Chapter 12 - A year worth of scheming (6/10)
'HAHAHA, this fucker thinks he can defend himself unarmed against a Nascent Profound Weapon? Once I kill him, I will back up to the clan, Father will surely find an excuse to wipe them.'
As the Young Master's sword was about to cut his hand, Fang Yuan scoffed as he said in his mind.
[The Ox Demon Forges its Hide]
*Clank*
A loud sound of metals colliding spread around the mine.
Xiao Yulong gazed at his sword, shocked. A dent had appeared on it.
"H-How… How is it possible?! You're only at the Elementary Profound Realm!" Fang Yuan sneered at him and slowly stood up, making Xiao Yulong step back, shaking in fear.
"That's impossible!"
Out of his wits, he started to swing his sword randomly.
Fang Yuan easily dodged his attacks as he silently walked toward him. Once a few meters near him, he disappeared from the fellow's field of vision.
Fang Yuan stomped on the ground with his left foot as he lowered his center of gravity.
[The Ox Demon Stamps its Hooves]
The ground under him collapsed as tremors were generated, making the panicked Xiao Yulong lose balance and deliver himself to the incoming undercut sent by Fang Yuan, which was followed by an enormous burst of air.
'Oh, I need to control my power or I will insta kill this fucker.'
His attack decelerated before impact, but it still knocked out all the fellow's teeth and put him out of the cold.
"Uncle Wu, I will drag this bastard to the tent to take care of him. I'll be back in about a bit, and we'll resume our match."
"Okay, I'll be going to take a stroll in the mine to check the progress." Fang Yuan nodded at him and headed to the tent.
'Uh, [The Ox Demon Forges its Hide] is truly a good ability, it toughened my body and rendered it unshakable. Using it with [The Ox Demon Stamps its Hooves]'s generate tremors could led to several interesting outcomes.'
Once in the barrack, at the center was a large table with chairs around, on the table were several maps of the mine and a logbook containing the records of the daily mined ore, behind it a piece of furniture containing tea, several brands of liquor, and board games, Fang Yuan invented, lastly there was a paper wall and behind it a long table which he used to practice on his test subjects. Fang Yuan put Xiao Yulong on it and started working on the fucker's soul.
On this occasion, he made his first mistake since he began dealing with souls, but the young man didn't worry, as he found a solution after several tries. Fang Yuan healed the guinea pig's soul, returning it to its original state, by sacrificing a big deal of his life force.
He then used Soul Search, which he learned with his hard work of the recent weeks, deleting any memories of today's events. He created some fake memories before taking Xiao Yulong and dumping him like trash in the other direction.
"Pff, now the bastard will think he has been attacked by some mutated wild beast."
Xiao Yulong's life expectancy had been reduced to more or less four years, but it goes without saying, Fang Yuan put the thought to the back of his mind. He'll monitor Xiao Yulong, like all the other dozen guinea pigs he tampered with, to take note of his progress and also in the case they could gain some memories.
Months later, those test subjects disappeared from Floating Cloud City, apart from the Xiao Clan's young master, by dying in different manners or "moving" to other cities, in ways that their end was never associated with the Ancient Moon clan.
As Fang Yuan then returned to the barrack, uncle Wu was already back.
"Oh, you're finally back!" Fang Yuan nodded at him as he got seated.
"Today we mined our tenth kilogram of ore, we're keeping up with the roadmap!"
The young man smiled at him.
"Nice to hear it, but we need to stay focused."
'All is going according to the plan. The first steps are taken, now I need to deal with my icy girl.'
«．．．☾ ．．．»
The next day, Fang Yuan visited the city market, looking for something until he stopped at a stall.
'Oh, that will do.'
He paid the peddler and then headed to the girl he was thinking about before.
When he was near her manor, he entered by stealth, undetectable from the guards or anyone else.
'Ah, [The Tiger Demon Stalks Its Prey] is truly an unfathomable movement skill at these levels.'
He continued to run through the place until he arrived in a specific courtyard and walked in.
Once inside, he found a gorgeous young girl sitting before a table.
She was wearing an azure robe, and her eyes closed as her charming lips departed from a cup of tea.
The young man stopped in his tracks, admiring such a scene worthy of being painted on a canvas.
"Nowadays it's less and less rare to find you not cultivating Yue'er."
"…"
Xia Qingyue didn't answer but just opened her eyes, staring at him for a few minutes before closing them again.
"Sorry to interrupt your cultivation break…" The young man apologized, seeing how she was relaxing before a teasing smile crossed his face.
"Haiyaa, and to think that at first my cultivation maniac didn't want to follow my advice."
Before Xia Qingyue cultivated all day long, an obsession was instantly pointed out by Fang Yuan, who started to tease her with such a nickname. Xia Qingyue knows that Fang Yuan's actions and suggestion to rest more were for her sake before the young girl wouldn't have listened, but his presence and confidence made her agree. When Xia Qingyue heard his remark, she flinched as a cute little frown formed on her flawless face.
