I don't want to be your little brother

Xue Qinghe gazed at the enormous dragon, his hands unconsciously tightening. Even his Angel Martial Soul felt a strange stirring.

That pure, almost sacred pressure left him momentarily unable to speak.

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

Xue Qinghe slowly exhaled, looking at Zhang Fei with undisguised shock and delight.

He walked around the desk to Zhang Fei and gently pressed a hand against his shoulder, his voice filled with satisfaction. "Little Fei, you really are... incredibly lucky. The Golden Python actually transformed into a dragon. You couldn't find another stroke of fortune like this anywhere on the continent."

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

Xue Qinghe straightened up and turned to She Long and Porcupinefish Douluo, saying solemnly, "Uncle She, Uncle Ci, I want both of you to give Little Fei's training everything you've got from now on. No slacking whatsoever. Make sure he fulfills that potential."

She Long and Pufferfish exchanged a glance, then cupped their hands in salute together. "Yes, young master."

Standing to one side, Zhang Fei watched Qian Renxue's earnest face, and complicated feelings suddenly stirred within him. Should I have kept this from her? Did I make a mistake? But what's done is done. I can only keep walking this path.

"All right." Xue Qinghe's gentle smile returned. "Little Fei, go take a bath and change your clothes. Come have dinner with me later, and tell me about what you saw during this soul hunt."

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

With that, Zhang Fei returned to his room.

Zhang Fei had thought that returning to the Crown Prince's Residence meant he could resume his heavenly life of eating and sleeping, sleeping and eating, cultivating now and then, and teasing Qian Renxue whenever he had nothing else to do.

He had completely miscalculated. Spectacularly miscalculated.

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

Early the next morning, before the sky had fully brightened, Zhang Fei was still enjoying a lovely dream when the door burst open with a bang.

Without a word, She Long hauled him out of bed and tossed him into the Training Ground in the back courtyard. "Fifty laps first! Warm up!"

He was also carrying a bamboo whip he had found somewhere.

Zhang Fei lay sprawled on the ground, still half asleep, his brain a muddled paste.

Before he could utter even half a complaint, the bamboo whip in She Long's hand came sweeping toward him.

With a sharp crack, the whip lashed heavily across his backside. That old bastard was actually hitting me!

Zhang Fei sprang off the ground with a howl of pain, his drowsiness instantly whipped beyond the ninth heaven.

"Awake yet? If you're awake, get 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 center of the Training Ground, watching him like a guardian god posted at the gates.

Every time Zhang Fei passed him on another lap, She Long called out the count, adding a critique for good measure.

"Take bigger strides!"

"Swing those arms!"

"You're only on your third lap, and you're already panting?"

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

But before he could catch more than a couple of breaths, She Long handed him breakfast and urged, "Eat quickly. We keep going afterward."

Breakfast was certainly nutritious, with all the soul beast meat he could eat, along with assorted pastries and fruit.

Yet every time Zhang Fei ate, he wanted to cry. He was suffering inside!

Next came a full morning of strength training.

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

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

The entire morning passed in this endless cycle of torment.

Afternoon brought combat training-and against Titled Douluos, no less.

Can't you just call it beating me up? Why dress it up as practical combat training?

Zhang Fei was basically beaten into scurrying all over the Training Ground. Worse still, She Long and Ci Xue occasionally teamed up for a round of doubles.

By the end of training, he lay flat on the ground, unwilling to move even a finger.

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

He had no idea what formulas they used for those medicinal baths. Some were black, some red, some green, and no two days were the same.

But once he soaked in one, warmth spread from his head to his toes, and his aching muscles quickly relaxed as a gentle medicinal power seeped into them.

Moreover, Zhang Fei's body, tempered by ice and fire, already recovered far faster than an ordinary person's. After an hour in the bath, his exhaustion could disappear completely.

After his medicinal bath, he felt refreshed. By the time he finished dinner, night had fully fallen. Meditation and cultivation began.

Zhang Fei sat cross-legged on his bed cultivating until late at night before falling into a deep sleep, only to get up the next morning and take another beating.

Every day followed this same painful cycle.

From morning to night, he never had even an incense stick's worth of truly free time.

Zhang Fei was drowning in regret.

If he had known this was the treatment awaiting him, he should have made a fuss about attending the Spirit Hall Junior Academy.

The academy might have been strict, but how could it possibly compare to this, with two Titled Douluos taking turns training him within an inch of his life, day and night?

I regret it! I want to go to school!

Zhang Fei screamed soundlessly in the depths of his heart.

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

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

Fortunately, Zhang Fei was fairly quick-witted, and he finally found an "escape route."

Whenever the training grew too brutal and he truly couldn't take any more, he picked his moment and ran to Xue Qinghe's study.

She Long was still somewhat wary of Xue Qinghe.

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

"All right, all right. Take a break." Whenever Xue Qinghe was in his study, he agreed to let Zhang Fei rest for a while, his tone utterly indulgent.

Unfortunately, Xue Qinghe was quite busy and often away from the residence.

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

Previously, he had kept Zhang Fei confined to life within the Crown Prince's Residence, never letting him appear before outsiders for fear of inviting unforeseen complications.

After witnessing Zhang Fei's talent, coupled with his increasingly striking looks, Xue Qinghe's thoughts underwent some subtle changes.

He no longer shied away from taking Zhang Fei out in public. Occasionally, he brought him along to banquets, leading him among the guests with Zhang Fei's small hand enclosed in his warm, soft palm.

To outsiders, Xue Qinghe always described Zhang Fei as an orphan he had adopted and cared for like a little brother.

The powerful figures of Heaven Dou City, great and small, all came to know of this handsome little boy living in the Crown Prince's Residence. Although none knew his true origins, they politely addressed him as "Young Master Fei" whenever they met.

Only Zhang Fei grumbled silently to himself, We've held hands and hugged already. I don't want to be your little brother.

Of course, Xue Qinghe probably had his own selfish motives here too. After all, his relationship with Zhang Fei was now public. Even if the Papal Hall learned of Zhang Fei's talent, it could no longer forcibly demand that he be handed over. Zhang Fei could only remain by his side.