"What is it, Teacher? Is something wrong with little Senior Brother?"
Bai Yingyue knew the Pontiff well — very little in this world could pull a sound of surprise out of her.
Di Weiyang studied Luo Fanchen and asked, wondering, "You broke through?"
He nodded, owning it. "Teacher's eye is a blazing torch."
Bai Yingyue giggled. "Not bad, little Senior Brother — one single night and you've already broken through."
"It went all right." He smiled, modest.
The Pontiff's cold, august sovereign's aura kept everyone slightly stiff around her — but Bai Yingyue's liveliness let Luo Fanchen breathe easy and natural again.
Yingyue glanced at the Pontiff, puzzled.
"Teacher, little Junior Brother breaking through isn't exactly an event. Surely it doesn't warrant surprise from YOU."
The Pontiff's beautiful eyes slanted at her; red lips parted, voice like a phoenix's cry. "Indeed, not an event at all. Merely nine levels in one night."
"Oh. Nine levels in one night."
Bai Yingyue nodded along on autopilot — then her head SNAPPED up, big mascara-ad eyes stretched huge and written all over with disbelief.
"That's impossible!"
"NINE levels??"
"You're saying little Senior Brother went from soul apprentice level ONE to level TEN in one night?!"
Di Weiyang turned. "Fanchen. Release your soul power aura."
"Whoosh!"
Luo Fanchen let his gathered-in aura loose.
It wasn't a mighty pressure — but Bai Yingyue's cherry mouth opened wide enough to fit a banana.
"How does anyone RISE that fast?"
"That's obscene — little Senior Brother, don't tell me you've been doping on elixirs?"
"He has not."
Di Weiyang answered before Luo Fanchen could, flat and certain.
"There is no residue of any spirit medicine on him."
"Wow! Then little Senior Brother is way beyond what I was." No jealousy at all — Yingyue tapped a finger to her lips, reminiscing. "After MY awakening, one night only got me five levels."
"If that Fourth Enshrined Elder and the Holy Son knew little Senior Brother had talent like this, they'd die of regret."
Luo Fanchen shook his head, thinking darkly: regret passing on me as a disciple? Hardly. They'd only regret not punching me dead on the spot.
Bai Yingyue pumped a dainty fist. "Fight on, little Senior Brother! One day you can help this Senior Sister beat the dog heads off the Holy Son AND the Elder!"
His mouth twitched. He was discovering the Temple's Holy Maiden was a certified chatterbox — though not an annoying one. A pretty, adorable chatterbox.
He couldn't resist asking, "Forgive the impertinence — but you're the Temple's own Holy Maiden, forever talking about beating the dog heads off Enshrined Elders and Holy Sons. Is that... appropriate?"
Bai Yingyue sniffed.
"Those two dog-things? One schemes against my teacher, the other wants to marry me. Not one decent bone between them. They all think I'm some sweet little airhead — well, this young lady's eyes are crystal clear, thank you."
"So the Temple isn't one solid block either," Luo Fanchen mused.
"Obviously~ Wherever there's power and profit, there's infighting. SO tiresome." She pushed out her red lips and rolled her lovely eyes skyward, all youth and mischief.
"But little Senior Brother — daring to just blind-cultivate with no one guiding you? Genuinely SO brave."
Luo Fanchen scratched his head with a bashful smile.
"All I did was pull the outside spiritual qi in, tuck it into the dantian, and when I looked — eh? All the qi I'd pulled in had turned into vortexes."
"I was actually worried I'd practiced something wrong. Now that Teacher and Senior Sister explain it, I feel much better. So THAT's what it was — one more vortex means one more level."
Bai Yingyue went completely numb.
Cultivation is that EASY now? One inhale, one tuck, one breakthrough?
Although... thinking it through, the description wasn't technically wrong anywhere.
Still — the great Dao favors simplicity, sure, but THIS simple? Aren't you worried about qi deviation if you inhale into the wrong spot?!
"Fanchen. The day before yesterday and yesterday, this region saw two separate anomalies of heaven and earth. Both were you, I take it."
Di Weiyang dropped the question out of nowhere, and it made him jump.
He thought it over carefully — and owned up, open-handed.
"They were me. The first time, a golden light came down from the sky and went straight into my body — I felt nothing afterward."
"The second was during my awakening: heavenly thunder struck me directly. It hurt terribly in the moment, but afterward there wasn't a scratch on me."
"Interesting." The corners of Di Weiyang's lips rose.
Bai Yingyue burst out, "Teacher — heavenly thunder entering the body! Little Senior Brother won't have problems, will he?"
"Tap. Tap."
Skirts swaying, those long legs in their tall golden boots carried Di Weiyang to Luo Fanchen. She took his wrist — a touch cool and silken — and read him.
Then shook her head.
"No hidden damage. Your junior brother's body is in excellent condition — far past the common run, in fact."
