"Sigh, Sister Xin, you'd better not listen. Bad luck is contagious." Xu Qing shook his head, too lazy to repeat those pointless words.
Xu Xin didn't ask any more questions. Instead, she reminded him again, "They might come bother you again, so be careful."
"Mm. I'll just ignore them," Xu Qing said with a shrug.
Before long, it was already mid-January, and the first semester was nearly over.
The weather had turned chilly, and the students had started bundling up in thick clothes and scarves.
"Xiao Qing, don't go home for winter break. Stay at my place, okay?" Qin Lin said, walking alongside Xu Qing with their hands clasped together.
They had only just started dating and were still in the honeymoon phase, so naturally she didn't want to be apart from him.
"I can't. The semester's over, so I definitely have to go back to the Xu Family. Otherwise, how would Sister Xin explain it if she were all alone? Once I've spent the Spring Festival at home, I can come see you," Xu Qing said.
"Fine," Qin Lin replied helplessly. She wanted to be with Xu Qing every day too, but she couldn't rush things.
"Hehe, you're already a grown woman, so why are you still so clingy?" Xu Qing teased her with a laugh.
He wasn't nearly that clingy.
"Of course I am. I finally found someone I love, so naturally I don't want him out of my sight for even a second." Qin Lin held his hand tighter, her gaze tender.
"It's not that serious. Do you think I'm going to run away? Don't worry, I won't. I'll take responsibility for you for the rest of my life," Xu Qing said with a cheeky grin.
"You said it. From now on, you're mine."
"Oh, wow, so domineering! That should be my line, you know. You're supposed to say, 'From now on, I'm sticking with you.' All right, let's try that again..."
With the final exams over, the first semester came to an end.
"Sister Xin, let's go home," Xu Qing called, his bag on his back.
Xu Xin looked at him and teased, "Won't you miss Teacher Qin?"
"Of course she'll miss me. We'll only be apart for a little while, and I can go see her when the time comes." Xu Qing grinned.
"Mm, then let's go. The car's here," Xu Xin said with a smile and a nod.
It was clear that Xu Qing and Teacher Qin had a sweet relationship and knew how to keep things at a sensible pace. It was nice to see.
Xu Xin and Xu Qing reached the school gate, where a luxury car was already waiting.
They got in, and soon the car disappeared down the road.
After returning to the Xu Family, Xu Qing and Xu Xin went to see their elders and tell them about life at school.
Afterward, Xu Qing headed to the target range in the back courtyard.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Metal arrows shot one after another, easily piercing the Kro Alloy wall five hundred meters away.
"Huh? Xiao Qing, you've gotten stronger again," Xu Xin said in surprise.
She remembered that before, when Xu Qing used these bows, his arrows had only embedded themselves in the wall instead of piercing straight through it.
"Seems like it," Xu Qing said, realizing that he had gotten much stronger.
He hadn't really paid attention while he was at school.
"Xiao Qing, did you train while you were at school?" Xu Xin asked. She hadn't expected him to be so diligent.
"Uh... no." Xu Qing scratched his head awkwardly. He hadn't trained at all. Even the Guidance Technique Xu Xin had bought for him was still lying in his desk, practically brand-new.
Seeing how embarrassed Xu Qing looked, Xu Xin immediately figured it out. "Xiao Qing, have you seriously never trained? You haven't even looked at the Guidance Technique I bought you?"
"Um... yeah." Xu Qing lowered his bow and nervously poked his fingers together.
How should he put it? He kept forgetting about it. Sometimes he'd suddenly remember that the Guidance Technique was at home, only to forget again a few minutes later.
He really hadn't been taking training seriously at all, because... he was lazy.
Xu Xin couldn't help laughing in exasperation. Who would've thought that her silly little brother had become a Warrior without ever training?
In other words, up until now, he had gained all his strength by constantly releasing the Spiritual Force in his sea of consciousness. His improvement had been entirely passive.
"Honestly, Xiao Qing, you can't slack off this much. You're a Warrior now, at the very least. How can you not even know how to train?" Xu Xin lightly poked him on the forehead.
"Mm-hmm, you're right, Sister Xin." Xu Qing nodded vigorously, being as obedient as could be.
Pfft... "Of course I'm right, you little lazybones." Xu Xin laughed aloud. He'd said he'd grown up, but apparently he was still the same as ever.
"But your situation seems a little unusual, Xiao Qing. Normally, a Spirit Controller's Spiritual Force is released from their sea of consciousness only after their physical fitness improves, because the body is the vessel that carries the Spiritual Force."
"But you've never trained, aside from exercising a little, and yet the Spiritual Force in your sea of consciousness has kept releasing, actually improving your physical fitness in turn."
"The whole process is incredibly gentle. It's a little unbelievable," Xu Xin mused.
Xu Qing's situation was completely different from that of other Spirit Controllers. The process was happening in reverse.
"This should be a good thing, right? Maybe I've even reached War General Level by now," Xu Qing said with a grin.
Xu Xin glanced at him. "It's not that easy. Breaking through from Fighter to War General is very difficult, and it takes extremely high physical fitness. Putting Spiritual Force aside, you haven't trained at all. There's basically no chance you can reach War General Level just through your physical fitness."
"I see. Then if I start training now, I should be able to break through to War General Level pretty quickly, right?" Xu Qing said after thinking it over.
Xu Xin said nothing. She just stared at him.
Her eyes seemed to say, Let's see you train, then. Don't just stand here talking. Go do it.
Meeting her gaze, Xu Qing felt a little embarrassed. "I know, I'll train. I really mean it this time."
"I'll believe you this once. Teacher Qin is a Warrior too, and she's even a War General. You can ask her to teach you when you see her. That'll help you get started faster. I heard that the first time you train, your strength can make a huge leap," Xu Xin suggested.
"Okay. I'll ask her to teach me the next time I go see her," Xu Qing said with a nod.
"Mm. If you dare brush me off again this time, I'll spank you. Got it?" Xu Xin pinched his cheek.
Xu Qing's face flushed with embarrassment. "Got it."
That day, Xu Xin and Xu Qing went to the Alliance Mall.
"Come on, Xiao Qing. Let's see how much your basic strength and speed have increased," Xu Xin said.
Xu Qing nodded, then took the two tests one after the other.
Strength: 6,241 kg. Speed: 81.3 meters per second.
"Not bad. It's only been half a year, and your strength and speed have gone up by nearly half. You're getting closer and closer to Junior War General," Xu Xin said with satisfaction, a little surprised.
Xu Qing was probably the only person whose strength kept increasing even without training.
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