Chapter 73: Like Master, Like Beast

By now it was already night, and Li Lin had returned to his "new home" and slept soundly through the night.

The next morning, he woke and ran several sets of the "Bai Hu Turnover Stance" in the strange hall, steam rising from his brow.

【Fist Technique +1】

Practicing the fist technique now no longer increases the proficiency of the "Bai Hu Turnover Stance" itself, which shows he has already fully mastered this set of fist techniques.

And the growth rate of the "Fist Technique" proficiency has already become very slow; in the past, running through a set of fist techniques would trigger the prompt several times.

But now, he has to run through several sets before a single proficiency prompt appears.

In other words, the Bai Hu Turnover Stance no longer has much effect on his growth.

He had to find a way to obtain a better set of fist techniques to learn.

Only... things like martial arts manuals were priced beyond the market—there was no supply.

By comparison, the Yu Family Spear Art could still, as always, trigger many proficiency prompts, which meant the upper limit of this spear art still lay somewhere Li Lin could not yet reach.

Xing'er, who had been waiting nearby, handed over a clean towel. After Li Lin wiped himself for a while and was about to rest a moment, letting his body get proper rest before resuming spear art cultivation, Zhang Afu walked in from the second gate.

"Master, a young lady from a noble family has come outside. From the look of her, she should be the magistrate's daughter."

Huang Qi was quite well known in Yulin County—after all, she was the only "Hu Ji" by looks around here, a great beauty, and the magistrate's daughter, so naturally almost everyone knew of her.

"Invite her in, brew tea to welcome the guest."

Li Lin immediately went back to his room and changed into a set of casual house clothes.

When he came out again, he saw Huang Qi sitting in the main hall, with a familiar-looking little maid beside her.

The two of them stood up at once upon seeing Li Lin.

Huang Qi bent slightly, lowered her head, and said softly: "World Brother, my little sister has come uninvited and disturbed you."

Li Lin smiled and said: "Sit, no need for formalities—treat it as your own home."

Hearing these words, Huang Qi's face suddenly flushed red.

The little maid beside her covered her mouth and giggled softly.

Li Lin knew this casual remark sounded perfectly normal, but to the one hearing it, it was not quite normal—it carried a hidden meaning.

After a good while, Huang Qi finally said in a small voice: "World Brother, please stop teasing my little sister."

Feigning annoyance yet pleased.

Li Lin knew when to stop. Though the other looked like a foreign beauty, at her core she was an unwed Han maiden; teasing her to this extent was already the limit.

He smiled and said: "Huang Damei, is there something you came specifically to visit about?"

In fact, Li Lin understood perfectly well what it meant for an unmarried young lady to come alone to a man's home as a guest.

But the two of them were not yet at that stage, so for now he could only play dumb.

"I heard World Brother has been out and about for nearly ten days, so my little sister cooked some nourishing soup to help replenish your body." She lifted the lid off the exquisite bamboo basket beside her and took out two lacquered food boxes: "I also made a portion of thousand-layer cake—please, World Brother, have a taste."

The two food boxes were opened by the maid beside her, and the fragrance rushed to his face.

A very pleasant medicinal soup aroma.

Li Lin cupped his fist: "Many thanks, Huang Damei."

The maid beside her said proudly: "My Young Lady's cooking is excellent—ordinary people don't get to have this good fortune."

Then Huang Qi stood up and said, blushing: "The things have been delivered, so I'll be heading back now. If World Brother has the leisure, please come to my home often as a guest in the future—my little sister will do her best to entertain you."

"Won't you stay a while longer?"

Huang Qi shook her head: "It wouldn't be proper to stay long."

Indeed it was so—for her to come alone was already a rather unorthodox act.

But wasn't this also a kind of courage?

Li Lin saw the two of them to the door and said: "In a few days, I shall visit your residence to return the courtesy."

