Chapter 11: Manor Level 11

In the end, He Xi tied Ai Ling up like a rice dumpling with a vine and carried her back.

In the blue sky, the rice dumpling floats, oh hey, the rice dumpling floats and drifts…

Our Ai Ling’s dream of being carried like a princess has finally been shattered, completely shattered.

But it wasn’t a total loss — at least she got a long, long vine.

With a spirit of not wasting a single thing, Ai Ling planted the part of the vine where it was rooted beside the fence. She planned to let it grow and use the vine to cover the fence, which would give her a green wall once it was fully grown—thinking about it, it’s actually quite beautiful.

She also had a precious yellow crystal stone. She played with it for a long time before finally burying it near the fruit tree sapling.

He Xi told her that this growth stone speeds up plant growth differently depending on the type of plant, and it requires experimentation. It’s usually only useful until the plant is ready to bear fruit, and it’s not particularly effective. They typically only use it when they urgently need a specific plant.

Ai Ling shook her head vigorously: “No, no, no! It’s not just a little useful, it’s extremely useful! For example, a fruit tree takes three to four years to bear fruit after planting. If you use the growth stone to speed it up to the fruit-bearing stage, that saves several years! And for annual crops, like wheat, from sowing to the heads forming takes several months. Being able to save all that time is already a huge, huge help.”

He Xi thought for a moment: “A few years and a few days really aren’t that different!”

Ai Ling: What kind of new ^[1]“Versailles-style” here = “humble bragging” or “pretending to be casual while actually bragging.”Versailles-style logic is this?

He Xi glanced at her vegetable garden and then asked: “Do you only have a few fruit trees now? What about other crops?”

Ai Ling sighed: “The sweet potatoes were eaten by wild beasts, and I haven’t exchanged for other seeds yet. Unfortunately, the fluffy ball has become strange and weird, it can’t deal any damage anymore, and I don’t know when it will recover.”

“I see!” He Xi hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly said: “Well, try it now, maybe it’s already recovered.”

Ai Ling shook her head. “I tried this morning, and it didn’t work.”

“It’s already noon now.”

Ai Ling helplessly agreed. Fine, let’s try, so you can be convinced.

She summoned the fluffy ball and turned it into a flat form. Then, taking a deep breath, she prepared to curse the big demon king with the most vicious words to prove the system was indeed ineffective.

He Xi suddenly stopped her: “Don’t curse too harshly, the demon king is very petty. If he takes you seriously, you’ll be dead.”

Ai Ling almost bit back her breath: “R…really? Fine, I’ll be more polite.”

After thinking for a while, she finally nodded and used a phrase she once saw online to curse without bloodshed: “Big demon king, do you know? Before I meet you, I never realized I had the habit of ‘judging people by their looks.‘”

After saying it, she checked the flat form. Sure enough, damage value: 0.

She pointed at the motionless damage value and looked up at He Xi: “See? I told you I was right.”

Huh, is it just my old eyes, or does this man look a little flushed?

Ai Ling rubbed her eyes. No, it really does look a bit red.

She walked over and reached out to check his forehead: “You’re not running a fever, are you?”

Cough, cough!

He Xi dodged her hand and looked at her with a strange expression: “What you just said… is that… true? Do you already know who the demon king is?”

“Of course it’s true. Isn’t that obvious? If I didn’t know who the demon king was, how could I call myself Xi Slayer?”

Ai Ling found it strange, and why did he look like he shyly smiled and then avoided her gaze?

He Xi coughed lightly twice, his gaze shifting: “So… you think he’s handsome, don’t you?”

“Huh?”

Ai Ling laughed: “How could a big gorilla like him be handsome? At most, he’s strong! To be fair, he’s the ugliest demon king I’ve ever seen. Back in the day, the demon kings on TV and in comics were all…”

+20, +40, +38… +306. Before she could finish speaking, the damage value started rising rapidly.

“Oh no, could it be that I was too polite just now and the system didn’t understand? Do I need to explain again?”

