Dual Cultivation

Su Yang gazed at the stars from the roof of his house, his expression emitting melancholy.

He was recalling the many occasions he had spent in his previous life watching the stars flicker in the night sky. However, during those times, he wasn't alone but had the company of his loved ones.

How are they doing? Are they still alive? These kinds of questions would appear in his mind every time the stars would reveal themselves.

"Since when did the starry sky become so... vast…?" Su Yang sighed as he closed his eyes, slowly falling asleep with the gentle night breeze caressing his long, black hair.

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When midnight arrived, the door beside Su Yang's room opened, and two figures walked out.

"Hu'er, you have been doing it rougher than usual lately, are you okay?" Meng Jia asked Tang Hu, who looked like he had something on his mind, in a worried tone.

Tang Hu smiled bitterly and said: "Don't worry about it, it's nothing much; I have just been feeling a bit ill as of lately…"

"You are sick? Are you okay? Did you go to the Medicine Hall for help yet?"

"I have… It's nothing — really." Tang Hu confirmed with a confident smile, yet he was feeling bitterness inside his heart for lying to her face. However, he wasn't willing to reveal his fear of losing her to Su Yang, no matter what.

"Then it's all good." Meng Jia sighed in relief, and she moved her lips closer to Tang Hu's ears: "I actually quite like it rough, you know? It feels like I am cultivating with someone else; it's a new experience."

Meng Jia chuckled sheepishly, causing the bitterness in Tang Hu's heart to deepen, turning into a sharp pain.

Meng Jia gently kissed Tang Hu on the lips before disappearing under the night sky.

Tang Hu stood there looking dazed. After a long while, he turned to look at Su Yang's room with many complex emotions flashing through his eyes.

He sighed deeply a short moment later, feeling even worse than before. Never in his life would he have expected to feel such jealousy and fear towards Su Yang, someone he considered to be nothing more than a beautiful object in a walking display.

When Tang Hu first met Su Yang one year ago, he was jealous of his superior looks. However, when he learned of Su Yang's mental condition, Tang Hu was nearly overwhelmed with great joy — happy that Su Yang wasn't a threat to him or anybody else within the sect, and that he was just a beautiful sword with no real sharpness to become a threat to anyone.

"This is Heaven's punishment to me for laughing at another's misfortune?" he sighed again.

It was at this moment the door to Su Yang's room opened, and a beautiful lady in green robes walked out in a limping manner, her robes wrinkled and loose, looking like she had been recently assaulted.

The instant Tang Hu noticed her green robes, as though there was an earthquake, his heart trembled.

"An Inner Court disciple?!?!?!" he cried inside his heart, feeling an urge to cry out loud. "Su Yang, that bastard actually managed to touch an Inner Court disciple, too?!"

"Wait… she's crying?" Tang Hu noticed the tears in corner of Li Xiao Mo's eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked her out of concern.

However, Li Xiao Mo did not even glance at him and stormed out the front door, quickly disappearing from his sight.

After she left, Tang Hu turned to look inside Su Yang's room with a frown.

"Su Yang! How dare you take advantage of her when the sect forbids forcing–"

Halfway through his angry sentence, Tang Hu's eyes widened with surprise and puzzlement.

"Eh? He's not here?"

Tang Hu walked inside the room expecting Su Yang to be at the corner of the room, but he was surprised by the strong fragrance that greeted his nose the moment he stepped inside instead. He felt as though he had walked into a garden full of flowers, each emitting their own unique scent.

Then he noticed the wrinkled bed in plain sight; it was soaking wet, almost as though someone had poured a few buckets of water over it. Even the walls were wet, looking as though it had been sprayed with water.

"What the hell happened here? Did a water pipe break in here?"

Tang Hu suddenly recalled the Inner Court disciple who had an ashamed expression on her red face as she left, and his jaw dropped at the possibility that this mess was caused by her… alone.

However, since she was an Inner Court disciple, Tang Hu didn't dare to disrespect her too much by going overboard with his imaginations.

"I-I should really request for a new roommate… This Su Yang is nothing but bad influence… Just being in the same house as him makes me feel as though my existence is slowly getting consumed..." Tang Hu sighed as he went back into his room to pack his things.

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Su Yang's eyes opened the instant the sun peaked from behind the mountain range.

Jumping off the roof, he went back into the house, and the first thing he noticed was the door to his room being wide open.

When he walked into his room, he was dumbfounded by the distinct smell that was so strong it made his nose twitch.

"She really used this room to the fullest without being humble to the owner, huh?" he mumbled to himself.

"Hm?" He then noticed the jade slip sitting beside his pillow.

When he looked through the contents of the jade slip, he was pleasantly surprised to find over 2,000 Premium Points alongside a note inside.

"You were this rich, yet you had to confront me in such a manner…" Su Yang sighed, feeling as though his understanding for mortals were quickly disappearing.

Su Yang quickly went through the contents of the note left behind by Li Xiao Mo, and he couldn't help but smile after finishing it.

"At least you're not totally unreasonable…" he moved the Premium Points from the jade slip to his own before destroying the note. "Your proposal… I shall accept it without being humble."