And so the weekdays flew by, and as I said, about a week had pa.s.sed since my level 6 test. My promotion went without a hitch, and I received the certification and recognition, which unlocked access to three star missions and more resources. To take four star missions, I had to be at least level 7 and only level 9 students were allowed to take five star missions.

I wasn"t that invested in the missions, though. I had already earned whatever gold I needed for the Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship, and I was still practicing and trying to master it. There was no point in trying to buy a new martial arts technique.

While I was trying to map my future, Tang Qi Hong suddenly showed up in front of my desk, nearly scaring the h.e.l.l out of me.

"Wu!"

"Whoa!" I jumped when her beautiful face suddenly appeared in front of me. She pouted and placed her hands on her hips.

"What"s with that reaction?"

"Sorry…I wasn"t expecting you to suddenly appear in front of me. You gave me a fright." How embarra.s.sing. A martial artist wasn"t supposed to be caught off guard and taken by surprise, though, to be fair Tang Qi Hong wasn"t emanating any killing intent at all. If anything, she was exuding an air of mischief. "What"s up?"

"Are you free today?"

I thought about it for a second. Today was a Friday, which meant I didn"t have anything to do except to, y"know, go back and train. My progress with Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship was going very well, though not as well as a certain Li Fu Chen who had all the weird Perfection or Trance stages (how do you even judge whether you"ve reached those stages anyway?). If not, I would be a.s.sisting Tang Qi Hong with her blacksmithing.

"Do you need me to help you with blacksmithing today?"

I just helped her forge a couple of spirit armaments on Wednesday, and she had put them out on sale in the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect"s shop branches. What, you didn"t expect me to say Armament Sect Pavilions, did you?

Anyway, Tang Qi Hong usually pulled off all those large-scale blacksmithing operations once a week at most, sometimes even fortnightly. After all, those sort of blacksmithing procedures consumed a lot of qi, time and both physical and mental energy. To keep that up daily was impossible. She needed to rest for a week or she would burn herself out.

"No."

"Then do you need me to prepare Spirit Materials for the next round?"

"No." Tang Qi Hong sulked, obviously upset by something I said. I frowned, perplexed.

Then what is it? As I suspected, she wouldn"t be a.s.signing me new errands for the rest of the week, not after our grueling session on Wednesday.

That was why I found it stange when she approached me. She had been a.s.signing me less Spirit Material preparation work recently, so I wasn"t grinding as many monster bones into powder or refining spirit ores as I was during the first three months. Not that I would complain if she gave me those tasks. I would do them right away when we returned to Tushan City. And since it was the weekend, I planned to get them as soon as possible before I returned home tonight to accompany my family for the weekend. I was trying to be a filial son, after all.

Of course, I totally failed at that. My brother was better than me in that regard.

"Hey! Do I only ask you to accompany me for work!?"

"Actually…yes." I nodded. I couldn"t remember a time when Tang Qi Hong ever asked me to help her with anything that wasn"t blacksmithing-related.

"That"s…!" Tang Qi Hong looked annoyed, then caught herself before she could say another word. She frowned and thought for a bit, then her jaw dropped. "Oh…yeah. That"s right. I haven"t asked you out for fun before…"

"You want to go out for fun today?"

That was fine with me. It would be a nice change of pace. I was getting burned out from training and blacksmithing everyday, anyway. While I was a hardworking person, I was only human. Doing nothing but train everyday was mentally exhausting.

"All right," I nodded and rose from my desk. "Where do you want to go today?"

"Let"s go to Tushan City and have some fun!" Tang Qi Hong"s eyes lit up when I didn"t object. She seemed pretty excited.

"Even if you say that…what exactly do you mean by having some fun? In concrete terms, I mean."

Having fun was so ambiguous. What pa.s.sed off as fun for somebody could be boring to someone else. Furthermore, there were a lot of things that could be defined as fun. Did Tang Qi Hong want to go shopping? Or have a meal at a café? Or go to an amus.e.m.e.nt park? Or karaoke? It could be any of these activities, yet none of them.

"Hmm…good question." Tang Qi Hong pondered for a bit, looking troubled as she placed a delicate-looking finger on her red lips. "What do people usually do on a date?"

