A finely wrapped gift soon appeared in the trash can beneath the dilapidated apartment building.

Yin Si turned and left. Soon after, a Beastman rummaging through the trash picked up the gift.

The group returned to the front of Jiang Zheyu’s villa.

"Thank you for everything today, Captain Qi." Jiang Zheyu stood before her villa’s main gate. Su Yan was at her side, and her gaze fell gently on the man inside the Hovercar.

Feng Qi rested his arms on the open window, leaning slightly against it. He simply raised a wrist to flash his Light Brain, a faint smile playing on his lips. "If you’re really grateful, remember to treat me to coffee."

"You can go now," Su Yan said, glancing coolly at Feng Qi inside the car.

Feng Qi scoffed and sat back inside the Hovercar. Before the window closed, the man looked over and repeated in a drawl, "Miss Jiang, don’t you forget to buy me that coffee."

"Okay," Jiang Zheyu agreed. In any case, Feng Qi had accompanied her through all the home visits today. She really should treat him to coffee.

Interstellar food was generally unpalatable, so inviting him for coffee seemed more polite.

Before the window closed, Feng Qi heard Jiang Zheyu’s reply and his lips curled up slightly.

The Hovercar drove away.

"A Yuan, thank you for coming with me today, too." Jiang Zheyu turned to look at Su Yan beside her.

The myriad stars in the sky seemed to fall into her sincere, beautiful, tea-colored eyes.

Su Yan reached out and stroked her brow, his voice gentle. "You worked hard today. Go get some rest."

As he spoke, he took Jiang Zheyu’s small hand, slowly opened the side door, and walked inside with her.

"Mm," Jiang Zheyu said, following closely behind him. "We really did walk a lot today."

The moment she finished speaking, Su Yan stopped. Then he swept her up into a princess carry and walked with steady steps toward the main hall.

Jiang Zheyu instinctively wrapped her arms around Su Yan’s neck. She paused for a moment, then blinked and said, "Actually, I can still walk."

"Mm, but I wanted to hold you," Su Yan said, looking down at her, his red eyes full of doting affection.

"Alright, then. Not having to walk... I’m more than happy with that." Like a lazy little kitten, Jiang Zheyu settled obediently in his arms.

Dinner was, once again, a simple nutrient solution.

Jiang Zheyu felt like so much was happening that she hadn’t even had a chance to launch her gourmet rescue mission.

She thought for a moment, and an idea suddenly popped into her head.

’I can have someone else write and stream a novel—though I haven’t acted on that yet—so why can’t I have someone else help me execute the gourmet rescue mission?’

Jiang Zheyu thought this was a viable solution. She could purchase recipes from the interstellar section of the System Mall.

The interstellar section had plenty of comprehensive cookbooks, all with recipes matched to the ingredients available in this era.

However, the interstellar people’s culinary exploration was far too simplistic. This was partly because nutrient solutions were more convenient, and partly because the Beastmen were obsessed with their Spiritual Power Values. As a result, food exploration was monotonous; they didn’t understand how to use seasonings or what kind of sparks different food combinations could create.

Today’s purification task was not yet complete.

"A Yuan, let’s do the Spiritual Comfort for today," Jiang Zheyu said, standing at her bedroom door and pulling Su Yan inside.

When Su Yan had walked Jiang Zheyu to her door, he had been about to ask if he could sleep with her tonight. He hadn’t expected his Female Master to be so proactive.

"Yu Yu, let’s try the mating-style Spiritual Comfort, okay?" Su Yan squeezed her hand gently.

"No," Jiang Zheyu refused.

"I heard this method of Spiritual Comfort is more effective. Not just for the Beastification Value, but it has better effects in other areas too." A coaxing smile appeared on Su Yan’s handsome, sharp-featured face. "Don’t you want to try, Yu Yu?"

"You said you’d let me punish you however I wanted tonight," Jiang Zheyu said, looking up at him.

Su Yan remembered and smiled. "My Female Master can punish me however she wishes."

"Your punishment is to go back and sleep by yourself." Jiang Zheyu nodded as she spoke. "After we finish the Spiritual Comfort, you’ll go back to your own room."

"Yu Yu is so cruel," Su Yan’s voice was tinged with helplessness. Despite his words, his eyes were filled with love and adoration as he looked at her.

Jiang Zheyu pulled Su Yan over to sit on the bed and began the Spiritual Comfort.

The pure white Spiritual Domain Space.

The moment Jiang Zheyu entered, she saw only a blur before the giant black snake was already coiled around her. This time, its cool, textured body was pressed completely against her spiritual body. The great snake’s coils moved slowly, as if grinding against her spiritual body, creating a tingling sensation like a faint electric current.

She paused slightly. It felt like an intimate caress between lovers.

’Even though I know this big snake is Su Yan’s spiritual body, it’s still hard to see the person and the spiritual body as one and the same.’

She wasn’t as afraid of the great black snake as she used to be. Perhaps it was because she had purified it so many times, or perhaps it was because she knew it would never hurt her.

The great snake flicked out its forked tongue and licked gently at her spiritual body.

Jiang Zheyu remained composed and began grabbing at the black miasma surrounding the great snake. But several times, the tip of the snake’s tail curled over, seemingly trying to catch her stick-figure hands. In order to purify the black miasma, Jiang Zheyu had to dodge the snake’s tail, feeling that the great spiritual snake was interfering with her work.

Twelve wisps of black miasma.

Despite the snake’s interference, she managed to break her previous record for Purifying Beastification Value.

For some unknown reason, the great snake beside her tightened its coils around her spiritual body. Its tail tip now wrapped firmly around the wrist of Jiang Zheyu’s stick-figure spiritual body.

Jiang Zheyu had finished her task and was about to leave Su Yan’s Spiritual Domain. But the great spiritual snake seemed to sense she was leaving again and coiled around her even tighter.

Just then, Jiang Zheyu discovered that her spirit couldn’t leave Su Yan’s Spiritual Domain. The pure white space felt like a secure prison, firmly trapping her spiritual body. It was as if a higher-level spiritual power was enveloping hers.

Jiang Zheyu’s heart skipped a beat as she realized something. Su Yan’s spiritual power had to be higher than hers, or she wouldn’t be unable to leave.

Only then did she look at the great snake beside her. ’What is it keeping me here for?’

She remembered what Su Yan had said just a while ago about a mating-style Spiritual Comfort. She stiffened. It meant the merging of their spiritual powers. And how did that happen? It meant that in addition to the physical world, their spiritual powers had to merge in the Spiritual Domain, too!

’But I already told Su Yan not today.’

’He wouldn’t force me, right?’

With a somewhat blank face, Jiang Zheyu looked at the great snake, wanting to see what it was planning to do. A spiritual body usually expressed its master’s thoughts and desires more directly.

’No way. Are we really going to merge our spiritual powers?’