Chapter 928: [Willows Dark, Flowers Bright] (Part 1)

Night fell, Huo Shengnan lightly knocked on the door and brought in a bowl of ginseng soup. Seeing Hu Xiaotian sitting cross-legged on the bed, regulating his breath and resting, she did not disturb him, quietly placed the soup on the table, and prepared to leave.

Hu Xiaotian opened his eyes at this moment and said, "Since you're here, why not keep me company for a chat?"

Huo Shengnan, feeling a bit embarrassed, said, "Forget it, I won't disturb your practice."

Hu Xiaotian said, "I was just nurturing my spirit earlier, not practicing. Right now my Dantian Qi Sea is in chaos; I can't gather any internal energy at all."

Huo Shengnan walked over and softly said, "Since you can't practice, don't force yourself. Drink this bowl of ginseng soup first."

Hu Xiaotian smiled and asked, "Did you make this yourself?"

Huo Shengnan shook her head and whispered, "I don't have that skill; I'm quite clumsy. Besides fighting on the battlefield, I can't do anything else."

Hu Xiaotian said, "Women are cuter when they're a little slow-witted." He spoke from the heart, thinking of the various lovely women he knew—none of them were not clever and deep‑minded; even Long Xi Yue, whom he had always considered the purest and kindest, was hiding things from him. One could say Long Xi Yue's silent departure dealt him a huge blow, from which he has yet to recover.

Huo Shengnan sat beside him and softly asked, "Are you thinking of Princess Anping?"

A bitter smile touched Hu Xiaotian's lips as he asked, "How do you know?"

Huo Shengnan said, "Actually, when I was in Yongdu I could already tell your relationship wasn't quite normal."

"How impressive?"

Huo Shengnan said, "I just thought you were a eunuch back then, so I had no suspicions."

Hu Xiaotian said, "There's no need to bring up the past."

Huo Shengnan lowered her head, thought for a moment, and finally made up her mind: "I originally didn't want to tell you, but after thinking it over I still have to say goodbye—I plan to leave Kangdu tomorrow."

"Why?" Hu Xiaotian looked astonished.

Huo Shengnan said, "There's no banquet that never ends; I've already imposed on you for too long here. Moreover…" She placed her right hand on her cheek, feeling numb through the human‑skin mask, and added, "I don't want to spend my whole life wearing a mask."

Hu Xiaotian reached out to gently caress her cheek, then helped her remove the mask, and whispered, "Is it because Qin Yutong saw through your disguise?" The mask had come from Qin Yutong, who naturally could perceive its secret.

Huo Shengnan shook her head; it wasn't just because of this. The real reason she decided to leave was Hu Xiaotian—she found herself increasingly unable to resist him, and if this continued she couldn't even imagine what she might become tomorrow.

Hu Xiaotian guessed Huo Shengnan's feelings, not knowing how to retain her, when suddenly a sharp pain shot through his Dantian; the internal energy that had lain dormant for a long time surged tumultuously. He hurriedly clutched his abdomen.

Seeing his state, Huo Shengnan panicked and asked, "What's wrong with you?"

Hu Xiaotian said, "It's nothing, just feels like I got winded." He closed his eyes, sat cross‑legged, and tried to suppress the surging internal energy within his body.

Huo Shengnan hurriedly sat cross‑legged behind him, channeling internal energy with her palms against his back, hoping to help him calm his internal energy. But as soon as her energy entered his, she felt a powerful suction drawing her own energy out of her body.

Huo Shengnan had never encountered such a strange phenomenon; though her internal energy was decent among peers, compared to Hu Xiaotian it was like a stream to the ocean. Hu Xiaotian had no intention of drawing her energy, nor did he expect her to help him this way. He wanted to pull away from her arms and stop absorbing her energy, but his Dantian Qi Sea seemed utterly beyond his control.

The little internal energy Huo Shengnan had was nothing to Hu Xiaotian at this moment; in a short while he sucked it completely dry. She lost so much energy in a brief time that she went utterly limp and fainted on Hu Xiaotian's bed.

Hu Xiaotian truly hadn't planned to absorb her energy, yet even without trying he ended up taking it all. Strangely, once her energy entered his body, the tumultuous sensation in his Dantian Qi Sea immediately calmed. At this moment Hu Xiaotian felt as if a devil had taken up residence inside him; the earlier turmoil had been due to hunger, and it needed internal energy to fill its belly and steady its mood.

Looking again at Huo Shengnan's pallid face and clenched jaws, unsure whether she was dead or alive, Hu Xiaotian felt her pulse and found it still beating, which relieved him. He lowered his head to give her artificial respiration, but she opened her eyes at that moment and demanded, "What are you trying to do?"

Hu Xiaotian gave a wry smile and said, "I just wanted to save you."

Huo Shengnan struggled to get off his bed, but her legs felt weak and powerless; her knees buckled and she almost knelt down. Fortunately Hu Xiaotian caught her in his arms.

