“Thank you, Daoist Da Wei! Truly, I don’t know what we would have done if you hadn’t agreed to help us.”
Da Wei smiled at the old man holding his hands as he trembled and wept in relief.
“It is alright, Chief. It wasn’t really that strong and we took care of it easily so it really is nothing you should worry about.”
“Easily, he says, not that strong, he says. How the hell am I supposed to reply to such absurd talk?”
Da Wei ignored Yin Lingxi’s grumbling from his side.
“Even still, I must express my gratitude to a great Daoist like you properly. Thanks to you, my son and daughter-in-law can rest in peace, knowing that their killer is dead.”
“Really, don’t do anything excessive. We are fine with our original agreement of providing us a place to stay for a day or two in this village.”
The old mortal vehemently shook his head at Da Wei’s words as the surrounding villagers gave a serious look at the two cultivators.
“Absolutely not! How can we not reward our benefactors properly? How would we face our ancestors in the afterlife if such a thing happened?”
With a tired sight, Da Wei gave a wry smile to the old man.
When he and the empress had stumbled upon this village during their travels, they had originally intended to stay here for a bit before venturing deeper into the Baihu Empire, aiming for the capital, which was still a few weeks away by their airship.
However, when they talked to the old mortal, he immediately kowtowed to the two of them and begged them for help in getting rid of a Demonic Beast who had been harassing their village for a few decades by this point.
In the end, Da Wei ‘negotiated’ a deal with the old man to provide the both of them with a place to stay for a few days in exchange for slaying the beast, a deal which the old man accepted eagerly.
In the end, the beast turned out to be a Magma Python that was at the peak of The Nascent Soul realm. Just on the brink of transforming into a newborn Dragon, a Fuzang-Long.
“Fine. What do you have in mind?”
“I have instructed my people to host a banquet in your honor and the best gift that this mere mortal village can prepare for you. Please accept it.”
Da Wei’s eyes widened at those words and prepared to dissuade such an action.
However, Yin Lingxi beat him to the punch.
“Of course. But, before that, we would like to rest a bit in our rooms.”
“HAHA! Of course, Daoist Yin. I’ll inform my people to not disturb you.”
With those words, the old man swiftly left the two cultivators alone and headed straight for his people, who were hanging back from the duo at a fair distance.
Da Wei gave a sullen look at his friend who gave the man a neutral look.
“Lingxi. What are you thinking? This village is located far from the nearest town and can’t produce their own food. Most likely, they hunt for their food from the forest and might not have much in the way of resources. Why accept a gift and a banquet from such people when it would no doubt deplete their meager food reserves and whatever wealth they have?”
Yin Lingxi stared at Da Wei for some time before giving a tired sigh and motioned him to follow her to their rooms.
“Da Wei, you are a very kind person. I lov-admire that about you. But, you need to understand that you cannot push your kindness on people when it might be interpreted as looking down on them.”
“…What do you mean? I never put my own feelings on other people if I can help it. I just don’t wish to burden their lives by taking a part of their limited resources when we don’t even need such things in the first place thanks to our cultivation.”
Yin Lingxi did not turn around, but a tiny smile blossomed on her face as her gaze grew gentle.
“Da Wei, everyone has their own pride. Even the mortals. Putting aside everything else, tell me something. If you were a mortal village chief who had the misfortune of being in the same position as that old man. Suddenly, two cultivators showed up at your doorstep and asked for a place to stay in exchange for getting rid of your greatest nemesis in life and then denying your offer to celebrate this miraculous event of your small life, how would you feel?”
“…I would feel that they were too conceited and did not consider our struggles to be something worth mentioning to someone like them. I would resent them for taking away my chance to joyously celebrate the demise of the monster that plagued my life.”
“Exactly. Now you understand. This celebration is as much for us as it is for the villagers. As I said, you care greatly for others, a trait that is almost nonexistent in this accursed world, but you must start to think about what your kindness appears as from the perspective of those that you are helping.”
Receiving no response, Yin Lingxi turned her head slightly to spot Da Wei from the corner of her eyes, catching him thinking deeply about her words, which made her smile even more.
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The two cultivators returned to their rooms, each lost in their own world.
----------------------------------------
The villagers screamed and laughed in joy as they drank alcohol and ate grilled meat to their heart’s content.
At the center of the village, the younger men and women, and even older people, laughed in joy and danced around happily to the music of the Zither, the Pipa, and the flute.
For this group of villagers, today was truly a miraculous day in their lives when they were finally rid of the demon that had taken so much from them.
Nobody knew when that beast originally appeared around the village since the village itself was a new settlement. Some even considered the possibility that it had been around even before this village was established.
In the beginning, it would only attack their hunters who ventured too deeply into the forest to hunt for food. However, as time passed, it started to attack the village itself at irregular times, with no apparent reason or motive.
Each passing day, the villagers spent their days in fear, the fear of losing their loved ones due to the actions of a beast that they could not hope to oppose since there were no cultivators in this village.
However, suddenly, they were rid of this demon that plagued their life and their hearts just like that, thanks to a pair of cultivators that randomly showed up at their village.
The celebrations went on with great joy as the chief watched on from the distance with a content smile.
His smile deepened even more as he watched the Daoist named Da Wei give a troubled smile at the girl who pestered him with a mischievous and sensual look.
