Cohabitation with Sword Spirit-Chapter 218 - 185: When Lack of Intelligence Makes Even Breathing a Mistake

After bidding farewell to Qian Yue and returning to the stands, Wang Jiu unsurprisingly saw Shen Qingming's eyes full of suspicion.

However, the little girl pretended to be indifferent. Holding a cup of tea, she took small sips and kept her head straight, only using her peripheral vision to glance at Wang Jiu, then asked.

"What did that scheming girl say to you again?"

Wang Jiu thought for a moment, considering Shen Qingming's capacity to comprehend, and excluded the complex parts of the conversation with Qian Yue, leaving only the most crucial sentences…

"She proposed to me."

"Pfft..."

The violent sensation of tea entering her lungs made Shen Qingming cough violently, like a patient in the late stages of tuberculosis, not even noticing Li Wanqing beside her taking the opportunity to sneakily cop a feel as she patted her back…

After a good while, Shen Qingming wiped her face with a handkerchief, then glared fiercely at Wang Jiu: "You didn't agree, did you?!"

Wang Jiu replied, "No."

"Phew, glad you're not completely stupid… You, always unaccustomed to rejecting others' requests, I was worried you might get bamboozled into accepting a marriage proposal."

Wang Jiu thought again: "Although it was unlikely for me to accept Qian Yue's proposal from my perspective, but from your perspective, having someone like Qian Yue as the mistress isn't necessarily a bad thing."

"What!?"

"Qian Yue's lineage, wealth, and aptitude are all exceptionally rare. The only issue is the low level of goodwill between you two, which often leads to adversarial behavior. But if she were to marry me, considering the unshakable master-servant relationship between you and me, her attitude towards you would have to change significantly."

"... Huh?" Shen Qingming forgot to cough, looking at Wang Jiu like she had been petrified.

Wang Jiu, seeing her bewildered expression, thought that he should have considered her comprehension ability more in his explanation…

"Alright, let me give an example you can understand. Suppose I marry Qian Yue, then she's like a young lady marrying into wealth, and I am the wealthy patriarch remarrying after an early loss, and you're the spoiled daughter left by the former wife, much loved by the patriarch. Even if Qian Yue dislikes you, to maintain family harmony, she would have to serve you with a forced smile. And you could fully unleash your spoiled nature and torment her on various levels."

"..." Listening to this, Shen Qingming's petrification increased by thirty percent.

Wang Jiu, watching her half-witted demeanor, frowned and said, "I thought you'd have a deep understanding of this example."

Shen Qingming was dumbfounded for a long time before retorting, "How could I deeply understand this?!"

"Switch your place with Lu Xin, wouldn't that work?"

Shen Qingming's face flushed red, wanting to argue but found herself speechless.

Wang Jiu continued, "Even if you can't deduce this reasoning from your own experiences due to the principle of not noticing what's under the light, you should have read similar novels. Didn't you borrow a book from Zhou Wenjun last month? That story about me and my stepmother..."

"Hey! I didn't..."

"Eh!?" Li Wanqing's eyes lit up, "Did you go to borrow a book from my mother last month? Why didn't you tell me?"

Shen Qingming's face flared red, "I, I was just bored and wanted to read some novels girls like, and then I heard your mother has a lot of books, so..."

"So you borrowed an adult book from her?"

"It wasn't an adult book!"

"Of course it was, I've read it," Li Wanqing said, "By the way, the last part, where the female protagonist's father passed away, and she and her stepmom found solace in each other beside his shrine, was really intense."

"Her father died!?"

"...Didn't you finish reading?"

"Of course not! I only got halfway through!"

"Oh, the part where her best friend Zi Shuang passed away?"

"Zi Shuang died!?"

"...Which half did you actually read?!"

Listening in, Wang Jiu couldn't help but shake his head, reminding Li Wanqing, "You should fully consider Shen Qingming's intelligence level; she's a slow reader."

"This isn't about intelligence! It's because you keep me up late every day with your antics that I don't even have time to sleep..."

Before Shen Qingming could finish shouting, she noticed the surrounding contestants in the audience looking shocked and backing away.

In the next moment, a dense murmur arose around them like an army of ants.

"Kept up every day with antics..."

"Not even time to sleep..."

"So envious, being kept up every day; I'd love to be kept up every day no matter who it is..."

Shen Qingming's cheeks were almost bleeding: "You two bastards..."

