A goddess dwells in my heart.

Chapter 24, Third Blessing

Lu Zheji pulled his sword from the white fat pig's corpse and casually flicked away the blood droplets on the blade.

The setting sun had sunk below the west wall of the villa, and the twilight had dyed the drill ground a dark ochre red.

Perhaps because killing that boar left a good impression on the Lin family, his later application to practice slaughtering more white-fat boars was readily approved. Of course, he wouldn't give him any more fur for the demon hearts of the later ones.

After killing the fifth white-fat boar, Lu Zheji easily completed the mission. The next mission was to kill ten enemies of the second realm.

Hopefully, the number of missions won't increase exponentially. Otherwise, if we reach the sixth realm, will we have to kill 160 sixth-realm experts? There probably isn't that many people in the world.

After entrusting the cleanup to the servants, Lu Zheji returned to the guest courtyard assigned to him by the Lin family, sat down to meditate, and then immersed his consciousness in the Bronze Sparrow Terrace.

The magnificent Bronze Sparrow Terrace still stands quietly in the center of the consciousness space. With a slight thought, he appeared on the top floor pavilion.

On the jade platform, the beautiful figure knelt quietly as always.

The platinum gown flowed like clouds across the cold jade platform. Two silver chains extended from the sides of the platform, tightly binding the goddess's slender waist, pulling her supple waist downwards and bending it into an astonishing arc like a fully drawn bow. They also forced her normally aloof breasts to thrust forward in an almost sacrificial posture.

Lu Zheji's gaze lingered for a moment on the pair of fair wrists that were suspended high. Originally, there were two chains on each of her left and right hands. One chain was removed each time she drew the blessing. Now, she only needed to remove one chain on either side to regain the freedom of one arm.

If I come to Tongquetai again in the future, I'm afraid I will never see this scene again.

He shook his head, shaking off that inexplicable regret, and asked, "Which chain do you want to unlock this time?"

The goddess said coldly, "Untie the chains on my feet."

Lu Zheji was taken aback: "Why don't you untie your hands? Aren't you uncomfortable with your hands tied behind your back like this?"

The goddess raised her eyes, devoid of sorrow or joy, and looked at him quietly: "Because you don't want to relieve yourself."

Lu Zheji was stunned for a moment before belatedly realizing that she had probably caught up with his fleeting regret.

He coughed somewhat awkwardly: "Well... I just have that little interest that all men have. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words, so this won't affect our pure revolutionary friendship."

"It's alright." The goddess's tone was gentle and calm. "If you like it, then you don't need to understand. I don't mind being kept hanging like this."

When she said this, there was no shame or reluctance on her face. Her clear, glassy eyes looked back at him calmly, as if she did not feel that her current posture was shameful, nor did she feel that losing her freedom of movement was a big deal.

This realization filled Lu Zheji with an indescribable sense of absurdity.

He had long thought that the goddess was a freak. She had been imprisoned in the Bronze Sparrow Terrace for more than ten years. When she saw him, the culprit, she felt neither resentment nor sorrow, but was as calm as a stagnant pool.

He could only attribute it all to her extreme indifference. But no matter how indifferent she was, she must have had at least a tiny bit of desire for freedom of movement, right?

But she didn't even bother to fight for the chain; her arms were suspended as they were, and she was kneeling as she was, as if whether her body was restrained or not was completely irrelevant to her.

A sudden, inexplicable impulse surged from his chest. He grabbed the silver chain binding the goddess's left hand and said, "You don't want me to untie it? Then I'll do it anyway."

The goddess tilted her head slightly, a hint of confusion appearing in her eyes: "Why? Don't you like seeing me like this?"

"Yes, I like to watch it." Lu Zheji admitted it readily, but then he changed the subject, "But rather than watching this fixed, beautiful scenery to satisfy my shady desires, I would rather see you with a more down-to-earth side."

The goddess's long, raven-feather-like eyelashes trembled slightly.

Lu Zheji's gaze was intense as he continued, "Before you read poetry for the first time, you didn't know you would fall in love with it. Before you tasted braised beef for the first time, you didn't know you had a palate. Qiaoqiao, since you're used to being indifferent, since you never want to try anything for the first time, then this time I'll guide you to take that first step!"

The Bronze Sparrow Terrace fell silent.

The goddess did not respond immediately. She simply raised her clear eyes and gazed intently at the man before her. In her calm, still eyes, something seemed to ripple deep within.

She suddenly understood why she had fallen in love with the person in front of her before she lost her memory.

Perhaps this conversation happened long ago.

Perhaps their nature hasn't changed much from that of Emperor Wu and the goddess back then, which is why similar conversations can be staged again across reincarnation.

Perhaps... no matter how many times they start over, no matter what circumstances they face, they are destined to be entangled, destined to...

"Qiao Qiao?" Lu Zheji couldn't help but call out when he saw that she remained silent for a long time.

The goddess lowered her eyelashes and softly responded, "Mm."

Lu Zheji was still immersed in the excitement brought by his bold words, feeling incredibly cool just now. He didn't notice that a flutter of emotion, not belonging to him, had quietly mixed into the turbulent feelings in his heart.

……

Holding the cold, hard silver chain in his hand, Lu Zheji's thoughts stirred slightly.

[Currently obtainable number of Goddess's Blessings: 1]

[Should we draw immediately?]

"Yes," he murmured to himself.

Three cards shimmering with silver light slowly appeared before my eyes.

