Time Moves a Little Fast, So Make a Promise First

In the few days after Liu Xi disappeared, the Jia Lie Family still maintained orderly operations. The Marketplace opened as usual, pills were sold as usual, and it was almost no different from before.

However, this state did not last long. Only five or six days later, when the last shop selling medicinal pills also closed its doors, the war over healing medicine between the two families completely came to an end.

And with this matter over, Lin Qingyun threw himself completely into frantic cultivation.

Spring passed... summer came.

Time passed very quickly, like the blink of an eye, like opening one's eyes, leaving a trace behind in a dream.

In the final month of summer, Wutan City welcomed an important day.

This important day was Jia Nan Academy's enrollment.

As one of the advanced academies famed throughout the entire Dou Qi Continent, Jia Nan Academy was practically a Sacred Land in the hearts of all youths in the Northwest Region. As long as one could complete advanced studies there, one's future path would be almost entirely smooth.

Not only would one be able to return home in glory and hold one's head high, one would also become a hot commodity that all factions fought to recruit.

Jia Nan Academy was located at the junction between the Jia Ma Empire and the borders of two nearby great empires. In that lawless region, Jia Nan Academy had practically become like a small country. According to common sense, when faced with this kind of neutral force caught between them, the three great empires should not have sat by and ignored it. After all, no one could guarantee that this force would not be won over by an opponent one day, thereby causing serious harm to the empire's border defenses.

Of course, that was only under the premise that the force caught between them was weak. If the strength of this in-between force rose to the point where it was enough to contend with the three great empires, then the three great empires instead quietly stopped all thoughts about it. In the end, they could only allow Jia Nan Academy to coil at the edge of the empires like a giant dragon, and no one dared provoke it lightly.

After many years of development, the current Jia Nan Academy had not only already become an advanced academy famous across the Dou Qi Continent, but because of some implicit cooperation with the imperial families of the three great empires, its reputation among the people of the three great empires had also grown increasingly powerful.

The three great empires, which were somewhat incompatible as fire and water, had been able to maintain nearly a hundred years of stable peace, and Jia Nan Academy's restraint and mediation were also part of the reason.

Under all these factors, Jia Nan Academy's prestige within the three great empires grew even stronger. Every year, Jia Nan Academy would send out a large number of instructors to the three great empires to recruit students.

The imperial families of the three great empires warmly welcomed Jia Nan Academy's actions. After all, an academy was not a sect. An academy did not have too much binding power. After graduation, most successful students would choose to return to their own countries. Toward this kind of measure that indirectly strengthened a nation's power, the imperial families of the three great empires would naturally not refuse unless their brains had been caught in a door.

And in three more days, Jia Nan Academy's enrollment instructors would arrive in Wutan City. All forces with some strength began working hard in secret.

Of course, among them were also some youths from less well-off families who were working hard.

After all, Jia Nan Academy's enrollment did not distinguish between rich and poor. What it cared about was only personal talent. Therefore, even if you were a beggar, as long as your talent was strong enough, you could enter Jia Nan Academy.

Perhaps because of this atmosphere, Wutan City had recently become even livelier than during a bountiful New Year festival. Every day at the city gates, people watched eagerly.

Compared with these people's hearts full of anticipation, Lin Qingyun ended his cultivation the day before Jia Nan Academy's enrollment instructors were about to arrive.

After several months of secluded study, when he opened the door, Lin Qingyun felt a little dazed.

There was still a tray placed in front of the door, with a food box on it, and a cloth towel had graceful handwriting written on it.

"Phew!"

After exhaling a long turbid breath, Lin Qingyun stretched lazily, and some of the confusion in his eyes gradually vanished.

Over the past few months, apart from cultivation, he had spent even more of his focus immersed in alchemy, refining dozens of bottles of Qi Nourishing Pills almost every day.

And under this kind of high-intensity self-torture, Lin Qingyun's fire-control technique had also become increasingly masterful. In refining medicinal pills, he was already able to ensure that every pill was flawless. Because of this, he successfully unlocked the fourth page of the Taiyi Profound Pill Record.

...As he slowly walked through the Xiao Family, having not stepped out of his room for too long, everything outside seemed like another lifetime.

After going around several bends, a Pill Fragrance faintly drifted out from a rather new-looking wooden hut. Through the window, one could see a somewhat sloppy-looking young man with his head lowered before a Medicine Cauldron.

