Chapter 5036 — You Call That Getting Online?

Comparing the two, Leng Leng actually found Wei Zhao, a "commoner" of the secular world, to be far safer and more dependable—at least he would not fly into a murderous rage at the drop of a hat the way those cultivators did, would he?

She finished her breakfast amid these scattered thoughts, then gave her head a vigorous shake and brushed such idle notions aside. Clutching the top-grade spirit jade Wei Zhao had given her, she focused wholly on healing. Those people would not let her off so easily; she had to recover as quickly as possible.

The place she was staying now was well hidden, true enough, but the trouble was that she had gone out several times to buy medicinal ingredients. Given enough time, someone would likely pick up her trail. If they cornered her before her wounds were healed, that would be disastrous. Thank heavens that item of hers had not been snatched away back then!

"Not bad—looks like I'll be more or less recovered after today. All thanks to this top-grade spirit jade of his." Leng Leng gazed at the spirit jade in her hand and, for once, showed a hint of a smile.

Another day slipped by in the blink of an eye. Leng Leng let out a long, foul breath, believing at last that she was fully healed. Yet before she could rise to her feet, her whole body lurched and she dropped back down where she sat. To her horror, she realized that the injuries within her, which ought to have been cured, had for some unknown reason come surging back—relapsed once more!

And this time it struck with ferocious force, even more severe than at the very beginning!

"What a vicious trick!" Leng Leng understood at once. The means that bastard had used against her back then had not been as simple as they appeared on the surface. Her injury came in waves—even once healed, it would relapse. And without a healing panacea like a fourth-rank Great Restoration Pill, full recovery was all the harder, leaving her nothing but her own willpower to endure it.

This realization sent a shudder of dread through her. Thank goodness she still held the top-grade spirit jade Wei Zhao had given her; at least she had some hope of weathering it. Otherwise she would have been driven to despair by now—the meager heaven-and-earth spiritual energy of a piece of waste jade would not even fill the gaps between her teeth.

Even so, her situation remained far from favorable. The heaven-and-earth spiritual energy within the top-grade spirit jade was abundant, to be sure, but the jade was only so large, and sooner or later the energy would run dry. What if, when that time came, her injuries were still flaring up?

Just as she was sinking into worry, Wei Zhao knocked on her door right on schedule, breakfast freshly bought in hand as always.

Leng Leng took the breakfast from him quite naturally, then hesitated a moment before asking, "Where did that jade of yours come from? Do you have any more?"

"You want more? That's easy enough—even if I didn't have any, I could find a way to conjure some up." Wei Zhao smiled faintly. His divine sense had caught every detail of the scene just now, so naturally he knew why she was asking.

"Pfft!" Leng Leng was amused in spite of herself, and the sight was like a snow lotus on an icy peak suddenly bursting into bloom. Even Wei Zhao was genuinely struck by her beauty—this little cold girl was truly a rare sight.

Seeing the odd look on Wei Zhao's face, Leng Leng caught herself at once, and with a touch of embarrassment she restored her usual icy expression. "I don't know whether what you say is true or false, but either way, don't trouble yourself. I'm very grateful, but I truly cannot promise you anything. You and I really are not the same."

"Right you are. I'm a man and you're a woman—we certainly can't be the same. If we were, the world would be in chaos." Wei Zhao feigned ignorance.

"That's not what I meant..." Leng Leng shook her head helplessly. She wanted to explain, yet did not know how—or rather, she dared not explain rashly—and so she could only say, "You'll understand in time. I am fated to leave this place."

"That's all right. I don't care about forever—only about having had you once." Wei Zhao said.

At those words, Leng Leng's expression changed at once, and her tone turned somewhat unfriendly. "What do you mean by that? You only want to toy with me and be done with it?"

"Uh—that's a very famous saying. I didn't make it up myself, and it's not what I meant either." Wei Zhao said helplessly. This little cold girl was rather sensitive; they did not even have any relationship to speak of, so how had it come to toying with her and being done with it...

"Oh." Only then did Leng Leng's expression soften a little. After giving Wei Zhao a look full of complexity, she returned to her room.

Wei Zhao smiled, unperturbed. It still looked as though no real progress had been made, but in his eyes, for someone of Leng Leng's temperament to say such things to him at all was itself a heartening step forward.

Over the following days, Wei Zhao kept bringing meals every day without fail, and Leng Leng never refused. Once a precedent is set, such things only grow easier and easier. Gradually she had even grown accustomed to the snacks and pastries Wei Zhao scrounged up from all over; if he were suddenly to stop one day, she reckoned she would feel quite out of sorts.

Yet each time they met, she seemed to have something on the tip of her tongue. To quickly stabilize her relapsing injuries, she had to absorb a vast amount of heaven-and-earth spiritual energy every day in addition to drinking medicine and soaking in medicinal baths. As a result, the energy stored in the top-grade spirit jade was visibly dwindling. If she could not find another spirit jade to replace it, the consequences would be unthinkable.

She was tempted to ask Wei Zhao where the top-grade spirit jade had come from, but she feared that once he heard, he would truly go to great lengths to get her another. Accepting one piece of top-grade spirit jade was already an enormous debt of gratitude; if a second came, how could she ever repay it? She could hardly offer him her body in return—she and Wei Zhao belonged to two entirely different worlds, and such a thing was simply impossible.

After turning it over and over in her mind, she suddenly hit upon a compromise. That day, after accepting her breakfast, she asked out of the blue, "I've heard people say you can look things up online. How does one get online?"

"Huh? You want to get online?" Wei Zhao was taken aback. He had not expected this little cold girl to be so enterprising. After all, even when ordinary cultivators took an interest in the secular world's high technology, it was usually just a passing look; few would actually seek someone out to teach them.

"That's right. Could you teach me? I've even bought the net already." With that, Leng Leng gestured for Wei Zhao to come inside. This was unprecedented—Wei Zhao had only ever set foot in her room once, back when he changed a light bulb for her. Even after she had accepted the top-grade spirit jade and her attitude had shifted somewhat, she had never granted him this privilege.

Following Leng Leng inside, Wei Zhao took in the scene in the living room and his face twitched. He had not used his divine sense to probe much these past days, so he had no idea this little cold girl had actually gotten hold of an enormous fishing net and strung it across all three walls of the living room.

"What are you planning to do with that? You call that getting online?" Wei Zhao was caught between laughter and tears.