Seeing Chen Qinglin, Fu Shenxing beckoned him over to sit and talk.
"I heard you went home recently. How was it? Are your parents in good health?"
"Thank you for asking, Master. They're both doing well."
"What do you think of your senior sister?" Fu Shenxing asked suddenly.
"Which senior sister do you mean, Master? All three of my senior sisters are wonderful!"
"I mean your Senior Sister Ling Ling."
"She's great. Why do you ask, Master?" Chen Qinglin was a little confused. Had his master called him over early in the morning just to ask him that?
"..."
Fu Shenxing suddenly understood why Senior Brother Ling had looked at him that way.
Honestly, why did my disciple have to learn this? He could've learned anything else, but instead he became so utterly clueless about romance.
His head started to ache. After a pause, he said,
"There's something I need to tell you, but you mustn't tell anyone else." Fu Shenxing straightened up and spoke gravely.
"Please tell me, Master." Seeing how serious his master was, Chen Qinglin didn't dare take this lightly. He listened quietly as Fu Shenxing explained.
"Your senior sister was born with a congenital deficiency. Her parents are also elders of Qingyun Peak, but they're rarely at the peak. They're always out searching for Spirit Pills and medicinal herbs that can strengthen her constitution and make up for her congenital deficiency."
"From now on, if you leave the mountain, you mustn't take your senior sister with you. Although she's at the mid-stage of the Inner Qi realm, she can't bring much of her strength to bear. I'm even more worried she might fall ill while she's out, before any of us can reach her."
"If you ever come across Spirit Pills and Miraculous Medicine that can replenish one's innate essence, come back and tell me. Your Senior Sister Ling Ling's parents will be grateful to you too..."
After silently listening to his master, Chen Qinglin could hardly believe that his sunny, cheerful, and adorable little senior sister had such a serious health problem.
Recalling details he'd never paid attention to before, he realized why his senior sister had been so happy even just to visit Qingfeng City.
"You only need to keep what I've told you to yourself. There's no need to tell anyone else, and don't let your senior sister see that you know."
"I understand, Master."
"Good. It's been more than a month since I last saw you. If you have any questions, go ahead and ask..."
"Yes, Master..."
He spent the whole morning with his master, Fu Shenxing. Still unable to understand the look of exasperation on his master's face when he left, he made his way back to Cloud Dwelling Courtyard.
Practicing martial arts was like rowing upstream: stop advancing, and you fell behind.
Although his talent showed no signs of letting his martial cultivation regress,
Chen Qinglin still trained harder every day than most people.
He deliberately found a waterfall on Qingyun Peak and practiced beneath it with the Profound Heavy Sword in hand.
He had modeled this training ground on something he remembered from his previous life.
First, the waterfall had knocked him down again and again. Then he gradually learned to stand beneath it. Eventually, he could practice beneath the cascade as if walking on level ground.
At last, he began sinking underwater to practice his swordsmanship.
More than half a month passed, and he had long since grasped the meaning of Lifting the Heavy as if Light.
When he discovered that practicing his swordsmanship underwater helped him advance toward the Lifting the Light as if Heavy realm, and benefited his other sword techniques as well,
he went straight to the lake in the Rain Curtain Secret Realm to train.
Yun Tianqing was astonished by his approach and praised his ingenuity.
He had also asked Yun Tianqing how to address Senior Sister Ling Ling's congenital weakness, given what Fu Shenxing had told him.
The answer took him by surprise.
The Bone-Transforming Pill could solve the problem, but its medicinal properties were too potent for someone with such a weak constitution.
If he could find a Solid Yuan Flower, high-grade Body Protection Pills, and various other gentle Spirit Pills and medicinal herbs to use in combination, then there would be no risk.
Now that he knew this, Chen Qinglin decided to keep an eye out for news about such things when he was out and about.
Aside from training, he also made time to visit Jiang Qingyue in Qingfeng City.
With his skill in the sword, he could just about help Jiang Qingyue work through the questions she had encountered.
But Jiang Qingyue didn't stay in Qingfeng City long. She soon left to embark on her next journey.
Xie Jingyun and he saw Jiang Qingyue off beyond the borders of Qingfeng Mountain, then returned to the mountain to continue their cultivation.
During this time, he met up twice with his senior brother and the three senior sisters to spend time together and strengthen their bonds.
Little Senior Sister Ling Ling, on the other hand, had been visiting him more and more often, showing up at his place every few days.
When she came, she would chat with him, then watch him practice his swordsmanship from the side. Sometimes he couldn't just slip away, so he had no choice but to practice in the small pool beneath the waterfall he'd discovered earlier.
After walking Ling Ling back, Chen Qinglin returned to his courtyard and activated its Formation.
He shut the door and sat cross-legged inside.
He glanced at the panel.
Origin Returning Art (Perfected 39986/40000)
He closed his eyes and settled his mind.
Again and again, he circulated the Origin Returning Art.
Origin Returning Art proficiency +10 Origin Returning Art proficiency +10
After circulating it for only two cycles, he felt the True Qi in his body begin to change.
Some of it gathered in one spot in his dantian, growing denser and denser.
Drip!
A crystal-clear droplet appeared in his dantian, and only then did the surrounding True Qi disperse.
He sank his awareness into the void within his body and sensed the Heart of the Rain Curtain Secret Realm. His whole body vanished silently from the room.
"Are you ready to break through to the True Essence Condensation Realm?"
Yun Tianqing appeared beside him and asked.
"Yes, Master!"
"Then come with me."
With that, he led Chen Qinglin into a secret chamber. Yun Tianqing activated the Formation, and a vast amount of spiritual energy surged into the room, filling it with layer upon layer of white mist.
"Break through here," Yun Tianqing said.
"Thank you, Master."
Chen Qinglin sat down and recalled the key points Yun Tianqing had explained earlier about breaking through to the True Essence Condensation Realm.
Seeing this, Yun Tianqing disappeared from the spot,
leaving Chen Qinglin alone in the secret chamber.
Before long, a tremendous force of attraction emanated from Chen Qinglin, and the spiritual mist quickly engulfed him.
Just as Chen Qinglin was breaking through to the True Essence Condensation Realm,
beyond the True Spirit World, within a world somewhere in the void...
Atop the highest peak in that world, dark red clouds shrouded the summit.
A domineering demonic silhouette flickered in and out of the black clouds.
"Zhan Wushuang, you think you've won?"
"Every intelligent species harbors endless darkness in its heart. Not everyone is like you."
"Even you have a dark side in your heart."
"By my command, have our people hidden within the True Spirit World secretly search for news of those who have had many fortuitous encounters and risen rapidly from this moment onward."
"Send the information back to the Demon Realm, and amplify the darkness in these people's hearts."
"Yes, Devil Master!"
"It's not over yet. The outcome is still undecided, Zhan Wushuang..." The towering demonic shadow murmured to itself, then disappeared into the demonic clouds...
This was a vast world, much like the True Spirit World in its primeval age, with enormous figures appearing everywhere.
Cities stood enclosed among the mountains. In the nearby forests, human corpses hung from the trees like slabs of dried meat.
Somewhere in the world, a place looked like a celestial paradise.
Far below it, buried at an unknowable depth, a pair of blood-red eyes opened, and a strange sound echoed through the darkness.
Then the blood-red eyes closed, and the depths of the earth sank back into darkness and stillness.
Meanwhile, the creatures in the celestial paradise above grew busy.
At the same time, the demons and devils hidden in the shadows of the True Spirit World began to take different actions...
Before you continue