Chapter 139: In the End, You Still Turned Against Me

On the open-air rooftop leisure balcony of Li Yunfei's home, Zhang Ziying, having finished her bath, sat in a leisure chair wearing a dark gold silk bathrobe, her legs crossed. Those overlapping, jade-white, slender legs formed a captivating and extraordinarily graceful curve. She was browsing the news on her phone, while a delicate ceramic wine bottle stood on the leisure table beside her, looking somewhat out of place with the surrounding setting. If the ceramic wine bottle were replaced with a tall crystal glass filled with red wine, the scene would look entirely fitting.

The ceramic wine bottle contained spiritual wine. Aside from the meal she had eaten at home that afternoon, Zhang Ziying's daily diet consisted almost entirely of spiritual materials and items. Her staple food was spiritual grain, her meat dishes came from fierce beasts and eggs laid by spiritual birds, and her fruits and vegetables were spiritual produce. The tea she sipped after meals was spiritual tea, and whenever she fancied a light drink, she enjoyed spiritual wine.

Because Li Yunfei possessed the replication ability, Ziwei was not stingy at all, giving him a share of every spiritual material and item in his possession. His generosity naturally reaped rich rewards; Li Yunfei was even less stingy, returning a hundredfold for every single portion he received. The mother-tree spiritual tea from Wuyi Mountain's Dahongpao yielded only three or four catties a year, and that was only because growth had accelerated after the spiritual energy recovery. As a result, when Ziwei gave Li Yunfei two qian of it, Li Yunfei returned two catties to him two days later, leaving Ziwei overjoyed. When the Dahongpao was distributed that year, Ziwei had only received two liang, which was supposed to be his share for a decade. The old rascal was exceptionally shrewd! Realizing this, he immediately gave Li Yunfei a share of every single spiritual material and item in his private possession, and three days later, he was indeed rewarded a hundredfold.

"What are you looking at?"

A gentle male voice sounded beside her. Zhang Ziying turned her head to see Li Yunfei and Honghong walking toward her. She beamed with a smile and said, "You're back! Did you resolve everything?"

Li Yunfei nodded. "Resolved."

Zhang Ziying raised her phone and said, "I just saw the latest news. Several small countries around Great Xia are struggling to hold on. They might soon be asking Great Xia for assistance."

Li Yunfei produced two bottles of spiritual wine, handed one to Honghong, and sat down in the leisure chair beside Zhang Ziying. Hearing her words, he nodded in agreement. "Expected. Some of the smaller nations around Great Xia used to be colonies of major powers. Their territories are small, and their foundations are weak. Unfortunately, because of past major wars between superpowers, they were left with many ancient battlefields."

Zhang Ziying sighed with relief. "It's fortunate that we were born in Great Xia."

Li Yunfei raised his wine bottle, gestured to Zhang Ziying and Honghong, and smiled. "A toast to being born in Great Xia."

Zhang Ziying happily raised her bottle to toast with the two of them, and each took a small sip. As the three of them chatted and drank on the balcony, a bottle of wine was emptied before they knew it. While Li Yunfei and Honghong only had a slight flush on their faces, Zhang Ziying was deeply intoxicated. This spiritual wine could not be viewed as ordinary alcohol; it intoxicated not just the body, but the soul as well. Of course, much like spiritual tea, it also had the effect of strengthening the primordial spirit and soul.

"Honghong, it's getting late. Shouldn't you go rest?"

Honghong shot Li Yunfei a watery, limpid glance, smiled brightly like a blooming flower, and said, "Got it! I won't delay your dual cultivation. Good night, Sister Yingzi."

Zhang Ziying rested her elbow on the table and supported her delicate face with her hand, her misty, drunken eyes looking exceedingly alluring. Hearing Honghong's words, she lazily waved at her and smiled. "Good night."

Honghong vanished right where she stood, reappearing inside her own room the next moment.

"Eh? What spell is that? Instant transmission?" Zhang Ziying asked in a hazy daze, seeing Honghong use the Earth-Shrinking-to-An-Inch technique for the first time.

Li Yunfei explained, "Earth-Shrinking-to-An-Inch. It's Honghong's innate divine ability. It is said that the Tiandao Sect of Mount Mao also has this spell, but one must reach at least the Nascent Soul realm to master it. Honghong was born knowing it."

