A mortal lived less than a hundred years. One needed to at the least be in the xiantian 1st realm to gain any meaningful increase in longevity, since the longest a houtian 3rd realmer could naturally live was up to two hundred years.

If Ziyou Yung stagnated at the xiantian 1st realm with his laughable talents, paltry physique, and unorthodox dao, he might live up to three centuries with the help of elixirs. Unimaginable for mortals, yet a mere blip in Nanya’s mind. Because for the pingtian, the millenniums were nothing but paper limits.

Would she have to honour his passing just like this, so many eternities into the future? Would she deign to even remember? Do we truly love him? This dirty little boy?

"Thus do we pray, with reverence and awe,

To the grand and wondrous dao, our guide and our law."

Ziyou Yung stood up, dusting his baggy trousers.

The sun had started its fall downwards, with the faraway sky engulfed in an orange light. As he walked to her with the yaoguai on his shoulder, the orange rays shone hard edges on his soil-coloured skin, giving rise to strange undulations in Nanya’s abdomen.

Her Su Xiya brushed against the boy’s legs, much to his delight.

“Floofy, you can’t do that. Nyanya will be jealous.”

Ziyou Ling flinched, but tried her hardest to hide such unfounded reactions.

Nanya could not help but sneakily smile. Oh, how devious she was! “It matters to us not.” She said, “Our Madam Floofykins is merely a decade old. A child so beloved.”

“Is she your sister? I really thought Floofy was you in disguise.”

Nanya stilled, her heart thumping to a stop, “And why would you assume such peculiar notions?”

“I don’t know…” Ziyou Yung scratched his head. His curly hair grated Nanya’s sense of beauty, but some were simply born inferior. “I thought you wanted to spy on me or something. And when I floof Floofy, my zhenqi starts to convert. Wait…. This ain’t jing—I mean, that kinda cultivation, right?”

“…. Foolish.” Thank the heavens she was not in her yao form, or her face would have broken into a blush.

“So I can keep floofing her? You really won’t be jealous?”

Her Su Xiya jumped on her hind legs and leaned on Ziyou Yung like a puppy. The boy laughed, picking the grey fox up before aggressively ‘floofing’ it.

“Do what you wish,” Nanya’s xinqi roiled like the violent seas. At this rate, it would only be a matter of time before her sixth ordinal body could break through into the meridian building realm.

Nanya lowered her head, remembering when she had wounded Ziyou Yung's hands for overreaching. She wondered if she could reject his advances if he tried again, on the precipice of her breakthrough.

“Y-Yung.” The Ling girl spoke, after observing their conversation like a scared henling. “I mean, Fairy Su. T-This one has a matter she would like to d-discuss.”

Nanya saw Ziyou Yung roll his eyes, and she was tempted to do the same. But for one such princessly as she, it would be unbecoming.

“Do try to be interesting, unfair maiden,” Said the vixen. “If it is regarding the boy with the yang physique, we can guide you on how to rupture your bond, but not how to enchain his heart.”

***

Yung didn’t think now was the best time to give out love advice, not that he would, but since Ziyou Ling had helped him for so long with cleaning the graveyard, he decided that his alone time with Su Nanya could wait some more minutes.

Telling the madlander girl to leave now would be rude.

“By yang physique, she means Youjin Chao.” Yung said.

Ziyou Ling nodded. Her fingers twitched nervously, but the girl got her words out, “I would like to know how to make Chao stop ignoring me.” Her slight accent was gone. She was trying to sound prim and proper, but that just made her voice sound odd.

“Girl, do you not have ears? We are not interested in showing you the secrets to keep hearts, but perchance to shatter them into myriad fragments, if your plight pleases us.” Fox Nyanya said, preening.

Ziyou Ling was stumped and sent Yung a pleading look.

“How about hearing her out?”

“Fine. Get on with it.”

Ziyou Ling stuttered a smile, “Fairy Su can seduce a man and keep his attention without even trying! I wanna learn how to do that.”

