Even if Wei Tiancang no longer restricted his movements, Li Tianming didn’t intend to stay in Wei Manor. Right now, walking around the Wei Manor would only bring him unwanted attention. With Mu Yang taking care of Wei Jing, he had nothing to worry about.
After saying farewell to his mother, Li Tianming settled down in the residence that Mu Yang had gotten him.
“The vice-potentate must have spent a lot of effort to convince that old man to not lock me up.” Li Tianming knew how determined Wei Tiancang sounded back then.
He took out the crumpled slip of paper that Jiang Feiling had given him. After comparing it with the map that Mu Yang gave him, he set off to find Jiang Feiling, Ying Huo at his side.
“Princess Qing’s supernal mentor is called Qin Shi. I heard that she is the strongest female supernal mentor right now.” Li Tianming recalled seeing her at the Hall of Ancestry. Although she was uninterested in him, since she only accepted female disciples, Li Tianming still had a decent impression of her — she hadn’t insulted him, unlike a certain Liu Xueyao.
Inside the sanctum, each supernal mentor had their own allocated area, and their disciples would live inside that area within their own courtyards. As for Li Tianming, who had no supernal mentor, he stayed alone at a corner of the sanctum with no neighbors.
Li Tianming’s destination was the Nebulous Pavilion, Supernal Mentor Qin Shi’s territory. He arrived early in the morning, without seeing anyone along the way. Following the instructions on the slip, Li Tianming found himself near the western side of the Nebulous Pavilion. He was looking for a courtyard by the name of ‘Qingluan Residence’, the residence of Princess Qing and Jiang Feiling.
Word had it that ever since Jiang Qingluan entered Heaven’s Sanctum, Jiang Feiling was always by her side. Even though she wasn’t a disciple of the sanctum, the authorities had given her special permission to do what she wanted inside the sanctum. She had no lifebound beasts anyway, so she couldn’t learn anything in the sanctum.
“Big brother, I knew you’d be here.” Just as Li Tianming was about to knock on the doors, the door creaked open and a girl in white chiffon pajamas popped out. She stretched and rolled her eyes, clearly having just woken up. Even without any makeup and with her hair still a mess, the girl was a feast to the eyes, especially when she stretched and displayed her fine contours.
What a pleasant way to start the day, Li Tianming thought.
“Who’s there?” Another girl walked up behind Jiang Feiling. Compared to Jiang Feiling she was shorter, but she had curves that seemed unfitting of her age.
“AHH!” Jiang Qingluan probably didn’t expect Ling’er to open the doors straight away. Before she could even react, Li Tianming had appeared, her skimpily dressed body in full view. For a brief moment, Jiang Qingluan stood there stunned, before letting out a piercing shriek as she ran back into her bedroom.
“Big brother, just give us a moment.” Jiang Feiling smiled and closed the doors.
“Ohhhhhh, no looky looky!” The little chick had covered its eyes with its wings, but that didn’t change the fact that those huge gaps inside its wings pretty much revealed everything.
That was surely one way of starting a morning, looking at two beauties with completely different flairs. Li Tianming coughed slightly, and readjusted his posture to look as gentlemanly as possible.
“Li Tianming, I don’t think you will be needing your eyes anymore.” The next time the door opened, it was Jiang Qingluan who appeared before him. She had already dressed properly, and she stared at Li Tianming as if she wished to rip a hole in his face.
“What, do you have a need for them? What are you gonna do, eat them as snacks?” Li Tianming laughed.
“Scram, we don’t welcome contemptible people like you here,” Jiang Qingluan snapped.
“Qing’er don’t block the way, let big brother come in.” It was at this moment that Jiang Feiling appeared too, and Li Tianming felt as if the whole world had been brightened up by her. She had changed into a pale blue skirt, leaving her delicate, slender legs exposed. With an enchanting smile on her face, Li Tianming could barely take his eyes off her.
At Jiang Feiling’s words, Li Tianming gently pushed aside Jiang Qingluan’s arms, which were blocking the gate, and invited himself into the Qingluan Residence. Within the small hut inside the courtyard, Jiang Qingluan already had tea prepared.
“Big brother, have some tea.” She sat down by the table and passed Li Tianming a cup. The tea gave off a faint fragrance, just like that fairy-like girl that was seated in front of him.
“Thank you, Ling’er.” Li Tianming took a seat too. Every time he met her, he couldn’t help but wonder how such a perfect girl could exist in this world.
“Li Tianming, I heard some new stories about you, and pretty funny ones too.” Jiang Qingluan leaned against one of the pillars, and said with an eyebrow raised.
“Go ahead, we can have a good laugh,” Li Tianming said.
“The great prime disciple, abandoned by all the supernal mentors. The whole institute is laughing about you now,” Jiang Qingluan said.
“Haha, very funny,” Li Tianming mocked.
“Do you not have any shame?” Jiang Qingluan sounded slightly annoyed.
“Of course I do. What about you? Why are you always trying to disrupt my time with Ling’er? Or do you have ideas for me, and wish to fight with Ling’er over me?” Li Tianming curled his lips.
“Are you retarded? I have never seen such a shameless person, and if I don’t keep an eye out for you, who knows what hideous things you may do,” Jiang Qingluan yelled back.
