Later at night, Lu Qingyun was still up in his tent as he recalled what Tang Xuefeng had said to him.
"Maybe I shouldn't think so much now. I will probably never going to come back anyway. Either way is a dead end for me."
Finally he had put his heart to the rest as he quietly looked at the transmission stone that Keqin had left for him. "I wonder how Keqin is doing now. Is she doing well?"
"Why doesn't she allow me to come with her? Is it because her mother consort does not like me? In the end, I have failed to impress upon Fairy Jade Light. Her mother consort must have despised me because I am just a lowly cultivator…"
He did not know that the 'Fairy Jade Light' was an impostor and was actually the Great Goddess Heaveness. But the Great Goddess Heaveness was not exactly not Qin Keqin's mother consort. It was because Qin Keqin had many other mother consorts.
"In the end, my clan tournament results and my performance at the Heavenly Fragrance Tournament had failed to impress her mother consort. Alas…it is really not easy to impress upon a seventh realm saintess…"
"I have better not think too much and should turn in early since I have nothing better to do…"
"Senior brother, are you asleep?" a musical voice was heard.
It was Yin Shisi and she had quietly entered the tent. In her hands was a tray of hot soup. "I've made some soup for you. I hope that you can quickly regain your strength and be in your best condition as soon as possible."
Lu Qingyun smiled weakly. It was true that he had sustained quite a beating during his encounter with Yue Lingxi. Until now, he had not completely regained his peak yet.
"Please take the soup and tell me what do you think of my culinary?" Yin Shisi smiled at him.
"It just that that I'm so hungry now." Lu Qingyun laughed greedily at the sight of the soup.
Lu Qingyun took the soup greedily as he was feeling a little hungry and moreover the soup really looked delicious. The key word was 'look delicious' and he had suddenly turned ashen. He had never tasted such an awful soup in his life before. Although the ingredients were top notch but it was prepared too hastily. The more top notch the ingredients were, the longer the soup had to be boiled to make into a delicious soup.
But he could not bear to tell her that.
"Is it nice? This is my first time preparing it. I hope that senior brother will like it." Yin Shisi lowered her glances shyly.
Lu Qingyun was blinking his eyes as he gasped silently. "First time. No wonder…" But he forced himself to say, "Yes, I like it…"
Yin Shisi smiled, "I have some help from Sister Ouyang Xue as well. So this soup is from the two of us."
Lu Qingyun sighed silently, "Ouyang Xue doesn't know how to make a soup either. I ought to take note of this lest I may suffer in the future."
"Where is Maiden Xue?" He asked, trying to distract attention from the soup to another topic.
"She is washing cleaning the cooking mess. She asks for the soup to be delivered to you hot." Yin Shisi smiled shyly.
Lu Qingyun muttered almost incoherently to himself, "I think she probably knows the soup is horrible. She is so intelligent. I'll be surprised if she doesn't know…"
"What did you say?" Yin Shisi asked curiously.
"Oh, I was thinking that it is my honor to have a saintess to cook for me. Haha…" He replied sheepishly.
"Then finish it all up." Yin Shisi chuckled softly.
Lu Qingyun: …
If Ouyang Xue was here and knew what Lu Qingyun was thinking about her, she would probably reply. "If it weren't for me, this soup would be much worse."
Lu Qingyun began to hesitate as he took a bitter look at the soup, "Actually I shouldn't just be feasting alone and ignoring you…"
Yin Shisi smiled weakly, "Is it really so awful? I'll try to improve next time."
Lu Qingyun laughed weakly, "Actually it tastes great…"
"Really?!" Yin Shisi was delighted.
Lu Qingyun nodded, "That's right." And he forced himself to take another sip of the soup.
"Senior, you are still awake?" A lovely voice asked as Tang Xuefeng entered into the tent.
Lu Qingyun was startled to see Tang Xuefeng and he blinked his eyes in disbelief.
Tang Xuefeng laughed softly when she saw Yin Shisi, "So Saintess Yin is here as well. This is so wonderful."
She had a basket with her and she had bended over to place the basket on the table. "I have made some soup for my sisters. These are some leftover. Why don't the two of you try my soups?"
Lu Qingyun was thinking, "Don't tell me that this is also her first time in making the soup. I will be screwed if I take her soup."
Yin Shisi was really startled to see Tang Xuefeng and did she hear her correctly that she was actually bringing soup to Lu Qingyun? Earlier, she was crying the entire time and it was all because of Lu Qingyun…
Tang Xuefeng smiled as she carefully took two bowls of soup out of the basket. "I hope that the two of you will like my soup."
Lu Qingyun smiled weakly as he took the soup in his hands, "It looks good…"
"Try it." Tang Xuefeng smiled.
