ABFC | Chapter 30: A Hot Spring Bath Led to a Strategy Target

The study was very large, with many night pearls hanging, filling the entire room with a brilliant glow.

The four walls were lined with books, and even the floor was piled with paper pages and scrolls. Most of them had yellowed with age, and the covers were slightly curled, proving their old age.

Perhaps it had been a while since they were read, as a fine layer of dust had settled on them. When someone passed by, a gentle breeze stirred, and the dust floated up lightly into the air.

At the innermost part, there was a rosewood writing desk, fully equipped with brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, each a rare treasure in the world.

Mu Zhe leisurely sat down behind the desk, dipped the brush in ink, and began to write.

The room was silent.

After a while, he set down his brush, gazing intently at the ink marks on the paper, a faint smile curling at the corner of his lips.

A pain once again surged in his chest, but it was not as sharp as before; it was dull, accompanied by a slight numbness and itch.

He casually took the spirit medicine, and adjusted his breathing for a moment. The chaotic demonic energy and spiritual energy within his body calmed down, and his complexion gradually returned to normal.

After carefully putting away the painting, Mu Zhe drew a hand formation and changed into a different set of clothes.

Just as he was about to tear open the void and head to Spring Valley, his gaze inadvertently landed on a book placed nearby.

It was a somewhat thick art album, with a peony in full bloom, its petals delicate and charming, painted on the cover. The center of the flower was specifically highlighted with gold powder.

A faint memory came to his mind, and his pitch-black pupils quivered. With a swift motion, he yanked open the drawer and tossed the book inside.

After a pause, he added another lock expressionlessly.

After doing all this, he casually tore open a rift in the void.

White mist, wrapped in heat, surged toward him, and faintly, the fragrance of snow lilies drifted through the rift, curling around the hem of his clothes.

He strode into it.

In the warm hot spring.

Wen Ruan took a deep breath, sank to the bottom of the pool, and began silently counting the time she could hold her breath.

She was very good at swimming in the past. At the age of ten, she even represented her school in a competition and earned a pretty good rank.

This made her old grandfather, who only knew how to bury himself in his paintings, absolutely thrilled. He kept saying that he would send her to the professional team in the capital, aiming for even bigger arenas in the future.

After hearing that, she quit the school’s swimming team the next day and stopped attending P. E. classes.

From then on, her old grandfather never mentioned sending her away again.

Whether it was due to her cultivation or not, this body had excellent swimming abilities. Her ability to hold her breath was much longer than that of an ordinary person.

While waiting under water, she opened the system out of boredom, hoping to study it some more.

The system’s interface was quite simple, with two bold, capitalized task titles across the center. Below them, two progress bars were displayed.

One of the progress bars was still at 0, while the other—

“Mu Zhe’s current favorability: 20.”

She widened her eyes and subconsciously took a breath.

“Cough–”

A series of bubbles rose from the water with a gurgling sound.

She struggled to float to the surface, her face red from choking, coughing so hard she couldn’t catch her breath. It took her a while to recover.

“Cough, cough, cough, 996, what’s going on?!”

It was clearly 0 when Mu Zhe left yesterday, so how did it suddenly rise to 20 today?

She hadn’t even seen him, and yet his favorability increased so suddenly and mysteriously?

996, who had been washing its paws by the poolside, paused in its movements. “Maybe, should be, perhaps it’s a delay in the system?”

“Then why didn’t I hear the notification sound?” She was still a bit worried. “It’s not a system glitch, is it? Just so you know, I definitely won’t be paying you back for this.”

“It was on silent, so of course you couldn’t hear it.” 996 stopped washing its paws, dried the water off its body, and jumped into her sea of consciousness.

“It was yours to begin with, just take it.”

Wen Ruan scratched her head, wondering when she had put the system on silent.

After thinking for a while, she really couldn’t remember, so she decided not to dwell on it any longer.

