If Mo Tizhun had truly been teaching her, how could she have been sailing alone in the sea of knowledge, often unable to find direction?

“Let’s talk about you again.” He turned the focus back to her. “Your affection for him is also quite cold.” Seeing the surprise flashing in the young girl’s clear eyes, he mercilessly pointed out, “From the magma sea until now, you have never once taken the initiative to mention him, never asked about his whereabouts.”

If she were truly Mo Tizhun’s final disciple, how could she not be concerned about her master’s safety? After all, Cliff Mountain was in turmoil when they left the underground palace, and Mo Tizhun was dealing with fire spirits, those innately divine beings that human power could hardly resist.

Feng Miaojun was left speechless by his questions.

This was a fatal flaw, she admitted. Between her and Mo Tizhun, there was only a false master-disciple relationship that couldn’t withstand scrutiny from such discerning eyes. She bit her lip and after a long while, softly said: “Yes, Master determined that my aptitude was too poor for cultivation and was unwilling to take me as a disciple. It was I who leveraged the favor he owed to insist on becoming his disciple. He was unhappy about it, so he wasn’t willing to teach me seriously.”

“Aptitude too poor?” Yun Ya examined her carefully as if seeing her for the first time. “You’ve already formed an internal elixir, how can that be considered poor?” Being able to form an internal elixir meant she was among the fortunate one in ten thousand who could cultivate.

“Originally I didn’t have one. Spiritual energy couldn’t be stored in my body for long and would quickly dissipate.” Feng Miaojun stole a glance at him. “It was later… um, that I formed it.”

Later? Yun Ya caught the implication, his long eyebrows rising higher, his eyes showing increasing interest. Finally, he pointed at himself and asked in great surprise: “Because of me?”

“…Yes.” She was extremely reluctant to admit this in front of him, but the facts couldn’t be denied. “Your spiritual power doesn’t dissipate. I used that as a foundation to form my internal elixir.”

As she spoke each word, Yun Ya listened carefully, pondering. After a while, he clapped his hands and said: “Interesting, extremely interesting!” He beckoned to Feng Miaojun with a smile. “Come here, let me see.”

She didn’t move, her feet seemingly rooted to the ground.

“What are you afraid of?” He gave a light snort. “If I wanted to kill you, would it matter whether you were one zhang away or ten?”

Indeed, it wouldn’t, and he seemed to be in a good mood right now. Feng Miaojun suppressed the urge to run away and slowly approached him when suddenly she heard him say: “Remove your disguise.”

She could only issue a command to her shape-shifting insect, returning her face to its original appearance.

It was indeed this face. Yun Ya still extended his finger to caress her face, his movements as gentle as a lover’s caress. But Feng Miaojun probably didn’t know that just a few days ago, he had faced an identical face, made the identical gesture, and then snapped that person’s neck.

“Shape-shifting insect?” Yun Ya chuckled lightly. “Mo Tizhun spared no expense.”

Being so close, Feng Miaojun seemed to discover for the first time that his eye color was very light, unlike her clear black and white eyes. But when he smiled, they became misty, as if containing smoke and water, particularly alluring.

She steadied herself, not daring to look anymore, allowing him to place his fingers on her wrist pulse.

Then, an extremely familiar power was transmitted.

This was Yun Ya’s spiritual power, which was also hers. Even before they had met, it had been circulating within the dantian of both of them.

Although Yun Ya was mentally prepared, this discovery still amazed him greatly: “How can such a miraculous thing exist in the world!” His spiritual power flowed through Feng Miaojun’s meridians, appearing “naturally familiar” everywhere, not requiring any deliberate guidance from him—it knew where to go on its own.

Yun Ya suddenly increased the spiritual power he was sending.

This surge was like a flood rising, without any warning, no different from launching a spiritual energy attack. He had already explored and knew that although Feng Miaojun’s meridians were stable, they should not be able to withstand such intensity of impact.

However, after his power transferred over, it was like a flood dividing into a hundred streams. Despite being rapid and fierce, it couldn’t raise much of a disturbance.

It was as if it were an extension of his meridians, yet growing in another person’s body.

Feng Miaojun was startled and instinctively tried to withdraw, but he caught her arm with one hand: “Don’t rush.”

His palm was scorching, almost burning her skin.

To Yun Ya, the young girl’s delicate white arm seemed so thin it could snap with a slight twist. He frowned slightly, and even more violent spiritual power rose from his dantian, rushing toward her meridians with five times the force.

Feng Miaojun immediately let out a sharp cry and struggled to break free. This time Yun Ya didn’t hold on, allowing her to retreat several steps in succession.

She felt that the spiritual power surging from Yun Ya was unprecedentedly abundant, like trying to pour all the water from a flood drainage channel into her small water pipe at once—it could literally burst her apart!

This was the enormous gap between her and Yun Ya, and now she finally had a personal experience of it.

Fortunately, he was only testing, and once he discovered she couldn’t handle it, he eased back. But she still felt muscle pain and her meridians ached as if about to split open.

Yun Ya also let out a muffled groan, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.

With such severe injuries, he shouldn’t have exerted his power like this.

Feng Miaojun glared at him angrily, inwardly cursing “serves you right” hundreds of times.

The two faced each other in silence, both resting for quite a while before Yun Ya suddenly spoke: “Why are you afraid of me?”

Feng Miaojun couldn’t help gritting her teeth: “Your every move causes mass destruction. Who wouldn’t fear you?” How many of the lives in Cliff Mountain that weren’t afraid of him were still alive now?

“Even if I hadn’t come, that volcano would have erupted soon. For them, it’s just the difference between dying early or late. Is that so important?” Yun Ya found a comfortable position to lean back. “As for you, your fear of me existed even before we met at Juping Village, isn’t that right?”

This man had already uncovered most of her background, so Feng Miaojun wasn’t surprised that he recalled the scene of their first meeting. No, the courthouse at Juping Village wasn’t their first face-to-face encounter, and now Yun Ya had questioned this.

“You knew who I was very early on, and you also knew about this strange… connection between us.” He paused, searching for the appropriate word. “Isn’t that so?”

Seeing Feng Miaojun again, the sense of something amiss that had lingered in his heart for so long finally found its answer. More than three years ago—the mountain-moving formation carved on the overgrown embankment, Mo Tizhun’s appearance, the case of Old Woman Wang’s death. Seemingly unrelated events, yet there was a main thread connecting them all.

That thread was Feng Miaojun’s existence.

His momentary oversight had allowed her to slip through his fingers. Yet fate was so wondrous that it had once again delivered her into his presence. This time, how should he deal with her?

The corner of his mouth curved slightly, but the atmosphere in the cave became murderous. If she spoke another word of falsehood, she wouldn’t see tomorrow’s sunrise. Regarding his killing intent, Feng Miaojun had the precise instincts of a wild animal. At this moment, she dared not deceive him anymore and could only honestly say: “Before that, I had already seen you.”