Zhang Ziying wobbled as she raised her head, marveling, "Incredible. The legends say that Nine-Tailed Celestial Foxes master space and time, capable of spatial jumps and even traveling through the past and future. Could that really be true?"

Li Yunfei shrugged. "Perhaps! Who knows? But judging by Honghong's gradually awakening innate divine abilities, maybe she really can reach that level in the future."

Seeing that Zhang Ziying was struggling to sit straight, he spoke gently, "Let's go back for our dual cultivation so we don't waste the spiritual energy of the wine."

"Mmm," Zhang Ziying responded with dazed eyes. She braced herself against the table to stand up, but stumbled, showing she was truly quite drunk.

A bottle of spiritual wine held well over a catty. For someone at her Light-Foundation realm, the only reason she hadn't completely passed out was that she had previously consumed soul pills, making her soul stronger than ordinary practitioners of the same realm. A normal practitioner at the Light-Foundation realm would have been knocked out cold by half a catty.

Li Yunfei chuckled as he stood up, scooped her up into his arms, and laughed, "I'd better carry you down. For a dignified cultivator to take a tumble just from being drunk would be quite embarrassing."

"Hehe." Zhang Ziying instinctively wrapped her arms around Li Yunfei's neck, revealing a delightfully silly, drunken smile as her misty eyes gazed straight at his handsome profile.

Li Yunfei carried Zhang Ziying back to the master bedroom and laid her on the bed. Just as he was about to flip his hand to retrieve spirit stones and prepare for dual cultivation, Zhang Ziying suddenly grabbed his collar and pulled with force, dragging him down onto her chest.

Li Yunfei's breath hitched as he saw a curve form at the corner of the beautiful face resting mere inches away. At that moment, Zhang Ziying was smiling like Honghong. "Tonight... I want to try a different method of dual cultivation."

After being stunned for a few seconds, Li Yunfei sighed, "You ended up taking advantage of me after all. It seems you've had your eyes on my primordial yang, which I've nurtured for over twenty years." Were you deliberately acting drunk? It must be so, right?

...

Early the next morning, when Honghong arrived at the living room, Li Yunfei had already prepared breakfast: vegetable porridge boiled with spiritual grain and spiritual vegetables, eggs laid by a colorful seven-colored mountain chicken, and a plate of sliced spiritual fruits. Cooking for them had long since become intertwined with cultivation; preparing spiritual materials required extraordinary methods, and ordinary people simply could not serve as a cultivator's chef.

Zhang Ziying's culinary skills were passable, but she did not understand fire-attribute spells. Honghong excelled at fire-attribute spells, but she couldn't cook. As for the two foodies, Abao and Xiaobei, could they possibly be relied upon? With no other choice, the task fell entirely to Li Yunfei himself, though this only added further to his charm. A man who possessed high cultivation, excellent cooking skills, and—most importantly—a willingness to cook was simply perfection.

"Good morning, Big Brother!" Honghong greeted Li Yunfei with a smile. Yet Li Yunfei caught a hint of mischievous teasing in her eyes, which were curved into crescents.

His face immediately darkened. Lowering his voice, he whispered, "I never saw you use that during the fight. So that's how you use your illusions?"

Honghong giggled and retorted, "Did big brother like it?"

Li Yunfei paused, looking at her with a complex expression. After a long silence, he murmured, "Don't do that again in the future. There is only one Yingzi, and I only love the real her."

Honghong met his gaze for a moment, sensing his sincerity. She immediately raised her hands in surrender and said, "Fine! I was wrong, I promise I won't do it again."

Seeing this, Li Yunfei's expression softened. He ruffled her hair and said, "Eat your breakfast."

Last night had truly been indescribable. While he was immersed in passionate "dual cultivation" with Zhang Ziying, he suddenly realized that one Zhang Ziying had multiplied into several. Each Zhang Ziying looked identical, yet exhibited completely different personalities: one cold and aloof like a queen, one passionate and mature like a sultry woman, one shy and pure like an innocent maiden, and one bewitching and seductive. They had surrounded him with all sorts of unspeakable enticements. At the time, he had been as if enchanted, failing to notice anything amiss.