Huang Qi gave a soft hum, looked at Li Lin with bright, sparkling eyes: "My little sister awaits World Brother's honored arrival."

Having said that, she took her leave.

The little maid turned her head and said: "Oh right, my name is Hongluan. If Young Master Li has any messages you need delivered to the Young Lady, you can come find me first..."

Li Lin watched the two of them leave, then returned to the inner courtyard's main hall and began drinking the medicinal soup.

Honestly, the taste really was very good.

The thousand-layer cake was also not bad.

It seemed Huang Qi had come to make her stance clear.

Her meaning was: I've taken a liking to you too, and I'm also very skilled in the kitchen.

Li Lin began to think—since the other party had already declared her feelings, he would have to show some response of his own next.

Then in the afternoon, he returned to Shangti Kou Village.

The villagers, upon seeing Li Lin, all greeted him proactively, and he responded to each in turn.

Then he came to the altar.

The Tree Immortal Lady manifested, threw her arms around Li Lin's, and began licking it.

Li Lin occasionally gave a soft hiss.

After a good while, the Tree Immortal Lady finally covered her mouth and looked at Li Lin with a pair of grey eyes.

It turned out this pair of eyes was a faded grey, looking lifeless.

But now, Li Lin could see a faint vitality within them.

It was a feeling very hard to describe.

But Li Lin felt that it was vitality.

"Lady, this is the Xue Sui Zhu you wanted."

Li Lin handed the box over.

The Tree Immortal Lady took it, opened the box, saw the rouge inside, and a smile appeared on her face.

"Thank you."

Then her figure faded and vanished.

Li Lin was a little disappointed; he had still wanted to see how pretty the Tree Immortal Lady would look after putting rouge on her little mouth.

But the person had run off.

Forget it!

Li Lin turned and went home, looked at the sky, then went up the mountain to begin gathering herbs and refining pills.

At home, he continued to refine Vitality Pills using the newly purchased pill furnace.

He had a feeling that he would soon make a breakthrough in his alchemy.

Sure enough… after the new batch of Vitality Pills was successfully refined, a new pill recipe appeared in his mind.

Beauty-Preserving Pill!

This thing… was very useful, yet at the same time seemed not all that useful.

But Li Lin suddenly slapped his palm—he had thought of something to use as a return gift after a while.

Just this Beauty-Preserving Pill.

He didn't believe any woman could refuse this thing.

He very much wanted to refine another batch of new pills now, but looking at the sky, there was no way to go up the mountain, so he gave up.

Next, naturally, it was cooking rice, eating, bathing, and getting into bed to cultivate.

The first half of the night he cultivated the Spring-Returning Health-Preservation Art, the second half he cultivated the Yin-Nurturing Heart Method.

By the next morning, he first ran through several martial technique sets, then cut out a paper figure.

He suddenly had an idea: since the little paper person could guide the way, then a Soul-Guiding Paper Person at nearly life-size proportion—could it help him with work?

Using the Soul-Guiding Paper Person solely to harm people felt like a waste of its talents.

At once, he crafted a new Soul-Guiding Paper Person, naturally using the Tree Immortal Lady's likeness, then infused it with yin qi.

The Soul-Guiding Paper Person 'came alive.'

Li Lin used his divine soul to issue the order to go up the mountain and gather herbs.

This Soul-Guiding Paper Person immediately went into the house, took a sickle, slung on a bamboo basket, then coiled its long paper snake-tail and snapped it out forcefully.

Its entire 'person' floated up, drifted to a tree, then with one hand grabbed a branch, swung its body, and swung over to another tree.

Repeating this, it quickly went up the mountain.

Every time she swung through the air, Li Lin seemed to hear a woman's voice going 'Woo-hoo…'

The spitting image of a female monkey.

Hiss… the paper person he had made himself—why did it feel so weird somehow.

Then Li Lin felt a chill.

Turning his head, he discovered it was the Tree Immortal Lady staring at him coldly.

(End of chapter)