Feng Hao patted the frost from his clothes and swallowed a few Qi Replenishing Blood Pills to recover. Although he had defeated Xiyue Frost, most of his own Qi Blood had been depleted. Luckily, his health pool was quite large. If this had been his old self, he would have died countless times by now.
"Stop spacing out. Take a pill and recover," Feng Hao said, holding out a Blood Recovery Pill to Xiyue Frost.
Xiyue Frost gave him a stubborn look, her face pale. "I don’t need it."
"Ugh, you lost, so you lost. Do you have to be like this?" Feng Hao said irritably.
"You don’t understand." Xiyue Frost bit her lip, her delicate body swaying as if about to collapse.
Feng Hao frowned. He really couldn’t fathom what Xiyue Frost was thinking. Deciding to ignore her refusal, he strode forward, pried her mouth open, and forced the Blood Recovery Pill inside. "There’s a limit to being stubborn. Now swallow."
"Pervert! Let go of me!" Xiyue Frost was mortified and furious, wanting to struggle but having no strength left.
"’Pervert’ my ass." Feng Hao glared at her, exasperated, and snorted coldly. "I’m your brother-in-law, get it?"
"Shameless!" Xiyue Frost angrily broke free and scrambled far away from him, her expression flustered. Perhaps due to the Blood Recovery Pill taking effect, a faint blush appeared on her normally ice-cold face.
Feng Hao wasn’t angry. He had grown used to being called those two things, anyway.
Xiyue Frost stood off to the side with her back to Feng Hao, her face flushing red then turning pale, clearly conflicted about something.
After a moment of silence, Xiyue Frost’s expression calmed. She turned around, pulled her greatsword from the ground, and pointed it at Feng Hao again. "That last match didn’t count. Let’s go again."
"Stop messing around," Feng Hao said irritably. "Or I’ll have to force-feed you another pill."
"You..." Xiyue Frost was speechless with anger, the tips of her ears turning crimson.
Feng Hao couldn’t be bothered to argue with her. He walked over to the Mansa Vehicle parked nearby, easily hopped onto the roof, and plopped himself down. Then he patted the spot next to him and called out, "Come on, come on, it’s still early. Your big bro will give you a little therapy session."
Xiyue Frost looked at Feng Hao in confusion, clearly not understanding what "therapy session" meant. After a long hesitation, she still jumped onto the roof of the Mansa Vehicle.
"I have nothing to say to you." Though her words said otherwise, Xiyue Frost sat down next to Feng Hao, deliberately keeping a distance of ten centimeters between them.
Feng Hao chuckled softly and looked up at the azure sky. "It’s rare to have free time like this," he said wistfully. "Let’s just chat."
"I’m not good at chatting. You should find someone else," Xiyue Frost said hesitantly.
"What are you talking about? If you don’t know how, you can learn!" Feng Hao clicked his tongue and grinned. "Look at me. I wasn’t very talkative when I was a kid, but ever since I learned how to chat, the whole world became more colorful."
"Really?" Xiyue Frost looked up at Feng Hao, surprised.
Without batting an eye, Feng Hao nodded affirmatively. "Why would I lie to you?"
In truth, Feng Hao was talking complete nonsense. Back in the day, not only did he love to talk, he was a total chatterbox. He had only become more reserved after transmigrating.
Xiyue Frost stared at Feng Hao for a long time. Then, as if possessed, she pulled out a small notebook and said with utmost seriousness, "Tell me how you learned to chat. I’ll write it down first and digest it slowly when I get back."
"..." Feng Hao was speechless. "Holy crap, you haven’t thrown that little notebook away yet?"
"Why would I throw it away?" Xiyue Frost asked with a frown.
Not wanting to waste his breath, Feng Hao snatched the notebook from her hands, channeled his Magic Power, and tore it to shreds.
Xiyue Frost cried out in alarm, her face instantly turning deathly pale. "You bastard, why would you do that?!"
"I’m doing this for your own good," Feng Hao said irritably. "As long as you have this notebook, you’ll be trapped in your own closed-off world. Chatting and making friends is about connecting with your heart, not searching for so-called ’techniques’ like you’re doing."
"But..." Xiyue Frost started to speak, then stopped, silently lowering her head.
Feng Hao rolled his eyes at the sight. He placed a large hand on her head and turned her to face him. "Come on, look me in the eyes. Say whatever comes to mind. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense or not, just as long as you say it."
Xiyue Frost stared blankly at Feng Hao, her pupils darting about nervously. Her body was as rigid as a statue.
"Just say whatever you want to say. As long as you dare to say it, you’ve taken the first step!" Feng Hao encouraged her softly.
"I... My name is Xiyue Frost! I want to become a powerful Mage like my Great-Aunt! I want to be the most popular person! I want to make lots and lots of friends! I want to change myself!" Xiyue Frost squeezed her eyes shut and shouted, her voice like a roar.
After saying all that, she seemed completely drained of energy, her face pale.
"Good! Keep it up, a few more sentences!" Feng Hao continued to guide her.
"I’ll train hard, become strong, and protect the people around me!"
"Fantastic! Keep going!" Feng Hao nodded in satisfaction, laughing.
"Feng Hao, you shameless, despicable bastard! One day, I will defeat you—!"
"..." Feng Hao was instantly speechless.
Time passed quickly. By the time he finished his "therapy session" with Xiyue Frost, it was already noon.
As it turned out, Feng Hao’s guidance had been quite effective. A noticeable change had come over Xiyue Frost. Although she still had a cold and frosty demeanor, a glimmer of softness had appeared in her eyes.
He walked her all the way back to her dormitory, then headed over to Sun Yaowen’s place as they had agreed.
After more than a month of research and experimentation, Sun Yaowen had already found several antibodies for demonic beast toxins. The most effective was a special mucus isolated from the beasts’ corpses.
"Haha! Your line of thinking was right! Demonic beasts really do have substances in their bodies that inhibit their own venom," Sun Yaowen laughed excitedly.
"Weren’t you the one with the one-track mind?" Feng Hao retorted. "Any venomous creature will have something in its body to counteract its own toxin. Otherwise, it would poison itself to death."
Sun Yaowen was taken aback for a moment, then chuckled. "Indeed, my thinking was too narrow."
"Enough talk. Let’s start the cultivation experiment," Feng Hao said enthusiastically as he skillfully put on a protective suit.
"Alright." Sun Yaowen nodded in understanding and began to prepare with great fanfare.
「...」
The afternoon of research left Feng Hao physically and mentally exhausted. By the time he returned to the general store, it was already evening.
The moment he stepped inside, he saw a strange scene.
Yao Ying was leaning over the counter, a huge pile of Magic Crystals spread out before her. She was excitedly counting them over and over, completely oblivious to Feng Hao standing beside her.
Feng Hao glanced at the shelves and asked in surprise, "What’s going on? Was business that good today?"
"Ah, you’re back?" Yao Ying froze for a second, then quickly dashed in front of Feng Hao, her beautiful eyes sparkling like gold. "Look, look! We earned so many Magic Crystals today!"
"How many in total?" Feng Hao asked, his expression strange.
To be honest, he was well aware of the general store’s typical foot traffic. There was no way they could have sold enough to earn this much under normal circumstances.
Yao Ying said excitedly, "A full one and a half billion!"
"Uh..." Feng Hao was also taken aback. "How in the world did you manage to sell that much?" he asked in disbelief.