Chapter 49: The Master-Servant Relationship Must Be Clear

After hearing Mo Ying’s weak retort, Feng Xue immediately realized he’d guessed right and nodded at once:

“True—I have quite a few textbooks on various painting techniques. If you’re willing to cooperate with my spells, I’ll give them to you.”

Feng Xue wasn’t bluffing; to prepare for his crossing, he’d stored vast amounts of textual data on his memory card—from the Twenty-Four Histories to the Barefoot Doctor’s Manual, from master calligraphy copies to simple methods of manufacturing explosives—everything he could think of was copied, including the Four Books and Five Classics and all manner of military treatises. Even if you included translations and commentaries, these bulky works took up little space; a few hundred volumes together might not equal the size of a single HD video.

From beginner tutorials to advanced schools, even simplified versions for toddlers and children—these would be more than enough to guide a spirit ghost who kept glitching while drawing.

“…“ Seeing Feng Xue’s confident expression, Mo Ying cautiously peeked out from behind the rock, gazed at him for a moment, then sighed as if coming to a decision:

“Fine, whether I cooperate or not, I still have to obey you. Alright, I’ll send you out first…”

“Not so fast!” Feng Xue stretched out his hand, stepped forward, planted one foot on the large rock, rested one hand on his knee, and adopted the swagger of a thug looking for trouble: “Come to think of it, you once told me to get lost…”

“Ah, that was because you…” Mo Ying stammered, but Feng Xue gave her no chance to explain—he leaned forward again, wrapped his arm around the ghost girl’s slender waist, prevented her from struggling, and flipped her light body onto his knee with a loud laugh:

“Ever since you kicked me out last time, I swore that once I learned the Spirit Taming Spell, I’d give you a good spanking!”

“Waaahhh! Get off! Get off! Let me go!”

Feng Xue expected to be thrown out, but nothing happened for a long while—he finally realized that without his permission, Mo Ying couldn’t even sever the connection. A cruel smile spread across his face:

“Oh? Bold of you! One time wasn’t enough, so you tried again?”

“Ah, it’s my fault! I’m wrong! Don’t hit me! Waaah! Why does being a ghost still hurt?!”

…

“Huh…” At dawn, Feng Xue woke from drowsiness, sensing the lingering Qi around him, and recalled last night’s dream.

Now that he reflected on it, it was hard to distinguish which parts were mental interaction and which were post-event dreams, but undeniably, the irritation stirred up by Liu Yunxi these past few days had finally eased somewhat.

Though he hadn’t gone all the way like when he bathed the two fox spirit sisters, with Mo Ying’s timid nature masking itself as detached serenity, forcing the boundary too soon would ruin the fun—he had to inch forward gradually to fully experience the entire interaction.

Compared to the technician he met in the wilds, it was better to savor his own backyard bit by bit.

Feng Xue knew that pushing forward so soon after Mo Ying’s attitude softened would stiffen their relationship again, but ghosts and humans were fundamentally different—without bodily hormones to interfere, spirits easily swung into emotional extremes.

Though he’d temporarily reconciled with her through “bribes,” this behavior would cause the spirit ghost to naturally treat their interactions as a transaction, which was highly detrimental to establishing master-servant hierarchy.

Rather than letting her think he was easy to bargain with, making her demand terms every time she was asked for help, it was better to start with a stern warning—to make her understand who the master was. Then, the benefits he gave would shift from “payment for service” to “reward for a job well done.” Though both were giving, the meaning was entirely different.

“Achoo!” Liu Yunxi, sensing Feng Xue’s awakening, felt a sudden pang and sneezed softly, but quickly adjusted her state and knocked on the door:

“Breakfast is ready.”

“Oh, I’m coming!” Feng Xue replied, reaching for the scroll beside his bed:

“Handle the remaining Qi—don’t waste it!”

“Mm…” A faint voice, barely audible, echoed in Feng Xue’s mind. He smiled inwardly but knew he needed to sweeten the deal, restore some goodwill—he pulled out his phone, found the document on beginner Chinese painting for children, set it to auto-page-turn, then spoke to the scroll:

“The textbooks I promised you—I’ve set it to auto-turn, one page every ten breaths. Watch it for now; if it’s too fast or slow, tell me later!”

…

Leaving the bedroom, Feng Xue saw Liu Yunxi, dressed in a maid’s uniform, already serving breakfast on the table. He enjoyed her increasingly excellent cooking while pulling out “Jie Yu” to study.

He had already unlocked all the basic entries, but many spells couldn’t be completed using only the basics; modular spells were like seals—once stamped onto paper, they left intricate, delicate patterns, yet placing them correctly still required Feng Xue’s precise manual control.

If Feng Xue’s [Fushen] lock was like learning through “hand-over-hand” training to develop muscle memory and refine control over magical energy, then “Jie Yu” was the true application of that sensation—using it in practice to fully integrate and comprehend the various properties of magical energy.

After hastily eating breakfast, Feng Xue reached into his sack and pulled out a scrap of material shaped like an hourglass—palm-length, nearly two centimeters thick, but only as narrow as a willow leaf at its thinnest point.

It was clearly the leftover piece between two bracelet positions when cutting. Feng Xue took a water-based pen and, following the material extraction plan in “Jie Yu,” divided it into two oval jade blanks slightly larger than copper coins. The remaining shards and residue wouldn’t be wasted—they could serve as ritual catalysts, and while practicing the Jade Nourishing Method, they could absorb jade essence, replace flaws, and even, once the method reached a high enough level, knead a pile of jade powder into a single solid piece of jade.

Normal Xuan cultivators wouldn’t waste precious magical energy on such trivial tasks, but Feng Xue’s magical energy was more than abundant.

Thinking of this, Feng Xue glanced over at Liu Yunxi, who had already cleared the dishes, and waved her over:

“Yunxi, sort the materials in the sack by size and integrity! Don’t worry about quality—use this standard!”

“Huh? Oh!” Still slightly uncomfortable being called by her name, Liu Yunxi paused, then walked over, staring at the page in “Jie Yu” showing the grading of scraps. Though confused, she nodded.

Paying off a debt—what’s the difference how you do it?

About what the protagonist brought with him when he crossed over.

As mentioned before: spare clothes, camping gear, phone, charger, drone, hand-crank generator, solar power bank, gold, and cheap mechanical watches.

As for what’s on the phone? Obviously, fill it as much as possible.

Let’s look at it differently: suppose you knew you were going to cross over and could bring a phone and generator—how much would you pack?

Anyone with sense would shove every practical modern book they could find into it. Don’t care about storage limits—buy several high-capacity memory cards! A hundred-thousand-word novel is only a few MB. Forget terabyte hard drives—even a few hundred gigabytes of storage card is the size of a fingernail. How much wouldn’t fit? Just label the cards with numbers—Card No. 1 holds this, Card No. 2 holds that—and make two copies, no big deal.

Not just data—avoiding accidents, bring multiple phones. They don’t take up much space anyway.

As for necessity…

If you cross into a Literary or Confucian world, the Four Books and Five Classics, Three Hundred Tang Poems, Li Weng’s Rhymes, painting and calligraphy textbooks—all useful.

If you cross into a cultivation world, Daoist and Buddhist scriptures, the Hundred Schools of Thought might come in handy.

If you cross into a culinary world, standard recipes and flavor wheels will at least get you started.

Even in a game world, these books might turn into skill manuals.

Worst case, if you can’t learn them yourself, isn’t it easy to raise a few children and teach them?

So, better safe than sorry. If you know you’re crossing over and still don’t prepare, you’re an idiot.





(End of Chapter)