Jinpeng was amazed.
Long Aotian's attack had once again refreshed his understanding.
However,
after a moment, Long Aotian seemed to have exhausted his strength and could no longer maintain the ripple expansion, collapsing to his knees on the ground.
The ripples also completely dissipated at that moment.
"Huff puff."
Long Aotian's chest heaved violently, like a bellows, as he took in large, coarse breaths.
"Aotian, congratulations, you seem to have made great progress beyond the Unity of Heaven and Man,"
Jinpeng approached from a distance, his eyes filled with admiration.
"Elder Jin, how powerful was my attack?"
"Enough to rival a Soul Sage level expert. For your Cultivation Level, reaching this stage is very impressive indeed."
Jinpeng knew that young people needed a lot of encouragement. Besides, he was not telling blind lies.
Although Long Aotian ultimately failed to break through his defense, that kind of attack was definitely no weaker than that of a Soul Sage level expert.
This was a very rare feat.
Upon hearing this, Long Aotian's eyes lit up, "Then do I have a chance to defeat Qin Xiao with such an attack method?"
Jinpeng fell silent.
He didn't expect Long Aotian's obsession with Qin Xiao to be so deep.
It seemed to have become an unsolvable knot.
"Elder Jin, you still don't think highly of me, do you?"
Upon hearing this, Jinpeng slowly shook his head, "Not at all. The level of your move just now was very high. Defeating Qin Xiao is not impossible. But to achieve that, you'll need the element of surprise."
"Good, good."
"As long as there's a sliver of a chance, I won't give up."
Long Aotian was thrilled, "Hahaha, Qin Xiao, my realization of the Human-Spirit Fusion Combat Technique has to be credited to you.
When I see you, I'll surely use this technique to properly repay you!"
Seeing this, the corner of Jinpeng's mouth twitched involuntarily.
He could see that Long Aotian bore a deep grudge against Qin Xiao.
Alas, to have created both a dragon and a Qin.
Their Body Sect didn't want to choose; they wanted to have both.
...
Time flew by.
In the blink of an eye, another three days passed.
In a campsite outside Aquipeia Forest, Poison Not Dead emerged from his tent.
"Let's go, I feel it's about time. We can head deep into Aquipeia Forest for Soul Hunting.
It's been a while since we've left the sect. I wonder if any issues will arise."
Poison Not Dead felt a longing to return.
Qin Xiao emerged from his own tent, stretching.
Glancing at the sky, he thought that today's sky was particularly blue and the sunlight exceptionally bright.
"Indeed, today is a great day for hunting for Soul Rings. We can set off now."
However,
Wei Na, who was usually very prompt, was nowhere to be seen today.
"What's with her?"
Qin Xiao looked towards Wei Na's tent with a hint of confusion.
Could it be that time of the month was upon her?
Just as this thought crossed Qin's mind, the next moment he noticed something was off.
Suddenly, a gentle breeze started to blow through the camp...
"This wind is quite peculiar."
Without Qin Xiao having to speak, Poison Not Dead also noticed something was wrong.
But what was even more strange was yet to come.
The wind stopped abruptly, quite unexpectedly.
Then a fog began to envelop the campsite.
In just a few breaths, visibility had dropped to the point where they couldn't see their own hands in front of them.
Fortunately, Qin Xiao and Poison Not Dead were no ordinary people. While the loss of visual clarity was a bit inconvenient, it wasn't a major issue for them.
Their spiritual power served as their eyes.
They remained well aware of the circumstances surrounding the campsite.
"There's no strong presence approaching; we can assume it's not an enemy attack for now."
Poison Not Dead closely monitored the surroundings and then informed Qin Xiao in a low voice.
In fact,
Qin Xiao didn't need the reminder.
He hadn't bothered to extend his spiritual power before, as he hadn't been overly concerned.
But once he activated his spiritual power, everything became clear.
Any tension on his face instantly vanished, and instead, he looked oddly at a tent not far away.
He had already figured out the source of the strange happening.
That's related to Vina.
"Don't be nervous, it's fine, it was all our own people playing tricks."
