The morning sun had just risen.
It did not blaze as it rolled up a sky full of fiery clouds. Instead, it held a white-wave-like dawn and unfurled it across the heavens, lifting the night sky farther and farther away.
At the moment when light and darkness were about to trade places, a spark suddenly flickered at You Su's fingertip.
But before he had time to get excited, a scorching sensation came out of nowhere and made him fling his hand away. The hard-won Fire-Starting Technique thus ended its brief and thoroughly unglamorous debut.
You Su felt somewhat defeated. This technique was truly useless. Since when could something you summoned burn you as well?
After thinking it over, he decided that this was actually reasonable. The spark had been formed by borrowing power from the Heavenly Dao through an incantation. The Heavenly Dao naturally treated all things in the world equally, so how could it possibly favor him?
The Selected Five Elements Sorcery listed many prohibited matters, one of which stated: Sect members were strictly forbidden from privately learning high-level sorcery.
Below that was a detailed explanation. In essence, when using sorcery, one also needed the ability to wield and withstand the authority one had borrowed.
For example, the fact that You Su had been burned by the Fire-Starting Technique showed that his body's heat resistance was not yet sufficient to cast it. With more practice to adapt to the temperature, or by supplementing himself with heavenly treasures of the fire element, he would be able to use it with ease.
Leaving aside innate Dao seeds that were exceptionally attuned to the Heavenly Dao, the higher the level of a technique, the harder it was to control. This double-edged sword of sorcery might take your own life before it even pierced someone else's body, and could even drag innocent bystanders into the disaster.
That was why all techniques with even a modicum of power were strictly controlled by the various sects. To learn them, one had to prove that one possessed talent to match.
You Su continued trying several more times. A flame sprang from his fingertip every time, making the success rate of his Fire-Starting Technique worthy of being called flawless. The only blemish was that, because he found it too hot to hold, the flame lasted an extremely short time.
Though it was only an introductory fire-element technique, mastering it to this degree in a single night was enough to shock the Old Immortal Masters in the immortal sects who specialized in studying sorcery.
Ultimately, whether it was swordsmanship or sorcery, both required precise control of Mystic Qi. You Su's swordsmanship was sublime, so his ability to control Mystic Qi naturally would not be lacking. As long as he did not have a constitution completely incompatible with sorcery, he would naturally find it easier to get the hang of.
Ji Lingruo, however, would probably have a difficult time learning it. Thinking of his junior sister's terrible control over Mystic Qi, You Su felt a headache coming on.
As the saying went, even the most coincidental tale had its matching coincidence: Ji Lingruo happened to walk out of You Su's room at that very moment.
She rubbed her bleary eyes while swaying her little head, looking as though she had not yet woken up.
She wore no makeup, yet her bare face was already breathtakingly beautiful. She had not even bothered to comb or tie up her hair, leaving it loose over her shoulders. Her dress was also somewhat disheveled, revealing the pale-pink brocade bandeau beneath and broad expanses of soft, lustrous skin.
In any case, You Su could not see her, so Ji Lingruo had long since stopped caring about occasionally being careless with her appearance.
"You Su, who told you to carry me onto your bed to sleep?" The girl spotted You Su sitting in the courtyard and hurriedly questioned him.
"I was afraid you would be uncomfortable sleeping on the table, but I didn't dare enter your room, so I had no choice. Besides, I've already slept for two days and one night. I'm full of energy."
"Do you know your bed stinks to high heaven? Go wash it!" The girl looked disgusted, then suspiciously asked, "You didn't touch me while I was asleep, did you?"
You Su naturally knew he was a clean person. His junior sister was merely picking a fight on purpose, so he could not be bothered to argue. He straightened up and declared with righteous dignity:
"When I carried you, senior brother only felt as though he were a butcher carrying a pig to market. I couldn't wait to unload the goods. How could I possibly have had any improper thoughts?"
Ji Lingruo surprisingly did not get angry. Instead, the corners of her lips curled into a smug smile. "Tsk. This young lady is hungry. Since you can even carry a pig now, hurry up and make breakfast."
