Chapter 88: My junior brother is such a good person

Spirit Communication——

Open!

The formation was activated, spinning rapidly, flashing, but in the end it was only a flash in the pan—nothing appeared in place.

He Qiu attempted the Spirit Communication Art for the second time, and it still ended in failure.

“……”

Luo Qianning watched from the side, the confident smile on her face slowly stiffening.

The corners of her lips twitched, a whirlwind of emotions churning in her heart.

Senior Sister hadn’t managed to teach He Qiu.

And she, too, had failed to teach He Qiu.

For a moment, all the onlookers around let out puzzled gasps, expressions filled with astonishment.

This plot… something’s off.

The always-prodigious Junior Brother was hitting a wall in his cultivation today? And with the simplest Spirit Communication Art, no less?

He could master the Seven-rank Sword Art, yet couldn’t perform a basic Spirit Communication Art.

What did that mean? It meant He Qiu had considerable talent in sword cultivation, but truly no aptitude for Spirit Arts.

In other words, the Junior Brother He Qiu who had been showing off his brilliance lately wasn’t an all-around prodigy after all.

He had areas he wasn’t skilled in, and wasn’t as legendary and invincible as the rumors claimed.

But even with that fact established, the crowd watching still felt an indescribable envy in their chests.

After all, two beautiful Senior Sisters were both tutoring He Qiu alone—what kind of heavenly treatment was that?!

On his left, the Primordial Saintess, a fairy-like Senior Sister;

On his right, the popular Junior Sister, the prodigy girl…

Beautiful immortal maidens that countless male cultivators wouldn’t even dare dream of—all of them were devotedly gathered around He Qiu, assisting his cultivation.

The rumors were indeed true.

This Junior Brother named He Qiu really had superb flirting skills, and his game was admirable!

“Heh…”

An Lingran, however, didn’t care about the crowd’s opinion.

She let out a light cold snort, her beautiful eyes looking at Luo Qianning with pure smugness.

An Lingran had vaguely felt from the start that even if she let Luo Qianning teach He Qiu, nothing would come of it!

The reason was simple—she was the woman in the entire Longyin Sect who understood He Qiu the best.

If she couldn’t teach him, then how could someone like Luo Qianning, a Junior Sister who had come in halfway, possibly teach better than An Lingran?

Now, as expected, Luo Qianning had failed too, and An Lingran immediately regained her original confidence.

“Seems like Junior Sister can’t do it either~”

“……”

This time, it was Luo Qianning’s turn to feel embarrassed.

Next, it was An Lingran’s turn again.

This time, she decided to take a different approach, having He Qiu try with a brand new line of thinking.

And then…

She failed again.

“Hm? Hm?”

“Senior Sister doesn’t look too good~ ~”

An Lingran: “……”

Luo Qianning mocked from the side, regaining her original confidence of 【If I can do it, anyone can】.

And then… she failed again.

Fifth round…

Sixth round…

Seventh round…

Before they knew it, an entire morning had passed.

Yet He Qiu still couldn’t summon anything.

His progress with the Spirit Communication Art was completely stagnant.

Back and forth, countless rounds of competition, still no winner decided.

Both An Lingran and Luo Qianning were exhausted from teaching.

The pair of Senior and Junior Sisters sat on the stone bench nearby, leaning against each other, tilting their heads back and questioning life.

“Senior Sister, it’s getting late. How about we take a break?”

In the sunlight, the white-robed youth was also drenched in sweat, utterly exhausted, barely hanging on.

After a moment, An Lingran let out a long sigh, her gaze puzzled as she speculated:

“Junior Brother, could it be… that you’re worried Senior Sisters might have a falling out over the outcome of this competition… so you’re deliberately pretending not to learn?”

“Huh? Is that really it?”

Beside her, Luo Qianning also noticed the blind spot, her beautiful eyes flickering as she followed up with questions.

Thinking about it carefully, that did seem like a real possibility.

After all, although Junior Brother usually acted pretty aloof, deep down he was always quite gentle…

The more she thought about it, the more likely An Lingran felt this guess was, so she continued explaining to He Qiu:

“If Junior Brother is worried about that, rest assured. Senior Sister and Junior Sister Qianning—no matter what—have been sisters for years. We wouldn’t let a little friction like this damage our rapport. I appreciate your kindness, Junior Brother, but there’s really no need…”

“Mm-hm.”

Luo Qianning also chimed in agreement, no longer sulking.

They both felt that with a mere Spirit Communication Art, given He Qiu’s outstanding talent, there was no way he couldn’t learn it.

Two capable, patient Senior Sisters teaching one Junior Brother together—never mind He Qiu, even the most useless outer disciple should have learned it by now.

Even if they couldn’t summon a Spirit Beast, at least they should be able to call something from the Spirit Realm, right?

So the sharp-witted An Lingran connected it to another possibility.

