Imperial Sect, on the fourth mountain, was Mu Yurou's residence. Within it, Shen Liling made hundreds of hand seals per minute, treating the meridians of her disciple. The disciple was a beautiful girl in her teens, with short black hair, pretty pink lips, brown eyes, an athletic body, and milky skin. She was dressed in a beautiful light blue robe. She was lying on her bed sweating profusely from the great pain she was in. You could see how all her clothes were translucent due to perspiration, sticking to her beautiful body. Any man who saw this scene would explode in lust.
Meanwhile Ye Gui, the heroic boy, also in his teens, who had long black hair tied in a ponytail style, toned muscles, was sitting meditating, with bloody bandages all over his body, he had already recovered from most of his serious injuries, thanks to the miraculous healing pill that Shen Liling provided him, if it weren't for the pill it would take him around eight months to recover, that's being optimistic, and even without counting the serious consequences that his cultivation would have received in the future.
— "I almost didn't make it, if it weren't for Protector Shen arriving at just the right moment, I would have been tortured to death by that damned bag of bones, Elder Zhan, and Sister Mu Yurou, I would have ended up as an object to satisfy those bastards' lust," -Ye Gui thought in terror.
— "I need to become stronger so no one would dare trample on me, since in the cultivation world, the strong is right and the weak is wrong." -Ye Gui sighed heavily - "If only I could re-enter my sword's pocket dimension, I would have access to all those incredible resources, which would rapidly boost my strength. But that stubborn shadow is preventing me from re-entering, saying that I need to reach at least Soul Consolidation Layer 1. What a disgrace!"
Meanwhile, Ye Gui meditated, trying to absorb the colossal amount of medicinal Qi contained in the pill. This was a great opportunity to break through a small realm and reach the 7th layer of Qi Solidification. However, he couldn't resist the temptation to occasionally open his eyes and look at Mu Yurou's beautiful, wet body. If it weren't for the protector Shen being present, he would have taken advantage of his innocent companion.
Shen Liling knew what the shameless little fellow was thinking, but she let it be, as her disciple liked him, and he had defended her from danger on several occasions.
What had her uneasy was the man who became her partner, Nathan, since when they arrived last night at his disciple's residence, she noticed that he was looking at her with angry eyes, and that he didn't even speak to her, but she didn't pay attention to him, since he had important matters to attend to, such as the badly injured Ye Gui, and stabilizing Mu Yurou's damaged cultivation, after all, he was a mortal after all, he was only angry because of the lack of sleep, so with a nap, he would recover his mood, or so she believed. But it wasn't like that, since she didn't even stay in the same room, preferring to sleep in the courtyard. When she finally got up in the morning, she went for a walk around the sect, which had her very stressed. While part of her consciousness was focused on healing her disciple's meridians, another part was focused on Nathan, who ignored her warnings sent through her consciousness. She urged him to return, as it was very dangerous for a mortal to walk around in a place with cultivators, and her appearance stood out like a sheep among a pack of wolves.
Unfortunately for her, nothing she said brought Nathan back. He continued walking indifferently through the streets of the thousands of inner disciple residences on the mountain. Many cultivators looked at him with contempt, and some even tried to kill him on the spot for daring to step foot on their holy land. However, Shen Liling quickly suppressed them with a portion of her consciousness. She was frustrated because she didn't want to further worsen her relationship with her man, but she had no choice but to force him to return, since he is very important to her race.
She would make it up to him in the future by becoming a good wife to him. So, she sighed deeply, stopped what she was doing, and disappeared from the room. In less than a minute, she reappeared with Nathan clinging to her robes as if he were a misbehaving cat.
Nathan was angry with Shen Liling, but hunger was getting the better of him, so he was looking for a place to eat something. He ignored the annoying voice warning him to come back. He knew she would defend him, but he didn't think she would drag him back to the room.
Frustrated at being held against his will, he sat in a corner grumbling, while a loud growl came from his stomach due to the lack of food.
— Nathan, I will first finish healing my disciple, then I will take you somewhere where a mortal can eat, since your current body will not be able to withstand foods with a lot of Qi, so stay still, and wait, I do not want to have to seal you like last time - Shen Liling warned in reproach.
Ye Gui's eyes nearly popped out of his head in surprise. What he knew of Protector Shen was a cold person who ignored everyone, as if they were dust in the air. Only around Mu Yurou did she behave a little warmer. But here in front of him was another exception: a mere mortal with the appearance of a barbarian.
At first, when he saw the mortal, he thought he was some kind of servant of Protector Shen, which he took to be boredom, so he didn't pay much attention to him. He needed to focus on his recovery and was also worried about Mu Yurou's condition. However, this cold woman showed concern for the man.
