The first day recorded by the Eye of Destiny, Xuan Zi arranged the location in the quiet room at the back of the Inner Courtyard Training Grounds. Calling it a quiet room, it was actually more like a small martial arts hall sealed off by soul guidance arrays. The four walls were carved with patterns that isolated spiritual fluctuations, and in the center of the floor were three Soul Guidance Sensor Stones, specially used to record changes in soul power and spiritual power. Huo Yuhao stood in the middle, with Wang Dong'er on his left and Wang Qiu'er on his right. He suddenly felt that this array shouldn't be called the spiritual isolation array, but rather the Asura field sealing array.
Xuan Zi sat at the entrance and said lazily, "Don't be nervous. Just get a little closer and see if the resonance of soul power and aura that Yuhao mentioned earlier still happens."
Dong'er had already pouted disdainfully, but Qiu'er actively and enthusiastically leaned closer, and Dong'er shot Qiu'er a look with her eyes. Seeing this scene, the corners of Xuan Zi's mouth twitched, and suppressing a smile, he said, "Begin. Release your martial souls first, but keep your soul power controlled to the weakest."
The three nodded. The moment Spirit Detection unfolded, every detail in the quiet room entered his perception. Wang Dong'er's aura remained familiar, bright, and agile, while Qiu'er's aura was completely different—ancient, heavy, wild yet warm, making people feel as if they were bathed in a spring breeze. The two forces should have been incompatible, but when Huo Yuhao's spiritual power touched them at the same time, the three Soul Guidance Sensor Stones actually lit up together.
Xuan Zi sat up a bit straighter. "Continue."
Huo Yuhao steadied his breathing, allowing Spirit Detection to spread further. Wang Dong'er raised her hand, and the Butterfly Goddess aura gently fell into Spiritual Sharing, while Wang Qiu'er also released a wisp of soul power. In an instant, the center of Huo Yuhao's brow grew hot. The Eye of Destiny did not fully open, but instead seemed to open a slit in the darkness.
He saw three threads.
One was warm, winding around his past.
One was sharp, piercing into his present.
And there was another one, so blurry it was almost transparent, leading toward an unclear future. At the end of that thread, there seemed to be a vague figure—she had Dong'er's gentle wings, and also Qiu'er's golden brilliant light. Yet before he could see clearly, the image was torn apart by a sharp pain.
"Yuhao!"
Wang Dong'er's voice rang out. When Huo Yuhao came to his senses, he found that he had taken half a step back, and cold sweat was already beading on his forehead. Wang Dong'er grabbed his arm, her eyes full of worry, and Wang Qiu'er also stepped forward, frowning as she looked at him. "What did you see?"
Huo Yuhao shook his head. "I didn't see clearly."
Xuan Zi said in a deep voice, "Don't look too hard. When it comes to things like destiny, if you look at it too much, you easily suffer backlash."
Huo Yuhao nodded, but that blurry figure was already engraved in his heart—like Dong'er, yet like Qiu'er, and yet neither.
Noticing his silence, Wang Dong'er asked in a low voice, "Is it related to us?"
Huo Yuhao didn't lie to her. "Related."
Wang Qiu'er, however, asked, "Bad thing?"
Sensing Yuhao's discomfort and distraction, Xuan Zi knocked on his wine gourd. "Alright, the record ends here for now. Since the resonance truly exists, we'll have to continue later. For the rest of today, the three of you do a coordination training session. What's the use of arguing every day? Whether you can argue your way into combat effectiveness, you'll know by trying."
The training grounds were quickly cleared of an area. Their opponents were three Inner Academy disciples, none of whose cultivation was weak, and their coordination was mature. Hearing that they would be taking on Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong'er, and Wang Qiu'er all at once, their expressions carried more than a bit of curiosity.
"Huo Yuhao," one of them sneered, "this lineup of yours isn't easy to carry."
The match began. The three Inner Academy disciples didn't take them lightly, dispersing at the fastest speed right from the start in an attempt to sever Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Sharing. Huo Yuhao immediately released Spirit Detection. Dong'er knew Huo Yuhao's rhythm like the back of her hand, rushing toward the left flank almost the instant Spiritual Sharing dropped. The radiance of her Light Wings flared brightly, and the Wing Guillotine repeatedly forced the opponent back. Wang Qiu'er, completely ignoring conventional rules, picked up the Golden Dragon Spear and broke straight through the center, tearing open the midline defense with a single thrust. Her golden soul power was like a soul beast emerging from the forest, brimming with wildness.
Huo Yuhao quickly adjusted, "Dong'er, shift right; Qiu'er, keep the pressure on!"
The coordination of the three turned out to be surprisingly tacit. Wang Dong'er's stability and trust, Wang Qiu'er's burst and intuition, and Huo Yuhao's calculation and crowd control were seamlessly kneaded into a net. In a mere half-incense stick of time, the opponents' formation completely collapsed. In the final strike, Dong'er and Qiu'er moved at the same time—on one side bright light wings, on the other the overbearing golden radiance of the dragon spear. The moment Huo Yuhao's Spirit Shock pinned down their opponents, both forces descended simultaneously, blasting the last person out of the combat circle.
