10: Chapter 10 A Chance Encounter with Lin Tian? No, I'm Here to Steal Your Partner!

The night wind whistled through the jagged rocks on the outskirts of the Xuantian Sect's back mountain, sounding like a mournful wail.

Compared to the main peak, where Spiritual Qi was abundant and it was spring all year round, the environment on the outskirts of the back mountain was harsh.

Gaunt, withered trees swayed in the cold wind, and the air was thick with unyielding frost. Ordinarily, even a Utility Disciple would rarely venture here in the dead of night.

Gu Yi's figure quietly appeared atop the crown of a thick, ancient cypress tree.

He restrained all his aura, his white robes blending into the cold moonlight. Looking down from above, a youth dressed in the attire of an Outer Sect Disciple was sitting cross-legged on a blue stone in the clearing below.

It was Lin Tian, the Son of Luck who had sent Gu Yi to Guhan Cliff.

At this moment, Lin Tian's eyes were tightly shut, his forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat, and his face looked somewhat pale under the moonlight.

He was breathing in a specific rhythm, and wisps of faint, barely visible star and moon Spiritual Qi were flowing through his nose and mouth into his Meridians.

Gu Yi's gaze did not linger on Lin Tian's face, but instead fell directly on his right hand, which was hanging by his side.

There, an unremarkable mysterious black iron ring was emitting an extremely subtle fluctuation.

Before the star and moon Spiritual Qi that Lin Tian had painstakingly absorbed could flow through his Dantian, at least eighty percent of it was silently devoured by this ancient ring as if it were a bottomless pit.

Yet Lin Tian himself seemed completely unaware of this "embezzlement," and instead, after every breathing cycle, a smug arc of satisfaction would curl at the corner of his mouth, thinking his cultivation had improved.

Watching this scene, Gu Yi chuckled inwardly.

This kid treats others like fools, but he doesn't realize that he is the most diligent "worker" of all.

Having confirmed the reality of his target, Gu Yi no longer hid his tracks.

He leaped down from the ancient cypress, his toes landing on a brittle, withered branch.

"Snap."

The crisp sound of snapping echoed through the silent outskirts of the back mountain.

Like a startled lone wolf, Lin Tian on the blue stone suddenly opened his eyes. His right hand instinctively pressed onto the standard-issue longsword at his waist, and he looked towards the sound with a wary gaze.

When he saw the white-robed figure slowly emerging from the shadows of the woods, the wariness in Lin Tian's eyes froze for a moment before quickly transforming into undisguised astonishment. Immediately after, the corners of his mouth uncontrollably curled upwards, revealing a trace of malicious mockery.

"I wondered who wasn't sleeping in the middle of the night. Turns out it's our high and mighty Senior Brother."

Lin Tian stood up from the blue stone and brushed the dust off his hem, his tone filled with a sense of triumphant relief.

"What? The cold wind of Guhan Cliff not to your liking? The Peak Master personally ordered you to reflect on your mistakes in the main hall. If the Elders of the Discipline Hall find out you snuck out, your crimes will only increase, and I fear you won't even be able to keep this Golden Core Stage cultivation."

He looked Gu Yi up and down, trying to find traces of dejection and despair on the face of the Senior Brother he once had to look up to.

The cold wind blew past.

Gu Yi calmly brushed a fallen leaf off his cuff. His deep eyes swept over Lin Tian's face as if looking at nothing but air, without a moment's pause.

He stepped forward, his pace unhurried, walking straight in the direction of Lin Tian, as if such a living person did not exist before him at all.

Thoroughly ignored, the cold sneer on Lin Tian's face froze.

He had originally thought that after the blow of falling from the pedestal and being imprisoned on Guhan Cliff, Gu Yi would definitely fly into a rage or at least show some humiliation and resentment upon seeing him, the "culprit," again.

Yet Gu Yi's attitude at this moment was as if he were looking at a rock on the side of the road or a puddle of mud.

"Gu Yi! I'm talking to you, are you deaf?!"

Lin Tian's face flushed red instantly, his self-esteem feeling as if it had been struck hard by an invisible slap. He violently drew the longsword from his waist, pointing the tip directly at Gu Yi's chest, his voice slightly distorted by anger.

"Stop putting on an act here! You're just a notorious prisoner now, what right do you have to put on the airs of a Senior Brother in front of me!"

Facing the sword tip so close at hand, Gu Yi's pace did not even falter for a second.

He turned slightly, perfectly avoiding the edge of the sword tip, and brushed past Lin Tian.

In that instant, Gu Yi's eyelids drooped slightly, and his vast and solid Golden Core Stage Divine Sense turned into an invisible needle, fiercely piercing into the weak barrier of the mysterious black iron ring on Lin Tian's right hand.

"A dignified expert of the Dao Integration Stage, actually reduced to surviving by exploiting the scraps of a Qi Refinement Stage Trash..."

A Divine Sense transmission, wrapped in playfulness and composure, exploded with pinpoint precision within the space inside the ancient ring.

"Senior, does this stale rice taste good?"

This transmission was like a giant boulder thrown into a calm lake.

Inside the ancient ring.

In a gray Divine Soul space, the illusory silhouette that had been floating cross-legged and greedily absorbing that tiny bit of star and moon Spiritual Qi suddenly opened her eyes.

Those were a pair of seductive, fox-like eyes that seemed capable of capturing souls, and as her gaze shifted, they exuded a charm and danger tempered by the passage of time.

