Chapter Ninety: A Woman’s Intuition!

"Sir, please wait."

Seeing Jiang Lin walk away carrying the husky, Lin Qingwan rose to her feet and called after him, her delicate brows knitting slightly.

Too similar. Far too similar.

His figure was just too much like Xiao Lin's.

Although she could not detect the slightest ripple of spiritual power from him, if a cultivator sealed away his spirit aperture, he could indeed appear no different from an ordinary person.

Yet Lin Qingwan remained troubled, her heart full of uncertainty.

First, there was his face.

If it were an ordinary disguise technique, she would have seen through it at once; that was the secret art her grandmaster had personally taught her.

It seemed her grandmaster had devised the art because, years ago, her own grandmaster loved to disguise herself and go off to study foreign tongues and dialects, and her great-grandmother had specially invented it in order to drag her back home.

The last time she had been able to uncover Xiao Lin's disguise, it was not only because she had sensed something amiss about him then, but mostly because of this very technique.

And yet now, why could she see through nothing at all? What sort of disguise could be this formidable?

Could he truly not be Xiao Lin?

Even his scent was wrong. This man carried a faint fragrance of books.

And yet why did her intuition keep insisting that he was Xiao Lin?

At the same time, Jiang Lin, who had been called out to, felt a thin sheen of cold sweat dampen his back.

Impossible.

Had he really been discovered?

That made no sense.

This mask had been produced by the system. Granted, the system had no shame whatsoever, but its quality ought at least to be reliable.

Could it be that some other detail had given him away?

No, that did not seem right either. How could that be possible?

The scholarly scent on him had been specially bought from a farming friend in the Sun-Moon Church. The squid-flavored sachet from last time had also been made by that same fellow, and the quality had indeed been excellent.

His voice? That was even more impossible. He had spent a full five thousand infamy points on a voice changer from the system.

It had clearly promised that cultivators below the Jade Realm would not be able to see through it, that even if you used it on a fifty-year-old tank and had her call you "darling," you would melt all over from the feeling. There was no way that could fail.

Then the only possible explanation was one thing.

A woman's intuition.

Actually, after a moment's thought, Jiang Lin realized he might not need to avoid his senior sister so deliberately. After all, this was not like what had happened in Xuanwu City last time.

But Jiang Lin's purpose in coming to Eastwood City was not merely to resolve the city's strange incidents; he was aiming straight for the Demon Cult of the Lonely Valley, and his designs were vast indeed.

There were even strange forces moving against him. If he dragged his senior sister into this, that would be a problem.

Besides, to be honest, Jiang Lin did not particularly want to tangle with the heroine right now. His relationship with his senior sister was, at least at present, still only so-so.

At the very least, she no longer wanted to scatter his ashes. If he drew near her and some misunderstanding arose, such as the system issuing a few shameless tasks, wouldn't everything between him and his senior sister instantly be sent back to square one?

"Hold on—why has the system stopped responding?"

Just as Jiang Lin was wondering whether the system had malfunctioned, a clear chime rang in his mind.

The system would never let him down.

It had detected that the host had met the heroine Lin Qingwan again, and that Lin Qingwan was doubting the heroine's identity. A mission had been triggered.

Optional mission:

1. The host is to remove his mask and say the following with deep feeling: "Senior sister, I'm sorry. I once loved you, but now, just as you suspect, I have already climbed the stairway to adulthood. Please forget me." In doing so, ruin Lin Qingwan's dao heart and display the charm of a true villain.

2. The host is to infiltrate the Dragon Gate Sect and penetrate the enemy ranks.

PS: If the host chooses mission two, he will independently enter the Eastwood City event instance. Within the instance there will be various tasks for the host to seek out, as well as main storyline missions that the host must complete. After clearing the Eastwood City instance, even richer rewards will be granted. The reward list is as follows...

As Jiang Lin watched the series of reward items the system presented, his eyes gradually lit up. But not quite enough to make him lose all restraint.

Until, at the very bottom of the list, there appeared...

An indestructible kidney.

In that instant, two streams of white smoke seemed to pour from Jiang Lin's nostrils.

Three times. Those three mornings, when he rose to his feet and then, with a sudden weakness in his legs, dropped to his knees, Jiang Lin had felt a deep, helpless despair...

Especially when those two white foxes called him "kidney-deficient." Though he had not shown it on the surface, what man could endure that? And worst of all, he had no way to refute it.

As a man, there were many things he could accept.

But there was one thing he absolutely could not bear to be told: that he was no good.

The selection countdown began... three... two...

"No need to choose! I'll take number two!"

Jiang Lin lifted his head and stared at the broken ceiling of the temple.

He would never again allow others to look at him with that kind of contempt.

He would never again live on the nine-flavor foxglove pills.

He would never again steep wolfberries in a thermos.

He would restore the vigor of manhood!

The system's voice slowly faded, and there even seemed to be a trace of sympathy in its tone.

"Sir, it is late tonight. Why not remain with us and rest in this temple? We can set out again tomorrow morning. What do you think, sir?"

Lin Qingwan knew nothing of Jiang Lin's brief inner turmoil, but that did not stop her from stepping forward to test him.

Before this mission, upon hearing that she was going to Eastwood City and might even meet Xiao Lin, her grandmaster had specially called her to her room and taught her many of the methods her own grandmaster had once used to deal with the sect master.

Although Qingwan was dull of talent and had not grasped much, even a few scraps and fragments were enough to be put to use.

"This..."

Looking at the senior sister before him, who had once been beautiful and was now even more beautiful, Jiang Lin deliberately showed a trace of hesitation.

"Sir, just stay."

A junior sister stepped forward and tugged at his sleeve.

"Yes, sir. My junior sister and I love scholars from the Confucian school the most, especially your Confucian Classic of Morality. Just hearing it sounds so moral."

Jiang Lin's brow twitched. "Miss, the Classic of Morality is a Daoist classic... not a Confucian one..."

"Uh... it doesn't matter." The pretty junior sister waved a hand. "Anyway, our real interest isn't the wine."

"Oh, Xiao Ya, don't say any more." Another junior sister quickly smoothed things over, looking at Jiang Lin with an innocent expression. "Sir, don't listen to her nonsense. We are proper cultivators, and we would never lay a hand on you."

"Exactly, sir, just stay..."

For some reason, Jiang Lin felt as though he had not entered a ruined temple, but a house of pleasure.

At the very least, you are cultivators, so why do you feel like female hooligans?

At the same time, Lin Qingwan, watching Jiang Lin being tugged about by her junior sisters, suddenly felt a trace of irritation for reasons she could not explain... as though her once smooth and unobstructed dao heart had been blocked by something...