Chapter Ninety-Five: Friendship!

Inside the room, Yang Yan was also wearing a look of utter dejection. He had thought he had seized a priceless treasure from Leng Yuetian, only to end up with this result.

No wonder Leng Yuetian had not acted personally when he first unleashed the Devouring Spirit Fire Bathing Array, but had instead borrowed the fire spiritual power of Xu Shaoguang, whose cultivation was only at the second level of the Spirit Perception Realm...

At last, Yang Yan understood: for him at present, the Crimson Refining Cauldron was utterly nothing but a decorative object. Only after the fire spiritual meridian within his body had been opened could he make free use of it, but by then, who knew how many years would have passed.

"Forget it. Something is better than nothing..."

After racking his brains for a long while and finding no solution, Yang Yan could only sigh in helpless resignation, then, still unwilling, he stored the Crimson Refining Cauldron into his cosmos bag.

"Third Young Master, you have a visitor!"

Just as Yang Yan was privately brooding, a servant's voice came from outside the door, and he could not help but pause.

Could it be some forces in Jinhuan City seeking to curry favor with the Zhang family? As Yang Yan's reputation among the younger generation in Jinhuan City rose, more and more factions and clans had come to pay their respects and show goodwill. Yet Zhang Tai clearly knew Yang Yan's temperament, so matters like these generally did not require Yang Yan's personal appearance. Why today?

However, his confusion did not last long before it was broken by a hearty laugh from outside.

"Haha, it's already high noon, and our Zhang family's Third Young Master still hasn't gotten out of bed?"

Before Yang Yan could reply, a somewhat lean youth had already pushed the door open and stepped into the room. Behind him, though, was a rather restrained young girl's graceful figure—none other than Sun Zhixin!

"Uh..."

Yang Yan was also slightly taken aback upon seeing who had come. His relationship with Liu Zhengqing need not be spoken of at length; the two had already felt an appreciation for each other after their clash in the All-Clans Martial Meet, and in the Hundred Hunting Grounds they had endured many hardships and dangers together. His coming to visit was quite understandable. As for Sun Zhixin... speaking of which, because of that "accident" in the All-Clans Martial Meet, Yang Yan felt he had left no good impression in her heart. Though their awkwardness had eased somewhat in the Hundred Hunting Grounds, it still did not seem to have reached the level of "good friends."

Only after Sun Zhixin entered the room and glanced at Yang Yan did her cheeks flush slightly red as she turned away. This reaction left Yang Yan a little dazed, until he lowered his head and finally understood why she had responded like that.

It turned out that after waking up, Yang Yan had been busy sorting through the gains from his trip to the Hundred Hunting Grounds, and so he had not gotten dressed. At the moment, he was wearing nothing but a pair of underpants!

"Cough, cough..."

Yang Yan coughed a few times to hide his embarrassment, then hurriedly turned around and got dressed properly. Only after the rustling sounds of clothing in the room had faded did Sun Zhixin turn back around.

"Kid, how are your injuries?"

Liu Zhengqing did not care in the least, behaving as though he had returned to his own home. He casually found a place to sit and, patting Yang Yan on the shoulder, smiled.

"I'm fine. I won't die..."

Yang Yan could not help but roll his eyes at Liu Zhengqing. This fellow had just deliberately patted his wound. Did he only ever put away that roguish grin when fighting?

"Damn it, I came to see you out of kindness, and this is how you treat your guest? If someone hadn't asked me to come, do you think I'd have wanted to?" Liu Zhengqing said this while deliberately emphasizing the words "someone," and his gaze at Yang Yan also flickered, almost imperceptibly, toward Sun Zhixin's direction.

Was it her...

Since it had been put this plainly, Sun Zhixin no longer acted coy. The flush on her face faded completely, and she seemed to regain, faintly, her usual cold detachment. Under Yang Yan's gaze, she took two steps forward, slender fingers brushing over the cosmos bag at her waist. Then, with a graceful motion, a round pill radiating a faint yellow glow appeared before Yang Yan's eyes.

This was the Spirit-Breaking Pill!

"Take it."

The girl's soft and gentle voice sounded in the room, while Yang Yan had fallen entirely into a dazed state. He had no idea what Sun Zhixin intended by this.

Seeing Yang Yan remain frozen in place, Sun Zhixin also noticed the confusion in his heart and continued.

