Chapter 153: Long'er and Thoughts

When Long'er heard Zhuo Qinglian asking Xiao Cheng whether he had killed the giant python, it knew that it was that very giant python. The remark filled it with such shame and indignation that it assumed a comically sullen expression, burrowing into Xiao Cheng's clothes and refusing to come out again.

The three women did not notice Long'er's unusual behavior, keeping their eyes fixed on Xiao Cheng, awaiting his answer. To say nothing of Zhuo Qinglian and Fang Yujia, even Liu Yiyi was consumed by curiosity—where on earth had such a massive giant python been sent?

Xiao Cheng smiled faintly. This was not a matter he could easily explain. If he were to admit that the giant python was actually Long'er, the three of them would probably never look at Long'er with such fondness again.

He casually brushed it off with a joke, saying, "Well, that giant python went off to live a happy life with the seven dwarves, and that's the end of the story!"

The three women were momentarily dazed by his nonsensical reply, and by the time they snapped out of it, Xiao Cheng had already slipped into the bathroom.

Entering the bathroom, Xiao Cheng let out a sigh of relief, glad he had managed to avoid making a fool of himself.

Glancing down at the tent-like bulge pressing against his trousers, he felt a twinge of confusion. Why had a sudden surge of unruly heat ignited in his lower body at a time like this?

As a cultivator, though he could not command his lower body to rise and fall entirely at will, he was usually capable of exercising at least some measure of control.

Yet just moments ago, it had risen without the slightest warning. In the past, whenever he encountered such a situation, circulating his true qi for a single minor heavenly cycle would naturally suppress it. But no matter how he circulated his true qi while sitting on the sofa just now, it had failed to produce any effect.

"Could the primordial yang energy within me be acting up?" Xiao Cheng muttered to himself.

Ever since his recent physical remodeling, a delicate equilibrium seemed to have been broken, allowing wisps of primordial yang energy to occasionally slip out through the gate of life.

Xiao Cheng shook his head, unable to fathom where the primordial yang energy inside him came from. Throughout both his past and present lives, he had never sensed such a phenomenon within his body; it was definitely not the byproduct of practicing any celibacy arts.

He stripped off his clothes and trousers, turning on the showerhead. As warm water poured slowly down over him, he felt a deep, soothing comfort throughout his entire body.

Killing Wang Qiyi earlier that evening had indeed taken a considerable amount of effort, leaving him drenched in sweat and uncomfortably sticky.

Yawning sleepily, Long'er poked its head out from inside his clothes, only to suddenly find Xiao Cheng standing stark naked right in front of it.

It widened its eyes, dropped its jaw in an exaggerated gasp of astonishment, and then curled its tail to cover its little mouth with a shocked expression. Following that, it used its tail to shield its eyes, acting all bashful and pretending not to dare to look.

Xiao Cheng was amused by Long'er's theatrical routine, thinking to himself that this little dragon was truly a mischievous sprite. With a mental capacity that seemed comparable to an eight or nine-year-old child, it was certainly a rare and eccentric creature in the cultivation world.

"What are you looking at?" Xiao Cheng chuckled, teasingly.

To his surprise, Long'er glared at him with puffed-up cheeks. Its body suddenly expanded three or four fold, transforming into a massive snake two meters long and over ten inches in diameter. Slithering right up to Xiao Cheng, it raised its head proudly and cast a disdainful glance down at his lower region, as if to say: When it comes to girth and size, I, Long'er, completely crush you.

Staring at the giant snake on the floor, Xiao Cheng was left completely dumbfounded, lifting a hand to massage his temples in speechless resignation.

"Fine, you win again, alright?" Xiao Cheng sighed helplessly, truly at his wit's end with this mischievous little dragon.

Long'er let out a couple of excited hisses before shrinking its form back down into a tiny snake once more. It slithered over to the sink, twisted the faucet open with its tail, and opened its mouth to gulp down water in great, gurgling mouthfuls.

Allowing Long'er to play in the water undisturbed, Xiao Cheng finished washing his entire body, then frowned slightly as he looked at the two dark marks on his arm.

When he killed Wang Qiyi from a distance earlier that evening, he still hadn't managed to evade Fang Tiansha's possession technique. Now, there were already two of Fang Tiansha's brand marks stamped onto his arm.

These marks were rather peculiar; no matter what method he tried, he could not refine or dissolve them. In the end, he vaguely sensed that this brand was a specialized form of divine sense imprint.

Such a divine sense imprint could only be erased if one's own divine sense strength matched or exceeded that of the caster. The person who cast this was presumably at least a Nascent Soul grand cultivator, making it utterly impossible for him to erase it at his current level.

Still, if he couldn't erase them, he couldn't erase them; he couldn't be bothered to worry about it. Besides, sooner or later, he was going to have a falling out with the Fang Tian Sect anyway.

As he scrubbed his body, Xiao Cheng's thoughts drifted, pondering miscellaneous matters and sorting out the threads of recent events.

Right now, there were two paramount tasks at hand: first, to figure out what role Xiao Fusheng had actually played in the deaths of his uncle and elder brother all those years ago; and second, to resolve the situation regarding Sister Yu'er being forced into a marriage she didn't want.

In truth, as far as he was concerned, these two matters were essentially the same thing. Once he uncovered Xiao Fusheng's true role, he could have a showdown with him and prevent his sister-in-law from remarrying. Ultimately, Xiao Fusheng was the key to unlocking everything.

