Cultivation Nerd (xianxia)

Chapter 370 - Historians Will Say They Were Just Friends

Once I stepped outside my house and saw the lush green mountain that housed the Blazing Sun Sect, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. In the next instant, my senses spread outward, enveloping the entire sect and stretching a few miles beyond its borders.My range was a bit weaker than usual. I was still far from peak condition after everything I’d done today, but it was easy enough to find Song Song. She was exactly where I expected her to be.

The library.

Her Qi pulsed the moment she sensed me reaching out, like a silent wave of acknowledgment, almost as if she were waving for me to come over.

I smiled.

With her father gone, things could finally return to normal. We wouldn’t have to worry about him for a long while.

I shot toward her position like an arrow slicing through the sky. I flew faster than ever before, the air around me bubbling and distorting as if it were on the verge of a sonic boom.

It was a route I’d taken countless times, and yet it felt different. Familiar, but wrong.

What shocked me most was how few people there were in the sect.

Had Song Song done something drastic in preparation for war?

That would be troublesome… but if it had already happened, there was nothing I could do about it now. Honestly, if not for the extreme loss of life such a move might entail, it might even have been the correct decision, putting pressure on our enemies before they could act.

I shook my head.

My teacher had hinted that Song Song was doing some crazy things lately, but this…

I arrived at the library and hovered above it. Song Song was sitting on the flat roof, her feet swinging lazily over the edge. She wore a dark uniform, her black hair swaying in the wind, and when her piercing blue eyes landed on me–

She smiled.

She even waved.

Huh.

She was acting… nicer. I hadn’t expected that. I thought she’d be angry, or at least sharp around the edges, but there wasn’t even a hint of aggression in her expression. Maybe the relief of her father’s death had truly lifted a weight from her shoulders.

That was good. Honestly, seeing her like this made everything feel worth it.

I landed beside her and mentally scrambled for something to say, something casual, maybe even a little corny.

“Hey,” I waved. “How have you–”

I activated my Foundation Technique on instinct.

The world around me nearly ground to a halt, freezing in a surreal stillness.

Except for Song Song’s fist.

It was less than an inch from my face and still moving, tearing through slowed time at an absurd speed.

There was no way to dodge it. She was already going at full force.

Fuck.

Had she been possessed?

Her fist slammed into my cheek. The pain itself was minimal, but the force behind it was monstrous. Before my mind could even process the impact, my body was already airborne, hurled backward toward the war meeting hall like I’d been casually swatted aside.

Jade Qi exploded outward from my core, racing along my limbs and locking into place around my body. The outer layer condensed into a rigid, armor-like shell, while the inner streams remained fluid, coiling and shifting to absorb and redirect the impact. Where the force was too concentrated, the Qi compressed instead of resisting, dispersing the shock through my frame in controlled pulses.

Even so, the outer shell nearly tore apart on impact.

The layered Qi shuddered, cracks spiderwebbing across the surface before stabilizing. The softened inner layers bled energy at a frightening rate, sacrificing cohesion just to keep my body intact.

I hit the ground hard, vision spinning, jade light flickering around me as the last remnants of force finally died out.

When I came to a stop, it was like a meteor striking the earth. Stone shattered beneath me, shockwaves ripping outward as debris and dust swallowed everything nearby.

By the time the dust began to settle, I had already withdrawn the technique. The jade Qi loosened and dispersed, flowing back into my dantian until my body stood exposed once more. Done this way, the Qi expenditure was almost negligible.

At least Song Song wasn’t actually possessed. If she truly wanted me dead, I would already be. There was no point pretending otherwise.

I tried to stand–

An invisible weight slammed down on my chest, pinning me in place. My breath hitched as I looked down and saw Song Song’s foot planted firmly against me, jade Qi coiling around it. I’d instinctively defended against it, but the pressure only increased.

“Well,” I said, forcing a weak grin, “this wasn’t exactly the invitation I was expecting. But please, do continue.”

The moment the words left my mouth, I knew I’d misjudged it.

Her eyes were colder than ice, fixed on me with barely contained fury. The pressure didn’t ease; if anything, it grew heavier, her gaze promising consequences far worse.

…Yeah. The joke hadn’t landed.

She didn’t bother responding. I let out a tired sigh and started to push myself up–

Her hand closed around the collar of my robes.

The world lurched.

She hurled me away like a pebble skipped across a lake. I smashed through one wall after another, each impact tearing stone apart. Cracks raced outward as I flew, and the building the workers had poured time and effort into began to crumble.

The reinforcing seals I had personally carved into the walls shattered one by one, snapping under the strain.

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By the time I finally came to a stop, the structure was already collapsing in on itself, rubble and dust raining down where solid walls had stood moments before.

But it didn’t actually hurt.

She was putting on a show.

The initial punch had been accelerated so suddenly that I couldn’t react in time, but at the very moment of impact, she had halted it. What I felt wasn’t an actual strike; it was a controlled force, more like being thrown around than actually hit.

That was her usual style when we sparred. For someone who didn’t even blink when killing, she possessed terrifying control over how much power she exerted, a level of mastery I still struggled to match.

The walls should have been another matter entirely. The building had been reinforced; crashing through them should have bruised my back at the very least, maybe even cracked a rib.

Yet I felt nothing.

Which meant only one thing.

She had disabled the reinforcement arrays beforehand.

This wasn’t a loss of control. It was calculated with every throw, every collision, every broken wall planned in advance.

Was she really going through all this trouble just to put on a show?

No. That wasn’t her style. She only resorted to cheap theatrics when I suggested them myself.

I crashed into the library yard and didn’t bother getting up this time. I stayed where I was, narrowing my eyes as sunlight stabbed at them.

