Seeing Fei Lei's expression turn to anger at the thought of others knowing his hideout, the girl was startled before she spoke through her sniffling, "Eep! No! Sniff! I fell into the river while they chased after my mount that ran away! Please don't hurt me! Woowoo."
"Stop crying!" Fei Lei's frustration had reached its peak as the memories of his mother's sobbing expression came flooding back to him.
He let go of her, crouched down, and slumped his head in defeat before he said, "Please, just stop crying."
The girl who was sitting the ground blubbering looked up to Fei Lei with a stream of tears falling from her eyes and said, "Sniffle! Sniff! You... You'll let me stay here?!"
"You're not giving me much choice. I can't just send you out to die." Fei Lei sighed and leaned his crouching body even lower.
The girl started rubbing her nose and eyes, trying to stop her sniffling. She removed her hood to reveal the peerless beauty of a woman she was.
The young maiden looked to be around the same age as Fei Lei but was a bit shorter than him. She was around 5-feet 5-inches tall, her hair a vibrant violet color, was waist length, and tied into a loose ponytail.
Her lips were slightly puffy and were slightly pronounced, they were kind that of hypnotic lips that would drive the desires every man that gazed on them.
Her eyes were crimson red and glowed like elegant fire rubies, this only enhanced the sheer flawlessness of her facial features, making even the estranged Fei Lei think highly of her beauty.
Judging from the curves he felt when he was holding her with his telekinetic hand, she was also well endowed, at least a 38FFF Cup, and a perfectly toned hourglass-shaped physique that would drive any man wild.
"You saved me! Woo~waa!" The girl started crying again.
"Please, I'm begging you, just stop crying!" Fei Lei begged.
"I can't!" The girl started crying even louder.
Fei Lei placed his back of his head against the tunnel wall and sighed as he looked up at the ceiling.
He then began waiting patiently for her crying session to run the end of its course.
After ten minutes or so, the girl had finally managed to calm down some and say a few words, "So...sniffle, what's your name...sniffle?"
He turned his head and looked her in the eyes before he said, "Fei Lei, yours?"
The young maiden used her cloak to dry her eyes as she stood up and tried to shake off her emotional state.
"Yan Mei, the only daughter of the Crimson Warlock!" Yan Mei patted her chest proudly, which looked slightly off due to her puffed-up eyes.
Fei Lei raised his brow and spoke in a disinterest in his tone, "Is that some big shot magician?"
The girl shook and was about to berate him again when she thought of her cousin's plans and the men searching for her again.
Not wanting Fei Lei to change his mind, Yan Mei bit back her tongue and held in her insults.
Yan Mei stared at him before saying, "How can you not know my papa? We're one of the top 10 greatest Spell Caster Families in the lands. We own the Flame Lord's Kingdom!"
Fei Lei stood up and started walking away back towards his castle, and said, "I wouldn't know much about the magical world and their societies, after all, I've been secluded from that environment most of my life."
"What are you some kind of hermit?" Yan Mei asked looking at his back walking back towards his residence.
Fei Lei answered, "Yeah...Something like that."
As they traversed back to his home, the curious girl walked up beside him and asked, "So what kind of Spell Caster are you?"
Fei Lei grinned and replied, "Non-Elemental."
The girl froze and looked at him in pity before thinking back to how he destroyed her spell, "You're lying! You used a wind spell back there to move faster!"
Fei Lei shook his head and revealed his Spell Sigil.
The glowing grey gaseous character floating above his hand made her face turn pale as Yan Mei muttered, "This is impossible! This just can't be true! How can a Non-Elemental be so strong?!"
Fei Lei retracted his Sigil and left in a state of shock as they continued to walk back down the tunnel.
After they arrived back at his house, Fei Lei took her to one of the random guest rooms that he built and said, "You can have this room during your time here. Stay out of my storeroom and don't disturb my training."
She looked around the room and saw it had no magic apparel whatever, but yet, somehow, it managed to look comfortable.
There was a stone-built bed frame with dozens of Furs piled on top of each other as a bed.
Over in the corner was a separate bathroom with a Marble bathtub and sink that currently only had a cold water line feeding in from the river.
Underneath the bath was a single wood-burning stone plate connected to a large earthenware water tank made of limestone and marble, and there was even a view of the cavernous river.
Fei Lei turned around to return to working out and left her completely stunned when he closed the door.
