After saying that, before Ma Hongjun could react and ask more, Xiao Qing lay down on the bed without even changing out of his clothes and closed his eyes.
Several days of staying alert in Sunset Forest, the jostling journey back, and all the things he had to think through and deal with after returning had left him mentally exhausted.
He needed to rest and save his energy for haggling with Flender tomorrow about expanding the dormitory, as well as for his training plans afterward.
Whether Ma Hongjun believed him or went to find Oscar was their own business. He had already given him the information and pointed him in the right direction. What Ma Hongjun chose to do was up to him.
If Ma Hongjun truly wanted to change, Xiao Qing would be glad to see it. After all, no one could say what the future held, and one more friend meant one more path.
Ma Hongjun froze. His tiny eyes widened on his round face as he stared at Xiao Qing, who had already lain down and seemed ready to sleep.
"Evil Fire... Oscar has a way to deal with it?"
He murmured the words again, then disbelief and desperate joy welled up across his face. The Evil Fire that had plagued him for years, making him feel inferior and too embarrassed to speak of it, actually had a solution beyond visiting brothels? And the solution came from Oscar, a food-type spirit master?
When all was said and done, Ma Hongjun was still a boy of just over eight. Seeing that none of the children his age had to visit such disreputable places made him feel inferior.
He immediately wanted to rush over and shake Xiao Qing awake to get the whole story, but when he saw Xiao Qing's unapproachable air and his posture, which made it clear he had already settled down to rest, he forcibly stopped himself.
After a few encounters, Ma Hongjun had gotten a rough sense of Xiao Qing's character: he meant what he said and acted decisively.
He fidgeted on the bed, shifting around several times as he repeatedly glanced toward the door, anxiously waiting for Oscar to return.
Dai Mubai saw it all, and his displeasure deepened.
Xiao Qing had not only rejected his "kind offer," but had turned around and said all that to Ma Hongjun. It made Dai Mubai feel as if Xiao Qing were subtly excluding and targeting him.
The reason Dai Mubai had invited Xiao Qing in the first place was to establish himself as the leader among them.
He had never expected Xiao Qing to have no interest in visiting brothels and, with ease, to steal away Ma Hongjun, who had been ready to follow him.
At that thought, Dai Mubai gave a cold snort and fell silent. The atmosphere in the room grew heavy.
About half an hour later, footsteps sounded outside, followed by Oscar's farewells to Zhao Wuji.
Then the dormitory door opened, and Oscar came in, excitement and exhaustion mingling on his face.
Before he had even taken in the room, Ma Hongjun sprang up from the bed, rushed over, grabbed his arm, and asked urgently:
"Oscar! Oscar! Xiao Qing said you have a way to deal with my Evil Fire. Is it true? What is it? Tell me!"
Oscar was startled by Ma Hongjun's sudden excitement. Then he noticed Xiao Qing lying on the bed with his eyes closed, seemingly resting, and Dai Mubai looking rather displeased, and immediately understood.
He scratched his head, a little embarrassed, but even happier to have been acknowledged and to be able to help a friend. "My second Soul Skill, Clear Heart Sausage, has a calming effect."
"Xiao Qing said your Evil Fire makes your emotions agitated and your mind unsettled when it flares up. If my sausage can help, you might be able to calm down, or at least ease it a little, so you don't have to go to, go to that kind of place every time."
Oscar had been Ma Hongjun's roommate for a long time, so he naturally knew Ma Hongjun had to visit brothels to deal with his Evil Fire.
He explained the Clear Heart Sausage's effects and duration in detail, then made one on the spot and handed it to Ma Hongjun.
"You can try eating one when you feel it starting. But this only treats the symptoms, not the root cause. Xiao Qing also said that a real solution might require some other opportunity. Still, it should help you keep it under control day to day."
Ma Hongjun took the sausage, which gave off a cool, soothing aura. Just smelling the Clear Heart Sausage seemed to calm the Evil Fire within him a little.