Jiang Feiling poured herself and Jiang Qingluan a cup of tea each with a smile. Perhaps the sight of these two fighting the moment they saw each other was amusing to her.
“How can you accuse a gentleman like me?”
“If you were a gentleman, even that chicken would be one,” Jiang Qingluan said with contempt.
“What do you mean, of course I am a gentlechicken.” The little chick puffed its chest up. Against their shamelessness, Jiang Qingluan could only stomp her feet in frustration.
“Qing’er, don’t be annoyed. Have a seat and then we can talk.” Jiang Feiling finally managed to calm her down.
“Even if I don’t have a supernal mentor, I have already gotten the Disciple’s Order and my cultivation here can proceed normally.”
“Wow, that’s impressive.”
“Impressive? Without a supernal mentor, he can’t do anything in the sanctum without getting pushed around,” Jiang Qingluan interrupted.
“Then what? Can Qing’er protect big brother? ” Jiang Feiling asked.
“Yeah I will consider it if he kneels before me and slams his head on the floor.” Jiang Qingluan smirked.
“You might look like my granny, but you sure as hell ain’t one,” Li Tianming replied.
Jiang Qingluan realised that this man was entirely incompatible with him when it came to personality. That didn’t mean she found him a bad guy though. Jiang Feiling had told her quite a lot about Li Tianming’s stories regarding the Saintbeast War-Soul and the scandal.
“Hoho, then you just wait to get wrecked by all the disciples here. Pretty daring of you to provoke the only person in the institute who could possibly cover you,” Jiang Qingluan threatened.
“No biggie. I still have your jade pendant with me, don’t I? It should come in handy,” Li Tianming said.
“Now that you mentioned it, return the pendant to me. Now. Immediately.” Jiang Qingluan rose to her feet.
“Return it to you? Sure, come and grab it yourself.” Li Tianming whisked out the pendant and slotted it into the inner pocket of his pants.
“GRRR!” Jiang Qingluan almost felt like crying. It was her precious pendant that he put there…
“I will strangle you!” And so the chaos continued in the Qingluan Residence.
……
They continued to fool around for a while, until Jiang Qingluan had had enough of the man. Not that there were any hard feelings.
“I want to bring Ling’er with me to cultivate at Flameyellow Pagoda,” said Li Tianming.
“Fine. Just get out of my sight already.” Jiang Qingluan whimpered. Just being in the same room as Li Tianming was like torture to her.
“Don’t be angry, Qing’er, I will bring you back some delicious snacks when I get back.” Jiang Feiling winked at her.
“I don’t want it, I’m on a diet!”
Li Tianming appraised her from head to toe. “You do need one indeed.”
“GET OUT!”
And so, Li Tianming was kicked out of the doors together with Jiang Feiling. But then, this had all worked according to Li Tianming’s plans. How else could he have taken Jiang Feiling away from Princess Qing?
“Big brother, Qing’er is actually a really kind girl. She’s really sympathetic about your encounters too,” Jiang Feiling said.
“Of course I know that, which is why I dare to joke around with her. If not, with her identity as a princess, I’d have died a thousand times already.” Li Tianming smiled.
While he and Jiang Qingluan differed greatly in terms of personality, he had always treated her as a kind person, and a good friend. While there wasn’t much he could do for her now, Li Tianming would be there for her if she ever needed him one day,
They left the Nebulous Pavilion to face an exquisite garden. It was a delightful day, but it wasn’t even close to the beauty of the girl’s smile. That being said, Li Tianming’s looks weren’t any worse, and they did look like a really fitting couple.
“Ling’er, I have a feeling that you can help me with my cultivation, especially when you are attached to me,” Li Tianming explained.
“That’s possible,” Jiang Feiling replied.
“How did you know?”
“My instincts. Perhaps it’s a bonus effect of complete Spiritual Attachment ”
“Can you do that with Princess Qing?”
Jiang Feiling shook her head.
Li Tianming lowered his head to look at her. He had no idea why he had this sense of familiarity every time he looked at her face, as if she was tugging on some innermost feeling in the depths of his heart. They stood side by side, so naturally to the point that it seemed that they had kept each other company for countless years.
Was this destined by fate? But no one would ever favor Li Tianming. Princess Ling was a princess, while he, Li Tianming, was a notorious joke. A genius wasn’t needed to know that there could be no future between them.
But Li Tianming couldn’t care about what others thought. He just wanted to know more about her, to understand her. For a start, he wanted to find out today how much would complete Spiritual Attachment affect his cultivation. The last time they did that, both of them had the gut-feeling that it would aid Li Tianming.
“Let’s try the Celestial Wings once more.”
“Sure.”
It was Jiang Feiling’s third ability. Li Tianming watched as she turned into light particles that slowly morphed into wings on his back.
Li Tianming flapped the light wings and took to the air. The wings were strong, sending Li Tianming flying forward at an incredible speed each time it flailed up and down. Li Tianming felt like he was a bird, and even the little chick would not be able to catch them if it were flying alongside them.
“Big brother, I can hear your heartbeat again.” He could hear her voice ringing in his head.
“I can hear yours too.”
At that moment, their hearts were in harmony.
