“It’s… it’s dawn…” Li Fei hardly knew what she was saying. “Someone could come in at any moment!”
Lei Xiuyuan leaned over her, effortlessly turning her to face him. Once again, Li Fei was firmly kissed by him. Not yet satisfied, his hand slipped through the opening of her undergarment, once more caressing her bare skin.
Li Fei remembered twisting about frantically, escaping one touch only to be caught by another. To make matters worse, she was particularly ticklish. As the passion subsided slightly, his hand on her body became unbearably ticklish, making her laugh until tears nearly came to her eyes.
Lei Xiuyuan lightly pinched her waist, causing her to cry out in surprise and repeatedly try to escape. Suddenly, her chest was exposed as her undergarment fell open, and his palm rested on her breast.
Li Fei abruptly curled her body, turning her back to him, trying hard to pull his hand away, but it wouldn’t budge. He didn’t move, just pressed there, as if he were holding her heart, feeling like a small pigeon beating fiercely in his palm.
“Xiuyuan…” her voice trembled slightly as she tried to sound composed, “Let go.”
Lei Xiuyuan gently bit down on the soft undergarment draped over her shoulder, trailing kisses from behind her ear to her neck. His other hand cupped her chin, turning her face towards him. Her face was flushed red, a mix of embarrassment, distress, pleading, and shyness. He breathed on her face: “I won’t.”
Li Fei, embarrassed and angry, kicked at him hard with her foot. His hand moved slightly, his fingertips caressing, his breathing becoming heavy. Lei Xiuyuan suddenly straightened her curled body, propping himself up to look down at her exposed figure.
His pitch-black eyes seemed to contain endless golden light. Li Fei, originally overwhelmed with shame, suddenly noticed the golden light in his eyes and a faint golden glow seeming to emanate from his skin. She couldn’t help but cup his face in her hands, exclaiming, “What’s happening to you?”
Lei Xiuyuan was stunned for a moment, seemingly finally realizing something was amiss. He looked down at his own hands, layers of dim and bright golden light bursting from his skin, flickering with his breath. His brows furrowed tightly, as if confused yet enlightened, frozen in place for a moment.
Li Fei quickly gathered her clothes, disregarding everything else, and immediately checked his meridians. To her surprise, the spiritual energy in his body rejected her probing, sharply pushing her spiritual energy away. Li Fei was shocked and saw Lei Xiuyuan slowly sit up straight, then cross his legs, beginning to concentrate on circulating his spiritual energy.
She was even more astonished, quietly getting off the bed and lowering the heavy curtains for him. Through the layers of curtains, she could still see the brilliant golden light flickering on his body. Was this some kind of sudden breakthrough? Actually… actually at such an awkward moment… Li Fei felt extremely embarrassed. She subconsciously fastened all her clothes tightly, wrapping herself up completely. Suddenly, she heard Ri Yan’s old, hoarse voice: “Hmph, is the lovemaking over?”
Li Fei felt both embarrassed and annoyed: “You, you, you… have you been awake the whole time…”
Ri Yan’s enormous body appeared in the room. He turned his head away disdainfully: “I’ve been awake for a while! What are you embarrassed about? Who would want to watch your boring lovemaking!”
Li Fei threw a punch at his intangible body. Ri Yan slowly sat down on the ground, his eerie green eyes fixed on the golden-glowing young man inside the curtains. He said in a low voice: “Strange indeed, even I have never seen anything like this before.”
“What’s happening to him?” Li Fei asked softly.
Ri Yan, for once, shook his head: “I don’t know, it’s my first time seeing this. This kid’s body was once full of internal injuries. Yesterday, you healed them all at once. I guess it might take some time to digest. Don’t make a fuss, just let him continue.”
Li Fei sat by Ri Yan’s feet. After a long while, she suddenly said softly: “Ri Yan, will Xiuyuan be alright?”
The fox snorted: “If something like this could harm him, do you think he’s made of mud?”
“…Is that supposed to comfort me?”
“He’ll die tomorrow! Are you satisfied now?”
Li Fei couldn’t help but smile bitterly. An awkward fox, an awkward Lei Xiuyuan… she seemed to always be surrounded by these awkward people, truly leaving her at a loss for words.
Lei Xiuyuan remained in this meditative state for two days. At first, Hu Jiaping came looking for him to participate in the unfinished competition. Later, as news spread, it eventually alarmed Elder Guangwei and the other elders. Because Lei Xiuyuan’s deep meditation was so peculiar and mysterious, the elders didn’t dare to move him. Li Fei’s bedroom suddenly became a temporary gathering place for the elders, with people coming to check on him every day.