"You"re asking me? Sorry, but I have no experience whatsoever."

Tang Qi Hong scowled. "Who else am I asking? And isn"t it the guy"s duty to think of something for a date?"

I c.o.c.ked my head at that. "Firstly, you"re the one who asked me for a date out of nowhere, so I don"t have time to think of anything. Secondly, you"re admitting that this is a date, right?"

I was encroaching on dangerous territory here. The signs were all there, and I hoped I wasn"t being overly self-conscious. Clearly Tang Qi Hong held no small amount of affection for me, otherwise she wouldn"t be asking me out on a date.

"Ah…" Tang Qi Hong turned red and turned away with a "hmph!" "This isn"t a date! I…I just need someone to carry my bags for me! That"s all!"

"Sure." I headed to her desk and picked up her bag. "Any other things to carry?"

"That"s…that"s not what I mean!"

"Then what do you mean?" I enjoyed feigning ignorance and watching Tang Qi Hong get all fl.u.s.tered. It was so entertaining to watch her flail about in embarra.s.sment.

"Ugh…" Tang Qi Hong continued to avoid my gaze, her arms crossed. "Never mind! I"m going shopping today, and I need you to help me carry my stuff! That"s all!" she then slightly turned back to look at me with one eye (the other was closed). "In return, I"ll treat you to dinner. So you shouldn"t have any complaints, right?"

"Yup!"

The mere mention of free dinner had me all perked up and excited. Of course I would like nothing more than a free meal. I didn"t care of Tang Qi Hong was going to burden me with the most tedious of tasks. I would do anything for a free meal.

"Good luck, Qi Hong!"

From afar, Lian Rou was flashing a thumb"s up, but Tang Qi Hong pretended not to see her. Her face burning, she strode out of the cla.s.sroom with her arms folded.

"Well, let"s go!"

*

Despite the change in plans, we ended up taking the Phoenix Express along with Tong Xue, Lian Rou and our juniors from the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect back to Tushan City. I wasn"t disappointed, though. The Phoenix Express was the most convenient means of transport, and besides, Tushan City was a real city. We could stil have our date there regardless.

As the rest of the discipes headed back toward the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect"s temple in the middle of Tushan City, Tang Qi Hong seized my hand and dragged me away.

"We"re going this way! First stop, the Spirit Materials shop!"

"Yeah, yeah. Roger that."

I followed Tang Qi Hong closely, proceeding toward the Spirit Materials shop. It was the same one as the one Tang Qi Hong frequented, and I was used to helping her carry stuff back toward the sect"s residence at the foot of the volcano.

The owner was familiar with us by now, and he grinned and waved when he saw us enter. "Ah, Mistress Tang and her a.s.sistant! How can I help you today?"

I couldn"t help but smile wryly at that. I was known to everyone in Tushan City as Tang Qi Hong"s a.s.sistant. No one bothered to remember my name. Just like Lian Rou, I served as a foil to Tang Qi Hong"s brightness.

"Just a couple of Mountain Demon"s bones and a Solar Flare Ore today."

I raised my eyes at that. There was quite the expensive materials that Tang Qi Hong was procuring. The Mountain Demons were known as a ferocious and powerful demonic tribe that inhabited the mountains and possessed enormous destructive strength. It took a team of several Qi Fusion Stage pract.i.tioners just to take a couple of them down. Their rumored Mountain Demon King was rumored to be on par with several Pure Spirit Stage pract.i.tioners.

That meant nothing to me, because all these stages were meaningless to me. What I managed to comprehend from all those hogwash was that Mountain Demons were crazy strong, and therefore their parts would be insanely expensive.

The Solar Flare Ore was also something that was found in the most dangerous of environments, such as in the middle of a volcano. I wondered briefly if there was an abundance of them within the Flame Volcano that Tushan City was built around, but it seemed that it required the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect masters to extract those. Even inner sect disciples such as Tang Qi Hong wouldn"t be able to survive the hostile environment of the insides of a volcano, where such spirit ores were located. As usual, these ores would be crazy expensive.

"Sure."

