Chapter 57: Bewitched

After the procession stopped to rest for a bit, they continued advancing. However, the atmosphere was now a bit strange.

Anyone whose eyes were working could tell that something about Zhu Xianyao had changed, and they all easily realized what had happened

Different people had different ways of looking at it.

Zhu Baiyu stared at Zhu Xianyao, deeply troubled. He knew about Zhu Xianyao’s feelings for Su Chen, but he hadn’t anticipated that those feelings would reach this point in the end. On the other hand, Zhu Xianyao’s expression indicated that she didn’t care at all, as if it were just a layer of skin that had been accidentally broken. Actually, that was the most superficial truth in terms of what had physically happened.

You Tianyang curled up into a ball and cried, hiding in his carriage. His tears had completely soaked through three different handkerchiefs, but he still did not charge out to fight Su Chen.

Shi Mingfeng went looking for Su Chen personally and asked him about what he thought they should do next. He wasn’t worried about anything except if Su Chen started leaning towards the Zhu Clan more because of this. Even though the Immortal Temple and the Zhu Clan seemed to be at peace with each other, that didn’t mean that Shi Mingfeng could accept Su Chen joining with the Zhu Clan. On the other hand, if it was because of this mission that Su Chen allied himself with the Zhu Clan, the Immortal Temple would have lost an incredibly valuable ally, and the losses would greatly outweigh the gains. Thankfully, Su Chen’s response put him at ease.

The private matter between these two people affected countless people. Every person made their own assumptions and had their own opinions, regardless of whether they were part of the Immortal Temple or the Zhu Clan. The only person who wasn’t distressed over the situation was Night Demon — she was the only one who hadn’t noticed what had happened between the two.

As such, she continued to simple-mindedly follow Su Chen around, trying to get more food out of him while spouting all kinds of nonsense. The only thing she noticed was that Zhu Xianyao wasn’t clinging to Su Chen’s side today, which made her happy, even if Su Chen continued to ignore her and focused all of his attention on the rare Origin Substance within his vial.

Of course, this time he was especially careful to not give Night Demon any opportunities to mess around with the vial.

After traveling for around a day, they finally arrived at Mountain Overlook City.

At this point in time, it was time for them to go their separate ways.

After asking Zhu Xianyao about what her future plans, Zhu Baiyu was about to take the others and leave. However, Su Chen walked over and said, “If the Zhu Clan doesn’t have any urgent business to attend to, I recommend that you guys stay here for a few more days.”

“Why’s that?” Zhu Baiyu asked.

“I want to give Xianyao a parting gift, but making it will require some time.”

Zhu Baiyu stared at Su Chen, his expression complicated. “Anything you can give us, the Zhu Clan probably already has. If there isn’t anything else, then……”

“Does that include medicine that can increase the strength of a person’s bloodline?” Su Chen asked.

“What did you say?” Zhu Baiyu’s heart jolted. “You have a medicine that can increase the power of the Zhu Clan’s bloodline?”

“It would be strictly limited to the Heavenly Fox Bloodline, and I’m still in the researching phase.”

“You’re telling the truth?”

“I’m not sure. I just found a kind of substance, one that…… can activate a person’s concealed lust. It even pierces through consciousness defenses. If I could combine it with the Heavenly Fox Bloodline, perhaps I could help the Heavenly Wolf Bloodline’s bewitching ability transcend the power of its bloodline,” Su Chen replied.

Zhu Baiyu, Shi Mingfeng and the others immediately understood.

Su Chen actually was using this explanation as a unique method of explaining what happened yesterday evening.

Though some things still needed to be explained.

Zhu Baiyu stared at Su Chen. “Are you sure you can do it?”

If it were really as Su Chen said, then the power of the Heavenly Fox Bloodline would definitely jump by an incredible amount.

Su Chen shook his head. “I can’t be sure, but I will definitely do my best to accomplish it.”

He glanced at Zhu Xianyao. “She’ll probably be punished when she gets back, right?”

Zhu Xianyao stood there and purposefully glanced off into the distance, refusing to respond.

Zhu Baiyu sighed, his silence saying everything that needed to be said.

Su Chen said, “If her bloodline can grow more powerful, I think that that would resolve a lot of her issues. As such, no matter what, I will do my best to help her achieve this.”

Zhu Xianyao harrumphed. “Do you think that I’m scared?”

