The entire sect is obsessed with love, but I'm the only one who's truly insane.

Lin Du was clearly smiling. She was tall and slender, and all the food she ate in the past year had been used to grow taller, so even wearing a cloak, she looked thin.

Even though this person was so thin and looked completely harmless, his kind smile still made Li Dong and Ni Si, who were standing in front of the cabinet, take a step back, and they thought again of the biting cold that had dominated them by that thin layer of ice.

Lin Du took a step forward, and they took a step back, until she reached the center of the hall, at which point the three of them stopped.

"You all seem to be afraid of me?"

She slightly raised her eyebrows, her gaze sweeping over the ordinary wooden boxes in their hands—the ones Du Shao had just thrown away.

Wooden boxes are not very good at preserving the medicinal properties of herbs. After a thousand years, the herbs inside are probably just a bunch of shriveled and dried-up waste.

Li Dong thought to himself, how could he not be afraid? The tree demon could freeze people without warning. If it weren't for the tree demon going crazy and somehow destroying the thin ice, he and Ni Si would probably be dead by now.

Lin Du chuckled and turned his gaze to Ni Si. "Aren't you curious about what I just said?"

Ni Si paused for a moment, then asked, "Which sentence?"

Lin Du, good-natured, pulled his cloak tighter and put his hands in his pockets, saying, "Playing both sides."

A murderous glint flashed in Li Dong's eyes. "Sisi, don't listen to her nonsense!"

"Fellow Daoist Ni, aren't you curious why I know Li Dong?" Lin Du took another step forward casually. "Because the first woman to help me in this world was his fiancée, and now she's an inner disciple of the Jishi Sect. I think she's probably the cousin Li Dong mentioned?"

"Lin Du! Don't talk nonsense. He's just my fellow villager." Li Dong clenched his fist, then turned and took Ni Si's hand. "Si Si, don't believe outsiders trying to sow discord."

Lin Du kept his eyes on Ni Si, and when he saw a change in her pretty face, he smiled and said, "I just want to tell you that feeling sorry for a man will bring you bad luck for a lifetime, and spending money on a man will bring you bad luck for three lifetimes."

The man immediately sounded like a typical "phoenix man" (a man from a poor background who achieves success in his career). She didn't believe that Li Dong and Ni Si from the original story could end up happily married.

She casually rolled up her sleeves. "Let's go."

Li Dong turned around and stood in front of Ni Si, holding her arms with both hands and looking at her earnestly, "Sisi, don't listen to her nonsense. This person was blackmailing you from the beginning, and now she's spouting lies and trying to drive a wedge between us. She's just a wicked person who can't stand seeing others do well."

Lin Du stopped in his tracks. A born bad seed?

She chuckled softly, "This is nothing."

"Sister, aren't you leaving?"

Upon hearing this, Li Dong was startled and turned his head in surprise.

Behind the rosewood lattice door, another figure in water appeared.

Who else could it be but Du Shao?

Lin Duyin flicked his hand behind his cloak, dispelling the silencing spell.

Du Shao, however, remained choked up and unable to speak.

"Hey sis, need a service to insult me? I don't charge you for it."

Du Shao stared at the utterly astonished man before her. She knew this man all too well; they had known each other for twenty years, and she had never realized he was such a fickle and unfaithful person.

Since they entered their respective sects, the two of them rarely met and relied on correspondence. Li Dong was quite angry with her for being so resolute and ignored her for a long time until she sent him some clothes and basic medicine. Only then did she resume communicating with him.

Looking back now, I'm afraid it was all for her resources in the Jishizong sect.

But how is that possible?

The Li Dong she remembered was a boy who would share all the good food with her, even if he didn't eat it himself, and who would use his meager allowance to buy her hairpins. He was also the boy who would secretly cry under the covers because he didn't want to be separated from his mother when she went home to visit her family.

Not this one, whose every word is about foundation building and resources, a man who claims to be proposing marriage to someone else, a complete liar.

