Xiang Yun sat down against a boulder.
Ling Qingzhu hesitated, then reached out with her jade hand to sweep the gravel and dust from the ground. She sat down beside Xiang Yun, leaning against the boulder.
"That was my treasure." Xiang Yun caught a whiff of the delicate fragrance beside him and felt refreshed in both heart and mind.
"Only you could call that a treasure."
Even though Ling Qingzhu and Xiang Yun had become more intimate, his unrestrained tongue still made her blush with embarrassment.
Who would treat that thing as a treasure?
"I heard you can already fight someone at Advanced Life Profound?"
"Mm. I made some gains a while ago, so I fought my father and suppressed him."
Xiang Yun's hands weren't idle either. He took Ling Qingzhu's hand and studied it.
It really couldn't compare to Ying Huanhuan's.
Though it too was as lovely as white mutton-fat jade, Ying Huanhuan's hands seemed to possess a kind of magic that drew a person's attention to them at first sight!
They were especially potent against hand lovers.
Ling Qingzhu looked at him speechlessly. "Can't you just talk? Why are you getting handsy?"
"You call this getting handsy? What you did last time was getting handsy." Xiang Yun raised an eyebrow.
At the mention of last time, Ling Qingzhu glared at him. "Bring that up again and I'll beat you to death. Believe me?"
"You did it, but you won't let me talk about it? Fairy, you're far too overbearing."
"You..."
Xiang Yun felt refreshed in both heart and mind as he watched the aloof and proud Ling Qingzhu's pretty face turn red under his teasing.
"But it seems your standing in the palace isn't as high as I imagined."
Xiang Yun thought back to what had just happened.
Even Ling Qingzhu speaking up hadn't stopped the Nine Heavens Taiqing Palace disciples from gossiping.
Besides, Ling Qingzhu wasn't like Ying Huanhuan. Ying Huanhuan hadn't been personally designated the Dao Sect's Young Sect Master.
That was because the Desolate Hall had been the first to appear in the Dao Sect.
The other three halls had come later, so no one would acknowledge anyone who hadn't comprehended the Great Desolation Scripture.
But the Nine Heavens Taiqing Palace was different. At least, as far as he knew, anyone who cultivated the Supreme Induction Art was the Young Palace Master.
Helplessness flashed across Ling Qingzhu's face. "There's nothing I can do. Unlike the Dao Sect, Taiqing Palace didn't suffer heavy losses in the last sect competition."
"In this generation, there are still several people at Eight Yuan Nirvana. While I was in the Creation Realm, it was manageable, but after entering the Nirvana Realm, I was bound to take a share of their resources."
"Even though I'm the Young Palace Master, there's still plenty of competition, and my master won't intervene."
"She said these were all obstacles to cultivation. If I couldn't even solve these problems, how could I comprehend 'Supreme'?"
As Ling Qingzhu spoke, she began pouring out her grievances.
She said that after breaking through to Nirvana and returning to Taiqing Palace, the senior sisters who had once been fairly friendly to her had begun making trouble for her from time to time.
It wasn't exactly deliberate. For instance, whether cultivating in the Pill River or comprehending secret arts, there was always a question of who came first.
In any case, it was through these little things that Ling Qingzhu finally learned that even senior and junior sisters who had once lived in harmony would show no mercy when competing.
Xiang Yun simply listened in silence. After Ling Qingzhu finished, she let out a breath.
"Feel better?"
"Mm."
Ling Qingzhu nodded, a little embarrassed.
In public, she almost always presented herself as a fairy, yet now she was acting like a gossip.
Only in front of Xiang Yun did she feel she didn't have to be a fairy high above the nine heavens.
"Want me to beat them up for you? I'll tell them that if they don't give way to Ling Qingzhu, I'll beat them up every day!"
Xiang Yun leaned close to Ling Qingzhu and smiled.
"Do you only know how to solve things with your fists?"
"Why else do you think my senior brothers are so obedient? Isn't it because I beat them with my fists?"
"You beat them?"
"Yeah. After I broke through, I beat them all up, then gave my father a beating too."
Xiang Yun spoke as though it were only natural. "In this world, a hard fist is the real hard truth."
Listening to Xiang Yun's twisted logic, Ling Qingzhu said irritably, "There are things fists can't solve too."
"That just means the fists aren't big enough!"
Ling Qingzhu rolled her eyes at Xiang Yun, then suddenly asked, "Do you know Ying Huanhuan?"
"Mm. I met her once on the way back to the Primordial Hall."
Xiang Yun explained what had happened in the Geomagnetic Mountain Range, then glanced at Ling Qingzhu and smiled. "Jealous? There's nothing between her and me right now."
"Jealous? What would I be jealous of? Why would I be jealous? Heh, how ridiculous. Do you think I'm some vulgar woman?"
"Xiang Yun, don't judge me by your own way of thinking. Do you think..."
Xiang Yun found it funny, watching Ling Qingzhu's little mouth chatter away in explanation. Suddenly, he leaned over and sealed her lips.
Ling Qingzhu's eyes widened at once.
But feeling his utterly domineering plunder, she instinctively closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck. It was as though the gloom and emptiness of these past days had all been filled.
Ling Qingzhu broke free of Xiang Yun's kiss and whispered something in his ear.
Xiang Yun shook his head. "I'm not in the mood for that. After all, this is someone else's place..."
"Then..."
The next moment.
Xiang Yun held Ling Qingzhu in his arms and transformed into two streaks of black and white light, flying toward the mountain peak where the Desolate Hall had stayed before. The Kun Peng Extreme Speed was on full display.
Xun Wu walked out of the great hall and saw the two streaks of black and white light. He wanted to call Xiang Yun over and ask him about the Battle Body Divine Ability.
But he saw the two streaks of light plunge straight into the resting hall in the very center.
Xun Wu opened his mouth, then closed it again. He muttered to himself, "Was I seeing things? Why did it look like the Young Hall Master had someone in his arms?"
"Surely not..."
The cultivation room door was slammed shut.
Ling Qingzhu panted in Xiang Yun's arms, her eyes watery.
Over the past six months, she had noticed that ever since the power that helped her cultivate disappeared, she had begun to miss Xiang Yun every moment of every day.
Especially when she circulated the Supreme Induction Art, Xiang Yun's figure kept appearing in her mind unbidden.
Xiang Yun settled Ling Qingzhu on his lap. She said softly, "There isn't much time. Master and the others won't... won't be discussing things for long..."
"Quickly?"
Xiang Yun breathed softly into Ling Qingzhu's ear. "Then it depends on how hard you work..."
"I... how do I work hard?"
Ling Qingzhu was puzzled. Although she had already been intimate with Xiang Yun, they had been driven by the power of yin and yang that time. She didn't actually know what to do herself.
Xiang Yun smiled and said something to Ling Qingzhu.
"You..."
"If you don't hurry, what happens when the Palace Master of Taiqing Palace goes looking everywhere for you and finds out you're here?"
"You wouldn't want the Palace Master of Taiqing Palace blocking our door, would you?"
"Besides, cultivating inside and out together might work even better, don't you think?"
"All you do is bully me!"
A rare trace of tears entered Ling Qingzhu's voice, but she obediently adjusted her sitting position.
Soon, Xiang Yun narrowed his eyes slightly and looked up at the patterns in the cultivation room, gently stroking Ling Qingzhu's long black hair.
"I... did it all for cultivation."