Chapter 5: The White Moonlight Changes Color
The rain seemed to have lessened a bit.
Chu Huaixu had been an online gaming companion and virtual male model for so long, ranking second on must-eat lists, he was accustomed to women lusting after his body.
He’d encountered plenty of lecherous women, and his mindset had naturally changed.
“Heh, women,” he scoffed inwardly.
A cauldron?
You want one that badly?
At first, when Chu Huaixu saw the woman holding an oil-paper umbrella, he was slightly startled.
After all, who knew if there were any female contestants in the Police Office?
But upon closer inspection, he felt this woman looked somewhat familiar.
And the more he looked, the more familiar she seemed!
She was definitely an NPC he’d seen in “The Borrowed Sword”!
When she spoke, Chu Huaixu found even her voice familiar, and a guess began to form in his mind.
Of course, that wasn’t the point right now.
His current predicament was the most important thing – did she want to absorb me?
The absolute best kind of cauldron?
Me?
“Damn, do I have that strong male model aura now? Did she judge my ‘type’ with just one glance?” Chu Huaixu began to doubt himself inwardly.
Could it be that after being in the industry for too long, my vibe has become tainted?
Can she smell the “worn-out” scent on me from this far away?
In fact, what Chu Huaixu found most incredible was that lines like that usually came from women who preyed on men. If the woman before him was who he suspected, why would she say something so shocking!
“Could it be that the rumors about her are all true?” Chu Huaixu felt he might be about to unearth some juicy gossip.
Gossip about one of the most important female characters in the game “The Borrowed Sword”!
“Don’t think I won’t recognize you just because you’re wearing a veil,” Chu Huaixu thought to himself.
“Han Shuangjiang, one of the four [World Protagonists] in ‘The Borrowed Sword’!”
Every game surely has its own story content and background.
And where there’s a story, there must be protagonists within that story.
In some of the game’s main questlines, these [World Protagonists] often play pivotal roles, driving the currents of the era forward.
Many period dramas are criticized for the trope where someone simply covers half their face with a mask, and suddenly everyone fails to recognize them.
But in reality, you can still identify a familiar person even if they wear a mask.
Han Shuangjiang, true to her name, was born on the day of Shuangjiang, one of the twenty-four solar terms.
She was not only a World Protagonist in “The Borrowed Sword” but also ranked among the top few most beloved female characters by players.
Among the four World Protagonists, she was the youngest.
Yet, she possessed the strongest “big sister” aura.
With a rich, dominant aura and a noble, cool demeanor, coupled with a pair of unbelievably proportioned long legs, she made certain perverts unable to help but exclaim, “Sister, step on me!”
He truly feared that if they were stepped on, they would end up bragging about it in their mouths.
Based on her figure, her eyes visible beyond the veil, and her voice, Chu Huaixu was now one hundred percent certain she was Han Shuangjiang.
In his mind, the shocking gossip that had been discussed endlessly on the game forums flashed instantly.
When that incident was exposed, some threads alone had tens of thousands of replies in arguments!
Since “The Borrowed Sword” was a game with very high freedom, much important information had to be discovered by players themselves.
And some players, from who knows where, obtained information that Han Shuangjiang was sold into a brothel from a young age and was groomed to be the next courtesan.
The childhood of people like them would certainly be different from ordinary people.
Their curriculum would include zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting, but it would also definitely include significant amounts of hygiene and physiology classes.
They would have mastered the theory of what advanced courtesans needed to learn before starting their careers.
They understood everything and knew how to do everything.
They could make you… very comfortable.
Simply put, they were adept at charming from within.
Once these girls reached a certain age and their bodies developed, they would begin their careers, putting their knowledge to use.
In the Profound Yellow Realm, whether in Mirror Country or Moon Country, sects all had their own industries.
It was just that in Mirror Country, industries paid less tax to the court and more to the sects.
The opposite was true in Moon Country.
Generally, such establishments would mostly be the industries of the Joyous Sect, the Hehuan Sect, and the like.
Sometimes, low-level cultivators from these sects might even suddenly indulge their whims or be in urgent need of money, working at such places.
