Yan Ling quickly proved that the words she had said right after reaching the fourth floor weren't a joke, they truly weren't willing to stay on the floor for too long, sending out their first challenge a few hours after finding an empty house. The first two of their challenges were rejected, but the third one they sent out was accepted by a cultivator who already had a partner, saving them the time of having to wait for their enemy to find a partner.
They quickly won their first battle, their enemies surrendering and fleeing after only two exchanges. Their other battles proceeded in much the same fashion, their enemies surrendering and fleeing shortly after the battle started and they figured out that they were no match for the two of them. They spent more time sending out challenges than they did actually fighting, it was a rather strange experience to them, especially considering how reckless the cultivators on the lower floor had been.
In the end, they completed their tenth battle after only 17 days, only needing so many days because there were quite a few people who would reject their challenges and force them to keep searching. They didn't head to the fifth floor immediately, spending one extra day on the fourth floor to relax.
Liang Chen was currently resting in the bathroom of their house, one of the more luxurious parts of the houses on this fourth floor. The room was a little over a hundred meters long and wide, the bath itself was around 20 meters long and wide and was carved directly into the ground, supported by a small array that one could activate to fill the bath with clean and warm water.
Liang Chen was sitting in the bath, his arms resting on the edges of the bath as he enjoyed the warm water with closed eyes, a wet towel wrapped around his waist. Yumao had stretched out to his full length, a little over three meters long, and was enjoying the bath alongside Liang Chen, swimming around in it and occasionally popping his head out of the water to let it rest on the edge of the bath. Just as Liang Chen stretched out his arm to grab hold of a jug of spiced wine that was placed not far from him, a short knock sounded on the door to the bathroom, a cheery voice quickly following.
"Knock knock, pull down your pants and open your eyes, I'm coming through!"
Liang Chen's eyes immediately shot open and he sat straight up, turning his head just in time to see Yan Ling push open the door and enter the bathroom, the only clothing on her body a single white towel wrapped around her. Despite all his calmness and ferocity in battle and stressful situations, Liang Chen was still just a youth. Faced with the scene in front of him, he found it hard to remove his gaze, something that caused Yan Ling to let out a victorious giggle.
"Nihihi, spellbound, are you?"
She did a little twirl to show off, the towel fluttering and threatening to fully reveal her as she moved. She acted and spoke casual, but Liang Chen could see that the tips of her ears had turned almost fully crimson, she was clearly doing her best to suppress her own blush. Yan Ling walked forward and entered the bath, sitting down a few meters away from Liang Chen and lowering her body so much that the only visible part of her body was her head.
Yumao popped his head out from the water for a bit, moving his eyes between Liang Chen and Yan Ling, who were now both suffusing faint blushes. In a situation like this, not even Liang Chen could resist blushing slightly, mainly because he knew what Yan Ling's actions might imply. After spending a short second looking at the two of them Yumao shrank down to his miniature form and tactfully left the room.
Silence descended over the bathroom, both Liang Chen and Yan Ling remaining quiet. Yan Ling occasionally cast a few fleeting glances at Liang Chen, the frequency of the glances increasing as the minutes passed in silence. In the end, she seemed to have lost her patience, scowling slightly at Liang Chen.
"You know, aren't men usually supposed to go a bit wild in situations like this? Am I really that unattractive?"
Liang Chen looked at the scowling Yan Ling with a dumbfounded expression for a short moment, eventually leaning his head against the edge of the bath and letting out a mixture of a sigh and a laugh.
"Here I am, doing my best to hold back and not go crazy, and then you ask me if you are unattractive? Tell me, what do you think my answer to that question is?"
Not even when he faced the heavenly tribulations in the past had Liang Chen spent as much of his concentration as he was spending right now to keep himself in check. After all, even though there was a chance that Yan Ling was implying something by entering the bath alongside him, it wasn't certain that she was implying anything. And asking would completely ruin any semblance of mood, so Liang Chen had done everything in his power to hold himself back while waiting for Yan Ling to say anything.
Yan Ling raised her body a bit after hearing Liang Chen's reply, her expression growing more pleased. She stopped sitting up when the water reached the bottom of her throat, stretching out both of her arms as if she was reaching for a hug.
"Well, then come here! I'll leave it to you, the books said that a man always knows what to do in a situation like this."
Yan Ling's blush grew to cover her entire face, but she made sure to keep her eyes open and stare directly at Liang Chen, showing her determination and willingness. But the only response to her determination and seriousness was Liang Chen lightly scratching his cheek.
"I think it's best that I don't ask what sort of books you've been reading, but what makes you think that I have the slightest clue what to do?"
