"Oh? You really brought the Crescent Mushroom back!"
Ling Zhen was delighted when I handed over the container where the Crescent Mushroom had been stored. He opened it up, checked the contents and somehow managed to calm down the trapped Crescent Mushroom. The tiny spirit beast was in quite the uproar after being held captive for so long.
Fortunately, it had spent most of its time in stasis when I placed it in my storage device, so it only woke up just recently.
"Don't worry, little fella. I'm sure Lian Shi will take good care of you."
"Lian Shi?" I repeated.
"My alchemist friend. He will be using the spores from the Crescent Mushroom to concoct potions and elixirs. They are good for treating pain and paralysis. Some spores will be used to concoct antidotes against poison."
"Heh…" I didn't have much of an interest in alchemy. And seriously, all those existences beyond the fourth wall who were expecting me to somehow master every skill under the sun, from medicine to alchemy to body tempering to blacksmith, were being super unrealistic. "Why can't the MC learn healing and medicine? Why can't the MC learn to forge his own weapons? Those are critical skills!"
Well, go and learn all those yourselves then. Since you're so smart. Let me know when you master every single skill under the sun. seriously, they were spoilt by overpowered Mary Sue protagonists with cheats that an ordinary person like me was a "beta loser weakling" to them.
"Now that you've completed this mission for me, you'll not only get the necessary credits, but also the appropriate amount of spirit stones." Ling Zhen reached into his own storage device and transferred a good quantity over. "Check to see if that's the right amount."
"Thanks. It is." I scanned through my storage device and was heartened to see the number of spirit stones increase. I would sell some for cash and feed the rest to my dungeon core. It has been way too long since the last upgrade, but unless I get something like a spirit diamond, it would be difficult for me to upgrade it. The regular quality spirit stones were only sufficient to maintain the dungeon and power its spirit arrays and other functions, but not upgrade it further.
That was a little disappointing, but I would take what I could get.
"All right. What's left is for you to attend all the remaining classes for the semester and you'll get a good grade." Ling Zhen nodded. "The mission serves as your main project for the class."
"Er…but I didn't use any spirit arrays during the mission? Will that be all right?"
"Honestly, no. But I hear you have at least two people next to you who specialize in spirit arrays, and I'm sure they will be helping you with those in future. Besides, you've grasped the basics. I'm not expecting you to be a spirit array master like Zhuo Fan. It's not like you're the Devil Butler or the Steward of the Luo clan."
The hell? Ling Zhen also read the Devil Butler? It was an awesome manhua and there was even a translated version on the Web Novel website. It was one of the few manhuas that were well written, had great characters that weren't one-dimensional caricatures and was awesome, and I loved it a lot. Zhuo Fan was strong and smart, but he wasn't an unrealistic Mary Sue who conveniently received cheat after cheat after cheat from a system. I felt that he earned his victories fair and square, through either skill, strength or cunning.
Now that's how to write a cultivation protagonist.
"Anyway, just learn from them."
"How do you even know about Sylvie and Silvia in the first place?" For obvious reasons, I didn't bring them along to the faculty, so I found it odd that Ling Zhen mentioned them. The spirit array professor grinned somewhat mischievously.
"How can I not know about them? You and Myria brought two young foreign girls back to Xia Hai yesterday. I mean, yes, what you do outside of the university is none of anyone's business, but Myria lives near the university, so anyone coming in and out will just happen to see. And from there, rumors will spread. You do know that Myria is quite the celebrity, right?"
"…yeah." Given how popular Myria was among the students in the elite faculty, it was only natural that she would draw the attention of everyone. She was also one of the most beautiful girls. Okay, she was second to Long Fan Xue and a few of the other so-called "jade" beauties (the description had me concerned because wouldn't having jade skin make you look sickly?) in the university, but I had to admit that a foreign beauty would turn the head of almost everyone in school.
Not only that, she had rented an apartment near the university premises, so it was easy for her admirers to locate her during school days. Fortunately, most guys backed off from asking her out because she cleverly announced that I was her fiancé right from the beginning.