At times like these, mortals, driven by the pursuit of “dying among flowers, even in death, one is still romantic,” would wave their banknotes, paying to have them drain their essence, vying to be a cauldron, unafraid of shortening their lifespan.
Legend had it: the experience of working cultivators was truly wonderful.
The year before Han Shuangjiang was to be presented as a courtesan, by chance, people from the Joyous Sect discovered her exceptional cultivation aptitude, and she was taken back to become a candidate for Saintess.
Then, a change occurred.
The Joyous Sect was a subordinate sect of Spring-Autumn Mountain, one of the four great sects of Mirror Country.
Spring-Autumn Mountain was renowned and immensely powerful, on par with the Daoist Sect.
As a subordinate sect, the Joyous Sect had violated numerous taboos.
Firstly, tax evasion!
Secondly, not only did it evade taxes, but it also acted with utter lawlessness in secret.
For example, when they were supposed to provide only partial services to mortals, they dared to secretly offer full services, damaging the fundamental well-being of the person, a matter of extreme severity!
As a result, its legal sect “business license” was revoked by the superior sect, and it was directly classified as a heretical path.
These types of Dual Cultivation sects primarily focused on finding a Dao companion, progressing together, and serving as cauldrons for each other, absorbing Yin to supplement Yang, one absorbing from the other, and the other replenishing the first.
This was not a violation.
However, once the cultivation levels of the two individuals differed too greatly, the one with the lower cultivation would completely become a cauldron, their foundation damaged!
And while low-level cultivators, as long as they didn’t go too far with mortals, would at most leave them weak for a few days and damage their kidneys.
But some transgressors of the Joyous Sect were too greedy.
—How dare you secretly add extra services!
After this matter exploded, the Joyous Sect was henceforth removed from the roster, with some cultivators serving sentences and others fleeing.
As a candidate for Saintess, Han Shuangjiang had only been taught the sect’s ultimate cultivation technique, “Joyous Entanglement,” for a few days. Her theoretical knowledge had advanced significantly compared to when she was in the brothel; it was like upgrading from vocational school to university.
Later, for reasons unknown, she managed to escape her sect.
In both incidents, she had managed to escape calamity.
Only that temporarily “useless knowledge” kept accumulating!
The stunningly beautiful she then departed, becoming what many young men in the sect would never see again in their lives, only remaining in their hearts as… the Yellow Moonlight.
“When this gossip first came out, I didn’t believe it either,” Chu Huaixu thought, standing in the rain.
“But the moment you started talking about cauldrons, it became hard for me not to believe it.”
Isn’t this you exposing yourself!
If this matter had been confirmed back then, her popularity among male players—
Wouldn’t it have soared even higher!
A woman of such contrast, could you handle that?
Han Shuangjiang looked at the handsome, fox-faced man before her, feeling a bit perplexed herself. Why did she feel compelled to speak her mind so impulsively?
But she had to admit, Heaven had indeed blessed this fox-faced man with impeccable looks.
The Joyous Sect was not lacking in handsome men and beautiful women.
But if this man were to join, he would likely overshadow even the male disciples!
However, after saying it, Han Shuangjiang felt awkward for herself.
Little did she know that Chu Huaixu was reveling in the gossip and wouldn’t discriminate against her in the least.
After all, you never got to start your job, but I’m a real male model.
However, the gaze he directed at her was filled with a hint of amusement.
Meeting that playful gaze, Han Shuangjiang, realizing she had said the wrong thing, scoffed inwardly:
“Heh, men.”
Just as the two stood in silence, a light laugh echoed from the heavens above in the rainy night, followed by a voice from on high:
“Oh? Why is there another fool out in the rain?”
As the voice sounded, Chu Huaixu and Han Shuangjiang simultaneously looked sharply up at the night sky.
They saw someone approaching, walking on air!
In the next moment, not a single drop of rain fell on Chu Huaixu.
But it wasn’t that the rain had stopped.
No, it could also be said that the rain had stopped!
Within this area, all the raindrops falling from the sky had been frozen in mid-air!
