Whoosh!
Ming Yulong had left. Just as she had arrived without a sound, she soon came rushing out in a flurry.
"Miss Ming, why were you in Junior Brother's room? When did you go in?" That was Xuan Ci's voice. Although his master had dragged him away, he hadn't gone far. He had stayed by the door.
"Jiejie, just now, I made a promise with the little monk that we'd go out and have fun together," Ming Yulong replied openly.
"Uh, you went in just now?" Xuan Ci froze.
"Jiejie, I'm leaving!"
A moment later, Xuan Ci finally came to his senses and shouted, "Master! Master! Miss Ming just ran out of Junior Brother's room, and she even promised to go out and have fun with him?"
Before long, the old monk who had left came hurrying back inside. He silently looked at Li Su for a long while, then said earnestly, "Xuankong, you've always been the most sensible of my disciples. Still, I must remind you about the precept against sexual misconduct in our sect's rules. I'll explain this one carefully: those who leave the household must abstain from lust entirely. Never break this precept."
Hearing his master's anxious words, Li Su's liver ached.
He rolled his eyes at the old monk Tianming in irritation. Romance? Only a lunatic would fall in love!
This was a World Fragment, for crying out loud. Once the story ended, he would leave this world. How could he fall in love with anyone?
Li Su gave the monk Tianming an exasperated look, then closed his eyes. Training and easing his physical pain were his top priorities right now.
Uh...
Tianming was taken aback and awkwardly scratched his head.
Had his own disciple just glared at him?
Come to think of it, Xuankong had always been diligent in his cultivation. His martial arts went without saying, but he was just as serious about Buddhist studies. He'd never missed morning prayers, and his martial arts had advanced by leaps and bounds. Yet he didn't have the restlessness that Xuan Cheng and the others showed. That alone said a lot.
Well, Li Su was very afraid of dying. He had no desire whatsoever to die from qi deviation or anything of the sort.
Every time he recited the sutras, he devoted himself fully, letting the chants cleanse him and clear his mind.
So while Li Su might not have studied Buddhist teachings deeply, his state of mind wasn't bad. After all, whether Buddhism or Daoism, they were both chasing roughly the same thing. Just a bit of spiritual chicken soup—he could always gulp down a few bowls.
Sigh. Amitabha Buddha, what a sin.
Monk Tianming sighed, feeling a touch of guilt over his behavior. But what could he do?
Shaolin Temple had never encountered anything like this before, so it was no wonder he'd lost his head for a moment.
Well, this might sound a little harsh, but Shaolin Temple and youthful prodigies were practically incompatible. To be fair, Xuan Cheng could count as a prodigy, but there was one obvious problem: he wasn't exactly handsome. (Master, have some manners!)
People said the martial world revered strength above all else.
But looks mattered too, there was no getting around it!
Just look at their titles, and you'd understand.
Ming Yulong, the Mystic Maiden of Shangqing. "Mystic Maiden" came from the Yellow Emperor and the Nine Heavens Mystic Maiden.
Li Chengkong, the White-Clad Buddhist. "White-clad"—you needed a certain air about you to pull that off.
If a man was ugly, did anyone really think he'd get a title like that?
And then there were famous figures from history. Among the pair Wolong and Fengchu, Fengchu was rejected by every household because he was ugly. Even Liu Bei only gave him an official post after receiving a letter of recommendation. (Fengchu: Have some manners!)
As for this group, Xuan Ci was passable, at least. He'd even won over Ye Erniang, so he had something going for him. Aside from him, Xuan Cheng and Xuannan were either honest or wooden. Xuanji and the others all had simple, guileless faces, like farmers endlessly tilling the land for food. It wasn't that they were ugly; they just couldn't get a word out of their mouths. They were nothing to worry about.
Xuankong was the only exception.
He'd already been rather handsome, with delicate features. After cultivating the Arhat Divine Art, though, he'd become something else entirely.
He was tall and broad-shouldered. At just fourteen, he stood five foot nine, and he'd be at least six foot two when fully grown. Now that was reassuring.
With his straight brows and bright eyes, you had to admit that his eyes were especially striking. As his power grew, his gaze had become more and more unadorned, making people want to look again and again.
His bearing went without saying. His unusual state of mind gave off a comforting aura that drew people in. After all, he'd studied Buddhism, and he had an air of transcending the world while remaining rooted in it, making him seem singular and extraordinary.
