"Ah... Achoo!"
Just as the Greedy Heliobus dove toward Jing Yuan and was about to burrow into his body, the latter suddenly bent over without warning and sneezed. By a stroke of perfect coincidence, he avoided the Greedy Heliobus's dive.
Greedy Heliobus: ?
Because the incident happened too suddenly, the Greedy Heliobus had no time to react. Caught completely off guard, it plunged straight into Jingliu, who was standing in front of Jing Yuan.
...
"Eh?"
Jing Yuan only felt a sudden chill on his back for no reason. He subconsciously turned his head to look, only to see the avenue behind him still bustling with people, with nothing unusual.
An illusion?
Jing Yuan turned back and refocused his gaze on Jingliu. In that very instant, his heart trembled violently!
Jing Yuan was around 1.85 meters tall, while Jingliu, having experienced war in her youth and poor development, had stopped growing after reaching 1.6 meters.
That sneeze had been meant as a polite cover, but due to their height difference, the saliva sprayed directly onto Jingliu's face.
Jingliu: ...
"!!!"
Jing Yuan was shocked and hurriedly pulled out tissues to remedy the situation: "Sorry, Master. You're too short and I didn't notice."
"Wow, Master, why is your lipstick coming off?"
"Eh, this really has nothing to do with me. I'm hungry—!"
A human figure drew a perfect arc in the air, flying a full dozen meters high before slamming heavily onto the road, face down. A single finger stretched out unwillingly, pointing forward.
The surrounding passersby and vendors were all stunned. For a moment, the usually bustling Xuan Ye Street fell into a rare silence. Everyone stared in shock at the figure that looked as if it were dead.
"Chirp chirp——"
A mechanical bird happened to pass by and landed on the back of Jing Yuan's head.
"Don't mess around." Jing Yuan grunted and shooed the mechanical bird away.
"Ehh——"
Seeing this, the surrounding passersby let out a disappointed sound, stopped paying attention, and went back to their own business.
Tap, tap, tap...
Jingliu slowly walked in front of Jing Yuan and kicked him hard a few times: "Get up if you're not dead."
"Ehh, yes."
Seeing that Jingliu didn't seem angry, Jing Yuan quickly climbed up from the ground as if nothing had happened.
What a joke. Wasn't it just getting hit by a punch strong enough to shatter stones and then falling from five or six stories high? All trivial. His body had long been trained by Jingliu to be indestructible. No matter how strong the attack, it could not cause any damage.
Jingliu remained expressionless: "I want to eat lunch. Give me credit points."
Jing Yuan obediently nodded and patted his chest: "No problem, no problem. Master, order whatever you want. I'll pay for the meal!"
"Then let's just have a simple two-hundred-credit single-person meal."
Jing Yuan was stunned for a moment, then his face showed horror: "Two hundred for one meal?"
Good grief, Master, aren't you being too extravagant?!
"What are you wasting words for?" Jingliu glared (though blocked by her eyepatch). "My words don't count anymore?"
Jing Yuan: www...
After reluctantly taking out two hundred credit points from his wallet, Jing Yuan hesitated and said: "Master, look, you're not young anymore. How about I introduce you to a job?"
Hearing this, Jingliu frowned: "Earn money? Why should I earn money?"
Jing Yuan: "...I can't keep supporting you forever, right?"
"I am your Master. Once a teacher, always a father. In other words, I am your mother."
"Is there a problem with you supporting your own mother? Without my vigorous cultivation back then, could you have reached where you are today?"
!
Jing Yuan's eyes widened! What kind of logic is this?!
Master, where did you learn this from?
I admit that you did help me a tiny, tiny, minuscule bit in martial arts, but didn't I pay for that with suffering?
You got to hit me, you took all the credit, and all the good things are yours?
I really need to get you under control!
Thinking of this, Jing Yuan forced out a smile: "Master is right. This is all as it should be. But Master, think about it. After returning to the Xianzhou after hundreds of years, don't you want to live a life of financial freedom once?"
Jingliu crossed her arms and looked Jing Yuan up and down: "What? After I've been gone for so many years, you don't have any savings at all?"
Setting aside the matter of how she wronged Jing Yuan, wasn't she a competent and good Master?
No Master, no disciple. Therefore, the disciple's things are the Master's things. That's perfectly reasonable.
"..."
Even the Greedy Heliobus had not expected its influence to be this great.
At this moment, it felt somewhat puzzled: Normally, people it possessed should go through a process of "possession → noticing something wrong → self-reflection → confusion → corruption," right? Why did it jump straight to corruption with Jingliu?
Sometimes it seemed like the Greedy Heliobus didn't even need to actively influence her; Jingliu herself already knew how to ask Jing Yuan for money. How strange... Could it be that this master-disciple pair met on a forum?
The disciple is afraid the Master will spend his money, while the Master is afraid the disciple won't spend money on her.
Did my strength unknowingly grow stronger after being sealed for a thousand years? The Greedy Heliobus thought.
...
Jing Yuan's mouth twitched. Then he forced out a smile: "Master, didn't I tell you? Back then, to send you away from the Luofu, I already spent all my wages in advance for these years..."
"All this money was spent on you. Don't you think so?"
Seeing that direct persuasion wasn't working, Jing Yuan played the emotional card: "You don't know how miserable I've been these years because of the advance spending..."
"Hm? What does that have to do with me?" Jingliu slightly furrowed her willow brows and said with disgust: "Why hasn't your salary increased all these years? Have you properly looked for the reason within yourself?"
"Why can others drive luxury cars and live in mansions while you can't?"
"Why can others get salary raises but you can't?"
"Why are you always complaining? Why not think of a solution?"
"..."
Jing Yuan listened until veins bulged on his forehead and his anger value shot up.
This is treating me like an Edo Star person!
As the saying goes, evil arises from the gallbladder. Jing Yuan stiffened his neck and retorted at Jingliu:
"The strong never complain about their environment, but I am weak. So not only do I complain about the environment, I also complain about the strong."
"Jingliu! It's all your fault that I have no money! I'm going all out against you!"
Bang!
Jing Yuan knelt on one knee, clutching his stomach with both hands: "I'm hungry—!"
"Give me your phone." Jingliu openly extended her small hand and said righteously.
Jing Yuan's eyes widened: This woman... she even wants to take his phone! What does she want to do?
"Y-you're going too far!"
"Hurry up!" Jingliu pulled out a greatsword and threatened.
"You!"
——"Jingliu" obtained "Jing Yuan's Phone ×1"