Gone Too Far

When Su Li saw Du Qi walk out, she stopped trying to explain. They wouldn't listen anyway, and trying to clarify would only make things worse. She might as well let them think what they wanted.

People were always like that; they only believed what they had already decided to believe. No matter how much anyone insisted otherwise, it was useless.

Su Li trotted over to Du Qi's side, leaning in close to his ear to whisper, “How did it go? Are you okay? Grandpa Wei didn't make things hard for you, did he?”

As she spoke, her warm breath brushed against his ear.

Du Qi pushed her head away with an expressionless face, laughing in exasperation. “Do I look like I'm okay?” He glanced at the surrounding elders, who were clicking their tongues in amusement, and rubbed his temples with a sigh. “Let's go. We'll talk somewhere else.”

“Alright, I've cleared out the side hall of my residence. You can stay right next to me.” Su Li nodded and turned to walk ahead. Her pace was slightly faster than usual,

as if she were in a hurry to escape the elders' scrutiny. Du Qi followed absentmindedly, walking slowly as if trying to process something.

The piece of paper Wei Ran had torn up... it was a contract from a Confucian Sage. A fucking Confucian Sage! How many ranks did Confucian cultivators even have? Scholar, Scholar-Apprentice, Teacher, Grandmaster, Confucian Sage. And then there was the even deeper level of Dao Integration.

Reaching the rank of Confucian Sage was essentially the peak. The last Confucian Sage had been his grandfather, and currently, there wasn't a single one left in the world. The reason he was so sure the contract was written by a Confucian Sage

was because he was a Grandmaster himself, yet he couldn't break the damn thing. He had no idea where the old man named Wei had even found such an item.

He looked down at his hands, then up at Su Li's back as she walked ahead. She walked through the sunlight, the hem of her red dress fluttering slightly in the breeze to reveal the delicate silver bells around her ankle, jingling softly with every step.

He suddenly felt as if he had stepped into a pit of unknown depth, one he hadn't chosen. Now that the paper was destroyed, he found himself cast as her Dao Protector. Did Su Li actually need a Dao Protector? He knew the answer to that all too well. After all, he had actually fought her before.

This woman's cultivation was obscenely higher than his. Who was protecting whom, exactly? What a joke. Yet, the contract was already in effect, and he realized he didn't entirely hate the idea.

He focused on the inkstone pool deep within his dantian—where thick, black, ink-like scholarly energy churned slowly. This was the specific reservoir where Confucian cultivators stored their scholarly energy.

Beside the inkstone grew a plum tree, though its branches were completely withered and dead. This was his scholarly energy seed, the very last thing his grandfather had left him.

He stared at the churning, ink-like scholarly energy. The volume currently in his inkstone far exceeded that of a Grandmaster, faintly carrying the momentum of a Demi-Sage. Perhaps he really could go toe-to-toe with a Void Refinement expert now.

He had gotten an incredible bargain—yet the feeling of being schemed against still left a bad taste in his mouth.

“Sigh...” He let out another soft sigh.

Up ahead, Su Li paused and glanced back at him. “What on earth did Grandpa Wei say? You've been sighing ever since you came out.” She stood at the entrance of her courtyard.

Du Qi snapped out of his thoughts and realized they had reached her courtyard. It wasn't very large, and a crooked tree grew near the entrance, its trunk bearing a scorched scar from a lightning strike that must have occurred years ago. He opened his mouth, hesitated for a moment, and finally muttered, “Adult business. Kids shouldn't butt in.”

Su Li immediately bristled. “Du Ling! Screw you!” Her two fox ears popped up with a boing, standing perfectly straight. “You're the kid! Your whole family is kids!” She wrapped her tail around Du Qi, binding him tightly. Her tail was fluffy, but her grip was incredibly strong. “Are you going to tell me or not? If you don't, I'll choke you to death!”

Bound tightly by her tail, Du Qi merely smiled. With a shift of his mind, a halo of light suddenly manifested around Su Li's dantian. Her strength was instantly drained, and her tail slumped powerlessly to the ground.

She tried to struggle, only to find that Du Qi's strength had somehow increased. He had never been this powerful before—had he been hiding his strength all along?

She gritted her teeth and looked up at him, only to find herself completely suppressed. Her eyes reddened slightly as she spat, “Du! You promised you'd undo this once we reached the Central Continent!”

Du Qi pulled a folding fan out of nowhere and began to fan himself nonchalantly. “Well, that's too bad. I'm a man of my word... except when I'm not.”

With a casual stroke of ink, he painted a chair, sat down, and looked at Su Li. He wore a lazy, punchable expression, crossing his legs and spinning the fan between his fingers.

“You!” Su Li trembled with rage. How could he do this? She had trusted him so much! Her voice grew cold. “This is the territory of my Beast Taming Sect. It seems you don't want to leave here in one piece.”

Du Qi let out a careless “Oh?” with a frustratingly relaxed tone. “So? Go tell on me. Have them kill me.”

He toyed with the fan in his hand as if it were some rare treasure, the fan leaves rustling softly as they spun between his fingers.

Su Li fell silent. Wei Ran must have made some kind of deal with him to make him so utterly fearless of her. A sudden wave of betrayal and grievance washed over her. She sat there, her eyes rimmed with red, biting her lip as she turned her head away.

Du Qi noticed she had gone quiet. He closed his fan and was about to speak when he saw a few crystal droplets strike the ground. Su Li crouched there, her shoulders shaking silently, not making a sound as she kept her head turned, tears streaming down uncontrollably.

Her tail lay limp on the ground, its tip stained with a bit of dirt. She was crying, but silently. Du Qi watched the teardrops fall onto the ground, soaking into the dust and forming small, dark circles.

Shoot. I went too far...

He squatted down, tucked his fan away, and softened his voice. “Alright, don't cry. I'll undo it for you, okay?”

Su Li turned her face further away, ignoring him. Du Qi could only shuffle a few steps over to bring himself back into her field of vision—his face hovering at the edge of her downward gaze.

Su Li looked up, then lowered her head again, her voice squeezed out from between her gritted teeth: “Get out! Get the hell out! I don't want to see you! Go as far away as you can!” She suddenly stood up, shoved Du Qi hard, and slammed the courtyard door shut. With a loud bang, the doorframe shook.

Du Qi stood outside, staring at the tightly shut door. It was made of wood, bearing an old scratch mark that looked like it had been left by claws. He rubbed his nose. Well, crap. I really messed up this time.

As he stood outside, the sky suddenly darkened. He looked up—dark clouds had gathered out of nowhere, completely blocking out the sunlight. Is it going to rain? Just as he was hoping it wouldn't pour when things were already going wrong, a massive clap of thunder split the sky. A flash of white light illuminated the entire mountain ridge, the thunder rumbling for a long time before finally subsiding.

Du Qi hadn't fully recovered from his earlier panic, but he already sensed that the direction of the lightning strike was off. He followed the lingering echo of the thunder and looked into the distance. It was toward the Central Continent Alliance. Toward the Elixir Hall.

His expression suddenly grew grave. This wasn't weather.

This was tribulation lightning.