The store owner smiled breezily and brought them out after a moment of scrounging through his storeroom. As usual, Tang Qi Hong handed over her card, and he swiped it at the register before letting her go. I almost forgot that Tang Qi Hong, as the premier inner sect disciple (above even Liang Shao Yang), was granted unrestricted access to all the resources that the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect had. So she essentially received all those spirit materials for free.

I was so jealous. Well, not really. I wasn"t really that invested in becoming a blacksmith anyway. Probably a Spirit Engraver, but even so…forging spirit armaments wasn"t my kind of thing. It wasn"t as if I was the only one who possessed the knowledge of crafting Terminator bombs or whatever that stupid thing was called. h.e.l.l, obviously I didn"t know how to forge them.

"All right, let"s go!"

Tang Qi Hong sounded cheerful as she entrusted the spirit materials to me and I carried them out. I followed her, but saw that we weren"t heading in the direction of the Flame Volcano or the sect residence.

"Over here!"

Tang Qi Hong obviously had more things she wanted to buy. She was almost dancing across the streets, giggling cheerfully as she glanced at the huge gla.s.s windows and admired the things on display. Clothing, jewelry, accessories and even silverware. Tang Qi Hong had a wide range of interest, attentively staring at completely unrelated objects. One moment she had her eyes fixated on a luxurious silk dress, and the next moment she wandered to look at blue and white porcelain plates in another shop, studying their intricate patterns.

I wondered what she was looking to purchase next. Or perhaps Tang Qi Hong was merely indulging in window shopping. Smiling to myself, I indulged Tang Qi Hong on her whims, following her quietly as she raved over the myriad of things on display.

It really isn"t bad, spending time like this with Qi Hong…

Looking up at the sky, I felt my spirits lift a bit. The change of pace was doing my spirit a tremendous amount of good. After the whole issue with Liang Shao Yang and his a.s.sa.s.sination attempt, and all the stress over the level 6 test and school work, just idling around and enjoying my time in Tang Qi Hong"s company was extremely refreshing.

"Eh? What"s this?"

Finally, Tang Qi Hong stopped in front of a shop. I wasn"t sure what exactly it sold, but it seemed to be an accessory and travel shop. There were plenty of bags and pouches in the shop, along with travel equipment and the like.

"Heh…let"s go in and check it out."

Something must have finally caught Tang Qi Hong"s eye, for she stopped and swiveled past the automatic entrance of the shop. The double gla.s.s doors slid open of their own volition to permit her entry and she essentially waltzed in.

Smiling, I followed her in.

"Heh…so this is a spatial storage pouch!"

When I stepped inside, I saw Tang Qi Hong leaning over the counter and admiring a tiny leather pouch the size of her fingers. It didn"t even fill half of her hand, but the shopkeeper demonstrated its usefulness by stuffing several very large items, including two-meter long swords, a huge axe and a shield into the tiny pouch. All he needed to do was infuse the pouch with qi, and the armaments were sucked into its interior.

Spatial storage pouch…I had read about these items in many fantasy wuxia stories and xianxia stories, but I didn"t think they actually had such objects in this world as well. Obviously they were pretty rare and expensive.

"For about 10,000 gold coins, this can be yours, Mistress Tang!"

"10,000 gold coins?!"

Tang Qi Hong did a double take, and perspiration dripped down her face. She nodded and placed it back on the counter, staring at it with a look of longing. Even as the premier inner sect disciple of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, there was no way she would have that amount of money on her person, or even in her savings.

I bit my lip and contemplated for a moment. As much as I wanted to buy that for Tang Qi Hong, I did not have the money either. h.e.l.l, it took me about 2 years just to save up to 100 gold coins, and I spent all of that months ago on the Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordmanship scroll. How was I supposed to get a hundred times that amount? In twenty years? I could buy a house or two with that kind of money!

Fortunately, Tang Qi Hong wasn"t expecting me to buy it for her. She bowed her head slightly and thanked the shopkeeper.

"Once I get the money, I"ll come back and buy it," she told the shopkeeper, who nodded with a bright smile.

