In the blink of an eye, new year's eve had passed. The older one was, the faster time would pass, but for Qing Shui it was the same no matter how long. Although Qing Shui currently had the advantage of the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal, even before that he was already known for his perseverance and determination. Every day, at the scheduled time, whether rain or shine, he would always doggedly pursued his path of cultivation.
The more effort Qing Shui put into cultivation, the more it stood out that he was trash. The amount of effort he put into cultivating could be said to be rivaled by none, yet he was not able to break into the 6th layer of the Blue Lotus Art before the age of 16. What a pity… As a result, Qing Shui's destiny, the path he would walk, at least in the eyes of many, would not have much to do with cultivation.
Today was the 4th day in the new year, and tomorrow was the day for the yearly competition for the 3rd generation! Qing Shui had never once exhibited any interest in this, not even when he was younger. However, this year, he decided to take a look at how the others in his generation would fight.
Qing Shui walked out of his courtyard after he spending two hours, which was equivalent to half a month worth of time, cultivating within the spatial realm, but he was still unable to break through the major bottleneck! Qing Shui felt extremely incapable and powerless. That major bottleneck from the 3rd heavenly layer to the 4th could be said to be a stumbling block that as huge as a towering mountain, obstinately blocking his path in cultivation.
Looking at the huge practice courtyard of the Qing Clan, one could sense that the boisterous atmosphere was even more lively when compared to before. The reason for this was because tomorrow would be the start of the yearly competition between the 3rd generation of each clan. There were many people, including the villagers from the nearby regions, who rushed to the courtyard today and at the same time, secretly probed the strength level of their competitors. This had already been the custom for many years.
Noon was approaching. However, in the dead of winter, despite the sun approaching its zenith, the heat released by its golden rays was not unbearable but almost pleasant instead. The rays of sunlight gave rise to feelings of laziness as one would rather lie down and enjoy the sunlight instead of getting busy elsewhere.
Qing Shui was dumbstruck for a moment after arriving at the Qing Clan's practice courtyard. A layer of vibrant red carpet was laid around the entire courtyard, invoking feelings of celebratory joy and passion as the vibrant color seemed to reflect all of the crowd's excitement.
"Qing Shui ge, I am over here!" Qing Shui turned his head and saw Qing Hu beckoning him over!
Qing Shui didn't have any interactions with Qing Hu for the past half year, he quickly discovered that this cousin of his had already reached the 6th Grade of the Martial Warrior realm! Although Qing Hu had yet to reach the peak of the 6th Grade, Qing Shui still felt deeply moved in his heart. Qing Hu's talent could not be considered bad, he actually managed to improve so much in the short span of half a year!
Looking at Qing Hu's current level of cultivation, Qing Shui would obviously be happy for him! Initially, even if Qing Hu had failed to reach the 6th grade by the age of 16, Qing Shui would still exhaust all other possible means to aid Qing Hu from the shadows in order to increase his cultivation.
"Qing Hu, pretty impressive, but you must work harder in the future if you want to gain a foothold somewhere other than the Qing Village!"
"Haha," Qing Hu laughed in agreement. Qing Hu was about the same height as Qing Shui, only his body was more muscular and well built than Qing Shui's.
Qing Shui knew that the motivation behind Qing Hu's rapid improvements was because of Lan Yan`Er. If not, how could the lazy Qing Hu have made such a huge improvement within such a short period of time!
As the saying went "The blushed face brings about waters of misfortune!"[1] Or more simply, "femme fatale", with mere words, a woman could motivate a man to improve himself, but on the other hand, the woman could also instantly cause the downfall of a man with a mere flick of her fingers.
For an instant, complicated thoughts could be seen swirling about in Qing Shui's eyes, but when Qing Hu looked in his direction, Qing Shui quickly reverted back to normal.
As they squeezed their way through the crowd, Qing Shui felt that there really were a lot of villagers in the courtyard today. Scanning through the faces of the crowd, he only vaguely recognized a few familiar faces, but most of them were unknown to him.
"Qing Shui ge, that guy is the famous Lan Ye from the Lan Clan!" As Qing Shui was scanning through the faces of the crowd, attempting to catch a glimpse of the few cultivators from the other clans who had broken through to the 9th Grade, Qing Hu interrupted him as he pointed to a certain direction.