Ah, her accent is back.

“But of course. That is our divine talent. And so is to refute their love, which is our divine right. It is not such a simple art we could pass onto one such crass as you.” The vixen said.

“B-But Chao likes you too. How did you do that?”

“As does every other man in this villagewoods city, oh unfair maiden. We do not understand your point. Mayhap, are you envious of us?”

Ziyou Ling shook her head, "I don't mind. But he keeps ignoring me! If I can learn how to keep his gaze on me like he looks at Fairy Su, then I'd be satisfied. But he treats me like…."

“Do proceed with your feeble attempts, such a pitiful, self-defeating maiden you are.”

"… like our night together didn't happen." Ziyou Ling was embarrassed to confess that. Rightfully so, for even if madlanders were more open than the native ren, women were still expected to keep their 'purity' before marriage.

“We cannot ignore that.” Su Nanya’s foxy gaze turned serious. She thumped her tail on the ground, annoyed.

“You’ll teach me how to seduce him?” Ziyou Ling’s eyes lit up.

"Such insolence!" Su Nanya snarled, "We meant your very acceptance of the fact that you dare find it fine for this yang boy of yours to have multiple lovers!"

“I-I wouldn’t wanna tie him down.”

"Utter nonsense. You are but a mere beggar!" Su Nanya said, "What of you, then, oh unfair maiden? Would you be fine having several men to share the bed with?"

Ziyou Ling blushed at that, “I won’t! It’s not right.”

“Why is it not?”

“B-Because I’m a girl? Women can’t have multiple husbands.”

"And you assume it is proper for men to pluck many a wife?" Su Nanya asked, incensed. There was a dark storm brewing beneath her words. Yung shivered; it made the cold spring wind feel much more frosty.

“Well…. Yeah?” Ziyou Ling replied.

"Oh, dear. Oh mercy me, oh this foolish, savage, unlettered barbarian!" Su Nanya snarled with a dizzy gait, "We must ask you this! Why would you even bear that notion?"

“I don’t know. Because women, umm, have to be loyal. We….” Ziyou Ling searched for answers. But then, Su Nanya approached her, the vixen’s aura rising up with each tiny step, and the madlander girl started backing away.

"Find your words. Carefully." Su Nanya growled low.

“Because It’s always been like this!” Ziyou Ling clenched her fists, closed her teary eyes, and screamed. “The Zheng clan patriarch has ten wives. And most noblemen take concubines. For a woman to bed multiple men, it sounds wrong. No! No! Like, aren’t we getting penetrated by t-their thing!? Would another guy even like a used, unchaste girl?”

Yung sighed. But he couldn’t blame Ziyou Ling. Despite the millions of years of history, in this world’s civilization, neither the feminist nor the sexual revolution were yet things that had occurred.

Su Nanya menacingly circled Ziyou Ling with all fours. “For when a man pierces a woman, you claim it marks us like we are an object to be had? What of the man! He too loses his primordial yang. Why would this yang boy of yours not be unchaste when you are?”

"It… it feels different, okay? Guys don't take anything away inside their bodies after t-the deed. We girls, we get the white stuff. And something snaps inside, and there's blood! I don't know; it just is impure. We break!”

“You are wrong.” Su Nanya sighed, “Go back. We have nothing to offer you.”

“F-Fairy Su.” Ziyou Ling pleaded.

"Do not raise your voice at me. For you are worthless. You think you are unworthy of the expanse of love you offer this yang boy. That you are his lesser. And mayhap since you think so, you truly are such inferior a being, oh unfair maiden. We will not grant you your wish to create cheap trick to keep men tied like cattle."

"But you're so good at it!" Ziyou Ling's face was red as a ripe fruit. Whether because of embarrassment at herself or anger towards the fox, Yung didn't know. He couldn't yet read the empathic link connecting third parties.

