Ruyi Wind-Controlling Technique

Today was the fifth day since Immortal Master Gu arrived in Chuyun City, and the fourth day of the Ascension Gathering. As expected, You Su won his match. However, the process did not recreate the splendor of his first battle, when he had killed Sheng Ziling with a single sword strike. Instead, Wu Cheng had drawn no blood in any of his three battles and won them all with ease.

By a strange coincidence, You Su and Wu Cheng had never encountered each other in battle. It was as though Heaven's will had decreed that their first clash would become the final battle of this Ascension Gathering.

Everyone was delighted to see such a scene. Unable to glimpse the cause and effect behind the coincidence, they added a layer of destiny to the battle of their own accord and eagerly looked forward to the final showdown tomorrow.

You Su was no exception. Thinking that he was about to complete the first step toward reaching the sacred mountain, he was raring to go, and his footwork grew faster and faster. However, he stumbled and nearly fell flat on his face.

It was not that You Su had misunderstood the Ruyi Wind-Controlling Technique. The truth was that last night's secret lesson with his junior sister had been far too stimulating. Of course, this stimulation did not refer to the thrill of directly touching Ji Lingruo's skin, but rather to the stimulation of the spiritual platform within You Su himself.

With no clothing around her waist to block it, the Mystic Qi that You Su had guided forward from Ji Lingruo's lower abdomen had not merely circulated outside her body. A trace had seeped in and begun flowing together with Ji Lingruo's Mystic Qi.

This not only made the flow of Ji Lingruo's Mystic Qi more orderly, but also unintentionally established a faint cycle with the Mystic Qi inside You Su's body. You Su had comprehended this method from the dual-cultivation arts in the first place. Their Mystic Qi connected without rejecting each other, and while Reverting to Root, Return to Origin, it could even draw the Mystic Qi of Heaven and Earth into the cycle. Both of them felt as though they were drifting among the clouds.

In the past, You Su would be utterly exhausted after teaching for half an hour at most. Last night, however, he had taught for nearly an hour without feeling particularly tired.

You Su could swear to Heaven that it absolutely was not because he had been reluctant to release the soft, smooth waist and abdomen of the young girl. After all, as a vigorous young man, he had suffered terribly holding himself back. It was Ji Lingruo herself who had become intoxicated by it and ordered You Su to continue the lesson without stopping.

When the lesson reached the lower half of her body, You Su was guiding the Qi around her thigh when the girl suddenly seemed to sense something. Her entire body tensed, and she grabbed You Su's hand, refusing to let him continue. But the Qi had only been circulated halfway—how could he simply stop on command? You Su still completed that movement before stopping. The girl suddenly seemed to deflate, her body trembling faintly as she nearly lost her balance. With a hint of tears in her voice, she cursed You Su as a "fool," then angrily punched him once before running away. Only then was the lesson forcibly terminated.

Feeling the slick, fragrant sweat coating his hands, You Su silently repented. No matter how effective this method of teaching was, he absolutely could not let his junior sister wear such clothes again next time.

You Su was gaining an ever-deeper understanding of the marvels of his sect's Heaven and Earth Yin-Yang Union Cultivation Method. Unfortunately, although dual cultivation was wonderful, now was not the time. He believed that he and Ji Lingruo still had a long road ahead of them.

At dawn, You Su sat in meditation and examined his spiritual platform inwardly. He saw it teeming with vitality, far more effective than sitting alone in dry meditation before. At that moment, he felt as though he had endless strength, leaving him somewhat unaccustomed to the sudden surge of Mystic Qi as he practiced the Ruyi Wind-Controlling Technique.

Returning to the Ruyi Wind-Controlling Technique, cultivators could not fly before reaching the Feather Transformation Realm. Without the tempering of the Condensing Water Realm, the density of the Mystic Qi within a cultivator's body was still far from sufficient to release it externally and lift someone into the air.

Thus, movement manuals were immensely precious to cultivators below the Feather Transformation Realm. Their functions could mainly be divided into three categories: first, aiding long-distance travel; second, short-distance shifts; and third, extremely subtle turns and dodges.

