Li Yundong returned to school to find the surrounding students acting as if they hadn't seen him in centuries, gathering at a distance to stare and point. The boys smirked meaningfully, while the girls let out titters of suppressed laughter.
“What the hell, looks like this whole thing has spread across the entire school…” Li Yundong muttered, feeling thoroughly vexed.
Feng Na covered her mouth, chuckling, “How could it not spread? Your story has filled eight thousand floors on the campus forum!”
Li Yundong let out a short laugh, “Those idle gossips! Who started that thread, how boring can one be?”
Cheng Cheng stood nearby, biting her lip to stifle a giggle, but said nothing.
News of Li Yundong’s return quickly reached the faculty. The teachers regarded the young man with incredibly strange looks, as if unable to fathom the powerful background that must surely lie behind him.
Principal Feng Yubin immediately organized a school-wide assembly. On the podium, he grasped Li Yundong’s hand, showering him with warm inquiries and solemnly vowing that such miscarriages of justice would never happen again. He repeatedly thanked Li Yundong for his contributions during the campus shooting incident.
What struck Li Yundong as truly bizarre was that the principal, on behalf of the school committee, actually awarded him an honorary red banner proclaiming him a "Courageous Youth of Righteous Valor"!
The most exasperating part for Li Yundong was that the one presenting this honor was Director Qian!
This Dean of Students, whose face was plastered with a hypocritical smile, handed the red banner to Li Yundong, praising him as the glory of Tiannan University, whose deeds would one day be recorded in the school's annals.
Li Yundong naturally didn’t trust such strained pleasantries. He offered a few equally hollow pleasantries in return and then stepped down from the stage amidst the applause of students and faculty alike.
Once he reached the crowd, Feng Na leaned in, winking suggestively, “Hey, time to treat everyone, right?”
Li Yundong shot her a look, tossing the red banner into her arms, “It’s yours, so you treat! What good is this thing anyway? Can it buy me a meal? Honestly, they should have given us a bonus!”
The class monitor, Sun Li, standing beside Li Yundong, burst into amused laughter, “Seriously? You’re that obsessed with money?”
Li Yundong sighed dramatically, “I’m about to be sleeping on the streets!”
Su Chan faintly interjected, “Yundong, are we out of money?”
Li Yundong finally remembered the little girl was still beside him. He turned and lightly slapped her back, feigning anger, “Adults are talking; little kids shouldn’t interrupt!”
Su Chan pouted, mumbled an "Oh," and fell silent.
Feng Na, meanwhile, looked at Li Yundong thoughtfully, secretly making up her mind about something.
Once the meeting finally concluded, Li Yundong rushed back to the classroom and grabbed Sun Li, asking, “Class Monitor, can I borrow your key notes for the other exams?”
Sun Li scoffed, “Oh? You never pray until you’re desperate, I see!”
Li Yundong put on a shameless grin, “Monitor, good Monitor, you can’t just watch me drown! There are hundreds of subjects, how can I possibly cover them all! Please, just do me a favor and help me out!”
Sun Li giggled, “It’s not hundreds, that’s an exaggeration, is it? Maybe just a dozen or so subjects!”
Li Yundong shouted with exaggerated volume, “Even a dozen is terrifying! I only have one day to study—how can I possibly get through all that material!”
Sun Li tilted her head in thought for a moment, then said, “Fine, since you brought honor to the class this time, I’ll go look for them. You wait here.”
Li Yundong was overjoyed, bowing and scraping, “Monitor, you are truly my savior! My old bones depend on you for the rest of my life!”
The phrasing was rather ambiguous, and Sun Li’s cheeks flushed red. She chided, “Stop talking nonsense! Wait right here, I’ll be back shortly!”
After Sun Li left, Su Chan quietly asked, confused, “Yundong, why is studying so important?”
Li Yundong sighed, “You really don’t know the cost of living, do you? If I stop studying, my parents will find out next month, and then I’ll have no income.”
Su Chan blinked her eyes and asked, “Didn’t you already get a job?”
Li Yundong sighed again, “Do you think that job is that simple?” He thought to himself: Boss Cao’s demeanor suggested she wanted something intimate, and that woman was so seductively alluring—how could he possibly go there? What if he lost self-control one day? Wouldn’t his lifetime of reputation be ruined?
Seeing Li Yundong was troubled, Su Chan didn't press further, merely nestled obediently by his side and sat quietly.
Ten minutes later, Sun Li returned to the classroom. She was clutching a thick stack of notebooks, nearly a foot high!
Li Yundong sucked in a sharp breath, instinctively leaning back, his face a mask of horror, “Holy crap, no way, that much? This will take ten or eight years to read!”
Sun Li slammed the entire pile of notes in front of him with a thud, slapping the covers, “This is just the table of contents!”
Li Yundong nearly tumbled out of his seat. His eyes glazed over, and he stuttered, “Is it really that exaggerated? Do you think this is Stephen Chow’s Deer and the Cauldron?”
Sun Li burst into laughter, “Kidding! The actual exam notes are all in here.”
Li Yundong stared mournfully at the pile of notes stacked like a small mountain, “How can I possibly finish all this!”
Sun Li clapped her hands together, “That’s your problem now. I’ve done my part; the rest isn’t my concern!”
Li Yundong clasped his hands towards Sun Li, “Fine, thank you very much! But where did you get so many notes? Don’t you need to study them?”
Sun Li looked at Li Yundong, shook her head, and sighed, “Do you think all the other students are peerless heroes like you, appearing and disappearing without a trace? We finished all our required reading long ago!”