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Yan Ling couldn't help but blink rapidly after receiving the reply, looking at Liang Chen with the same dumbfounded expression he had used to look at her earlier. After a short second spent in shock, she couldn't help but blurt out?
"You don't know? But the books said that the man always knows, and you've even read all the books that the Storm Wolf sect had, how can you not know?!"
Yan Ling herself didn't actually know how to proceed either, she had read a few things before, but nothing that went into the gritty details. She had hoped that the books were right and that Liang Chen would be able to take the lead and guide her through it. Liang Chen shook his head slightly, letting out an exasperated sigh and then a light chuckle.
"Yes, I've read all the books in the Storm Wolf sect, but those were all cultivation books and history books, why would the sect have anything about something like that in their libraries? Really, this entire situation just feels perfectly 'you'."
All the earlier tension and awkwardness had completely vanished, even Yan Ling ended up letting out a light giggle upon realizing how the situation had developed. After they both finished their chuckling, Liang Chen moved closer and grabbed a hold of Yan Ling's hands, giving them a soft squeeze as he let his eyes roam over every inch of her body that he could see.
"Well, since neither of us knows, we can only take our time and slowly figure it all out."
Since she had shown her willingness and determination, there was no longer any reason for Liang Chen to hold himself back. Yan Ling's blush grew so bad that it even started to spread down to her throat, but she still sent Liang Chen a sweet smile and nodded her head, pulling closer to him, the wet towel around her body sliding off as she moved.
Tomorrow, the two of them would head on up to the fifth floor, where they would likely end up spending quite a bit of time both fighting and cultivating. But right now, all that mattered to them was this moment, in all its awkward tenderness, a moment for just the two of them, one they would never forget and always look back on.
--
While Liang Chen and Yan Ling were exploring each other in the bath, the bustling activity on their home planet had only grown greater with the passage of time. It had reached such a stage that even the normal citizens of the continents were starting to realize that something big was happening, the entire atmosphere on the planet growing tense.
Sitting in his garden on one of the floating islands that housed the Nightshield sect, the black-haired Qing Lan Yong was currently spending some time with two of his daughters, one of his sons, as well as two of his wives. They were sitting around the table standing next to the pond, resting in the shade of the oak that grew next to the carp.
Two of the children were sitting on his lap, one on each knee, while his youngest daughter was riding on his shoulders and pulling on his hair, trying to control him like a puppet. His wives were sitting across from him, drinking some fruity tea and looking at the scene with pleasant smiles, chatting lightly with each other. While Qing Lan Yong was rocking his legs to play with the two kids on his lap, a faint voice came from the shadow beneath the table and drifted into his hear.
"Young Master, the people of the Dawn's Blade Alliance are currently hunting someone in an attempt to lure out Liang Chen. It seems that they've looked into the background of Liang Chen and found someone who used to be close to him. The person in question is Qing Chun, or Tian Chun, someone from the Tian clan, she was born into the Qing clan using their minor reincarnation technique, serving as a spy until she helped him flee from his city, the reports say that she is something of a sister to him. She is currently branded a traitor by both the Qing and the Tian clan and they are aiding the Dawn's Blade Alliance in trying to find her, they've already executed her parents to force her to show herself."
Qing Lan Yong's brows furrowed faintly after he heard the report from his spymaster. Previously he thought that the Dawn's Blade Alliance just wanted the Storm Wolf sect to hand over Liang Chen so that they could hand him over to the Moon Dragon sect and more easily get them on their sides. But now that they were even going so far as to investigate his past and catch someone to lure him out, it was clear that things might not be as simple as he first thought. His thoughts quickly moved, a guess forming in his mind.
They Dawn's Blade Alliance hadn't bothered with Liang Chen before Wu Huan became the honorary disciple of the Sealing God Empyrean, could their search for Liang Chen have something to do with Wu Huan, or even the Sealing God Empyrean? Qing Lan Yong quickly threw this last guess out of his mind, what sort of reason could someone as grand as the Sealing God Empyrean have to search for someone like Liang Chen? He temporarily stopped thinking about the question, gently placing down his children and standing up, apologizing to his wives.
"Sorry, Shui'er, Jiang'er, I'll have to go out for a bit. I should be back in not too long, so you can stay here and wait for me if you want."
Qing Lan Yong vanished from the place right after talking, only the faint sound of rushing wind showing that he had moved. Since the Dawn's Blade Alliance wasn't willing to listen when he said that he was going to protect Liang Chen and those close to him, he could only take action and make sure that they truly understood his position and determination.