Chapter 27: Calculations

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  Due to Ding Yuanyan's reputation and cultivation in this generation, she has reached the point where all her peers must look up to her. And yet, her personality is cold and detached, as if she was born with a demeanor that rejects people from afar, which makes it difficult for anyone to dare initiate a conversation with her. However, this does not mean that the young and vigorous youths do not have any affection or admiration for her in their hearts.

  Her icy skin and jade bones, cold and elegant, with excellent qualifications, her cultivation progressed rapidly. With all these advantages, Ding Yuanyan had unknowingly become a legend in the eyes of her fellow disciples. She was like a proud goddess who did not eat human fireworks, high above, respected, worshiped, and adored, with a vague infatuation hidden deep within their hearts.

  However, most people only dare to hide this ambiguous infatuation in the deepest part of their hearts. The huge difference between the two parties can easily make people feel inferior. Even Chen Ge, who was mature beyond his years as a young man, felt that when speaking in front of Ding Shi Jie, his tension level was not half a degree lower than when facing Lao Zu.

  Perhaps the only exception is Zhou Minghua, one of the three personally taught disciples of Laozu. He thinks he is a prodigy, although he secretly thinks that compared to his master sister, he is slightly inferior, but he is much stronger than others.

  At this time, he and several fellow disciples were not far from the two men, as a direct disciple, he would never lack followers around him.

  "Lei Dong!" Grinding his teeth, he muttered the name in his heart. His eyes had already turned slightly red with jealousy. An ordinary disciple who only had three layers of refined Qi. How could Ding Shifu be someone that a good-for-nothing like you could lay hands on? It's simply a toad thinking it can eat swan meat.

  Lei Dong seemed to be unaware that he had been torn apart in many people's hearts, and calmly took out a delicate carved bracelet from his storage waistband, slightly extending it forward. Before Ding Yuanyan could wake up from her astonishment, the man said with an extremely sincere and respectful face: "Sister, please don't misunderstand, Lei is not trying to flatter you."

  His words were quite skillful, and the gift of a beautifully carved silver bangle to the young woman was likely to make her feel uneasy, wondering if he had ulterior motives. However, Lei Dong used a phrase that was not flattery, indirectly hinting to Ding Yuanyan that he wasn't thinking about pursuing anything romantic with her. His mind was preoccupied with clarifying that his intentions were pure and not motivated by self-interest. Pursuing someone is a matter between men and women, whereas flattering someone is related to social status and has nothing to do with gender. Although the phrase "flattering" made Ding Yuanyan feel slightly uncomfortable, her guard had been lowered by half.

  "Lei Shidi, what's this?" Ding Yuanyan couldn't quite grasp his intentions for a moment. It wasn't pursuit, nor was it flattery. What did he want to do? But she didn't realize that she had already been led by the nose without knowing it.

  "The situation is this: about two years ago, Lei was capturing yin souls in the wilderness. Under extremely good luck, he actually caught a mid-grade spirit ghost."

  Even Ding Wanyan was slightly surprised: "Lei Shidi, you're quite lucky."

  Lei had already made up his mind and prepared his speech. He spoke fluently, "Although I also cultivate the Ghost-Subduing Spell, due to my limited financial resources, after careful consideration, I think selling it would be better. After selling that mid-grade spirit ghost, I used the money to exchange for a high-grade Soul-Nurturing Tower and raised three low-grade spirit ghosts. After nurturing them for two years and making several blood sacrifices, their overall combat strength is actually better than using an initial-stage Soul-Nurturing Tower to nurture a mid-grade spirit ghost. When my cultivation realm improves later on, it will be easier for me to obtain a mid-grade spirit ghost again."

  Ding Wanyan thought along his line of thinking and indeed found some reason in it: "The idea is not bad, but the middle-grade spirit ghost is relatively rare. Even if your boundary is high, it's not easy to get one. However, you have a top-grade soul-nurturing pagoda in hand, so it won't be a loss." But she still couldn't figure out what this had to do with the storage ring on his hand.

  "At that time, when buying the top-grade Nurturing Soul Tower, I happened to see this storage wristband. Lei Dong's face showed a grateful expression again: 'At that time, I was thinking that Master Sister had helped me, Lei, with great kindness, and I hadn't even expressed my gratitude yet. And then I saw that the wristband looked good, just suitable for Master Sister, so I bought it back on impulse.'"