Early on the third morning, Li Fei opened her room door to see Elder Guangwei still sitting on the edge of the bed. Lei Xiuyuan was in deep meditation, and the elder was also meditating, one hand constantly on Lei Xiuyuan’s pulse, ready to respond immediately if anything went wrong.
This immortal’s care and attention to Lei Xiuyuan was truly meticulous. Li Fei quietly placed breakfast and tea on the table, bowed, and was about to leave when Elder Guangwei suddenly said gently: “It was you who healed his injuries, wasn’t it?”
The day before, he had noticed that Lei Xiuyuan had surpassed his potential, and his body must have suffered severe damage. However, in these few days, not only had his injuries healed, but his spiritual energy was even more vibrant and abundant than before, which was an unexpected delight.
Li Fei immediately bowed and answered yes. The Jade Snow Technique was taught to her by Ri Yan. This fox had been coming out every day recently, but never attending to his duties. When she asked him to teach her more immortal techniques, he stubbornly refused, being incredibly stingy.
Elder Guangwei carefully observed her and noticed that her cultivation had already faintly reached the third bottleneck, yet the spiritual energy around her body remained calm and undisturbed. This young girl was also quite strange. She appeared to have ordinary talent, yet her cultivation increased so quietly and rapidly. He couldn’t help but admire Chongyi’s keen eye for talent. If it weren’t for Lei Xiuyuan’s dazzling genius on one side, she would surely be the one shining brightly.
Elder Guangwei suddenly felt somewhat emotional and sighed softly. Initially, none of them had high hopes for this young couple. Lei Xiuyuan was a half-genius, while Jiang Li Fei had ordinary talent. Even if they became Dao companions in the future, they wouldn’t be on the same level, and their relationship couldn’t last long. Who would have thought that she would steadily keep up behind him and that Lei Xiuyuan, with his strong personality, would be so attached to her? It was hard to say who was chasing whom, who was waiting for whom. One was proud and unyielding, the other gentle and tenacious. Given time, they would surely become a beautiful story in the cultivation world. To think that not a single child in their grand and famous sect could see people as well as Lei Xiuyuan, was truly embarrassing.
“This child Xiuyuan has an extremely hard temperament, growing stronger when faced with challenges, unyielding to both soft and hard approaches. In the future, you’ll need to take good care of him.”
After saying this, Elder Guangwei closed his eyes and focused his mind again, leaving a confused Li Fei standing there in a daze. What did he mean just now? Was it an elder’s acknowledgment of their relationship?
Lei Xiuyuan woke up on the morning of the fourth day. Elder Guangwei had to judge today’s competition and left early. Li Fei quietly pushed open the door to see Hu Jiaping half-asleep on the ground, and surprisingly, Ri Yan, who had been running around everywhere, was also in the room, his gaze fixed intently on Lei Xiuyuan.
“You came so early?” Li Fei lowered her voice to ask, but suddenly heard Lei Xiuyuan’s cool voice from behind: “Who are you talking to?”
Li Fei jumped in surprise and quickly turned around to see Lei Xiuyuan sitting on the edge of the bed. He had only half-dressed in his undergarments and was looking at her with a half-smile.
He’s awake! Li Fei rushed over to examine him up and down while releasing her spiritual energy to probe his meridians. This time, no spiritual energy pushed her away, and she successfully examined him, finding nothing wrong.
“How do you feel now?” Li Fei looked up at him and asked softly.
Lei Xiuyuan pinched her cheek and smiled faintly, “I had a very long dream and finally woke up.”
A dream? Wasn’t he meditating? Just as Li Fei was about to speak, Hu Jiaping behind them had already been awakened by their conversation. He walked over yawning, patted Lei Xiuyuan’s shoulder, and sighed: “Good kid, it’s all because of you that I had to see my master. Now I can’t leave.”
He had originally planned to leave immediately after the competition, but Lei Xiuyuan’s sudden condition forced him, as a senior brother, to stay behind.
“You can leave now,” Lei Xiuyuan looked towards the window. “We’ll keep it a secret for you.”
“You just want to get rid of me, right?” Hu Jiaping snorted with a smile. “You’re not big, but you have too many tricks. Since you’re awake, let’s go quickly! The elders are about to give out rewards soon.”
The Dueling Tournament was nearing its end. Because Lei Xiuyuan couldn’t participate in the second day’s competition, it benefited those disciples who were supposed to compete with him, winning without a fight. The spectating disciples could only express their dissatisfaction with boos.