Under the watchful look of Tang Xuefeng, Lu Qingyun started to take a sip from the soup.
To his astonishment, it was actually quite delicious and his hungry stomach soon finished the entire bowl of soup.
"You like it? Do you want more?" Tang Xuefeng smiled as her golden eyes looked intently at him.
"Yes please." Lu Qingyun answered greedily.
"Please excuse me!" Yin Shisi said as she stormed off the tent.
Tang Xuefeng: ???
Lu Qingyun said weakly, "Saintess Yin has some urgent matters to attend to. That's why."
Tang Xuefeng nodded shyly, "I see."
"Erm Celestial Tang, it is getting late and I'm thinking of turning in soon." Lu Qingyun thought that it may be a good idea not to give her any illusions about himself. Therefore he had decided to be heartless.
He stood up and bow with his hands respectfully, "I really thank Celestial Tang for treating me such a delicious soup. I will never forget about this."
"Celestial Tang? Senior, you are too polite. You may call me Xuefeng in the future, alright? You are my senior so it is alright for you to call me by my name." Tang Xuefeng said shyly.
Lu Qingyun smiled weakly, "That won't do. You are a golden celestial after all while I am only…"
"You're already a fourth realm cultivator, am I right? After taking the Divine Profound Pill, you will have a good chance to become a golden celestial as well. We're almost on par in our status." Tang Xuefeng added shyly.
Lu Qingyun smiled awkwardly. How could he address her by the name directly? So he replied, "This doesn't sound too right. I am really not any senior but a lowly cultivator. Whether I can be a golden celestial in the future still remains to be seen…"
"Then I shall call you Qingyun too, alright? We shall drop each other's titles." Tang Xuefeng smiled as she averted her eyes shyly. "Alright?"
Her voice was lovely and gentle, making it difficult for Lu Qingyun to disagree with her. He found himself saying along her lines, "Alright…"
"What am I saying?" Lu Qingyun was startled as he said silently. "Did I just agree with her?"
Tang Xuefeng returned a lovely smile to him. "Isn't this better this way?
Lu Qingyun found himself nodding, "Right…"
He did not know that Tang Xuefeng was not only a master of celestial arrays but she was also extremely good in reading and leading people to follow her suggestions. Moreover Lu Qingyun lacked guile and therefore it was all too easy for Tang Xuefeng to impose her suggestions on him.
"Since you're tired, I'll take my leave first." Tang Xuefeng returned a lovely wink at him. "Good night and see you tomorrow."
Lu Qingyun was startled and he felt his soul flying. He began to stammer, "Good night…"
Tang Xuefeng took a last and mesmerizing look at him before she left quietly.
She knew that if she wanted to capture his heart then she must not be too hasty. No matter what, this man that had made her cry in public would not be able to escape from her from now on. Even if her rival would be the Great Saintess Fan Yuqing!
As for Lu Qingyun, he was thinking that all these protégés from the Heavenly Fragrance Villa were all not only astonishing beautiful but they were also extreme talents; Zhao Riyue, Zhao Xingye, Feng Xiaoxiao, Tang Xuefeng and even Lie Xingyuan and Leng Qiuyue.
"I need to cultivate harder so that I can win Keqin's heart. Erm, I mean Keqin's mother consort approval…"
–
–
–
The next morning;
Hundreds of cultivators had arrived at the designated clearing and they were astonished to see that hundreds of protégés from the Heavenly Fragrance Villa had gathered with them.
Unlike the chaotic entrance of the hundreds of cultivators that include Lu Qingyun and Qian Jingjing, the beautiful protégés of the Heavenly Fragrance Villa were orderly and graceful; it was as though they were performing a slow dance.
The sight of so many beautiful maidens caused many of the male cultivators to burn with lust and the eyes of the other female cultivators to be envious.
The expedition group was also startled to see twenty golden celestials and a few were even sixth realm golden supremacies!
"Why are there so many protégés of the Heavenly Fragrance Villa here?"
"The number of golden celestials here are able to overwhelm most of the celestial clans here…"
"What is going on here?"
"Aren't we setting off for our experiential expedition?"
"Why are there so many protégés of the Heavenly Fragrance Villa here to welcome us?"
A cultivator muttered with fright, "Don't tell me that this is a plot by the Heavenly Fragrance Villa to massacre all of us, so as to weaken the power of the regional celestial clans…"
"Don't talk rubbish. If that is the case, why bother giving us the Divine Profound Pill first and to send the heavily wounded back to the main camp."
"Then, what is going on here?"
Other than Lu Qingyun and Qian Jingjing, all the other cultivators were actually in the dark about the expedition and many of them had their bundles on them thinking that they were about to go deeper into the Moon Demon Forest.
Lu Qingyun had secretly stolen a glance in the direction of Tang Xuefeng. But she was regal and did not look in his direction. She was with Feng Xiaoxiao and the other golden celestials.