What Ye Gui didn't know was that Shen Liling, when she commits to something, will fulfill it no matter the cost. Even though they had only known each other for two days and she had no feelings of love for that man, she still decided to take him as a partner, so she would do everything possible to behave like a good girlfriend and look after her man's needs. After all, she had planned to be with him for millions of years, leaving a great deal of dependency behind. Besides, who knows, she might even fall in love with him as the years went by.
Nathan ignored Shen Liling, who began to heal his disciple, and turned his gaze to the injured cultivator who was watching him with intrigue.
— Hey, kid, my name's Nathan, how about you?
— Hi, I'm Ye Gui, nice to meet you.
— Well, Ye Gui, do you happen to have a piece of bread or something to stave off your hunger? Also, if you have water, that's even better.
— Hmm... I'd have to check my dimensional bag, but Protector Shen, didn't she just tell you to wait for her, that she'd take you somewhere to eat?
— Just ignore her. She's just saying that to look good in front of you, pretending to be worried about her boyfriend.
— Ye Gui opened his mouth wide. At the audacity of this mortal, it seems he was tired of living, enough to say such an outrage in front of Protector Shen, who pretended not to hear anything and continued on with her business.
— "Unbelievable!" Ye Gui was surprised by Shen Liling's silence, which confirmed the veracity of this man's words.
— Okay! Do you have any or not? -Nathan insisted.
— I think so, let me see…
Nervously, he checked his dimensional bag, where he found a bottle of pills and a gourd with water inside, which he handed to her.
— That gourd contains water, and the bottle contains pills. They were given to us every month when we started farming. They're used to stave off hunger, as we can farm for months, forgetting to eat. But when you reach a certain level of cultivation, the pills are no longer necessary, so you can keep them.
Nathan desperately drank the water from the gourd, and then when he was about to swallow one of the pills in the bottle, his body froze, and the bottle of pills disintegrated in his hands, leaving no trace of its existence.
— Ye Gui! Don't you know that those pills are exclusively for cultivators? If a mortal ingests them, it will destroy their stomach, which will cause them to agonize, in a slow and painful death? Do you want to leave this immortal a widow?
— L.. I'm sorry, I didn't know, Protector Shen, it wasn't my intention, I apologize for my negligence.
— Well, brat, I'll let it go for the sake of my disciple. As for you, since you can't stay still, I'll leave you paralyzed until I'm done with this. - Shen Liling warned Nathan.
A couple of hours later, Mu Yurou regained consciousness, looked around, and saw that she was lying on the bed in her room, which surprised her, since the last thing she remembered was struggling with Zhan Gu, when he suddenly attacked her, feeling a sharp pain, then everything went black.
She quickly realized that she was not alone in the room, but that there were three people, one of them was her beautiful teacher Shen, who looked at her with eyes of relief, the other two people were Ye Gui who was meditating with bloody bandages with his bare torso, which gave her a small blush on her pretty face due to shame, the other was a man in a black robe with gold embroidery, beautiful blue eyes, he had a trimmed beard and an athletic body, although many would say that he looks like a barbarian, Mu Yurou did not care, since as soon as she saw him, her heart began to beat strongly, as if it wanted to get out of her chest, she did not understand why, but she felt enormously attracted to him, since his appearance was something out of the ordinary, "he is my destined person" - she thought, with shame she looked away from that man, and went to her teacher.
— Master Shen, were you the one who saved me? Thank you very much! If it weren't for you, I would have lost my virtue at the hands of that dog Zhan Gu. This disciple is relieved to have such a kind master in this life.
— Mu Yurou, it wasn't me who saved you, but that brat Ye Gui. Let me tell you the story. But first, I think I should go bathe you and put some new clothes on you. You don't want to be seen like this.
A little stunned, Mu Yurou looked at herself, her face completely red from embarrassment, since her clothes were completely wet and translucent from perspiration, so she tried to cover herself as best she could, so that those men in the room would not see her.
— Don't worry, the only one who could see your appearance was that brat Ye Gui, that was my gift to him, who risked his life to save you, but when Nathan entered the room, I put a barrier around it, so they can't see or hear us from this side - Shen Liling hit an invisible wall that rumbled in the middle of the room
— Master! Why did you let Ye Gui see me like this, what if I can't marry the person I like in the future?
— I thought it was Ye Gui's brat you liked, so I just rushed your relationship a little.
— I don't like him! He's just a fellow Sect member, and I get along well with him - Mu Yurou angrily left for the nearby bathroom to wash and change into her best dress, since she didn't want to give a bad impression on the man in the room.
