Miss Fairy, Please Hear Me Out

After pacing back and forth and tormenting herself over it again and again, Su Jinxuan seemed to become unusually decisive once she had finally made up her mind.

“I can agree to the first two points, but as for the third...” Su Jinxuan narrowed her peach blossom eyes slightly and stared at Xu Yuan without blinking. “You want to dual cultivate with me?”

Even with her sea of consciousness sealed and most of the gifts of her succubus constitution crippled, that single glance was still enough to turn heads. The Bewitching Soul Devily Body truly lived up to its fearsome reputation.

After holding her gaze for two seconds, Xu Yuan let out a soft chuckle. The movement tugged at the bruises on his face and sent a stab of pain through him. He waved a hand and said, “Miss Su, you joke. Even if you were the one taking the initiative to dual cultivate with me, I still wouldn’t dare. I couldn’t handle the Bewitching Soul Devily Body.”

Su Jinxuan lowered her eyes and idly toyed with the tea set for a moment. Then the corner of her lips suddenly curled up. “Hah. I knew you didn’t have the guts.”

Xu Yuan’s fist clenched on instinct, then loosened again. At this point, all this woman had left was a sharp tongue and a death wish.

After pouring herself a cup of tea, Su Jinxuan asked, “Xu Changtian, are you planning to use my bewitching spores to cultivate that demonic art of yours?”

“Smart.” Xu Yuan gave her an approving nod. Bewitching spores was the proper name in this world for the spores Su Jinxuan had used earlier to control his body.

Su Jinxuan took a light sip of fragrant tea, her tone unreadable. “When ordinary people have their soul essence devoured by you, it is very hard for them to recover. But my bewitching spores are different. As long as I get enough rest and enough resources, my sea of consciousness can condense them again on its own. You knew that, didn’t you?”

“Of course.” That much was recorded in the old texts. Xu Yuan did not know the exact principles behind it, but Su Jinxuan did indeed match what the records described.

Back then, he had drained her so thoroughly in bed that she fainted on the spot, her little face white as paper. But when he brought her out of the secret chamber ten days later, her complexion had already returned to normal. If she cooperated, those bewitching spores would be the finest nourishment possible for his soul refinement.

Su Jinxuan smiled sweetly, her voice slow and husky. “You want to use me as a cultivation furnace?”

Xu Yuan smiled and shook his head. “Su Jinxuan, that makes it sound a bit ugly. I’ve helped you this much already. Don’t you feel even a little desire to repay me?”

Su Jinxuan said nothing. Her beautiful eyes held a trace of contempt.

Xu Yuan tapped the tea tray and spoke with righteous solemnity. “You tried to mentally control me and got caught. That makes us mortal enemies. Despite that mortal enmity, I turned around and helped you uncover the truth behind your family’s deaths. That is a tremendous favor. And next, my Chancellor’s Manor is even going to help you kill Qin Weijiu. Miss Su, don’t you think you ought to take some concrete action to make up for your mistakes and repay the kindness I’ve shown you?”

Su Jinxuan fell silent for two seconds, then let out a long breath. There was even a hint of amusement in her voice when she spoke. “You’re so practiced at twisting concepts that it’s almost impressive. Xu Changtian, I have never met anyone as shameless as you.”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

“I’ll accept it as one anyway.”

“Shameless indeed.”

“Thank you.”

Su Jinxuan had no words.

Xu Yuan tapped the tea tray and met the contempt in her eyes with a smile. “It may be a sleight of hand, but was anything I said actually wrong?”

Su Jinxuan glanced at him and replied evenly, “No. Which is why I never intended to refuse you.”

“Heh...” At that, Xu Yuan’s lips curved. He flipped his hand, and a small jade bottle appeared in his palm. Through the faintly translucent bottle, five pills could be seen resting quietly inside. He set the bottle down on the tea tray and said with a light laugh, “Take it. This medicine is quite good for nourishing the soul.”

The moment Su Jinxuan saw the pills, her eyes narrowed. After recognizing what they were, her dark pupils contracted ever so slightly. “This is... a Soul Cleansing Pill?”

A trace of surprise flashed through Xu Yuan’s eyes. “You recognize it?”

Xu Yuan might swallow these things bottle after bottle, but for ordinary cultivators, they were the kind of item they would never come into contact with, perhaps never even hear named.

Su Jinxuan hid the shift in her expression and said softly, “I took two of them when I used a secret art to open my sea of consciousness. Are you really giving something like this to me?”

Xu Yuan smiled faintly. “I, Xu Changtian, have never been stingy with my own people.”

Su Jinxuan hesitated a little. “I count as one of your own?”

“My prisoner naturally counts as one of mine.”

Su Jinxuan was speechless.

After setting down the jade bottle, Xu Yuan slowly rose to his feet. As he walked toward the door of the side room, he said, “Ying’er will come help unseal your sea of consciousness. She’ll personally ask you about Qin Weijiu. Just tell her whatever you know. And the cultivation... come to my room tonight.”

Xu Yuan was not particularly optimistic that Ying’er would be able to get anything especially useful out of Su Jinxuan. It was not that Su Jinxuan would lie. It was that the information she had access to was simply too limited.

To the Su Jinxuan of those years, Qin Weijiu had been the benefactor who pulled her out of hell. But Qin Weijiu himself had always known perfectly well what their relationship really was, so there was little chance he had allowed her near anything truly central or confidential.

Of course, that was not absolute either. She had lived in his residence for more than ten years and been treated like a young lady of the house. By sheer chance, she might still have come across some important information.

After all, she possessed the Bewitching Soul Devily Body. Even an ordinary steward might casually let slip some crucial detail while thinking it was nothing of consequence. For example, who Mister Qin had met on a certain day.

But things like that were uncertain. Rather than pin hopes on scraps like those, it was better to trust the professionalism of the Blackscale Guards.

So compared with that, what Xu Yuan truly valued was the next step: using Su Jinxuan to feed false information to Qin Weijiu. If that card was played well, it could bury Qin Weijiu all the way down to the eighteenth level of hell.

But for the moment, none of that had anything to do with Xu Yuan. Everyone had their own specialty. When it came to the plan against Qin Weijiu, Xu Yuan had no intention of involving himself. Professional matters should be left to professionals. Having an amateur command experts was a fatal mistake at any time, especially when this matter concerned his own life.