Elsewhere, in a private room at Baiwei Tower in Yunlin Prefecture City.
The table was laden with exquisite dishes.
Yet the people from Hanyu Valley seemed to have little appetite, and the atmosphere was stifling.
Xiao Bieli had taken a Healing Pill specially concocted by the sect. Some color had returned to his pale face, but he sat in silence, his gaze somewhat vacant.
Ye Qingyi kept her head lowered, her chopsticks unmoving for a long while. In her mind, the image of Chen Qing standing tall with his spear kept resurfacing, branded into her thoughts, impossible to dispel.
Leng Qianqiu's gaze swept over her two beloved disciples, her voice as cool as ever. "What, you can't withstand even this small setback?"
"Master..."
Xiao Bieli raised his head at her words, his eyes holding a trace of unwillingness and confusion.
"A true man standing in this world must know when to bend and when to stretch."
Leng Qianqiu set down her wine cup and said blandly, "Chen Qing's strength truly exceeded expectations. His horizontal hard gong has reached the Tiger Elephant realm, and his attainment in spear arts is equally astonishing. Losing to him was only a temporary defeat."
"Have your smooth progress these days bred arrogance in you? If you had focused on one path, you might have long since achieved perfect Core Embracing. The outcome of today's battle might not have been this way."
Xiao Bieli's lips moved, but in the end, he did not argue. He merely nodded slowly.
He knew his master was right. Dividing his attention between two pursuits and cultivating two kinds of true qi at once gave him tremendous potential, but it had also slowed his progress in opening the twelfth primary meridian.
"Besides,"
Leng Qianqiu continued, "you carry both Langyue and Frost