I have the best bloodline

However, as she tiptoed in, Su Yan felt incredibly cold, and the ground seemed to be shaking as if she were on a boat, making the sleeping little nine-tailed fox feel seasick.

Su Yan groggily opened her eyes and met a pair of bright blue eyes. As she breathed, her body rose and fell with her chest, and Su Yan realized that the feeling of cold was not an illusion.

Merfolk generally inhabit the deep sea, and their body temperature varies with the environment. Under normal circumstances, a merfolk's body temperature is only one degree or 0.5 degrees higher than the ambient temperature.

It is now late autumn, and for foxes, the pads on their four paws are used for heat dissipation.

Now, with his foreleg pads pressing against Jiao Nanwu's skin and his hind legs stepping on silk clothing, the temperature difference he already felt, combined with Jiao Nanwu's low body temperature, made it feel like he was in an ice cellar to Su Yan.

"Alas"

Su Yan shivered, pushed off Jiao Nanwu's body with her forelegs, and landed on the dormitory floor. She transformed back into her own body, hugged her arms, and began to rub them vigorously to increase her temperature.

The human form and the fox form feel very different. Su Yan's transformation is truly authentic. In her nine-tailed fox form, she relies on her tongue and paw pads to sense temperature and dissipate heat, but after transforming into human form, she relies on her skin, just like a human.

"I almost froze to death. It felt like licking a block of iron in the dead of winter."

Su Yan squatted on the ground and rubbed her skin vigorously to warm it up, but even so, she would still shiver occasionally.

The fox was completely numb, having no idea how long its paws had been pressed against Jiao Nanwu to accumulate so much coldness, almost freezing itself into an Arctic fox-like shape.

"?"

Jiao Nanwu's face showed a look of astonishment. She looked at Su Yan, who was squatting on the ground as if he had been ghosted, and then glanced at her own thermal suspension and winter nutrient storage plates:

"Don't you like this? I remember humans seem to really appreciate the insulating layer on my body; I thought foxes would like the feel of it too."

"To be honest, I still like it."

Su Yan mentally scoffed. After all, even in her previous life, she wouldn't dare to Photoshop a picture like that so carelessly, as if she was afraid others wouldn't notice it was fake at first glance.

"You're so cold. My skin is a kind of organ that I use to sense temperature changes." Su Yan explained, then looked at Jiao Nanwu, who was occupying his bed, and asked, "Didn't you say you were going home? Why are you disturbing my sleep so early in the morning?"

Last night, Jiao Nanwu said he was going home and told the girls in his tribe that there were no powerful monsters here, and that he would spend the winter in Xia Yu.

How did she manage to come back so quickly?

My hometown is in the deep sea.

Jiao Nanwu looked embarrassed, then briefly explained her family situation to Su Yan:

“But because of business and trade, we usually live in the underground water system, which is only two hundred miles away from the main city of Xia Yu. It’s quick to go back and forth. We only go back to our hometown when winter is approaching.”

Jiao Nanwu lives in the underground water system, which is like a trading hub for the merfolk. The merfolk swim from the ocean to the well-developed underground water system of the primitive continent to transport marine resources to land countries for trade.

Then transport the land-based country's supplies back to the underwater kingdom.

Transporting goods through underground waterways is less likely to be attacked than trading on land.

Although it can't match the speed of Xianzhou Transportation, its cheap transportation price makes it very popular.

Naturally, there are underground water transfer stations built by the merfolk in the underground water system.

Jiao Nanwu simply returned to the transit station and informed his family that he would be spending the winter in Xia Yu.

The round trip is about 400 li, which is a blink of an eye for a merman. Jiao Nanwu even had a long heart-to-heart talk with her parents at home before coming out, otherwise she would have returned in the early morning and woken Su Yan up from the cold.

"I'll treat you to something, okay?" Jiao Nanwu said somewhat shyly, looking at Su Yan who was squatting on the ground rubbing his hands.