【Swift as the Wind】: Greatly increases movement speed, and the speed will continue to increase while moving until it reaches its limit.

【Slay the God (Silver)】: Gain the martial skill "Slay the God", which uses divine thought as a sword to slay the enemy's mind.

[Lifespan Enhancement (Silver)]: Gain a lifespan of 60 years.

Lu Zheji's gaze lingered on lifespan for only a moment before shifting away. Although a lifespan of sixty years was tempting, he had only just turned eighteen and was not yet at the point where he needed to worry about it.

The real choice lies between the first two.

He has only recently turned to body cultivation, and his physique has not yet been honed to an outstanding level. He can only be considered a martial arts cultivator, not a body cultivator specializing in body cultivation. Therefore, the card pool has not been tilted towards body cultivators.

Although the ability to travel thousands of miles is clearly not a physical cultivation ability, its compatibility with physical cultivation is surprisingly good.

What is the biggest weakness of body cultivation?

It refers to mobility.

It's tough and invincible in close combat, but if it can't reach its opponent, it can only be whipped like a spinning top.

The ability to travel thousands of miles not only enhances movement skills in close combat, but also fundamentally improves the predicament of physical cultivators being kited by others.

Imagine facing a monster that is invincible in close combat. If you get touched, you die. Hitting him is like scraping a scalp. You can't even outrun him. You can only watch helplessly as that menacing shadow gets closer and closer.

This is when facing weaker opponents, but even when encountering a powerful enemy that one cannot defeat, the body cultivator's strong and resilient physique can withstand attacks for a period of time, buying time for the continuous acceleration effect of "Swift Travel" to be activated, thus increasing the hope of escaping alive.

Of course, this is on the premise that the opponent's speed cannot exceed the limit of this technique.

However, there is also a reason for the God-Slaying technique: it is a ranged attack method that he urgently needs right now, and it happens to be an extremely rare divine sense attack.

Lu Zheji was badly tricked by the narrow path of the sword. Once the spell leaves the body by more than one zhang, it will collapse on its own. However, the ability provided by the Goddess's Blessing is not limited by the user's own conditions. As long as you can bear the consumption, you can use it. This is a rule that he wrote down by himself in the settings.

Those abilities that have mandatory requirements on race can still be used without hesitation. The "Swordsmanship on a Narrow Path" is just a conceptual constraint, not a real incurable disease of spellcasting. Faced with the blessing of the goddess of the same origin, this constraint naturally cannot take effect.

In other words, a ranged attack blessed by the goddess could bypass the restrictions and make up for his fatal weakness.

Moreover, Godslayer is not an ordinary ranged attack. Silver Blessing corresponds to the fourth to fifth realm level, but Lu Zheji knows the origin of Godslayer, which is the signature skill of the Divine Sword Sect.

The highest level of the Divine Sword Sect is the sixth realm. In other words, it is essentially a technique that can reach the sixth realm. However, the one he drew came from a Divine Sword Sect cultivator in the fourth or fifth realm, and his skill level was slightly lower than the full-power version.

Adding a sixth-level martial art to this level is practically a lucky find.

One is the mobility skill that best suits body cultivation, and the other is the ranged attack that is most needed.

Lu Zheji was rapidly calculating in his mind.

The God-Slaying Technique uses divine thought as its sword, employing a method of attacking the soul. To unleash its power, one must spend time refining their divine thought.

However, he lacked the means to cast spells remotely, and with the Bronze Sparrow Terrace guarding his sea of ​​consciousness, he didn't need to worry about his soul's defense. Spending time and effort just to have an extra attack method was really not cost-effective.

In contrast, the Divine Speed ​​skill, which is readily available and unpretentious, is enough to transform his combat abilities.

That's it.

The moment he made his decision, a force surged from the chains and flowed into his body.

At the same time, a crisp cracking sound rang out, and the silver chain binding the goddess's left hand snapped, turning into specks of silver light and dissipating into the air.

What Lu Zheji didn't notice was that at the moment the chains broke, the goddess's already fair and snow-white face seemed to lose a little more color.

She pursed her lips almost imperceptibly, her long eyelashes trembling slightly, but she didn't make a sound.

The goddess's blessing requires drawing upon her very essence; for her, each blessing is like having her flesh and bones ripped out, her soul torn apart.

So much so that even someone as indifferent as her couldn't help but groan during the first time.

At that moment, the goddess had an inexplicable intuition that the deal only agreed to give twelve blessings. It wasn't that her amnesiac self was only willing to give that many, but rather that Emperor Wu of that time was only willing to ask for that many.

So from then on, she learned to keep quiet.

The chains broke, and the goddess slowly moved her freed wrist.

Her fingers were slender and jade-like, with smooth and lustrous tips. She looked at her hand, a faint trace of bewilderment flashing in her eyes.

"How is it?" Lu Zheji's voice carried a hint of self-satisfaction. "It's always good to have one hand that can be used, isn't it?"

"What can you do with one hand?" The goddess looked up at him, a hint of serious confusion in her eyes.

"There are so many things we can do," Lu Zheji said enthusiastically, "I can bring some snacks and books for you to keep here. You can read, eat, and... and..."

His thoughts drifted uncontrollably to a less-than-ideal area, and although it was only fleeting, the goddess keenly sensed the brief, intense ripples in his heart.

"Can your hands be used to satisfy your lust?" She tilted her head, her tone sincere as she inquired, "How?"