Chapter 121: Asuna Comes to Lingyun's Home

"Wait a moment, Lingyun!" Lingyun, who was walking in front, suddenly heard a voice coming from behind.

Lingyun turned his head to look and saw Asuna running in his direction.

"Long time no see, Asuna. It looks like your life in the Blood Oath Knights is going quite well!" Lingyun stopped in his tracks and said with a smile to Asuna, who had run up in front of him.

"It has been a long time. I heard you built a house on the 22nd floor of Aincrad?" Asuna stared at Lingyun and said. "And you invited quite a few people to visit you on the day the house was finished?"

"That is indeed the case!" Lingyun nodded.

"Then why didn't you invite me? Am I not your friend?" Asuna glared at Lingyun and said.

"Uh, about that? You were busy clearing the boss on the 25th floor at the time, so I didn't want to disturb you!" Lingyun shrugged helplessly.

"But Luo Yexi and the others cleared that floor's boss directly. Do you have any idea how I felt at the time?" Asuna said with some dejection.

"There was nothing I could do; I didn't know about that either." Lingyun's face was full of helplessness.

"Then how are you going to compensate me?" Asuna asked.

"Compensate?" A trace of confusion appeared in Lingyun's eyes.

"That's right, compensate!" Asuna said with her hands on her hips, "I want to go see your home too. I really want to see what kind of place it is that could catch the eye of someone with such high standards as you!"

"Go to my home?" Lingyun was a bit surprised.

Asuna nodded vigorously, then stared straight at Lingyun.

"Alright, then let's go to my home!" Lingyun shrugged.

To be honest, Lingyun was feeling a bit flustered right now; after all, for a girl to suddenly suggest going to your home, it was just too easy for one's mind to wander in the wrong direction.

"Don't you dare think anything weird!" A flash of shy anger crossed Asuna's eyes, and then she stepped directly onto Lingyun's foot. She had just remembered that as a girl with a good upbringing, suggesting to go to a boy's home uninvited, and in the middle of the night at that, was a very rude thing to do.

"Hiss, that hurts." Lingyun gasped; Asuna hadn't held back at all with that kick. "I know, I won't think anything weird!"

"Then hurry up and lead the way!"

"Let's go!" Lingyun took out a Transfer Crystal, handed it to Asuna, and then turned into a burst of white light and disappeared from the spot.

Seeing Lingyun disappear with Asuna, Kirito and the others exchanged glances, then one after another took out their Transfer Crystals and left the place.

In front of Lingyun's garden, a burst of white light suddenly rose, and two figures appeared before the garden; it was none other than Lingyun and Asuna.

"What a beautiful place!" Gazing at the garden under the moonlight, Asuna couldn't help but cover her small mouth, "Lingyun, is this place really your home?"

"That's right, this place is my home in this world!" Lingyun smiled and nodded.

"It's truly unbelievable that such a beautiful place could exist in this world. If it were daytime, I wonder what kind of scene this would be!" Asuna exclaimed.

"Eh, whose house is that?" Asuna suddenly noticed that next to Lingyun's garden, there was another house that didn't look as large in area as the garden, but was very aesthetically pleasing.

"That place? That's the residence of Kirito and her sister; they can be considered my neighbors!" Lingyun said with a smile.

Back then, after Kirito said she wanted to be Lingyun's neighbor, she really kept working hard toward that goal. A while ago, she finally saved up enough money to build a house for herself and Suguha next to Lingyun's garden.

"Neighbors?" There was a hint of undisguised surprise in Asuna's tone.

"Yeah, just neighbors. Nothing to be surprised about, right!" Lingyun laughed. "Alright, let's not stand here. Let's go inside!"

"Oh, okay!" Asuna nodded.

"Th-this is, an NPC maid? I didn't expect you to have this kind of hobby, Lingyun!" Looking at the maid standing at the door to welcome them, Asuna's gaze toward Lingyun suddenly became strange.

"Hey, hey, hey, what's with that expression?" Seeing the strange look on Asuna's face, Lingyun was filled with frustration, "I only hired these maids because this house is just too big and it's inconvenient to clean up. Where on earth did your mind wander to!"

A flash of embarrassment crossed Asuna's eyes, and then she waved her hand at Lingyun: "It's nothing, it's nothing. I was just, I was just curious why there would be maids in this garden."

Regarding Asuna's clumsy attempt to change the subject, Lingyun felt an urge to retort, but he held it back.

"I say, what are you two doing here?" Kirito's voice suddenly rang out from behind them.

