Long Aotian covered his bleeding face, utterly incredulous.
He never expected that this black cat would actually scratch his face.
After being scratched by the little fox, there was already a claw mark on Long Aotian’s face.
As the male lead of a harem story, Long Aotian, despite appearing to be a straight man, still cared somewhat about his looks.
In his view, a significant portion of those who once liked him were attracted to his face.
So, even as a straight man, Long Aotian was still quite concerned about his appearance.
After getting a claw mark on his face, Long Aotian felt extremely unhappy.
He even went so far as to spend spirit stones to buy healing pills from the pharmacy, but it was all in vain.
Since the claw mark appeared on his face, Long Aotian’s confidence had diminished significantly.
And now, with two claw marks on his face, he felt even worse.
This feeling of despair made Long Aotian’s gaze towards the little black cat turn extremely hostile.
It’s worth noting that when Long Aotian first saw the little black cat, he found it quite pleasing and thought it was no ordinary cat, considering bringing it into his fold for his own use.
But unexpectedly, this cat had now scratched him.
Long Aotian gathered a ball of flame in his palm, directing it straight at the little black cat.
His hatred for the little black cat had reached a boiling point; the initial desire to win it over had completely vanished. In fact, the only thing he wanted to do now was to kill this little black cat or simply set its fur on fire, letting it experience the pain of being disfigured.
The flame in Long Aotian’s palm quickly surged towards the little black cat.
Watching the flame leave his palm, Long Aotian couldn’t help but curl his lips into a smile.
He was eager to see the little black cat’s miserable state.
However, what disappointed Long Aotian happened next.
Just as the flame was about to hit the little black cat, it leaped lightly and quickly moved away from its original position.
The flame that was aimed at the little black cat ended up burning the stone where the cat had been.
After burning the stone a few times, the flame quickly extinguished.
Seeing this scene, the smile on Long Aotian’s face vanished instantly.
He hadn’t expected the little black cat to be so agile, easily dodging the fireball he had unleashed.
However, despite his anger, Long Aotian quickly regained his composure.
Even if this little black cat could dodge one fireball, it couldn’t possibly evade ten.
Long Aotian concentrated on gathering the spiritual energy in his meridians, and after much effort, he finally managed to condense ten fireballs.
He directed these ten fireballs to attack the little black cat.
As the ten fireballs rushed towards him, the little black cat squinted its eyes slightly. Without hesitation, it swiped its paw at the fireballs.
The cat was covered in fur, which was highly flammable and would ignite quickly upon contact with flames. However, when the fireballs were struck by the little black cat’s paw, they did not catch fire on its fur. Instead, they were sent flying towards Long Aotian.
The little black cat, with its Nascent Soul cultivation, propelled the fireballs towards Long Aotian at an incredible speed. Long Aotian barely had time to register the cat’s pawing motion before the ten fireballs reached him, igniting his clothes.
“Ah!” Feeling the flames burning on his body, Long Aotian couldn’t help but scream in agony. His first instinct upon feeling the searing heat was to gather water energy to extinguish the flames.
However, as Long Aotian tried to channel the spiritual energy from his meridians to form a water sphere, he realized he had failed. The energy in his meridians and dantian had been completely depleted when he had just gathered the fireballs.
Now, he had no spiritual energy left in his body. In this situation, the only thing he could do was…
Long Aotian began to roll on the ground. He rolled back and forth on the stone, hoping to smother the flames consuming him.
This was indeed a method. But it wasn’t as effective as Long Aotian had imagined. Each time he rolled to extinguish some flames, they would flare up again as soon as he turned.
“Meow.” Watching Long Aotian roll around, the little black cat’s paw twitched, tempted to scratch him again.
But ultimately, the little black cat refrained from doing so. Due to the flames, Long Aotian was dirty, his clothes tattered and covered in ash, with charred spots all over him.
In such a state, Long Aotian was simply too filthy. The little black cat couldn’t bring itself to scratch him.
So, after casting a regretful glance at Long Aotian, it left the scene.
