Spirit Cultivation

"Welcome back Xuefeng!" Just as he appeared inside the familiar space, Xuefeng heard a cheerful female voice calling out to him. He recognized it as the one belonging to the Wisdom Tree. He looked at the huge tree standing in front of him and clasped his hands.

"Hey! How are you doing? I'm sorry for troubling you again." Xuefeng replied politely. He believed that she was a powerful being, so he tried to not be disrespectful. Last time he got angry at her for being rude to Yiren but that happened in the heat of the moment and she already atoned for that with her help.

"No, no you are not troubling me at all. I kind of missed y… Cough, cough…" Little Ming denied immediately and slipped with her tongue for a moment, but managed to save herself with two small coughs in the end before she quickly changed the subject, "How about we start your training?"

Xuefeng nodded with a smile and explained his needs,"Sure! That's what I came here for. I already know the spells and arts for most of the basic elements so I want to learn how to combine all of them in combat."

'Alright! I'm ready!' Little Ming called out excitedly. She was standing behind the tree this whole time, hiding from him but when she clapped with her hands, Xuefeng discovered her and was surprised to hear that someone else was here.

"Are you…" Just as he was about to ask and move around the tree to check, his surroundings changed. He appeared inside the large square they used for training last time but this time it was much bigger than before. It probably was because the spells in this scenario needed more space than before.

Unfortunately for little Ming who panicked a bit and reacted by quickly changing Xuefeng's position, he didn't suddenly forget about it and asked, "Was it you clapping? I thought you are a tree… So you do have human form, right?" Xuefeng asked curiously.

'...Maybe I do, or maybe I don't… I can show you myself later if you work hard with your training.' Little Ming said after a few deep breaths and then asked, curious for his answer, 'Do you want to see?'

"Well, why not. I will work hard then I guess." Xuefeng scratched himself on the head and agreed after some thought. It would be rude if he didn't want to see her and also unfair to the ladies if he did want. He never actually wanted to have this many women by his side. It just somehow happened.

Hearing that Xuefeng agreed, little Ming's heart started beating faster as she panicked. She didn't want to make a bad first impression on him, so suddenly many questions started appearing inside of her head, 'Oh my god! What am I going to do now? Should I change my looks or maybe dress differently?'

Fortunately for her, Xuefeng broke her thoughts and allowed her to return to her senses when he asked, "Ling said that you can actually quicken the time in your space, right? If I could train for like one month here, but it would be not more than two or three days outside, I would be super grateful."

'Oh, I can change that for you! One day outside will be equivalent to ten days for us here. Is that okay?' Little Ming exclaimed agreeing without any problems. Whatever Xuefeng asked, she would give him.

"Yes, thank you…" Xuefeng wanted to thank her but then realised that he doesn't know her name.

"Right. How should I call you? I recalled that I still don't know your name. I learned the hard way that it is better to ask at the start, rather than later…" Xuefeng asked after remembering the angry face of Nuwa when he didn't even ask for her name this whole time.

'Hmmm… Friends call me little Ming… But you can call me…' Little Ming thought for a moment and decided to tell him her nickname, but then thought about another way, when Xuefeng stopped her as he said, "Little Ming, cute name. I will call you that."

Little Ming instantly blushed while leaning over the tree before she put on her pink hoodie as she didn't know where to hide. She didn't know if she was embarrassed because he called her by the name, or happy because he called her cute or maybe both.

'Okay…' She said weakly in the end.

"Little Ming, can we start?" Xuefeng smiled at her quiet response but didn't comment and instead created Air Qi wings on his back while covering one hand with lightning while another with fire before calling out, "I'm all fired up!"

Seeing Xuefeng so eager to train, his energy was passed onto her and she also exclaimed, "Alright! I will first test you in each nature environment to check how good you are."

Xuefeng wanted to train his new spells and arts at first so he didn't even pull out his Black Flames Slayer sword. Only after he master everything else, he will try to connect both fighting styles together.

Without further small talk, little Ming turned Xuefeng's surroundings into a giant lake and he would almost have dropped inside of the water if not for his reflexes. He was spawned in the middle of the lake and he had to constantly use his Water Qi to stay on the surface. It wasn't a problem for him as he already learned that from the ladies in the bathroom, but the next challenge arrived several seconds later.

A black shadow in the shape of a person appeared about twenty meters in front of him and it didn't wait to attack him. The black shadow started manipulating water from the lake and based on Xuefeng's quick observation, it was only using Water Element.

"Let's get the party started!" Xuefeng exclaimed as the hand which was burning with fire turned into Lightning. It was an obvious counter pick against Water Qi user.

It wasn't a surprise that Xuefeng beat his first opponent as it was just the start. With each enemy Xuefeng beat up, it was getting harder and harder. The shadows were getting not only a boost in the number of spells they knew as well as the amount of elements they wielded but also their intelligence started increasing.

In the next couple of hours, Xuefeng was pushed to the extreme, as little Ming was testing him in every possible scenario. They didn't even start the training where Xuefeng would have to battle several enemies at the same time and it has taken them this much time. In the end, when little Ming's testing was finally over and Xuefeng killed an opponent who was almost identical to him with his skills, they moved to the next phase.

Xuefeng didn't expect that it would almost take them a day to go through their training with just one opponent and one terrain which was only strengthening the use of Water. In the last fight, he was already pushing himself to his limits to finish that shadow which caused him to be completely drained mentally. After he won, he didn't have any energy left in him and just wanted to lie down to sleep.

As if hearing his intentions, Little Ming transported him out of the simulation grounds towards the bedroom in the house Xuefeng made. She left it intact this whole time and even slept inside of it. It also didn't take a minute for Xuefeng to fall asleep when he hit the warm quilt of the soft bed.

"Sleep well… You worked hard." Little Ming suddenly appeared next to the bed and after watching Xuefeng face for a moment, she planted a kiss on his forehead, making sure he will have nice dreams.