"We are not merely 'good' at it." Su Nanya said, "We are the best at it. But why should we, such uncaring a goddess, be responsible for what men feel for us of their own selfish volition? This yang boy, or the infinite other men, what difference can they ever hope to make? Each more boring than the last."

“You don’t know anything about him!” Ziyou Ling stomped angrily, her politeness gone. She was always headstrong, and it was the rare person indeed who could take Su Nanya’s denigration as nothing but her way of speech.

"We know enough. These yang creatures, such is their infidel creed. Never satisfied with one loving mate." Su Nanya said with a melancholic tone, "Leave. Or we shall make you."

Ziyou Ling bit her lower lips so hard it bled. She sent a vitriolic look at Yung.

Why me!? Oh shit. She’s crying.

The madlander girl ran away without another word.

Yung hoped this wouldn’t sour the business relationship with Ziyou Maque.

"A maiden so poor she is, we do say. But we should assume as much, with her backswater education. So eager to give yet never to receive. To voice her needs, to demand for herself; is it so hard?"

"I actually think she doesn't want Chao to have other lovers." Yung sat down beside Su Nanya, the vixen shape-shifting back to her golden maiden figure. She took her usual spot upon Yung's lap, sitting demurely as she hugged his neck.

“Do you find us a mean maiden?” She asked.

“Being honest is better than not.” He replied.

“How are our eyes?”

“Like priceless jewels.”

Su Nanya pecked his lips, but before he could go in for more, she moved her head away with a smile.

"We dislike that this Ling girl intruded upon our cultivation; such a sorrowful interloper she is. Tell us about your grandsire."

“He was a jade carver. He taught me everything I know. Youjin Bao, that was his name. Grandma died at childbirth, so he raised my mother all by himself.”

“And he raised you too, servant dearest. We do admire such an honourable man.”

Yung tightened his grip around Su Nanya's waist; he didn't know why. "He did. He loved mother dearly. Every year on mother's birthday and on her death day, he would come here and blabber all night. Get drunk and cry. Not even during grandma's death day would he shed a single tear, but on this night..."

Su Nanya gently placed her palms on Yung’s cheeks. “You miss him.”

"I do. Grandpa was injured when the voidfiends broke into the lower town. Mother and father died, and he could only save me, but after that, Grandpa never really recovered. If only we had better medicine… But the clan didn't think he was worth it, with his cultivation crippled."

"Yet here you are, helping such an awful clan that had dared to wrong you."

"It was the previous patriarch that cast us out. When Youjin Liu took the helm five years ago, they called us back and gave Grandpa healing elixirs. But at that point, it was too late. Still, it helped him live a few years longer. I owe them a lot."

Smooch!

“How is our tongue?”

“Sweet like honey!”

“Do you dislike that yang boy? He wishes to steal us from you. Perhaps he might succeed?” The vixen twirled a lock of her hair with a twinkle in her eyes.

“Hey, I don’t like that.” Yung raised his voice, angry.

“H-He will never succeed!” Su Nanya flinched away, a bit ashamed.

“Don’t say that. Ever.” Yung shook his head while the vixen’s head drooped.

He sighed, then ran his finger through her hair, “I think he is a… a friend. A business friend, the type that grows distant when our interests collide.”

“A succinct way to put it. How eloquent.” She said, carefully observing his eyes for any other reaction.

“Because he had some tragic things happen to him, he thinks the world owes him. I like his loyalty to brotherhood, but not his self-centred attitude.”

“Is that not what makes him so supremely attractive? T-To other lowly females, we should say.”

“That,” Yung laughed, “and his face.”

"Men of extreme yang have such countenances, enviable appeal to the lesser of their species no doubt. Like hot magma taken shape. It is not uncommon for uncultured maidens to swoon into their arms. It disgusts us so much! As though we had stepped upon a slimy fungus with our bare toes."

"H-Have you?" Yung gulped, "Stepped on slimy fungus?" He felt hot.

"…oh, there was this one time," Su Nanya replied with a distant look on her face, "While we were purchasing a book."