Chapter 167 Cao Ying Yearns for Her Lover

[Ding!]

[Target Zi Yan's favorability towards the host has increased by 25%. Reward obtained: 'Cultivation Enhancement Experience Pill'!]

[Cultivation Enhancement Experience Pill: This is a small pill refined through ancient techniques, fused with the experiential insights of a Dou Di powerhouse. After taking it, defying the heavens and altering fate is no issue; one's cultivation will undoubtedly receive a significant boost.]

[Current favorability of strategy target Zi Yan: 50%]

A Cultivation Enhancement Experience Pill? Being so direct?

Gu He used his Divine Sense to examine a small golden pill resting peacefully inside his storage ring. The pill was only the size of a longan pit, emitting a faint golden light. This wasn't a Medicinal Pill, but a pill of knowledge that had absorbed the experiences of a Dou Di, fused with many insights.

However, he couldn't take it now. He needed to wait and find a suitable place for advancement to Cultivate.

Zi Yan continued to blink her big eyes at Gu He. Her face still had some baby fat that hadn't faded, making her very cute.

But that cuteness was a bit different from Qing Lin's, carrying a touch of innocence, like a purple iris.

"Mmm... fried chicken, for you!" Zi Yan picked up a chicken leg from the table that she hadn't bitten into and handed it to Gu He. Her hands were greasy, and the smell of fried chicken wafted into Gu He's nose. Gu He didn't mind her hands, directly took the chicken leg, and took a bite.

"Hmm, it really is delicious."

"Hehe!" Zi Yan smiled: "Do you have any other food recipes? You can share them with Sister Xiao Yi Xian~"

Gu He smiled helplessly and rubbed her head, his dark eyes like an endless night sky.

"Alright, when I have some free time, I'll research food with you and your Sister Xian."

"It's a promise!" Zi Yan said.

Although she wasn't a child, she acted very much like one. But her cute little face radiated a sunny aura, like beautiful light refracted through a colorful glass bead, making it impossible to feel any dislike.

"It's a promise," Gu He said.

"Then pinky swear?"

"A hundred years, hanging high, no changing!"

They hooked their little fingers together, and Zi Yan smiled happily.

Gu He also felt pleased. Being with Zi Yan always meant not having to think too much.

He felt relaxed: in the room filled with the aroma of food, like being bathed in warm winter sunlight.

And Zi Yan rested her chin on her hand, watching him.

"Gu He, eat quickly!"

"Mmm... when you're done, Zi Yan can wipe your hands for you." Zi Yan took out a purple handkerchief embroidered with irises.

...

After leaving Zi Yan's room, Gu He prepared to find a place to Cultivate.

He thought of Cao Ying. Cao Ying was a seed player valued by the Pill Tower, also a Grade 8 Alchemist. The Cao family's cultivation chamber must be excellent.

He originally planned to find a random mountain Peak to Cultivate, but upon considering that Cao Ying's favorability was still at 50%, not yet broken through 71%, he decided to actively create an opportunity himself to prepare for increasing her favorability.

The location of the Cao family residence was something he could find out with a little inquiry. Taking advantage of the still-early sky, he swiftly sped off in one direction, his black robe billowing, seeming to wrinkle the space around him.

Not long after, Gu He arrived at the Cao family and stated his purpose: he was here to see Cao Ying.

Cao Ying never expected that Gu He would take the initiative to visit.

"Brother Gu He!"

She wore white clothes and a red skirt, her posture upright. Even upon seeing Gu He, her eyebrows raised, she happily flew over to him but then stood firmly, like a Phoenix soaring in the Nine Heavens.

Her hair accessories were simple: a golden, delicate chain strung with an emerald-green gemstone, fashioned into a forehead ornament worn on her fair forehead.

It also made her flying, light-red hair appear as dense as seaweed; when her simply draped long hair swung, it resembled a vertical sea of flowers.

"You're here! Cao Dan just told me you came to borrow a cultivation chamber!"

Cao Dan was Cao Ying's brother, but since she started calling Gu He "Brother Gu He," she only called Cao Dan by his full name. Anyway, she used to mix it up before.

Gu He nodded, "I'm preparing... to attempt a breakthrough to Dou Sheng."

Cao Ying's face showed shock, like a kitten whose goat milk had been stolen. But then her expression calmed, a trace of the composure and trust between powerhouses showing at the corner of her slightly upturned lips as she led the way, asking, "So sudden?"

She knew Gu He was currently only a Five-Star Dou Zun, but she only found it a bit sudden and didn't think Gu He was being fanciful.

Everything Gu He had displayed before her gave her a baffling powerful confidence in him.

Even though he was a Peak Five-Star Dou Zun claiming he would go into seclusion to charge straight for the lofty, unattainable Dou Sheng.

But because this Dou Zun was Gu He, Cao Ying's eyes held only trust.

Cao Ying smiled slightly, "Then you must do your best!" Her obsidian-like eyes, accentuated by the emerald on her forehead, resembled a nimble, leaping bird.

The two passed through layer upon layer of corridors. The Cao mansion was large, so large it felt somewhat empty. As they walked, Gu He asked her, "What, you believe I can succeed in the breakthrough just like that?"

Others didn't know, but Gu He had the strategy System, and the System's rewards were often Heaven-Defying. Before this, Gu He had obtained items that directly enhanced cultivation without side effects.

Cao Ying now knew Gu He was only a Five-Star Dou Zun, but her beautiful eyes shimmered with an intense feeling of trust.

She truly seemed to believe that Gu He could emerge from seclusion as a Dou Sheng.

"Hehe, no particular reason. I believe Brother Gu He can, so he can!"

During the time she returned home after leaving Gu He, in the emptiness of her home, although Cao Ying would Cultivate on schedule and instruct the Cao family juniors regularly, she couldn't hide the loneliness and solitude after being away from him.

Thinking this, a flicker of anticipation passed through Cao Ying's languid eyes. She said, "Brother Gu He, did you miss me?"

"Of course I did," Gu He said seriously.

As he spoke, he suddenly stopped. He reached out towards the outside of the corridor, his Dou Qi transforming into sharp arrows shooting out, striking down a palm-sized pink flower from a three-story-tall flowering tree.

The flower drifted and swayed in the wind, finally landing in Gu He's palm, which he then offered to Cao Ying: "For you."

Cao Ying took the flower with her hand. The petals were irregularly serrated, but the gradient from white to pink made it exceptionally beautiful. Cao Ying liked it very much.

"Hehe~ I love it! Thank you, Brother Gu He!"

Unconsciously, Cao Ying took Gu He's hand. Her fair fingers traced a circle on his palm, like beautiful, fragile butterfly wings.

Cao Ying truly wished this moment could last longer, wished this corridor had no end, and their time alone together could continue indefinitely.

Like flowers, like brocade, like the spring breeze; thinking of things, thinking of people, thinking of the reflection in the mirror.

Cao Ying held the flower in one hand and Gu He's hand in the other. She didn't tell him that these days, while getting up and doing her makeup, she would often drift into a daze, her thoughts wandering to him.

The gentleman not yet old, his features handsome as a painting, his mature aura like the snow pines atop the highest mountain Peaks, making a woman's heart flutter and her face blush.

...