However, Chen An didn't care at all about what she was saying anymore.
His mind was completely filled with the following thoughts:
Could this menopausal beauty really not be a widow?
Instead, she was an untouched maiden?
If he didn't trick her into coming home with him, he'd be worse than a beast!
……
PS: Bowls out, begging for monthly tickets and recommendation votes!
28, Clearing Out the Undercover Agents
Seeing that Wen Zhiyun was still talking about how the only reason she had managed to become a late-stage Qi Condensation cultivator was because she could withstand loneliness, keep her composure, and preserve her chastity, Chen An couldn't help but interrupt:
"Daoist Wen, do you think there's any possibility that the real reason you became a late-stage Qi Condensation cultivator is simply because your cultivation talent is higher than other people's?"
"You're saying my talent is high?"
Wen Zhiyun felt somewhat offended. Her expression instantly turned serious and earnest as she said, "The reason I, Wen Zhiyun, managed to reach the late-stage Qi Condensation has never relied on any talent, but rather on abstinence, self-discipline, and hard work! Don't casually use the word 'talent' to invalidate all the effort I've put in all these years!"
Chen An: "Hard work and talent don't conflict with each other."
Wen Zhiyun smiled. "I didn't reach the late-stage Qi Condensation until I was in my thirties. How can that be called high talent? Those with true talent are already at Foundation Establishment or even Golden Core by my age!"
My dear sister, the kind of cultivators you're talking about who can reach Foundation Establishment or even Golden Core in their thirties—that's not high talent, that's outright cheating with a golden finger, alright……
Chen An felt a surge of sweat in his heart.
He then asked, "Daoist Wen, if I may be so bold, how many years have you been cultivating so far?"
"Why should I tell you?"
Wen Zhiyun gave Chen An a side-eye.
Then she turned around, her face beaming with a smile as she looked at his two wives, speaking in a gentle tone:
"Little sister Ying'er, little sister Yue'er, older sister still has matters to attend to and will head back first. If you two have free time, feel free to come over and chat with older sister."
With that, she turned around and walked out of the house.
What Wen Zhiyun had just said to Chen An's two wives wasn't just polite pleasantry; she genuinely wanted them to come over and chat with her.
After all, though she was a bitter ascetic, she was still human after all.
As a woman, she could live without a man, but she couldn't go entirely without human interaction.
Otherwise, sooner or later, she would suffocate into psychological problems.
Watching Wen Zhiyun's alluring figure gradually walking away, Chen An instinctively swallowed hard, craving her deeply in his heart.
He seriously suspected that this single beauty might possess some kind of constitution that attracted men.
Otherwise, it was really hard to explain why every time he saw her, his willpower completely vanished, and his mind was filled with fantasies of tangling with her.
"Husband, have you taken a fancy to Sister Gu?"
Seeing her husband lingeringly gazing at Wen Zhiyun's retreating back, Song Huaying asked bluntly.
Upon hearing this, Gu Xinyue immediately looked over at her husband.
Chen An was struck dumb by the question.
He had indeed taken a fancy to Wen Zhiyun.
But such a question was hard to answer honestly in front of one's wives.
Seeing her husband's expression, Song Huaying knew her guess was pretty much spot on.
As a daughter of an aristocratic family, she had seen plenty of her uncles taking concubines in the past, and she knew that almost every man secretly yearned to have multiple wives and concubines.
And her own husband seemed to be no exception.
Therefore, in order to increase her own value and weight in her husband's heart, Song Huaying smiled with sweet affection and said, "Husband, actually, I also want another older sister in the family. I will definitely help husband bring Sister Wen home as a bride."
With that, she even nudged Gu Xinyue with her arm, signaling her to quickly express her stance as well.
Gu Xinyue was a bit slow on the uptake; after being nudged several times, she finally snapped back to reality and said, "Husband, I'm the same as Ying'er."
Seeing that both wives were so understanding, Chen An didn't say much more, and directly pulled the two of them into the room with his arms around them……
[You give your wife Song Huaying a full-body massage, marital affection +1.]
[You give your wife Gu Xinyue a full-body massage, marital affection +1.]
……
In the days that followed, Song Huaying frequently brought Gu Xinyue along to visit Wen Zhiyun and chat at her place.
Wen Zhiyun welcomed them warmly, always bringing out various delicious foods and drinks to treat them.
Days passed like this, one by one.
The relationship between the three of them improved significantly, becoming as close as sisters.
Song Huaying said that once her future child was born, she would have Wen Zhiyun become the godmother.
Wen Zhiyun was more than willing, saying her own mother was a village midwife, and as her daughter, she knew how to deliver babies as well; when the time came, she would come and help Song Huaying with the delivery.