Su Chen replied, “You don’t have to be afraid of punishment, but you cannot dislike strength.”

Zhu Xianyao was silent.

Su Chen said, “You are right. The Heavens don’t help man, man must help himself. Since you want to be strong, you shouldn’t give up on any opportunities that present themselves to you. If you forego this opportunity because of what happened between us, then that means that you are still naive and immature. You may fake the appearance of an adult, but you don’t actually understand anything.”

Zhu Xianyao stared at him for a long time before suddenly smiling. “You’re absolutely right. No matter the circumstances, I have no reason to refuse improving my strength. But why should I believe that you’ll be able to do it?”

Su Chen replied, “If I can’t do it, then I will hand the Hemolytic Totem over to you. You should have witnessed how the Cliff Race was able to use it. You could consider this as being comparable to monopolizing the technique for reaching the Blood Boiling Realm without a bloodline. What do you think?”

In terms of practical usage, the Hemolytic Totem wasn’t any inferior than the technique for reaching the Blood Boiling Realm without a bloodline.

Su Chen had basically just handed over something that the Zhu Clan had fought bitterly over yet was unable to obtain.

No one else could say anything.

At that moment, a thought suddenly surfaced in Zhu Baiyu’s mind; in some sense, using the beauty as a trap had succeeded, but the payoff had taken many, many years to manifest in this strange fashion.

——————————

After that, the Zhu Clan and Su Chen stayed behind in Mountain Overlook City.

Shi Mingfeng also wanted to stay behind with Su Chen just because he couldn’t be sure that Su Chen wouldn’t join the Zhu Clan. However, with Su Chen repeatedly promising him that no matter what happened with the Zhu Clan, it wouldn’t affect his relationship with the Immortal Temple, he could only leave reluctantly. Before leaving, he asked Su Chen what his next steps were.

Su Chen thought for a moment, then replied that he wanted to go on a trip to Longxi.

He was going to go find Gu Qingluo.

It wasn’t just because he missed her after being apart for a long time, but also because he needed to give Gu Qingluo an explanation regarding Zhu Xianyao.

As such, Shi Mingfeng left with some reassurance. Before leaving, he left behind a Hundred Kilometers Origin Formation that allowed them to communicate whenever they were within that distance. This was the Origin Formation with the longest communication distance that had been invented so far, and longer distances were not yet possible. If they wanted to communicate, the message would probably need to be relayed through several of these formations before it could reach its target.

Regardless, with this item in hand, Su Chen and Shi Mingfeng would be able to contact each other much more easily.

Night Demon was a bit reluctant to leave, but her feelings for Su Chen hadn’t intensified to the point of love, so she simply left after a bit of cajoling.

After all the people from the Immortal Temple left, Su Chen threw himself into his research.

He channeled most of his energy into researching the pink Origin Substance, which he named “Bewitching Passion.”

The Bewitching Passion Origin Substance was the fiercest aphrodisiac Su Chen had ever seen, and that was not even considering its additional effect of directly influencing a person’s consciousness and its ability to ignore any defensive barriers that might be set up.

Just like how consciousness attacks could ignore physical barriers, this Bewitching Passion substance could also ignore consciousness barriers. No matter how great your consciousness power was, you would always be affected by it. Of course, if your consciousness power was higher, you would recover from it much more quickly, which was why Su Chen had sobered up so quickly. However, by that point it was already too late to regret anything, and Zhu Xianyao was in the throes of fiery passion. Her naked body was incredibly alluring, and eventually Su Chen caved in and pretended that he was still “under the influence”.

Of course, he would never tell Zhu Xianyao that.

If he wanted to combine the Bewitching Passion Origin Substance with Zhu Xianyao’s bloodline and improve it so that it would only bewitch its target, it would take quite a bit of work. He would need to repeatedly analyze and test his theories, which would require Zhu Xianyao to cooperate through giving him her blood.

As such, even though she kept saying that she was going to become stronger on her own and leave Su Chen, the truth of the matter was that Zhu Xianyao and Su Chen grew even closer.

And it wasn’t just that.

Within the room, Su Chen pulled out a vial of medicine that he had refined and said, “Let’s try out the effects of this one.”

The smoke wafted out again, and their consciousnesses simultaneously trembled. They glanced at each other, their eyes glazing over as they rushed to embrace one another……