However, his current cultivation level only allowed him to condense the seventh tier. Even if he unleashed all his abilities and performed beyond his limits, he could perhaps kill an ordinary cultivator at the fifth tier of the Xiantian realm, but he was definitely no match for Xiao Fusheng.

Xiao Fusheng's reputation as invincible beneath the Golden Core realm was not undeserved. Of course, he didn't harbor self-defeating doubts either; even if he were to face Xiao Fusheng head-on, he wouldn't be entirely without the power to resist and could easily last a hundred moves.

It seemed that the crux of the matter still boiled down to strength.

Speaking of strength, his current situation was extremely delicate. If he forced a breakthrough, he could step into the Xiantian realm within a few hours. However, he needed to lay a solid foundation before advancing to Xiantian. Moreover, there was another crucial reason: he still required certain materials to forge a top-grade flying sword.

A flying sword was the most important symbol of a Xiantian cultivator and the very foundation of their combat power. A single flying sword could enhance a Xiantian cultivator's combat efficacy by a full thirty percent.

Now that he already possessed a top-grade artifact-crafting material like golden-veined starlight steel, it would be an absolute insult to the material if he failed to forge an exceptional, top-grade flying sword.

He already had a clear idea of what kind of flying sword to forge. The Three Lives Jade Slip contained numerous artifact-crafting techniques, but his eyes were set exclusively on the specialized flying sword paired with the Nine Mysteries Immortal Scripture—the Nine Mysteries Immortal Sword.

He didn't care much about the word "immortal" in the name; anything associated with the Nine Mysteries Immortal Scripture in the jade slip was prefixed with "immortal," and he had already grown accustomed to it. The most remarkable feature of the Nine Mysteries Immortal Sword was its supreme flexibility, making it the perfect match for his combat style.

The materials required to forge the Nine Mysteries Immortal Sword did not have too many restrictions; as long as the main component was a top-grade casting material, it would suffice. However, it explicitly demanded the inclusion of three specific ingredients: Laming Tears, Jade-Breaking Gold, and Artifact-Force Tungsten.

These three materials were not particularly high-tier; Jade-Breaking Gold was quite easy to gather, but Laming Tears and Artifact-Force Tungsten were rather troublesome. They were too niche, and virtually no one bothered to collect them.

Xiao Cheng's plan was to gather these materials before breaking through to the Xiantian realm, as the moment immediately following a breakthrough to Xiantian was the optimal time to forge a flying sword.

His thoughts raced on, quickly shifting to the matter of the Heavenly Origin Fruit. Sooner or later, he needed to have Zhuo Qinglian and his four sisters-in-law consume the Heavenly Origin Fruit to mold spiritual bodies for them. This would enable them to begin practicing cultivation, enhance their strength, and gain the ability to protect themselves, which would also make things much easier for him.

As for Liu Yiyi, she had already condensed the seventh tier and surpassed the Foundation Establishment stage, so consuming the Heavenly Origin Fruit would not yield much effect for her.

With this in mind, Xiao Cheng had already made up his mind. Tonight, he would have Sister Yu'er and Zhuo Qinglian undergo the physical molding process. Since Zhuo Qinglian was right here, he could first help guard her during the process, and then have Zhuo Qinglian guard Sister Yu'er in turn.

After all, consuming the Heavenly Origin Fruit resulted in shedding one's entire layer of skin. For a man like him to act as a guardian for his sister-in-law was inappropriate, so having Zhuo Qinglian present would save him a lot of trouble.

After taking a shower, the turbulence in his lower body finally subsided. Gathering his wandering thoughts, he put on his clothes, only to be surprised to find that Long'er was still drinking water with its mouth clamped over the faucet.

Xiao Cheng was momentarily stunned. He had spent over twenty minutes in the shower; could it be that Long'er had been drinking for over twenty minutes as well?

In twenty minutes, this faucet would have poured out at least several tons of water. Judging by Long'er's current physique, it should have swelled up into a ball, yet it showed no such changes and remained the exact same size as before.

A sudden thought flashed through Xiao Cheng's mind. Since Long'er could swallow so much water, could it also swallow objects and then spit them out later? If he had items in the future that were inconvenient to carry around, he could just have Long'er swallow them first and retrieve them whenever he needed them!

Indeed, this was an idea well worth a try!

Sensing Xiao Cheng's playful gaze fixed upon it while it was drinking, Long'er had a sudden premonition of bad things to come and shivered all over.

"Long'er, hypothetically speaking, if I had you swallow an object, would you be able to spit it back out after a while?" Xiao Cheng squatted down, looking straight into Long'er's eyes.

"Hiccup!" Long'er let out a burp, eyeing Xiao Cheng suspiciously, wondering what devious scheme he was hatching this time.

Eventually, under Xiao Cheng's intense stare, Long'er yielded with a helpless nod.

Xiao Cheng smiled slightly, picked up a brand-new toothbrush from the vanity, and placed it right in front of Long'er: "Try this one—swallow it, and then spit it back out!"

Long'er looked resentfully at the toothbrush in Xiao Cheng's hand, thinking to herself that she was still just a child—couldn't he have picked something a bit more normal to test with? This thing even had bristles; it didn't look appetizing at all!