In that far off direction stood a lanky youth about 20 years of age. He had an extremely lazy countenance, yet his gaze possessed a charm that cause people to look at him twice. His eyes were not filled with the radiance of glory, nor were they cold and brimming with killing intent. It was more of a look filled with unwavering determination.
"He is someone with a heart of steel and his accomplishments certainly aren't minor things such as simply breaking through to the 9th Grade of the Martial Warrior Realm." This was what Qing Shui's intuition was telling him. He could tell the strength of Lan Ye with just a single glance.
Although Qing Shui did not know how strong he was currently, he knew for sure that he was stronger than all of these so called geniuses, but by how much, he could not tell. All he knew was that his current strength was still quite a distance away from reaching the door of the Xiantian realm.
Standing at the side of Lan Ye, was a beautiful teenage girl. The eyes of that girl seemed to exude flashes of brilliance that were capable of enchanting all but the most strong-willed of men. Her fair skin looked even fairer when contrasted with her silky black hair, and those gigantic twin peaks, akin to mountains, in front of her chest were swaying as she walked. In addition to that she also had a willowy waist and long, slender legs, when this was matched with her snow white shoes, the whole image exuded from her was akin to that of a pure and holy saint.
"No wonder the young master of the Heavenly River Clan wants her to be his, so this is the reason why!" Qing Shui glanced at the beautiful girl beside Lan Ye, after turning his head back he found that Qing Hu had long since spotted Lan Yan`Er and was gazing at her intently with a lovelorn expression.
Maybe it was the intense gazes focused on her, but Lan Yan`Er turned her gaze towards the two of them as her beautiful eyes were filled with slight traces of loathing as well as some disdain. After spotting Qing Hu, she raised her fist in response towards the direction of Qing Hu.
The bitterness in Qing Hu's heart was indescribable. He doesn't know why, but the love he felt had already reached the point of being carved into his bones and engraved in his heart [2]." The reason why he had worked so hard at cultivating was all because of her! The Heavens are fair and does not let down one who puts in effort. Because of his hard work, Qing Hu managed to breakthrough into the 6th grade when he was 15 years old, but despite this, the disparity of cultivation levels between him and Lan Yan`Er was too huge, as a sense of self-defeat unknowingly gushed forth in his heart.
Although Qing Shui was also a novice in terms of love and relationships, he could still understand the pain Qing Hu was going through. After all, during the years where he could not cultivate, the sneers, humiliation and the pain that he felt, although it could not be directly comparable, it was still somewhat similar to what Qing Hu was feeling right now.
After the initial glance, Qing Shui did not spare another glance at her. Despite her beauty, when compared to Shi Qing Zhuang, Lan Yan`Er was still lacking a bit. Who asked Qing Shui to only like women that were older than him? Not only must their bodies be fully developed, their minds had to be mature as well. Qing Shui just doesn't give a damn about immature girls who act coquettishly and throw tantrums all the time. Speaking of acting coquettishly, Qing Shui actually liked it when a mature girl does that. When a older woman does that, they give off a feeling of rapture that draws him in, completely different from the immature youngsters.
After this, Qing Shui finally left with Qing Hu. For this past half a year, they have had no interactions with each other. Naturally they would have many things on which they wanted to update each other on. After all, they were cousins who had played together since their youth.
"Qing Hu, cultivation has no limits, since you are still young you should take the chance and immerse yourself in cultivation. For stuff like women, after you become strong, many women will naturally throw themselves into your embrace. When that happens, you will find that the beautiful women from before are not worth a single dime."
Qing Shui felt that the women from Hundred Miles City, be it in cultivation, demeanor, dress or even in terms of speech, were all far above that of the women from the villages.
Although all of this was only possible because of the difference in background and money. Men would always gravitate towards women of a certain standard. Giving birth to beautiful daughter, marrying a pretty wife? Money both directly and indirectly played a part in this.
Of course, there were exceptions to this as well. Some girls from the villages would sometimes have an aura that even eclipsed that of those from the cities. However, it was very rare for this to happen, and even if that happened, then that precious gem would be quickly snatched away by others. After all, how could people just wait for you to come and grab it?
Regarding the thoughts of Qing Shui, which were noticeably different from the norm, Qing Hu felt that they were slightly bizarre, yet somehow seemed to make sense. Every time he spoke to Qing Shui, it was as though a burden in his heart would be reduced, and Qing Hu would feel slightly more relaxed because of it.
"Tomorrow is the competition, Qing Shui ge, will you take part in it?"