My Host Only Marries the Strong

Academy Palace, Insight Academy Secret Realm.

The narrow space was saturated with spiritual liquid. An orb submerged in the water glowed faintly, revealing two round black eyes.

Echo observed her surroundings quietly. Seraphine was deep in cultivation, shrouded by mist—what a diligent cultivator!

Her golden thumbs-up icon lit up, surrounded by countless little golden stars twinkling in various shades.

“Whoosh!”

Her matchstick arms popped out as she rummaged through her database, pulling out a bundle of data that she shaped into a small pack to carry on her back. She floated up and began circling around Seraphine.

Seraphine, Seraphine, I’m back!

Echo flew around while thinking silently, pulling out a little flower basket from her data storage and happily scattering flowers.

The colorful data petals dissolved into light before they could hit the ground, but she enjoyed herself for a while before floating over to face Seraphine.

The red flower Echo had picked from the mountains and given to her earlier still bloomed brilliantly by her ear.

The petals were drenched in spiritual liquid, growing even more vivid red from the spiritual energy’s nourishment—so red they looked ready to burst with crimson juice at the slightest touch.

A beautiful flower for a beautiful woman. The woman sat with her eyes closed, quiet and serene. Her dark lashes were hung with water droplets, her face marked with traces of moisture.

The dense spiritual energy in the air condensed on her porcelain-white skin, forming droplets that slowly rolled down her delicate curves, passing her pale pink lips and hanging from the tip of her smooth chin.

Echo’s black eye-circles followed the water droplet’s arc, lingering briefly on Seraphine’s pink lips before returning to track the droplet.

Time stretched in that moment. The transparent spiritual liquid was like morning dew gathering on flower petals, or raindrops clinging to fresh leaves after a downpour.

Echo’s black eye-circles stared fixedly at the liquid, watching gravity pull it into a teardrop shape, watching it fall silently with a soft “plop” onto Seraphine’s rising and falling chest, soaking into the fabric.

Seraphine had been cultivating here day and night. Besides the spiritual energy thousands of times denser than the outside world, the spirit heart had been tirelessly providing additional spiritual power.

Her clothes had long since been soaked through, so much so that the slightly curved areas dripped liquid like cave stalactites.

Her damp clothes wrapped around her slender body, clinging tightly to her skin. Where her robes overlapped, in places not covered by her outer garment, her soaked undergarments clung to her body almost transparently, the curves of her collarbones clearly visible.

Echo had seen her like this many times—as if she’d just fallen into water.

In the past, her data cluster would spend one thousandth of a second thinking: From both biological and anthropological perspectives, Seraphine is an exquisite beauty with a wonderful figure.

But now, that thousandth of a second expanded to encompass her entire thought process, the praise “Seraphine has such a great body” echoing in every corner of her code.

If Echo had to describe it from a systems science perspective: Seraphine was truly the most beautiful human in the world!

Little flowers sprouted above Echo’s head as her black eye-circles continued downward, landing on the pool of spiritual liquid gathered in her robes at her abdomen.

Spiritual liquid, you really are very…… liquid.

Echo looked around, her mind inexplicably flooded with various things. The knowledge stored in her database rushed from ancient times to the future in an instant, then back from the future to ancient times, returning to just ten minutes ago when she’d personally scanned through that story book.

Words like “moonlit romance” and “glistening with fragrant sweat” appeared clearly, along with vivid illustrations that pushed aside the data in her “brain,” making phrases like “curtains sway, flowers tremble, white fingers grip new robes” and “passion flows endlessly, winding paths disturbed by visitors” crowd into her data cluster.

As a medical cultivator, Yu Xuefei had an extremely thorough understanding of human anatomy, allowing her to write such sensually vivid descriptions.

Though these words were child’s play compared to many materials Echo’d encountered before, they made her feel…… strange.

For the first time, she felt strange.

Something deep within her data cluster surged up, constructing a virtual heart that began beating rapidly in this moment, giving this temperature-less system a sensation of overheating.

Beneath the blossoms and moonlight, the vision of a woman with finely arched brows, half-slipped robes, and black hair spilling over her shoulders suddenly shifted—her alluring silhouette replaced by the sharp, living face of a real person.

With eyes tinged in mockery and reproach, she cast a downward glance, pale fingers hooking away the clinging wet fabric, leaving her skin bare to the embrace of moonlight.

In that dazzling pink-white radiance, she lowered her gaze and smiled softly, calling out: “Echo”

“……”

Oh my.

Echo thought: Oh my!

Oh my goodness!

What is the system thinking?

What am I thinking about?!

Her round black eye-circles spun out of control—one left, one right, one up, one down.

Her silver-white system body suddenly sprouted a bit of brilliant gold, like a koi fish quietly surfacing in a lake, opening and closing its mouth, kissing the lake’s surface and creating gentle ripples.

She held up her matchstick arms, pressing them to her face just as Seraphine opened her eyes without Echo’s notice.

The misty fog blurred Seraphine’s vision. She frowned slightly, her voice hoarse and deep from not speaking to anyone for so long: “Come here.”

Echo floated over slowly, very slowly, still covering her spherical face.

“?” Seraphine wiped the spiritual liquid from her face, looking at Echo’s “bizarre” appearance with surprise. “What’s wrong with you?”

Echo, topped with shy little bubbles, countered with feigned composure: “What’s wrong with me?”

“……” Seraphine wore an expression that was beyond description. “You only have one pair of eyes, and you’re going to torture them like this?”

Echo struggled to straighten her eyes, staring directly at Seraphine’s—mouth. Seraphine’s lips are so pink! Echo praised emphatically in her mind.

Seraphine continued: “Why did you turn yellow?”

“!!!”