This sudden Divine Sense transmission caused the illusory silhouette to fluctuate violently for a moment. She instinctively wanted to mobilize her Soul Power to counterattack, but after detecting the opponent's solid Divine Sense, which also carried a hint of strange Chaos aura, she forcibly halted her actions.

"Oh?"

After a brief moment of astonishment, a female voice, thick with laziness and allure, slowly sounded in Gu Yi's mind along the Divine Sense connection.

This voice seemed to carry a tangible warmth, the tail end dragged out long, like a soft feather, teasing the tip of one's heart.

Even Gu Yi, who had been mentally prepared, found his breathing involuntarily pausing for half a beat the moment he heard this voice. A tiny ripple stirred in his mind.

What a terrifying charm technique. As expected of a Dao Integration Stage expert; even with only a wisp of a remnant soul remaining, and even without intentionally using it, the natural allure emitted in every gesture was enough to make an ordinary Golden Core Cultivator lose their Dao Heart on the spot.

Gu Yi was inwardly vigilant, the Origin of his Creation Immortal Body flowing slightly, instantly suppressing that trace of amorous mental fluctuation.

"Truly interesting. A tiny Golden Core Stage Cultivator who can not only see through this Venerable One's hiding place but also doesn't even have his heartbeat quicken when facing this Venerable One's Divine Soul pressure."

There was a hint of undisguised interest in Ji Meier's voice. Her illusory figure stretched slightly in the space of the ancient ring, changing into an even more lazy and alluring posture.

"Little guy, running over to peek into a woman's boudoir in the middle of the night, that's not very righteous behavior."

"Righteous?"

Gu Yi chuckled in his heart, his footsteps not stopping as he continued to walk forward. "Senior, you jest. If this Junior were a righteous person, this ring would likely already be lying on the interrogation table of the Xuantian Sect's Discipline Hall."

He paused, his tone becoming like a shrewd merchant evaluating a commodity.

"This Junior is just a businessman. I happened to pass by and saw a rare treasure covered in dust, being used as a common trinket by a poor, wretched kid who couldn't even pull out a few Spirit Stones. I just couldn't bear it."

This sentence struck directly at Ji Meier's weak point.

She had been asleep for who knows how many years, and had only just been awakened by the Spiritual Qi fluctuations when Lin Tian was Cultivating.

But Lin Tian's Aptitude was truly too poor. The little bit of Spiritual Qi he absorbed was not even enough to fill the gaps in her massive Divine Soul. If things continued like this, let alone reshaping her Physical Body, it would be a blessing just to maintain this wisp of a remnant soul.

"Hehe... the little guy's tongue is quite sharp."

Ji Meier chuckled, her laughter echoing in Gu Yi's mind with a hint of dangerous probing. "What, do you think you're better than that poor kid? Although this Venerable One is currently down and out, I am not someone that just any Tom, Dick, or Harry can support."

Gu Yi did not retort with words again.

He quietly opened the villain shop in the depths of his mind, his intent locking onto the auxiliary items section.

"[millennium soul-nurturing wood (Fragment)]: Taken from the ancient wood of the deep netherworld, often used as soothing incense for high-level Cultivators during seclusion, it has miraculous effects on nourishing the Divine Soul. Price: 500 Villain Points."

"Redeem."

"[Ding! 500 Villain Points consumed, redemption successful.]"

A block of wood only the size of a thumb, pitch black but covered in strange patterns, appeared silently in Gu Yi's palm.

He wrapped the wood block with Spiritual Qi, turning it into a fine channel, and guided the pure, rich, nourishing aura emitted by the Soul-Nurturing Wood along the Divine Sense connection, precisely into the mysterious black iron ring.

Inside the space of the ancient ring.

Ji Meier, who was still probing with words, had her illusory eyes widen in disbelief the moment she touched this aura.

millennium soul-nurturing wood?!

This kind of rare treasure, which could be considered a strategic reserve even in the top Sects of the Central Province, this Golden Core Cultivator from a remote area could just casually bring it out? And looking at the purity of this aura, it was absolutely top-grade!

To her extremely weak remnant soul, that aura was simply a supreme immortal medicine, like sweet rain after a long drought. Almost instinctively, she greedily took a deep breath, and her originally somewhat transparent soul body actually condensed by an imperceptible fraction.

"Senior."

Gu Yi felt the suddenly rapid emotional fluctuation inside the ancient ring, and a curve of victory curled at the corner of his mouth.

With his back to Lin Tian, he left one last sentence in his Divine Sense.

"All he can give you are scraps. But what I can give you is a full-course feast."

The prompt in the depths of his mind arrived as expected.

"[Ding!]"

"[Detected that the Host completely ignored and successfully broke the defenses of the Son of Luck, causing damage to his psychological defenses.]"

"[Detected that the Host used resources to precisely suppress, successfully arousing great interest from the core Daughter of Luck, Ji Meier, and the poaching progress has made Breakthrough progress.]"

"[Villain Points +500.]"

Listening to the crisp settlement sound of the System, Gu Yi retracted the Soul-Nurturing Wood fragment from his palm and unilaterally cut off the Divine Sense connection.

From beginning to end, in reality, he had just calmly walked past Lin Tian.

Lin Tian gripped his longsword with both hands, watching Gu Yi's snow-white back gradually merging into the night, with only the howling of the mountain wind in his ears.

The mockery and anger he had been brewing for half a day were like a punch thrown into cotton, leaving his chest feeling stifled. He could only stand on the spot, letting out a low roar at the empty mountain forest.