Chapter 445 Standing Akimbo
Wu You jumped out of the window and stared at the innkeeper alertly for fear that she would pounce on Li Ye without saying a word.
The innkeeper smiled awkwardly and felt quite embarrassed. She didn’t expect that Wu You would live in the same courtyard with Li Ye. She couldn’t help blushing at the thought that Wu You heard what she said just now.
However, after all, she was a big demon who had lived for several hundred years, so she was brazen-faced. Regardless of everything, the innkeeper stuck out her chest and looked at Li Ye affectionately, waiting for his answer.
“I accept it, I accept it!” The voice came out from Li Ye. It was not Li Ye but the sparrow that grabbed Li Ye’s shoulder was speaking. It fluttered its wings happily and said to the demon fox, “A demon cannot marry a human being, and they can’t have children. We are both demons, so I accept you!”
The demon fox was angry. Glaring at it, she said, “Shut up! If you talk any more nonsense, I’ll pluck out your feathers!”
The sparrow instinctively shrank its neck for fear of being caught by her. But after it rolled its eyes and thought for a while, it realized that she could do nothing to it because it stood on Li Ye’s shoulder.
The sparrow immediately became confident. Chin up and chest out, it said fearlessly, “You’re just a demon fox, so why being so arrogant? Do you think you can scare me? I’m not timid. Come over if you dare. My big wings will flap you to the sky!”
As soon as it finished speaking, Li Ye flicked its head. The sparrow was now under other’s control, and its cultivation was limited. Like being drunk, it staggered on Li Ye’s shoulder and almost fell.
The sparrow realized that it had talked too much. After it finally stabilized its body, it immediately said with a flattering smile, “After you, Your Highness. I don’t dare to speak before you anymore.”
Li Ye looked at the demon fox and asked, “Do you really want to go with us?”
Hearing this, the demon fox immediately felt hopeful. Being coquettish, she said in a sweet tone that could soften any male demon, “I promise to serve you comfortably!”
Li Ye nodded and said to Wu You, “It’s up to you.”
Then, Li Ye turned around and went back to the house with the sparrow as the demon fox watched in surprise.
Although the demon fox schemed against him in the inn, she didn’t intend to kill him. Furthermore, she indeed helped him in Panfeng City. Especially, when she blurted out that she would cover him in the Star Pavilion, Li Ye was a little moved.
But in any case, the demon fox was of dubious background, so Li Ye wouldn’t let down his guard against her.
Of course, that was not the most important thing.
The most important thing was that Duchess did not like the demon fox.
So, it was up to Duchess to decide if the demon fox would stay or leave.
Duchess’s happiness was more important than anything else.
“Childe...” Seeing Li Ye entering the house, the demon fox still wanted to say something, but obviously, Li Ye didn’t intend to change his mind, so she felt sad immediately.
She looked at Wu You awkwardly. As expected, Duchess showed a smile that made her hair stand on end.
Wu You raised her delicate chin, snorted, and asked, “Can you do the laundry and cooking?”
The innkeeper said awkwardly, “Of course, I can cook for I run an inn, but for washing clothes... Do we, cultivators, still need to do the laundry? With a cleansing technique, our clothes will become very clean...”
Wu You narrowed her eyes. “I ask you if you can!”
When she saw Duchess’s gloomy expression, the innkeeper’s heart beat fast. She thought that she had “a deep feeling” for Li Ye, but the fact was that Li Ye obviously had “a deeper feeling” for this little girl.
Now that her destiny was controlled by Duchess, the innkeeper had to control her temper. She could only pat her chest and promise, “Duchess, don’t worry. I can do the laundry. I will take good care of you!”
“That’s more like it!” Wu You raised her head high proudly. However, when she glanced at the innkeeper’s plump breasts, she immediately became unhappy. Pretending to be serious, she told the innkeeper in a deep voice, “Don’t pat your chest anymore! You don’t think I have, do you?”
The innkeeper was embarrassed and said with a hollow smile, “Duchess, you’re a born beauty, so I can’t compare with you... If you don’t allow me to pat my chest, I won’t do it again!”
Duchess put her hands behind her back. Imitating Li Ye’s manner, she nodded and said like an elder, “That’s more like it... It’s late, and Elder Brother Ye is hungry. Go and make some food.”
The innkeeper had no choice but to obey.
The demon wolf and the demon jackal were hiding behind the door to see the innkeeper confess to Li Ye, hoping that she and Li Ye would become lovers. But now, when they saw this, they looked at each other disconsolately and resentfully.
When the innkeeper came out, they immediately followed her. They thought that the innkeeper would order the inn to prepare food, but they didn’t expect that the innkeeper would go straight to the kitchen, which made them unable to restrain their anger anymore.
