Chapter 35: Teasing
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Even though Gu Chen knew that Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun were hiding nearby, he did not reveal that someone had poisoned him.
First, there was no direct evidence, and they would never admit to it.
Second, they were not the masterminds. Ma Hongjun was not skilled in using poison, so the poison must have been given to them by Tang San. Gu Chen did not want to alert the enemy.
Having thought everything through, Gu Chen smiled at Ning Rongrong and said, “I didn’t notice anything unusual along the way! Perhaps I’m simply too frail. I’ll have to take better care of myself from now on!”
Seeing that Gu Chen did not wish to say more, Ning Rongrong did not press him.
She turned around and asked Ye Lengleng curiously, “Lengleng, what brings you here?”
Ye Lengleng was still speculating about the complicated relationship between Xiao Wu, Tang San, and the strikingly handsome man before her. When Ning Rongrong suddenly spoke, she failed to hear the question clearly.
She gave an awkward, foolish smile and asked sheepishly, “What? What did you just say, Rongrong?”
“What are you thinking about? You were completely lost in thought. I asked why you came here.”
“To attend the Heaven Dou Imperial Auction, of course! You’re here for the auction too, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” Ning Rongrong nodded.
“Then let’s go together,” Ye Lengleng suggested with a smile.
“Sure!” Ning Rongrong readily agreed.
Both of them were the eldest daughters of prominent clans. Attending an auction was no different from going shopping together, so they hit it off immediately.
“Rongrong, I’m afraid you can’t go dressed like that. It’s not that we need to care about people who look down on others, but running into them would still put us in a bad mood.”
“I know a newly opened clothing store. The clothes there are gorgeous! It isn’t far from here, and there are still several hours before the auction begins. Why don’t we go have a look together?”
Ning Rongrong turned her gaze toward Xiao Wu, Zhu Zhuqing, and Gu Chen.
Gu Chen gave an awkward smile. “Don’t look at me. I’m not particular about clothes. You two haven’t seen each other in so long, so you must have plenty of private things to talk about. I’m a grown man, so I’ll sit this one out.”
“I’m a little tired today. There’s a hotel ahead, so I’ll get a room and catch up on some sleep.”
The girls could understand Gu Chen. He was right—he had been spinning like a top all day, with one incident following another.
The Sacred Heart Lake, the teahouse, the Soto Imperial Tombs, the pleasure quarter, and now being poisoned on top of everything else… He had been rushing around all day!
“Go rent a room and sleep, but don’t you dare go back to the pleasure quarter. How could those vixens there compare with the few of us? Wait until we return. Whatever you want to see, senior sister will put on a show for you.”
Xiao Wu hooked an arm around Gu Chen’s neck and softly spoke after activating her second spirit skill, Bewitchment.
Gu Chen cried out that he could not take it anymore!
After experiencing that brush with life and death, Xiao Wu had finally understood her true feelings.
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What she felt toward Tang San was merely the admiration of a younger sister for her elder brother. It was Gu Chen whom she truly loved from the bottom of her heart.
She could not bear to be apart from this man. Tonight, she would satisfy him just once…
After Xiao Wu, Ye Lengleng, and the other girls said goodbye to Gu Chen, they began a joyous spree of buying, buying, and buying.
Women never seemed to tire of shopping. Since the matriarchal age, they appeared to possess this talent by nature. If someone wanted to quickly grow close to a woman, accompanying her while shopping was often the fastest method.
After the girls left, Gu Chen thought he would quickly fall asleep the moment he lay down. Instead, he tossed and turned restlessly.
He missed his elder sister—terribly, unbearably so.
Unable to sleep, Gu Chen went up to the roof. He recalled every little moment he had shared with his sister, hoping that the night wind would ease his longing.
The full moon hung high overhead, and the night breeze whispered around him as Gu Chen reflected on everything he had experienced across his two lives.
He only wanted to live a simple life. Why was that so difficult?
