Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest-Chapter 527 - 23: Strawberries

Chapter 527: Chapter 23: Strawberries

“I always feel that lately, besides training and cultivation, there isn’t much else to do,” Su Yunjin sipped her tea, glanced at Yan Yu nonchalantly, and spoke with a smile, “It feels like I’m idly wasting time.”

“Isn’t peaceful time good?” Yan Yu chuckled upon hearing her words, “During our deep venture into the Southern Border, we neither ate, drank, nor slept, just resting, moving, or fighting. By comparison, it’s still better to waste time leisurely every day.”

“That’s also true,” Su Yunjin softly smiled, “People are really strange, aren’t they? Craving rest when busy, yet seeking work when at rest.”

“Speaking of work, how is your collection of the Acquired Five Elements Essence going?” Yan Yu asked.

“The dew collection is almost complete,” Su Yunjin responded.

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If placed in the Cultivation World, this matter completely depends on the right time and place, and is truly a super troublesome and time-consuming task. Yan Yu’s setup of a simple dew collection device had been greatly beneficial, saving considerable amounts of time.

Su Yunjin would take the time to control her sword back to Jinling every day, to check on the dew collection — most of the dew, due to impurity, has to be discarded, and sometimes even for consecutive days, she gained nothing.

After months of persistence, little by little, it finally seemed like an end was in sight.

Click, click, click! The sound of footsteps came from behind.

Yan Yu and Su Yunjin turned their heads, only to see Zhao Yuanzhen’s puppet, Ami, descending the stairs, then picking up the fruit salad from the dining table and clicking back upstairs.

“Sister Zhao’s Divine Sense accommodation method is really convenient,” Su Yunjin remarked, “Even when not present, one can remotely operate a puppet to do more work, making me want a puppet too.”

“The essence of a puppet is a Magic Treasure; it demands quite a bit of time and energy to master,” Yan Yu quickly warned, “If you can master the Southern Dipper Star River Secret Art to the point of effortlessness, I might consider letting you dual-cultivate, but Sword Control Technique must still be the priority.”

“I was just joking, captain,” Su Yunjin said with a smile.

Just joking is good… Although Yun Jin hadn’t released any gravity, Yan Yu had suddenly felt tense, fearing she would make an outrageously unreasonable demand like Ningning’s “The captain must treat everyone equally!” “What she has, I must have too.”

Sigh, even without releasing gravity, isn’t this a form of advanced gravity manipulation? I underestimated you, Yun Jin!

“Would you like some fruit salad?” Lin Ning’s voice came from the dining table, “Oh, why is one plate missing?”

“Sister Zhao’s puppet came down and took it,” Su Yunjin replied.

“Is that so?” Lin Ning didn’t inquire further, as she had originally cut quite a lot, and brought over the remaining dishes.

Strangely enough, whether Yan Yu was alone with Ningning or Yun Jin, they both had plenty of topics to discuss, but once the three of them were together, the scope of their conversation would weirdly narrow down to team-related affairs, as if there was some unspoken taboo.

What could be the reason?

“The strawberries seem to be in season this month,” Yan Yu tried to break the taboo.

“Then I’ll buy some next time,” Lin Ning immediately chimed in.

Su Yunjin didn’t join the conversation, so the topic naturally ended. Yan Yu discreetly squinted his eyes to see the secretary lady elegantly sip her tea.

If Lin Ning weren’t here, Su Yunjin was almost always responsive, especially to an easy topic like seasonal fruits… So why the silence?

“When it comes to food, that’s Ningning’s forte,” Su Yunjin swallowed her tea, thinking to herself, “If this leads into discussing the best way to slice and present strawberries, and makes the captain see her in a new light, that wouldn’t be good. I’ll just feign disinterest and act indifferent.”

“But strawberries can also be grown at home,” Yan Yu continued on the topic Lin Ning had mentioned earlier to Su Yunjin, “Small tomatoes, cucumbers, and strawberries, they’re all quite easy to grow.”

