In the Outer Market, in Su Xuan’s small courtyard.
Lu Zhiyi was sitting at the table, facing the door that had been shattered into several pieces, occasionally glancing toward the kitchen inside.
From within came muffled groans of pain, occasionally accompanied by beast-like roars.
Just a moment ago, Master had rushed back from outside in a great hurry, his face seemingly contorted in extreme pain. Without even having time to speak to her, he had plunged inside and shut the door.
“What’s wrong with Master?”
Her face was full of anxiety, but even more, she felt powerless.
Senior Sister had been angered and left by her, and now Master was in such pain, yet she was utterly helpless. This series of blows plunged her into deep self-doubt.
First, Senior Sister had protected her, and then Master had been so genuinely good to her.
But what about herself?
Besides crying, besides dragging them down, what else could she do?
“Lu Zhiyi, you have to be able to help Master! You can’t be this useless!”
The transition from a child to an adult is often a matter of piercing through a single layer, an instantaneous metamorphosis.
Lu Zhiyi made up her mind. She took another look at the room, then shifted her gaze back to the stone table, her eyes filled with determination.
“Yuan suffers without time, there is a thing that mends the heavens…”
She silently recited the incantation, slowly mobilizing the spiritual power within her body. Strands of purple spiritual power, as if possessing intelligence, attached themselves to the door shattered into pieces.
Within a few breaths, the broken wooden door was seamlessly fused back together, showing no trace of a gap.
Even more peculiar was that the wooden door, originally old and decayed with many dents and pits, gradually turned a bluish-green after being enveloped by her spiritual power, faintly gaining a sense of toughness.
“Although it can’t kill or assist in combat… but if Master or Senior Sister get injured somewhere in the future, this should be able to help them.”
Lu Zhiyi gently touched the door, restored to its original state, and finally revealed a faint smile.
This was a technique she had comprehended from the Heaven-Mending Art. It seemed it could repair wounds, though the consumption was a bit high.
She panted slightly, listening to the commotion from Su Xuan inside, wrestling with whether or not to go in.
***
“Ugh…”
Su Xuan’s face was twisted as he gasped for breath on the floor, his entire body soaked with sweat.
“This damned Inner Core, it’s really a trap!”
He said hatefully, gritting his teeth and persevering.
He had exerted himself to the utmost to deplete it along the way, thinking he could use up a considerable amount. Combined with natural dissipation, he should have been able to barely control it.
But the concentration of spiritual power from the python had completely exceeded his expectations. What he had consumed was merely a drop in the bucket.
What made him even more speechless was that the azure spiritual power within his body was like a Pixiu, stubbornly guarding his body, unwilling to release even the slightest bit.
Now he was like a balloon, about to be burst by the spiritual power.
“Condense the essence and guard within, imprison the excess outside…”
Su Xuan could only continuously recite the incantations of the Evergreen Art, over and over, attempting to mobilize spiritual power to impact the barrier.
Cultivation was never a matter of water naturally flowing to form a channel. Sometimes a bottleneck could trap someone for a lifetime. Qi Refining Level Three was one, and Level Six was another.
After three or four attempts, his divine sense had already grown slightly blurred, and the backlash from failure grew increasingly intense.
“Pfft…”
Finally, he violently spat out a mouthful of blood, and his entire aura solidified.
Qi Refining Level Six!
The volume of spiritual power in his dantian rapidly shrank, but its quality became increasingly refined and pure. If it was like water before, now it had become a thick, lumpy soup.
The intense pain in his body vanished, replaced by a warm, comfortable feeling all over, as if he had gone directly from hell to heaven.
“Whew… No wonder the protagonists in novels I used to read would desperately strive to cultivate immortality. This feeling… is really amazing.”
Su Xuan exhaled a turbid breath, seeming to have gained some insight.
“Now my cultivation has reached Qi Refining Level Six. All that’s left is Pill Refinement!”
“What effect will this system upgrade have?”
The countdown in his mind still had forty hours remaining. Time was still relatively ample, and he was somewhat curious about that last prompt.
