“Wait a minute,” Tian Zhe grabbed Xiao Ning's arm.

He wanted to stop her, but he chose not the best solution. The girl immediately turned around and, in a jump, directed her knee in the face of the young man.

“Wait,” Tian Zhe, taking a step back, put out his hand to reduce the impulse from the girl's attack.

Although he managed to suppress the girl's first attack, Xiao Ning did not stop her movements. Landing in a wide stance, she immediately responded with a direct blow with her right hand, putting all her strength into the blow.

However, contrary to her expectations, Tian Zhe calmly extended his left hand beneath him, grabbing her hand before Xiao Ning's fist slammed into his solar plexus.

The girl tried to free herself immediately and jump away, but Tian Zhe effortlessly overpowered the girl with one hand to the girl's horror. Pulling Xiao Ning to him, Tian Zhe grabbed her with his right hand, holding the girl close to him.

“Can you finally calm down, and we can talk calmly?”

“Let me go!” Xiao Ning resisted desperately.

“Only after we calmly talk.”

“I don’t want to talk to someone like you.”

“Father, brother, what atrocities did you commit to getting me into this mess?” Tian Zhe could only sigh. “Do you experience a burning sensation in your arms and legs, turning into pain?”

“...”

“After physical training, you feel pain like thousands of small corners are bursting out from under your skin,” Tian Zhe continued. “Sometimes you wake up in a cold sweat for no apparent reason, being completely healthy.” 

“How do you know what's wrong with me?”

“I know enough to be considered a pedant, but I don’t know everything.” Tian Zhe noticed that the girl had stopped resisting and finally let her go. “Now, are you ready to talk to me?”

Xiao Ning stepped back, staring warily at her classmate.

“What do you want to know?”

“That's it,” the answer was short and multifaceted, so seeing the puzzled expression on the girl’s face, Tian Zhe clarified. “Tell me about your practice, how long ago you began to train at night when you began to feel a burning sensation, the nature of the pain.”

---

“So my warning about the dangers of night training was ignored as something that had no justification in the eyes of ordinary people. Reasonably, people ignored the twentieth pandemic, believing that some new disease could not lead to economic disaster or cause long-term harm to health, especially against the background of a complete lack of any knowledge about virology, the work of the name system, or the work of epidemiological organizations.”

After hearing Xiao Ning's story, Tian Zhe experienced flashbacks from a past life, when human idiocy could aggravate any situation.

“You know, you are very lucky that I fell asleep right after training,” concluded Tian Zhe. “I can't even imagine how much worse your condition would be in the future.”

“…” Xiao Ning's cold expression best described the reaction to the teenager’s joking words.

Unlike Song Ming and Yun Yongru, the real Xiao Ning was very similar to her book counterpart from The Tale of Scripture, but even so, all Tian Zhe knew about her was that she would be bedridden at the age of fifteen. and in this state, she would be forcibly given in marriage to his older brother Tian Lei. Knowing about her tragic fate, Tian Zhe, while still a reader, wanted to help the girl, and if he were reborn in the body of someone else, he would gladly begin to actively help the girl, trying to change her life.

But fate decreed otherwise. Now he is Tian Zhe, Tian Lei is his elder brother, and Xiao Ning is already his brother's bride. Tian Zong, concerned about strengthening his own power for a long time from behind the scenes, put pressure on the Heavenly Dragon family, having achieved that the noble family that had lost their influence was forced to conclude several unequal pacts with the sacred Fire Orchid family and the agreement on Tian Lei's wedding with Xiao Ning was one of them. In the novel, the girl was healed by the protagonist Yang Li, who surprisingly knew the methods of eliminating clots of external xie-qi energy from the adepts' meridians and could heal the ailment of night qi.

“Don't look at me as if you want to see my guts on the ground,” Tian Zhe broke the night silence with a joke. “Let's discuss how to help you.”

“You can help me?” Xiao Ning asked incredulously.

“Partially,” Tian Zhe raised his index finger up. “I will not be able to help me cope with my family. In the end, I do not have enough strength for this.”

“Cope with his family?” the girl was puzzled by the words of Tian Zhe.

“But I will help with your development and healing of the qi-night ailment.”

“What is the benefit for you of helping me?”

