Chapter 21

Wearing a green dress, Ling Yushi, who had looked pale and listless at the cave entrance, now had bright, sparkling eyes, looking radiant and charming. A smile of deep meaning played on the corners of her lips, making her even more enigmatic and hard to fathom.

"I brought you some food, let's eat first." She arranged the bowls and dishes, took out the food from the basket one by one, and smiled at Qin Lie, saying, "Eat slowly. I'll go and prepare some hot water for you. Come in after you finish eating." She gracefully entered the washroom.

Qin Lie touched his chin, his eyes becoming strange. He guessed that she had probably connected him to "Ling Lie" through the name, and had come to test him deliberately.

Indeed, that was the case.

Ling Yushi gradually realized his unusual nature. After hearing from the Ling brothers, she became even more convinced that Qin Lie might be deliberately pretending to be foolish. Therefore, she decided to test him, hoping to uncover the truth through closer contact.

Before long, Qin Lie finished his meal, looked at the door of the washroom, and gave a bitter smile, then steeled himself and stood up.

He wasn't really afraid of his secrets being revealed.

For him, the reason he continued to act foolish was to avoid getting involved in too many of the Ling family's troubles, and to prevent the Ling family from coming to him to ask about the internal affairs of the Medicine Mountain, his grandfather, and himself.

By maintaining a foolish appearance, no one would bother him, and he could focus on his cultivation.

However, it seemed that maintaining this state would become increasingly difficult. The Ling family had already noticed something amiss, and Ling Yushi had even come to test him. He knew he couldn't hide for much longer.

"At least I can enter and exit the state of no thought and no desire at will, or I wouldn't have been able to get through today's ordeal." Qin Lie thought to himself, took a deep breath, and entered the washroom with a blank expression.

In the steamy stone room, Ling Yushi stood by a large wooden tub, her face serene with a gentle smile. She rolled up her sleeves, revealing snow-white arms that looked particularly beautiful and charming in the thin mist.

She held a towel in one hand and beckoned to Qin Lie with the other, "The hot water is ready. Come over and take off your clothes, then get in and soak for a while."

This situation made Qin Lie feel as if he were facing a formidable enemy.

Without waiting for Ling Yushi to help, he took off his outer robe himself. Under her beautiful gaze, he also removed his long pants, standing at the door in just his shorts.

Seeing his almost naked body, Ling Yushi's bright eyes sparkled, her heart fluttered, and a beautiful smile curved her lips. Her face turned slightly red as she softly said, "You look slim in clothes, but without them... you're quite well-built. Not bad, your physique is really good."

Qin Lie, who had been through years of rigorous training, looked slender on the outside, but when he was naked, his well-defined, muscular body was evident.

His muscles were very prominent and extremely well-proportioned, perfectly matching his physique!

It seemed that only such refined muscles could allow him to exert his strength, speed, and endurance in the most balanced and harmonious way. If his muscles were a bit less, he would lack explosive power, and if they were a bit more, it would affect his speed and reaction time.

As the eldest daughter of the Ling family, Ling Yushi often supervised the training ground and had seen many young men of the Ling family in various states of undress. She compared Qin Lie's physique and felt that his body seemed more suitable for combat. She couldn't explain why, but it just looked very harmonious and balanced.

As she was slightly distracted, Qin Lie "plunked" into the wooden tub from the stone steps, immediately entering the state of no thought and no desire to avoid being seen through by Ling Yushi.

"Why didn't you take everything off? Are you still shy?" Ling Yushi said with a smile, but she was also blushing.

After Qin Lie had soaked in the large tub, she came behind him with a towel. In the mist, looking at his back, her face turned red, and after a moment of inner struggle, she bit her lip and pretended to be calm, saying, "Let me help you..."

With that, she dipped the towel into the tub, and began to wipe his back. Her soft, delicate palms and smooth, slender fingers occasionally touched his skin, making Qin Lie, who was in the state of no thought and no desire, feel a strong sense of excitement.

"Rustle!"

Ling Yushi wiped Qin Lie's back repeatedly, then moved to the front of him.

In the light mist, her face was flushed, and her bright eyes sparkled with a hint of fear and excitement as she occasionally glanced up at Qin Lie.

In this situation, Qin Lie, who was in the state of no thought and no desire, began to have a physical reaction...

His soul was hidden in the Soul Suppressing Pearl, but he could see that his shorts had formed a small tent. His lower body was completely submerged in the water, and the wet shorts clung to his abdomen, making the outline of the tent very clear and prominent, looking... very excited.

"Um..."

Ling Yushi didn't dare to look at Qin Lie for too long. She suddenly saw the small tent, and her face turned red as if it were about to bleed. She covered her lips and let out a soft cry, and her bright eyes seemed to be filled with mist.

"Phew!"

She spat lightly, not daring to look down again, and raised her head to look at Qin Lie.

She noticed that Qin Lie's eyes were still blank, but the veins on his neck were visible, and his muscles were tense, as if he was trying to control something.

