"These shoes aren't even broken, and even if they were, they aren't worth three thousand yuan! You're just trying to extort me!"
It was lunchtime, and the cafeteria at Jiangcheng University was packed.
Chen Zhezhe was getting his food when he accidentally stepped on a girl's shoe. This drew her retaliation, and he was soon surrounded by the girl's boyfriend and several of his cronies, who demanded three thousand yuan in compensation.
The ringleader, an arrogant young man, had his arm around a heavily made-up girl and laughed wildly. "That's right! I am extorting you! But nobody at Jiang University dares talk back to me, Zhang Zhi! You stepped on my girlfriend's shoes—either you pay up, or you're getting carried out horizontal!"
"No way!" Chen Zhezhe answered flatly.
Zhang Zhi pushed the girl aside. "Looks like you're asking for a beating!"
Chen Zhezhe took a few steps back and quickly raised his hands. "I have three thousand yuan! Don't hit me, I'll give it to you!"
"Babe, my shoes cost more than three thousand. He has to pay at least thirty-five hundred!" The girl's eyes rolled as she said this in a coquettish voice.
Zhang Zhi gave her a loud smack on the cheek with a kiss. "You got it! Thirty-five hundred it is, and I'll buy you a new phone with it!"
The girl nodded happily, then rolled her eyes at Chen Zhezhe and demanded, "Where's the money?"
"This is just too much!" Some of the surrounding students couldn't bear to watch and began to shout out.
"All of you shut the fuck up! Let's see who dares play the hero here!" Zhang Zhi glared at them and cursed loudly. Intimidated by him, the onlookers fell silent despite their dissatisfaction.
Zhang Zhi turned back to Chen Zhezhe with a smug grin. "Hand over the cash!"
Chen Zhezhe patted his pockets, looked up, and shouted, "Here comes the money! Catch!"
With that, he hurled the takeout spicy hot pot right at the two of them—
Caught completely off guard, Zhang Zhi and his girlfriend were splattered all over with hot broth, their eyes streaming with tears from the burning spice. By the time Zhang Zhi wiped his face and looked around with red, tear-filled eyes, Chen Zhezhe had already vanished in the chaos.
"What the fuck are you looking at? Get lost!" Embarrassed, Zhang Zhi glared menacingly at the students watching the spectacle.
The students scattered amidst a chorus of snickers.
"Babe... My makeup is totally ruined! You have to get payback for this!" Zhang Zhi's girlfriend whined tearfully.
Zhang Zhi spat fiercely onto the floor and told his rotten crew of friends, "You can run away today, but you can't run away forever. You guys stake out the school gates. I refuse to believe he's never coming back to class!"
Having splashed spicy hot pot all over Zhang Zhi, Chen Zhezhe didn't dare stay at school and ran straight back home.
His home was an old apartment building separated from the school's back gate by just a single street.
Chen Zhezhe sat on his bedroom bed with a gloomy expression, worrying about what to do now that he had offended Zhang Zhi. He didn't notice a flash of red light in the distance outside the window as a figure came hurtling straight toward his window.
The figure crashed right through the glass and slammed directly into Chen Zhezhe.
*Bam—*
The impact carried immense force, knocking Chen Zhezhe backward and sending him crashing onto the bed.
His head spun, and amidst his dizziness, a fragrance even richer than flowers drifted into his nose.
He instinctively pushed out, his hands meeting something-exquisitely soft, just as an angry shout echoed in his ear:
"Shameless!"
When he opened his eyes, he saw a girl wearing a pink short jacket and a snow-white long dress pressed on top of him, her pretty face flushed red as she bit her lip.
Her eyes were as bright as lacquered paint, and when widened in anger, they looked spirited, pretty, and cute.
What a beauty!
The girl scrambled up from Chen Zhezhe in a panic, glaring at him furiously. "You shameless scoundrel... I... I'm going to...!"
She uttered "I" several times, but had no idea what she should actually do.
Kill him?
That violated sect rules and would bring punishment!
Scold him?
Scolding people... she didn't even know how!
Qin Xin was completely at a loss, a sudden urge to cry welling up inside her.
What was going on here?
Chen Zhezhe asked with a puzzled look, "Are you... a thief?"