"Yeah, I have a few of them, and they"ll come in stock. Besides, if Master Hai Mo and the other masters in your sect are anything to judge by, you"ll eventually learn to craft one for yourself, and even produce extra for me to sell!"

"I"ll do my best," Tang Qi Hong responded with a smile. After thanking him again, she whirled around and strode out of the shop while I followed close behind.

"Can"t the sect buy that for you?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

Tang Qi Hong shook her head. "That spatial storage pouch is not considered spirit materials, and as a luxury item. If it has nothing to do with blacksmithing, then the sect will not purchase it for me."

"You can say that it"s a necessary tool for blacksmithing, for you to store spirit materials inside and carry them around or something."

Tang Qi Hong snickered at that. "As much as I want to, the higher-ups are not stupid. They"re not going to allow loopholes like that. I can"t abuse the system, even with my status…no, it is precisely because of my status that I must set a good example for all the other disciples."

I nodded in understanding, and then thought of something else. "Well, the shopkeeper mentioned something about you crafting it?"

"Oh, yeah. It is a spirit artifact, after all. Which means that blacksmiths and Spirit Engravers like us can forge something like that."

Tang Qi Hong nodded. My eyes widened.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I can ask Elder Hai Mo to teach me the techniques. And while at it, I might as well show you those techniques." She tilted her head and thought for a while. "That would take me a couple of months to learn, though."

A couple of months…this was a high-level technique and advanced Spirit Engraving we were talking about here. And she was saying she could learn something as complicated as that in a matter of months, when people normally took half a year to a year to perfect something like that.

Tang Qi Hong giggled when she saw my expression. "Don"t worry, I"ve learned far more complex Spirit Engravings than that!"

I gave up and decided to tackle the next part of the problem. "What kind of spirit materials do you need for the spatial storage pouch? I can"t think of any spirit material that allow you to store items in an alternative dimensional s.p.a.ce."

"That"s because you"re not thinking hard enough." Tang Qi Hong leaned closer to flick my forehead. "Are you sure there"s no spirit material without that kind of spatial storage properties? Have you not heard of a magical beast that possesses that ability?"

"Magical beast…ah!"

My eyes lightened up when my mind brushed across a faint memory…a memory of something that I had read a few months ago in the monster encyclopedia.

"The Void Whale!"

"That"s correct!" Tang Qi Hong smiled smugly. "The Void Whale is an extremely rare and powerful magical beast that can only be found in the deepest, furthest part of the ocean. If you want to hunt it, you need to sail about a few days away from the sh.o.r.e of the Middle Continent and deep into the middle of the Pacific Ocean, around the Void Ring…a zone where many ships have been shipwrecked and disappeared over the centuries."

"That"s why it"s so expensive!" I nodded, understanding the ridiculous 10,000 gold coins price tag now.

"Correct." Tang Qi Hong"s smile widened. Then she frowned. "I suppose I can put in a request for Void Whale materials…obviously it"ll take some time to procure it, but in the meantime I can ask Elder Hai Mo to teach me the Spirit Engraving and crafting methods for a Spatial Storage pouch. He"s rushing back to Tushan City because of Liang Shao Yang demonstrating his talent and triggering a response from the Spirit Engraved Pillar last week."

"Yeah, I heard that Sect Leader wants him to personally teach Liang Shao Yang."

Tang Qi Hong nodded. "That"s right. Elder Hai Mo is without any doubt the greatest blacksmith and Spirit Engraver in Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. there can be no better teacher than him." She then clenched her fists. "But I"ll work hard too. I can"t let Liang Shao Yang surpa.s.s me!"

"Really, Senior Tang?"

Speak of the devil. While Tang Qi Hong and I were speaking, Liang Shao Yang showed up. To my not surprise, Hu Mei Er was clinging onto his arm, a playful smile touching her flowery lips. She seemed to be looking at both me and Tang Qi Hong with a mocking smile. Raising a pale hand, she waved at us.

"Junior Tang and…Junior…Fei Wu, was it?" she was obviously calling me trash instead of my name, but I didn"t rise to her provocation. "Fancy meeting you out here."