"Don't call me a cultivation maniac, Clan Master Yuan…"
'Clan Master, huh? She's still sulking, heheh.'
When Xia Qingyue discovered his engagement with Xiao Lingxi, she tried to retake the icy attitude that Fang Yuan worked hard to defrost in the past. Still, unfortunately, she couldn't. While she can contain her emotions with others, Fang Yuan was a different case.
Especially in the last weeks, she found him more approachable, even if the young man teased her a lot.
Then, Fang Yuan approached her with a smug smile, looking directly into her charming eyes.
"Oh, so I can call you mine?"
Xia Qingyue's heart skipped a beat as a light flush of color immediately spread across her neck.
"I-I... "
"You can be as mad as you want about the situation with Xiao Lingxi, I can't blame my little Qingyue for being jealous, but you can't forget you will always be at my side. As you belong to me." 'As well as your Nine Profound Exquisite Body, ah.'
"…"
Xia Qingyue didn't know how to answer.
'Why do I feel like that with him?'
Fang Yuan smiled, seeing her hesitation and gentle feelings in her eyes. He reached out to hold her soft hands.
'H-How bold!'
The young lady blanked out as she felt a warm feeling spread out from her chest.
She then felt Fang Yuan's gaze on herself, which made her cheeks flush even more.
His gaze trailed brazenly on her body as Xia Qingyue's mind went into utter confusion.
'And now is he ogling at me so shamelessly?!'
Their relationship was already scandalous. The young girl couldn't let him take too many liberties.
'This can't continue like this, even if for him I feel lov—I can't let down my father, he made vow to his died friend...'
Xia Qingyue wasn't dense nor stupid, and after some time, she progressed beyond the stage of abnegation.
The young girl understood what she felt towards Fang Yuan, but even if her heart melted any time they were together and the Frozen Heart Arts became useless, she couldn't give in.
"What do you think—"
Xia Qingyue stopped before finishing her sentence, as she realized that whilst was brazenly ogling her well-developed body, suddenly he stopped and focused on her neck, to be precise, the necklace she wore.
Little did she know that for Fang Yuan, she was already his, and he could tease her and ogle as much as he wanted, but at the moment, he wasn't concerned about that.
"Yue'er, I need your help to strengthen my Ancient Moon clan."
He then explained to her what he meant, how he found a mine of precious ore with which his clan member's cultivation could raise to the heavens. Even her father could start cultivating.
Xia Qingyue was amazed and couldn't understand how Fang Yuan could find such resources. If it came to her Mistress's ear, her position within the Frozen Cloud Asgard could easily rose to the first disciple spot.
However, the current Xia Qingyue naturally would never betray him and her family. She wasn't the broken woman depicted in Fang Yuan's past world. With the young man's interference, Xia Quingyue has found hope early without disposing entirely of her sentiments or anything else, something Yun Che could never give her.
Realizing how much the young man trusted her, the feeling she had toward him became even stronger.
"How can I help you, Fang Yuan…?" The young girl wasn't privy about why her father joined hands with the young man, but she didn't ask for an explanation, as she had trust in Fang Yuan and her father's judgment.
Hearing about Fang Yuan's achievement, she felt that he made an excellent choice to follow him like her to some extent. As Xiao Hongyi didn't want to add anything else to his daughter's emotional baggage, he opted not to tell her that perhaps with the help of Fang Yuan, it could be possible to find her mother.
Unbeknownst to the pair of father and daughter, they tried to protect each other by not sharing the information of this slim chance to meet Dongxue again, not giving themselves false hope while following Fang Yuan.
"Do you have any spare necklace or any other treasure with similar effect? I need a dozen of them, so could you demand them from your master? I'll pay profusely."
"..."
Xia Qingyue's train of thought stopped. She froze up.
'H-He found out about this secret of mine?!'
The young lady was panicking inwardly, but she didn't let it show as she asked naturally.
"How do you know about the Pearl of Frozen Deception?"
The young man answered as he started to caress an ordinary necklace he was wearing.
"Well, I saw one in the past, and you can say I read a great deal of books, you know?"
"..."
The young lady stared at him intensely, but she didn't find any falsehood in his sentence, and she didn't miss that he was touching his necklace.
'He has a necklace similar to the Pearl of Frozen Deception too?'
She felt the young man omitted something but doesn't know what. That made her exhibit a lovely rare pout.
It was the first time Fang Yuan seeing her doing it, and he was dazed for a moment.
Whereby Xia Qingyue retrieved a pen and sheet from her chamber before writing a letter to her teacher.
«．．．☾ Six months to Xiao Che's death ☾ ．．．»
Alternative titles:'Sharpening skills','You belong to me'
Author note: In more or less four-chapter time, the flashback will end, and we'll back to the present. I'm trying to develop the characters in a natural manner with this pace, hoping it is to your liking. Stay tuned!
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