"That, it's nothing, nothing at all. I definitely wasn't thinking about anything weird!" Asuna said reflexively.

"Kirito, you guys are fast!" Lingyun turned his head and looked at the newcomers with a smile.

"Kirito?" Asuna turned her head to look and happened to see Kirito staring at her with a strange gaze.

"Thinking about what kind of weird things?" Kirito asked with some amusement.

"Uh, that, that..." Asuna was momentarily at a loss for words.

"Big brother, I'm hungry!" Alice came to Lingyun's side and hugged his arm, simultaneously helping Asuna out of the awkward situation.

"Hungry? I'll go make some food!" Lingyun raised an eyebrow and patted Alice's head.

"I'll go too!" As soon as cooking was mentioned, Asuna perked up.

"Big sister, you can cook too?" Yuuki asked with some curiosity.

"Of course, my culinary skills have already reached the top-tier level, you know!" A hint of pride appeared on Asuna's face.

Ever since she ate Lingyun's grilled meat before clearing the first-floor boss, she had developed a great interest in the culinary arts of the SAO world. Before this, she had spent quite a bit of effort to improve her cooking skills.

"Really?" Lingyun asked with some doubt.

"Of course it's true. If you don't believe me, we can have a contest!" A gleam flashed in Asuna's eyes. "I definitely won't be any worse than you!"

"The kitchen is over there, let's wait and see!" Lingyun pointed to a room.

When Asuna followed Lingyun into the kitchen, she saw a huge cabinet. This cabinet was a gift from an alchemist when Lingyun completed a quest. This cabinet could not only store a large amount of ingredients but also allow the ingredients stored within to evolve to a certain extent, so Lingyun kept it in the kitchen. Asuna opened the cabinet to look and couldn't help but be stunned.

"Th-these are all rare ingredients? H-how do you have so many rare ingredients here?" There was undisguised surprise in Asuna's tone.

However, when she saw the items at the very top of the cabinet, her mouth couldn't help but hang open: "Th-these are all super-rare S-Rank Ingredients!"

"Is there any need to be so surprised?" Lingyun had an expression of 'you really are inexperienced', "It's not like they're some heaven-defying equipment or weapons; don't you just get them from fighting monsters normally?"

"What do you mean 'get them from fighting monsters normally'? You couldn't possibly not know how precious these things are in this world, could you?" Asuna looked at Lingyun and said.

"Precious? I don't really have that feeling. Yuuki eats these things every day!" Lingyun shrugged.

The S-Rank Ingredients in this world indeed had extraordinary effects. When used after cooking, they could grant people various temporary, beneficial states and attributes. Thanks to these S-Rank Ingredients, the Near Death state on Yuuki's body had been completely eliminated. If this were in the real world, it would mean her body had recovered its health.

"No way, you have to give me at least half of these!" Asuna said to Lingyun.

"Why? These things were collected with great difficulty by me and Luo Yexi and the others!" Lingyun looked at Asuna with interest.

"In this world, I reckon only the two of us can process these ingredients, but are you sure you can handle all these ingredients by yourself?" Asuna gritted her teeth and said, "Only if the two of us work together can we finish preparing all these ingredients, right?"

"Then what are you going to do? Don't tell me you're going to keep coming to my house to cook for me from now on?" Watching Asuna stare fixedly at the S-Rank Ingredient in the cabinet, Lingyun couldn't help but feel the urge to tease her.

"Okay!" Asuna replied, her eyes red as she gazed at the ingredients in the cabinet.

"Huh?" Hearing Asuna's answer, Lingyun couldn't help but be stunned.

At this moment, Asuna also realized belatedly that she had actually taken the initiative to suggest coming to a boy's house to cook for him; although there were other girls present in this boy's house, her answer was very easy for people to misunderstand! Thinking of this, Asuna's face turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye, blushing all the way to the base of her neck.

Watching Asuna's appearance, Lingyun laughed quite uncharitably. Hearing Lingyun's laughter, Asuna lowered her head rapidly, almost burying it in the swell of her chest, and black mist faintly began to emerge from her body.

"Alright, let's cook first; the people outside are already waiting!" Seeing that Asuna had a tendency to go dark, Lingyun wisely changed the subject.

The red flush on Asuna's face faded a little, and she shot Lingyun a glare before walking to the stove to start cooking.

Watching Asuna's appearance, Lingyun also smiled slightly, then likewise walked to the stove and began to process the various ingredients.