Maybe He Qiu had already learned it long ago, but to maintain the bigger picture, he was pretending he hadn’t, so neither An Lingran nor Luo Qianning would win!

Luo Qianning was increasingly convinced by Senior Sister’s analysis.

However, He Qiu’s face showed difficulty, unsure how to explain.

“No, I really can’t learn it. I’m not acting…”

He genuinely couldn’t summon anything.

When had He Qiu ever lied about cultivation matters?

It wasn’t like he couldn’t tell that both Senior Sisters weren’t truly angry—they had long since cooled off during the repeated rounds of competition.

Maybe at first they were just sulking at each other, which evolved into this current contest.

He wasn’t worried enough about the Senior Sisters falling out to deliberately play dumb.

No way, absolutely no way!

But by this point, An Lingran no longer believed He Qiu’s explanation.

She seemed to have already made up her mind—

“Mm, Junior Brother needn’t explain further. Senior Sister understands.”

The silver-haired girl shook her head, thinking to herself that Junior Brother was too kind-hearted, which was why he’d put on an act in such a small competition.

Objectively speaking, He Qiu pretending not to learn was a bit unnecessary, but subjectively, An Lingran didn’t blame Junior Brother.

He had good intentions, which was why he did this.

It seemed that her outburst of cultivation power in the attic earlier had scared Junior Brother, making him think she, as the Senior Sister, was narrow-minded and would genuinely fly into a rage over small things, wanting to publicly discipline Junior Sister Luo Qianning…

Ah, this is my fault too.

Why couldn’t I restrain my temper in front of Junior Brother? I got misunderstood.

An Lingran felt a little upset.

She was already firmly convinced that Junior Brother was putting on an act, all to prevent the competition between the two Senior Sisters from reaching a result.

At the same time, she began to reflect on her own personality.

As a Senior Sister, she really hadn’t shown enough magnanimity.

Thinking about it carefully, Junior Sister Qianning also wanted to accompany Junior Brother in cultivation.

What was there to be bothered about?

After all, everyone just wanted to help Junior Brother grow.

Why fight among family?

Sigh, I let my emotions get the better of me again, and just ended up causing trouble for Junior Brother.

“I’m sorry. Today’s competition… I lost.”

An Lingran let out a sigh, stepped forward to ruffle Junior Sister Luo Qianning’s cherry-colored hair, and smiled candidly.

Since He Qiu was worried that An Lingran had a bad temperament and would bully Luo Qianning, she now wanted to salvage her image.

Naturally, she had to show the magnanimous side of a Senior Sister in front of Junior Brother.

It was just a small competition between Senior and Junior Sisters.

Admitting defeat was fine.

There was no need to hold onto pride.

An Lingran knew she hadn’t really lost to Luo Qianning, but to herself, and to He Qiu…

She hadn’t expected that she came today to teach He Qiu cultivation, only to receive a lesson from Junior Brother instead.

She really did need to watch her temperament from now on, and stop nitpicking over small matters.

After today’s competition, An Lingran gained a deeper understanding of He Qiu’s gentle way of expressing himself, and at the same time, admired Junior Brother’s smooth way of handling things even more.

It was worth learning from.

“……”

On the other side, Luo Qianning watched Senior Sister suddenly admit defeat, and her feelings were extremely strange.

She couldn’t be happy about it at all.

Instead, she felt extremely wronged and unwilling.

It was as if the entire cause of today’s events was her own willfulness, which led He Qiu to go through so much trouble to mediate, and ultimately made Senior Sister An Lingran graciously admit defeat, everyone coming together to coax Luo Qianning—one stubborn girl’s tantrum…

That’s not how it should be, right?

Am I really that willful…

Luo Qianning stood in the middle of the crowd, completely dazed.

She felt like she had become the ultimate scapegoat.

But thinking back carefully, it really did start because Luo Qianning had lost her temper first, speaking rudely to Senior Sister An Lingran and making bold claims, which ultimately led to mutual hostility and the birth of the competition and its outcome…

If that was the case, then it really was all my fault?

The clown was me all along?!

Luo Qianning’s chest felt tight.

For a moment, she didn’t even know what to say.

She just felt an overwhelming sense of grievance in her heart.

“Senior Sister, you’re going too far. The competition hasn’t even been decided yet, has it? Even if it had to be decided, it should be Junior Sister admitting defeat…”

“No, Junior Sister won. As Senior Sister, I am not her match.”

“No, Sister Lingran, don’t apologize again. Junior Sister already knows she was wrong…”

“No, Junior Sister, you did nothing wrong. I was the one in the wrong.”

“Stop it, stop it. Junior Sister knows her mistake…”

He Qiu: ?

Everyone: ??

All at once, the pair of Senior and Junior Sisters started being humble toward each other, as if whoever won this competition would have to take the blame.

The atmosphere was subtle, leaving everyone more and more unable to follow their train of thought.