On the surface, when Summer Xiao Yu made her request, Jiang Xuan responded with a nonchalant demeanor:
“Xiao Yu, I’m really sorry, but we finished the dragon meat yesterday…”
“Huh? Gege Xuan, do you even believe that yourself? We only had a bit of grilled meat yesterday; how could it be all gone? Is it because you prefer the other me?”
Jiang Xuan: “??????”
Jiang Xuan had completely been thrown for a loop by Summer Xiao Yu’s baffling statement. But before he could process it, she suddenly lunged at him and hugged him tightly.
“If you don’t agree, Gege, I won’t let you cultivate in peace.”
“Okay, okay, tonight we’ll have grilled meat…”
“That’s more like it! Gege, you’re starting to show concern for me!”
As soon as she finished speaking, a mechanical voice echoed in Jiang Xuan’s mind.
“Beep! Target’s current affection level reached 10,000. Detection of replicable spiritual roots. Do you wish to replicate?”
“System, hasn’t Xiao Yu’s spiritual root already been replicated?”
“Beep! Response to host: Since the target has dual spiritual roots, replication can succeed twice.”
Thanks to the system’s reminder, Jiang Xuan remembered that Summer Xiao Yu had dual spiritual roots: a flawless demon spiritual root and a top-tier immortal spiritual root. He had successfully replicated the immortal one last time, which meant he could still replicate the flawless demon spiritual root.
Gaining focus again, Jiang Xuan spoke to the system in his mind: “System, replicate the spiritual root.”
“Beep! Replication failed. Replication ability on cooldown for one day. Please try again later, host.”
Jiang Xuan had thought that since he had replicated one successfully before, the second one would be a piece of cake. Who knew it would fail? This meant all the effort he put in last night was all for nothing—no compensation included.
But with four spiritual roots in hand, a failed replication couldn’t get him down anymore.
Returning to the present, Jiang Xuan slowly said, “Well… Xiao Yu… since I’ve agreed, could you at least let me cultivate for a bit?”
“Alright, go ahead and cultivate. I used a lot of energy when I helped you escape from the monster clan, so I’ll restore my power.”
Hearing Summer Xiao Yu’s response, Jiang Xuan’s heart soared.
“Mm-hm! Xiao Yu, you need to recover your strength. In this strange place, the only one I can rely on is you. You have to become stronger! Otherwise, if those… those bad women come after us, I’m worried…”
Before he could finish, Summer Xiao Yu earnestly reassured him, “Don’t worry, Gege! As long as I’m here, nobody can take you away! I’ll protect you no matter what!”
“Mm-hm! I believe in you, Xiao Yu… With you nearby, I feel completely safe.”
…
With Jiang Xuan’s encouragement and their close actions overlapping, Summer Xiao Yu fervently returned to the thatched house to cultivate and restore her previously depleted spiritual power.
Seeing that Summer Xiao Yu finally settled down, Jiang Xuan let out a sigh of relief.
Thankfully, this version of Xiao Yu was still easy to coax. If it were the scheming version of Xiao Yu, he would have probably been dragged into the house for a “deeper conversation” by now.
However, each of Jiang Xuan’s words weren’t just flattery—after all, if those bad women he met before came after him, given Summer Xiao Yu’s current state, she really might not be able to protect him.
In reality, Jiang Xuan wasn’t placing all his hopes on Summer Xiao Yu; he believed that having powerful strength himself was the best safeguard.
For the rest of the afternoon, Jiang Xuan continued to practice the Taixuan Formula. With his terrifying speed of cultivation, he reached the peak of the first level of a martial warrior, compressing his spiritual power to its utmost limit.
However, he didn’t rush to break through his cultivation level; instead, he shifted his focus to mastering his sword-drawing technique. Now that he had a decent sword, it was time to improve his skill.
Thus, after pondering over it with the system for half a day, he finally understood the meaning of “Nurturing the Sword” on the second page of the sword-drawing technique.
“Nurturing the Sword” refers to the method noted above for storing spiritual power in the sword, thereby continuously accumulating spiritual energy. Until the moment of drawing the sword, all accumulated spiritual power would explode, allowing for an ultimate strike.
Having grasped the essence of “Nurturing the Sword,” Jiang Xuan decided to spend half a day every day on this practice.
By evening, Jiang Xuan continuously cultivated and stored spiritual power in the sword, doing this over ten times. The amount of spiritual power stored in that sword was more than ten times his own.
