Xuanjian: I am the tenth son of Zhenchi, and I plot to seize the throne from Zhenlong.

Later that night, Ye Chaosheng opened his eyes, his expression stiff. Shunzai, dressed in a thin gauze, placed her hands on his shoulders and leaned against him, revealing most of her snow-white skin, looking down at him.

"Senior sister... what are you doing?"

Shunzai's expression was ambiguous: "What do you think?"

Ye Chaosheng composed himself, his gaze unwavering: "Junior brother shouldn't have anything that senior sister would be interested in. Why?"

Shunzai slowly leaned over him and hugged him: "That old man won't live much longer, he's going crazy!"

"I've cultivated to the sixth level for five years, working diligently every day, yet I haven't received any Qi cultivation techniques or Qi. His cultivation hasn't progressed an inch, so he dares not teach me, and he will never teach me!"

Ye Chaosheng gripped Shunzai's hands tightly to prevent her from touching him, his tone questioning, "Senior Sister, you could have walked by yourself. Master should trust you a lot, so why did you come to me, and... like this?"

Shunzai struggled for a moment, but found he couldn't break free. So he gave up and just used his body to hold Ye Chaosheng down so he wouldn't run away.

She gritted her teeth and said, "One person can't accomplish anything. There are only so many islands, and spiritual resources are limited. Several families are calculating their resources to the extreme. Even if you work like a slave for them your whole life, you still won't accumulate enough spiritual energy!"

"Third junior brother is an idiot who can't see things at all. If he goes to join someone else, he will only be used as a pawn, kept on by his cultivation techniques, squeezed dry, and then thrown away."

Ye Chaosheng was puzzled: "But... I'm just a fetal breathing cultivator, and others won't take me seriously just because there's one more person here."

Shunzai laughed and whispered in his ear, "Silly boy, junior brother, you'll never get ahead if you live under someone else's roof. You... do you know the Huang family? Then... why can't a Ye family emerge from this sea?"

Ye Chaosheng remained silent, thinking this woman had gone mad. Leaving aside how they found an empty island, he said without hesitation, "How can two of us, both at the embryonic stage, possibly defend the island?"

"I'll just break through first!"

The woman's expression was a mixture of nostalgia and ambition as she uttered a shocking statement: "That old man didn't know that the eldest disciple he raised from childhood and regarded as his successor was actually killed by me!"

"So... I also know how to refine blood essence. Since you don't like killing mortals, then find some uncivilized savages to kill, and then give some things to exchange for a portion of blood essence at the market."

Her tone was filled with longing: "Once you reach the Qi Refining stage, everything will be easier, and your life will be in your own hands."

He then looked down at Ye Chaosheng and invited, "It's too much trouble for one person to do all this. I need you. You're clean enough, naive enough, and more importantly, you have... principles."

"Senior sister, just tell me directly, why is it like this?" Ye Chaosheng turned his head away, refusing to look at the woman straddling him.

"Heh, because you don't trust me! Even though you're putting on a docile act, I know deep down you don't trust me. You think I'm sent by that old man to test you, right?"

Having said all that, Ye Chaosheng didn't deny it: "Even if you say that, I still won't believe you. Senior Brother Yan said..."

His words were cut off by Shunzai's lips. After their lips parted, he could see the blush on the woman's face by the moonlight.

Her voice was wet with tears: "That bastard is still up to no good. I broke his legs back then, and he still holds a grudge."

Ye Chaosheng didn't say anything, but seeing that his hand was still tightly gripping his own, he turned his head back and sneered.

"Junior brother, now I believe you haven't lied to anyone about your innocence. I have a bedroom technique called 'The Law of Abstinence from Sexual Intercourse.' Since I haven't lost my primordial yin, I can use it to form a Daoist partnership and make a spiritual vow. Now you should believe me, right?"

Ye Chaosheng sighed: "Senior sister, don't lie to me anymore. You've gone to such lengths, I believe you. Besides, I already have a woman I like, so you should go."

The air fell silent for a moment.

Shunzai couldn't understand what this person was thinking, and his tone became surprised: "A woman you admire? Hahaha~ We're cultivators, why are we talking about this?"

Ye Chaosheng did not answer, but nodded firmly.

