Chapter 108: Truly, Ancestral Blessings

Zhang Ziying was dazed as she was dragged into the room by Honghong. Subconsciously, she felt it was improper to be pulled into a room by a stranger. However, Honghong was simply too adorable, possessing an innocent and harmless air, and because she could call her by name, Ziying could not bring herself to be wary.

Only after being led into the living room did she let down her guard. Li Yunfei was standing by the dining table, holding a glass of red wine. He raised the glass toward her and said with a smile, "Haven't had dinner yet, have you? Want to join me?"

The table was already laden with a feast: steak, fish soup, foie gras, pasta, fruit salad, and more. Seeing Li Yunfei dressed in outdoor gear yet pretending to be a gentleman, Zhang Ziying burst into laughter.

"Haha... you look more natural when you're wolfing down meat and drinking from a big bowl. Being a gentleman doesn't suit you at all."

Zhang Ziying walked forward with a smile and pulled out a chair to sit down. Having not seen her for nearly two months, Li Yunfei noticed her hair had grown past her chin, and she now had blunt bangs across her forehead. Paired with her spirited, oval-shaped face, Li Yunfei was inexplicably reminded of the character Angel Zhixin from *The Super Seminary*. She really did look like Zhixin, especially dressed in a fitted white youth-style Zhongshan suit.

Honghong sat directly beside Zhang Ziying, and Li Yunfei pulled out a chair on her other side and sat down as well. Zhang Ziying looked at Honghong, who was beaming at her, and smiled back before turning to Li Yunfei. "Dafei, whose little sister is this? Have I met her before?"

Li Yunfei replied as if it were obvious, "She's mine! Of course you've met her; you used to hold her all the time!"

"What nonsense are you spouting?" Zhang Ziying retorted. "Since when did you have a little sister like this? And how would I not know if I held her often?"

Li Yunfei chuckled. "Her name is Honghong."

"Who asked you her name! I meant..." Zhang Ziying stopped mid-sentence, her eyes widening in disbelief as she suddenly turned to stare at Honghong. "You... you are..."

Honghong giggled, resting her elbows on the table and cradling her face in her hands. "It's me, sister! Whenever Master Brother wasn't home, you were the one who fed me and played with me!"

Zhang Ziying was left speechless. She turned back to Li Yunfei, who merely tilted his head and shrugged. After taking a calm sip of red wine, he said nonchalantly, "That's right. She's gained sentience."

Zhang Ziying sat stunned for a long while before asking cautiously, "You didn't... kidnap some little girl somewhere and make up this story to fool me, did you?"

"Pfft... cackle... Sister Yingzi, your imagination is truly boundless!" Honghong burst into laughter, the sound almost like a clucking hen, and Li Yunfei couldn't help but laugh along.

After a moment of laughter, Honghong stood up, hopped onto the chair, and crouched down, her body glowing with a red light. Within that glow, she rapidly shrank until she revealed her true form. Once the light faded, she pounced toward Zhang Ziying.

Zhang Ziying instinctively reached out and caught her, pulling the little fox into her arms. The fox looked up at her and chirped, "Do you believe me now, sister?"

Seeing is believing; there was no reason for Zhang Ziying to doubt anymore. She gently stroked the fur on Honghong's head in amazement. "You really have gained sentience. What on earth have you two been through in these past two months?"

Li Yunfei spoke in a casual tone, "Nothing much. Just standard clichés from a fantasy novel: stumbled upon an ancient hidden ruin, found some spiritual pills and magical artifacts, and increased my cultivation."

Zhang Ziying paused, rolled her eyes at him, and said, "You know, if someone else heard that nonchalant tone of yours, you’d get beaten up, right?"

She grumbled, but seeing Li Yunfei’s smug expression, she decided not to press further, though she was genuinely happy for him. She had learned about ancient ruins during her theoretical training. She knew that in the past two years, several such ruins had appeared within the Great Xia territory. Zixiao had benefited greatly from them, and their rapid growth was largely due to the treasures recovered from those sites.

Those ruins were alien spaces, not existing on the Blue Earth planet—or rather, not in this dimensional space. They opened under specific times and conditions and would vanish after a while, leaving no trace. Unless they reopened on their own, people could never enter them again. However, whenever a ruin was about to open, omens would appear, which was how Zixiao managed to seize the opportunity to enter and reap the rewards.

That Li Yunfei could encounter an ancient ruin on his own and safely secure such immense benefits was his own stroke of luck, one that others could only envy. Curious and feeling close enough to him to ask, she spoke up: "Where did you find this hidden ruin?"

Li Yunfei replied with a mix of truth and fiction, "Deep in the Shennongjia forest area. It had something to do with the Emperor Shennong. That’s also where I encountered the wild boar beast."

Zhang Ziying suddenly understood. "No wonder you obtained spiritual pills. Since this world isn't what we once thought it was, we can't view some of these historical figures through a normal lens."

"In our previous understanding, Emperor Shennong was a master of medicine who tasted a hundred herbs and laid the foundation for the *Shennong Materia Medica*. But if viewed through the lens of a supernatural world, he must have been a master of alchemy. Being able to obtain pills refined by him—that is truly 'ancestral blessing'."

Watching Zhang Ziying sigh with emotion and analyze the situation so seriously, Li Yunfei could barely suppress his laughter. Honghong tucked her head into the cleavage of her chest, her long snout curling in a grin, nearly laughing out loud.

Seeing Li Yunfei’s strange expression, Zhang Ziying frowned. "What? Is my analysis wrong?"

Li Yunfei quickly straightened his face. "No, I think you make a lot of sense. Legend has it that the cauldron Emperor Shennong used to refine medicine became a divine artifact, so I suppose it wasn't just an empty rumor."

Zhang Ziying nodded. "Yes, I've heard of the Shennong Cauldron. Did you see it in the ruins?"

Li Yunfei feigned regret. "No. How could the old Emperor have left behind such a divine artifact? It must have been key to his enlightenment; he surely took it with him when he ascended!"

"That makes sense," Zhang Ziying agreed, nodding.

As they chatted, a question occurred to Li Yunfei. "By the way, have you ever heard your instructors mention why a crisis of the undead broke out on Blue Earth? Does the Heavenly Court or the Underworld actually exist? If they do, why are they ignoring all of this? If they don't, then who exactly am I borrowing power from when I use Taoist spells?"

He had been harboring a belly full of questions, and with Zhang Ziying—a formally trained practitioner—now by his side, he intended to get some answers.