Chapter 146: Spies, Love, and Betrayal (R18?)
Under the soft light of morning, Bubai stood outside his tower, hugging cloaked beauties left and right.
Plastering on a lustful grin, Bubai slipped his hands into their robes, teasing, "Did I fill you two up enough last night?"
In a harmonious blend of youthful and mature voices, both beauties chimed in unison, "Yes."
“Hahaha!” With laughter bubbling forth, Bubai lightly nudged the beauties in his arms forward, his gaze shifting to their grinning owner Jia Shizi facing him. "Brother Jia, I am very satisfied this time. I hope you feel the same."
“Of course! Hahaha!” Jia Shizi boomed with hearty laughter, his arm encircling the waists of the two returned women. "Brother Mo is amazing for training his maids so well."
At his comment, Bubai threw a glance at the twins positioned at the side.
One bowed her head demurely, while the other's flushed face had infatuation written all over it as she gazed at Jia Shizi.
Hah... was this man being sarcastic?
Though complaints raced through his mind, Bubai held onto his composure, his pleasant smile unchanging. "If Brother Jia doesn’t have anything else, I will not delay Brother Jia’s time any longer."
“Hahaha!” Jia Shizi let out another hearty laugh, assuring him, "No, no. Brother Mo isn’t delaying me at all. I’m pretty free." He shrugged nonchalantly. "But since Brother Mo has said so, then I will not impose on your... reunion with your maids."
With a courteous salute, Bubai bid him farewell. "Then I won’t see you off, Brother Jia."
Jia Shizi waved casually. "Fine, fine. There’s no need for such formalities between us. See you next week, brother."
And with that, Jia Shizi turned to depart, striding away with the two cloaked beauties.
After the Jia Shizi's broad frame vanished around the corner, Bubai turned to find the younger Wei Er still wearing a lost expression, her line of sight lingering on the empty space where the man had disappeared.
"Let’s go in." His words snapped her back to reality, and she quickly bowed her head to hide her the guilt that sneaked onto her face.
Leading them inside, Bubai initiated a casual conversation to break the ice, "So, how was your trip?"
“...”
Wei Er peeked at her older sister, who still remained silent with her head bowed. So, Wei Er mustered her courage to respond, "It was fine, master. Wei Er learned a lot and is ready to serve master."
Arrested by her assertion, Bubai shot a glance back at her, raising an eyebrow in mild skepticism. "Oh really?"
"Really!" Wei Er affirmed, her eyes darting around, avoiding his gaze.
Bubai’s lips quirked into a grin, "Oh, then I’ll really have to see. You two go take a bath. I’ll catch up with you upstairs later."
With a dutiful "Yes, master," Wei Er ushered her sister toward the bathroom, a faint sneer curling her lips as she disappeared behind the door.
When the door clicked shut, Bubai redirected his attention to Xiao Lan guarding nearby.
Their eyes exchanged a glance, and Xiao Lan nodded in acknowledgment. Then, the cold yet perceptive mistress of the house made her way towards the bathroom to oversee the twins' activities.
Bedchamber.
Bubai plopped himself onto his bed, flopping down onto his back.
Staring at the rich red silky canopy above, his thoughts swirled regarding the complicated web of spies and deceit.
Was it truly wise to offer up his unique essence to someone who could potentially become an enemy?
Honestly, many would think not. However, his decision hinged on many factors.
Despite appearances suggesting a rivalry, Jia Shizi's apparent interest in Xiao Lan was merely a facade, a guise masking his deeper intentions.
So, at least for now, the man in question wasn't an enemy, not by a long shot.
Thus, their relationship, if it could even be called that, wasn't one of hostility, but resembled more of symbiotic arrangement between a farmer and his crop.
He, the yielding crop, continuously producing the coveted honey, while Jia Shzi assumed the role of the harvester.
It bore semblance to the concept of dual cultivation, albeit without the sacrifice of his own cultivation.
On the contrary, Bubai even received compensation in the form of fertilizer and water, as the farmer sought to enrich his experience to extract more essence from him!
Yet, beneath the veneer of cooperation lay an unsettling truth - a truth Bubai could not ignore.
Sensing the lack of significant improvement in his cultivation, Bubai felt a hint of discontentment.
"It's a shame those two were already drained before they were sent over. There wasn't much cultivation left for me to plunder."
Fortunately, they did supplement him in another aspect.
With dream catching active while he indulged in his happy venting session and the dream fishing technique being utilized during the two blonde beauties’ rest time, the total harvest of memory orbs was naturally abundant.
Now, the Mother-Daughter solar system within his memory space had greatly expanded!
Though it was still somewhat far off, the Mother-Daughter cluster was undoubtedly catching up with the medium-size cluster of the Iceberg Beauty’s solar system at a steady pace!
Well, this was not outside Bubai’s expectations.
After all, he had refrained from fully utilizing the dream fishing technique with Xiao Lan, essentially losing a source of memory orb income.
Of course, it wasn't due to her rejection, but rather his own limitations at his current skill level.
