Blessings, Noodles, and a Fuming Rival

Senior Sister’s wildly imaginative guess left Li Chunsheng at a loss for how to respond.

After all, from the public’s perspective, it was indeed true: women, even after overdrawing their Blessing Power, would recover their spirits after a good night’s sleep. For men, however, the stakes were much higher; their ‘value’ couldn’t afford to dip into the negative.

Compared to exposing his possession of an ‘Infinite Coins’ ability—a power akin to a perpetual motion machine—being mistaken for merely having ‘Blessing Power’ seemed far safer.

Thus, Li Chunsheng looked at Liuxia’s clear eyes, which seemed to declare, ‘I’ve seen through everything,’ and let out a helpless sigh.

“As expected of Senior Sister, an outstanding prodigy from the Little Sun Orphanage,” he said. “There’s truly nothing that can escape your notice.”

“Yes, I might… indeed… well… possess Blessing Power…”

“But perhaps… it’s not quite as potent as the kind you know, Senior Sister…”

Li Chunsheng felt an unusual wave of guilt as he spoke these words.

He had witnessed women actively using Blessing Power before: tiny, mysterious divine script would swirl in their eyes. The most exceptional among them could even transform into ‘human script-generating machines,’ with vast amounts of divine script overflowing from their bodies.

These scripts would manifest as visible light clusters of various colors, surging like a tide towards the raw Black Iron Coins extracted by laborers.

From the first time he saw such a scene, Li Chunsheng had always felt that the so-called ‘blessing’ was less a blessing and more an ‘inscription.’

Yet, these obvious phenomena had never occurred within him.

‘Forget it, this is fine,’ he thought. ‘I hadn’t figured out how to explain to Senior Sister that I could use Authority Artifacts without any psychological burden. If Senior Sister is willing to believe this ‘answer,’ then… let it be so.’

“That makes sense…”

Liuxia listened, a look of ‘just as I thought’ gracing her face, and nodded with satisfaction. She appeared quite pleased with Li Chunsheng’s ‘candor.’

In truth, her satisfaction stemmed not from his supposed honesty, but from successfully preventing her junior from realizing just how astonishing his ‘Blessing Power’ truly was.

Now, Liuxia was almost certain that it was Li Chunsheng’s Blessing Power that had transformed her from a Goblin into a girl.

This was practically a replica of the Church’s mythology. In ancient times, the Goddess race used supreme divine power to transform chaotic Goblins into men who understood order.

Her junior, in turn, had transformed her, who had already degenerated into a Goblin, into a woman. Only the gender differed; the underlying pattern was almost identical.

However, such a mythical miracle couldn’t even be achieved by the Blessing Power of the Twelve Holy Maidens, who held the highest positions in the current Church.

Otherwise, the unshakeable truth that ‘once one becomes a Goblin, the process is absolutely irreversible’ would not be an ironclad rule of this world.

Yet, her junior, a man who should have been completely incompatible with Blessing Power, had somehow accomplished such a feat!

The significance behind this event held the potential to overturn the current power structure of the upper echelons.

Once this secret was revealed, it would undoubtedly bring catastrophic ruin upon her junior. Therefore, it was best if only she knew.

The best way to hide it was for the person involved to remain completely unaware themselves.

And so, once again, these ‘brothers,’ each trying to protect the other, had coincidentally woven well-intentioned lies.

When would they truly be able to be honest with each other?

Suddenly, Liuxia’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Li Chunsheng, asking with eager anticipation, “So, Chunsheng, when… when can you ‘bless’ me again?”

“Senior Sister also wants to… generate some coins… for our family…”

To Liuxia, constantly eating and living for free at her junior’s home, despite Li Chunsheng never mentioning it, made her feel quite uncomfortable.

Now that she had the opportunity to ‘generate coins,’ Liuxia felt as if her life had found meaning once more.

“Ah, uh… B-blessing, you say…” Li Chunsheng seemed visibly flustered upon hearing the word.