"Senior Hu and Junior Liang," Tang Qi Hong responded frostily. I bowed my head politely to greet them, refusing to give these two inner sect disciples any reason to find fault with me. "What a coincidence."

"Ah, yes, indeed…" Hu Mei Er giggled. "Are you two also out on a date, perchance?"

She made a show of draping herself all over the unmoving Liang Shao Yang, as if to emphasize her point. Wow, but she really looked like one h.e.l.l of a s.l.u.t. I her and silently thought to myself, begone, thot!

The feeling was mutual. Hu Mei Er raked a condescending glance over both of us. it was clear that she still remembered me as the one who humiliated her during the entrance exam all those months ago, and she was relishing getting one up over Tang Qi Hong. Or so she deluded herself. In any case, she was obviously mocking Tang Qi Hong for getting what she thought was the inferior and trash guy while she netted herself the top dog of the sect, which could only mean that her status would climb if she continued to be his woman.

Or something like that. I wondered if it was normal for girls to compare their guys as they did their branded handbags or something.

The rumors are true after all. Hu Mei Er went to become Liang Shao Yang"s woman after he attained enlightenment from the Spirit Engraved Pillars and triggered a response from one of them. She sure moves fast.

Perhaps Liang Shao Yang was the one who approached her after achieving his new status. I had no way of knowing, and no interest in knowing either. I was curious, though, about the sudden change in att.i.tude. Previously, Liang Shao Yang had spurned Hu Mei Er, refusing to be her a.s.sistant and choosing Hao Ying over her.

But now he was all over her, or allowing her to be all over him. Perhaps he didn"t want to be her a.s.sistant but desired to be her lover instead. But that made no sense. He aimed to woo Tang Qi Hong by trying to be her a.s.sistant, only for me to spoil his plans. If he desired Hu Mei Er, then all the more reason to accept her offer to be her a.s.sistant.

Perhaps the reason was much simpler than that. Hao Ying was a senior from the Divine Shadow Sect. it would be easier to scheme and make plans of a.s.sa.s.sination with Hao Ying as his mentor than Hu Mei Er. As much as he desired Hu Mei Er, Liang Shao Yang was disciplined enough to put the interests of his sect over his l.u.s.t. As such, he decided to operate and scheme behind the scenes with his fellow Divine Shadow Sect member.

Right now, despite his icy façade, I could detect a slight disturbance in Liang Shao Yang"s qi that indicated that he was secretly thrilled and pleased with Hu Mei Er clinging onto him like that. I didn"t blame him. I would be secretly delighted too if Tang Qi Hong clung to me like that, but obviously that wasn"t going to happen. Not in the near future anyway. In any case, I sort of understood that the woman Liang Shao Yang desired was Hu Mei Er, not Tang Qi Hong – especially after the events of the third stage of the entrance exam.

He was only targeting Tang Qi Hong under the orders of his clan. He would rather have Hu Mei Er over Tang Qi Hong, but he had no choice but to woo the latter because, in order to gain control and subjugate the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, he had to marry Tang Qi Hong and become the potential next sect leader. Now that he had triggered a response from the Nine Spirit Engraved Pillars, become promoted to inner sect disciple and was recognized as one of the potential candidates who were next in line to succeed as the next sect leader, he no longer needed to bother with seducing Tang Qi Hong, and could openly chase Hu Mei Er.

And obviously Hu Mei Er was flattered by his attention. She was leaning close to Liang Shao Yang, stroking his muscular arm.

Liang Shao Yang looked at me, his eyes full of scorn, then he turned to regarded Tang Qi Hong curiously, as if he thought she had made a gigantic mistake. He smirked, shook his head and silently walked past us without another word. Hu Mei Er continued to hang onto his arm, pressing her well-endowed body against him.

Then he stopped.

"In six months, I"ll surpa.s.s you, Senior Tang."

He issued the challenge in a cold, composed tone. Tang Qi Hong"s eyes flared up and she glared defiantly at him.

"My, aren"t you confident, Junior Liang?"

"I have every reason to be confident," Liang Shao Yang replied coolly. He then smirked. "Especially if you"re idling your time away on frivolous dates with your trash of an a.s.sistant."