“Let alone trying to get into her mind, I can’t even put her into a deep sleep. The sweet dream incense certainly doesn’t work, and I can’t afford to waste spirit stones on higher-level drugs that will be effective on foundation establishment cultivators...”
Bubai bitterly smiled. It was like having a loot box in his inventory, but lacking the level requirement to open it…
Definitely frustrating.
Fortunately, this wasn’t a dead-end for the Xiao Lan solar system. In fact, her system was still steadily growing.
Following Xiao Lan’s recovery of her foundation, the frequency of memory collection no longer adhered to a biweekly schedule.
Instead, it had become more of a spontaneous process that can happen on any day!
Now, it really just depended on when they were in the mood, almost as if they were lovers in the honeymoon period...
Bubai found himself smiling faintly at the analogy, "Well, it really doesn’t feel bad to get along like this, especially since the resulting harvests aren’t bad.”
Indeed, the harvest wasn’t bad at all. In fact, it was surprisingly good!
This method of harvesting actually consistently yielded very high-quality memory Qi every time, second only to WeiWei’s contributions!
It’s a mystery why it was so.
"Is it lust? Or is it… love?" Bubai tested the word on the tip of his tongue as if it were foreign to him.
"Curious, very curious indeed..."
Especially when he considered the flip side – his interactions with the blonde babes that had its basis on pure lust.
Merlin’s beard, those two enchantresses were good, especially the mature one. Aside from her quality figure and assets that added a fine touch to her service, the tricks and postures in her arsenal were countless.
She was really a bombshell Bubai was willing to indulge in all day, especially since the harvested memory orbs were still of medium and sometimes high quality.
However, the frequent exploration of her depths still led to a diminishing quality in the harvest from the mother and daughter duo.
It was just a natural process. Men – they just prefer women when they still have mystery left uncovered.
“The contrast is real…” Bubai sighed softly.
These diminishing returns were really not something Bubai was happy to leak his special essence for. The value simply didn’t measure up.
Of course, everything has its purpose.
Trading two female cultivators for two mortals. It was a seemingly unfair exchange orchestrated by the devil, appearing heavily skewing in Bubai’s favor.
An idiot would accept it, thinking they had won. A smart person would perceive the trap and refuse.
Naturally, Bubai was well aware that there was a trap, but... he still willingly walked into it!
After all, who will truly emerge as the ultimate victor still remained uncertain!
The devil likely calculated the trade-off was worthwhile. His hidden purpose: acquiring his essence in exchange for the women.
However, unbeknownst to the devil, Bubai also had his own calculations at play.
For him, it wasn't the quality of the memory itself that he cherished, but rather the memories contained within!
Leveraging his dream fishing technique, the women sent over by the devil effectively became his unwitting spies, open books for him to read to find the devil’s weaknesses!
Having fun with the man’s wife and daughter, deepening his cultivation method’s accumulation, even spying on the opponent who delivered all of this to him on a golden platter… honestly, how can Bubai not consider it a win?
Of course, Bubai was acutely aware that the success of his scheme hinged on the intelligence gap between both sides.
The dream fishing technique was directly gifted to him from Granny Shu, and it was likely absent from public records.
Thanks to this missing record, a blind spot was created for those seeking to take advantage of him!
Had Jia Shizi been privy to his possession of the dream fishing technique, will he still be stupid enough to proceed with the trade? Probably not right?
The answer remained uncertain, but the current circumstances… Bubai intended to keep it this way.
That is why he had Xiao Lan wash off any traces of incense scent from the two sleeping women. His aim was to leave Jia Shizi in the dark for as long as possible.
This way, the ignorant man would continue to return for more essence to fuel his recovery and cultivation, creating a loophole for Bubai to exploit in his quest to dig into the man’s secrets and weaknesses!
Moreover, this wasn't the sole objective of Bubai’s machinations.
His essence certainly held considerable value, but he was dumping it at a low-cost.
This was all to foster Jia Shizi’s reliance on this resource. Once the man becomes addicted… the real fun begins.
As if on cue, the fun came knocking on his door right at this moment. Tuk. Tuk.
Bubai sat upright on the bed, his gaze landing on the silhouette looming outside the jade door, a hint of intrigue dancing in his eyes.
"Come in," he beckoned calmly.
The door creaked open, revealing the lone figure of Wei Yi, her head bowed in deference as she stepped into the room.
The interesting part was that she came up alone, much earlier than expected.
With a quiet click, Wei Yi shut the door behind her. Hanging her head in gloom, she shuffled toward him, eventually come to a stop in front of him.
Then, she stood there… silent.
Sensing something amiss, Bubai didn’t waste time to breach the silence, "It's rare to see you like this. What's wrong?"
Wei Yi quivered slightly at his words, her usual composed demeanor faltering. For a while, she struggled to find her voice, her lips parting and closing several times in silence.
In the end, she sank to her knees before him. Demurely lowering her line of sight, she finally mustered the courage to make her report, "Master, my sister… she has betrayed you."