Chapter 113: Chapter 105: I Am Helping You With Your Cultivation

After telling the Brotherhood Assassin to get his mind out of the gutter, stop letting his imagination run wild, and that his father wasn’t that kind of person, Zheng Xiu, wearing a strange expression, slipped into the "Young Master’s Room." Once under the covers, he canceled his [Divine Travel]. SWISH. Back in the Zheng Family dungeon, Zheng Xiu opened his eyes.

’I was in such a good mood after chatting with Feng Bei all night, and now this happens right before I go to sleep?’

He pushed aside the mechanism, the secret door opened, and Zheng Xiu stepped out to take a look.

Sure enough, Zizi, Bobo, Pingping, and Lily were waiting respectfully for him in the room. He had no idea how long they’d been there.

Zheng Xiu’s face darkened.

Zizi, ever the quick one, saw the look on his face and immediately bowed. Her eyes welled with tears as she began to whimper and blame herself. "The four of us entered Master’s room without permission. Please, Master, punish us as you see fit."

She finished speaking and looked up, tears swirling in her eyes, her lips pressed tightly together. Her expression seemed to say, ’Master, you can punish me however you wish.’

Pingping’s face showed the determination of someone who was risking it all. She puffed out her ample chest and began, "Master! We—"

"Hold on. If you have something to say, just say it. Don’t think for a second I can’t see you’re all putting on an act."

Exasperated, Zheng Xiu cut off Pingping’s chest-puffing display and turned to Jing Xuemei. "You. Tell me what’s going on."

Logically, any normal man would get the wrong idea: one man and four women alone in the master bedroom late at night.

And Zheng Xiu was a normal man.

He had gone a little wild when he first became rich.

In his younger days as a traveling merchant, he’d had his share of dalliances.

But as he grew even wealthier, Zheng Xiu had matured. He decided he wanted to find a wife he truly loved to spend the rest of his affluent life with.

That was what Zheng Xiu had thought three years ago.

He searched for her everywhere but found no one. Then he was imprisoned, his [Prisoner] ability activated, and a new world opened up before him. After that, Zheng Xiu’s focus shifted elsewhere.

In short, when it came to these four cash cows, each with her own unique skill, Zheng Xiu might have had some other ideas when he first bought them. But after spending so many years together, those feelings had slowly faded, and their relationship had settled into what it was now.

As the Richest Person, one could be a philanderer, but not a degenerate.

If Zheng Xiu really wanted a woman, he could even set his sights on a Princess from the Royal Family. A Princess marrying the Marquis Zhonglie would be a perfect match. But he had met all the princesses from the Wei family, and had even taken them out for boating on the lake and moon-gazing. In the end, nothing ever came of it. Fate, it seemed, had other plans.

Like Jing Xuemei, they had all sold themselves for different reasons, each with her own tragic story. At the time, Zheng Xiu had seen it as a good deed, cultivating them into cash cows for his Heaven on Earth.

The backstories of the four women were still vivid in his mind.

Jing Xuemei, stage name Bobo, was the precious daughter of the Jing Family, a well-bred lady from a good home. When her family tried to force her into a marriage she refused, she took the initiative to sell herself to the Zheng Family, ending up in Zheng Xiu’s hands.

Cao Shuangshuang, stage name Lily, came from a family of Physicians, but their fortunes had declined. Somehow, she was abducted by human traffickers and eventually ended up with a wealthy merchant in the south. At that time, the Zheng Family’s reputation was at its zenith, and that southern merchant, hoping to take over several of the Zheng Family’s trade routes, presented Cao Shuangshuang to Zheng Xiu as a gift. Zheng Xiu was initially unwilling to accept, but Lily’s first words were, "Just kill me now! I would rather die than submit!" Her voice was as clear and crisp as a bird’s song, and Zheng Xiu instantly recognized she had the makings of a great Singing Girl, so he bartered to take her for himself.

Liu Sufen, stage name Zizi. Her story was the one that made Zheng Xiu feel the most guilty. Liu Sufen was originally the daughter of a wealthy family. But in the process of Zheng Xiu’s business expansion, he had inadvertently driven the Liu Family out of business. Father Liu fell gravely ill, and they had no money for treatment. At the time, Zizi, harboring a "fight-to-the-death" resolve against Tycoon Zheng, pretended to sell herself to a brothel in a plot to assassinate him. She had even mapped out Tycoon Zheng’s daily inspection routes, but on the day of her attempt, she just so happened to get into a carriage driven by Qing Shisan.

Qing Shisan had cheerfully accepted double the price from Liu Sufen to bring her right before Tycoon Zheng.

Zheng Xiu still remembered the look on Zizi’s face then—eyes wide with a mixture of dumbfounded shock and despair. It was a look worthy of a masterpiece.

When Zheng Xiu later learned of the matter, he felt a pang of guilt. Not only did he spend a fortune to cure Father Liu’s illness, but he also gave the Liu Family a substantial sum of money to get back on their feet. Today, the Liu Family’s business is flourishing in another town, all under the Zheng Family’s banner. Afterwards, Father Liu sent Zizi to the Zheng Family without a second thought, offering her for a proper marriage. Zheng Xiu refused, so Father Liu hardened his heart and went to the extreme, declaring with a wave of his hand that he was selling her instead. He was dying for the chance to have Zheng Xiu call him "Father-in-law"—what an honor that would be! And that is why Zizi still can’t go home.