“What is the benefit...” Tian Zhe thought because he did not initially plan to help the girl directly and therefore did not come up with reasonable excuses. “Well ... you have the same attributes of the spiritual core as I do. Therefore, if nothing interferes with your development, I will have someone compare my own development with.”

“And this is your reason?” Xiao Ning could not believe what she heard.

“I don’t need more reason,” the young man answered in a deliberately frivolous tone. “In my family, no one has the pure attribute of lightning, as well as the corresponding development techniques. That is why it is so important for me to find someone with similar abilities to track my development. If you want guarantees of help from me, I can take a blood oath.”

Xiao Ning pondered the situation. Even if Tian Zhe's words are reasonable, she still retains her resentment towards the sacred Fire Orchid family. One part of the girl wanted heavenly punishment for this family. The other part wanted help from at least someone. After a short silence, the girl made her decision.

“What are your conditions, and how will you help me?”

“If your family has techniques for developing the element of lightning, share them with me,” Tian Zhe put forward the only requirement. “In return, I will not only help you heal the qi-night disease, but I will share all the information I have about cultivation that I have accumulated.”

Xiao Ning fell silent. Techniques for the development of any family were considered a secret treasure, and it was normal that an adept could refuse even to pronounce the name of his development technique to a stranger.

“I cannot give you the development technique of my family, even if it is weak,” Xiao Ning refused.

“I see. I understand your reluctance to violate the prohibitions on divulging family secrets but think about this. If your wedding to my brother takes place, do you really think that my father will stop?” Tian Zhe decided to give his opinion on his father's plans. “Please do not see this as a threat from me, but knowing my father’s nature, he plans to completely consume your Heavenly Dragon family.”

“…” Xiao Ning considered the young man's words. “In that case, the Fire Orchid family will still receive all of our techniques.

“Yes,” Tian Zhe answered dryly. “On the other hand, I ask you to share only the techniques for developing the element of lightning and guarantee that none of my relatives will receive it.”

“Okay, I agree to your terms,” the girl took a deep breath as if resigning herself to the fact that she would have to commit a crime against her family. “Swear you will help me.”

---

The Heavenly Dragon's noble family had only one development technique suitable for adepts with lightning attributes. In fact, if Xiao Ning had not passed the attribute check-in Director Ji Liu's office, she would not have even thought of teaching this developmental technique due to the fact that she was a low-performing technique in the family archive.

Having finally received the innermost technique of development, Tian Zhe began to enumerate the ways to align the internal qi and get rid of the external xie-qi in the meridians, which confused the girl by calling tantric sex among others.

“What a sweet embarrassment,” Tian Zhe felt his heart begin to beat faster. “Stop, stop, stop! She's only thirteen! No, of course, you are also thirteen, but at heart, you are almost thirty! No relationship with peers until you are seventeen or twenty years old.“

“I don’t know what obscenities you thought, but I suggest qi-ko,” Tian Zhe could not resist and tricked the girl. “Since our attributes are fully consistent, I use my spiritual energy to remove the xie-qi clots.”

The inner troll Tian Zhe wanted to sneer about the fact that tantric sex suits them even better, but the instinct of self-preservation won out, and the boy did not dare to seek death at the hands of an embarrassed girl.

“Do you need me to take off my clothes? Xiao Ning, rather embarrassed, asked.”

“Let me think,” Tian Zhe enjoyed the way a girl’s usually cold face turns red. “It would certainly have simplified everything, but there won't be any special difficulties if you don't undress.”

Tian Zhe gave a sincere answer. With his spiritual perception, as long as there is no magical clothing or treasures on Xiao Ning that hide the flows of the wearer's spiritual vibrations, he will be able to calmly use qi-ko methods to extract the external xie-qi from the girl's meridians.

“Okay,” Xiao Ning, still embarrassed, stripped off her outer clothing, remaining in her silk undershirt.

“What's good here ?! I kind of said you don't have to undress!” it was Tian Zhe's turn to blush.

Maybe his mental age corresponded to an adult, but the body was adolescent, and like any other adolescent organism, Tian Zhe's hormonal background was just as unstable, and along with this, his emotions could also jump up and down.

“Well, let's get started.”

Tian Zhe reached out to Xiao Ning and stopped. Even in the dim light from the two moons, Tian Zhe could make out the figure of a girl in her undershirt.

“Calm down,” the young man walked around the girl, standing behind her, and placed his hand on the girl's back. At first, he wanted to put his hand on her solar plexus in front but changed his mind due to intense embarrassment and moral contradiction.