This was her first time encountering a fox demon, and she didn't know anything about fox demons' habits. But she had seen Su Yan's behavior patterns, which were no different from those of humans, and she thought that he would also like her soft and sticky insulation layer.

But unexpectedly, a huge blunder occurred.

Jiao Nanwu was a little embarrassed and wanted to treat Su Yan to snacks to win the little fox's forgiveness.

"I can't control my body temperature. I haven't reached the transformation stage according to the standards of the demon race. My current human form is actually maintained by secret techniques."

As she spoke, Jiao Nanwu revealed her secret technique.

Seeking votes for Monday

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 21 Fishing Net

"I haven't taken human form yet, so I can't control my body temperature very well."

Jiao Nanwu propped herself up on the edge of the bed and unleashed the secret technique of the merfolk that allowed her to maintain her human form. In Su Yan's eyes, Jiao Nanwu's body swelled slightly, and her originally fair legs transformed into a fish tail with scales that were dreamlike and ethereal, like gradient ink, deep blue mixed with light purple.

The ears also transformed into large, fan-shaped fish fins, but the upper body remained unchanged, still retaining its human form.

The original form of the Merfolk is like that of a mermaid, with a human upper body and a fish lower body.

"We breathe through here every day."

Jiao Nanwu gently raised her hand, revealing the unique feature of her ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress) to Su Yan. There was an opening under her armpit, and if you looked inside, you could see an opening at the rib area that resembled a fish gill structure.

There are three openings on each side of the chest. Merfolk breathe through the gills on both sides of their chest when they are in the water.

After transforming into human form through a secret technique, all the merfolk characteristics on their bodies will disappear, and they will breathe air through their noses like humans. However, the merfolk's transformation technique cannot be maintained for long; every seven days, they must immerse themselves in the river for a day to cool down.

Otherwise, forcibly maintaining the transformation technique would cause the merfolk unbearable physical pain.

"What a fat fish tail!"

Su Yan took a quick look at Jiao Nanwu's original form and found that there was no change in appearance. It still had that slightly dull face, but its body was taller than when it was in human form. The fat stored up for winter made its chest and fish tail look more bloated and less agile.

"Mermaids are less active in winter, and since our breeding season is in winter, we eat a lot and store up some oil in the fall."

Jiao Nanwu didn't think there was anything wrong with being fat. She raised her hand and patted her large, gradient-colored fish tail, showing Su Yan what a physical wave of flesh looked like, and making the plump fish tail appear soft and comfortable.

"Want to touch it?"

Jiao Nanwu flapped her fish tail, letting Su Yan pinch it so that he, a fox, could also experience the smoothness of the mermaid scales.

Although the fur is also very soft, it can't compare to the smoothness of fine scales.

Su Yan touched it and pondered for a while before saying, "It has some scales that look like those of a snake demon. They are very smooth and you can feel a slight temperature, but they don't feel cold."

Without needing to use their paw pads to sense temperature, the merfolk's body temperature, slightly higher than the surrounding environment, didn't feel as uncomfortably cold to the touch as before. Overall, the touch was quite comfortable.

You can't touch it for too long, otherwise it will become sticky.

The merman, Nanwu, who has regained her true form, is a fish. Fish need to keep moisturized. When she leaves the water and the surrounding humidity is insufficient, she secretes body fluids to ensure that her merman body can maintain a suitable humidity so that she will not feel uncomfortable when she is on land.

Jiao Nanwu gave Su Yan a general introduction to the merfolk, then looked at Su Yan and asked, "Well, I'm just the right age to reproduce now. When can your fox demon clan have offspring?"

As she spoke, Jiao Nanwu used her secret technique again to completely conceal her merman features, but her clothes were now completely soaked. Earlier, because she sensed that the ambient humidity was insufficient, she had begun to secrete bodily fluids to ensure that she wouldn't dry out on land and instantly turn into a wriggling little dried fish.

"Probably... in a few more years?"

