Chapter 69: Also a Couple, Also a Teacher and Friend

After the two of them finished fighting, many commoners had gathered by the Mingzhu Lake. They looked here with the eyes of looking at immortals.

Because dragon qi needed the hearts of the people, and the value of directly swallowing flesh and blood was not great, as long as the commoners did not run into small demons or some special events, they were usually safe.

They had heard of the scene before them, but had seen it very rarely. At this time, there were even many people who squeezed their heads to come over, trying to get a glimpse of the golden body Bodhisattva and the red-clothed fairy on the high lake surface.

Chaoyinzi and Immortal Aunt Yaozhen in the sky decisively fell, and each took their partner and used earth-遁 (dì dùn – earth escape) to go to a secluded mansion.

This was not the original Great General Qin’s residence, but Lu Xuezhi’s temporary residence.

Lu Xuezhi summoned her personal guards, took some things, and gave them to Ning Xuan.

A letter, and sixty-six silver notes with a face value of one thousand taels of silver.

Ning Xuan looked at the letter first.

In the letter, his father said that he should have come to Hanzhou to wait in person, but his body was getting worse day by day, so he used a letter instead. In the letter, his father wrote a lot of literary words, but the summary was a simple sentence: “He never dreamed that his son could marry a legendary figure like Lu Xuezhi who was so powerful, beautiful, and influential. He was very happy and wanted Ning Xuan to cherish her and not mess it up. In this way, he would be happy whenever he thought of it, and could live a few more years.”

Ning Xuan put down the letter, grabbed the sixty-six thousand taels of silver notes, and asked, “What is this?”

Lu Xuezhi said, “The betrothal gift money from Mr. Taiyi.”

Ning Xuan was stunned for a moment.

For his family to be able to take out sixty-six thousand taels at once was really quite a lot. It could be said that they had almost emptied their family’s savings. It could be seen how satisfied Old Master Ning was with this daughter-in-law.

He thought for a moment and said, “That’s right. I still have to go to the door once, visit Jiedushi Lu, and give the betrothal gift money. In this way, it will show my sincerity.”

Lu Xuezhi said, “If I give it to you, it’s not necessary.”

Ning Xuan suddenly understood, “I understand.”

Lu Xuezhi said, “What do you understand?”

Ning Xuan said, “Besides these sixty-six thousand taels, I still need to prepare a few more generous gifts. In this way, it will be considered sincere.”

Lu Xuezhi blinked.

Ning Xuan also blinked.

The two looked at each other.

Lu Xuezhi explained, “It’s not necessary, that is, I don’t need it. I don’t need generous gifts, and I don’t need this sixty-six thousand taels of betrothal gift.”

After speaking, she raised her head, and her long ink-black hair that almost reached her waist swayed. A pair of bright eyes like the moon looked at Ning Xuan and said, “I don’t like red tape and secular etiquette.”

Then, she spat out four more words, “A waste of time.”

Ning Xuan was stunned for a moment, and asked tentatively, “Then, I’ll go and arrange it? A banquet tonight? There are a few less relatives and friends, but there will definitely be liveliness and pomp.”

Lu Xuezhi’s pretty face showed a strange look, and the corner of her lips curled up, and she said, “So fussy.”

“Uh…”

Ning Xuan thought to himself: Then I can’t just pick you up, carry you back to the room, and throw you on the bed.

Lu Xuezhi asked, “If you didn’t see me tonight and didn’t know about me, what would you have done?”

Ning Xuan said, “Order two pots of wine and have a good meal.”

Lu Xuezhi said, “Then what are you waiting for?”

Ning Xuan was happy.

Then, he really went to drink.

He and Lu Xuezhi both put on cloaks that slightly covered their faces.

Then, he took Lu Xuezhi to a building with a long queue and waited patiently. When it was his turn, he ordered a portion of roasted goose, a portion of soy-sauce beef, a plate of fried peanuts, and two jars of wine.

He didn’t eat in the restaurant, but used his movement skills to go to the top of the highest pavilion in Hanzhou City.

He had planned to do this.

A clear wind and a bright moon, delicious food and fine wine. In this way, it was not a waste of life.

He sat on the scaly black tile roof of the building, and the fine wine and dishes were lined up.

This time, it was Lu Xuezhi’s turn to be stunned.

She stood straight on one of the four corners of the pavilion, looking down at the prosperity of Hanzhou City at the time of Xu, with lanterns all over the street like a river of stars. She suddenly smiled faintly and said, “You are an interesting person.”

Ning Xuan said, “Let’s eat together.”

Lu Xuezhi stood and thought for a moment. She thought that the young man beside her would be her Daoist partner in the future, and their relationship would not be ordinary, so she also sat down. Her long legs were slightly crossed like scissors, and then she slowly tore off a little oil paper.