Huo Shengnan said, "Don't touch me."

Hu Xiaotian thought she was angry because he had drained her energy, and hastily explained, "I don't want to either, but I can't control myself; at worst I'll find a way to return the energy to you."

Huo Shengnan furrowed her brows, realizing he had misunderstood her. In fact, considering everything Hu Xiaotian had done for her, she wouldn't refuse even if he asked for her life, let alone just her internal energy. She herself had misjudged him, thinking he would take advantage of the situation; if he now harbored ill intentions, she feared she'd have no strength to resist. She gasped and said, "Take me back to my room."

Hu Xiaotian answered, intending to help her back, but Huo Shengnan's legs had utterly no strength, feeling like stepping on cotton, so he simply hoisted her horizontally in his arms, carried her to the opposite room, laid her on the bed, then limped to the table and lit a candle.

Seeing Huo Shengnan curled up on the bed, shivering, her teeth chattering, he returned to her side and asked anxiously, "Are you cold?"

Huo Shengnan nodded. Hu Xiaotian pulled back the blanket to cover her, only to discover a thin silk scroll inside—it was the "Sun‑Shooting True Classic" he had left for her to translate. It was unexpected that she kept this on the bed for study; looking at it every day without feeling spring would be strange.

When Huo Shengnan saw that Hu Xiaotian had found the silk, she blushed, covered her eyes, and whispered, "Don't misunderstand; after you left I discovered that the scroll actually records an archery technique. I practiced according to its method and managed to channel internal energy into the arrows. After a month of training I can now preliminarily use internal energy to alter the flight direction of feathered arrows."

"How impressive?" Hu Xiaotian picked up the silk and examined it in the lamplight; before being baked by candle fire, the pattern on it was still a mandarin duck design.

Seeing him stare at the silk, Huo Shengnan felt so ashamed she wished she could sink into a crack in the ground, and murmured, "Maybe it's karmic retribution—you sucked my internal energy dry, so this thing is now useless to me."

Hu Xiaotian said, "How could it be useless? It certainly has a use."

Huo Shengnan panted, "What exactly have you cultivated that's so strange?"

Hu Xiaotian said, "This is hard to explain in a few words; I only just learned what kind of martial art I've been practicing—it turns out to be the Void Grand Technique."

Huo Shengnan had never heard of the Void Grand Technique, blinked her eyes, and asked, "Is it very powerful?"

Hu Xiaotian said, "It should be called the most wicked martial art under heaven. Do you remember when we sneaked into the Red Mountain Society's Wild Goose Pavilion and encountered the black‑and‑white twin corpses, nearly getting killed by them? In the end I drained the black corpse's internal energy, which let me escape disaster."

Huo Shengnan nodded; she certainly remembered— the situation had been extremely perilous, and if Hu Xiaotian hadn't defeated the black corpse, they would likely all have died in the Red Mountain Society.

Hu Xiaotian said, "I was set up. When he first taught me this internal art, he claimed it would help me dispel the aberrant true qi in my body to prevent future deviation into demonic deviation, but I never imagined what he taught me was actually a wicked cult technique. The deeper I practice, the closer I come to losing control. This time I went to Heavenly Dragon Temple and, in a daze, absorbed a lot more internal energy. Now the total internal energy in my body would likely rank among the top three in the world, yet this is no blessing for me—the more internal energy I absorb, the richer the store in my body, and the nearer I am to losing control."

Huo Shengnan, hearing this, gripped Hu Xiaotian's arm anxiously and said, "What should we do? Then you shouldn't cultivate this wicked art any further, lest you sink deeper and be unable to recover."

Hu Xiaotian slowly shook his head and said, "It's too late; I'm already past the point of return. The senior monks of Heavenly Dragon Temple have declared that if I cannot control the vast and mixed internal energy in my Dantian, I have at most half a year left to live."

Huo Shengnan, hearing this, turned pale; she had never imagined Hu Xiaotian's predicament could be so dire. "What can we do? Perhaps we should go find Miss Qin—she might have a solution."

Hu Xiaotian shook his head, saying, "Even Bu Wu couldn't solve this problem, so how could Qin Yutong manage it? He whispered, 'There are solutions: one is to fully control my internal energy; the other is to disperse all the power within my body.'"

Huo Shengnan said, "Dispelling one's martial arts shouldn't be that hard, right? If it saves my life, it doesn't matter if I can't fight."

Hu Xiaotian said, "I've considered that too. For ordinary people, dispersing their cultivation might be easy, but for me it could very well cost my life. Everyone else strives to strengthen their internal energy, whereas I must strive to weaken mine as much as possible; if the ever‑growing energy exceeds what my Dantian Qi Sea can contain, my whole body could burst—truly a case of heaven playing tricks."

Huo Shengnan bit her cherry lip, also worried about Hu Xiaotian's condition, and suddenly recalled something, whispering, "Actually there might still be a way…" (To be continued…^)