Ting Miu stood over Li Yang and quietly observed his body as the attacks of the array rained down on him. She wasn't going to let him die just because of some embarrassment, she was making sure to keep a close eye on him so that she could intervene the moment things seemed like they might go wrong. But looking down at the youth who was practically getting squashed into the earth, she couldn't help but click her tongue at him.
"Tch, you'd be an amazing catch if you'd just show a bit more seriousness, that's all you need to become utterly amazing."
Truth be told, Ting Miu used to have the same opinion as almost everyone else in the sect, Li Yang was just a lazy bastard who should just leave the sect if he had no intention of actually cultivating. She knew about, and had personally experienced, his great skills when it came to dodging around like a nimble monkey. But that alone wasn't enough to make others think much of him, so she was among those who ended up greatly shocked when Li Yang finally showed off earlier.
He had shown off that not only was he actually cultivating, but also that his strength was a fair bit greater than others of his cultivation realm. The opponent he had beat was only at the late stage of the Houtian Rune realm, only two runes above him, so she had yet to enter the Xiantian Rune realm. Some people argued that this meant that the difference in strength wasn't insurmountable, but most considered this a rather shallow and petty argument.
Li Yang could also be considered rather slow to only have carved four runes at the age of 15, of course, the fact that he had carved two sets of four runes basically negated this slowness. These two facts, especially coupled with his willingness to keep the truth hidden for so long, was sufficient to leave most people more than a bit shocked.
And now, as she was looking down at his body, she could feel that he was adapting to both her pressure and the cascade of attacks at a blistering pace. At the start, his body would twitch a little each time an attack landed on him, the force of the impact shifting the position of his body in a minute manner. But now, after only a few hours had passed, that twitching had been all but eradicated.
The attacks landed and unleashed their force, but now he seemed to be capable of shifting around the resulting force in a smooth manner that didn't impact his body. There was only one word Ting Miu could think of to describe this adaption speed, talent. Li Yang was talented, everything she had seen from him recently made that fact abundantly clear to Ting Miu.
But he had a flaw, a very glaring one at that, his personality. He was too frivolous and joking, seemingly unable to take a single thing seriously. If it wasn't for this single flaw then Li Yang could easily become one of the most respected people in the sect, with time he might even take over the position of his father and be one of the sect's leaders. But sadly, the little haunted troublemaker in front of her had never shown any signs of changing or abandoning his frivolous persona.
Slight movements from Li Yang's body broke Ting Miu out of her quiet contemplation and slight day-dreaming about what Li Yang might have ended up becoming. He was struggling to raise his arms and head under the barrage of attacks and Ting Miu's own pressure, placing his palms on the earth while trying to push himself up. He wasn't able to move much, his earnest and struggling effort slightly touching Ting Miu's heart. But then he managed to raise his head out of the dirt, raising it just enough for him to barely glance upwards while squeezing out a stifled voice.
"Fairy Sister Miu... While I prefer... White ones... I think blue... Suits you nicely..."
An alluring blush immediately spread across Ting Miu's face as she understood what Li Yang meant, every single positive idea of what he might have become instantly shattering. Her hand immediately reached down and pushed her skirt between her thighs again, her left shooting forward on instinct. Her foot made contact with Li Yang's face and sent him flying back, blood spurting from his nose while Ting Miu regained her clarity.
"Ah fuck!"
She had acted on instinct just now and put more force than intended into that kick, resulting in Li Yang flying back until he crashed into one of the craggy mountains that the array had created. The array luckily halted its attacks upon detecting the rapid movement, giving Li Yang a short moment of reprieve from the unending stream of attacks as he crashed into the mountain.
Ting Miu quickly walked over to make sure that he was still okay after getting kicked, but to her surprise, he dropped down from the side of the mountain while looking mostly unharmed. Some blood poured from his nose, but he rolled his shoulders casually while wearing a somewhat playful smile.
"Force upon force, that's the answer, huh? You bastard of a queen, I swear that I'll slap the shit out of you if we ever meet. What's the damn point in making it so cryptic?"
Ting Miu didn't understand what Li Yang's mutterings were about, heaving a stealthy sigh of relief that he hadn't been badly hurt by her instinctual retaliation. Li Yang blew out the blood that was gathering within his nostrils and then wiped his upper lip, turning his gaze onto Ting Miu.