Ning Xuan sent a fat goose leg to her.

She held the bone at the end of the goose leg with the oil paper, and then began to eat in small bites.

Ning Xuan opened the seal of a jar of fine wine and handed it over.

Lu Xuezhi took it without hesitation.

The two of them raised their jars and clinked them, and then drank a few big mouthfuls together.

“Refreshing, refreshing!” Ning Xuan laughed loudly, “From now on, we are good brothers.”

Lu Xuezhi did not follow the rhythm of his words, did not agree, nor did she refute, and was not provoked. She just said with interest, “Young Master Ning, I heard that you were very dandy before, cockfighting, horse racing, eagle and dog gambling, you didn’t miss a single one, and even booked a whole brothel. What? Are you tired of big fish and big meat, and delicacies from the mountains and seas?”

Ning Xuan smiled faintly, and suddenly held the wine jar with his five fingers, and raised it slightly, facing the bright moon in the sky. He raised his head, shook it, and said, “I just feel that in this world, there are things far more worthy of cherishing than those.”

Lu Xuezhi said, “Oh? What is it?”

Ning Xuan drank the wine wildly, then put it down, and said, “Drunk and embracing the river of stars, sleeping together, the lonely building is brightly lit, and the vast sea is vast! Who is sitting with me?”

He paused, looked at the young lady beside him, and smiled, “The bright moon, the clear wind, you, and me.”

He was a dandy.

But he had seriously studied literature.

Otherwise, he would not have been able to write a memorial to the throne.

Lu Xuezhi said, “You are quite good at coaxing women.”

Ning Xuan said, “The ones in the brothel don’t need to be coaxed. I have one at home who coaxes me.”

Lu Xuezhi said, “Xiao Jie, right?”

Ning Xuan stopped the wine jar and said, “Yes.”

Lu Xuezhi said abruptly, “I can tolerate her.”

Ning Xuan said, “Oh?”

Lu Xuezhi did not answer this question, but raised the wine jar.

Her moon-like eyes were above the wine jar, and under her bangs.

In the evening wind, her long hair was floating back, and her body was full of an explosive power that was far superior to youthful vitality. Especially under her strong long legs, many people had really died, both men and women, but regardless of men or women, they were all people she thought deserved to die.

“I have already studied the Lingyan Small Group Art. Let’s try it in my room tonight. After we try it, we will be a couple, and we will be initiated. I am the main wife. From now on… you are not allowed to go to the brothel.” As Lu Xuezhi spoke, a threatening look appeared on her beautiful face.

What reason did Ning Xuan have to refuse?

He had said long ago that as long as the marriage partner his father had chosen for him was not too insulting, he could accept it.

What’s more, the young lady in front of him was beautiful, cool, and could fight. She looked good in every way.

As for the brothel, he had long since stopped going.

A woman made of paper, who would break with a touch. What was the point of going?

So, he nodded.

On the ebony and steel bed.

For the first time, Ning Xuan had a real sense of cultivation.

Lu Xuezhi was only wearing a moon-white undergarment.

To avoid having lustful thoughts, the two of them extinguished the candles.

Although it was dark, their vision was still good, but at least they lacked the moist feeling of the light.

“Let’s begin.” Ning Xuan said with concentration.

He really wanted to know if the cultivation method was useful.

After all, every time he refined a record of a higher level, it was really bitter and really dangerous.

Don’t look at the fact that he had survived these few times, but every time there was a risk. If he was not careful once, it would be eternal damnation.

“Refining a record that is about to arrive” was obviously an extremely dangerous thing.

If he could improve his strength by cultivating a cultivation method, swallowing a demon pill, and “refining a record that has already arrived,” then it would be for the best.

However, the latter two were based on searching for external objects. The former… seemed to be the foundation.

The two slowly approached.

Slowly, they touched.

The moment they touched, both of them trembled as if they had been electrocuted.

A young man and a young woman, especially martial artists, had strong qi and blood. As soon as they touched, lustful thoughts naturally arose.

“Stop.”

Lu Xuezhi pulled Ning Xuan and said, “Restrain your mind.”

Ning Xuan nodded. He followed the visualization diagram left in the “Divine Eagle Covering the Sky Art” and imagined a divine eagle spreading its wings and soaring in the nine heavens.

After a while, the two of them began to slowly advance.

In the dark, there was a faint smell of blood, but both of them kept their minds and focused on circulating the cultivation method.

On one side, it was a divine eagle spreading its wings, and on the other side, it was a small swallow circling.

In the dark, there was constant movement.

The qi and blood of the two gradually merged.

But as they merged, something started to go wrong.

Both of them were people with strong wills. They forcibly separated, restrained their minds again, and after they recovered, they cultivated again…

The second time, the two of them finally pushed to the second stage.