The Ruyi Wind-Controlling Technique actually encompassed the first two functions: the Wind Riding Vertical Technique and the Wind Riding Ladder Technique.

The Wind Riding Vertical Technique allowed cultivators to travel a thousand li by borrowing the wind's momentum, saving a vast amount of Mystic Qi.

The Wind Riding Ladder Technique could make someone briefly rise into the air, even if they were below the Feather Transformation Realm. Its principle was to compress Mystic Qi beneath the soles and release it, making the practitioner seem to step onto a ladder rung formed from wind in midair and climb upward step by step.

Unlike the effortless aerial flight of a cultivator in the Feather Transformation Realm, releasing the Wind Riding Ladder Technique was extraordinarily difficult. It demanded extreme precision and control over the force used during release, while also requiring the practitioner to restrain the body's imbalance in midair and endure the immense consumption caused by compressing Mystic Qi.

Yet You Su was genuinely quite skilled in this art. Especially after repeatedly teaching his junior sister, he even felt that the flow of Mystic Qi throughout his body obeyed his every command. Even so, You Su was not capable of reaching the heavens in a single bound. Sometimes he planted his left foot, sometimes his right, and his whole person looked as though he were perpetually hopping on one leg. It was rather comical, but he was enjoying himself, never tiring of it.

The moon was bright and the stars were sparse that night. Gu Yao stood atop the highest building in the city, gazing into the night sky. Through the clear, pale moonlight, he always felt as though he could see a mass of indistinct mist.

That mass of mist was dim and hazy, as though it did not exist on the same plane as the clouds behind it. Gu Yao even had the feeling that the mist had always been there. That was why a thin fog could always spread through Chuyun City at dawn, and even when the sun blazed high overhead, it had never dispersed—it had merely been pierced by the intense light, rendering it invisible.

Just as he was secretly wondering at the strangeness of it, he suddenly sensed an aura approaching. He focused his gaze and saw that the newcomer actually had no cultivation at all. This immediately piqued his interest.

That white shadow rose and fell, flipping across the rooftops, and soon arrived before Gu Yao. It was unmistakably a woman in a white dress, her curves full and pronounced. Yet this woman had stepped even higher than he had, which left Gu Yao somewhat displeased. He took a closer look and nearly fell to his knees in fright.

He had seen that woman's appearance only once, when he had been promoted to an outer-sect steward, yet he could never forget it for the rest of his life. She was a true Goddess descended to the mortal world. He hurriedly bowed and saluted.

"Gu Yao pays his respects to the Thirteenth Elder!"

Never could he have imagined that the Lotus Sword Venerable of Xuanxiao Sect's Lotus Peak, who had disappeared for eight years, would be encountered by him here. Judging by the way she had come, she had clearly been heading straight for him.

"Mm." He Shutong's tone was calm and detached. "You came here because of the Dream-Eating Ghost?"

"Indeed." Gu Yao did not dare conceal anything.

"You don't need to concern yourself with it anymore. Leave this area to me."

Gu Yao was astonished but did not dare defy the Lotus Sword Venerable. Still, he hesitated and said, "Gu Yao is unworthy, but perhaps I could be of help."

"I have already summoned help. If it really is a Dream-Eating Ghost, a hundred of you would be less useful than her."

Gu Yao was even more shocked. He vaguely guessed who the Lotus Sword Venerable meant by "help," but he had not expected Xuanxiao Sect to be willing to release her.

"By the way, you have a new mission."

"Please give your orders, Thirteenth Elder!"

"Before I return, secretly protect a youth in this city named You Su. Don't make it obvious."

He Shutong gazed into the distance at the place where the Mandarin Sword Sect was located, her lips pursed faintly. The moment she finished speaking, she rose and fell away, leaving the spot behind.

"Gu Yao obeys."

Watching the Lotus Sword Venerable's silhouette merge into the night, Gu Yao recalled the blind youth who had left such a deep impression on him, and questions sprang up in his heart.