Although the demon jackal’s cultivation was low, his mind was active, and he was more talkative than the demon wolf. He immediately stepped forward and said, “Innkeeper, that little girl goes too far. Are you really going to condescend to make food for them?”
The innkeeper didn’t look back. “What do you mean? When I was in the Lingyun Canyon, I always cooked.”
The demon jackal said angrily, “But it’s clear that the little girl is bulling you. Are you going to yield to her?”
The innkeeper looked back at the demon jackal and said lightly, “Duchess is childe’s favorite. If we make Duchess unhappy, childe will have complaints. Similarly, if Duchess is happy, childe will be happy, too. So essentially, I’m doing this for childe. What’s wrong?”
The demon jackal and the demon wolf looked at each other, and they were almost persuaded by the innkeeper.
They thought that the innkeeper was bewitched. Since Li Ye came to the inn and the innkeeper saw the Roc Demon King, she went crazy.
The demon jackal said tentatively, “Innkeeper, you’ve sacrificed too much for the great cause of our demon clan.”
“Sacrifice?” The innkeeper glanced at the demon jackal doubtfully and said earnestly, “I’m sincere to childe. Don’t sully our relationship!”
The demon jackal was speechless. “Does Li Ye have feelings for you? Why are you being so confident?”
“Tonight, I’m going to show off my cooking skills and let childe know me again! What are you two doing? Follow me and wash vegetables for me!”
When Wu You saw the demon fox go to make food obediently, her eyes curved into crescent moons, and she stood akimbo proudly for a while.
She was satisfied.
Li Ye was Prince An of the Tang Empire and the current lord of the north, so Duchess knew that he wouldn’t have only one wife and that he would have many concubines in the future.
Duchess thought that she had to support Li Ye in all aspects. She couldn’t be jealous, and she had to learn from Empress Zhangsun. Therefore, although she didn’t like that the innkeeper always seduced Li Ye, she wouldn’t stop her as long as Li Ye was willing.
Duchess was kind, but she was a duchess, after all. She was not ignorant. She knew that if she wanted Li Ye to conquer the world without worries, she had to ensure the peace of the backyard. So, for those concubines, she would make them obedient and stop them from making trouble.
Now that she was dealing with the innkeeper, it was a good opportunity to practice.
At present, it seemed that the effect was good.
So Duchess was very happy.
However, this was not the happiest thing. She could stand akimbo here proudly because of Li Ye’s attitude. Li Ye left the demon fox to her disposal, which showed that she was the most important in Li Ye’s heart. It was also, in a way, a recognition of her power in charge of the backyard.
How could Duchess not be happy?
Thinking of this, she blushed and felt shy. “I haven’t married him yet. Why would I think of myself as his princess? What if Elder Brother Ye doesn’t marry me or let me be his princess? Isn’t it too early to rejoice?”
With this in mind, Duchess began to worry again, and she looked sad.
Duchess no longer stood akimbo. She quickly ran back to the house and secretly observed what Li Ye was doing.
Looking at the Magic Treasures and Dan Pills piled up into a hill in front of him, Li Ye was very happy.
After wiping out the Star Pavilion in Panfeng City, Li Ye didn’t break his promise. He did take back all the Magic Treasures and Dan Pills in the Star Pavilion. This was inevitable. What Li Ye wanted to do most right now was to upgrade the Luke Sword.
In the previous battle, the demon tiger, the shopkeeper of the Star Pavilion, was killed by his sword. He was also injured.
After all, the other side was in the Real Immortal Realm. It was not as simple as a level higher than the Sky Immortal Realm.
Leave aside the Sage Realm, there were six realms in the Immortal Realm, and they were divided into three levels. From the Sky Immortal Realm to the Real Immortal Realm, to the Taiyi Real Immortal Realm, and to the Golden Immortal Realm, there were clear thresholds.
Because of the difference between comprehending Tao, entering Tao, and controlling Tao, there was a fundamental difference between the Sky Immortal Realm and the Real Immortal Realm, like the difference between Level 9 of Qi-refining and the Spiritual Master Realm. Under ordinary circumstances, the Ground Immortal Realm might defeat the Sky Immortal Realm, but the Sky Immortal Realm couldn’t defeat the Real Immortal Realm if he didn’t have overwhelming secret methods and Magic Treasures.
The law of the Great Tao distinguished them.
Fortunately, Li Ye had a profound comprehension of the Great Tao and formed his own Way of Emperor, making him step into the level of entering Tao from comprehending Tao to some extent. In addition, ordinary people’s Luck in his Immortal Area was indeed extraordinary, so he could defeat the demon tiger in the Real Immortal Realm.
Li Ye looked at the Magic Treasures thoughtfully. “Unlike the human world, there are cultivators in the Immortal Realm in the Immortal Court and the demon clan. What’s more, there are a lot of Magic Treasures, and there are natural Magic Treasures, to say nothing of top-grade processed Magic Treasures. When fighting the demon tiger, I would be at a disadvantage if he had high-ranking Magic Treasures.”
