Liu YuXin angrily returned to her room, cursing Tang Xiaoyu hundreds of times in her heart.
Tang Xiaoyu returned to Falling Leaf Peak feeling bored. As soon as he stood in the yard, he heard Liu YuXin's curses from the second floor.
"How dare you embarrass me like that? I will not forgive you."
"If I get a chance, I will beat you to death."
"Bastard, may you stay single forever and die a bachelor."
The more Tang Xiaoyu listened, the darker his face became. Cursing him to stay single forever meant cursing his bloodline to end!
"Liu YuXin, if I stay single forever, don't even think about getting married in your life. You female rascal."
Liu YuXin cursed from the window: "If I can't get married, I'll marry you. I'll eat and drink from you and give birth to ten or eight children to tire you to death."
"Oh well...you win." This was an unsolvable problem. Tang Xiaoyu admitted defeat.
Liu YuXin said proudly: "Humph! Fighting against me."
Once some ideas take root in the heart, they will slowly grow into huge trees.
The words Liu YuXin spurted out in anger would slowly turn into random thoughts, and she would eventually feel this was not a bad idea.
Everything just needed time to nurture.
Tang Xiaoyu successfully became an outer sect elder. If he had ranked first in the outer sect competition, at most he could have become an inner sect disciple and gotten some more rewards.
This demonstrated the importance of the starting point. If your starting point was low, your goal would only be others' starting point.
As an outer sect elder, Tang Xiaoyu was mainly responsible for the planting area.
All kinds of spiritual medicines, spiritual grasses, spiritual fruits, spiritual rice... anyway everything had the character “Ling”.
What was Tang Xiaoyu most skilled at? Sweet talk. Giving chicken soup talks to people. Of course, sometimes he also drank comforting chicken soup.
Every day he worked in the fields with the disciples. If he didn’t understand something he would ask, and if he didn’t know how to do something he would learn. Soon he blended well with the outer sect disciples.
He was refined and gentle, kind and honest. He never made things difficult for others or favored anyone. From time to time he would hold a competition and reward the outer sect disciples out of his own pocket.
He was completely different from his previous arrogant and domineering manner.
Under his leadership, the planting area underwent an earth-shattering change. The sect leader even specially commended him.
This was Tang Xiaoyu’s plan—to develop his own supporters from the bottom up, and slowly climb upwards. When he had enough supporters, the sect leader’s words would not necessarily still hold power.
Of course, the premise was that he himself also needed to possess matching strength.
Time passed quickly. Tang Xiaoyu had already been an outer sect elder for ten years. He could no longer remember how many disciples he had nurtured and guided into the inner sect.
But whenever he walked around the inner sect, everyone would respectfully call him “Elder Tang”.
Tang Xiaoyu could also accurately call out everyone’s name, crack a joke with them, and encourage them.
The most unbearable thing in these ten years was Liu YuXin. Ever since she said she would marry Tang Xiaoyu and give birth to ten or eight children, she would occasionally fantasize about what it would be like if she married Tang Xiaoyu. Seeing more and more female disciples surrounding him, Liu YuXin’s sense of crisis became stronger and stronger.
In ten years, feelings between blood brothers could become indifferent. Of course, feelings could also grow over time.
Today, Tang Xiaoyu returned humming a tune leisurely. Liu YuXin grabbed his arm.
“Tell me honestly, what were you doing today?”
Tang Xiaoyu was puzzled. “Nothing much. Just chatted with some fellow sect members.”
“Were there a few junior sisters from Red Leaf Peak?”
“Yeah!”
“You need to pay attention to your status. You are an outer sect elder now.”
Tang Xiaoyu said helplessly, “Then we’d better not chat anymore in the future.”
Liu YuXin was rendered speechless.
Seeing Liu YuXin’s expression, Tang Xiaoyu said helplessly, “Alright alright, I’ll try my best not to chat with them. Stop having that jealous little wife mentality.”
“You’re the little wife! Your whole family are little wives!” Liu YuXin said angrily.
“Did you stop me for something?” Tang Xiaoyu asked.
Liu YuXin became somewhat coy. “What do you think of me as a person?”
Tang Xiaoyu sincerely commented, “Very good! You can cook, take care of people, you’re kind, generous, and you know how to cherish people.”
Liu YuXin happily asked, “Am I really that good?”
“Really,” Tang Xiaoyu affirmed.
Liu YuXin became coy again, her face also turning red. “Tang Xiaoyu, I like you.”
After saying this, Liu YuXin covered her face and ran away directly.
Tang Xiaoyu was stunned by this sudden confession. After reacting, he smiled lightly, then looked up to the sky. “Everything goes with the flow, no need to force anything. If we are destined, she will not get away.”
