Hu Liena, That Foxy Vixen

After Tang San fell from the roof that night and Yi Yun caught him, he seemed like a different person.

He had not grown despondent. Instead, he had become... more like a farmer.

Every day, he got up before dawn to water the vegetable patch, did Radio Calisthenics after watering, practiced Pole Vault after his exercises, weeded the vegetable patch after vaulting, practiced with Hidden Weapons after weeding, and fertilized the vegetable patch after practicing.

Watching Tang San behave this way, Xiao Wu felt a little guilty. "Brother Yun, did Tang San take too much of a blow?"

Yi Yun lay on the grass sunbathing, a foxtail stem between his lips. "It's not that the blow was too much. He's numbing himself by growing vegetables. Men always need something to do after heartbreak. Some drink, some fight, and some lock themselves in their rooms listening to sad love songs. Tang San's a little special. He chose growing vegetables."

Xiao Wu nodded, only half understanding.

Ning Rongrong was practicing Standing Stake nearby. Her legs were already shaking like chaff in a sieve, but her mouth would not stop. "Handsome Master, can we eat the vegetables Tang San grows?"

"Sure. They'll be ready to harvest in a few days."

"Then should we help him eat them?"

"Eat them if you want."

Ning Rongrong almost jumped for joy, then remembered she was practicing Standing Stake and hurriedly steadied her stance.

Zhu Zhuqing sat cultivating beneath a tree, her eyes closed, but her ears stayed pricked. She was listening to Yi Yun.

Ever since Ning Rongrong exposed her feelings that day, she had hardly dared look at Yi Yun. Every time she saw him, her heart raced, her face flushed, and she stumbled over her words.

So she chose not to look, not to listen, and not to think.

But she could not stop listening. Yi Yun's voice always drifted into her ears, like a mischievous cat that burrowed into her heart and refused to leave.

Meanwhile, Yi Yun was busy sunbathing, completely unaware of Zhu Zhuqing's thoughts. What he knew even less was that someone else was coming to Nuoding City.

And this time, they were from Spirit Hall.

A black carriage slowly entered Nuoding City.

The carriage was much smaller and plainer than Ning Rongrong's, but the emblem on its body struck more fear into people than the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's rainbow-colored pagoda: a sword and a scepter crossed above a burning flame.

Spirit Hall's emblem.

The most powerful force on the continent, bar none.

A corner of the carriage curtain lifted, and a pair of alluring eyes peered through the gap at the dusty gray streets outside.

"Nuoding City... what a dump." A woman's voice sounded languid, with a trace of disdain.

Her name was Hu Liena.

She was Spirit Hall's Holy Maiden, a core member of the Golden Generation, with the Demon Fox Martial Soul, and a 48th-level Soul Ancestor. Though only fifteen, she was already one of the most dazzling geniuses among Spirit Hall's younger generation.

She had come to Nuoding City on a mission: to investigate that teenage Titled Douluo.

When the news reached Spirit Hall, everyone thought it was a rumor.

A teenage Titled Douluo? Impossible. Absolutely impossible.

Titled Douluos stood at the very pinnacle of the entire continent, each with decades of accumulated cultivation.

A teenager? They might not even reach Soul Ancestor, let alone Titled Douluo.

But the reports grew more numerous and more detailed. Even that person's name, appearance, and distinguishing features were clearly described. Spirit Hall had no choice but to take it seriously.

"Yi Yun, eighteen years old, white clothes, long hair, handsome features, unfathomable strength."

Hu Liena read the intelligence in her hand, the corners of her lips lifting slightly.

Eighteen, a Titled Douluo? Let's see whether it's true.

"Into the city," Hu Liena said, lowering the curtain.

The carriage stopped outside Nuoding Academy. Hu Liena jumped down and stood at the entrance, examining the academy sign with its peeling paint.

"This is the place?"

She had brought neither guards nor attendants. With her strength, no one in a small place like Nuoding City could hurt her.

Hu Liena entered Nuoding Academy, crossed the sports field, passed through the teaching building, and reached Back Hill. Then she saw a sight she would never forget for the rest of her life.

A young man in white lay sunbathing on the grass, a foxtail stem between his lips, as languid as a cat basking in the sun.

A girl with a Scorpion Braid lay on her stomach beside him, gnawing on a carrot. A blonde girl nearby was practicing Standing Stake, her legs shaking like chaff in a sieve, while a black-haired girl cultivated beneath a tree, her eyes closed and her face expressionless.

Farther away, a boy in blue crouched in a vegetable patch, watering the seedlings one by one, as earnestly as though tending his own children.

No matter how she looked at it, this hardly seemed like a Titled Douluo's daily life.

Hu Liena stood on the slope with her arms folded, looking down at the white-clad young man on the grass.

"You're Yi Yun?"

Yi Yun opened his eyes and saw a girl standing before him.

She looked about fifteen or sixteen, with short golden hair and features so exquisite they seemed sculpted.

She wore a tight black outfit that outlined her shapely figure.

Most striking were her eyes, a pair of foxlike, bewitching eyes with upturned corners, holding a natural allure and temptation whenever she looked at someone.

Yi Yun recognized her at a glance.

Hu Liena, Spirit Hall's Holy Maiden, wielder of the Demon Fox Martial Soul, and Bibi Dong's direct disciple.

The corners of Yi Yun's lips rose slightly.

Here comes another one.

"I'm Yi Yun. Who are you?"

"Hu Liena." The girl's languid voice carried a hint of arrogance.

"From Spirit Hall?"

"How did you know?" Hu Liena frowned slightly. She wore neither Spirit Hall's uniform nor any of its emblems.

