Junior Brother Lu... You're So Bad!
As Lu Yang drew closer inch by inch, Lin Ying closed her eyes in nervousness.
Her eyelashes fluttered, and her hands unconsciously clenched in front of her.
The moment their lips touched, Lin Ying's body went rigid.
Her breathing turned quick and uneven in an instant.
Seeing that she hadn't pushed him away, Lu Yang felt a surge of delight.
Sure enough, Senior Sister Lin did have feelings for him.
He immediately pressed his advantage, raising his right hand to gently wrap it around her slender waist and pull her into his arms.
Lin Ying's eyes flew wide, the gaze that was usually as gentle as water now filled with panic.
She instinctively braced a hand against Lu Yang's chest, her palm pressed to the front of his robe as she tried to push him away.
But as soon as she applied a little force, she worried that pushing too hard would upset him. Her hand unconsciously softened, the movement so gentle it seemed as though she was resisting only to welcome him.
After two pushes failed to move him, Lin Ying seemed to resign herself to her fate, her tense body softening little by little.
The hand braced against Lu Yang's chest slowly relaxed, then gently slipped around his waist, her fingers clutching the fabric on his back.
After a long while.
Their lips parted, and Lin Ying leaned against Lu Yang's chest, tilting her head up slightly to look at him.
Her cheeks were crimson as sunset clouds, her eyes veiled with moisture. Her breaths came fast and shallow, and her chest rose and fell in small movements.
Her lips were redder than before, like fresh petals that had been rubbed.
"Junior Brother Lu... you're so bad!" Her voice was soft, almost coquettish.
Lu Yang looked down at her and chuckled. "But you were clearly taking the initiative later on, Senior Sister Lin."
Lin Ying raised a hand and gave his shoulder a gentle pat. "I was not!" she protested coquettishly.
"Then let's do it again." Lu Yang lowered his head as he spoke.
"Mmm..."
This time, Lu Yang's hand moved a little higher along the curve of her waist.
Lin Ying's body stiffened sharply, and she sprang out of his arms as though she'd been burned.
Her cheeks were so red they seemed about to catch fire, and even the tips of her ears and her neck were stained a deep pink. She didn't know where to look.
"J-Junior Brother Lu... I have to go back! Get some rest!"
Before she'd finished speaking, she had already activated an escape technique.
With a flash of spiritual light, she vanished from the room, leaving behind only the faintest trace of fragrance.
Lu Yang stood where he was, his arms feeling empty, though her warmth and scent still lingered there.
He looked down at his right hand, a little uneasy. Had he gone too far just now?
He hurriedly opened the panel and checked her favorability.
Lin Ying (favorability: 82)
It hadn't fallen. It had risen by two points instead.
Lu Yang let out a long sigh of relief.
It seemed Senior Sister Lin wasn't angry. Things had probably moved too fast and frightened her a little.
He looked at his right hand and gave it a smack.
This hand had a mind of its own. He really couldn't be blamed.
He smacked his lips. A faint hint of sweetness still seemed to linger on the tip of his tongue.
No rush, no rush. There's plenty of time in the future.
After the heat in his heart gradually subsided, Lu Yang stretched, changed out of his entry-level disciple clothes, and put on a brand-new white outer sect disciple robe.
Having just broken through to Mid-stage Qi Refining, Lu Yang wasn't in a hurry to continue cultivating.
He sat back on the spiritwood bed, took out the outer sect handbook, and began leafing through it page by page.
Some of the contents were things Lin Ying had already told him today; others had come up when Qin Nanyue and Lin Ying chatted over their meal at the market.
The annual outer sect assessment, mandatory sect missions, how to earn and spend Sect Contribution Points—all manner of things were laid out clearly.
When he reached a certain page, Lu Yang's gaze suddenly stopped.
Spirit Stones could actually be exchanged directly for Sect Contribution Points!
His eyes lit up at once.
The things Contribution Points could be exchanged for weren't things Spirit Stones could buy.
Cultivation Methods unique to the sect, secret Law Techniques, special materials—none of these could be bought outside with Spirit Stones.
If he could exchange Spirit Stones for Contribution Points, it would be an incredibly good thing for him.
But when he read on and saw the exchange rate, Lu Yang couldn't help raising an eyebrow.
It took thirty low-grade Spirit Stones to exchange for one Contribution Point.
Judging by actual purchasing power, one Contribution Point was worth roughly ten Spirit Stones.
The price was a full three times higher!
Although Lu Yang felt the rate was rather steep, he thought it over and soon made peace with it.
Those special resources circulated only within the sect to begin with and couldn't be bought with Spirit Stones. A higher exchange rate was perfectly normal.
After some thought, he decided to visit places like the Treasure Repository and the Scripture Pavilion over the next few days to see what he could exchange Contribution Points for with his current outer sect access.
