"Miss, with so much stuff, when will we ever finish moving it?"
A short, plump maidservant looked at her small, short hands, then at the mountain of supplies before her. Her little face crumpled.
"Xiao Shi, don't call me Miss anymore. If you don't mind, just call me Sister."
Gao Lexin bent down, cradling Gao Shi's round little face, and said seriously.
She truly envied Gao Shi, but she didn't feel jealous or resentful. She understood that being chosen as Yang Hong's maidservant was also thanks to Gao Shi.
And now, they were both Yang Hong's maidservants.
"Sister~ Okay, from now on, Miss will be Sister. Sister!"
The little maidservant nodded emphatically, sweetly calling her Sister.
"Ai~ Little sister."
Gao Lexin happily hugged Gao Shi and kissed her, smiling with great excitement.
With Gao Shi acknowledging her as a sister, she would have more opportunities to come into contact with cultivation methods.
"Sister~ Shall we start working?"
"Mm~ Let's start working!"
The two young girls began energetically sorting the supplies.
Of course, the main labor was done by Gao Lexin. She was very intelligent, and after learning about Yang Hong's identity, she quickly found her place: a maidservant.
"Not bad, an intelligent person who finds her position right away."
Yang Hong, observing from afar with his divine sense, nodded with satisfaction.
Gao Lexin was the daughter of the current Prime Minister, Gao Huan. Furthermore, her grandfather was one of the elders whose cultivation Yang Hong had advanced to the Heavenly Human realm. However, she wasn't the main focus.
His original little maidservant, Gao Shi, was the one Yang Hong had his eye on. She was a girl with an Earth-element Heavenly Spirit Root. It was because he met Gao Shi that he decided to take both of them as maidservants.
As for taking disciples?
Yang Hong was now extraordinarily lazy, too lazy even to take disciples.
When Yang Hong finished his spiritual plant灌顶 (guàndǐng - an act of channeling spiritual energy) work for the day and returned to the main house, Gao Shi immediately scurried over.
"Master~ Oh, Your Highness~ I've cooked dinner. I even stir-fried venison, stir-fried it!"
The little maidservant remembered the discussion at noon, so she specifically stir-fried venison for dinner.
"Oh~ I shall have to taste it properly."
Yang Hong smiled and was pulled by Gao Shi to the dining hall.
Gao Lexin, who was waiting in the dining hall, began to serve the dishes one by one as soon as she saw Yang Hong arrive. Then she stood by to serve.
Yang Hong did not ask Gao Lexin to sit down and eat with them. He was no longer the Sixth Prince in the Cold Palace from before. He had learned some of the rules of the Taiyuan Continent.
"Your Highness, please try it. I stir-fried this."
Once Yang Hong was seated, Gao Shi eagerly placed the plate of stir-fried venison, whose color was a bit off, in front of him.
Yang Hong picked it up, looked at it, and popped it into his mouth, chewing.
"Hmm, the taste is acceptable. The gamey smell of the venison hasn't been removed, and most of the freshness is gone. Too much salt, plus soy sauce, and even chili. Hmm~ Very good, it's not poisoned, it won't kill anyone. Keep trying next time."
Yang Hong commented truthfully. Gao Shi's excited little face immediately wrinkled into a small bun.
"Oh~ I will try harder. Your Highness, and this minced meat with eggplant, it's my best dish. Master and Miss both love it."
Children are children. Gao Shi quickly put away her disappointment and started recommending other dishes.
"It's okay. It has flavor, but it's still too salty."
Yang Hong ate each dish, commenting truthfully on all of them.
In summary, it was the level of an ordinary home cook, who even misuses seasonings. Barely edible.
After Yang Hong finished his meal, Gao Shi had lost her initial excitement, and Gao Lexin's face turned red. She had cooked four of the eight dishes.
...
In the days that followed, Yang Hong completely relaxed. He no longer cultivated.
He found that when he actively cultivated, the recovery of his injuries from merging with the "Negative Yang Hong" actually slowed down.
However, exhausting all his true qi with spells every day and then relying on the cultivation returned through灌顶 plants to automatically heal his injuries was much faster.
