Chapter 48: The Most Difficult Thing to Bear is a Beauty's Favor

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  "Thank you, Sister." However, Lei Dong immediately drove out those random thoughts and gratefully accepted the bottle of Exorcism Dan.

  "No need to thank me, if I were to thank you, I'd have to thank you for that high-quality shield first." Ding Yuanyan saw Lei Dong's refreshing and quick collection, and her heart slightly relaxed. However, she thought of something again, and couldn't help but lightly laugh: "But speaking of which, Brother Lei, you actually made me take the blame for you, I should get a share of the spoils of war too. But isn't it a bit too little? That Ghostly Marquis's wealth is far more than this."

  "Hmm, Lei Dong was speechless for a moment. Is his own ancestor a gossipmonger? How did she reveal such top-secret information to Ding Yuanyan? He felt a surge of suffocating anger in his chest. It's not that he didn't trust Ding Yuanyan, but this matter was too big for him, and he couldn't afford any unexpected surprises. However, he also couldn't admit to it even if he died, so he could only force a smile and shake his head: "Sister, with my humble cultivation at the sixth layer of Qi Refining, how could I possibly be a match for the Ghost King's son? Don't wrong me like that."

  It seems like she saw through Lei Dong's thoughts, and a hint of cunning appeared in Ding Yuanyan's clear eyes: "As I expected, it's just as I guessed. Why would the old ancestor give me an upper-grade shield for no reason? And remind me to put the favor on your head, Lei Shidi. Think about it carefully, combining that day when the ghost arrived and you kept pretending to be weak, trying to cover up but making it more obvious instead... I had already suspected that maybe it was you who did something good. Just a casual try, and you indeed showed your true colors. Keep pretending if you want to. Do you know? In front of the ghost, pretending to be weak might make him think you're not strong enough. But in front of the old ancestor and Shijie, why bother? Who doesn't know that your real strength has already surpassed Left Shidi's? Even compared to me, Shijie, it won't be much different, right? If you didn't have any ulterior motives, and were being straightforward, then why would you go through so much trouble to pretend to be so pitiful?"

  Lei Dong suddenly realized, he had always been wondering why Lao Zu was so determined that he was the culprit? It turned out that the problem lay here, indeed as Ding Yuanyan said, his own weakness was that he pretended to be too clever. It's no wonder that Lao Zu and Ding Yuanyan, who knew their true strength was not weak and were calm and composed, would see through him.

  Fortunately, cheating on unfamiliar ghosts didn't cause much trouble for him, and he didn't even put himself in the list of suspects. Instead, it was Ding Shifu and that extremely famous Dongfang Xiang who attracted a lot of firepower.

  Lei's face was shocked and surprised, with a look of shame. Ding Yuanyan also found this bold and reckless junior brother somewhat amusing. She remembered that when he was still very young, he had killed an extremely evil and sinister personal disciple. After returning, he even pretended to be pitiful and told her about the injustice they suffered, making her think that the three of them were bullied terribly, and she was eager to take up her sword to help them win. Who would have thought that under Lei's lead, not only had they avenged themselves, but they had also looted everything, even feeding the ghosts with the corpses' souls. Fortunately, she had worried about him for nothing.

  "Hmm, hehe. Master sister is clever and has sharp eyesight, how can my little tricks deceive your wise eyes? Lei Donggan chuckled twice, patted his horse's buttocks, with a pitiful and flattering expression: "However, I still need master sister's help to keep this matter secret, otherwise, I'm just a small fry, can't withstand the overbearing aura of Ghostly Old Man."

  He put on such a pitiful and flattering face again. Ding Yuanyan couldn't help but smile, her beautiful eyes slightly sideways, and she coquettishly said: "If you know what's good for you, Shizhi, I can keep one or two secrets for you. Otherwise, it's better to sell you to the old ghostly evil, at least we can exchange a large amount of spiritual stone."

  "What can I do?" Lei Dong suddenly patted his chest, and said with a heroic tone: "Since childhood, Master Sister has always taken good care of me. In fact, even if Master Sister didn't mention it, I wouldn't let you take the blame for me, I would still want to be filial to Master Sister. So, as long as there's anything on my body that can be useful to Master Sister, just take it, and I won't frown at all."

