Chapter 39 (Part 2)

“One hundred thousand swings. I’ll place a puppet here to count. If you dare stop before reaching one hundred thousand, go down the mountain. And none of you are allowed to help her. Otherwise, go down the mountain with her.”

He took out a puppet and placed it properly. After warning his other disciples, he finally left with the spiritual food his little disciple had made anew.

Mm, his mood had improved quite a bit. His little disciple was still the most considerate, knowing that his master had not eaten his fill.

As soon as Qingyang left, everyone’s taut expressions relaxed.

“Little Junior Brother, thanks to you, Master’s mood seems to have improved somewhat.”

Lingzhen patted Yu Yu on the shoulder. When Master had taken the spiritual food from Little Junior Brother’s hands just now, his face had no longer been so stern. It had merely gained a bit more seriousness than usual.

“It looks like Senior Sister will have to swing her sword all night.”

“She brought that on herself. Little Junior Brother, you can’t go ask Master to show mercy. Master is angry right now!”

Yu Yu did not respond to Lingzhen. He looked at Lingfeng, who was swinging her sword in the courtyard, and felt a little distressed, but he was powerless.

He had already done his best to calm Master down, but he could not withstand Senior Sister constantly courting death!

He had never seen anyone court death like this, but today, he had broadened his horizons.

Senior Sister got exactly what she wished for. Out of these one hundred thousand sword swings, not one could be missing.

That puppet’s eyes flashed with red light as it stared fixedly at Senior Sister. It also had an image-recording function. This time, no one could help her. Even if their martial uncles came, it would be useless, because to them, Qingyang was their junior brother.

They would not sweep their junior brother’s face for the sake of a female disciple.

Hadn’t they seen earlier? When they punished Qingyang, in order to preserve his face, they had still driven Yu Yu and the others back into the kitchen.

Their affection for everyone was built on Qingyang’s face as their junior brother. Once Qingyang was unhappy, they would not be happy either.

It was even more impossible for them to make their junior brother unhappy for Lingfeng’s sake. That was what real senior brothers were!

So Yu Yu and the others could only watch Lingfeng swing her sword helplessly. Everyone was not very reassured, but they did not dare leave either.

Yu Yu held the giant panda cub he had named Tuanyuan and sat on the steps to accompany Lingfeng while she swung her sword.

Originally, he had wanted to name Tuanyuan Lele, but after thinking about it, he felt it was improper. Because Tuantuan was not Lele’s substitute, and Lele was a unique existence. It was not something just anyone could replace.

After thinking for a long time, he finally decided to call it Tuanyuan.

Why call it Tuanyuan? Because he wanted to return to Blue Star. He wanted to return to his hometown.

Reunion was the greatest wish of every Huaxia person, and Yu Yu was no exception.

However, Tuanyuan was a little hard to say, so he usually called it Yuanyuan.

“Little Yuanyuan, you mustn’t learn from Senior Sister in the future. We still have to have some sense in our hearts.”

On the surface, Yu Yu was teaching little Tuanyuan, but in reality, he was teaching Lingfeng.

Do not say everything aloud. Some things were enough for you to know yourself. His senior brothers were none of them stupid. Only Senior Sister was a straight intestine all the way through, unable to make even a single bend.

“Little Junior Brother, I know I was wrong, wuu.”

Lingfeng spoke while swinging her sword. She was not truly stupid all the way to the end, and did not ask Yu Yu to plead for her.

She had seen Master’s face just now. Whoever went to plead would be unlucky.

Little Junior Brother was so obedient. Even if she tricked her own blood brother, she could not trick her little brother!

If her blood brother had been a little more useful, she would have asked him to plead for her.

And Linglong, the blood brother Lingfeng looked down on, was sitting together with the eldest senior brothers, holding an image-recording stone in his hand to record.

This was indeed her blood brother, no mistake. His younger sister was being punished, and he was off to the side recording it. He really was not afraid of Lingfeng getting angry.

“Linglong, I’ll remember you.”