You would think that all the guys would hate me and get jealous of me because they thought I was plain trash or some nonsensical reason like that, but…nope. After what I did to Kai Fan in the entrance exam, as well as the news of me wiping the floor with his brother, Kai Fang, and Long Shou Shi, spreading like wildfire. To be fair, that wouldn't have been such a big deal if it weren't tacked onto the much larger news of the Long family's demise. Being the number one goddess in Divine Path University, Long Fan Xue's fall was that much greater, and also a larger shock.
Especially when it was revealed that she was trying to steal another girl's fiancé and disrupt their engagement…
If anything, it seemed that the guys respected me more for holding my ground and firmly rejecting the Long family's proposal, while staying loyal to Myria. So I didn't have to put up with the typical bullshit harassment and bullying from one-dimensional caricatures in cultivation web novels and manhuas who were so deluded that they insisted on calling the protagonist trash no matter what sort of miraculous feats he repetitively achieved.
After leaving Ling Zhen's office, I went to meet up with Myria and the fairy twins. Sylvie and Silvia were eagerly waiting for me in Myria's apartment, kneeling on the ground to welcome me.
"Welcome back, master!"
"Would you like food, a bath, or me?"
"Silvia! Stop that! Stop that right now!"
"Ha ha! You need to loosen up, sis!"
"And the both of you need to get up. You're blocking the entrance." I rolled my eyes and beckoned for them to leave the foyer. The twins rose reluctantly and retreated back to the hall, where Myria was relaxing on the couch and watching television.
"Hey, you're back!"
"Yeah, I am." I waved at her before putting my bag down. Then I turned to Sylvie and Silvia. "How are you two doing? Have you settled in yet?"
"Yes, we have."
"This is a great place to live in! It's so much better than our little hut in our village! I'm glad we left that dingy place!"
After we had completed the mission in Spectral Forest, Myria and I brought Sylvie and Silvia back to Xia Hai. We conspicuously avoided the souvenir store where the owner chased us out for not buying anything, and it looked pretty empty when we passed by. The owner himself looked distraught, on the verge of running out to bodily drag customers into his store, but fortunately, he refrained from doing such things.
After we reached Xia Hai, we had to deal with the issue of accommodation. I had offered to speak to my parents about letting Sylvie and Silvia live with us.
"You girls are like my sisters. And mom always wanted to have a daughter. I'm sure she'll be happy to have two!"
"Yes, I'm sure," Myria had said. "But I don't think your family can afford the expense of suddenly having to provide for two more new family members. You aren't rich. On the other hand, I pretty much have access to the royal treasury in Atlantis. Of course, I'm still going to be responsible with my spending, but I can definitely handle the financial expenses for Sylvie and Silvia better than your family."
"I'm earning quite a bit from cultivator missions," I had protested. Myria had nodded.
"Yes, I'm not worried about that. But your house doesn't have space. I don't believe you have any spare rooms. On the other hand, I have rented this gigantic apartment that I have all to myself, and I have plenty of spare rooms. Also, I've been feeling a little lonely, having to live in such a huge space on my own, so I'll appreciate having roommates. If you two don't mind, of course."
"No, not at all!"
"Oh! This will be great! Of course we would love to live with you, big sis Myria!"
Sylvie and Silvia had agreed without any hesitation, and they ended up living with Myria in her huge apartment near the university. That arrangement turned out to be pretty convenient, and Myria seemed pleased that she had gained sisters.
"I only ever have a brother," she had explained to me. "So it feels nice having siblings of the same gender. Especially since my brother and I were rivals for the throne…it was kind of stressful."
Since Sylvie and Silvia had nothing to do with the Atlantean royalty, Myria could indulge them and pamper them like little sisters without worrying about political repercussions and betrayals.
