Zero Succubus in the Territory: Starting with Apprenticeship to the Yi Xuan Sisters

Mu He'er had returned to the kitchen at some point. She looked at the medicinal food he was carrying, then at the remnants of several medicinal herbs on the stove, and paused for a moment.

"Xue'er, what is this?"

"It's porridge. The book says that cooking it this way and drinking it can strengthen the body. I want to become powerful quickly."

Mu He'er walked over and sniffed it. Her ears twitched and her tail wagged gently with excitement. This thing that Yi Xue cooked was no ordinary thing. Just by smelling it, she could tell that it was even more effective than some recipes passed down from the mountain.

"You can do this too?"

She asked with some surprise, "With this recipe, the vegetarian restaurant's menu can be updated. And the ingredients aren't too expensive, so we can guarantee that every disciple can get a share."

For the practitioners of Yunkui Mountain, having a healthy body is very important, and the medicinal diet in front of them can help them achieve this to some extent.

"...I saw it in a book."

Yi Xue answered casually, but it wasn't entirely a lie, and Mu He'er believed her.

She took a clean spoon, and after obtaining Yi Xue's permission, scooped a spoonful from the pot and tasted it. As she chewed, her eyebrows twitched slightly, and then she looked at him meaningfully.

Her eyes burned with passion, as if she had discovered a fine piece of jade.

"The taste is not bad, but the herbal flavor is a bit too strong. Adding two longans next time would be better."

"Yes, thank you for your guidance, senior sister."

Yi Xue added another ladle of water and some sugar to the pot, then covered it and continued to simmer.

Mu He'er smiled faintly, leaning against him and watching him work for a while before turning away.

She stopped at the door, turned back to look at him with tender eyes, and then asked softly as if she remembered something.

"By the way, Xue'er, what do you want to eat tomorrow? Your senior sister will make it for you."

Yi Xue raised her head, thought for a moment, and surprisingly showed the first relaxed expression of the day.

"Senior sister, I want to eat char siu bao."

"it is good."

Mu He'er responded softly and turned to leave the kitchen.

As night fell, Yixue returned to his room.

Today's training left him physically and mentally exhausted, but instead of going to sleep, he sat cross-legged on the bed and opened the system panel to check his progress for the day.

I've gained over 500 favorability points in total. Adding those I accumulated with Senior Sister He'er, I'm still a little short of my first 10-pull, but the gap is narrowing.

His physical condition status changed from "fatigued" last night to "extremely fatigued," followed by a parenthesis with the system's comment: "Well done, host."

He chuckled, turned off the panel, lay down, and stared at the ceiling.

I'm very tired. My arms are so sore I can't lift them, and my legs feel like they're filled with lead. Tomorrow I'll probably be in so much pain from lactic acid buildup, but with some medicinal diet to help, it shouldn't be too serious.

More importantly, he felt much more at ease. The feeling of being manipulated and played with by fate had dissipated considerably.

He was indeed afraid, afraid that he wouldn't be prepared for the day disaster struck, but at least... he was doing something.

Even just running two laps around the mountain and cooking a pot of porridge is better than sitting idly in a room.

Yi Xue closed her eyes, her consciousness sinking into the depths. On the verge of falling asleep, the two faint lights in her chest were still rising and falling gently.

One breath was like fire, the other like ice, like two slumbering breaths, calm and soothing. He probed his consciousness in that direction, but still received no response.

But that warm touch slowly spread from my chest, gradually enveloping the soreness that lingered in my limbs from the day.

He didn't know what was inside his body, but at least the other party seemed to be on his side for the time being.

Yi Xue let his consciousness sink further, allowing sleepiness to engulf him. He needed to get a good rest tonight.

I have to keep practicing tomorrow morning...

Chapter Twenty: Simulated Battle, Shipment!

The sky in the simulated space is always gray.

Yi Xue had almost gotten used to this fake wasteland. Under her feet was cracked earth, and in the distance were city ruins so blurry that details were lost. A faint smell of burning lingered in the air.

The system called it "simulating a real hollow battlefield environment," but he always felt that the other party just randomly grabbed a few background images from some database and pasted them on to save time.

However, his attention was not on the scenery at the moment, because there were three skeletons standing in front of him.