And now, on top of that, he was exceptionally talented, having mastered Shaolin Temple's peerless art, the Diamond Indestructible Body, at such a young age.
Good grief, what young woman in the martial world could resist that temptation?
It was only because of the Song-Xia war that there weren't many young women around right now. If Xuankong showed his face at a martial arts tournament, heh... There was Blue Bird Xu Jing of Diancang, for instance. She hadn't come, but the old monk hadn't forgotten the way she'd looked at Xuankong after she'd recovered and seen him unconscious.
You could be talented, sure, but why did you have to be so handsome? What if people started calling him something like the Jade-Faced Divine Monk? Tsk. For the sake of Shaolin Temple's century-old reputation, once this was over, he'd have to keep Xuankong from going down the mountain for a while.
Monk Tianming drew a deep breath and turned to leave the room.
At last, the room was quiet. Li Su began adjusting his breathing and entered a meditative state.
Afternoon.
His true qi had mostly recovered, so he began repairing his body.
The damage was worse than he'd expected.
He hadn't been in peak condition for that fight to begin with. He'd been exhausted from traveling for two days and three nights, and the battle itself had lasted a little over five minutes, pushing him straight to the brink. He'd passed out, and his true qi had been completely drained.
Once his true qi recovered, Li Su immediately discovered clumps of solid matter accumulating throughout his body, filling nearly every corner. The pain that had made him convulse had come from those lumps.
He circulated his power, sending his true qi surging against the clumps and breaking them apart.
He started in the morning and worked until nightfall before he'd cleared his entire body.
Huh?
After working through his body, a look of surprise appeared on Li Su's small face. His inner power had increased.
It had more than doubled, almost matching the amount he'd gained from a full year of cultivation before.
That was truly astonishing.
A year's worth of power for Li Su was nothing like a year's worth for an ordinary martial artist. Arhat True Qi was already high-grade true qi, so a whole year's worth of it was frighteningly potent.
Was it the overwhelming terror of facing death?
Though shocked by such a dramatic increase in true qi, Li Su wasn't surprised.
After all, they'd each taken a Great Restoration Pill before leaving Shaolin Temple. Its medicinal power had been stored in their bodies, slowly being absorbed and converted into their own true qi. The desperate fight for survival must have stimulated his body, triggering all these changes.
If this happened a few more times, he'd probably absorb the Great Restoration Pill's medicinal power completely and turn it all into true qi, right?
Pah!
The moment the thought crossed his mind, Li Su couldn't help spitting. He threw it straight into the trash.
One fight like that was enough. A few more times? He'd be dying early and reincarnating sooner!
Well, the Indestructible Diamond Divine Art had progressed nicely too.
The second stage had become much easier to cultivate, probably because his true qi had grown stronger.
Judging by his current progress, he should be able to complete the second stage within a month at most.
That was good. Very good.
In his fight against that Western Xia man, Li Su had mainly relied on the external force generated by the first stage. But he'd felt the effects of the second stage too. During the battle, a thread of the enemy's blade force had pierced through his external defense. Although Li Su's meridians were exceptionally tough thanks to Arhat True Qi, and its repelling nature had pushed some of the force back out, a tiny amount had still reached his internal organs. The qi from the second stage had blocked it.
If that hadn't happened, Li Su probably wouldn't have lasted until the enemy's force ran out first. He would have collapsed from damage to his organs.
Li Su drew a deep breath, stopped cultivating the Indestructible Diamond Divine Art, and stood up. He headed out of the room.
He was hungry!
He'd barely eaten anything before, and he didn't know how long he'd been unconscious. Then he'd spent an entire day lying in bed to repair his body. If the medicinal power of the Great Restoration Pill hadn't been stored in his body, he might have starved himself unconscious.
There should still be food at this hour...
But when he opened the door, he was met with a cacophony of noise.
Footsteps, voices, and the sound of horns.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The gongs and drums rang out in a frantic beat, and the dense patter of running footsteps echoed through the area.
Li Su stared in bewilderment. What was going on?
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Xuan Ci, whom he hadn't seen for more than a day, came running over. His face was slightly flustered. The moment he saw Li Su, he shouted, "This is bad, Xuankong! The Western Xia Army has crossed Liupan Mountain and is heading toward Weizhou!"
Li Su took a deep breath, his little face darkening.
Damn it, were they really not going to let him have a moment's peace?