"What do you think I should do then?" Lucas felt that Jas was hinting at sothing.
Jas lowered his voice. "The Everleigh family has a secret cultivation technique. Due to fears of provoking envy, no one has practiced it for a long ti. If you follow this technique, your progress will be twice as fast. In five years, you can achieve what others take ten years to accomplish."
"Thank you." Lucas nodded obediently.
Jas was very pleased with Lucas’s compliance and imdiately handed him the booklet containing the technique.
"Rember, you must never let anyone see this, not even our own family mbers." After repeated warnings, Jas finally let it go and waved for Lucas to go rest.
After leaving the study, the butler was already waiting outside and led Lucas to a bedroom deep on the second floor.
Lucas entered and saw that everything had already been arranged. There was a spacious soft bed, an exquisite wardrobe, and a solid wood desk equipped with the latest computer and phone. Additionally, it ca with a complete bathroom and toilet.
Lucas took off his old clothes, stepped into the shower, and then soaked in a bathtub large enough to fit five or six people.
While soaking, he summoned the System.
"System, is there anything wrong with the technique Jas gave ?"
"The System cannot answer that question." Rembering that the System couldn’t answer subjective, abstract, or vague questions, Lucas rephrased his question.
"System, does the technique Jas gave have any negative effects?"
"The System cannot answer."
"System, if I practice the technique Jas gave , will it have any negative effects on ?"
"Yes." Finally getting an answer, Lucas smiled in relief.
"What negative effects?"
"Lifespan halved." Lucas froze, and after processing this, he imdiately cursed Jas in his mind.
From the start, he had doubted how such an exceptional technique could go unpracticed for such a vague reason as "fear of provoking envy." Unless there was a major downside.
Lifespan halved... Lucas pondered for a while before asking, "System, how long can I live?"
"The System cannot answer."
"Excluding accidental factors and maintaining my current lifestyle, how long can I live?"
"Seventy eight years."
Seventy eight? Halved would be thirty nine? No, too short...
"System, can I buy lifespan extending items in the store?"
"Yes." Since Lucas hadn’t ford any blood contracts yet, the store remained locked, so he didn’t know the specifics.
"System, what’s the maximum lifespan I can buy?"
"Unlimited." Lucas was satisfied.
Since he could rely on the store to extend his life, the downside of a halved lifespan beca negligible.
After finishing his bath, though it was very late, Lucas was too excited to sleep.
He took out the technique and practiced it overnight, only falling asleep in the early hours of the morning.
When he woke up the next day, it was almost ten o’clock. Lucas hurriedly washed up, picked a random set of expensive new clothes from the wardrobe, and opened the door to head downstairs for sothing to eat.
At that mont, the door to the opposite room opened at the sa ti.
"Sister, good morning."
Watching Sarah step out of the room across from him, Lucas instinctively greeted her, then found his gaze utterly unable to leave this ice cold beauty.
Today, Sarah was still dressed entirely in black. The buttons of her shirt were fastened all the way up to her throat, her full breasts straining against the tight fabric. Her lower half was clad in black pants, the rounded curve of her hips pressing snugly against the firm material, making Lucas’s hands itch with desire.
"What are you looking at?" Noticing Lucas’s predatory gaze, Sarah snapped in a low voice.
Snapping out of his daze, Lucas finally retracted his gaze and resud a normal expression. "Isn’t it normal for a younger brother to look at his distant older sister?"
"Don’t call sister. We dont have blood relationship"
The cold beauty’s tone grew even frostier, sending a shiver down Lucas’s spine despite the late sumr heat of mid August.
"I don’t care how others see you. I will never acknowledge you as my relative."
From Sarah’s perspective, it was understandable. Her real brother had just died, and now her father had brought ho an unknown man. It was hard to accept.
Lucas had never truly considered himself the real "Lucas," so he didn’t take the cold beauty’s hostility to heart.
"If not as a brother, then as a lover, how about that?" Lucas smirked, casually teasing her.
But the mont those words left his mouth, Sarah’s face suddenly turned deathly pale. In the next instant, she swung her palm out, striking Lucas squarely in the chest.
Lucas felt as if he had been hit by that truck all over again. A sharp pain erupted through his body before the trendous force sent him flying backward. He crashed into the wall before collapsing onto the floor.
His internal organs felt like they had been twisted together. A hot surge rushed up his throat, and he violently spat out a mouthful of blood.
Seeing Lucas get sent flying and vomit blood, Sarah, who had frozen in shock, finally snapped back to reality.