Concentrating, Tian Zhe poured his spiritual energy into Xiao Ning.

“Mmmm,” treacherously escaped from the girl's lips. She felt a pleasant warmth and did not cope with emotions as with a good massage.

“Damn, damn, damn!” thoughts of a teenager galloped through the mountains and seas.

“Calm down,” said Tian Zhe.

“Yes,” Xiao Ning answered.

Having regained some semblance of peace of mind, Tian Zhe concentrated on his spiritual perception. Making his spiritual energy move along the girl's meridians, he scanned each girl's meridian, distinguishing the areas in which xie-qi clots accumulated.

“In theory, it was faster to inject with your hands all over the body, but this is some kind of harassment,” Tian Zhe complained. “There seems to be no significant damage in the meridians, but there are quite a lot of xie-qi clots.”

“How many problems from you,” concluded Tian Zhe. “Plans are changing.”

“What do you mean? Xiao Ning was perplexed.

“Since the qi-night” disease develops only when a large amount of night xie-qi accumulates, the number of those who damaged their meridians is quite small, since adepts usually train during the day, like ordinary people,” Tian Zhe undertook to explain the situation.

“...”

“Even if they know nothing about this disease in the Jade City, after the damage to the meridians, the adepts begin to be more careful about their spiritual training, but let me guess, even feeling an increasing burning sensation, you did not compare your feelings with my warning on the first day of study and continued to train fiercely at night.

“...” the girl was silent, as she could not refute the words of Tian Zhe.

“Okay, let's go,” Tian Zhe finished lecturing Xiao Ning. “Since I have already taken a blood oath, it is too late for me to retreat. I hope for your cooperation.”

Pressing against the girl's back, Tian Zhe put his right hand on her stomach as close to the lower dantian as possible. Xiao Ning's left hand was held with both palms.

“Since we are the ideal donor and recipient, as soon as I start pouring all my spiritual energy into you, you, in turn, do not let it dissipate and move along your meridians, bypassing the spiritual core, and then pass it back to me through my left hand.”

“Okay,” the girl tried not to show her embarrassment in her voice.

“Well, let's get started.”

Tian Zhe began pouring his spiritual energy into Xiao Ning. The girl did not resist, combined it with the remnants of her energy outside the spiritual core, and followed it along her meridians.

Tian Zhe, not feeling any resistance, concentrated on the fact that his spiritual energy zhen-qi intercepted and mixed with the clots of xie-qi in the girl's meridians. The more xie-qi energy mixed with Tian Zhe's zhen-qi, the more discomfort Xiao Ning felt. It seemed to her that molten iron was flowing along her meridians. The burning sensation was unbearable, and the girl moaned painfully.

“Be patient. Patience is the mother of learning,” Tian Zhe reassured her.

Feeling that all clots of xie-qi in the girl's body were mixed with his zhen-qi, Tian Zhe gave a further command.

“Now hand it over to me.”

“Now,” the girl quietly replied to the young man and began pouring mixed spiritual energy into Tian Zhe’s left hand.

It was Tian Zhe's turn to endure all the pain. As soon as spiritual energy began to flow into Tian Zhe's hand, the young man gathered separate clots of xie-qi into a single stream, and because of the concentrated xie-qi energy in his forearm, Tian Zhe involuntarily recalled how in a past life he had flown into a shopping center window, and many small shards of glass dug deep into his skin. The pain from the many fragments cutting his flesh was unbearable for the then little Ian.

“Ngh,” Tian Zhe moaned, stifled. He felt his left arm was torn from a burning sensation. “Be patient, Tian, be patient. Remember when your pelvis was torn apart with a kidney stone, then it was much more painful.”

When all the "poisoned" spiritual energy returned to the meridians of Tian Zhe, the young man used the reserves of his spiritual energy stored in his left arm muscles to squeeze the xie-qi out of his body.

At first, Tian Zhe planned to slowly push out the xie-qi clots from the girl's body in small portions, but because of their quantity, it was most effective to do it in one impulse, but since even for Tian Zhe it was difficult to control his spiritual energy in such an amount in the body of another human, he decided that it would be most effective to “pour” his zhen-qi into Xiao Ning, and then return it to his body, collecting in transit clots of xie-qi.

