Once he had received the assurance and seen Yang Kai's earnest apology, Great General Sichen finally strode off with a dragon's gait and an imperious swagger.
Yang Kai ushered the woman inside, and host and guest took their seats.
There was nothing much to offer in refreshment, but the woman didn't seem to care about such things. After exchanging names, he learned she was called Die You.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Yang Kai got to the point: "Miss Die You, I wonder—what exactly does a servant in the Servant's Quarters do each day?"
Die You reclined in her chair without an ounce of propriety, her graceful figure traced by her form-fitting clothes into alluring curves. She laughed lightly at his question. "A servant? What else would a servant do? Naturally, servant's work. To be more specific, it's tending the Fire Spirit Fruit Trees."
"Where are these trees?"
Die You gestured vaguely in one direction. "There's an orchard over that way. Everyone from the Servant's Quarters works there."
Something stirred in Yang Kai's mind. "Could it be that these Fire Spirit Fruits are an ingredient used to refine Heaven Opening Pills?"
Die You gave him a slightly surprised look. "Seems like you're not completely in the dark after all."
Yang Kai explained, "On my way back with the Venerable, I heard mention of a few things."
Die You nodded. "You're better off than I was. When I first arrived, I knew absolutely nothing…" A distant look flickered through her eyes, as though she had recalled something, but she didn't wish to dwell on it. She changed the topic. "You're right, though. The Fire Spirit Fruit is indeed one of the ingredients for refining Heaven Opening Pills. Besides that, there are six other spirit fruits—all of which are cultivated within the Seven Arts Domain."
Yang Kai raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying the other six spirit domains are much the same as the Fire Spirit Domain? Each has its own orchard, and each has a Servant's Quarters?"
"That's right!" Die You nodded. "Without that, where would the Heavenly Lord get all the materials to refine spirit pills? The Heaven Opening Pills the Heavenly Lord refines are the Seven Arts Domain's greatest reliance."
Yang Kai's heart burned with excitement. The moment he had stepped outside the Universe, he had already encountered all manner of matters concerning Heaven Opening Pills. This would be an enormous benefit to his plan to obtain the pill recipe. He had originally felt some resistance to the idea of being someone's servant, but now, upon learning that what he would be tending was the Fire Spirit Fruit Tree, he actually found himself looking forward to it.
He wondered what the Fire Spirit Fruit Tree actually looked like.
"Miss Die You, if it's not too much trouble, could you tell me in detail about the specifics of caring for the Fire Spirit Fruit Tree?"
Die You lifted her gaze to look at him and chuckled. "You're quite eager, aren't you? You haven't even started work yet and you're already asking about all this."
Yang Kai smiled. "A bit of extra knowledge never hurts."
Die You grinned. "So what's in it for me?"
That sounded familiar…
Yang Kai looked at her. "What would the lady like?" He patted his chest. "I've just arrived outside the Universe with nothing to my name. I have nothing except this body—if the lady finds it appealing, how about three days of my company?"
Die You covered her mouth in a delicate laugh. "I'll pass on that." She rolled her shoulders. "My shoulders are a bit sore, though."
In a flash Yang Kai appeared behind her and placed both hands on her shoulders, gently kneading.
Die You looked thoroughly delighted. "The young man knows the way of things. Not bad, not bad." She praised him while directing how much pressure to apply.
Yang Kai obeyed obediently, subtly channeling energy as his fingertips pulsed with force. Die You immediately adopted a look of blissful comfort, slowly letting her eyelids droop until her expression grew languid and drowsy.
After a good while, Die You finally spoke without opening her eyes. "There are many details to tending the Fire Spirit Fruit Trees. How often to water them, how much water each time, how often to apply fertilizer, how much each time, how often to draw on the earth vein's power, how much to extract each time—all of these have strict limits. Too much won't do, and too little won't do either. Then there's pest control. You've already seen the Jade Fire Silkworms before—Fire Spirit Fruit Trees are especially prone to them. But these silkworms actually contribute something to the growth of the Fire Spirit Fruits, so you can't eliminate them entirely. You need to keep their numbers at a certain level. All of this is hard to explain in just a few words—you can only master it through hands-on practice."
Yang Kai nodded vigorously behind her, marveling. "There's this much to know about tending a fruit tree? How long have you been here, Miss Die You?"
"What do you think?"
"I couldn't say, but judging by the look of things, it hasn't been a short time."
"A thousand years…" A trace of bitterness crossed Die You's face. "A thousand years ago, I stepped out of my own Universe world and was drawn here. And I've been here ever since."
"That is quite a long time." Yang Kai grew secretly alert. A thousand years, and she was still stuck in the Servant's Quarters. He didn't know what level of cultivation Die You had possessed a millennium ago, but judging by the present, her strength had likely not grown much.
"So if you ever get the chance, you should leave the Servant's Quarters. This place has no future."
"How does one leave?"
"If you do well and catch the attention of those above, you'll naturally be able to leave. But those opportunities are rare. In any case… you don't need to worry about that for now. Just get started and see how it goes." As she spoke, she raised her eyes and fixed him with a languid, luminous gaze.
Yang Kai chuckled softly, moved his hands back a few inches, and continued kneading her shoulders.
Die You closed her eyes again and went on. "You're new here. Zhou Zheng will probably assign you to a suitable spot before long. Don't let his cheerful demeanor fool you—he's the kind who eats people whole without spitting out the bones. You'll understand in time. And you absolutely must remember: every Fire Spirit Fruit Tree bears a fixed number of fruits. If any go bad or rot, you have to keep them. Don't you dare pocket even a single one, or no one will be able to save you."
Yang Kai answered with a solemn nod. "I'll remember." After a thought, he asked, "Do we servants receive any compensation?"
"We do."
"Really?" Yang Kai was surprised. He had only asked in passing and hadn't expected an actual affirmative answer.