"Not junior brother — LITTLE SENIOR BROTHER, Teacher!!" Yingyue corrected with pushed-out lips, then hesitated. "But what WERE those two anomalies? I've never even heard of such things."
Di Weiyang shook her head. "Neither do I know."
"Eh? Even YOU don't know, Teacher?" Yingyue gaped.
"The world is vast, and there is no marvel it does not hold. Which is why one must never grow smug."
Having schooled her disciple, the Pontiff analyzed: "The first anomaly I cannot guess. The second — the descending thunder — was likely because Fanchen's martial soul defies heaven itself. Perhaps it was never meant to exist in this world at all. Hence the punishment."
"Fortunately, the soul's foundation was not destroyed. It plainly still has room to evolve — the only question is how far that evolution will finally climb."
Curiosity flooding over, Bai Yingyue leaned in to pepper him with more questions — and the Pontiff cut her off.
"Every person is entitled to their own fortunes and their own secrets. Do not pry. Do not dig."
With that, Di Weiyang gave Luo Fanchen one long, deep look — and did not trouble herself over how much of his account was true and how much wasn't.
Luo Fanchen quietly counted his blessings. His luck was excellent — a master and a senior sister whose character was beyond question.
...Oh. Right. He had a golden fortune-dragon fused into him. Heaven-sized luck was literally the package.
Never mind, then.
"We go!" Di Weiyang said.
"Teacher — where to, exactly?" he asked.
For once, a flicker of helplessness crossed those serene eyes. Even she hadn't planned for Luo Fanchen to be THIS much of a monster — her whole curriculum was already in the bin.
"The original plan was to first teach you cultivation fundamentals, then begin training."
"As things stand..."
"...we must first take you to acquire your first soul ring."
"Already?" Luo Fanchen blinked.
"What else?" Di Weiyang returned.
And that was his first taste of the Pontiff's signature working style: thunder in motion, wind at the heels.
"RIIIP!"
Space tore open on darkness.
Luo Fanchen hesitated — reaching for the Pontiff's hand seemed a good way to die — so he reached out his free hand and took Bai Yingyue's instead.
The three stepped in together, a golden barrier wrapping them as they threaded through the black.
Bai Yingyue's pretty face went pink; she protested in a tiny voice:
"There's no need to hold hands! Teacher carries us all through on her own!"
"Eh?"
Luo Fanchen snatched his hand back as if electrocuted, looked up into the Pontiff's cool phoenix eyes — and his toes curled hard enough to grip the floor through his boots.
"Then why didn't you dodge?"
"I... I was afraid dodging would embarrass you!" Yingyue said, wounded. "How awful, to wound the bond between senior and junior!"
Listen as I say... thank you...
His mouth twitched. THIS WAS SO MUCH WORSE.
"That was my first time having my hand held by a male," she muttered, barely audible.
She didn't understand it herself. This little Senior Brother — beyond the face, something magnetic came off him that made her WANT to be near, with not one grain of the usual aversion. Some ghost had guided her hand into his, apparently.
"No way. Surely your father held your hand when you were small," Luo Fanchen said, surprised.
A girl who'd never so much as had her hand held — by his past life's lights, unthinkable. Never been KISSED would already deserve incense at the temple.
Bai Yingyue shook her head, ponytail swinging.
"No papa. I'm an orphan. Teacher picked me up and took me in."
"Ah. I see." He nodded.
She puffed up in outrage. "Does your conscience not HURT? I tell you something that tragic and you can't even spare one word of comfort?"
"About that... I'm an orphan too."
And inwardly he added: not just this life. Last life too.
Two lifetimes an orphan. Tragic enough for you?
He mulled it over. Could this be the legendary...
Parents offered up to heaven — boundless power in exchange?
Bai Yingyue held it in for a second, then melted with sympathy. "Then little Senior Brother is far worse off than me. At least I have Teacher to love me."
"From now on your junior sister will love you! Whoever bullies you, I'll beat them up for you."
"The Holy Son," Luo Fanchen said.
"That..."
Bai Yingyue was silent for several seconds. Then, cheeks puffing:
"HEY! I'm the JUNIOR sister! Junior sisters are for cherishing — how can you deploy one as actual MUSCLE?!"
"Understood. You can't beat him," Luo Fanchen said honestly.
"AAAH!" She rounded on the Pontiff, pointing at him on the edge of meltdown. "Teacher, if I strangle him NOW is it still too late? He's INFURIATING!"
The Pontiff said, perfectly level: "You chose the little Senior Brother yourself. Now you must get along with him — through your tears if necessary."
Bai Yingyue took it like a lightning bolt, clutching her chest where it skewered her.
Luo Fanchen froze too. He hadn't expected it — the Pontiff did deadpan.
"We've arrived!"
Space tore once more, and Di Weiyang swept the two beautiful young people out of the darkness...