MJWCATFPITWOC Chapter 36
by VolareShen Yucheng was suspended in mid-air, the gazes of thousands of disciples of the Lingfeng Sect all focused on him, and he felt his scalp tingle.
The Sect Leader, seeing him so “enthusiastic,” praised loudly, “Disciple Shen is truly an example for us! I hope all disciples will remember…”
The Sect Leader’s voice was incessant, and Shen Yucheng took the opportunity to quietly land. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Shi Wen approached, lowering his voice to laugh: “Not bad, Yucheng, full of energy.”
“…” Shen Yucheng ignored him. His eyes sharpened, and he quickly scanned his surroundings. His intuition told him that someone had deliberately pulled him from behind. Sure enough, his gaze finally landed on two people—Mo Yifeng and Fu Lingxuan. Although they were facing the crowd, the hands hidden behind their backs still held traces of blue and orange light that had not completely dissipated, evidence of spiritual power in operation.
Shen Yucheng’s eyes twitched in anger. Although he didn’t know why they were teasing him like this, he wasn’t someone who could swallow his anger.
Taking a deep breath, he suppressed the anger in his heart and turned to face the disciples. However, the golden silk under his feet writhed nimbly like a net of snakes, tens of thousands of strands instantly converging, awaiting their master’s command.
Before long, Shen Yucheng’s fingertip twitched slightly. The golden silk received the order and scattered at the speed of light, dispersing to Mo Yifeng’s natal sword and under Fu Lingxuan’s armpits.
Half a moment later, an announcement sounded in the sky above the sect: “Futian Sect—Mo Yifeng, Fu Lingxuan, spiritual power detection successful, registration confirmed.”
Shen Yucheng felt that this was perhaps the most pleasant sound he had ever heard.
However, in the days that followed, Mo Yifeng and Fu Lingxuan looked at him with increasingly resentful eyes. By chance, he asked Shi Wen and learned that, for the sake of fairness, the Immortal Sect Competition would divide the participants’ cultivation levels and conduct group matches to avoid unequal confrontations like Foundation Establishment versus Nascent Soul.
It was said that the Nascent Soul group’s competition was always different from the other groups, adopting an invitation system. Each participant drawn to compete could choose their opponent for a challenge, so the Nascent Soul group’s competition used a points accumulation method.
Shen Yucheng was puzzled: “Then if someone isn’t drawn and no one challenges them, do they just have zero points forever?”
Shi Wen waved his hand: “That can’t be helped. After all, popularity and reputation are also part of a cultivator’s strength.”
Having said that, he seemed to remember something, adding, “However, this really did happen last year. Your fellow disciples were quite the sensation, almost dominating the entire competition. Challengers came in an endless stream.”
Shen Yucheng remembered the expressions of those two resentful people. It seemed that their competition experience last year was not pleasant, otherwise they wouldn’t be so resistant. The thought of repeatedly fighting against strong opponents made his head ache just thinking about it.
However, these things should be irrelevant to him. He was only at the Golden Core stage and participating in the Golden Core group’s competition should be relatively normal.
Thinking this way, Shen Yucheng felt a little more at ease and chatted with Shi Wen about other topics.
Shi Wen mentioned that shortly after separating from Shen Yucheng in the secret realm, he was ambushed by Cai Ji and knocked unconscious. When he woke up, three days had passed. Learning that the secret realm was about to close, he frantically searched for treasures everywhere, snatching from anyone he saw and seizing any treasure he found. In the end, he didn’t know how he broke through and even got a body full of treasures.
Finally, he found Shen Yucheng and the others in the forest, and the secret realm ended just in time.
Shen Yucheng really had nothing to say to him.
However, speaking of the secret realm, Shen Yucheng suddenly realized that, in recent days, the pain of swelling spiritual power had never recurred in his body. It seemed that Mo Yifeng’s saying about absorbing spiritual power was indeed effective, temporarily relieving the crisis of exploding.
Although he had never had much real feeling about this matter, in the secret realm, he personally experienced the pain of his spiritual power surging and almost tearing him apart after being poisoned with spirit-expanding poison. It was then that he made up his mind to step up his cultivation.
However, on the other hand, he thought that if he broke the contract with Mo Yifeng, he might suffer that kind of pain again, thinking: Since the method of breaking the contract hasn’t been found yet, it’s better to wait until my cultivation improves before making plans.
.
The Immortal Sect Competition was scheduled for the last day of the month. During this period, Shen Yucheng was rare and idle, staying in Futian Peak to cultivate intently. After returning from the secret realm, the Azure Scaled Lion in the contract entered a state of closed-door cultivation again, requiring a large amount of spiritual power to support it every day. Even Shen Yucheng, whose spiritual power was like a flood, felt a little strained.
But when he thought that after closed-door cultivation, the Azure Scaled Lion’s cultivation could improve further, these were nothing.
However, this idea was broken in just a few days. That day, he returned from cultivation and had just stepped into the room when he saw Mo Yifeng walking out. He was about to ask when the other party sized him up, his eyes sweeping from top to bottom.
Shen Yucheng had just finished cultivating and was covered in sweat. Because he was too hot, he took off his outer robe, wearing only a thin inner shirt. A cool breeze gently brushed over him, making him shiver involuntarily. Mo Yifeng’s gaze was too direct, and Shen Yucheng felt a little uncomfortable being stared at, the words he originally wanted to ask temporarily stuck in his throat: “What’s wrong?”
