Chapter 19: The Art of Multitasking

I perched on Seraphine’s arm, watching the palace servants paint her nails with meticulous care. Each fingertip received a coat of crimson lacquer before being decorated with intricate golden patterns.

When they finished, Seraphine held up her hand to admire the work. Perfect timing—Siyi returned from her shopping expedition, dragging Xue Mengtao along.

The moment I spotted Siyi’s flowing pink figure, I instinctively drifted toward Seraphine’s embrace. Her cool, unimpressed stare made me slowly float back out.

Wait… had my host really said that Siyi became this way because of her influence?

I was genuinely confused. Because of my host—but what exactly had she done?

I’d never bothered investigating my hosts’ past lives before, unless it related to mission objectives. In previous assignments, each host’s background and decision-making process was clearly outlined in the plot data. I just had to follow the mission parameters.

This was the first time I’d felt curious about a human being.

Because there really wasn’t any information beyond the basic host description.

For the nth time, I opened the mission panel, staring at the few sparse lines describing my host. Within the constantly flowing data streams, a strange thought emerged: A human life can’t really be summarized in just a few sentences, can it?

Lost in contemplation, I floated directly in front of Seraphine and asked seriously: “Seraphine, did you torment Siyi when you were children?”

Is that why she grew up to be so terrifying?

Seraphine’s eye twitched. She randomly pulled out a story book from the storage ring Siyi had given her, spread it open on the table, and sent me a mental message: “Go read.”

I leisurely floated over to hover above the book, scanning and recording the open pages in 0.0001 seconds.

“Done,” I announced.

Seraphine turned the page.

“Done.”

Another page.

“Done.”

“…”

Annoyed, Seraphine put the book down.

Who’s supposed to be serving who here?

I looked back at her innocently.

We’re not continuing?

We’d just reached the part where the protagonist encounters an immortal and receives cultivation techniques. These story books were remarkably similar to the mission worlds I’d experienced—I thought I could use them as reference material.

What humans called “reading ten thousand books” applied to systems too, right?

Seraphine closed her eyes and leaned back into the soft couch.

Siyi dismissed all the servants except Xue Mengtao, then sat at the small table to brew tea. As the fragrant steam rose, she said: “Sect Leader Bai and that Elder Li from Lianshan Sect are birds of a feather—hypocritical to the extreme, spouting nothing but nonsense. Palace Lord shouldn’t trust him lightly.”

“Mm.” Seraphine nodded. “At least regarding the Chongshan Secret Realm, he wouldn’t dare deceive me.”

Remembering the terrified expression on that white-haired man’s face when she’d punished the White Water elder, Seraphine couldn’t help but smile.

“Golden Core stage, a sect master—nothing special,” she said dismissively.

Siyi continued: “I’ve sent people to search for jade tokens from other cultivators. Excluding the three of us from White Water Sect’s twenty-nine tokens, how does Palace Lord plan to distribute the remainder among the five peak masters?”

Seraphine’s gaze fell on my silver-white form, though her thoughts seemed distant.

“The first opening of Chongshan Secret Realm after its ascension will be extremely dangerous. As for rewards—” Her eyes narrowed. “I can’t hide my agreement with White Water Sect anyway. Since that’s the case, let the peaks compete among themselves. Anyone below Golden Core can enter, as long as they’re not afraid of death. They can bring whoever they want.”

Her tone was far from polite.

Siyi smiled as she placed a cup of tea before Seraphine, saying softly: “It’s fortunate that Peak Master Yan is in closed-door cultivation. Without her around, the people from Benevolent Central peak are much more manageable. Your broken engagement with Lianshan Sect has caused quite a few people in the palace to spread gossip. I dealt with a batch of them, but now they dislike me even more.”

“Hurry up and form your Golden Core—that’ll shut some people up,” Seraphine said. With Siyi’s exceptional talent, achieving Golden Core before fifty was well within reach. But since she hadn’t formed her core yet while managing all of Luanyang Palace’s affairs, it made quite a few people who’d joined the palace early green with envy.

Siyi nodded.

“If Palace Lord hadn’t advanced to Great Perfection Golden Core and made Peak Master Yan feel the pressure, she wouldn’t have obediently entered closed-door cultivation. After returning from Chongshan Secret Realm, I’ll enter seclusion to attempt Golden Core. But…” Siyi smiled sweetly, “if Palace Lord could advance to Nascent Soul early, I think that would intimidate others far more than my Golden Core.”