Yan Mei flopped down on the bed and said, "A Human Transfiguration Sigil owner beat me! How? He's still an Adept, and I'm a Tyro Mage. I already have my second Sigil, and yet I still lost in power?"
In the entire continent, there were around 16.5 million humans alive, only 10% of this population was lucky enough to be born with magical talents.
Thanks to the majority of the Spell Casting population being Elemental Sigil users, several thousand iterations and revisions of their Ancestor's Mantras have been preserved in scrolls and manuals.
While less than a percent of the magic population are born as Non-Elemental users, throughout the known history of magic, no one has ever so much as reported a sighting of a Non-Elemental Magic Beast, and a Mantra was even more unheard of.
Yan Mei stared at the door in shock, "I was just beaten by a minority of a minority."
She was scratching her head and jumped up as she suddenly thought of something, "There were almost thirty 3-Star Magic Cores in that chest. Does that mean he can beat an Erudite?!"
Wanting to see what Fei Lei was up to, Yan Mei moved to the door and cast a Level-0 Wind Spell, Eyes of the Wind Spirit.
Yan Mei, as a Fire Mage, had a strong secondary affinity for wind magic, a mediocre tertiary affinity for lighting magic, and a weak affinity for light magic.
Those who gain their elemental Sigils can also learn other spells, but each sigil comes with their own affinities.
The Fire Element has wind, lightning, and light.
Earth can use wood, water, and metal Elemental Spells.
Water sigil owners gain the ability to cast ice, wind, and darkness Elemental Spells.
Wind users gain affinities for lightning, water, and Fire.
Light and darkness were special, they could gain access to half of the core elements to their fullest potential and without weaker affinities.
Light Magic-Users could use all aspects of the Time, Fire, and Wind Elements.
Dark Mages could use all aspects of the Space, Water, and Earth Elements.
Lastly, Non-Elemental spells could only cast other Non-Elemental Spells.
Yan Mei's Wind Spell allowed her to send out her mana on a gust of wind and use it as a sensory organ, like sonar. Wherever the wind traveled, Yan Mei could visualize the contents of what it touched.
It made its way under the door and searched throughout the castle grounds to see Fei Lei sitting around a pile of 3-Star Magic Beast meat.
All of it cooked and looking quite good, however, there was just too much for one person.
She then watched on as he began to devour the food chewing them up like they were made of water, as the seconds passed, Yan Mei expression turned to horror as she thought, "Just what the hell is his teeth made out of?!"
Fei Lei picked up speed and after finishing off one-tenth of the food pile, he sat down and closed his eyes.
Seeing his bloated stomach, Yan Mei assumed he had some kind of parasite or worm. However, no sooner than that thought passed through her mind, Fei Lei began to convert the matter into pure nutrients and energy.
Yan Mei watched on in astonishment as his stomach began to shrink back down to normal size, she couldn't help but notice the grey gaseous Sigil shining brightly on his forehead, signaling that Fei Lei was using his Human Transfiguration Sigil to accomplish what she thought was impossible.
After Fei Lei stood up, she saw him suddenly pull over a giant stone suit with his Telekinetic hands and made her jump.
"There's no disturbance in the Mana! This isn't magic! Wait, what's he doing with all that armor? Is he going to make a golem?" Yan Mei speculated like crazy as she observed on.
Her eyes grew wide when he suddenly donned the equipment.
Yan Mei raised her hand and was about to cast a spell in an attempt to save his life as she thought, "What is he thinking, is he trying to kill himself? That's at least 2000 pounds! I better cast featherweight on the armor!"
She charged the spell matrix in her hand but stopped as she saw him suddenly start running in the suit.
She fell off of her bed and stared on in amazement as Fei Lei jumped around in the suit like it was made from cloth. Yan Mei then continued to follow his actions as he moved over to his workout track.
The young woman looked on in horror from what she saw him do next.
A track made of steep slopes and large bumps littered the grounds as he sprinted across them. At the end of the track was a strenuous wall climbing section that had several 250-foot tall vertical and steep inclines Fei Lei had to climb over barehanded.
Next Fei Lei was jumping and running through a pit of stone that had been crushed into sand-sized particles.
Then came dodging rolling boulders in this strange half pipe construction full of twists and turns.
A pitch-black dark room full of marble boulders that hung from massive chains attached to the ceiling made her almost suffocate.
Fei Lei punched and kicked his way through the entire maze of wreaking balls with his eyes closed. Every time he was almost hit, he would avoid the attack by a hair's breadth and counter strike of his own.
