My Courage Is Small!

My Courage Is Small! The moment his words fell, the room fell silent!

Hearing this, Shen Qinglan first froze. Reflected in her beautiful eyes was Chen An, who looked utterly ordinary yet wore a wicked smile at the corner of his lips. A faint blush quietly crept up to her ears.

"Hmph! You? Half a son-in-law, half a son?!"

Shen Qinglan gave a cold snort and folded her arms across her chest, further accentuating the graceful curves of her already exquisite figure. Her beautiful eyes glared at Chen An with bashful annoyance as she proudly lifted her chin.

"How had I never noticed that your skin was so thick?!"

"If you want to sleep with me, wait until the day you can beat me!"

Seeing the flush at her ears and her proud yet unyielding expression, the amusement in Chen An's eyes deepened.

His gaze fell openly upon her, and he teased her in a languid yet confident tone.

"Sure. You said that yourself."

Holding a bun in one hand, he leaned forward slightly and fixed his burning gaze on her. "As long as I can beat you, I'll take those words seriously from now on, right?"

"Fine! Then I'll wait for you to beat me. Or shall we do it right now?!" Shen Qinglan naturally refused to back down, looking at him with open provocation.

"Let's forget about now."

Chen An shrugged, devouring the bun in his hand in two or three bites as he said, "The county exam is tomorrow. If I fail to hold back and accidentally hurt you, wouldn't that be a sin?"

"Pfft!!~~"

Hearing Chen An's words, Shen Qinglan could not help but scoff. Naturally, she did not believe him, merely thinking that he was making excuses. She did not take it to heart, nor did she continue pressing the matter.

They had known each other for so many years and often bantered like this. Neither of them would truly take it seriously.

"Oh, right. Let me tell you—the Bai Family was wiped out last night!" Shen Qinglan suddenly said.

"Oh?!~~"

Chen An raised his brows and deliberately put on a look of surprise. "The Bai Family? Bai Yifan's Bai Family?!"

"That's right, the Bai Family of that Bai Yifan who came looking for trouble with you two days ago!"

Shen Qinglan nodded, then suddenly smacked her thigh in regret. "Ah! Didn't you say Bai Yifan was going to give you three thousand Origin Crystals to make you sever all ties with me?"

"If you'd agreed back then, wouldn't you have earned three thousand Origin Crystals for nothing?!"

"What a loss, what a huge loss!!!"

"Forget it. What are three thousand Origin Crystals compared to the bond between us?" Seeing Shen Qinglan's vexed expression, Chen An smiled and spoke with feigned indifference and easy grace.

"Silver tongue. All you know is how to sweet-talk people. I'm not falling for that!"

Shen Qinglan rolled her eyes at him, her lips feigning disdain while the corners of her eyes secretly curved upward, unable to conceal her amusement and curiosity.

Her gaze swept Chen An from head to toe as she pondered to herself. For some reason, over the past few days, she had kept feeling that Chen An was not quite the same as before.

Had this boy finally woken up?!

Sensing Shen Qinglan's strange, scrutinizing gaze, Chen An's eyes shifted slightly. Taking the opportunity to change the subject, he feigned surprise and asked, "By the way, the Bai Family was still a prominent family in the county seat. Who had the nerve to wipe out the entire Bai Family right inside the city?"

"I don't know!"

Shen Qinglan gently shook her head, a clear gravity flashing through her eyes as she said seriously, "I deliberately went to inspect the scene just now. In a single night, the Bai Family's estate, spanning over a hundred mu, was reduced entirely to ruins. And on the ground where the Bai Family's main residence stood, there was a gigantic palm print a hundred zhang across and two or three zhang deep."

After a pause, her tone grew even more solemn. "To unleash such terrifying power, the person who struck must have surpassed the Xiantian Realm long ago. At the very least, they were a Grandmaster-level powerhouse!"

What a pity. For years, the Bai Family had relied on the county commandant's influence to run wild through Wurong County, bullying the people and preying upon them like fish and meat. Who knew how many Origin Crystals, cultivation arts, and martial skills they had secretly plundered!

