The blazing sun hung overhead without a hint of breeze. Even the paint on the house pillars seemed to sweat from the heat. In the small courtyard, two ancient trees stood motionless, their green leaves wilting listlessly as if drowsy with sleep.

The afternoon after the summer meal was perfect for napping. Yet in a certain small courtyard of the Ye Manor, a blue-robed youth sat cross-legged on a bluestone, meditating.

“Little Qin, nothing will happen to Kong’er, right? The sun is so vicious. Even cats and dogs know to find shade under the trees to rest, but he insists on exposing himself to the sun every afternoon for several hours. What if he gets heatstroke?” Inside the house, Chen Jiuniang watched her son outside with worry.

“Godmother, don’t worry. Haven’t you noticed? There’s not even any sweat on Brother Ye Kong’s forehead.” Lu Qin came every day to learn the Shadow Jade martial arts from Ye Kong. Over the past half year, she’d grown extremely close to Chen Jiuniang. Chen Jiuniang quite liked this clever, pretty little girl, so she’d accepted her as a goddaughter. Of course, Chen Jiuniang’s ultimate intention was for Ye Kong’s sake.

Chen Jiuniang looked at Ye Kong outside again and sighed. “Boys just love to show off. In the future, you’ll have to look after your Brother Ye Kong.”

Girls mature early. Fourteen-year-old Lu Qin naturally understood the meaning behind Chen Jiuniang’s words. Her oval face instantly flushed red. She lowered her head embarrassedly and bit the small mole below her lip, saying in a mosquito-like voice, “I understand, Godmother.”

Seeing her little daughter act like this, Chen Jiuniang couldn’t help laughing heartily. “Good that you understand. In another two years, I’ll leave Kong’er in your care, and I can finally relax.”

Lu Qin was so embarrassed she could barely stand. She quickly said, “Godmother, why don’t we work on embroidery instead?”

Others saw Ye Kong suffering under the sun, but he actually didn’t feel it at all. At midday, the fire and earth spiritual energy in the air were especially active. The cultivation effect was even better than at midnight.

Ye Kong didn’t feel hot in the slightest. If one used the Heaven Eye Technique to look, they would discover his surroundings were full of spiritual energy wrapping around him. The intense sunlight couldn’t actually reach his body.

He desperately absorbed the spiritual energy. It drilled in through his palms, flowed through his extraordinary meridians and eight vessels, completed twelve full circulation noodles cycles, and finally deposited the last remaining essence into his Qi Sea. That feeling was indescribably comfortable.

Over the past half year, Ye Kong had cultivated day and night without rest. He’d set himself a schedule: practice Shadow Jade martial arts in the morning, absorb fire spiritual energy under the midday sun, create dozens of paper talismans in the afternoon, then cultivate all night.

He cultivated so diligently because he sensed danger, danger from Fan Jiushe. The Fan brothers had most likely discovered his lies long ago, yet they still hadn’t made a move against him. Ye Kong believed these brothers definitely weren’t sparing him out of kindness.

Crisis was motivation. The Fan brothers would eventually extend their vicious claws. So Ye Kong had no choice but to cultivate day and night without rest to increase his chances of victory in the inevitable final battle.

Unfortunately, despite his diligence, though he could feel the spiritual energy in his body increasing, he remained stuck at Qi Refinement Layer 1. It seemed the Five Elements Ascension Scripture really did cultivate slowly. Two years had passed, and he still hadn’t broken through the first layer of the first realm.

Though the Five Elements Ascension Scripture showed no progress, his Shadow Jade martial arts and talisman-making ability had improved greatly. He could now perform the Shadow Jade techniques in continuous sequences and adapt and counter moves spontaneously. If he faced Ye Haoran now, he probably wouldn’t be at much disadvantage.

After half a year of study, even Lu Qin had become a martial arts expert. The Shadow Jade martial arts were truly miraculous. Not only were they miraculous, they were beautiful to watch. Especially when a girl performed them, they were prettier than dancing. It was just that Lu Qin hadn’t cultivated immortal arts, so she couldn’t execute many of the aerial spinning moves. Otherwise, she would be even more graceful and captivating.

After more than an hour, Ye Kong sensed the spiritual energy movement in the air had slowed considerably. He stopped absorbing, drew the last thread of spiritual energy into his Qi Sea, then opened both eyes and stood up.

“Brother Ye Kong, come inside quickly and drink some heat-relieving sweet soup.” Lu Qin came forward to meet him.

Ye Kong looked at her and smiled. Girls really do mature first. Half a year ago she was still a scrawny little girl, and now she’d transformed from an ugly duckling into a swan. “Heat-relieving sweet soup? It’s been chilled, right?” Ye Kong asked.

“Yes! My brother had me bring ice. It was so heavy.”

Ye Kong suddenly smiled bitterly. Now his spiritual energy was growing stronger and stronger, but he still lacked basic spell incantations. Otherwise, just by reciting an incantation and channeling spiritual energy, turning [Read on Jormuntl]the well water in the courtyard into an ice cellar wouldn’t be difficult at all.

