Spirit Cultivation

"No! Don't say it out loud. Come with me!" Just as Xuefeng wanted to speak, Xiao Wen closed his mouth with her hand and suddenly pulled him upwards with a panicked expression.

They flew high into the sky and only stopped when they passed the cloud line. From up there, they could only see the city as if it was just a small dot. The cold air up there was sharp and the wind strong but Xuefeng quickly created a thick cloud beneath their feet while Xiao Wen made a barrier that could block the sounds of her conversation.

Xiao Wen let go of Xuefeng's hand and held him by the shoulders instead before asking him after a deep breath, "Do you understand what it is that you gave me?"

"I thought they were just stones that contained Fate Qi. We wanted to pay you back for your Fate Fragment's kindness. Are they really this rare?" Xuefeng asked confused. He did expect Xiao Wen to get excited but not to such extent.

"Of course they are! Especially the kind you just casually gifted me. Those are High-tiered Fate Stones! Usually, there is only one or two of them each time someone finds the aggregation of them. Can you imagine how rare they are?" Xiao Wen explained as she shook his body from excitement.

Xuefeng smiled playfully as he said "Then shouldn't you be happy? Now you have twenty of them."

"I am happy! Where did you get them? Or no, don't tell me. I don't want to know. Remember, don't tell anyone!" Xiao Wen exclaimed wanting to know more but then quickly closed Xuefeng's mouth again and stopped him.

Seeing Xuefeng nod, she explained further, "If someone from the Central Region found out that you had some high-tiered Fate Stones they would definitely group up and hunt you down. Fate Stones are like a quick boost to your cultivation and they can act as a currency. With those twenty high-tiered Fate Stones you made me rich overnight…"

"I know. That's why I didn't even plan to tell you anything else. It's just a gift of appreciation for your help." Xuefeng admitted the truth, which instantly made Xiao Wen's expression turn upside down.

"What? You think I am not trustworthy enough that I can't keep the secret between the two of us?" Xiao Wen asked while squinting her eyes as she wrapped her hands under her chest. At this moment Xuefeng knew, he f.u.c.k.i.e.d up.

"No, no…You are definitely a trustworthy person. If you weren't, I would not even tell you anything…" Xuefeng tried to save the situation but Xiao Wen didn't react the way he thought she would and put on an angry expression which made him laugh.

"Don't be like this. Your pretty face will look bad later if you sully it with your anger. You will not find a boyfriend in the future if you are like this, hehe." Xuefeng poked her on the nose with his finger and chuckled.

"Hmpf, If I can't find anyone then I will just satisfy myself with you." Xiao Wen sneered as she glared at him.

"I'm looking forward to that day." Xuefeng joked knowing that Xiao Wen would definitely get it, but then she grinned while saying, "Heh, I hope you will remember your words when I come knocking on your door in the future."

"Okay. Let's go down, Wuying and Yiren are waiting for us." Xuefeng thought she was not serious so he nodded with a smile before he decided to go down.

"Wait, let me absorb them! I'm not going to keep Fate Stones on me or it will definitely be detected once I enter back into the Central Region." Just as he was about to jump, Xiao Wen stopped him and sat down on the soft cloud Xuefeng created. Picking out a Fate Stone, she started absorbing it greedily with her eyes closed.

"Can't your Fate Fragment absorb it on your place?" Xuefeng asked confused. He never did anything and he left everything for her to do as it was more convenient for him.

Xiao Wen opened her eyes in surprise and asked confused, "Huh? You are still not connected with your Fragment? Don't tell me that it's your fragment that is using all the abilities you got in your place?"

"Well yeah? Aren't those her abilities?" Xuefeng didn't understand her.

Hearing her secret was just about to be revealed, Ling suddenly appeared in Xuefeng's mind and said weakly, 'Xuefeng, don't listen to her…'

"Haha, you better ask your fragment what is going on, then. She probably knew what she was doing. I can use all of my fragment abilities on my own as I connected with Lang." Xiao Wen looked at Xuefeng as if he was an idiot and laughed before she continued doing her thing, leaving him alone with his problem.

'Ling, what is going on? What did you do?' Xuefeng quickly asked in his mind with his thoughts full of question marks.

'I didn't have a choice... I couldn't trust you at first… If we connected and you started using my Fate Qi as you wished then we both would probably die…' Ling explained her actions with her voice quivering. Xuefeng instantly realised that it was definitely a big thing.

'You didn't even tell me that there is even such an option. Could we connect all this time? What about now?' Xuefeng voice turned more serious as he dug deeper trying to get his answers.

'...We could, in the first month after I regained my memories... It is not possible anymore...' Ling was silent for a moment before she finally replied with guilt in her voice.

'Ling!' Xuefeng exclaimed in his mind. He didn't like to get mad, but it was hard not to in such a situation. If not for Xiao Wen, he wouldn't even learn about it.

'Would you even want this type of connection? It basically lets you use all my abilities but also put more pressure on you as you have to be the one to control everything. With greater power comes greater responsibilities. You would have to learn how to operate all abilities first before you could even use them and much more…' Ling tried to convince but the conversation wasn't in her favour.

'At least I would have a choice. If Xiao Wen can do it, why can't I? You also can't explain your action while saying that I would use all of your Fate Qi when it was within the first month that we received many Fate Stones from Nuwa. I wouldn't be able to use all of it even if I wanted.' Xuefeng said with his voice raised. There was no need to cry as it was too late already but Xuefeng still felt upset about it. Ling was definitely not telling him the whole truth.

'If you want us to be a good team, you can't keep secrets like that away from me…' Xuefeng added.

Ling thought for a moment but in the end, Xuefeng didn't receive the reply he wanted as she apologized, 'I am sorry… I can't tell you yet… I will tell you in the future when the time is right…' before escaping from Xuefeng's mind and not responding to his questions anymore.

While Xiao Wen was absorbing Fate Qi from one crystal after another, Xuefeng was puzzling over this situation but couldn't think of a good solution. If he continued to be mad at her then that wouldn't bring anything good.

"I'm done. I regained all the Fate Qi I gave to you. Now we can go…" Xiao Wen called out when she was done but then saw Xuefeng deep in thought and asked, "What's up?"

"It's nothing. I just didn't learn anything from her." Xuefeng shrugged.

"Don't worry, she must have had some special reasons. Lang was also against it but I forced him, so he had no other choice. Anyway, this connection doesn't bring you anything anyway. It just allows you to draw power from your Fate Fragment. If she is willing to do everything for you then you should be happy instead." Xiao Wen patted Xuefeng on the shoulder before she deactivated the barrier around them and jumped down, yelling, "The last one on the ground is a rotten egg!"

Xuefeng smiled seeing her in a playful mood and joined her small competition. At least it distracted him from thinking too much about Ling's secrets. Xuefeng wished he knew everything but in this case, only with time will he will get some results.