Late at night.
Outside, the world was still shrouded in darkness, yet Ye Ling woke in a daze.
Hunger had dragged him out of sleep. After all, even though he had begun cultivating immortality, he had yet to reach the stage of fasting. Still, with his cultivation at the Third Level of Qi Refining, he was hardly in danger of starving.
After Bai Yiyi had taught him the Cultivation Method yesterday, she had gone on and on about her junior sisters'… legends?
Ye Ling no longer knew how to describe Bai Yiyi's "tales." In her telling, his senior aunts were all peerless powerhouses. Moving mountains and filling seas, slaying demons and eliminating fiends—none of it posed the slightest difficulty to them.
Yet when he asked about their Cultivation Levels, the only answer he got was Golden Core Stage.
To be fair, it wasn't that he looked down on Golden Core Stage.
At least for him right now, Golden Core Stage was a realm far beyond his reach.
But according to the System's description of this world, while Golden Core cultivators weren't exactly as common as dogs and Nascent Soul cultivators didn't roam everywhere, Golden Core Stage was by no means a particularly rare realm.
Across this vast land, Golden Core Stage cultivators could at best be considered capable of traveling freely. They were far from moving through the world as if no one else existed.
So Ye Ling remained skeptical of Bai Yiyi's words—not because he didn't trust her.
Rather, he was wondering whether Bai Yiyi was boasting to him, or whether those senior disciples were fooling his own naïve Master.
He leaned toward the latter. After all, Bai Yiyi could barely even lie properly. She probably wouldn't make up such outrageous stories herself.
Still, he didn't blame those senior disciples. If anything, he felt a bit grateful to them.
If not for their wild fabrications, he would never have met a Master who believed whatever he said.
In any case, Bai Yiyi had told him stories all night yesterday, to the point that he never managed to bring up the matter of food.
Of course, he wouldn't actually starve to death, but the hollow feeling in his stomach was driving him mad.
Grilled skewers, oysters, crayfish, beef kidneys…
For no reason at all, memories of the nighttime snacks from before his transmigration surfaced, and tears stubbornly welled at the corners of his mouth.
Cultivating immortality was great in every way, except that there were no night market stalls.
Still, according to Bai Yiyi, within the Six Arts of cultivation there was Spirit Food, the path of nourishment through food.
This path specialized entirely in eating. The dishes were often strange, but their flavors were unrivaled.
Once his Fifth Aunt, who cultivated the Spirit Food Dao, returned, he would find a way to make that senior recreate the delicacies from his past life.
As Ye Ling drifted through these thoughts, a drowsy, adorable voice sounded beside his ear.
"Is… is it raining?"
Only then did Ye Ling notice the sense of restraint on his body. He opened his eyes, and in the faint light he could see an exquisitely cute face resting against his shoulder.
The clear liquid at the corner of his mouth had flowed straight onto the girl's soft, flawless skin.
Bai Yiyi!
How did this girl end up here?
Bai Yiyi's room wasn't large. She slept on her own bed, while Ye Ling slept on a makeshift pallet in the middle of the room.
He had no complaints about that arrangement. Breathing in the girl's fragrance was far better than staying in that dilapidated shack outside that was on the verge of collapse.
But he had never imagined that he would wake up with Bai Yiyi holding him.
Her body was light, light like a cloud, as if a gentle breath could send her drifting away.
As a result, he went completely stiff, not daring to even breathe.
Fortunately, Bai Yiyi showed no sign of waking. After rubbing against him, she settled back into steady, even breathing.
"Huff…"
Only then did Ye Ling dare to release the stale breath he had been holding.
He had no idea how Bai Yiyi would react if he woke her, so he could only silently endure the softness of her body.
Forget it. As long as I wake up after her, nothing should go wrong.
With that thought, Ye Ling closed his eyes, trying hard to fall back asleep. At this moment, he no longer cared about hunger. Just looking at Bai Yiyi was enough to fill him.
But the more he tried to fall asleep, the more impossible it became.
And because he had closed his eyes, his senses sharpened dramatically. What he had barely noticed before now became unmistakable. He could feel his body wrapped in something incomparably soft, like a cloud.
Not only that, a gentle fragrance like daisies lingered in his nostrils, refusing to fade. It was far more intoxicating than any scent from a night market stall.
Before his transmigration, Ye Ling had been an orphan. He had seen the light, and he had passed through darkness.
Yet for his own reasons, he had never accepted a single girl's request to be together.
Simply put, he was a lifelong bachelor.
It wasn't that he was especially insecure. He just wanted to first reach a basic standard of living before thinking about something as elusive as love.
Compared to ordinary people, he had to work much harder just to earn the right to live.
If it were only about survival, then he would be no different from a beast.
Holding onto that belief, after coming to this world, Ye Ling had always placed life itself first.
Even though Bai Yiyi was so adorable, he had never felt the slightest stirring of affection.
If the System truly hadn't needed such a Master, and if Bai Yiyi hadn't immediately handed him the Small Formless Sword, he might really have gone down the mountain. With Bai Yiyi acting this unreliable, it was hard for her to give anyone a sense of security.
But now, as he truly felt Bai Yiyi's warm body against his, it was impossible to say his heart was completely unmoved. He wasn't a block of wood.
Slowly, the scene of Bai Yiyi leaning on his shoulder earlier emerged in his mind.
Her snow-white hair lay scattered across the bedding. Without her hairpin, what little dignity Bai Yiyi had seemed to vanish completely.
Her translucent, gleaming skin was stained by the clear liquid. Her small mouth muttered in her sleep, those rosy lips looking like tempting forbidden fruit, making one want to reach out and pluck them.
Fortunately, Ye Ling's will was firm, and he didn't lose himself.
At the same time, he forced himself to think carefully about why this scene had even happened.
As soon as he began to analyze, his habit of breaking a problem into smaller pieces kicked in.
First question: why would Bai Yiyi, a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, be asleep?
Logically speaking, cultivators didn't sleep at night. They cultivated.
Especially not a great expert at the Nascent Soul Stage.
At that thought, Ye Ling's mind suddenly cleared.
Something was wrong!
This girl was testing him!
In that instant, Ye Ling felt as if he finally understood everything.