Once the little black cat departed, Long Aotian rolled even more vigorously. He extinguished the flames time and again, only for them to reignite repeatedly.
After struggling for an entire hour, the flames on Long Aotian’s body finally went out completely. By the time the fire was extinguished, he was left covered in soot, with numerous burn scars marring his skin.
In this state, he looked even more disheveled. But now, Long Aotian couldn’t care less about that. He lay on the large stone, letting out a sigh of relief in his heart.
Finally, he could rest.
He was truly exhausted and in pain.
With that thought, Long Aotian collapsed onto a large rock and fell into a deep sleep.
Meanwhile, Song Cha was in the midst of her cultivation.
As she absorbed the spiritual energy, Song Cha suddenly felt inexplicably good.
Most importantly, at that moment, she sensed that her state of mind had broadened significantly.
She also discovered that she could perceive the spiritual energy in the space around her with greater detail.
Tiny spiritual energy particles densely gathered in the spring water, stirring slightly, causing the spiritual energy within the spring to gradually increase.
Song Cha fell into a deeper state of meditation.
In this meditative state, her consciousness left her body and drifted far away.
Her consciousness traversed through this personal space, gradually becoming familiar with everything.
……
When Song Cha opened her eyes the next day, she realized she had broken through.
She had advanced to the early stage of Nascent Soul.
The speed of this breakthrough was something Song Cha had never anticipated.
Just a while ago, she had only recently reached the late stage of Golden Core.
Yet, in such a short time, she had already progressed to the early stage of Nascent Soul.
This rapid enhancement in her cultivation was clearly quite unreasonable.
Even more unreasonable was that Song Cha felt no sense of incompleteness in her breakthrough.
Whether it was her cultivation or her state of mind, both were complete and perfectly aligned with the Nascent Soul stage.
One could even say that her state of mind had far surpassed the early stage of Nascent Soul, entering the late stage instead.
……
Unbeknownst to the troubled Song Cha, the reason for her rapid cultivation increase was largely related to Long Aotian.
This world was a book, and Long Aotian was the protagonist within it, the child of destiny.
However, destiny was always the most mysterious and unpredictable force.
Originally, Long Aotian, as the child of destiny, should have relied on his abundant fortune to encounter countless treasures, gain numerous beautiful consorts, and eventually cultivate to immortality, reaching the pinnacle of life.
But then he met Song Cha.
Song Cha was beautiful and capable of traversing worlds, with many admirers, clearly not lacking in fortune herself.
After entering the story, her already strong fortune only grew even more potent.
As Song Cha encountered one woman after another in Long Aotian’s harem and gained their favor, the aura of fortune surrounding her grew even stronger.
In such circumstances, the fortunes of these harem members became intertwined with Song Cha’s own. In harem stories, the power of the harem is absolutely not to be underestimated. Especially in this narrative, ninety percent of Long Aotian’s success came from the support of his harem. Without the fortune of the harem, Long Aotian’s own luck diminished significantly.
After he was severely injured by Shao Yumiao for the first time, it marked the end of any possibility between him and Shao Yumiao. Furthermore, his physical condition deteriorated, and the chances of his breakthroughs decreased. Under these circumstances, Long Aotian’s fortune weakened even more.
As one treasure after another slipped away from Long Aotian, his fortune only continued to dwindle, never increasing. In stark contrast, Song Cha, now possessing treasures, found her own fortune becoming denser, even beginning to coalesce into something tangible.
After Long Aotian suffered from self-inflicted burns, nearly turning his body to charcoal, his fortune finally fell short compared to Song Cha’s. Yes, Song Cha’s fortune had now surpassed Long Aotian’s. In the realm of cultivation, fortune is indeed a crucial element.
With fortune on her side, cultivation often proceeds smoothly and at an accelerated pace. It was precisely because her fortune was no longer suppressed by Long Aotian that Song Cha was able to break through to the early stage of Nascent Soul.
……
Having achieved a breakthrough, Song Cha was in high spirits. This breakthrough brought her great joy. However, while Song Cha was elated, Long Aotian on the other side was far from happy.
