After Xia Li helped Liu Xiaoxiao and Bai Qi mend their relationship, Bai Qi invited Xia Li to a restaurant to eat and drink as thanks.

  Though cultivators could abstain from food starting at Foundation Establishment, that only meant refusing mundane food because it produced impurities.

  If prepared with spirit herbs or demon beast meat, that was another matter entirely—absolutely a gourmet feast.

  In the restaurant's private room.

  Bai Qi borrowed the restaurant's kitchen and personally cooked, busying himself for quite a while before producing a table full of dishes with strong medicinal fragrance.

  "Big Brother Qiu, you must eat more of this table of food. It's very good for you."

  "And this medicinal wine!"

  "Oh right... before we eat, let me light a medicinal incense first."

  After Bai Qi returned from the kitchen to the private room, he continued bustling about, producing a yellow-green incense stick and lighting it.

  A refreshing scent immediately wafted through the room.

  "Alright, Big Brother Qiu, Junior Sister Liu—now we can eat!"

  After sitting down, Bai Qi looked at Xia Li and Liu Xiaoxiao with anticipation. Xia Li didn't stand on ceremony, picking up a jade-like vegetable leaf and placing it in his mouth.

  The leaf melted instantly, transforming into pure spiritual energy that rushed straight to the crown of his head. The taste was also fresh and fragrant, making Xia Li involuntarily close his eyes to savor it.

  "This is perhaps the best thing I've ever eaten in my life."

  Xia Li didn't stint on praise. On Earth, gourmet culture was now more entertainment than sustenance—who would waste spirit materials on cooking?

  Even if they did cook with them, how many could afford it?

  "I'm glad you like it, Big Brother Qiu. Try my wine too?"

  Bai Qi started recommending the wine he'd poured for Xia Li. Xia Li raised the cup and took a small sip, immediately widening his eyes as he felt his whole body heat up with blood and qi surging.

  "Powerful!"

  Xia Li immediately set down the cup to refine the wine's medicinal power. Just one sip refined a considerable amount of vital blood—directly saving at least ten days of bitter cultivation.

  "Not bad, right? Though my Medicine King Sect also refines pills and is a pill sect, we don't use 'pill' in our sect name—we focus on medicine."

  "Medicinal baths, medicinal cuisine, medicinal wine, medicinal incense, even medicinal artifacts, medicinal talismans, medicinal formations. In Medicine King Sect, all things can be medicine, become medicine—nourishing heaven, earth, and body."

  Bai Qi began introducing Medicine King Sect's extraordinary aspects. This was a pill sect that had walked its own path, whose medicinal forms had long ceased being limited to conventional medicine.

  "Daoist Friend Bai truly deserves to be the Medicine King Inheritor. Since that's so, I won't pretend either. To be honest, my real name is actually Xia Li."

  Xia Li now felt Bai Qi was worth getting close to. Using a false name any longer would be impolite.

  "Just as I suspected. I knew it might be you. Junior Sister Liu thinks she's hidden things well, but I actually investigated her background..."

  "Of course, I just wanted to understand her better. I had no other intentions!"

  Bai Qi indicated he'd investigated Liu Xiaoxiao and thus knew everything that had happened in Wind Crane City, including Xia Li—the important figure who'd changed Liu Xiaoxiao's life.

  He just hadn't expected they'd meet here.

  "You don't need to explain. I understand."

  Xia Li gave Bai Qi an "I get it" look, though he still couldn't quite understand what Bai Qi saw in Liu Xiaoxiao.

  Liu Xiaoxiao was sensible and well-mannered, her appearance certainly not lacking—she was a beauty. But she definitely wasn't at the level where someone like Bai Qi would fall for her at first sight.

  Even if Liu Xiaoxiao had indeed saved Bai Qi's life, should Bai Qi really be acting like this?

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  He was the "Medicine King Inheritor."

  To bear the title of Inheritor meant that, barring accidents on the path of growth, one would likely become a great power.

  If Medicine King Sect were compared to a dynasty, then the Medicine King Inheritor was equivalent to a Crown Prince.

  "Senior Brother Bai, I'm happy you like me, but why me?"

  Liu Xiaoxiao directly asked this question.

  "How can there be a 'why' for liking someone? Liking doesn't need a reason."

  Bai Qi smiled at Liu Xiaoxiao. The life-saving grace was one factor; her subsequent care for him was another.

  She'd been in such dire straits herself, yet still had the heart to save a stranger, even willing to sacrifice her own blood to refine a Blood Pill to save another's life.

  What man wouldn't love such a woman with a beautiful heart?

  Pity that Liu Xiaoxiao bore too great a hatred. As she came to understand more, gradually realizing revenge was hopeless, yet still tormented by hatred, naturally her temperament would twist over time.

  "Senior Brother Bai..."

  Liu Xiaoxiao looked at Bai Qi, moved. Her sealed heart finally had a corner pushed open by Bai Qi. Perhaps she should pay more attention to those around her.

  Try to feel another's love again.

  "Then I wish you two a hundred years of happiness. Liu Xiaoxiao counts as half my disciple—as her teacher, I can't look too shabby."

  Xia Li smiled and transmitted the Mental Arts Guidance Technique to Bai Qi via divine sense. Divine path heritage in this world was nearly extinct. Being able to cultivate the divine path would significantly help with pills, formations, artifacts, and talismans.

  After deciphering the technique Xia Li transmitted, Bai Qi's face showed barely suppressed excitement.

  Even Medicine King Sect only had a few incomplete divine path techniques, and they were just techniques!

  Xia Li had directly given him a complete divine path cultivation method!

  "Big Brother Xia, this gift is too precious..."

  "Not precious at all. You're taking care of my disciple, so naturally I should show my appreciation."

  Xia Li still felt he owed Liu Xiaoxiao. After all, it was his ignorance that had led to the Liu family's destruction. Xia Li still couldn't view everything purely from an interest standpoint.

  Just as some people only saw relationships as transactions.

  Xia Li would consider personal feelings within transactional relationships.

  Hearing Xia Li's words, Liu Xiaoxiao felt a slight sourness in her heart. Just a disciple, huh?

  But this way was fine too. She could finally give up completely.

  "Daoist Friend Xia, you're taking advantage of me here—making me seem like your junior. Such a precious gift, I must..."

  Before Bai Qi finished speaking, Xia Li directly released powerful mental force to suppress him. Bai Qi was instantly immobilized. So what if he was Nascent Soul? If his martial cultivation was lacking, his blood and qi not strong enough, mental force could directly crush him to death.

  "You're not as strong as you think. I'm not as weak as you think. Just accept it."

  Xia Li wanted Bai Qi to owe him this favor. Favors were like stocks—holding them might see them depreciate to nothing, but might also see them skyrocket.

  Xia Li was betting that this relationship with Bai Qi would have a day when its value exploded. Letting him return the gift now would be a loss.

  A dozen seconds later...

  Xia Li withdrew his mental force. Bai Qi smiled awkwardly. He seemed to have underestimated the world. With the Medicine King Inheritor's help, his cultivation had progressed rapidly, making him carry a certain pride in his bones.

  He could restrain himself around Liu Xiaoxiao, but before outsiders, he had an overwhelming sense of superiority.

  But that sense of superiority had just been shattered.