During this period, Song Huaying frequently took the initiative to chat with Wen Zhiyun about bedroom matters, describing the experience as extremely wonderful.
To increase her persuasiveness, she didn't hesitate to use the aloof Gu Xinyue as a tool.
At the same time, she would intentionally or unintentionally speak well of her husband in front of Wen Zhiyun, altering the image of her husband in Wen Zhiyun's mind.
And every time she returned from Wen Zhiyun's place, Song Huaying would relay all the information she had gathered back to her husband piece by piece.
For instance, Wen Zhiyun was originally the daughter of a mountain village midwife. When she was sixteen, a fairy passing through the village discovered she had spiritual roots and gave her a Qi-gathering technique, setting her on the path of immortality.
Up to now, she had been cultivating for twenty-two years.
Chen An was shocked. Reaching the 8th Layer of Qi Condensation in just twenty-two years—wasn't that a genius?
You had to know that he himself had been cultivating for over thirty years and was only at the 3rd Layer of Qi Condensation!
As the relationship between his wives and Wen Zhiyun steadily warmed up, Wen Zhiyun eventually became willing to visit Chen An's house as a guest.
However, she always chose times when there was no one outside.
She worried that if people saw her coming over, it would spark unpleasant rumors.
Moreover, once inside, she still treated Chen An like air, just as before.
She was simply there to hang out with his two wives.
On this day, after Wen Zhiyun finished breakfast at her own home, she came over to Chen An's house to chat with Song Huaying and Gu Xinyue.
They chatted for the entire morning.
Just as she was about to leave, a loud shout suddenly rang out from outside.
"Will all daoists living in Green Willow Alley please come out!"
"I am Elder Bai of the Bamboo Leaf Gang. I have urgent matters to announce to everyone!"
"Please cooperate fully!"
As soon as these words fell, doors began to open one after another outside shortly after.
The cultivators living in Green Willow Alley all stepped out of their homes.
They wanted to see what kind of major event was worth a Bamboo Leaf Gang elder running over personally to inform them.
Soon, Chen An and Wen Zhiyun went out as well.
Song Huaying and Gu Xinyue exchanged glances and quietly followed behind the two of them.
"Daoist Wen, why are you coming out of Alchemist Chen's house?"
Seeing Wen Zhiyun walk out of Chen An's house, Han Sanfan, who had stepped out of his own home a step earlier, couldn't help looking utterly disillusioned with life.
Wen Zhiyun didn't even deign to look at him, snapping right back, "What business is it of yours?"
Han Sanfan felt miserably scolded.
As for the other cultivators, quite a few were whispering among themselves about Wen Zhiyun, completely unable to imagine that this iceberg beauty of the Bamboo Leaf Forest would actually step into a male cultivator's house. This didn't look like her personality at all.
Until they caught sight of Chen An's appearance, at which point enlightenment dawned on them: this daoist was simply too handsome, no wonder Wen Zhiyun went into his house.
It seemed this so-called iceberg beauty was actually just as shallow, valuing appearance even more than cultivation level.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have rejected Foundation Establishment cultivators and instead chosen to go flirt with an alchemist whose cultivation was only at the 4th Layer of Qi Condensation and whose alchemy mastery was merely Rank 1 Intermediate.
"Everyone, please quiet down, I have an important matter to announce!"
shouted Elder Bai of the Bamboo Leaf Gang.
Soon, everyone quieted down and listened attentively.
Elder Bai announced: "Starting from today, the Bamboo Leaf Forest will be locked down for two months. No one inside the forest is allowed to go out!"
What?
Not allowed to go out for two months?
Everyone thought they had misheard.
After taking a moment to process it, someone immediately asked with a puzzled expression, "Elder Bai, what is the meaning of this?"
The others also looked at Elder Bai, waiting for him to explain.
Elder Bai explained to the crowd of cultivators:
"We suspect that a large number of undercover agents from Black Iron Manor are lurking within the Bamboo Leaf Forest."
"For the stability of the Bamboo Leaf Forest and everyone's safety, the gang leader has ordered that all undercover agents must be rooted out within these two months."
As he spoke, this Bamboo Leaf Gang elder, whose cultivation reached as high as the 9th Layer of Qi Condensation, kept scanning the faces of every single cultivator around him back and forth.
Attempting to catch the slightest trace of abnormality and capture a Black Iron Manor undercover agent on the spot.
Then execute them right then and there in front of everyone to serve as a warning to others.
However, after sweeping his gaze across them, he didn't find anything unusual.
Hearing that they wouldn't be allowed outside for as long as two months, many cultivators instantly exploded with complaints.
