Cohabitation with Sword Spirit-Chapter 99 - 83: Model of the Virtuous Wife and Good Mother

Chapter 99: Chapter 83: Model of the Virtuous Wife and Good Mother

In the Li Family Mansion, Li Jing was always known as someone who could help others improve their work efficiency.

Any difficult problem that came to him always got a solution in the shortest possible time, often faster than flipping a copper coin. Of course, whether the solution he provided was usable was a matter of opinion...

However, Zhao Yan was evidently unimpressed by this. When she walked out of the Trial Cave with Wang Jiu and Li Jing, the oppressive negative aura she exuded, indicative of a cultivator in the Mountain-Overturning Realm, showcased her overwhelming power. It pressured the Trial Cave’s responsible person who was waiting at the entrance, preparing to exchange pleasantries, to the point where he couldn’t utter a word.

On the way back, Zhao Yan’s face remained ashen, her fury unsated, her Primordial Spirit trembled violently, emanating a terrifying don’t-come-near aura, causing even the mother-daughter duo watching the live stream through the Communication Spirit Stone to become silent as cicadas in winter.

In daily life, Zhao Yan was gentle and approachable, with an impeccable reputation in the Li Family Mansion... But when she occasionally erupted in rage, the energy she released was terrifying.

Five years ago, Zhao Yan was deeply dissatisfied with Li Kongcheng’s stagnating Immortal Dao cultivation and his increasingly bloated physique. She urged her husband to invigorate himself and not disgrace the reputation of the mansion’s third house. Li Kongcheng agreed but showed no real intention to improve. Zhao Yan took motivational measures, promising that if Li Kongcheng could follow the schedule she set, live healthily every day, and cultivate diligently, she would restore his pocket money to the level it was at their wedding, and she would wipe clean all the errors Li Kongcheng had committed during their marriage.

To Li Kongcheng, who found accumulating private savings increasingly difficult, this meant his income would increase tenfold, and many of his past mistakes could be made anew.

Zhao Yan’s schedule was merely designed based on her own cultivation routine from her girlhood. How hard could a child’s schedule be? So he readily agreed.

However, Li Kongcheng soon realized he should not judge others by himself. Zhao Yan, once a Celestial Pride Level cultivator renowned in QingCyan Cloud yun City, was not only gifted and insightful but most importantly, she was diligently self-disciplined to an obsessive degree. Every day’s learning and cultivation were packed to the brim, with diet and rest squeezed to the limit, and every activity timed to the minute—far more exacting than the labor puppets.

Although this was a schedule of healthy living and diligent cultivation, even if it drove him mad, Li Kongcheng couldn’t manage it. Yet he dared not tell Zhao Yan he regretted it, so he resorted to every possible trick to dodge and deceive. For instance, regarding the nutritious meal plan Zhao Yan had meticulously designed for him, he would pretend to swallow, but in reality, he would wrap them in True Essence and spit them all out during the Five Grains Reincarnation after meals. When no one was around, he would secretly have his servants buy fried chicken and sausages for him to enjoy...

However, such petty tricks were naturally impossible to hide from Zhao Yan’s discerning eyes.

One moonless, windy night, Li Kongcheng’s study door was violently pushed open, and the sound of a shirtless Li Kongcheng’s panicked scream instantly echoed through the dark room.

"Who, what person!?"

The response was a short, cold laugh.

Under the moonlight, Li Kongcheng’s face was as pale as paper: "Yan, Yan’er? Didn’t you say you were going back to your parents’ house tonight?"

"Yes, I did. How else could I witness firsthand how you, taking advantage of my absence, act so heartlessly and faithlessly!"

"Yan’er, you misunderstand, I didn’t..."

"Didn’t!? Do you think I’m blind! Tell me, what is all this around you!?" 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"It’s..."

"Speak!"

"... it’s chicken bones."

"Chicken bones, indeed. Tell me, in which page or section of the meal plan I gave you was fried chicken included!?"

"It wasn’t."

"Of course not! With your figure, do you even have the right to eat fried chicken!? Since childhood, you’ve abandoned Body Refining under the pretext of it being too tedious, focusing solely on refining True Essence and Divine Sense, resulting in a Great Cultivator of the Li Family who can’t even control his physique. Over these years, you’ve worsened, close to gout and diabetes, yet you dare to eat fried chicken! Look at yourself, a few pieces of fried chicken leave you sweating profusely, and in early summer, you’re going shirtless. I believe in following my husband after marriage, not wanting to interfere with your decisions, but since you promised to follow my arrangement, why deceive me? If you couldn’t or didn’t want to do it, just say so. Do you think I would have forced you? Kongcheng, I remember telling you when we were newlyweds, my greatest wish in life is to peacefully support my husband and raise children, being a virtuous wife and good mother. It would be my fortune if my husband treats me well, and my fate if not. But the one thing I cannot tolerate is my husband’s duplicity. Some promises, if unmade, are fine, but once made, don’t break them!"

