Chapter 397: The First Step to Turning Things Around, Starting with Having Money

There was not much sadness in parting with Brother Meng and Brother Jiang; it only meant the end of their life living together. All three were long-term residents of Yujing, so even after officially graduating, they would not disappear from each other's lives. As the saying goes, the top-tier stage is only so big, and they would inevitably run into each other often.

"Brother Jiang, I'll come to watch your grand final then."

"Good."

"Junior Brother Meng, study hard."

"……Brother Chen, you worry too much. You had better be on your way."

"Woof~"

Taozi also learned from Chen Shu, greeting the two of them before following behind Chen Shu, taking happy little steps as it trotted downstairs.

The dormitory manager auntie sat there fanning herself.

"Auntie, goodbye."

"Alright then."

"Woof~"

"Is that a cat or a dog you have there?"

"A dog."

"Meow~"

"Oh! It can talk!"

"Hahaha……"

One person and one cat walked out of the dormitory building, then out of Huaiyuan.

The little thing was eager to return home, walking in front with happy steps the whole way, in an excellent mood at the thought of going home. Walking straight to where the vehicle was parked, it gave a light leap onto the mini motorcycle, then turned its head to urge Chen Shu.

Seeing this, Chen Shu could only smile helplessly.

Half an hour later, they returned to the small courtyard.

Taozi first scurried to the neighbor's door, peeking through the crack in the gate to look inside. It was unclear what it was looking for or if it found it, but it turned around and ran back into the small courtyard, pretending not to hear even as Chen Shu spoke to it from behind.

"Here, for you."

Chen Shu reached his hand toward Ning Qing, holding a special bright yellow crystal that seemed to have light flowing within it.

Ning Qing reached out to take it; it felt warm to the touch.

After bringing it before her eyes to examine it carefully, she raised her gaze to Chen Shu: "A crystal left behind by the Great Blazing Sun Art?"

"Impressive!"

Chen Shu praised, catching a glimpse of Taozi also standing up straight and stretching its neck to look at Ning Qing's hand. He ignored it and only explained: "This is the crystal left behind from the first time I used the Great Blazing Sun Art; it has great collectible value."

"I'll keep it."

Ning Qing held it in her hand.

"I'll be relying on you to support me from now on," Chen Shu said to her, "but don't worry, I'm not someone who doesn't know how to repay kindness."

"Then how do you plan to repay me?"

"I plan to hold you while I sleep every day."

"……"

Ning Qing silently withdrew her gaze.

It was a pity that she was currently cultivating the "No-Body Desire," and she had not the slightest interest in physical contact with her beloved, even finding it boring or uncomfortable. During this period, her heart was especially pure and tranquil; only the phrase "pure of heart and few desires" could describe it.

Pure of heart and few desires: Qingqing's heart has few desires.

However, Chen Shu often held her while sleeping, and she had originally felt it was nothing. Although she was not interested, since he wanted to hold her, she let him; but what annoyed her was that this person would often, on a whim, roll over to embrace her, then decide he didn't want to hold her anymore and lie back down, repeating this many times throughout the night.

Every time, she wanted to kick him off, but she endured it.

"What about the things you brought from the dormitory?" Ning Qing glanced sideways at Chen Shu, "Don't they need to be put away?"

"They do!"

"Let's go."

After saying this, Ning Qing stood up, holding the crystal, and prepared to go upstairs to put it away, incidentally helping him organize his miscellaneous items as well.

Taozi turned its head to stare at them, hesitated for a few seconds, and then quickly followed.

Ning Qing placed the crystal on the top shelf of the study. Despite feeling warm to the touch, this thing actually carried its own Spirit Power radiation. It wasn't serious, but ordinary living things affected by it for a long time might become irritable or suffer from poor skin and hair quality; it had no effect on a Cultivator.

She then turned and walked to the bedroom.

"Look—"

Chen Shu held up a cup to show her: "My beloved gargle cup, I've used it for over ten years."

He then paused: "But since I'm using a couple's cup with you now, I'll put it away, take it back to Yuanzhou, and keep it at home. If we have a next generation in the future, I'll pass it down to them; if not, then so be it."

Ning Qing lowered her eyelids and said nothing.

"The towel is almost worn out, but the quality is quite good." Chen Shu looked conflicted, "There's another one at home."

"Does it shed?"

"It doesn't."

"Use it as a rag for washing the car."

"That's a great idea!"

Chen Shu immediately put it away happily, as pleased as if he had picked up a bargain.

Ning Qing still watched him quietly, saying nothing.

A computer, a Crystal Disk, books, pens, tea leaves, clothing, unfinished snacks, and the Stop-Beard Paste that would keep hair from growing for a month after one use……

As each personal item was taken out and placed in its proper spot, the house gradually filled with more things belonging to him. In this process, Ning Qing felt a sense of "this is their little home," which made her involuntarily slow down her pace to enjoy it slowly.

At this moment, there was a joy that welled up from the heart.

This joy was higher than any physical touch, higher than any sensory stimulation.

"Alright, the last item, my beloved little pillow, I'll just leave it on the sofa downstairs." Chen Shu held a solid-colored square pillow; this pillow had nothing special about it, it was just soft to the touch, and he had hugged it for many years. He was a person who developed feelings over time; once something had been used or worn for a long time, he would develop an attachment to it, and that attachment gave it a unique value.

"Mr. Chen."

"What is it? Ms. Ning."

"I want to hug you."

"Hm? Why?"

"I want to."