"Eighty Steward, this doesn't make sense! If you don't let me go out to hunt for two months, how am I supposed to pay the rent for this core zone!"
"That's right, isn't this costing us our lives?"
"I can prove I'm not an undercover agent from Black Iron Manor's side. Can't you let me go out hunting to make money?"
"……"
The cultivators in Green Willow Alley shouted back and forth, and the scene instantly became noisy and chaotic.
Soon, Elder Bai spoke up:
"Everyone needn't worry about this problem. The rent for these two months will be waived for all of you."
"Correspondingly, however, we hope everyone can cooperate with our Bamboo Leaf Gang in clearing out the undercover agents of Black Iron Manor over the next two months."
"For every undercover agent of Black Iron Manor you help us capture, one month's rent will be waived."
"If you capture a late-stage Qi Condensation undercover agent, two months' rent will be waived."
As soon as Elder Bai said this, the cultivators exploded once again, and a wave of heated discussions erupted on the spot.
……
PS: Bowls out, begging for monthly tickets and recommendation votes!
29, A Desperate Struggle to the Death
After announcing this matter, the cultivators of the Bamboo Leaf Gang quickly departed.
However, heated discussions continued unabated at the scene.
Capturing a Black Iron Manor undercover agent could waive a month's rent, and capturing a late-stage one could even waive two months' rent.
This reward was simply extravagantly generous.
You had to know this was the core zone, where the monthly rent was as high as one middle-grade spirit stone.
The Bamboo Leaf Gang was truly bleeding capital this time.
Many cultivators were eager to try, beginning to scheme about how to capture a Black Iron Manor undercover agent.
Some more perceptive cultivators had already started observing every single person around them, racking their brains to recall if these people had ever exhibited suspicious behavior in the past.
Even worse, some harbored malicious intent, eyeing individuals who usually had poor character.
Thinking that regardless of whether these people were actually Black Iron Manor undercover agents or not, they would frame them as agents, take care of them, and drag them to the Bamboo Leaf Gang to claim the reward.
Compared to these excited cultivators, Chen An felt much more worry and unease.
The Bamboo Leaf Gang suddenly spending a fortune to purge undercover agents made him sniff out the scent of an impending war between the two factions.
The Bamboo Leaf Gang's current action gave off the feeling of pacifying the external threat by first securing the interior.
Aside from Chen An, quite a few cultivators in Green Willow Alley also realized this.
A handsome male cultivator at the 7th Layer of Qi Condensation specifically walked up to Wen Zhiyun, stopped in front of her, and said with a smile:
"Daoist Wen, I feel the Bamboo Leaf Forest might descend into major chaos in the near future. As a woman living alone, it's not very safe at home. How about I move into your place to protect you?"
"Hah, based on you?" Wen Zhiyun sneered with utter contempt. "A mere weakling at the 7th Layer of Qi Condensation, this lady could press you to death with a single finger. Where do you get the face to say you're coming to protect me?"
Thinking Wen Zhiyun was obsessed with looks and hoping to get close to her by relying on his exceptional appearance, the male cultivator hadn't expected to be rejected so harshly in public. He instantly felt he had lost all face and slunk away dejectedly.
Wen Zhiyun didn't even glance at the male cultivator, turning instead to Song Huaying and Gu Xinyue with a smile:
"Little sister Ying'er, little sister Yue'er, there might be major chaos in the days to come. Why don't the two of you move in with older sister? Older sister is much stronger than your husband and can protect you better."
The commotion Chen An made with Gu Xinyue every night was simply too loud, frequently keeping Wen Zhiyun awake in the next room.
Therefore, she was now trying to poach Chen An's wives to solve the root of the problem.
Unfortunately, Song Huaying and Gu Xinyue's loyalty to Chen An far exceeded her imagination.
The two women didn't even think about it before directly declining:
"Ying'er believes that husband can definitely protect Ying'er well from harm, so there's no need to trouble Sister Wen. Thank you for Sister Wen's kind intentions."
"Yue'er thinks so too."
Listening from the side, Chen An felt immensely comfortable in his heart, thinking that he hadn't spoiled these two precious wives in vain after all.
Seeing that neither woman had any such intention, Wen Zhiyun didn't force them and soon took her leave.
After Wen Zhiyun left, Chen An told his two wives to stay safely at home while he headed out to the market to buy self-defense items.
The Bamboo Leaf Forest might become very chaotic soon.
As the head of the household, he had to take precautions now.
Preparing various self-defense items in advance.
……
Core Zone, Market.
Chen An walked into the Myriad Treasures Pavilion, went straight up to the shopkeeper, and asked, "Shopkeeper, do you have any items for self-defense for sale here?"
"Self-defense items?" The shopkeeper thought for a moment before saying, "That would be talismans, then."