The girl widened her angry eyes and shook her head!
Not a thief... then what was she?
A female flower-thief?
A sudden possibility flashed through Chen Zhezhe's mind. He recoiled in terror and stammered, "D-don't come any closer! I'll fight back!"
The girl's eyes grew even wider as she pointed angrily at Chen Zhezhe. "You... shameless..."
A wave of weakness struck her, and she slumped softly back onto the bed, her eyes wide open yet unable to move a muscle.
Chen Zhezhe leaned over to check on her. "Hey, hey? What's wrong with you? Don't go scaring people like this!"
Qin Xin took a deep breath. She still couldn't move, and if this kept up, her injuries would only worsen. It seemed her only option was to ask him for help...
She forced herself to muster a sliver of True Essence. "Can you do me a favor?"
She didn't look like a bad person anyway, and helping wouldn't hurt. Chen Zhezhe asked dubiously, "What is it?"
Qin Xin said with great effort, "Help me get the medicine from inside my robe!"
Chen Zhezhe nodded and reached his hand into her robe...
Qin Xin felt as though a little bug were crawling across her chest. A strange sensation washed over her, making her body tremble slightly, and she shot Chen Zhezhe a shy yet furious glare.
"Is it this one?"
Qin Xin let out a soft groan, her body trembling as she murmured, "That's not the medicine... It's a small bottle."
"I didn't think it felt like medicine either—it was too soft!" Chen Zhezhe wiped the sweat from his brow and said guiltily.
Qin Xin tightly pressed her lips together, vowing in her heart that the very first thing she would do after recovering from her injuries would be to beat this guy to a pulp and chop off his filthy hands.
"Found it!" Chen Zhezhe pulled out a white bottle excitedly.
Qin Xin's expression shifted, and she looked at the bottle with a hint of dread. "That's not it!"
"What about this red one?" Chen Zhezhe fished out another bottle.
Only then did Qin Xin nod. "Dissolve it in warm water and help me take it."
After Chen Zhezhe fed her the medicine, Qin Xin's complexion instantly grew much rosier, and she regained movement in her limbs. Enduring her pain, she scrambled up, crossed her legs, closed her eyes, and entered a state of Concentration.
Chen Zhezhe thought it strange: She could move immediately? That medicine is amazing!
He picked up the white jade bottle he had pulled from Qin Xin's robe earlier. The carvings on it were exquisite and detailed, clearly costing a pretty penny.
Curious, he popped off the cap, and a tiny gray bug darted out at lightning speed. The bug's mouth sprang open, revealing sharp little teeth as it flaunted itself aggressively at Chen Zhezhe.
*Awoo—*
The screech was sharp and piercing, making Chen Zhezhe feel as though his eardrums were about to burst. He lashed out with his left palm.
*Puff!*
It felt like popping a balloon. A sharp pain shot through his palm, and it felt as though the bug had burrowed right into his hand.
"Good grief! What was that?"
When he looked at his hand, it was as white and normal as ever, with no abnormalities whatsoever.
What was going on?
Yet he could feel that little ant crawling upward inside his palm, and his arm felt like a balloon on the verge of bursting. Terrified, Chen Zhezhe frantically shook his hand.
With a powerful wave of his left hand, a sudden gale-force wind swept through the room, sending books and loose papers flying in all directions!
He felt much more comfortable now...
Qin Xin's healing was interrupted by the gust from Chen Zhezhe's palm strike. She coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood, opened her eyes, and saw Chen Zhezhe's face flushed completely red.
"You've opened the Qiankun Hunyuan Hood?!"
Thinking of the vital importance of the items inside, Qin Xin's fury became uncontrollable. She gathered her recovering True Essence and struck out with her palm, only to be met with an irresistible, overwhelming force. She was sent flying backward, crashing right through the bedroom door panel—
Though her injuries worsened, she had no time to worry about herself: "It seems the True Essence devoured by the Taotie really did enter his arm... Could the words left by our founding master be true?!"
Even though Chen Zhezhe had taken advantage of her earlier, Qin Xin still couldn't bear to watch him explode from an excess of True Essence.
"He may be detestable, but he doesn't deserve to die. I'll cure him first, and then settle the score for what he just did!"
