Meanwhile, oblivious to what’s waiting for him above…

  Bubai was enjoying the bliss of pure domination and used his rough handling to reach his peak as quickly as possible. Then—

  Magic happened. All unresolved worries went away…

  Bubai sighed. “Hah... Merlin’s beard, that felt good. But should be enough for tonight.”

  Yet even after Bubai let go, the cat scratching his nerves below still showed no sighs of stopping...

  His gaze fell down.

  There she was: the wheat-skinned stunner, now back in her OG fishnet outfit that provocatively hugged her taut, toned curves.

  Long, shapely legs knelt there like a tamed cat, yet her behavior... was beyond wild.

  No matter how many times he admired this vase, that foxy face still aroused his appetite.

  Especially those full and pouty lips…

  By Merlin’s beard, every sway of her dark, tousled hair reminded him how good reading the of a cultural story was!

  The real tripper was those reverent, hazel eyes peering up at him while she... ahem.

  Anyways, this An Jali doll seemed particularly enthusiastic today, and it was hardly surprising why.

  Today, she met a new sister—a rival, in essence—and that probably set her off like those two tigresses above.

  But she was different from those two.

  For someone like her, a mortal holding no status, she could only devotedly express her worries in another way.

  What worries? It’s not hard for Bubai to guess.

  A flower in a king’s garden will always pine for more dew.

  Once the king looks away, winter comes. Some flowers wilt, but can wait for spring. Others... perish.

  A living and breathing women can still scheme to make a comeback, but these tragic dolls… belong to the latter case.

  For a mortal-grade doll sustained entirely by the essence he provided, if she falls out of favor, she’ll literally be collecting dust in a corner.

  Eternal dormancy… until she never wakes up ever again. That’s the end of abandonment.

  For those other mortal-grade dolls, fear was not a part of their existence. So, there’s no problems.

  But since his assimilation awakened everything this An Jali had to offer…

  There’s downsides to everything, but he can’t blame her for acting out of turn.

  Grasping straws for survival—that’s all this was.

  Desperate for every scrap of favor he might grant until… he grants no more.

  In this state... she really wasn’t suitable for any sort of other work.

  An order can get her working, but will she invest her full effort if she’s always thinking about preserving some energy for survival?

  If he wanted to restore this loyal employee of his back to proper working condition, he will have to feed her enough chicken soup.

  Caressing her head like a gardener tending to a fragile flower, Bubai’s reassurance flowed out like spring rains.

  “Jali, I know what you’re worried about, but believe me, you’re worrying too much. I’m not the type to abandon the old to cherish the new. There’s no need to push yourself so hard for a breath of favor.”

  The sun-kissed peony lowered her head like a submissive concubine.

  “Jali doesn’t dare hoard the favor of my king. Jali only wishes to serve my king... whenever and wherever my king needs.”

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Bubai reached down and lightly lifted her chin to stare into those eyes full of uncertainty and hope.

  “Good. That’s the attitude I like. And for that, my Jali, I’ll never stop needing you.”

  His thumb outlined her plump lips while he outlined her future.

  “I won’t hide the truth from you. Right now, there’s only you and her, but my secret royal guard will definitely welcome many new sisters in the future.”

  “But there’s no need for jealousy. As sisters, you must unite, work together to meet my needs.”

  “Replace any envy with obedience, devotion... and you will never be abandoned, no matter how many others join in the future.”

  The beauty’s face was still taut with worry. “Jali is but a mortal. Jali fears she will not be of use to my king in the days to come.”

  “You’re a mortal now, but who can say about the future?” Bubai smiled. “Once I ascend to heavens, are you still afraid your king won’t bring my loyal subject along to witness the stars?”

  Looking up, all she saw was an ugly face. Yet... that smile was like a sun breaking through her shroud of mist.

  “My king…” Worship brewed in those hazel orbs.

  Bubai’s hand slid from her chin to her head, giving his devoted priestess a caress.

  “Alright. The future is still far off. There’s no need to overthink it.”

  “For now, as long as you stay loyally and eternally by my side, you’ll always have your place, your purpose. See? Even your little king agrees!”

  Looking at the little king standing tall and proud after expanding again, An Jali devotedly kissed the crown to pledge her absolute loyalty.

  “Yes, Jali lives to serve my one and only king…”

  Her utterance was like a prayer to her living god, and her god rewarded his loyal priestess...

