At some point, He Qiu had apparently been turned into a sparring prop.
But since it meant he could learn Spirit Arts, He Qiu figured it was fine.
Two big shots teaching him, a mere Junior Brother, together—that was a blessing, something to be wished for.
Why would he mind?
And the first round of teaching came from the highest-ranked Senior Sister, An Lingran.
The silver-haired woman leaned close to He Qiu’s side.
She first pressed her two fingers together, tracing a basic Spirit Art formation in the air, then draped an arm over He Qiu’s shoulder, lowering her posture slightly to offer patient guidance at his ear.
She explained thoroughly, seriously, and with a light, straightforward tone.
Having accompanied her Junior Brother in sword training for so long, An Lingran understood He Qiu’s monstrous comprehension well.
So she only went over the basics of Spirit Art knowledge once before helping He Qiu put it into practice.
For a genius, there was no need to waste time on theory. Straight to hands-on practice was more than enough.
“Junior Brother, give your hand to Senior Sister.”
An Lingran said this as she held He Qiu’s arm, then lightly tapped her fingertip.
A few strands of Spiritual Energy swirled around the young man’s wrist—this energy ring was meant to assist He Qiu in controlling his Spiritual Energy, making it easier for him to gauge the force of his casting.
Then, An Lingran explained while guiding He Qiu’s palm, helping him trace spirit formations in the air.
Her carefulness was like a kindergarten teacher showing a child how to hold a pencil—she was practically drawing the formation hand-over-hand with He Qiu.
She didn’t hesitate in the slightest about physical contact with her Junior Brother.
In fact, she wanted exactly this—casually grasping the back of his hand, feeling the temperature of his fingertips and skin.
She enjoyed teaching her Junior Brother this way…
He Qiu seemed to carry some magical allure.
An Lingran had always liked touching the young man’s body, but ever since her arm was eroded by the Sword Spirit Can Xue’s Spiritual Energy, that feeling had grown even stronger.
Every time she absorbed another layer of sword marks from her arm, her longing for He Qiu increased proportionally.
This Sword Cold Spiritual Energy was practically an aphrodisiac! It made one unable to pull away.
To her, he became more and more attractive, just like Can Xue had been in her earlier overexcited state.
At first, An Lingran was somewhat uneasy about this.
But after examining her heart a few times, she calmed down.
She found no negative abnormalities in her body—aside from notable breakthroughs in her cultivation, nothing else had changed.
So this was never some aphrodisiac effect.
It was purely psychological.
She had always liked He Qiu.
After absorbing his Sword Intent, she simply liked He Qiu even more.
On the surface, these two things seemed to have a clear cause-and-effect relationship, but An Lingran knew this was merely an “excuse” she had conjured up—a “reasonable explanation” she’d invented for wanting to get closer to He Qiu.
After all, she was a woman, a Senior Sister, and the revered Saintess…
With all these identities, if An Lingran were to openly display hunger and infatuated behavior and thoughts just because she’d fallen for a man… that would be too damaging to her image.
Even An Lingran herself couldn’t accept that.
At the very least, she could hypnotize herself a little, right? So she wouldn’t feel too ashamed?
Of course, An Lingran only hypnotized herself.
Even with so many onlookers watching, she still feigned casual touches against the young man’s hand, arm, shoulder…
Affection, desire, and the possessiveness that wanted him—these could never be fully concealed.
In truth, with An Lingran’s ability, teaching He Qiu to master Spirit Art would take about ten minutes, and that was plenty.
But she unhurriedly held He Qiu’s hand, tracing different spirit formations in the air again and again.
Occasionally, she’d nitpick small issues and have He Qiu try the formation once more…
She was going to all this extra trouble simply to maintain more intimate contact with the young man.
Of course, there was still plenty of time, and deepening He Qiu’s technique was never a mistake.
The outcome of the contest also mattered—if An Lingran could teach He Qiu to fully master Spirit Art in the first round, that would be ideal.
Half an hour later, An Lingran let out a confident breath, finally stepping back two paces, and asked:
“So, Junior Brother, have you learned it?”
There were generally two ways to contract a Spirit Beast.
