Nie Chang let Su Yan be happy for a while before tugging at his arm. "Come on, put the robe on and then let’s go and try to reach some more milestones."

Su Yan’s eyes lit up. "You know what they could be?"

"Mn. I’m not sure yet but if we consider your story, then there are some things that often occur if a Master and a disciple are supposed to get into a relationship."

"Really, there’s something like that?"

Nie Chang nodded and helped Su Yan put on the robe. "Yes. It’s also a good opportunity for us. If we can’t get back today, we’ll need to accompany the Sect Master and Elder Yue to the city. We need to find out how to use spiritual energy and use a flying sword until then or they will notice that something is off."

Su Yan nodded. "That’s true. But I didn’t even manage to sense spiritual energy yesterday. It’s such a hard thing! I’m not sure if we’ll be able to learn it in less than a year. Then again, that’s not strange at all. The protagonists in stories also need a very long time at first before they start to cultivate faster than anyone else."

"Mn. You don’t have to worry though. Your boyfriend already had a breakthrough yesterday."

"Ah?" Su Yan’s eyes widened. "What does this mean? You won’t be ascending now, will you?"

Nie Chang laughed. "I don’t think that’s even possible."

[The host and those he takes with him are able to experience everything in the novel’s world a character can experience.]

The system chimed in from the side without waiting for them to question it.

Nie Chang raised his brows. Was this thing trying to make up for being slow yesterday? Thanks, but this wasn’t a good time for that!

He cleared his throat and turned back to Su Yan, gently pulling him to the door. "Well, even if it is possible, you don’t have to worry about that. I just meant I managed to sense spiritual energy. I can show you how it works."

Su Yan’s eyes sparkled. "Really?!"

"Of course!"

Su Yan happily clutched his boyfriend’s arm and grinned. "Then does this mean you’re really my Master now? Ah, your disciple is really happy to have you!" He tiptoed and pecked Nie Chang’s lips. "So how did you do it? I tried so much but there was nothing at all!"

Nie Chang smiled. "I think that is what should happen at first."

"Hah? That doesn’t make sense. Are you sure you didn’t make this up?"

"Mn. Wait, let me try to use it." Nie Chang stopped walking, straightened his shoulders and closed his eyes. If this didn’t work, he would really be embarrassed.

He sensed the spiritual energy again and raised his hand, trying to gather some of it on his palm.

Su Yan leaned closer, staring at the hand unblinkingly. "Nothing is happening."

Nie Chang sighed and cracked an eye open. "I haven’t tried how to use it yet. Give me a moment."

"Oh." Su Yan continued to stare at the hand.

Nie Chang closed his eyes again, concentrated on the spiritual energy again and tried to move it. Actually, it shouldn’t be too difficult. He could sense the spiritual energy in the room and also inside of him. Most of it was gathered at the point where the dantian was described to be in xianxia stories. So … he just had to get some of it out of there and then to his hand, right?

Nie Chang furrowed his brow. He honestly had no idea how to do this. It wasn’t like he could reach into the dantian and take some of it out. Ah, this had never been described in those novels. At least not in a manner detailed enough for him to imitate what had happened there.

Warm breath brushed his palm. "There’s still nothing happening. Are you sure this is working, Ah Chang?"

Nie Chang sighed and dropped his hand. "I can sense it but I don’t know how to guide it to my hand." He opened his eyes and met with Su Yan’s skeptical gaze. Alright, he should have expected as much. "It’s the truth."

Su Yan just continued to look at him. Actually, he even seemed as if he was considering whether he should say something to this or not.

Nie Chang’s brows twitched. For someone who hadn’t even managed to sense the spiritual energy yesterday, his little darling sure was fast to look down on him. "Let me sit down and try again."

He went back into the study and sat down on the chair. The spiritual energy seemed to circle around him and some of it seeped into his body without him doing anything. Nie Chang raised his brows. Could it be he was sitting on some old artifact that helped with cultivation? But if that was true …

He concentrated on the spiritual energy entering his body and watched it move around. There were only a few wisps moving at once but all of them took the same way.

Nie Chang opened his eyes. Right! Why hadn’t he thought of that? There were spiritual veins in this kind of story. Naturally, the spiritual energy would follow them. They would enter the body through one of them and should be able to exit it as well.

He closed his eyes again and concentrated on his dantian again. It seemed there were several places where spiritual veins connected to it. He watched the spiritual energy enter and tried to get a feeling for it. Actually, there wasn’t anything to feel.

Nie Chang frowned. Well, that would have been too easy. But since it could even happen without him doing anything, then it couldn’t be too hard to make it happen on his own accord. Since it was something spiritual … maybe thinking about it would be enough?

He furrowed his brows even further and tried to imagine the spiritual energy moving along the veins he had discovered before. Finally, a small wisp escaped his dantian and traveled toward his hand.

Nie Chang’s expression tightened but he forced himself to continue. Finally, the spiritual energy reached his fingertips.

"Ah! Nie Chang, your finger!" A certain someone clutched his hand in a panic, scattering the wisp of spiritual energy he had barely managed to direct there.