"Has your 'No-Body Desire' suddenly ended?"

"No."

Ning Qing walked toward him with a calm expression, naturally pressed close to him, and wrapped her arms around his waist: "I still want to hug you."

At the same time, a white cat lay on the corridor outside, licking up water with a *slurp, slurp* sound.

……

Half a month had passed since the start of summer vacation.

Chen Banxia was now a free university teacher, no longer a pitiful wage slave. Not only were her daily working hours short, with weekends off, but she also had winter and summer vacations—she was on break along with the students of Yujing Academy. These past few days, she had often asked Chen Shu when he would return to Yuanzhou, wanting to go back with her younger brother.

Chen Shu, however, did not intend to return for the time being.

Although he hadn't been attending classes recently, he wasn't bored. Every day he cooked and chatted with Qingqing, raised the cat and dog, practiced for four hours, and researched Spells for a few hours. It was just enough to fill the day, and it was quite fulfilling.

The automatic defense version of the Tracer Technique was almost finished.

Staying in Yujing made it convenient to go to the mountain forest behind Yuan'an Temple every day to test it, and he could also ask Qingqing and Zhang Suannai for help. If he returned to Yuanzhou, it would likely be difficult to find such a plot of land for casual testing; even if he found a deep mountain, it would violate the forest protection laws.

The current Tracer Technique already possessed the ability to identify Spirit Power attacks coming from the direction of the strike after being released and actively move toward them. Combined with the defense detection module Chen Shu had upgraded using the Thousand Machine Art, it could also identify high-speed incoming objects and, under the active influence of the Thousand Machine Art, move toward them to actively intercept the enemy.

It was just that some problems still existed—

The reaction speed was not fast enough; the speed of actively intercepting the enemy was slow; the ability to detect high-speed objects with small volumes was weak, making it easy for them to pass through; it was not intelligent enough.

For attacks from normal Spirit Cultivators, the interception efficiency was quite good—the stronger the Spirit Power, the larger the projectile, and the slower the speed, the easier it was to intercept. But the interception efficiency against the Sword Light split from Zhang Suannai's Sword Control Technique was much lower. Moreover, when facing multiple attacks in different sequences, it would always happen that a large group of Tracer Techniques would all run to intercept the first attack, causing it to be vulnerable to subsequent attacks.

There was still a lot of room for optimization.

Chen Shu planned to optimize it first, at least make it look decent, then return to Yuanzhou for a few days, and then come back to find Teacher Shi Qian to "freeload" off each other.

Chen Banxia was not in a hurry about this. She had been staying at her little friend's house for the past few days, playing games all night with her little friend who was also skipping work. Every mealtime, she would take her little friend and climb over the wall to come over for a free meal. With food, sleep, and games, this was already a heavenly life for her.

At the end of June, Chen Shu printed out his internship report, filled it out, and headed to the Spirit Sect.

This time, he didn't see the Vice Sect Master.

Since the beginning of this month, the Vice Sect Master had been in seclusion, once again attempting to break through to the Ninth Stage. The various affairs within the sect were handed over to another Vice Sect Master—the junior sister of Vice Sect Master Du Heng, Vice Sect Master Zhu Huan—but in reality, she didn't manage much either. The sect had a perfect operating system; in the absence of major decisions that needed to be made, it didn't need a leader at all and could run very well on its own.

"Duang!"

The seal was stamped onto the internship report.

The date was a few months later.

"Done."

"Thank you."

"Mm."

Facing the Sect Saint, the staff member remained aloof, only nodding before continuing to watch her idol drama.

There was not the slightest sense of service.

Chen Shu shook his head, put away the report, and headed to Phoenix Tower. He borrowed another copy of "Reverse Rune Research," then soared into the sky without a hint of reluctance, having already pushed his speed to the limit before even leaving the sect's defensive formation.

Returning to Yujing, it took exactly one hour to land.

As his cultivation grew rapidly and his Spirit Power Quality improved swiftly due to the mark, his top flight speed was also constantly breaking through.

A distance of a thousand miles was just like taking a subway ride.

When he returned to the small courtyard, a logistics employee happened to be moving a huge cardboard box toward the yard, and there was already an identical cardboard box at the entrance.

The young girl was leaning against the door, directing: "Just put it here."

Qingqing was also standing inside, watching calmly.

Chen Shu walked over, feeling somewhat puzzled.

"What is this?"

"Brother-in-law, I made money! I bought you the Game Capsule you wanted most, the JZ-300!"

"Is that so?"

Chen Shu's eyes widened, and the corners of his mouth curled up.

At this moment, he felt like a daughter had grown up and bought a gift for him with her first month's salary.

This feeling was hard to put into words.

"Yes!"

The young girl nodded heavily, her peripheral vision darting quickly toward her sister before snapping back:

"I bought two of them!"

Her sister glanced at her with an expressionless face:

"Then what about your own?"

"!"

The young girl clamped her mouth shut; fortunately, she had bought three.

How to put it—she was just wealthy and imposing.

In the future, she could support both her brother-in-law and her sister. As the saying goes, those who take from others are soft-handed, and those who eat from others are soft-mouthed. Brother-in-law naturally didn't count, but if her sister spent her money every day in the future, she would surely be unable to help but be humble and submissive in front of her, right?

At the very least, every time she played games in the future, she would be using the Game Capsule she bought herself; her attitude toward her couldn't possibly still be that bad, right?

Thinking of this, a tiny smile couldn't help but appear on the young girl's face.

And very quickly withdrew it.