Li Ye’s idea didn’t come out of thin air. When he was on the earth, he saw the Investiture of the Gods and the Journey to the West. Although the two worlds were different in many ways, they had something in common.
In fact, it was very difficult to improve the realm when one’s cultivation reached the Immortal Realm. When the suppression of power didn’t work, various Magic Treasures, magic formations, and secret methods became sharp weapons to defeat the enemy.
The fools like the Golden-horned King and the Silver-horned King made the monkey suffer only by a calabash gourd. Red Boy, a little kid in the Sky Immortal Realm, made the monkey scurry off like a frightened rat by the True-fire of Samadhi. That was all the evidence.
After he killed the demon tiger, some cultivators in the Star Pavilion ran away. After all, Li Ye was exhausted at that time, Duchess couldn’t control her body well, and You Daxiao and the innkeeper weren’t very powerful, so they couldn’t stop all the demons.
Li Ye needed to improve the class-ranking of the Luke Sword right now because he didn’t know when his opponents would take action again.
Apart from this, he was not worried about the improvement of his cultivation.
As Li Zhen continued to govern 11 prefectures in Hedong and the other northern vassal states took the initiative or were forced to issue the civil policy of Pinglu, he got a lot of ordinary people’s Luck every day. His cultivation improved very quickly, and now he reached the middle stage of the Ground Immortal Realm.
The Star Pavilion was indeed a big trading company. Although there were no high-ranking Magic Treasures, there were many middle-ranking Magic Treasures. Of course, among the three to four hundred Magic Treasures, most of them were low-ranking.
When they all became waste, the Luke Sword improved a lot.
The Dragon Qi also vomited badly. When it swam back, it swayed left and right and stopped from time to time. Li Ye wondered if it would collapse in his meridians.
It was within Li Ye’s expectation that the Luke Sword did not upgrade to the high ranking in the end. After all, there was a huge difference between the low ranking to the high ranking and the middle ranking to the high ranking.
Even so, the three to four hundred Magic Treasures still made the Luke Sword very close to the high ranking. Li Ye was thinking about whether he should get more Magic Treasures for the Dragon Qi to eat.
But when he saw the Dragon Qi lying on the Ocean of Qi like an earthworm with no strength to curl his body, Li Ye felt sorry for it.
Apart from Magic Treasures, there were Dan Pills. These Dan Pills were not bad. Some were to improve the cultivation, some were to heal injuries, some were to stimulate cultivators’ potential to make a deadly fight, and some were to transform the body. In short, different kinds of colors had different effects.
But for Li Ye, except for the Dan Pills for healing injuries, the rest were basically useless. He intended to give them to Duchess, You Daxiao, and the others.
“Your, Your Highness, may you give this bottle of Dan Pills to me?” While Li Ye was thinking about how to distribute the Dan Pills, the sparrow on his shoulder looked at a white bottle and asked weakly.
Maybe the sparrow felt it was an excessive request as a “new member”, so it was not confident. It looked at Li Ye pitifully, like a child who asked for candy but was afraid that the adults would not give him.
It was asking for a bottle of Dan Pills for improving potential and speed. Without hesitation, Li Ye took it through the air and threw it to the sparrow on his shoulder. “Take it and eat it. Don’t be polite.”
The sparrow’s claws were holding a bottle that was bigger than itself. It took a lot of effort to keep the bottle from falling. It looked at Li Ye in disbelief. “Your Highness, you’re so generous? After I eat it, my body will be full of the effect and fragrance of the Dan Pill. Are you going to roast me and eat me at that time?”
Li Ye didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He picked up the sparrow that was tightly holding the bottle and put it on the table. “Don’t eat it if you’re afraid of death.”
Although the sparrow took a different stand from him at the beginning and its fighting ability was ordinary, it flew so fast that it could be used as a scout. Li Ye wanted to keep it with him, so he naturally would not be stingy with a bottle of Dan Pills.
He robbed the Dan Pills anyway.
The sparrow sat on the table with its legs open. It held the bottle in front of it, covering its body, but it tilted its head and looked at Li Ye. It was moved to tears. “If you don’t eat me, you’re a good person! Even if I have to fly 54,000 kilometers for you in this life, I will never feel tired...”
It was moved, but it didn’t stop. It quickly put the bottle down, climbed up to the mouth of the bottle, stamped on it with its two legs, and put the bottle on end.
When it flipped the bottle over, the Dan Pills were already on the table. In order to prevent Li Ye from changing his mind, it couldn’t wait to throw itself on it and spread its wings. Then, it stuffed several Dan Pills into its mouth.
He didn’t know how it ate such a big Dan Pill at once.
New novel 𝓬hapters are published on (f)reeweb(n)ovel.com