Mo Yifeng looked at him all over and suddenly said: “Brother Yucheng, you cultivate so hard every day, how are you still only at the early Golden Core stage?”
Golden Core.
Early stage.
These four words echoed in his ears like a loud bell, lingering for a long time. Mo Yifeng’s words were like a sharp sword, piercing the deepest pain point in Shen Yucheng’s heart, which was also his trouble after continuous cultivation in recent days.
Logically speaking, although a cultivator’s daily cultivation wouldn’t lead to an immediate breakthrough, they could still feel the gradual improvement of their cultivation to some extent. However, in recent days, he clearly felt that he had been stagnating, as if carrying a heavy burden and trudging arduously on a mountain road.
At this moment, a warm hand gently stroked his cheek, raising his face and forcing him to look straight ahead. Shen Yucheng was stunned, looking into Mo Yifeng’s eyes in confusion.
“Brother Yucheng…”
Shen Yucheng’s heart trembled, here it comes again.
Since returning from the secret realm, Mo Yifeng seemed to have become different to him. The previous frivolous pursuit became more direct, and the atmosphere between the two became strange. Just like now, the conversation inexplicably turned into this situation, and there seemed to be an invisible tension in the air, making people feel oppressed and ambiguous.
He looked at Mo Yifeng’s deep eyes, the distance between the two narrowed, Shen Yucheng felt their breath intertwining in the air, alarm bells ringing loudly in his heart, his heartbeat accelerating rapidly. His intuition told him to distance himself as soon as possible, otherwise unforeseen consequences would occur.
Mo Yifeng’s hand moved from his cheek to his neck, his palm warm and strong, firmly holding him in place. This action was heavier than ever before, carrying a hint of indescribable obsession.
Shen Yucheng had never experienced such a scene, and for a moment he didn’t know how to react. He could only hastily change the subject as usual, avoiding Mo Yifeng’s deep eyes.
He turned away his gaze, gently removing Mo Yifeng’s hand from his neck, and said: “You…”
But before he could finish speaking, Mo Yifeng suddenly leaned in and whispered in his ear: “I hope to meet Brother Yucheng at the Immortal Sect Competition.”
“What?” Shen Yucheng didn’t react for a moment. Before he could ask, Mo Yifeng turned and left.
From that day on, Shen Yucheng began to deliberately leave early and return late, cultivating during the day and only returning at night, the two almost never met again. At first, Shen Yucheng was a little unaccustomed. They had been connected by the Dao Companion Contract for so long. After suddenly separating, his surroundings seemed empty, and he always felt like something was missing.
As soon as this thought came to mind, Shen Yucheng was taken aback.
Maple leaves fell, leaving only bare branches on the huge plane tree. The golden silk that Shen Yucheng condensed scattered and decomposed like a net, turning into countless small golden light spots that drifted with the wind. Under the impact of spiritual power, the few remaining leaves also fluttered away, quietly falling on his head.
Shen Yucheng let out a long breath, his heartbeat still not calm.
Just now, did he feel unaccustomed to Mo Yifeng not being by his side?
He deflated and lay down on the ground covered with maple leaves, letting a few leaves fall and cover his waist. Looking up at the clear sky, Shen Yucheng couldn’t help but sigh.
Thinking about it, Mo Yifeng seemed to be the only person he could call close.
Several blurry images suddenly flashed in his mind—kisses, hugs, and the memory of him sneaking away before dawn after they shared a bed.
Shen Yucheng: “…” Is this considered close?
At first, he was extremely dissatisfied with Mo Yifeng’s frivolous attitude, feeling that this person was annoying in every way. However, in Jitan Village, Mo Yifeng was poisoned by extreme cold and endured the pain without saying a word. That forbearance was completely different from his usual performance. In the secret realm, he almost fell into the abyss to retrieve the Flame Soul Grass, and Mo Yifeng desperately saved him.
He clearly remembered the hug when Mo Yifeng pulled him back, it was so tight that he could hardly breathe, and he could still feel the other person’s body trembling amidst the chaos.
And……
He looked at his right hand.
And he personally stabbed Mo Yifeng in the abdomen. After leaving the secret realm, he had secretly checked Mo Yifeng’s injuries at night. Although the wound had healed, the depth of the scar showed how hard he had stabbed at the time.
Mo Yifeng didn’t seem as frivolous as he appeared on the surface. Perhaps he was more complicated and elusive than he thought.
Shen Yucheng sat up, quietly looking at the distant scenery of mountains and rivers. This was a moment of leisure that he had never had before, a moment of peace that only belonged to cultivators.
However, he knew that such days would not last long. Now, he still had an unavoidable goal—to improve his cultivation, break the fate of exploding, and ultimately dissolve the Dao Companion Contract. As for other things, he would wait until then to talk about them.
A gentle breeze brushed past, stirring Shen Yucheng’s sleeves, and the hem of his clothes fluttered in the wind.
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On Hanji Peak in the Northern Region—
Above the summit, the ground split open into a huge hole, and a man in white slowly rose from the hole, standing in mid-air, overlooking the ice cave beneath his feet. After a moment, he turned his head to look at Jitan Village in the distance, pondered for a moment, and then flew away, disappearing into the cold wind and snow.