Divergent Water Affinity

Yinuo stared at the symbol glowing in a blue hue. No matter how she looked at it, it was "that" symbol, one of the rarest and hardest to tame innate properties—the Divergent Water Affinity.

Along with Yinuo's Heavenly Ice Element, these two were among the top in terms of rarity and versatility. However, there's one problem for Melody, who has this rare affinity.

'With this, she'd become the purest, most perfect cauldron for male cultivators out there.'

Right, just like she was before, if not for her master taking her in. Even though such rare constitutions are one in a billion, they were widespread as commodities around black markets in the cultivation world.

"But Melody has the Martial God Constitution along with the Divergent Water Affinity. If trained properly until she reached the immortal realm..." Yinuo shivered at the thought of it alone.

After all, she, who had the Heavenly Ice Element alone, was already too overpowered, enough that the entire cultivation world decided to backstab her. If someone with a mix of two overpowered and rare constitutions cultivates in earnest, then nobody would be able to catch up to her, literally.

As proof, her current progress was incredibly fast; even in a Qi-deprived environment like Quinlan's dorm room, she managed to break through to the 1st Stage of Qi Refinement in under two hours.

"Melody, that's enough."

Worrying for Melody's body, Yinuo decided to limit her cultivation for now. After all, she wasn't adept at handling her Qi yet, so cultivating too fast could end up doing her more harm than good.

Melody slowly opened her eyes as she breathed out one last time, releasing a misty fog from her mouth. Surprised by herself, she turned to face Yinuo with sparkling eyes.

"I did it! I managed to become a cultivator properly! Thank you, Quinlan!" Melody muttered whatever was on her mind. "I feel like my body not only got lighter, my vision even got a lot better!"

"That's good, but for now, do not cultivate away from my sight," Yinuo warned sternly. "As you are now, cultivating alone could cause your energy to damage your meridians, or in the worst case, make your body implode."

"...!"

Fear washed Melody's face for a moment before she shook her head, taking on a serious look. "Alright, Master. I will not cultivate alone."

"Good."

After that, Yinuo let Melody go early. As a parting gift, she even gave Melody a note she had written earlier with a martial technique recorded on it. "Study this technique, and show it to me tomorrow." That was all she said before closing the door.

Melody left, walking down the quiet and dark corridor on her lonesome. Her back had a tinge of loneliness, but more than that, she had overflowing hope for the future and excitement from learning something new.

As Yinuo thought, Melody's mindset is perfect for a cultivator!

---

"This isn't it either."

Inside a silent room, lit by the flickering candles near the walls, Quinlan was sitting in the middle of his bed, cross-legged.

Ever since he left the hall, after refusing the general's offer to enter the army, he had been in his room, pondering about something. "Oh, this time it worked!"

Finally, after over 12 hours of hard work—trial and error, to be exact—he finally figured out how to use the system's telepathy!

It was pretty complicated for him, but the process was pretty simple. Through the system, he needed to select the telepathy function. This can be done by just asking the system, either mentally or verbally, to start it.

After that, he would need to visualize his target. For this, it was easier because he could simply imagine his face, and it should activate. However, it took him forever to figure this out!

"Ahh, ahhh, testing. Yinuo, can you hear me?" Quinlan spoke, hearing nothing for a short while.

{... Quinlan? So you finally figured out how to use telepathy. Took you too long, you slowpoke.}

When suddenly, his familiar, deep, and cold voice echoed in his mind. Upon hearing Yinuo's usual remark, Quinlan knew that he had really succeeded.

"Rather, why haven't you contacted me for so long? Did you get banned from using Telepathy, as I guessed?"

Quinlan's short jab made Yinuo shut up. After all, that was absolutely the case. Not wanting the talk to linger on that topic, Yinuo decided to ask.

{Xiyadie, is she safe? Nothing's wrong with her, right?}

Quinlan could only sigh, scratching his head. As he expected, that was the first thing she'd ask. "Well, it's been quite a while, so let me recap the story from after our switch ended..."

Quinlan made sure to blame Yinuo for letting him feel double the pain of the two broken bodies. Although she apologized, it didn't seem genuine enough to him. After that, he continued the story until the last one, where General Mugen tried to recruit him to the army.

{The Imperial army, huh? Although it's unrelated to our situation, they're about to be doomed soon. It's better to stay clear of them.}

Although Yinuo could barely recall current events from hundreds of thousands of years ago in her timeline, the disaster that befell the Phoenix Regiment became quite the talk even in the Middle Realm. It was big enough that even Yinuo had that event etched in a corner of her memory.

"Well, that's what I'm doing anyway." Quinlan shrugged before narrowing his eyes. "Then? What about on my side? Did something happen?"

{...}

Yinuo thought for a while, thinking about where to start her status report to Quinlan. In the end, she decided to start with the expulsion letter, the duel, the repair of his Doppel, the attack of the Echoes, the dragon-shaped Echo, and even the sweet night that she shared with Melody.

"Repairing my Doppel?!"

And, of course, rather than the event with Melody, he was more concerned about things regarding his Doppel. "How is it? Did you complete the repairs yet?! Ah, I wish I had a switch card so I could do the duel for you!"

Of course, Yinuo kept quiet about the prize she got from her Side Quests, another Switch Card. Still, Quinlan's reaction puzzled Yinuo greatly.

{Wait, you bastard! Aren't you curious about Melody?}

"Melody...? Who's that?" Quinlan literally tilted his head in puzzlement. "Ah! Right! The meddlesome daughter of the chairman!"

As he recalled who she was, he clicked his tongue continuously, as if pitying Yinuo. "If I were you, I'd just ignore her. She's too bothersome... Wait, didn't you mention something about her earlier?"

Yinuo didn't even need to think deeply before realizing that Quinlan was indifferent regarding Melody. Her idea that Melody was Quinlan's lover was a mistake!

{Yeah, I did... We ended up getting intimate the other night. I already said this earlier, right? Are you deaf?}

"Hmmm..." Quinlan hummed for a while before shrugging his shoulders. "Well, not that I'm interested in it."

Yinuo felt like her blood pressure would rise after hearing Quinlan's disinterested comment.

If she could, she wanted to sock Quinlan in the face after hearing his irresponsible answer. His being uninterested in Melody was now a problem for Yinuo, after all, since Melody was currently training as her disciple!