“Wait a bit, I’ll give you a part of my pure zhen-qi to stabilize the remnants of the xie-qi that could remain in your meridians,” Tian Zhe was breathing heavily.

The Xie-qi accumulated in the spiritual core of Tian Zhe has purified long ago thanks to his efforts, and now entering his meridians along with the remnants of the zhen-qi from the body, she began to enter Xiao Ning in large quantities. The girl experienced a slight pleasure in receiving such an amount of purified spiritual energy. Usually, only a small amount of spiritual energy circulates along the meridians of adepts, entering the meridians from the spiritual core according to the residual principle during training.

Among the adepts, no one accumulated zhen-qi in the meridians or in the body while in the iron rank. For the adept of the iron rank, the most important thing was to strengthen his own spiritual core open the first dantian. As for the bronze adepts, yuan-qi circulated in their meridians, and they no longer needed to concentrate zhen-qi in the meridians, and only such a stranger as Tian Zhe could come up with the idea of accumulating zhen-qi in the meridians and muscles to strengthen their body.

“Finished,” breathing heavily, Tian Zhe pulled away from the girl, making sure that her meridians had enough of his zhen-qi. “Don't let my spiritual energy dissipate before sunrise and only then go to bed.

“Are you okay?” Xiao Ning was worried. She felt that Tian Zhe had spent a large amount of spiritual energy helping her, and considering that he also filled her meridians, the reserves of his spiritual core should have completely dried up, destroying his own foundation. “You spent a lot of spiritual energy!”

The girl approached, peering into Tian Zhe's tired face.

“I’m fine, for the most part, I spent the reserves of zhen-qi in my meridians and my body. My core has lost only half of the stored energy,” Tian Zhe answered, still breathing heavily.

“Is everything really good?” Xiao Ning could not calm her anxiety.

“Exactly, exactly,” Tian Zhe's voice had a note of irritation. “The only thing that is not good here is your appearance, and if you consider that we are both wet and breathing heavily, then you might think that we enjoyed the views of the moon together.”

Heard from the lips of a young man a metaphor about the nighttime closeness of a man and a woman, Xiao Ning realized that all this time she was in her undershirt and the silk fabric treacherously adhered to her body due to sweat.

“Pervert.”

“Who would say,” retorted Tian Zhe. “I'm not here to undress, despite the fact that I was told that you could not undress...”

Tian Zhe did not have time to finish when a slipper flew into his face.

“Silence is golden,” Xiao Ning smiled coldly, covering her chest with her left hand.

“You know, I certainly understand that you are still young and your body is just forming, but it's time for you to think about changing your shirt to a bra…” Without finishing, Tian Zhe dodged the second flying shoe courtesy of Xiao Ning.

“…” In the awkward silence, the girl hurried to put on her outerwear.

“One way or another, before going to bed, you can absorb the remnants of my spiritual energy into your core and go to bed,” Tian Zhe returned the shoes to the girl.

“See you tomorrow late afternoon.”

“Good night.”

Having reached the exit from the training area, the teenagers said goodbye, and each went to the side of their dorms.

---

“How stupid I was,” Tian Zhe, lying in his bed, examined his left hand. Collecting xie-qi in Xiao Ning's body, Tian Zhe isolated the clots of unstable xie-qi energy with the flow of his zhen-qi energy, and the girl's meridians did not suffer in any way. At the same time, Tian Zhe neglected his own safety, releasing harmful energy from his body with a single jerk.

No, the meridians of Tian Zhe's left arm were not affected. Rather, their injury was minor, if not significant, in the face of another problem. Due to the sudden release of a large amount of energy, many of the capillaries in his left-hand burst, and now his hand resembled one large bruise.

Xiao Ning was seen in the practice position on the bed in her room. No no. She did not practice the accumulation of external xie-qi energy. Instead, the girl concentrated all her attention on ensuring that the zhen-qi received from Tian Zhe was continuously circulating along her meridians. No matter how ingenious an Adept at the Iron or Bronze rank is, no one will be able to control the flows of spiritual energy the way Tian Zhe does, for this reason, Xiao Ning put a lot of mental effort to prevent this energy from dissipating from the body.

As for the young man, who does not take into account the difference between himself and others, in a half-asleep state, lying around like a dead fish, he concentrated the remnants of spiritual energy from his body in his left hand and fell into the realm of sleep.