The next morning, Zhao Ling trudged out of his room looking quite miserable.
Last night, after taking Liu Erlong out for a stroll, he thought their relationship had gotten close enough and hoped he could spend the night in her room.
However, Liu Erlong was still upset over something he'd written in his diary, complaining that she had a thing for "picking up discarded shoes" (a derogatory phrase implying she likes leftovers or rejects).
As a result, she firmly refused and insisted that their relationship hadn't reached that level yet.
Zhao Ling also felt that, realistically, they weren't quite at that stage yet, so he had no choice but to return reluctantly to his hotel room.
Had he known it was his loose mouth that caused Liu Erlong to refuse him, he would've been so frustrated he'd explode.
He originally thought he could stay in Ah Yin's room for the night, but she wouldn't even open the door.
She said they had a long journey to Spirit Hall City the next day, and without good rest, the trip would be too exhausting.
So, Zhao Ling had no choice but to obediently return to his room.
Knock knock knock… Zhao Ling knocked on Ah Yin's door and softly called out.
"Ah Yin, time to get up. After breakfast, we have to leave for Spirit Hall City with those people from Spirit Hall."
"Alright…" came Ah Yin's lazy voice from inside. Shortly after, the door opened to reveal Ah Yin tilting her head as she brushed her long, waterfall-like blue hair. She looked incredibly beautiful.
Without thinking, Zhao Ling stepped forward, wrapped his arms around her slender waist, and buried his head into the crook of her neck.
Ah Yin was startled and instinctively stepped back, quickly saying:
"Honey, don't mess around. Didn't you say we have to freshen up and go eat breakfast upstairs before setting off?"
"It's fine. I just want to hug you, I won't do anything else," Zhao Ling inhaled her intoxicating scent and replied gently.
Still, Ah Yin didn't believe for a second that Zhao Ling would "not do anything," since her husband was a notorious perv.
Based on her over-a-week-long experience, even a bit of skin would turn him into a ravenous wolf.
"Alright, enough of the flirting. Go freshen up and help me pack. If you keep clinging to me, I'll put on something revealing and stroll down the street. Believe it or not?"
She poked Zhao Ling on the forehead and pushed him away from her neck with a teasing smile on her lips.
"You're ruthless…" Zhao Ling didn't dare gamble whether Ah Yin would really wear something skimpy and go wandering outside. His wife was for his eyes only—no one else's.
He turned and went back to his room. After a quick wash, he stored both of their belongings in his storage space.
Once done, Zhao Ling saw that Ah Yin was still putting on light makeup, so he just quietly stood by the door and waited.
After about ten minutes, Bibi Dong arrived on their floor. Upon seeing Zhao Ling, she immediately ran into his arms and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Zhao Ling, today we're going back to Spirit Hall City together. Are you nervous?"
After the kiss, Bibi Dong looked at him with a worried expression. Her beautiful eyes were bloodshot, making it clear she hadn't slept well the night before.
"Nervous? What's there to be nervous about?"
Zhao Ling raised an eyebrow in confusion, gently patted her head, and smiled. Then, he summoned his diary interface in his mind and began his rant:
[So funny—Dong'er actually asked if I'm nervous about going to Spirit Hall City with her.]
[Heh, nervous? What's there to be nervous about? It's not like I'm meeting the parents.]
[Qian Xunji is just Dong'er's teacher. If he behaves, I'm willing to call him 'teacher' along with Dong'er.]
[If he acts out and causes trouble for me and Dong'er, I won't hesitate to cut him down.]
[Some might say Qian Xunji was very kind to Dong'er, and in the original story, although he did violate her, it wasn't punishable by death.]
[But according to modern Blue Star law, even if he once treated Dong'er like a daughter, if he violated her purity, he'd get at least ten years in prison—possibly even the death penalty.]
[Is there a problem with that? Bottom line, Qian Xunji better behave and not give me a reason to kill him, or else…]
After finishing his rant, Zhao Ling clicked "upload" on the diary and received a new technique: Thousand Shadow Technique, a low-tier Earth-level movement technique with nine levels.
At its peak, the speed was almost terrifying, capable of creating over a thousand afterimages during movement to confuse enemies. This was the first movement technique Zhao Ling had obtained.
Currently, he could only use the first level, which could produce ten afterimages. Even that was already pretty incredible.
While Zhao Ling was immersed in experiencing the marvels of the Thousand Shadow Technique, Bibi Dong saw that her copy of Zhao Ling's Diary had auto-updated.
Not wanting to interrupt him, she quietly opened her diary copy and read the latest entry, unsure how to respond.
She wanted to say: "Come on, bringing Zhao Ling to Spirit Hall City is like meeting the parents."
Even though the diary mentioned she would one day fall out with her teacher because of Yu Xiaogang and be violated by him, as of now, that hadn't happened.
Her teacher had always treated her like a daughter, and she saw him as a father figure. So if not to meet the parents, why else was she bringing Zhao Ling?
However, she did agree with one thing in the diary: as long as her teacher didn't have ill intentions, she wouldn't break off with him.
At this point, she hadn't fallen in love with that guy Yu Xiaogang, and had even beaten him up several times. So her teacher probably wouldn't get upset over that anymore.
What worried her was how her teacher would react to her being in a relationship with Zhao Ling. That anxiety kept her up all night.
She was also concerned about the danger Zhao Ling and Ah Yin might face by going with her to Spirit Hall City. If she and her teacher ended up enemies, it wouldn't be easy for Zhao Ling to protect both her and Ah Yin and safely escape.
Especially since the elders in the Worship Hall were terrifyingly powerful—especially the Grand Worship, said to be invincible under the heavens.
Even if Zhao Ling could defeat her teacher, that didn't mean he could handle the Grand Worship. She had no idea where Zhao Ling's confidence came from.
What she didn't know was that in the past week, Zhao Ling had gained many benefits through his diary writing.
For example, his soul ring years had increased by 1,500 years, his lifespan by 50 years, and his soul bone years by 1,000.
Thus, Zhao Ling's first martial soul's ring configuration had become: 2 purple, 4 black, and 3 red, and his soul power had risen to level 93.
Most importantly, those three 100,000-year soul rings gave him a massive surge in soul power. Even he couldn't say for sure how strong he'd be if he went all out…