"I"m not idling my time away on frivolous dates, and Fei Wu is not trash!" Tang Qi Hong snapped hotly. I quickly but gently took hold of her shoulder and restrained her. Liang Shao Yang burst out laughing.

"Perhaps. But compared to me, your a.s.sistant is but an ant."

"Why are you even comparing the humble me to yourself in the first place?" I asked sourly. "I"m just a mere outer sect disciple who serves as Qi Hong"s a.s.sistant. Of course I can"t be compared to someone like you."

A flash of gloating pa.s.sed through Liang Shao Yang"s eyes as he looked down upon me, as if crediting me for knowing my place.

"I don"t understand why Senior Tang picked someone as incompetent as you as her a.s.sistant," he sneered. Tang Qi Hong bristled.

"Wu is not incompetent! He"s a pretty capable a.s.sistant!"

"Besides," I followed up dryly. "I"m supposed to be Qi Hong"s a.s.sistant. What kind of a.s.sistant would I be if I end up getting promoted to the inner sect within a few months of helping her out? She"ll need to find yet another person to recruit as her a.s.sistant. I place helping Qi Hong out over my personal interests and ambitions."

Then I grinned.

"And unlike you, I have no interest in becoming a blacksmith nor do I dream of becoming this sect"s next leader. I"m not under orders from the Divine Shadow Sect, after all."

Liang Shao Yang"s lip curled at my last sentence.

"Impudent," he growled. Fortunately, with Tang Qi Hong around, he wasn"t brazen enough to openly attack me. She was glaring at him.

"Don"t bother with these small fries, darling," Hu Mei Er cooed as she stroked his shoulders with a soothing hand. "Your time is too precious to waste on them."

"True." Liang Shao Yang smiled thinly, and then focused his attention back on Tang Qi Hong again. "Like I said, Senior Tang…just wait six months. And I"ll show you who the number one inner sect disciple of this sect will be."

"Bring it on!" Tang Qi Hong snapped hotly before I could stop her.

Liang Shao Yang continued to plaster that ominous smile on his handsome face, and then he turned away and left with Hu Mei Er continuing to cling onto his arm.

"Ugh…that guy really p.i.s.ses me off!" Tang Qi Hong growled as she balled her hands into fists. She then turned on me. "Wu! Are you just going to let him insult you like that!? Why didn"t you fight back?!"

"An outer sect disciple like me? Do I have the right to fight back against an inner sect prodigy like Liang Shao Yang?" I smiled bitterly. "It"s best not to fall for his provocations. He"s looking for any excuse to kill me, after all."

"Ah…" Tang Qi Hong realized what she was saying, and she covered her mouth with her hands. She sighed and shook her head. "I"m glad you managed to stay calm and composed. You really are quite something. If it were me, I would never have been able to keep my cool while that vicious couple insulted me. Fortunately you remembered Elder Zhao"s warning."

"Right." I shrugged helplessly.

"But still…I can"t believe that b.a.s.t.a.r.d got away trying to a.s.sa.s.sinate you. Elder Zhao was right when he said that G.o.dfather and the great elders will close an eye to his misdeeds." She trembled in rage. "And he even had the cheek to make such a challenge! I"ve never felt so humiliated in my life before! He"s really underestimating me!"

"Or perhaps he"s confident because he has some sort of secret method that will help him surpa.s.s you," I remarked. Tang Qi Hong"s eyebrow rose.

"Eh? What sort of secret method?"

"If I knew, it wouldn"t be secret now, would it?"

"…" Tang Qi Hong looked as if she was about to hit me. I chuckled wryly, and then glanced in the direction where Liang Shao Yang and Hu Mei Er left, and a thought occurred to me.

Leaving our relationship as ambiguous as it currently is…will be pretty detrimental. I think it"s best to clarify our relationship.

"Say, Qi Hong."

"Hmm? What is it?"

Tang Qi Hong stiffened when she saw my expression turn serious. I turned to her and took a deep breath while trying to think of how to approach the topic.

"Do you have someone you like?"