Since the captain looked over, Su Yunjin could only reply with a smile:

“Certainly, though I usually grow flowers, I guess vegetables and fruits aren’t much different.”

Lin Ning didn’t take the opportunity to continue with “So, can you grow XX vegetables?” and similar topics, instead looking as if she was distracted and daydreaming, which slightly puzzled Yan Yu.

“Grocery shopping is also my responsibility in the team,” Lin thought to herself. “If I let Yun Jin grow vegetables, wouldn’t that be stealing my job? If the captain is serious, I’ll try to decline using reasons like ‘the ones we grow ourselves are too small.'”

The three of them were silent for a while before Yan Yu stood up and said,

“I’m going to check on their training.”

As soon as he left, it was as if he had lifted a ban on speaking, allowing the two girls to start chatting.

“Does Yun Jin plan to grow vegetables and fruits?” Lin Ning asked tentatively.

“It depends on the captain’s intentions,” Yun Jin guessed what she was thinking and said with a smile, “The fruits and vegetables we grow ourselves would be enough for one person, but we have six people in our team; it’s not realistic for everyone to grow their own.”

“Indeed,” Lin Ning said with a smile, “I plan to buy some strawberries; do you have time to come with me, Yun Jin?”

“Now?” Su Yunjin pondered for a moment and then nodded with a smile, “Sure.”

————————

Zhao Yuanzhen manipulated a puppet and brought the fruit salad back to his room, sporting a smug expression.

The normal method of puppet manipulation involves connecting to the puppet remotely with Divine Sense to control its various actions; after completing the inhabitation of Divine Sense, one doesn’t need to bother maintaining the connection, which feels like an upgrade from 2G to 3G—it ensures a strong response with the magic treasure and provides almost instant transmission of thoughts.

If it was the White Bone Heart-Locking Hammer, a magic treasure, you wouldn’t need to manage it once you issue the command to hit someone; thus, the advantage of Divine Sense inhabitation is limited. However, since puppets are extremely complex magic treasures, Divine Sense inhabitation allowed Zhao to issue more frequent and denser commands to the puppet within the same amount of time, greatly enhancing its flexibility.

Now, the puppet could not only be used for killing, but it could also thread needles, carve designs into tofu, and pick up marbles with chopsticks…even the most complex operations were effortless, as if Zhao himself were on the scene.

Moreover, since Zhao was in an abnormal state, he was naturally happy to let the puppet do the work outside his room; it could do anything but talk, which was extremely convenient!

After eating some fruit salad, Zhao suddenly became gloomy again.

Why are there no strawberries? Cream strawberries should be in season now! That Ningning really isn’t thoughtful!

Normally, this would just be a sigh, quickly forgotten, but now with his emotions intensely amplified, Zhao grew more depressed the more he thought about it, igniting a strong desire to eat cream strawberries. Unable to control himself, he quickly picked up his phone and messaged Yan Yu,

“Control me quick! I want to eat cream strawberries!”

In the villa’s underground training area, Yan Yu was watching Chen Lingyun and Xie Ruoxi’s training.

Today’s practice was about evasion. Chen Lingyun used the Five Ghosts for restraint and Black and White Impermanence for the main attack, while Xie Ruoxi was restricted from using the Thunder Method and could only rely on the Shifting Technique and Cloud Ascension Technique to avoid the attacks.

The training results were clearly unsatisfactory. The pretty but useless one had surprisingly poor control over True Yuan, often running past the target after a quick dash and failing to stop in time with the Cloud Ascension Technique nine times out of ten, nearly driving Yan Yu to curse.

Feeling irritated, he suddenly received Zhao’s message and immediately felt a surge of anger. He replied,

“I’m busy, deal with it yourself!”

Just as he was about to send the message, he remembered her current emotional state was uncontrollable and she might end up lashing out violently. He quickly edited his message:

“Tell Ningning about it, she’s going grocery shopping.”

After sending the message, Yan Yu sighed.

Why is it that every time the Demonic Sect Enchantress has an issue, I have to be the one to deal with her emotions?