Chapter 163: Belated Realization

Soon they smoothly returned to the Guest Ship Landing Field; Lin Zhangqing summoned Chu Yi back and stored it in his Spirit Beast Bag.

This little fellow had seen from the sky that Lin Zhangqing was being beaten with no power to fight back, and it had anxiously spun in circles above, wanting to disregard Lin Zhangqing's orders and rush down.

If Lin Zhangqing hadn't noticed it lowering its altitude and immediately issued a forceful command forbidding it from coming down to cause trouble, it would truly have recklessly rushed down to help.

The two of them stood at the ship's railing, presented their Boarding Vouchers, and smoothly returned to Chen Zi Ya's room.

What they encountered today was no small matter; they had actually been tracked and attacked by a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator.

If it had been anyone else, they would surely have faced certain death with no chance of survival; fortunately, Lin Zhangqing had always been very cautious and fairly clever.

He utilized the Wanbao Pavilion attendant and Chen Shan Zhenren to ingeniously resolve the situation with that Female Cultivator of the Foundation Establishment stage.

Of course, when necessary, Lin Zhangqing could have dealt with her himself; with just a thought, Lin Zhangliu could have skewered her into a string of skewers and sucked her dry into a mummy.

But since he had Chen Zi Ya by his side, Lin Zhangqing did not wish to expose any of his secrets.

Most importantly, the situation had remained entirely under Lin Zhangqing's control; otherwise, he would not have had the spare energy to monitor Chu Yi and know that it intended to rush down to help.

In fact, Lin Zhangqing had been continuously searching for Chen Shan Zhenren's figure, but Chen Shan Zhenren's methods were so profound that Lin Zhangqing had simply failed to locate him.

"Senior Brother, please have some tea!" Chen Zi Ya brought a cup of fragrant tea and placed it before Lin Zhangqing.

"Thank you, Junior Sister," Lin Zhangqing said in gratitude, then picked up the Spirit Tea and took a sip.

"If anyone should be giving thanks, it should be this Young Lady; if not for Senior Brother today, I would certainly have died, my Dao extinguished, perishing on the spot!"

"Junior Sister overpraises me; I was also saving myself, so let us not dwell on this further; instead, let us see what compensation the Qi Family has given us!"

Not wishing to continue this old topic, Lin Zhangqing shifted the conversation to the Qi Family's compensation.

Chen Zi Ya understood his intent; she merely smiled lightly and readily agreed.

Lin Zhangqing took out that Storage Bag, refined it slightly, and then poured out all its contents.

After a rough count, there were twenty thousand Lower Grade Spirit Stones, forty Middle Grade Spirit Stones, two First-Stage Upper-Grade Flying Sword Magical Artifacts, two Second-Stage Middle-Grade Flying Sword Spiritual Artifacts, and one Second-Tier Upper-Grade Spirit Boat.

This final Spirit Boat was clearly intended as compensation for Chen Zi Ya, so there was little to discuss; since everything else was split evenly, the Spirit Boat was also given to Chen Zi Ya.

Chen Zi Ya refused to accept the Spirit Boat, but Lin Zhangqing said he would not reach Foundation Establishment so quickly and taking it would be a waste, so Chen Zi Ya reluctantly accepted it.

She then gave her share of the ten thousand Spirit Stones to Lin Zhangqing; after a moment's thought, he did not decline but readily accepted, reasoning that Chen Zi Ya was a wealthy young lady anyway.

With these over twenty thousand Spirit Stones, Lin Zhangqing no longer needed to take the Medium-grade Spirit Stone Raw Ore to the Wanbao Pavilion to exchange for Spirit Stones, saving him considerable trouble.

As for Chen Zi Ya, he would find an opportunity later to point out a piece of Raw Stone to her; in any case, he would definitely compensate her and ensure she did not suffer a loss.

After dividing the items compensated by the Qi Family, the two continued drinking tea and chatting idly, discussing arrangements for after they arrived at Jinzhou Prefecture.

Since the Guest Ship's next destination was Jinzhou Prefecture, they would, as before, stay for two days at the Jinzhou Market upon arrival.

Chen Zi Ya needed to prepare some gifts for her family; naturally, she had to choose items usable by ordinary people, which could be found at either the Jinzhou Market or Jinzhou Prefecture City.

