Zhao Tianlong's expression shifted slightly. He knew Fang Ling was bound to hear what Qian Ling had said.
It would hardly be worth offending Fang Ling over this fellow, so he hurriedly said, "My dear nephew, there's no need to overthink things. Young Master Fang isn't that sort of person."
Seeing Zhao Tianlong defend Fang Ling as well, Qian Ling grew even more displeased.
His formerly genial expression darkened somewhat. "Then it seems I've been meddling."
"Junior sister, since your family has Young Master Fang here to hold the fort, there was no need to invite me!"
"Heh, I have other matters to attend to, so I'll be leaving!"
He was not merely saying it. He actually rose and left.
He knew what trouble the Zhao Family was facing and how desperately they needed him to bolster their strength, so they would surely ask him to stay.
Then he could seize the initiative and make this lovely junior sister his!
Zhao Xilian looked toward her father beside her. Zhao Tianlong shook his head slightly, signaling that she need not say anything.
And so Qian Ling walked straight out of the Zhao Residence.
"I refuse to believe you won't come running after me to beg!"
Outside the residence gates, Qian Ling swept his sleeve and strode away, though he walked very slowly.
In the garden, neither father nor daughter looked particularly happy.
"My girl, this senior brother of yours is narrow-minded and unfit to work with. You would do well to keep your distance from him in the future," Zhao Tianlong said gravely after a long silence.
Zhao Xilian said, "He has hinted several times that he wants me to become his cultivation partner, but I politely refused every time."
"With the family in such dire straits, I didn't think it through this time..."
"Let him go! We still have Young Master Fang to help us. I expect we'll be safe," Zhao Tianlong said.
Fang Ling's appearance out of thin air before them earlier had said it all.
With an ability like that, his cultivation had to be at least at Heavenly Jade, the second realm of martial cultivation!
Zhao Tianlong himself was only at the perfected Heavenly Pivot realm.
Heavenly Pivot, Heavenly Jade, Heavenly Balance, Heavenly Authority, Jade Balance, Open Sun, and Dawn Light.
Between each of these seven great Martial Dao Realms lay a gulf like a heavenly chasm!
"Well done, Zhao Family! Well done, Zhao Xilian!"
"You actually didn't try to keep me! You've shown me no respect at all!"
Already outside the city, Qian Ling's face had turned livid. He had slowed his pace the whole way, waiting for Zhao Xilian to catch up.
Who would have thought that, after all this waiting, there would still be no sign of her? It seemed he had simply been flattering himself!
"She's nothing but a backwoods girl. Rejecting me time and again was bad enough."
"Now she even dares to slight me like this!"
"If you show me no kindness, don't blame me for showing you no loyalty."
"All I want is your body anyway. Why not..."
He looked back toward the city gates, considering a visit to the Qin Family.
He knew the Zhao and Qin Families were fighting over a spirit mine.
The Qin Family would probably be delighted to have his help. Adding a condition along the way should pose no problem.
He was about to return to Willow City when he suddenly saw someone walking toward him.
Qian Ling chuckled, murderous intent laid bare in his eyes.
"I wondered who it was. So it's you."
"This was supposed to be the perfect chance to bring Junior Sister Zhao under my thumb, but you ruined everything, brat."
Fang Ling said, "You want to kill me?"
"So what if I do?" Qian Ling snorted, abruptly drawing the sword at his waist.
"Wind Spirit Slash!" With a sharp cry, he unleashed a green blade of sword energy.
Yet Fang Ling stood opposite him without the slightest reaction, silently watching the green blade sweep across his neck.
"What?" Seeing that his attack could not so much as scratch Fang Ling, Qian Ling was horrified.
He hurriedly turned to flee, only to sense an utterly evil aura rising behind him.
With a hiss, a Blood Sword pierced his chest, running him through.
Fang Ling sensed the pleasure flowing from the Blood Sword, and his own body could not help trembling a few times.
In an instant, the blood in Qian Ling's body vaporized and vanished.
Looking at the Blood Sword in his hand, Fang Ling could sense an additional trace of bloody baleful killing intent upon it.
This was his first true practice of the Blood Sword. It felt even better than he had expected, intoxicatingly so.
The shriveled corpse fell to the ground. He slowly raised his right hand, then drew in sharply.
A vortex appeared in his palm, and specks of light seeped from the shriveled corpse, swept into the vortex.
He was practicing the Taotie Divine Art, absorbing the other man's Life Origin.
But unlike his barbarian master, he did not need to eat the person.
He had long since transformed this hand into the "Gluttonous Demon Stomach." Simply absorbing it this way was enough.
Qian Ling was terribly weak and had little Life Origin for him to devour.
Still, he could feel the benefits that even this tiny amount of Life Origin brought him once it entered his body.
"I think... I've grown fond of this feeling."
After practicing these two great divine abilities in one seamless sequence, Fang Ling felt a faint thrill of excitement.
It was as though something long sealed away within his heart had been stirred awake.
That night, he was still reading by candlelight in the thatched study.
In fact, he could finish all the books in Thatched Study that very night.
Just then, a soft knock sounded at the door.
"Young Master Fang..." Zhao Xilian greeted him gently.
"Come in!" Fang Ling said calmly.
Zhao Xilian entered carrying another food box, though she was dressed rather lightly that evening.
Her lofty peaks were slightly exposed, full and fair.
Another clear sound rang out as a jade pendant at her waist accidentally fell to the floor.
She bent down to pick it up, laying that magnificent vista bare to anyone looking down from above.
Fang Ling glanced once, then silently turned his gaze elsewhere.
I really should keep my distance from women. Just as Master Hua said, they can steal a person's heart and soul!
It was the first time he had experienced such a strange sensation, and it caught him somewhat off guard.
Zhao Xilian straightened with a faint smile on her face.
She had seen Fang Ling's reaction perfectly clearly.
She had assumed that someone like Fang Ling must have known countless women.
Now, however, it appeared he knew nothing of relations between men and women and was still remarkably innocent.
"Young Master Fang, you read day and night. You must be working very hard."
"I went into the kitchen myself and simmered a bowl of blood ginseng soup for you."
"Of course, in your eyes, this blood ginseng must be nothing more than an ordinary ingredient."
"I hope you won't turn your nose up at it..." She opened the food box and brought out a bowl of red ginseng soup.
"Thank you, Miss Zhao," Fang Ling said, taking a few sips.
Back at Cold Mountain Temple, he had eaten nothing but the remnants of his fat master's cultivation-those insects.
Only after moving into the Zhao Residence had he learned what truly deserved to be called food.
This bowl of blood ginseng soup was quite good as well. After drinking it, he felt pleasantly warm all over, utterly comfortable.
"Young Master Fang, you've been staying at our residence for over a month now."
"Isn't it a little too distant to keep calling me Miss Zhao?"
"If you don't mind, just call me Xilian," she said with a hint of shyness.
Her behavior that evening had largely been prompted by Zhao Tianlong.
But she was also at an age ripe for romance and harbored considerable dreams about love between men and women.
The very first time she saw Fang Ling outside the residence gates, her heart had fluttered.
Only a young woman's reserve had kept her from revealing it.
Over the month since he moved in, she felt she had come to understand Fang Ling better, and her affection had only deepened.
With her father's encouragement that day, she had finally gathered the courage to take the initiative.
But when Fang Ling showed no further response, remaining wholly absorbed in his book no matter how she teased him, she could not help feeling a little dejected.
Afterward, she stayed in the study only a short while before rising to leave.
Before you continue