One was natural wild ones—they required hunting, capturing, and eventually taming them into spirit companions to fight alongside the cultivator.
The other, simpler and more straightforward method was to use Spirit Art to directly summon the desired Spirit Beast from the Spirit Realm, skipping the taming stage entirely and contracting it as a spirit companion right away.
An Lingran and Luo Qianning’s contest was about this simple Spirit Art, which essentially every Spiritual Cultivator commonly knew.
“Yeah, I think I’ve got it.”
Closing his eyes, He Qiu rolled up his sleeves, savoring the memory of his Senior Sister’s scent and warmth… oh no, savoring the Spirit Art technique she taught, he began to activate his Spirit Vein and attempt to summon on his own.
Spirit Art—
Open!
The formation flashed with light.
All eyes were on him, and everyone eagerly awaited the results of He Qiu’s study.
A simple, basic Spirit Art—taught hand-over-hand by the great Primordial Saintess for half an hour.
What kind of powerful Spirit Beast would this genius Junior Brother summon once he succeeded?
Having watched for so long, everyone’s anticipation was at its peak.
But time passed, second by second.
The Spirit Art formation drawn in front of He Qiu flickered with light, yet nothing changed.
Not even a single strand of Spirit Beast fur appeared…
Strange.
It seemed to have failed.
He Qiu increased the Spiritual Energy output from his arm, but the Spirit Art still wouldn’t succeed.
Finally, the formation’s Spiritual Energy ran dry, slowly fading away in the air.
“…?”
Beside him, An Lingran narrowed her cold eyes, her gaze filled with shock, her emotions complicated.
This result was completely beyond her expectations.
She had taught He Qiu with such patience, yet she hadn’t managed to teach him.
The Spirit Art had never taken effect at all…
“…”
On the other side, Luo Qianning looked at this result, and couldn’t help but let out a long breath, joy rising in her heart.
The first round, and her Senior Sister had tried so hard, yet failed!
Actually, Luo Qianning had been a bit anxious at the start.
Seeing An Lingran teach so seriously, and then recalling the Junior Brother’s extraordinary cultivation talent, she’d felt somewhat insecure—worried that the Junior Brother would be too impressive and succeed on his first try.
If that happened, Luo Qianning would’ve basically lost more than half the match from the start…
But as things stood, He Qiu’s talent wasn’t as invincible as she’d imagined.
An Lingran hadn’t succeeded in teaching him in half an hour.
Now, it was her turn.
As long as she seized the opportunity, taught He Qiu in the next round, and made his Spirit Art succeed, then this contest between sisters would unquestionably be a great victory for Luo Qianning!
If she could win, Luo Qianning would also earn the qualification to tutor He Qiu in cultivation, just like her Senior Sister!
“What a pity, Junior Brother didn’t succeed. I suppose it’s this Junior Sister’s turn now?”
“…”
An Lingran’s jade-like fingers clenched tightly.
She turned her face away slightly, ignoring Luo Qianning.
Luo Qianning could also see that her Senior Sister was feeling down.
Remembering that it was her Senior Sister who had given her a way out earlier, she tactfully said nothing more and walked straight to He Qiu’s side.
The cherry-white girl took one last look at An Lingran in the distance, then smiled quietly and leaned close to the young man’s ear, whispering comfort:
“He Qiu, Junior Brother, don’t be discouraged.”
“What Senior Sister Lingran didn’t manage to teach you, Senior Sister Qianning will teach you~”
“Oh, alright…”
He Qiu’s expression was complicated as he nodded somewhat blankly.
Honestly, he was still immersed in his recent failure, unable to snap out of it.
He felt that he hadn’t actually failed to learn the Spirit Art.
Rather, when he cast the technique, he was missing something, and that was why he couldn’t successfully summon…
But exactly what was missing, He Qiu couldn’t recall.
And just as the young man was racking his brain, the Little Senior Sister beside him had long since been eager to jump in—
“Come now, listen carefully to your Senior Sister. It’s just a simple Spirit Art—Senior Sister Qianning will have you mastering it in no time~”
Luo Qianning was brimming with confidence.