This was incredibly impressive because Jiang Xuan’s spiritual power was already greatly refined and compressed. Moreover, after breaking through to the martial warrior realm, his capacity for storing spiritual power was several times greater than others at the same level.
In Jiang Xuan’s eyes, if he used the sword-drawing technique now, maybe he could take on a sky martial artist. Normally, only those top-tier cultivation prodigies from sects could manage to overcome two major realms like that.
But Jiang Xuan wasn’t quite sure about it, as he still hadn’t fully grasped his true combat strength.
As the day of cultivation neared its end, Jiang Xuan noticed that Summer Xiao Yu hadn’t come out of the thatched house yet.
Suddenly, he remembered the grilled meat he had promised Summer Xiao Yu. Though there was still a lot of dragon meat left in the system space, Jiang Xuan did not dare actually grill it for Summer Xiao Yu.
He worried if she went into a rampage again, he wouldn’t be able to handle it.
After some thought, Jiang Xuan’s gaze landed on a large lake not far from him.
And then an idea struck him.
At that moment, Jiang Xuan thought to himself, ”Dragons and fish are somewhat similar; why not use fish instead of dragon meat? As long as I season it well, Xiao Yu might not even notice the difference. Furthermore, she was in that scheming mood when she had it before; now she should be easier to fool.”
With his plan in place, Jiang Xuan pulled out a special fishing rod. This was a junk item he got from the system’s new player gift pack, and now it was finally being put to use.
As for the bait, Jiang Xuan couldn’t decide at first but ultimately said to the system in his mind: “System, scan and find out what the best fish in this lake likes to eat.”
“Beep! Scanning complete. To catch the best fish, we recommend using dragon meat as bait.”
Jiang Xuan: “??????”
“Are you serious? Fish eat dragon meat? I’ve never heard that before! System, are you sure I can catch fish with dragon meat? Isn’t that a bit of a waste?”
“Beep! Response to host: My scans do not make mistakes; you’ll find out once you try.”
Seeing the system’s confident guarantee, Jiang Xuan was half-convinced but ultimately decided to go along with it.
He then hooked a piece of dragon meat onto the line and cast it smoothly. He planned to catch a few big fish and start grilling while Summer Xiao Yu was still busy cultivating, passing off the fish as dragon meat.
After quite a while without even a nibble, Jiang Xuan, feeling a bit puzzled, spoke up, “System, has your scan gone awry? I’ve been waiting for ages without a bite. By the way, what kind of fish did you determine to be the best in this lake? I’d like to know which fish can be caught with dragon meat.”
“Beep! Response to host: According to my scan, the best fish in this lake is called the Blue Dragon, which feeds mainly on small dragons.”
Jiang Xuan: “???????”
Realizing something was off with the name “Blue Dragon,” Jiang Xuan rushed to reel in his line, but the lake had already begun to churn with massive ripples.
Just as Jiang Xuan lifted the dragon meat bait, an enormous shape leaped from the water and bit onto the dragon meat.
That shape had a long, slender head filled with sharp teeth, and its long fish tail was churning the entire surface of the lake.
At the sight of the creature, Jiang Xuan immediately dropped the fishing rod. After all, the rod was nowhere near as scary as those teeth—there was no way it could catch anything.
After devouring that small piece of dragon meat, the beast sank back into the lake.
Jiang Xuan stared dumbfounded; who would have thought that such a small piece of dragon meat would attract a creature of this size? This was pushing it too far.
This time, he was nearly tricked by the system; why didn’t it warn him about the giant beast living in the lake beforehand?
After giving his system a piece of his mind, the system replied, “Beep! The host failed to ask sufficient questions at the outset; this system has a principle of responding to queries without fail.”
Jiang Xuan: “…….”
Once the so-called “Blue Dragon” vanished, Jiang Xuan noticed that the fishing rod he’d discarded was somehow still intact, floating at the edge of the lake.
So, he stepped forward to retrieve the rod, just as he was about to put it away when a surge of immense force shot through the rod.
In a split second, Jiang Xuan concentrated all his spiritual power into his hands to prevent himself from being dragged into the lake.
At this moment, he thought to himself, ”The good news is the system’s fishing rod is of exceptionally high quality; the line hasn’t snapped, which is a pleasant surprise. The bad news is I’ve hooked a big fish, but it’s not something I want to mess with.”