—"Brat, why are you acting like you don't like him now, if you were always flirting with him, even in my presence?" Shen Liling shook her head.
After a while, Mu Yurou emerged from the bathroom, embarrassed, wearing a beautiful white dress inlaid with jade. She looked at her teacher, who was observing her with some understanding. She explained everything that had happened in the Imperial Sect and informed her that her father was safe and would begin rebuilding the Plum Blossom Sect. This left her very relieved and grateful to her teacher.
Shen Liling deactivated the barrier, allowing the men on the other side to know of her presence.
— Sister Mu! You had me very worried. If it weren't for Protector Shen, I'm afraid we would never meet again in this life. Ye Gui stood up and greeted her enthusiastically.}
— Ye Gui, thank you so much for standing up for me. Teacher Shen told me what happened. I will find a way to make it up to you in the future. Mu Yurou cupped her hands in return.
The strange thing was that the greeting was distant, not with the energy that characterized her, as if she were speaking to a stranger, which made Ye Gui nervous.
— There's no need for that, Sister Mu. I will always defend you from those toads who want to eat swan meat. They don't know their place in this world, do they, Protector Shen?
— You're right. Not just anyone can covet my disciple. As for the ants that dared to attack them, it seems we'll hear from them soon.
— Um, Master, who is our guest? I'd like you to introduce me to him. — A small blush could be seen on Mu Yurou's face.
— Oh, wait, let me unseal him. He doesn't like to stay still. - Shen Liling withdrew the sealing technique.
Nathan immediately stood up from his spot, while maintaining a malicious smile.
— This man you see here is called Nathan, he is my partner and future husband, I hope you get along well.
— Nice to meet you, brother Nathan, I greet you again. I am Ye Gui, I belonged to the Plum Blossom Sect, along with Mu Yurou. If it weren't for Protector Shen, we would no longer be in this world. So you have found yourself a good woman. - Ye Gui cupped his hands in greeting.
—Her..her..bo..boyfriend?! - Mu Yurou felt a pang in her heart, she was devastated, because she felt like she lost something she would never find again, it was a strange and fleeting feeling, her eyes lost their shine, she didn't even realize it, but blood was coming out of her lip, since she had bitten down hard.
— Sister Mu! Are you okay?! What's wrong? Protector Shen, are there any after-effects from the attack?
Shen Liling immediately scanned Mu Yurou's body, but saw nothing out of the ordinary, as she had worked hard to fix her damaged meridians, so there shouldn't be any after-effects.
— Ah! It's nothing, don't worry, I just suddenly felt dizzy, it will pass with time, nice to meet you, Senior Nathan, I hope we get along well in the future - Mu Yurou cupped her hands in greeting, not daring to look at his face
— Nice to meet you both, but it's a shame it's such a short meeting, since this is where I say goodbye, Shen Liling, I thought it over carefully and I'm not ready for such a hasty marriage, besides I refuse to become a cultivator, I just want to live like a mortal, meet several women, have fun, live peacefully the years I have left, then die of old age like anyone else, so that's goodbye – Nathan bowed and disintegrated into particles of light
Shen Liling, startled, tried to grab him, but found nothing but air where he had been before. Mu Yurou and Ye Gui were completely stunned by the scene. They didn't know what had happened, as there was no Qi fluctuation, and he was supposed to be a mere mortal with no knowledge of cultivation.
A strong aura shot out from Shen Liling's body, sweeping across Planet Kepler with her consciousness. She searched thoroughly for Nathan, but found nothing. She repeated this hundreds of times, but all with the same result: he had completely disappeared, as if he hadn't existed.
Desperate, she flew into outer space, looked toward the planet, and quickly performed several advanced tracking techniques, even using Primarch-level treasures, but none of them worked.
Then he remembered the strange palace made of spiritual stones, which was located in the forbidden forest of the imperial sect, which did not let his consciousness enter no matter how hard he tried, so it was most likely that Nathan was inside it, so, immediately leaving for him, he planned to investigate it in the future since it could be an ancient ancestral architecture, of which little was recorded, it was not known what great treasure or technique was protected within it, but he would find out while searching for his fugitive partner.
......................................................…..
Meanwhile, in a distant city inhabited by nothing but mortals, an old man dressed in a bamboo hat and ragged and stained clothes pushed a rickety wooden cart through the crowded streets while smiling.
—"Ha ha ha ha, It worked! He can't tell me apart, even if he tries with all his might. I'm a genius. Although I can't beat you now, I'll never let anyone else control me. Besides, I still have your real appearance in mind. I won't do it with a dragon. I'm not a zoophilic." - The old man advanced with his cart towards a food stand.