Saying this, she suddenly pursed her lips and smiled, “You have no idea how excited the girls in the dorm got when they heard you needed notes. They pulled out notebooks they usually guard like treasures, tsk tsk, your charisma is truly immense, I’m impressed! Oh, and be careful with these; they belong to several different classmates. Don’t smudge or damage them; you have to return them!”
After delivering this, the little Sichuan pepper spun around, a flash of mischievous triumph in her eyes, swung her twin braids, and hummed a little tune as she walked away.
Li Yundong, conversely, stared gloomily at the massive stack of notes, feeling his head swell.
“Forget it, worst case, I’ll pull an all-nighter! I have photographic memory, don’t I!” Li Yundong gritted his teeth, steeling his resolve.
He gathered the stack of notes, adopting an expression of heroic sacrifice, and roared at Su Chan, “Little lady, you lead the way! Your uncle is going to burn the midnight oil tonight, sticking his head to the beam and his leg to the bone!”
Su Chan giggled, “Yes, Master!” With that, she skipped merrily to the front.
The carefree pair had no idea that Zi Yuan and Ruan Hongling had been watching them the whole time.
Upon seeing Li Yundong, Ruan Hongling was overcome with a mix of anger and fear, while Zi Yuan regarded him with a perplexed gaze, seemingly unable to understand something.
Only after Li Yundong and Su Chan got into the car to head to their residence did Zi Yuan speak to Ruan Hongling, “Hongling, you misjudged him again.”
Ruan Hongling asked, puzzled, “What did I misjudge?”
Zi Yuan stated calmly, “Both this man and this demon are virgins. Didn’t you notice?”
“What?” Ruan Hongling looked utterly shocked. “How is that possible?”
Zi Yuan sighed at Ruan Hongling, “Hongling, I’ve told you before, you cannot judge people based on your own likes and dislikes; you must observe more carefully. Look at them: the female’s brow bone is tight, her pelvis is sealed, her gluteal flesh is tense, her legs are clamped shut like an iron gate, and it would be difficult to slip a finger between her thighs. Especially by observing her gait, you can tell she is a maiden pure and untouched.”
“Now look at that Li Yundong. Why was he able to snatch your artifact barehanded? The answer is suddenly obvious: this man is also a virgin. The pure Yang blood within a virgin boy is the ultimate Yang essence in the world, capable of subduing your ultimate Yin artifact—one thing defeats another! Therefore, him taking it barehanded is not surprising at all!”
Ruan Hongling finally grasped it, and the look of fear in her eyes gradually faded. She patted her chest, “I was wondering how he could be so powerful; even Master couldn't take my artifact barehanded! Damn it, I got scared by him back then and just ran! If I had known, I could have taken down that pair of scoundrels myself!”
Zi Yuan frowned, displeased, “Hongling, why are you speaking like that again? And being so careless! You lost your artifact, and your cultivation is lacking—how can you fight him? Furthermore, since this man is a virgin, how could you use your personal biases to conclude he was the ** disciple? Besides, learning immortal arts isn't meant for you to show off or engage in reckless fights. You are truly getting out of hand!”
Ruan Hongling’s mouth pouted high, filled with defiance. She thought to herself: If learning immortal arts isn't for upholding justice, then what good is learning them? That Golden Core successor is your future beloved, so naturally, you defend him! Hmph, you take that cryptic verse so seriously!
Zi Yuan knew her junior sister extremely well. Although she couldn't truly pry into her mind to see exactly what she was thinking, she could understand a good deal from her eyes.
Zi Yuan didn't refute the unspoken thoughts of Ruan Hongling. Her own mind drifted far away, as if returning to a scene ten years prior: vaguely remembering when she was just a young girl, that day her Master took her to the mountain summit, where they looked down upon the mortal world and the vast sea of clouds.
“Ziyuan, do you know that from here, you can see your past and future lives?” Although her Master was nearly two hundred years old, he was still so handsome and elegant, radiating an air of immortal grace. He pointed to the Weathered Stone on the peak and smiled, “This is where you can see them.”
How had she replied then? Yes, she thought she had said: “Master, the past life is over and irreversible. I only wish to know about this life.”
Her Master had chuckled then. He raised his hand and snapped a branch from a tall pine, using the sea of clouds as an inkstone and the dawn clouds as brush and ink to write a cryptic poem on the Weathered Stone.
After finishing the verse, her Master pointed to it and told her, “Your destiny in this life lies within!”
She looked at the enormous Weathered Stone, upon which was etched flowing cursive script written in colored clouds—carefree and magnificent.
“The Golden Core appears, worldly ties are set; only when the thunder roars is the truth revealed.” Reading the first line of the cryptic poem, she looked up and asked her Master, “Master, what does ‘The Golden Core appears, worldly ties are set’ mean?”
Her Master stroked her head fondly, sighing with emotion, “It means that on the day the Golden Core emerges, your destined true love will emerge alongside it.”
“True love? But if I don’t recognize him, why should I accept him as my destined true love?”
“Heh heh, meeting someone requires no prior acquaintance, Ziyuan!”
“But what if I deeply dislike this person, or feel nothing for him at all? Why would I ever fall for him?”
“Ziyuan, don't ask me why now; you will find the reason yourself later. And you must remember, this is fate. Fate doesn't ask why! Worldly ties hold no bias; fate knows no right or wrong. The crucial point is: this is your fate!”
Zi Yuan let out a long sigh, her gaze distant and confused. She murmured softly in her heart: Master, I have met the Golden Core successor. Just as I said back then, I feel absolutely nothing for him—he is merely an ordinary mortal man. But why did Master say he is my destiny?
Why is this?
Zi Yuan stared blankly ahead, murmuring unconsciously, “I must look again, and again. Why is this so…”
[Ti: Dear reader, this chapter has reached the final page of this book.]