In the last part of the track, Yan Mei started to think that she was hallucinating.
Fei Lei jumped into the Moat and sunk to the bottom of the riverbed before hopping out and back into the man-made river with loud splashing noises.
Fei Lei continued to repeat his actions over and over until he made an entire lap around his moat.
After climbing out water, Fei Lei sprinted a full lap around the large dome-shaped cavern, and when he returned to his courtyard, he stood in front of the remaining meat before pulling off his helmet.
Fei Lei then proceeded to use his telekinesis to stuff his face and eat another portion before going back to that insane routine.
For a total of four hours, Fei Lei maintained his pace with constant improvement, without slowing down each lap, but speeding up slightly instead.
Yan Mei couldn't believe what she was seeing as he continued to do this nine more times until the food pile was gone.
When he finally finished, Fei Lei headed over to an underwater platform in the center of the moat that would allow him to sit in the water half-submerged, he then quickly used his telekinesis to strip down naked and washed the sweat from his body.
Yan Mei freaked out when she suddenly saw him in the nude and immediately lost control over her spell as she fell to the on her back.
Yan Mei's face was blushed beet-red. Covering her face while rolling around on the ground, she then quietly cried out, "What did I just see?! Was that a snake between his legs?!"
She threw her face into the fur blankets and tried to calm down, Yan Mei was shouting and groaning into the fur bed when she suddenly realized, "His body!!!"
Fei Lei's body had bulked up to a decent amount of muscle in just four hours, he didn't look like a starving toothpick anymore, it wasn't overly muscled either, but rather well-toned and only slightly bulky. Like a top-tier acrobat or swimmer's build.
Yan Mei sat up tired to clear the image from her mind.
"..."
"...Raagh!" Yan Mei cried out, rubbing her head as if she were going crazy.
She couldn't forget, no matter how hard she tried, it just kept popping up in her head. The image of Fei Lei in the buff continued to torment her, right up until her frustration eventually wore her down and drove her to sleep.
Fei Lei was continuing to practice his breathing technique in the ice-cold water of the river, as he thought, "My stamina shot through the roof! I normally could only do that once a day with the 1000 pound set, but now I can do it 10 times with the 2000 pound set."
Fei Lei laughed as he got out of the water and washed the sweat out of his clothes before shaking them dry, "If she wasn't here, I could have just worn the training suit without my clothes. Speaking of clothes..."
Fei Lei looked over his worn down Gi and said, "I guess I should head into town tomorrow to buy a few things.
Fei Lei then headed back inside his house and to his room before he put his house clothes on and headed to sleep.
That night, for the first time in a long time, Fei Lei dreamed about the happy times with his parents, a time where he spent his days laughing innocently.
A tear formed in his eyes as he woke up.
"I haven't dreamed about them in years," Fei Lei thought as he headed outside to see Yan Mei walking around looking at his garden.
"Good Morning!" Fei Lei casually greeted Yan Mei with a yawn, making her jump.
Yan Mei started to avert her eyes as she responded, "G.g.g.g...Good Morning! And don't sneak up on me like that!"
"Still scared of me?" Fei Lei asked.
"No!" Yan Mei answered with a shout before she looked at him, thought about what she saw yesterday, and turned her reddened face away from Fei Lei as she said, "I'm more curious than scared."
"Then why won't you look at me?" Fei Lei asked another question.
"Because!!! None of your business!" Yan Mei shouted as she puffed up her cheeks and stomped her foot.
"Okay...I'm going to head out and hunt for my meals and head into town to buy some clothing," Fei Lei offhandedly mentioned.
"I don't have a change of clothing, can you take me with you?" She asked with a pleading expression.
"How strong are the people chasing you?" Fei Lei asked in response.
"Only one Sorcerer, and three Erudites." Yan Mei answered.
"Can any of them fly?" Fei Lei continued to question her again.
"No, I've been chased only by foot, and if they had someone who could fly, then I already would've been caught," Yan Mei answered honestly.
Fei Lei scratched his head and sighed before he said, "Fine, but then you'll have to go home after we reach the town."
She suddenly took on a fearful expression and said, "I can't go home yet. Mother and Father aren't back from their expedition yet. If I go home, I'll be captured by my cousin!"
Yan Mei walked over to him and pressed her side into his stomach as she put on her best puppy-dog pout before saying, "Look can't I just stay here for a while? I promise if you become my bodyguard my family will reward you handsomely."