CHAPTER 17
— The Hardship of Cultivation —
"Senior Brother, Senior Brother, look! It's lit! It's actually lit!" Tong Tong held up the flickering flame on her fingertip, shouting excitedly, her cheeks flushed and rosier than the dancing red spark.
How could she not be excited? After rubbing her fingers for so long, nearly wearing the skin raw, she had finally managed to produce this tiny spark! Her joy was no less than that of an actor who, after ten years in film, finally steps onto the Oscar stage.
If her temporary instructor weren't so aloof, Tong Tong would have thrown caution to the wind and given him a warm hug, propriety be d@mned.
Su Yan glanced over indifferently, not uttering a word. He simply rubbed his middle finger and thumb together, and with a crisp "snap," a golden-yellow flame ignited in his palm—bright and vibrant, far surpassing the feeble, flickering flame on Tong Tong's fingertip that seemed on the verge of extinguishing at any moment.
Tong Tong's initially smug little face instantly fell when she saw the lotus flame flickering in Su Yan's palm. The tiny spark vanished just as quickly, deprived of timely spiritual energy replenishment—at the sight, her pursed lips began to droop at the corners.
Su Yan, who had only intended to remind her not to grow too complacent, hadn't expected her to switch moods so abruptly. Looking utterly dejected, Tong Tong seemed genuinely wronged, as if Su Yan had bull!ed her. With a soft sigh, Su Yan extinguished the lotus flame in her palm and, with a graceful turn of her hand, replaced it with a plate of soft, fragrant, and flaky Mingyu cakes.
Sure enough, Tong Tong's drooping lips instantly curled upward, her eyes sparkling like stars. She immediately cast aside her wounded pride and eagerly stepped forward, ready to take the plate from Su Yan's hand.
But Su Yan raised her hand slightly, holding the plate just out of Tong Tong's reach. Calmly, she said, "Five more to go."
"Aww..." Tong Tong whined, stretching her arm to grab the tantalizingly close plate, yet unable to reach it. Reluctantly, she took a few steps back, steadied her mind, and prepared to meet Su Yan's demand.
Before gathering her energy, she glanced at Su Yan's unyielding, icy expression. Her eyes darted mischievously as she attempted to bargain: "Five plates!"
Su Yan's brows furrowed slightly, displeased by the suggestion. Without hesitation, she refused, "No."
"Don't be like that... Senior Brother Yan~ Practicing is exhausting! How can I maintain enough spiritual energy without delicious snacks to replenish my strength? Hmm? Hmm?" Biting her lower lip and widening her eyes, Tong Tong recalled the coquettish antics she'd seen other young girls use, hoping her performance might melt a certain iceberg.
"One plate," Su Yan replied coolly, casting a sidelong glance at Tong Tong's exaggerated display of pitifulness—truth be told, sometimes Tong Tong's deliberate acting was far less convincing than her natural, unconscious expressions. Su Yan remained unmoved.
"Wahh... so heartbroken... Senior Brother, you're abusing a minor! You'll face legal consequences and the condemnation of your conscience!" Tong Tong pretended to wipe nonexistent tears from the corners of her eyes, wailing her accusation. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Su Yan's twitching lips and darkening expression, and promptly lowered her demands. "Then... how about this? Let's both compromise... three plates! How about three plates?"
She stared at Su Yan with hopeful eyes, gleaming as if shouting, "Say yes! Say yes!"
Unable to endure her dramatic, shameless antics any longer, Su Yan couldn't help but press a hand to her forehead. Though she knew she shouldn't indulge her, she still relented, lowering her raised arm and offering the plate to the now beaming Tong Tong. "Two plates. This is the deposit."
After speaking, she herself felt a sense of absurdity—teaching such a simple spell like forming flames with a snap of the fingers shouldn't be this difficult. It almost felt as though she were forcing Tong Tong to learn against her will...
A cold glint returned to Su Yan's eyes, but it vanished the moment she saw Tong Tong's powdered cheeks, now smudged with crumbs as she happily devoured the cakes. Fine, she thought, it's just a few plates of snacks anyway.
Melted once more by Tong Tong's eager, adorable demeanor, Su Yan forgot again the embarrassment and irritation she'd felt when she, already having achieved grain abstinence, had gone to the Qingyun Court kitchen to ask the cook to prepare the cakes—only to be met with the cook's curious, scrutinizing gaze.
Ever since Su Yan began employing the 'Crisis Learning Method,' Tong Tong's progress in swordsmanship advanced by leaps and bounds. She effortlessly shattered Qin Ziqi's prediction of mastering one form per month, shortening the time to just three days per move. Even the final three slightly more challenging forms took her only five days—truly remarkable progress.
Soon after mastering the Xuanqing Sword Style, Su Yan had no intention of letting her delve into the Shangqing [Supreme Purity] Sword Style, which was typically studied by white-robed disciples. Instead, she began teaching her mystic arts.
The entire Chonghua Sect believed Su Yan possessed a single-element ice spiritual root, but only Ye Zhiqiu knew her true attribute was a dual-element ice-fire spiritual root. This didn't mean her progress in mystic arts lagged behind her swordsmanship. On the contrary, whether it was fire or ice element cultivation, she grasped it effortlessly—perhaps she truly had a natural talent in this regard.
