The air crackled with silent tension.
Long Chen's hand, warm and steady against her skin, was the epicenter of it all. Seeing the blush deepen on Xiao Ning'er's cheeks and the way she retracted her hand, a knowing smile touched Long Chen's lips. He acted as if he hadn't noticed her gesture, keeping his eyes closed as if in deep concentration.
"The energy here is very concentrated," he said, his voice a calm murmur that cut through the quiet. "It has nestled deeply in your meridians. But it's already loosening. Just take a deep breath."
"En!"
Hearing the calm in his voice, Xiao Ning'er relaxed. She let out a trembling sigh, relief washing away the shame she had felt moments before. Luckily, he wasn't mocking her. He was still focused on helping her.
However, the calm was fleeting. As Long Chen intensified the absorption, one last violent wave of icy pain burst from the bruise.
"Nngh~"
A sharp moan escaped her lips, and she bit her lip hard, the taste of a drop of blood mixing with tears welling in her eyes. But this time, the tears weren't just from pain.
They were tears of release.
This was the pain that had tormented her for months—sleepless nights, cultivating in agony, the cold that made her feel like a stranger in her own body. And this one, she knew with overwhelming certainty, would be the last time she felt it.
Her moist eyes fixed on Long Chen's focused face, on the lone white streak in his dark hair, on the faint crease of effort on his brow. A wave of gratitude so intense hit her she almost lost her breath.
"Thank you," she whispered, the word seeming inadequate, too small for what she felt. Her voice trembled, but was filled with raw sincerity. "Long Chen… thank you. If you ever need anything… anything at all… I swear I will do everything in my power to repay you."
Long Chen opened his eyes and gave her a small smile, as if what he was doing was no big deal. "The pain is gone now."
He finished the process and finally removed his hand from her body. The sudden warmth was gone, and her skin—now clear and flawless—began to cool again without his touch. The loss of that warmth left her feeling a strange emptiness. She quickly covered herself, tying her clothes, her heart still pounding in her chest for reasons she couldn't fully understand.
Long Chen took just one last glance at that soft, white spot, forcing his little brother to calm down in his pants.
"You must be hungry," Long Chen said after calming the reaction, breaking the silence.
Without waiting for an answer, he pulled out a large piece of raw, juicy-looking meat and a small bag of spices from his spatial ring. With a quick motion, he gathered some dry branches and lit a small fire. The fire crackled, casting a warm, dancing light over them. "Want to eat with me?"
Xiao Ning'er hesitated. She should go home and process everything that had happened. But the idea of being alone didn't seem appealing. Besides, the sight of him, his handsome face lit by the campfire, was… captivating. She nodded silently and sat opposite him, hugging her knees.
He didn't tell her that it was meat from a Wind-Demonic Griffin, a Two-Star Gold-Rank demonic beast Xiao Xue had slain. The energy contained within it was pure and vast, extremely beneficial for someone whose body had just been purged of a debilitating illness. To her, it was just another piece of meat, unaware of how much soul energy it contained. It was also a beast with the Wind attribute.
Soon, a fragrant, mouthwatering aroma spread through the clearing. The meat crackled over the fire, fat dripping and sizzling deliciously.
Despite herself, Xiao Ning'er's stomach betrayed her with a loud, embarrassing growl.
She blushed furiously, wishing the ground would swallow her.
Long Chen just smiled, a genuine smile that made his eyes shine. He cut off a piece of roasted meat with his dagger and skewered it on a branch, offering it to her. "Try it. I think you'll like it."
She averted her gaze, too embarrassed to look at him, but gladly accepted the meat.
"Thank you!" She took it with her delicate hands and took a small bite, her lips soaking up the natural oil of the meat.
The first bite was a revelation.
It was, without a doubt, one of the most delicious things she had ever tasted. The meat was tender, juicy, and as she swallowed, she felt a wave of warm, pure energy spread through her meridians, nourishing her body and soul in a way no pill or elixir ever had.
No doubt about it. For someone at White Rank, the meat of a Gold-Rank beast was like a divine elixir. And the demonic beasts of the Spirit Ancestral World seemed to possess much purer energy than those here. Long Chen had already noticed that.
They then ate in comfortable silence for a while until Long Chen asked, "So, what will you do now that you're free of your illness?"
Xiao Ning'er swallowed a piece of meat, pondering the question. "I will get stronger," she said, a new determination in her voice. "Stronger than everyone who tried to use me. Stronger than… Shen Fei." The name of the fiancé chosen by her family slipped out with a hint of anger and stubbornness.