Yi Yun sniffed. "You smell like a fox."

Hu Liena's expression changed. With her Demon Fox Martial Soul, she did carry a trace of a fox's aura, but only someone whose cultivation far surpassed hers could sense it.

Could this young man, who looked even younger than her, sense her Martial Soul's aura?

"Who exactly are you?" Hu Liena's voice turned cold.

"Me? An ordinary person."

"An ordinary person can sense my Martial Soul's aura?"

"I'm not an ordinary person." Yi Yun sat up from the grass, brushed the grass clippings off himself, and looked at Hu Liena with a smile. "I've got a dog's nose."

Hu Liena: "..."

Ning Rongrong burst out laughing beside them. Xiao Wu could not help laughing either and nearly sprayed out her carrot. Even Zhu Zhuqing opened her eyes, the corners of her lips twitching slightly.

Hu Liena's face instantly reddened. In all her fifteen years, no one had ever dared tease her like this. In Spirit Hall, she was the lofty Holy Maiden. Who would dare say such things to her?

"You!" Hu Liena trembled with anger. Just as she was about to lash out, she suddenly sensed an aura, one that made even her soul shudder.

The grinning, flippant young man before her, with his endlessly glib tongue, was giving off a faint, elusive pressure.

That pressure was very faint, so faint that ordinary people could not sense it at all. But Hu Liena was a 48th-level Soul Ancestor. She could feel it.

It was pressure at the Titled Douluo level. No, it was stronger than an ordinary Titled Douluo's.

Hu Liena's face went from red to white, then from white to ashen. Suddenly, she understood. The intelligence was true.

This young man, who looked even younger than her, really was a Titled Douluo. A teenage Titled Douluo.

"You... you're..."

"I told you, I'm an ordinary person." Yi Yun stood and took a step toward Hu Liena.

Hu Liena instinctively stepped back. Her heart was racing, and she was a little afraid. Moreover, there was an irresistible attraction about this man.

"What did you come to see me for?" Yi Yun asked.

Hu Liena took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Spirit Hall would like to invite you as a guest."

"As a guest? To Spirit Hall?"

"Yes."

"Not going."

Hu Liena froze for a moment. "Why?"

"Because I'm lazy."

The corner of Hu Liena's mouth twitched. "Spirit Hall is the most powerful force on the continent. Countless people want to get in and can't."

"That's them, not me."

"You!" Hu Liena realized she could do absolutely nothing with this man.

Fight him? She could not win.

Trade insults? She could not win.

Invite him? He would not go.

What else could she do? Seduce him?

The moment that thought arose, Hu Liena's face reddened again.

She hurriedly drove the thought from her mind, but it was like wild grass. She drove it away, and it grew back. She drove it away again, and it grew back again.

"You'll regret this," Hu Liena said through gritted teeth.

"I won't regret it," Yi Yun said with a smile.

Hu Liena took a deep breath and turned to leave. After a few steps, she stopped again and glanced back at Yi Yun.

"Yi Yun, I'll remember you."

"What are you remembering me for? If you miss me, come find me anytime."

"Who misses you?!"

Hu Liena was utterly embarrassed. This man was poison.

Once she touched him, she could not quit.

After Hu Liena left, Xiao Wu ran over to Yi Yun, her eyes filled with wariness.

"Brother Yun, who was that woman?"

"Hu Liena, from Spirit Hall."

"What did she want?"

"To invite me to Spirit Hall as a guest."

"Did you agree?"

"No."

Xiao Wu breathed a sigh of relief, but before her heart could settle, it rose again, because Yi Yun's next words were, "But she'll come back."

"Why?"

"Because Spirit Hall won't give up easily. A teenage Titled Douluo is far too important to them."

Xiao Wu bit her lip and said nothing.

After finishing Standing Stake, Ning Rongrong ran over to join in. "Handsome Master, that Hu Liena was pretty."

"She was pretty."

"Then do you like her?"

"Guess."

Ning Rongrong puffed out her cheeks. "Handsome Master, you can't fall for every girl you meet!"

"When have I fallen for every girl I meet?"

"You met Sister Xiao Wu and liked her. You met me and took me as your disciple. You met Sister Zhuqing and had her call you big brother. Now you've met Hu Liena and started teasing her."

Yi Yun thought it over and realized he really did not seem to have much of a rebuttal.

"All right, you're right." Yi Yun admitted it frankly.

Ning Rongrong choked on her words. She had not expected Yi Yun to admit it outright. Weren't people normally supposed to argue their way out of it?

"Handsome Master, you're really..."

"What?"

"Thick-skinned."

"Thanks for the compliment."

Ning Rongrong was completely speechless. She realized that trading barbs with Yi Yun was more exhausting than Standing Stake. Standing Stake only tired her body; trading barbs with Yi Yun tired her heart.

At an inn in Nuoding City, Hu Liena sat in her room with a blank sheet of letter paper spread before her and a pen in her hand, but she had not written a single word.

She did not know how to report to Spirit Hall.

Say she had met Yi Yun? Say he had teased her? Say she had blushed? Say her heart had raced? Could she put any of that in?

Hu Liena put down the pen and covered her face with both hands.

"Yi Yun... you bastard..."

She remembered Yi Yun smiling as he said she smelled like a fox, remembered him saying he had a dog's nose, remembered him saying she could come find him anytime she missed him.

Every scene left her both angry and embarrassed, yet she could not help replaying them over and over.

"Am I sick?" Hu Liena murmured.

What she did not know was that this was not sickness. It was her heart being stirred.