That Night

"Ye Qingchen! How are you? Are you okay? Don't scare me," Ma Xiaotao said anxiously.

Imitating her, Ye Qingchen said weakly, "I'd feel better if you held me a little more gently."

Although being held by Ma Xiaotao felt quite nice, the Ice Empress inside Ye Qingchen's Small World could no longer stand it and launched into a string of curses at him.

Ma Xiaotao relaxed slightly and asked with concern, "Is this better?"

"Mhm." Ye Qingchen gave a soft grunt. "I'm fine. I'll be better after resting for a while."

"Really?"

Ye Qingchen rolled his eyes. If my physical body were really badly injured at this level of durability, I'd probably already be dead.

The host has changed Ma Xiaotao's future fate. Reward: Enhancement Points ×5. Enhance?

"Enhance," Ye Qingchen silently said.

Enhancement successful. Current enhancement level: 39+

The night passed just like that. When Ye Qingchen slowly awoke from his sleep, he instinctively rolled over and sprang up. Seeing no one beside him, he felt over his own body before finally relaxing.

"Good thing my kidneys are still here. What an ungrateful woman—she left on her own and abandoned me," Ye Qingchen grumbled angrily.

"What else were you hoping to do?" the Ice Empress said resentfully from the Azure Wave Realm.

"Bing Er, what are you thinking? Where did all these strange ideas come from? Don't slander me. By the way, what is that Whale Glue for?" Ye Qingchen said as he got up and brushed the dust off himself.

"Why not eat it and find out, Qingchen? Come to the Azure Wave Realm when you take it. I'll stand guard for you," the Ice Empress said maliciously.

"Fine."

Ye Qingchen said it indifferently. After all, Huo Yuhao had eaten it without any problems. How could anything happen if he ate it?

The breakfast for Core Disciples was especially lavish. Moreover, Ye Qingchen was now someone specially looked after by both the Martial Soul Department and the Soul Tool Department. It was not until he was nearly done eating that Wang Dong listlessly walked in from outside.

The moment she entered, Wang Dong saw Ye Qingchen sitting there stuffing himself and immediately dashed over.

"Qingchen, are you okay? Did Ma Xiaotao do anything to you?" Wang Dong asked anxiously as she ran over.

With a perfectly natural expression, Ye Qingchen said, "I'm fine. I was only helping Ma Xiaotao cultivate."

Wang Dong looked at him suspiciously, her nose twitching. "Why do I smell a fragrance?"

Is Wang Dong a dog? How is her nose so good?

Suppressing his thoughts, Ye Qingchen said, "Cultivation was too exhausting. The Phoenix Flame was too overbearing, and I sweated all over. I borrowed her things to wash my clothes."

Unable to find any flaw, Wang Dong gradually relaxed. Somewhat resentfully, she said, "Teacher Zhou said yesterday that we should go to her office before class today. It seems there's something she wants to discuss."

Ye Qingchen nodded. "Mm. Has that Soul Bone arrived?"

At the mention of the arm bone, Wang Dong immediately became excited and nodded repeatedly. "It arrived already. I'll fuse it tonight. What do you think?"

Ye Qingchen nodded. "Sounds good. I can try that Whale Glue too."

After breakfast, Ye Qingchen first returned to the dormitory to wash up and change into another school uniform before going to find Zhou Yi with Wang Dong.

Knock, knock, knock. Ye Qingchen lightly knocked on the office door a few times.

"Come in." Zhou Yi's ever-cold voice rang out.

Only then did Ye Qingchen and Wang Dong push open the door and enter. The room was already full of people, all Core Disciples from Class One. Aside from Ye Qingchen and Wang Dong, there were Huo Yuhao, Xiao Xiao, Lan Susu, Lan Luoluo, Zhou Sichen, Cao Jinxuan, and Huang Chutian, who had officially become a Core Disciple.

Zhou Yi deliberately glanced at Ye Qingchen, then coughed, drawing everyone's attention to herself. "I called you here today to inform you of a special situation. Three days from now, the Outer Courtyard will hold a Core Disciple selection tournament. Originally, this had nothing to do with us second-years, but the academy has suddenly decided to let the second-year Core Disciples participate as well. Therefore, all of you must make your preparations."

Huo Yuhao asked curiously, "Teacher Zhou, what is this selection tournament for?"

Zhou Yi said, "You don't need to worry too much. There will be no punishment if you lose. The participants are all Core Disciples under the age of fifteen from the Outer Courtyard, including those from the Soul Tool Department. I did the calculations—there should be around thirty people. Eight will be selected to take part in a mission. As for what that mission is, only the winning students will find out."

