I Don't Want to Be a Little Brother

Xue Qinghe looked at the giant dragon, her hand unconsciously tightening as even her Angel martial soul seemed to tremble.

That pure, almost sacred pressure left her temporarily speechless.

Zhang Fei withdrew his martial soul at the right moment. The golden dragon phantom dissolved into specks of golden light in the air, and the pressure in the study faded with it, restoring the room's normal atmosphere.

Xue Qinghe slowly let out a breath. Her gaze at Zhang Fei was filled with undisguised shock and delight.

She stepped around the desk and walked up to Zhang Fei, gently patting his shoulder. Her tone was full of gratification. "Xiaofei, you truly are... unbelievably lucky. The Golden Python actually succeeded in transforming into a dragon. You wouldn't find a second stroke of fortune like this anywhere on the entire continent."

Zhang Fei scratched the back of his head and chuckled. "I don't know what happened either."

Xue Qinghe rose to her feet and turned to She Long and Porcupinefish Douluo. "Uncle She, Uncle Ci, the two of you must give Xiaofei your all in his training from now on. There can't be the slightest slack. You must make sure he realizes this talent of his."

She Long and Porcupinefish exchanged a glance, then cupped their hands in salute together. "Yes, Young Master."

Standing to one side, Zhang Fei looked at Qian Renxue's serious face, and his feelings suddenly became complicated. Shouldn't I have hidden it from her? Did I do something wrong? But it was already done, so he could only keep going.

"All right." Xue Qinghe resumed her gentle smile. "Xiaofei, go take a bath and change your clothes first. Come join me for dinner later, and tell me about what you saw during this soul hunt."

"Okay, then I'll head back first."

With that, Zhang Fei returned to his room.

Zhang Fei had thought that once he returned to the Crown Prince's Residence, he could continue living the heavenly life of eating, sleeping, sleeping, eating, training now and then, and teasing Qian Renxue whenever he had time.

He had completely miscalculated. Catastrophically so.

Starting from the second day after his return to the Crown Prince's Residence, his good days officially came to an end.

Early in the morning, before dawn had fully broken, Zhang Fei was still having a sweet dream when his door was kicked open with a bang.

Without a word, She Long yanked him out of his blankets and tossed him into the rear courtyard's training grounds. "Run fifty laps first! Warm up!"

He even had a bamboo whip of unknown origin in his hand.

Zhang Fei lay sprawled on the ground, still half-asleep, his mind a muddled mess.

Before he could utter a single complaint, the bamboo whip in She Long's hand swept toward him.

With a crisp smack, the bamboo whip landed heavily on his backside. The old man was really hitting him!

Zhang Fei howled and sprang off the ground. His drowsiness was instantly whipped straight to the heavens.

"Awake now? If you are, start running!"

"I'm awake, I'm awake, I'm awake!" Zhang Fei scrambled to his feet and took off running.

She Long stood in the middle of the training grounds, watching him like a guardian deity.

Every time Zhang Fei passed him after completing a lap, She Long called out the count and added a comment.

"Take bigger strides!"

"Swing your arms!"

"You're already panting after only three laps?"

By the time he finished fifty laps, Zhang Fei felt as if his legs no longer belonged to him.

But before he could catch his breath twice, She Long handed him breakfast and urged, "Eat quickly. Continue after you finish."

The breakfast was quite nutritious, with all the soul beast meat he could eat, along with all sorts of pastries and fruit.

Yet every time Zhang Fei ate, he wanted to cry. His heart was bitter!

Next came an entire morning of strength training.

Strength training meant lifting stone locks. There were stone locks of every weight, and he lifted them over and over again countless times throughout the morning.

When his arms grew sore, he switched to squats. Once he could no longer squat, he returned to lifting stone locks.

The entire morning passed in this repeated torment.

Then came afternoon sparring practice—and it was sparring against Titled Douluo.

Couldn't they just call it a beating? Why dress it up as combat training?

Zhang Fei was basically beaten all over the training grounds. Worse still, She Long and Ci Xue occasionally gave him a mixed doubles beating.

By the time training ended, he was sprawled on the ground, too lazy to move even a finger.

Fortunately, after every training session, She Long and Ci Xue prepared a huge steaming barrel of medicinal bathwater for him.

Who knew what formula those medicinal baths used? Some were black, some red, some green, and none were the same from day to day.

But once he soaked in them, his whole body warmed from head to toe. His aching muscles swiftly relaxed under the soothing medicinal power.

Coupled with the fact that Zhang Fei's body, tempered by ice and fire, already recovered far faster than ordinary people, half an hour in the bath was enough to completely dispel his fatigue.

After the medicinal bath, he would feel refreshed. Once he finished dinner, night had completely fallen. It was time for meditation training.

Zhang Fei sat cross-legged on his bed to cultivate until he finally fell asleep late at night, only to wake up the next morning and continue getting beaten.

Every day was this painful cycle.

From morning to night, he did not have even the time it took for an incense stick to burn truly free.

Zhang Fei regretted it so badly.

If he had known this was the treatment he would receive, he should have made a fuss about going to Spirit Hall Junior Academy back then.

The academy might have been strict too, but how could it possibly compare to this? Two Titled Douluo taking turns training him to death day and night?

I regret it! I want to go to school!

Zhang Fei let out a silent cry from the depths of his heart.

I promise I'll go to school obediently and never skip class. I promise I'll listen carefully and never cause trouble. Just let me get away from these two demons!

Of course, he only dared to shout those words in his heart. If he actually said them aloud, he would probably be beaten even worse.

Thankfully, Zhang Fei was fairly quick-witted. He had finally found himself an "escape route."

Whenever the training became too brutal and he truly could not endure any longer, he would find the right opportunity to run to Xue Qinghe's study.

She Long still had some reservations about Xue Qinghe.

"Your Highness!" The moment Zhang Fei entered the study, he rushed straight to the desk, grabbed Xue Qinghe's arm, and refused to let go. "Can you let me rest for a while? I'm practically falling apart."

"All right, all right, rest for a while." Whenever Xue Qinghe was in the study, she always allowed Zhang Fei to rest for a bit, her tone exceedingly indulgent.

Xue Qinghe was rather busy, however, and was often away from the residence.

Still, Xue Qinghe's affection for Zhang Fei grew by the day.

In the past, she had only kept Zhang Fei within the Crown Prince's Residence and never allowed him to show his face before outsiders, fearing that unforeseen complications might arise.

Since witnessing Zhang Fei's talent, along with his increasingly outstanding looks, subtle changes had begun to take place in Xue Qinghe's thoughts.

She no longer avoided taking Zhang Fei out in public. When attending banquets, she occasionally brought him along, holding his hand as they walked among the guests, her soft, warm palm enveloping his little hand.

Xue Qinghe told everyone that Zhang Fei was an orphan she had adopted and cared for as if he were her younger brother.

The nobles of all ranks in Heaven Dou City also came to know that there was such a handsome little boy in the Crown Prince's Residence. Though no one knew his true origins, whenever they met him, they politely addressed him as "Young Master Xiaofei."

Only Zhang Fei muttered silently to himself, We've held hands, and we've hugged. I refuse to be a little brother.

Of course, Xue Qinghe likely had her own selfish motives as well. Since Zhang Fei's relationship with her had already been exposed, even if Papal Hall learned of Zhang Fei's talent, they would be unable to forcibly take him away. Zhang Fei could only remain by her side.