If he could exchange them for high-grade Cultivation Methods and Law Techniques, or even top-grade Law Artifacts, he naturally couldn't pass them up.
By the time he finished reading the outer sect handbook from beginning to end, night had fully fallen.
Lu Yang looked up through the window. The moon was bright and the stars sparse, and the mountains were utterly silent, save for the occasional clear cry of a spirit crane in the distance.
He let out a breath of stale air and took a thin booklet from his Storage Bag.
The Heavy Sword Technique, the Law Technique paired with the Heavy Sword Instruction.
Now that his cultivation had broken through to Mid-stage Qi Refining and he had passed the assessment, there was no need to rush his cultivation for the moment.
Although the Heavy Sword Instruction was a high-grade yellow-rank Cultivation Method and not particularly high in quality, he had trained it to the maximum level, so it would suffice for the short term.
What mattered most now was cultivating a Law Technique that could improve his combat strength.
During this time, Lu Yang had never missed a day of daily missions, and his intelligence attribute had reached 3.8 points.
His comprehension was more than ten times greater than when he had first awakened the system.
And since the Heavy Sword Instruction and the Heavy Sword Technique were paired methods with the same origin, having comprehended the Heavy Sword Instruction to the maximum level made many originally obscure parts of the Heavy Sword Technique clear and simple to him.
After reading it through just once, Lu Yang found that he already had a considerable understanding of the Law Technique.
The Heavy Sword Technique was a high-grade yellow-rank Law Technique combining the sword and metal paths, and its power was exceedingly fierce.
But the Law Technique also had an obvious shortcoming.
It required a continuous infusion of Spiritual Qi to condense when used; the whole process was not instantaneous.
The longer it was condensed, the greater its power.
The deeper one's understanding of the Law Technique, the shorter the condensation time and the greater its power.
And the Heavy Sword Instruction's maximum-level special effect happened to shorten the condensation time and increase the power. It truly was the Cultivation Method paired with the Heavy Sword Technique.
Lu Yang closed the booklet, stood up, and walked out of the small building.
Not far behind it was a natural stone cliff, over sixty or seventy feet tall, with a flat surface that made it an excellent stone for testing a sword.
He took the black heavy sword from his Storage Bag. It weighed at least a thousand jin, and an ordinary Mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator who didn't train their physique would struggle even to lift it steadily.
But when Lu Yang took hold of it, he didn't even frown.
His constitution had reached 4.7, and his body-cultivation realm had even surpassed his cultivation realm.
He hefted the heavy sword in his hand and even felt that it was a little light.
It seemed he would have to get a heavier one in the future.
He gathered his thoughts, tightened his grip on the hilt, and sent the Spiritual Qi within him surging according to the Heavy Sword Technique's method.
The Spiritual Qi was compressed and refined layer by layer, then infused into the heavy sword.
The black heavy sword gradually began to hum in a deep tone.
The whole sword took on an increasingly weighty presence, giving off a pressure as solid and immense as a mountain.
After eight breaths, strands of pale golden light suddenly burst from the heavy sword's edge, sharp and weighty, blowing the blades of grass at Lu Yang's feet flat.
The Heavy Sword Technique had finished condensing.
Lu Yang's gaze sharpened. He turned his wrists and slashed down.
An enormous, pale golden phantom of a heavy sword broke away from the black blade and, accompanied by a muffled rush of air, slammed into the cliff.
Boom!!!
A heaven-shaking roar erupted, and even the ground beneath his feet trembled slightly.
The golden sword phantom had cleaved the cliff from top to bottom. A sword mark of unfathomable depth ran across the entire cliff face, and countless fine cracks spread through the rock on either side.
Broken stones tumbled from the cliff face, striking the ground and kicking up clouds of dust.
Standing before the cliff with his sword in hand, Lu Yang couldn't help drawing a sharp breath.
Holy shit! The Heavy Sword Technique is this powerful?!
He remembered clearly that his level-two Fire Bullet Technique could only blast a shallow, fist-sized crater in rock.
The difference between the two was simply outrageous!
But the cost of that strike was considerable as well.
Condensing it had taken a full eight breaths, and that was after the maximum-level Heavy Sword Instruction had shortened the time.
In actual combat, without sufficient means of defense, eight breaths would be enough for an opponent to kill him several times over.
Besides, the Spiritual Qi consumption was considerable.
The quality of his Spiritual Qi was far higher than that of ordinary disciples, yet even so, the strike had drained nearly a tenth of it.
Something occurred to Lu Yang, and he looked at the panel.
Sure enough, a new entry had appeared in the skill column.
"Heavy Sword Technique" level 1 (25/100).
A smile curved Lu Yang's lips.
His current comprehension was indeed remarkable. After reading the Cultivation Method once and practicing it himself once, he had already gained a basic grasp of the Heavy Sword Technique.
He had even gained a full 25 experience points.
From here, things would be simple.
A thought stirred in his mind.
System, add points!