"All right, return to the classroom first. Ye Qingchen, stay behind. Everyone else can go."

"Yes." Everyone answered in unison. After Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong threw Ye Qingchen gloating looks, they left the office.

Wang Dong said, "We'll wait for you outside."

After everyone else had left, Ye Qingchen closed the office door before turning to Zhou Yi and asking, "Teacher, do you have any other instructions for me?"

Zhou Yi said calmly, "I'm only passing along a message from Dean Yan and Dean Xian. The two deans said that it would be fine if others failed to make the top eight. But if you fail to make the top eight, you'll bear the consequences yourself."

"Seriously?" As soon as she said that, Ye Qingchen understood. So they're already setting me up?

A hint of amusement appeared in Zhou Yi's eyes. She stood up and said, "I've delivered the message. If you have the ability, go argue with Dean Yan and Dean Xian. Let's go. Time for class."

That night in the dormitory, Wang Dong had already begun fusing with that left-arm Soul Bone. Ye Qingchen also took out the dark, pitch-black Whale Glue. He left behind an avatar in the dormitory while his true body entered the Azure Wave Realm. Looking at the blue palace before him, Ye Qingchen shook his head before slowly walking inside.

"Bing Er, I'm here," Ye Qingchen said.

"Hmph." The Ice Empress had her back to Ye Qingchen and remained silent.

"Bing Er, I'm here... here..." Ye Qingchen said again, though his tone was much gentler this time.

"All right, Qingchen. You can take that Whale Glue now..." After saying that, the Ice Empress turned around and looked at Ye Qingchen.

"Although this Whale Glue might not be of much use to me, I'll give it a try."

Ye Qingchen took out the piece of Whale Glue. As he spoke, he softened it with flames and consumed it bit by bit. Ice Empress watched Ye Qingchen with an expression of triumph. "Sister, I won this time."

After swallowing just the first piece of Whale Glue, Ye Qingchen felt a warmth rise in his chest and abdomen. As he continued eating, a dense hot current began flowing through his limbs and bones.

The warm comfort gradually turned scorching hot, yet Ye Qingchen found the burning sensation throughout his body extremely pleasant.

Ye Qingchen's body gradually began to redden. Seeing him like this, Ice Empress was not worried in the slightest, as though she had known all along that this would happen.

At this moment, Ye Qingchen's blood and vitality were unusually vigorous. At some point, Ice Empress had come to his side and was watching his flushed-red body.

Naturally, Ye Qingchen did not know that Whale Glue was originally an extremely potent tonic of pure yang and fierce vitality, with a certain aphrodisiac effect. However, the side effects of an excess of yang energy were gradually beginning to emerge.

Very soon, he could no longer remain seated. His eyes began turning red as well. Whale Glue alone could never have caused Ye Qingchen to become like this, but he had helped Ma Xiaotao deal with that Evil Fire. During the process, Ye Qingchen had replaced the Evil Fire with pure fire-element energy, so a large amount of Evil Fire had naturally remained within his body. With the Whale Glue triggering it, the effects surged forth hundreds or thousands of times stronger. Even Ye Qingchen, a god, found his consciousness somewhat unable to withstand it. He began tearing at his clothes with force.

"Did I overdo it? Is Whale Glue really this effective?" Ice Empress stared at Ye Qingchen, unable to speak for a long while.

Gradually, he had stripped off all his clothes. After turning around, Ye Qingchen looked at Ice Empress before him and grabbed her arm. Driven by his body's urges, he lifted Ice Empress into his arms. Surprisingly, Ice Empress did not resist, allowing Ye Qingchen to carry her easily toward the ice bed.

Looking at Ice Empress on the ice bed before him, his reason vanished completely. The next moment, Ye Qingchen pounced on her. She seemed to resist while welcoming him all the same. It was spring now, the perfect season for all things to revive. Beneath the night curtain, who knew how many tender shoots were slowly pushing their way out from the vegetation.

Thus, Ye Qingchen remained in the Azure Wave Realm for ten days. During that time, his consciousness came and went intermittently, and only on the final day did he finally regain full awareness.

"Hiss, my waist hurts so much. Ten days... no matter how good my kidneys are, they can't take that kind of abuse."

Ye Qingchen looked at the sleeping Ice Empress beside him, gently kissed her forehead, then got dressed and left the Azure Wave Realm.

At the same moment Ye Qingchen left, Ice Empress sat up. Looking in the direction he had gone, she let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. This way, Ye Qingchen, don't even think about leaving me behind..."