It was only when everything concluded that he finally snapped to his senses, realizing instantly that he had fallen into an illusion without even knowing it. The only person in this house with that capability was Honghong. At the time, his feelings had been a swirling mixture of emotions. Had the little fox turned bad, or was she naturally this mischievous?

Fortunately, regardless of how many Zhang Ziyings there had seemed to be last night, the one he was actually cultivating with was Zhang Ziying herself. His senses had simply been deceived by the illusion, making him believe multiple different Zhang Ziyings were participating. Zhang Ziying herself had been completely unaware. That was the terrifying potency of Honghong's illusions: blending seamlessly with reality, they could utterly deceive a target's spirit and soul, trapping them without their knowledge. It was just a pity she hadn't used it for the right purpose.

"Wow, it smells so good."

Abao and Xiaobei, two round, roly-poly little fellows with surprisingly light and agile steps, dashed down from upstairs. Running straight to the dining table, they grabbed pieces of spiritual fruit from the fruit platter and shoved them into their mouths.

"Drink some porridge. The porridge has your favorite spiritual bamboo shoots in it."

"Mhm mhm, thank you, Boss."

Each of them scooped a bowl of porridge and slurped it down alongside the spiritual fruit, not even bothering to use spoons.

Honghong finished eating a fried egg larger than a normal goose egg and asked Abao out of curiosity, "Fatty, hasn't that seven-colored mountain chicken that lays the eggs already attained sentience? Ziwei said she has phoenix bloodline. Aren't these eggs basically her children? Can she bear to let people eat her children?"

Abao scratched his head and said, "I don't know either! That big sister is super arrogant and never puts us in her eyes. We couldn't be bothered to deal with her anyway, we're not close. But she did say these don't count as her children."

Li Yunfei explained, "A laying hen producing unfertilized eggs is actually just a physiological phenomenon, much like a human female's ovulation cycle. Eggs that haven't been fertilized cannot hatch into chicks; only fertilized eggs count as the mother chicken's children."

"Oh, so that's how it is!"

As they were chatting, Zhang Ziying walked down the stairs, neatly dressed. Being a cultivator, her physique naturally surpassed that of ordinary people, and she walked without any unusual signs.

"Eh? Sister Yingzi, how come it's only been one night, and you've broken through from the early Light-Foundation realm to the Spirit-Movement realm?" Xiaobei asked in sudden astonishment upon seeing Zhang Ziying.

Zhang Ziying's pretty face flushed imperceptibly. She vaguely mumbled, "Uh, well... I ate some spiritual pills."

"Ku... cough, cough..."

Li Yunfei cast a blank, warning glare at Honghong, who was struggling to hold back her laughter, and said with a deadpan expression, "Eat slowly, nobody is fighting you for it."

Abao, however, stared with glowing eyes and asked, "What kind of spiritual pills are so amazing? Big Sister Yingzi, do you have any more? Toss a few our way too!"

"Smack."

Li Yunfei dealt a light blow to the top of his head and retorted irritably, "You brat, you're always thinking about winning without effort. How can there be so many wonderful things in this world?"

"You can stop thinking about it. These spiritual pills are only effective for lower-stage practitioners in the Qi-Guiding and Light-Foundation realms; once you pass the Spirit-Movement realm, they lose their effect."

"Oh!" Abao and Xiaobei immediately drooped, slumping against the edge of the table to drink their porridge obediently.

Having disciplined the little fatty, Li Yunfei scooped a bowl of porridge for Zhang Ziying, placed it before her, and smiled with exceptional gentleness. "Eat your breakfast."

"Mmm." Zhang Ziying smiled demurely, cast a watery, affectionate glance at his way, and picked up the spoon in her bowl to eat.

The two little fatty boys leaned against the dining table, eating their breakfast while darting their eyes left and right, occasionally exchanging glances. They had a lingering sense that Li Yunfei and Zhang Ziying were acting a bit strange today, though they couldn't quite put their finger on what was amiss. Naturally, they could not comprehend the human form of communication known as making eyes at each other.

Li Yunfei was already at the late Golden Core realm. The primordial yang he had maintained for twenty-three years, once harvested by Zhang Ziying and refined, caused her cultivation to surge dramatically, propelling her straight from the early Light-Foundation realm into the Spirit-Movement realm. In game terms, it was equivalent to jumping ten levels all at once.