Afterwards, the two would fly from Jinzhou Prefecture City to Tongshan Village in Nanhe County, a journey that might take another two or three days.

Of course, some situations would have to be discussed only when they arose; soon the pot of fragrant tea was finished, so Lin Zhangqing rose to take his leave, returning to his own room. Back in his room, after carefully inspecting it twice and finding no issues, Lin Zhangqing finally breathed a sigh of relief; sitting in the living room, he reflected on the events of the day.

It was the first time today he had directly faced an expert of the Foundation Establishment stage; to claim he felt no tension would be false, but fortunately, everything proceeded largely according to Lin Zhangqing's general plan, primarily by utilizing the Wanbao Pavilion and that attendant, Xiao Du, who worked there.

Seeking help from others might have led to being killed to silence them, but seeking out someone from the Wanbao Pavilion made that highly unlikely, because the Wanbao Pavilion itself was absolutely a colossal entity; if it truly came to a confrontation, the Qingyun Sect would definitely not be its match.

Therefore, no matter how deep the friendship between Chen Shan Zhenren and the Qi Family might be, it was impossible for him to risk killing a Wanbao Pavilion attendant to silence them just for the sake of the Qi Family.

Thus, the script could proceed along the general trajectory Lin Zhangqing had envisioned; one could say that Lin Zhangqing used the Wanbao Pavilion to force Chen Shan Zhenren to stand on their side.

Now, the first round had concluded perfectly; the matters to follow were no longer something that two Qi Refining juniors like Lin Zhangqing and Chen Zi Ya could participate in.

The second round would involve the Great-Grandmother, the Qi Family, and Chen Shan Zhenren; to know the outcome, they might have to wait until they finished visiting family in Jinzhou and returned to the Qingyun Sect before learning how events would unfold.

This matter was thus brought to a temporary close; what came next was the most important.

It was the fact that today, when he had held Chen Zi Ya's hand for long periods multiple times, she had been very compliant and offered no resistance; her intentions were already quite clear.

Now Lin Zhangqing needed to think clearly about whether he liked her, after all, this concerned his Dao Companion for life.

Scene after scene of his interactions with Chen Zi Ya flashed through his mind, and an involuntary smile touched the corners of his mouth; he did care for her, and apart from her somewhat cold personality, there was nothing bad about her.

Of course, Lin Zhangqing could pretend to be oblivious, but Chen Zi Ya was such a clever person that it would not take long for her to understand, and she would think Lin Zhangqing had no interest in her.

In that case, she would likely revert to her former self; moreover, just now, as Lin Zhangqing recalled every little detail of his interactions with Chen Zi Ya, he only belatedly realized.

The Great-Grandmother and Senior Chen Jieyi had actually been intentionally or unintentionally matchmaking for them all along; this was something Lin Zhangqing had suddenly comprehended just now, though such things can only be understood intuitively and not expressed in words.

Since the Chen Zi Ya he liked was also supported by the Great-Grandmother and Senior Chen Jieyi, what was there to hesitate about? Just go for it.

Having made up his mind, starting tomorrow he would begin teasing Chen Zi Ya, yet he could not be too direct; he would take it slowly, for being too direct would be far too boring.

The process of their interaction was also a process of mutual acceptance.

After thinking this through, a mischievous smile appeared on Lin Zhangqing's face; he wondered if Chen Zi Ya would be able to rest well tonight, and he would go see her again tomorrow.

However, it was still early, not yet time to rest, so he took out the Array Disk and set it up.

After activating it and entering within, he released Chu Yi from the Spirit Beast Bag, fed it a Spirit Nurturing Pill, and prepared some Demon Beast Meat for it to eat.

Then he began smoothing its feathers; since Chu Yi had performed well today, Lin Zhangqing was specifically rewarding it.

With a Spirit Beast willing to risk its life for its master, what more was there to say! One should simply reward it well.

Once that was mostly done, he let it stay in the room without returning it to the Spirit Beast Bag; Chu Yi was very intelligent and had experience staying in rooms, so it would not disturb Lin Zhangqing's Cultivation.

Afterwards, he began cultivating the Five Elements Return to Origin Scripture; after roughly one and a half hours, once he had reached the limit of his own meridians, he stopped.

Next came the cultivation of various Spells, which also took over an hour.

Estimating the time was about right, he lay down to rest, leaving Chu Yi there to serve as his guard for the Dharma.

(End of Chapter)