Filthy Cultivation: I Pierced the Heavens with the Merit System

As soon as the door opened, Bai Suifeng outside the door transformed back into a human with black hair and black eyes.

Li Fuyao glanced at him a few times and noticed that although the blush on his face had faded considerably, he was still avoiding eye contact with her, which made her frown with some concern.

As she walked downstairs, she asked Bai Suifeng, half-jokingly and half-probingly, through her soul seed:

"Brother, why won't you look at me? Have you done something wrong behind my back?"

No, no~

"Oh, don't overthink it, I just... I just..."

Seeing Bai Suifeng stammering and unable to articulate his thoughts clearly, Li Fuyao turned to look at him with wide eyes and asked warily:

"Brother, you didn't forget to take me to eat something delicious, did you?"

"That bag of crispy spirit beast meat you just gave me, was it leftovers from your meal?!"

Bai Suifeng paused for a moment upon hearing this, the blush on his face fading slightly. He gave her a somewhat resentful look, and as he strode down the stairs with the force of an elephant shaking the ground, he transmitted his voice into his soul seed with a hint of annoyance:

"Hmph, do you think I'm some kind of glutton? I'm your older brother, why would I give you leftovers!"

"Besides, if I were to eat something delicious behind your back, I definitely wouldn't leave you a single bite!"

Seeing Li Fuyao looking at him with a mixture of amusement and exasperation, Bai Suifeng, for some unknown reason, suddenly felt the blush on his face return.

He dared not look at Li Fuyao again, so he turned his head away, pouted, and muttered:

"Why are you staring at me? Why don't you check what Senior Brother Zhang Ze has to do? He's still outside the courtyard gate and hasn't come in yet!"

This awkward child is probably overthinking something again. Sensitive children need more care; I should ask him about it later.

While seemingly lost in thought about the suspicious blush on Bai Suifeng's face, Li Fuyao opened the barrier and the courtyard gate to let Zhang Ze in.

After entering the courtyard, Zhang Ze first greeted Bai Suifeng, then was greatly shocked by Li Fuyao's improved cultivation level. He stared at her, speechless, as if looking at a monster, and exclaimed in amazement:

"Young friend Fuyao's cultivation has actually reached the mid-stage of Qi Refining?!"

"To leapfrog an entire major realm in just a few days?! How is that possible?!"

Li Fuyao let him in, closed the door again, and then carefully reopened the barrier. Upon hearing this, she chuckled softly:

"I haven't cultivated any evil techniques of demonic cultivation, so of course it's impossible for me to improve so quickly. It's just that I concealed my cultivation level before. But now that I'm in my own courtyard and seeing only my own people, why do I need to conceal anything anymore?"

After saying that, she turned around and walked towards the small building. Seeing that only Zhang Ze had come, she casually asked:

"Why don't you come and sit with me, Senior Brother Duan?"

When she asked about Duan Hongzhi, Zhang Ze seemed to recall something extremely interesting, and with a sigh and a wink, he said:

"Young friend Fuyao, please don't mention it. Ever since we parted ways at the teahouse last time, that guy has been staying in his room these past few days, saying that he wants to cultivate in peace and wants to go into seclusion for a while."

"You know his personality, I really couldn't get him to come, so I had to come by myself."

Upon hearing this, Li Fuyao exchanged a glance with Bai Suifeng, recalling Duan Shixiong's blank and dazed expression that day, and couldn't help but chuckle to herself:

Senior Brother Duan has always been introverted. He's not going into seclusion to cultivate at all. He's clearly still ashamed of standing up for his friend in front of others that day, and he's hiding in his room to secretly isolate himself!

This senior student is quite shy; he must be an idiot, which is kind of cute.

Bai Suifeng's secretly curved eyes paused upon hearing this. He looked up at Li Fuyao and secretly pursed his lips, thinking to himself:

My sister has such beautiful eyes, but her eyesight isn't very good.

Although Senior Brother Duan is a decent person, that's all. He's so much older than my sister, how can he be as cute as me!

Li Fuyao didn't see Bai Suifeng's subtle movements behind her. She nodded knowingly, led Zhang Ze into the first-floor reception room, and asked with a slight smile, feigning ignorance:

"May I ask what brings you here, Senior Brother Zhang?"

Seeing that Li Fuyao had asked, Zhang Ze, who was worried about how to start the conversation, no longer concealed anything and replied with a troubled expression and furrowed brows:

“You previously told me to be in charge of selling the information, but I have already had people spread the news that I have information about you these days. However, in the past few days, people have only come to ask if it is true and what the price is, but they leave after asking. No one has come to buy it.”

He hesitated for a moment, as if he wanted to say something but stopped himself, before cautiously probing:

“The buyers are all from wealthy families and have no shortage of spirit stones. My price of five hundred low-grade spirit stones per share is normal. But none of the information you gave me has been sold.”

"I've never encountered anything like this before when I was dealing in intelligence, so is it possible that their refusal to buy isn't due to the price, but rather..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but the unspoken meaning was perfectly clear to all three people present.

No one spoke in the living room; it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Zhang Ze pretended to be embarrassed and nervous by looking down and fidgeting with his hands, but he secretly glanced at Li Fuyao out of the corner of his eye.

Seeing that she showed no unusual expression, only a smile playing on her lips as she lowered her eyes and slowly fiddled with the courtyard gate plaque in her hand, Zhang Ze couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.

Although this young friend Fuyao comes from a reclusive family, he is still too young, so his judgment may not be entirely reliable.

She is generous and has no shortage of spirit stones; she can certainly afford to compensate for any mistakes she makes. However, she has a bedridden grandmother who is over fifty years old and needs to earn spirit stones to buy elixirs to prolong her life.

Not to mention that failure would not only waste time but also offend people, his savings simply couldn't afford any risk.

If something goes wrong with this matter, what will he do?

Li Fuyao glanced at the suspicion in Zhang Ze's eyes but remained silent.

She calmly served everyone a glass of chilled turmeric juice, raising her glass as she said with a gentle smile:

"It's normal that they're not buying now. After all, they're not stupid. They won't believe everything they hear or whatever others say."

"Besides, although the price of intelligence is not high, it is not a small amount either. It is only natural that everyone is watching and waiting until time and events have fermented."

At this point, Li Fuyao picked up her glass and took a small sip of juice, her gaze fixed intently on Zhang Ze until he sheepishly lowered his head and began gulping down his juice. Only then did she lower her eyes and composed herself. When she spoke again, her voice was still soft and childish, but her tone was considerably colder than before:

"To be honest, as long as you're willing to spend spirit stones, there are countless people willing to help me. Senior Brother Zhang, I'm only entrusting you with this important task because you're one of my own."

"So their suspicions are understandable, but as my business partner, Senior Brother Zhang shouldn't be so suspicious~"