“Eat mud?” Li Qiye chuckled and said: “Then I better prepare myself.”

Having said that, he headed for the boat.

“What do you want?” Zhang Yan frowned after seeing Li Qiye approaching closer.

The latter climbed on and smiled: “If you all want to bet, then how can I do so with this dirty outfit?”

“Get down, you don’t belong here.” Zhang Yan unhappily said.

Earlier, it sounded as if Zhang Yan was doing Li Qiye a favor. Alas, he only viewed the guy as a tool to liven up the atmosphere. He didn’t give a d.a.m.n about the guy so he naturally didn’t want him here. How could a n.o.body, a dirty one at that, be qualified to stand on their boat? A “beggar” like him would only dirty their boat.

“Is that so?” Li Qiye was already on the deck, leaving muddy footprints everywhere.

“Scram, you aren’t qualified to stand here!” Hu Qingniu became annoyed and shouted.

“Get down now or we’ll throw you off!” Two youths took the initiative and stopped Li Qiye in his path.

These were prodigies that look down on vagrant cultivators, treating them like ants.

They simply joined the bet earlier just to increase the stake and make it more interesting for the two ladies so that they would smile.

They would never allow someone like him to be on the same boat as them. His unkempt and dirty appearance only made it worse.

The other youths have already worsened the situation before the two girls could say anything.

“You’re only a p.a.w.n in this bet, not qualified to sit with the betters. Leave now, don’t dirty G.o.ddess Qin’s boat with your smelly feet.” One of the two youths shouted.

Li Qiye ignored them and told the two girls: “I’m covered in mud, help me tidy up.”

This frank command shocked the young ones here. How dare this junior treat the two ladies like maids?!

“How impudent!” They all cried out.

Zhang Yan and Hu Qingniu were the most affected. Qingniu was ready to kill as he threatened: “Fool, daring to disrespect the ladies? I will have your hea-...”

However, the rest of his words was stuck in his throat. The cold Mu Yalan came over and held Li Qiye’s arm, seemingly afraid of him tripping over. On the other hand, Qin Shaoyao was taking off his muddy outer robe.

The two girls didn’t care about the mud dirtying their own clothes while tidying him up like two maids.

“You’re muddy too, a bath is necessary.” Shaoyao said.

“I’ll go get things ready.” Yalan immediately left.

Shaoyao walked Li Qiye into the underdeck and slightly pouted: “First Sister got scared out of her mind in the last several days because of you.”

“Just a quick trip, don’t worry about this trivial matter. Just one wave is enough to take care of them.” Li Qiye said with a smile.

Meanwhile, the crowd on deck became silly and stunned with their mouth agape and their wits gone.

These two girls were the jewels of Longevity Valley, famous and beautiful. Many considered them to be unreachable yet lovable G.o.ddesses. They were now acting like maids towards Li Qiye, gentle and obedient. This was a treatment none of the crowd could enjoy.

Those who shouted at Li Qiye earlier were especially embarra.s.sed. Zhang Yan and Hu Qingniu had nothing to say earlier. They tried to hard to please the beauties and make them smile, but these beauties were now with another man.

The most annoying thing was that this man wasn’t a big shot at all, just a nameless junior. There were no words to describe this terrible feeling they had.

“What, what’s going on?” One youth asked with confusion.

***

After a while, Li Qiye finally finished was.h.i.+ng up. He felt quite good and said: “A cup of hot tea would be nice right now after a hot bath.”

Everyone saw the guy stretching by the entrance to the underdeck and found him quite vexing.

Mu Yalan even put another cloak on him.

Shaoyao smiled and said: “Luckily, I have another unopened bottle of Snow Condensation.” 

“Go for it, let’s see how good you are.” He smiled and said.

“I’m not as good as First Sister when it comes to tea-brewing.” She humbly said, looking quite bashful.

This ended with Shaoyao brewing tea by the window while Yalan went to get a large chair. Li Qiye lay on it, half-basking in the sunlight. 

Just a moment later, a tea fragrance permeated the air. Shaoyao held the cup with both hands and said: “This is spring tea, try it.”

Yalan accepted the cup and began serving Li Qiye. A beauty serving tea by one’s side? This was enjoying life, making everyone envious.

The youths were speechless staring at this scene.

“The tea isn’t bad at all, and Yalan’s pastry skill is good too.” He enjoyed both the snack and the tea.

No one had anything to say but Qingniu did snort loudly. Li Qiye finally looked up after hearing the snort and looked at everyone: “I almost forgot about the bet.”

“Alright, let’s continue.” He smiled.

“Senior Brother, stop playing with them. You know what you’re doing.” Yalan smiled and shook her head.

She knew that Li Qiye would succeed for sure. The outcome of this bet was predetermined.”

“I suppose I don’t need to bet if they can’t afford to lose.” Li Qiye shrugged and said without a care.

“Who says?!” Qingniu scowled and said, unable to swallow this anger. He didn’t want to back down in front of Shaoyao and look weak.

“Just you or everyone else too?” Li Qiye said with a smile.

“As long as you dare, the rest of us isn’t afraid, we’ll play to the end.” Qingniu said with a sharp glare.

Even though he was an arrogant person with no social skill, he was also very determined and compet.i.tive.

“Brother Zhang Yan, let’s do it.” He pulled Zhang Yan into the fray.

“Well…” Zhang Yan hesitated. He eventually bit his teeth and said: “If he wants to do it, then let’s see if he can find some Alchemy Wood.

The guy was smart enough to see that Li Qiye had a special relations.h.i.+p with the girls. Their “Senior Brother” must certainly be amazing.

Normally, he would never want to antagonize someone from the valley. However, he would look like a coward in front of his crush if he were to back off now. Thus, he chose to side with Qingniu.