Feng Rouyi was exceptionally beautiful. Alongside Leng Yingying, she was known as one of the three great goddesses of Xingxuan Academy. At thirteen years old, she had already broken through to the Six Veins realm a few months ago and was now just one step away from the seventh. Once she broke through, she would be able to enter the advanced class—the so-called graduation class. She was the strongest among the more than three hundred students present.
'Heh, they actually paired me with a beauty. Instructor Luo Zhan sure knows what he's doing.' Ye Xuan chuckled. He had just broken through to the two-vein realm yesterday, and the most important thing now was to consolidate his Profound Qi. Sparring with a high-level Martial Artist was one of the best ways to do that. Otherwise, with Ye Xuan's personality, he wouldn't have bothered staying for class.
"Instructor Luo Zhan, didn't I used to always be the one sparring with Feng Rouyi?"
A voice rose from the ranks. The speaker was Zhou Yan, a disciple of Blue Moon City's Zhou family. He was the strongest student present, second only to Feng Rouyi, having also opened Six Veins.
The usual sparring rule was to pair the first-ranked student with the second, the third with the fourth, and so on.
Now that things were different, Zhou Yan was naturally displeased.
Instructor Luo Zhan shot him an icy glare. "The rules have changed for today," he said coldly. "You'll spar with whomever I tell you to. What, you got a problem with that?"
Zhou Yan immediately fell silent. The instructor's "cold-faced" moniker wasn't just for show. He did, however, shoot Ye Xuan a vicious glare.
'Figures there's always a pile of crap buzzing around a pretty flower.' Ye Xuan rubbed his nose. 'This one is particularly pathetic, though.'
A few moments later, the three hundred-plus students were all paired up. Luo Zhan snapped the roster shut. "If anyone slacks off, you know what will happen. Begin!"
Pairs of students found their opponents and began to spar. Instantly, the training hall filled with the ceaseless sound of battle cries.
"Student Ye Xuan, if you please."
Feng Rouyi didn't look down on Ye Xuan because of his reputation as a failure. She was, however, exasperated by Instructor Luo Zhan's arrangement. She was currently stuck at the bottleneck of the Six Veins realm and needed to spar with a student of equal or greater strength to break through to the seventh. But Ye Xuan, who was rumored to have only opened a single Profound Vein and possessed virtually no Profound Qi, could offer her no real challenge and would be completely useless for her training.
'It seems I won't be able to achieve my training goals today. Oh well. I saw earlier that his physical conditioning seems decent. I'll just practice some basic forms with him.'
With this in mind, Feng Rouyi circulated just a sliver of Profound Qi through her meridians and sent out a light palm strike.
SMACK!
As their fist and palm met, a minuscule thread of Profound Qi flowed from her palm into Ye Xuan's body.
'That's it? Too weak.'
Ye Xuan frowned. 'Such a feeble trickle of Profound Qi could never help him consolidate his own.'
'Is this girl going easy on me? Can't have that. I need a plan.'
A devious smile played on Ye Xuan's lips. He suddenly thrust his palm toward Feng Rouyi's chest in an utterly shameless move.
At the side of the training hall, Zhou Yan, whose eyes had never left Feng Rouyi, caught a glimpse of this. A dangerous light flared in his eyes. 'That bastard actually dares to pull a move like that on Feng Rouyi? He's courting death!'
It was common knowledge that Zhou Yan had been pursuing Feng Rouyi for some time. Thanks to his status as the young master of the Zhou family, no one in the entire academy, not even students from the advanced class, dared to make a move on her. He couldn't believe Ye Xuan would dare to pull something like this today. If he didn't teach the boy a lesson, how could he, Zhou Yan, ever show his face again?
'Just you wait, kid.'
Luo Zhan also noticed the move. His eyes widened, and he was rendered speechless. He had deliberately arranged for Ye Xuan and Feng Rouyi to spar. Ye Xuan's three kicks earlier had stunned him, so he'd wanted to use Feng Rouyi, his strongest student, to probe for Ye Xuan's true abilities. He never imagined Ye Xuan would pull such a sleazy stunt.
'What the hell is wrong with that kid's brain?'
But the most speechless of all was Feng Rouyi herself. She smacked his hand away, a flicker of anger in her beautiful eyes.
Ye Xuan acted completely oblivious. He spun around, executing a "Moon from the Seabed" and reached for Feng Rouyi's rear. At the same time, his shifty eyes roamed all over her body.
'Tsk, tsk. This little lady's lips are so pink and delectable, I just want to take a bite. Her chest isn't huge, but it's nice and perky. Yup, yup, lots of future potential there. And that waist... slender enough to wrap a hand around. Top-shelf stuff. Not an ounce of fat on it, I bet. And those legs! Long, straight, full, and firm... I wonder how amazing it would feel to have them wrapped around me in bed…'
How could Ye Xuan's blatant leering escape Feng Rouyi's notice?
'That damn pervert, where is he looking?!'
Feng Rouyi's mood instantly soured. She had never met such a shameless guy. She'd been kind enough to go easy on him, and in return, he was acting like a total creep.
As one of the academy's top beauties, she had countless admirers, but every single one of them had behaved like a perfect gentleman in her presence. She had never encountered anyone as disgusting as Ye Xuan.
His eyes kept darting all over her body, making her extremely uncomfortable. And the targets of his attacks were just as perverted.
'I guess I was being too merciful. No wonder people always call him a good-for-nothing, a piece of trash. He really is garbage.'