She pushed aside the shattered door panel, hunched over, and hurried back into the bedroom. Just as she stepped inside, Chen Zhezhe lashed out with his left arm, the wind of his strike leaving her breathless. She thought to herself in shock, "The True Essence contained within the Taotie is terrifyingly powerful!"
Taking advantage of the moment when Chen Zhezhe turned around with a dazed look in his eyes, Qin Xin fished another bottle from her robe. She tried to approach Chen Zhezhe, but found it extremely difficult.
Oh no, his True Essence is too strong! I can't get close to him!
Just as she was worrying, Chen Zhezhe spun around and threw a punch straight at her.
She hurriedly ducked down!
The force swept right over the top of her head, whipping her long hair up into the air. With a tearing sound, her clothes were shredded like cloth by the blade-like wind of his palm, but a surge of joy suddenly welled up in her heart!
I've got it!
She extended a finger, tapped Chen Zhezhe's ribs, and used the momentum to grab him by the neck. Pouring a few Daoist Shangqing Pills into her palm, she shoved them straight into Chen Zhezhe's mouth.
The function of the Daoist Shangqing Pill was to suppress and pacify the turbulent True Essence within the human body. Such pills were hardly rare—almost every practitioner had them—and their medicinal effect was precisely suited to suppress the sudden influx of True Essence raging inside Chen Zhezhe.
As the pills entered his mouth, Chen Zhezhe snapped his eyes open. "You—"
Before he could finish the word, his previously clear eyes instantly flooded with bloodshot veins once again, and he threw another punch—
Oh no! The medicine wasn't enough.
Light on her feet, Qin Xin circled behind Chen Zhezhe, locked her arms around his shoulders, and pulled with all her might, sending both of them tumbling to the floor.
Locking his neck from behind, Qin Xin retrieved a few more pills with a twinge of heartache. While these pills weren't excessively expensive, they weren't growing on trees either; consuming ten or eight of them like this carried a hefty cost.
Chen Zhezhe's back pressed against Qin Xin's chest, making her heart race. At the same time, she could clearly sense that the True Essence inside Chen Zhezhe's body was retreating toward his left arm as if guided by some form of consciousness, though it was still coiled and ready to strike.
"Why does it feel like someone is controlling it?"
At a critical juncture like this, she could no longer afford to be stingy!
Qin Xin poured the entire bottle of pills straight into Chen Zhezhe's mouth. This bottle contained a good half of all the Daoist Shangqing Pills belonging to Tianxin Pavilion—enough to supply their entire sect for decades!
Chen Zhezhe let out a loud roar. "Fucking hell, that hurts!"
Had his consciousness recovered?
Qin Xin extended her right hand, cupping her palm, and gently tapped the Baihui acupoint on the top of Chen Zhezhe's head. "Now, channel the remaining Qi left in your body! Wherever my finger points, you follow by guiding the Qi there!"
With that, following the circulation pathways of the sect's *Qi Guidance Art*, she pointed out a path all the way down Chen Zhezhe's body.
Though his mind wasn't entirely clear, hearing her instructions step by step, Chen Zhezhe instinctively followed along. This happened to align with the core principle of "cleansing the mind and quieting the spirit" required in cultivation. Coupled with his formidable True Essence, his progress was lightning-fast. In no time at all, he successfully guided the Qi back to its origin, completing a full cycle of circulation that settled the True Essence firmly into his dantian.
Seeing the smile on Chen Zhezhe's face, Qin Xin knew the most dangerous phase had passed: the majority of the True Essence had been suppressed by the pills, and the rest had been successfully absorbed by him!
Chen Zhezhe took a deep breath, and the air in the room seemed to rush toward him. When he exhaled, a wave of heat surged outward in all directions. With his every inhalation and exhalation, the books and papers scattered across the room were blown fluttering through the air.
This... this was the Qi Refining Realm, the very first step of cultivation!
Qin Xin looked at him with envy, realizing that he had somehow unconsciously completed the Qi Refining stage of Daoist cultivation. It was equivalent to three or five years of hard work for anyone else. Thinking of how it had taken her a year and a half herself, she couldn't help but think he was simply lucky.
As her tension finally relaxed, Qin Xin slumped over on Chen Zhezhe's bed and fell fast asleep...