Night fell quietly. Moonlight streamed through the gap in the curtains, laying a silvery band of light across the dormitory floor.
Li Changqing still sat cross-legged on his bed, his eyes tightly closed.
The Taiji Diagram behind him rotated slowly, radiating a gentle yet profound glow.
The yin and yang energies wound around him like two swimming fish. With every cycle, his aura grew a little more steady.
Neither Jiang Nannan nor Ye Guyi came to disturb him.
They knew that what Li Changqing needed most now was quiet recuperation so he could recover from his injuries as soon as possible.
The dormitory was so quiet that only the two girls' steady breathing could be heard.
Wang Dong sat on her own bed but did not lie down to sleep.
Her hands braced against the edge of the bed as she stared without blinking at the boy across from her, who was meditating with his eyes closed.
More precisely, her gaze was fixed on the slowly rotating black-and-white pattern behind him.
Those beautiful eyes were full of curiosity and confusion.
For some reason, as she watched that Taiji Diagram, she felt inexplicably drawn to it.
What surprised her even more was that the Soul Power within her began circulating on its own, beyond her control. It was as though some invisible force was guiding it, and its rhythm gradually synchronized with the rotation of the Taiji Diagram.
Was this... right?
Wang Dong felt uncertain and alarmed.
She had never encountered anything like this before.
Someone else's martial soul aura had actually triggered the Soul Power inside her to circulate by itself.
It was simply unheard of.
After a brief moment of shock and thought, she gritted her teeth. Since that was the case, she sat cross-legged as well, closed her eyes, and summoned her Light Goddess Butterfly martial soul.
A phantom of blue-gold butterfly wings gently spread behind her, giving off a soft glow.
At that moment, she clearly felt the profound aura emanating from Li Changqing as though it had found a passage. Through some invisible connection, it slowly flowed into her body.
Guided by that aura, her Soul Power circulated nearly twice as fast as usual!
Wang Dong was both shocked and delighted.
What kind of martial soul was this?
Could it actually help others cultivate faster?
Suppressing her excitement, she quickly calmed her mind, seized this rare opportunity, and circulated her Soul Power with all her strength, entering a deep state of cultivation.
When Li Changqing slowly opened his eyes, the sky outside had already brightened.
Morning light streamed in through the window, making the entire dormitory bright and warm.
He gently exhaled a breath of stale air. He could feel that his injuries had recovered seventy to eighty percent, while his Soul Power had become several degrees more solid than before.
That was all thanks to the Life Goddess's inheritance.
Otherwise, it might have taken him quite some time to recover.
He withdrew the Taiji Diagram behind him, rose from the bed, and stretched his somewhat stiff body.
Glancing across the room, he discovered that Wang Dong was still cultivating.
Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was steady and deep. She was clearly in a state of deep cultivation.
The phantom of the Light Goddess Butterfly behind her spread its wings slightly, emitting a faint blue-gold radiance. It looked a little more solid than it had yesterday.
Seeing this, Li Changqing was somewhat puzzled.
As far as he knew, although Wang Dong was quite talented, she was extremely lazy and disliked cultivation.
Otherwise, when she enrolled at the academy at the age of twelve, her Soul Power would not have been lower than Tang San and Xiao Wu's had been at that age.
Of course, he was only mildly curious. Once he came back to himself, he pushed open the dormitory door and walked outside.
The morning air at Shrek Academy was exceptionally fresh.
Following the tree-lined path, he slowly made his way to the shore of Sea God Lake.
Sea God Lake in the morning was as beautiful as an ink-wash painting.
The lake surface was as still as a mirror, reflecting the blue sky, white clouds, and lush trees lining the shore.
The rising sun climbed over the eastern horizon, casting golden light across the lake. As the breeze brushed over it, ripples shimmered like countless fragments of gold dancing upon the water.
Li Changqing sat down on the grass by the lake. Though he looked upon the tranquil beauty before him, his heart was nowhere near as calm as he appeared.
He was thinking.
Thinking about this encounter, the Holy Spirit Cult's movements, the direction of this era, and the path he should take next.
If the Taiji Diagram had not possessed the ability to distort space, and if not for the support of Life and Destruction's divine powers, he might really have fallen there that day.
It seemed the Holy Spirit Cult did not simply leave these so-called geniuses to grow on their own.
Just then, a familiar figure approached from nearby.
Huo Yuhao wore a neat academy uniform and looked far more spirited than when he had first enrolled.
When he saw Li Changqing sitting by the lake, his eyes brightened slightly. He hurried over and respectfully greeted him. "Senior, so you were here! Senior Brother Bei Bei has been looking for you."
Li Changqing glanced at him, the corner of his mouth curling into a faintly amused smile. "He's looking for me? Isn't he busy dating his little girlfriend? What does he need me for?"
Huo Yuhao froze at first. Then his pupils contracted slightly, as though he had understood something.
Yet his face showed a trace of confusion as he cautiously probed, "Senior... aren't they teacher and disciple? Why would you say that?"
Li Changqing chuckled but did not expose it. Instead, he asked, "Teacher and disciple? Have you ever seen a disciple stronger than her teacher? Or have you ever seen a teacher and disciple interact the way they do?"
Huo Yuhao opened his mouth, wanting to argue, only to realize that things really did seem as Li Changqing said.
The way Bei Bei and Tang Ya interacted truly did not resemble a traditional teacher-disciple relationship. It was more like a couple.
Then why did he call her Teacher Xiao Ya all day long?
Were they really playing that wild?
He gave an awkward laugh and scratched the back of his head, at a complete loss.
Just then, a cold yet crisp voice suddenly rang out in his Spiritual Sea:
"Yuhao, get a little closer to him. I can sense a very mysterious aura on that boy."
The speaker was none other than the Ice Empress.
Ever since she had completed the contract in the Far North, the Ice Empress had remained within Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Sea and rarely took the initiative to speak.
Her sudden voice made Huo Yuhao's heart tighten.
Though he did not understand why the Ice Empress said this, he obediently asked, "Senior... may I sit down?"
Li Changqing did not turn around. His tone was casual and indifferent. "Suit yourself. This isn't my territory. Sit if you want."
Seeing that, Huo Yuhao quickly sat down beside him.
He copied Li Changqing and looked out over the sparkling lake, but all his attention was focused within his Spiritual Sea.
"Ice Empress, what did you sense?" he anxiously asked in his heart.
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