Chapter Seventeen: One Gets Used to the Electric Shocks

Nan Fenglang emerged from the darkness, circling the motionless Liu Yueming with a mischievous giggle. Her stunningly seductive face drew close to his, and she said, “They call you foolish, yet you understood the meaning behind my wink. They call you clever, but it seems you don’t understand my feelings at all.”

Liu Yueming glanced at Nan Fenglang. Her beauty could take any man’s breath away. At such close range, even Liu Yueming felt his heart quiver. The alluring fragrance she wore seemed to intoxicate him, and her breathing—sometimes urgent, sometimes hesitant, with a faint tremble—brushed against him. His gaze softened and wavered. “I understand,” he murmured.

“What do you understand?” Nan Fenglang’s soft, baby-pink arms slipped around his neck from under her embroidered sleeves, her voice a low, dreamy murmur, almost like a moan.

She half-closed her sultry eyes, tilted her face up, and breathed her orchid-like fragrance onto his skin.

Liu Yueming’s eyes grew increasingly unfocused as he slowly lowered his head, drawn toward those bewitching, magical lips.

“Can’t you zap him?” Zhou Yu, eyes closed, asked Du Niang.

Du Niang replied, “No, I can’t. The kiss between a beautiful man and woman is just so romantic and dreamy.”

“You’ve watched too many Korean dramas! Don’t you know it always ends in tragedy?” Zhou Yu retorted irritably.

“I know just the word to describe your mood right now: envy, jealousy, and hatred,” Du Niang answered with absolute certainty.

Zhou Yu couldn’t help but mutter, “Damn it! Can’t you see Nan Fenglang is up to no good? The era of pretty-boy seducers is over. Guys like me, with personality, are all the rage now! If she’s going to seduce anyone, it should be me.”

A green light flashed from his watch, and Du Niang materialized before him, hovering in midair.

Then, she began to undress.

Zhou Yu stared at her, stammering incoherently, “What are you doing? You’re not even of age—what are you trying to do?” Yet his eyes remained glued to her.

Du Niang tossed aside her bra, swayed slightly, and asked, “Am I of age now?”

The sight of her pale, undulating curves made Zhou Yu’s head spin, almost causing him to bleed out from his nose. “What on earth are you doing?”

Du Niang leaned in close, held up a middle finger to his face and shook it, saying, “I just want you to realize that in your current state, even if a naked woman stood before you, you wouldn’t be able to do anything. So why would Nan Fenglang bother seducing you?”

Zhou Yu was speechless. All the meridians in his body were destroyed; every tiny movement brought excruciating pain. Since regaining consciousness, he could barely move his arms, and below his chest, he felt nothing at all.

A surge of frustration simmered within him. Annoyed, he said, “Do you always have to mess with people this way? Anyway, hurry up and help me recover. I have to take part in that contest the man in the golden armor mentioned.”

Du Niang dissolved into specks of green light and reentered the watch. “Close your eyes.”

Zhou Yu obediently shut his eyes, but behind his lids he still seemed to see those dazzling, rolling waves of white.

Du Niang tuned into the images of Liu Yueming and Nan Fenglang. “Don’t worry, I have a way to speed up your recovery.”

Since she told him not to worry, Zhou Yu didn’t press further and instead focused on the scene in his mind.

Just then, the door creaked open and the old man entered. He approached the bed, glanced at Zhou Yu—eyes closed and motionless but breathing evenly—and assumed he was asleep.

The old man frowned, scanning the room. “Why do I feel there’s a strong, musky scent in here?”

Liu Yueming and Nan Fenglang had separated; Liu Yueming’s cold eyes showed he had regained his composure.

“Why are you rejecting me like this, handsome?” Nan Fenglang leaned against a red wooden pillar in the corridor, clearly having just been pushed away by Liu Yueming.

“Speak. Why did you come to see me?” Liu Yueming’s voice was icy.

Unwilling to give up, Nan Fenglang ran her hand lightly across her face, then casually tugged at her thin, loose bustier, revealing a deep, alluring cleavage.

“If you try to seduce me with your charms again, I’ll kill you,” Liu Yueming warned, his killing intent palpable as the temperature around him plummeted.

A flicker of disappointment crossed Nan Fenglang’s eyes, but it quickly gave way to a bright, burning look. “Fine. I just wanted to remind you that those two bald men are in cahoots.”

Liu Yueming regarded her with suspicion. “Two bald men?”

“The traveler named Morrison and that bastard Zuo Hao. I saw them secretly scheming together the night before last. Today, they started a battle among the travelers, and now they’ve organized this so-called selection match,” Nan Fenglang said seriously.

Liu Yueming made a mental note of it and, after a silence, asked, “Is that all?”

“That’s all.” Nan Fenglang adjusted her bustier.

Liu Yueming turned to leave. After a few steps, he stopped and asked, “Why are you telling me this?”

Nan Fenglang gave a charming smile to his tall, retreating figure. “How else could I strike up a conversation with you?”

He strode away.

“In this world, aside from the secrets of a few powerful individuals, no secret is hidden from me. You can find me anytime,” Nan Fenglang called after him.

Inside the room, the old man had dozed off at the rosewood table.

Zhou Yu opened his eyes, staring blankly at the ceiling in silence.

“What are you thinking about?” Du Niang’s voice sounded in his mind.

He didn’t reply, still fixated on the ceiling as if there was something worth deep study up there.

“Are you wondering about Morrison and Zuo Hao?” Du Niang asked again.

Zhou Yu closed his eyes and replied inwardly, “I’m wondering if they actually kissed or not.”

Du Niang was speechless.

“Aren’t you worried about your own body? You don’t seem anxious at all. That’s not normal. According to human physiology, you shouldn’t be so relaxed,” Du Niang said.

“You said you had a way, didn’t you? Since you do, why should I worry?” Zhou Yu replied lazily.

Suddenly, Zhou Yu’s entire body convulsed. He couldn’t help but curse, “Damn it!”

The old man woke up, looking over. “What’s wrong?”

Clenching his teeth, Zhou Yu forced out a few words: “Just talking in my sleep.”

The old man tucked him in, offered some comforting words, and when Zhou Yu smiled and nodded, returned to his chair to rest.

“You could’ve warned me first!” Zhou Yu shouted inwardly at Du Niang.

“You didn’t ask me to. My method is to continuously send electric shocks through your body, stimulating your cells and speeding up your metabolism so your damaged tissues and cells recover faster,” Du Niang explained.

“What about my meridians?” Zhou Yu asked.

“I can’t help with those. If I could, I wouldn’t have declared you could never grow stronger again. You’d have completed all the steps already.”

He frowned. “One step at a time, then. For now, keep shocking me so my body can recover.”

Zhou Yu’s body kept shuddering on the bed, waking the old man again. Zhou Yu brushed him off, explaining that his body was repairing itself.

When Liu Yueming returned, he was startled by the sight of Zhou Yu convulsing like a zombie struggling against invisible bonds. Zhou Yu reassured him using the same excuse as before, then continued to endure the tremors.

As dawn crept in, the first rays of sunlight filtered into the room. Zhou Yu wiped sweat from his face and opened his eyes.

“Shall we go on?” Du Niang asked.

“Keep going,” Zhou Yu replied silently.

The shaking continued. Zhou Yu gradually grew accustomed to the pain of high-voltage currents searing through his body. He was nothing if not tenacious, always merciless with himself.

Gazing at the dim morning light outside, a thought suddenly struck him. His bloodshot eyes slowly brightened.

“Were the clouds thick outside last night?” he asked Du Niang in his mind.

“Yes. Why?” she responded.