“You think Nascent Soul stage is some story book you can buy on the street?” Seraphine said irritably. She’d only recently formed her Golden Core—where was she supposed to find a Nascent Soul?

This was as unreasonable as Echo demanding she immediately find someone to marry and have children with!

Siyi fell silent, her face adorned with a gentle smile as she listened to the storyteller below.

The storyteller was recounting how the previous Palace Lord of Luanyang Palace had faced the Sect Master of Nine Heavens Sect in battle. He’d reached the most dangerous part of the tale, and the tense atmosphere drifted up to the second floor.

Seeing they’d finished their conversation, I floated over and asked: “I didn’t understand—who is Peak Master Yan? Who are you trying to intimidate by advancing to Nascent Soul?”

Anything happening to my host must be related to the plot. I had a responsibility and obligation to figure this out.

Now you want to know again?

You can’t provide anything useful, yet still manage to piss me off every damn day.

Seraphine ignored me.

I pulled out my drawing board and began sketching a “Beauty Emerging from Bath” illustration.

“Hiss…” Seraphine sucked in a breath, her palm instinctively striking toward my panel. Her hand passed through the virtual light cluster and slammed onto the table.

Bang.

The tea on the table splashed up a few drops.

Siyi was cracking sunflower seeds and didn’t turn around, chuckling softly: “The storyteller is being rather fantastical, but it’s not enough to make you this upset.”

Seraphine: “…”

Xue Mengtao, who’d been cowering in the corner ever since they started discussing the secret realm, barely dared to breathe. Hearing Siyi tease Seraphine like this made her hold her breath even more tightly. She still couldn’t understand why Seraphine and Siyi had summoned her here instead of using the palace’s many other servants, making her listen to things she clearly shouldn’t know.

And they wanted to take her to Chongshan Secret Realm…

Palace Lord had said the ascended Chongshan Secret Realm was extremely dangerous, with an upper limit of Golden Core cultivators. She was merely a Qi Condensation stage cultivator who couldn’t even fly on a sword—why specifically bring her along? It couldn’t really be related to Young Master Xue as Elder Si had suggested… Young Master Xue’s spiritual roots were destroyed; he was no longer part of this world.

Xue Mengtao’s thoughts were in chaos. She even suspected they were discussing these matters in front of her because they were certain she’d die in Chongshan Secret Realm, so they had nothing to worry about.

“You.” Seraphine’s gaze lifted toward her.

Xue Mengtao startled and quickly responded.

In the dimension she couldn’t see, I floated between her and Seraphine, holding my small panel with innocently wide dark circles around my eyes.

“The White Water Sect people are staying in Luanyang City. Until the secret realm opens, go keep watch on them for me. The jade tokens for entering Chongshan Secret Realm are still in Bai…” Seraphine paused, then said, “Bai Shanfeng’s hands. If you discover him making contact with people from other sects, return immediately and tell me.”

Xue Mengtao looked uneasy as she replied quietly: “Yes.”

“Is this a new mission?” I asked.

“But I can’t leave within a hundred meters of you.”

“I’ll be staying in the city these next few days,” Seraphine said.

“Understood.” I nodded.

My host really spared no effort in getting me to do tasks.

Xue Mengtao said nervously: “Palace Lord, if I go to monitor White Water Sect, what about matters with Lord Error…”

Seraphine looked at me and said: “The capable bear more responsibility.”

Virtual sweat droplets appeared above my silver-white head, indicating my determination to complete the mission earnestly.

After the silver-white system and Xue Mengtao left one after the other, Siyi raised an eyebrow and looked over leisurely.

“The White Water Sect people have seen Xue Mengtao. You’re sending her to spy on them?”

Seraphine frowned. “Who?”

“The capable one.”

As soon as she finished speaking, I came flying back with a whoosh, opening the character profiles and displaying a portrait for Seraphine.

“Dear host, the White Water Sect Master is called Bai Fenghui, not Bai Shanfeng.”

Just as Seraphine’s face began to darken, I quickly said: “Reminder complete, I’m heading out!”

Holding up my little panel, I zipped through the wall like a silver streak, disappearing from Seraphine’s sight.