Chapter 30: Lingering feelings

Su Qingxue’s fingers were still trembling when she finished explaining to Tian.

Silver cloud, and now this haah it’s seems like ...no there’s somthing I must do.

Lin Tian stood close enough that the narrow gap between the storage shed and the stone wall felt like the only private place left, on the entire east slope.

The dual connection between them carried every sharp edge of her anger, the humiliation that still burned under her skin, and the stubborn pride that had made her accept the challenge in front of so many watching eyes.

Zhao Yiran’s words had not been a simple insult.. They had questioned the choice this little woman had only just spoken out loud, and she had answered by placing that choice under official scrutiny.

He let the silence sit for several long breaths, giving both of them time to feel the weight of what she had done. After finishing his thoughts, he said with a low voice.

"A public verification, and tomorrow morning?. In front of the deacons."

Su Qingxue nodded once. Her jaw was tight enough that a small muscle jumped near her ear. "I couldn’t refuse Tian ge, If I had turned around and walked away after everything I told you this afternoon, it- it would have meant I was still treating this, as something temporary. I’m not Tian ge"

The denser Mid Foundation qi circulating through his meridians responded to the conviction in her voice.

It moved warmer and heavier than it had even an hour earlier, as if the open dual connection had already begun adjusting to the new stage.

To be precise, her pure Yin flowed toward him more freely now. His Yang answered with greater pressure. And tomorrow that exchange would be measured under the eyes of the outer court!

So it’s Tonight , tonight they would have to learn the difference before anyone else was allowed to see it.

He lifted a hand and brushed a loose strand of black hair away from her cheek with the back of his fingers as always.

Her skin felt warmer than usual, the dual connection carrying a faint flush that had nothing to do with the late afternoon heat.

He looked at her,"Then we use the hours we still have, "After the second night bell and in the same place you mentioned."

"Umm....We’ll go further than we have before. Not only for the breakthrough but entirely for control."

"If Zhao Yiran wants to see whether your Yin can stand beside this "new yang", then we’ll let her, without any hesitation."

Su Qingxue’s throat moved as she swallowed. She felt a little relief simultaneously, through the dual connection he felt the quick flare of nerves, followed almost at once by something steadier and more determined.

She leaned forward until her forehead rested against the front of his robe, breathing in the faint trace of his qi the way she sometimes did when the connection felt unstable.

"I keep seeing their faces," she murmured. "Liu Suyin was standing only a few steps away. Two of the silver-cloud juniors were watching like they were already writing the story in their heads."

" That "loud girl" from the west peak who never stops talking about pure roots actually stopped talking. By morning the entire outer court will know that,

I accepted a public dual verification with a mixed-root outer who just broke through to Mid Foundation in the middle of the brackets. I don’t care but, but you’ll attract attention."

She speaks too much, when she’s nervous...

"Its nothing, let them know." Lin Tian’s voice remained low, but there was no softness in it. "By morning the only thing that will matter is the result, everything else is just noices they make."

She stayed against him for a long moment, shoulders slowly losing the rigid line they had carried since she first appeared with tears in her eyes.

When she finally stepped back, her gaze was clearer, though the faint redness around her eyes had not completely faded...

"I should return before the senior on night duty starts counting how long I’ve been gone," she said, "If I stay any later someone will catch us"

Yeah yeah I know, there’s somewhere I have to go now. My cute dual core has told me everything

He nodded in agreement . The dual connection stretched as she moved away but did not thin. It remained wide and open, carrying the quiet promise of the hours still ahead of them.

Su Qingxue hesitated at the edge of the path and looked back once.

"uh..Don’t be late."

He nodded in agreement and gave her a warm smile.

She turned and walked toward the women’s side with her usual measured steps, white ribbon pale against the deepening dusk. Only the dual connection betrayed how hard her heart was still beating....

Lin Tian remained in the narrow space until her presence faded to a distant warm point at the edge of his awareness. The residual thread from "Elder Zhao Wen" brushed faintly against his meridians again, thin, lingering,unwilling to disappear completely.

He locked it down the same way he locked the "dual-colored light of the Chaos Dual Core", then stepped back onto the main path. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

...

Gu Shen was waiting near the third-row dorms with both arms crossed and the expression of a man who had already heard four different versions of the same story.

"Brother !! I leave you alone for the time it takes to drink one cup of cold water and suddenly the women’s field is full of talk about public dual verifications, and Zhao Yiran looking like someone stole the last "spirit stone" in her pouch!!!!"

" Care to explain?before I start believing the version where, you challenged the entire Zhao line to a group dual and somehow made it their idea heh heh, kidding kidding"

Lin Tian kept walking. Gu Shen fell into step beside him, still talking.

"Also, your face looks like you swallowed a live spirit beast and it still hasn’t decided whether to stay down.

Is this about the verification, or about whatever name you were whispering earlier when you looked like you’d seen a ghost?"

Your guessing is quite good to be honest heh "yeah yeah brother it’s both."

Gu Shen made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. "Of course it’s both!!! Nothing with you is ever only one problem. That would be too simple for the mixed-root freak who keeps turning my quiet outer-court life into a public performance, heh"

He glanced sideways. "Do you need me to do anything stupid tomorrow, or am I allowed to stand at a safe distance and pretend, I don’t know the person responsible for half the rumors currently climbing the mountain?"

"noh noh brother, safe distance is fine."

"Finally, A reasonable answer." Gu Shen exhaled hard. "I’ll still trip that fucker Cheng Fei if he opens his mouth too wide during the verification, how dare he fuck my girl! Well That’s not optional. Some things are a matter of principle."

They reached the dormitory steps. The sky above the east slope had turned the deep blue that always came just before true night. Lanterns were being lit along the main paths, their light soft and steady against the growing dark.

...

In a quiet hall of a beautiful Harmony Palace, embroided with beautiful flowers, with sweet smell, a woman sitting in closed-door cultivation some days, suddenly opened her eyes.

A faint disturbance had brushed against the edge of her extreme chaotic yin physique distant, incomplete, yet carrying a dual-colored resonance she had never felt from any orthodox technique.

The warmness in her meridians stirred once, restless and almost curious, before she forced it back under strict control. In the room heavy "demonic formations" and old blood oaths could be seen.

Eyes like that of godess, pure embodiment of yin.

"Crimson" vertical pupils contracting against the sudden awareness.

A slow, smile curved plum red lips as a blood-red rose across a fair chest pulsed once with faint light.

" finally it’s over." a low voice murmured to the empty room. The smile disappeared "What is this familiar sensetion, it almost felt like him"

After a brief thought, the beautiful women sighed " Time to return to my sect,"

...

Back on the east slope, Lin Tian sat on the edge of his narrow bunk and circulated the denser qi through meridians that no longer caught or strained.

The dual connection with Su Qingxue remained open and warm, carrying the faint edge of lingering nerves and the deeper current of resolve.

Beneath it the residual from Zhao Wen sat like a thin second pulse that refused to be ignored.

And deeper still, buried under the steady pressure of Mid Foundation, the name that had forced itself out of his mouth after the breakthrough, continued to linger at the edge of thought crimson eyes, a blood-red mark, the sense of an old debt that had not finished collecting. Well thats normal development.

He turned his senses inward and located the thin thread representing Elder wen, he felt a women in relaxing clothes, sitting on a desk.

"Let’s have some nice talks with her "He started walking towards the Ledger hall.