Ai Ling jumped up excitedly: “Come on, come on, keep rising, keep going! Demon king, you’re the ugliest! You’re an un-evolved gorilla with a red butt, you…”

+300, +890, +1099… As Ai Ling kept insulting, the damage value kept climbing higher and higher, until Ai Ling shouted: “The first time I saw you, I just wanted to gouge my own eyes out…”

+2356, +6855, +10000… He Xi took a deep breath, and the damage value immediately stopped, then dropped by -4678, -5900, -8765, -9352.

Puff! Ai Ling was about to vomit blood. The tens of thousands she earned just now instantly dropped to a mere 500.

She regretted it deeply, wailing: “No, no, my damage points, you broken system, give me my points back, ahhh—”

He Xi, his face darkened, squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth: “I told you, don’t go too far!”

Ai Ling turned and slammed into a tree: “I was wrong, my points, I won’t do it again…”

After a long pause, He Xi coldly said: “If you don’t hurry up and exchange the remaining damage points, someone might regret it.”

This reminded Ai Ling, and she quickly opened the shop: Sweet potatoes 1 bag -50, Wheat 1 bag -50, Rice 1 bag -50, Peach tree 1 -25, Grape vine 1 -25, Pear tree 1 -25, Cherry tree 1 -25, Toolset 1 -75, Axe 1 -45, Screwdrivers and other tools set -75, Glass cup 1 -25, and finally Salt 1 pack -30, using exactly 500 points.

Looking at the cards she got, Ai Ling finally breathed a sigh of relief: “Good thing you reminded me quickly, otherwise, it would have been like last time, disappearing completely. Looks like next time, we’ll need to spend the damage points immediately after earning them.”

He Xi slowly spit out a few words: “You probably won’t get that chance again.”

Ai Ling raised her head unhappily: “Don’t say nonsense, as long as I curse hard enough and act quickly, I definitely…”

She couldn’t continue because He Xi’s gaze suddenly became extremely terrifying, as if there were countless sharp arrows hanging in it, ready to pierce her heart in an instant.

Seeing Ai Ling scared, He Xi finally shifted his gaze and said calmly: “Farm well. I’ll check back in a month. If there are results, that’s fine. If what you said was all lies, you’ll see what it’s like to face a man more terrifying than the demon king.”

His words were spoken casually, but Ai Ling’s skin crawled, and she didn’t dare say a word as she watched him turn and leave.

At this moment, the fluffy ball changed back, looking at her with disdain: “Now you know how scary this guy is, huh? You still tried to save him, the most stupid in the universe, that’s well-deserved.”

Ai Ling pinched herself hard, feeling the pain before she slowly relaxed: “That scared me to death. What did I do wrong to him just now? So weird, is he sick? I was going to ask him about the Blue Star, but why did he look like he wanted to eat me?”

The fluffy ball snorted: “He didn’t even dare to say it.”

Ai Ling immediately caught the scent of gossip and tentatively asked, “Do you know about He Xi’s history? Tell me about it! Look, I’ve exchanged for a toolset, next time I’ll catch a fat cow, slaughter it, and fry it for you.”

The fluffy ball rolled its eyes: “No! Interest! At! All!”

Alright, fine, we’ll see about that.

【He Xi really wants Number 5 to help improve Blue Star’s crops, doesn’t he? Otherwise, with his temper, Number 5 would have died a hundred times already.】

【He’s using improving crops as an excuse to flirt with young girls, didn’t you see how shy he was just now? Tch!】

【Speaking of which, every batch of clones has memories from different planets, apparently to ensure that the best and newest weapons can be exchanged in the shop, but some of the tools and crops Number 5 exchanged—I’ve never seen them before!】

【I’ve also noticed this recently. She doesn’t seem to have the soul of a memory from any planet in the universe.】

【The more we talk about it, the weirder it gets. You’re not trying to turn this into a weird, paranormal show, are you?】

【Oh, chills. I’m outta here!】