Li Yin stared at this beautiful merfolk for a moment, her mind stirring.
Helping him apply medicine would mean an opportunity for physical contact.
Her hands itched a little. She hesitated over whether to take advantage of the situation to form a Jade Ecstasy Seal and lightly supplement herself from this fish.
But this fish bore trauma toward the human race, and his cultivation was far above hers. Acting rashly without cheat props to help would easily expose her…
As her thoughts wavered, the merfolk sat on a nearby reef, gazing at her. The gradually surging waters of the Celestial Pool separated them, blocking her path.
Seeing the human girl on the shore hesitate, the merfolk let out a light hum.
His tail fin tapped the water’s surface, and ice shards instantly spread out. In the blink of an eye, the surrounding water froze solid, with the ice extending all the way to the shore.
“Aren’t you coming over yet? You’re so dumb—you can’t even use an ice condensation spell…” the merfolk grumbled.
It wasn’t that Li Yin couldn’t use spells; she was just pondering other matters.
She gave the bad-tempered fish a deep look but didn’t argue with him. Instead, she lowered her head to inspect the ice, carefully stepped onto it, and slowly made her way to the reef’s edge.
“You can’t even apply medicine properly, yet you have the nerve to call me dumb…” She picked up the medicine jar and muttered softly, promptly earning a glare from the merfolk.
The other race youth’s ear fins flushed slightly pink. With his temper, he surprisingly didn’t refute her words.
He merely slapped his tail against the ice and urged her irritably, “Hurry up and stop talking nonsense.”
Applying medicine to a target of conquest was something an experienced Player could handle with ease.
However, Li Yin didn’t act too proficient.
She moved slowly, her fingertips gradually scooping up some ointment. After a brief hesitation, she started applying it to his beautiful tail first.
Human fingers were the most dexterous. She slowly spread the refreshing ointment.
Unfortunately, she seemed inexperienced, applying it unevenly. Her warm finger pads accidentally brushed against the merfolk’s icy scales.
Li Yin clearly saw the spot she touched spasm sharply.
Ripples of aftershocks followed, and the brilliant gemstone scales immediately shimmered with light, clearly overly sensitive.
At the same time, a soft hum escaped the merfolk’s lips.
He was too sensitive—likely a lingering effect of past abuse, making it hard for him to accept a human’s touch for the moment.
Li Yin promptly stopped and looked up.
The proud merfolk didn’t want her to see his lapse in composure. He had turned and sprawled over the reef.
With his back turned, Li Yin could only see his reddened ear lobes.
Her gaze drifted lower. His thick, dark long hair draped down, covering his slender, pale back and vaguely concealing the tremors running through it.
She waited quietly for a moment. Once the merfolk’s shaking gradually subsided and he seemed to have recovered, she continued.
Li Yin’s fingertips pressed onto his silver-blue tail again. Stimulated, the tip of the merfolk’s tail immediately flicked up.
The merfolk turned back around, looking as if he had calmed down. He glossed over his earlier lapse.
His cheeks were slightly flushed. He frowned and parted his lips to complain, “Lighter!”
Unable to hold down the restless fish tail, Li Yin stepped back half a pace, afraid of getting smacked. She couldn’t help muttering inwardly, “The Dragon Clan isn’t as hard to serve as you…”
Her thoughts drifted, and she suddenly recalled something about the Dragon Clan Young Lord.
When they first met, that Little White Dragon had been badly injured and listless—a long, thin body hanging from a tree branch.
She had encountered him in the mountains by chance and mistaken him for a white snake. Muttering about the dumb snake, she reached up to help him down.
Dragons naturally had top-tier arrogance in their temperaments. Even gravely injured and mistaken for a snake, the Little White Dragon mustered a breath and whipped her with his long tail…
Li Yin subconsciously touched the back of her hand.
Lost in thought, a crisp slapping sound rang out, snapping her back to reality.
The merfolk slapped his tail, and Li Yin came to her senses. Reacting, she continued applying the medicine.
His tail was beautiful—rows of gorgeous, thin scales arranged neatly and orderly, in deep and mysterious shades of silver-blue. They shimmered with starlit brilliance.
Facing such a dazzling tail, any normal human cultivator would stare entranced, perhaps even wanting to claim it for themselves.
But the human girl before him kept spacing out, absent-minded—
His beautiful tail failed to fully capture her attention.
The other race youth’s fingers tightened, his fingertips digging forcefully into the rock beneath him.
His long lashes drooped, casting a shadow of gloom over his clear silver eyes.
The merfolk watched her apply the medicine haphazardly and bit his lower lip.
Why… Could it be that she likes dragons that much…
He felt a bit uneasy, a bit unwilling.
