alright then! No need to give me money—just one or two roasted chickens. I'll go buy them for you. Want anything else?"
"No."
Bai Yuelin pushed the spirit stones back into his hand, then turned and headed toward a restaurant in the marketplace to buy the roasted chicken.
After she had gone some distance, Feng Yudie leaned in and asked, "Since when did you have an older sister?"
Ye Anping glanced sideways at her third breast and replied, "Since when did you grow a breast like that?"
『Pfft—hahahaha…!』
Xiaotian, who was flying beside Feng Yudie's head, burst out laughing the moment it heard Ye Anping's words, rolling around in midair.
『I've been wanting to say it too— Yudie, that shoulder of yours is so swollen— hahahaha—』
Feng Yudie froze for a second. She looked down before realizing what they meant, and her eye twitched violently.
"You—"
She instinctively wanted to curse them out.
But then it occurred to her that this was a good chance to build goodwill with a future brother-in-law-in-law.
Feng Yudie coughed lightly and replied in a serious tone,
"Ahem—You have no idea what happened yesterday. Last night, under cover of darkness and fierce winds, Junior Sister Pei and I were traveling through the forest when six masked bandits suddenly leapt out of the grass, trying to take our lives. Both sides exchanged three moves and six strikes, but unfortunately they had the numbers advantage, and Junior Sister Pei and I were completely suppressed. Just as we were about to be overwhelmed, I had a flash of inspiration—I deliberately took a sword strike from one of them, creating an opening. Coordinating with Junior Sister Pei, shua! we instantly counter-killed him—"
Ye Anping rolled his eyes and interrupted, "Want me to get you a clapper so you can set up a storytelling stall outside?"
"Ah… hehe." Feng Yudie scratched the back of her head and laughed awkwardly.
"It's true! Young Master Ye, don't doubt it. It was really dangerous back then. If I hadn't deliberately taken that sword, Junior Sister Pei and I would've been in real trouble."
"I didn't say I don't believe you. Go to the inner room first—this isn't a good place to talk."
"Ah… Young Master Ye."
"Hm? What is it?"
"Can you give me a therapeutic treatment session? I want to try it." Feng Yudie blinked curiously.
"That senior sister just said your therapeutic treatment works even better than pills. Isn't therapeutic treatment supposed to be a mortal medical technique, useless for cultivators?"
Ye Anping looked her up and down, then shook his head decisively.
"No."
"…Why? I'll pay."
"You can't afford it."
"Huh? How much?"
"Fifty spirit stones to start."
Feng Yudie shrank back. "What? That expensive?"
Ye Anping shrugged. "They say it works better than pills. If I don't price it high, the boss of the pill shop across the street will come beat me up."
"Well… when you put it that way…" Feng Yudie was still curious and asked, "Can I put it on credit?"
"No credit in this shop."
"Not even for acquaintances?"
"Are we acquainted?"
"..."
Feng Yudie was left speechless. She decided to drop it and wait until she got her monthly stipend from the Profound Star Sect before coming back to spend money. As she walked toward the inner room, she asked casually, "By the way, why are you running a shop in the marketplace anyway? You're not short on money, are you?"
"I am. Desperately."
"You're a Sect Young Master and you still lack money?"
"Do you ever think you have too much money?"
"…Fair point."
After entering the inner room, Ye Anping immediately took talismans out of his storage bag and pasted them onto the four corners of the room. Then he deliberately closed all the windows and even locked the door.
This series of actions left Feng Yudie completely bewildered—she almost thought Ye Anping was planning to silence her permanently.
"What are you doing?"
"Preventing eavesdropping." Ye Anping sat down and poured her a cup of tea, then said bluntly, "In short, you've been targeted by the Seven Killers Sect."
"..."
"You can think of it as the Gu Poison Sect hiring people to take revenge. Their Grand Elder died here, and when the Seven Killers Sect investigated Wu You's cause of death, they traced it straight back to you. The group you ran into yesterday was sent to capture you alive."
Hearing Ye Anping say this, Feng Yudie's eyes immediately widened. Even Xiaotian, who was listening in, wore a look of utter disbelief.
Since he knew this much…
Almost instantly, the two of them understood.
Feng Yudie slammed the table and stood up.
"Don't tell me!!"
『Don't tell me!!』
"Yes, exactly what you're thinking." Ye Anping took a sip of tea and said calmly. "In short, I used a few tricks, so they mistook me for the owner of a Seven Killers Sect storefront—and I was also among that group last night."
"No wonder I thought that short masked one last night was acting strange…" Feng Yudie frowned, glaring at him with resentment. "So it was you."
"Sit." Ye Anping shrugged and stated matter-of-factly, "Strictly speaking, they were looking for the person who killed the Gu Poison Sect's Grand Elder. You just ended up taking the blame."
Helping Pei Lengxue take the fall was something Feng Yudie didn't mind, so she didn't say anything about it.
After a pause, she asked again, "Then if you were there, why didn't you come out and help us join forces to take that guy down—"
"He was a late-stage Foundation Establishment spell cultivator. I didn't know what he had in his storage bag. My main reason for being there was to stop him from directly clashing with you—otherwise you'd probably have a few more 'breasts' growing on you by now…"
Feng Yudie narrowed her eyes into a slit and snapped back, "Can you stop talking about breasts? I feel like punching you."
"And besides, I had other uses for keeping that man alive. My goal is to completely eradicate the western region branch of the Seven Killers Sect. For my junior sister and me—and for you as well. You've heard the saying 'vengeance shouldn't last overnight,' right?"
Looking at Ye Anping, Feng Yudie felt that same strange sense of dissonance for the second time.
This young man, who looked about her age, inexplicably gave her a very mature feeling—just like last time at the Hundred Lotus Sect, when Ye Anping had asked her to help bring Pei Lengxue into the Profound Star Sect.
"You have a grudge against the Seven Killers Sect?"
"No. Want to know the reason?"
"Go on~"
"On the public side, it's about eliminating a scourge—they're a gathering of wicked scum with no redeeming qualities. On the personal side, I just don't want to be bothered by them."
"That actually sounds pretty good… But taking out one or two people is one thing—how are you going to wipe out an entire Seven Killers Sect regional branch?"
Ye Anping let out a light breath and said, "Before we talk about how, let's talk about profit sharing. Considering what you'll need to do this time, I'm giving you a friendly discount—twenty percent. How about a fifty–fifty split?"
At the mention of profit sharing, Feng Yudie's eyes instantly lit up. "You can earn spirit stones by wiping out the Seven Killers Sect western region branch?! How much?"
"All I can say is a lot. Exactly how much depends mainly on your capability."
"My capability? I can carry four thousand jin of spirit stones while flying on a sword."
"Who taught you to measure spirit stones by weight?"
Feng Yudie pressed her lips together and smiled, then suddenly stopped and asked, "Wait, answer me one unrelated question first."
"What?"
"How did you know I like roasted chicken?"
Ye Anping hadn't expected that question and fell silent for a long while.
Because it was written in the game…
Obviously, he couldn't say that.
"When we first met, didn't you order roasted chicken at that inn?"
"You remember it that clearly?"
"I just have a good memory."
Feng Yudie rubbed her hands together like a little miser, eyes shining.
"Alright, keep going. What do you need me to do? Then we'll talk about the profit split."
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Link for character illustration:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1PdkaxAXCm0CjLL3M58xxLd1KyiUxEjjh