Somehow, he looked a little disappointed that she was not looking in his way.
"Brother Qingyun, are you alright?" Qian Jingjing asked.
Lu Qingyun smiled, "I…am alright…I am just looking around."
Qian Jingjing smiled quietly. Last night she had a long chat with Ouyang Xue and knew more about Lu Qingyun. It seemed that Ouyang Xue knew that Lu Qingyun had a sentient spirit entity as well.
However this was no an ordinary chat as Ouyang Xue was also helping to treat her internal injuries.
In the end Ouyang Xue had said to her, "Are you sure you want to report tomorrow? You can only use at most 30% of your profound strength without hurting yourself." Then she added weakly, "Even I can't tell from your countenance. You are strong will, stronger than I think."
Qian Jingjing simply smiled and said nothing. During the Heavenly Fragrance Tournament, she had also suffered a similar heavy injury but she had chosen to suppress all her pain. If there was anything that she disliked, it was to show any signs of weakness in front of others.
She did not want to be the vulnerable maiden that needed anyone to take special care of.
All of a sudden a new group of protégés from the Heavenly Fragrance Villa had arrived. They numbered only twenty but there were two golden celestials in the group.
Lu Qingyun was startled to see that Fragrance Herald Yufeng was in this group and he was even more startled to see that the other golden celestial was actually Lie Xingyuan!
Even Leng Qiuyue was in this group!
His eyes were immediately excited. "Xingyuan, Qiuyue. I got to see you again…"
But while his eyes were excited, they had displayed no emotions as they followed Fragrance Herald Supremacy Shen Yufeng quietly behind. They had totally bent in with the rest of the protégés of the Heavenly Fragrance Villa, appearing to be cold and distant, yet so beautiful and graceful.
Shen Yufeng had walked to the rest of the golden celestials as she had quick chat with them. It did not take her long to turn to say to the cultivators that had gathered.
"I am Fragrance Herald Yufeng, Supremacy Shen. This is for the benefit for those that did not know who I am."
The cultivations from Lu Qingyun's region had certainly recognized who she was and they were suddenly groaning almost incoherent. "It's her again…we are in deep trouble…"
There were also cultivators from the other seven regions of the Heavenly Fragrance Divine Realm. Although they had not met Fragrance Herald Yufeng before, they certainly knew her as one of the leading four Fragrance Heralds.
"She is the one of the strongest Fragrance Heralds."
"She is also here?"
"Something must be up…Supremacy Yufeng is here…giving away so many Divine Profound Pills…hundreds of core protégés from the Heavenly Fragrance Villa are also here…"
Shen Yufeng chuckled softly, "Good. You are all here. Three hundred and fifty-five of you are here to be precise. Out of eighth hundred chosen cultivators."
"I will be direct with all of you here because I don't want to deal with some headless ghosts later. We are going to enter an ancient celestial ruin that we've found recently. This trip may be dangerous and may even be a trip of no return. So if anyone of you wants to back off now, I won't blame you."
Then she chuckled, "But if you are willing to enter into the ancient ruin, you can keep whatever you can find inside. You have 10 minutes to consider."
Immediately the many cultivators had broken into loud mutterings.
"Ancient celestial ruin?!"
"Then there must be celestial treasures inside?"
"It is no wonder there are so many protégés of the Heavenly Fragrance Villa here…"
"We can keep the celestial treasures that we can find?"
"If we can find a divine sword inside, we can also keep it?"
Yu Tianjian had stepped forward to ask, "Pardon me for asking this. We are only lowly cultivators. Surely you don't need us to be around and can easily seize all the celestial treasures inside?"
He was looking nervously at the number of golden celestials that were around.
Most of the more cunning cultivators were actually thinking the same thing as Yu Tianjian; with so many golden celestials around, how could they even have any lucky opportunities? In the end, they would all just be cannon fodders for the Heavenly Fragrance Villa!
Shen Yufeng said nonchalantly, "We can only sent cultivators that are below the fifth realm cultivation level inside the ancient celestial ruin. As for the many golden celestials here, they are only responsible for opening up the Pangu Suppressing Arrays that are here so that you can enter into the ancient celestial ruin."
Then she smiled, "We will of course be sending our own group of cultivators inside as part of their experiential training. This will be a fair opportunity for everyone. We are expecting a total of 800 of the most talent cultivators in the Heavenly Fragrance Divine Realm to share in this opportunity. Unfortunately, not all are willing to come and for those that had come, some were unfortunately killed or injured on their way here."
"Ten minutes. This is all the time that you have to consider."
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[Author] I didn't think that Tang Xuefeng is attracting so much attention from the readers. Yes, there is an extra scene for her in this chapter.