Chapter 98: Sweetest Kiss Possible
Chapter 98: Sweetest Kiss Possible
After much consideration, Xiang Ling decided to open the Herb Cottage and fortunately, the Heavenly Empress granted her permission this time.
Once her precious Herb Cottage was opened, Xiang Ling got access to the hundreds of scrolls and books with medical records, the collection of rare and top-grade pill cauldrons along with other items that were required during pill refining, the collection of pills that she had refined over the years, and lastly, the Divine elixirs she got from the Supreme Immortal of Herbs and Medicines.
Considering she was involved in the medicine business and also needed to provide proper pills for Xiao Mei and Xiao Hao’s smooth cultivation path, the Herb Cottage was the best choice.
Stepping inside the Cottage, she busied herself in setting up the equipment and other items for refining pills. She took out the rare and precious herbs she collected from the Tianlin mountains, minerals from her collection in the Cottage, and some other spiritual ingredients, each possessing unique properties that would contribute to the pills’ effects.
Once she had arranged everything carefully, she started the next step in the process of refining pills - Purification and Processing. She used her spiritual energy to carefully cleanse the ingredients by soaking and then drying them. The process helped in removing impurities and enhanced their potency. She then ground some of the dried herbs together with her spiritual energy.
With a single wave of her wrist, all four cauldrons lit up and she started combining different ingredients in precise proportions within the four cauldrons. Once she had added all the required ingredients, she closed the cauldrons’ mouths with their lids and channeled her spiritual energy to all four of them. It barely took ten or so minutes for the ingredients to undergo the process of fusion and transformation before they gradually turned into pills.
"Your alchemy skills are not bad." The uninvited guest spoke from where he had been sitting silently near the open window that faced the fields of spiritual herbs that were spread across miles inside the Spatial Realm.
Xiang Ling started collecting the pills inside porcelain bottles according to their levels. There were several level two and level three pills and some even had level four pills in them. She decided to ignore the man and continued focusing on the work but it was easier said than done.
The man stood up from his seat and moved toward the table where Xiang Ling was working on packing the pills. He picked up one of the pills and stared at it for a moment before picking another to do the same with it. It was not until he was on his seventh pill, did Xiang Ling finally had enough.
"What are you doing?" She demanded while turning her sharp gaze toward the man’s face.
With a devilish smile on his lips, he dropped the pill in the cauldron and turned his full attention toward her before answering, "Seeking your attention."
Xiang Ling couldn’t hold back the exasperated sigh that left her lips immediately even if she wanted to. With one single click of her fingers, the pills flew inside the bottles before everything returned to their respective places on the wooden shelves lining the wall.
Turning her full attention toward the man, she asked, "Remind me again why you still haven’t left my Spatial Realm."
The smile on Zhang Xuan’s lips only became bigger as he inched closer to her and answered, "Because I’m waiting for you to accept me in your harem?"
Xiang Ling was silent for a while and just stared at the man for a good two minutes before she walked toward him, closing the distance that was left between them. Once she was standing right in front of him with mere inches of space between their bodies, she gazed up into his amber eyes and spoke - "Someone as mysterious as you... I don’t think I need someone like that in my circle of husbands."
There was a sinister smile playing on her lips as she continued in a teasing tone, "However if you proved to me that you are worth keeping, I might reconsider."
She gave him a wide smile and was about to pull away when the man suddenly wrapped one of his arms around her waist and pulled her closer until their bodies were pressed against each other’s. Though she suppressed the gasp, her wide eyes still betrayed her true feelings.
This time, it was he who carried a big smile on his lips as he gazed down into her eyes. "You are indeed something, aren’t you? Throughout millenniums, no men or women have ever made me look at them twice. Yet here you are, making me want to beg you to be a part of your harem."
Xiang Ling could feel her heart racing as it was the only sound audible to her ears except for his voice. The back of her throat was dry and her lungs almost forgot to breathe. Yet, she kept a calm facade and spoke - "Why? You find it beneath you to be with me? If that’s the case, you can leave anytime."
The man shook his head once before he replied, "How can I think like that about you?"
A squeal escaped Xiang Ling’s lips when he suddenly picked her up by her waist and made her sit on the wooden table which put the two of them at eye level. While one of his hands stayed at her waist, the other one moved up to cup her face and he brushed his thumb across her cheek before continuing, "I have no plans of leaving you. Since you want me to court you, then I will do my best. One day, sooner or later, you will accept me as one of yours. We both have all the time in the world. This is going to be fun."
Xiang Ling watched as his face inched closer and she anticipated their second kiss. However, her entire body warmed up when his lips landed on the corner of her lips where he placed the sweetest kiss possible.