Liu YuXin sat by the pond, her face flushed red, spacing out. “Why did I run? I haven’t gotten his reply yet!”
“This is so embarrassing. How could a young lady say something like this?”
“Oh no! This is so awkward. How should we interact from now on?”
While Liu YuXin was pursuing love, Middle State opened up secret realm trials and the Middle State Grand Competition again to deal with the invasion of Demonic Cultivators and improve the strength of the younger generation, as well as select talented individuals.
As a key cultivation target, Tang Xiaoyu was indispensable of course. But he declined on the pretext of being busy with affairs.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go, but that he was afraid his identity would be exposed. Although going could have let him collect a lot of useful intelligence, if his identity was discovered, everything would have been in vain.
Under these circumstances, Falling Leaf Peak could only send Liu YuXin and Senior Martial Sister.
To ensure the safety of core disciples, the sect even sent out half of the inner sect elders to protect them.
Upon hearing this, Tang Xiaoyu kept praying in his heart: [Come back injured, come back injured, come back injured.]
In order to be promoted to an inner sect elder in the past decade, Tang Xiaoyu had brought his cultivation level to late Golden Core stage, ready to assault the Yuanying stage at any time, and his true combat strength had reached the mid Transformation stage.
Liu YuXin left reluctantly. Seeing everyone leave, Tang Xiaoyu's smile also gradually disappeared.
Perhaps Tang Xiaoyu's prayers worked. During the Middle State Grand Competition, Falling Leaf Peak disciples offended the young sect master of a first-class sect.
This invited a disaster upon them. First in the arena, many Falling Leaf Peak disciples were crippled. When the elders tried to save them, they were heavily injured by the opponent's elders.
Subsequently, over a dozen Falling Leaf Peak disciples who advanced to participate in the secret realm trial were killed by the opponent.
The opponent was too strong. The Falling Leaf Peak elders could only lead the remaining disciples to escape wretchedly, and they were still ambushed on the way, with multiple casualties.
If not for seniors from other sects stopping them, all of Falling Leaf Peak’s members would have perished there.
The number of people who returned safely to Falling Leaf Peak was less than one third of those who left.
Seeing that over half of the inner sect elders were dead or injured, Tang Xiaoyu almost burst out laughing wildly. [Heh heh, this is the so-called righteous and orthodox sect. If they didn't cause such a huge commotion, the other party might have exterminated the entire sect.]
Liu YuXin walked over to Tang Xiaoyu looking crestfallen. “Tang Xiaoyu, I’m scared.” As she spoke, she burst into tears.
Tang Xiaoyu hugged her and comforted, “This world has always been like this. We can't change it, we can only adapt to it.”
“Don't cry. If you keep crying no one will want you.”
Liu YuXin quickly held back her tears. “Then I won't cry. What if you leave me too? What will I do then?”
“Where is Senior Martial Sister?”
At this, Liu YuXin's eyes brimmed with tears again. “Senior Martial Sister’s cultivation was crippled. She can never cultivate again. Master took her back to treat her injuries.”
Stroking Liu YuXin’s hair, Tang Xiaoyu knew his chance had come, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“Alright, get up. Let me go see how the other martial brothers and sisters are doing.”
“No, let me hug you a little longer. I only feel at ease when I’m holding you.”
After finally struggling free from Liu YuXin’s embrace, Tang Xiaoyu went to see every injured person.
“Don’t be discouraged. When God closes a door, he opens a window. Although you've become an ordinary person, there may still be a way for you to cultivate.”
“Focus on recovering from your injuries. I’ll come see you again when you’ve healed.”
These were the words he said to everyone. How they understood was up to them.
When Li Zijie saw Tang Xiaoyu, he was so moved he almost cried.
“Elder Tang, I didn't expect you to be the first one to come see me.”
Tang Xiaoyu smiled faintly. “After this incident, do you still dare to be arrogant?”
“I don't dare anymore. Luckily I was more restrained this time, otherwise I wouldn't have just been crippled, I would have lost my little life.”
Tang Xiaoyu said in surprise, “You're taking this rather calmly!”
“I don't have any other virtues, I just have a lot of nerve.”
Tang Xiaoyu stood up. “Alright. When your injuries heal, I'll give you two options. You decide for yourself at that time.”
"What choice?"
"We'll talk about it when the time comes," Tang Xiaoyu said before leaving.
(I suggest everyone switch to reading another book for now, so you don't get affected emotionally and end up cursing me later.
Although I can take it, I'm worried your tolerance may not be as strong.
Thank you all for your support during this time, I appreciate it.)