Chapter 3: Yun Mei's Injury
In the valley, a majestic waterfall cascaded down like the Milky Way, sending up a fine mist that hung like smoke and fog.
All around, ancient trees reached up into the sky and vines intertwined, occasionally punctuated by the crisp chirping of birds. Everything was peaceful and natural.
Xiao Yichen, stripped to the waist, stood on a boulder beneath the waterfall, enduring the immense pressure bearing down on his body.
"Hoo... hoo..." Xiao Yichen gritted his teeth hard, his eyes tightly closed as he desperately resisted the fierce currents pounding against his back.
After more than half a year of practice, he was now able to steady himself on the rock against the impact of the waterfall. Thanks to these months of training, his physique had grown lean and robust, his muscle lines well-defined. What satisfied him even more was that he was no longer all show and no substance like he had been a few months ago. In terms of both appearance and strength, he was now only lacking by seventy percent compared to all you esteemed gentlemen.
With his current strength, he could fight ordinary ferocious beasts without falling behind. Considering that when he first entered this immortal cultivation world, he couldn't even beat a chicken, this already counted as massive progress.
Beneath the waterfall, his skin gradually turned crimson, veins bulging as every inch of muscle tensed to the absolute limit under the impact of the water. Yet his gaze remained unyieldingly determined, radiating an indomitable will—until, finally lacking any remaining strength, his foot slipped and the current instantly swept him into the lake.
He crawled ashore with great difficulty, gasping for air while a deeply satisfied smile appeared on his face. He checked his abdominal muscles—which had once been united as ninety-nine into one, but had now reappeared—along with his sharply contoured face and thick, sword-like eyebrows that looked like two sharp blades.
"Hehe, with looks like this, I ask you which senior sister could possibly resist my seduction, hehe."
He glanced up at the sun in the sky.
"Time is about right. That vixen is probably coming back soon too. If she finds out I'm not home, I'll likely end up being teased and flirted with all over again."
He put his clothes back on, bundling up tightly. He could not afford to let that enchanting senior sister notice his changes too early yet. If she discovered his little schemes, his plan to work hard and elevate his strength would probably go down the drain, forcing him right back to eating those overly potent restorative pills.After all, from the very beginning, Yun Mei had never treated him as a cultivation partner. What she wanted was nothing more than a qualified cauldron. If one day she were to discover that this cauldron was about to advance to a point where she was no longer worthy of using him, she would likely take action against him directly. Even if the results were not yet optimal, she would rather not waste all this time only to end up benefiting someone else. Therefore, Xiao Yichen had to keep it a secret for now.
He had just returned to his quarters and lain down to rest for a moment when Yun Mei pushed the door open and walked in. Seeing this, Xiao Yichen immediately stood up, walked slowly toward her, led the stunning woman to the table to sit down, and very naturally began to massage her shoulders.
"Senior Sister, were you tired from today's cultivation? Please make sure not to wear yourself out—it would break my heart," Xiao Yichen said softly, offering plenty of emotional reassurance.
Hearing this, Yun Mei grabbed his hand, pulled him abruptly into her embrace, rested her head against Xiao Yichen's shoulder, and slowly began to recount how the elder had taken them out for cultivation today. As she spoke, her grip on Xiao Yichen grew tighter and tighter, as if she wished she could melt his entire body into her own.Feeling the other person's strength growing steadily greater, he let out a few light coughs, which finally slowly pulled Yun Mei's thoughts back. Staring at Xiao Yichen's handsome face, which looked like that of a wealthy patron, she smiled with some confusion and said, "Little Junior Brother, I've noticed how you've been making me more and more infatuated with you lately. Your physique has also grown a lot stronger—did you secretly take pills given to you by other senior sister apprentices behind my back?" As she spoke, she took a bite out of Xiao Yichen's arm.
Feeling the sharp pain transmitted to his arm, Xiao Yichen tried his best to relax his muscles to avoid giving away any clues. He smiled awkwardly and said, "It's all because the pills you gave me, Senior Sister, are so good. During this time, I've felt my cultivation speed becoming more and more effortless, and naturally things turned out this way."
"Is that so? Then let Senior Sister check." Yun Mei gave a mischievous smile and shoved him down onto the bed in one swift motion. However, during this time Xiao Yichen had figured out this senior sister's temperament and knew she wouldn't actually do that sort of thing to him. Amidst the laughter, he turned the tables and pinned her underneath him, starting to murmur sweet, cheesy nothings to her."Senior Sister, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on. You have no idea—the moment I first saw you, I fell deeply in love with you. Ever since I found out you chose me as your cauldron, I was so excited I couldn't sleep a wink all night. If there's an afterlife, I still hope I'll meet you."