Su Yan casually made up a number. He was a rather special individual. In the history of the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan, he should be the first one to be hybridized with the Dragon Clan. There was no precedent to refer to when he could reach maturity.

"Well"

Jiao Nanwu nodded at Su Yan, without telling him what she was thinking: "Then let's go!"

"Where?"

"I'll treat you to a meal, and after you're full, grow up quickly!"

Jiao Nanwu pulled Su Yan outside, preparing to take her out shopping.

………………

"The sunlight is so blinding."

Stepping out of the brothel through the back door onto the street, Su Yan was slightly dazzled by the blinding sunlight.

It's not even 10 a.m. right now. Normally, Su Yan would still be sleeping in her dorm room and wouldn't get up until around noon to have breakfast. She would then go out for a stroll with her aunt around 3 or 4 p.m.

Then they open for business in the evening. Since Su Yan started staying at her aunt's place, she has been almost always out at night and hasn't gone out during the day for a long time.

"squeak--"

Su Yan stood at the back door of the brothel for a while, letting her eyes adjust to the morning sunlight, when she happened to run into the three spirit monkeys who were out buying food in the morning.

Three clever monkeys pulled a small cart full of food, waved to Su Yan to say good morning, and then parked the cart at the back gate of the brothel. They carried the fresh food they had bought that morning from the cart into the kitchen.

There were nearly thirty girls in the brothel, including some talented women with cultivation, and their appetites were considerable.

The clever monkeys always pull carts to buy groceries in the early morning; otherwise, they might not be able to carry so many ingredients.

"squeak?"

The monkey looked at Su Yan and asked, placing its hand on the door as if asking Su Yan if he wanted to come in.

After Su Yan shook her head, the monkeys worked together to close the back door and began sorting ingredients and picking vegetables, busily preparing breakfast for the talented women at noon, creating quite a lively scene.

"So food doesn't just appear out of thin air," Su Yan thought to herself.

During his time living in the brothel, whenever he was hungry or needed a late-night snack, his aunt would stroll over to the kitchen in the backyard and bring out the food. For a while, Su Yan even thought that the food in the brothel was conjured up by his aunt using some kind of magic.

It wasn't until later, when Su Yan met the spirit monkey, that she realized the room in the backyard that looked like a woodshed was actually a maid's room.

They didn't burn firewood; they burned natural gas. All they needed to do was dig a gas well in the ground, and a continuous stream of natural gas would gush out from it.

It must be said that the lifestyle of the Xia Dynasty was completely different from that of the area where Su Yan had lived before.

There are no spirit monkeys in the Southern Prefecture. When she was too lazy to do housework, Su Yan's mother would usually take a net and wait for a while at the entrance of the Su residence, casually catching some demonic cultivators to serve as her slaves.

From laundry and cooking to mopping and cleaning, my elderly mother uses a net to do all the chores.

Su Yan was initially surprised by her mother's harsh behavior, but she eventually got used to it and took it for granted.

Even though it's something that can be solved with magic, the old mother likes to have someone clean the yard and fish pond with a brush, just for the sake of some ritual in life.

In the Southern States, might makes right, and cultivation makes justice.

Su's mother named him by his own name, cultivating a good family tradition and creating an excellent cultivation environment for Su Yan.

In the southern states, if you don't want to be a beast of burden, you can only strive to cultivate yourself so that everyone else becomes a beast of burden.

If you don't work hard at cultivation, even if you go to a brothel, the girls there will laugh at your poor cultivation level and say with a mocking smile: "So cute, like a child."

Fortunately.

Fishing with dip nets is prohibited within the territory of Xia Yu. Otherwise, without his mother by his side, Su Yan would not know how many years it would take to reach the main city of Xia Yu.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 22 Guillotine

After pausing for a moment at the back gate of the brothel, and waiting for her eyes to fully adjust to the outside light, Su Yan followed Jiao Nanwu into the crowd and strolled around the main streets of Xia Yu City. Jiao Nanwu planned to take Su Yan to one of her favorite inns for a meal.