Feng Rouyi's eyes went cold. The gentle style of her previous attacks vanished. Her hands formed into palms, and like an eagle swooping down on its prey, she viciously struck at Ye Xuan's hands.
'What a fine "Eagle Pouncing on Rabbit"!' Instructor Luo Zhan praised inwardly. 'Using Six Veins Profound Qi with a basic martial technique like "Eagle Pouncing on Rabbit" may seem simple, but it's a move that truly tests a Martial Artist's fundamentals. You can feel the sharp intent from this attack even at a distance. It seems Feng Rouyi has grasped its true essence. The number one student in the intermediate class truly lives up to her reputation!'
Watching Feng Rouyi attack, Instructor Luo Zhan couldn't help but nod in silent approval. He was thoroughly satisfied with her. He believed that if his student kept up this pace, she would condense her Profound Sea and become a true Samurai within a year.
The Profound Qi from all Six Veins in Feng Rouyi's body began to circulate, though she didn't unleash her full power. Her goal was to send Ye Xuan flying and knock some sense into the bastard. Of course, it would be even better if Instructor Luo Zhan took the hint and gave her a new opponent.
'Nice one.' Ye Xuan's eyes lit up. He didn't dodge or evade. Instead, he met her attack with his own two fists, which whistled through the air. He let her attack first but timed his counter perfectly, colliding with her just as her power reached its peak.
"Not good!" Feng Rouyi's eyes flew wide. She tried to pull back her hands, but it was too late.
Not far away, Instructor Luo Zhan's eyes shot open, and he leaped to his feet. 'That idiot Ye Xuan! He's not even trying to dodge Feng Rouyi's full-power attack! How can a one-vein Martial Artist possibly withstand a blow from someone who has opened Six Veins?'
Ye Xuan's leg techniques earlier had been exquisite, each kick timed to perfection. Although he found it hard to believe, Luo Zhan had wanted to use Feng Rouyi to test whether those kicks were a fluke, or if Ye Xuan's combat sense was genuinely astonishing.
But now, it seemed Ye Xuan's combat sense was absolute shit. 'He'd better not get seriously injured by her strike.'
In the next moment, however, both Feng Rouyi's and Instructor Luo Zhan's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
BANG!
Their fists and palms collided. Aside from stumbling back two steps, Ye Xuan was completely unharmed.
"Haha, that feels great!"
Feeling her Profound Qi rampaging through his two Profound Veins, Ye Xuan was delighted rather than alarmed. He activated the Nine Profound World-Defying Art, cleverly using Feng Rouyi's Profound Qi to consolidate his own while simultaneously expanding his Profound Veins. The faint, needle-like pain was, to him, incredibly invigorating.
Using another's Profound Qi to strengthen one's own cultivation—if word of such a method got out, it would shock every expert in the entire Liuyun Kingdom. A feat like this was something only Ye Xuan, an Eighth Grade Martial Emperor in his past life, could achieve. It was impossible to replicate.
'This…' Feng Rouyi's eyes were wide with shock. 'That good-for-nothing… he actually blocked my attack and is completely fine.'
As for Instructor Luo Zhan, he was so shocked he nearly bit his tongue off.
'This kid is something else.'
'Blocking the Profound Qi of Six Veins with the strength of a one-vein cultivator... it's absolutely unheard of.'
"Again!" Ye Xuan barked, rushing forward once more.
'Is this guy playing weak to catch a bigger fish?' A glint flashed in Feng Rouyi's eyes as her pride was stoked. She began to circulate the full power of her Six Veins Profound Qi.
BANG! BANG! BANG...
The two figures clashed, each collision ringing out with a loud bang as Profound Qi surged wildly.
Ye Xuan was secretly ecstatic. He had no idea what kind of Cultivation Technique Feng Rouyi practiced, but her Profound Qi was fiery and potent. It surged through his Profound Veins, constantly stimulating his meridians.
While Ye Xuan was secretly reveling, Feng Rouyi was utterly stunned. It was as if she were meeting him for the first time. Even though she was only using eighty percent of her strength, other students at the Six Veins level couldn't last ten moves against her. Yet Ye Xuan seemed to be handling her attacks with ease.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
The two continued to clash amidst the powerful gusts of wind generated by their fight.
Under Ye Xuan's control, his Profound Qi, already at the peak of the two-vein realm, grew increasingly stable. At the same time, he felt himself faintly approaching a breakthrough to the Three Veins realm.
'Huh... since this is working so well, why not use this chance to break through to the third Profound Vein right now?'
An idea suddenly struck Ye Xuan. Ordinary Martial Artists had to painstakingly condense their Profound Qi bit by bit before they could attempt to break through the walls of their Profound Veins. That process was incredibly slow. He had already started his cultivation later than others; if he followed that path, his future achievements would be limited, no matter how talented he was.
He was already at the peak of the two-vein realm. He could use Feng Rouyi's Six Veins-level Profound Qi to help him charge into the Three Veins realm.
He immediately put his thought into action.
In the subsequent sparring, Ye Xuan not only used Feng Rouyi's Profound Qi to solidify his own cultivation but also began to channel it to slowly assault the barrier of his third Profound Vein.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Under his guidance, her powerful Six Veins-level Profound Qi crashed against the sturdy walls of his unopened vein like a tidal wave.
If word of what Ye Xuan was doing got out, the entire continent would likely tremble in shock. Using another's Profound Qi to break through to a new realm was like walking a tightrope over a bottomless chasm. A single misstep meant eternal regret. If he lost control, the best-case scenario was damaged meridians and severe injuries. The worst-case scenario was having all his meridians completely severed, causing him to vomit blood and die.