The benefits Zhang Ziying's primordial yin provided to Li Yunfei were also substantial, though it only bumped him up by a single level—which was still quite impressive. After all, for him to gain a level normally, he would have to take down a late Golden Core realm boss. Zhang Ziying's primordial yin was already equivalent to the experience value provided by a late Golden Core realm boss.

...

Not long after breakfast, Zhang Yingzhong and Li Xiuyun arrived. Since it was the weekend, Zhang Yingzhong didn't have to go to work, and the older couple had come specifically to see Abao and Xiaobei.

Li Yunfei called the brother and sister over and introduced them. The two youngsters obediently greeted them as uncle and aunt.

Looking at the pair, who looked like children straight out of a New Year painting, the elderly couple fell in love with them instantly. Li Xiuyun said with a beaming smile, "Such good children. We've lived for half a lifetime and never seen a giant panda in person. Who would have thought giant pandas could turn into humans now? They look so delightful."

Abao rolled his eyes, nudged Xiaobei, and the two turned around, scampering a short distance away before dropping to the ground as black and white radiances flickered over their bodies. Amidst the glow, the siblings' bodies rapidly expanded, coarse black and white fur sprouted out, and within moments, they reverted to their true giant panda forms.

In human form, they stood around 1.3 meters tall, but upon revealing their true forms, they grew to over 1.8 meters. One of them did a roll while the other did a somersault, scuttling up to the older couple. They extended their furry bear arms to hug each person's legs, tilted their heads back, and let out a series of cooing, whimpering barks.

Their roly-poly bodies and naive, adorable demeanor left the elderly couple utterly delighted and overjoyed, reaching out to gently stroke their heads.

It was the first time Li Yunfei and Zhang Ziying had ever heard a panda's vocalizations, and they were overwhelmingly cute. The two watched with smiles, their eyes filled with praise. Li Yunfei secretly transmitted his voice to the siblings: "Sensible, well done. Today, each of you gets an extra reward of fifty spiritual bamboo shoots."

Hearing this, the two fellows showed off even more enthusiastically to please them. Abao even stood upright in his animal form and began performing Tai Chi for the older couple, leaving Zhang Yingzhong so thrilled that he blurted out, "Kung Fu Panda!"

Forty years ago, when Zhang Yingzhong was still young, he had watched an animated film titled *Kung Fu Panda*, whose protagonist was precisely a giant panda who knew kung fu, named Abao. At the time, he probably never dreamed that one day he would actually witness a giant panda named Abao who knew kung fu performing martial arts right in front of him. At that moment, Zhang Yingzhong felt as if he were in a dream, momentarily unable to tell whether he had entered the animated world or the animated world had descended into reality.

That Abao bore that name was actually pure coincidence; when people of Great Xia named giant pandas, they usually intended it to carry auspicious blessings—such as Peace, Joy, Happiness, or Unity. Abao and Xiaobei were twin siblings born of the same litter, and their names signified that they were the treasures of Great Xia; it wasn't a deliberately chosen moniker. Who could have predicted that they would both be born with black and white fur, possess the primordial Yin-Yang sacred physique, be the first to attain sentience, and become spirits? Who could reason with that?

In truth, transformed demons rarely revealed their true forms unless they were fighting for their lives against enemies. Demanding that they reveal their true forms was practically an insult to them, and for a human, the worst psychological damage next to killing a demon was beating them back into their original forms.

Giant pandas, however, did not care about such things. Flattering humans was a survival skill passed down through generations for them, and acting cute and silly was their traditional craft and survival instinct. As long as you gave them perks, let alone revealing their original forms, riding them as mounts wouldn't be a problem at all. As long as you dared to ride, they dared to carry you.

If they were startled on the battlefield, hugging their master's legs to beg for protection and comfort was simply an instinctive reaction; you couldn't possibly blame them for not pulling their weight! Therefore, after learning some of Great Xia's "history," Abao and Xiaobei firmly believed that Chiyou had lost simply because his own strength was lacking, and it wasn't because their ancestors hadn't tried hard enough. As for what kind of mindset the person who told them this story had held, that remained unknown.