NOVEL NEXT Chapter 91: Fourth Wheel
Gong Long and Feng Fan waited in silence for Xue Qiang's return. Instead of chatting, they chose to cultivate.
Feng Fan didn't pay much attention to Gong Long, while Gong Long focused entirely on strengthening himself, vowing never to feel as helpless as he had when the Heavenly Demon Monarch took control of his body.
About fifteen minutes later, Xue Qiang arrived with Elder Jiang leading the way.
Elder Jiang surveyed the scene, spotting Gong Long and Feng Fan seated cross-legged by the riverbank. Using his spiritual sense, he scanned the surroundings but found nothing unusual.
As soon as Xue Qiang saw Feng Fan, she ran toward him and dropped to her knees, wrapping her arms tightly around him.
"Fanfan, are you alright? I was so worried…" she said, her voice trembling with relief.
Feng Fan opened his eyes and gently returned her embrace. "Hey, it's okay. I'm tougher than I look. Hard to kill, remember?"
Still holding Xue Qiang, he stood and turned his attention to Elder Jiang, whose expression was frozen with awkwardness.
'Am I... a third wheel here?' Elder Jiang thought.
Elder Jiang's gaze shifted to Gong Long, who stood off to the side, his face flushing with embarrassment.
'Or should I say... a fourth wheel?' Elder Jiang mused.
"Elder Jiang, I'm sorry for taking up your time. Everything is resolved now," Feng Fan said with a polite nod.
Elder Jiang raised a skeptical eyebrow. "What exactly happened here?"
Feng Fan recounted the events, carefully omitting details about his cultivation technique and the use of the Suppression Relic to trap the Heavenly Demon Monarch. Instead, he vaguely explained that he had somehow managed to resist the soul invasion, claiming the demon had ultimately fled.
When Feng Fan revealed that the demon was still alive, Gong Long's fists tightened. 'One day, I'll kill that bastard,' he promised silently, rage burning in his eyes.
Elder Jiang listened, his expression filled with doubts.
"It's good that you're unharmed," he said finally. "But listen closely—go back to the sect, cultivate quietly for the next few months, and for heaven's sake, stop causing trouble for me!"
Feng Fan chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head. "Understood, Elder."
Elder Jiang enveloped the group in his spiritual qi, and in less than a minute, they were back at the White Crow Sect. Before departing, he fixed Feng Fan with a stern gaze.
"For the next eight months, until the young generation competition is over, don't you dare leave the sect," he commanded.
Feng Fan smiled wryly, thinking, 'Elder Jiang, I don't want to cause trouble… Trouble just loves finding me!'
After bidding farewell, Gong Long headed off to his own abode, leaving Xue Qiang and Feng Fan standing in silence on the main peak. The quiet stretched until Feng Fan finally broke it.
"Qinqin, I'm sorry about today. I promise I'll make it up to you next time. Unfortunately, it seems our next date will have to wait a while."
Xue Qiang smiled softly. "It's fine. Just don't disappear into your quarters and cultivate all day. Come see me once in a while, okay?"
Feng Fan nodded, a faint warmth filling his chest. After everything that had happened, he felt closer to Xue Qiang than ever. He even decided to overlook the fact that she was a little... unconventional.
'A normal guy like me should go for a crazy girl, of course!' he thought with a grin.
As Feng Fan prepared to say goodbye, Xue Qiang suddenly closed the distance between them. Standing on her tiptoes, she gave him a soft kiss on the lips.
"Good night," she said with a smile before turning and walking toward her quarters.
Feng Fan stood there for a moment, stunned by the sudden kiss. He touched his lips, still feeling the lingering warmth of hers.
'That felt... nice,' he thought, a small smile tugging at his lips.
His expression soon turned serious. "I need to get stronger," he muttered to himself. "I can't let a situation like today happen again. Gambling with my life isn't an option."
Determined, Feng Fan summoned his trusty brick and flew back to his quarters, his resolve to cultivate and grow stronger burning brighter than ever.
After returning to his quarters, Feng Fan began organizing everything he had acquired during his journey. While it wasn't much compared to what he truly needed, even a small gain was better than nothing.
He carefully sorted through the hundreds of low-grade qi stones he had collected, placing them neatly inside his spatial ring for future use.
Next, he tossed everything else he didn't need into a corner of his spatial ring, planning to exchange it for qi stones when he found the time.
For the next four months, Feng Fan cultivated crazily within the qi-gathering array in his quarters.
Occasionally, he took short breaks to speak with his friends, like Huang Xue, Xue Qiang, Bai Tao, or Tan Wei. Huang Xue and Xue Qiang even complained about how little they saw him, but he reassured them it was necessary.
"Which cultivator hasn't spent countless years in secluded cultivation? A few months is nothing," he explained.
After four months of intense effort, Feng Fan took a moment to assess his progress.
His power had grown significantly. Four luminous pillars now stood firmly within his dantian, and his bones radiated an intense glow inside him.
"Fourth Foundation Establishment Realm," he muttered with a satisfied nod. "Not bad… but my cultivation speed is clearly slowing down. It seems that even with enough resources, progress isn't limitless."
Progressing in the Foundation Establishment Realm was straightforward in concept. The goal was to form nine qi pillars, each connecting the cultivator's dantian to the spiritual qi in the environment.
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Once the nine pillars were complete, the next step was to fuse them into a golden core. The stronger and more stable the pillars, the more powerful the resulting core would be.
As for the Bone Forging Realm, the focus was on strengthening the bones to their utmost limit. Only a robust skeletal structure could support the physical demands of a powerful body.
By the end of the Bone Forging Realm, the cultivator's bones should be so durable and refined that even thousands of years after death, they would remain intact and as flawless as polished jade!