Yang Hong, his heart stirred, took out a fourth-grade spiritual plant and experimented.
The effect was very strong, terrifyingly so.
In just ten breaths, a spirit wood a zhang high turned into a pile of gravel.
All its life force was completely absorbed.
But…
"What a load of crap!
My cultivation has reached the Myriad Years Nascent Soul stage, absorbing more cultivation and life force won't increase my cultivation one bit!"
Yang Hong looked at his hands with a constipated expression, his disappointment evident.
The "Immovable Joyful Buddha" might be a good cultivation method, but it was useless for Yang Hong.
"Trash~"
He grumbled, deciding to lock the technique away and not teach it to anyone.
...
"Why are you here?"
Four months after Yang Hong returned, in early December, Li Lizhi arrived at Qingfeng Villa.
"Hehe~ I'm here to find my husband. This is my home~"
Li Lizhi now looked more like a maiden, with a charming smile and a radiant, moving presence.
Such a smile would instantly ensnare most people.
But Yang Hong frowned and shooed her away.
"You are not welcome here. Go back the way you came."
After speaking, Yang Hong turned and closed the villa's main gate.
"..."
Li Lizhi was left stunned and shut outside.
"Hmph~ You speak so nobly, but you just want to leech spiritual energy from my villa to cultivate, don't you?
No way!"
Yang Hong's disdainful voice came from inside the gate.
He was clear-headed enough to see through Li Lizhi's intentions.
"Yang Hong~ You scoundrel, I didn't come to leech your spiritual energy, I came to fulfill our old promise."
Li Lizhi was directly angered by Yang Hong's words and cursed back.
"Bastard, you're breaking your word!"
Saying this, she kicked the villa's main gate.
However, she made a mistake. Yang Hong's gate was no ordinary one.
"Screech~ Ah!"
A sword energy shot down from the plaque, directly tearing Li Lizhi's skirt and opening a long gash on her thigh.
"Wow~ Woo woo woo~"
At this point, Li Lizhi, who had fallen to the ground, could no longer hold back and burst into tears.
"..."
Yang Hong inside the gate shook his head speechlessly. In his memory, Li Lizhi was a cold and intelligent girl.
How had she suddenly become so foolish?
"Master~ Master~ I heard someone crying. Did you bully someone again?"
Just as Yang Hong was contemplating whether to open the door, his eldest disciple, Gao Shi, flew in on her sword from the mountaintop.
Upon arrival, she immediately began to accuse her master. In her impression, Master always liked to bully people.
She had cried several times herself.
"Hmph~ I was the one being bullied."
Yang Hong rolled his eyes and playfully flicked the "unfilial disciple" on the forehead.
Then, with some reluctance, he opened the main gate and said impatiently to Li Lizhi, who was still crying on the ground.
"Come in.
Remember, you can only cultivate for one hour each day."
Although Li Lizhi was crying pitifully and looked very appealing,
Yang Hong, who remained clear-headed, still coldly instructed her.
"Yang Hong~ You're a bastard, I'm not coming in, I'm going home.
Woo woo~
I want to go home."
Li Lizhi felt wronged by Yang Hong's attitude and cried even more heartbrokenly.
She, the sixth princess of the Great Tang, had been showered with love before cultivation. After becoming an immortal, she was also a disciple of an ancestor, admired by countless disciples.
Where had anyone dared to treat her with such grievance?
"Oh~ You want to go home?
Very well~ Hurry and leave."
Yang Hong turned and walked back to the small courtyard in the center of the villa, lying on the rocking chair, basking in the sun contentedly.
"..."
Li Lizhi was speechless. Crying and crying, she stopped wanting to cry.
Wiping away her tears, she stood up, patted her clothes, and followed Yang Hong into Qingfeng Villa.
"Sister~ Who are you? Are you here to get revenge on Master?"
The young girl, Gao Shi, seeing Li Lizhi enter, not only didn't stop her but excitedly approached, seemingly ready to offer advice.
She wouldn't dare to seek "revenge" on her master, but if other elder sisters wanted to cause trouble for her master, she was eager to watch.
"I am your師娘 (shī niáng - master's wife), not an elder sister.
Are you my husband's disciple?"
Li Lizhi was drawn to the young girl. Her eyes twinkled, and she stopped looking for Yang Hong, instead preparing to gather intelligence from the young girl to win Yang Hong over.
"Mhm~ I am Master's eldest disciple~"
Gao Shi held her head high with pride, like a proud duck.
"Really? You're so amazing~"
The two women chatted for a while and soon bonded, then pulled in Gao Lexin, completing the ensemble.
From then on, Yang Hong's life was no longer quiet.
"Husband, this is iced plum juice. I made it with fresh plums from the back mountain. It's delicious."
"Holy cow! That's a fifth-grade Ice Smoke Green Plum, and you used it to make plum juice?
Mmm~ It smells so good!"
"Husband, this is the Five-Colored Crispy Mountain. It's cool and thirst-quenching, try some."
"Holy cow~ You picked my Five Elements Spirit Peaches too? Those were sixth-grade spirit plants!
Mmm~ It tastes good."
Yang Hong spent his days in a mixture of heartache and delight, between pain and pleasure. Li Lizhi's culinary talent seemed to be maxed out.
She constantly devised new dishes for Yang Hong every day.
And the price was Yang Hong's spirit plants all over the mountain.
Oh, and also Gao Shi and Gao Lexin, those two little gluttons.
They were only at the Foundation Establishment stage, so naturally, they couldn't digest the delicacies made from these high-grade spirit plants, but they couldn't resist.
So, every day they were painfully bloated with spiritual energy, vowing never to eat so much again.
But the next day, when Li Lizhi made a new delicacy, they couldn't help but have a bite or two.
Yang Hong didn't indulge them and wouldn't intervene to help them resolve the spiritual energy.
Even Li Lizhi was restricted from intervening.
"Husband, is this really okay?"
"It's fine, they won't die."
One day, Yang Hong and his wife were sitting in the courtyard eating fruit salad and watching the two young girls punch and kick each other. He couldn't help but ask.
"But are you sure they're okay? Two beautiful young girls are all bruised and swollen."
"It's good that they're bruised and swollen, it proves they're trying.
Go buy a few dairy cows and goats this afternoon to raise. The fruit salad made with ordinary milk still lacks some flavor."
"How about we go catch some demonic beast cows and goats?"
"That works too~"
The couple, seemingly forgetting the disciples who were digesting spiritual energy through combat, took out their flying boat and soared into the sky.
It seemed that delicacies were more important than disciples.
"Let's try~ The Prince and Princess have left, should we still fight?"
"No more fighting, my spiritual energy has been mostly digested. I'll use meditation to consume the rest.
Sister Lexin, did I give Shiniang bad advice?
Eating like this every day, I'm going to get as round as a ball."
Touching her noticeably thicker waistline, Gao Shi's small face furrowed.
"It's okay, as long as you cultivate faster, you can lose weight when your cultivation is higher."
Gao Lexin rubbed her slightly larger belly and nodded with satisfaction. As an older girl, she knew a lot and understood what assets were needed to attract men.
Among the three women in the villa, she wasn't the most beautiful, but she had the most potential.
She had observed coldly that when the Prince looked at the Princess, there was always a hint of disappointment and dissatisfaction.
She felt she might have a chance.