Night Talk by the Stream

"Tang Yuan? Qiao Xue'er's beloved?"

Lu Feng watched Jiang Ruoyun's pensive expression and could not help asking curiously.

Jiang Ruoyun nodded, glancing around suspiciously as she murmured, "It was clearly his aura. Why won't he show himself?"

"Let's leave this place first. It will be troublesome if another Sky Rat Swarm appears," Lu Feng said with a cough. The shattering of that protective light barrier had injured him badly.

"Are you all right? Let's find somewhere to rest and recover." Jiang Ruoyun helped Lu Feng up with concern. Without realizing it, the two had grown much closer.

"I'm fine. My blood and qi are a little unsettled; I'll be better after adjusting them." Lu Feng spoke calmly, then looked at Jiang Ruoyun's injured shoulder and said with concern, "The wound needs to be cleaned quickly, lest it become infected and fester."

The two headed toward the outer perimeter of Azure Mushroom Mountain and stopped beside a stream.

"Go wash your wound. I'll look around for something to eat." Lu Feng's injuries had stabilized considerably. Using the Exquisite Profound Secret Art would not have much of an effect on him now, but the blood essence he had lost would likely take half a year to recover. For the time being, he could no longer use that blood shield.

"Don't..." Jiang Ruoyun had wanted to say that she did not want to be left alone, but cleaning her wound required removing her clothes, which would obviously be inconvenient in front of Lu Feng. A faint blush crossed her face, and she changed her words. "It's getting dark. Be careful."

Lu Feng nodded to her and headed toward another stretch of the stream.

At the Seven Souls Realm stage, one still could not do without three regular meals a day. Lu Feng and Jiang Ruoyun had not eaten anything since lunch, and their battles along the way against the mountain monkeys, the Violent Bear, and the Black-Clad Man had consumed much of their strength. Both were hungry now.

While Jiang Ruoyun washed her wound, Lu Feng gathered some nonpoisonous wild fruit and caught several plump, tender fish. Though his Storage Ring held dead mountain monkeys, their meat was old and tough, unsuitable for eating.

After watching from afar as Jiang Ruoyun finished washing her wound, Lu Feng walked over. He simply set up a fire rack, took out two arrows and skewered the fish on them, then placed them over the fire to roast.

"The fish will need a while longer. I'll wash these wild fruits first." Lu Feng handed the arrows in his hand to Jiang Ruoyun, signaling for her to continue roasting them.

Jiang Ruoyun stared blankly at the roasted fish he offered her, seemingly lost in thought.

Lu Feng washed all the fruit, then returned before Jiang Ruoyun and picked through them one by one. After taking out some, he handed them to her with a smile. "Have some fruit first to tide you over."

"Thank you." Jiang Ruoyun was rather hungry as well, so she did not stand on ceremony. She took the fruit and bit down on it in one large mouthful.

At once, her brows knitted tightly, and an unbearable expression appeared on her face. She opened her mouth, wanting to spit out the sour, astringent fruit she had just bitten into, but remembering that Lu Feng had painstakingly gathered it, she could not bear to do so. She forced herself to swallow it.

"Smack, smack..."

By her ear came the sound of Lu Feng eating with great relish.

The resentment she had just suppressed seemed to surge beyond restraint. The Young Miss's spoiled, willful temper instantly surfaced. She snatched the fruit from Lu Feng's hand and reproached him, "Hmph! You kept the tasty fruit for yourself and gave me something so awful."

As she spoke, she took a huge bite from the fruit she had snatched from Lu Feng. She had thought it would be sweet and refreshing upon entering her mouth, but to her surprise, it was far sourer and more astringent than the fruit she had eaten before. Compared to it, the previous fruit could practically be called sweet and delicious.

Jiang Ruoyun's eyes instantly welled up, and her nose suddenly stung. Looking at Lu Feng, she choked up for a moment. It had been so long... Since the Seven Souls incident, it had been so long since anyone had treated her this well.

"Wild fruit from the mountains is a little unpleasant. If you aren't used to it, eat the fish instead," Lu Feng said gently. Yet he picked up another wild fruit and began eating it. To him, these were merely things to fill his stomach. During his past training, he had eaten things thousands of times worse than this.

"It's fine. It's delicious." Jiang Ruoyun stubbornly swallowed the rest of the wild fruit in her hand. Her mouth was filled with sourness and bitterness, yet her heart was sweet beyond measure.

"The fish is ready. Give it a try." Lu Feng smiled and handed the roasted fish to Jiang Ruoyun.

Taking the fish Lu Feng handed her, Jiang Ruoyun calmed her emotions and tucked that unspeakable stir of gratitude deep into her heart.

It was as if everything between heaven and earth had gone quiet. Stars and moon hung high overhead, and the breeze drifted softly by. Jiang Ruoyun looked at the specks of moonlight rippling over the stream's surface and softly asked, "Today... in so many dangerous moments, why didn't you escape alone?"

"Hm?" Lu Feng paused, then answered casually, "If I escaped, wouldn't you have been in even greater danger?"

"That's all?" Jiang Ruoyun seemed somewhat surprised by his answer, and an inexplicable trace of disappointment rose in her heart.

"Not entirely." Lu Feng thought back on all that had happened during the day. At the time, nearly all his actions had been instinctive, and he had not thought so much. Now that he calmly considered it, he did not regret them either. With his Seven Souls condition leaving his life and death uncertain, saving one more person could be considered accumulating a good karmic reward.

"What other reason was there?" Jiang Ruoyun looked at Lu Feng expectantly, though she did not know what she herself was expecting.