For the first time, relief and profound gratitude showed on Ma Hongjun's round face.
He clapped Oscar hard on the shoulder, then turned to look at Xiao Qing, who seemed to have fallen asleep. His lips moved, but in the end he did not disturb him. He simply put the Clear Heart Sausage away with care.
Then he turned to Dai Mubai, whose expression kept shifting, straightened his chest, and spoke with a lightness and resolve he had never shown before:
"Boss Dai, I'm not going tonight. And I might go less often from now on, too. I figure the money I'd spend there would be better used on good food, or saved up. Maybe one day I can marry a proper wife."
Dai Mubai looked at the hope for the future in Ma Hongjun's eyes, then at Xiao Qing, who had already gone to sleep, and Oscar, who was grinning foolishly.
In the end, he merely snorted through his nose, turned over to face the wall, and said nothing more.
The only sounds in the room were Ma Hongjun excitedly asking Oscar about the Clear Heart Sausage in a low voice and Xiao Qing's steady, even breathing.
At dawn the next day, while the sky was still dim, Ma Hongjun woke up.
He did not laze in bed as he usually did. Instead, he quickly sat cross-legged and carefully took the Clear Heart Sausage Oscar had given him the day before from beside his pillow. He studied it for a few seconds, took a deep breath, and swallowed the whole sausage in a few bites.
Once it reached his stomach, a cool, gentle current did not linger there for long. It quickly rose to his head and spread out.
Ma Hongjun felt as if he had drunk a bowl of mint water. The coolness rushed straight to the top of his head, gently soothing the emotional agitation and surging blood and energy that had come from the Evil Fire's restlessness in recent days.
The evil thoughts in his heart gradually faded, and Ma Hongjun's mind grew as calm as still water. While the effect lasted, he immediately began to meditate and cultivate.
Half an hour later, the Clear Heart Sausage wore off, and Ma Hongjun ended his meditation.
He tried circulating his Soul Power. It still carried the characteristic heat of the Evil Fire, but the earlier frenzy and difficulty controlling it had lessened considerably.
He focused and tried guiding a wisp of Soul Power to gather at his fingertip. A tiny cluster of crimson flames sprang to life, its flickering far steadier than before.
It worked! It really worked!
Ma Hongjun was overjoyed, his round face turning slightly red with excitement.
He could feel that the Evil Fire had not been eliminated. Its scorching power still flowed through him, but the Clear Heart Sausage let him observe and feel it more calmly, and even try to guide it instead of being driven by instinct.
Though the cool sensation had long since vanished and the familiar heat had returned, Ma Hongjun was not discouraged. He was even more excited.
He now clearly understood just how much the Clear Heart Sausage had changed things.
From then on, while the Clear Heart Sausage was in effect, he could cultivate normally without having to stop, and without having to run off to that kind of place—which always left him feeling empty and vaguely inferior afterward.
"From now on, I'll ask Oscar for one every day. Then I won't have to suffer the pain of the Evil Fire acting up!"
Ma Hongjun murmured to himself, his eyes shining with a light he had never shown before. He hopped out of bed with a spring in his step unlike anything he had ever felt.
When he saw Xiao Qing returning from his morning exercises, he hurried over, his face wreathed in a grateful smile. "Xiao Qing! Xiao Qing! Oscar's Clear Heart Sausage is amazing! I tried it this morning, and it really can suppress the Evil Fire!"
Xiao Qing was wiping his face with clean water, though there was no sweat on it. At this, he merely nodded and replied calmly, "Good that it works. But it's only an aid. The key is improving your control over your own flames."
"Control? Why do I have to control the Evil Fire? With Oscar's Clear Heart Sausage, I don't have to worry about it flaring up at all!"
Simple-minded Ma Hongjun did not understand yet. In his view, with Oscar's Clear Heart Sausage around, why go to all that trouble to do anything else?
Before you continue