Long Aotian woke up in pain. In a hazy state, he felt an overwhelming agony throughout his body. He was in so much pain that he couldn’t utter a single word. In such a condition, Long Aotian struggled to open his eyes and looked around.
He then saw the azure sky and the large rock beneath him. When his gaze inadvertently fell upon his charred body, Long Aotian finally realized that the reason for his pain was the burns he had sustained. He had been scorched by flames that rebounded from a cat.
Long Aotian painfully extended his hand and looked at it. His hand was swollen and burned, resembling a piece of charcoal. At this thought, a hint of hatred flickered in Long Aotian’s eyes.
That cat was truly infuriating.
He is a cultivator, and that cat was merely a demon; how dare it harm him like this? He vowed to repay this debt a hundredfold.
After cursing the little black cat in his heart, Long Aotian finally managed to force himself to stand.
Due to the burns, his body was already in pain, and now that he was standing, the pain intensified even more.
If a mortal were in such a situation, they would surely be in too much pain to stand.
However, Long Aotian was a cultivator, and despite the circumstances, he was still able to hold himself up.
Once he steadied himself, Long Aotian began to make his way down the mountain, step by step.
He needed to return to his cave.
After reaching the Foundation Building stage, Long Aotian had his own cave.
In that cave, he remembered leaving a healing pill in one corner.
Although that pill was meant for the Qi Refining stage, it should still help alleviate his condition.
Long Aotian struggled step by step and finally arrived at his cave by the afternoon.
Once inside, he began searching for his pill.
After a long search, he finally spotted the jade bottle containing the pill in the corner by the foot of his bed.
He bent down, trembling, to pick up the bottle, and after much effort, he finally managed to open it.
As the jade bottle opened, a fragrant aroma of the pill wafted out.
Long Aotian took the pill from the jade bottle and swallowed it.
After taking the pill, Long Aotian let out a sigh of relief in his heart.
Finally…
With this pill, the pain in his body should lessen significantly, right?
Just as he thought this, Long Aotian suddenly felt that his body seemed to hurt even more.
Not only was it painful, but it also felt a bit itchy.
The healing pill… this must be the effect of the healing pill.
A glimmer of surprise flashed in Long Aotian’s eyes; he hadn’t expected a Qi Refining stage healing pill to be so effective.
However, the surprise in his eyes lasted only a second before quickly fading away.
Yes, that surprise vanished.
Now, Long Aotian felt no joy at all.
He realized that the pain and itchiness on his body only lasted a few seconds before disappearing completely.
If he wanted to rely on this healing pill to recover, he would likely need hundreds of them to achieve that.
Long Aotian clearly remembered that the healing pill in his hand required five mid-grade spirit stones.
Now, Long Aotian was completely broke and had no money to buy the pills.
The burns on Long Aotian’s body could be healed with the pills.
However, without the pills, the recovery would be quite slow.
In fact, it was so slow that Long Aotian had no idea how long it would take to fully heal.
So, in this situation, Long Aotian decided to borrow spirit stones and pills.
With the pills, he could recover quickly, and if he had spirit stones, he could buy more pills to recover as soon as possible.
As long as he obtained one of these two, Long Aotian would be able to happily restore his cultivation.
After making up his mind, Long Aotian decided to find his former roommate who had shared a room with him.
Once he had thought it through, Long Aotian staggered out of the cave and headed towards the thatched cottage where he used to live.
With each unsteady step, Long Aotian finally arrived at the old thatched cottage.
Upon reaching the cottage, Long Aotian trembled as he gently knocked on the door.
As soon as his hand touched the door, a wave of pain shot through him.
But he held on.
After knocking, Long Aotian began to wait for the door to open.
Finally, to Long Aotian’s anticipation, the door opened from the inside.
The person who stepped out was none other than Long Aotian’s very familiar former roommate.
This roommate was still dressed in coarse clothing, and upon seeing Long Aotian, a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes: “Who are you?”
Long Aotian: “……”
