At that moment, Li Meirong truly regretted her running her mouth so tactlessly, teaching Chou those sort of words was definitely a dreadful mistake!
Nevertheless, she could always try to get away with describing the meaning of the term in a literal way...
Li Meirong cleared her throat and answered briefly, "It"s a horse used specifically for breeding."
"But why did the radish boy say you"re a studhorse? A harem master?" Ben Mo continued inquiring. His voice quickly rose in pitch and fervor, "Master, are you collecting different males for breeding?! Master, I can"t join your harem, I"m a mushroom!"
Li Meirong"s whole face immediately blackened. She pinched Ben Mo"s reddish cap in reprimand, "Who wants you to join a harem?! I don"t have a harem, and even if I did, I wouldn"t want a mushroom in my harem. I"m into humans, okay?!"
"Ahhh! Stop, that hurts! I get it. No harem, no harem, you"re the forever alone master."
For some reason, the mushroom"s answer managed to aggravate her even more. Li Meirong ceased her a.s.sault on Ben Mo"s cap and sighed, "I"ll see you later. Don"t fight with Chou, he might act tough but he has a very fragile heart."
Ben Mo"s voice was dripping with sarcasm, "Right, of course he does..." His tone quickly changed to one filled with enthusiasm as he added a question, "Say, what about my regular dose of blood?"
"No blood today!"
"That"s not fair!"
After ignoring Ben Mo"s sobs of outrage from being denied his power boost, Li Meirong went to find Feng Huang while s...o...b..ll followed her not far behind. She wished to chase after Chou but figured that he"d need some time to calm down first.
Feng Huang was hiding between a few rocks in the garden, napping under the sun as usual...
Li Meirong found her not long after. She lightly tapped on the crystal-encrusted sh.e.l.l for a few times and heard the turtle grumble an incoherent response.
Roused from her sleep, Feng Huang turned her reptilian neck around to a.s.sess Li Meirong"s countenance.
She clacked her small tongue and said, "You look distraught..."
"I was wondering if you could help me with cultivation today." Li Meirong answered, pointedly ignoring the remark.
Feng Huang slowly narrowed her blood red eyes and said, "Is that so? Very well."
Following that, Li Meirong went into a meditative state in the dimension"s garden, syphoning and harnessing the energies around her, under Feng Huang"s instructions. She was pleased to discover that it was indeed possible to cultivate energy from within the dimension in the exact same manner which she did outside.
However, her mind was in a chaotic state. The cultivation results yielded almost nothing.
During the whole training, s...o...b..ll stayed silent and observed from a short distance.
After a third failed attempt at cultivating, Feng Huang noticed that Li Meirong had reached the limit of her mortal capacity to absorb energy and urged her to stop trying.
They sat down side by side near the Lobster pond. Feng Huang watched Li Meirong whose eyes were downcast as she used a small wooden stick to draw circles on the ground.
"This is just not my day..." Li Meirong mumbled aloud, her usual calm visage was marred by a deep frown.
"What"s going on with you? I know you"re not as talented as me, but surely you can do better than that. Remember, your mind has to be free from troubling thoughts to fully unleash your capabilities. Otherwise, you"d just be wasting your time and exhausting your strength." Feng Huang tried to keep the speech lighthearted, hoping to coax Li Meirong into sharing her worries. She could tell from previous confrontations that the girl was a reserved type of person.
As expected, Li Meirong stayed quiet.
Feng Huang tried persuading her, "Sometimes talking about your issues rather than trying to ignore them can solve your inner demons… I may look like a young beauty, but I"m quite the ancient turtle. With all my years of experience, I should know!"
Li Meirong glanced at the turtle by her side before going back to staring at the circle shapes she had drawn.
Eventually, she said, "I have bad luck with men. Just when I thought something had worked out for me, my dream shattered..." She sighed, "And Chou got mad at me too."
Feng Huang hummed in understanding, "Oh, I see what this is about."