Chương 20: Ye Chen with no future

Ye Chen's calm demeanor left Lin Ke'er slightly stunned. However, she quickly realized the truth behind his attitude. Ye Chen's demeanor was likely an attempt to avoid adding any pressure on her. In the time they had known each other, Ye Chen had proven that he was someone who would quietly give to her without asking for anything in return. Although Ye Chen had his father backing him with resources, the Ye family was a small clan. The amount of resources he could gather couldn't possibly be much.

To be able to offer her external techniques, spells, and a weekly supply of pills was already the extent of his capabilities. Ye Chen was fully aware of his limitations and his inability to help her in more substantial ways, which was why he never stopped her from pursuing her own path. He could only support her from the shadows. Once Lin Ke'er understood Ye Chen's intentions, she felt a deep sense of gratitude. However, that only made the harsh reality all the more apparent. Ye Chen simply had no future.

His talent was too lackluster. His background was from a small, low-level family of cultivators. Even his best asset, his alchemy, was barely superior to that of an average loose cultivator. Lin Ke'er knew full well that the mid-grade pills Ye Chen had been gifting her, although he claimed to have made them himself, were beyond his current ability. No one knew better than Lin Ke'er how lacking Ye Chen's alchemy skills were. The Qi Gathering Pills he had once made were some of the lowest quality pills.

How could his skills have improved so dramatically? If his alchemy had genuinely improved so fast, perhaps Lin Ke'er might have considered him more seriously. But as things stood, it was clear to her that Ye Chen truly had no future. Lin Ke'er looked up at the sky, noticing it was already late. She had to head into the mountains early the next morning, so she planned to rest early tonight. After all, the mountains were dangerous, and being her first time going, there was a natural sense of unease.

With a smile, Lin Ke'er spoke, "I'll be heading out early tomorrow, but once I return, I'll make sure to come find you, fellow daoist, to treat you to a meal to show my gratitude for your care these past few days. There's no need for you to come to my place during this time." Hearing this, Ye Chen immediately understood Lin Ke'er's meaning. No wonder she had come to find him today. It wasn't just a casual visit. She was letting him know that, while she was away, there was no need for him to visit her residence.

She was probably concerned about him running into Lu Jing. Ah, women.... Even if they didn't think highly of simps, they still didn't want anyone else to take them away. Such a classic reaction! It seemed like Lin Ke'er was also trying to manage how Ye Chen viewed her, making sure she didn't come across as too indifferent. Lin Ke'er added a few more words, perhaps to soften the impact: "Also, Lu Jing is a quiet person, and she doesn't like to be disturbed.

I know that Lu Jing has several suitors, one of whom is a cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Gathering. He seems a bit overbearing. Of course, Lu Jing doesn't have any relationship with them. But if he happens to see you at my place, it could cause some trouble...." Ye Chen chuckled to himself. Lin Ke'er certainly had a high level of skill when it came to handling these things. She said she was warning him to avoid trouble, but in reality, she had taken a nice jab at Lu Jing.

It was clear she wasn't a fan of Lu Jing. Ye Chen couldn't help but find the situation amusing. Girls often talked behind each other's backs, and he had witnessed plenty of similar situations in his past life. In fact, during his travels in his past life, he had met a pair of close friends, who seemed inseparable, only to find out later that they were secretly competing against each other in subtle ways. Perhaps it was because Ye Chen was handsome and his demeanor was mature, which drew the interest of both women.

When they traveled together, the two friends always appeared to have a deep, unshakeable bond. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. But when they chatted with Ye Chen privately on their phones at night, they couldn't help but reveal each other's less-than-flattering pasts. How many boyfriends they had, their past relationships that led to things like a miscarriage. Those things came spilling out, leaving Ye Chen amused.

It was a common trait among most women's friendships, really. Now, Lin Ke'er, who always maintained a calm, detached demeanor, was no exception, starting to play the same game. It was clear that Lu Jing's presence had indeed pressured Lin Ke'er. Ye Chen didn't say much in response, simply nodding with a smile, thanking Lin Ke'er for her thoughtful reminder. But whether he'd actually heed her advice? Not a chance. For Ye Chen, sending gifts came with a tenfold reward. Would he pass up on that? Of course not. …

After chatting for a while, Lin Ke'er began to feel a little disappointed when Ye Chen didn't respond as she'd expected. For the past two months, he had sent her gifts of cultivation pills every week. And now, almost a week had passed since the last delivery. Lin Ke'er had hoped that Ye Chen would prepare something extra, perhaps some healing or detoxifying pills since, although she had prepared some herself, who would ever say no to more?