She hurried back to her room, rummaged for a pill, then rushed to Lucas’s side and forced it into his mouth, making him swallow it.
"This is a healing pill. We sotis use it during sparring."
Sarah said quietly, "Take this, regulate your breathing, and you’ll be fine in a few hours."
Without waiting for Lucas’s response, she stood up and quickly walked away.
Lucas had no ti to dwell on anything else. He imdiately followed Sarah’s instructions and regulated his breathing. Soon, the pain gradually faded.
"Fuck! Hits out of nowhere, what the hell is wrong with her?" Lucas cursed under his breath, feeling puzzled.
Sarah didn’t seem like the type to lash out violently and then regret it afterward. If she really wanted to hit him, she would have done it long ago, not waited until now.
Lucas stood up, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, went downstairs to have the Everleigh family maid prepare so food, then searched everywhere for Sarah to demand an explanation. However, the butler inford him that Sarah had already left the house in a hurry.
Hit and run? As Lucas pondered this, he returned to his room and stared at Sarah’s door across the hallway. Suddenly, an idea struck him.
"System, can nstrual blood be used to form a contract?" Obtaining soone’s blood through non violent ans wasn’t easy, and Lucas hadn’t thought of a good thod before.
But now, inspiration struck: wasn’t nstrual blood also blood?
"It can."
Lucas was delighted, but the System wasn’t finished. "However, female cultivators of the third rank and above can suppress their nstrual cycles through breathing techniques."
That was a thing? Lucas asked unwillingly, "What rank is Sarah right now?"
"Fourth rank."
"What about Uta?"
"Sixth rank."
"What about Evelyn and Lily?"
"Third rank. Third rank."
So even those twin girls wouldn’t have nstrual blood.
But Lucas refused to give up. He glanced around to confirm no one was nearby, then quietly pushed open Sarah’s door and slipped inside.
Sarah’s room had the exact sa layout as his, but it carried a faint, elusive fragrance.
Lucas rummaged through the drawers, the cabinets, even the trash can, but found nothing useful.
Finally, Lucas took a deep breath and opened the laptop on the desk.
Unsurprisingly, the screen required a password to unlock.
Lucas decided to try his luck. "System, what’s Sarah’s computer password?"
"0327."
It actually knew? Lucas was thrilled. He entered the password, and the screen unlocked, but instead of the desktop, a diary software interface appeared. Due to prolonged inactivity, it was also locked.
This didn’t stump Lucas. He asked the System for the password, unlocked it, and then greedily devoured the girl’s diary entries.
The diary spanned about three years, with over a hundred entries, so long, so short.
Using the speed reading skills he had honed from novels in his past life, Lucas finished the entire diary in just half an hour.
"Fuck!" After reading it, Lucas couldn’t help but curse aloud.
But he wasn’t cursing at anyone in particular, just expressing his shock: Sarah was actually a brothercon!
And not just the ordinary kind who liked clinging to her brother, but the genuine, romantic kind who was truly in love with her own brother!
No wonder that simple teasing had triggered Sarah’s violent outburst earlier. Lucas finally understood the reason, as well as why Sarah’s hatred for him ran so deep.
It was because Lucas had not only replaced her real brother but also the man she secretly loved.
"Brother, younger brother, is there really that much of a difference?"
Lucas grinned. "Let take your brother’s place and love you properly, my dear sister!"
That night, Sarah didn’t return ho until after nine.
Lucas had been waiting behind his door the entire ti. The mont he heard movent across the hall, he imdiately opened his door, dashed over, and took advantage of Sarah’s montary surprise to barge into her room.
"Who said you could co in? Get out!" Sarah hissed.
Lucas said calmly, "I have sothing to say to you."
Sarah replied coldly, "Even though I accidentally hurt you, it was because you spoke out of line first. I won’t apologize to you."
"Is that so?"
Lucas cleared his throat and began reciting excerpts from Sarah’s diary with dramatic flair. "Brother, why are your eyes so gentle, yet my heart aches so much? If only you weren’t so kind to , perhaps I wouldn’t have fallen in love with you..."
"You... what are you saying?!" The ice beauty’s expression finally cracked.
"I’m reciting your diary."
For a mont, Sarah raised her hand as if to strike again, but she seed to restrain herself. "How... how did you know my password?"
"Is that important?"
Lucas said, "What matters is that I’ve already backed up your entire diary and hidden it sowhere safe."
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