At the end of the second stage, Lu Xuezhi suddenly bit Ning Xuan’s shoulder fiercely and said, “You can’t give up. If you want to do it, you have to do it to the best of your ability. One time… success!!”

Ning Xuan had no other good way. He hurriedly visualized the eighty-four years he had been suppressed, and after a moment of calming down, the two of them began to ascend to the final stage of the Hehuan Sect’s method—the Nine Heavens Cloud.

The two of them persisted bitterly. Their qi and blood were pulled by the other party, and they rose like fire and boiled like water. And in the collision, they were tempered like a furnace and a sharp blade.

After a long time…

And a long time…

The two of them felt that their qi and blood had climbed to an unprecedented level, a level that was difficult to reach even in a life-and-death battle.

The two of them hurriedly separated, got up, put on their clothes, and with a roll of their bodies, they went to the courtyard to practice their fists and feet while the iron was hot.

At this time, it was late autumn, and the qi and blood of the two of them were steaming, like two high-temperature stoves, constantly emitting heat.

As they practiced, the two of them looked at each other, and they approached each other, and they fought at close range. In an instant, they exchanged several moves. After they separated, they pressed on again and continued to fight.

After a long time…

And a long time…

The two of them exhausted their strength, and then they stopped together.

Lu Xuezhi praised, “Young Master Ning, although you have not entered the second grade, you are already very close to the second grade. A dual cultivator of life and nature, you are truly a peerless genius.”

Ning Xuan said, “Still calling me Young Master?”

Lu Xuezhi said, “The two words ‘husband’ are hard to say. In private, let’s just call you Young Master for now. As for you… you don’t have to call me wife, and you don’t have to call me General Lu. Just call me Miss Lu.”

Ning Xuan said, “How about calling you Brother Lu?”

Lu Xuezhi said, “In private, as you wish.”

Ning Xuan was naturally just joking. His main wife, he had to call her “Miss.”

Lu Xuezhi suddenly noticed that Ning Xuan was still looking at her, so she said, “What’s wrong?”

Ning Xuan said with a bitter smile, “We have cultivated, but… our husband and wife business is not over yet.”

Lu Xuezhi’s pretty face was stunned. She showed a bit of confusion under the moon, and then she suddenly understood. She was a little stiff there, biting her lip, and then she decisively got up, her long legs crossed, and she strode into the room as if she was launching a charge. Then she turned around with a heroic posture, and slightly supported the half-closed door, and said, “So troublesome, hurry up.”

The Hehuan Sect’s method was obviously effective. Its effect did not come from the pleasure of men and women, but from using yin and yang as a guide to draw out the potential in the body, and then turning this potential into strength in the fight.

The two were immersed in it, and cultivated day and night.

The “stiffness of constitution” that Ning Xuan had felt before actually showed signs of “melting.”

In just five days, Ning Xuan felt that his body seemed to have been opened up, and he was very comfortable. The circulation of his qi and blood was faster. More importantly, the values on his panel had actually changed.

His constitution had changed from the original 10 to 10.1.

This was the first time he had gained a strength increase through a method other than “refining a record.”

Ning Xuan thought for a moment. Anyway, he already had a trump card like “Tianyouzi.” It might not be a bad thing to release his strength. The main thing was that he no longer had to hide it during dual cultivation, and could cultivate with Lu Xuezhi with all his strength.

So, on the sixth night, when he was fighting with Lu Xuezhi, he suddenly stopped. When Lu Xuezhi was about to attack, he raised his hand to signal “stop,” and at the same time, he began to slowly release his second-grade constitution’s qi and blood.

Lu Xuezhi felt his change.

In the moonlit courtyard, she showed a look of surprise and asked, “You’ve broken through to the second grade?”

Ning Xuan’s five fingers clenched, and his dense flesh and blood surged, showing a scaly and heavy texture.

Lu Xuezhi’s breathing stopped.

Although she already knew that Ning Xuan was very close to the second grade during dual cultivation, she was still extremely surprised that he had broken through just like that.

A bit of arrogance from being suppressed by the same kind flashed in her eyes.

There was no first in literature, and no second in martial arts…

As a martial artist, Lu Xuezhi had her own pride.

Even if her husband suppressed her, she could not give in.

She had to fight back quickly.

She didn’t want to wait for a moment.

She slowly took a starting posture and said lightly, “Since you have broken through to the second grade, then I will be serious.”

Ning Xuan quietly looked at her.

These days, he had been with Lu Xuezhi day and night, and they had been intimate. It was even common for them to have a telepathic connection and their qi and blood to merge during cultivation. So… he was basically sure of his initial judgment—Lu Xuezhi really had a martial arts inheritance.

Why?