“Daoist Da Wei, can you tell me more about the life of a cultivator?”
“Well, there is nothing much to say since I don’t have a point of reference. All I can tell you is my own experience….”
The girl, Chen Lin, the daughter of the best hunter in the village and someone considered the most beautiful woman in their village, clasped her hands together and looked up at the man with a cute look while also angling her body in a way that would definitely attract the attention of any man.
Watching all this, the chief could not help but applaud the cunningness of the girl as he knew exactly what she was doing, and he approved of such actions.
If he could tie down such a powerful cultivator to their village, then there is no doubt that they would flourish in the future.
For the sake of his people, he was willing to go along with such a blatant honeytrap method even if it meant slighting their benefactors. Even if it meant using the daughter of his dead friend as a honeytrap for a powerful cultivator.
While it might seem ungrateful, the tactics that the chief was using were something that was quite common across this continent. It is extremely common for those in power to try to use money, resources, and their children and subordinates to tie a powerful or talented cultivator to their forces.
And since it was a common tactic, there was no way an Empress like Yin Lingxi would not know it.
Yin Lingxi had been watching the entire exchange from the very beginning, watching as the mortal girl used extremely obvious and blatant seduction methods to try and tempt Da Wei into getting involved with her.
And she did not like it, not one bit.
For some reason, watching the scene made her feel as if she could not breathe and like something was scratching at her heart.
In truth, Da Wei was not the only target of this ‘Honeypot trap’ as several young and handsome men had been instructed by their chief to win over Yin Lingxi’s favor in any way they could. However, the emotions that Yin Lingxi felt as she watched Da Wei and Chen Li caused her to momentarily lose control of her cultivation which resulted in her Qi slowly leaking out of her body, causing the men to feel extremely uncomfortable as their bodies entered a fight or flight state whenever they approached her vicinity. This led to the empress being isolated within this large group of people.
As Chen Li made another provocative move and leaned her upper body against Da Wei, Yin Lingxi could watch no longer and swiftly approached her friend.
“Da Wei, can you bring me my space ring? I left it in my room accidentally?”
At those words, Da Wei looked at Yin Lingxi as if she were his savior and swiftly retreated from the place, leaving behind an irritated empress and an amused mortal girl.
“….I see, so I never had a chance from the very beginning then?”
“..I don’t know what you mean.”
“Heh~ is that so~”
Yin Lingxi glared at the mortal girl who handed over a cup of alcohol to the empress.
“Don’t be too hung up on it. I am only doing what is necessary for my people. I don’t really hold any feelings aside from admiration for his strength. If he is really unwilling, I’ll back off.”
“You should back off right now. He will never settle here no matter what tactic you use. Besides, he already has a family and a daughter.”
At Chen Li’s shocked look, Yin Lingxi turned her head away, very much aware of the double meaning she had implied with her words since she did it on purpose.
“…I see, then, I have advice for his family that I hope you will convey to them. They should express their feelings for their loved ones as soon as possible, lest they end up regretting it.”
This time, it was Yin Lingxi’s turn to feel confused and bewildered as Chen Li left her alone.
“Wait, what do you mean by those words?”
“….If you really don’t understand the meaning, then you might have yet to understand yourself better. When you do realize your own desires, you will also understand the meaning behind my words.”
Once again, Yin Lingxi felt nothing but confusion at those words. A feeling that she swiftly suppressed as she spotted Da Wei cautiously approaching her, keeping a wary eye on the surroundings to make sure that Chen Li was truly gone.
“Thanks for saving me from that trouble.”
“…think nothing of it. Let’s go, I feel hungry watching all these mortals enjoy themselves.”
“Oh! Then let's join them.”
“No. I want to eat the food from your storage.”
Instantly, Da Wei took a guarded stance while protectively hiding his Jade bracelet filled with Da Ling’s cooking.
When Da Wei first introduced the joys of cooking to his daughter more than a year ago, he would never have imagined that she would improve so swiftly that she left him behind in the dirt, even in terms of food from Earth that he introduced to her which she somehow ended up improving upon on the fly, making him feel extremely useless.
After tasting her food, Da Wei felt that any other food he ate tasted like dirt compared to his daughter’s cooking, a fact that even Yin Lingxi agreed with if the way she constantly fought with him to eat the food Da Ling prepared for Da Wei in the bracelet for his journey was anything to go by.
The only silver lining in all of this is that he practically had unlimited access to her cooking since she took great delight in cooking for him.
“Yin Lingxi, you have already emptied out your portion of the food that we prepared for an entire year’s journey and we are only two months into my task. I will not sacrifice my own portion of food to feed your gluttonous stomach that rivals my daughter.”
Yin Lingxi gave a dramatic look with a hand on her head and one on her heart, pretending to faint in anguish.
“Oh Heavens! What a friend I have. He is not even willing to give me some food. Is my friendship really not worth the food in his pocket?”
“Quit the dramatics, no matter what you say, I am not giving you my portion.”
“Oh, come on! A little bit won’t hurt right?”
“No!”
Da Wei immediately ran to their rooms as Yin Lingxi chased after him with a laugh, forgetting all about the encounter and emotional turmoil from before.
However, deep within her heart, a part of her could never forget the words spoken to her.