He knew perfectly well that Jiang Jinyue was only teasing him maliciously. The so-called reward would most likely be making him cook an extra dish, then dressing it up as a blessing. There definitely wouldn't be any good reward worth looking forward to.
But looking at her lovely face, her eyes curved in a smile, Qi Yan still swallowed instinctively, even his heartbeat quickening of its own accord.
I'm screwed... was this because a virgin couldn't take any teasing, or because I really liked every smile and frown of this young lady's?
With Yun Ranyi, he was often stunned by her beauty, but he merely found her as beautiful as poetry or a painting, rather than this... how should he put it, heart-pounding feeling.
Qi Yan gritted his teeth. "You have no credibility with me, you know. You said you'd do something for me back then, and you still haven't delivered. If you won't spell out what the reward is, how is that any different from saying nothing?"
"Hmm?" Jiang Jinyue's gaze turned dangerous, a half-smile on her face. "Little brother, what naughty ideas are you getting?"
Qi Yan hadn't had any naughty ideas; he'd simply retaliated after being teased. But her words made him glance instinctively at her red lips.
She hadn't even wiped all the watermelon juice from the corner of her mouth.
Qi Yan swallowed again and turned his head away without speaking.
Jiang Jinyue understood, and a little irritation rose in her heart.
Not pretending anymore, huh...
You do have designs on me!
Yet mixed into that irritation were feelings she couldn't quite explain herself. She didn't lash out, instead sneering, "Fine, then let's lay out the terms."
Qi Yan froze briefly, then heard Jiang Jinyue continue, "I skipped over the 'secondly' earlier because I didn't think it was time yet. Now I'll tell you. If your comprehension is exceptionally good, and you can clearly grasp the essence of lightning and fully understand how techniques put it to use, you can naturally save yourself a great deal of practice time-after all, one important purpose of practice is to build up understanding of the source, day after day."
Qi Yan looked thoughtful. "So?"
"I could certainly explain these things to you, but that wouldn't be good. You should first hone yourself and seek understanding on your own. Once you've gained some knowledge but still can't find that final doorway, big sister can teach you, and your understanding will be deeper." Jiang Jinyue folded her arms and looked him up and down. "Since you want a reward, let's raise the difficulty. For instance..."
"I figure it out myself?"
"Right!" Jiang Jinyue snapped her fingers. "If you can grasp this essence in a single night, just as you did when breaking that witchcraft curse, without needing big sister to teach you, then..."
At this point, Jiang Jinyue's voice grew a little sultry, as though she were teasing him. "Big sister can let you hold her hand~"
Those words drained every last hormone from Qi Yan's belly. He practically wanted to laugh.
Are you teasing a little kid?
At his expression, Jiang Jinyue's faint shyness turned to fury, and she sprang to her feet. "Just what goes on inside that head of yours?!"
She grabbed Qi Yan and pummeled him as she spoke. "Cultivation is such an important matter, and all you can do is leer! Leer!"
Bang! Her jade foot shot out, sending Qi Yan flying as though riding clouds and mist, all the way back to his cave abode's entrance, where his landing sent dust billowing.
"Fuck..." Qi Yan struggled to his feet, but soon laughed aloud.
Over there, Jiang Jinyue stamped her feet, yet also unconsciously bit her lower lip, a hint of allure in her shifting gaze. "You little brat."
Night had deepened. It was time for Qi Yan to return to his cave abode anyway. He couldn't stay in Jiang Jinyue's garden forever; what would that look like?
Lying back on the ice jade bed, Qi Yan gazed at the cave ceiling, stroking his chin in thought.
What Jiang Jinyue had said made perfect sense. Years upon years of practice served two purposes: proficiency and precision, and helping one reach a deeper understanding. If he already understood, he could naturally shorten that practice time considerably.
He'd never heard of cultivators practicing a sword draw for ten years like martial artists, right? Everyone placed more emphasis on "seeing through to the source."
And indeed, working things out himself first, then having a teacher open that door once he'd glimpsed the way but still couldn't fully understand it, would work much better than being told directly.
This tutor of a senior sister seemed unreliable, but her teaching was unexpectedly better than his actual master's... and she even knew to offer seductive rewards... though her attempts at seduction were rather comical.
By that reasoning, using the Little Crybaby cheat here would be inappropriate too. That would only hurt him. Better to work it out himself.
Qi Yan rubbed his fingers together, feeling the electric current dart through his hand. If he had to thoroughly grasp it himself... would modern knowledge help?
According to what he'd learned in the modern world, electricity was the movement and interaction of electric charges. Would that apply here? Even lightning seeds here seemed to have various different attributes, like his senior sister's crescent-shaped purple lightning, which was very different from the usual understanding.
Wasn't there something a little wrong with discussing science in a cultivation world?
Perhaps what he needed to see through here wasn't the essence of electricity. Maybe even electric charges had different additional attributes here; that didn't matter. Rather, it was "how Dao Arts produced electricity." The means of producing it alone ought to have something in common.
For instance, lightning in nature came from ice particles inside clouds rubbing and colliding, transferring positive and negative charges and building up an electric field, after which a series of changes and conduction caused electrical breakdown and discharge. He'd basically handed the details back to his teacher, but that was roughly the principle. He vaguely remembered hearing that the lightning one saw wasn't actually striking downward, but was instead a return stroke traveling upward...