There were people trying to harm him everywhere he went, and wherever he traveled, all kinds of trouble seemed to find him.
The disasters he had encountered throughout this single day were hardly unique. He had experienced such things many times before…
If not for his elder sister’s words—“You must live well”—supporting him, he feared he would have suffered a complete mental breakdown long ago.
Gu Chen sat motionless on the rooftop for nearly four hours. Regret, confusion, despair, and countless other emotions became tangled together, tormenting him until he could barely breathe.
As his heart contracted, he felt the warmth and coldness of the world. Gradually, his resolve grew stronger.
No matter how bitter life became, there would always be moments of sweetness. Endure it, and everything would eventually turn beautiful.
…
…
After obtaining the Ancient Sword of the Starry Sky and gaining a group of Spirit Saint-level servants, Gu Chen did not immediately assign them any tasks.
His current strength was too low. If he relied on external forces for everything, he would lose the drive to improve, and the road ahead would only grow narrower.
He still needed to increase his own strength as quickly as possible. Once the auction ended today, he would search for a suitable spirit beast and obtain another spirit ring.
The Dark Nether Wolf… I have been looking forward to your spirit ring for a long time.
At the thought, the corners of Gu Chen’s lips unconsciously curved into a smile.
Although the day’s endless running had left him exhausted, it had also tempered his state of mind considerably. In a single day, he had broken through four levels and reached Level 20—the peak of the Spirit Master realm.
Because of his unique constitution and powerful mental strength, he could withstand far more than ordinary people.
For ordinary people, the limits for spirit rings were:
The first spirit ring: five hundred years.
The second spirit ring: nine hundred and ninety-nine years.
The third spirit ring: one thousand seven hundred years.
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The fourth spirit ring: nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine years.
The fifth spirit ring: twenty-five thousand years.
The sixth spirit ring: thirty thousand years.
The seventh spirit ring: forty thousand years.
The eighth spirit ring: fifty thousand years.
The ninth spirit ring: more than fifty thousand years.
Gu Chen estimated that his limit was at least three times that of ordinary people. When he absorbed his first spirit ring, he had already understood the meaning behind Ye Jingshu’s words:
“You inherited my divine-path will. If you are not my disciple, then what are you?”
Whenever the number of years contained in a spirit ring exceeded what he could bear, a golden sphere would appear in Gu Chen’s mind.
The sphere bore markings resembling those on a thermometer. At regular intervals, horizontal bars of different colors appeared, seven in total: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and violet.
Along the edge of the violet section was a line of tiny writing:
Do not exceed thirty percent of the violet range, or the divine will shall shatter and the divine soul shall perish.
Gu Chen’s first spirit ring had come from an eight-hundred-year-old Earth Golden-Haired Bear, amounting to 1.6 times the limit for an ordinary first spirit ring.
The golden sphere had lit up between the yellow and green sections.
From this, Gu Chen concluded that the sphere’s limit was probably around three times the ordinary threshold. Whether that limit would increase later, however, was something he could not yet know.
The Dark Nether Wolf Gu Chen had encountered previously should have been around two thousand five hundred to two thousand seven hundred years old. A spirit ring from a beast of that age would be nearly at the absolute limit for his second spirit ring, making it the perfect choice.
It was not that there were no better spirit rings. There simply were none more suitable.
In terms of strength, Gu Chen was currently disguising himself as a wielder of the Mighty Vajra Bear Spirit. His attack power and defenses were already sufficient.
His only weakness lay in speed and agility.
The Dark Nether Wolf possessed both. More importantly, it also had a natural ability:
“Shroud the Heavens and Blot Out the Sun.”
For Gu Chen, who possessed the Chameleon Spirit, this could practically be called a divine skill.
First update of the day! If you enjoy this novel, dear readers, remember to add it to your collection by placing it on your bookshelf. The chapters to come will be even more exciting!
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