Chu Yunfei's cave abode lay halfway up the eastern mountainside of the inner sect grounds.
It was small, but pleasantly secluded.
An old pine stood outside the entrance, with a blue stone platform beneath it, well suited for meditation and cultivation.
When Lin Wanyin arrived, the door to the cave abode stood half open.
The splashing of water came from inside.
She frowned and stood at the entrance without going in.
The sound continued for a little while before stopping.
Then a figure emerged from the inner chamber.
Chu Yunfei had just stepped out of the bathing pool. He wore only a thin outer robe over his upper body, its belt loosely tied and its front slightly open, exposing his firm, well-proportioned chest.
Water still clung to his hair, and a few droplets slid down his sharply defined jawline.
Seeing Lin Wanyin standing at the entrance, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
"Aunt Lin, you're here."
Lin Wanyin's brows knitted even tighter at the sight of him.
"Chu Yunfei, what did you call me here f-"
She never finished.
Chu Yunfei stepped forward, caught her lower back with his left hand, cradled the back of her head with his right, and lowered his head to kiss her.
Lin Wanyin's pupils abruptly contracted. Once again, her mind crashed.
Several minutes later.
Chu Yunfei released her, though the fingers of his right hand remained buried in her bun, a few strands of ink-black hair wound around his fingertips.
He looked down at the faint redness at the corners of Lin Wanyin's eyes and chuckled.
"Aunt Lin, I've got a lot of fire in me. You know what I mean."
Lin Wanyin's chest heaved violently, an utterly complicated expression surfacing on her ice-cold face.
Shame, anger, unwillingness, and something she desperately denied all churned together, throwing even her breathing into disarray.
"Chu Yunfei, don't go too far."
Her voice trembled.
"Too far?" Chu Yunfei chuckled, his thumb brushing lightly across the corner of her lips. "Don't you want it?"
"No."
Lin Wanyin denied it reflexively, her voice cold and hard.
But the flush on her lovely face betrayed her.
The blush spread from the tips of her ears down her neck, disappearing deep beneath her collar.
Watching her, a trace of amusement flickered in Chu Yunfei's eyes.
"I just love how stubborn your mouth is."
Four hours later.
The atmosphere inside the cave abode settled into calm.
The lingering spiritual power fluctuations slowly dissipated through the air. Fine cracks caused by the collisions of spiritual power still marked the corners of the stone chamber.
Lin Wanyin leaned against the inner side of the bed, her clothes properly put back on, though her slightly disheveled bun and swollen lips gave everything away.
She closed her eyes, sensing the circulation of spiritual power within her.
Then she opened them, a trace of disbelief flashing through her pupils.
Her cultivation had risen yet again.
And by no small amount.
She had been stuck at the second level of the Heavenly Origin Realm for nearly a year, unable to touch that invisible barrier no matter how bitterly she trained.
Yet after just a few sessions, not only had she broken through to the third level of the Heavenly Origin Realm, but now a clearly visible crack had actually appeared in the barrier to the fourth level.
Another session or two...
No, perhaps I can break through next time.
Lin Wanyin's feelings became complicated in the extreme.
Without betraying anything, she turned her gaze toward Chu Yunfei, who leaned against the headboard with his eyes closed, circulating his cultivation technique. Her thoughts raced.
The last time she had been with him, his cultivation had clearly been only at the eighth level of the Body Tempering Realm.
Back then, she had even thought this brat was merely clinging to life through unorthodox tricks and would be crushed sooner or later.
Yet now, in less than a month, he had already reached the eighth level of Qi Condensation.
The eighth level of Qi Condensation.
Only one step away from the peak of Qi Condensation, and one more step beyond that lay the Spirit Martial Realm.
Half a month to break through an entire realm.
Not even the Heavenly Sword Sect's prodigy disciples, whom the sect poured all its resources into nurturing, could possibly cultivate at such a speed.
It was not as though she had never seen geniuses.
Although the Azure Mystic Sect was only a second-rate sect, she had attended the Eastern Continent's inter-sect exchange gathering in her youth and seen the core disciples of the major powers.
Those people had indeed possessed dazzling talent, but not one of them could break through an entire realm within half a month.
Unless he had used some heaven-defying treasure.
Or...
He himself was a heaven-defying existence.
Lin Wanyin's gaze lingered on Chu Yunfei's face for several breaths, and that tangled emotion surged within her again.
What exactly happened to this man?
A former genius turned trash, and now a monster.
His cultivation advancing by leaps and bounds was one thing, but that composure of his, as though he held everything in the palm of his hand, that calmness, as though he saw through all things in the world...
That wasn't something an eighteen-year-old youth should possess.
He was more like an old monster who had lived for centuries.
Lin Wanyin withdrew her gaze and looked at the stone chamber's ceiling.
"Chu Yunfei."
"Hmm?"
"When do you intend to let me go?"
Her voice was calm, without the anger and shame from before, only weariness.
Chu Yunfei opened his eyes and turned to glance at her.
"Aunt Lin, wait a little longer. Don't rush."
Lin Wanyin fell silent for a long time.
"I've already paid the price for what I did back then. You should know that, with all these days added together, the compensation ought to be enough."
Her voice remained cold, but there were things she could no longer conceal, however she tried to disguise them.
Such as the slight turn of her body when she spoke.
Such as the unwitting softness in her tone.
Such as that fleeting glimmer deep within her cool eyes, which even she refused to face.
Chu Yunfei took it all in.
He did not answer her question.
"Aunt Lin, hasn't your cultivation improved again?"
Lin Wanyin's body stiffened slightly.
"That's none of your business."
"How could it not be?" Chu Yunfei smiled. "The relationship between us is far more complicated than that of an ordinary martial nephew and his senior."
"Shut up."
Lin Wanyin abruptly sat upright, a trace of genuine anger finally flashing in her eyes.
But when that anger met Chu Yunfei's gaze, it melted away as swiftly as ice and snow beneath a blazing sun.
She hated her own weakness.
She hated that, despite her Heavenly Origin Realm cultivation, she was utterly powerless to fight back against this brat at the eighth level of Qi Condensation.
It was not a disparity in strength.
It was psychological.
From the moment he gained leverage over her, from the first time she was forced to submit, through the repetitions that followed, her mental defenses had been dismantled layer by layer.
By now, she could not even say whether she came here because she was being threatened, or because...
I can't think about this anymore.
Lin Wanyin rose from the bed and straightened her clothes.
"I'm leaving."
"All right." Chu Yunfei did not stop her.
Lin Wanyin reached the entrance and stopped.
She did not look back.
"Next time, don't send an outer sect disciple to deliver the message."
"Then what should I use?"
"A voice transmission talisman."
Leaving those words behind, she pushed the door open and left.
Chu Yunfei leaned against the headboard, watching her retreating figure, the faintest hint of a curve on his lips.
A voice transmission talisman.
A private, one-to-one voice transmission talisman.
Lin Wanyin could not possibly fail to understand what contacting each other through voice transmission talismans meant, compared with publicly sending someone to deliver a message.
She was taking the initiative to close the distance between them.
Though her words remained as icy as ever, her actions had already given everything away.
Chu Yunfei withdrew his gaze, closed his eyes, and turned his attention back to cultivation.
His eighth-level Qi Condensation spiritual power circulated steadily through his meridians. Though the dual cultivation just now had not raised his realm, it had made his foundation even firmer.
He was only one final step away from the ninth level of Qi Condensation.
Two steps away from the Spirit Martial Realm.
But he was in no hurry.
Some things could not be rushed.