Three low-level monstrous creatures stood in a row opposite him, glaring at him menacingly. Their skin was pitch black, with eerie green patterns, and their heads looked as if they had exploded open, revealing black holes-like [cores]. This was what ordinary people looked like after being corrupted by the ether.

Unlike before when they came one by one, this time the system sent up three at once.

"System, isn't the difficulty level jumping a bit too fast?"

Yi Xue's lips twitched slightly as he watched the three skeletons slowly approaching him, already assuming a fighting stance.

[Answer: The host has completed nine single-target simulation battles. Upgrading the tenth to a multi-target battle is standard procedure. Don't worry, with your current combat strength, you can barely survive three attacks at once.]

"...You said live?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the three skeletons rushed towards him together.

The one in the middle pounced first, its sharp claws aimed straight for his shoulder. Yi Xue did not retreat, because the other two Yi Hai had already circled around from the side, and if he retreated, he would be attacked from both sides.

He pushed off the ground with his left foot, bent his knee slightly, and golden light flowed beneath his feet. He narrowly avoided the attack as if he were gliding along the ground.

Stepping with auspicious steps, the first ability bestowed upon him by Xianglin Chengze, greatly increases his agility.

But before he could even feel smug, the other two skeletons completely flanked him from the side. This wasn't a game; the enemy wouldn't hold back just because he was still a child.

With the residual force of his stepping, he lowered his body and used the momentum of the deflection to continue shifting to the side. He took a second step and sprang to the side, his knees trembling as he landed, almost giving way.

At least they managed to create some distance before the two skeletons collided with a muffled thud.

However, he didn't intend to be passively attacked forever. When the two skeletons got up from the ground, he rushed towards the one closest to him. But the skeleton reacted faster than he expected, turning around and swinging its arm to force him to raise his arm to block.

Yi Xue crossed her arms in front of her, and a faint golden halo emerged from the surface of her skin, like a thin layer of scales. Her second ability, the Lin Guang Fist, could parry enemy attacks.

The moment the skeletal claws struck, the scales were smashed and scattered in a few shards of light. The enormous impact made his forearm go numb, but he did not retreat even a step.

This is the sign of a successful parry. The force of the skeleton was mostly neutralized by the Lin Guang Fist, and the skeleton itself was jolted and its body was momentarily stunned.

Taking advantage of its momentary lapse in concentration, Yi Xue punched its core while simultaneously dodging another skeleton that pounced from behind.

With a third step, his figure moved like a ghost around behind Yi Hai, and he grabbed the core with both hands and crushed it forcefully.

Phew~ Only one left.

The dead Yi Hai turned into data and dissipated. Yi Xue took a deep breath and looked at the last one. This Yi Hai looked much stronger than the other two, and it was holding a road sign as a weapon.

A soft glow emanated from his body, and a warm current slowly flowed through him. The third ability granted by the Azure Dragon Healing - Auspicious Dragon's Inheritance - was slowly repairing the bruises on his forearm caused by the shock.

The warm current was shallow, like slowly soaking sore muscles in lukewarm water. Although it was slow, you could feel the bruises fading.

After several days of training, he has become increasingly adept at using the three abilities brought by Xianglin Chengze. Stepping Xiangbu is for dodging, Linguang Fist is for blocking, and Linguang Fuyu is for cleaning up the mess afterwards.

In short: dodge if you can, and take the hit if you can't. You can heal yourself after getting hurt.

The system once described this tactic as "inefficient and inelegant," but so far it has been quite effective.

"Let's continue."

Yi Xue looked up at the last Yi Hai and made a provocative gesture. As expected, the Yi Hai could not bear the humiliation and charged at her with its weapon in hand.

My body gradually warmed up. My knees were still a little weak, but at least my hands stopped shaking.

When Yi Xue exited the simulation space, she was covered in sweat.

His Taoist robe was stuck to his back, and half of his hair was wet, as if he had just been pulled out of the water.

My body is still a little sore. Although the battle is in a simulated space, it still has a slight effect on my real body. If I get punched in the face in the simulation space, I will have dark circles under my eyes in reality.

…Don't ask him how he knew.

However, he can now walk out of the room on his own after a fight, instead of lying motionless on the bed like before, which shows that he is indeed making progress.

[Training goal achieved, favorability points +500.]

[Rating: Barely passable; improvement in the smoothness of transitions between moves is recommended.]