When the “Divine Eagle Covering the Sky Art” and the “Lingyan Small Group Art” were cultivated to the final stage, it was inevitable that the two would alternate between top and bottom, like an alternative confrontation. At that time, both he and Lu Xuezhi were like crazy wild beasts.

At that time, the strength of their martial arts foundation was revealed.

He…

Couldn’t turn over.

The power around Lu Xuezhi’s body was too strange. Even if she forcibly suppressed it below the second grade, she still suppressed him.

This kind of thing could not be practiced by just figuring it out and cultivating on one’s own. Otherwise, in the nightmare world, Ning Xuan would have become a martial arts master just by “I think so.”

Martial arts, it had to be tempered. It needed many flashes of inspiration, many life-and-death battles, the improvement and supplement of generations of people, and the verification of right and wrong by events again and again. It was not that simple.

His “Swallow’s Cry Crushing Power” and “Swallow’s Tail Cutting Power” were learned from the innate demon arts of the Heavenly Demon Record’s demons, but even so, these two powers were not a system.

His moves seemed to have a pattern, but they were all some wild ways that he had summarized and concluded on his own.

Ning Xuan knew that Lu Xuezhi had been letting him.

And now, he wanted to see the real power, the real power of martial arts.

So, he nodded.

Seeing her husband nod, Lu Xuezhi’s momentum began to change. Her tall figure showed a strange twist, like the most well-behaved lady of a noble family restraining all her ostentation, and quietly holding a round fan to cover her face, and sitting quietly on a stool. It was also like a suddenly coiled snow-white viper, its body restrained, and its head in the center. Whether it was attacking or escaping, it was at ease.

Her flesh and blood wriggled, and she also began to produce faint scales.

She extended her right hand and beckoned, signaling her husband to come up.

Ning Xuan carefully observed her.

He walked around a few steps and came to the side.

But Lu Xuezhi also turned with his rotation.

Ning Xuan usually used all means in battle, but now he could only use his own martial arts.

He twisted his neck, and his arms were like a strong bow drawn. He said “be careful,” and then took a deep breath, and then suddenly got up and went up. A “Swallow’s Union” power was blasted out, and at the same time, a strange “hum” sound came from his nostrils.

Lu Xuezhi’s body suddenly became slippery. His “Swallow’s Union” was clearly hit, but it was forcibly slid away. His next “ha” word was sprayed out at close range, turning into a sound wave cannon with substance.

Boom!!

A big pit was blasted in the courtyard.

Ning Xuan’s pupils shrank, because he could feel that his hum and ha technique was also slid away.

In the rolling smoke and dust, a soul-snatching and life-taking long leg bit out like a viper’s mouth.

Ning Xuan did not even look, and his left hand quickly blocked.

Boom!

The fist blocked the tip of the foot.

The dual forces exploded.

But Lu Xuezhi was not thrown away.

Her long leg turned from a long spear to a big axe, and the force was connected smoothly, and it chopped down at Ning Xuan’s shoulder.

Ning Xuan’s hands went to support her calf, and at the same time, the power of the “Swallow’s Union” exploded on his shoulder to resist this chopping force.

Boom!

Thud!

After the loud sound, he steadily ate his wife’s “short and rapid” wisp of connected and insidious unloading force, and thus flew back.

Before, he would just fly back.

But now, when he flew back, he saw Lu Xuezhi flying like a ghost, a group of afterimages, a series of ghosts. Each shadow seemed to be accumulating power, and each shadow seemed to be frozen in time and space.

He had only flown back a few zhang, and Lu Xuezhi had already changed into dozens of shadows.

Her face was expressionless, her expression was indifferent, her bangs were calm, and her ink-black hair was dancing wildly…

Suddenly, the dozens of shadows all disappeared.

Ning Xuan had a bad feeling.

A kind of instinct formed between life and death made him subconsciously draw the Ruyi Saber.

The saber at his waist, one turned into a hundred and a thousand, was not slashed out, but turned into a long pillar, and blocked in front of him.

Lu Xuezhi’s leg arrived.

The leg kicked the Ruyi Saber.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

A continuous series of thunderous explosions sounded in the middle of the night.

In the early morning, Hanzhou City was originally dark, but suddenly, thousands of families’ lights were all lit, and everyone craned their necks to look out.

The dark night woke up.

In the courtyard, the dust settled. Ning Xuan stood there, and Lu Xuezhi’s leg had already kicked his Ruyi Saber away, and was pointing at his throat. The crystal clear and full toes of her foot gently touched his throat, and then she retracted it.

“The treasure is not bad. It forced me to almost use my full strength.”

Lu Xuezhi commented, “However, using a treasure to carry a stiff flesh and blood is the way of the demons. We don’t rely on external objects, but on training ourselves to become the strongest treasure in the world.”