Ever since Liu Xi had been captured and brought to the Xiao Family, he seemed to have never had any thoughts of escape, and had been loyally refining Blood Coagulation Powder all along.

Continuing forward and turning a corner, beside the Fighting Skill Pavilion, the training field was clearly much more crowded.

Everywhere on the training field, quite a few youths were cultivating bitterly while sweating like rain. These people were all hoping that, on this final day, they could reach Jia Nan Academy's enrollment qualifications.

Standing at the edge of the training field, Lin Qingyun lazily glanced a few times at the field, then turned away in boredom. Toward these fellows who normally never burned incense but hugged Buddha's feet at the last moment, he did not have much sympathy. These people usually relied on the Xiao Family's power to throw their weight around outside. Such conduct truly made Lin Qingyun feel no fondness for them.

Jia Nan Academy's minimum enrollment threshold was not low. Before eighteen years old, one had to reach the Eighth Stage of Dou Qi. Such harsh conditions shattered many people's dreams. From Lin Qingyun's perspective, among those currently on the training field, there would not be more than two who had the conditions to reach the enrollment line.

Bored out of his mind, Lin Qingyun walked toward the outside of the Xiao Family.

However, before he had gone far, on the main road, beneath the shade of the trees on both sides, a familiar figure had become a unique scene.

Narrowing his eyes slightly as he looked at that tall figure with perfect curves, a touch of softness appeared on Lin Qingyun's face. He chuckled softly and slowly walked over.

As Lin Qingyun approached, the woman also revealed a faint smile.

As the saying went, one smile could topple a city, and one smile could topple a nation.

Just like, with one backward glance and smile, a hundred charms were born, and the painted beauties of the six palaces lost all color.

Just like, nothing surpassed that backward glance and smile, with endless charm winding about her brows.

Just like...

Within her seductive charm was dignity, and within her gentleness was a trace of a young girl's shyness.

Lin Qingyun was a little entranced!

"Stunned, are you? Then it wasn't in vain that this young lady carefully dressed up." Ya Fei smiled.

"Yes. You stole my heart, so you have to take responsibility." Lin Qingyun clutched his chest and spoke with a deliberately pained expression.

"Silly." Ya Fei covered her mouth and laughed softly.

"But you're leaving!"

Suddenly, the smile on Ya Fei's face faded slightly, and her tone gradually sank.

"It's not like I'm going to Jia Nan Academy. I'm just going to the Monster Beast Mountain Range with Xiao Yanzi for training," Lin Qingyun said.

"But you still have to go to Jia Nan Academy a year from now! After this parting, who knows what year it will be before we meet again?" Ya Fei's tone was somewhat low, and there was reluctance in her eyes.

She really wanted to say: Don't go. With the Miteer Clan supporting you from behind, whatever you want can be given to you. You can still become a Dou Wang or a Dou Emperor.

But she knew that this was simply unrealistic. Moreover, doing this would only delay the future of the person she loved.

Only, she would have to endure the pain of longing. Her heart had already been occupied by the figure of the young man before her.

"It's not like we'll never see each other again. Within a year, I'll make a trip to the Imperial Capital. There, we'll reunite."

Lin Qingyun stepped forward and stood side by side with Ya Fei. He turned his head, only to see that exquisite little face looking somewhat dim. Smiling faintly, he reached out and patted Ya Fei's little head with his palm, then quietly slid his hand down along her smooth black hair. That comfortable feeling made him a little intoxicated.

"But you still have to go to Jia Nan Academy in the end! It's all Xiao Yan's fault. It must have been him who dragged you along to the Monster Beast Mountain Range. I'll go find him right now," Ya Fei said, a little dissatisfaction on her face.

At that moment, in a garden, a young man and a young woman were embracing each other.

Suddenly, the young man sneezed.

He was bewildered.

Had the weather turned cold?

"All right, all right!" Lin Qingyun took Ya Fei's hand. Faced with her childish appearance, he also could not help laughing.

"Let's go. I haven't strolled around Wutan City in a long time."

Holding Ya Fei's hand, beneath the blazing sun, their shadows were stretched very long, very long.

"You must come to the Imperial Capital to find me!"

"I will. I promise you!"

I originally wanted to write a little more, but then I suddenly thought about it, and in the original work there were only those few things. The basic major events have already been written, and there's no need to write some minor matters, so I might as well skip a large section in the middle and directly write what comes after.

This chapter will be like this for now. Two updates today, no more nonsense.