Entering the house, he saw a square jade box on the table. This was a type of miraculous jade from Cangnan Continent called ice jade. If you poured water into it and left it overnight, the water inside would turn to ice. Just like a refrigerator.

This ice jade was quite rare. A jade box this size was already an uncommon luxury. Something refrigerator-sized probably only existed in the imperial inner chambers.

Ye Kong accepted the sweet soup and picked up the ice jade box to examine it. “Screw his immortal ancestors, your brother really knows how to enjoy himself. Just made a little money and he’s already using luxury goods.”

Lu Qin pouted. “My brother wouldn’t spend on himself. He heard you cultivate every day at noon, so he bought this to send over.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Jiuniang quickly said, “Your brother is too kind. These past months you’ve been sending this and that, looking after us mother and son. Our lives are already much better. How can we accept such luxury items?”

Lu Qin hugged Chen Jiuniang’s arm. “Godmother, please don’t say that. It should be Brother Ye Kong looking after our family. My mother often says if not for Eighth Young Master, she’d still be lying blind in a broken house waiting to die. How would we have today’s good life?”

Chen Jiuniang felt joy in her heart, but scolded, “That reckless boy, hasn’t even grown all his hair yet. How could he have such ability? You’re all just bragging for him.”

Ye Kong laughed heartily. “Don’t worry, life will get even better in the future. This isn’t even close to a good life. Later you’ll understand what a real good life is.”

Chen Jiuniang laughed and scolded, “Boy, there you go bragging again. If life doesn’t go back to how it was, that’s already good enough. You want it better? How much better?”

Hearing the words “go back to how it was,” Ye Kong’s heart sank. He thought of Fan Jiushe again. Fan Jiushe’s threat to him was like the rope in “hanging beam” or the awl in “pricking thigh,” constantly pushing him forward, never allowing him to slacken!

“I’m going to practice calligraphy.” ​Read on Jormuntl​After finishing the sweet soup, Ye Kong stood up. So-called calligraphy practice actually meant drawing talismans.

Just as Ye Kong returned to his room, Lu Qin followed him in. The girl’s thoughts were unimaginably perceptive. She’d actually sensed the subtle change in Ye Kong’s mood.

“Brother Ye Kong, Godmother and I were just joking. Don’t be angry.” Lu Qin lowered her head as if she’d done something wrong.

Ye Kong smiled. “Why would I be angry at you two? I was just reminding myself not to be content with the status quo. Back home we have a saying: only when you’ve gotten her into bed is she your woman…”

Lu Qin’s face turned bright red. She couldn’t even lift her head. “Brother Ye Kong, what are you saying?”

“Haha, I’m a hooligan. It’s habit.” Ye Kong quickly changed his approach. “Let me use a different analogy. Only money in your own pocket is truly yours, understand? It’s reminding us that until the very last moment, we must never relax. We can’t enjoy ourselves now. We must always remember there are people eyeing us like tigers!”

Lu Qin didn’t know if she understood or not. She nodded confusedly.

Ye Kong was displeased. “Talking to you is pointless if you don’t understand.”

The little girl got anxious. “Who says I don’t understand? You’re just saying to be careful of the Fan brothers.”

“Good that you know. You looked like you didn’t understand…”

Lu Qin’s face reddened. She said quietly, “I don’t understand what ‘money’ means.” As soon as she said it, she added, “If it’s hooligan stuff… don’t explain…”

“Money is hooligan stuff too.” Ye Kong couldn’t help laughing. This wasn’t surprising. Ye Kong’s mouth always liked to talk nonsense. Those dirty words and new terms stolen contentwere all quite hooligan-like. At first Lu Qin would ask him to explain meanings. Last time Ye Kong somehow blurted out “condom.” After explaining it to Lu Qin, the little girl’s face was so red she nearly hemorrhaged. After that, she never dared ask him the meaning of new terms again.

“Oh, so money means silver. Your hometown dialect is really hard to understand.” The studious little girl had learned another new word.

“In short, until we eliminate the Fan brothers, we must never let our guard down. Tell your brother not to rush into enjoying himself. He needs to expand his forces. You need to work hard on martial arts too. That way we can guard against any contingency.” Ye Kong instructed her again.

Lu Qin nodded. “I understand. How about I perform the sequence one more time for you to see?”

“That’s fine.”

After a while, Ye Kong said, “Your basic approach to practicing the Shadow Jade martial arts is wrong. You can’t focus on looking good! You need to focus on injuring people! The Shadow Jade martial arts aren’t flowery fists and embroidered legs. When it’s time to exert force, you must use all your strength. When you practice, imagine your enemy is right in front of you. Watch me demonstrate once.”

When Ye Kong practiced the Shadow Jade martial arts, he was much more fierce than Lu Qin. Yet within the fierceness was elegance. Sometimes like a young bird through the forest soaring skyward, sometimes like gauze in the wind swaying and floating. That peerless bearing left Lu Qin’s beautiful eyes full of tender affection.

“Clap, clap, clap!” Just as Ye Kong finished, applause rang out. An elder’s approving voice came forth. “Shadow Dance! This is absolutely Shadow Dance! For this old man to see true Shadow Dance in his lifetime, I can die without regrets!”