Li Kongcheng dared not retort and merely hung his head, cold sweat pouring like rain.

"You are my husband, and there are things I cannot say too much about or act too harshly, so we’ll end today’s matter here."

Li Kongcheng, overjoyed, looked up, about to exclaim long live his wife, but the next moment, he heard Zhao Yan coldly say.

"Starting tomorrow, head to my Rainforest Pavilion for a retreat; I’ll personally supervise you to complete the remaining schedule for over half a month!"

"What!?"

"You are my husband, and whatever you promised, I will make sure you fulfill it no matter what!"

...

For the next half a month, Li Kongcheng completely vanished from people’s sight. The incident was so sudden and bizarre that stories of divine disappearances even spread within the mansion. It wasn’t until the end of the month that people saw Li Kongcheng again.

At that point, people could hardly recognize him. The well-proportioned, healthy-looking, and handsome cultivator bore no semblance to Li Kongcheng... if anything was left, it was just the faint trace of his spirit in those eyes that looked desperate and lifeless. As for what happened during those two weeks, Li Kongcheng never mentioned it to anyone, only that whenever it was brought up, he would break out into a cold sweat and tremble all over. His healthy physique stayed that way for over three years before gradually rebounding to its original state.

To transform a burly man into a healthy person over the course of two weeks is far more painful than torturing a healthy man into a skeleton. From that time onward, the people of the Li Family Mansion gained a new understanding of the raging Zhao Yan. Considering that the woman, who prided herself on being a virtuous wife and loving mother, was likely the second strongest cultivator in the same generation within the Li Family Mansion, next only to Li Fengyun, no one dared to defy her.

——

Yet at present, Li Jing of the second house in the mansion showed no regard for Zhao Yan’s wrath. On the way back, his steps were brisk, as if eager to return home.

As they were about to enter QingCyan Cloud City, Zhao Yan couldn’t hold back any longer and questioned, "Second brother, don’t you think you are acting too rashly?"

Li Jing glanced back at Zhao Yan and said, "I don’t think so."

Zhao Yan stepped forward, gently biting her lip, and said in a low voice, "But that’s the Demon Race! The last surviving member on this continent, who knows how many secrets are contained within, and yet you just burned it all with one fire... If it weren’t for knowing your personality, one might doubt you are colluding with the Demon Race!"

Li Jing impatiently scratched his head, "It’s really troublesome... how is this as complicated as you make it out to be? Yes, it contained many secrets, but do you have a way to explore and uncover them? You don’t even know if it’s telling the truth; keeping it is more of a hidden danger than a benefit."

Zhao Yan said, "Even if I can’t explore it, there’s still Mr. Wang Jiu."

"But he didn’t stop me from making a move."

Zhao Yan was momentarily stunned by this.

Li Jing continued, "Since you and Sister-in-law couldn’t persuade each other after several rounds of discussion, it proves the matter itself is a dilemma. In that case, it’s better to quickly choose a side and act, at least it saves time."

"Where’s the logic in that..." Zhao Yan retorted weakly, "For such important matters, a decision should be carefully considered. It’s like... like choosing a wife, do you just decide on a whim?"

Li Jing replied curiously, "Yeah, I randomly chose Wenjun back then, and it turned out fine."

"..." Zhao Yan found herself at a loss for words with this person and could only turn to ask Wang Jiu, "Mr. Wang Jiu, don’t you think this decision is too hasty?"

Wang Jiu said, "If you’re asking me, all I can say is, any choice could be valid... Back then, capturing a demon race prisoner, there was reason to either kill or keep them, and I usually followed the decisions of Jiulong and them. These demon race members, especially those at the Demon General Level, are very good at deception and manipulating people. I’ve captured several demon race prisoners before, and each time they claimed to reveal a great secret concerning the demon race’s lifeline, only for me to find thousands of demon race armies ambushed in all directions when I followed the clues."

"...And then?"

"Then I had to kill all those demon race members and then come back to kill the deceitful prisoner. After going through similar situations several times, the demon race prisoners never fooled me again, each declaring they’d rather die than surrender, so I generally just killed them on the spot, leaving no survivors."

"..." Zhao Yan was at a loss for words, and after a long pause, let out a sigh, "Never mind, you are the expert, you call the shots. However, the Immortal Demon War... is truly unimaginable. I hope the awakening of this demon race was just a coincidence; I really hope the world doesn’t fall into the flames of war."

Wang Jiu remained silent for a while before saying, "While the demon race is often full of lies, some things Mi Yanhanba mentioned are indeed credible. Before the Demon Emperor’s fall, I had never seen such brazen demon race members..."

Before he could finish, Li Jing interrupted him.

"Right now, we have no way to verify these conjectures, so rather than wasting time on wild speculation, why not hurry home!"