Inwardly, she smugly thought: You clearly held me so tightly and even took it upon yourself to stroke my head, yet in front of me you insist on pretending to be a righteous gentleman. You really say one thing and mean another.
You Su had been thinking the same thing. Like a child who had just received a new toy, he could not wait to show off the new technique he had learned—provided his junior sister did not discover it.
Ji Lingruo had gone to wash up, while You Su sat before the stove, forming hand seals and reciting the incantation. He conjured a spark and lit the dry grass used for kindling.
As he felt the flames grow stronger, You Su's interest in the path of sorcery deepened as well.
In swordsmanship alone, bitter training yielded scant results. For You Su to make further progress, he needed some other opportunity. But he had only just entered the path of sorcery, leaving him immense room for growth. Clearly, this was the best path for him to grow stronger quickly.
Breakfast that day was quite substantial: two light stir-fries and a serving of millet porridge, almost enough to count as a proper meal. But there was no helping it. After a fierce battle, You Su had slept for two whole days, leaving his body utterly drained and in urgent need of replenishment.
Ji Lingruo was a glutton by nature, so she ate the salty and sweet flavors with gusto even first thing in the morning. Seeing You Su wolfing down his food, she painfully gave him most of her own portion as well, then pursed her lips and grandly declared, "This young lady can't eat it all. Consider it your reward."
After breakfast, Ji Lingruo ordered You Su to go rest while she washed the two sorry bowls herself. But the girl's thin skin would not allow her to display such unprompted kindness, so she demanded the enormous sum of one silver coin as payment for her efforts.
You Su paid up with an expression of reluctance, feeling that his junior sister really was the best junior sister in the world.
You Su sat on the bed and rubbed his aching chest.
As his monstrous junior sister had said, he was indeed very good at acting, and he behaved with Ji Lingruo as naturally as ever. Yet behind their laughter and playful bickering lay the sorrow You Su kept buried deep in his heart. He secretly resolved to let his junior sister spend every moment of her lucidity happily, until the day she fully recovered.
He suddenly remembered that his junior sister had said his bed stank, so he removed the pillowcase and bedsheet and replaced them with fresh ones. During the process, the strands of hair the girl had left behind made his nose itch.
He hugged the old bedding and took a deep breath. He truly did not think it smelled bad; instead, it carried the unique fragrance of a young woman. But since his junior sister had said it stank, he might as well wash it. It would also win him a little favor with her.
Ji Lingruo was still washing the bowls beside the water tank when she suddenly saw You Su emerge carrying a pile of bedding. Judging by his appearance, he seemed to be heading out to wash clothes.
"Hey, You Su, why are you going somewhere instead of resting properly?"
"To wash the bedsheets. Didn't junior sister say they were really smelly? Or does junior sister want to wash them for me? You'll have to charge me less this time." You Su replied with a faint smile, already looking forward to his junior sister praising him with something like What a good boy.
"You!"
Ji Lingruo's pretty face twisted into a knot, and even she did not know whether she should be happy or angry.
You Su's bedsheets did not stink at all. In fact, they carried a faint woody fragrance. She had told You Su to wash them merely because her sense of shame had acted up; she felt too embarrassed to let her senior brother continue sleeping on fabric she had slept on. But now that she saw You Su was actually going to wash the sheets so readily, it instead seemed as though he disliked the fact that she had slept on them, and for some inexplicable reason, she felt angry.
"What's wrong?"
You Su prided himself on being perceptive, yet there were times when he still could not understand a girl's winding thoughts.
Ji Lingruo bit her pearly teeth lightly and could not get a word out. Inwardly, she cursed You Su as a complete idiot and decided that one day, sooner or later, he would anger her to death.
"Bang!"
The main gate was suddenly kicked open, interrupting the pair's pleasant time together. A group of people stormed in with great fanfare, while two arrogant young men brought up the rear and shouted:
"Sky Guard Sect! We're investigating a case!"
Before you continue