What was so great about the Dragon Clan? They were just arrogant maniacs with eyes only for themselves…
Li Yin, of course, had no idea what he was thinking.
“All done.” She finished applying the medicine, wiped her hands, and stood up. In the end, she decided against supplementing from this little fish.
The scars on his fish tail were evenly coated with the fragrant ointment, its effects remarkable. The scars visibly faded before her eyes and would fully heal before long.
“It might itch a bit? Don’t touch water for a while…” Li Yin tried to play the good doctor and give medical advice, but realizing how stupid that sounded when said to a fish, she corrected herself. “Don’t touch water until the medicine absorbs fully. Wait a bit before going back in.”
As she spoke, she glanced down at the medicine jar in her hand. It was almost empty.
But she had only treated his tail so far; his upper body still had scars.
Li Yin scraped out the last bits of ointment and rubbed them between her fingertips. “I’ll make more when I get back and bring it to you.”
The merfolk was unusually quiet this time. His medicated tail obediently stayed still.
He glanced at the human cultivator holding the medicine jar, then reluctantly offered her a shell artifact. “I’m not taking your things for free.”
“Hm?” Hearing this, Li Yin looked over.
The palm-sized pink shell held a handful of pearls, each round and lustrous with soft halos of rainbow light.
Who wouldn’t be happy receiving a gift? Especially since the Player felt this was her due.
The Player happily accepted the shell artifact. “Is this your thank-you gift?”
The beautiful merfolk immediately huffed lightly. “No, it’s just worthless junk I don’t want… Take it if you like.”
Bad-tempered fish.
But he was very good-looking.
For the sake of his good looks, the Player decided to temporarily forgive his bad temper.
After pocketing the item, Li Yin’s faint smile remained as she asked again, “Are you feeling a bit better now?”
This was truly important to her—it concerned whether she could successfully turn in the task.
Faced with the human girl’s concern, the merfolk turned his face away, as if too lazy to reply. Yet his ear fins quietly flushed a pale pink.
His tail flicked lightly in delight, the motion small, like a silent answer.
Li Yin didn’t notice and continued, “Human hearts are complicated. There are good and bad people in this world—not all are evil. At least the sect disciples and elders care about you a lot…”
The Player, fixated on her reward, showed sincere eyes. “If you’re feeling better now, could you help me with something?”
The merfolk, who had turned away, looked back. “What?”
His tail flicked lightly in delight again.
The human girl’s eyes curved happily as she watched him. Her lips parted and closed, voicing her words. “I took a sect mission… You might know about it. It was posted a long time ago, probably around when you first arrived.”
“Could you help me turn in that mission?” She tilted her head, her dark pupils clear and her gaze earnest.
Mission… Sect mission… When he first arrived…
The merfolk’s expression changed abruptly.
Of course he knew that mission. Otherwise, why would Myriad Beasts Sect disciples keep coming one after another to this frigid Celestial Pool to feed the fish?
“You—” His voice trembled. He bit his lip, his eyes reddening with shimmering tears, as if struck by some great shock.
The tears in his eyes were about to fall, but merfolk didn’t shed tears— theirs turned into merpearls.
Li Yin froze for a moment, only to see the merfolk fly into a rage.
A handful of fine pearls appeared in his hand—not a gift for her, but flung at her in fury.
“You despicable human! I knew you people are all profit-driven. Get lost—get out!”
The pearls scattered, clinking and rolling across the ice.
The Player dodged. The Player got angry.
The Player stormed off.
A white crane carried the sullen human girl away. In the blink of an eye, the Celestial Pool was left behind, giving the fish in the water only her back.
The ice platform she had stood on didn’t melt. The merfolk tumbled onto it.
He stared at her receding figure, mouth agape. Only then did he realize he didn’t know the human girl’s name.
“You—”
His reddened eyes widened, the word stuck in his throat.
He only uttered one syllable, his lips moving, unable to call out “Come back.”
He wanted to chase after her, but he hadn’t transformed yet.
Merfolk were born with exceptional cultivation talent, at the cost of difficult transformation, dependent on elusive opportunities.
A long time passed before this merfolk withdrew the ice and sank into the water.
With a flick of his tail, he dove deep.
Why should he chase after her to apologize? It was clearly her fault. She had approached him with ulterior motives after all…
A few small fish swam around him.
These little fish hadn’t awakened spiritual intelligence and didn’t understand quarrels. Someone fed them, and they were happy.
The little fish bubbled at each other, as if gossiping about how much they liked that person from earlier.
The merfolk swatted one little fish away with his tail.
“Don’t like her!”