——

The fourth round of competition passed in the chaotic entanglement between Wang Jiu, Shen Qingming, and Li Wanqing. The subsequent matches remained thrilling—by the time it reached the stage of the final thirty-two, no weaklings were left; the cultivators, though young, were each the elite among elites. But compared to the few highlight battles, they weren't so sensational as to be worth writing home about.

Thus, time unknowingly reached the fourth day of the main competition.

December 28th, the fifth round of the main competition, with 16 contestants remaining, among them, only 5 from the three major families remained: two from the Li Family, Li Wanqing and Shen Qingming—who strictly speaking isn't really a member of the Li Family; one from the Qian Family, Qian Ye; and two from the Lu Family, Lu Fangchen and Lu Feiyu. The rest included 6 cultivators from the major sects and noble families of QingCyan Cloud yun City, and 5 cultivators from the surrounding powers of the city.

Without exception, each represented the top talents of their respective factions or regions, and only the top talents could survive so many elimination rounds.

At this point, every match eliminated not just a contestant, but involved a sect, a family, or even a region. The impressive nature of the competition was unprecedented.

——

"Hello, audience, I am Li Jinglun, your commentator for this match."

"Hello everyone, I'm Zhang Zhixi. It's so great to see you all again. I wonder if anyone purchased the album mentioned yesterday? If not, it's okay, because today we'll be selecting 100 lucky audience members to receive a limited edition album signed by me personally." 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"Ahem, we will also give away 100 copies of the 'Cyan Cloud Grand Competition Centennial Record' personally signed by me."

"Alright, alright, we know already, no more advertising, you don't have to warn us so often… Now let's introduce the contestants for both sides. First to enter the arena is this competition's biggest dark horse, the pure, cute, and massively popular idol girl, Spirit Cat Shen Qingming! Wow, the applause and cheers from the audience are overwhelming; she is surely the number one idol of our QingCyan Cloud yun City! From now on, I'll also strive hard with Qingming as my target, and I hope everyone will support me, this substitute Spirit Cat, meow~. Ahem, as for contestant Shen Qingming, after so many rounds, everyone should be familiar with her. She broke the Wind Barrier at 14, advanced to the late stage of the Wind-Rising Realm within half a year, and relying on a miraculous Immortal Treasure, she has overcome formidable foes who's masters of the Cloud Surge Realm, eliminating them and making herself a strong contender for the championship."

"Hmm, based on my latest calculations, Shen Qingming's actual combat ability is very close to the championship favorites, but in terms of odds, based only on her previous performances, it's hard to be too optimistic."

"That's right, many ordinary viewers who aren't familiar with Immortal Cultivation can also see that compared to championship favorites like Li Wanqing and Lu Fangchen who habitually one-shot their opponents, though Shen Qingming's battles end quickly, she ends up severely injured each time, a terrible sight. Incidentally, we've received a protest letter from the Cyan Cloud Juvenile Protection Association, protesting against the excessive gore of the matches, especially since the all-ages idol Shen Qingming consistently suffers brutal injuries, severely affecting the physical and mental health of underage viewers. Therefore, the organizing committee this morning rushed to produce a batch of filter lenses. Underage viewers must wear them while watching the match to filter out overly brutal scenes not suitable for viewing. Specifically, it will animate the real scenes, and the animation rendering is entrusted to the well-known children's animation studio Happy Tree, so the effect should be reliable."

"Hmm, we shouldn't overestimate Shen Qingming's combat abilities. Regardless of what Immortal Treasure supports her, she's still very weak herself, and this cannot be ignored. However, from another perspective, we're not certain if Shen Qingming has already shown all her capabilities. Perhaps she has some hidden trump cards."

"And this question will be addressed by the contestant on the other side today. So let's welcome the young hunter from the Boundary Mountain Wilderness, the half-demon, half-human contestant Kong Wu! It's said that his father is an exceptionally powerful Wolf Demon in the Boundary Mountain Wilderness, with combat strength comparable to a Great Cultivator of the Mountain-Overturning Realm, and his mother is a talented cultivator. As a rare half-demon, half-human, contestant Kong Wu is very fortunate to have inherited excellent traits from both parents. His strength far exceeds average human cultivators at a similarly young age, allowing him to make it into the final sixteen. The question now is whether contestant Kong Wu can continue his powerful performance against the dark horse championship contender.

"Alright, let the match officially begin now!"