His eyes involuntarily drifted to Liuxia’s plump, rosy lips. He unconsciously swallowed, then gave an awkward laugh. “That… that we can discuss when we get home… when we get home… hahaha…”

“…It’s… not very convenient here!”

Liuxia nodded understandingly, comprehending. “Indeed… Chunsheng’s ‘blessing’ needs to be delivered through food, doesn’t it?”

“Yes! Yes!” Li Chunsheng nodded furiously, like a pestle pounding garlic, quickly seizing the excuse. “I’ll make you a bowl when we get back!”

At the mention of ‘making a bowl,’ a difficult expression suddenly crossed Liuxia’s face. She recalled the egg porridge she had eaten before, whose taste was beyond description.

While she had felt an unprecedented comfort in her body after eating it, and even a lingering desire, the act of consuming it had been an ordeal.

The girl hesitated, saying, “Then… then can you not let Senior…”

Suddenly, her ear twitched slightly, as if she had heard something. Her tone and self-reference immediately shifted, and her voice instantly became intimate, like a maiden in love playfully coaxing her sweetheart.

“…Can… can you not… let Liuxia eat your rice porridge again? That… it’s a bit… hard to swallow…”

“Huh?” Li Chunsheng didn’t immediately grasp why Senior Sister had suddenly adopted such a tone, but he understood one thing: she was quite dissatisfied with his egg porridge!

He felt a little embarrassed but still chuckled awkwardly. “Then… then when I get home, I’ll make you some noodles.”

Li Chunsheng remembered he had stocked several boxes of instant noodles to save trouble. While his cooking skills were poor, surely just making instant noodles wouldn’t go wrong again.

Liuxia smiled sweetly at his words, her voice soft. “Alright…”

Then, the girl suddenly showed a surprised expression. “Ah… Miss Mu has arrived,” she said, standing up and politely greeting someone behind Li Chunsheng.

“Eh?” Li Chunsheng instinctively turned his head, only to find Mu Shengling standing there, her pretty face completely darkened, though he hadn’t noticed her approach.

At this very moment, this young lady’s heart was filled with raging fury. ‘These shameless two… they’ve actually… actually progressed to such a stage!’

What rice porridge? What ‘making some noodles’?

‘Shameless! Vile! Base!’

She glared fiercely at Liuxia, thinking, ‘What an immodest hussy! Not even married, and already doing such things with a man!’

‘And this kind of person dares to compete with me for a man?’

In Mu Shengling’s mind, her evaluation of Liuxia plummeted further, and she felt a surge of moral superiority.

‘Giving yourself away so carelessly and without restraint, a man will only look down on you more for it!’

‘Truly, a crude, uncultured country bumpkin from the countryside.’

Mu Shengling scoffed inwardly, then turned to Li Chunsheng, her expression instantly brightening to a sunny disposition. She smiled and said, “Chunsheng, the intelligence you wanted has yielded results!”

Given her influence, gathering this information naturally didn’t take much time.

Originally, Mu Shengling had planned to hand him the information after Li Chunsheng finished work.

However, Liuxia’s sudden appearance disrupted her plans. Noticing the intimate interactions between the two on surveillance, Mu Shengling felt she couldn’t let them continue so smoothly.

Thus, the pink-haired young lady had rushed to the scene, intending to forcefully intervene.

“Is that so…” Li Chunsheng nodded, a rare smile appearing on his face for Mu Shengling. “Then… on Ah Qiang’s behalf, I thank Miss Mu for your help.”

“Oh my, really!” Mu Shengling feigned shyness, stomping her foot playfully, and chided, “Why are you still calling me ‘Miss Mu’?”

“You should call me… ‘Shengling’~” The young lady batted her eyelashes, appearing like a bashful, timid girl.

“This…” Li Chunsheng instinctively glanced at Liuxia beside him, noticing that Senior Sister’s face seemed to have gradually darkened. She was staring intently at Mu Shengling with an icy gaze.

Mu Shengling, in turn, glared back, unwilling to show any weakness.

For a moment, invisible sparks seemed to intensely collide between the eyes of the two stunning girls present.