"Fairy Sister Miu, I know that it must hurt your soul deeply to raise your hands against the delicate me, but could I trouble you to give me more love-taps like that? They are quite useful to my cultivation. Of course, if you want us to go to a place more private for some more intimate love taps then I'm all for that, I'll just ask that you be gentle with me since it's my first time."
Li Yang squirmed shyly as he spoke, Ting Miu's hands twitching as she resisted the urge to smash his face in. Li Yang stopped squirming when he saw Ting Miu's practically black expression, the smirk hanging on his face only serving to further boil Ting Miu's blood.
Li Yang had spent a few hours understanding the essence of force, actually resulting in a rune being formed in his dantian. But it was only when he tried to push himself up that he was enlightened on how to continue cultivating the Heavenly Queen's 1st Star. The way to conquer and merge with the force was much simpler than any idea he had come up with, it was to the point of being annoying.
All he had to do was use another type of force to push the external force into his bones, somewhat emulating the standard body cultivation method. The way it differed was that it required an outside source of force, such as a strong punch or attack, and you couldn't let your own Qi or energy mix with that force as you forced it into your bones. Just doing it once wasn't enough either, the force would just dissipate after passing through your bone. No, you had to do it again and again, trapping the force inside your bones until it merged into them.
Ting Miu shook her hands to loosen them up and was just about to let out an exasperated sigh when she saw a very faint sliver of seriousness hidden within Li Yang's eyes. She couldn't help but stop for a second, tilting her head with eyes that were slightly narrowed in confusion.
"Wait, you're actually serious?"
Li Yang had teased her countless times about 'being rough' and 'remembering that he liked a bit of pain', but the look in his eyes this time was different from all those times. And faced with her confusion, Li Yang nodded his head as if he was speaking about something that was just par for the course.
"Yeah, gimme your best shot, Fairy Sister Miu. Of course, if you feel bad about hitting my delicate body then I can use the array here instead, the sheer number of attacks will just make it a bit more troublesome."
If he activated the array and was attacked from all sides then it would be a bit troublesome as it would occupy a bit of his focus, making it harder to focus on one part of his body at a time. But if he was just hit by Ting Miu then he could take his time to focus on one part at a time by controlling how often she hit him. Ting Miu still looked a bit suspicious that he was just playing with her, but eventually, she cracked her knuckles while the corners of her lips curved up faintly.
"No no, don't bother with that. As your Senior Sister, I am of course more than willing to help you with your cultivation. Just you tell me when I can bea... launch an attack to aid you."
Li Yang didn't mention anything about her slight... mispronunciation, placing both hands behind his head and tensing his stomach. He nodded at Ting Miu, who immediately sent her fist crashing into Li Yang's stomach, controlling her power so that she didn't accidentally hurt Li Yang.
Li Yang sank his vision into his own body, focusing on the invisible force that Ting Miu's punch sent coursing through his stomach. He drew out energy from the single force rune carved in his dantian, an invisible stream of Qi moving through his body and surrounding the invisible force that the attack had created. He used his Qi to guide the force up through his body, focusing it on his right hand and forcing it to sink into his bones.
The process could only be called excruciating, it felt like he was breaking his bones over and over again. But each time the force moved around in his bones, a little bit of it was absorbed by his bones, the corners of Li Yang's lips curving up slightly. He was already looking forward to meeting Mei Kongxu again, she had taken quite the advantage of him back when they first met so now it was his time to take the lead. With that thought in mind, he flashed Ting Miu a smirk.
"Fairy Sister Miu, such a gentle touch... are you perhaps trying to arouse me? If that is your intention then I can only say that you are succeeding, more love taps like that will certainly wake up my junior and make him raring to go."
Ting Miu's expression faltered as her lips twitched while she looked at Li Yang squirm as if he was trying to cover his crotch. She clenched her fist again and sent out another punch, increasing the power of her attack this time to hopefully silence him. But reality proved disappointing, each of her punches was followed by some teasing from Li Yang, the only sound audible in the training room being Li Yang's teasing and the sound of Ting Miu's fist hitting his stomach.
Thanks for the chapter