"Your Highness, is this a spell? It's amazing! It can actually summon wind and rain."
In the early morning, under the gentle sunlight, a dark cloud slowly condensed, covering only the peak of Qingfeng Mountain. Fine rain fell like threads, making the mountain peak seem like a fairyland.
"This is a spell. You are already a Grandmaster martial artist. Next, you only need to break through to the Heavenly Human realm to start cultivating immortal methods."
"The Dewdrop Spell is a Rank Five Water attribute spell. To cast it, you need to cultivate to the Golden Core realm, Rank Four."
After exhausting all his magic power, Yang Hong began to patiently explain.
Gao Shi and the other girl had finished sorting and storing the supplies. Yang Hong had also helped them digest the rewarded Rank Three spiritual peaches.
However, this time, Yang Hong used the excess spiritual energy to nourish their physical bodies, keeping both of their cultivations at the late stage of Grandmaster.
From now on, they would have to cultivate themselves and break through slowly. There was a significant difference in future cultivation potential between breaking through with external force and breaking through on their own. Yang Hong preferred Gao Shi to cultivate slowly rather than forcing her growth.
"Your Highness~ Can I cultivate faster? It's really so slow!"
Having become familiar with Yang Hong, Gao Shi learned to hug his arm and act spoiled.
"Heh heh~ You can reflect properly on the mountaintop. Ding!"
Yang Hong chuckled, then cast a Immobilization Spell on the little girl, fixing her to a large rock on the peak for her to reflect.
He then turned towards the next Rank Nine spiritual plant. He needed to hurry, otherwise, the rain cloud formed by the Dewdrop Spell would dissipate.
Even within the Ten Directions Spirit Locking Array, because there was no participation of heaven and earth spiritual energy, Yang Hong could only use his own magic power to fully support the spell's operation. Moreover, because there was no spiritual energy in the surrounding world, the spiritual energy he released during casting would quickly dissipate into the environment, increasing the difficulty of his casting and greatly reducing the spell's power.
"No wonder so few cultivators are willing to come to the Five Directions Region. I heard that the Director of the Imperial Observatory of the Great Sui has been gone for three or four years."
With a sigh, Yang Hong began a new round of灌顶. Every day, besides the fixed灌顶 for the Jade Green Grapes and Moonlight White Tea Tree, he only灌顶ed the thousand spiritual plants on the Ten Directions Spirit Locking Array.
"Your Highness, breakfast is ready. Would you like to eat first, or wait for Xiao Shi to return?"
Upon returning to the main house, Gao Lexin immediately responded.
"No need to wait for Gao Shi today. No need to prepare her food, and certainly don't secretly send her any food."
"Ah~ Yes, this servant understands."
Although she didn't immediately understand Yang Hong's words, Gao Lexin nodded earnestly in agreement. When she did understand Yang Hong's meaning, it was when Yang Hong asked her to carry the fainted Gao Shi.
This was already three days later. Gao Shi's cultivation had been sealed by Yang Hong.
"Your Highness, I will cultivate properly from now on. Please don't make me starve, okay?"
When the little maidservant Gao Shi woke up, she pleaded with Yang Hong pitifully, "I promise."
The best way to deal with a foodie was to starve them.
"I believe you this time. If you don't cultivate properly next time, you'll continue to be starved until you faint."
"No, no! I will cultivate properly, I swear!"
To avoid fainting from hunger, the little girl's attitude towards cultivation immediately improved. She cultivated for two hours every morning, afternoon, and evening. Yang Hong didn't bother with her for the rest of the time.
Compared to the child Gao Shi, Gao Lexin was very intelligent. She strictly followed Yang Hong's specified cultivation times. For the remaining time, she was smart enough to teach Gao Shi various subjects.
Yang Hong, meanwhile, acted like a hands-off shopkeeper. Besides periodically reminding the two girls to learn martial arts from the ten stone tablets at the foot of the mountain, he only offered guidance when the girls asked questions.
After completing twelve灌顶s and casting the Gentle Rain Spell ten times daily, he would lie flat and read books, mainly biographies and legends. He had already discovered the second drawback of soul fusion: laziness. He was so lazy he didn't want to move at all.