Who is spreading rumors that my filial piety towards them has changed?

The women agreed and, led by Chu Mingkong, arrived at the riverbank in the suburbs.

The surrounding environment is serene, the river water is clear, and small fish occasionally leap and splash on the surface of the water. Then a large, ferocious carnivorous fish leaps out and follows, eating the small fish. Then an even larger fish appears and eats the big fish.

"???"

A series of big question marks hung above the girls' heads.

Wei Qingning already knew about the river's condition and explained briefly:

“A tributary of this river extends from the abyss, so it contains some ferocious fish species. What’s strange is that the water quality has not been affected by the abyss.”

Yongzhen painstakingly wrote down her inquiries:

[Are there old men fishing in places like this? Aren't they afraid of getting eaten by the fish?]

You can indeed vaguely see people on the riverbank from the opposite side, but they are all young cultivators who are just beginning to learn magic and fishing.

Seeing this, they all knew that Chu Mingkong was definitely lying!

"Cough cough!"

Chu Mingkong was even more embarrassed, his face was too embarrassed to show his face. He used to think that since it was impossible to verify, it was up to him no matter what. Even if they went to verify it themselves in private, it wouldn't matter - unless these girls followed him back to Xiling and asked him to lead the way to confirm it. He never expected that such a day would actually come.

"Experts always choose extraordinary places to fish." He could only be stubborn, but his argument was hardly convincing.

Jin Yu was somewhat disappointed that she didn't find the reclusive old man she had imagined, but she didn't give up hope:

"Then let's go to a teahouse. Mingkong, have you decided which teahouse you want?"

Chapter 185 A Frenzied Card Draw! (11/38)

"Xiling... will it be called the Xiling Kingdom from now on? Separating from the Tianji Empire... Actually, I had a feeling this was going to happen before. People were in a state of panic back then, but things turned out alright. I never thought I'd actually see this day come..."

"Yes, but I don't know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. This is going against the Tianji Empire. The Tianji Empire has a deep foundation. I don't know about its history, but from the perspective of the older generation, it has not experienced any major upheavals for several generations. It is incredibly powerful and mighty... What should Xiling do if it has to face such an opponent as an enemy in the future?"

"An enemy is always an enemy. Didn't you see the notice board? Even if you can't read, you should have heard how those people with foul voices recited it, right? Large swathes of land in Xiling have been turned into an abyss, all because of the emperor! How many people died back then?"

"Actually, I had already guessed this before. It's not good to make wild guesses without evidence, but the only party involved is the royal family... Now it's just that the emperor has said what is already a done deal. Moreover, the emperor caused such a thing in Jin. If Xiling falls in the future, we will suffer the same fate!"

After Chu Mingkong and his group arrived at the teahouse, the conversation there revolved entirely around the various events that had been circulating from Tianya Tower since that morning.

The myna bird in the cage stopped talking and remained quietly, as if it possessed intelligence, without disturbing the tea drinkers' conversation.

In a sense, the current atmosphere saved Chu Mingkong's life. It would be strange if a literary figure could come out of this teahouse to express his leisure and wield his pen.

Jin Yu and the other girls, their faces veiled, sat together at a table in the corner, listening to the various discussions in the teahouse. This corner, separated by a screen, was surprisingly quiet.

They weren't from Xiling, but having left their hometown of the capital where they had lived for so long, the feeling of being far from home was lingering in their hearts. They could probably all sense the fear and unease that ordinary people felt about the unknown changes in their lives in this atmosphere.

Listening to these words tinged with sighs, they suddenly realized that the pressure they faced was not as great as that of these ordinary people.

At least Chu Mingkong had always taken the burden off them. Apart from a few days of running around, had she ever really faced too much pressure?

Even with an unknown future, seeing Chu Mingkong by her side made her less anxious.

As they listened, the topic of conversation in the teahouse shifted again—

"But that young master is indeed remarkable. I heard that during that disaster, he was at the epicenter of the explosion of the Yin Core. I heard from some traveling merchants that he was half-dead and half-crippled, and it took him a long time to recover before he could go out and move around again. A few days ago, he even caused the emperor a great loss. It seems that he was still hanging around in front of Tianya Tower yesterday!"

