The Awakened Couple

Lu Siye emerged from the woods on the outskirts of the city as dawn was just beginning to break.

Standing by the quiet roadside, Lu Siye pulled his phone from his pocket. It was cold as ice, and the screen had cracked into a spiderweb of fractures.

He tried pressing the power button several times, but the phone wouldn't turn on.

Earlier, when the corpse qi had interfered with him, frost had covered his entire body. The phone had probably been frozen then.

"Ugh, looks like I'll have to take the eleven bus home." Lu Siye sighed.

His phone was broken, so he couldn't call a ride or unlock a shared bike. He had no cash on him, either, so he couldn't take the bus. That left him with only one option: run home on his own two legs.

He looked around. There wasn't a soul on the dimly lit street.

Lu Siye stepped onto a tree trunk and vaulted up. After getting his bearings from the treetop, he turned into a blur and raced toward Tongjiang Residential Complex.

Ever since he'd learned Lingbo Microstep, he'd enjoyed running along high places.

The beginner-level Cliffside Paths as Flat Ground realm of Lingbo Microstep had given Lu Siye precise control over his own strength.

After all, to walk along sheer cliffs, you had to step on tiny protruding rocks.

Without enough control over your strength, you could easily crush those rocks underfoot or miss your footing entirely.

He still couldn't use every blade of grass and leaf as a foothold, but walking on leaves was no problem.

With the broad view stretching out before him and the wind rushing past his body, he felt the same freedom he'd dreamed of as a child, standing somewhere high up.

In a word: exhilarating!

The woods behind him gradually faded into the distance, and buildings began to appear ahead.

Suddenly, Lu Siye staggered, his face turning deathly pale.

The corpse qi that had been suppressed in his Dantian began to fight back. His decades of Northern Darkness inner power alone were barely enough to keep it down.

Lu Siye frowned. He had to find somewhere safe as soon as possible and absorb and convert the corpse qi.

He could use his blood energy or Yang energy to help suppress it, but that would inevitably consume a great deal of the corpse qi.

He couldn't pass up any chance to grow stronger for free.

He glanced around, and a target immediately came to mind.

Before long, Lu Siye arrived in the living room of the self-built house where Black Abyss had hidden.

He extended his senses. There was no trace of a cold, Yin presence in the room, and the family of three on the sofa had already been taken away by Wang Wenjing and the others.

He looked down at the floor. The bloodstains had been cleaned up, too. It seemed the Town Demon Suppression Division had done a good job of handling things afterward.

Not caring whether the floor was clean, Lu Siye sat down cross-legged and channeled his inner power to absorb and convert the corpse qi.

The corpse qi was far purer than Lu Siye's inner power, but there was much less of it—only about a tenth as much.

Under Lu Siye's deliberate control, the corpse qi was forcibly broken apart, then converted and absorbed.

In the process, the Northern Darkness Origin True Qi slowly grew stronger, allowing it to control and contain an increasing amount of Northern Darkness inner power.

A little over an hour later, the corpse qi had been fully absorbed, and the inner power in his Dantian had increased by nearly a third.

Lu Siye went to the window. It was already fully light outside, and he could faintly hear cars passing along the street.

That put an end to running parkour across trees and rooftops.

After walking normally for a while, Lu Siye met a kind farmer heading into the city.

After making up an excuse that sounded reasonably convincing, he hitched a ride on the farmer's three-wheeled motorcycle.

A little over an hour later, Lu Siye waved goodbye to the kind farmer outside a phone shop across from the university.

Inside, he picked out the best domestic phone they had. He had money now, so there was no need to shortchange himself.

After transferring his SIM card and the important information from his old phone to the new one, Lu Siye used it to transfer nearly ten thousand yuan, then left with a carefree stride.

As soon as he stepped out of the phone shop, his phone rang. He checked the caller ID. It was that girl, Wang Wenjing.

"Big Brother Lu, you weren't in any danger, were you? Why couldn't I get through to you earlier?" Wang Wenjing's voice was full of concern.

Just before dawn, she'd learned that there had been traces of Ghost-level Yin energy left behind in the house where Lu Siye had rescued the family of three.

And judging by how hurriedly Lu Siye had chased after it, he might well have been going after that ghost.

She didn't know whether Lu Siye had already advanced to Night Wanderer Envoy. As his biggest admirer, of course she was worried about his safety.

But Wang Wenjing hadn't dared to disturb Lu Siye. She'd waited until daybreak to call, only to get a message saying his phone was switched off.

"I'm fine. My phone got frozen by accident while I was dealing with a supernatural creature, so I just replaced it," Lu Siye explained.

"That's a relief!" Wang Wenjing let out a sigh. It was wonderful that Big Brother Lu was all right.

"Did you need something?" Lu Siye asked.

Could this fangirl really have called just to make sure he was safe?

"Oh, right! The couple you rescued woke up. They want to meet the person who saved their lives." Only then did Wang Wenjing remember why she'd called.

"They woke up that quickly? All right, send me the location. I'll head over now." Lu Siye was surprised. He'd thought they would need a day or two to wake up in their condition.

"Big Brother Lu, I don't think you have a car, right? I could come pick you up," Wang Wenjing offered.

"That works. I'll send you my location." Lu Siye thought it over, nodded, and hung up.

A ride was always welcome. At the very least, it would save him a few dozen yuan in taxi fare.

After sending his location, he looked around. There were no breakfast places nearby. Plenty of diners and restaurants were around, but none of them were open this early.

That might have had something to do with college students liking to sleep in until the sun was high in the sky.

With no other choice, Lu Siye went into a supermarket and bought some bread and milk.

He'd tide himself over for now. He hadn't eaten breakfast yet.

Wang Wenjing didn't keep Lu Siye waiting long. Just over ten minutes later, a red sports car approached from afar and pulled up in front of him.

The car door opened, and a girl stepped out. She wore sunglasses, her hair tied in a ponytail, a white short-sleeved top, a pleated skirt, and a pair of white canvas flats.

Wang Wenjing took off her sunglasses, revealing a sweet smile. "Big Brother Lu, get in!"

Wang Wenjing was positively brimming with youthful energy. Her long legs were dazzlingly pale in the sunlight, bringing back memories of that wonderful moment in college when you first saw the campus belle.

Especially when she took off her sunglasses and revealed her exquisite profile and sweet smile. Who knew how many restless male hearts she'd won over on the spot?

A dozen or so students who'd just left the campus entrance suddenly came to a standstill. They stopped one after another, their gazes fixed on her.