Chapter 273: Secretary Ning's Legs

Snow gradually accumulated in the small courtyard.

Chen Shu walked to the door of Qingqing's room and could hear the sound of water coming from inside; he tried to open the door and go in, but the room wasn't locked, though he didn't know about the bathroom door—in any case, he remembered that the bathroom door couldn't be locked shut in the past, and he had suffered a great loss because of it.

But he didn't test it; he just walked with dejected steps, went straight past the bathroom, walked inside, and flopped onto the bed.

"Thump..."

The whole bed was filled with fragrance.

Separated by a wall, the sound of water started and stopped intermittently; the splashing was very crisp, and the steam was sealed inside the room—it stood to reason that Qingqing was taking a bath.

Chen Shu suddenly felt so lazy, his thoughts emptying out.

A few minutes later.

A loud sound of water came from the bathroom, followed by the sound of wiping and putting on clothes; if Chen Shu's brain weren't in energy-saving mode right now, he would probably be unable to stop himself from letting his imagination run wild, and the material stored in his brain was actually enough to support him in constructing a rather concrete image.

The sound of slippers walking on the floor.

"Click..."

Ning Qing walked out of the bathroom, her hair just dry.

She wore light lotus-root colored silk pajamas, her skin as white as jade, and both the pajamas and her skin reflected a delicate luster under the light.

She did not feel surprised by Chen Shu's arrival; she just sat down on the edge of the bed, with her back to Chen Shu, her voice gentle and soft:

"Why did you come into my room?"

Chen Shu turned over slightly and wrapped his arms around her waist, feeling it was both slender and soft; the thin silk pajamas felt as if she weren't wearing anything, or rather, even better than wearing nothing, with a texture that was incomparable.

"I want to sleep in the bed."

Ning Qing just gave a hum and let him hold her; she took a small bottle from the nightstand, unscrewed it, dipped a little with her finger, and applied it to her own lips.

Chen Shu sighed, his body wiggling as he moved to the side of Qingqing's legs.

Under the pajamas, her two long legs were smooth and bare; the skin on her legs was so delicate, and having just finished her bath and walked out, they had cooled down, silky and smooth, icy and cool, so delicate they seemed to have no texture—a tactile sensation that no material could compare to.

Chen Shu placed his hand on her leg and stroked it, but she ignored him.

"I want to hold you while I sleep."

"Keep wanting; keep wanting slowly in your dreams."

"Emmm..."

Chen Shu turned over and looked up at her face.

"What are you applying?"

"Lip mask."

"What does it do?"

"Makes the lips look better."

"A Six-Stage Martial Artist needs this too?"

"A Cultivator's physique will cause the body to present its healthiest appearance, and adding this allows it to present an appearance even better than healthy." Ning Qing explained patiently to him while applying it, not caring whether he was listening or not.

"Healthy is the best appearance."

"..."

"Does it taste good?"

"..." Ning Qing still answered softly, "It has no taste."

"Does it smell good?"

"Peach scent."

"Give me some too."

"..."

Ning Qing grabbed the hand that was rudely stroking back and forth on her leg, took it away, and then turned her body slightly; while looking at Chen Shu's face, she used her ring finger to lightly dip a little from the small bottle and dabbed it downward.

Her other fingers were curled up.

Chen Shu couldn't help but close his eyes.

"No need to close your eyes."

"..."

Chen Shu opened his eyes again.

Looking at Qingqing from this angle, she was still beautiful.

Qingqing's fingers were very soft, especially the pads; the lip mask was a translucent paste, and she carefully applied it to his lips. This was very close to the tip of his nose, and he could easily smell the faint peach fragrance of the lip mask—a very fresh scent.

Chen Shu wrapped his arms around her waist again, feeling a bit sleepy.

Is the lip mask poisonous?

Should be...

The next morning, the courtyard was full of snow.

Chen Shu leaned close to the mirror and stared carefully.

His lips did seem to have become a bit more delicate; the lip lines, which were already very faint, were almost invisible, they were a bit more hydrated, and the color had changed just a little.

"So good..."

Chen Shu walked back to the bedside to change his clothes.

However, he had only changed halfway, his pants not yet on, when he heard the door click and be pushed open.

Chen Shu was in a flurry; he hurriedly pulled up his pants and stared at Qingqing, who had walked in:

"I'm changing clothes!"

"Oh."

"Oh!?" Chen Shu widened his eyes, a famous hypocrite, "You didn't even knock when you came in; isn't that too impolite?"

"You misunderstood."

"This can still be a misunderstanding?"

"I just felt you were getting dressed and specifically tested to see if you had locked the door." Ning Qing glanced at him indifferently, "If it wasn't locked, I'd come in and take a look."

"..."

This really wasn't being impolite...

A pure female hooligan!

Ning Qing stopped looking at him, walked straight to the walk-in closet, took a set of clothes, and walked out.

When Chen Shu went downstairs, she had already changed out of her pajamas and was sitting quietly on the sofa, eyes closed and mind focused. A white cat carried her consciousness, crouching in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room not far away, its round eyes like clear glass, reflecting the snow falling outside the window in her stead.

The curtain covered half of its figure.

Chen Shu lay down on the sofa again, resting his head on Qingqing's lap to use as a pillow.

The leggings were very soft in texture, radiating the warmth of her thighs, a different tactile sensation from the smooth and silky feel of last night.

