Chapter 301: Ice and Fire

Even with Hua Ruxue around, Yan Liqiang’s daily life in Deer Villa carried on as usual. Instead of becoming easier, it got even more exhausting because his master, Li Hongtu, raised the difficulty of his training. Yan Liqiang had to continue cultivating under the waterfall after lunch despite his exhaustion from the morning training. The fact that the subsequent training was to be done underwater made it ten times more difficult than before.

Water was about seven hundred times denser than air. At this density, the movements of a spear would encounter greater resistance. Hence, more energy and explosive power were required to shake it. One would comprehend this if they thought about the difference between running on a road versus underwater. Not only that, the vibrating spear would generate water ripples which carried pressure that would constantly batter against Yan Liqiang, making it even more difficult for him to maintain his balance. To top it off, Yan Liqiang couldn’t breathe underwater. Therefore, all these things had to be performed by only relying on one mouthful of air…

Li Hongtu’s objective was to make Yan Liqiang persist for an hour underwater.

Without shaking the spear, Yan Liqiang felt that he could hold his breath underwater for an hour with some practice. However, he had to maintain his balance while shaking a spear underwater for an hour. With such intense stamina consumption, he also had to constantly resist the water pressure. Yan Liqiang doubted anyone in this world could ever succeed in this kind of training.

Since his master had spoken, Yan Liqiang would have to press on despite the difficulty.

With that, Yan Liqiang returned to his small courtyard with his physical strength and stamina completely drained after his daily cultivation regimen. It was not an exaggeration to say that he was so exhausted that he almost had to crawl home every day.

In the dark days of cultivation, Hua Ruxue became the only source of color in Yan Liqiang’s life.

Sitting at the same table as Hua Ruxue during lunch every day, watching her elegantly eat and engaging her in a small conversation had become a rare enjoyment for Yan Liqiang. He secretly imagined her as a beautiful private coach from the gym in his previous life because it was natural for men to like showing off in front of beauties. This was why one-on-one private coaching lessons from a beautiful female coach were extremely effective. During each meal, Yan Liqiang constantly reminded himself to never give up despite the difficulty while watching Hua Ruxue.

With this kind of persistence, Yan Liqiang could feel himself improving despite the daily hardships he had to face. At a time like this, the effects of Muscle Tendon Changing and Marrow Cleansing were once again harnessed. When Yan Liqiang performed his night regime, he could feel the changes brought about by every round of Muscle Tendon Changing and Marrow Cleansing. Overall, it was strengthening his entire body, starting from his head to toe — more stamina, more explosive power, quicker pace, stronger endurance…

The capacity of Yan Liqiang’s lungs expanded even more with the pressure they were exposed to and the rounds of Muscle Tendon Changing and Marrow Cleansing he performed every day. This allowed Yan Liqiang to hold his breath underwater for a progressively longer time period.

Day by day, Yan Liqiang was making progress. Yet Hua Ruxue’s road to recovery wasn’t as optimistic as he expected. Apart from the visible wound under her chest, she also seemed to have sustained a rather serious internal injury which impeded her recovery. Every three days, Hua Ruxue would fall into great pain at night.

At first, Yan Liqiang didn’t notice Hua Ruxue’s internal injury until they had lived three days together. He heard the faint agonized moans coming from her room when he was sleeping in his. Quickly realizing that something was wrong, he got up and rushed to her room. Knocking on the door, he asked, “Are you alright?”

“Don’t… come in…!” Hua Ruxue’s voice from the other side of the door was weak but extremely determined.

Yan Liqiang hesitated for a moment and returned to his room instead of going into hers…

Three days later, Yan Liqiang heard strange noises coming from Hua Ruxue’s room around midnight again. Hua Ruxue didn’t make any sounds this time. Instead, it sounded like she was clawing out the wood with her nails while enduring the tremendous pain.

Yan Liqiang got up and knocked on her door again.

“Are you alright?”

“Don’t… come in…” The voice from the room was slightly hoarse.

Yan Liqiang did not go in. During lunch the next day, he noticed five distinct claw marks on the mahogany wood of her bed. She appeared to be rather weak too on that day.