After hearing her plans to resign and head into the mountains, Ye Chen had rushed out to buy her a new spell. Yet this time, with her departure approaching, he hadn't made any moves. It felt strange. Soon, Lin Ke'er had an epiphany, and she began to realize the likely reason. It was because Ye Chen had probably run out of spirit stones. After all, Ye Chen's family could hardly provide him with much support. It had been over four months.

During that time, Ye Chen had continuously sent her cultivation pills, many of which were of medium quality, all of which required spirit stones. Then there was the Sword Finger Technique, which Ye Chen had purchased for himself, spending a whole medium-grade spirit stone on it. An ordinary cultivator in the Qi Refining stage simply couldn't afford such expenditures. It was likely that Ye Chen himself could only afford to consume low-grade pills for his cultivation.

Given all that, it was entirely normal that Ye Chen couldn't prepare anything for her this time. Lin Ke'er couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at the thought. But, still, she smiled as she bid Ye Chen farewell. In her heart, however, she couldn't help but feel that as her cultivation continued to rise, the help Ye Chen could offer her would only grow more limited... She and Ye Chen truly belonged to different worlds.

As that thought crossed her mind, the sense of competition with Lu Jing and the sense of importance she had placed on Ye Chen gradually faded away. She returned to her usual, calm demeanor, like the quiet, delicate flower she had always appeared to be.... After seeing Lin Ke'er off, Ye Chen couldn't help but smile when he thought of her slightly aloof attitude at the end. Having lived two lives, he knew exactly what was going through her mind.

It was simple: he hadn't actively given her anything today, and she had misinterpreted it. She probably thought, with his usual submissive behavior, that he must want to give something but didn't have anything to give. Once she assumed that he had run out of spirit stones, even though she didn't show it overtly, her attitude had shifted, becoming noticeably colder. Ye Chen wasn't surprised by that. This was the inevitable outcome of being a simp.

Affection earned through constant flattery would naturally disappear once the resources to maintain it ran dry. If Lin Ke'er returned from the mountains and saw that he was still struggling, she'd probably only drift further away from him. But Ye Chen didn't care about any of that. He certainly wasn't going to give any gifts today, not because he had no spirit stones. On the contrary, he had accumulated a total of ninety low-grade spirit stones recently.

He was almost at the threshold of a medium-grade spirit stone. But because of the system's feedback function, the cooldown wouldn't be over until tomorrow. If he gave something today, it wouldn't trigger the tenfold feedback. Without the tenfold feedback, why would Ye Chen give anything? Was he supposed to treat this like a charity? Ye Chen wasn't some true simp. So, he didn't care about the words Lin Ke'er had said earlier.

Not only was he going to visit her house, but he was also going first thing tomorrow morning. He was going to pretend he didn't know Lin Ke'er had gone into the mountains. He was going to meet Lu Jing. And he was going to give her the cultivation pills. Now that Ye Chen had refined higher-quality pills, they fetched a better price, and his earnings were growing faster. He thought he could also buy some new spells to give to Lu Jing, to enhance his own strength. And a storage bag.

Ye Chen had been eyeing one of those for a while. A space-utilizing item was something he had never seen in his past life. He'd heard that typical storage bags were about half a cubic meter in size. With the tenfold return, that would become five cubic meters. He could store all kinds of things there. Wouldn't that just make everything easier? During the one-month period that Lin Ke'er was in the mountains, Ye Chen planned to give all these things to Lu Jing.

In fact, from now on, he intended to only send things to Lu Jing. Not because Lu Jing was big. It was just that Ye Chen was a little curious. What would Lin Ke'er think when she returned a month later and saw how much he'd given Lu Jing? Would she feel betrayed, sever ties with him, and never speak to him again? Or would she drop the "indifferent" persona, and turn into someone who flattered him for resources? Ye Chen was eager to find out.