Moments later, Song Song arrived.

She leaned over me, her presence blotting out the light as her shadow fell across my face.

We simply stared at each other.

She didn’t speak for a couple dozen seconds, the silence heavy enough to press down on my chest. I took it as my chance.

“A thank you would’ve been more appreciated,” I said.

Her jaw tightened instantly. My words had clearly struck a nerve.

…Yeah. Joking right now probably wasn’t the smartest move.

I opened my mouth to say something, anything, to defuse it. But she cut me off before I could.

“Do you think I’m weak?” she asked.

Okay. So she just wanted to interrupt me. That was a stupid question.

“Not necessarily,” I replied, then added, “You’re someone who can fight above your level even at your current stage. That alone is remarkable.”

I paused, then continued honestly.

“But if you’d worked harder to preserve your blood abilities, where even a single drop could decide a battle, you would’ve always held an overwhelming advantage. With that alone, you might’ve even been able to defeat nine-star Core Formation cultivators.”

She was like someone who had a cheat and then went around telling everyone about it.

The least she could’ve done was wait until she reached Nascent Soul before revealing it, then exposing such an ability wouldn’t have stripped her of such a massive advantage.

“You’re still hung up on that?” Song Song sighed, irritation seeping into her voice. “You know I’m not weak. So why did you think you had the right to go and ‘fix’ my problems? Do you think I couldn’t handle it myself?”

Her gaze hardened, fury flashing beneath the surface.

“And you did it behind my back,” she continued, each word heavier than the last. “You risked your life like a fool. Don’t fuck with me, Liu Feng. I can crush you like a bug. My enemies aren’t something you can deal with.”

I considered trying to calm her, weighing words that might soften the edge of her anger.

Then I let the thought go.

If I couldn’t be honest with her of all people, then who could I be honest with?

I pushed her hand aside, freeing my collar, dusted myself off, and straightened my robes.

When I looked at her again, my voice was even.

“People who need saving don’t get to be damn opinionated,” I said. “Just be quiet and say thank you afterward.”

The look in her eyes told me everything.

…Yeah. I probably should’ve filtered myself a little.

But I didn’t back down.

“You once told me you didn’t respect my opinions,” I continued, meeting her gaze. “That after my death, you wouldn’t bother protecting the people I cared about, because you cared about me, not them.”

I let the words settle before finishing.

“Well, I don’t care about your thoughts on this either. You were saved. Now you have the chance to do whatever the hell you want with your life. I don’t care whether you wanted to be saved, or how you thought things should’ve turned out.”

She clenched her jaw.

The muscles in her face spasmed once… then again, veins slowly rising beneath her skin, pulsing in an unnatural rhythm. Her beauty didn’t vanish so much as collapse, stripped away by something cold and inhuman pressing outward.

For a moment, it looked as if something was moving beneath her flesh, something imperceptible, like parasites shifting just under the skin. In truth, it was only her veins, bulging and twisting, but the effect was no less disturbing. Her eyes locked onto mine, empty of warmth, filled instead with a killing intent so dense it made the air feel heavy.

She looked like she was deciding whether I was still allowed to exist.

Honestly, it was kind of gross to look at.

But I didn’t back off. I offered no excuses. I simply stared back at her.

If she wanted to kill me, she could have done it easily. That hadn’t changed. And more importantly, those were my real thoughts on the matter.

Yes, I had put myself in danger. Yes, I knew exactly how she felt about it.

She wanted a perfect victory with no losses, no risks, no one’s life on the line.

That was unrealistic.

She was too weak to cling to such naive ideals.

So I handled it my own way. I accepted the risk she refused to face.

And in the end, her father was sealed. Everything went well. She should have been happy instead of throwing a tantrum like a child.

As for why I hadn’t told her, there were two reasons. First, her father was likely monitoring her. Second, she would never have agreed to a plan that placed all the pressure and risk on me alone.

Song Song had a bit of main-character syndrome when it came to things like this. Whenever I was in trouble, she would charge in, kill whoever caused it, and then joke about it afterward. She’d risked her life for me more times than I could count, never once stopping to consider what I thought about it.

So now?

She was getting a taste of her own medicine.

We stood like that for nearly half an hour, her in the library yard, staring me down in silence. The killing intent rolling off her was so blatant that everyone nearby had the good sense to stay away.

Eventually, the veins pulsing across her face began to settle. The murderous edge in her eyes dulled, fading until only a tired indifference remained.

She sighed and rubbed her forehead.

“Sometimes I find you extremely annoying,” she said.

“Every relationship needs its fights and disagreements,” I replied with a smile. “Otherwise, making up wouldn’t be nearly as fun.”

“Sure, whatever,” she muttered, a small chuckle slipping out despite herself.

I spread my arms.

She rolled her eyes, then stepped forward and hugged me anyway. Just like that, the tension bled away, and we silently agreed to leave everything that had happened behind us... for now.

I had a sneaking suspicion she was going to bring this up in future arguments.

She leaned in, her lips brushing close to my ear, and whispered softly,

“I’ll kill everyone you love if you die… so you’d better treasure your life. Even if lightning strikes you, even if you die in some meaningless accident, I’ll still kill them.”

There was no hesitation in her voice. Only certainty. Some bad blood clearly still lingered.

I might’ve been too optimistic about that being far off in the future. She was definitely going to bring this up again.

“So you’d better stay alive,” she murmured. “Or else.”

I smiled and let out a quiet sigh at her threat.

I knew she meant every word. If the time ever came, she would keep that promise without question.

And in her own twisted way, this was how Song Song showed that she cared.