The art of bootlicking the right way

Under the 'Statistics' section in the panel, there was a green-colored bar that showed as 43% full. Yang Jingshen had seen this earlier and after poking around for a bit, realized that this was an indicator of his soul power– or so he thought.

57% might look like a lot at first glance, but it was only a little over a half, right? Yang Jingshen was pretty sure that he would be able to quickly fill this gap.

But, now this damned soul guardian was saying that this remaining 57% only indicated the very first stage of his soul repairing process! What the fuck man? And it even had the audacity to tell him that it didn't know how many more similar stages he would have to go through before his soul is considered whole and healthy.

'No– I really don't want this anymore!' He doesn't want, ok? Who could bear this type of torture!?

"You hear me? I don't want to do it anymore! Go ahead and obliterate my soul. Here… I'm giving you permission." Yang Jingshen decided to give up on this useless life after all. He suffered this and that and even had to live like a woman... For what exactly!? To slave away until his death!?# `⦀′

The soul guardian who decided to play dead: "..."

"Hey! Did you hear me?" # `⟱′

The soul guardian was speechless. It really didn't want to deal with this temperamental human any longer. How can matters relating to souls be that easy? This human seems to think that it was something as easy as taking a walk in the park. If things were that facile, why the need for so many restrictions and regulations?

'His mentality is becoming more unstable.' It observed and finally decided to soothe the other into compromising. "Actually, collecting soul coins is not that difficult."

"Hah!? You think I'm a fool? During these three months, I only collected five… FIVE! You hear me? And how long do you think it'll take for me to collect a hundred? And what about the rest? In which moon year can I do that, eh? EH!??"

"That's because that modeling job was a very small-scale work without much recognition. If your future works are highly recognized and manage to gain you more popularity, you might receive a lot more soul coins than this mere handful."

Yang Jingshen didn't say anything after this and stayed silent as he thought further on this matter. Seeing that his previously chaotic mind was gradually showing signs of calming down, the soul guardian decided to strike while the iron was still hot. "If you increase the satisfaction value, the soul coins you get might increase as well."

"Heh!"

"... *Cough* Anyway, in the future, you might discover even more chances to receive more soul coins. Also, you are quite talented, so I'm sure that you'll be able to easily gather a hundred coins within the next two years."

"Stop trying to kiss up… I won't be hoodwinked by you again." But Yang Jingshen didn't sound as displeased as before, and the soul guardian fell into momentary speechlessness realizing that the other's mind was totally calm by now. TAT

This human– he was quite a narcissist, right? So, the only thing it had to do was praise the other for a bit and everything would be fine?

'...' What kind of personality was this? Then should it praise this person a bit more? The soul guardian that had been tormented by Yang Jingshen's erratic behavior all this time felt like it had finally gotten a glimpse into the great mysteries of much-coveted enlightenment. O^O

"Actually, once your soul is fully repaired up to this first stage, even your brain capacity might increase and your intelligence might also recover a lot– even if not to the previous level as in your last life."

"Hah?? I knew it– no wonder I felt so stupid and my head worked so slow. So it was because of the damage to the soul? And not because Feng Xi hit her head or something?"

"Of course…" The soul guardian demurely concurred. "You originally had a high level of IQ, even for a human. This current situation is only because of the extensive damage to your soul." Look at it praising so subtly and exquisitely. The soul guardian felt quite pleased with itself. If one needed to learn how to kiss up to another, they should learn from it ah!

Hmmmmmmmmmm? But why does it feel that the more it kept dishing up adoring words, the easier they came out of its mouth?

"It wasn't because Feng Xi was naturally stupid, to begin with?" Yang Jingshen sounded just the tiniest bit hopeful when asking this next question that our poor guardian honestly didn't know what to say for a moment. How should it reply to this?

In the end, after much thinking, it still honestly replied, "No."

"Hmph!" ⎺⩘⎺o

The soul guardian who was still dissed after praising so much: "..." This lordliness– how in the universe could it exactly please this human and not let him descend into some arbitrary madness?

"On that matter– what's with this woman Feng Xi? Why does it look like she can hear and see everything I say and do? Don't tell me that she's attached to my back like some sort of unclean ghost?" if Yang Jingshen had his real body at this point, he'd have shuddered unconsciously. Even thinking about this was disgusting.

He had never been particularly fearful nor curious of the supernatural -more like he never used to believe they existed in the first place- but no matter what, the idea of some ghostly creature clinging to his back didn't sit well with him.

But the soul guardian hastily explained to him that it wasn't the case. Apparently, the soul of Feng Xi was sort of like attached to his own soul yet was not at the same time. Due to the agreement he had with her regarding him using her body, this was inevitable. And no– she was a soul, not a ghost! Those were the words of the guardian itself.

But it didn't mean that Feng Xi could see and perceive each and every single one of his actions. But more like, she could perceive things that were only related to her and the mission goals. In other words, she can't peek at him taking a dump or a piss! But most importantly -mark him, this was the most important point- this girl can't apparently peek inside his mind.

It was only after listening to this clarification that Yang Jingshen finally felt like a huge weight was removed from his shoulders. That annoyingly disgusting feeling of having a peeping Tom peering at each and every single one of his actions also disappeared with it.

Not to mention, as a man, he couldn't bear the idea of having a young and beautiful girl -no matter how annoying- witnessing his embarrassing moments and his shameful thoughts. Hehe…

Feng Xi who felt like she was attacked out of nowhere: "..." This uncle– she really can't bear the thought of him using her body. He's such a disgusting pervert! _(:϶ ⦣ ∠)_

The soul guardian who silently witnessed it all: "..." It will give up. There's no curing this person. QWQ

#####

A/N:

Heya peeps,

So, finally reached 50 chapters, and even I'm surprised that I managed to persevere until this moment. Thanks again for staying with me until now. *heart*

I kinda feel like 50 chapters are sort of like a milestone for this book– and let's not forget that it's my first successful work as well. So, to celebrate, I decided to release one more chapter today. Ehehe... ≥∇≤

The extra chapter will be released three hours after releasing this one, so wait a bit patiently until then.

It's not much, but hope you guys enjoy it...

Have a fun read!