Little Witch

"Jiang Chen, you're not messing with me on purpose, are you?"

Ning Rongrong eyed him suspiciously.

"Messing with you?"

Jiang Chen folded his arms and smiled. "Why would you think that? We have no grudge against each other. We've only met a few times. At most, we're friends."

"Whether you finish or improve makes no difference to me."

"You..."

Ning Rongrong opened her mouth, but she couldn't find a way to argue.

She didn't know why, but hearing Jiang Chen say they were friends at most left her chest feeling tight.

Jiang Chen ignored her expression and drove the point home.

"Besides, if you want to learn how to fight, your body has to handle some basic exercise first. Otherwise, you'll throw a punch, your opponent won't feel a thing, and you'll be the one with a sore hand. That would be a joke."

Ning Rongrong glared at him for a while, cheeks puffed out. "Fine, I'll run! You think I'm scared?"

She took a deep breath, lifted her skirt, and charged onto the dirt track.

The first two laps were easy enough. Ning Rongrong even found time to look back and lift her chin at Jiang Chen.

By the fourth lap, though, her steps had grown heavy and her breathing ragged.

On the seventh, her cheeks were flushed, loose strands of hair stuck to her sweaty forehead, and every step felt like dragging a sandbag.

"I... I can't..."

Halfway through the eighth lap, Ning Rongrong could only walk slowly with a hand on her waist. Her lungs felt ready to burst.

"Didn't you say you'd trained before? Giving up already?"

Jiang Chen had appeared beside her at some point, a teasing smile on his face. "Do you know Xiao Wu?"

Ning Rongrong stammered between gasps, "Wh-what about Xiao Wu?"

"Nothing. It's just that when Xiao Wu was seven, she could run fifteen laps in an hour."

Ning Rongrong nearly choked on her next breath. She glared at him, panting hard.

"S-seven years old... Fifteen laps in an hour?! Who are you trying to fool?"

Jiang Chen didn't answer. He only chuckled.

But to Ning Rongrong, that chuckle grated on her ears.

Heat rushed to her head. Somehow, she found the strength to grit her teeth and start running again.

"Oh? You've still got energy? I thought you were about to quit."

"Well, don't force yourself if you can't do it. You're the princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. There's no shame in admitting you can't run ten laps."

Jiang Chen's low voice rang in her ears. With every word, Ning Rongrong's blood boiled a little more.

"Just... just you wait!"

She issued the threat between gasps. "When I finish... I'm going to... hit..."

Jiang Chen followed leisurely at her side. "Sure. If you can finish without stopping, I'll stand still and let you hit me three times."

For a pampered young lady like her, simply forcing her wouldn't work. He had to strike at her tender pride.

Only by targeting that pride could he stir her determination.

It was something Jiang Chen had learned from Tang San.

On the ninth lap, Ning Rongrong's legs no longer felt like her own. Lifting either one was like pulling a radish from the mud.

She had barely begun the tenth lap when her vision blurred. Yet Jiang Chen's voice still drifted into her ears.

"Give up if you can't do it. No one's forcing you. There's no shame in quitting."

Ning Rongrong didn't even have the strength to glare at him. She moved forward almost on instinct.

At last, she crossed the finish line. Her legs gave way, and she started to sink to the ground.

Jiang Chen reacted instantly, catching her by the shoulders just before she fell. He held his other hand a little way behind her back.

The Glazed Green Lotus glowed blue-green, and a soft emerald light flowed into her body.

Warmth enveloped Ning Rongrong. Her aching muscles quickly relaxed, and her nearly depleted strength returned just as fast.

Once she had caught her breath, the first thing she did was raise a limp fist and thump Jiang Chen's chest.

"You... you have to keep your word... Stand still... and let me hit you three times..."

Jiang Chen neither dodged nor blocked, letting her feeble punch land. "Of course. Though that felt more like a tickle."

"Don't look down on me!"

Ning Rongrong puffed out her cheeks and hit him twice more. But she still couldn't put any strength into it. The blows were so light they looked more like playful flirting between lovers.

She knew she had no strength left, so she leaned against his arm. "I'm exhausted... This training is inhuman."

"Ten laps were enough to finish you off?"

Jiang Chen withdrew the Green Lotus and raised an eyebrow. "We'll add five laps every day from now on."

"You..."

Ning Rongrong was about to curse him when a water bottle stopped her mouth.

She gulped down several mouthfuls and finally caught her breath.

Jiang Chen patted her head. "Not bad for your first time. At least you didn't quit halfway. Keep it up."

Ning Rongrong meant to glare at him, but the corners of her mouth lifted on their own. "Of course... I'm amazing."

Jiang Chen smiled and didn't argue.

The more she bragged now, the better. If she wanted to quit later, she would have to remember what she'd said today.

After resting a while, Ning Rongrong felt her strength had mostly returned. She was about to get up and go back for a bath when Jiang Chen stopped her.

"Physical training's done. Now let's train your mental strength."

Jiang Chen crouched in front of her, bringing his eyes level with hers. His bright golden eyes held her gaze.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

Ning Rongrong's heart gave an inexplicable flutter under that golden gaze. She instinctively tried to look away.

"Don't turn away. Look into my eyes."

At his words, Ning Rongrong met his gaze without thinking.

In an instant, the scene before her seemed to waver.

A phantom Green Lotus seemed to bloom deep within Jiang Chen's pupils. As its petals slowly turned, an invisible thread appeared to draw in her consciousness, and she sank into it against her will.

"What... what did you do to me?"

Ning Rongrong could barely stay alert. It felt as though her head had been stuffed with cotton.

"Relax. Don't resist."

Jiang Chen's voice was steady. "Use your mental strength to follow the shifting light and shadows in my eyes. If you can last ten breaths without getting dizzy, you pass."

"Ten breaths? Who are you looking down on?"

Ning Rongrong widened her eyes in defiance and struggled to focus.

But the phantom Green Lotus in his golden eyes flickered, sometimes becoming streams of light that swirled together, sometimes scattering into tiny specks. The longer she looked, the dizzier she became.

After barely three breaths, the world spun around her. Her legs buckled, and she nearly toppled over.

Jiang Chen caught her by the shoulders and mocked her without mercy. "That's all you can take? You're the young lady of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, yet your mental strength is this weak?"

"It's not! You're the one who..."

Ning Rongrong tried to argue, but Jiang Chen cut her off with a question.

"Tell me one thing. How far have you progressed in the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's Mind-Splitting Secret Art?"

"How do you know about that?" Ning Rongrong looked astonished.

The Mind-Splitting Secret Art was a secret of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, never taught to outsiders. Mastering it to its peak could grant one the Seven-Orifice Wishful Heart.

"Answer my question."

"Well..."

Ning Rongrong hesitated. "The third level, I think."