Lu Feng smiled and countered, "When we faced the Sky Rat Swarm today, didn't you also choose not to escape alone?"

"I... that was..." Jiang Ruoyun blushed. Recalling that moment, she remembered how deeply moved she had been when Lu Feng turned back despite the mortal danger and protected her with his life. In that desperate moment, she had only felt overwhelming sorrow and had been unable to control her actions.

Seeing Jiang Ruoyun's hesitant manner, Lu Feng found her rather adorable. Smiling, he teased, "We've already faced life and death together. Is there still anything you're too embarrassed to say?"

Jiang Ruoyun fell silent for a while. Then she looked at Lu Feng with clear eyes and said earnestly, "Thank you~"

"What?" Lu Feng was startled.

"Nothing." Jiang Ruoyun blushed and shot him a reproachful glare, changing the subject. "I've broken through to the Three Soul Realm."

Lu Feng was somewhat astonished. Jiang Ruoyun had clearly only been at the Two Soul Realm not long ago. How had she reached the Three Soul Realm in the blink of an eye? But after carefully recalling everything that had happened today, he understood.

First came the mountain monkeys' fierce and savage assault, then the Black-Clad Man's relentless pursuit, and finally the Sky Rat Swarm's "hunt." Under the crushing pressure of this succession of tense, perilous events, a breakthrough was only natural.

Lu Feng felt somewhat envious of Jiang Ruoyun's "easy" breakthrough. Thinking of the remaining six formations inside him, lying there like dead fish, he could not help feeling bitter.

Suddenly, the marvelous sensation he had felt while drawing his bow earlier that day surfaced in Lu Feng's mind—the feeling of being incomparably familiar with force, that exquisite control.

A sudden enlightenment arose in his heart.

He immediately sprang up and ran to an open patch nearby, taking the Netherworld Bow from the Kirin Ring. He began practicing toward the sky, once more experiencing the familiarity and sense of control over strength that the bow and arrows brought him.

He fired several arrows into the air in succession. The arrows rose straight upward, then slowly descended. Though Lu Feng had his eyes tightly shut, he naturally dodged every one of them. It seemed he had gained some insight deep in his heart, yet it also felt as though something was still missing.

"Please throw a few stones over here for me," Lu Feng called to Jiang Ruoyun.

Jiang Ruoyun glanced at Lu Feng upon hearing this. Seeing his serious expression and the look of realization on his face, she was secretly astonished that he had encountered an opportunity for Sudden Enlightenment at such a moment. She immediately cooperated, though she was somewhat reluctant to put down the roasted fish in her hand.

Jiang Ruoyun held the half-eaten roasted fish in her left hand and casually picked up several fist-sized stones with her right, tossing them toward Lu Feng.

By the faint glow of the campfire, Lu Feng watched the stones Jiang Ruoyun had thrown. He swiftly nocked arrows, and with several swift shots, accurately struck the flying stones.

"Smaller stones," Lu Feng said as he stepped back several paces.

Jiang Ruoyun bit down on the roasted fish and held it between her teeth, blinking at Lu Feng. She picked up several thumb-sized stones, circulated her spiritual energy, and threw them toward Lu Feng with considerably more force than before.

Watching the stones streak toward him at high speed, Lu Feng judged their path as he retreated and drew his bow, accurately striking them once again.

His control over force was perfect, and the archery he displayed was flawless. Yet he still felt that something was missing. The Spirit Soul Array within the Seven Souls that represented strength trembled faintly, but he still could not control it.

Lu Feng stood frozen in place, allowing the night breeze from the stream to brush over him and bring a chill, as he sank into an ethereal stillness.

Jiang Ruoyun held the roasted fish as she stared blankly for a moment. Looking at Lu Feng beneath the shroud of night and the firelight's glow, she found him both so familiar and so strange—like a friend she had known for years, yet also like a stranger she had never met.

Lu Feng stood with his eyes closed, swaying unconsciously in the wind, like an inconspicuous star in the night sky shifting with the passage of history, like a lone skiff upon the boundless ocean drifting with the crashing wind and waves.

Strength was born from the heart and transmitted through the limbs.

All things in the world possessed strength: speeding arrows, falling raindrops, the stream breeze lightly brushing past...

Strength was everywhere, yet nowhere.

Strength—the strength deep within one's heart, the strength coexisting throughout the world—could be fierce and tyrannical, or subtle and gentle.

Strength was born from the heart. Its origin was no different; different forms of expression gave rise to different kinds of strength.

Lu Feng felt the myriad strengths of the world. Formation Masters required gentle strength to inscribe and lay formations; Martial Masters required fierce strength to compete and fight; Alchemists required warm, mellow strength to refine pills and save people...

But who could say with certainty that Formation Masters could not blend hardness with softness, using fierce strength to inscribe and lay formations? Who could say Martial Masters could not fight with gentle strength...

In that instant, Lu Feng seemed to understand many things. He opened his eyes and slowly raised the bow in his hand.

He lightly nocked the string, drew the bow, and slowly fired. Then he drew again, nocked another arrow, and slowly fired once more...

One arrow followed another, chasing each other through the air, head to tail.

With a series of swift shots, nine arrows flew in succession, forming the shape of nine stars linked in a chain, each arrow connected head to tail. His grasp of force was exquisitely precise and subtle.

Every arrow flew nearly a hundred paces before slowly falling to the ground, forming a single straight line.

Lu Feng felt a stirring from within his life soul. Joy instantly filled his heart, and a faint smile touched his lips as he let out a deep breath, inwardly overwhelmed with emotion.

"At last, this Strength Soul Formation has opened!"