After a moment of silence, the side-lines erupted in exclamations, and a bright light flashed in the depths of Xuan Zi's eyes.
"Not bad."
Wang Dong'er breathed slightly heavily, her eyes harboring undisguised astonishment. She hated Wang Qiu'er getting close to Huo Yuhao, but at that moment just now, she had to admit that Wang Qiu'er was strong. If she stood by Huo Yuhao's side, she could truly help him. Wang Qiu'er looked at Huo Yuhao. "Our coordination was good."
Huo Yuhao said earnestly, "Indeed. Your intuition and burst are what I need."
Wang Qiu'er responded with a nod.
After training ended, Xuan Zi kept the three Inner Academy disciples behind to review the match, and also called Wang Qiu'er over. "This fighting style of yours is too reckless," Xuan Zi said, tapping his wine gourd. "Being reckless is a good thing, but right now you're in a team with Yuhao and Dong'er, not ramming through the whole field by yourself."
Huo Yuhao was being pulled by Wang Dong'er toward the corridor outside the quiet room. Sound-insulating soul guidance lamps hung at the far end of the corridor. The light wasn't bright, only pressing their two shadows against the wall. Dong'er walked very quickly, only stopping once they were out of everyone's sight.
She pulled Huo Yuhao and asked, "Then do you still need me?" She clearly knew she shouldn't ask like a little girl fighting for favor, but she couldn't help it; she wanted an answer. Huo Yuhao pulled her out of the training grounds, and on the road back to the dorms, he poured out his heart to her sentence by sentence, his voice gentle: "You've always been wonderful. Even though Qiu'er can patch up a corner of our missing battle formation, without you, my tactics wouldn't have stood from the very beginning. Without you, I could never feel this at ease. You are my foundation."
This sentence was like molten honey, pouring directly into the depths of Wang Dong'er's heart. Her eye rims turned red, yet deep down she was exceedingly happy. Though she clearly wanted to jab at him a few more times, she only murmured softly, "You only know how to say these coaxing words..."
Huo Yuhao raised his hand, gently tucking the hair that had scattered during training behind her ear. As his fingertips brushed past her delicate earlobe, Wang Dong'er's body trembled slightly. Instead of dodging, she grabbed his sleeve and yanked him into her embrace. "Yuhao, I like it when you say these things." This weak and shy response made Huo Yuhao's breathing turn chaotic. He lowered his head and gently kissed her forehead, then slowly slid down along her brow bone, landing on her trembling eyelashes. Wang Dong'er was not satisfied, however; she raised a hand to hook his lapel and pulled hard. The moment their lips touched, the two of them simultaneously let out an extremely low sigh.
Dong'er kissed him somewhat eagerly, as if pouring all the insecurity and jealousy of these past few days into him through this kiss. Her body actively pressed forward, her soft chest tightly abutting against his through their clothing, carrying the slight warmth left from training and a faint, youthful girl's fragrance. At first, Huo Yuhao restrainedly supported her waist, but eventually he couldn't help himself. One arm wrapped around her slender waist, pressing her entire body more tightly into his embrace, while his other hand cupped the back of her head, deepening the kiss. Amidst the entanglement of their tongue tips came the slightly moist sound of suction, appearing exceptionally alluring in the quiet corridor. Wang Dong'er's breathing gradually grew chaotic, her hands involuntarily looping around his neck, her fingertips sinking into the hair at the back of his neck. Her legs even grew slightly weak, and she practically hung on him, as if silently demanding more.
After a long while, their lips parted. Their foreheads pressed against each other, their ragged breaths entangling. The outer corners of Wang Dong'er's eyes flushed with a trace of tearfulness, her lips kissed red and glistening, and she murmured in a low voice, "Yuhao... you can only be mine."
Huo Yuhao's Adam's apple bobbed as he responded with a voice laced with huskiness, "Mmm... Dong'er."
In the shadows at the other end of the corridor, Wang Qiu'er stood quietly. She had originally only come to retrieve the sensor stone Xuan Zi had told her to take away, but she had witnessed this scene instead—Dong'er melted into a soft heap in Huo Yuhao's arms; the girl who had just been as sharp as light was now like a thoroughly tamed little beast, her cheeks flushed, lips parted slightly, letting Huo Yuhao's hand wrap around her waist and back. That gentle yet overbearing possessiveness, that panting and entanglement that only appeared when intimacy reached its absolute peak, caused an unfamiliar fever to surge in Qiu'er's chest.
So this was what closeness felt like. An instinctive yearning arose in the depths of Qiu'er's heart—she also wanted Huo Yuhao to kiss her like this, also wanted him to call her name in that low, husky, and gentle voice, and also wanted to press her soft self into his arms, feeling the temperature and strength of his palms.
Wang Qiu'er gripped the sensor stone in her palm tightly, the surface of the stone actually scorched with a thin golden pattern.
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