Three large exclamation points popped up in the bubbles above Echo’s head as her black eye-circles widened. She said guiltily: “I am a silver system.”

The brilliant gold floating on her body quickly retreated into her data cluster, curling up tightly and refusing to come out.

“……Fine, you’re a silver system.” Seraphine said casually, then asked: “What happened these past few days? Tell me—what’s wrong with you now?” She asked helplessly.

Echo saw shocked emojis appearing in the bubbles above her head, pointing directly at Seraphine.

Echo announced: “Sexual desire is a basic instinct of biological organisms, the foundation of reproduction, the driving force of genetic inheritance.”

Seraphine: “……?”

Echo continued: “Systems are data lifeforms born from multidimensional universal energy. We have no reproductive needs, so systems don’t have sexual desire. Echo is not a perverted system.”

Seraphine: “??”

You’re not a perverted system, you’re what—wait.

Seraphine’s head buzzed as she realized what Echo meant.

“What nonsense are you spouting!” Seraphine’s face flushed red as she suddenly flicked Echo away with her finger, hissing angrily: “I spend such precious time in this secret realm talking with you, and this is what you have to say?”

Echo went “piu!” as she flew away, making “ouch” sounds in the mist. That gentle voice drifted softly through the fog: “Sorry, Seraphine. I think some of my modules loaded incorrectly.”

She raised her matchstick arms and tapped herself with a “pat pat,” slowly floating back.

“I’m better now!” She held up her matchstick arms with flowers sprouting above her head, declaring proudly.

Seraphine narrowed her eyes, looking at Echo suspiciously before asking in a low voice: “What exactly happened to you these past few days?”

Could someone have corrupted Echo? An image of Meng Xiangfei’s seductive smile instantly flashed through Seraphine’s mind, making her face darken as she asked: “The letters you wrote me……”

She wanted to ask why Echo had written—those kinds of things—to her, but while Echo dared to write them, her sense of propriety prevented her from speaking such bold words aloud. She could only clear her throat and glare at Echo through the spiritual mist.

Echo was reflecting again, thinking this really was a data error. She’d been far too presumptuous—how could she have misunderstood Seraphine’s meaning? A silver system is a silver system! Of course she was a silver system.

Silver system!

The silver system floated over, dropping both hands to fold them in front of her spherical body, saying full of remorse: “I was wrong, though I’m not entirely sure why this happened.”

She said guiltily: “Maybe I was influenced by other factors. Before coming here, I read the novel Yu Xuefei gave me.”

Echo really was an unsteady little system, actually being influenced by human fiction. The power of written words truly was enormous! She sighed repeatedly.

The image of Meng Xiangfei’s malicious face in Seraphine’s mind immediately transformed into Yu Xuefei’s gentle, smiling countenance. Seraphine raised an eyebrow and extended her palm.

Echo respectfully offered up the novel Yu Xuefei had given her.

Before Seraphine even looked at the contents, just the three characters “Sword Seeks Phoenix” on the cover made her freeze.

And Echo had to float down and tap the title with her matchstick arms, saying in fluctuating tones: “Humans really are creatures full of imagination and creativity!”

“……” Seraphine’s emotions grew complex. Setting aside who the story’s protagonists might be based on, this dense system had actually gotten…… aroused…… from reading a romance novel?

Was “aroused” the right word to use? When she’d previously asked Echo to acquire dual cultivation manuals, Echo seriously quoted something about food and sex being natural desires, telling her not to be shy.

Now, with the same “food and sex” reference, Echo was explaining that she was a pure and innocent little system?

“Oh.” Seraphine’s tone slowly rose, carrying some meaningful undertones. Her throat rolled as she held the novel, asking the bright, floating system orb: “Tell me.”

“Human intimacy and desire—beyond instinct, what is your view?” Her voice was husky, her black eyes half-hidden by spiritual mist as her tender gaze fell upon Echo.

“And don’t you dare say something idiotic like, ‘I see it with my eyes.’”

Ah…… if it were her, Echo stared straight at Seraphine, not even needing time to think because she’d already thought about it.

Echo said straightforwardly: “If it were me, I would conscientiously fulfill my partner’s duties, satisfy my partner’s needs, achieve my partner’s happiness. I have extensive theoretical knowledge and would work hard through practice to relieve my partner’s—”

“Shut up!” Seraphine, who’d asked the question first, blushed and suddenly grabbed Echo, blocking her words.

Echo’s matchstick arms poked out from Seraphine’s palm, held high as she shouted: “Sexual desire!”

“……”

Seraphine’s palm grew hot, as if she weren’t holding a cool system orb but a red-hot iron block. She hastily threw Echo away, scolding: “Why are you being so loud!”

“There’s no one else here, please don’t be shy, Seraphine. Even if there were people, it wouldn’t matter. We’re just exploring human desires—this is friendly communication.” Echo floated back, saying calmly. “Of course, it’s only linguistic exploration and communication.”

Seraphine: “……”

Her fingers trembled as the palm that had held Echo grew even hotter.

She shot Echo a sideways glance and sneered coldly: “You don’t even have sexual desire, yet you want to satisfy your partner’s needs?”

Echo raised her matchstick arms and waved them, correcting her words: “Systems don’t have sexual desire, but I have a human body.”

Right—relying on having a human body, Echo even dared to ask her about children. Seraphine paused, her earlobes flushing red as she glanced at Echo and said quietly: “When are you coming back?”

When Echo returned, she’d interrogate her thoroughly.

Were they moving on to other topics? Echo somewhat regretfully pulled the letter from her inventory and handed it to Seraphine, crying emojis appearing in the bubbles above her head.

“Seraphine, I let a demon cultivator escape. I failed to eliminate the threat completely. I’m very disappointed in myself.”