Was this why he also had an ice attribute? Hmm... probably not much connection. Rather, the lightning affinity of a so-called lightning Spiritual Root inherently allowed better control and perception of electric charges.
Dao Arts presumably used some operation of magical power to guide the interaction of electric charges. This was the basic principle of lightning arts.
That also matched the theoretical foundation that Dao Arts primarily used magical power to manipulate external things.
Qi Yan circulated the Dao Arts of "Fingertip Lightning," watching the current flicker at his fingertips and sensing the friction caused by the manipulation of magical power, gaining some insight.
Though his "minute perception" ability couldn't sense electrons or electric charges at all, this had to be the principle. He could feel its effects very clearly.
And once he grasped the principle, the most obvious advantage was that the source of the lightning no longer had to emerge passively according to the Dao Arts. He could choose a point himself.
Qi Yan withdrew his Fingertip Lightning and looked toward the floor in a corner, lightning flashing in his eyes.
Electric light suddenly erupted a few inches above the floor, striking down across those scant inches with a bang and scorching the ground black.
Lightning Attraction Technique.
Previously, when he used this move, it formed high overhead and descended. Though lightning flashed extremely quickly, and a strike from above took only an instant, it still gave people time to react. Cultivators still had a chance to dodge.
But if it descended from mere inches above their heads, that was hardly different from exploding directly in their faces. There was practically no chance of dodging.
He would need more practice to resolve the issue of precision, but addressing this aspect first wasn't bad...
Unfortunately, there seemed to be a restriction. It couldn't explode directly in someone's face; there had to be those few inches... he didn't know whether his mastery was insufficient or whether this was a restriction imposed by the rules...
And the Lightning Glow Sword's advantage was that it allowed him to overcome the shortcomings of his insufficient Spiritual Root, helping gather electric charges on a large scale and greatly increasing power and efficiency.
Just as he was about to practice with the sword, his jade pendant vibrated.
Qi Yan emerged from his immersion in cultivation as well, giving himself a break. "Little Crybaby, how did the trial go?"
"No problems. My third senior brother, who ambushed me, died, and my eldest senior brother lost an arm." Little Crybaby's voice sounded muffled, with what seemed to be a slight echo. "Then I was put in confinement."
Qi Yan grew alert. "This confinement of yours-is it just a little dark room, or are there punishments like electric shocks? Or could someone come in and harm you?"
"It's a cave. There aren't any punishments... but there's a very oppressive aura inside, and strange sounds keep circling my ears, disturbing my mind and making me very restless." As Little Crybaby spoke, she felt like crying again. "Wah... Brother A-Yan... I'm a little scared."
Though she'd experienced much lately and grown up considerably, before the person she relied on, the young girl still turned back into that crybaby.
"Don't be afraid. I'm here." Qi Yan comforted her. "Come on, let's chat and take your mind off it."
Little Crybaby sniffled. "That's why I contacted Brother A-Yan. It's wonderful that you had time to answer. I was worried you'd be busy and ignore me."
Qi Yan laughed. "Unless someone's nearby and it's inconvenient, even something as big as the sky wouldn't matter as much as my Little Crybaby."
Little Crybaby flushed faintly. "W-what do you mean, yours..."
"Ahem." Qi Yan changed the subject. "Let's chat, let's chat. Hmm... have other people been confined here before? What was their mental state like after they left?"
"I'm not really sure. I never paid attention to that..." Little Crybaby thought for a moment. "When I was little, I did hear people say an evil demon was locked up on the bottom level, but my mother said there wasn't. She didn't say much else, and I didn't ask. Later, Mother..."
"Your parents were in the sect too?"
"Mm, yes... they both, both passed away, and only then did Master take me in as a disciple."
Qi Yan's heart gave a jolt.
Something was wrong here.
Back when his own parents had met with disaster, he'd always suspected the main sect had done it. But his soul had been cowardly and he'd had no means to do anything, so it had come to nothing. After he awakened, the poison drove him into a corner, and he killed everyone in the main sect. He'd taken his personal conviction as proof and considered his parents avenged; there was no need to investigate further.
How similar Little Crybaby's situation was! Even the underlying logic of why her senior brothers dared treat their own junior sister this way was almost coming to light!
"Little Crybaby, listen to me..." Qi Yan said urgently. "From what you're saying, this is only a place to face the wall in reflection, not a prison, right?"
"Not entirely. The first level of the cave, where I am, isn't really a prison, but the lower levels are. Apparently there are several levels."
"In other words, from where you are, you can either escape or go farther inside."
"There are guards." Little Crybaby was a little astonished. Was Brother A-Yan telling her to run away?
But fleeing would essentially mean betraying the sect. Why go that far over something as minor as confinement? Besides, she probably couldn't escape anyway.
"If you can run, run!" Qi Yan said decisively. "If escaping really isn't feasible, do you know any methods like illusions or substitutes that could make someone think they'd killed you?"
"I know a tiny bit of related illusion arts, but I'm not very practiced. Hmm... combined with witchcraft, I should be able to make it more realistic."
"Then use it immediately. Use the Breath-Concealing Incantation or even the Invisibility Incantation on yourself, and hide well. Be quick."