Finally, Pingping’s origin was even more interesting. Her real name was Dayue’s Aiwen, and she was from Ancient Persia. "Aiwen" means "clear" in ancient Persian. She claimed to be a Princess of Persia’s Dayue Clan, which was wiped out in a clan war, forcing her to flee Persia alone. She eventually made her way to the Daqian Imperial City. Finally arriving at the foot of the Fragrant Pavilion, she smelled the aroma from within and, overcome with hunger, couldn’t resist going in to dine and dash. She ended up eating so much that her debt was enormous, and she fell into Zheng Xiu’s hands. Initially, Zheng Xiu wanted to let Pingping go, but it was as if she’d latched onto him for good. She said she had nowhere to go, telling him, ’Master, do as you please. I owe you money, so it’s up to you.’ This also explains why Pingping’s figure was so remarkably... ample. Her accommodating, sensible, and cheerful nature were all inextricably linked to her origins and Birth.

Considering their backgrounds, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they were all well-bred ladies... truly virtuous and talented.

Pingping was even a princess of a Western Race; in this day and age, she’d be a tool for a marriage alliance with a Prince.

They had stayed with the Zheng Family due to their own tragic circumstances, and now, they were practically family. Neither Zheng Xiu nor Zheng Erniang treated them like outsiders.

This was why Zheng Xiu trusted them. He knew their backgrounds inside and out.

Seeing them arrive in his room so late at night, Zheng Xiu, after his initial lewd thoughts, felt a bit surprised.

’If they were really going to force themselves on me, they should have done it long ago. Why wait until now?’

Zheng Xiu was baffled.

Besides, the grass is always greener on the other side... COUGH COUGH, that’s not it. For some reason, the image of an angry Feng Bei slapping him into a pile of ash in last night’s Nightmare suddenly flashed through his mind, and he couldn’t help but shiver.

"Hmph..." Jing Xuemei muttered. "I told you the Master wouldn’t fall for that act."

Sure enough, the moment Jing Xuemei finished speaking, the others’ expressions changed instantly, the tears in their eyes vanishing.

Jing Xuemei said, "Master, the four of us would like to have a heart-to-heart talk with you."

"A heart-to-heart?" Zheng Xiu chuckled and sat on a stool. His gaze swept across the four women before finally landing on Jing Xuemei. "Alright. Then you can start by telling me how that Yuwen Youde died."

Surprise flickered in Jing Xuemei’s eyes for a moment before she admitted it frankly. "I killed him."

"How did you kill him?"

Jing Xuemei hesitated for a moment, then took out her Long Flute. "It did."

Fearing the Master would blame her, the other three quickly began to explain. They said that Yuwen Youde was a beast with a human face, a wolf in human skin. He appeared suave and elegant on the surface but would beat and kick his wives and concubines behind closed doors. When Jing Xuemei learned that Father Jing was planning to buy her back to marry her off to him, she killed Yuwen Youde in a fit of rage.

Zheng Xiu nodded with a straight face and said, "Continue."

The four women exchanged glances, then stepped forward one by one to demonstrate their Path Mystic Skills for their master.

First was Zizi. She rubbed her hands together, and her palms, glowing with a white light, pressed against the floor. A band of white light extended all the way to the Master’s feet, and the floor there became incredibly smooth. Zheng Xiu suspected he would slip and fall if he even tried to step on it.

Lily’s song was more direct. Depending on the lyrics, it could make people experience different illusions.

Pingping used a Ji Zither as her casting medium. The sound of striking its leather surface was like a hammer, capable of injuring people from a distance. The sound of its strings was like a sword, a flurry of sharp blades. In front of Zheng Xiu, Pingping plucked a string and sliced off the corner of a vase in the distance.

Finally, Jing Xuemei’s casting medium was her Long Flute. She couldn’t demonstrate it in front of Zheng Xiu, but according to her, the sound of her flute could stir a person’s Human Soul. If someone became completely immersed in its sound, she could draw their Human Soul right out of their body.

After the four had finished their demonstrations, they saw their Master’s eyes light up. ’So the Master prefers a soft approach over a hard one,’ they thought. ’Instead of all that coy melodrama, he prefers skill. It seems the Master likes women with a unique talent.’

What truly amazed Zheng Xiu was that while their four Path Mystic Skills were completely different, they all walked the same Path—the [Orchid].

The so-called "Orchid" was a euphemism for "prostitute." Logically, for those on the [Orchid] Path, if one was blessed enough by Heaven to glimpse the Path, selling one’s body would undoubtedly make one stronger. But these four were all virgins and were unwilling to walk that filthy road. In the end, they had each taken a different, diverging path.

Jing Xuemei explained the rules of their Path in one breath. Her calm face flushed slightly, and her voice grew softer. "Master, on our Path, all four of us are blocked by a door. We have found it, but we cannot enter. But then..."

Her face turned beet red.

Zizi shamelessly added, "Until yesterday, when the Master cuffed the four of us in the prison cell! For some reason, our ’Path,’ which we haven’t been able to advance on for so long, that door we could never push open... it loosened!"

Pingping mustered her courage. "We wanted to tell you everything, to have a heart-to-heart with you, Master... and we hope that you can do as you did yesterday... and cuff us. Cuff us up."

Zheng Xiu finally heard their request. He was dumbfounded, thinking how utterly absurd it was.

It was the first time he had ever heard such a wild request.

But their request was actually quite reasonable.

It was for the sake of progress and communication.

However, what Zheng Xiu couldn’t understand for the life of him was, how could locking them to a wall in a cell help them delve deeper into their Path?

’So, throwing a party in a prison cell counts as some alternative form of cultivation?’

Zheng Xiu didn’t quite believe it, but the mix of bashful shyness and determination on their faces didn’t seem fake.

Or perhaps... it required something... else?

Zheng Xiu cleared his throat twice, put on a serious expression, and said, "I am merely helping you with your cultivation."