"So, is the Abyss wound healed? How was it treated?"

"That's unclear. Perhaps there was some fortuitous encounter, but I heard that the Crown Prince still relied on the extreme Yin power brought by the Abyss Wound to cause the Emperor great losses. Wouldn't you say that he shot himself in the foot?"

"So what was called the 'Abyss' has become an 'opportunity' in the young master's eyes. Good people are always blessed by heaven. This is all good for us. The proclamation does not require us common people to do anything. We can just live our lives in peace and wait for an explanation."

Chu Mingkong hadn't spent a long time in a teahouse listening to others talk about him like this. He was never mentally prepared to enjoy being the center of attention, but sometimes he had no choice in the matter.

He used to enjoy the gossip about him from the teahouse patrons in Beijing. Nobody really likes being pointed at and talked about, but back then, the negative reviews were necessary for him, which was quite contradictory.

It reminded him of the time when Fengying stepped on his face, which hurt his pride as a man. But having a beauty of that caliber press her jade feet against his face was actually quite wonderful. People really do live in a world of contradictions and opposites.

However, Chu Mingkong did not expect that when he returned to the teahouse in his hometown, he would hear more praise than criticism, which he found quite unusual.

The girls were also happy to hear compliments about their sweethearts from strangers, and they listened silently.

Among the stories were some anecdotes from his childhood, which made them listen even more attentively, completely forgetting their original purpose of questioning and investigating the true nature of the Xiling Teahouse.

Chu Mingkong was naturally not foolish enough to disturb this situation, otherwise, when they came to their senses and pressed for the truth, Chu Mingkong would have no way to explain.

Chu Mingkong didn't waste this waiting time. He summoned the familiar blind box interface in his field of vision, and sweetly said to himself:

"System, dear mom, a day without chatting with you feels like three autumns. I want to try my luck with blind boxes. Do you think I have a chance to get something?"

This is blatantly relying on personal connections!

Although it goes against the random spirit of blind box gacha, it's not shameful to do it in order to get the desired item.

The female voice that came from the depths of my mind was exceptionally ethereal and gentle:

There is a chance.

This must be a hint, right?

"Before I draw it, I want to ask, if I break through this Filial Piety System again, what changes will you experience? When will I be able to see you again? If it's inconvenient to say, then don't say it. But please don't ignore me for a long time, it's causing me great distress."

[It will take at least two, maybe three, depending on the circumstances. You will then see my 'illusory form.' If you can help Feng Keqing master her cultivation technique sooner, you can speed things up. It's a shortcut, but it's still slower than directly breaking through the system you mentioned.]

...It depends on the environment?

What kind of environment is this? Shouldn't this so-called system upgrade be fixed? How can it be affected by this so-called "environment"?

"May I ask you more about what you just said?"

Don't ask, or you'll suffer.

Hearing those words spoken in that ethereal and slow tone, Chu Mingkong felt a strange sense of playfulness.

"Okay, then I won't ask anymore. I remember I can feel you through touch, right? Can I hug you?"

I can't hug you, but I can step on you like before.

Chu Mingkong nodded secretly, accepting it even if it was difficult.

"I was reluctant at first, but I wanted to get closer to the system mom. Since you say I can only step on it, then I'll step on it!"

A clear, tranquil ripple spread across the Shenshan Mirror Lake, all because a beautifully crafted, jade-like foot stepped into the water.

Chu Mingkong had already tensed his face, ready to be stepped on at any moment, but unexpectedly, the feeling of being lightly stepped on landed on his thigh.

It was as if a beautiful, soft jade foot had truly stepped onto his thigh.

Although it wasn't as impactful as I had imagined, it was quite comfortable.

In a joyful mood, Chu Mingkong began drawing cards wave after wave, like paying a grain tax, depositing his filial piety savings into blind boxes.

The first batch of items did indeed ship. The subsequent batches didn't receive the same level of attention as I had imagined, but it was still similar to the initial blind box experience. After a few clicks, the deep red "Blood Disaster" would appear, and then transform into high-quality, exquisite gift boxes that would fall into my pocket.