She did not even call him Brother anymore. The brother and sister had officially formed a grudge. It probably would not disappear for a while.

Lingfeng swung her sword for an entire night, and everyone accompanied her for an entire night. Even Yuanyuan in Yu Yu’s arms woke up twice to eat spirit fruits and drink bowl milk twice.

The dew in the morning was very heavy. Because they had spiritual energy protecting their bodies, Yu Yu and the others did not have their clothes dampened by the dew. Only Lingfeng, monitored by the puppet the whole time, did not dare use spiritual energy, and her hair and outer robes were soaked with dew.

“Ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine. One hundred thousand.”

After Lingfeng completed one hundred thousand swings, the puppet finally stopped staring at her with its bright red eyes. Instead, it carried the image-recording stone back to the main hall to report to Qingyang.

“It finally left.”

Because the puppet had been there, everyone’s hearts had been suspended the whole time, and they had not even dared to joke around.

Now that the puppet left, whoever could sit did not stand, and whoever could sprawl did not sit.

Lingfeng directly plopped down on the ground and could not get up for a long while. Right now, her hands felt like wood, not like her own hands.

“Senior Sister, are you all right?”

Yu Yu walked over, took out an outer robe, and draped it over Lingfeng. At the same time, he used a healing technique to treat her arms.

“I’m fine. Just a little tired.”

Lingfeng shook her head, used spiritual energy to dry the dew on her body, and clutched the outer robe Little Junior Brother had given her. Her arms had originally been a little sore as well, but her junior brother had healed them.

Because it was a long robe, and because Lingfeng was not fat, Yu Yu’s clothes could still be draped over her.

“Drink some honey water and go rest first. Once you’ve rested, come to my place with Senior Brothers to eat spirit fruits.”

Yu Yu looked toward the corner where he had laid a concealment array. Yesterday, Master and the martial uncles had all seen it, yet no one had asked him about it. Yu Yu knew this was everyone’s respect for him.

Otherwise, with his strength, even if the array he laid had been made by Qinghe, it could not possibly block the methods of Daoist Lords.

But not a single person asked, and they had not even glanced toward that place. Yu Yu was especially happy inside.

It was not that he could not bear to part with some spirit fruits, but that for the moment, he did not want people to know what was special about the Classic of Nature. He had already known the Classic of Nature was powerful before, but he had not expected it to be this powerful!

For high-grade spirit fruits, one quarter of an hour was enough to shorten the maturity period by thirty years. Since Master had not spoken, it was best that he not let too many people know.

Even though the martial uncles now had some understanding of the Classic of Nature as a cultivation method, the person who understood it best was still Yu Yu himself.

Because among the sect disciples who cultivated the Classic of Nature, the effects they produced through cultivation were very different from Yu Yu’s, Yu Yu had become a unique existence.

Honestly, Yu Yu did not know whether his cultivation had gone crooked, or whether the uniqueness of his Innate Dao Body made his Classic of Nature appear special.

But no matter what, if he could hide it, he would hide it for now. Once he could not hide it anymore, he would let Master think of a solution.

“All right.”

Lingji agreed on everyone’s behalf. They first sent Lingfeng back to rest and agreed to come to Yu Yu’s place three days later to eat spirit fruits.

The place in the courtyard covered by the array was where the five-element spirit fruits were. They had discovered it long ago, but since Little Junior Brother did not want to say anything, they naturally would not be so talkative as to ask.

Even someone as straightforward and quick-tongued as Lingfeng had suppressed her curiosity, so they could not lag behind.

After the senior brothers left with Lingfeng, Yu Yu looked at the courtyard and kitchen that had been cleaned up by the menial disciples, then carried Yuanyuan to the peach grove to cultivate.

Yes, cultivate. Ever since Foundation Establishment, he had not slept. Sleeping had been replaced by cultivation. In any case, cultivating for a whole night left him more energetic than sleeping. If it meant he could quickly reach Nascent Soul, then even if he did not sleep for decades, he could endure it.

Yu Yu sat cross-legged in the peach grove to cultivate. The little Tuanyuan on his lap woke up.