Sylvie and Silvia had adapted to human society by casting an illusion technique to hide their fairy wings. When we had returned to the city next to Spectral Forest, we realized that their fairy wings would draw too much attention. Fairies weren't a species human cultivators got to see very often, and there was the danger that the government or certain organizations might get greedy and attempt to abduct fairies for illegal research and dissection. So we had to be very careful.
Without their fairy wings, Sylvie and Silvia looked no different from a pair of young girls. I was delighted to see them enjoy their time here so far, but it had only been a day.
"How was school?" Myria asked.
"It was fine. I handed the Crescent Mushroom over to Professor Ling, and he'll pass it to his alchemist friend. We received the rewards." I divided the spirit stones with Myria while the fairy twins watched. Once we had ensured that the both of us had our fair share, I then turned to Sylvie and Silvia. "Hey, since we just made some money from the mission, how about I take you guys out?"
"Really? Is that fine?"
"YAY! That will be awesome! I want to see what human cities are like!"
Sylvie looked at me in hesitant wonder while Silvia excitedly threw her hands up and cheered enthusiastically. They really were a contrast in personalities.
"Yeah. Myria, are you coming?" When she didn't reply, I glanced at the couch. She had dozed off. Sighing, I went over to shake her shoulder. "Myria?"
"Hmm? Sorry…let me take a nap."
"Uh, okay. I'll take Sylvie and Silvia out for a bit. Get some rest." I squeezed her hand and let her sleep, but before I left, I placed a blanket over her. Then I turned to the fairy twins. "All right, let's have some fun."
"Okay."
"Yay!"
We exited the apartment complex that Myria rented a place in and went to a commercial district near the university. There were plenty of food stands there, not unlike the one I had visited over a year and a half ago, to exchange for spirit stones. Sylvie and Silvia looked around in wonder, amazed by the sights, sounds and smells.
"This is so…different from our village."
"What's that? It looks so cool! Let me see!"
"Wait, Silvia! Don't run off like that!"
Sylvie and I followed Silvia as she raced toward one of the stands, almost drooling over the hotdogs being prepared there. The elderly vendor smiled when he saw the two girls approach while he grilled a sausage.
"Want one?"
"Yes!"
"Can we have two?" I asked, reaching for my wallet and taking out some cash. The vendor nodded and prepared two sets of hotdogs before handing them to Sylvie and Silvia. Stuffing a hotdog into a bun, he added condiments, squeezing ketchup over them before zigzagging mustard. A sprinkle of diced onions and shredded cheese added flavor, and he placed them in open boxes for ease of carry. I paid for them, even as the fairy sisters began munching on them.
"This is delicious!" Sylvie's eyes widened as she savored the taste.
"Oh, nice! I've never tasted anything like this before! This makes leaving the village totally worth it!" Silvia was on the verge of spinning around. Damn, but she was hyper. I couldn't help but smile wryly as I watched over the two of them enjoying their hotdogs.
"Your sisters?" The elderly vendor asked. I nodded.
"Yeah."
"Hmm. They don't seem to be Chinese. Are you mixed, then?"
"Uh, no. They are adopted." I couldn't exactly tell him the truth, and it wasn't exactly a lie anyway. I treated them as my sisters, not because I had a spirit contract with them, but because I genuinely cared for them in the same way I did for my blood-related brother, Jun Hai.
"Blood ties are overrated." The vendor chuckled. "If you see them as siblings, then they are your sisters. Just like Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. It doesn't matter if you are born from different parents. If you've sworn to be siblings, then you are siblings. Make sure you take good care of them, young man."
Ah, the Peace Garden Oath. That was quite the classic. I could recall the words. Though we were of different families – even different species – we had sworn to be family and to help each other in our times of need. A bond that went beyond that of our spirit contracts, which was why they were here living in Xia Hai with me, as opposed to running the dungeon with Long Wang. I didn't want them cooped up in my Deep Sea Palace. I wanted to show them the world and share in their joy and wonder while they explored the vast expanse beyond the village where they had been confined in for most of their lives. Just seeing their smiles brought a warmth to my heart.
I nodded. "I will do my best."