The white cat by the window turned its head to look at him, but only looked at him once before turning its head back to continue watching the snowflakes outside the window.

Chen Shu's voice rang out leisurely: "Winter is still the best..."

The white cat watched outside the window intently, and no one answered him.

Yet he could still talk to himself:

"I like leggings.

"But if you wore stockings, Qingqing, I might like that too.

"Shark pants are fine too.

"Yoga clothes are also fine.

"Why are you still practicing the Taixin Dao?"

After this sentence was finished, there was finally a response.

The response came from above his head, a clear and pleasant voice: "This is the last time for this stage."

Chen Shu shifted his line of sight to look up.

Qingqing opened her eyes and looked down at him.

"Are you done practicing?"

"Mm."

"Will there be a second stage in the future?"

"I have to practice it again at the High-Tier," Ning Qing answered softly, while her two hands supported his head, lifting it away from her lap, "After the High-Tier, everything that has been practiced must be practiced again, because at that time the state of mind is different, the perspective shifts, and the insights will also be different."

"I'll lie down a while longer; I can't leave it."

"Contentment brings happiness."

"Emmm..."

Chen Shu sat up reluctantly and continued to ask: "Will the Heart Dao also have to be practiced again in the future?"

"All of them."

"Having to be in solitary confinement again, how miserable."

"Mm."

"Are there any other tricks later? In this stage."

"There are."

"Tell me about them."

"I have to practice the Center Dao and the Loss of Heart Dao."

"What are these?"

"Collectively called the Emotion and Desire Dao."

"Emotion and Desire? Emmm..."

"It's not what you're thinking," Ning Qing spoke up in time, shutting down his wandering thoughts.

"How do you know what I'm thinking?"

"I grew up with you."

"Fine, you're amazing..." Chen Shu pulled back the corner of his mouth that had already curled up, "Then what is it like?"

"The Seven Emotions and Six Desires, Joy, anger, worry, thought, sorrow, Fear, and Surprise; eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind—these are the emotions and desires that most living beings possess, and we must experience them in detail," Ning Qing said, glancing at him lightly, "We must both experience the intensified Seven Emotions and Six Desires separately, and also experience the feeling of losing them separately, so as to have a deeper understanding of the emotions and desires that most living beings in this world possess."

"Oh, the medical kind."

"Yes."

"How do you experience them?"

"Experience them separately."

"Can you elaborate? You seem brief, but actually, it's like you're padding the word count."

"It's divided into two stages: the Seven Emotions and the Six Desires, and further divided into two stages: Center Dao and Loss of Heart Dao. During the Center Dao, the corresponding emotion or desire will be doubled; during the Loss of Heart Dao, one cannot feel this emotion or desire at all, equivalent to losing it. By comparing and contrasting the two, we gain insight."

"So you have to practice twenty-six times?"

"Yes."

"How many days for each time?"

"It varies."

Ning Qing met Chen Shu's gaze, pursed her lips, and continued to explain: "The reason for this practice is that most Secret Sect Practitioners are very detached from normal people; this is a drawback that has existed since the Heavenly Human stage, and it is not conducive to our cultivation. Therefore, the predecessors of the Secret Sect created such a cultivation method to let the Secret Sect Practitioners, who are indifferent to emotions and desires and detached from the mortal world, get a little more grounded and re-experience the emotions and desires of the world. Perhaps a Secret Sect Practitioner can choose not to possess them, but they cannot choose not to understand them."

After a brief pause, she continued: "Its practice time and difficulty are positively correlated with the practitioner's degree of indifference and detachment."

"Then you're done for..."

After listening, Chen Shu drew a conclusion for her: "You heartless woman, you'll definitely never be able to cultivate past this in your entire life!"

Ning Qing looked at him indifferently: "That will disappoint you, Mr. Chen. On the contrary, among all Secret Sect Practitioners in history, I am the one who feels the emotions and desires of ordinary people most deeply. Only a few desires are slightly unfamiliar to me and might be a little difficult to cultivate; for most desires, I only need to experience the feeling of them intensifying and being lost, and understand how important they are."

"Blehh... Mr. Chen! Only need to! I am Secretary Ning, I speak very formally!" Chen Shu couldn't help but shake his head and wag his finger.

"Thank you, I haven't even started cultivating yet, and I have already deeply experienced the feeling of 'anger'." There was no emotion in Ning Qing's tone, "But I suggest you be honest when I am performing Chong Nu cultivation. My tolerance for anger is related to my usual upper limit of anger, but during the Chong Nu cultivation stage, doubled anger will break through my tolerance limit, and you might be beaten to death by me then."

"Blehh... beaten to death by me..." Chen Shu shook his head and wagged his finger, Sword Qi radiating everywhere, then continued to ask, "Then when will you start cultivating?"

"After the new year."

"That long?"

"It's not long now."

"Oh..."

Chen Shu dragged out a long tail note, his eyeballs already unable to help but start rolling around.

Ning Qing sat to the side, eyes slanted, coldly glancing at this person; without using any Secret Sect methods, she could still know what he was thinking.

Very good.

It seems "anger" will be very easy to cultivate.

At this moment, she saw this person turn his head, wearing an expression of humble eagerness to learn: "Among the Six Desires, what are the Sense of Body and Intent Desire respectively? How do you cultivate them?"

Ning Qing was expressionless.

Perhaps "anger" can be skipped.