"Is she... as beautiful as me?" Shunzai asked resentfully.

The boy beneath him nodded again without hesitation.

Shunzai: "..."

"What...level of cultivation does she possess?"

"mortal."

She cried out in surprise, "A mortal?"

Shunzai could hardly believe that she, a cultivator who could break through to the Qi Refining stage at any moment, was inferior to a mortal.

Looking at Ye Chaosheng's determined eyes, she was somewhat unwilling: "What are you afraid of? Just have three wives and four concubines. We'll become Daoist partners, and you can have as many women as you want. I don't care about that."

Ye Chaosheng slowly shook his head and spoke softly, his tone extremely stiff: "Senior sister, I believe you. If they are savage barbarians, I will help you... kill them until I have enough."

"In exchange, you must help me break through to the Qi Refining stage."

Upon hearing this, the woman carefully examined her junior brother, pondered for a moment, and sighed, "Alright, then let go."

Shunzai rubbed his wrist, which was sore from being pinched, and took out a jade tube from his storage bag. He smiled and said, "This contains the bedroom arts. I still have to say, I really didn't lie to you."

She suddenly reached out and pressed down on Ye Chaosheng's unsuspecting hands, with a hint of resentment and shame, and leaned down to seduce him: "Junior brother, you don't understand. According to the art of the bedroom, dual cultivation has benefits."

"Your cultivation is very slow. If you're interested, you can back out. I'm actually quite fond of you now. Don't you really want to give it a try?"

"No!"

The woman's face turned bright red, and she ran out of the room.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"How is it?"

She said indifferently, "No, he's unwilling to practice that bedroom art with me."

"Why didn't you use any aphrodisiacs? Could it be that this kid... likes men?" the old Taoist priest asked, puzzled.

"This...should I try again?"

The old Taoist priest pondered for a moment and said, "Go ahead. Since he's such a genius at sword cultivation, he still has some value."

Shunzai withdrew respectfully.

……

Ye Chaosheng began cultivating like a madman, but outwardly he seemed resigned to staying on the island, watering the island's spiritual fields, practicing swordsmanship, and learning to read every day.

He was very fortunate that his cultivation was based in dreams, and that he could fool everyone by pretending during the day.

As for accepting the disaster, her reasoning was too far-fetched, and her trust in herself was unfounded. Ye Chaosheng still held onto the worst-case scenario.

He was waiting, waiting for the old Taoist to go into seclusion again, waiting for himself to break through to the fifth level. The ships on the island were all under Zhou Mian's care. Ye Chaosheng knew that he only needed one opportunity to kill Zhou Mian and seize the ships and leave.

The old Taoist priest was at the second level of Qi Refining, so he couldn't fly. As long as he left the island far enough, the old Taoist priest couldn't catch him.

My senior sister said that the other islands around, including the two largest forces, do the same thing. The cape is barren, and if you don't use blood energy to quickly improve your cultivation, the end result will be that you will be swallowed up.

Ye Chaosheng didn't believe it, nor did he dare to believe it; he wanted to see for himself.

He practiced intense breathing exercises every day, and his meridians were constantly torn apart by a burning pain.

He brandished his sword in the forest, his grip on the blade never trembling, just as he had been whipped and bruised years before, yet the next day he would rise again to cut grass, shredding every falling leaf.

The sword in his hand was not forged from any spiritual object; it was simply made of meteorite iron to make it sturdy and strong. The blade was polished to a snow-white color, dazzling in the sunlight filtering through the forest, until a leaf was shattered, and the blade began to gleam.

Ye Chaosheng stopped, slightly out of breath, and sheathed his longsword. Two months had passed since that night, and now the sword's brilliance was complete.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead, casually cast a cleansing spell on himself, looked at Shunzai who was somewhat stunned not far away, and smiled, "I'm really grateful to my senior sister for guiding me into this field."

The woman gave him a deep look: "Congratulations, junior brother. And remember, don't show it off in front of others."

Perhaps Ye Chaosheng's performance these days put the old Taoist at ease, so he allowed him to go with Shunzai to another island's market to sell their blood essence and the spiritual rice they had saved, in exchange for some spiritual funds.

Of course, the relationship between the master and his disciples on the island was delicate, so the old Taoist priest naturally fed them poison pills before leaving.