Ling Luocheng kept her word. Early the next morning, she took Huo Chen to the Inner Court training grounds.
At the time, Ma Xiaotao was doing her morning exercises. Her fiery red figure darted and leaped across the training ground, the wind from her punches stirring scorching waves of air that could be felt even from far away.
When she saw Huo Chen and Ling Luocheng walking over side by side, she withdrew her stance, picked up the towel draped over the railing, and wiped away her sweat. Her gaze swept between the two of them, and a teasing smile habitually curled across her lips.
"Well, well. What made you willing to bring your precious student to my turf today?"
Looking at Huo Chen, she teased him as usual. "Don't you normally keep him hidden away in the Frost Cultivation Room, as if you're afraid someone will steal him away? Uh?"
She stopped halfway through. Ling Luocheng had stepped forward and linked her arm through Huo Chen's.
The gesture was natural, her expression calm, as though she had done it countless times before.
She lifted her head to look at Ma Xiaotao, her tone as flat as if she were commenting on the day's weather. "Xiaotao, Huo Chen and I are together."
Ma Xiaotao's towel froze in midair. She looked at the hand Ling Luocheng had wrapped around Huo Chen's arm, then at Ling Luocheng's expressionless face, then lowered her gaze to that hand again. Slowly, she lowered the towel, took a deep breath, and gradually let it out.
"You really are something, Ling Luocheng." She gritted her teeth, but her eyes and brows were full of amusement.
"I told you two to spend more time together. I didn't tell you to spend so much time together that you'd take