"That's good motivation," Long Chen said. "That kind of emotion can be the best catalyst for power."
After eating almost all the meat, an overwhelming sensation took over Xiao Ning'er. She thanked Long Chen for the food, but before she could say more, she instinctively closed her eyes and crossed her legs, entering a meditative state.
The pure energy of the Two-Star Gold-Rank Wind-Demonic Griffin meat, combined with the removal of the Arctic Disease that had chained her talent, and the pure energy of the Spiritual Honey created a perfect storm inside her.
At that moment, a powerful aura burst forth from her body. The air around crackled with Wind and Lightning, and the soul force inside her, previously stagnant, surged like a tide. The bottleneck that had held her at Zero-Level White Rank for so long shattered like glass.
BOOM!
A cyan aura enveloped her. She advanced. One-Star Bronze Rank.
If she had a soul crystal, it would show her soul points breaking through the 100-point soul barrier in a single strike, soaring non-stop to 160 points.
When she opened her eyes, gasping and shocked by her own ascension, the first thing she saw was Long Chen, looking at her with that same calm and knowing smile—as if he had been expecting this.
"But how—"
She felt an overwhelming urge to ask what kind of meat that was, where a mere warrior apprentice could get something so miraculous. But the words stuck in her throat.
She could only murmur another "thank you," feeling like that word had already become insufficient for her gratitude.
In her mind, Long Chen, the quiet classmate she barely noticed, was becoming increasingly shrouded in mystery. If he had access to treasures like that Spiritual Honey and this meat… he was probably far stronger than she could imagine.
"Five-Star Bronze? Silver Rank?" Just the thought sent shivers down her spine.
Long Chen seemed to see through her curiosity. "It was meat I happened to get on a hunt. Nothing special." He smiled, offering a casual excuse.
Of course, it was a lie.
Xiao Ning'er knew that. But whether he believed she was naive enough to accept it, or simply didn't want to share his secrets, it didn't matter. He helped her, and he had no obligation to explain anything.
The two talked for a while longer, and Long Chen soon said goodbye, disappearing into the forest as silently as he had appeared. Ning'er was left alone, staring at the still-burning embers of the fire. Her gaze was lost in thought.
She had reached One-Star Bronze Rank. Before Ye Ziyun. Before Shen Yue. The news would spread. The elders of her Winged Dragon Family, who always spoke to her with a mix of order and calculation, would have to change their tone. This greatly lessened the weight on her shoulders. For the first time in years, she felt a glimpse of control. A glimpse of hope. And all thanks to Long Chen, a classmate she had never given proper attention to. But after today, her curiosity about him had reached a new height.
---
On the other side.
Long Chen returned home and entered his room. The night darkness had completely fallen. He wasted no time. Sitting cross-legged on the floor of his room, he entered a meditative state. In his hand, he held a Silver-Rank Demonic Core.
"Let's see the effects of this technique with the help of a demonic core."
He began circulating energy according to the Primordial Yin-Yang Sutra Nie Li had given him.
Wooosh!~
Instantly, a spiritual vortex formed in his Soul Realm, and a tyrannical suction force pulled the core's energy into his hand.
Five minutes later, the Silver-Rank core, which a normal cultivator would take hours or days to absorb, turned to gray dust. All its energy was devoured.
However, his own soul force barely moved. It didn't advance even a single step. It was as if it was stagnating in place.
If it were anyone else, despair would have set in. But instead of worry, Long Chen felt a wave of pure excitement. His lips curved into a hungry smile.
"Excellent! What an arrogant technique!" he thought. The harder and slower the technique, the more tyrannical and powerful it would be in the end. It was a fundamental law of the universe.
Without hesitation, he took two more Silver-Rank cores, one in each hand, and resumed cultivation. This time, the process took a little longer, maybe ten minutes. When the two cores disintegrated into dust, he finally felt his soul force complete a single, tiny circulation.
He did the math in his head. At this rate, to go from Five-Star Silver Rank to One-Star Gold Rank, he'd need at least a hundred Silver-Rank cores. Or maybe forty or fifty One- or Two-Star Gold-Rank cores. The cost was astronomical—enough to bankrupt an entire noble family. But he was willing to pay that price!
Fortunately, he wasn't a noble family. He was a world plunderer. More precisely, the plunderer of the Spirit Ancestral World!
"It's time to enter the Spirit Ancestral World again," he thought, feeling anticipation. Without the resources of his inner world, he honestly wouldn't know how to proceed with such a divinely arrogant technique. But with them… the only limit was how many beasts he could kill.
"This time, I just hope I don't get killed right after 'birth!'"