“It can’t be this damnable Inner Core again, can it?”
As his thoughts stirred, the azure spiritual qi once again formed into the strange beast, silently roaring beside him, appearing even more vivid and lively than before.
‘What is this?’7
He waved his hand, watching the strange beast move according to his actions, as if following his instructions to do many things.
“Could it be that as my cultivation improves, it can become alive? It will do whatever I command it to do?”
Su Xuan inexplicably felt a sense of anticipation, feeling that this mysterious azure spiritual power and this unknown strange beast were absolutely extraordinary.
Knock knock knock.
“Excuse me, is this Fellow Daoist Su’s residence?”
Before he could study it in detail, a knocking sound came from outside, followed by an enchanting voice.
Hmm?
Su Yunjin?
What is she doing here at this time?
He immediately recognized the visitor’s voice, feeling somewhat puzzled.
***
“She’s here!”
Lu Zhiyi, sensing the fluctuations of her master’s breakthrough, immediately relaxed. Hearing the knocking and the caller asking for her master by name, she quickly trotted over to open the door.
Opening the door, she saw a completely unfamiliar woman.
Her black hair cascaded gracefully, adorned with a few emerald-green hairpins. A broad, dignified red dress was worn on her body, yet it couldn’t conceal her striking figure. This attire was very proper, but on her, it intermingled dignity with allure—in short, she was both pure and seductive.
“Who are you?”
With a woman’s intuition, Lu Zhiyi’s face instantly turned cold.
“Isn’t this Fellow Daoist Su Xuan’s home? What is your relation to him? Did I come to the wrong place?”
Su Yunjin was also slightly taken aback to see a young girl opening the door.
After taking the elixir Su Xuan refined last time, she had actually slept peacefully for another two days. They had agreed to meet again today, but she waited at home, left and right, until the sky darkened, and still Su Xuan hadn’t come.
Seeing that the elixir was now gone, she didn’t know what came over her—perhaps bewitched—but she gritted her teeth and inquired around until she found this place.
‘But who was this young girl before her?’
‘Could she be his dao companion?’
Su Yunjin sized her up and down. Seeing they were about the same age, the thought of this possibility made her inexplicably nervous.
“What does it matter to you who I am to him? Do you have business?”
Lu Zhiyi’s eyes were full of vigilance, her tone stiff, completely different from her usual self.
“Oh…”
Seeing her protective, almost possessive expression, a woman’s intuition made Su Yunjin understand instantly—this girl was absolutely not Su Xuan’s dao companion.
“Little sister, of course I have private matters to discuss with him.”
She chuckled inwardly, deliberately making her tone sound ambiguous.
“He… he’s not here. You should go back!”
Seeing her like this, a (sudden surge of hostility) rose in Lu Zhiyi’s heart. She finished bluntly and was about to lock the door.
Creak…
As luck would have it, Su Xuan chose that moment to push open the door and walk out from the kitchen.
The situation instantly became somewhat awkward.
“It seems he is here.”
Su Yunjin, looking at the young girl’s embarrassed expression, smiled again and said softly.
“Sister Su, what brings you here? Please, come in and sit.”
Su Xuan said while gesturing for her to come in quickly.
He was just about to go learn Alchemy, and now the very person had come to his door. It would be a waste not to learn.
“Zhiyi, go boil some water and make a pot of tea.”
After welcoming Su Yunjin into the room and sitting her at the table, he turned and instructed his little disciple.
Completely oblivious to the secretly smoldering fire in her eyes.
“No!”
Lu Zhiyi pouted, turning her head away.
“Didn’t I buy some tea leaves?”
He asked, puzzled, feeling his little disciple’s tone seemed off today.
“There’s no teapot! It flew away, it’s gone! Go drink with your Sister Su.”
Lu Zhiyi shot a glance inside, her tone even sharper.
She might as well have written “I’m not happy” on her face.
“Oh, that’s right.”
Su Xuan, however, wore an expression of sudden realization, as if he really had thrown it away.