Du Shao took a deep breath, feeling as if her internal organs were burning and her heart and lungs were scalding. "I'll give you one last chance to explain."

Lin Du's expression froze, and he turned his head away, suppressing the thought of uttering "grass" that was about to spill out.

She infused this scumbag with extremely cold energy, which is why she could sense it.

Ni Si and Li Dong were definitely unwilling to split up, so after discovering that the aura was getting closer and closer, she took advantage of Du Shao rummaging through things and quickly went out to set up a simple guiding formation.

She went to great lengths to bring the three of them together, and Li Dong lived up to her expectations by performing as expected. Now, Du Shao is giving her one last chance.

Lin Du clutched his heart, feeling as if it were about to burst with anger.

She was really about to break down.

In the modern world, her backstage private messages are filled with love-struck individuals asking, "Should we give him another chance?" Why does she have to suffer this kind of torment again in the cultivation world?

Lin Du raised her hand, the veins on the back of her pale hand standing out. She pressed her forehead and said in her mind, "System, if they still don't split it today, I'm really not doing it anymore."

[Host, please suppress your emotions. You don't want to be so angry a second time, do you?]

"A-Shao...I..."

Ni Si stared at Du Shao, sizing her up with an unfriendly gaze. "Who are you to Li Dong?"

Li Dong's heart skipped a beat, and he blurted out, "We're from the same hometown."

Du Shao closed her eyes, her anger turning into a mocking laugh. "Since we're just from the same hometown, let's return our engagement tokens to each other. I'll give you back your jade pendant, and you return my spirit sword. Our engagement is off."

As she spoke, she forcefully tore off a sachet she always wore, and the love knot on it swayed violently in the air.

To avoid damage, she carefully kept the jade pendant in a sachet engraved with a defensive array. It was just an ordinary jade pendant with negligible spiritual power, but she always regarded it as a treasure.

Du Shao stared straight at the person in front of her. "Is there anything else you want to say?"

Li Dong tightened his grip on the spirit sword.

Ni Si also noticed this scene and frowned. "You once told me that this spirit sword was passed down to you by your parents?"

Du Shao sneered, "In the past, they could indeed be considered half parents, but now, they are merely a gift from our fellow villagers."

Li Dong hesitated for a long time before finally making up his mind and angrily rebuking her, "A-Shao, I've always treated you like a younger sister. That jade pendant isn't some kind of token of love, and this spirit sword is a family heirloom. Are you out of your mind to spout such nonsense?"

Lin Du raised an eyebrow upon hearing this, and couldn't help but applaud the scumbag's mental fortitude. Seeing that he couldn't win Du Shao back, he decisively abandoned the pawn to save the king. He truly lived up to his reputation as a cunning and ambitious man from a poor background.

Du Shao was so shocked by Li Dong's shamelessness that she was speechless.

Before she could speak, the man continued to frown and lecture her in a seemingly earnest older brother tone, "Yes, I know you've always admired me, but I've always treated you like a younger sister. I gave you the jade pendant because I saw you liked it, but I didn't expect you to misunderstand like this. I know you were upset when you heard me talking about proposing to Sisi, but I truly love her, and she will be your future sister-in-law. Please stop making a fuss."

"From childhood to adulthood, I have only ever loved one person, Sisi. From the day I entered the sect, I fell in love with her at first sight."

Ni Si's expression relaxed slightly upon hearing Li Dong's words, then she raised an eyebrow and lifted her chin, "You heard everything? Stop daydreaming."

To make a woman's words unbelievable, all you need to do is accuse her of harboring resentment out of love.

Du Shao's face was as pale as paper, her facial muscles twitching as if she was too angry to speak, and her usually gentle and bright eyes were now flashing with a broken light.

[Current progress of Instance 1: 100%, Drop reward: Qi-Boosting and Qi-Relieving Pill x1]

"I'll interrupt for a moment." Lin Du put the extra pills in his palm into his storage ring. His heart pain had subsided, and he felt more energetic.

"You're engaged, but don't you have a marriage certificate?"