The top two hundred from the six groups were quickly determined. This year, except for Qin Yangling who was suddenly forced down from the cloud sea, no ordinary disciple could rank in the top two hundred. As for Senior Brother Qin, he was taken away temporarily from Wuyue Palace by Elder Zhengxu the next day. It was said that the four sect leaders, who usually didn’t interfere in small matters of the sect, had especially talked with Elder Zhengxu. Qin Yangling and Lei Xiuyuan had thoroughly become enemies, and they certainly couldn’t coexist peacefully. It was better to have an elder take one of them away first, letting them cool down separately.
The preference of the four sect leaders was obvious: strength prevailed over all. Qin Yangling, who was inferior in skill, naturally had to be temporarily shelved. This was the iron law of the cultivation world.
When Li Fei and Lei Xiuyuan arrived at the arena below the cloud sea, they saw hundreds of elders gathered in the huge arena, with ten disciples standing respectfully opposite them. It looked like the top ten from the third bottleneck group, and now it was time for the elders to give them rewards.
Suddenly, a not-too-large wooden table appeared in the arena. Spiritual energy flowed freely above the table, with ten thumb-sized jade bottles floating above it, containing unknown spiritual pills or medicines. Elder Dongyang smiled and said, “Last time when we had joint trials with the Sea Sect, Wuyue Palace received two demon cherry fruits. After bringing them back, we entrusted Immortal Dongyun to refine them into ten demon cherry spirit pills. This reward can’t be considered stingy by the elders, right?”
With a wave of his long sleeve, the ten small jade bottles fell into the hands of the ten disciples. Some disciples couldn’t resist pulling out the stoppers to take a light sniff, and a sweet, intoxicating fragrance wafted up. They all knew the effects of the demon cherry fruit, and Immortal Dongyun was a famous old immortal in Wuyue Palace, surpassing the elders and extremely skilled in pill refining. The demon cherry spirit pills must be miraculous medicines that could regrow flesh on bare bones and bring the dead back to life.
This reward was not just generous, it was extremely lavish. The ten disciples immediately bowed in gratitude, paying their respects before retreating. Elder Guangwei suddenly stepped forward and said, “Xiuyuan, come up. Your master has something to give you.”
He took out an empty sword hilt from his sleeve. It was as pale as jade, smooth and lustrous all over, appearing to be made of jade stone. The disciples were puzzled by this empty sword hilt, but Elder Dongyang beside him exclaimed in surprise, “Guangwei, you’re willing to give this away?”
Elder Guangwei smiled and said, “I haven’t used this thing for a long time. What’s the use of keeping it? Xiuyuan is a section of tailbone from the divine beast White Tiger. In the past, when one of Wuyue Palace’s sect leaders battled fiercely with the White Tiger, they cut off its tail and refined it. The White Tiger is born from the earth’s mental and spiritual energy. Once you hold it, you’ll naturally know its wonderful uses.”
Lei Xiuyuan accepted it with both hands. As he gripped the White Tiger’s tailbone, it suddenly hummed and vibrated, resonating nine times before gradually quieting down. He focused his thoughts and infused spiritual energy into the sword hilt. Suddenly, golden light burst forth several feet, leaping fiercely, too dazzling to look at directly.
Elder Guangwei was extremely pleased and said gently, “It seems this magical treasure likes you very much.”
This was a magical treasure hundreds of times more practical and precious than the demon cherry spirit pills. Lei Xiuyuan withdrew his spiritual energy and held the sword hilt respectfully with both hands. He knelt on one knee and said softly, “Disciple thanks Master for this reward.”
Elder Guangwei gazed at him intently. This youth was proud and lofty, like an unsheathed sword, brilliantly radiant. He couldn’t help but narrow his eyes slightly, remembering the dazzling figure from five hundred years ago. Distant memories suddenly flooded back, and he let out a long sigh.
The overly rigid breaks easily. A few days ago, one of the sect leaders had also admonished him to carefully guide Lei Xiuyuan. Dazzling talents were rare, but they must not produce a second Qingcheng.
Elder Guangwei said softly, “Xiuyuan when I accepted you as a disciple, I told you about the four words ‘balance of firmness and gentleness.’ Don’t forget, the overly rigid breaks easily, and only by balancing firmness and gentleness can one last long. This is not just a principle for cultivating immortal techniques. This time, your battle with Qin Yangling and surpassing your potential is something that can be done once but not again, otherwise your body will eventually be full of hidden injuries. A cultivating disciple can advance and retreat, there’s still a long way to go, and there’s no need to fight for momentary pride.”
Lei Xiuyuan pondered for a moment before answering, “Yes.”