Ling Yushi was startled and quickly turned to Qin Lie's back, helping him wipe it briefly before leaving the washroom in a flustered state.

She vaguely felt that if she stayed to continue testing Qin Lie, something very unpleasant might happen to her.

"In the near future, I can't come here often. I need to take the Hundred Meridian Pill to improve my constitution." She said with a trembling voice to Qin Lie in the washroom, then blushed and quietly left.

As soon as she stepped out of the stone house, the mountain breeze cleared her mind.

She immediately looked surprised, covering her red face and laughing to herself, "What's wrong with me? Why am I afraid of him? I came here to determine if he's really foolish, but when the moment came, I backed down. I'm really useless..."

In the wooden tub inside the room.

After a long time, Qin Lie came out of the state of no thought and no desire, breathing heavily, feeling as if he couldn't get enough air and was about to suffocate.

"Being in the prime of my youth, I really can't handle such stimulation. I almost exposed myself." Looking at the door, he was still shaken, shook his head, and said with a bitter smile, "Don't play with fire anymore. If this continues, I really won't be able to handle it."

In the state of no thought and no desire, he had felt as if his body was about to explode, as if there was a raging fire inside him, burning his soul and making it hard to control. He almost lost control and returned to his body.

He knew that once he left the state of no thought and no desire, his breathing, heart rate, and muscle tension would immediately reveal his true state, and Ling Yushi would see through his true condition, deducing that he was not foolish at all and was no different from a normal person.

"Don't play with fire anymore..."

After adjusting for a while, Qin Lie's expression was strange as he lay in the tub, still savoring the strange sensation of Ling Yushi's small hands on his body.

That electric-like sensation made his heart race and his mind restless.

...

The next day, Ling Yushi indeed did not come, and he was still escorted by Ling Feng and Ling Ying to and from the Medicine Mountain.

In the cave, he, who had just broken through to the seventh level of Body Tempering, was enthusiastically cultivating, using the state of no thought and no desire to continuously impact his other fingers and various parts of his body.

At the seventh level of Body Tempering, one must reach the point where every part of the body can release spiritual energy.

The ten fingers, palms, arms, shoulders, and other parts are the main points of attack, and the spiritual energy must be able to burst out at any time, greatly enhancing a martial artist's combat ability. A simple shoulder collision or arm swing can send spiritual energy into the enemy's body, causing injury or even death.

What Qin Lie needed to do now was to make all the attack points of his body bloom, enriching the release points of spiritual energy.

In the state of no thought and no desire, his cultivation efficiency was indeed greatly improved, especially since he could enter and exit this state at will. He could clearly feel his progress every day.

On this day, feeling that he had made significant progress recently, Qin Lie once again tried to impact the seal of the Soul Suppressing Pearl in his眉心 (brow center).

"Boom!"

Surprisingly, this time the mental impact was extremely smooth, breaking through a seal in one go.

As if a door had been blasted open, four extremely intricate and mysterious diagrams suddenly appeared in a vast, desolate space behind the seal!

In the vast and wide space, the four diagrams floated high, each as tall as a mountain.

Each diagram seemed to be made up of many giant spider webs, with bright lines crisscrossing, exuding an ancient and complex mystery, as if containing the most fundamental and essential principles and truths of the universe.

Behind the four diagrams, a chaotic area continued to be sealed. When Qin Lie's soul consciousness explored it, he found that it seemed to be another world, where his memory fortress might be.

The seals in the Soul Suppressing Pearl were layer upon layer. After breaking one, he found another blocking the way.

It was like pushing open a door and entering a world, only to find another door within that world, leading to an even more mysterious realm waiting to be opened.

"Spiritual Array Diagrams! Four Spiritual Array Diagrams!"

In the vast world, staring at the four intricate and complex diagrams for a while, Qin Lie suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

His grandfather, Qin Shan, was a weapon refiner. Over the years, his grandfather often helped the Ling family repair spiritual weapons in the cave while he was cultivating. His grandfather knew that he could hear him even in the state of no thought and no desire, so he would constantly explain the principles and common knowledge of weapon refinement.

According to his grandfather, weapon refinement involved many small steps: preparing spiritual materials, mixing them, melting them, fusing them, and then slowly forming them into a "weapon." Finally, "spiritual array diagrams" were added to the formed "weapon." The addition of "spiritual array diagrams" was the last step and the most critical part of weapon refinement!

The quality and power of a spiritual weapon depended not only on the spiritual materials themselves and the perfection of the fusion but also, most importantly, on the spiritual array diagrams inside the weapon!

A mysterious and complete spiritual array diagram could completely transform a spiritual weapon, endowing it with unparalleled power!

Spiritual array diagrams were the core of weapon refinement. Mastering powerful and mysterious spiritual array diagrams meant mastering the true essence of weapon refinement!

...ps: Early in the morning, I unexpectedly saw