“Let’s turn off the silent mode. I can’t afford to miss the notifications anymore.” She said with a joyful expression. “I remember that the favorability points can be exchanged for rewards, right?”

996 said, “That’s right. You can exchange the same amount of points without losing your existing favorability. The points can be used to redeem items in the system’s store.”

“Then he only has a total of 100 favorability points, so wouldn’t that mean I can only exchange for 100 points?” She said, feeling a bit deflated. “And I still owe you 50 points. What hope do I have in this life?”

996 comforted her hurriedly, “The system will drop points tasks from time to time. If you do a few more, you’ll be able to pay off your debt soon, and the store will be accessible to you then.”

“Okay,” she sighed, “Then I’ll pay off twenty points first.”

“Don’t worry, as soon as the favorability points are credited, the system will automatically convert them into points. These twenty points have already been paid off.”

Wen Ruan clicked on the sidebar, and sure enough, the points section showed -29.

“?” She blinked, and after quickly finishing a math problem in her mind, she asked tentatively: “Why is there one extra point?”

996 unconsciously tugged at a tuft of hair and said seriously: “It should have been earned while the system was on silent, you just didn’t notice.”

……

Wen Ruan found it hard to describe how she felt right now.

How should she put it? It was probably something like this: it was cold, so she put on last year’s coat, and suddenly found one hundred yuan in the pocket.

Even though the money was originally hers, she couldn’t shake the feeling of it being an unexpected windfall.

It was, well, strangely delightful.

“996, come out for a moment.”

996 shivered and immediately became high-alert, “What do you want me to come out for?”

“Just come out, I promise I won’t hit you, don’t worry.”

It weighed the pros and cons, but reluctantly crawled out, tentatively walking towards her by the edge of the pool: “You promised, you are not allowed to touch me!”

Wen Ruan gently shook her head, “I won’t.”

By the time it finally reached her, she could no longer hold back her laughter. She reached out, scooped it up, and grabbed the nape of its neck.

Then, the dragon cat was kneaded into a flat shape and rolled into a ball.

996 was squished into a mess, only able to desperately wave its little short legs, with an expression of utter hopelessness.

Damn it, I will never be fooled again next time!

Crack.

A slight sound suddenly came from behind, as if the fine silk was being cut by a pair of sharp scissors, or as if a heavy ice layer was slowly cracking.

Wen Ruan’s soft laughter stopped abruptly, and the strength in the hand loosened. 996 seized the opportunity to escape back into her sea of consciousness.

She blinked and looked around. When she saw that Bei Ming Kun, who was frolicking in the flowers, had disappeared without a trace, her heart calmed slightly. She turned around and asked.

“Bei Ming Kun, is that you?”

Before she finished speaking, a rift in the void opened, and the Demon Lord, noble and aloof, stepped out, lowering his head with an expressionless face.

Their eyes met.

Wen Ruan was stunned.

Help, it seems like she’s having a hallucination…

This fair-skinned man with red lips and white teeth, how does he look exactly like her target who’s currently on a business trip?!

Mu Zhe looked at the girl, whose soul seemed to be drifting far away, and a trace of surprise flashed in his eyes as well.

The water glistened with ripples as she half-leaned against the edge of the pond, her long hair wet and cascading down. Broken water droplets slid from her temples, following the slender curve of her neck down to her collarbone.

The delicate collarbone had long been filled with water, and a few drops immediately overflowed, continuing to slide down.

He instinctively followed the path of the droplets, but suddenly, as if burned, he forcefully averted his gaze.

“Ah!” Wen Ruan finally snapped back to her senses, letting out a short startled cry. She covered her chest and crouched down into the water, her face turning bright red.

“Why are you here?!”

Didn’t you say that you wouldn’t be back for at least ten days or half a month? It’s only the second day, why are you back already?!

The Demon Palace isn’t even on fire, why are you in such a hurry to come back, ahhh!