Qin Xiao reminded Poison Not Dead.
"What do you mean by that?"
Poison Not Dead was somewhat puzzled.
Qin Xiao didn't answer, but simply pointed at Vina's tent.
With a bang, a blaze suddenly erupted from the tent.
Then a figure scurried out in a hurry.
"Oh no, there's a fire."
Vina screamed as she ran.
"Qin Xiao, aren't you going a bit too far? We're all from the Body Sect, what if you hurt Vina? That wouldn't be good, right?"
Poison Not Dead was rarely so serious.
At least for Qin Xiao, this was a rare sight.
However.
Qin Xiao wasn't angry either.
"Sect Master, Sect Master..."
Vina had calmed down by now and, hearing Poison Not Dead's words, she lowered her head in shame.
"You don't need to defend him. Let's be clear, we mustn't cover for someone just because of their special status."
Poison Not Dead interrupted Wei Na, speaking with a sense of righteousness.
Vina: "..."
"Sect Master, it's not like what you said. This fire wasn't started by Qin Xiao, but by myself."
"Hmm?"
It was evident that Poison Not Dead had a big question mark on his forehead.
What kind of move was this?
Setting oneself on fire?
"It's like this, I was guided by Qin Xiao earlier and felt that I benefited a lot. I think he and I have a lot in common as spiritual Soul Masters, so I tried using the Unity of Heaven and Man in my tent, and guess what?"
"I can't guess." Poison Not Dead shook his head with a dark expression.
"Then let me tell you. Inexplicably, I actually succeeded."
"Do you still remember the wind that blew over just now? That was the result of me trying to communicate with the Wind Element between heaven and earth using my spiritual power."
After listening to Vina, Poison Not Dead's expression changed, "You actually asked that kid Qin Xiao about Unity of Heaven and Man?"
"Sect Master, don't say it like that. I just had some feelings about it, I'm still far from true understanding."
Vina said somewhat awkwardly, lowering her head and fidgeting with the corner of her clothes, "Actually, I was just trying to summon a whirlwind just now... Let's not talk about that..."
She was truly ashamed.
She felt that the gap between herself and Qin Xiao was like the difference between an impressive buyer's show and a seller's show.
She was the buyer, Qin Xiao was the seller.
But Poison Not Dead didn't care about that and asked, "Was that fog earlier the same thing?"
"Ah, don't mention it. Initially, I didn't mean to create a thick fog, but to communicate with the Water Element between heaven and earth and summon a light rain..."
"And what was the meaning of setting yourself on fire?"
"Haha..."
Speaking of this, Vina chuckled awkwardly, "It's embarrassing to say. I wanted to communicate with some Fire Element to raise the surrounding temperature a bit and evaporate the condensed fog. I didn't expect it to go wrong and almost immolated myself..."
Thinking of this, Vina wished she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into. Her toes were nearly digging a three-bedroom flat.
With that in mind, she cautiously cast her eyes on Qin Xiao.
She wanted to see what Teacher Qin was thinking.
Would he be very disappointed in her?
But she couldn't read anything from his expression.
All she saw was Qin Xiao frowning slightly, seemingly lost in thought.
Hehe, of course, Qin Xiao had nothing more to say.
Because he was currently in a state of shock.
Incorporating one's spiritual power into the elements between heaven and earth... that was all nonsense he had made up.
The reason he could display such formidable power, even instantly defeating a Twin Cyclops Giant with tens of thousands of years of cultivation, was all thanks to his strong spiritual power forcibly extracting elements from between heaven and earth...
Well then.
Truly, well then.
I casually mentioned it, and you actually cultivated it?
He really hadn't expected that Vina could have such talent.
Indeed, someone with a Brain Martial Spirit had strong powers of imagination.
"Hahaha."
"Good, my Body Sect has produced another genius capable of Unity of Heaven and Man."
"Qin Xiao, you've once again made a great contribution to the sect! You truly are the sect's lucky star. I'll definitely reward you handsomely when we get back."
Poison Not Dead did not know or care about the details.
He only knew that the Body Sect was going to have one more super-strong expert.
It was an exceptionally good piece of news.