As a transmigrator tossing out cheesy pickup lines was second nature to him. Before long, he had coaxed Yun Mei into a state of utter delight. Having narrowly escaped her taking advantage of him, the two of them lay side by side on the bed, chatting back and forth while ripples of fond laughter drifted from the room from time to time.
Without even realizing it, the way Yun Mei looked at Xiao Yichen began to change. Gone was her usual aloofness; deep within her eyes, a trace of tenderness had unconsciously emerged.
Once Yun Mei left, Xiao Yichen stayed in the room for a short while. Confirming that she had gone far enough, he instantly jumped up, headed out the door, and sprinted toward the waterfall, muttering complaints to himself the entire way: "Who knew being a kept man could be so hard?"
Arriving at the waterfall, Xiao Yichen stripped off his upper garments and once again stepped toward the boulder.
Ever since his constitution had grown several times stronger than an ordinary person's, he no longer needed long hours of sleep to recover his stamina. Daring not to show the slightest bit of laxity now that his life and limb were on the line, he had no desire to follow in the footsteps of those sickly senior brothers of his.
"Keep going, work hard, create miracles..." Chanting slogans to himself, he planted a foot firmly on the rock. Battling the relentless pressure of the rushing water, Xiao Yichen gritted his teeth and held his ground. He had a premonition that breaking through to the Body Tempering Realm was close—just a tiny bit more.
Thus, under the relentless routine of day-after-day training, Xiao Yichen's strength steadily improved. Whenever he had some free time, he would run outside the valley to practice against ordinary wild beasts. By now, he could subdue them with ease, though he spared their lives. Such prowess could already be considered formidable back in the mortal world.
Time slipped by day by day. One night, Xiao Yichen returned to his room as usual to quietly wait for Yun Mei, but she failed to show up. It wasn't until dawn that he saw Yun Mei, severely injured and supported by two senior sisters, being brought back into the sect's Alchemical Hall. A trail of blood marked the ground in her wake, showing she had not escaped lightly.
"What on earth happened? No, I have to go take a look."
Xiao Yichen arrived outside the Alchemical Hall, guarding the entrance as he paced back and forth anxiously. No matter how one looked at it, his performance fit the mold of a gentle, attentive, and good partner—after all, a show had to be put on properly, leaving no room for gossip from others.
Soon enough, supported by other senior sisters, Yun Mei was led out of the Alchemical Hall. Her injuries had already been treated, and with some proper rest and recuperation, she should recover before long.
Taking Yun Mei from the hands of the senior sister, Xiao Yichen wore a look of heartache as he gently led her back to her own room.
As he stepped back out through the doorway, however, he noticed the surrounding people pointing and whispering at him incessantly. There was no way Xiao Yichen would stand by and let people gossip behind his back. He strode forward, grabbed a male disciple by the arm, and asked in a deep voice with a heavy frown, "What were you all talking about just now?"
The male disciple never expected Xiao Yichen to march right up and grab him like this. Combined with the sharp pain shooting up his arm, his body involuntarily trembled, but he still forced a facade of composure and replied, "You don't know? Your partner got hurt while she was out, and she's bound to lose the sect competition a few months from now. When that happens, you'll be treated as a wager and given away to someone else."
Releasing the man's arm, Xiao Yichen stood rooted to the spot in a daze long after the surrounding onlookers had dispersed.
"Well, this certainly comes as a surprise." He let out a soft sigh. While getting rid of Yun Mei had been his fondest dream, now that she was injured, if she lost to a female disciple whose cultivation was inferior to hers in the sect competition, wouldn't Xiao Yichen's situation as the spoils of war become even more perilous?
Returning to his room in a foul mood, he buried his head in his hands to ponder how to resolve the crisis. Suddenly, his gaze caught sight of a wooden box he had shoved beneath the bed.
"That's right! Aren't there healing pills?" A spark of joy ignited in Xiao Yichen's chest. Hidden away in that wooden box under the bed were the very pills Yun Mei had given him. Ever since he had started improving his cultivation through physical training, he had never touched them, shoving them all under the bed to avoid discovery.
He bolted out the door and ran toward the sect's Alchemical Hall. Along the way, people cast puzzled glances his way, completely at a loss as to what he was rushing off to do.