When I first broke through the system, I was short of money for both ordinary and corrupted acts of filial piety, and even tightening my belt wasn't enough.

However, with the price of blind box lotteries rising, I didn't expect to save up quite a bit after a while. Perhaps this was due to the generosity of two mothers who stayed up all night. In any case, I managed to collect about a hundred boxes.

In the end, he managed to produce five red-quality "gifts specifically for elders," as well as a variety of gold and purple items. Chu Mingkong didn't even glance at these; he simply sold them all to Qingse to become her friend of women.

What disappointed Chu Mingkong about the five gifts was that some of them were duplicates, but it couldn't be said that the gifts were bad.

After drawing so many strange things, Chu Mingkong subconsciously felt that everything he could draw must be those weird contraptions, completely forgetting that in the beginning, he had drawn many legitimate things.

For example, the pendant given to Madam Zhen, and the wordless martial arts manual given to Ke Qing.

"It's that wordless book again, the one called the 'Illustrated Book of Otherworldly Treasures.' It can't be without words, how am I supposed to know what's inside, or who I should give it to?"

Chu Mingkong mentally "pulled out" that familiar booklet to examine it, and sighed that it was not worth selling to Qingse, and it would be difficult to sell even if he did, because others might not believe that this wordless book could reveal cultivation techniques!

I'll show them to the girls one by one later, and see who can spot the clues. These are things that won't sell for a good price if given to our own people.

"I remember giving Aunt Gu a piece of the medicinal polymer that looks like a cow before. She scolded me for it. I don't know if she ever used it to make soup."

Chu Mingkong opened the filial piety ledger and scrolled up to see if there were any messages from the thing he had drawn before.

After taking stock of the accounts, Chu Mingkong discovered that Aunt Gu hadn't touched that medicinal herb for a long time. She had only used it once recently, and that was the only time.

He calculated the time, and it seemed... it was the day Aunt Gu returned from Qingse's place, made him soup by mistake, and then her silk-stockinged feet used to neutralize the excess medicinal effects...

It would be better to let Qingse keep this for future auction preparations.

"The two red-quality jade dildos are also duplicates. One is wood-attribute, which has a vine-like binding effect and a wind vortex suction effect. The other is earth-attribute, which has an earth-shaking effect..."

My goodness! These two things seem more suited for using as weapons to fight people!

Naturally, this stuff should be given to Qingse to sell as well. Three top-quality women's personal items, plus a bunch of random gold and purple quality items, I don't believe they can't support an auction exclusively for female cultivators!

"I'm familiar with this last one, it's a section of a fox tail, what effect could match the red quality... After wearing it, it creates an illusion of a fox demon that cannot be seen through?!"

Wei Qingning's voice brought Chu Mingkong back to reality from her reverie. She asked, with a mixture of fear and caution:

"...Brother, has something happened? Why does your face look so strange?"

--------

P.S.: I'm completely out of inspiration. I've already browsed through all the shops on Taobao, and I spent ages lingering in the butt model and lingerie sections. What else can I write about?

Let's get some LSP crowdfunding inspiration!

Chapter 186 Allocation on Demand (12/38)

"It's alright, it's alright!"

Feeling the girls' gazes drawn to him, Chu Mingkong waved his hands repeatedly, trying to get their attention back on him.

But that's just how some things are. When you're engrossed in something, you don't notice how time flies by. You become so absorbed in it that you can't stop. But once you're interrupted, that enthusiasm vanishes, and it's hard to pick up where you left off and savor the experience again.

Just like Chu Mingkong used to play mobile games and did a day's daily routine, if he was too busy and missed it, he might never touch it again.

Jin Yu, Yong Zhen, and Rong Er were initially listening with great interest to the discussions in the teahouse, but after Qing Ning interrupted them, they lost interest in listening and turned their attention to Chu Ming Kong, as if he were the next person to be amused.

Chu Mingkong didn't want to bring up the past again. He could just let the matter of the Xiling Teahouse pass by casually. Why take it so seriously?

He immediately took out the freshly printed, still-warm, illustrated book of otherworldly treasures.

Jin Yu asked curiously, "What is this? Why is it covered in a layer of fog?"