This was the safest question. I wasn"t being overly self-conscious. If it turned out that Tang Qi Hong merely thought of me as a good friend and didn"t like me in a romantic way, it gave me a sort of escape route. At least I wasn"t boldly asking if the person she liked was me. If it turned out that I had been deluding and flattering myself all along, that would have been utterly embarra.s.sing and awkward. At least this question allowed me to avoid that sort of fate.

"EH?!" Tang Qi Hong turned as red as the fiery lava of Flame Volcano. "W…w…what the h.e.l.l are you asking, all of a sudden?!"

I turned to glance meaningfully at the direction of Liang Shao Yang and Hu Mei Er, unsure if she would catch the hint.

"No, just curious. Seems like Senior Hu has gotten herself a solid boyfriend and she"s making fun of you for not having one." I glanced back at Tang Qi Hong, choosing my words carefully. "We can"t let her make fun of you like that. If there"s anyone you like, I"ll help you out!"

"I…idiot! Of course there isn"t anyone I like!"

There were two ways I could interpret this. Either she was telling the truth and there really wasn"t anybody she liked, or she was too embarra.s.sed to tell the truth. I had no way of confirming which it was. If it was the first scenario, then by all means, I accepted that I had been flattering myself all along and I should snap out of my delusions. If it was the second scenario, then I was back to square one and had failed to clarify our relationship.

"Well, that makes sense. It"s stupid to compete with Hu Mei Er over these sort of things. We should focus on cultivation, blacksmithing and spirit engraving over romance."

"T…that"s right!" Tang Qi Hong nodded, fl.u.s.tered. "Who cares about romance? Taking the sect to new heights is more important! Sect Leader, Sect Mistress and Elder Hai Mo have placed high expectations on me, hoping that I will one day become the next leader of Nine-Tailed Fox Sect and govern it in their place! I do not have any room to play around with romance. I had promised them that I would do my best to work hard, that I would devote my entire life into blacksmithing, spirit engraving and leading Nine-Tailed Fox Sect to unprecedented success!"

"I see."

"Romance will only disrupt my focus and unsettle my heart. I made up my mind long ago that I will not involve myself with any man!"

I didn"t know whether to feel stupid and disappointed. Whether Tang Qi Hong was truly attracted to me or not had become a moot point. She was determined to become a spinster for life. She might as well take the vows to be a nun or something.

Wait, that makes no sense…considering that Sect Leader and Sect Mistress are married and have a daughter, romance doesn"t necessarily conflict with succeeding as the next sect leader. Not unless Qi Hong is aware of the implications of the position and is resigned to accepting political marriages to strengthen the sect.

Well, as long as she didn"t marry Liang Shao Yang and merge the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect with the Divine Shadow Sect, it shouldn"t be a problem. Still, I couldn"t help but feel a sting in my heart. A bitter pain that gnawed at it.

Most likely that agonizing disappointment was what led me to ask the next question without thinking.

"What if I tell you that I like you?"

"EH?!"

Tang Qi Hong seemed to blow up like a volcano. She shook her head frantically, and then dropped to her knees.

"Whoa! Are you all right?"

"Y…yeah." Tang Qi hong nodded. Then she looked up at me, and her almost teary eyes hardened. "But…in response to your question…I"m sorry."

I knew it. I knew it, but even so her response hit me like a brick.

"Like I said, I can"t afford to dwell on romance. I need to work hard for the sake of the sect."

"Yeah," I replied hollowly. "Of course."

"That said…" Tang Qi Hong studied me. "If you rise in status and become a successful Spirit Engraver, or one of the strongest Blood Blades master in the future…I don"t think anyone will complain if I marry you."

Thanks for offering me that faint glimmer of hope. Even so, that was something that would only happen in the far future, huh…

"Well, it was only a "what if" question, as I said." I forced a smile. Something ran through Qi Hong"s eyes, but she was back to her usual self after that. Nodding, she smiled.

"I know."

We then fell silent, and I had no idea how to dissolve the awkward atmosphere. Fortunately, Tang Qi Hong had more experience in dealing with such matters.

"All right!" she slapped both her cheeks to lift her spirits. "What do you say we watch a movie at the Riverview Cinema before we return home for the night?"

This time, my smile was genuine. "That sounds like a good idea."