Volume One, Chapter Four: I Support You Unconditionally

Knock, knock, knock.

“Ruoxi? Are you there?”

Hearing the voice, Liu Ruoxi emerged from her meditation and looked toward the door. Judging by the voice, it must be Su Haoming looking for her.

Though she didn’t know why Su Haoming wanted to see her, her intuition told her it was nothing bad.

So Liu Ruoxi rose and walked to the door, reaching out to open it.

A familiar figure appeared—Su Haoming’s face still bore that simple, sincere smile.

“What do you need from me?”

“Nothing much. I have some spirit stones here. You’ll definitely need a lot when you resume your cultivation. I heard that after your meridians were damaged, the clan stopped providing you with cultivation resources. And since you spent all your spirit stones buying herbs, you’re probably short on them now. So I managed to get some for you.”

Su Haoming pulled out a storage pouch from his storage ring and handed it to Liu Ruoxi, then turned to leave.

“Keep up the cultivation. I won’t disturb you. And don’t worry, I’ll keep your resumption of cultivation a secret.”

“Wait!” Liu Ruoxi suddenly reached out and grabbed Su Haoming’s shoulder, asking a question she had been unable to figure out until now.

“Why are you so good to me?”

In the harsh world of cultivation, where the strong prey on the weak, Su Haoming was a cultivator while she had lost all her powers and become useless. He could have easily taken advantage of her, especially since they had no prior emotional bond. So why was he treating her so kindly?

“Hahaha, of course, because you are my wife. As your husband, I should support you unconditionally. Besides, your talent surpasses mine. You have the potential to become strong, so I should help you. I know the pain of being weak. Helping you also fulfills my wish—though I can’t become strong myself, I can nurture a strong one,” Su Haoming scratched his head and smiled awkwardly. His words were hardly truthful, but that nonsense made Liu Ruoxi’s heart race, softening her gaze toward him.

“You’re such a good-for-nothing. Without your clan backing you, you’d surely be swindled and left with nothing,” Liu Ruoxi thought to herself, vowing that once she regained her cultivation, she would do everything to help Su Haoming lay his foundation.

“I accept your kindness. Don’t give up on yourself. Keep working hard. Who knows, maybe you’ll reach foundation establishment one day.”

“Work hard? I will, next time for sure,” Su Haoming said hurriedly before turning and leaving.

Watching his retreating figure, Liu Ruoxi smiled wryly.

She then opened the pouch to check the spirit stones inside. What she saw tightened her heart instantly.

One thousand and twenty-five spirit stones, both whole and fragments—clearly, Su Haoming had given her all the spirit stones he had.

Even among clan disciples, having over a hundred spirit stones was considered good for a Qi Refining stage cultivator. For him to produce more than a thousand meant he had given her every last bit he had saved and even obtained from elsewhere.

“Fool, such a fool,” Liu Ruoxi muttered, but deep inside, she was deeply touched. The icy barrier around her heart began to crack.

Turning back to her room, she resumed meditation. She must strive to recover her cultivation to foundation establishment and then help Su Haoming achieve the same.

...

Inside the cultivation chamber at the mountaintop mansion.

Su Haoming sat cross-legged, focusing on his dantian where a faint trace of primordial violet energy had appeared.

The primordial violet energy moved with his will, appearing in his hand. Using his divine sense, Su Haoming could shape it at will. Unfortunately, as a Qi Refining stage cultivator, he could only gather this much. The primordial violet energy of someone at foundation establishment could be used as a rare treasure.

Ten days had passed since their wedding. His system’s lottery chances had accumulated to nine. Once midnight struck, the system lottery would refresh, and he planned to do a ten-draw in the system lottery. He wondered what good items he would get.

Opening the system’s spouse interface, he saw that Liu Ruoxi had restored her cultivation to Qi Refining stage three. Normally, a tenfold increase in cultivation power at Qi Refining stage three should boost his cultivation by at least one stage, reaching Qi Refining seven.

But unfortunately, she had a Heavenly Spiritual Root, while he had a Five Elements Spiritual Root. He needed five times the spirit energy. So if they were at the same level, when she advanced one stage to Qi Refining seven, he would only have twice the progress.

The Five Elements Spiritual Root was called a waste root because cultivation progress was slow. Its advantage was that its spirit energy concentration was five times that of single-attribute Heavenly Spiritual Root cultivators.

“No good. Relying on Liu Ruoxi’s cultivation rebate alone is too slow. If I could open a few more spouses and cultivate simultaneously...” Su Haoming stroked his chin, fantasizing.

But he quickly realized he couldn’t do that.

Damn it. If he tried to find another spouse, with Liu Ruoxi’s domineering personality—she’d probably threaten him with a sword on their wedding night. If she found out, she’d tear him apart alive.

Just thinking about it was terrifying.

“Ah-ha!” Su Haoming suddenly had an idea.

He could use his false identity to mingle in the Windling City’s scattered cultivators circle and see if he could meet a compatible female stray cultivator!

With that thought, a mischievous smile appeared on his face.

At that moment, midnight struck, and the system’s lottery chances refreshed.

Without hesitation, Su Haoming opened the system panel and performed a ten-draw.

[Congratulations, host obtained: Foundation Establishment Pill x3]

[Congratulations, host obtained: Qi Refining stage treasure x4]

[Congratulations, host obtained: Foundation Establishment stage fire attribute cultivation manual x1]

[Congratulations, host obtained: Second-grade alchemy furnace x1]

[Congratulations, host obtained: Nascent Soul stage alchemy master’s alchemy insights x1]

Su Haoming took out the cultivation manual and insights from the system and found them to be wordless heavenly books. Damn, the system was really cruel. It gave him good stuff but didn’t let him use it. It was pure torture!

“Foundation establishment pills are easy to trade, and Liu Ruoxi can’t use Qi Refining treasures, so I can sell those. Fire attribute cultivation manual, alchemy furnace, and alchemy insights—Liu Ruoxi probably can’t use them either.”

Scratching his head, Su Haoming decided to take a trip to Windling City to execute his plan, hoping to blend into the scattered cultivators’ circles and possibly meet some romantic confidantes.

As the saying goes, licking one woman makes you a simp, but if you can lick ten at once, you’re no longer a simp but a battle wolf admired by thousands of men!

After a night’s sleep at home, Su Haoming rose at dawn and flew to Windling City on his Green Leaf flying treasure.

...

Windling City lay adjacent to the Windling Mountains, home to many beasts and spiritual herbs, making it one of the main gathering places for scattered cultivators in the Northern Wind Domain.

Many scattered cultivators came here daily. Su Haoming deliberately dressed in plain clothes to blend in with ordinary people among the crowd.