After fighting for a moment to avoid being pulled under, Jiang Xuan decisively opted to abandon the rod. After all, it wasn’t very wise to tussle with a creature that fed on dragons.
If he inadvertently angered it, that would just escalate the situation.
But while Jiang Xuan wanted to make peace, the Blue Dragon clearly had other ideas.
Suddenly, it resurfaced with a thundering splash, its massive form lunging at Jiang Xuan with wide-open jaws.
Seeing this, Jiang Xuan frowned slightly, placing a hand on his sword named “Slashing Shadows.”
Flashes of his previously practiced sword-drawing technique danced through his mind, every one of those million repetitions freshly in his memory.
Then, a swift arc of black light shot past, and Jiang Xuan slowly sheathed “Slashing Shadows.”
In an instant, the vast surface of the lake was sliced cleanly in half.
And the massive Blue Dragon before Jiang Xuan was similarly split apart.
Having witnessed the power of the sword-drawing technique for the first time, Jiang Xuan stood there dumbfounded.
He hadn’t expected that the seemingly ordinary sword-drawing technique given by the system could have such incredible power.
But this success was also due to “Nurturing the Sword.” This strike had surpassed Jiang Xuan’s own strength by more than ten times.
He had spent all his spiritual power nurturing the sword, running out of energy, and then he started cultivating again for over ten times just to achieve this one blow.
After dealing with the Blue Dragon, the commotion caused Summer Xiao Yu’s attention to turn toward the thatched house.
Soon after, she approached Jiang Xuan.
“Gege, what just happened?”
Looking at the massive creature neatly split in half on the lake surface, Summer Xiao Yu exclaimed in surprise, “What is that…?”
Jiang Xuan snapped back to reality and replied, “Xiao Yu, since we ran out of dragon meat, I wanted to grill something new for you. This is a Blue Dragon, which should be tastier than dragon meat.”
“So… you defeated this beast, Gege? From its lingering aura, it must have been at the sky martial artist level when alive. You just broke through to the martial warrior realm and could take down a sky martial artist beast? You’re really impressive.”
Hearing Summer Xiao Yu’s praise, Jiang Xuan felt something was off but didn’t quite pin it down.
Just then, Summer Xiao Yu switched her tone.
“Since you’re so amazing, it means you don’t need to spend too much time on cultivation. Let’s do something fun together instead!”
Jiang Xuan: “??????”
“Listen, Xiao Yu, you weren’t around to see, but this beast was taken down by a more powerful bird-type monster. You came out just after the bird had already flown off.”
“Oh? Then why do you have a sword in your hand?”
“Because after that bird-type beast killed the Blue Dragon, it was eyeing me. I just had my sword out for self-protection. It must have been your aura that scared the bird away. Thank goodness you’re here…”
Summer Xiao Yu: “？？？？？？”
“Gege, why do I feel like you’re trying to pull a fast one on me?”
“I would never! I’ve always treated you sincerely, you’re my most cherished childhood friend!”
Just as Summer Xiao Yu seemed ready to argue further, Jiang Xuan quickly changed the subject.
“Xiao Yu, why don’t you drag that Blue Dragon’s corpse out of the lake? I’ll grill it for you.”
“Alright, I’ll listen to you, Gege…”
A little while later, while Jiang Xuan grilled meat and chatted with the system in his mind, he said, “System, you nearly got me into trouble again! Good thing I held back, or I would have become Blue Dragon chow.”
Scanning system: “…..”
“From now on, if you scan anyone or anything powerful enough to surpass me, you need to relay that information immediately, got it?”
“Understood, host…”
On the other hand, just as Jiang Xuan handed the grilled meat to Summer Xiao Yu, he received some distressing news.
“Gege, I think the toxins in this Blue Dragon are much more potent than in dragon meat. But even with toxins, as long as it’s grilled by you, I love it…”
Before she finished, Summer Xiao Yu took a big bite of the grilled meat offered to her.
Jiang Xuan felt as though the sky was falling as he hurriedly kicked away the remaining Blue Dragon meat.
Then he declared in an authoritative tone, “No way! Since this stuff is toxic, I won’t let you eat anymore!”
At that moment, Jiang Xuan didn’t realize that as the grilled Blue Dragon meat fell into the lake, enormous ripples suddenly began to spread across the surface behind him.