“You have other injuries on your body?” he asked Hua Ruxue.

“Internal injury…” she replied simply.

“Do you need any medicine? I’ll think of something if you require them. There’s quite a lot of medicinal herbs available in Deer Villa…”

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“This internal injury is…” Hua Ruxue was about to say something, but she changed her mind. “Nevermind. You’ll just have to know that there’s no effective cure for it. I will cope with it!”

Three days later, the sounds of nails dragging across wood rang out again from Hua Ruxue’s room around midnight. Yan Liqiang would wake up every time to check up on her. However, her response to him was always the same —”Don’t… come in…”

……

In just the blink of an eye, they had been living together for twenty-one days…

When Yan Liqiang cultivated Muscle Tendon Changing and Marrow Cleansing tonight, there was a sudden change. While his lungs were being strengthened by the energy and spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth, he suddenly felt as though an invisible barrier in his nose had been torn down and the smell in the room suddenly became distinct. Another unfamiliar and strange warm current rose from his lungs. It gushed from his lungs to his kidneys like hot water, making them feel nice and warm like two hot water bottles.

The strengthening of one organ in his body was actually linked to another organ, bringing about changes in the other. This was unprecedented…

In that exact moment, two sentences he once read in the manual suddenly resurfaced in his mind —

The lungs pertain to metal and open into the nose!

The kidneys pertain to water and open into the ears!

Metal produces water…

Yan Liqiang didn’t know how long he had been immersed in that warm and comfortable state. He only snapped back to reality when he heard the sounds of nails clawing into wood again. Looking at the night sky from the window, it was already midnight as expected…

Hua Ruxue was a little loud tonight. The noise sounded like a porcelain tile scratching against the wall. Apart from the clawing sounds, Yan Liqiang also heard the faint agonized moans again which he hadn’t heard for many days.

He quickly rushed out of his room and knocked on Hua Ruxue’s door. “Are you alright?”

This time, there was no reply from her. He heard something fall instead.

Yan Liqiang shouted twice again, but failed to get any response from inside. Without thinking, he applied a little force on his hands, broke the door lock like a sheet of paper, and quickly strode into the room.

It was dark inside but Yan Liqiang could still clearly see Hua Ruxue lying on her bed motionlessly. When he rushed over to her side, he saw that her eyes were closed and her face was pale like paper. He felt for the pulse on her neck and realized that she was as cold as ice. So terrifyingly cold that there was not a trace of warmth left in her.

“Wake up! Wake up…!” Yan Liqiang shook her, but he found out that she wasn’t even responding. In just the blink of an eye, he realized that there was a layer of frost on the back of her hands and her body was slowly turning stiff…

Yan Liqiang was so shocked that he panicked. He didn’t even know how to deal with the situation. Upon seeing Hua Ruxue freezing, he took off his clothes without any hesitation and embraced her tightly in his arms, attempting to warm her up with his chest.

Hua Ruxue looked exactly like a beautiful ice sculpture at this moment. Embracing her was no different than embracing a block of ice.

Not only that, it seemed like there was a trace of strange cold Qi in her body. When Yan Liqiang held her in his arms, the cold Qi automatically assaulted Yan Liqiang and invaded his body…

BOOM…!

As soon as the cold Qi invaded Yan Liqiang’s dantian, the sleeping golden Six-Tusked Elephant that was condensed out from Ten Dragons Ten Elephants Divine Technique suddenly burned up and glowed brilliantly. Its entire body was covered in golden flames that instantly evaporated the cold Qi that invaded Yan Liqiang’s body without leaving a single trace behind.

The ring of golden flames on the gigantic elephant mercilessly engulfed the cold Qi in Yan Liqiang’s body, then invaded Hua Ruxue’s body…

Just a few seconds later, Hua Ruxue finally stirred. She was like someone who felt the warmth of fire after freezing in the darkness. Her subconsciousness dictated her to reach out to the ball of warmth, hold it tightly in her arms, melt it into her body, and become one with it…