Talismans were a type of spell paper crafted by talisman masters.
Various spells were inscribed onto the talisman paper.
As long as the user channeled spiritual energy into the talisman paper, they could release the spell inscribed upon it.
"I wonder what kind of talismans you have for sale here?"
"We have fireball talismans, protective talismans, light-body talismans, and various other kinds. Whatever you can think of, I have it for sale here. Even if I don't, I can have it shipped over for sale by today."
"Then shopkeeper, give me a few sets of this kind, this kind, and also this kind of talisman."
After getting a basic understanding, Chen An bought a little bit of all kinds of talismans.
Among them, he bought the most protective talismans.
Because his two wives lacked self-preservation capabilities and needed external objects to protect themselves.
Aside from talismans, Chen An subsequently bought an alarm-like magical array.
Before use, the auras of different people could be recorded into the array.
Afterward during use, once an unrecorded stranger's aura entered the array, the array would flash with various dazzling lights to alert the owner of the house of an intruder.
After purchasing all this, Chen An spent a total of nearly one middle-grade spirit stone.
Walking out of the Myriad Treasures Pavilion.
He didn't linger long in the market.
Chen An quickly returned to Green Willow Alley.
After handing the purchased protective talismans over to his wives, he turned and walked into the alchemy room, beginning to refine various poisons to deploy poison traps around the inner perimeter of the courtyard later.
He didn't know if these poison traps, which had a hundred percent success rate back in the cheap district, would still work in this core zone where mid-stage Qi Condensation cultivators were as common as dogs and late-stage Qi Condensation cultivators were everywhere.
No matter what, setting them up was better than not setting them up.
At the very least, it would give him a greater sense of security.
Spending over two hours setting up the poison traps, Chen An turned around and ducked back into the alchemy room.
However, he wasn't going in to refine pills, but rather to dig a tunnel inside the alchemy room.
He figured that when disaster struck, he and his wives might get trapped in the house with no way to escape.
If there was an underground passage leading outside from the house, the options available to them at that time would expand greatly, and residential safety would be vastly improved.
Purchasing talismans.
Refining poisons and setting traps.
Digging a tunnel……
By the time Chen An finished doing all this sequentially, the sky outside had completely darkened.
……
In a flash, several days passed.
During these days, the situation in the Bamboo Leaf Forest became much more chaotic, just as Chen An had imagined.
Undercover agents from Black Iron Manor were discovered, and right before death, they engaged in all sorts of frantic struggles, staging scene after scene of mutual destruction.
Wherever they went, houses collapsed and corpses littered the ground.
Cultivators with high cultivation profited immensely.
While many cultivators with low cultivation suffered unprovoked disasters and died inexplicably.
Chen An had a clear assessment of his own cultivation level.
Ever since the Bamboo Leaf Gang elder came over to announce the purge of undercover agents, he had holed up at home with his two wives, keeping the doors shut.
He was afraid that with his low cultivation, if he wandered around everywhere, he would easily end up dying on the road.
During this period, Wen Zhiyun, who used to come over to chat almost every day, never visited their home again, and who knew what she was busy with.
Another several days passed.
On this day, Chen An was in the alchemy room teaching his two wives some basic knowledge about alchemy, wanting to train them to become his future alchemy assistants.
As he was teaching, he suddenly felt his body grow somewhat warm and feverish.
It felt as if his cultivation realm was about to break through.
Chen An immediately had his two wives go outside, locking himself in the alchemy room to undergo closed-door cultivation for a breakthrough.
Two days later.
Chen An broke through successfully, becoming a cultivator at the 5th Layer of Qi Condensation.
[Name: Chen An]
[Cultivation: 5th Layer of Qi Condensation]
[Alchemy Art: Rank 1 Intermediate (458/500)]
[Divine Sense: Rank 1 Intermediate (258/500)]
[Golden Finger: Proficient (196/500)]
[Spouses: Song Huaying, Gu Xinyue]
[Offspring: Gestating (9 months)]
Looking at the panel before him, Chen An couldn't help but reveal a gratified smile on his face.
Compared to a year ago, his current self was truly like heaven and earth.
His strength was far greater than last year's.
At this rate of progress, he felt he could successfully achieve Foundation Establishment within twenty years.
More ideally, perhaps he could accomplish this goal within ten years.
Even within five years was not entirely impossible.
And all of this depended on whether he could become dao companions with Wen Zhiyun.
Chen An's intuition told him that the reward for engaging in the waters of fish and water with Wen Zhiyun would definitely be related to boosting his cultivation.
"Speaking of which, back when Ying'er was pregnant, the system rewarded a Passion-Severing Pill formula."