Invitation, Advice

Cough, cough, cough...

His muddled consciousness revived amid a violent bout of coughing. He couldn't stop coughing until he spat out a large, blackish clot of blood, and only then did his disordered breathing calm slightly.

Zhuang Yuechan, who had remained by his side the entire time, hurriedly picked up the honey water she had prepared long ago and fed it into Song Changsheng's mouth spoonful by spoonful with a jade spoon, just as Song Changsheng had patiently fed her medicine when she had been unconscious.

The warm, sweet sensation of the honey water flowing down his throat cleared Song Changsheng's thoughts somewhat. He reached out, feeling about until he clasped the soft hand Zhuang Yuechan was using to feed him. Opening his eyes, he met her watery gaze and asked in a slightly hoarse voice, "How long was I asleep?"

"Three days and two nights. It was fortunate Elder Ji had the Upper Clear Jade Brilliance Pill, or you wouldn't have recovered so quickly. How do you feel?" Zhuang Yuechan's jade-soft hand lightly touched Song Changsheng's haggard face, her heart filled with tenderness and pain.

"I slept for that long? Has True Monarch Yingyue announced the results?"

"True Monarch Yingyue discussed it with the other five True Monarchs, and you won first place in the Grade A arena of this Five Academies Grand Competition!" Crystal light glimmered in Zhuang Yuechan's eyes. She then carefully recounted, piece by piece, everything that had happened after Song Changsheng fell unconscious.

After hearing it all, even with Song Changsheng's temperament tempered over many years, he could not help staring at the ceiling overhead for a long while, unable to settle his emotions.

He understood very clearly what this result meant. It meant that he, and the entire Wangyue Song Clan, had truly stepped