Yi Xue closed the pop-up system panel, grabbed a towel and casually wiped his face. After his morning exercise, he would have an exhilarating simulated battle. This was his current daily routine.

"Goo~~"

His stomach growled at just the right moment, and he smiled awkwardly. He already ate a lot, and with the increased training volume, his appetite naturally increased.

After quickly tidying himself up, Yi Xue pushed open the door. The sunlight outside made him squint. It was almost noon before he realized he had spent the whole morning in the simulation space.

On his way to the dining hall, he checked his favorability points. Through his tireless efforts, he finally surpassed 10,000 favorability points, enough for him to do a ten-pull.

He had almost saved up enough in the past two days, but he waited until now on purpose. He couldn't explain why, maybe he wanted to round it up to a whole number, or maybe he felt that today was an auspicious day and his luck in drawing cards might be better.

There weren't many people in the dining hall. The lunch rush had passed, and only a few disciples were left sitting in a corner chatting and eating.

Mu He'er was busy tidying up behind the stove. When she saw him come in, her face lit up with joy. She then raised her chin at him and pointed to the steamer next to her, indicating that she had left some food for him.

Over the past few days, she has gotten used to Yi Xue's training rhythm and no longer asks "Why are you so late?" She will just quietly leave a meal for him.

Yi Xue took her food and found a corner to sit down. She ate a few bites to fill her stomach before putting down her chopsticks.

"System, I want to draw a card."

He silently recited it to himself, a gambler's expectation in his eyes.

He opened the system panel, clicked on the prize pool, and found that the favor points he had painstakingly accumulated were now down to single digits, which made him feel a little heartache.

The next second, ten cards appeared on the screen, all with dark gold cloud patterns on the back, slowly rotating and arranging themselves in a row.

The first page was turned over. A white light shone.

[Congratulations on receiving - Massage Oil x1]

"...Your gacha pool."

Well, it can't be said to be completely useless.

The second one is also white light.

[Congratulations on obtaining - Insulated Lunch Box x1]

Yi Xue took a deep breath and decided not to get angry. That's how gacha games are; whether you get the desired item or not depends entirely on luck. He had played gacha games in his previous life and knew what probability fraud was. But understanding is one thing, mindset is another.

The third image shows a white light and a portable medicine bag.

The fourth image shows a white light and a set of health-preserving tea utensils.

"System, besides daily necessities, do you have anything else in this gacha pool?"

Yi Xue's tone was slightly angry, clearly showing that he was getting impatient. He vaguely remembered that the system had mentioned before that the rewards in the lottery were very rare.

[Please don't worry, the safety net will trigger after a certain number of attempts.]

"Tsk..."

He had reason to suspect that the “specific number of times” referred to the time before he drained the pool, but his hands did not stop moving.

The fifth card was revealed, but this time it was different. It was no longer white light, but a dazzling golden radiance, like the color of sunlight shining through the clouds after rain.

His chopsticks paused at his lips, a hint of joy rising in his heart.

"The shipment has been completed!"

Chapter Twenty-One: Dragon and Crimson Sky

[Ding! Congratulations, host, you have acquired the talent ability - Dragon Blood]

[Dragon Blood (S): Awaken the dragon blood buried deep within the host's bloodline. Dragons are mysterious creatures that only exist in ancient legends. They have different forms and each possesses magical abilities, but without exception, they are all extremely powerful.]

Dragon blood can enhance the holder's physical functions and recovery speed, while also increasing etheric adaptability. This ability evolves as the host grows, unlocking new abilities at certain stages.

[PS: Your body will also become more resilient to blows]

Looking at the skill description in front of her, Yi Xue's mind immediately conjured up images of powerful creatures that only existed in mythology, capable of breathing fire, soaring through the sky, and commanding thunder and lightning. Moreover, according to the system, this skill only activates the dragon blood in her bloodline. Could it be that she is actually a hidden dragon descendant?

Just as he was thinking this, a warm current quietly flowed through his body, making him feel very comfortable, but this comfort did not last long.

The next second, the gentle warmth suddenly transformed into a cluster of blazing fire lurking deep within the bones, instantly engulfing the entire body.

His blood was boiling, and the sudden change made him clench his fists instinctively. But the feeling was not pain; it was an indescribable pleasure.

He could feel his frail body being reshaped, gradually becoming more resilient under the tempering of the dragon's blood.