"Now that they've been wiped out in a single day, I heard even their treasure vault was emptied. I wonder who ultimately benefited from it?!" Shen Qinglan said, her pretty face full of regret.

Seeing Shen Qinglan's expression, the corners of Chen An's mouth rose slightly.

Naturally, he would not tell Shen Qinglan that he had destroyed the Bai Family, nor that its treasure vault had fallen into his hands.

"Forget it. This has nothing to do with you. The Bai Family had lorded it over Wurong County for years, throwing their weight around and monopolizing the markets. They had it coming!"

Shen Qinglan shook her head, then looked at Chen An and warned him, "But you—don't go wandering around at night when there's nothing to do. The authorities still haven't found the culprit behind the Bai Family incident. And with the county exam tomorrow, they'll definitely be patrolling everywhere and conducting strict inspections these next few days. Go out less and cause less trouble, understand?!"

"Mm, all right."

Chen An did not argue. He simply smiled, nodded, and said, "You know me. I'm timid. I never go out at night!"

"That's the only ambition you have!"

Seeing Chen An so calmly admit that he was timid, Shen Qinglan was both irritated and amused.

She shot him an annoyed glare, her pretty face carrying a hint of coquettish reproach. "You're quite capable when it comes to arguing with me, but the moment something serious comes up, you turn into a coward."

"Fine, it's better if you stay put. It'll save me from having to worry about you!"

"All right, I've delivered Old Yue's message. I need to go back and cultivate to prepare for tomorrow's county exam, so I won't chat with you any longer. See you tomorrow!"

As she spoke, Shen Qinglan stood up and reached out to pat Chen An on the shoulder. Then, without the slightest hesitation, she headed toward the courtyard wall outside.

She gave a slight leap, light as a swallow. Her toes tapped the wall, and in an instant she had landed atop it. Her figure flashed, and she flipped over the wall.

Watching Shen Qinglan disappear beyond the courtyard wall, Chen An could not help twitching the corner of his mouth.

That little girl never used the front door when she came to his home!

Shaking his head, Chen An withdrew his gaze from the wall and returned to the room. After thinking for a moment, he pulled out a bundle from beneath his bed.

When he opened it, more than a dozen cultivation and martial skill manuals he had scavenged from the Bai Family's treasure vault lay quietly inside.

His eyes flickered as he set eight Yellow-tier cultivation arts and martial skills aside, then began examining the remaining five Profound-tier cultivation arts and martial skills.

Of those five Profound-tier manuals, two were cultivation arts and three were martial skills.

The cultivation arts were the lower Profound-tier Profound Origin True Art and the middle Profound-tier Returning Origin Profound Art.

The martial skills were the middle Profound-tier Azure Sea Wave-Turning Palm and Flowing Cloud Thousandfold Step, along with the upper Profound-tier Sky-Piercing God-Slaying Blade.

With his current cultivation, he naturally had no need for these Profound-tier cultivation arts or martial skills.

However, his cultivation had risen too quickly, leaving some shortcomings in his martial skills. Since he did not have any Earth-tier martial skills on hand, he planned to learn some of these first. Perhaps he could use them to deduce Earth-tier martial skills later.

This was also something he had unexpectedly discovered when he previously deduced the Azure Mystery Force-Congealing Art.

When he had used the system to deduce that Earth-tier cultivation art, the profound essences of all the cultivation arts and martial skills he had practiced in the past had naturally surfaced in his mind.

The trajectories of those techniques, the methods of circulating true qi, and the rhythms of attack and defense all intertwined and merged, becoming a foundation of reference for deducing cultivation arts and helping him avoid countless detours.

Furthermore, in this Five Prefectures Joint Exam, with his current true cultivation, if he unleashed everything without holding back, he could completely crush the prodigies of his generation all the way through and sweep aside every opponent.

But displaying such sharpness would be far too conspicuous. It neither suited his personality nor the persona he had deliberately created for himself in public.

That was why he intended to master several more middle- and upper-Profound-tier martial skills. When the time came, he could use those skills in battle. He would be able to display considerable strength, make a name for himself in the joint exam, and secure a ranking without exposing too much of his true cultivation and foundation, thereby arousing suspicion.

"System!"