38: Chapter 38 CEO Xiao's Happiness

Ding!

Congratulations, Host! Your Spiritual Root has been upgraded to Earth-Grade Medium Grade!

Reward: Alchemy Experience +20 years! zishan tripod (Medium Grade Spiritual Artifact x1! Effect: Accelerates Alchemy time and improves Medicinal Pill quality!)

Xiao Ye lay on the couch, hugging a panting Luo Lili in his arms. Looking at the rewards on the System panel, his grin stretched from ear to ear.

This deal was a massive profit.

He looked down at the woman in his arms. Luo Lili's eyes were closed, her eyelashes trembling slightly, and her cheeks were flushed crimson, looking like a honey peach that had just been bitten.

“Lili,” Xiao Ye patted her back and said with a smile, “Coming back tomorrow?”

Luo Lili didn't open her eyes, but the corners of her mouth twitched slightly, her voice as thin as a mosquito's hum: “...Then how much are you giving?”

For several days in a row, the two hadn't even left the room, as if they had grown into it.

Xiao Ye leaned back on the couch, exhaled a long breath, and couldn't help but sigh: “Oh~ It really is better to be President Xiao. What Pure Cultivator? Don't they still clock in for their shifts just the same?”

He glanced down at Luo Lili, a grin spreading across his face.

Luo Lili glared at him and muttered a slurred “Rogue.”

Over the course of a month, with Luo Lili's “all-around” cooperation, Xiao Ye's cultivation had actually surged to the second level of Foundation Establishment, giving even him a start.

Luo Lili also experienced the Peak of her life every few days.

The only fly in the ointment was—it was all flowering but no fruit.

Xiao Ye looked at Luo Lili's flat lower abdomen and fell into deep self-doubt: Could it be that I'm failing again? That shouldn't be right? I've been farming for so many years and never missed a mark; how come nothing's sprouting with her?

He pondered for a long time before slapping his thigh: “No, I have to find another one to prove myself! It's not my problem, it's a problem with the soil!”

—

This time he was even more direct—no longer waiting for people to come to his door, he took the initiative to strike.

Early the next morning, a conspicuous wooden sign appeared at the entrance of the Hehuan Sect's Dual Cultivation Hall. Several lines were written on it in a flamboyant, messy scrawl that looked like chicken scratches:

“Recruiting Dual Cultivation Dao Companions, 1,000 Spirit Stones per night, no uglies allowed. Interested parties please come to the lakeside courtyard for an interview. Personally written by Elder Xiao.”

It was the time when Disciples were most frequently coming and going. The moment that sign was stuck there, it was like a depth charge dropped into a pond, sending splashes everywhere.

“Hiss—1,000 Spirit Stones a night?! Am I seeing things?” A male Disciple rubbed his eyes and read the words on the sign three times, doubting he was hallucinating.

“Is this that new Guest Elder? He's so generous?” The female Disciple beside him covered her mouth, her eyes wide as copper bells, nearly popping out of her head.

“Isn't that too much? Even a Pure Cultivator Fairy wouldn't be able to resist!” Someone clicked their tongue and shook their head, counting on their fingers. “One thousand a day, ten thousand for ten days, thirty thousand a month... My god, is he inviting an ancestor back to be worshipped?”

“Exactly! For that much, you could order a hundred Carnivorous Cultivators, each one picked from a hundred, skilled in all the arts, able to assist in cultivation, full service.” A Disciple with a sharp chin and monkey-like features calculated while drooling, “A thousand Spirit Stones is enough for me to live in luxury for a whole year!”

“Giving so much, even I as a man want to give it a try.” A burly man with a back like a tiger and waist like a bear suddenly spoke, his eyes burning like a hungry wolf seeing meat.

“Eww~ Stay away from me!” The person next to him jumped three steps back as if scalded, looking disgusted.

“Oh, look at you! Putting on an act with me!” The burly man grabbed the person's collar, speaking with righteous indignation in a voice like thunder, “Let me ask you, can you save 1,000 Spirit Stones by risking your life for a year? Now you only need to sell your backside for one night to earn 1,000 Spirit Stones, you dare say you aren't tempted?”

The person struggled for a bit then suddenly fell silent, his eyes beginning to flicker.

In a distant corner, Xiao Ye leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, watching the scene with a smile, his expression like he was watching a monkey show.

Standing beside him was Wang Defa, his mouth open wide enough to fit an egg, his jaw nearly hitting the floor.

“Brother Ye, you're...” Wang Defa swallowed hard, his voice trembling, “You're inflating the market prices!”

Xiao Ye patted his shoulder and said earnestly: “If you want the fish to bite, your bait has to be big enough.”

—

Sure enough, not long after the sign was hung, someone came to inquire.

Xiao Ye sat upright in the small courtyard, legs crossed as he sipped tea, waiting for the first beauty to arrive. The tea aroma curled in the air; life was peaceful.

Suddenly, a head popped into the courtyard gate—thick beard and bushy eyebrows, a back like a tiger and waist like a bear, with a pair of eyes shining brightly, staring straight at him like searchlights.

“Brother! Want to dual cultivate?” the big man spoke, his voice like a great bell, shaking a few specks of dust off the courtyard walls.

Xiao Ye's hand jerked, nearly dropping his tea cup, spilling tea all over his hand.

Holy crap—a man showed up?

He sized up this warrior: a full beard growing from chin to ears, and chest muscles bigger than Bai Susu's, two bulging mounds.

Right now, he was looking at him affectionately, his gaze so hot it could roast a person, with a hint of a meaningful smile hanging on his lips.

A chill ran down Xiao Ye's spine, his hair standing on end. A thought flashed through his mind—could it be that this place was like those 'Land of BL' tropes, where male-on-male romance was the trend?

He silently moved his chair back half a foot, cleared his throat, and squeezed out a polite but awkward smile: “This... brother, I'm only recruiting beauties.”

“Can't you loosen up on the gender requirement?” The big man took a step forward, his gaze even more fervent. “A beautiful man is also beauty. Look at my pecs, these abs, these biceps... aren't I stronger than those frail women?”

“My gender requirement is very strict, dead set.” Xiao Ye was decisive, like hammering a nail. “The kind where even after it's buried, I have to stomp on it twice.”

Disappointment flashed across the big man's face, and he wilted like a frost-bitten eggplant.

He sighed and turned to leave. After two steps, he turned back, unwilling to give up: “Really no? I can lower my price.”

“Really no.” Xiao Ye spoke with righteous severity. “Not even if you pay me. Even if you paid me ten thousand, I could only say—thanks, next.”

The big man finally gave up completely, his lonely figure disappearing outside the courtyard gate, looking as if he had been abandoned by the whole world, truly pathetic.

Xiao Ye let out a long breath, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and looked down at the tea cup in his hand. Suddenly, the tea didn't smell good anymore, tasting just like plain water.

He shouted toward the outside: “Wang Defa! Go change the words on the sign for me—add 'Females Only' in bold! And make the font even bigger!”

From next door came Wang Defa's gloating laughter, sounding like a hen laying an egg: “Hahahaha, you got it! Brother Ye!”