"The first place in the Hundred Hunting Grounds assessment should have belonged to you in the first place. If you had not held back Leng Yuetian, with my strength I absolutely would not have been able to win first place. This Spirit-Breaking Pill, naturally, should belong to you."

After hearing Sun Zhixin's words, Liu Zhengqing at the side also put away his idle, carefree expression and gave Yang Yan a solemn nod.

The room fell into a brief silence because of Sun Zhixin's words. After a long moment, Yang Yan finally extended a slightly trembling finger and accepted the Spirit-Breaking Pill from Sun Zhixin's hand.

"Thank you."

Those two simple words left Yang Yan's mouth, yet the turmoil in his heart was far from as calm as his words suggested.

Spirit-Breaking Pill. Just three plain words, yet Yang Yan knew all too well how important it was to cultivators below the fifth level of the Spirit Perception Realm. If anyone told him that Sun Zhixin felt nothing for this pill, no desire for it at all, he would never believe it. And yet, even so, she was still willing to give up the pill she had risked her life to obtain in the Hundred Hunting Grounds. How could Yang Yan possibly keep his heart at peace?

At that moment, Yang Yan silently made a vow: no matter how far he might travel on the path of immortality in the future, the two people before him would be companions he cherished for life.

"Since the purpose of this visit has already been achieved, then... I will take my leave first..."

After Yang Yan accepted the pill, the atmosphere in the room once again became rather strange. After hesitating for a while, Sun Zhixin finally spoke slowly, then turned as if to depart...

"Wait a moment..."

Hearing Yang Yan's voice from behind, Sun Zhixin's body gave a slight start, and she stopped. After Yang Yan rummaged through his cosmos bag for a moment, a small crimson cauldron appeared in his palm. Sun Zhixin was no stranger to this object; it was precisely the Crimson Refining Cauldron that Leng Yuetian had used to unleash the Devouring Spirit Fire Bathing Array in the Hundred Hunting Grounds.

"This, I'll give to you. The Crimson Refining Cauldron can only be driven by fire spiritual power, and as someone with an innate water body, it is useless to me..."

What Yang Yan said was true. The saying "repay kindness with kindness" held here: although the Crimson Refining Cauldron was a high-grade array-type spiritual artifact, if he could not use it, it was no different from a pile of broken copper and scrap iron. By the time Yang Yan opened his fire spiritual meridian, his strength would surely be far beyond what it was now, and he might not even regard the Crimson Refining Cauldron highly then.

Moreover, if one were to judge carefully, the Crimson Refining Cauldron might not be worth more than the Spirit-Breaking Pill. After all, the enhancement of one's own strength was the safest and most reliable thing; external objects were, in the end, only external objects.

"Thank you."

Sun Zhixin hesitated slightly, but did not dawdle. She accepted the Crimson Refining Cauldron from Yang Yan's hand and softly said thanks.

At that moment, a warmth also rose within Sun Zhixin's heart. She had personally experienced the power of the Crimson Refining Cauldron in the Hundred Hunting Grounds, and yet Yang Yan was now handing it over to her so decisively. Though part of it was because of the Spirit-Breaking Pill, more importantly, he truly regarded her as a friend.

"Hey, I say, is there any point in the two of you going back and forth like this? Yang Yan, I also contributed quite a bit in the Hundred Hunting Grounds. Don't you have anything to give me?"

At this moment, Liu Zhengqing at the side suddenly cried out rather inopportunely, his gaze at Yang Yan and Sun Zhixin rather strange, likely because he was thinking of some indecent scene again.

"None."

Seeing that Liu Zhengqing could not stay serious for even three seconds, Yang Yan finally blurted out those two words with utmost certainty. Though there was a hint of joking in them, at present, among the things in his possession, whether magical treasures or martial techniques, there really was nothing suitable for Liu Zhengqing.

"You brat, in the All-Clans Martial Meet, I was beaten by you so badly that I was lying in bed for three days. I still remember that grudge, hehe..."

Liu Zhengqing did not get angry at this. Instead, he gave a wicked grin and suddenly threw a punch toward the wound on Yang Yan's shoulder!

"Fuck! Taking advantage of someone when he's down doesn't count as skill. If you've got the guts, wait until I've healed, and then we'll have another match!"

"Hehe, I'll take advantage of you when you're down. Bite me if you can..."

...

Watching the two men frolic in the room, a smile also appeared on Sun Zhixin's delicate face.

She had not expected that these two boys, who had battled life and death in the Hundred Hunting Grounds, also had such a childish side. But perhaps that was not so bad either...