“Yingying.”

Little Yuanyuan was a spirit beast and had inherited memories. It knew that the person holding it was cultivating, so it did not disturb him. Instead, it gently climbed down from his lap and began playing by itself in the peach grove.

As for when its stomach was hungry, it pulled up some spiritual plants to eat.

As a spirit beast, it could eat anything. It had no attribute and was an omnivorous spirit beast.

Whether spirit meat or spiritual plants, it could eat them with relish while absorbing the spiritual energy gathering around.

This spiritual energy had gathered because Yu Yu was cultivating. The spiritual energy was abundant, and it absorbed it very quickly.

If it stayed year-round in such dense spiritual energy, in less than one hundred years, it could form a core, refine its transverse bone, and speak human language.

No wonder Mother had told it before dying to find a two-legged beast to raise it. So it turned out following a two-legged beast actually had this many benefits?

A shrewd glimmer appeared in little Yuanyuan’s eyes, but very soon, its eyes returned to an adorably simple-minded look.

Forget it. Eat first.

When Yu Yu finished cultivating and woke, he discovered that several crystal flowers beside him had been pulled up. Their flowers and leaves had been eaten, leaving only the roots.

“Next time, don’t pull them up by the roots. If you leave the roots, they can still grow.”

Yu Yu took out the Life Tree branch, planted the roots again, and waved the branch at them. The dead crystal flowers revived.

“Yingyingying.”

Human, something about you isn’t right.

Its inherited memories had not told it that high-grade spiritual plants could be revived by humans!

“Shh. This is a secret between us, understand?”

Yu Yu made a secrecy gesture. Little Tuanyuan nodded to show it understood. The intelligence of a spirit beast was equivalent to that of a teenage youth, and with inherited memories added on, their intelligence was not at all inferior to cultivators.

Naturally, it could understand Yu Yu’s words. On top of that, with the unique talent of spirit beasts, it could sense whether the other party was good or bad.

Actually, Yu Yu was not as powerful as little Yuanyuan imagined. For a high-grade spiritual plant to be revived, not only did the Withered Tree Meets Spring spell need to be proficient or at the grand accomplishment level, one also needed profound spiritual energy.

Yu Yu possessed both, and with the Life Tree branch in his hands serving as a transfer point, even if his spiritual energy were a little lacking, he could still revive high-grade spiritual plants.

However, in the eyes of little Yuanyuan, whose experience was still insufficient, this human was extremely powerful, powerful enough to even revive high-grade spiritual plants.

It would follow him from now on. Thinking that it would be able to eat high-grade spiritual plants freely in the future, little Yuanyuan was so happy that it kicked up its little feet.

Hiyah, it really was too good at finding itself a poop-scooper. As expected, it was the lucky one Mother had spoken of.

Although Mother had been unable to stop worrying about it before she died and had told it to find a human to adopt it, before Lingji and the others had brought it back and given it to its little master, it had been very worried about its future life.

One had to know that iron-eating beasts were indeed very powerful, but before adulthood, they also ate a lot. Most people could not afford to raise them.

There was also the fact that when they were underage, their combat power was ordinary, and they could not become helpers to cultivators.

Clearly, this human before its eyes did not need it as a fighter. Instead, he treated it as if he were raising his own child.

It had only been here for one day, but it had already discovered that Yu Yu sincerely liked it.

Yes, he liked it more sincerely than anyone else. It was a love that came from the heart.

A love without demands and without conditions. The little iron-eating beast thought until its brain almost tied itself in knots, but still could not figure out why this was so.

But it was fine. If it could not figure it out, it would not think about it. It was a little iron-eating beast. Eating was its proper work.

With Yuanyuan’s company, compared with the way he had previously cultivated every moment of every day, Yu Yu now woke from cultivation at set times each day to arrange food for Yuanyuan.

After Yuanyuan finished eating, it would play for a while longer. Then it would lie down beside Yu Yu as he cultivated, sleep, and cultivate together with him.

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