  "That sounds good, but can you take out the spoils of war from Gui Sha's son and show them to me?" Ding Yuanyan's crystal-like lips lightly curled up, and she let out a series of soft hums.

  "Fine, fine. I'll take it out now..." Lei Dong saw that his attempt to divert attention had failed and could only prepare himself for a big loss, of course, his heart would ache.

  Just as he was about to take it out, Ding Yuanyan immediately stopped him, with a slightly satisfied soft laugh, and said with a slanted look: "Forget it, forget it. As your senior sister, how could I really covet the spoils of war that you risked your life for? I'm just teasing you, looking at your painful expression, isn't it embarrassing?"

  "No, no, I'm also telling the truth. Over the years, I've been taken care of by my senior sister. If I have something good, I'll give it to her without hesitation." Lei Dong's face turned serious and solemn: "However, you also know that this matter is of great importance, so I dare not be careless."

  "Consider yourself lucky." Ding Yuanyan nodded lightly and then her expression turned serious as she advised, "Younger brother, it's not that I want to nag you. It's just that you acted too rashly this time. That Ghost Slayer had so many top-grade artifacts on him, even I wouldn't have been confident in taking him down. And yet you, without a word, killed him just like that. If you'd been slightly careless, would you still be alive? From now on, don't be so impulsive, got it?"

  "Yes, sister. I remember." Lei Dong was also slightly moved and had to admit that his sister still cared about him deeply.

  "Ah, this Law Shield has been re-refined by the ancestors of the Luo family with great effort. Even if it were placed in front of a ghost, they wouldn't be able to recognize it." Ding Yuanyan's hand lightly raised, and she held up a shield that was shrouded in misty aura, ethereal and mysterious, with an extraordinary quality: "I've given it a name, the Ling Xiao Shield. Take it and hurry up to refine it, get familiar with it."

  Lei Dong was somewhat surprised. It's fine if Ding Ling didn't want other spoils of war, but this law shield was personally taken by the Old Ancestor and given to her with great willingness. Why did she want to return the law shield to him? Any top-grade artifact wasn't that easy to obtain. The Old Ancestor had accumulated so many years, and there were only a few dozen top-grade artifacts in the treasury. This shows just how rare top-grade artifacts are.

  It's also a great opportunity for these personally taught disciples to obtain top-grade artifacts. Those scattered cultivators outside the sect, who have no backing or support, often fight tooth and nail just for a decent lower-grade artifact.

  "Master sister, this..." Lei Dong said with some embarrassment: "This face-saving shield, I truly am willing to respectfully present it to master sister. Please don't make things difficult for me."

  "That's just borrowing it from you, Senior Sister." Ding Yuanyan seemed to have made up her mind to return the shield to Lei Dong. She directly handed it over to him and turned around to float away. With a press of her fingers, her figure became blurry and disappeared into the eerie and ominous aura, leaving behind a sentence that floated in the air: "Anyway, I don't really like fighting with people, but you seem to enjoy stirring up trouble outside, so keep it for yourself."

  The Dark Escape Technique was indeed incredibly mysterious, especially in this place surrounded by evil energy. In the blink of an eye, Dīng Wěi Yán completely disappeared from Léi Dòng's line of sight and divine sense. He called out "Shī Jiě" several times, but didn't get even a hint of response.

  Lei Dong looked at the shield floating in his hand, no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't see that it was still the original black aura surrounding, full of evil spirits and demons carved law shield. Indeed, no matter how he looked, he couldn't see the shadow of the original law shield. He shook his head with a bitter smile, this Ding sister, did he really deceive himself so easily? This was clearly not the original law shield at all, although it said that in terms of quality, it was in no way inferior to that black shield. Even if Lao Zu was bored and had nothing better to do, he wouldn't have spent so much effort to change the shield to be completely unrecognizable.

  He let out a soft sigh, gathered his scattered thoughts, and swallowed a pellet of Purging Evil Dan. Once again, he held his breath, focused his mind, and entered the state of refining his Qi through meditation. The true energy within his body was slowly circulating, becoming increasingly pure with each passing moment. Time continued to slip away, and all that could be heard was the faint howling sound of the wind blowing past his ears like a fierce ghost. The silence grew thicker, but Lei's heart remained as steady as a rock, unmoved. If he couldn't even endure this solitude, how could he possibly discuss defying the heavens through cultivation?

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