He grabbed the dazed little fish again. “Humans are all cunning schemers who won’t lift a finger without gain. Wake up!”
The underwater world was always quiet. With no one around, he could only chat with the little fish.
But the unintelligent little fish were too dumb to understand the merfolk.
The fish-feeder left.
The little fish waited.
The next day.
The little fish surfaced.
The fish-feeder didn’t come.
The little fish sank.
The third day.
The little fish surfaced.
The fish-feeder didn’t come.
The little fish sank.
The fourth day.
…
The fifth day.
…
…
The fish-feeder never came again.
The little fish waited.
No tears in the water—only tiny merpearls.
In the now utterly quiet Celestial Pool, the beautiful merfolk slowly sank to the depths.
He looked at his fully healed fish tail, still radiating brilliant light even underwater.
He no longer admired his beautiful tail as before.
–
After leaving the Celestial Pool, Li Yin still didn’t understand why the merfolk had such a big reaction—not only driving her away but even throwing pearls at her.
She thought for a moment. Could her Max-Level Charm be fake?
The Player always felt something was off.
The Player calmly analyzed…
The Player suddenly clapped her hands, realizing belatedly.
She recalled his delighted tail tip flicks, the pale pink on his ear fins—his thin ear bones were naturally translucent.
The Player crossed out the “bad temper” label for the merfolk.
The Player changed “bad temper” to “tsundere?”.
After much thought, the Player nodded solemnly. Fortunately, she had plenty of experience dealing with this type of character.
Li Yin decided to leave him alone for a while. At least in the short term, she wouldn’t go looking for that fish again.
In the following days, the Player resumed cultivation and contracted two spirit beast cubs.
【Unlocked New Spirit Beast: Golden Thread Cat】
【Unlocked New Spirit Beast: Copper Coin Rat】
【Achievement Reward: Directed Random (2)】
The Player obtained two cheat props and turned her attention to other gains.
Myriad Beasts Sect used Equal Contracts. Upon successful contracting, the human side could comprehend the spirit beast’s innate skills.
Li Yin gained two new skills: the rat pup gave her Ground Detection Range, and the kitten gave her Fire Control.
In addition, there was the supplementary skill Spirit Communication—essentially telepathy with her tamed beasts.
But the little animals weren’t great at speaking yet. The cat and rat’s spiritual intelligence was too immature, like babies babbling.
Rather than teaching names first, Li Yin taught the two little ones their races.
She was human, Gold Orange was cat, Silver Gray was rat. For now, they used “human,” “cat,” and “rat” as code names for each other.
Besides contracting, the Player also took on other tasks.
Winter had arrived, with heavy snow sealing the mountains. Clearing paths fell to cultivators, and Li Yin had just acquired Fire Control—perfect for practice.
In her spare time between tasks, she made detours to town markets to buy supplies.
Myriad Beasts Sect’s Hundred Thousand Great Mountains spanned a vast area, where mortals and cultivators alike thrived under the sect’s protection.
Some ordinary cultivators, such as loose cultivators or outer sect disciples, possessed mediocre talent and comprehension. They could never advance their cultivation in their entire lives, so they focused on everyday life instead, running small businesses. This was how town markets developed.
The market bustled with activity. The player restocked some pet snacks, along with other essentials for cultivators, such as returning spring pills and divine movement talismans.
Li Yin realized she couldn’t always rely on the spirit bird for travel, so she bought a flying magic artifact. She didn’t use it often; it was just a one-finger-long little boat that she could hang from her waist belt.
【Held Items: Mustard Seed Pouch, Messaging Treasure Mirror, High-Grade Defense Cloak, Jade Ecstasy Myriad Methods, Jade Orchid Spirit Dew, Pearl, Ordinary Flying Artifact, Spirit Crystal, Pills, Talismans……】
After finishing her shopping, the player returned to her mission.
Li Yin held the map. The task she had accepted was to clear the mountain paths on the two nearby mountains, focusing only on the commonly used roads.
She planned her route and headed to the mountain on the left first. The clearing process went smoothly, with no accidents.
The player continued with her mission.
Snow crunched underfoot as she cleared her way up to the mountainside. Her gaze swept over a remote side path and suddenly halted.
She had discovered something. Li Yin walked over and examined it carefully.
In the pristine white snow lay a few streaks of vivid red.
It was solidified blood.
Her gaze shifted again. Beside the bloodstains lay a scattered, broken turquoise feather…
A peacock’s tail feather?
Li Yin recognized it.
She still had the white feather that Ji Little Dao Lord had given her hanging at her waist. As she inspected the bloodstains and the feather, the pure white plume quietly and slowly turned black.
There were other demonic cultivators here besides her.