  Ding Wanyan heard him say beautiful, and also unconsciously sized up the storage bracelet. Indeed, the craftsmanship was exquisite, with hollows in between, like stars twinkling. However, when she helped out that day, there were some factors of shared adversity and her own personality at play, not expecting to be repaid or anything. It's not good manners to accept someone else's gift either.

  Just as she was about to refuse the gift, Lei Dong's expression turned sincere: "Sister Ding, please don't decline. What may be a trivial matter for you could be a life-or-death issue for my brothers and me. How can a simple storage wristband possibly repay the great kindness of saving our lives? If Sister won't accept it, I fear that I will be restless day and night for the rest of my life."

  Ding Wanyan was somewhat moved by his words. Firstly, the storage bracelet was indeed beautiful, and any girl would like it. Secondly, he had already elevated the situation to a life-saving grace, and if she didn't accept it, wouldn't that be too ungrateful, betraying his kind intentions?

  Jian De saw Ding Wanyan hesitating, and Lei Dongqing knew that things were almost done, so he proactively stuffed the storage bracelet into her hand, bitterly smiling: "If you don't take it, I'll have to wear this lady's storage bracelet myself, which is really ridiculous."

  "Then thank you, Lei Shidi." Ding Yuanyan also really liked the bracelet and didn't decline it anymore. It's not hard to understand why, although it was added as an afterthought, it had been repeatedly compared over 20 days beforehand. Not seeking the best quality, but seeking a first-class shape design.

  She didn't mind this gift, but it made all the fellow disciples who had intentionally or unintentionally noticed this scene collapse. This guy had already committed a heinous crime by going up to flirt with Eldest Senior Sister Ding, and yet he still dared to send her gifts. Fine, she accepted them, and Eldest Senior Sister Ding unexpectedly took them.

  For a moment, many people began to stare at Lei Dong with envy, even Chen Ge and Wei Hua were jealous of him. The one who reacted the most strongly was Zhou Minghua, another direct disciple of Lao Zu, whose eyes almost spat out fire.

  In fact, Leidong had been paying attention to Zhou Minghua all along. Originally, this storage wristband was intended to be given to Ding Yuanyan privately, in order to strengthen the relationship between the two of them and curry favor with his Master's sister. Just in case something happened in the future, he could still get a word in edgewise from his Master's side. However, after learning that Zhou Minghua had already reached the fourth layer of Qi refinement more than a year ago, and it was highly likely that he would make things difficult for him during this three-year small competition, Leidong had some thoughts.

  If Zhou Minghua was just simply making things difficult and humiliating, then so be it. But what's scary is that this person is young and arrogant, and wants to take advantage of his own power to deal a heavy blow to himself. If that's the case, then he certainly won't show any mercy. Let alone being the direct disciple of Old Ancestor, even if Old Ancestor himself were to personally poison him, being able to counterattack before dying would be good enough. Of course, as for whether or not he'd succeed, that's a whole different story.

  It's also because of this that I had to think of a way, in front of everyone, to temporarily hug my master sister's thigh. Firstly, it would make Zhou Minghua dare not act rashly and have some reservations when he wanted to poison me. Secondly, even if he didn't care about the consequences and insisted on pushing himself towards death, at least he would have a reason to hesitate in his own hands. And also, I had previously reported the matter of the top-grade Soul Nurturing Tower and the three ghostly guards to Master Sister, so when the time comes, taking out the three ghostly guards to counterattack wouldn't seem too sudden. If it's just said that the low-grade ghostly guards were upgraded too quickly, it can be attributed to the effects of multiple blood sacrifices. This also happens to explain why each of my low-grade ghostly guards has innate magical abilities. It's worth noting that even if they are low-grade ghostly guards, after multiple blood sacrifices, there is still a chance for them to acquire innate magical abilities.

  Furthermore, the ghost slaves who have been blood-sacrificed are, in a sense, already connected to their master's consciousness and lifeblood, belonging to their master's life. It may be possible for others to kill them, but it is almost impossible to capture them in a soul tower and then conduct quality identification. Of course, one could force Lei Dong to make the ghost slaves agree to be captured and identified. However, if things were to develop to that point, it would already be a situation where they are suspected and their faces are exposed. At that time, it would be simpler to just extract their souls and refine their spirits.

  ……