In the border pass, there were four requests for help sent to the headquarters in a single month, one of which was even a small calamity tide. The casualty rate rose by several tens of percent.
Fu Xingjian sat in the main seat, looking at the casualty report, his face so dark it looked like it could drip water.
Those rising figures, casualty reports, compensation funds, and equipment wear and tear...
He sighed, shifting his gaze to the output report of the Molten Heart Tower. Energy output had risen by fifty percent, economic benefits had clearly improved, and the progress of many research projects had suddenly accelerated.
These rising figures, to some extent, comforted Fu Xingjian's wounded heart.
Although he always felt that these abnormal movements of the Ice Spirits had started when his precious son insisted on expanding that Molten Heart Tower. But whenever he mentioned it, his son would just say he was looking for trouble out of boredom.
How frustrating...
Everspring City was still relatively far from the border, so it hadn't suffered much from the devastation of the Ice Spirit riots over the past two months.
As for how Lu Yan knew this news, it was because Hua Er slapped the table and glared, bitterly cursing the black-hearted merchants.
“Dammit! What does the war at the border have to do with these rapeseed oil sellers? Why the hell does rapeseed oil have to go up in price too?!”
Every day during meals, Lu Yan had to listen to Hua Er nag about it once.
As for him and Jiang Ci? Now it wasn't him avoiding Jiang Ci anymore; instead, Jiang Ci was avoiding him every single day.
But he wasn't annoyed. They were living in the same place anyway; could she grow wings and fly away? Lu Yan was in a very pleasant mood.
Especially when he saw Jiang Ci tactically poking her head out from her room's doorframe twice every day, only daring to come out when she saw he wasn't in the hallway.
The corners of his mouth would stretch all the way to the sky; this girl was simply too amusing.
Once, he specifically followed behind her silently when she came out in the morning to practice her sword. She probably heard his movement because she dropped her sword in fright.
Lu Yan suppressed the smile on his face and swallowed a Focus-Stabilizing Pill. Ever since he slept with Jiang Ci last time... slept in the same bed with Jiang Ci for a night.
His pill-crafting success rate instantly skyrocketed. No joke, he was popping Focus-Stabilizing Pills like candy, alright?
Well... maybe not exactly like candy, but taking one during cultivation was absolutely no problem.
Lu Yan took the Focus-Stabilizing Pill, and that familiar sensation washed over him. The medicinal efficacy gathered into a pool of clear water, soaking his shattered spiritual sea.
His lost cultivation returned to his body. Nascent Soul Great Perfection! Lu Yan smirked.
“Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river... I, Hu Hansan, have returned!”
With a thought, a transparent soul-like divine sense detached from his body.
The young and naive Jiang Ci could never imagine, let alone sense, that whenever Lu Yan cultivated, his divine sense would leave his body and wander around the house.
Jiang Ci's room was one of the places Lu Yan visited most frequently. The main reason was that in other places, even Yao Wu could easily spot his divine sense.
It definitely wasn't because he was a total pervert who wanted to spy on a young girl. Yes, exactly, definitely not.
Jiang Ci, who was meditating in her room, suddenly felt a sensation of being watched. She opened her eyes and scanned the surroundings, but could find no physical presence.
An illusion? Why do I always feel like someone is watching me lately?
She frowned and entered meditation again. With the help of the pills and medicinal baths provided by Lu Yan, her body tempering effects were excellent. She had quickly broken through the barrier of the ninth level of Body Tempering.
As for why she used Lu Yan's medicine, she originally hadn't wanted to.
But because of her drunken antics in front of Lu Yan last time, she still didn't dare to speak to him. Every time she saw him, her mind would involuntarily replay the scene of her waking up that day.
How she woke up from the bed, how she begged him for dual cultivation, and how she hid in the corner crying and making a scene until he finally coaxed her to calm down.
At this thought, her newly entered meditative state fell into disarray again. Jiang Ci forced it back down, leaving only a faint blush on the tips of her ears.
But since she couldn't face him, what was she to do? She hadn't broken through her realm in days, and now there was ready-made medicine right at hand. Should she use it or not...
Little Jiang could only swallow a Golden Core... a Blood-Vitality Pill, thinking “my fate is mine to command, not the heavens”—how hypocritically satisfying. Meanwhile, she kept recording this debt in her mental notebook, planning to pay Lu Yan back in the future...
Yes, she would pay him back in the future. It wasn't freeloading; it was just that since he had already bought them, it would be a waste not to use them...
Thus, Jiang Ci, who already had an excellent foundation, was like a tiger with wings, a fish in water, like Liu Bei gaining Zhuge Liang, or the Thunder General obtaining the Dark Spark...
Anyway, she was just incredibly strong, and that was that.
Two months, she had completely cleared Body Tempering and was heading straight for Qi Condensation.
That right, today she was going to begin drawing qi into her body. She would finally be able to use spiritual energy!
At this thought, the corners of Jiang Ci's mouth curled up slightly into a soft arc.
Floating in midair, Lu Yan was momentarily dazed. She's so beautiful... Then his face flushed, and he shook his head. What am I doing? Have I never seen someone smile before?
He wondered if a soul form's face could turn red. Well, even if it did, so what? She couldn't see him anyway...
Oh, right, she couldn't see him. He could stare as openly as he wanted! With that thought, Lu Yan felt entirely justified again. He squatted at the foot of Jiang Ci's bed and watched her cultivate.
You're about to draw qi into your body, yet you didn't even find a Dao Protector to watch over you. If it weren't for me, no one would even know if something went wrong, Lu Yan grumbled inwardly as he observed the path of Jiang Ci's qi drawing.
Drawing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into her dantian, exhaling the turbid air from her body—her movements were textbook-perfect, without a single flaw. Indeed, maybe she really didn't need a Dao Protector.
Lu Yan watched Jiang Ci slowly draw qi into her body, not feeling bored at all.
The next step was to guide the absorbed spiritual energy through the acupoints and meridians opened during body tempering, circulating it for one full cycle, before fixing this trace of spiritual energy inside the dantian for her own use.
Lu Yan watched Jiang Ci's movements, recalling the steps of drawing qi into the body from his memory. Every step of Jiang Ci's was exceptionally standard, minimizing the dissipation of the absorbed spiritual energy.
The spiritual energy flowed through her body. Watching the direction of its flow, Lu Yan silently recited the acupoints.
“Tianshu... Zhangmen... Shanzhong...”
The spiritual energy continued upward. But when it reached the Xinyu acupoint, a sudden mutation occurred. As the spiritual energy passed, it suddenly bored into Jiang Ci's heart, nesting there and violently wearing away a layer of it.
A sharp pain stabbed through Jiang Ci's chest, and the circulating spiritual energy instantly dispersed. She clutched her chest, feeling unable to breathe. Her vision turned black in waves, and a slicing sensation like a knife cutting through her flesh radiated from her chest...
Is it no use? Her consciousness grew increasingly hazy... The pain in her chest, combined with her inability to breathe, made it impossible for her to even cry out for help...
Through her blurring vision, the door seemed to be burst open by a figure.
Ah, he came...
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