  Even after all that placating, Bubai could feel it. Her enthusiasm didn’t wane in the least.

  It was like she would never get tired of eating that Tang Seng meat!

  Monk Bubai could only give her free reign and diverted his throbbing excitement elsewhere: his storage warehouse.

  At a glance, Bubai saw the two new coffins sitting on the second-floor roof.

  One coffin was occupied to preserve his loyal maid, Wei Yi. The other…

  “Bought it just for show. For now, it’ll be a great refrigerator. Let’s hope it never gets used for anything else.”

  His consciousness then switched from the empty coffin over to the morgue corner.

  “Might as well give all those corpses a quick scan.”

  “Not exactly expecting anything special like my lucky break with that Long Batian rogue.”

  “It’s just going through the motions to make sure I didn’t miss out on anything…”

  Bubai’s consciousness switched back to reality and he dug out a corpse from the pouch on his waist.

  “First one… this Lian Ke dude.”

  Princess-carrying the corpse like he was offering it to worship the RNG god, Bubai let the familiar spatial force devour the stiff body.

  His consciousness jumped back into his warehouse space to see the corpse tumbling down onto the dead brazier within the small morgue.

  Bubai’s divine sense intently searched the booty placed on the altar, waiting for any signs of activity.

  After several breaths... there was still no reaction.

  "As expected, nothing. Next."

  The lifeless trash on the brazier was pulled back out to reality and stuffed back into the pouch for disposal.

  Then, out came a corpse still stiffly stuck with a smiley face.

  “Ew. This Du Ge is still so creepy.” Bubai shivered and sent the guest away to say hello to the brazier.

  Once again, no reaction.

  But just when Bubai was about to go through the motions again... the booty of the corpse twitched and spat out the unmentionable!

  "What the—? No please, I’m not ready for a jump scare!"

  Still, Bubai wasn’t the type to shy away from danger at his doorstep.

  The full power of his divine consciousness quickly zeroed in on the corpse, ready to kick it out if it dares to jump around!

  But he quickly realized... that stiff body was still deader than a door nail.

  What made the booty twitch was the quivering patch of folded human skin stuffed up the potty hole.

  From this skin, almost unnoticeable specks of mysterious, starlight dust were getting vacuumed away...

  Bubai was gobsmacked. Not by the cliché mystery left on the unsavory canvas, but…

  “Merlin’s ducking beard! What a spot to hide stuff! Is that place those grassroot disciples’ favorite hole or something?!”

  Ahem. Bubai tempered his surprise as quickly as that mysterious phenomenon ended.

  The skin went still. The crumbs gone.

  Even so, no new memories got stuffed into his mind this time.

  But a scan from his divine sense let Bubai get his hands on all the content scrawled on that folded skin without dirtying his hands.

  After rearranging the puzzle pieces according to the seams of the fold and mentally deleting the dirty smudges, the full image of the skin canvas formed in his mind.

  A Qi circulation diagram took center stage, and scribbled around were lots of detailed notes.

  In that mess, Bubai found the original description of the art.

  “Hmm? Xiao Li Flying Knife Art?”

  “Wield the storm’s power in your palms! A shot drills through the heaven and earth… yadi yada…”

  Bubai skimmed past the bloat.

  “Mhmm… basically a wind-attribute, long-ranged combat technique. This is probably the technique that Du Ge used to throw each knife like a bullet, huh? Cool. Cool. But wait...”

  “This says quicker throws and enhanced accuracy are just the reqs for the novice-level?!”

  “At higher levels... you can snipe from impossibly long distances, make knives curve mid-air, penetrate solid metal, and even home in on targets? Woooah! Holy Merlin’s beard! That’s insane!"

  The description did excite Bubai quite a bit!

  Or maybe that was… the spillover effect from that thirsty hottie outside? Ahem.

  After doing a quickie and shelving away that new skill on his ever-growing to-learn list, Bubai finally conducted a thorough analysis of his core.

  At a glance, there didn’t seem to be much of a change in his mysterious dantian space, but after a closer examination and comparison...

  “Huh? Its size actually expanded by about... 0.1%?”

  The expansion wasn’t much, much less than last time, but this little change still let Bubai discover a pattern.

  “So... is that how it works? I can expand my dantian pool capacity by... collecting inheritances?”