Thus, teaching Tong Tong, who possessed a three-element spiritual root, was no challenge at all.
As for water and wood elemental arts—she could tackle those once she had fully mastered fire elemental techniques!
Savoring the lingering taste, Tong Tong licked the crumbs off her fingers and squinted her eyes contentedly: If she had known the aunties at Qingyun Court made such delicious treats, she would never have left!
—Though obviously, the decision wasn't hers to make.
Staring longingly at Su Yan's empty hands, Tong Tong nodded helplessly and slowly closed her eyes. She focused on the warm current gathering in her dantian, guiding the subtle energy along her meridians to her right hand, gradually transitioning from her arm to her palm.
T/N: [In the world of Xianxia and Chinese internal arts, the Dantian (丹田 - Dāntián) is the most critical concept for a cultivator. It is often translated as the "Cinnabar Field" or "Elixir Field." Think of the Dantian as a battery or a reservoir where a cultivator collects, compresses, and stores spiritual energy (Qi). Without a functional Dantian, a person cannot "cultivate" because they have nowhere to keep the power they absorb from the heavens and earth.]
Her eyes snapped open, a glint of brilliance flashing within. Tong Tong raised her right hand, her five slender, fair fingers slightly parted, and at their tips danced five lively flames!
"Hey! Mission accomplished!" With a hint of pride, she tilted her chin toward Su Yan and shook her hand—the five delicate flames swayed along with her movement, like bashful young maidens.
Su Yan didn't mind her clever trick of condensing five finger flames into a single release—integrating them was actually more challenging than releasing them one by one. Nor did she mind how the fragile flames dissipated in less than half a breath—the fact that someone with a three-element spiritual root could master fire control within an hour at least indicated she had considerable talent in fire elemental art, didn't it?
With a flip of her hand, Su Yan handed her the promised second plate of Mingyu cakes, feeling somewhat optimistic.
"Rest for a quarter of an hour," she said casually, forming a crystal-clear ice crystal in her palm. With a light flick of her slender fingers and a crossing of her hands, the ice crystal transformed like clay into various shapes, finally settling into a sharp little dagger.
Tong Tong paused mid-bite, staring dumbfounded as the gleaming dagger danced between Su Yan's fingers before being flung with a swift motion—"Whoosh!"—embedding itself effortlessly into a poplar tree a hundred paces away.
Ignoring Tong Tong's astonishment, Su Yan simply wanted to show her that even with a mixed spiritual root, it wasn't an obstacle to achievement.
However, it seemed this inspiring demonstration didn't quite achieve the intended effect...
"Cough, Cough, ugh..." Tong Tong, eager to express her admiration, forgot about the cake in her mouth and promptly choked—when delicious treats turned into weapons blocking a slender throat, they were no longer quite so delightful.
Before she could roll her eyes, Su Yan swiftly teleported behind her and delivered a sharp, precise chop to the back of Tong Tong's neck, narrowly averting a tragedy.
Thus, even though the excruciating pain in her spine felt as if several bones had snapped, she could only grit her teeth and force a smile, expressing her profound, deep, heartfelt gratitude: 'Thank you! Thank you and your entire family!'
Slowly and deliberately, Tong Tong clenched her hand into a fist, trembling as she smiled and raised her middle finger toward Su Yan.
"What does that mean?" Su Yan furrowed her brows, asking with confusion.
"In my hometown, this gesture means thank you!" Tong Tong maintained a stiff smile, answering through gritted teeth.
"I see." Noticing the unnatural expression on her face, Su Yan raised an eyebrow and extended her own jade-white hand, curling it into a fist. She imitated Tong Tong's gesture but with a hundred times more elegance, raising her middle finger while offering a candid comment, "A bit short." Her gaze lightly swept over Tong Tong's fair and delicate fingers.
Following her gaze, Tong Tong looked at her own fingers and then at Su Yan's. She could only agree dejectedly: compared to Su Yan, her own fingers, which she had always thought were long enough, indeed fell short! But... it's not like she was playing the piano—what use were such long fingers anyway!
Clenching her teeth and glaring resentfully at Su Yan, who had turned the mockery back on her, Tong Tong could only roar helplessly in her heart.
Completely indifferent to Tong Tong's aggrieved and accusatory gaze, Su Yan nonchalantly withdrew her hand, held her sword in her arms, and took a few steps back. Leaning against a sturdy tree trunk, her cool gaze and chilly tone immediately made Tong Tong bristle: "You are too weak."
Tong Tong wilted instantly, her mood sinking into a pit of gloom.
Of course, Tong Tong knew she was right and wasn't truly angry—she neither had the right nor the courage to be. Even though she had diligently practiced under Su Yan's guidance over the past few days, mastering the basics of the Xuanqing Sword Style and learning a small fire-based elemental art, her strength still placed her at the bottom among the many experts of Qiuye Peak.
And in the short term, there was no hope of escaping this awkward situation through conventional means.
So, when one day Ding Ding mysteriously approached her with that unreliable plan, a momentarily impulsive Tong Tong didn't hesitate and immediately agreed.
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